=PehQP]bb\Pac_W^]Tb 51^]Y^Q - Daily Pioneer

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D elhi is experiencing the coldest winter in over a century. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) declared Monday as a coldest day in the national Capital in 119 years with max- imum temperature dipping to 9.4 degrees Celsius at Safdarjung (official) observa- tory. The Regional Weather Forecast Centre (RWFC) has predicted no relief from cold wave on Tuesday. Sixteen flights were divert- ed and four cancelled at the Delhi airport on Monday due to heavy fog, an official said. Many trains were running late. Citing 24 hours tempera- ture trend, the IMD said the Aya Nagar observatory record- ed day temperature at 7.8 degrees Celsius, followed by Ridge 8.4 degrees Celsius, Palam 9 and Lodi Road 9.2 degrees Celsius. Forecasting weekly weath- er for the national Capital, the RWFC has predicted rain on January 1, 2 and 3 while December 31 is still tagged as “cold wave” day. There will be no respite before January 3 as minimum temperature will fluctuate around 3-4 degrees Celsius, while maximum tem- perature will be around 16 degrees Celsius January 1 onwards. Low visibility in Delhi and National Capital Region (NCR) delayed thirty trains. Kuldeep Srivastava, head RWFC, said the day temperature was almost half of what is considered nor- mal for this day of the year. “Today was the coldest day recorded for the December,” Kuldeep said. Around 3.30 pm, the IMD announced that Delhi is likely to break previous records of cold as maximum temperature was recorded 9.4 degrees Celsius. “Delhi is likely to record the coldest day today in last 119 years for December month as day temperature till 14.30 IST of today has been unusually fol- lowing a coldest trend with Safdarjung recording 9.4 degrees Celsius and Palam 9.0 degrees Celsius,” IMD tweeted. On Monday, a thick blan- ket of fog engulfed Delhi and the minimum temperature set- tled at 2.6 degrees Celsius. C lose on the heels of an espi- onage racket busted with- in its ranks and the arrest of seven sailors, the Indian Navy has banned the use of smart phones and Facebook by its personnel within naval estab- lishments and on warships. The arrested sailors were honey-trapped and allegedly blackmailed through social media to pass on sensitive information. “Directive on use of smart phones and social media for naval personnel were always there. The new instructions on smart phones are that these cannot be used within naval establishments and naval plat- forms. Social media, use of Facebook, is banned for all naval personnel,” Navy sources said here on Monday. For mes- saging apps, instructions are expected to be issued shortly, they added. The latest orders are in line with ensuring the security of information, officials said stat- ing the recent incident involv- ing the seven sailors in Visakhapatnam has also been taken into consideration while arriving at this decision. “We do understand that this may come at the cost of some dis- comfort, however, the decision is in the larger national inter- est, they added. The latest order comes days after the Andhra Pradesh Police along with the Navy intelligence unit and Central intelligence agencies arrested seven sailors, besides a hawala operator. The sailors were arrested from Visakhapatnam, Mumbai and Karwar naval establishments. They report- edly passed on unauthorised information about movement of warships and other opera- tional details through social media to a Pakistan handler. While Visakhapatnam has the Eastern Naval command headquarters besides the sen- sitive submarine building cen- tre where the nuclear sub- marines Arihant are under construction, the Western Naval command is based in Mumbai. The lone aircraft car- rier INS Vikramaditya’s base is in Karwar, Karnataka. The spy racket was busted on December 19 by the Andhra Pradesh Intelligence Department in a joint opera- tion with the Navy code named “Dolphin’s Nose.” The police claimed the sailors, recruited in 2017, passed information like locations of naval ships and submarines after they fell into a honey-trap through social media in 2018. Incidentally, a similar case involving at least two soldiers leaking information through social media came to light two months back in Rajasthan despite the armed forces regu- larly cautioning its personnel to be careful on social media. The Army recently warned its personnel against 150 fake social media profiles, including of phoney spiritual gurus and babas, being used by Pakistan’s Intelligence officers to honey- trap officials for extracting sensitive military information. A s expected Army Chief General Bipin Rawat was on Monday night appointed the first ever Chief of Defence Staff (CDS). He will assume charge on December 31 when he retires as the Army Chief. Vice Chief of Army Manoj Mukund Naravane will take over as the next Army Chief. The CDS will have a tenure of three years or will serve till the age of 65. Rawat will com- plete 62 years when he retires as the Army Chief. The Union Cabinet on Tuesday last week had approved the creation of the CDS. He will function as the Principal Military Adviser to the Defence Minister and head the new department of military affairs in the Defence Ministry. Since Rawat is the senior most Service Chief, as the CDS he will first among equals among service chiefs. The CDS, who will draw salary equivalent to the Services Chiefs, will be responsible for rationalising weapons pro- curement procedures, besides integrating the operation of the armed forces. A gitations by political parties usually bring anxious moments in the minds of ordi- nary people for fear of violence. The opposition against the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 drawing thousands of people to rallies across Tamil Nadu is no exception as there is apprehension that the law and order may go haywire. But the last two days saw the anti- CAA demonstrations in Tamil Nadu taking a new turn. There are no rallies holding up traffic or throwing normal life out of gear. The agitation has women as protagonists and they are using an age-old Tamil custom to give vent to their resentment against the new legislation. A s the fog engulfed Delhi- NCR on Sunday night dropping the visibility to zero, six people, including two minors, were killed when their Maruti Etriga car skidded off the road and fell into a canal in Uttar Pradesh’s Greater Noida. Five other occupants of the car suffered injuries in the accident that took place around 11.30 pm on Sunday. The deceased have been identified as Mahesh (35), Kishan Lal (50), Neeresh (17), Ram Khiladi (75), Mallu (12) and Netrapal (40), all residents of Sambhal district in Uttar Pradesh. Police said there was one more car accompanying them and they all were going to Delhi when the unfortunate incident occurred. T he State continued to reel under the intense cold wave conditions as the min- imum temperature of less than 10°Celsius was record- ed in 16 places on Monday. Sonepur remained the coldest town for a third con- secutive day with a mini- mum temperature of 5.4 degree Celsius followed by Angul (5.6), Phulbani (6.3) and Titilagarh (6.5). The minimum tempera- ture at other places were Baleswar (8.5 degree), Cuttack (9.5), Baripada (9.4), Jharsuguda (8.9), Keonjhar (7.4), Sambalpur (8.7), Sundargarh (8.5), Talcher (9.4), Bhawanipatna (9), Balangir (8.5), Koraput (9.2) and Daringbadi (7). The minimum tempera- ture is very likely to rise gradually by 2-3 degree Celsius during next 24 hours, the Regional Meteorological Centre here said. The MeT office predict- ed light to moderate rains on January 1 and 2. BHUBANESWAR: The Vigilance police on Monday arrested IAS officer Bijay Ketan Upadhyaya for allegedly accept- ing a bribe of Rs one lakh. He had demanded the ille- gal gratification from a contractor of the Horticulture Directorate to pass his bill. Following his arrest, Upadhyaya was put under suspension at the instance of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. The 2009-batch IAS officer was serving as the Director of Horticulture. His office, resi- dence and other places were searched by Vigilance officials following his arrest. PNS C hief Minister Naveen Patnaik unveiled the draft architectural plan of Shree Jagannath Heritage Corridor video after chairing a meeting at the Lok Seva Bhawan here on Monday. Patnaik thanked the people of Puri and mutt authorities for their cooperation and active participation. He said sugges- tions are being sought from public on the draft plan till January 15, 2020. The final plan would be released by February 2020. As per the draft plan, names of all persons who have donated their land for the pro- ject would be engraved in the heritage corridor whereas the land would be recorded in the name of Lord Jagannath. This apart, components relating to security and func- tionality of the project would be added by top professionals in their respective fields. The draft plan is limited to creating beautification and var- ious facilities for devotees. The responsibilities of making plans for protection and functional- ity of the Shreemandir would be entrusted to experts and professionals, said the CM. He said a disciplined queue system with rest facilities will be created. Modern systems for washing of feet and hands of devotees would also come up. Required lighting and CCTV cameras would be installed, drinking water and toilet facil- ities. There would be systems for disseminating information about various Beshas (attires) and Dashabatar (ten incarna- tions) of Lord Jagannath and Jagannath culture among tourists. There would be open theatric pandals to showcase art and culture of the State. At the outset, Private Secretary to CM and 5T Secretary VK Pandian said the heritage corridor project was ideated in January 2016. “During his visit to Puri in January 2016, I saw the hon- ourable Chief Minister offering Namaskar to Jagannath photos put on hoardings. I could guess the CM’s devotion to the Lord. The CM opined for special development of the Shreemandir on his return way. Since then, the process of development of the Shreemandir began,” said Pandian. People can make sug- gestions and opinions through email [email protected], fax no. 06752-252100 and Landline No. 06752-252900.

Transcript of =PehQP]bb\Pac_W^]Tb 51^]Y^Q - Daily Pioneer

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Delhi is experiencing thecoldest winter in over a

century. The IndiaMeteorological Department(IMD) declared Monday as acoldest day in the nationalCapital in 119 years with max-imum temperature dipping to9.4 degrees Celsius atSafdarjung (official) observa-tory. The Regional WeatherForecast Centre (RWFC) haspredicted no relief from coldwave on Tuesday.

Sixteen flights were divert-ed and four cancelled at theDelhi airport on Monday dueto heavy fog, an official said.Many trains were running late.

Citing 24 hours tempera-ture trend, the IMD said theAya Nagar observatory record-ed day temperature at 7.8degrees Celsius, followed byRidge 8.4 degrees Celsius,Palam 9 and Lodi Road 9.2degrees Celsius.

Forecasting weekly weath-er for the national Capital, theRWFC has predicted rain onJanuary 1, 2 and 3 whileDecember 31 is still tagged as“cold wave” day. There will beno respite before January 3 asminimum temperature willfluctuate around 3-4 degreesCelsius, while maximum tem-perature will be around 16

degrees Celsius January 1onwards.

Low visibility in Delhi andNational Capital Region (NCR)delayed thirty trains. KuldeepSrivastava, head RWFC, saidthe day temperature was almosthalf of what is considered nor-

mal for this day of the year.“Today was the coldest dayrecorded for the December,”Kuldeep said.

Around 3.30 pm, the IMDannounced that Delhi is likelyto break previous records ofcold as maximum temperature

was recorded 9.4 degreesCelsius.

“Delhi is likely to record thecoldest day today in last 119years for December month asday temperature till 14.30 ISTof today has been unusually fol-lowing a coldest trend with

Safdarjung recording 9.4degrees Celsius and Palam 9.0degrees Celsius,” IMD tweeted.

On Monday, a thick blan-ket of fog engulfed Delhi andthe minimum temperature set-tled at 2.6 degrees Celsius.

����� 49:�69�*-

Close on the heels of an espi-onage racket busted with-

in its ranks and the arrest ofseven sailors, the Indian Navyhas banned the use of smartphones and Facebook by itspersonnel within naval estab-lishments and on warships.The arrested sailors werehoney-trapped and allegedlyblackmailed through socialmedia to pass on sensitiveinformation.

“Directive on use of smartphones and social media fornaval personnel were alwaysthere. The new instructions onsmart phones are that thesecannot be used within navalestablishments and naval plat-forms. Social media, use ofFacebook, is banned for allnaval personnel,” Navy sourcessaid here on Monday. For mes-saging apps, instructions areexpected to be issued shortly,they added.

The latest orders are in linewith ensuring the security ofinformation, officials said stat-ing the recent incident involv-ing the seven sailors inVisakhapatnam has also beentaken into consideration whilearriving at this decision. “Wedo understand that this maycome at the cost of some dis-

comfort, however, the decisionis in the larger national inter-est, they added.

The latest order comesdays after the Andhra PradeshPolice along with the Navyintelligence unit and Centralintelligence agencies arrestedseven sailors, besides a hawalaoperator. The sailors werearrested from Visakhapatnam,Mumbai and Karwar navalestablishments. They report-edly passed on unauthorisedinformation about movementof warships and other opera-tional details through socialmedia to a Pakistan handler.

While Visakhapatnam has

the Eastern Naval commandheadquarters besides the sen-sitive submarine building cen-tre where the nuclear sub-marines Arihant are underconstruction, the WesternNaval command is based inMumbai. The lone aircraft car-rier INS Vikramaditya’s base isin Karwar, Karnataka.

The spy racket was bustedon December 19 by the AndhraPradesh IntelligenceDepartment in a joint opera-tion with the Navy code named“Dolphin’s Nose.” The policeclaimed the sailors, recruited in2017, passed information likelocations of naval ships and

submarines after they fell intoa honey-trap through socialmedia in 2018.

Incidentally, a similar caseinvolving at least two soldiersleaking information throughsocial media came to light twomonths back in Rajasthandespite the armed forces regu-larly cautioning its personnel tobe careful on social media.

The Army recently warnedits personnel against 150 fakesocial media profiles, includingof phoney spiritual gurus andbabas, being used by Pakistan’sIntelligence officers to honey-trap officials for extractingsensitive military information.

����� 49:�69�*-

As expected Army ChiefGeneral Bipin Rawat was

on Monday night appointed thefirst ever Chief of DefenceStaff (CDS). He will assumecharge on December 31 whenhe retires as the Army Chief.Vice Chief of Army ManojMukund Naravane will takeover as the next Army Chief.

The CDS will have a tenureof three years or will serve tillthe age of 65. Rawat will com-plete 62 years when he retiresas the Army Chief. The UnionCabinet on Tuesday last weekhad approved the creation ofthe CDS. He will function asthe Principal Military Adviserto the Defence Minister andhead the new department ofmilitary affairs in the DefenceMinistry.

Since Rawat is the seniormost Service Chief, as the CDShe will first among equalsamong service chiefs. TheCDS, who will draw salaryequivalent to the ServicesChiefs, will be responsible forrationalising weapons pro-curement procedures, besidesintegrating the operation of thearmed forces.

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Agitations by political partiesusually bring anxious

moments in the minds of ordi-nary people for fear of violence.The opposition against theCitizenship Amendment Act2019 drawing thousands ofpeople to rallies across TamilNadu is no exception as thereis apprehension that the lawand order may go haywire. Butthe last two days saw the anti-CAA demonstrations in TamilNadu taking a new turn. Thereare no rallies holding up trafficor throwing normal life out ofgear. The agitation has womenas protagonists and they areusing an age-old Tamil customto give vent to their resentmentagainst the new legislation.

������������� 49:�69�*-

As the fog engulfed Delhi-NCR on Sunday night

dropping the visibility to zero,six people, including twominors, were killed when theirMaruti Etriga car skidded offthe road and fell into a canalin Uttar Pradesh’s GreaterNoida. Five other occupants ofthe car suffered injuries in theaccident that took place

around 11.30 pm on Sunday.

The deceased have beenidentified as Mahesh (35),Kishan Lal (50), Neeresh (17),Ram Khiladi (75), Mallu (12)and Netrapal (40), all residentsof Sambhal district in UttarPradesh. Police said there wasone more car accompanyingthem and they all were goingto Delhi when the unfortunateincident occurred.

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The State continued to reelunder the intense cold

wave conditions as the min-imum temperature of lessthan 10°Celsius was record-ed in 16 places on Monday.

Sonepur remained thecoldest town for a third con-secutive day with a mini-mum temperature of 5.4degree Celsius followed byAngul (5.6), Phulbani (6.3)and Titilagarh (6.5).

The minimum tempera-ture at other places wereB a leswar (8 .5 degree) ,Cuttack (9.5) , Bar ipada(9.4) , Jharsuguda (8.9) ,Keonjhar (7.4), Sambalpur(8.7), Sundargarh (8.5),Talcher (9.4), Bhawanipatna(9), Balangir (8.5), Koraput(9.2) and Daringbadi (7).

The minimum tempera-ture is very likely to risegradually by 2-3 degreeC els ius dur ing next 24hours , the Reg iona lMeteorological Centre heresaid.

The MeT office predict-ed light to moderate rains onJanuary 1 and 2.

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The Vigilance policeon Monday arrestedIAS officer BijayKetan Upadhyayafor allegedly accept-ing a bribe of Rs onelakh.

He haddemanded the ille-gal gratificationfrom a contractorof the HorticultureDirectorate to passhis bill.

Following hisarrest, Upadhyayawas put under suspension atthe instance of Chief MinisterNaveen Patnaik.

The 2009-batch IAS officerwas serving as the Director of

Horticulture. His office, resi-dence and other places weresearched by Vigilance officialsfollowing his arrest. PNS

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Chief Minister NaveenPatnaik unveiled the draft

architectural plan of ShreeJagannath Heritage Corridorvideo after chairing a meetingat the Lok Seva Bhawan here onMonday.

Patnaik thanked the peopleof Puri and mutt authorities fortheir cooperation and activeparticipation. He said sugges-tions are being sought frompublic on the draft plan tillJanuary 15, 2020. The final planwould be released by February2020.

As per the draft plan,names of all persons who havedonated their land for the pro-ject would be engraved in theheritage corridor whereas theland would be recorded in thename of Lord Jagannath.

This apart, componentsrelating to security and func-tionality of the project would beadded by top professionals intheir respective fields.

The draft plan is limited tocreating beautification and var-ious facilities for devotees. Theresponsibilities of making plansfor protection and functional-ity of the Shreemandir wouldbe entrusted to experts andprofessionals, said the CM.

He said a disciplined queue

system with rest facilities willbe created. Modern systems forwashing of feet and hands ofdevotees would also come up.Required lighting and CCTVcameras would be installed,drinking water and toilet facil-ities. There would be systemsfor disseminating informationabout various Beshas (attires)and Dashabatar (ten incarna-tions) of Lord Jagannath and

Jagannath culture amongtourists. There would be opentheatric pandals to showcase artand culture of the State.

At the outset, PrivateSecretary to CM and 5TSecretary VK Pandian said theheritage corridor project wasideated in January 2016.

“During his visit to Puri inJanuary 2016, I saw the hon-ourable Chief Minister offeringNamaskar to Jagannath photosput on hoardings. I could guess

the CM’s devotion to the Lord.The CM opined for specialdevelopment of theShreemandir on his returnway. Since then, the process ofdevelopment of theShreemandir began,” saidPandian. People can make sug-gestions and opinions throughemail [email protected], faxno. 06752-252100 and LandlineNo. 06752-252900.

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Odisha has been placed sec-ond among States in the

‘Fastest Movers’ category in theSDG India Index-2019 releasedby the NITI Aayog in NewDelhi.

“Odisha stands second inoverall improvement with anincrease of 7 points, from 51 to58. Goal 9 has contributedmostly to the rise with a jumpof 40 points. Goals 6 and 7 fol-low, with an increase of 39 and27 points, respectively,” thereport said.

The significant improve-ment in Goal 6 was achievedfor success of the Swachh

Bharat Abhiyan in eliminatingopen defecation. Improvementin Goal 7 can be credited to theextensive coverage of LPG forhouseholds and saturation ofelectricity connections. Theprogress recorded under Goal9 can be largely attributed tothe improvement in rural roadcoverage and higher mobileand internet penetration.

The report also revealedthat Odisha has highest cover-age in ‘maternity benefits’ in thecountry with 72.6 percent of eli-gible beneficiaries receiving it.Among all States, Odisha savedthe highest amount of CO2 (5.4MtCO2) through distributionof low-cost LED bulbs underthe UJALA scheme, it said.However, Odisha has the low-est coverage of householdsusing clean cooking fuel as thefigure stands at 32.6 percent, thereport said.

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The Commissionerate policeon Monday arrested

Sarpanch Antaryami Sahu ofMundipadar village in Boudhdistrict for betraying a youngwoman of Bhubaneswar afterimpregnating her.

The matter came to thefore after the woman, a resident

of Damana here, lodged a com-plaint against the 38-year-oldman at the Chandrasekharpurpolice station. Cops went to theSarpanch’s village late onSunday night and picked himup from his house.

As per the complaint, theSarpanch had been in a relation-ship with the 31-year-old womanfor the over six years since 2013.

He had developed intimacy withher and later impregnated her onthe pretext of marriage. It is alsoalleged that the Sarpanch hadmarried her in a temple. Later, hekept her in a house at ArabindaNagar Basti here and used to visither frequently.

Sources said the Sarpanchagain had a love affair with a35-year-old woman Junior

Engineer (JE) of Kantamal inBoudh district and married hersix months ago. After knowingthis, the Bhubaneswar womanlodged the cheating complaintat the Chandrasekharpur policestation. The accused has beenbooked under Sections 376,414, 313, 201, 341, 323, 294,427, 506 and 34 of IPC, policesaid.

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The BijuP a t n a i k

InternationalAirport (BPIA)here wouldremain partial-ly closed forseveral monthsfrom February1 for runwayre-carpet ingwork, saidBPIA Director VV Rao onMonday.

The re-carpeting processwould take around eight to tenmonths, for which flight ser-vices at the BPIA would be sus-pended from 12 am to 6 am inthe first phase and from 10 amto 6 pm in the second phase,Rao said, adding that timingsof flights would be rescheduledaccordingly.

The project would be car-ried out at an estimated cost ofRs 28 crore. Besides re-carpet-

ing the runways, the existingtaxing tracks would be mergedwith the track being laid par-allel to the runway during thesame period.

It had earlier been decidedto carry out the re-carpetingfrom November 1. However, itwas postponed later. The re-carpeting of the runway wasundertaken at the airport in2007.

������2*�6;��

With emphasison taking

“rest” in humanlife, the sixth‘World Rest Day’was celebrated hereon Monday(December 30)under the leader-ship of socialactivist andSupreme Courtlawyer RadhakantaTripathy.

The daybrought energyand vigour for theresidents ofD a g a m u n d aLeprosy Colony asthey joined the cel-ebration for thefifth time in their locality dur-ing the total six years.

Each year, Tripathy cele-brates the day among vulner-able segments of the society atNua-Adivasi Colony, Geltuaand Jena Sahi under Korkaragram panchayat. LeprosyColony residents thanked

Tripathy for ensuring theirhuman and land rights throughlitigation and opening of anew school and an AnganwadiCentre.

Tripathy said, “Rest doesnot mean laziness or lethargy.”

Among others, advocateRabi Singh, social activists

Kishor Kumar Nayak, ManojKumar Nayak and TapaswiniSingh participated in the cele-bration.

Mention may be made thatthe uniqueness of the WorldRest Day was appreciated bythe India Book of Records lastyear.

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The Odisha Rajya BidyutShramika, Karmachari,

Engineers Ekata Manch(ORB-SKEEM) on Monday submitteda memorandum to ChiefMinister Naveen Patnaik andthe OERC Chairman UNBehera seeking withdrawaldecision to sell out 51% shareof the Cesu to the Tata PowerLimited (TPL).

Hundreds of workers,employees and engineersstaged a demonstration in frontof the Odisha ElectricityRegulatory Commission(OERC) before submitting thememorandum.

In 1999,Odisha was thefirst State to pri-vatise electricitydistribution byselling 51% stakeof Cesco (nowCesu) to theAES, anAmerican PowerCompany. TheAES failed tomanage theaffairs of as a dis-com company.

Besides, theAES, theReliance inWesco, Nescoand Southco alsofailed miserably in these 19years. The OERC is now rulingthese discoms by proxy.

They have now owedpower purchase dues of Rs10,000 to the Gridco.

When the StateGovernment and the Centrehave spent invested Rs 2,000crore in the Cesu during thelast 5 years, the mandate of theTata Power to bring down loss-

es and invest Rs 1,570 crore infive years seems to be a ridicu-lous proposition.

“We appeal you to imme-diately cancel the LOI issued tothe TPL and order thorough

probe to various raised by us.We urge upon the Governmentto take urgent steps in publicand employees interest andsave Cesu from disaster,” saidthe memorandum.

����� 2*$2�49#:�;

Ayouth duped a senior citi-zen on the pretext of help-

ing him withdraw cash from anATM kiosk at Balipatna on theoutskirts of Bhubaneswar onSunday.

The victim wasDharmananda Swain, a resi-dent of Jhinti Sasan under theBalipatna police limits.

Reports said Swain hadattempted to withdraw Rs36,000 from his State Bank ofIndia account through his debitcard in the ATM kiosk but

failed. After his unsuccessfulattempt, a youth, who wasstanding behind him, cameforward with an offer to helphim withdraw money. Theyouth took Swain’s ATM cardand fled from the area afterwithdrawing cash of Rs 36,000.

A police probe has beeninitiated into the incident fol-lowing a complaint by the vic-tim.

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Although a revised rule ofthe State Government

from 2017 has already beenin force for safety from firehazard, a number of shop-ping malls, private hospitalsand clinical establishmentsbesides hotels and guest-houses in Puri are blatantlyviolating the norms and

endangering lives and prop-erties.

Although the exact num-ber of hotels and guesthous-es lacking the fire safety rulesis not known, that of megashopping malls and businesscomplexes is on the riseunder the very nose of theadministration.

The point of concern isthat malls are operating with-out safety equipments thoughthey are visited by thousandsof customers on a daily basis.Especially the mega shopsselling televisions, fridges,washing machines, air-con-ditioners and computers aremore prone to fire due to useof plastics. Besides, there are

many garment malls situatedalong the Badadanda notcomplying with fire safetyrules.

It is alleged that all suchmalls are in an unholy nexuswith Fire Services officials.

In January 2018, the FireServices department hadconducted raids in 12 hotelsfollowing a major fire in ahotel situated on VIP Road.Nearly a dozen of megashops here shut down in fearof raids and legal actions.Particularly, near police linesome mega shops sellinghome needs remained closedfor weeks as they were notequipped with fire safetyequipments.

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The Lakshya, a Brahmapur-based Film Appreciation

Club, is going to organise atwo-day international film fes-tival here from January 1,informed Brahmapur FilmFestival chairperson andLakshya president ManojKumar Samal at a Press meeton Sunday.

Samal said some selectedinternational award featurefilms and Oscar award featurefilms and short documentaryfilms produced by the people ofthe region would be screenedin the event. Ganjam district isrich in art and culture and topreserve the rich cultural pos-terity of the region the festivalwould a play pivotal role. Thefestival is being organised to

search the creativity in filmmaking from among theschool, college and universitystudents of the region and toprepare them for the magicalworld of cinema, Samal added.

The objective of the event

would be to unfold the nextgeneration actors, directors,cinematographers, choreogra-phers, sound designers andcrew related to the productionof films and television pro-grammes and to guide them.

Simultaneously, the eventalso intend to begin a thoughtprocess of making a full-fledged film studio here in thesilk city in the coming days asit is rich in cultural heritagewith blue mountains, beautifulsea beach and surrounded byheritage temples, richest folkforms of art, dance and music,Samal added.

The festival would be heldat the Ganjam Kala Parishadhere followed by a live seminaron film making techniques onthe second day.

The films selected forscreening include ‘UdaypurTeertha Kshetra’ of Satish Patra;‘Achhung’ of Tripati Nayak;‘Babu Bathroomre Achhanti’ byGolak Tripathy; ‘Sampark’ byKumud Prasad Acharya and‘Interview’ by Amulya RanjanSahu.

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The Vigilance police onMonday raided multiple

places in connection withallegation against three offi-cials for possession of assetsdisproportionate to theirknown sources of income.

Vigilance officials con-ducted raids at the residence ofKalahandi district’s JunagarhForest Ranger Laxman Sabar,his parental house in Koksaraand in-laws’ house at Tunaga.

Similarly, simultaneousraids were carried out byVigilance officials at theparental house of Cesu JuniorEngineer, Jagatsinghpur, DiptiPrakash Swain at Bisipatala, his

house at Gopal Sagar and in-laws’ house and Cesu office.Bank passbooks, other docu-ments, gold ornaments andcash were seized during theraids.

Besides, Raighar BlockJunior Engineer Niranjan Jena’shouses in Jajpur, Bhubaneswarand Umarkote were raided byVigilance teams.

Till last reports came in,the raids were underway.

����� 2��9#:�;

Afive-year-old female ele-phant was found dead in

the Kuldiha sanctuary by thepatrolling staff on Sunday.

The carcass of the jumbowas traced by the staffs nearGohiradahi under Beat no-2 ofthe Kuldiha range. They saidthat the pachyderm might havedied three days ago.

Divisional Forest Officer

Biswaraj Panda, after confirm-ing the death of the jumbo, saidthat the carcass was burnt aftercarrying out postmortem byveterinary surgeons.

“The death suggests thatthe elephant died during mat-ing and a fighting between twotuskers. There are some evi-dences relating to the death.However, the autopsy report isawaited,” said Panda.

��� � "��+*9;

Annual health checkup of allcontract labourers in the

Talcher Thermal Power Stationbegan on Sunday.

The programme was inau-gurated by TTPS GGM DNTiwary in the presence ofArindam Sinha , GM (O&M),CMO of Ashalok Hospital DrRanjita Sahoo and other

HODs.Around 1,400 workers

would avail this facility. Theprogramme would continuefor 10 days. This year, thehealth checkup is being doneengaging the MAYA Hospital,which has a sophisticatedmobile health checkup unitwith different facilities. Thehealth checkup camp includesECG, X-Ray, total blood test,

audiometry, spirometry, eyecheckup and body checkup.

GGM Tiwary in his inau-gural speech said the objectiveof the total health checkupcamp is to care and share thehealth conditions of the periph-ery villages around the TTPS.The TTPS is a always for an all-around development of thelocality.

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On the advice of the UnionGovernment, the State

Government has started mak-ing assessment on requirementof banks at the gram panchay-at level.

Sources said theGovernment has asked the dis-trict Collectors to makeassessments and submit reportsin pursuance to a proposal ofthe Department of FinancialServices (DoFS) of the UnionGovernment.

While 4,900 GPs of theState have no banks, theGovernment has requested theUnion Government often forsetting up of branches ofnationlised commercial banksin unbanked areas.

In a recent decision, theDepartment of FinancialServices of the Ministry ofFinance has decided to set upa banking outlet within fivekilometer distance of every

inhabited village in the coun-try. Banking outlets includebank branches, business cor-respondent, India PostPayment Bank Centres etc.

The DoFS has joined handswith National InformaticsCentre (NIC) and launched theJan Dhan /Darshak Applicationon which over 6 lakh bankingoutlets have been mappedthrough GeographicInformation System (GIS),which is a major technical toolthat can monitor the coverageof banking infrastructure in vil-lages.

Banks are regularly map-ping and updating the details ofnewly opened banking outletson Jan Dhan Darshak App,which is an ongoing exercise.

District Collectors willidentify the villages, which arenot covered by any of bankingoutlets within a distance of 5km.

These proposals would bediscussed in District LevelReview Committees (DLRC)and the State Level BankersCommittee (SLBC) and there-after it would be intimated to

DoFS, said an official.Recently when DoFS

Special Secretary DebashishPanda visited the State, he wasappraised by FianancePrincipal Secretary AshokKumar Meena about therequirement of banking ser-vices in the State. Meenarequested the UnionGovernment for establishmentof brick and mortar branchesin maximum places.

For making payment tobeneficiaries under varioussocial security schemesthrough DBT (direct benefittransfer), financial inclusion ismost important, said an officer.

Previously, many areaswere remote and inaccessible.In the last few years, the StateGovernment has spent a goodamount of money in improve-ment of roads, which is one ofthe criteria bank authoritiesconsider while mulling to setup of bank branches. Withgood roads available, theGovernment has requestedmajor banks for opening brickand mortar branches in allareas.

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Suspecting foul play in thedeath of its Rayagada Zilla

Parishad PresidentPurushottam Gamango, theCongress on Monday demand-ed a high-level inquiry into theincident.

Addressing a Press confer-ence at Gunupur in the district,Congress’ Jeypore MLA TaraPrasad Bahinipati sought a fairprobe either by a Special

Investigation Team (SIT) or theCentral Bureau of Investigation(CBI) into death of Gamango.

Bahinipati pointed out thatGamango’s family has lodged acomplaint at the Gunupur policestation on Sunday seeking areinvestigation into the case.

Notably, Gamango died ina road mishap December 24evening, hours after losing alegal battle in the District &Sessions Judge Court to retainhis post as the ZP President. He

battled for life following theaccident and finally succumbednext day.

Gamango met with theaccident while he was return-ing to his house from the courtby his motorcycle on theRamanaguda-Gunupur road.He sustained grievous injuriesafter his vehicle hit a tree.Locals rescued him, after whichhe was taken to a hospital inSrikakulam, where the doctorsdeclared him dead.

����� 2��9#:�;

Trade union leaders held ameeting here on Sunday to

plan strategies to make nation-wide Bharat Bandh, to be heldon January 8, 2020, a grandsuccess in the district.

Former MLAs Arun Deyand Pradipta Panda and tradeunions leaders of AITUC,CITU, INTUC, NFITU andHMS attended the meeting.

They said said they take tothe street to press for fulfill-ment of all 12 demands. Theyalleged that the UnionGovernment has adopted antipoor and labour policies andare dividing people on thebasis of religion.

They too alleged that theCentre has failed in controlling

price rise in essential com-modities and providing jobs toyouths.

The other demands includestopping of retrenchment ofworkers, provision of uniformwages for same works, with-drawal of contractual engage-ment, giving Governmentemployee status to the schemeworkers, provision of mini-mum monthly salary of Rs21,000 for workers, Rs 10,000pension after retirement andpayment of adequate MSP tothe farmers for paddy andother crops.

Among others, GourngaPanigrahi, Arun Swain,Bhagabat Pratihari, SantanuDas, Premaranjan Patra andNikunjabasanta Rai were pre-sent.

BALANGIR: Unidentifiedmiscreants opened fire at a per-son injuring him critically inhis house during a loot bid atGangasagar village in thePatnagarh area of Balangir dis-trict late on Sunday night.

The victim, identified asNaveen Meher, has been admit-ted to the Bhima Bhoi MedicalCollege & Hospital here.

According to reports, threemasked miscreants barged intothe house of Meher when hewas sleeping. As they tried toloot valuables from the house,Meher woke up and resistedthem, following which the rob-bers fired a bullet leaving himgrievously injured. He sus-tained bullet injuries in his lefthand.

The criminals fled from thespot after the incident. Policehave started investigation intothe matter. PNS

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Apetrol station owner sus-tained critical injuries as

miscreants opened fire at himnear Someswarpur Chhakunder the Satyabadi policelimits in Puri district late onSunday night.

The victim, identified asSrikant Rath, owner of SujataFilling Station, has been admit-ted to AIIMS, Bhubaneswar fortreatment.

According to reports,three-bike borne miscreantsarrived at the petrol station ataround midnight and tried to

loot cash from Rath’s posses-sion. As he resisted theirattempt, they fired at him andfled from the spot by theirmotorcycle.

Police have started investi-gation into the incident andefforts were on to trace and nabthe miscreants.

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Aspeeding truck hit a sta-tionary truck from its rear,

killing a person and criticallyinjuring two others near theTalcher bypass in Angul districtearly on Monday morning.

According to reports, thechicken-laden truck headingtowards Rourkela fromParjanga rammed into anoth-er truck which was parked onroadside. The driver of themoving truck, identified asSatrughna Yadav, died underthe impact of the collisionwhile two occupants of thevehicle sustained criticalinjuries.

Getting information, FireServices personnel rushed tothe spot, rescued the injuredvictims and admitted them tothe District HeadquartersHospital.

����� 4$���6�

An Assembly-level intellec-tual meet was held by BJP

Nuapada at Khariar on Sundayto discuss about CitizenshipAmendment Act (CAA).

BJP State president andNuapada MP Basant Pandaalong with district presidentSubrat Thakur and PrasannaPadhi spoke on the issue whichwas followed by interactionswith the intellectuals present inthe meeting.

"The opposition partiesincluding Congress and TMCof Mamta Banerjee, who couldnot motivate public sentimentagainst the removal of Articles370 and 35A or on the issue ofRam Mandir are trying to mis-lead people on the issue ofCAA. They will not succeed intheir intentions to sabotagethe implementation of the Act,"said Panda in his address on theissue. The speakers also elabo-

rated howC o n g r e s sparty keptitself alooffrom suchissues for fearof losing itsvote bank."When PMN a r e n d r aModi hasdared tobring thechange, theCongress isfeeling threat-ened," saidPanda. Thes p e a k e r sappealed theparticipantsto come for-ward toreconstructIndia under the leadership ofModi.

"The CAA will provideopportunity to those religious

minorities of our neighbouringcountries, who are sufferingunder Muslim rule; but it is notagainst any Muslim," said the

speakers. Lawyers, socialactivists, lecturers, businessmen and senior citizens ofKhariar town attended.

����� 4�2�;�47�$;

Under the Odisha SahityaAkademi, the 5th edition

of the “Kaakar” literature fes-tival will be held on February1 and 2 in the remoteKosagumuda block of the dis-trict and Chitrakot in Bastardistrict of Chhattisgarh.

In this regard, the firstpreparatory meeting for the fes-tival was held at Kosagumudaunder the chairmanship ofSahitya Akadami memberBoolo Hota.

Among others, chairpersonof Kosagumuda block,Geetamuni Samrath, vice-

chairperson Padmasai Mali,Kaakar Committee vice presi-dent, Ashok Patnaik, secretaryRam Prasad Patro and BijayaKumar Patnaik were presentwho discussed about how tomake the festival a grand suc-cess.

A committee was formedin which Collector Ajit Mishrawill be the chairman, whileJogendra Swin, Kunja BihariDash, Dharam Sing, andPrabhakar Rao are the mem-bers. The dates and the venuefor the event were finalisedafter holding discussions withthe Collector and other mem-bers of the committee, saidAkademy Member Hota.

For the first time, theOdisha Sahitya Akademi isorganising the event in neigh-bouring Bastar district ofChhattisgarh, where more than40,000 Odia people are resid-ing. The festival will encourageanalytical, cerebral and creativeevents, among the members ofthe literary fraternity.

����� 2*$2�49#:�;

The 19th Nanhipari-LittleMiss India talent beauty

pageant concluded at the KiiTInternational School here onSunday night.

A total of 26 young girls inthe age group of 13-16 yearswere shortlisted for semi finalround from regional auditionsfrom Guwahati, Lucknow,Kolkata, Patna, Bhubaneswar,Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore,Srinagar and Hyderabad inseveral competitions.

In the Grand Finale,Gunveen Chhabra from Raipurwas crowned KIIT Nanhipari-Little Miss India 2019. Tapti

Thakur of Bhopal and VedikaRakshita of Patna werecrowned first and 2nd runnersup, respectively. The top threewinners received cash awardsof Rs 3 lakh, Rs 1 lakh and Rs50,000, respectively, along withsilver crown, trophy and cer-tificates.

Many other titles weredecided in the final roundsuch as, Miss Rapunzel - girlwith most beautiful hair awardwas given to Roshini Y ofBengaluru. Similarly, MissPhotogenic- girl with best posein photoshoot round to SharonSahim of Kochi, Miss Selfie -Maximum likes on facebookpage to Raisha Sahnawaz ofMeghalaya, Miss Fashion girlwith best costume in bothrounds to Chandrima Sarkar ofKolkata, Miss Whizkid girlwith highest marks in quizround to Gunveen of Raipur,Miss Cinderella girl havingbest personality to Vanya Singhof Delhi, Miss Urvasi girl with

Best Talent to Sonal Singh ofJamshedpur, Miss Catwalk girlwith best ramp walk to

Tashina Nilufar Hussain ofAssam, Miss Monalisa mostbeautiful girl with most beau-

tiful smile to RamiyaThangjam of Manipur andMiss Active - most active girl

was givne to Tapti Thakur.Each of them got a cash prizeof Rs 10,000.

Dr Achyuta Samanta, chiefpatron of KIIT Nanhipari;Malay Mohapatra, patron;Sumana Rao, Femina MissIndia 2019; Shivani Jadhav,Miss Grand India 2019; ShreyaShankar, Miss India UnitedContinents 2019; Qiao Qiao,Miss World, Quindang,Shandong, China 2017 andJung Hye-Sun, South Koreanfamous actress awarded thewinners. Core committeemembers Dr SuchetaPriyabadini, Dr ShradhanjaliNayak and Dr Smita Mohantywere present.

A total of prize money ofRs 41 lakh was given out ofwhich the winner got Rs 21lakh, including Rs 3 lakh cashprize and 100% academic feewaiver subject to a maximumof Rs 18 lakh for studying inany discipline in KIITUniversity.

����� 2;�*���$;

To oversee execu-tion of the 5T and

the Mo Sarkar pro-grammes, Local MPChandra Sekhar Sahuand MLA BikramKumar Panda paid asurprise visit to theCasualty Departmentof the MKCGMedical CollegeHospital here at 12am on Sunday and talked topatients and their attendantsabout healthcare being pro-vided to them.

Seeing patients accommo-dated on the verandah, theyexpressed unhappiness andasked doctors on duty to pro-vide them beds.

They too saw lack of ade-quate doctors, beds and equip-

ments in the three-storiedCasualty Department whilethe number of patients is risingeach passing day.

“We enquired about thehealthcare being provided topatients. We too talked toattendants. We will apprise theGovernment about the short-comings of the hospital. Wewill take all steps to ensure that

high quality healthcare pro-vided in this premier medicalin coming days,” MP and MLAtold reporters.

����� 2���47-;

With the daily temperaturedipping to below eight

degree Celsius, people ofBalangir are experiencing asudden cold here.

Since last few days therehas been a sudden drop in thetemperature and without glovesand jacket, it is not possible tocome out from house both inmorning and evening, saidPrithviraj, a local, standingbeside a roadside fire atSonepur Chowk.

"We experienced cold con-ditions all of sudden and for theold age people, life is very dif-ficult," explained Jaya KrishnaPatel, an old man while sittingnear the roadside fire.

The sudden drop in thetemperature has also affectedthe number of visitors comingto tea stalls in morning. "Afterthe cold wave situation,there isa drop in the visitors to my tea

stall," admitted Nila.Besides affecting the busi-

ness it has also affected thefarmers too.

Due to the cold wave situ-ation, the farmers are going totheir khet (agriculture field)very late. Consequently, lesswork is done, told a youngfarmer.

While the cold wave hasaffected normal life and busi-ness, it has brought cheers forwoolen cloth sellers.

"After the sudden drop intemperature, more and morepeople are thronging to ourwoolen shops over the lastthree-four days " said Chuing,a Tibetan youth, selling woolen

clothes. Chuing came toBalangir for the first time fromChandragiri of Gajapati dis-trict.

This sudden cold wave hasenlightened the minds of poets."Change of temperature andseason is a law of nature and itwould continue," said SandeepKaunar, a poet.

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The Prerana InternationalGreen Arm organised an

International Green Festivalhere on Sunday under thechairmanship of its comman-dant-in-chief Dr DillipSrichandan.

State Assembly SpeakerSurjya Narayan Patro inaugu-rating the festival said everyoneshould be part of the worldgreen fight, which was launchedon the occasion to work againstglobal warming and climate

change, and plant at least onetree to make the world beauti-ful.

Dr Srichandan said thefestival is being organisedfrom December 29 to January5 to celebrate the New Year asGreen New Year. In the fest,one crore saplings would beplanted, 100 awareness pro-grammes, 1,000 street play, 500rallies would be organisedacross the world and one croresapling would be distributedamong public in free, headded.

Besides, saplings wouldbe planted at residences ofPresident, Prime Minister,Union Ministers and OdishaGovernor, Chief Minister,Ministers and MLAs. On theoccasion, a van was flagged offwhich would distributesaplings to people free of cost.Among others, former MPPrasanna Patsani, Dr PrakashSrichandan, theater actorDaitaree Panda, JayashreeDhal, Kasturi Debi, AbaniJena, Ajay Swain and RajeswariSaran were present.

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The third and fourth days ofthe ongoing International

Odishi Dance Festival onSaturday and Sunday witnessedsome of the sterling presenta-tions that belonged to the lega-cy left by late Guru GangadharPradhan through hisBhubaneswar-based worldfamous Orissa Dance Academy(ODA).

These memorable presen-tations were made by four city-based Odishi institutions –ODA, now under direction ofdistinguished danseuse GuruAruna Mohanty, RudrakshyaFoundation of GuruBichitrananda Swain who isknown world-wide for hispath-breaking choreographiesbesides grooming the best ofmale dancers, emerging poten-tial choreographer PravatKumar Swain who heads hisNrutya Naibedya Odishi insti-tution and Ustad BismillahKhan Yuva Prativa award win-ner Lingaraj Pradhan whoheads the department of Odishidance at Utkal SangeetMahavidyalaya.

Incidentally, all these

famed institu-tions and gurus,both seniors andemerging, weregroomed by GuruG a n g a d h a rPradhan whopassed away earlyin life a decadeago but created abenchmark forquality teachingand tradition inOdissi like legendary GuruKelucharan Mohapatra whoseSrjan dance institution alsocontinues to craft out qualitydance and dancers.

Pravat Kumar Swain, dis-ciple of Guru Aruna Mohanty,is emerging faster as a highlypromising dancer, choreogra-pher and trainer among theyoung generation. Hidimba,that he choreographed anddanced, was outstanding inconcept and treatment. Hisyoung disciple MaitreeMaheswari, who enactedPravat’s choreography of anexpressional numberShyamanagar He with incred-ible maturity and appeal,proved how the young trainerhas an eye for talent and visionin grooming the talent.

Rudraprasad Swain, anoth-er young disciple of GuruAruna Mohanty, danced intothe hearts of the audience witha very captivating presentationof Aswasthama, a characterfrom The Mahabharat. In allaspects of a dance production— concept, script, choreogra-phy, direction, music, stagecraft and dancing — this peer-less presentation would con-tinue to live on longer in thememory of the spectators.

Continuing with the trendof starting the evening sessionsdaily with a star dancer, the fes-tival presented New Delhibased Kavita Dwibedy andVishnu Tattwa Das from USAon Saturday and Sundayrespectively who were thebiggest crowd-pullers.

BRAHMAPUR: A delegationof the Odisha Swarna andRoupya Silpi Mahasanga led byits advisor Dr Shiva SankarAchari met senior BJD leaderRama Chandra Panda hereand submitted a memoran-dum addressed to the ChiefMinister on issue of payingstipend to the students of gold-smith community of the State.

The delegation requestedPanda to bring it to the noticeof the State Government forcontinuance of stipend/fellow-ship to the students/wards ofthe goldsmith communitywhich was started by lateBijubabu during his tenure asthe Chief Minister of the State.

According to the delega-tion, there are about 2 lakhactive goldsmiths in the entireState out of which 40,000 ofthem are alone in Ganjam dis-trict. Goldsmiths are underOBC category.

The delegation alsorequested the StateGovernment to recognize thegoldsmiths as industrial work-ers and the ornament makingtrade as cottage industry. Theyalso demanded issue of hand-icraft card to all the workersengaged in the trade and man-ufacturing of ornament makingin the State. Among otherthings, they requested theGovernment for amending sec-tion 411 of IPC to prevent mis-use by the Central Excise andPolice.

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The Odisha Biennale 2019, an enthrallinginternational art and cultural festival

which began on December 23 will contin-ue till 31 at Kalabhoomi, Odisha Arts andCrafts Museum.

The event is meant to be a platform forartists from all over the world and the audi-ence to learn about and explore different cul-tures and different types of art.

The Editorial Design Workshop facili-tated by Chiaki Aizama, Nanako Koyamaand Rie Goto educated the participants indeveloping their writing and compositionskills. The Bamboo Quilling workshop byAntik and Shashank enabled the participants tounlock the creativity within themselves throughlearning how to create art from bamboo. Theyalso explained the uses of bamboo and how itcould replace steel, plastic and other materials.

Mahesh Vinayakram and Akito Senngokucollaborated on a visual music illusion onSunday. The morning workshops scheduled are

Editorial Design and VONNOS ContemporaryDance Vacant Seat followed by street illusion“Lost Alien” and Site Specific illusion“Calligraphy work of Tokhu”. https://ssl.gstat-ic.com/ui/v1/icons/mail/images/cleardot.gif

The entire schedule of events is available inthe Odisha Biennale website(https://www.odishabiennale.com/) and theirFacebook page.

BHUBANESWAR: In orderto garner people’s support onthe Citizenship (Amendment)Act (CAA), the State BJP wouldjoin the Prime MinisterNarendra Modi’s Twitter cam-paign.

According to party Stategeneral secretary PrithvirajHarichandan, while the PrimeMinister has a target to make1 crore tweets, the State BJP hastargeted 10 lakh tweets.

The party claimed that theCAA is only meant for citi-zenship to persecuted refugeesand would never take anyother’s citizenship away. Peopleof the country would be madeaware of the purpose of theCAA, it said.

The party slammed theopposition parties saying theyare sending wrong messagesabout the CAA and creatingchaos in the country. PNS

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With a holisticstrategy and

greater convergenceamong all stakehold-ers, Odisha can scripta new chapter in thecountry’s steel andminerals industries,said Union Petroleumand Natural Gas andSteel MinisterD h a r m e n d r aPradhan here onMonday.

He was address-ing a meeting with education-al institutes Directors,Government Officials and Steeland Mines officers at CSIR -Institute of Minerals andMaterials Technology here.

Pradhan said, “We shouldadopt an outcome orientedapproach to contribute towards

country’s economic growth.Innovation will be a key to cre-ate a knowledge-based entre-preneurial ecosystem.”

The Minister said if theindigenous technologies devel-oped by the CSIR-IMMTbecome commercially viable,then they would bring a great

change in the industry in thecountry.

Directors of CSIR-IMMT,NIT Rourkela, IITBhubaneswar, Utkal UniversityGeology Department Professorand officials of StateGovernment and steel industrywere present.

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More than a thousand peo-ple, including a good

number of children, ran onroads to spread messages ofensuing ‘Lok Mahoschav2020’ and ‘SwachhSambalpur’ here on Saturday.

DIG (NR) Himansu Lalaccompanied by officials ofthe Sambalpur MunicipalCorporation (SMC) andother l ine departmentsf lagged of f the minimarathon. Lal wished ensu-ing Lok Mahoschav a grandsuccess and appealed peopleto keep the city clean.

DRDA PD SukantaTripathy, SMC AdditionalCommissioner DebendraNanda, Enforcement OfficerSubhankar Mohanty, DFO(Territorial) Dr Sanjit Kumar,police and fire personnel par-ticipated.

The committee distrib-uted 1000 T shirts and caps tothe young participants.

Lok Mahoschav officialsgave away prizes of Rs 5,000,Rs 3000, Rs 2,000 and Rs 500to winners in first, second,third and consolation cate-gories, respectively. A total of16 boys and gir ls gotprizes.

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The Odisha Gram PanchayatEmployees, Peons,

Watchmen and SweepersFederation held a meeting hereon Sunday. Working presidentRabindra Senapati and gener-al secretary Subrat Kumar Rauladdressed the delegates.

There are more than8,801employees in the posts ofpeon, night watchman andsweepers working in all 6,789gram panchayats across theState. Even though they doduties like staffs of otherGovernment offices, still theyare deprived of equal pay forequal work. They even don’tget minimum wages. Theirfuture has been pushed todark as the Government isnot regularising them despitetheir repeated requests.

This being the backdrop,federation members resolvedto urge Chief Minister

Naveen Patnaik and 5TSecretary VK Pandian toissue a direction to fulfill alltheir demands on the occa-sion of New Year.

Functionaries from dif-ferent districts attended themeeting. Assistant SecretaryChandramani Rana proposeda vote of thanks.

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Prime Minister NarendraModi on Monday led the

BJP's outreach campaign withthe hashtag#IndiaSupportsCAA to gathersupport for the CitizenshipAmendment Act (CAA), whichhas sparked violent protestsacross India in recent weeks.Modi's official website tweetedthat the CAA "is about givingcitizenship to persecutedrefugees and not about takinganyone's citizenship away".

Seeking to mobilise sup-port for the amended citizen-ship law, other BJP leaders toolaunched the campaign on

social media to highlight its fea-tures with Modi posting avideo of spiritual guruSadhguru Jaggi Vasudev back-ing the legislation.

Amid protests, includingfrom Muslims in several partsof the country, the Prime Min-ister has asserted that the lawis about giving citizenship torefugees from three countriesand not about taking awayanyone's citizenship. BJP hasannounced a 10-day campaignacross the country to spreadawareness about the CAA andtaken on the Opposition forpushing "rumours and fears"around it.

"Do hear this lucid expla-nation of aspects relating to

CAA and more by SadhguruJaggi Vasudev. He provides

historical context, brilliantlyhighlights our culture of broth-

erhood. He also calls out themisinformation by vested

interest groups.#IndiaSupportsCAA," Moditweeted.

The Twitter handle ofModi's personal website alsohad a message saying that theCAA is about giving citizenshipto persecuted refugees and notabout taking anyone's citizen-ship away. The message wasposted with the hashtag "IndiaSupports CAA".

It also asked people toshare content, graphics andvideos from the Prime Minis-ter's NaMo app to show theirsupport for the law, which hastriggered protests in differentparts of the country.

BJP president and HomeMinister Amit Shah also posed

Sadhguru's video and said "stopbelieving lies and half truths onCAA". He urged everyone,especially the youth, to watchthe video and get a "historicalperspective on why we needCAA".

Joining the campaign,party's working president JPNadda quoted from the spiri-tual leader's remarks to say that"in a very calibrated way some-body sent the message to theminorities that your citizenshipis under threat which is anabsolute lie".

Opposition and other crit-ics slammed the CAA, sayingit is against India's secularConstitution as it makes reli-gion as a ground for citizenship.

The BJP has asserted that it ismeant for minorities persecut-ed in three neighbouring coun-tries due to their faith.

Union Minister PrakashJavadekar took on the critics,who have dubbed the law asdiscriminatory, and tweeted,"Spread Facts Not Myth: In thelast 6 years, 2830 Pakistani, 912Afghani & 172 Bangladeshicitizens have been given Indiancitizenship. Many of them arefrom majority community ofthese countries."

He also posted severaltweets, highlighting key aspectsof the amended law and quot-ed Modi's comments that it willnot adversely affect any Indiancitizen.

����� 49:�69�*-�

The CBI on Monday con-ducted searches at 17 loca-

tions in Jammu & Kashmir atthe premises of senior IASofficers Yasha Mudgal andKumar Rajeev Ranjan besidesthe then DistrictCollectors/District Magistratesof Kupwara, Baramulla,Udhampur, Kishtwar, Shopian,Rajouri, Doda and Pulwama inan alleged gun licensing rack-et busted by the Rajasthanpolice in 2017.

The move comes two yearsafter the agency registered twocases on allegations issuance ofaround two lakh arms licencesto non residents of the erst-while State.

The CBI said incriminatingdocuments recovered duringsearches are being scrutinised.

The agency had registeredtwo cases in August last year onthe consent of Jammu andKashmir Government and fur-ther notification from the

Centre. After taking over thecase in 2018, searches were alsoearlier conducted at 11 placesincluding Srinagar, Udhampurand Jammu at the locations ofprivate gun houses which led torecovery of incriminating doc-uments including issue, renew-al of arms licenses, blank appli-cation forms submitted by var-ious licencees, money transac-tions of gun dealers withlicencees, blank NOC pur-portedly issued by DistrictMagistrates and other docu-ments, the agency said in astatement.

"It was also alleged that the

then public servants in thisconspiracy of issuance oflicences to non-residents ofJ&K in violation of rules,allegedly received gratifica-tion," the agency said in astatement.

Several documents relatedto the cases, including bankstatements, were recoveredduring the searches that werecarried out at three places inKashmir, 11 places in Jammuand one each in Gurugram(Haryana), Mohali (Punjab)and Noida (Uttar Pradesh),officials said.

Besides searching thepremises of Mudgal, a 2007-batch IAS officer, and Ranjan,a 2010-batch IAS officer, hous-es of I Hussain, MohammedSaleem, Mohammed JunaidKhan, F C Bhagat, FarooqAhmed Khan and JenhagirAhmed Mir were searched,officials said.

Mudgal is at present CEO-and-Managing Director ofPower Distribution

Corporation Jammu andRanjan is CEO of JammuSrinagar Metro RailCorporation

The case was handed overto the CBI on the basis of a rec-ommendation from RajasthanDirector General of Police O PGalhotra after the anti-terrorsquad had busted a racketrelated to the matter. Followingthis, the two FIRs were lodgedby the agency.

The CBI's Chandigarh unithad registered the FIRs foralleged criminal misconductand criminal conspiracy underthe Ranbir Penal Code and inviolation of Section 3/25 of theArms Act, besides provisions ofthe Prevention of CorruptionAct.

According to RajasthanPolice officials, the Jammu andKashmir government wasinformed about the racket in2017 and several lettersaddressed to then ChiefSecretary B B Vyas remainedunanswered.

����� 49:�69�*-

The CRPF on Monday saidthere was no breach in

Congress leader PriyankaGandhi Vadra's security duringher recent trip to Lucknow. Theparamilitary blamed Vadra for"violations" by riding pillion ona scooter.

The force, which providesarmed commandos under the'Z+' category of VIP securitycover to her, said the Congressleader undertook "unscheduledmovement without intimation".

Therefore, an advancedsecurity liaison (ASL) could notbe conducted, the CentralReserve Police Force (CRPF) saidin a statement issued here byInspector General (Intelligenceand VIP security) P K Singh.

Priyanka's office had writtento Singh's office on December 28with a complaint that a police cir-cle officer (CO) in Lucknow hadissued threats to her security per-sonnel and warned of restrictingher movements on the same day.

"There was no breach insecurity by the official" whohappens to be the CO ofHazartganj, Abhay Mishra, readsthe statement.

It said the "only programme"of Priyanka indicated to theCRPF team for that day wasabout her visit to the localPradesh Congress Committee(PCC) office for attending aparty foundation day event.

The CRPF said it had "con-ducted" an ASL for this event andhad intimated it to state author-ities.

It alleged that the Congressleader's "personal staff did notcommunicate" the detailed pro-gramme of the day to the UttarPradesh Police CO when hecame calling at Priyanka's placeof stay in Lucknow at about 8 am.

The force said while therewas no breach in PriyankaGandhi's security, at least three"security violations" took placewhen she chose to ride a two-wheeler while on her way to visitretired IPS officer S R Darapuri.

"During travelling, the pro-tectee used non-bullet resistantcivil vehicle without a personalsecurity officer. The protecteetook a lift on Scooty as a pillionrider," it said, adding that as thismovement was not planned, theCRPF team could not conductan ASL which was a breach ofsecurity protocol mandated forPriyanka Gandhi.

"Despite the security con-straints, appropriate securitycover was provided by the CRPFduring the visit," it said.

The force added that suchsecurity lapses are communi-cated to the protectee and"advised" for ensuring propersecurity arrangements.

Priyanka, also the Congressgeneral secretary in-charge of UP(East), was in Lucknow onDecember 27 and December 28as part of her first visit to the Statecapital after violent protestsagainst the amended citizenshiplaw and a proposed countrywideimplementation of the NationalRegister of Citizens.

����� 49:�69�*-

Accusing the AAP of spread-ing "lies" and misleading

people on the issue regularisa-tion of unauthorised colonies,Union Housing and UrbanAffairs Minister Hardeep SinghPuri on Monday said registryfor ownership rights in unau-thorised colonies will start inthe next 8-10 days.

Puri said that the CentralGovernment will soon handover registry to the residents. Itis estimated that 40-50 lakhpeople living in 1731 unautho-rised colonies play a vital rolein deciding the fate of anypolitical party in every electionin the national capital. In2015, people of unauthorisedcolonies voted to ArvindKejriwal to bring changes in thenational capital. In 2020, bothBJP and AAP is eying on unau-thorised colonies vote bank.

"They (AAP) are weavingnets of words while registry will

start in next 8-10 days to giveownership rights to people.You keep telling lies, and we(Centre) will soon hand overdocuments of houses to the res-idents of these colonies. Youcannot be an obstacle in thehappiness of Delhiites," Puritweeted in Hindi.

"The Aam Aadmi Party ismisleading people but the BJP-led Centre has brought laws, hesaid in reference to theParliament passing a bill to giveownership rights to the resi-dents of unauthorised colonies.

"...Tell, has the law beenenacted or not? has the processof giving ownership rights topeople begun or not? Their(AAP's) strategy is not to ben-efit people, and mislead theminstead," Puri said.

The minister said that the

Delhi Development Authority(DDA) has completed the workon preparing maps of unau-thorised colonies in just twomonths while 35,000 peoplehave registered themselves onits website and submitted doc-uments.

In another tweet, the Unionhousing and urban affairs min-ister accused the Kejriwal gov-ernment of failing to preparemaps of 1,731 colonies in thepast five years and they moveda court seeking two-year-timefor the same.

Earlier on Sunday, ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwal saidat a press conference that polit-ical parties indulge in politics,but if government starts fur-nishing wrong information, it issaddening. Citing (FAQ) fre-quently asked questions fromDDA website on unauthorisedcolonies, Kejriwal claimed thatneither central government isgiving ownership rights norregularising them.

�������(����,���� 49:69�*-

Kerala and Chandigarhretained the top ranks

among States and UnionTerritories even as Bihar turnedout to be the worst performerin Niti Aayog's SDG IndiaIndex 2019 that evaluatesprogress on social, economicand environmental parame-ters.

According to 'SDG(Sustainable DevelopmentGoals) India Index 2019',released on Monday, UttarPradesh, Odisha and Sikkimhave shown maximumimprovement, but States likeGujarat have not shown anyprogress vis-a-vis the 2018rankings.

"Kerala retained its rank asthe top State with a score of 70.Chandigarh too maintained itstop spot among the UTs with ascore of 70. Himachal Pradeshtook the second spot whileAndhra Pradesh, Tamil Naduand Telangana shared the thirdspot," the report said.

Bihar, Jharkhand andArunachal Pradesh are theworst performing States in thisyear's Index for SustainableDevelopment Goals (SDGs)."The United Nations' SDG tar-get of 2030 can never be metwithout India... We are fullycommitted to achieving UN'sSDG target," Niti Aayog CEOAmitabh Kant said at thelaunch of the report.

Speaking at the event, NitiAayog Vice Chairman RajivKumar said southern stateshave done well in health."West Bengal (rank 14) has alsodone well in Niti Aayog's SDGIndex 2019, but given the edu-cation level(in the state), WestBengal should be in top 3 per-forming states," Kumar added.

The Niti Aayog vice chair-man also said Modi govern-ment will not leave any stoneunturned to make sure Indiaachieves SDG Agenda 2030.According to the report, India'scomposite score improved from57 in 2018 to 60 in 2019 withmajor success in water andsanitation, industry and inno-vation.

However, nutrition andgender continue to be problemareas for India, requiring morefocussed approach from thegovernment. The report saidwhile three out of five states inthe top spots perform equal toor better than the country aver-age on 12 goals, the other twostates do the same on 11 goals.

"Only three states wereplaced in the category of FrontRunners (with a score in therange 65-99, including both) in2018 - Himachal Pradesh,Kerala, and Tamil Nadu. In2019, five more states joinedthis league - Andhra Pradesh,Telangana, Karnataka, Sikkimand Goa, taking the total tallyto eight," it noted.

With regard to povertyreduction, states which havedone well include Tamil Nadu,Tripura, Andhra Pradesh,Meghalaya, Mizoram andSikkim. On 'zero hunger' para-meters, Goa, Mizoram, Kerala,Nagaland and Manipur werethe front runners, according tothe report.

The SDG India Index,launched last year by Niti Aayogwith the help of United Nations,took into account 16 out of 17goals specified by the UnitedNations as SDGs. The Indexthis year ranked states based on54 targets spread over 100 indi-cators out of 306 outlined by theUN.

The first report, which waslaunched in 2018 had 13 goalsand 39 indicators. The year2020 will be the fifth anniver-sary of the adoption of SDGs by193 countries at the UNGeneral Assembly.

The SDGs, constitutedthrough an unprecedented con-sultative process, have 17 goalsand 169 related targets to beachieved by 2030.

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To prevent the repeat of thisyear's onion crisis, the

Centre has decided to create abuffer stock of 1 lakh tonnes ofthe key kitchen staple betweenMarch and July in 2020.

Top sources said thatCooperative Nafed, which hadmaintained the buffer stock ofonion on behalf of the govern-ment, will continue to do sonext year. It will source the rabi(winter) onion crop — whichhas higher shelf life— betweenMarch and July directly fromfarmers.

The Government had cre-ated a buffer stock of 56,000tonnes for the current year butit was not sufficient to containthe prices which are still rulingabove Rs 100 per kg in mostcities across the country.

The prices are expected tocool down by end of Januarynext year with the domesticsupply of new produce fromthe rabi (winter) and latekharif (summer) seasons -thereby also giving rise tothe possibility of a glut.Sources said the arrival ofimported onions will coincidewith the supply of late kharifonions from Maharashtra andGujarat in the last week ofDecember, as well as the earlyrabi produce from Rajasthan,Madhya Pradesh and

Karnataka by late January. "The issue was discussed in

detail in the recent meeting ofthe group of ministers (GoM),headed by Home MinisterAmit Shah. It was decided thathigher buffer stock of about 1lakh tonne will be created fornext year," sources said.

This year, onion prices fellsharply due to 26 per cent fallin kharif and late kharif (sum-mer) production due to latemonsoon and later untimelyrains in key growing statesespecially Maharasthra andKarnataka.

To check rising prices, the

government took several mea-sures to boost the domesticavailability including ban onexports, stock limits on tradersbesides sale of onion at sub-sidised rates from its bufferstock and imports.

Already, the governmenthas exhausted its buffer stockof onion which was disposed ata subsidised rate in the localmarket. Now, it is sellingimported ones.

MMTC, which is import-ing on behalf of the govern-ment, has contracted about45,000 tonnes of onion fromTurkey, Afghanistan and Egypt.

The shipments are underway.The first batch of 790 metrictonnes of onion arrived fromTurkey and Egypt and distrib-uted to Andhra Pradesh, Delhi,Karnataka amd Telangana.

According to agricultureministry's data, 0.98 lakhhectare area is covered underlate kharif as against 1.22 lakhhectare in the correspondingperiod last year. The areaunder rabi onion crop, mean-while, is 2.76 lakh hectare asagainst 2.31 lakh hectare in thecorresponding period last year(until the first week ofDecember this year).

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The Ministry of Housingand Urban Affairs on

Monday signed an MoU withFlipkart in which productsmade by women self-helpgroups formed under theDeendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Urban LivelihoodsMission (DAY-NULM), willnow be available on e-com-merce platforms.

Union Housing and UrbanAffairs Secretary DurgaShanker Mishra said the gov-ernment would also rope inAmazon to provide a platformfor the online sale of SHGs'products.

Under the DAY -NULM,self-help groups consisting 44lakh women have been work-ing across the country, a moveaimed at making women finan-

cially independent. Accordingto the secretary, 12 lakh peoplehave so far been trained in dif-ferent skills in the last five yearsunder the mission whilearound 5.06 lakh people weregiven funds by the governmentand they are currently self-employed.

"Today, we have signed anMoU with Flipkart. It aims todirectly sell products made byself-help groups through e-commerce portals. We are alsolikely to ink an MoU withAmazon on January 7 for thesame purpose," Mishra toldreporters on the sidelines of an

event.According to the secretary,

12 lakh people have so far beentrained in different skills in thelast five years under the mis-sion while around 5.06 lakhpeople were given funds by thegovernment and they are cur-rently self-employed.

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Lucknow: The Congress partywill provide legal help to peo-ple facing prosecution for par-ticipating in the anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act(CAA) protests, party sourcessaid on Monday.

According to the sources,Congress General SecretaryPriyanka Gandhi has held ameeting on the matter withlawyers associated with theparty. At the meeting, PriyankaGandhi told the lawyers that theparty will provide legal help tothose who have been arrested inthe peaceful protests and theparty stands with the victims.

The Congress GeneralSecretary has been active herein the Uttar Pradesh capital insupport of the opposition to theCAA, meeting with the fami-lies of those arrested in theprotests. In one instance here,Priyanka Gandhi even drove ascooty and then walked toreach the home of the family ofa victim.

The Congress leader hasalso alleged that the local policemisbehaved with her to curbher movement. The police,however, have denied the alle-gation. The politics is at boil-ing point in the state where theCongress party has taken cen-trestage in the opposition to theCAA. IANS

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Uttar Pradesh Deputy ChiefMinister Dinesh Sharma

countered Congress generalsecretary Priyanka GandhiVadra on her remarks againstChief Minister Yogi Adityanathon Monday and accused her ofdenigrating Hinduism.

Addressing a Press confer-ence barely two hours after theCongress general secretary madecertain remarks againstAdityanath, before returning toNew Delhi after winding up afour-day visit to the State capi-tal, Sharma said, “PriyankaGandhi stands with those whoindulged in (anti-CAA) vio-lence.” Priyanka hit out at ChiefMinister on Monday, sayingthere was no place for violenceor “revenge” in the country.

In a jibe at Adityanathdays after he said those whodamaged public property dur-ing protests against theCitizenship Amendment Act(CAA) and the ensuing vio-lence would be made to pay, theCongress general secretary saidsaffron denotes Hinduism, areligion that does not advocateviolence or “revenge”.

Hitting back at Congressgeneral secretary PriyankaGandhi, Sharma said the clashof religions should not be start-ed for the sake of politics.

“The Congress general sec-retary has accused the saffron

along with the Chief Minister,”Sharma alleged. “Yogi ji nedharam ko dhaaran kiya hai(Yogiji has imbibed a religion).The Hindu religion never teach-es to do any harm to anyone.Hindu religion does not speakabout insulting any other reli-gion. Hindu religion is very huge

and you are saying that a person(imbibing Hindu religion) isdoing such a thing,” he said.

“You have started a clash ofreligions for your politics.Please do not do this. This isnot the question of Hindu andMuslims. It is the question ofIndia’s future and nationalunity,” he added.

Sharma said no one wouldleave saffron for the fear ofexpletives. “The more you hurlabuses, the more our self-con-fidence will increase,” he added.

To a question, Sharma clar-ified that Adityanath had usedthe word ‘badla’ (revenge) toconvey that vandals will have topay for the damage caused topublic property during protestsagainst the amended citizen-ship law.

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Congress leader PriyankaGandhi on Monday hit out

at Uttar Pradesh Chief MinisterYogi Adityanath, saying there isno place for violence or“revenge” in the country.Addressing a Press conference,the Congress general secretarytook a dig at Adityanath’s ear-lier warning that rioters dam-aging public property will haveto pay and said the saffrondenotes Hinduism, a religionthat does not advocate violenceor “revenge”.

Concluding her four-dayvisit to Lucknow days afterstatewide violent clashes over theCitizenship Amendment Act,she told mediapersons that herown security was not a bigissue. “The question of my secu-rity is not a big one. It is a smallquestion on which there is noneed to hold any discussion. Iwill not raise the issue of secu-rity because it is a trivial matter.It has nothing to do with thepublic,” she said, in an apparentreference to her alleged man-handling by the State police.

“The issue is the safety ofcommon man in UP,” sheasserted. “This is the country ofLord Krishna — who was the

symbol of compassion. LordRam was symbol of compas-sion. Everybody dances in themarriage procession (baraat) ofLord Shiva. There is no placefor ‘hinsaa’ (violence), ‘badlaa’(revenge) and ‘ranj’ (anger) inthe country’s soul.

“When Shrikrishna gavesermon to Arjun during theMahabharat war, he did nottalk about revenge or anger to

the great warrior on the bat-tlefield. He only brought outthe feelings of compassion andtruth,” she said. Sharpening herattack on the Chief Minister,she said, “He is wearing thedress (vastra) of an Yogi. He iswearing saffron clothes. Thisbhagwa (saffron) is not yours,it belongs to ‘dhaarmik’ (reli-gious), ‘aadhyaatmik’ (spiritu-al) tradition of Hindustan. It isa symbol of the Hindu religion.Uss dharma ko dhaaran kariye(imbibe that religion). In thatreligion, there is no place foranger, violence and revenge.This is all I have to say.”

Releasing copies of a 14-page memorandum submittedto Governor Anandiben Patel,she said there are ample proof inthe document on how the policeand the administration indulgedin wrong doing and vandalism.

The memorandumclaimed a total of 23 deathoccurred in the state in thealleged police excesses duringthe anti-CAA protests by peo-ple, while the UP Governmentclaims 19 deaths in clashes.

There is also a video ofpolice vandalism, police beat-ing up a minor in Kanpur, shesaid, referring to the contentsof memorandum.

“There were numerousexamples through which itcould be seen that the policeand administration acted onthe Chief Minister’s statementthat he will take revenge.

“I think it has happened forthe first time in the history thata CM has given such a state-ment that revenge will be takenfrom the public,” she said. Theproperties which have beenconfiscated and notices served,also include that of ex-IPSofficer SR Darapuri. He prob-ably had used the earnings ofhis lifetime for his house, andhe has got a notice, because hehad uploaded a Facebook post.

Quoting from the memo-randum, the Congress leadersaid the conduct of the UPpolice has been “patentlyunlawful, destructive of therule of law and repressive ofhonest citizens”. “This is unbe-fitting of a force that is duty-bound to safeguard and protectthe citizens’ rights,” the mem-orandum said.

After the Chief Minister’sstatement, police and admin-stration appear to have acted in“a manner that is biased,unlawful, and violative of thefundamental rights of citizens,”the memorandum said.

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The cold wave further tight-ened its grip across Jammu

& Kashmir on Monday withthe winter capital, Jammu,recording the season’s coldestnight in over a decade, whileSrinagar shivering at minus 6.5degrees Celsius.

There was no relief fromthe bone-chilling cold for theresidents of the Union Territory.Jammu recorded the season’scoldest night in over a decadeas the mercury plummeted to2.4 degrees Celsius, the mete-orological department said.

It said the city had record-ed the coldest night onDecember 28, 1998, when themercury had went down to 0.9degree Celsius followed by 2.3degrees Celsius on December 31,2007. Jammu had also recordeda low of 2.4 degrees Celsius onDecember 27 in 2014.

In Srinagar, the mercurycontinued its record-breakingspree as the city experiencedthe coldest night of the seasonso far at minus 6.5 degreesCelsius on Monday. Dense fogforced cancellation of all morn-ing flights from the JammuAirport. An official of theAirport Authority of India saidall the four morning flightsscheduled to operate from theJammu airport were cancelleddue to poor visibility as densefog engulfed the city.

“So far four flights to andfro the Jammu airport werecancelled, while the afternoonflights are likely to get delayed,”he said. The minimum tem-perature in Jammu marked adip of 3.3 degrees compared tothe previous night to settle at2.4 degrees Celsius — fivenotches below normal duringthis part of the season, a MeT

office official said. This lead to the freezing of

the fringes of the Dal Lake andother water bodies as well aswater supply lines at severalplaces. The night temperaturein Srinagar, which has beenwitnessing clear skies and somesunshine during the day, is overfour degrees below the normalfor this part of the season, theofficial said.

The ski-resort of Gulmargin north Kashmir recorded thelow of minus 7.8 degreesCelsius last night — downfrom the previous night’s minus6.6 degrees Celsius, he said.The night temperature atPahalgam resort, which alsoserves as one of the base campsfor the annual Amarnath yatrain south Kashmir, settled at alow of minus 10.2 degreesCelsius as against minus 10.4degrees Celsius on Sunday, theofficial said.

Pahalgam, in southKashmir’s Anantnag district,

was the coldest recorded placein the valley, he added. Theofficial said Qazigund — thegateway town to the Valley - insouth Kashmir recorded a lowof minus 9.3 degrees Celsius —slightly up from minus 9.5degrees Celsius on Sunday.

Kokernag town, also insouth, recorded a low of minus7.3 degrees Celsius, whileKupwara, in north, registeredthe minimum of minus 5.6degrees Celsius, the official said.He said Leh town, in the LadakhUnion territory, recorded a lowof minus 20.1 degrees Celsius —down from the previous night’sminus 19.0 degrees Celsius.

The nearby Drass townfroze at a low of minus 28.8degrees Celsius. Kashmir iscurrently under the grip of‘Chillai-Kalan’ — the 40-dayharshest period of winter whenthere are most chances of fre-quent and maximum snowfalland the temperature dropsconsiderably.

Jaipur: Jaipur recorded sec-ond lowest-ever temperature in55 years at 1.4 degrees Celsiusas a cold wave continued tosweep Rajasthan, according toweather officials. The Statecapital had registered its low-est ever temperature at 0 degreeCelsius on December 13, 1964.

For the last four days, thetemperature has been dippingin state. On Sunday, MountAbu was the coldest at -3degrees followed by Jobner at-1.6 degrees.

Sikar and Fatehpur regis-tered 0 degree, while Kotashivered at 2.8 degrees, Churuat 1.2 degrees, Vanasthali 1.8degrees, Jaisalmer 3 degreesand Bundi 2 degrees.

IANS

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Betel leaf used to make thepopular ‘Calcutta paan’ has

got costlier in Aurangabad inMaharashtra, leaving a bittertaste in the mouth of patrons.

These leaves come fromMedinipur in West Bengal andrates have now touched �1,200for a bundle of 100 against �500till some days ago, paan merchant MohammedSharfuddin told PTI.

A tour of shops hereshowed prices of‘Calcutta paan’ hadgone up from �8 toanything between�12-20 depend-ing on otheringredients.

“Paan priceshad to beincreased herebecause of the betel

leaves getting costlier. We havebeen told cultivation of theseleaves has decreased,”Sharfuddin, who has been in

the business for 54years, added.

He said shops inAurangabad sellsome 20,000 paan aday and the rise inprices was makingpeople movetowards leaves

coming in fromChennai.

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Churk in Uttar Pradesh recorded 0.8 degreeCelsius as the state continued to reel under

cold wave conditions on Monday, accordingto the Meteorological Department.

Muzaffarnagar recorded a low of 1 degreeCelsius, followed by Kanpur (1.6 degreeCelsius), Agra (1.9 degrees Celsius), Jhansi (2.2degrees Celsius), Varanasi (2.3 degrees Celsius)and Meerut (2.5 degrees Celsius).

According to the MeT department, Churktown in Sonbhadra district was the coldestplace in the state recording 0.8 degree Celsius,eight notches below normal.

State capital Lucknow recorded a mini-mum temperature of 6.7 degrees Celsius, onenotch below normal, while the maximumtemperature recorded was 12.3 degrees Celsius,10 degrees below normal. The sunshine cameas a respite to the city residents.

The weather is most likely to remain dry,and shallow to moderate fog is very likely tooccur at few places in the State.

Cold day to severe cold day condition isvery likely at a few places in the State, the weath-erman said. Dense to very dense fog is very like-ly at isolated places over the State, according tothe MeT department.

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Lucknow: Kaushal Kishore, BJP MP from Mohanlalganj inLucknow, has said the UP Police’s negative approach is respon-sible for the “uncontrolled crime” in the State.

The BJP MP’s remark on Twitter comes days after a fish sell-er and a property dealer were killed in his constituency whichlies on the outskirts of Lucknow. “Due to the negativeapproach of the police, crime has gone uncontrolled inLucknow. Murder and loot are continuing unabated,” he saidin a tweet. Kaushal Kishore, while talking to reporters later, said,“If the working of the police is based on extortion, then the fearof police will automatically disappear. They do not even listento public representatives. This is tarnishing the image of the stateGovernment.” IANS

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Vice-President M.VenkaiahNaidu on Monday pointed

out that though India has madesignificant strides on the eco-nomic and technological fronts,there are pockets in the nationwhere social evils persist.

“We live in times of turbu-lence. Increasing cases of dis-crimination based on caste,community and gender are acause for great concern.

“We must not doubt in ourmind that injustice anywhere isa threat to justice everywhere.The caste system in our coun-try is a vicious cycle,” saidNaidu while inaugurating the87th Sivagiri Pilgrimage Meetat the Sivagiri Mutt in Varkalanear here.

Sivagiri Mutt is the abodeof Sree Narayana Guru and

today it has become thesupreme centre of worship forthe followers of the Guru.

“It is time for us to retro-spect and take pragmatic steps.We must end all discrimina-tion, we should abolish thecaste system. India of the futuremust be caste-less and class-less. It cannot be made bymere Bills. We need politicalwill and administrative skill formaking that possible.

“The nation we aim to buildmust have a place for everyoneto reach their full potential andlead fulfilling lives by providingequal opportunities to one andall,” added Naidu.

“The movement to dispelthe caste system must comewithin the heart and mind ofsociety. It must be an intellectualrevolution, a compassionate rev-olution, a humanitarian revolu-tion,” the Vice President said.

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Maharashtra Chief Ministerand Shiv Sena president

Uddhav Thackeray never fails tospring surprises. After permit-ting his son Aditya to contestand win the State Assemblypolls from Worli in south-Central Mumbai, Uddhav bit thebullet and became the ChiefMinister of the State. Now, hehas chosen to induct his sonAditya into his Cabinet —unmindful of a possible criticismabout the presence of father-sondue in the State Cabinet.

If anything, 29-year-oldAditya Thackeray has arrivedon the State’s political scene.Though there was speculationinitially that the Shiv Senamight pitch him for the postsof either the Chief Minister orDeputy Chief Minister’s post,Uddhav scotched the specula-tion a couple of months ago, bysaying that he should learn theropes before becoming eitherthe Chief Minister or a DeputyChief Minister.

Coming from the family ofThackerays — four generationsof whom have been in public lifebut had never contested anelection till Aditya did so in the2019 State Assembly polls,Uddhav — who will be con-testing a State Assembly bypollin the next couple of months —and junior Thackeray will soonbe well-entrenched in electoralpolitics.

Uddhav’s greatgrandfather KeshavSitaram Thackeray —better known asPrabodhankar Thackeray—was one of the key fig-ures in the SamyuktaMaharashtra move-ment who played akey role in the cam-paign for a linguis-tic State ofM a h a r a s h t r a ,while most popu-lar grandfatherBal Thackeray — acartoonist-turned politi-cian — founded ShivSena in 1966. He carveda place for himself inMaharashtra politics, butchose to remain a king-maker than a king.

A wildlife photographer-turned-politician — Uddhavhimself was a reluctantbeginner in public life.Uddhav was anointed by his

late father as the Shiv Sena’snational executive presidentway back in January 2002. Hehas never contested an election,even though he has establishedhis firm hold over the party set-up during the past 17 years. Norhas his uncle and MaharashtraNavnirman Sena (MNS) chiefRaj Thackeray contested anyelection.

As much as his chief min-ister-father Uddhav, the man tobe watched in the State politicsin the coming days — in his newmantle as a Cabinet Minister —either holding the Education orEnvironment portfolio.

Aditya’s rise in the ShivSena began nine years ago,when late Thackeray launchedthe Shiv Sena’s youth wing“Yuva Sena” and anointed hisgrandson Aditya Thackeray asits head in October 2010, twoyears before he passed away onNovember 12, 2012.

A Bachelor of Arts inHistory from Mumbai’s elite St.Xavier’s College, Aditya hascome a long way since his col-lege days. As a third-year Artsstudent, Aditya had hit head-lines ahead of his anointmentas the Yuv Sena chief in 2010,when he forced the BombayUniversity withdraw RohintonMistry’s novel Such A LongJourney, prescribed for the sec-ond year Bachelor of Arts(English) as an optional textbook, from the syllabus. Adityahad opposed Mistry’s book on

the ground that it con-tained foul language andderogatory references tothe Shiv Sena.

The year 2010 provedto be eventful for

Aditya. It was inthat year the YuvSena for the firsttime swept theM u m b a iUniversity (MU)Senate polls fromthe Graduates’c o n s t i t u e n c y.Eight years later

— in March 2018,the Yuv Sena onceagain swept theMU senate by dec-imating the BJP’sstudent outfit

Akhil BharatiyaVidyarthi Parishad(ABVP) andC ong ress -backe dNSUI and winningall the 10 seats.

Between 2010 and 2019,Aditya has not only estab-lished a following of his ownamong the youth in variousparts of the state, but he hasalso learned the ropes of partypolitics by working in tandemwith his father and party pres-ident Uddhav.

Aditya has lined up sever-al plans for Mumbai. As a YuvSena leader, Aditya had duringthe previous BJP-Shiv Senaalliance Government, Adityahad mooted “Vibrant Nightlife”proposal for Mumbai.

It may be recalled thatwithin months after the Sena-headed BrihanmumbaiMunicipal Corporation (BMC)adopted a resolution seeking“Vibrant Nightlife” for Mumbaiand sent off a proposal to theMaharashtra government sug-gesting necessary amendmentsto relevant laws, Aditya had inFebruary 2015 met then chiefminister Devendra Fadnavisand submitted a formal letterrequesting the latter to put inplace the laws that makeMumbai a “live 24/7” city.

In a series of tweets that heput out after he met Fadnavisto push his “vibrant Nightlife”,Aditya had written: “Tweepsthe GOOD News is CM hasaccepted my proposal ofnightlife and assured me thtnecessary amendments to lawsby March/August Session”.

“I truly believe that this iswell-deserved for Mumbai willnot only boost the core econ-omy but also the ancillaryindustries like transport...Atthe same momentum,Mumbaikars will have a timezone at night to chill in soon!I will ensure this happens,” aconfidant Aditya had tweeted.

Currently, the restaurantsand bars close down at 1.30 am.However, once Aditya’s pro-posal gets implemented, theseestablishments will remainthrough the night – providedthese establishments are not indesignated residential areas.The 1.30 am closure deadlinefor bars and restaurants hasbeen in force since 1992-93.

Interestingly, acting onAditya’s proposal, the Mumbaipolice have for the first time inrecent years relaxed bar closinghours on the eve of January 1,2020. It remains to be seen as towhat kind of response the newyear bar closing hours relaxationwill elicit from Mumbaikars.

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Five political leaders, whohad been under preventive

detention for the past 148 days,were released from the MLAhostel on Monday by the UnionTerritory administration ofJammu & Kashmir, officialssaid. The leaders belonging tothe National Conference and thePDP were released after theauthorities were satisfied thatthey would not be indulging inany agitation or call for any strikeafter their release, they said.

Those released includeIshfaq Jabbar and Ghulam NabiBhat (National Conference)and Bashir Mir, Zahoor Mirand Yasir Reshi (PDP), the offi-cials said.

Reshi is considered as arebel PDP leader who hadopenly revolted against thenchief minister and PDP patronMehbooba Mufti. He was sub-sequently removed as the dis-trict party chief.

On November 25, twopolitical leaders — DilawarMir of the PDP and GhulamHassan Mir of the DemocraticParty Nationalist — werereleased by the new UnionTerritory administration.

The National Conferencewelcomed the decision of theadministration and said suchmoves will help in bridging thegap between the governmentand the people.

In a statement, party’sprovincial president DavinderSingh Rana expressed hopethat other political detenueswill also be released soon.

He said such moves willfacilitate a conducive atmos-phere for a genuine democra-

tic political exercise.“It will help in reaching out

to the people at large andbridge the gap between theGovernment and peoplebesides creating conditions forwinning hearts and minds,” hesaid. Many political leaderswere picked up from their res-idences on August 5, the daywhen the Centre announcedabrogation of provisions ofArticle 370 and bifurcation ofthe state into two union terri-tories — Ladakh and Jammu & Kashmir.

The two Union Territoriescame into existence on October31 this year. The politicaldetenues had been kept atCentaur hotel and shifted to theMLA hostel in third week ofNovember.

As many as 34 politicaldetainees were shifted to thehostel from the hotel, locatedon the banks of the Dal Lake,as Srinagar reeled under harshwinter conditions and the hotellacked proper heating arrange-ment, the officials said.

The chill had taken a tollon the health of the detenues,which included leaders fromthe the National Conference,the PDP and the People’sConference and prominentsocial activists — and the secu-rity personnel guarding them.

Three former ChiefMinisters — Farooq Abdulalh,Omar Abdullah and MehboobaMufti — are also under deten-tion. While senior Abdullahwas slapped with the stringentPublic Safety Act on September17 and remains confined to hisresidence, Omar Abdullah andMufti are under detention atdifferent locations in the city.

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In a first step of its kind,opening the State employ-

ment in the Union Territories ofJ&K and Ladakh for candidatesfrom across the country afternullification of Article 370, theJammu & Kashmir High Courthas invited applications from eli-gible candidates from all overIndia to fill 33 vacancies with it.

The 33 vacant posts ofnon-gazetted officials includethose of senior scale stenogra-pher, junior scale stenograph-er, steno typist, compositor,electrician and driver.

The advertisement to fillthe vacancies was issued by the

J&K High Court’s RegistrarGeneral Sanjay Dhar onDecember 26 with the last datefor submission of applicationsbeing January 31, 2020.

Following nullification ofthe Article 370 on August 5,there had been demands fromvarious quarters, especially inthe Jammu region and UnionTerritory of Ladakh, carved outof the erstwhile state of J&Kafter its bifurcation into twoUTs, for a domicile certificateor some legal restrictions onthe purchase of land by out-siders as well as their appoint-ments in Government jobs.

“The application formsshall be received by the con-

cerned principal district judgesof the UTs of J&K and Ladakh

within whose jurisdiction theapplicant resides against the

proper receipts duly stamped. “The applicants who do

not belong to the UTs of J&Kand Ladakh shall submit theirapplication to the RegistrarGeneral, J&K High Court,Jammu,” the advertisement read.

It said the principal districtjudges of Kashmir province,Bhaderwah, Kishtwar andLadakh would make neces-sary arrangements for thereceipt of application formseven during the ensuing win-ter vacation.

“All principal districtjudges of J&K and Ladakhshall submit the applicationforms along with the list of can-didates to the office of the

Registrar General, J&K HighCourt, Jammu by or beforeFebruary 7, 2020,” the adver-tisement said.

It said the selection wouldbe made as per J&K ReservationRules 2005. “The candidateswho are having age as onJanuary 1, 2019 not below 18years and not above 40 years incase of open merit, 43 years incase of SC/ST/RBA/ALC/OSCs,42 years in case of physicallychallenged, 48 years in case ofex-servicemen and 40 years incase of candidates inGovernment service or con-tractual employees are eligiblefor participation in the selectionprocess,” the notice read.

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Mamata Banerjee onMonday called upon all

the parties and the non-BJPChief Ministers to isolate theBJP and unite against the “mis-chievous” CitizenshipAmendment Act (CAA) andNational Register for Citizens(NRC) which have allegedlybeen designed to throw thenon-BJP people out of India.

Leading a colourful protestrally at Purulia — backed bytribaldance and drum-beats— which has in the recent pastemerged as astronghold of thesaffron outfit Banerjee said, “Icall upon every one… let usunite and discard CAA andNRC and isolate the BJP.”

Alleging that the BJP lead-ers were making confusingstatements on the CAA and theNRC she said that the partyhad a hidden agenda behindthe enactment of the “mis-

chievous citizenship law whichis a prelude to invoking NRCin the country.”

She said India had a pop-ulation of 130 crore out ofwhich the BJP Governmentwanted to throw out 30 croreby marking them as foreigners.

“They will give citizenshipto only those people who follow

their line and throw out thosewho reject it. India has a pop-ulation of 130 crore. Out of thisthey will give citizenship totheir own people and throw outthe remaining ones. Where theremaining people will go? Willthey it kela (banana)?” shethundered at the end of a rallyat Purulia bordering Jharkhand.

“They think that after pass-ing the law they will be able topursue their hidden agenda.They think that India is theirzamindari (fief)which in fact isnot. I must remind them that thelaws are made by the Centre butimplemented by the States. As ofnow most State Governmentsare led not by the BJP but theother parties who are opposingthe CAA and NRC.

“Most State Governmentshave rejected this law and sofrom the beginning this law isa failure,” Banerjee said, addingshe would “not allow the mis-chievous law to be implement-ed in Bengal. In fact we havealso stopped the work of NPR(National Population Register)which is as discriminatory asthe CAA and NRC.”

She added “this is a protestto protect a person’s democra-cy (democratic rights),” remind-ing how she had descended onthe streets from the very begin-

ning. Banerjee had earlier ques-tioned the alleged faulty imple-mentation of NRC in Assamwhere she alleged about 14lakh Bengalis had been robbedof their citizenship.

Meanwhile, even as theChief Minister staged her sixthprotest rally in the State the BJPtoo embarked on stagingcounter-rallies backing theCAA. The party staged ralliesat Coochbehar in North Bengalwhere the large procession wasled by senior leader Mukul Royand Baruipur in South 24Parganas where State BJP pres-ident Dilip Ghosh addressed amassive rally but not beforebeing black-flagged by a localTMC crowd.

Ghosh questioningBanerjee’s repeated calls toreject the CAA iterated a ChiefMinister being an elected per-son had no right to defy andreject central law the way shehad been doing.

Kota: Fourteen more infantshave died at the JK Lon hospi-tal here in the last five days, tak-ing the number of deaths to 91this month at the facility, offi-cials said on Monday.

“The 14 infants, includingsix newborns, died in the peri-od between December 25 andDecember 29 in NICU andPICU units of the hospital,” thenewly appointed superinten-dent of the hospital, SureshDulara, said. Earlier, 77 infantshad died till December 24,including 10 within 48 hours onDecember 23-24, he said.

On the cause of deaths,Amrit Lal Bairwa, Head ofDepartment of Pediatrics, saidthat they are analysing the rea-sons behind the 77 deaths tillDecember 25.

Out of the 14 infants whodied later, four succumbed tosevere pneumonia, one toMeningoencephalitis, four toCongenital pneumonia, three topneumatic septicemia, and oneto respiratory disorder, he said.

Rajasthan MedicalEducation Secretary VaibhavGalariya said a three-memberteam comprising Dr AmarjeetMehta, Dr Rambabu Sharmaand Dr Sunil Bhatnagar that is probing the infant deathswill submit its report in twodays following which actionwill be taken.

The BJP, which has target-ed the Congress Government inRajasthan over the child deaths,said it has formed a committeecomprising four MPs to lookinto the matter. PTI

Lucknow: Chief Minister YogiAdityanath said that disabilitynever hindered a person’sprogress and his/her talentonly needed an opportunityand an able teacher to conquerthe world.

“Every such person hassome special skills. But onemust find a qualified teacherwho can recognise the skill andthen the individual is sure tosucceed. There are many suchexamples. Eminent scientistStephen Hawking, who uncov-ered the mystery of universe, isa great example of this,” Yogi said.

The chief minister saidthat the state governmentwould extend all possible sup-port to JagadguruRambhadracharya DivyangUniversity to establish it as anexample in the country. PNS

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The false propaganda unleashed bysome political parties against theCitizenship Amendment Act, 2019,has now got extended to the man-dated programme to prepare the

National Population Register (NPR) and theconduct of the decennial census, which arescheduled for 2020 and 2021. Several oppo-nents of the current establishment in NewDelhi have been spreading disinformationabout the NPR and the decennial census, bothof which are tools essential for governance.

The purpose of the CAA is to provide cit-izenship to persecuted religious minorities inPakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, whocrossed the borders and came into Indiabefore December 31, 2014. This has nothingto do with any Indian citizen, whatever be hisor her religion. Nor does it open the flood-gates for migrants because of the deadlinefixed in the Act. The NPR and the decenni-al census are meant to get demographic infor-mation and also inputs on the social and eco-nomic status of the population in differentregions of the country. Neither of these exer-cises is aimed at disenfranchising anybody.

The NPR exercise was formulated andintroduced by the Congress-led UnitedProgressive Alliance (UPA) in 2010, to col-lect demographic and biometric informationabout individuals. Here, enumerators godoor-to-door and gather particulars about“usual residents” — individuals residing at agiven place for the preceding six months. Itis, therefore, strange to find that the Congress,the very initiator of this idea, is now oppos-ing it and is doing so with such vehemencethat it all looks like a theatrical act.

The census in India is primarily a headcount and has been rightly described as thelargest administrative and statistical exercisein the world. Three million individuals willbe deployed to collect the data and for the firsttime, the enumerators will be using a mobileapp and other modern applications to collectand collate data from the field.

The decennial census is being conduct-ed in India since 1892 without a break andthis is an important exercise from a nation-al point of view because it tells us about thedemographic changes that have taken placeat the national and local level in the preced-ing 10 years. Both these surveys provide pol-icy-makers critical data that enables them toformulate national programmes, especiallywith regard to basic amenities to the less-advantaged sections of society.

As stated by the Government, the censusis the biggest source of primary data at the vil-lage, town and ward level, providing micro-level data on various parameters, whichincludes housing, education, economic activ-ity, literacy, migration, fertility, language, reli-gion, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.

Preparation of a NPR and decennial cen-sus is a legitimate activity of the UnionGovernment and the data thrown up by theseexercises form the basis for policy-making notjust at the federal level but at the State, dis-

trict and taluk levels as well. Itwas, therefore, shocking to seesomeone like Arundhati Royexhort citizens to provide fakenames and addresses to the enu-merators so as to render theentire exercise infructuous.Media reports indicate that sheeven suggested that the peopleprovide “7, Race Course Road” —the address of the Prime Ministerat one time — as their residen-tial address.

Even more preposterous washer suggestion that the NarendraModi Government, which got amassive mandate from the peo-ple in May 2019 to govern till2024, not be allowed to contin-ue in office.

Her attempt to paralyse theworking of the UnionGovernment in regard to collec-tion of population data and tocurtail the tenure of a duly-elected Government constitutessubversion of the Constitution.Tolerance of such subversiveactivities is inimical to nationalunity and integrity and we shouldnot allow a small minority of dis-senters to disrupt governance anddemocratic traditions in thismanner.

Further, the propaganda thatthe enumeration undertaken forthe NPR must be resisted becauseit is against the Muslim minori-ty in India, is totally baseless. Itappears as if some people areafraid of the truth.

Data is critical for a numberof reasons. For example, the

Union Government and manyState Governments have formu-lated policies and welfareschemes especially to amelioratethe conditions of the religiousand linguistic minorities. Theseschemes relate to education,employment, skilling and finan-cial assistance for self employ-ment. The scope and range ofthese schemes depend on demo-graphics and a decadal headcount is an absolute must. Thecensus data is used not just by theUnion Government but byGovernments and institutionsdown below at the State, districtand taluk levels.

Pseudo-secularists seem tobelieve that the Muslims are theonly minority in India. Nothingcan be farther from the truth. TheHindus in India constitute justaround 80 per cent of the popu-lation, which means in actualnumbers, they would be aboutone billion of the 1.33 billionpopulation. But the Hindus con-stitute a minority in six of the 28States in the country and in a fewUnion Territories, as do theChristians (except in some Statesin the North-east), the Sikhs(except in Punjab), the Buddhists,the Jains and the Parsis. TheMuslim population in India hasrisen from 35 million at thetime of Independence to around175 million at this point in time.

Further, we have the linguis-tic minorities, who are at par withreligious minorities as per ourConstitution. A reading of

Articles 29 and 30 of theConstitution will make it clearthat the intention of the found-ing fathers was to accord thesame kind of protection to bothreligious and linguistic minoritiesand the State would be the unitto determine who is a minority.

A Kannadiga in Hindi-majority Haryana (as this writeris) gets as much protection as say,Mohammed Iqbal, in Hindu-majority Haryana as per theseConstitutional provisions.

Therefore, if pseudo-secular-ists oppose population data col-lection and census, which is alegitimate Government activity inall nations across the world, thepresumption will be that they areafraid of the numbers that willcrop up. The steep rise in theMuslim population in India overthe decades and the huge differ-ence between the decadal growthrates of Muslims vis-a-vis theHindus, Christians, Buddhists,Jains and Parsis, will nail the liethat Muslims are persecuted inIndia.

Indian citizens, who areadherents of Islam, must, there-fore, guard against the false nar-rative of this minuscule minor-ity of pseudo-secularists andshould not allow themselves tobe persuaded to oppose theNPR or the census. India willbecome ungovernable if suchtendencies emerge.

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Sir — Air passengers have theirticket details verified by securitypersonnel at the departure gates ofthe airport. Upon producing valididentification proof and an e-tick-et, passengers can proceed to thecheck-in counters. Being allowedto produce e-tickets on electronicdevices such as smartphones andtablets has helped save paper.Otherwise, tonnes of paper getwasted when people take printoutsof tickets. However, owing to a lackof awareness, many passengers stillrely on printouts instead of justproducing soft copies.

To prevent unnecessary paperusage, airline carriers should pro-vide incentives to passengers whouse soft copies of tickets instead ofpaper-based ones. Organisationssuch as the Center for Asia PacificAviation, the International CivilAviation Organisation, theAirports Council Internationaland the International AirTransport Association shouldextensively promote the use ofpaperless tickets for domestictravel. This will go a long way inprotecting the environment.

Varun DambalBengaluru

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Sir — Army chief Bipin Rawat’srecent comments on anti-CAAprotesters have rightly been seenby many military veterans and

security experts as “overtly polit-ical.” Though such kind ofremarks are common in Pakistan,it is almost unheard of in ourcountry.

The political nature of thearmed forces is indeed a neces-

sary safeguard against militarycoups. The Indian Army hasalways followed Article 21 of theArmy Act, which says no personsubject to the Act “shall publishin any form whatever or commu-nicate directly or indirectly to the

Press any matter in relation to apolitical question or on a servicesubject or containing any serviceinformation.” The Army mustpreserve its identity.

Sujit DeKolkata

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Sir — It is unfortunate that theUttar Pradesh police allegedlymanhandled Congress leaderPriyanka Gandhi Vadra, whowas on her way to pay a visit toretired IPS officer SR Darapuriat his residence. As the policetried to stop her vehicle frommoving further, Priyanka hood-winked the police by riding pil-lion on a two-wheeler andreached her destination. Whilethe police’s act is condemnable,the traffic police issued theowner of the two-wheeler achallan of �6,000 because thetwo were riding without a hel-met. This appears to be arevenge action by the police andis definitely in cheap taste.

Tharcius S FernandoChennai

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Since the early 1990s, there has been a senseof optimism with regards to India’s econom-ic progress. The process of liberalisation dur-

ing 1991 brought with it a sense of hope regard-ing a dramatic turnaround in the country’s eco-nomic fortunes. While the nation’s growth didaccelerate from the 1980s onwards, however, itwasn’t comparable to other emerging economies,including China.

The first decade of the 21st century wasbelieved to be India’s time as it had a Governmentthat was looking at the next generation of eco-nomic reforms. These transformations happenedand the country witnessed the first serious pri-vatisation of several public sector enterprises(PSEs) along with a drastic reduction in smallsavings rates. India’s macroeconomic situationwas stable and gradually growth started toincrease along with its investment rates. Thisgrowth continued till 2007, after which it start-ed to lose steam due to lack of economic reformsand then the 2008 crisis hit the country alongwith the rest of the world.

While many thought the impact of the 2008crisis wasn’t as much on India as elsewhere, thereasons behind this were the policy instrumentswhich were deployed to address the risks thatemerged. These instruments, combined with alack of reforms and an entitlement-based regimebrought a fresh macroeconomic challenge in thesecond decade of the 21st century.

Two decades have elapsed and India is yetto justify the sense of optimism that prevailed atthe start of the century. But to be fair, the sec-ond decade wasn’t that bad considering thatIndia’s growth in 2014, 2015 and 2016 was fair-ly decent even when one ignores the fact that itwitnessed two successive droughts in 2014 and2015. The country’s macroeconomic situation hasimproved significantly since 2014 and theGovernment has undertaken several reforms thatwill have long-term growth implications such asthe Goods and Services Tax (GST), theInsolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) and theReal Estate (Regulation and Development) Act(RERA).

Despite these reforms, growth slowedtowards the end of 2018 and throughout the firsthalf of 2019. This has led people to questionwhether the third decade will be any differentfrom the previous two decades. However, thereare compelling reasons that point at how thistime, it will be different. For starters, the currentslowdown is not because of any inherent struc-tural factors but is a direct outcome of the finan-cial sector stress which spread over from banksto Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs).The reasons behind the build-up of this stress aremore to do with reckless lending during the firstdecade of the century as the attempt to fix it start-ed only post the introduction of the Insolvencyand Bankruptcy Act.

As the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) latestFinancial Stability Report suggests, the PublicSector Banks’ (PSBs) Non-Performing Assets(NPAs) may increase by September 2020 and thisposes fresh concerns regarding the ability of thePSBs to take prudent lending decisions. Therecent spike in NPAs could also be because of thehigh cost of capital compared to the moderationin inflation, which has artificially kept the real

rates at one of the highest levels in theworld.

Clearly, India’s got a problem on themonetary side, which needs to be rec-tified if it is aiming to grow at seven percent or more. Some progress has beenmade on this by the RBI, however, itcontinues to be conservative and thelonger it takes for it to recognise theextent of the problem, the more pro-longed the bottom of the U.

Irrespective of these short-termchallenges, the outlook for economicgrowth for the country in the medium-term is completely positive as some ofthe current supply-side issues will getresolved and India will witness agrowth of 5.0-5.4 per cent in the thirdquarter (Q3) of the current FinancialYear (FY) followed by a 6.2-6.6 per centgrowth in the fourth quarter (Q4) of thecurrent FY. India will end the decadewith a modest growth rate; however, thecountry will begin it with a seven percent or higher growth rate in the FY2020-21.

The question is whether this ratewill be sustained throughout the decadeor not. There is a reasonable belief thatIndia will sustain a seven per centgrowth this decade and it may evenattain an eight per cent or high growthrate towards the end of the decade asit witnesses a steady revival of invest-ments as a percentage of the GrossDomestic Product (GDP). Thisimprovement will be a direct productof some of the painful reforms that wereundertaken in the past, which willunleash the nation’s productive poten-tial. The recent corporate tax cut wouldresult in steady improvements in cor-porate sector balance sheets, which willresult in fresh investments from 2022onwards. At the same time, implemen-tation of the Direct Tax Code (DTC)will simplify taxation procedures, which

will further augment productivity.There’s also talk of a GST overhaul

which may happen during the next cou-ple of years. This, when combined withland, labour and agricultural reforms,will be critical to unlocking India’s pro-ductive potential. Demographics, too,favour India as it has the world’s largestworkforce which will act as a check inwage costs, thereby giving it a compet-itive edge over other emerging marketeconomies for the next two decades. Allof this is essential to experience the kindof transformation that several of thecountry’s peers experienced duringthe 1980s and 1990s.

Of course, fresh reforms will berequired — but they are already on theagenda of the Government as thelabour codes are coming into effect.Many of these reforms will be aided bythe fact that there’s a mandate of 303,which enables the Government to takedecisions that would be extremely dif-ficult to push for in a dividedParliament.

Global conditions, too, seem to beconducive for India as Boris Johnson’selection in the United Kingdom (UK)will end uncertainty regarding Brexit.He has expressed his willingness toenter into a trade agreement withIndia and the nation should be closingtrade deals with the UK, Europe and theUS to further integrate itself into glob-al trade.

Global economic growth is alsolikely to recover in 2020, which meansthat external factors will be conducivefor India’s growth, provided it canaddress some of its domestic con-straints. The year 2019 goes down inIndian economic history for manyreasons. For starters, it marks the firsttime in the history of India where areformist Government was broughtback into power and that, too, with a

huge majority. This shows how electoralpreferences are maturing in India.

The outcome of the election madeit possible to take three significant eco-nomic decisions. First was the mergerof 10 PSBs into four. This is likely toconsolidate the sector and improve itsefficiency over a period. It also opensup interesting possibilities for futureprivatisation of some of these big fourbanks as there’s no need for having fourbig PSBs, especially at a time when thenation has already pumped in �3 tril-lion into them without any positive out-come so far.

The second was to do with the cor-porate tax cut, which was promised inthe previous tenure. Indeed, manyconsider it just a tax cut, however, it isa deep structural reform that will havelong-term positive implications forfinancial stability and financing ofinvestments. More importantly, it illus-trates a shift in thinking of taxmen, whonow recognise that tax revenues canincrease at lower rates due to improve-ments in tax compliance.

The third decision was of privati-sation of several firms, including BPCL.This is a bold move as it signals astaunch commitment to the phrase that“the Government has no business to bein business.”

This move has signalled to theworld that India is finally openinggreater space for private players in itseconomy, which has hit all the rightnotes. Indeed, a lot of economicprogress was made in 2019 and someof it could be because of the slowdown.However, 2019 will mark a structuralbreak for India as we enter into a decadewhich will certainly belong to thecountry’s entrepreneurs and its eco-nomic ambitions.

(The writer is a New Delhi-basedpolicy researcher)

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Legislations or related delibera-tions were arguably the high-light for India’s health sector in

2019. The Prohibition of ElectronicCigarettes Act, 2019; the NationalMedical Commission (NMC) Actand the Motor Vehicle(Amendment) Act were passed bythe Parliament. The Surrogacy(Regulation) Bill is being consideredby the select committee of the RajyaSabha and a draft Bill to protect doc-tors and health care providers fromassault is also under consideration.

The health sub-committee of theFifteenth Finance Commissionmade recommendations to enact theright to health in India by 2022 and

to shift “health” into the concurrentlist.

A few States, namely Rajasthan,Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh,deliberated about enacting the rightto health legislation. During the year,public health experts argued that theAyushman Bharat Yojana,announced in 2018, had put healthhigher on the political agenda andnearly six States started a variant ofMohalla Clinics (neighbourhoodclinics) to increase the provision offree primary health care services.

There were a few negative devel-opments as well. Violent attacks ondoctors, health care providers andfacilities were reported from differ-ent parts of the country, followed byprotests and strikes by the medicalfraternity.

In the summer of 2019,encephalitis deaths were reportedfrom Muzaffarpur in Bihar. Theexperts were once again divided onthe cause of this and consequently,the children of the nation are stillwaiting for scientific and long-termsolutions to prevent such tragediesfrom recurring.

In the last quarter, poor air qual-ity returned to affect the health of thepeople in many districts of northIndia and all policymakers did wasto question the proven evidence onthe impact of air pollution on peo-ple. Hence, it is clear that there aremany issues that need to beaddressed in this crucial sector.

Legislative approach in healthworks: The Motor Vehicle(Amendment) Act, which has hikedthe penalties for traffic violations,has the potential to improve health,as nearly one in every 10 pre-ventable deaths occurred due to roadaccidents. After the MentalHealthcare Act of 2017, mentalhealth services in India received aboost at the implementation level asthe Insurance Regulatory andDevelopment Authority directedcompanies to include mental healthcare services in their insurancepackage as one in every seven peo-ple have one or other mental healthcare needs.

Though the Bill to protect doc-tors and health care workers couldnot develop a consensus, it is also

true that preventing such attacksrequires more than just a legislativeapproach. Improving the quality ofhealth services, preventing com-mercialisation of health servicesand changing health-seeking behav-iour to get early care is the need ofthe hour. A realistic expectationfrom health services needs to bedeveloped and the “market-basedbelief ” that every health conditionis treatable, needs to be addressed.In health services, the outcomes arecompletely unpredictable and eventhe best of the treatment andadvanced care may not save a per-son, while another person with asimilar health condition may quick-ly recover with basic health interven-tions.

Kerala averted Nipah virusoutbreaks: Learning from the expe-rience of 2018, the KeralaGovernment acted swiftly when anew case of Nipah was reported in2019. With effective surveillance,early identification, effective con-tainment/isolation and case manage-ment, an epidemic was averted.This highlights the need for a

stronger and effective surveillancesystem across all Indian States totackle emerging disease threats.

What to expect in 2020: In thelast two years, India has seen a lotof focus on policy formulation, leg-islation and other broader healthissues. However, in 2020, policymak-ers would do well to rapidly scale-up and allocate more resources forthe health and wellness centres, avital component of the AyushmanBharat programme.

States must also give additionalpriority to adopting communityclinics for urban settings. The coun-try also needs to follow a focussedapproach to integrate preventiveand promotive health interventionswith overall wellness initiatives andlinkage with AYUSH.

The Government must shiftfocus from making isolated healthfacilities functional to a group ofamenities in entire planning units,i.e. blocks in rural areas and entirecorporation planning units, func-tional.

There should be at least a 20 percent annual increase in Government

funding for health by States, theCentre as well as by Urban LocalBodies. Inter-departmental coordi-nation is also needed for strongerimplementation linkage betweenhealth, water and sanitation andnutrition-related initiatives.

Taxation on “demerit goods”such as tobacco products should befurther increased to global recom-mendation of tax being 70 per centof the product price.

Beverages sweetened with sugar,including fruit juices, must be taxedas demerit goods at higher rates.And last but not the least, healthybehaviour should be encouraged atall levels, especially in schools andcolleges, with ban on sale of “junkfood” near schools and colleges.

In short, for the health sector,2020 should be a year of implement-ing policies, improving provision ofa broad range of health services asper the needs of the people, StateGovernments taking the lead inhealth provision to make a healthyIndia.

(The writer is a Delhi-basedsenior public health specialist.)

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Struggling Air India might beforced to shut down by June

next year unless it finds abuyer as “piecemeal” arrange-ments cannot be sustained forlong, according to a seniorairline official.

Amid continuing uncer-tainty over the fate of thenational carrier, the officialsaid there is also need forfunds to restart operations of 12grounded narrow-body planes.

The airline has a debt bur-den of around �60,000 croreand the Government is stillworking on the modalities forthe disinvestment.

Sounding alarm bells, theofficial said Air India mightwell go Jet Airways way if aprospective buyer does notcome on board by June nextyear.

With government leavingthe debt-ridden airline to fendfor itself by refusing to injectfunds any more amid its pri-vatisation plans, the airline is“some how” keeping it afloatwith peace meal arrangements,which are unlikely to sustainfor long, the official said.

As per the government, ithas infused funds to the tune of�30,520.21 crore in the flag car-rier from financial year 2011-12till December this year. Underthe turnaround plan approvedby the UPA regime in 2012, theairline was to get financialassistance of �30,000 crore overa 10-year period.

“We had sought �2,400crore sovereign guarantee tomop up funds for meetingoperational requirement. Butthe government has providedguarantee only for �500 crore.

“We are some how manag-

ing the operations at present andat best we can sustain this situ-ation till June. If a buyer doesnot come by that time, we willhave to shut shop,” said the offi-cial on condition of anonymi-ty. After more than 25 years offlying, full service carrier JetAirways shuttered operations inApril due to cash crunch.

In 2018-19, Air India’s netloss is provisionally estimatedto be �8,556.35 crore.

Besides, it has a total debtof �60,000 crore, half of whichhas already taken out of the

books and parked in the spe-cial purpose vehicle, Air IndiaAsset Holding Ltd. Air Indiaspokesperson was not availablefor comments.

The Air India SpecificAlternative Mechanism(AISAM) has approved re-ini-tiation of process for the thegovernment’s 100 per cent stakesale in Air India along with AirIndia Express and the carrier’sstake in joint venture AISATS.The Government is likely toissue Expression of Interest(EoI) for the stake sale in the

fourth quarter of the fiscal.According to the official, it

would take “at least” six monthsto complete the transaction inthe eventuality of an investorcoming on board, providedthe sale process kick startsearly next month.

At the same time, the offi-cial did not sound very hope-ful of the government gettingan investor in such an “eco-nomic situation,” which hasalso affected the domestic avi-ation industry.

Domestic air traffic, whichis one of the parameters forgauging the health of the indus-try, grew only 3.86 per cent inthe January-November periodof the year as against an impres-sive 18.60 per cent growth in2018. Response to the recentroad shows in Singapore andLondon for Air India disin-vestment was reportedly

“tepid”.The official said that cur-

rently 12 narrow-body AirbusA320 planes are on the groundfor want of engine replacementand are unlikely to be back inoperations in the immediatefuture.

“We need at least $150million (about �1,100 crore) toget new engines for these 12planes. With adequate fundsnot available even for normaloperations, it looks difficult wewill get funds for enginereplacement and make theseplanes operational any soon,”the official said.

However, the official saidthat seven of the eight wide-body planes, which weregrounded for engine and otherengineering related issues, areback in operations. The eighthone is expected to start flyingsoon.

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Benchmark indices closedon a flat note after a topsy-

turvy session on Monday, withparticipants fence-sitting inabsence of further cues aheadof year-end holidays.

At the closing bell, theBSE benchmark Sensex was17.14 points, or 0.04 per cent,lower at 41,558. The 30-sharegauge swung between a high of41,714.73 and low of 41,453.38in a highly volatile session.

The broader NSE Nifty,however, closed 10.05 points, or0.08 per cent, higher at12,255.85. The 50-share indextoo faced bouts of volatilityduring the day. ICICI Bank wasthe top loser in the Sensexpack, shedding 0.99 per cent,followed by SBI, TCS, HUL,Asian Paints and Axis Bank.

On the other hand, NestleIndia, Hero MotoCorp,Mahindra and Mahindra,Bharti Airtel and Tata Steelwere among the gainers.Sectorally, BSE IT, bankex,finance, teck and oil and gasindices closed in the red.

While, BSE auto, metal,telecom, industrial and basicmaterials were among theprominent gainers.

In the broader market, BSEmidcap and smallcap indicesoutperformed benchmarks, ral-lying up to 0.75 per cent.

“Market was range-bound,premium valuation and lack offresh triggers influencedinvestors to take cautiousapproach on heavyweights. Butreasonable valuation of midand small caps attracted inflowsleading to outperformance inthe broad market. We expect

this polarised valuation not tosustain, there could be shift ofmoney from the overvaluedlarge caps to midcaps in 2020,”Vinod Nair, Head of Researchat Geojit Financial Services,said.

Globally, bourses inShanghai and Hong Kongended higher, while those inTokyo and Seoul settled in thered.

Stock exchanges in Europestarted on a negative note.

There was hardly any sig-nificant news flow on thedomestic front, however, inthe coming days the focus willremain on monthly numbersfrom auto companies and onthe GDP numbers, analystscommented.

On the currency front, therupee was 4 paise higher at71.34 against the US dollar.

����� 49:�69�*-

The Government mightbreach the fiscal deficit tar-

get this financial year amiddrop in the revenue mobilisa-tion and expected additionalexpenditure by theGovernment, says a report.

According to Dun &Bradstreet’s Economy Forecast,the need for fiscal stimulus hasincreased even as the govern-ment finances remain“strained”.

“We expect that the drop inthe revenue mobilisation ofthe government and likelihoodof additional expenditure bythe government might breachthe fiscal deficit target in FY20,”Dun & Bradstreet India Chief Economist ArunSingh said.

The government has set a3.3 per cent fiscal deficit targetfor the current fiscal.

Singh further added thatgiven the resources constraints,increase in fiscal deficit mightlead to crowding out of privateinvestments.

According to the report,corporate liabilities are alreadyhigher. The balance-sheets ofcorporates, Government, banksand households remain con-strained or weak and revenuecollection will play an impor-tant role.

“Revenue collection willthus be important for the gov-ernment to implement a fiscalstimulus. To do that, taxreforms are needed. GSTshould be simplified further,and direct tax collectionsshould increase,” Singh said.

����� 49:�69�*-

India will not bar any equip-ment suppliers, such as

China’s Huawei, in the upcom-ing trials for 5G, with TelecomMinister Ravi Shankar Prasadon Monday saying the govern-ment will allocate airwaves toall telecom service providers forconducting trials of super-fastspeed 5G networks.

Huawei rivals westernequipment makers, such asEricsson, and is banned in theUS. Many countries, however,have allowed telecom serviceproviders to use Chinese gears.And now, India has also indi-

cated its unwillingness to keepany company out of 5G trials.

The government has decid-ed to give 5G spectrum for tri-als to all operators in the coun-try, Prasad said on Monday onthe sidelines of a telecom event.

This implies that all opera-tors, backed by equipment ven-dors they have decided to part-ner with, will be able to partic-ipate in the upcoming 5G trialsin the country, and the stance isexpected to spell a relief forChinese gear maker Huawei.

“The age of 5G is coming...We have taken a decision togive 5G spectrum for trials toall the players,” Prasad said.

����� �$�2�-

No MDR charges on trans-actions through RuPay

cards and UPI payments willkill the digital payments indus-try, the Payments Council ofIndia stated on Monday whilecriticising the government’smove.

After a meeting withbankers last Saturday, FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharamanhad asked them not to chargeMDR on payments via RuPay,UPI from January 1 with a view to driving digitalpayments.

The move will apply to allcompanies with a turnover of�50 crore or more. MerchantDiscount Rate is the fee paid bya merchant to a bank foraccepting digital payments.The move is part of the Budget announcement in July.

����� 49:�69�*-

As many as 44 central labourlaws are most likely to be

subsumed under four labourcodes in 2020, making it a yearof reforms as the Governmentworks to bolster investmentsand tackle slowdown blues.

Besides, the Union LabourMinistry is mulling launchinga “Santusht” portal next monthfor effective implementation oflabour laws at the grass-rootlevel.

Entering 2020, the gov-ernment hopes that Indiawould be able to implement allfour codes on wages, industri-al relations, social security andoccupational safety, health and

working conditions. These areexpected to improve ease ofdoing business and safeguardinterest of workers.

“We hope that 2020 wouldbe an year of labour reforms.The four codes would be a real-ity in 2020. The codes wouldsafeguard the interest of work-ers and employers. We havetried to strike a balancebetween workers’ as wellemployees’ rights,” LabourMinister Santosh Gangwar toldPTI.

The labour reforms assumesignificance in view of an oversix-year-low gross domesticproduct (GDP) growth of 4.5per cent in the second quarterof this fiscal.

����� 49:�69�*-

The Government is expect-ed to provide tax incentives

to start-ups in the forthcomingbudget to support the growthof budding entrepreneurs,sources said. The Departmentfor Promotion of Industry andInternal Trade (DPIIT) hassuggested several measures tothe finance ministry for start-ups in the budget.

The recommendationsinclude extension of tax incen-tives to incubators supportedunder Atal Innovation Mission;

reduction in GST (Goods andServices Tax) rates on AIF(alternate investment fund)management fees; and tax ben-efits on ESOPs, they said.

Start-ups need talentedworkforce and ESOPs are oneof the best options to attractskilled people as giving justhigh cash payout add to theburden on cash-starved enter-prises, industry players said.

Tiger Global-backed teacafe chain Chaayos founderNitin Saluja said that thereshould be less tax on ESOPs.

“It should attract as little

tax as possible. ESOPs are oneof the best options for startupsat their early stages,” Saluja said.

Further fees charged byfund manager of AIF domiciledin India is liable to 18 per centGST as it qualifies as a taxablesupply. Sources said that reduc-tion in GST rates will help Indiato become an investment hub.

Startup India initiative ofthe government aims at foster-ing entrepreneurship and pro-moting innovation by creatingan ecosystem that is conduciveto growth of budding entre-preneurs.

����� 49:�69�*-

State-owned Bharat SancharNigam Ltd (BSNL) has

cleared �1,700 crore of vendorsdues, its CMD P K Purwar saidon Monday.

The corporation has alsomade salary payment to itsemployees for November,Purwar added.

“Payments worth �1,700crore have been released to ourvendors and contractors ofBSNL,” he said. Overall, theoutstanding to creditors is�10,000 crore, he added.

“Employee salaries forNovember too have beenreleased,” he said adding thatmonthly wage cost stood atabout �800 crore.

����� 49:�69�*-

The last date for the manda-tory linking of the

Permanent Account Number(PAN) with Aadhaar has beenextended till March next year,the CBDT said on Monday.

The earlier deadline was

Tuesday, December 31.“The due date for linking of

PAN with Aadhaar as specifiedunder sub-section 2 of section139AA of the Income-tax Act,1961 has been extended fromDecember 31, 2019 to March31, 2020,” the department saidon its official Twitter handle.

����� 29-%-47

China’s Vice-Premier LiuHe, who is also the chief

negotiator for trade talks withthe US, will lead a delegation toWashington this weekend, dur-ing which he is expected to signa phase one deal to significantlyde-escalate the trade warbetween the two biggest glob-al economies, a media reportsaid on Monday.

“Washington has sent aninvitation and Beijing hasaccepted it,” Hong Kong-basedSouth China Morning Postquoted a Chinese official assaying. The Chinese delegation,headed by Liu, which wouldleave on Saturday is expected tostay “a few days” in the US, thereport said.

However, neither side hasofficially confirmed the trip.

China’s Ministry ofCommerce was not immedi-

ately available for comment.The signing of a phase one

deal during Liu’s trip wouldmark a point of truce in theongoing bitter trade warbetween the world’s two biggesteconomies. On December 13,China and the US have agreedon the text of a phase one eco-nomic and trade agreement toend the 18-month-long bruis-ing trade war.

According to an officialstatement, both the sides haveagreed to complete their nec-essary procedures, includinglegal review, translation andproofreading, as soon as pos-sible and discuss the detailedarrangements for officiallysigning the agreement.

Chinese Vice CommerceMinister Wang Shouwen hadannounced that a breakthroughin the trade negotiations hasbeen reached for a phase-one deal.

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If you love a middaysnooze, then we have some

great news as it turns outnapping could actually begood for your health.

While scien-tists previouslyfound thatsleeping reg-ularly couldhelpimproveproductivityat work, nownew researchhas found itcould also cut the

risk of a heart attackby almost half.

A study car-ried out inSwitzerland useddata for 3,462people living inLausanne, who

were aged 35 to75.

The group weretold to record how

often they took naps for fiveyears, with their sleepingpatterns and general healthbeing tracked by researchers.

The results — publishedin the journal Heart, foundthat those who napped onceor twice a week were 48 percent less likely to experiencethese health issues, evenwhen other factors weretaken into account.

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Medical devices and equipmentform a significantly essentialpart of healthcare delivery.

Constant innovation and technologicaladvancement in the field of medicaldevices is crucial to ensure the goal ofuniversal healthcare. Medical devicesare essential for accurate and timelydiagnosis, safe and effective prevention,quality treatment as well as rehabilita-tion. World Health Organisation recog-nises that the achievement of health-related development goals is dependenton proper manufacturing, regulation,planning, assessment, acquisition, man-agement and use of quality medicaldevices.

The medical devices sector consistof a wide array of tools and equipmentthat help clinical practitioners deliverquality healthcare effectively and savecrucial lives. Medical devices consists ofdiagnostics imaging, IV diagnostics,consumables, patient aids, equipmentsand instruments, ortho and prosthetics,dental products and other devices suchas patient monitors, oxygenarators andECG.

Each of these categories is crucialto quality healthcare delivery. TheIndian medical devices market isexpected to grow to $50 billion by 2025.India is currently the fourth largestmedical devices market in Asia afterJapan, China and South Korea.

������ �,���� �� ���Constant improvement andtechnological advancement in thefield of medical devices andequipment has helped doctorsimprove clinical outcomes and qualityof healthcare delivery. Increase use ofdigital technology is driving a newrevolution in the medical devicessector with greater focus on

improving delivery, user experienceand bringing down healthcare costs.Here is a breakdown of areas whereconstant innovation in medicaldevices industry is helping Indiaachieve better health outcomes:

��&���������������Thanks to innovation and

technological advancement, real timediagnostic tools have emerged as animportant element in fightinginfectious diseases. Classical detectionmethods such as culture andimmunoassays offer accurate resultsbut the time taken in obtaining resultsis often crucial time lost in treatment.

Rapid detection tools are expect-ed to play a significant role in ensuringbetter treatment of communicable dis-eases such as TB.

Overall, improvement in technolo-gy has also improved the accuracy ofscreening. Portable/point-of-caredevices are other important categorythat have made it possible to improvediagnostic mechanisms at primaryhealthcare level, provide care at homeand resulted in improved health out-comes and patient satisfaction. Point-of-care testing allows the patient get hisdiagnoses in a doctor's clinic, at a healthcamp, an ambulance or event at homeas these are portable devices that can beeasily transported and offer a reliablealternative to laboratory testing inplaces where hospitals and labs are inshort supply.

It also improves the access to qual-ity healthcare in underserved andremote regions, while also making itpossible for patients to avail treatmentoutside traditional healthcare facilities.

��+���&�������������Technological advancements in the

devices and equipment sector alsoplays a significant role in reducinghealthcare costs which is critical to makehealthcare services more affordable tothe masses in India.

Newage surgical equipment hasenabled doctors to treat highly complexand critical cases, and reduce the lengthof extended hospital stays. For example,advancements in laproscopic surgeryhave increasingly made it possible toperform procedures such as angiogra-phy, stenting and spine surgery easilywith improved outcomes and reducedlength of hospital stays. This hastremendously helped in lowering costsof treatment.

Similarly, with the onset of the eraof remote monitoring and devices tohelp better manage chronic diseases, theoverall healthcare costs are bound tocome down over a period of time.

��������������������&�Remote monitoring is the new

buzzword in the medical devices sector.With rise in incidence of chronic dis-eases and an increasingly ageing pop-ulation, there has been a rise in demandfor medical devices and tools that canmonitor patients continuously, moreeffectively and reduce the need to visitclinics and hospitals.

A growing interest in IoT-drivenhealthcare services and wearable med-ical devices is an emerging trend of ourtimes. Using cloud based platformsthese devices can alert doctors ofimportant changes in vital signs in apatient. These advancements in healthscreening devices have enabled patientsto monitor their health conditions athome, reducing the need for hospitalvisits and bringing down the pressureon the over-burdened healthcare cen-ters.

�������&��������+���+���&While technological

advancements in the devices sectorare expected to play a critical role inimproving healthcare outcomes, it isimportant that appropriate measuresare initiated to ensure greateraffordability and accessibility. In anutshell, improving the ecosystemgoverning the sector is the need of thehour.

This includes improvingregulatory mechanisms, quality testingas well as incentivising innovation inthe sector. Also important is the needto create a more congenial taxenvironment. GST on medical devicescurrently stands at 12 per cent. On theother hand, customs duty is low. Thistax policy negatively impactsindigenous production and supportsimports, which is counter intuitive tothe Make in India initiative. Notably,imports constitute 75 per cent of theindustry sales of medical devices in thecountry while local manufacturersmostly produce products in the lowerend of the value chain. Thegovernment must consider revising itstax policy for devices to lower the GSTwhile increasing the customs duty tohelp local manufacturers gain a largershare of the market. This will also helpthem manufacture products at moreaffordable costs.

The Make in India initiative presentsa platform for the sector to revisit theoperating model, identify key impera-tives for growth and explore possibili-ties for creating a step change in themedical devices sector. This in turn,allows Indian manufactures to provideaffordable options for crucial equip-ments such as CT scans, catheters, dial-ysis equipments and many more.

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� Nine out of ten people breathe pollut-ed air every day. In 2019, air pollution isconsidered by WHO as the greatest envi-ronmental risk to health. Microscopicpollutants in the air can penetrate respi-ratory and circulatory systems, damag-ing the lungs, heart and brain, killing 7million people prematurely every yearfrom diseases such as cancer, stroke, heartand lung disease. � Noncommunicable diseases, likeDiabetes, cancer and heart disease, arecollectively responsible for over 70 percent of all deaths worldwide, or 41 mil-lion people. This includes 15 million peo-ple dying prematurely, aged between 30and 69.� The world will face another influen-za pandemic — the only thing we don’tknow is when it will hit and how severeit will be.

� WHO is constantly monitoring thecirculation of influenza viruses to detectpotential pandemic strains: 153 institu-tions in 114 countries are involvedin global surveillance andresponse.� More than 1.6 billion peo-ple (22% of the global popu-lation) live in places whereprotracted crises (through acombination of challengessuch as drought, famine, con-flict, and population displace-ment) and weak health services leavethem without access to basic care.� Fragile settings exist in almost allregions of the world, and these are wherehalf of the key targets in the sustainable

development goals, including on childand maternal health, remains unmet.� The development of antibiotics, antivi-

rals and antimalarials are some ofmodern medicine’s greatest suc-

cesses. Now, time with thesedrugs is running out.

Antimicrobial resistance— the ability of bacteria,

parasites, viruses andfungi to resist these medicines

— threatens to send us back toa time when we were unable to

easily treat infections such as pneu-monia, tuberculosis, gonorrhoea, and sal-monellosis. The inability to preventinfections could seriously compromisesurgery and procedures such as

chemotherapy.� Vaccine hesitancy — the reluctance orrefusal to vaccinate despite the availabil-ity of vaccines — threatens to reverseprogress made in tackling vaccine-pre-ventable diseases. Vaccination is one ofthe most cost-effective ways of avoidingdisease — it currently prevents two-threemillion deaths a year, and a further 1.5million could be avoided if global cov-erage of vaccinations improved.� Dengue, a mosquito-borne diseasethat causes flu-like symptoms and can belethal and kill up to 20 per cent of thosewith severe dengue, has been a growingthreat for decades.� An estimated 40 per cent of the worldis at risk of dengue fever, and there arearound 390 million infections a year.WHO’s Dengue control strategy aims toreduce deaths by 50 per cent by 2020.

Ateam from theDepartment of

Psychological Medicine andDepartment of Biochemistryat the Yong Loo Lin Schoolof Medicine at the NationalUniversity of Singapore(NUS) has found thatseniors who consume morethan two standard portionsof mushrooms weekly mayhave 50 per cent reducedodds of having mild cogni-tive impairment

(MCI).The six-year study,

which was conducted from2011 to 2017, collected datafrom more than 600Chinese seniors over the ageof 60 living in Singapore.The research was carriedout with support from theLife Sciences Institute andthe Mind Science Centre atNUS, as well as theSingapore Ministry of

Health’s NationalMedical ResearchCouncil. The resultswere publishedonline in the Journalof Alzheimer’s

Disease onMarch 12,

2019.

Mediterranean DietThe World Report ranked theMediterranean diet

No 1 in overall diet in 2019. The diet is rich in wholevegetables, fresh fruits, whole grains, fatty fish, olive oil,nuts, legumes, and some red wine and dairy. The diet’sfocuses on choosing whole, plant-based foods over thoseyou might find in a vending machine that may makeyou to stick with it.

Besides the benefit of weight loss, there are variousother health benefits associated with optingMediterranean diet. It also supports heart and brainhealth.

Intermittent fastingThis diet is a popular way to lose weight for those

who want to shed kilos faster. It involves not eating forprolonged period. Some people fast for two days outof the week — 5:2, which involves eating very little onfast days, while others set themselves a specific eatingtime like 16 hours fasting and eight hours feeding.

There is evidence that this diet can help people loseweight however it is not for everyone.

One has to understand ones needs and schedule toknow if what will work, since the eating pattern is putsrestrictions on when you can eat and when you can’t.There is tendency to overeat or binge eat.

While the above two diets found favour with manypeople abroad and in India, two diets while worked won-ders found disfavour.

Keto DietThis diet caught the attention of the Indian public

with almost everyone wanting to lose weight swearingby this diet plan. However, there’s a lack of research toprove that this diet is safe in the long run. The dietinvolves eating high-fat, moderate-protein, and low-carbs diet. This can be a challenge if one is following adiet without medical supervision. The downside is theminute you are off the diet, one is likely to gain backall the weight lost.

The health benefits of this diet for Type II Diabetes,certain types of cancer and Alzheimer’s and its long-term effect is lacking. The diet restricts foods that helpfight cancer and heart disease, like whole grains andlegumes.

There are many in which one can follow this diet,however not all of them are healthy. For example if thediet involves eating a lot of spinach and kale, people gen-erally eat bacon and eggs.

Atkins dietThis diet was popular among those wanting to lose

weight a few decades back. It involved eating a low-carbdiet. the original low-carb diet, made popular decadesago.

The diet involves eating high-fat, high-protein, withlow-carb vegetables like leafy greens. This kick-startsthe weight loss. Slowly one can add more nuts, low-carbvegetables and small amounts of fruit back to the diet.

Do not eat fruit, bread, pasta, grains, starchy veg-etables, or dairy products other than cheese, cream orbutter. And do not eat nuts or seeds in the first twoweeks. Foods that combine protein and carbohydrates,such as chickpeas, kidney beans, and other legumes arealso not permitted at this time.

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What we learnt� A study from Tel AvivUniversity suggests thatplants make ultrasonicscreams when harmed. Theirexperiments involved micro-phones, chopping stems,and depriving toma-toes and tobacco ofwater.� Forensic investigatorsfrom Nevada presented thecase of a man whose spermonly contained DNA from his

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ly found in the recip-ient's cheek, lip, andtongue cells, this isone of the first timeswhere it may be

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Hong Kong police onMonday accused activists

in the long-running pro-democracy movement of incit-ing minors to commit crimes.

The claim Monday comestwo days before a plannedNew Year's Day march that isexpected to attract tens ofthousands of participants.

Chief police spokesmanKwok Ka-chuen told reportersthat the force was in closecontact with the organizers of the Jan. 1 event, but wouldnot tolerate threats to publicsafety.

Kwok also said young peo-ple had been motivated tocommit criminal acts duringthe protests, including drop-ping objects from the upperstories of apartment buildings.

It wasn't clear whetherthose actions were directly tiedto any specific demonstration."Over the weekend, during ourarrest operation, we arrested alarge number of youngstersand are very alarmed that some

criminals incite youngsters tocommit crimes," Kwok said,adding that some of the vio-lence had been inspired by thechildren's teachers.

Children as young as 12have been among the nearly7,000 people arrested duringthe protests, which have drawnbroad support and were origi-nally sparked by now-discard-ed legislation that would haveallowed citizens of the semi-autonomous Chinese city to be

sent to China for trial.The movement started in

opposition to a now-shelvedproposed law that would haveallowed suspects in Hong Kongto be sent to mainland Chinato stand trial. Protesters'demands have since expandedto include universal suffrageand an investigation intoalleged police abuses, and havefrequently broken out intopitched battles between thetwo sides.

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An Iranian-backed militiasaid on Monday that the

death toll from US militarystrikes in Iraq and Syria againstits fighters has risen to 25, vow-ing to exact revenge for the"aggression of evil Americanravens."

The announcement inBaghdad came a day after USDefense Secretary Mark Espersaid Washington had carriedout military strikes targetingthe Iranian-backed Iraqi mili-tia blamed for a rocket attackthat killed an American con-tractor in Iraq last week.

Secretary of State MikePompeo said the strikes sendthe message that the US willnot tolerate actions by Iran thatjeopardize American lives.

The US military said "pre-cision defensive strikes" wereconducted against five sites ofKataeb Hezbollah, orHezbollah Brigades in Iraqand Syria.

"Our battle with Americaand its mercenaries is nowopen to all possibilities," KataebHezbollah said in a statementaround midnight Sunday. "Wehave no alternative today otherthan confrontation and there isnothing that will prevent usfrom responding to this crime."

The US blames the militiafor a rocket barrage on Fridaythat killed a US defense con-tractor at a military compoundnear Kirkuk, in northern Iraq.Officials said as many as 30rockets were fired in that attack.

Iraq's Hezbollah Brigades,a separate force from theLebanese militant groupHezbollah, operates under theumbrella of the state-sanc-tioned militias known collec-tively as the PopularMobilization Forces. Many ofthem are supported by Iran.

The Popular MobilizationForces said Sunday that the USstrikes killed at least 19 ofKataeb Hezbollah's members.But Kataeb Hezbollahspokesman MohammedMohieh told The AssociatedPress on Monday that the deathtoll rose to 25.

At least 51 militiamen werewounded and some of themwere serious condition, he said,adding that the militia group'scommanders would decide onthe retaliation.

In Tehran, foreign ministryspokesman Abbas Mousavicondemned the US strikesagainst Kataeb Hezbollah as an"obvious case of terrorism"and accused Washington ofignoring Iraq's sovereignty.

Lebanon's Iran-backed

Hezbollah also blasted the"brutal American aggression,"saying those who took thedecision to carry out the attack"will soon discover how stupidthis criminal decision was."

Kataeb Hezbollah is led byAbu Mahdi al-Muhandis, oneof Iraq's most powerful men.He once battled US troops andis now the deputy head of thePopular Mobilization Forces.

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Iran said Monday that theUnited States has shown its

"support for terrorism" by car-rying out air strikes on forcesin Iraq that have dealt blowsagainst the Islamic State group.

The Pentagon said onSunday that it targeted an Iran-linked militant group in west-ern Iraq and eastern Syria inresponse to a barrage of rock-ets that killed a US civilian con-tractor two days earlier.

"These attacks have onceagain proved America's falseclaims in fighting Daesh... Asthe United States has targetedthe positions of forces thatover the years have inflictedheavy blows to Daesh terror-ists," Iran's government

spokesman Abbas Mousavisaid, referring to IS.

"With these attacks,America has shown its firmsupport for terrorism and itsneglect for the independenceand sovereignty of countriesand it must accept conse-quences for its illegal act," hesaid in a statement.

The spokesman said thepresence of foreign forces in theregion was the cause of inse-curity and tensions.

"America must put an endto its occupying presence," saidMousavi.

US-Iran tensions havesoared since Washington pulledout of a landmark nuclearagreement with Tehran lastyear and began reimposingcrippling sanctions.

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Police in Turkey detained atleast 124 people suspected

of links to the Islamic Stategroup, the state-run newsagency reported Monday, in anapparent sweep against themilitant group ahead of NewYear celebrations.

At least 33 foreign nation-als were detained in the capi-tal Ankara in a joint operationby anti-terrorism police and thenational intelligence agency,according to the AnadoluAgency.In Istanbul, police raid-

ed 31 houses, detaining 24suspects, including four foreignnationals.

Police conducted simultaneous, pre-dawn raidsin the city of Batman, in south-east Turkey, where 22 suspectswere detained, it said in a sep-arate report.

Raids were also conductedin the cities of Adana, Kayseri, Samsun and Bursawhere 45 people, including sixforeign nationals weredetained.

Anadolu said the IS sus-pects apprehended in Ankara

were from Iraq, Syria andMorocco. Police were searchingfor some 17 other suspects, thereport said. The country washit by a wave of attacks in 2015and 2016 blamed on IS andKurdish militants that killedover 300 people.

The IS group also claimedresponsibility for an attack at anIstanbul nightclub during NewYear celebrations in the earlyhours of 2017.

The attack killed 39 peo-ple, most of them foreigners.

Meanwhile, Turkeydeported a total of 778 IS or

other jihadists back to theirhome countries in 2019,Interior Minister SuleymanSoylu said Sunday.

Turkey has stepped up itsefforts to expel foreign fightersback to their countries of ori-gin in recent months, accusingmany European countries ofnot taking responsibility fortheir nationals and sayingTurkey was "not a hotel" for for-eign fighters.

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Agunman pulled out a shot-gun and opened fire on

worshippers at a church duringSunday service in Texas, killingtwo persons before being shotby an armed member of thecongregation, the authoritiessaid.

The shooting took place at about 11:50 am (local time),during the morning service on Sunday. The service wasbeing live-streamed on socialmedia.

According to the authorities, the gunman pulledout a shotgun at the WestFreeway Church of Christ in White Settlement, a suburb of Fort Worth, andbegun firing.

The two churchgoers whowere shot, died later in a hos-pital, police said.

Video footage showed thegunman stand up and speak toa man nearby, who gestured atanother parishioner. The gun-man then fired at the man hegestured toward.

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The Taliban on Mondaydenied agreeing to any

ceasefire in Afghanistan afterrumours swirled of a potentialdeal that would see a reductionin fighting after more than 18years of war.

The statement from theinsurgents comes as local andinternational forces brace foranother bloody winter amidrenewed US-Taliban talks, afterPresident Donald Trump calledoff the negotiations earlier thisyear over insurgent attacks.

"In the past few days, some

media have been releasinguntrue reports about a cease-fire... The fact is that, theIslamic Emirate of Afghanistanhas no ceasefire plans," theTaliban said, after multiplemedia reports, including astory in the Wall Street Journal,suggested the group was on theverge of announcing some typeof temporary truce.

The US and the Afghangovernment in Kabul have longcalled for a ceasefire with theTaliban, including during theyear of negotiations betweenWashington and the militantsthat were abruptly called off by

Trump in September.However, the insurgents

have repeatedly stated that anypotential truce will only beironed out after Americantroops withdraw from thecountry.

The US-Taliban talks, heldmainly in Doha, were aimed atallowing Washington to beginwithdrawing troops in returnfor various security guarantees.

They were on the brink ofa deal when Trump abandonedthe effort in September, citingTaliban violence. Negotiationshave since restarted in Doha,but were earlier this month puton a "pause".

Trump is looking to slashthe troop presence in

Afghanistan, potentially evenbefore a deal betweenWashington and the Taliban iscemented.

Deadly bouts of fightingcontinue however, with tens ofthousands of Afghan securityforces killed since they inher-ited combat operations fromNATO at the end of 2014.

Earlier Monday, in north-ern Afghanistan's Jowzjanprovince, the Taliban killed atleast 13 Afghan security forcesduring a raid on a pro-gov-ernment militia position,according to a provincialspokesman.

Every day Afghan civiliansalso continue to bear the bruntof the bloody conflict.

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Iran’s nuclear deal with worldpowers is in danger of “falling

apart" without the compliance ofthe United States and theEuropean Union, Russia's for-eign minister warned Mondayafter meeting with his Iraniancounterpart in Moscow.

The 2015 deal between Iranand Britain, China, France,Germany, Russia and the UnitedStates lifted sanctions on Iran inexchange for limits on its nuclearprogram. The U.S. Withdrewfrom the accord last year andimposed crippling economicsanctions that block Iran from

selling crude oil abroad.“Because of the destructive

line that Washington keeps tow-ing, this important achievementof international diplomacy... Is indanger of falling apart,” RussianForeign Minister Sergei Lavrovsaid, adding that “colleaguesfrom the European Union” werenot fully complying with theagreement either. In response tothe US sanctions, Iran has pres-sured the European signatoriesto find a way to limit the impacton the Iranian economy.

Tehran has slowly inchedtoward ceasing its own compli-ance with the terms of the deal.Last week, for example, the

country began new operationsat a heavy water nuclear reactor.

Iran's moves have beencondemned by Western gov-ernments as unwelcome andescalating tensions in the region,while Russia and China haverepeatedly blamed the US.

After meeting with IranianForeign Minister Javad Zarif onMonday, Lavrov said Russiawould demand full compliancefrom both the U.S. And the EU,in which case Iran would be ableto return to fulfilling its obliga-tions in accordance with thedeal. Otherwise the agreementshould be considered “no longerexisting,” he said.

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North Korean leader KimJong Un has called for

"offensive measures" tostrengthen security ahead of aNew Year speech that couldflesh out the nuclear-armednation's threat to seek a "newway" forward after the expira-tion of its year-end deadline forUS sanctions relief.

Kim's latest comments,made during a meeting of topruling party officials inPyongyang, came amid con-cerns that the North could for-mally close down dialogue withWashington and resumenuclear and long-range missiletests.

Addressing the officials,

Kim stressed the need "to takepositive and offensive mea-sures for fully ensuring thesovereignty and security of thecountry," the state news agencyKCNA reported Monday.

Nuclear talks between theNorth and the US have beenlargely stalled since the collapseof a February summit betweenKim and US President DonaldTrump in Hanoi.

Pyongyang has beendemanding the easing of inter-national sanctions imposedover its nuclear and ballisticmissile programmes, whileWashington is insisting it takesmore tangible steps towardsgiving them up.

The North has not so farspecified the "new way" it wouldadopt if the US does not offerfresh concessions by the end ofthe year, and Kim is expected tomake it clearer on Wednesday.

This month China andRussia — the North's biggesteconomic partners — proposedloosening UN sanctions againstPyongyang, and analysts sayKim is likely to seek to exploitrivalries between Washington,Beijing and Moscow.

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Russian President VladimirPutin spoke with President

Donald Trump on Sunday tothank him for information thatPutin said helped Russia foilterrorist attacks over the NewYear's holiday, the Kremlinsaid.

Putin thanked Trump “forinformation transmittedthrough the special servicesthat helped prevent the com-pletion of terrorist acts inRussia,” the Kremlin said in abrief statement posted on itswebsite.

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Fashion is not defined just by a one-off choice or what one wears to anevent. It’s more about the everyday

sartorial choices that we make. This year,besides the sea of animal prints on every-thing from jackets to pants, tops, hand-bags and footwear, athleisure scored big.From Bolly and Hollywood stars sport-ing leggings and yoga pants to men giv-ing a thumbs up to their Lululemon ABCpants, comfort ruled 2019. I have alwaysbeen a believer in easy-wear clothes thatare fuss-free and this trend signalled arelaxing in the otherwise almost-dracon-ian dress codes dictated by top-drawerdesign houses.

For 2020, I’d personally root for fash-ion that is more environmentally con-scious. Slow fashion, which is focussedon revisiting design, production, andconsumption patterns, including recy-cling of clothes through the simple expe-dient of reusing and refashioning one’swardrobe, should become the norm,rather than the exception. Another rea-son that slow fashion gets my thumbs-up is that it follows the principles of fairtreatment of producers, in this case, theweavers, as well as in causing the leastdamage to our planet.

With the advent of factory-basedproduction post the industrial revolu-tion, the concept of fast fashion wasborn. Production processes were speed-ed up, to churn out yardage afteryardage of man-made, synthetic fabrics.Prices dropped, and consumptionzoomed. Thus was born the “use-and-throw” concept. However, now thatmore and more people in the fashionworld are cognisant of the fact that thegarments industry is the second-high-est environmental polluter, it is high time

that we went back to the pre-industrialRevolution production and consumptionpatterns. Let us take inspiration from our2,000 year old textiles tradition and lega-cy. What we urgently need to do is to goback to how our forefathers operated. Atthat time, mankind was in sync withnature and clothes were organic andplant-based. Each region had its owndistinctive signature textile. Cotton,flax, hemp, jute, sheep wool and so onwere the go-to choices. These textileswere derived from one’s natural sur-roundings and suited the region’s climateand aesthetics.

I’m happy to note that in recentyears, sustainable fashion — where theentire production process, from sourc-ing natural yarns to manufacturing theend product — is gaining momentum.

My label was launched 33 years agokeeping the same values and principlesin mind. Being ahead of the curve inenvironmental responsibility has been ahallmark of our textiles, notably our 100per cent biodegradable bamboo cloth-ing and, the first in the world, bamboosilk ikkat textile.

Additionally, it is important thatcompanies in the clothing businessclose the loop between the productionand recycling of clothes. In an ideal cir-

cular economy, there is a conscious effortto reduce over production, on the onehand, and reuse materials in productionprocesses, on the other, thus divertingtons of textile waste from landfills.

As for fashion choices of 2020,remember that Indian colours work wellon our skin tones. So there will be moreof burnt orange, fuchsia, indigo, ivory,vermilion red, kesari yellow, rani pink,and the eternal favourite, white. Withwinters having well and truly set in, lay-ering will be back and will keep the peo-ple toasty. Classic Indian jackets have atremendous potential as they can beworn short, mid-thigh or long to suitone’s body type. Chogas, the long, loosegarment of Turkish origin, if cut expert-ly, can be extremely slimming and canadd height. In terms of motifs, if you likethem bold, don’t shy away from vibrantweaves that offer a high contrast. But ifyou prefer something more subdued, awhite-on-white on weave can be equal-ly eye catching. And finally, keep thestoles handy. It is one of the most ver-satile fashion accessories which will con-tinue to flatter any outfit. Team it up witha small clutch or an Indian potpie orbatua, jewelled sandals or embroideredjutis, and you will be good to go.

Happy 2020!

As we bid adieu to 2019, we look at thetrends in entertainment choices of

Indians with BookMyShow introducingmillions of its users to newer out-of-homeexperiences.

The online booking app hosted over1,880 films across languages on its plat-form in 2019. The Marvel craze took overIndia as Avengers: Endgame broke allrecords to sell over 8.6 million tickets tobecome the highest-selling Hollywoodfilm on our platform. This was followedby Uri - The Surgical Strike, with over 5.7million tickets sold for the film.

!�����#/:�2.While the demand for Hindi films

grew by 12 per cent from the last year,movie buffs booked an average of 2.6 tick-ets per transaction. The top-rated region-al language films were in Telugu, Tamil,Malayalam, Kannada and Marathi, where-as the demand for English and Hindi filmsrose at 45 per cent and 25 per cent respec-tively. Hindi versions of regional films likeSaaho, Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy and KGFhave matched up to the primary language’ssuccess at the box office. The uptake forEnglish language films increased signifi-cantly by 56 per cent vis-à-vis last year. TheAvengers series retained the top spotamong English language films, whereinAvengers: Infinity War led the race in 2018,Avengers: Endgame shattered all ceilings in2019.

Looking at the genres, about 30 percent of the top 10 films (as per number oftickets sold on the app) were based on real-life stories and incidents. The trends alsopointed towards an interest in Assamesefilms, which grew five times to match theincrease in the number of users who chosethe app to watch these films and ratedthem on the platform.

And action films witnessed a growthof 45 per cent, becoming the most pre-ferred genre followed by drama and com-edy.

While actors Hrithik Roshan andRanveer Singh ruled the top 10 Hindi filmbucket with two films each to their cred-it, Akshay Kumar with 9.2 million ticketsand Ayushmann Khurrana with 6.3 mil-lion tickets overall had a great year withthree films each.

.,�:��)!��#�+�:#.The year also saw an 89 per cent rise

in the number of screens occupied by thewidest circulated films as compared to theprevious year. The advance ticket salesgrew by 11 per cent on the app in 2019,which is just shy of 20 million tickets with11 per cent of the tickets being bookedbefore the release. Following this, over 45films crossed the one million ticket salesmark on BookMyShow. Just three per centof the total tickets were booked in the last30 minutes before a film’s show time.

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While Sunday evening was the mostpreferred show time for movie-goers,Hyderabad was home to the maximum

number of film lovers, which was followedby Mumbai and Bengaluru. Hyderabadmoved from fourth position in 2018 tooutnumber its peers and lead the chartsin 2019. Kochi also witnessed a 56 per centincrease in the number of people using theapp to watch films as compared to 2018.

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Singer Akasa Singh says Americansinger-songwriter Lauv is warm

and humble beyond being talented. Akasa, popular for singing foot-

tapping numbers like Kheech MeriPhoto and Thug Ranjha, got achance to work with Lauv on songDil Na Jaaneya from film GoodNewwz. Composed by Rochak Kohliand Lauv, the song is sung byRochak, Lauv and Akasa. The lyricsare by Gurpreet Saini, Ari Leff andMichael Pollack and music is pro-duced by Lauv, Johnny Simpson andRochak.

“Rochak Kohli has always beenone of the dream producers that Ihave wanted to work with becauseall his melodies are magical.Gurpreet called me to dub a song forRochak, they played me the songand the first thing that came into myhead was finally I get to sing a slow,romantic song,” Akasa said.

“They hinted of the possibility ofLauv being a part of the song butnothing was confirmed.Coincidentally, I had met and inter-viewed Lauv early this year when he

had come to play in Mumbai for FlyMusic Festival. I even went to theconcert because I have always beena huge fan of his work and his tal-ent. This collaboration with Rochakand Lauv was like a far-fetcheddream for me but is one the thingsticked off my bucket list,” she said.

Looking back at her experienceof working on the song, Akasa said,“My aim was to just dub and do mybest. After the dub there was no con-versation about it and one day I justwake up to a post by Lauv and therest is history! It’s been a fantasticfeeling. People have been texting menon-stop, appreciating this side of myvoice in Dil Na Jaaneya which is sodifferent to Naagin or Aithey Aa.”

On working with Lauv, she said,“I think Lauv brings so much ener-gy and passion to the song and he isin fact, one of the nicest people I havemet from the global music industrytill date. He is warm and humblebeyond being very talented. I feelblessed to be ending 2019 on such apositive note.”

A07�'

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The Sunder Nursery has broughtalive the 64 sandstone yoginisand larger-than-life sculptures

by artist and performer Seema Kohli.

���+������������Chief architect and CEO of the

Agha Khan Trust for Culture, RatishNanda, picked out the lotus pond asthe right site for the yoginis to rest at.With one stroke, the became the con-fluence of cultures and thereby spoketo us about the essence of a pure spir-it.

The Trust has been rehabilitatingexisting parks and creating new spacesfor over 20 years with the objective ofdemonstrating that these green spacescan be catalysts for positive econom-ic, social and cultural change. The AgaKhan Trust for Culture (AKTC)focusses on the physical, social, cultur-al and economic revitalisation ofcommunities in the developing world.

56����������������The landscape design of the

Sunder Nursery has become a plushstage for Kohli’s sculptures. When youlook at them under the tree and thensee the yoginis, you know that theamalgamation of art and landscapeaims to enhance the historic charac-ter. It provides a connection with atruly urban scale as it derives inspira-tion from the traditional Indian con-

cept of congruency between nature,garden and utility, coupled with envi-ronmental conservation.

Kohli has been working withantiquity for the past 15 years. Shebegan creating the yoginis first as zincplates and then translated them intosandstone sculptures with the help ofartisans. The temples of the chausath(64) yoginis, are strewn across the heartof India, in Madhya Pradesh andOdisha. In more ways than one, it isthe enigmatic aura that keeps usglued to the imagery as we think of thefeminine power in a world that hasturned a blind eye to the protection ofwomen and abused the femininebody for its own lust.

�����������The Tree of Life sculpture and other

ones in bronze and wood are a headymix of haute history and the power ofyogic stances. The placement of thesculptures under the salient tree speaksof the age of regalia. Perhaps in termsof language and grammar, the idea ofcreating a sculptural park of a preciousarchitectural heritage becomes impor-tant in the unveiling of a new trend.

The bronze and the large woodensculptures echo the pulse of the pastand the present. We think of the eter-nal power of the human mind andhands, the skills of building with theelements of the earth and re-energis-

ing the traditions of passing on theknowledge of restoration methodswith appropriate technologies andmaterials. Conservation of ideas springforth when you see the balance and

harmony of the feminine yogic sculp-tures sitting in peace and utter calm.You also think of the zenith in the dic-tionary of building traditions, tech-niques and human heritage.

�����+������Over the years, Kohli has worked

on the philosophy and the wisdom ofthe Hiranyagarbha/The Golden Womb,Tree of Life and VasudhaivaKutumbakam. This show is an exten-sion of research in the art of illustra-tive patterns. The sculptures blend wellinto the expanse of greenery where ear-lier there was dust and rubble. Offeringa contemporary stage to a designinspired by historic Indian myth andsacred literature becomes an importantstatement in the signal for art eventsin modern moorings of Delhi. TheSunder Nursery gardens enhance thearrival point on the edge of the lotuspond. The glimpse of the sculpturesbecomes a testimony to the power andpoetry that can be brought alive in agarden as a sculpture court.

���������&+���“The translation of an ancient

form, specially feminine, in terms ofthe goddesses and figures of the pastmakes art more universal and acces-sible,” states Kohli.

As an artist, Kohli is bothengrossed and deeply driven by aninstinct. Her sculptures embody thecompassion of many avatars of exis-tence. This exhibition also tells Delhithat we have one more space to exhib-it and sculptures will get a new leaseof life at the Sunder Nursery.

Scarlet shackles sit peacefully ondisplay in front of a sad, gray

backdrop. The now rusted leg ironsonce locked human ankles during18th century voyages from Africa tosome European port, then to theAmericas.

Who the shackles held remaina mystery. But as a citizen of theUnited States, I’ve likely brokenbread with a descendant of thewoman forced to wear this instru-ment. Maybe my uncle foughtalongside her kin in a war. Or it’spossible one of her distant relativesis now be my relative.

These are the thoughts I enter-tain recently while walking throughthe reflective International SlaveryMuseum in Liverpool, England.Founded in 2007 on the bicentenaryof the abolition of the British slavetrade, the museum sits just a shortwalk from the dry docks where slavetrading ships were repaired and fit-ted out in the 1700s. (And it’s closeby the The Beatles Story, the world’slargest permanent exhibition pure-ly devoted to the hometown band.)Once a major slaving port, Liverpoolgrew thanks to merchants’ financialties to the enslavement of people tothe Americas.

Today, the building tells thestory of the enslavement of peoplefrom Africa and how this British citybenefited from human bondage.The Liverpool location reclaims aspace once connected to worldwidehuman suffering and is similar to OMercado de Escravos — the slavery

museum in Lagos, Portugal, wherethe European slave trade began. ButLiverpool’s museum is much larg-er, more interactive, and moreambitious without being exploita-tive.

Inside, visitors immediately aretaken on a meditative experiencefocusing on Africa before Europeancontact. You are greeted by quotesof American abolitionists and civilrights leaders etched into stonewalls before you see traditionalmasks from present-day SierraLeone and Mali. There are vibranttextiles from Ghana, intricate head-dresses from Cameroon and sam-ples of Igbo wall painting fromNigeria. You can listen to samplesof drum signals from the Republicof Congo or a Mbuti hunting song.The messages are clear: beforeenslavement, Africa was a diverseand complex continent with longartistic and religious traditions.

Next, visitors are whiskedtoward a room tackling enslave-ment and the brutal MiddlePassage. Racial ideologies andEurope’s unfamiliarity with the cul-tures of Africa sparked the slavetrade which grew once Europeanpowers expanded to the Americas,the museum tells us. In this room,details of the voyage of the shipEssex are reconstructed. That’s aslave ship that left Liverpool on June13, 1783, just nine years after theAmerican Declaration ofIndependence.

During the Middle Passage

portion, visitors encounter shack-les and chains used in forts and cas-tles along the African coast to holdhumans before their horrific jour-ney. A small replica of a slave boatillustrates how captives were tossedinto small compartments. Next tothe ship are 18th-century whips andbranding irons. Yes, these wereused.

Then, there was resistance, lib-eration, and the long fight for civilrights. Surprising, I walked into anarea dedicated to the AfricanAmerican heroes from HarrietTubman to the Rev Martin LutherKing Jr and Malcolm X. US newsfootage from the 1950s and 1960sillustrates how the descendants ofthose who crossed the MiddlePassage had to fight for humanrights and against violence amidwhite supremacy — the ideologythat launched racialised slavery inthe first place. There are also pho-tos of the Civil Rights struggles inthe United Kingdom from London’s“Keep Britain White Rally” in 1960to the Toxteth Riot of 1981 inLiverpool over allegations of policeharassment.

The museum ends with a spacefor changing exhibits related to thethemes around modern-day slavery.During my visit in November, Iencountered an exhibition called“Am I not a woman and a sister” —a moving image installation byEngland-based artist ElizabethKwant. She co-created the projectwith female survivors of modern-

day slavery in partnership withLiverpool charity City Hearts. Theproject links current human traf-ficking to the story out of theMiddle Passage.

In the US, journalist NikoleHannah-Jones has sparked conver-sations about the legacy of slaveryin that nation’s history with herinteractive 1619 Project in TheNew York Times. It examines the400th anniversary of the arrival ofthe first enslaved people from WestAfrica on the present-day America’seastern shore. The project chal-lenges readers to consider howtheir own lives have been shaped bythe legacy of slavery and it is help-ing inspire activists in places likeAlbuquerque, New Mexico, to pushfor their own museum of black his-tory.

Walking by an installation offormer slave and abolitionistOlaudah Equiano, I heard twoyoung black women discussing the1619 Project and how they didn’tunderstand the criticism it faced fortrying to reshape a narrative in theU S. As we left the Equiano sculp-ture, we stopped at a display of a1920-era Ku Klux Klan robe andhood from Port Jervis, New York.The outfit that was once used to ter-rorise blacks and Catholics staredback down at us. We were silent. ButI could feel we were relieved theglass case surrounding it protectedus. We were safe for now.

But were we?A7�

An amalgamation of nature,movement, human activity,

a manifestation of the artists,their experience and observationof their surroundings are inter-twined for the sixth edition ofthe group exhibition Vision’20.

The contributing artistsAjay Ghose, Biswapati Maity,Gautam Pramanik, Jyoti PrasadMallick, Karna Puri, ManojSarkar, RabindranathChoudhury, Saroj Basu, SubrataBiswas, Tapas Basu, TirthankarBiswas and Tilok Mandal haveinterwoven these ideas anddeveloped them further.

Rabindranath Chaudhuryone of the senior contributingartists whose work has been col-lected by various institutionsacross the globe says, “In mycurrent series, I am experi-menting with colours, forms,textures, and perspectives touncover the deepest crevices ofthe human psyche. Naturealways haunts me and unleash-es my mind a profound thrillwith all her beautiful things.”

In the exhibition, one canfind unity in Ajoy Ghosh’s excel-lent intertwining of nature withmythology or, in the meditativevibes of Karna Puri. While thepaintings of Tilak Mondal teachthe world tenacity throughwomanhood, Tapas Basu’sworks are an amazing exampleof finding peace in the beauty ofnature and contemporary soci-ety. As Manoj Sarkar takes youthrough an adventure of manyaspects of human life,Thirthankar Biswas’ will makeyou live through the moment ofthe topic in his canvas.

Tapas Basu’s work reflect anexpression of the inner worldwith eclectic colours. Theaward-winning artist says, “Mywork is inspired by the beautyof nature and contemporarysociety, where life is captured ina symbolic, yet surrealistic

approach through colours andforms.

Along with them are dis-played Biswapati Maity and hisfeminism, Gautam Pramanikand his colours, Jyoti PrasadMallik painting humble lives,Rabindranath Choudhury, SarojBasu and Subhrata Biswas whocreate a different world withtheir works. All of these critical-ly acclaimed artists bring out thevisual aspects of life on their can-vas, overwhelming us into anepitome of non-visual feelings.

Most of the artists con-tributing to this exhibition havebeen inspired by Nature, andeverything that surrounds us.Biswapati Maity says, “AlthoughNature is the main inspiration ofmy paintings, I am heavily influ-enced by human figures and itsbehavior. In my paintings,human figures come out in avery natural way. Sometimes itcan be a full figure and some-times it may be only the face.”

Nature is a dominant themefor most artists, it’s beauty andthe magical colours can drawanyone to itself, however, asTirthankar Biswas explains,sometimes inspirations are real-istic and sometimes semi-real-istic, “The common denomina-tor in my paintings is a moment,movement and force. It can bea sixer from an energetic crick-eter, it can be an escaping deerfrom an approaching tiger, it canbe an out-posted hut from aflash flood or it can be a swing-ing head of palm tree withmonsoon wind. The variation ofthe medium is also just like mysubject. I use from diluted inkto pencil, pastel, charcoal, acrylicand oil colour depend upon thedemand of the subject. Therecent works belong to thesemi-realistic category with themedium of oil on canvas.”

(The exhibition will be heldfrom January 3 to 9.)

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���� � 46 4

Liverpool manager Jurgen Kloppinsists the European championsmust build on a “brilliant” 2019 to

turn a 13-point lead at the top of the tableinto a first Premier League title in 30years.

Klopp’s men were not at their flow-ing best and needed the help of two VARreviews to continue their relentlessmarch towards the title with a 1-0 winover Wolves on Sunday.

Liverpool have now won 18 of theirfirst 19 league games of the season andlost just once in the calendar year in theleague, on top of winning the ChampionsLeague, Club World Cup and UEFASuper Cup.

“2019 was brilliant but it’s not impor-tant because we count seasons, notyears, so the 2019/20 season is not over,”said Klopp.

“We are halfway there, we still have19 games to play and probably 18 or 19of them will be like this tonight, for dif-ferent reasons.

“Who cares about points inDecember? We just created a basis whichwe will work with from now on, that’s all.”

�+���&���,��Wolves were angry even before the

VAR controversies as the Premier LeagueChristmas scheduling meant they trav-elled to Anfield just 45 hours after athrilling 3-2 win over Manchester City.

In the match they were left fumingat the two calls that went against themin quick succession towards the end ofthe first half.

Mane swept home his 14th goal of theseason from Lallana’s knockdown withhis shoulder and referee Anthony Taylor’sinitial decision was overturned.

However, Wolves were unhappy thatanother claim for handball against Virgilvan Dijk earlier in the move was notchecked.

Wolves’ frustration was compound-ed in first-half stoppage time whenPedro Neto's equaliser was ruled out.

Jonny was adjudged to be offside bythe tiniest of margins in the build-up toadd to a number of Premier League goalsover the past two days ruled out for themost marginal of offside calls.

“Anfield is amazing but they were cel-ebrating a non-goal. It doesn't makesense. The referee should sustain his deci-sion,” said Wolves boss Nuno EspiritoSanto.

“The VAR referee is miles away tak-ing decisions on a lot of things happen-ing here. Who is inside the game? Whofeels the intensity and the flow? The ref-eree here.”

Nuno was booked among the Wolvesprotestations, but the Portuguese coach’sdecision to start with top scorer RaulJimenez and Adama Traore on the benchmeant he had weapons up his sleevecome the second half.

Traore’s pace was unleashed on thehour mark and Jimenez followed short-ly after, but only after Diogo Jota’s fiercestrike forced Alisson Becker into a smartsave.

The visitors had lost just once in theirprevious 14 league games to move intocontention for a top-four finish and theydid not go down without a fight in thefinal stages.

“If it would be easy to win that num-ber of games a lot more teams would havedone it,” added Klopp.

“It is not easy and you have to fightwith all you have. Sometimes we havemore and sometimes less and the boys dothat all the time, so I couldn’t be moreproud of what they did again. To get thatresult over the line is just impressive.”

Jimenez had the best chance to claiman equaliser, but was denied by a blockfrom Joe Gomez before Joao Moutinho,Romain Saiss, Ruben Vinagre and Traoreall fired off target.

���� � 46 4

Struggling West Ham said they had appoint-ed David Moyes as manager for the sec-

ond time in a bid to safeguard their place inthe Premier League.

Moyes, whose career has never recoveredfrom a deeply unsuccessful spell asManchester United boss in 2013-14, succeedsManuel Pellegrini, who was sacked after a 2-1 defeat to Leicester on Saturday that left theHammers just one point above the relegationzone.

The 56-year-old hasbeen with-out a clubsince leav-ing WestHam after asix-monthspell in the2 0 1 7 - 1 8season.

M o y e sguided WestHam tosafety thatseason afterSlaven Bilicwas dis-missed ine a r l yNovember

and will betasked with

doing the same for a second time.“It’s fabulous to be back,” said Moyes in

a club statement on Sunday.“I’m feeling very proud that I’m back here

at West Ham. But I think more importantlyI'll be looking to see what I can do and whatI can make improvements to.

“I do believe that the squad of players I'vegot here is a better squad of players than whenI took over before, so I am looking forwardto working with them.”

The West Ham hierarchy were keen tomake a swift appointment followingPellegrini’s sacking ahead of Wednesday’s cru-cial clash with fellow strugglers Bournemouthat the London Stadium.

“David proved in his short time with theclub that he was capable of getting results andwe believe that he will start moving the clubin the right direction once again,” said WestHam's co-chairman David Sullivan.

“We are delighted to welcome David back- he knows the club well and he built strongrelationships during that time which will becrucial for the work that needs to be donegoing forward.”

Moyes won nine and drew 10 of his 31previous games in charge of the club. He madehis name in 11 successful years at Everton, butwas sacked after less than a year as AlexFerguson’s successor at Manchester United.

Moyes also struggled in short spells atReal Sociedad and Sunderland before takingthe West Ham job first time round on a short-term contract.

He was not offered a new deal despitecomfortably keeping the club up by finishing13th.

However, West Ham’s ambitious appoint-ment of former Real Madrid and ManchesterCity boss Pellegrini did not pay off as the Chileanwas let go on Saturday after a run of seven defeatsin nine Premier League matches.

���� �9;"*

Japanese star KeiNishikori pulled out of

the inaugural ATP CupMonday as he continuesto struggle with an elbowinjury that has kept himout since the US Open.

The former worldnumber four, who has

slipped to 13, said he wasdisappointed not to berepresenting his countryin Perth at the team eventstarting on January 3.

“Today, togetherwith my team, we havemade this decision as Iam still not 100 percentready to compete at thehighest level,” he said in

a statement.Nishikori’s elbow

needed surgery inOctober and it is unclearwhether he will be fit forthe Australian Openwhen the first GrandSlam of the year begins atMelbourne Park onJanuary 20.

Yoshihito Nishioka

will replace him as thetop-ranked player inJapan’s ATP Cup team.

Yasutaka Uchiyamaalso withdrew from theevent earlier this week,with Toshihide Matsuitaking his place.

Nishikori’s absenceis another blow for theevent after Britain’s Andy

Murray pulled out overthe weekend with a pelvicinjury and Roger Federeropted not to play.

The innovative teamchampionship, fromJanuary 3-12, offers $15million in prize moneyand a maximum of 750singles and 250 doublesATP rankings points.

It will see 24 nationssplit into six groups, witheight teams emergingfrom the round-robinstage to compete in theknockout phase.

Sydney will host thefinals, along with groupgames which will also beheld in Brisbane andPerth.

����� 49:�69�*-

Sports Minister KirenRijiju on Monday said

not much should be madeof the “ugly spat” thatmarred the trial boutbetween M C Mary Komand Nikhat Zareen andthe country is proud ofboth the six-time worldchampion and her promis-ing challenger.

Mary Kom defeatedZareen 9-1 in the trialsheld on Saturday to makethe squad for OlympicQualifiers in China inFebruary. The bout wasmarred by acrimony asthe two boxers didn'tshake hands after the con-test and Mar y Komignored an attempted hugby Zareen.

“Mary Kom is a legendwho has achieved whatno other boxer has everachieved in the WorldAmateur Boxing. NikhatZareen is an amazingboxer who has the poten-tial to follow the footstepsof Mary Kom. India isproud of both of them.

Period,” Rijiju tweeted.“...Passions & emo-

tions are the souls ofSports! The only point to

bear in mind is, in profes-sional sports, the players &money matter morewhereas in amateur sports

it's the nation. The uglyspate (sic) shouldn't haveadverse effects on playerswhile representing India,”

he added.Zareen had

approached Rijiju with anopen letter when theBoxing Federation of India(BFI) flip-flopped on astated policy andannounced direct selec-tion of Mary Kom for theOlympic qualifiers.

Rijiju had steered clearof the matter at that timeciting the Olympic charter.

On Saturday, MaryKom said she was upsetabout being dragged intothe selection controversyas the call on selection wasnot hers to take.

The Manipuri icondefended her refusal toexchange post-bout pleas-antries with Zareen, sayingthat the former juniorworld champion will gether respect only if she“herself shows respect toothers”.

The 23-year-oldZareen said she expectedbetter from the seniorboxer and felt hurt whenher attempt at sharing ahug was rebuffed.

����� 2947��$;$

Accomplished comeback-manVikas Krishan (69kg) claimed a

slot in the Indian men’s boxingsquad for next year’s Olympic qual-ifiers after winning his final trialbout along with two others here onMonday.

The former world champi-onships and Asian Games medal-winner, who competed in the mid-dleweight 75kg category for a longtime, is back to the 69kg divisionafter recovering from a back injurysustained during his short undefeat-ed stint in the professional circuit.

The 26-year-old, already a two-time Olympian, out-punchednational medallist DuryodhanSingh Negi in a unanimous decisionin the trial finals.

Also making the squad for theAsia/Oceania zone qualifiers, sched-uled from February 3 to 14 inChina, were CommonwealthGames medal-winning duo of

Gaurav Solanki (57kg) and NamanTanwar (91kg).

While Solanki defeatedMohammed Hussamuddin, Tanwaredged past Naveen Kumar. Both thebouts were split verdicts.

On Sunday, Asian silver-medal-list Ashish Kumar (75kg), veteranSatish kumar (+91kg) and SachinKumar (81kg) booked their placesin the squad.

Ashish defeated reigning

national champion and South AsianGames Gold-medallist AnkitKhatana in a unanimous verdict.

Satish, a Commonwealth andAsian Games medallist, bookedhis berth with a split verdict tri-umph over Narender. Sachinclaimed the 81kg spot with a victo-ry over Brijesh Yadav.

Amit Panghal (52kg) andManish Kaushik (63kg) havealready claimed their place in theteam after winning medals at theworld championships in September.

While Panghal claimed a path-breaking silver, Kaushik broughthome a Bronze, fulfilling the crite-ria for selection set by the BoxingFederation of India.

Indian squad for Asia-OceaniaOlympic Qualifiers: Amit Panghal(52kg), Gaurav Solanki (57kg),Manish Kaushik (63 kg), VikasKrishan (69kg), Ashish Kumar(75kg), Sachin Kumar (81kg),Naman Tanwar (91kg), SatishKumar (+91kg).

����� 49:�69�*-

Manchester City shruggedoff a tight turnaround

from defeat at Wolves to beatSheffield United 2-0 on Sundaythanks to second-half strikesfrom Sergio Aguero and Kevinde Bruyne.

City boss Pep Guardiolahad lambasted the schedulingthat saw the English championskick off less than 48 hours afterplaying the majority of Friday's3-2 defeat at Molineux with 10men.

Fatigue seemed to get thebetter of City in the first half asthe Blades enjoyed the better ofthe chances and had a LysMousset goal ruled out after aVAR review for offside.

However, the greater indi-vidual quality at Guardiola’s dis-posal decided the game as DeBruyne teed up Aguero to smashinto the roof of the net sevenminutes after the break.

De Bruyne then rounded offanother excellent display byscoring the second himself witha fine finish eight minutes fromtime to inflict United's firstdefeat away from home fornearly a year and bring City backto within 14 points of runawayPremier League leadersLiverpool.

“Today I understood whySheffield United are in the placethey’re in the table,” saidGuardiola.

“In the first half we hadproblems, we changed somethings and the second half wasmuch, much better.”

Despite claiming that thecrowded Christmas schedulingshowed the Premier League andbroadcasters “don’t care” aboutplayer welfare, Guardiola madejust three changes to the side thatstarted against Wolves.

City's sluggish start shouldhave punished by the visitorswith Mousset particularly waste-ful.

The Frenchman spurned aglorious early chance to putUnited ahead when he get on theend of a floated CallumRobinson cross but headed wide.

United thought they hadclaimed the lead on 29 minuteswhen Mousset raced onto along ball from John Fleck and

fired home.City were furious because

they thought Aguero had beenfouled in the build-up but, whiletheir complaints were brushedaside by referee Chris Kavanagh,VAR came to their aid by rulingMousset was marginally off-side.

“If the Mousset goal was notoffside, it would have been verydifficult for us,” addedGuardiola. “In the second halfwe put more players closer toSergio, and we passed the ballwith more quality.”

It was a let-off for City butthey were caught out by a longball again soon after as OliverNorwood picked out Mousset,who was onside this time butcould only shoot into the side-netting with just Claudio Bravoto beat.

“You always know whenyou comes to grounds likeManchester City you have totake your opportunities, andunfortunately we didn’t,” saidBlades boss Chris Wilder.

“The first goal is the game-changer. We were in the gameand then we had to open up totry to get back into it and aworld-class player finishes us offin the last ten minutes.”

The lack of a clinical finish-er has been the only thing hold-ing back Wilder’s men, who siteighth in the table, on theiralready impressive return to thePremier League and they got alesson in taking their chancesfrom City’s all-time record scor-er soon after the break.

De Bruyne picked outAguero with a fine through balland the Argentine blasted highpast Henderson from a narrowangle.

Red’s ‘brilliant’ 2019 just a building block for Klopp

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Australia on Monday called up explosiveopening all-rounder D’Arcy Short in

place of injured pacer Sean Abbott in theirODI squad for the upcoming tour of India.

The tour begins on January 14 with thefirst One-day International in Mumbai.

The second and third ODIs will be heldin Rajkot and Bengaluru on January 14 andJanuary 19, respectively.

Short has been included in the squadafter a side strain during a Big Bash Leaguegame ruled out Abbott for four weeks.

With fast bowlers Pat Cummins, JoshHazlewood, Mitchell Starc and KaneRichardson already in Australia’s ODIsquad, selectors have called in Short, a top-order batter who also bowls wrist spin, toreplace pacer Abbott. “It is extremely unfor-tunate for Sean, who is very much a part ofour white-ball squad plans leading into theICC T20 World Cup and the World Cup,”selection convener Trevor Hohns was quot-ed as saying by Cricket Australia.

“D’Arcy offers the squad another spin-ning all-rounder option along with AshtonAgar, which, along with the four world-classfast bowlers and Adam Zampa, balances thesquad out nicely. His proven record and abil-ity to bat anywhere in the order will also bea great asset to the squad.”

Short has played four ODIs for Australia,hitting 83 runs at an average of 26.66. Unlessthere's an injury, he will likely bat in the mid-dle order given Warner and Finch are goingto open. David Warner and Steve Smith willalso be touring India for the first time withthe Australian team since the ball-tamper-ing scandal, both expectedly figuring in thesquad.

+�������H+�Aaron Finch (capt), D’Arcy Short,

Ashton Agar, Alex Carey (wk), PatCummins, Peter Handscomb, Josh

Hazlewood, Marnus Labuschagne, KaneRichardson, Steven Smith, Mitchell Starc,Ashton Turner, David Warner, AdamZampa.

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Indian captain Virat Kohliwill end the year at the topof the ICC Test ranking

chart for batsmen but five-dayspecialist Cheteshwar Pujaraslipped a place to fifth.

With 928 points, Kohli isway ahead of second-placedAustralian maestro Steve Smith(911) and New Zealand’s inspi-rational skipper KaneWilliamson (822), whileAustralia’s MarnusLabuschagne, who has amassed1,085 runs in 11 Tests this year,improved a place to grab thefourth spot.

Pujara was placed fifthwith 791 points, while AjinkyaRahane was joint seventh with759 points.

With his enterprising 95against England in the firstTest, Quinton de Kock not onlyset up his team’s win, but alsoshot into the top of the latestrankings release on Monday.

In bowling, India’s leadpacer Jasprit Bumrah, return-ing from an injury layoff,remained static at sixth posi-tion with 794 points, whilespinner Ravichandran Ashwin

(772 points) and seamerMohammed Shami (771) wereninth and tenth respectively inthe order.

Australian pace spearhead

Pat Cummins was at the top ofthe standings with 902 pointsahead of Neil Wagner (859)and South African pacemanKagiso Rabada (832).

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New Zealand haveturned to Will

Somerville for his expe-rience of playing inSydney as they look toavoid a whitewash in thethird and f inal Testagainst Australia.

O f f - s p i n n e rSomerville, who wasraised in Australia andplayed Sheffield Shieldfor New South Wales,will replace injured pacebowler Trent Boult forthe Test start ing inSydney on Friday.

Coach Gary Stead

said the inclusion of thelanky 1.93 metre (6ft 4in)Somerville was a nod tothe expected conditionsat the Sydney CricketGround.

“There’s no secret theSCG pitch is one of themore spin-friendly inAustralia,” Stead said.

“Will offers some-thing different to ourtwo other spinners in thesquad with his right armoff-spin and height.

“The fact he’s playeda lot of cricket in Sydneyduring his career for NewSouth Wales will also behelpful as we prepare forthis final Test.”

Somerville, 35, hasplayed three Tests, takingseven wickets on hisdebut against Pakistanin Abu Dhabi last yearand a total of seven intwo Tests away to SriLanka four months ago.

Boult is returning toNew Zealand after suffer-ing a fracture to his righthand in the second Testwhich Australia woncomfortably by 247 runson Sunday within fourdays in Melbourne.

Australia won thefirst Test by 296 runs,again wrapping up thematch inside four days.

New Zealand alreadyhave Matt Henry andKyle Jamieson in thesquad to provide fastbowling cover whileSomerville’s height andlocal knowledge couldsee him overtake theincumbent spinnersMitchell Santner andTodd Astle.

Somerville was oneof the leading bowlers inAustralia’s Sheff ieldShield in 2016-17 seasonwith 35 wickets at anaverage of 23.14.

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Australia’s Nathan Lyon on Mondayshot down a suggestion from Shane

Warne that he take a rest for theSydney Test against New Zealand thisweek so leg-spinner Mitchell Swepsoncan make his debut.

Tim Paine’s team have already wonthe three-match series against theBlack Caps after crushing them by 247runs in Melbourne on Sunday, follow-

ing their comprehensive win in Perth.Cricket great Warne has champi-

oned Swepson and over the weekendflagged the idea of axing Lyon if selec-tors opt for one spinner in Sydney.

“Just giving Mitchell Swepson ataste of it, giving him a chance, I reck-on it will pay dividends in the long run,”Warne said.

But Lyon, who took four wickets onSunday to wrap up late New Zealandsecond innings resistance, said therewas no way he would be standing aside.

“Did Warnie ever want a rest andgive Stuart MacGill a go?” he asked,noting the lack of opportunity given toWarne’s leg-spin rival at the height oftheir careers.

“I won’t be resting. I haven’t met anyAustralian cricketers that would like tobe rested.

“It’s that hard playing Test cricket,but it’s that rewarding as well so everyopportunity you get to play cricket forAustralia it means the world to us.

“So I can’t imagine Mitch Starc, Pat(Cummins) or Patto (James Pattinson)putting his hand up to say I need a rest.”

Queensland’s Swepson has beenadded to Australia’s squad for Sydney,where conditions often assist slowbowlers, and was taking tips fromWarne in Melbourne.

There is a chance that Australia willplay two specialist spinners in thethird Test, with the call to be made afterPaine and selectors look at the pitch.

Swepson, who has taken 12 wick-ets from six Sheffield Shield games at26.58, was a member of Australia's Testsquad for tours of India and Bangladeshin 2017 but has yet to make his debut.

Lyon said if both of them played,he would be more than happy.

“Mitch has been bowling brilliant-ly for Queensland,” he said. “He’s a greatfella to start off with, but he gives it arip and that's what I really love to see.

“I’m a big fan of Mitch, it’s great tosee him in and around our squad so hegets his chance and fingers crossed wecan have a great combination togeth-er.”

If Australia go down that road, theywould almost certainly retainCummins, Starc and Pattinson, mean-ing a batsman would be axed withMatthew Wade the likely candidateafter Travis Head scored a century inMelbourne.

����� � 46 4

India skipper Virat Kohli andpace spearhead Jasprit

Bumrah were the only twoIndians who found a place inWisden’s T20 Internationalteam of the decade, whichdidn’t feature Mahendra SinghDhoni.

Australia’s limited overscaptain Aaron Finch wasnamed captain of the team,which has two more Australianin Shane Watson and GlennMaxwell, two England crick-eters — Jos Buttler and DavidWilley, two Afghanistan all-rounders — Mohammad Nabiand Rashid Khan, and NewZealand’s Colin Munro and SriLanka’s Lasith Malinga.

On Kohli, Wisden said:“While Kohli’s record indomestic T20 cricket is patchy,the same cannot be said ofT20Is. Kohli’s average of 53 wasthe best in the decade, andwhile his consistency compro-mises his strike-rate slightly, heis still able to score at a goodrate, even if not exceptional.

“Strong against pace andspin, and rapid between thewickets, Kohli is an ideal play-er at No.3, able to fight fireswhen an early wicket is lost andstabilise the innings, but also

accelerate when a platform isset. Following a huge first-wicket partnership, Kohli will

slide down the order in this XI,”it said on its website.

Kohli, who ranks third in

the list of leading run-scorersof all time with 21,444 runs,was also included in Wisden’sTest and ODI teams of thedecade, besides being namedin Wisden’s list of five crick-eters of the decade which alsofeatures Steve Smith, DaleSteyn, AB de Villiers and EllysePerry.

While Kohli was picked inWisden’s T20I team of thedecade to strengthen the bat-ting order, Bumrah found aplace in the bowling unit dueto his superb economy rate andreputation for being a reliabledeath bowler.

“Bumrah’s overall econo-my rate of 6.71 is the secondbest in the world among quickbowlers, behind Dale Steyn,”Wisden said about Bumrah,who has overall taken 216wickets, including 51 in T20Is,in his international career sofar.

“This statistic is moreimpressive when you consid-er he did the majority of hisbowling in the death overs,where his economy rate of 7.27was the seventh best in theworld, and comfortably thebest by a quick bowler.Bumrah is likely bowl threeovers at the death for thisside.”

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South African cricket captain Faf du Plessisbelieves cricket needs more, not fewer, elite

nations.Speaking after South Africa’s 107-run win in

the first Test against England on Sunday, Du Plessiswas asked his opinion about plans for an annual‘Super Series’ of one-day games, involving the so-called ‘Big Three’ of India, Australia and England,with one other country to be invited on a revolv-ing basis.

“The last year or so you can see what’s goingon in terms of the big three countries,” he said.

“There’s a lot of movement going towards that,a lot more matches being played against the topthree, or big three. It’s probably better if you includemore teams, the better to grow the game as muchas you can.”

Du Plessis pointed out that there was inequal-ity of fixtures, especially in Test cricket, with newTest nations such as Ireland and Afghanistan strug-gling to get fixtures.

“There’s a lot of smaller nations not playing alot of Test cricket, they’re actually playing less,” hesaid.

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Test specialist Ajinkya Rahaneand young prodigy Prithvi

Shaw will turn up for Mumbai intheir Ranji Trophy game againstheavyweights Karnataka.

The two were named in the15-member squad announced bythe associationon its website onMonday.

The game will be played at theBandra Kurla Complex fromJanuary 3.

Both Shaw and Rahane playedthe previous games against Barodaand Railways.

Shaw had hit a blazing doublehundred against Baroda in thelung-opener but faltered in boththe essays against Railways atWankhede Stadium.

Rahane also had a horrendoustime with the bat against Railways.

Mumbai had won the gameagainst Baroda while lost toRailways by 10 wickets.

Rahane, who has played 63Tests, will be playing consecutiveRanji games after a long time.

Shreyas Iyer and ShivamDube, who were criticized heavi-ly for not playing the last Ranjigames, have been not named inthe squad as they are away onIndia duty.

Pacer Shardul Thakur, who isalso away on India duty, has notnamed in the squad either.

Meanwhile, young batsmanSarfaraz Khanhas beenincludedinthesquad.

This could possibly be the lastgame Shaw plays for the timebe-ing as he then heads to NewZealand with the India A squad.

Mumbai squad: SuryakumarYadav (Captain) Aditya Tare (ViceCaptain) Ajinkya Rahane, PrithviShaw, Sarfaraz Khan, ShubhamRanjane, Akash Parkar, SiddheshLad, Shams Mulani, VinayakBhoir, Shashank Attarde, RoystonDias, Tushar Deshpande, DeepakShetty andEknath Kerkar.

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Former Australian captainRicky Ponting on Monday

picked India skipper ViratKohli to lead his all-star Testteam of the decade, which fea-tured four English players.

Ponting’s Test team ofthe 2010s doesn’t feature anyother Indian apart fromKohli, who is currentlyranked No.1 in both ICCTest and ODI rankings forbatsmen.

The Englishmen in histeam include all-rounder BenStokes, batsman AlastairCook, and the pace duo ofStuart Broad and JamesAnderson. Among the

Australians he has opted forSteve Smith and DavidWarner along with spinnerNathan Lyon.

“Everyone’s picking teamsof the decade so I thought I’djoin in the fun,” Ponting wroteon his twitter handle.

“This would be my Testteam of the 2010’s: DavidWarner, Alastair Cook, KaneWilliamson, Steve Smith,Virat Kohli (c), KumarSangakkarra (wk), BenStokes, Dale Steyn, NathanLyon, Stuart Broad, JamesAnderson.”

Kohli was also namedcaptain of the Test XI of thedecade by Cricket Australia'sofficial news website.

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