RNI NO.: DELENG/2005/15351REGD. NO.: DL(S)-01/3420/2018-20

VOL.16, ISSUE 269 | Tuesday, 28 September, 2021 | New Delhi | Pages 12 | Rs 3.00PUBLISHED FROM DELHI | KOLKATA

MILLENNIUMPOST.IN

No Half Truths

BLAST OFF

‘Akash Prime’ successfully flight tested from Integrated Test Range (ITR), Chandipur, Odisha on Monday PTI

PM Modi launches Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission, health ID for every citizenActive Covid cases in country lowest in 191 days; WHO’s Covaxin clearance delayed further

Hundreds of farmers block highways;

Delhi-UP traffic hit

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Several trains were cancelled, highways and key roads blocked and many thousands stranded for hours on Monday as a nationwide 10-hour shutdown against the Centre’s three controversial agri laws disrupted lives across parts of India, particularly in the north.

The 6 am to 4 pm Bharat Bandh, which saw demon-strations and rallies in many places, passed off relatively peacefully with no reports of injuries or serious clashes. The impact was felt the most around Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, the centre of the farm protests, and also in large pockets of Kerala, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Odisha.

Protesters blocked high-ways and arterial roads and squatted on tracks in several places from the morning as the shutdown called by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of 40 farmer unions, got underway. The blockade was lifted at 4 pm.

The SKM claimed in a statement that its call for a shutdown had received an “unprecedented and historic” response from more than 23 states and not a single untow-ard incident was reported

from anywhere. “Reports have been pour-

ing in about the overwhelm-ingly positive and resounding response to the Bharat Bandh call to mark 10 months of peaceful protests with rightful demands from the ‘annadaa-tas’ of the country,” it said.

The day marks one year since President Ram Nath Kovind gave his assent to the three controversial laws and 10 months since thousands of farmers set up camp at Delhi’s border points to voice their protest.

Looking ahead, Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait said at an online discussion that a solution could only be reached through dialogue and not in the courts.

Continued on P5

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Delhi University will announce its first cut-off list on October 1, followed by the second on October 9 and the third on October 16.

Nearly 70,000 seats under various courses are up for grabs and the admission process is online due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The colleges will declare their first cut-off list on Octo-ber 1 and admissions will start from October 4 at 10 am and will go on till Octo-ber 6 at 11.59 pm, the varsity said on Monday.

Colleges are expected to approve admissions under the first list by 5 pm on Octo-ber 7 and the last day of pay-ment will be October 8 by 5 pm, it said. The second cut-off will be declared on October 9, with admissions starting from October 11 at 10 am and ending on Octo-ber 13 at 11.59 pm.

The Delhi University (DU) said that admissions under the second list will be approved by 5 pm on Octo-ber 14 and the last day of pay-ment will be October 15 by 5 pm.

The third list will be announced on October 16 with the admission process starting on October 18 at 10 am. The candidates will be able to apply for admission till October 21 at 11.59 pm.

Colleges will approve admissions under the third list by 5 pm on October 22 and the last day of payment

will be October 23 by 5 pm, the DU said in its admission schedule.

The varsity said that col-leges will announce special cut-offs after the third list, if there are vacant seats.

The special list will be for those who could not apply in the previous three lists despite being eligible, it said.

The admission process will start on October 26 at 10 am and end on October 27 at 11.59 pm for special cut-offs and colleges will approve admissions by 5 pm on Octo-ber 28 and the last day of pay-ment will be October 29 by 5 pm, the DU said.

The fourth list will be out on October 30 with the admission process com-mencing on November 1 at 10 am and ending on the next day at 11.59 pm, it said.

The colleges are expected to complete admission approvals by 5 pm on November 5 with the last date of payment being November 6 by 5 pm, the varsity said. Continued on P5

NEW DELHI: Noted inter-national economist, Edmund Strother Phelps, shared the link of a Sunday feature titled ‘Explorer of new vistas’, published on Sep-tember 26, 2021, in this news-paper, stating: “I appreciate this story by Krishna Gupta on a great deal of my life’s work”.

This acknowledgement is in the context of Dr Krishna Gupta’s comprehensive article reviewing the works of the economist, apart from briefly detailing his life and career. Dr Krishna Gupta, a senior IAS officer, is a regular contribu-tor to Millennium Post.

Dr Gupta has held important positions at the state and Cen-tral governments. He has served as India’s lead negotiator in Ser-vices and Rules at the Indian Mis-sion to the WTO in Geneva from 2006-2010. He was also the CMD of WBPDCL, the power genera-tion company of the West Bengal government. He has also been the MD of WBIDC and the Prin-cipal Secretary of the Industry Department in the West Bengal government before moving to New Delhi as the Principal Resi-dent Commissioner of West Ben-gal. Dr Gupta is known to be an

efficient, professional and honest officer and was instrumental in holding the well regarded Global Investor Summits in West Ben-gal. He has also played a crucial role in setting up 500MW plants in Sagardighi, Murshidabad for the first time ever. He also drives the disinvestment in Haldia Pet-rochemicals. Dr Gupta has a PhD from SUNY, Stony Brook, USA and had Elinor Ostrom, the win-ner of the Nobel in Economics in 2009, as one of his advisors. He has numerous articles published in his name and has also authored several books.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Every Indian will now get a digital health ID, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday as he launched the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission. The government — which has maintained that the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mis-sion will play a key role in the digital health ecosystem, like that of the Unified Payments Interface in revolutionising pay-ments — has underlined that “citizens will now only be a click away from accessing healthcare facilities”.

“Ayushman Bharat Digi-tal Mission will now help con-nect digital health solutions across the country. All Indians will now get a digital health ID under this scheme. Every cit-izen’s health record will now be digitally secure,” the Prime Minister said, underlining that “digitisation will make health-

care easier”. In his address after the vir-

tual launch, Modi also said health has a very strong rela-tionship with tourism as a good and integrated health infra-structure also improves the tourism sector.

Noting that digital infra-structure is bringing everything

from — ration to administra-tion (Ration to Prashaasan) — to the common Indian in a fast and transparent manner, the Prime Minister said: “The way technology is being deployed in governance reforms today is unprecedented.”

The mission marks a new phase in efforts of the last seven

years of strengthening health facilities, he said and added that its reliable data will lead to bet-ter treatment and savings for patients.

“These healthcare solutions are a big investment in the pres-ent and future of the country,” he added.

The scheme, which will help

doctors anywhere find the med-ical record of a patient with the latter’s consent, will help the poor and middle class most, he said.

The pilot project of the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mis-sion was announced by the Prime Minister from the ram-parts of the Red Fort on August

15, 2020 and was in six Union Territories. Now, it will be rolled out nationwide.

Its nationwide roll-out coin-cides with the National Health Authority celebrating the third anniversary of the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Aro-gya Yojana (AB PM-JAY).

The digital mission will now connect the digital health solu-tions of hospitals across the country, Modi said and noted that there has also been an unprecedented expansion of telemedicine as well.

Meanwhile, India added 26,041 new infections taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 3,36,78,786, while the active cases declined to 2,99,620, the lowest in 191 days, according to the Union Health ministry data updated on Monday.

The death toll climbed to 4,47,194 with 276 fresh fatalities, according to the data updated at 8 am. Continued on P5

MPost contributor gets appreciation from Nobel laureate Edmund Phelps

MPOST BUREAU

PANAJI/KOLKATA: Former Goa Chief Minister and Congress leader Luizinho Faleiro resigned as a member of the state Legislative Assembly on Monday and is likely to join the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC).

Minutes before resigning, Faleiro praised West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC head Mamata Banerjee and said the country needs a leader like her to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“I, Luizinho Faleiro, hereby tender my resignation of my seat in the house w.e.f. 27th Sep 2021. I thank the people of #Navelim for placing their trust in me & look forward to their continued support in all future endeavors.

#Goa #newbeginnings,” Faleiro tweeted on Monday. He handed over a terse resignation letter to Assembly Speaker Rajesh Pat-nekar shortly after noon.

With his resignation, the Con-gress strength in the 40-member House has been reduced to four.

The Congress had won 17 seats in the 2017 state Assembly elec-tions, but later a number of MLAs resigned from the party. In July

2019, 10 MLAs quit the party and joined the ruling BJP.

Shortly before resigning, Faleiro said the country needs a leader like Mamata Banerjee to counter Narendra Modi.

“I met certain leaders, they said yes, you are a Congressman, I am a Congressman for last 40 years, I will continue to be a Congress-man and part of Congress fam-ily...,” Faleiro told reporters at his private residence in Margao, about 30 km from Panaji.

“This family has to come together to fight Modi. Mamata is the one who has given a fight to Narendra Modi and his jugger-naut,” he said.

He further said the ‘Mamata formula’ has won in West Bengal.

“She has been able to stand

up...she is a street-fighter,” the 70-year-old leader said.

Faleiro said Goa is also going through difficult times.

“We need such fighters who have the same wavelength, ideol-ogy, principles and programmes. The country needs a leader like Mamata,” he said.

“I am a Congressman, I would like larger picture of all the Con-gress parties (which have split from the Congress) to come together and fight the next par-liamentary election. I would do everything to achieve this dream. It is definitely my dream,” he said.

Faleiro, who was a long time Congress loyalist and known to be close to Sonia Gandhi, was also a member of the All India Congress Committee. Continued on P5

‘India needs a leader like Mamata to take on Modi’ Former Goa Chief Minister Luizinho Faleiro resigns as Cong MLA,

likely to join TMC; former MGP MLA to join Trinamool as well

A medic administers a dose of Covid vaccine, in Mumbai, on Monday PTI

DU 1st cut-off list on Oct 1, 2nd on Oct 9

Highlights » The pilot project of the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission was announced by the Prime Minister from the ramparts of the Red Fort on August 15, 2020 and was in six Union Territories. Now, it will be rolled out nationwide » The cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country crossed 86 crore on Mon-day, the ministry added

» World Health Organisa-tion (WHO) has further delayed the Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) for Covaxin, the Covid vaccine developed in India, as the global body has sent more technical queries to its manufacturer Bharat Bio-tech, according to sources

The 6 am to 4 pm Bharat Bandh, which saw demonstrations and rallies in many places, passed off relatively peacefully with no reports of injuries or serious clashes

City273 DENGUE CASES SO FAR 3

NationLEADERS ELECTED UNOPPOSED 5

Edit

NEED FOR RECONCILIATION 7

InternationalCHINA DEFENDS VISA CURBS 9

BusinessGOVT TO BORROW `5.03L CR 11

In today’s paper

...

BJP govt hiked cane support price ahead of polls for selfish motives

Mayawati

BHARAT BANDH

NEW DELHI: India is becoming an impor-tant country for Germany in the Indo-Pacific region and the next coalition government in Berlin is expected to continue strong ties with New Delhi, German Ambassador Wal-ter J Lindner said on Monday.

He said relations between India and Ger-many saw a significant upswing, including in areas of trade and investment in the last over one decade and that the upward trajectory in ties is likely to continue.

“None of the global issues can be solved without India, be it climate change, global warming, trade issues, COVID-19 vaccina-tion and terrorism...India is important for us,” he told reporters.

His comments came as a new coalition government is expected to take the reins in Berlin following the parliamentary elections.

According to reports, Social Democrats (SPD) was ahead of the ruling conservative bloc of Angela Merkel in the federal elections.

The federal elections marked the end of Merkel’s 16-year tenure as the German Chan-cellor, a period that saw significant expansion of India-Germany ties. AGENCIES

New govt to continue strong ties with

India: German envoy

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Don’t treat young doctors as football in the game of power, the Supreme Court said on Monday, warning the Centre that it may pass strictures if it is not satisfied with justification for last-minute changes to the NEET Super Speciality Examination 2021 syllabus.

The Apex Court said it will not allow these young doctors to be placed in the hands of some insen-sitive bureaucrats, and asked the Ministry of Health and Family Wel-fare (MoHFW), National Medical Commission (NMC) and National Board of Examination (NBE) to put their house in order.

A Bench of Justices D Y Chand-rachud and B V Nagarathna asked Additional Solicitor General Aish-

warya Bhati, appearing for the Cen-tre, to hold a meeting with the other two authorities within a week.

“Better come with some strong reasons as if we are not satisfied, we will pass strictures,” it said.

“Don’t treat these young doctors as footballs in the game of power. Hold the meeting and put your

house in order. We will not allow the lives of these young doctors to be placed in the hands of some insensitive bureaucrats,” it added.

The top court was hearing a plea of 41 Post Graduate doctors who have challenged the last-min-ute changes made to the syllabus after the notification for examina-

tion was issued.At the outset, senior advocate

Shyam Divan, appearing for the young doctors, said that there is urgency in the matter and they have filed a written submission also in the matter.

Advocate Gaurav Sharma, appearing for NMC, said that they would like to file reply in the mat-ter and sought adjournment of one week.

The Bench said: “Mr Sharma, what is the NMC doing? We are dealing with the lives of young doctors who will pursue super spe-ciality courses. You have issued the notification for examination on July 23 and then changed the syl-labus on August 31. What is this? They are to sit for examinations on November 13 and 14.”

Continued on P5

Don’t treat young doctors as football in power game, says SC on changes in syllabus Top court asks govt why these changes to the NEET exam cannot be introduced next year

The top court was hearing a plea of 41 Post Graduate doctors who have challenged the last-minute changes made to the syllabus after the notification for examination was issued

Farmers block railway tracks during their Bharat Bandh against Central government’s three farm reform laws, at Devi Dass Pura on the outskirts of Amritsar, on Monday PTI

Mamata Banerjee

City: Pg 3One-stop mobile app to explore city for tourists, locals alike: CM

Nation: Pg 8Gulab impact: Rain batters AP districts

Film: Pg 12Katherine pledges to support behind-the-scenes workers

The varsity said that colleges will announce special cut-offs after the third list, if there are vacant seats

NOW EVERY CHILD WILL LEARN PATRIOTISM. NOW EVERY CHILD WILL

BECOME A TRUE PATRIOT

On the occasion of the birth anniversary of Amar Shaheed Sardar Bhagat Singh Ji,

-Arvind KejriwalChief Minister, Delhi

Directorate of Education, Govt. of NCT of Delhi

‘DESHBHAKTI CURRICULUM’ IN DELHI’S SCHOOLS FROM TODAY

DIP

/Sha

bdar

th/D

/008

5/21

-22

millenniumpost2 TUESDAY, 28 SEPTEMBER, 2021 | NEW DELHI

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Over 60 fresh cases of dengue have been reported in the national capi-tal in the last one week, tak-ing the total count this year to more than 270, according to a civic report released on Mon-day. This month alone, at least 149 cases have been recorded till September 25, which is about 54 per cent of the cumulative cases this year so far. However, this is the least number of dengue cases reported in September when compared to the last six years.

According to the civic report, 102 cases of malaria and 52 cases of chikungunya have also been reported till September 25 this year. The number of dengue cases for January 1-September 25 period stands at 273, which is also the highest since 2019 when the count had stood at 282 dur-

ing the same period.Last year, 188 dengue cases

were reported in the entire month of September, and 190 the year before that. In preceding years, the figures stood at 374 (2018), 1103 (2017), 1,362 (2016) and 6,775 (2015), according to data shared by Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain on September 22.

He had claimed that the city this year has recorded the lowest count of dengue cases in Septem-ber, vis-a-vis the corresponding

numbers in the last six years.As per the civic report issued

by the municipal corporations last week, 211 cases of dengue were recorded till September 18 this year.

So, 62 fresh cases have been logged in one week while 72 cases were reported in the month of August, as per the report. Dengue mosquito larvae breed in clear, standing water, while those of malaria thrive even in dirty water.

Cases of vector-borne dis-

eases are usually reported between July and November, but the period may stretch till mid-December. However, no deaths have been reported due to dengue in the city till now, it said.

Malaria, dengue and chikun-gunya are accompanied with high fever and therefore, doc-tors feel that people might sus-pect that they have contracted COVID-19. Civic bodies in Delhi have intensified their measures to prevent outbreak of vector-borne diseases. Dengue cases reported in the national capi-tal till date are “under control” and the Delhi government is alert and all prepared to handle any situation arising out of the vector-borne disease, Jain had told reporters early this month.

The North MCD is set to run an intensive week-long anti-den-gue campaign from October 2.

NEW DELHI: Overgrown veg-etation, lawns and pathways around the iconic Corona-tion Pillar and Raj-era statues flooded with rain water — the sight at a historic park here, where “New Delhi’’ was born in 1911, is anything but visitor-friendly.

The place holds great his-torical significance as the Delhi Durbar was held on this very site, where King George V and Queen Mary were coronated as the emperor and the empress of India on December 12, 1911, and the British monarch had also announced the shifting of the capital from Calcutta to Delhi.

On World Tourism Day on Monday, the towering obelisk with a flight of stone steps lay surrounded with thick over-

grown vegetation and stagnated rain water, turning the once verdant lawns into practically a swampland.

The marble-made grand statues of King George V and of the four Viceroys, Lord Hardinge, Lord Willingdon, Lord Irwin and Lord Chelms-ford, stood stoically amid a mess created by the monsoon rains,

which on few days in the recent past had caused massive water-logging in various parts of Delhi with record rainfall.

To make matters worse, heritage enthusiasts and other people visiting the historic Coronation Park in north west Delhi’s Burari area, were not allowed to enter the park on Sunday by security guards, who

cited “lodging of paramilitary personnel” on its premises as the reason.

The massive heritage site falling under the Delhi Devel-opment Authority, sits next to Burari grounds, also owned by the DDA, where a large num-ber of farmers protesting against the new farm laws, had earlier camped amid heavy security deployment. The main farmer protests are happening at Delhi border areas.

The security guards on duty at the Coronation Park said that visitors are not being allowed for a long time as paramilitary personnel are lodged in a build-ing on its premises. However, a senior official of the DDA, when contacted, said, “No such offi-cial order has been issued. The park is open to public.” PTI

3millenniumpost

SHAHEED-E-AZAM

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal pays homage to revolutionary freedom fighter Bhagat Singh on his 114th birth anniversary at Delhi Assembly on Monday

City mpNEW DELHI | TUESDAY, 28 SEPTEMBER, 2021

One-stop mobile app to explore city for tourists, locals alike: CM

2.2K students start classes at Schools of Specialised Excellence across CapitalOUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Delhi gov-ernment’s 20 Schools of Spe-cialised Excellence (SoSE) started classes on Monday with around 2,200 students with the government marking Septem-ber 27 as the SoSE Foundation Day.

Deputy CM Manish Siso-dia held a live interaction with students and parents of all the 20 SoSEs and assured them of high-quality learning at the school.

The classes for the first batch of students started Mon-day with the Deputy CM Man-ish Sisodia interacting with the students and parents of all 20 SoSEs at the SoSE in the Kalk-aji area. Of the 14,245 students who appeared for the aptitude test of SoSEs, close to 2,200 students have been admitted so far.

Students have been admit-ted in the field of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), Human-ities, Performing and Visual Arts and High-end 21st Cen-tury Skills.

“We guarantee that the stu-dents passing out of SoSEs will

have immense belief in them-selves, they will be successful in whatever career they choose. Your marks are not your only criteria for success, your abil-ity to think new and creatively is what will set you apart from others,” he said.

While interacting with the students, the Deputy CM said that the students had cleared a highly competitive aptitude test to get admission in SoSEs, it is assured that they will have a good higher education and career. “Today, I want to assure the SoSE students and their parents that irrespective of the careers students will choose, they will have immense belief in themselves. And this is what SoSEs will prepare them for,” he said.

The Minister further explained that the govern-

ment’s aim is to develop out-of-box, creative thinking skills in the students and that marks shouldn’t be the only criteria for a student’s success. “In this uncertain world, a student’s ability to think new and cre-ative is what will set him/her apart from others. Covid has shown us that the future world is going to be very uncertain. Hence, our students should be prepared to solve the chal-lenges, which haven’t even arisen yet. They should be ready for the kind of jobs, which haven’t been created yet,” he added.

Kalkaji’s MLA Atishi, Direc-tor Education Udit Prakash, Principal Advisor to Director Education Shailendra Sharma and other education officials were present during the inter-action at SoSE Kalkaji.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Industries Minister Satyendar Jain has told traders in the capital that the city government will con-sider promoting the exhibition industry when the coronavi-rus situation becomes nor-mal, according to a statement by the Chamber of Trade and Industry.

Traders associated with the exhibition industry met Jain on Sunday and requested support to improve their business.

They suggested that mega exhibitions and shopping fes-tivals can be held in the capital on the lines of Dubai.

“Business remained stalled for a long time. Now govern-ments will have to cooperate to increase it,” CTI Chairman Brijesh Goyal said.

The exhibition industry comprises companies who operate by showcasing and allowing spaces and conduct-ing events.

Jain said the number of Covid cases is coming down in Delhi and the government will consider promoting the exhibition industry when the situation becomes normal, the statement said.

He asked traders to prepare a roadmap for holding mega exhibition fairs and shopping festivals in Delhi.

The minister said that there is no scope for big industries in Delhi.

DPCC ISSUES SHOW CAUSE NOTICES FOR CLOSURE TO 3 ‘HOTELS’ NEW DELHI: The Delhi Pollution Control Committee on Monday issued show cause notices for closure to three hotels in the city for violating environmental norms. During an inspection, DPCC officials found that the sewage treatment plants at two “hotels” — Taj Sats Catering Ltd and Ambassador’’s Sky Chef — at the IGI Airport Authority Complex were not operating properly.

IGL, SDMC INK PACT TO SET UP WASTE-TO-ENERGY PLANT NEW DELHI: Indraprastha Gas Ltd (IGL) on Monday signed a Memorandum of Understanding with South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) to establish a waste-to-energy plant in Delhi to convert municipal solid waste into compressed bio-gas (CBG) for use as fuel for running vehicles.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Delhi gov-ernment launched its first mobile app dedicated to an all-round enriching tourism expe-rience which will include details on sightseeing, food joints, lei-sure options and more.

While launching the “Dekho Meri Dilli App” Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that the app will provide details and cru-cial information about a tourist hotspot and amenities within a 5 km radius. He said that the app is a one-stop-solution for not just tourists but also Delhiites who want to explore the city.

“The app has a feature which allows the user to browse through monuments, eating joints, entertainment and recre-ation sites within a 5 kilometre radius of the location. The app has been designed with such sensitivity for the people that

even information about public conveniences is available on the app,” the CM added.

The “Dekho Meri Dilli” app will help one learn all about Delhi and its top destinations at one place and include details about the hidden gems in the city. The application allows users to book entry tickets to vari-

ous heritage monuments and book exclusive heritage walks at a click. Users can also take special food tours to the city’s top culinary hubs and get com-plete information on all shop-ping destinations and markets in one place.

It provides information on accommodation, entertainment

and leisure options. There are sections dedicated to ‘Delhi For Kids’, ‘Delhi Delicacies’, ‘Food Tours’, and ‘Health Walks’, the Government said in a state-ment. The users also can gain access to Google Maps to reach the destination with ease and it helps in planning the tour from half a day to six days. It also has information on all public and paid toilets

Present at the inaugural ceremony Deputy CM Manish Sisodia said with the launch of the app the Delhi government aims to promote tourism and boost all sectors like the food and beverages sector, entertain-ment sector, and hospitality sec-tor. “When the scale of tourism in Delhi rises by manifolds, we’ll see an unprecedented rise in the economy and job offerings in Delhi,” the CM said.

“Congratulations to every-one as we dedicate this unique

app to the people to celebrate the World Tourism Day. All information about tourism in Delhi will be available on this app in an organised, user-friendly, and effective manner,” Kejriwal said.

Sisodia said that there are largely three kinds of people who come to Delhi — those who come for official work, the app will show them where to feel the pulse of Delhi, where to eat, what sights to see, and otherwise.

“Second, those who come to travel to see Delhi, the Delhi government must provide authentic support and guid-ance, providing them with all possible options to travel. Thirdly, the locals in Delhi, who want to spend weekends in and around Delhi. We wish to give them options and make their experience travelling and enjoy-ing Delhi better,” he added.

‘DEKHO MERI DLLI’ APP OFFERS HERITAGE WALKS TO FOOD TOURS AT A TOUCH

City Briefs

NEW DELHI: Delhi’s Rev-enue Minister Kailash Gahlot convened a review meeting on Monday with Divisional Commissioners and DMs to expedite the disbursal of Ex-Gratia under Mukhya-mantri Covid-19 Parivar Arthik Sahayata Yojna. Under the government scheme for financial assistance to the kin of those lost to the virus, over 6,000 applicants have received the one-time ex-gra-tia of Rs 50,000 and a total of 9,643 applications have been received for financial support.

In the follow up meeting, a list of 25,709 deceased peo-ple shared by Health Depart-ment were discussed which have been segregated district wise by the Revenue Depart-ment. A total of 6,995 appli-cations have been approved.

The Administrative Reform and Revenue Depart-ment have been directed to depute one dedicated officer at Delhi Government Call Center to apprise them about the scheme as well as assist-ing them in filing the appli-cation on E-District portal. Till September 26th, around 11,000 calls have been made to the affected families.

The Revenue department was directed to create a pool of 100 officials at each SDM level to visit addresses of each deceased persons in the list of the Health Department to inform family members about the scheme and to assist them in filling up the applications. It was directed to complete the exercise within seven days. As on Sept 26, more than 10,000 families from the list of Health Department have been visited by the officials from the SDMs offices. MPOST

Over 6,000 given Covid

ex-gratia

Will consider promoting exhibitions when Covid

situation normalises: Jain OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Filing public interest litigations (PILs) has become an industry and a career in itself, the Centre said in the Delhi High Court on Monday as it argued that the appointment of Gujarat-cadre IPS officer Rakesh Asthana as Delhi Police Commissioner deserved no intervention.

(They say) there are good officers. Who are they? Are they the persons who possibly felt aggrieved? PIL is an indus-try, a career by itself, which was not envisaged, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta argued before a bench headed by Chief Justice DN Patel which reserved its verdict on lawyer Sadre Alam’s PIL against Ast-hana’s appointment.

Mehta, representing the Centre, stated that Asthana was appointed as Delhi Police Commissioner after following the due procedure, as applica-ble to the national capital, and

a PIL could not be permitted to be a forum for settling scores.

Senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi, representing Ast-hana, claimed before the bench, which also comprised Justice Jyoti Singh, that the petitioner was a proxy for somebody who does not want to come in the front and holds personal vendetta.

People are always aggrieved if some peer or someone in the same service is selected. But here there is no (such) chal-lenge. They are people who are educated, at the pinnacle of their career, he stated.

Both Centre and Asthana objected to the intervention plea filed by Centre for Pub-lic Interest Litigation (CPIL), which has already moved the Supreme Court against the appointment.

Neither the petitioner nor the intervenor is entitled to be heard by the court because of the malafide conduct, said senior lawyer Rohatgi.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, representing CPIL, stated that Centre’s stand that it found no eligible officers in the Union Territory cadre for appointment as Delhi Com-missioner was astounding and had a demoralising effect.

He also claimed that the petition here was a copy-paste of the organisation’s plea before the top court.

On August 25, the Supreme Court had asked the high court to decide within two weeks the plea pending before it against the appointment of the senior IPS officer as Delhi Police Commissioner.

Lawyer B S Bagga, appear-ing for the petitioner, denied the allegation of mala fide and contended that Asthana’s appointment was in the teeth of the settled service law.

However, the High Court has already remarked that Alam’s petition, did, in fact, seem to have been copied from Bhushan’s.

Challenge to Asthana’s appointment as CP, Delhi: Verdict reserved by HC

273 dengue cases so far, 149 of them in SeptNEW DELHI: AAP’s Saurabh Bhardwaj alleged that the toll tax revenue is being stolen by the MCD, and it is going into the pockets of councillors and the top leaders of the BJP.

He went on to explain that the MCD is waiving off dues of Rs 92.91 lakh of the toll company which will eventually end up in the pockets of the opposition leaders. He said that the lock-down was from April 19 to June 7, while the corporation wants to give a waiver of toll tax to the toll company from April 10 to August 1. He said that his party will oppose this proposal in the standing committee of SDMC.

There are several toll taxes on Delhi-Faridabad route, Delhi-Gurugram borders and at many other places in and around the city. All the commercial vehicles

also need to pay toll tax. One of the major reasons behind MCD’s bankruptcy is the shortage of revenue from toll taxes, the AAP said in a statement. “We ask this question to Adesh Gupta and give him 24 hours time to respond, ‘How much toll tax should the MCD get per year and how much is it getting for the last 15 years’? Adesh Gupta is a councillor in the MCD as well and he knows very well how much money is being stolen and how it is being stolen from the MCD,” Bharadwaj said.

SDMC Mayor, Mukesh Suryan denying the allegations by AAP, said: “SDMC is nodal agency on behalf of all three MCDs for toll tax collection. To make it transparent, SDMC has implemented RFID System at all toll plazas.” MPOST

AAP claims BJP stealing toll tax through MCDs

A historical monument, Coronation Park in Burari now reduced to a ‘swampland’

Visitors not allowed as paramilitary personnel are lodged hereOUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Delhi zoo got three lions from Gujarat for breeding purposes under an animal exchange programme on Monday, officials said. One lion and two lionesses have been brought from Kevadia and Sakkarbaug in Gujarat, an official said. In return, Delhi will give two hippopotamuses to the western state.

The Delhi zoo also welcomed a four-horned antelope and a red-eared slider turtle. “The lions will be kept in quarantine for 20 days and will be released in their enclosure thereafter,” the official said. The Delhi zoo had only one lion, Sundaram, and one lioness, Hema. Sundaram had suffered a paralytic attack last year.

A seven-year-old lion, Aman, had died in May after a prolonged illness. An 11-year-old lioness, Akila, who suffered from paral-

ysis for 9 years, died in August last year. Delhi is also likely to get two tigresses and a pair of sloth bears from the Gorewada zoo in Nagpur.

The Arignar Anna Zoologi-cal Park in Chennai is likely to provide a tiger to Delhi.

A Bengal tigress was brought from Kanpur for breeding pur-poses in November last year. The Delhi zoo is a participating zoo for the “Conservation Breeding Programme” of Bengal Tiger.

According to the Central Zoo Authority, the programme is the science of conserving a species by preventing imminent popu-lation collapse in the wild due to a large number of eliminative pressures (such as habitat loss, habitat fragmentation, industri-alisation, poaching, illegal trade and climate change).

At present, the Delhi zoo has five white tigers — three males and two females and a pair each of Bengal tigers.

Delhi zoo now gets 3 lions from Gujarat for breeding

ACTIVE CASES

366 DEATH TOLL

25,085

DELHI COUNT

COVID-19

REPRESENTATIVE PIC

PIC/NAVEEN SHARMA

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court Monday refused to grant bail to an accused in a case con-cerning the northeast Delhi riots of 2020, saying that there was “pre-planned and pre-meditated conspiracy to disturb law and order in the city” and events “did not take place in a spur of the moment”.

Justice Subramonium Prasad, while dealing with a bail appli-cation moved by one Mohd Ibrahim in the case concern-ing the alleged murder of Delhi Police head constable Ratan Lal, observed that there was a systematic disconnection and destruction of the CCTV cam-eras in areas near the place of the incident and “innumerable rioters ruthlessly descended with sticks, dandas, bats, etc. upon a hopelessly outnumbered cohort of police officials”.

“The riots which shook the National Capital of the coun-try in February 2020 evidently did not take place in a spur of

the moment, and the conduct of the protestors who are pres-ent in the video footage which has been placed on record by the prosecution visibly portrays that it was a calculated attempt to dislocate the functioning of the Government as well as to disrupt the normal life of the people in the city,” the court said.

“The systematic discon-nection and destruction of the CCTV cameras also confirm the existence of a preplanned and pre-meditated conspiracy to disturb law and order in the city,” it added.

Dismissing the bail applica-tion of Ibrahim, the court stated that the available video footage showing the petitioner with the sword was “quite egregious” and sufficient to keep him in custody.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court Monday directed removal of encroachments and unau-thorised occupants and shop-keepers, who do not have any valid legal rights to occupy the shops, from Kalkaji Temple in South Delhi and said the action be taken within five days keep-ing in view the forthcoming Navratras festival.

The high court said it is essen-tial for a temple, where thousands of devotees visit for conduct-ing puja every day, irrespective of its public or private status, to be devoid of unauthorised encroachments, which results

in extreme inconvenience and safety and security concerns for the devotees.

Justice Prathiba M Singh also appointed retired Delhi High Court judge, Justice J R Midha as the administrator of the Kalkaji Temple for perform-ing various functions in relation

to the religious place.The judge also appointed

Goonmeet Singh Chauhan, a renowned Architect who has undertaken various projects of public importance, to submit a re-development plan for the Kalkaji Mandir and the entire surrounding complex and said

he shall work closely with the Administrator and his team.

The court said the mandate of the administrator shall be to take all necessary steps in the interest of devotees, pilgrims, baridaars (persons managing temple affairs), in order to ensure their safety and security, as also to preserve the integrity and sanctity of the deity and the mandir which is of utmost his-torical importance to the people of Delhi.

“The manner in which the shopkeepers have constructed their shops has created obstruc-tions in the movement of dev-otees, as is evident from the photographs which have been

placed on record. For the purpose of the safety of devotees and oth-ers in the mandir, it is essential that unauthorised occupants/ shopkeepers/tehbazari hold-ers/chabutara holders who do not have any valid legal rights to occupy the same are liable to be removed in coordination with the Delhi Police and the SDMC,” the court said, in its 77-page judgement.

It directed that all unauthor-ised occupants/encroachers, who do not enjoy valid tehbazari licences, and are in unauthor-ised occupation of the premises, would be liable to be removed, until and unless there is a court order protecting the occupant.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Anirudh Dahiya, an accused in the Chhatrasal Stadium murder case involv-ing Olympic medallist wres-tler Sushil Kumar, has moved a Delhi court seeking bail. The bail application of Dahiya, an international wrestler, will be heard by the court on Tuesday.

The case relates to the alleged murder of former junior national wrestling champion Sagar Dhan-kar. Sushil Kumar is the main accused in the case.

Kumar and Dahiya along with several others had alleg-edly assaulted Dhankar and his friends at the stadium here on the intervening night of May 4 and 5 over an alleged property dispute.

Dhankar succumbed to the

injuries later. According to the post-mortem report, he died due to the “cerebral damage result-ing from blunt object impact”. The chargesheet has named 13 accused.

Dahiya’s call data record (CDR) showed that he was pres-ent at the place of the alleged incident, according to the final report submitted by the police in the court on August 3.

“Accused Anirudh Dahiya is an international wrestler.

His father was also a wrestler and retired from Army,” the chargesheet stated. The 22-year-old resident of Haryana’s Sonipat city was arrested on June 10.

The brawl at the stadium was allegedly the result of a conspir-acy hatched by Sushil Kumar, who wanted to re-establish his supremacy among younger wres-tlers, the police said.

In the chargesheet, the police relied on the oral dying declara-tion of the deceased, scientific evidence including locations of the accused, CCTV footage, weapons, and vehicles recovered from the spot.

The Delhi Police had filed an FIR against the accused for offences such as murder, attempt to murder, culpable homicide, criminal conspiracy, kidnapping, robbery, rioting, among others.

The same arrangement will be made for witnesses who are presently out on interim bail: Director-General of Prisons

PAINTING A PRETTY COMMUTE

The South Delhi Municipal Corporation under initiatives of flagship programme ‘Swachh Bharat Mission’ has beautified walls of Nehru Place flyover with mural paintings

HC stays order asking for CM’s ‘promise’ on rent to be enforced

Safety and security in courts to come up in Delhi HC tomorrow

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Monday said it would hear on September 29 a plea seeking enhanced security in district courts in the national capital which recently witnessed a courtroom shootout that killed three people. Lawyer Richa Singh informed a bench of Chief Jus-tice D N Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh that she has moved an application for early hearing in the petition pending since 2019, seeking better safety and security at the courts where incidents of crime have taken place.

The application specifically mentions the Rohini Court com-plex incident in which three peo-ple, including a gangster, were killed in a courtroom shootout last week. Counter affidavit was filed by the high court registry and loopholes on the ground were pointed out, she added.

The application has sought an urgent hearing on account of the shootout inside a court-room in Rohini court complex here on September 24, leaving three gangsters dead and a law intern injured. The PIL was filed by six law students and sought enhancement of security sys-tems at the district courts in the national capital.

Rival gangster’s role: Significantly, according to cops privy to devel-opments in the case so far, infa-mous gangster Tillu Tajpuria was in contact with the attackers before and after the shootout. It is being suspected that Gogi was executed by his archrival Tillu.

After the Special Cell of Delhi Police arrested Umang Yadav and Vinay Mota on Sunday, they confessed that Umang had left two shooters in the Rohini court in the guise of lawyers. While, Vinay- the second accused, had

helped in disposing of the clothes and mobile phones of both the shooters after the encounter. The police have now recovered clothes and mobile phones.

They allegedly confessed that Tajpuria had planned to get rival Jitendra Gogi out of the way. While sitting in the jail, he was giving instructions one by one. He was further taking every little detail from the attackers- whether they reached the court or not, how far they were, and when they would reach, etc.

CASE FILED AFTER CAR STOLEN FROM SHASTRI BHAWAN PARKING NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police has registered a case in connection with the theft of a car from the parking of Shastri Bhawan in central part of the city, officials said on Monday. The driver of the vehicle had lodged an e-FIR last week. In his complaint, the driver reported about the theft of the vehicle, identified as Maruti Ciaz, bearing registration number DL2CAZ4150. The vehicle was stolen from inside Shastri Bhawan, police said. A senior police officer said police are checking CCTV footage and making inquiries as the building is under CISF protection.

RUCKUS IN EDMC HOUSE, MAYOR SUSPENDS 20 AAP MEMBERS NEW DELHI: East Delhi Mayor Shyam Sunder Ag-garwal on Monday said he has suspended 20 AAP members of the EDMC for 15 days for allegedly creating ruckus and indulging in misconduct during the proceedings of the House. The issue that led to chaotic scenes in the EDMC House was related to an old temple in east Delhi, whose land is allegedly being eyed by A few people, he said. The 20 members also include, eight nominated members of the opposition party, Aggarwal said.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The prison authority Monday told the Delhi High Court that direc-tions have been passed to ensure the safety and security of inmates who are witnesses in the case concerning the alleged murder of inmate Ankit Guj-jar in Tihar jail and they are being lodged in an area under the CCTV surveillance.

In its status report, the Director-General of Prisons told Justice Mukta Gupta that

the same arrangement will be made for witnesses who are presently out on interim bail.

The judge said that given the authority’s stand, no fur-ther court orders are called for on the petition by five inmates seeking directions to ensure their safety as well as to restrain the authorities from “threatening/coercing/injur-ing them with a view to prevent them from seeking justice for themselves and the deceased inmate”.

The status report said “two

CCTV cameras are installed inside their (two inmates) cell and 24x7 footage of cell is being closely monitored by the offi-

cials whenever inmates are locked out from their cell, they are escorted by two Tamil Nadu special police personnel. Two

CCTV cameras are installed inside barrack and one camera is installed out the gallery (for the third inmate).”

“As and when (the other two inmates).. surrender before the jail authorities, they shall be lodged after due consideration towards their safety and secu-rity,” it added.

“The jail staff on duty has been briefed for keeping ade-quate safety and security of these prisoners and also to keep a close watch on their move-ments,” it further said.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court Monday stayed an order directing the Delhi govern-ment to decide and formulate a policy on the implementa-tion of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s announcement that if a poor tenant was unable to pay rent during the COVID-19 pandemic, the state would pay it.

A bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh issued notice on the Delhi gov-ernment’s appeal against the order passed by a single judge, who also held that a Chief Minister’s promise to citizens is enforceable in nature.

The bench said that irrepa-rable loss would be caused to the appellant if an order of stay is not passed.

There is a prima case in favour of the appellant. Bal-ance of convenience is in favour of the appellant and irreparable loss shall be caused. We stay the operation, implementation,

and execution of the order of the single judge till the next date of hearing, said the bench which posted the matter for further hearing on November 29.

Senior counsel Manish Vashisht, appearing for the Delhi government, claimed that in the backdrop of the out-break of the pandemic, a fer-vent appeal was made by the Chief Minister to the public at large not to coerce the tenants into paying rent, however, the

same was found to be a sort of a promise by the single judge.

Accordingly to me, there was no promise at all. We only said please follow the statement of the Prime Minister. We said to the landlords (that) do not coerce tenants to pay rent..and even if, to some extent, the poor do not find the means to pay, the government will look into it, he stated.

Significantly, taking note of his submission, the bench said so you have no intention

to make the payment? Even five per cent payment. The senior counsel responded saying only if the situation demanded.

Lawyer Gaurav Jain, rep-resenting the petitioners —daily wagers and workers who sought to enforce the prom-ise before the single judge, opposed the grant of any order of stay. He said his cli-ents have no means to pay the rent amount.

In its appeal, the Delhi government has submitted that expecting a government to implement a truncated sen-tence from the press conference held by the Hon’ble CM, devoid of its context and in the face of developments which dem-onstrate that the eventuality for which the assurance was made never actually transpired, is grossly inequitable.

On July 22, Justice Prat-hiba M Singh had ruled that a Chief Minister’s promise to citizens was enforceable and directed the AAP government to decide within six weeks

Arvind Kejriwal’s announce-ment that the state would pay rent on behalf of a poor ten-ant who is unable to do so on account of COVID19.

The judge had opined that against the backdrop of a com-mitment made by Chief Min-ster, a lack of decision-making or indecision was contrary to law.

A statement given in a con-sciously held press conference, in the background of the lock-down announced due to the pandemic and the mass exo-dus of migrant labourers, can-not be simply overlooked. Proper governance requires the government to decide on the assurance given by the CM, and inaction on the same can-not be the answer, the single judge had said in an 89-page verdict.

On September 10, a single judge had granted two more weeks to the Delhi govern-ment to decide with regards to the implementation of the assurance.

CJ’S BENCH TAKES UP APPEAL IN DELHI HIGH COURT

Death of gangster Ankit Gujjar: Ensuring safety & security of witnesses, prison authorities tell HC

City Briefs

4 millenniumpostCitympTUESDAY, 28 SEPTEMBER, 2021 | NEW DELHI

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OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police submitted before a local court here that the hate speech com-plaints against Dasna Devi temple priest Narsinghanand Saraswati and Karni Sena chief Suraj Pal Amu, should be trans-ferred to the police departments in Aligarh and Nuh, where they had made their alleged remarks.

The police here have said this in an action taken report filed before Metropolitan Mag-istrate Rajat Goyal in the Saket district court. The court had earlier directed the police to file an action taken report in the matter, where a plea had sought FIRs against these right-wing influencers.

The police said that the alleged “incident of passing communally provocative and

divisive remarks against Mus-lims” had not taken place in their jurisdiction and so the complaints should be sent to the concerned police stations, where they should be probed.

The court is slated to take the matter up for an FIR against Saraswati and Amu next on October 8.

In its earlier order, seeking an action taken report in the case, the court had directed the concerned SHO to explicitly mention if any probe or inquiry had been conducted on these complaints and if so, what is the result and status of the said probe. In addition, the court had asked the Delhi Police to examine if offences are made out and whether FIRs had been registered or not.

Through advocates Kam-ran Javed, Anshu Davar, and

Sarim Naved, the petitioners approached a local court seeking that appropriate directions be issued to the Jamia Nagar police station for an FIR against the two right-wing personalities, who had allegedly demeaned Mus-lims and Islam in their speeches.

The petitioner argued that the speeches were an example of hate speech and were pur-portedly made with the intent to sow disharmony among Hin-dus and Muslims.

Allegations against Saras-wati include that of a speech at a press conference in July, where he “malignantly delivered with the intention of provoking peo-ple to cause riots against those studying and working in educa-tional institutions like Aligarh Muslim University, Jamia Millia Islamia and Darul Uloom Deo-band”, the petition says.

‘Plaints against Dasna priest, Karni Sena chief should go to UP & Hry’

HC calls 2020 Delhi riots ‘a pre-meditated conspiracy’

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: A 29-year-old man wanted in several cases related to last year’s northeast Delhi riots and was declared a proclaimed offender has been arrested from Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh, police said on Monday.

Police received information on Saturday that the accused, Mohammad Salman, was in Bulandshahr. Following this, he was apprehended from the Civil Lines area of the city, Dep-uty Commissioner of Police (Crime) Rajesh Deo said.

The police officer claimed that during interrogation, Salman, a resident of Yamuna Vihar in Delhi’s North Ghonda area, disclosed that he was in a “state of aggression” over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) issues.

Man wanted in riots cases

held in UP

Delhi HC orders removal of encroachment, unauthorised occupants from Kalkaji Temple

The court further said that the action must be taken within five days

Chhatrasal murder: International wrestler’s bail plea posted for today

NEW DELHI: After the inci-dent of gang war which took three lives inside Rohini court-room in Delhi, another youth was shot dead on Monday in Dwarka district, which was also said to be an incident of gang rivalry, according to cops.

During the incident, gang-ster Tinku Kharab of the Man-jeet Mahal gang sustained six bullet injuries and died on the spot, police officials informed. As per the primary investi-gation, the miscreants who attacked Tinku had come in

a Maruti Swift car, and two to three boys fired at him. Sources said that the accused also belong to the Nandu gang and the rivalry of both the gangs started years ago when assailants from the Nandu gang killed infamous gangster Man-jeet Mahal’s father.

Moreover, in December 2015, Sunil aka Doctor- Nan-du’s brother-in-law, was mur-dered in Chhawla by Manjeet Mahal’s gang. A team of spe-cial staff is also investigating the matter. MPOST

Dwarka: Youth shot dead, police suspect gang war

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Union minis-ters Sarbananda Sonowal and L Murugan were on Monday elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha from Assam and Mad-hya Pradesh respectively.

BJP nominee S Selvaganapa-thy was declared elected unop-posed to the lone seat in Rajya Sabha from Puducherry, the first time the saffron party has got representation in the Upper House from the Union Terri-tory, while DMK's two nomi-nees, Kanimozhi N V N Somu and K R N Rajeshkumar, were elected without contest from Tamil Nadu.

Sushmita Dev, who left the Congress and joined the Trin-amool Congress a little over a month ago, was declared elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha from West Bengal.

Dev, who is the daughter of Congress heavyweight and former union minister San-tosh Mohan Dev, is a former Lok Sabha MP from Silchar in Assam.

Senior Congress leader Rajani Patil is also set to be declared elected unopposed to a Rajya Sabha from Maharash-tra after the opposition BJP on Monday withdrew its candidate from the next month's bypolls.

Sonowal, the lone candi-date in the fray for the RS seat in Assam, was declared elected to the Upper House of Parlia-ment by the Returning Officer

on the last day of withdrawal of nomination.

Accompanied by Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and BJP state president Bhabesh Kalita, he collected the election certificate from the Returning Officer in the after-noon from the state assembly premises.

Speaking to reporters, Sonowal said he will continue to work for the betterment of the state and its people.

The former chief minister thanked the BJP leadership, including Prime Minister Nar-endra Modi, party president JP Nadda, Union Home Minis-ter Amit Shah and Assam CM Himanta Sarma, for their sup-port towards him. "My special thanks to the people of Assam and especially Majuli for their unrelenting belief and trust in me," he added.

Sonowal, 59, was inducted as the Minister for Ports, Ship-ping and Ayush in Prime Min-ister Narendra Modi's cabinet in July, necessitating his entry into Parliament.

The byelection in Madhya Pradesh became necessary after

then Union minister Thawarch-and Gehlot resigned following his appointment as the governor of Karnataka in July this year.

Murugan, who helmed the Tamil Nadu unit of BJP until July before being inducted in the Union cabinet, is the Minis-ter of State for Information and Broadcasting, Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying.

From Tamil Nadu, two vacancies arose in the Upper House following the resigna-tion of AIADMK leaders, K P Munusamy and R Vaithilingam, after they won the Assembly polls in May.

Kanimozhi, an obstetri-cian and gynecologist, is the daughter of late party veteran and former Union Minister N V N Somu. She fills the seat vacated by Munusamy and her term would be till April, 2026.

The term of Rajeshkumar, the party's in-charge for Namak-kal-East District who fills the vacancy caused by Vaithilin-gam's resignation, would be till June 2022.

The main opposition AIADMK did not field any nominees. In Maharashtra, the by-election was necessitated due to the death of sitting Congress MP Rajeev Satav in May.

The BJP had fielded Sanjay Upadhyay for the bypolls and he has now withdrawn from the race, paving the way for Rajani Patil (62) to get elected unop-posed. Patil and Upadhyay were the only candidates in the fray.

RS: Several leaders elected unopposed

Sarbananda Sonowal, L Murugan, S Selvaganapathy, Kanimozhi N V N Somu, K R N Rajeshkumar, Sushmita Dev are among the leaders who got selected unchallenged

Ayushman BharatThe active cases comprise 0.89 per cent of the

total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 97.78 per cent, the ministry said. A decrease of 3,856 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours. Less than 50,000 daily new cases have been reported for 92 consecutive days, the ministry said. The cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country crossed 86 crore on Monday, the ministry added.

More than 88 lakh (88,98,560) vaccine doses have been administered till 7 pm, it said.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has further delayed the Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) for Covaxin, the Covid vac-cine developed in India, as the global body has sent more technical queries to its manufacturer Bharat Biotech, according to sources. This delay is likely to adversely affect Indians’, especially students’, inter-national travel plans, reports said.

Without EUA, Covaxin will not be considered an accepted vaccine by most countries around the world. WHO’s queries for Bharat Biotech comes despite the Hyderabad-based drug maker asserting that it has submitted all data required for clearance. The indication of a delay comes merely days after the Union Health ministry hinted that the global body was likely to give its nod anytime soon.

‘India needs a leader like Mamata’

He is understood to be peeved with the deci-sion of the party high command to stick with incumbent Congress president Girish Chodankar.

Amid rumours of him joining the TMC, Faleiro had on Sunday said he would make an ‘important announcement’. TMC leader Derek O’Brien told PTI on Saturday in Goa that the party will be con-testing the upcoming Assembly polls and they were in touch with several local leaders.

He had said the TMC will announce its Chief Ministerial candidate soon.

Meanwhile, former Maharashtrawadi Goman-tak Party MLA Lavu Mamlatdar on Monday said he would be joining the Trinamool Congress and was keen to contest the 2022 Goa Assembly polls from Madkaim, a stronghold of MGP chief Sudin Dhavalikar. Mamlatdar, a former police officer who represented Ponda seat between 2012 and 2017, said he had been in discussions with the Mamata Banerjee-led party since September 1 and would be joining it formally in Kolkata on Tuesday. “I would like to contest the 2022 Assembly polls from Mad-kaim,” he told reporters.

Bharat BandhTikait also issued a statement to say that the

response had shown their protest is a pan India one. The agitation, he said, can end today if the Centre agrees to a rollback.

Though life in large parts of India was unhin-dered by the shutdown, north India felt the impact with about 25 trains being affected and massive jams that prevented the cross border movement of commuters as well as trucks carrying essentials. Hundreds of cars were stacked bumper-to bum-per along the Gurgaon-Delhi border on Monday morning as the vehicles entering the national Capi-tal were being checked by Delhi Police in wake of the strike. A few hours later, massive rows of sta-tionary traffic, with vehicles closely tailing each other, were seen to be clearing up.

Earlier, Delhi Police had said that the “secu-rity will be preventive”. “There is no call for Bharat Bandh in Delhi, but we are watching the develop-ments and adequate number of personnel will be on ground,” the police said. Autorickshaws and

taxis are operating normally in Delhi and shops were open, with their unions and associations extending only “in-principle support” to the strike.

Traffic movement at the Ghazipur border was hit as well and the Delhi Traffic Police closed vehic-ular movement on the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh Ghazi-pur border. The Delhi Noida Direct (DND) flyway also witnessed massive traffic congestion.

Delhi itself was mostly unaffected, but there was chaos at its borders with traffic snarls that stretched through much of the day and commuters who couldn’t get to office, or college or even to that important doctor’s appointment.

While there were instances of unwell patients being let through, among those stuck at the Delhi-Gurgaon border was a man who couldn’t make it for his appointment at the Medanta Hospital in Gurgaon. Farmers blocked other roads leading into the national Capital, including at Ghazipur in western Uttar Pradesh. Not far away in Sonipat in Haryana, some farmers squatted on tracks. In nearby Patiala in Punjab, too, members of the BKU-Ugrahan sat on the tracks to register their protest. Punjab saw a complete shutdown in many places, including Moga where farmers blocked national highways. Farmer leaders from Punjab have, in many ways, spearheaded the year-long protest.

“#I Stand With Farmers & appeal the Union Govt. to repeal the three anti-farmer laws. Our farmers have been struggling for their rights since more than a year & it is high time that their voice is heard,” Punjab’s new Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi said in a tweet.

According to the SKM, people gathered at more than 500 locations in Punjab to express their sup-port to the bandh.

In neighbouring Haryana, highways in Sirsa, Fatehabad and Kurukshetra were blocked.

There were also reports of farmers squatting on rail tracks at a few places in the two states.

“More than 20 locations are being blocked in Delhi, Ambala, and Ferozepur divisions. About 25 trains are affected due to this,” a Northern Railway spokesperson said.

Many non-NDA parties extended support to the bandh, including the Congress, Aam Aadmi Party, Samajwadi Party, Telugu Desam Party, Bahu-jan Samaj Party, Left parties and Swaraj India. The YSR Congress government in Andhra Pradesh had also announced support to the Bharat Bandh.

In West Bengal, life was largely unaffected but activists blocked roads and railway tracks in many places. Images from Kolkata showed protesters swarming a section of a railway track. The ruling Trinamool Congress said it supported the demands of the SKM. Elsewhere in the region, vehicular movement was impacted and shops shut in several places in Jharkhand, including in the state capital Ranchi and Dumka. Road blockades led to conges-tion on key highways.

In Bihar and Odisha, too, there was a mixed response. In Odisha, reports came in of protests at different places, including in Bhubaneswar where demonstrators blocked the track at the Bhu-baneswar station. In Kerala, where the strike was supported by the ruling LDF and the opposition Congress-led UDF, KSRTC bus services were off the road with almost all trade unions in the state taking part.

All emergency establishments and essential services, including hospitals, medical stores, relief and rescue work and people attending to per-sonal emergencies were exempted from the strike. Expressing support for protesting farmers, Con-gress leader Rahul Gandhi said the farmers’ non-violent ‘Satyagraha’ is still resolute.

Posting rhyming lines in Hindi on Twitter, Gandhi said: “Kisano ka ahimsak satyagraha aaj bhi akhand hai, lekin shoshankar sarkar ko ye nahi pasand hai, isliye aaj Bharat Bandh hai (Farmers’ non-violent satyagraha is resolute even today, but the exploitative government does not like this and that’s why it is Bharat Bandh today).”

The government and farmer unions have held 11 rounds of talks so far, the last being on January 22, to break the deadlock and end the farmers’ pro-test. Talks have not resumed following widespread violence during a tractor rally by protesting farm-ers on January 26.

DU 1st cut-off listThe fifth list will be announced on November 8

and the candidates will be able to apply for admis-sion by November 9 at 10 am and ending on the next day on November 10 at 11.59 pm.

The colleges will complete admission approvals by 11.59 pm on November 11 with the last date of payment being November 12 by 5 pm.

They will declare cut-offs under the spe-cial drive on vacant seats wherever applicable on November 13 with admissions happening between November 14 and 15 and the last date of payment being November 16.

SC on changes in syllabus

Senior advocate Maninder Singh, appearing for NBE, said they be given time to file the reply till next Monday, as there were suitable reasons for doing the changes and authorities were well aware of the difficulties of the students and was after approvals of the three authorities concerned.

The Bench added: “Then why the notification for examination was issued Mr Singh? Why can-not it happen next year? You see, students start pre-paring for these critical medicine courses months and months in advance. What was the need for last minute change?”

Singh said that the change in syllabus was in the offing for quite some time and preparation was on since 2018 and the authorities concerned have tried to take care of the difficulties.

“Kindly give us one week, we will explain every-thing,” he said. The Bench told the senior counsel: “We are ready to hear you but tell the authorities that we are unsatisfied with the way the last-minute changes were made. We are putting you on notice in advance that if we don’t agree with your justifi-cation, we will pass strictures and we will deal with you.” It said: “Just because someone has the author-ity to wield power does not mean that he can wield power without application of mind. When you yourself issued notification for examination in July, then what was the need to rock the boat in August. Please talk to MoHFW and NMC and put your house in order.”

Justice Chandrachud said that this examina-tion is very important for their (doctors) career and merely because these doctors have already passed the MBBS exams doesn’t mean that they can change the exam pattern last minute.

“You have to deal with these young doctors with sensitivity,” he said.

Justice Nagarathna said that pattern of study for these young doctors will depend on the pattern of questions. “If you make last-minute changes, they will be ruffled.”

She said the young doctors might be put at ruse due to the last minute changes.

Justice Chandrachud said that he agrees with his sister judge and added: “We have an example of Common Law Admission Test (CLAT). I have heard that students need to study for two years to prepare for the exams. Here it takes months and months for these doctors who have to study critical medicines and to prepare for the examination and you cannot just make last-minute changes.”

Singh said the court should hear the arguments first and then form any opinion in the matter. The Bench said that it is open to the arguments but if it does not accept the submissions then the authori-ties concerned should also be ready to accept the strictures passed by the court. The plea has said as per the prevailing pattern of examination, 60 per cent marks are given on questions from super spe-ciality courses while 40 per cent of the marks are given from other courses.

As per the notification issued on August 31 for modifying the pattern of examination, 100 per cent marks will be now given on questions from general medicines. The young doctors have said in their plea that they have been preparing for the exami-nation as per the earlier pattern which has been in existence for the last three years.

From Page 1

MPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Monday flagged the issue of corporate matters being fre-quently mentioned before it for urgent listing by the lawyers, saying that the cases about the weaker sections and criminal matters would go backstage.

The observation was made by a bench headed by Chief Jus-tice N V Ramana when senior advocate C U Singh mentioned a corporate matter for the pri-ority hearing.

We have to wait. We are streamlining the (mentioning) system and here corporations want their matters to be listed first, the CJI observed.

The bench, also comprising justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli then referred to criminal appeals, family disputes, and the cases of poor people pend-ing adjudication and said that they would take backstage.

There are pending crimi-nal appeals, bail matters, and other cases of people of weaker sections too. They are lagging behind, the bench said.

Earlier, the CJI had said that the new system of men-tioning cases for urgent hear-ings before apex court officials instead of its benches directly has been put in place to ensure

that senior lawyers are not given special priority over their junior colleagues.

We do not want to give any special priority to the senior lawyers and deprive the junior lawyers of their oppor-tunities. So this system was made, where all can make the mention before the men-tioning Registrar", the bench had said.

"First you go to the men-tioning Registrar, and if it is disallowed, your right to men-tion before the bench is auto-matic, the bench had told lawyer Prashant Bhushan.

CJI Ramana has discon-tinued the practice of allow-ing direct mentioning of cases for urgent listing before the benches and has instead asked the lawyers to mention their cases before the designated official.

SC flags mentioning of corporate cases for urgent hearing

Says those of poor would take backseat

There are pending criminal appeals, bail matters, and other cases of people of weaker sections too. They are lagging behind, the bench said

NEW DELHI: Getting aid is not a fundamental right, the Supreme Court observed on Monday and said the govern-ment should take into account various factors such as finan-cial constraints and deficien-cies while deciding on aid for educational institutions.

Also, when it comes to aided institutions, there cannot be any difference between a minority and non-minority one, the apex court said. Right to get an aid is not a fundamental right, the challenge to a decision made in implementing it, shall only be on restricted grounds," said a bench of Justices S K Kaul and M M Sundresh.

Therefore, even in a case where a policy decision is made to withdraw the aid, an insti-tution cannot question it as a

matter of right. Maybe, such a challenge would still be avail-able to an institution, when a grant is given to one institution as against the other institution which is similarly placed, the bench said. The top court said if an institution does not want to accept and comply with the con-ditions accompanying such aid, it is well open to it to decline the grant and move on its own way.

On the contrary, an insti-tution can never be allowed to say that the grant of aid should be on its own terms, the bench said. The apex court’s observa-tions came while allowing Uttar Pradesh’s appeal challenging the Allahabad High Court verdict holding that Regulation 101 framed under The Intermediate Education Act, 1921 is uncon-stitutional. MPOST

Right to get aid is not fundamental right: SC

BHOPAL: At least nine persons, including seven women, were killed and four others injured in separate incidents of the light-ning strike in Madhya Pradesh’s Dewas and Agar Malwa districts on Monday, police said.

Of the nine, six persons, including five women, were killed in three separate inci-dents of the lightning strike in Deriya Gudia, Khal and Bamni villages in the Dewas district this afternoon, officials said.

Similarly, three persons, including two women and a boy, were killed and four oth-ers injured in three separate incidents at Manasa, Pilwas and Lasudiya Kelwa villages under the Nalkheda police station of the Agar Malwa district. AGENCIES

MP: 9 killed in lightning

strikes

5millenniumpost Nation mpNEW DELHI | TUESDAY, 28 SEPTEMBER, 2021

Traffic paralysed in Haryana, Punjab as farmers block roads

Solution to protest only through dialogue: Tikait

COMMUTERS HAVE A TOUGH TIME

6 millenniumpostNationmpTUESDAY, 28 SEPTEMBER, 2021 | NEW DELHI

GHAZIABAD: Farmer leader Rakesh Tikait on Monday said the solution to the ongo-ing farmers' protest against the Centre's three agri laws can be reached only through dialogue and not in the courts.

The Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) national spokesper-son was speaking during an online discussion hosted by the Bharatiya Chhatra Sansad (Indian Students Parliament), Pune, a non-political platform.

Several trains were can-celled, highways and key roads blocked and many thousands stranded for hours on Monday as a nationwide 10-hour shut-down against the Centre's three agri laws disrupted lives across parts of India, particularly in the north.

Tikait said the 10-month-long protest, under the ban-ner of Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), is to prevent 'roti' from becoming a market commod-ity, and privatisation of the agriculture sector.

"I don't know what is going to be the end of this protest but the movement has begun and the country's youth, who often remained away from discus-sion on farming-related issues, is also joining it," he said.

In response to a query on the way forward, the BKU leader said, "The solution to the ongoing protests against the three agri laws of the Centre

can be achieved only through dialogue and not in the courts of law."

He said the farmers' stir is not only against the three laws and for legal guarantee on the minimum support price for crops but also against privati-sation of agriculture.

Referring to a leading mul-tinational fast food chain, Tikait claimed, "When these stores close their work at the end of the day, they have plenty of unsold food which goes to the dustbins. There could be hungry staff or poor people outside their shops, but the unsold food goes to the dust-bin only."

Hitting out at the BJP-led Centre, he alleged that the gov-ernment has now "illegally"

captured "several institutions" which the country has also understood now.

Speaking at the session ear-lier in the day, BJP MLA and Deputy Speaker in the Assam Assembly Dr. Numal Momin said the new laws are aimed at checking middlemen in the farming sector and benefitting both farmers and consumers.

He said the growth of farm-ers was important for the coun-try's growth and some people opposed to the new laws now might realise their benefits eventually. "PM Modi brought these laws to end the middle-men from the farming system. Also, the benefits, which ear-lier went to middlemen, would be passed on to consumers, Momin said. AGENCIES

PRIYANKA IN LUCKNOW ON 5-DAY VISIT LUCKNOW: Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra arrived here on Monday on a five-day visit during which she will discuss with workers and leaders the party's preparedness for next year's Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, sources said. Her visit to the state came just a day after Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath expanded his council of ministers by inducting Jitin Prasada and six oth-ers to balance the caste and regional aspirations ahead of the Assembly elections. Prasada, who had crossed over to the BJP from the Congress in June, was administered oath as a cabinet minister, while six others were sworn in as Ministers of State. "Priyanka ji has arrived on a five-day visit to the state. She will meet party workers and leaders, and deliberate upon election preparedness of the party for the 2022 UP Assembly polls," state Congress spokesperson Ashok Singh said. AGENCIES

NEW DELHI: As the coun-try was brought to a standstill due to the Bharat Bandh held by farmers to protest against the contentious three farm laws, the Congress on Monday urged Prime Minister Naren-dra Modi to talk to agitating farmers and listen to their legit-imate grievances.

The Congress also alleged that instead of redressing the grievances of farmers, the gov-ernment is trying to paint them as enemies of the country and that is why the farmers are pro-testing on the roads.

The Bharat Bandh was called by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of

40 farm unions, to demand repeal of three agri laws enacted by the Centre.

Expressing support for protesting farmers, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that the farmers’ non-violent ‘saty-agraha’ is still resolute but the “exploitative” government does not like this and that is why a ‘Bharat Bandh’ has been called.

Posting rhyming lines in Hindi on Twitter, Gandhi said, “Kisano ka ahimsak satya-graha aaj bhi akhand hai, lekin shoshankar sarkar ko ye nahi pasand hai, isliye aaj Bharat Bandh hai (Farmers’ non-vio-lent satyagraha is resolute even today, but the exploitative gov-

ernment does not like this and that's why it is Bharat Bandh today).”

Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said that farmers are facing angst and helpless-ness, based on which they have called for the Bandh which his party whole-heartedly supports. “We have to stand unitedly with the farmers, oth-erwise the future of our nation is dark,” he told reporters.

Noting that the country has seen many prime ministers and will see many more after Modi, Khera said, “You cannot be arrogant when you are the prime minister. You have to lis-ten to your country and when

60 per cent of your country speaks, please speak to them.” “You have strange confidence and a strange belief in your diversionary tactics and you are very confident that come elections and you will be able to distract the attention of the country again from the basic fundamental critical issues that the farmers face today. But, I am sorry this would not hap-pen again,” the Congress leader claimed.

Khera said that the PM made a loud announcement and people took him seriously when he said on January 22, 2021 that he is still a phone call away. MPOST

SUSHIL MANAV

CHANDIGARH: The nation-wide 10-hour “Bharat Bandh” on the call given by farm-ers’ unions to press for their demand of scrapping of the three farm laws evoked a mas-sive response in Haryana and Punjab.

Farmers blocked all major roads and highways, squatted on railway tracks bringing all road and rail traffic to a halt.

A majority of business establishments in different towns of the two states kept their shutters closed and they opened their shops only after the shutdown announced by farmers’ unions was over.

Emergency services were, however, exempted from the purview of the shutdown.

No untoward incident was reported from anywhere in Haryana and Punjab.

Not only the farmers, but even the farm labourers, commission agents and trade union activists participated in the shutdown and squatted on roads to block vehicular traffic from 6 am to 4 pm.

At many places, farmers parked their tractor trolleys on

the highways to block move-ment of vehicular traffic.

Hundreds of commuters had a tough time as buses, taxis and trains did not ply due to the Bandh.

People were left stranded at railway stations and bus stands in various towns and cities as public transport was off the roads.

State owned buses, private buses and taxis remained off the roads, leaving thousands of people stranded across the two states.

Buses remained parked at bus stands or bus depots, and passengers were left stranded.

In Haryana’s Millennium City Gurugram, hundreds of cars were seen moving bum-per-to-bumper owing to the checking by Delhi Police.

Most of the roads across the two states, including in joint capital Chandigarh, wore a near-deserted look.

The Samyukta Kisan Mor-cha (SKM), a united forum of farmer unions protesting the three farm laws, on Monday said its call for a Bharat Bandh received an “unprecedented and historic” response from more than 23 states, and not a

single untoward incident was reported from anywhere.

Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi urged the Centre to repeal the three "anti-farmer" laws.

"#IStandWithFarmers & appeal the Union Govt. to repeal the three anti-farmer laws. Our farmers have been struggling for their rights since more than a year & it is high time that their voice is heard. I request the farmers to raise their voice in a peaceful man-ner," he said in a tweet.

Former Haryana Chief Minister and Leader of Oppo-sition Bhupinder Singh Hooda said that the government should talk to the protesting farmers without putting any prior condition.

Speaking to media persons, Hooda said, "All the Opposi-tion parties, including Con-gress, are supporting farmers call for Bharat Bandh. We are supporting the farmers' demand to repeal three farm laws."

Punjab Congress chief Nav-

jot Singh Sidhu said the PPCC firmly stands by the farmer unions' Bharat Bandh call.

"Punjab Pradesh Con-gress Committee firmly stands by Farmer Unions demand for Bharat Bandh on 27 Sept 2021. In the war of right and wrong you cannot afford to be neutral!! We urge every Con-gress worker to fight with all their might against the three Unconstitutional Black Laws!!" he tweeted.

Meanwhile, the Haryana government claimed that the Bharat Bandh call given by farmers’ organizations against the three farm laws passed off peacefully in the state.

A Haryana Police spokes-person said that impact of the Bharat Bandh was largely seen in the form of road/rail blocks and hampered the intercity road and rail traffic movement, but did not have much impact on the activities within towns and cities.

The bandh call did not have any impact in districts Guru-gram, Faridabad, Narnaul, Rewari and Nuh in the state, claimed the spokesperson.

No violent incident was reported in the state, he added.

Farmers during a protest near Bathinda in Punjab

Cong asks Modi to talk to agitating farmersMPOST BUREAU

CHANDIGARH: Pun-jab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi on Monday con-vened an emergency meeting of newly re-constituted Coun-cil of Ministers in view of the 'Bharat Bandh' call given by the Samyukt Kisan Morcha in protest against the three farm laws. The Council of Ministers passed a resolution expressing solidarity with the farmers and their demands.

Terming these laws as anti-farmers and anti-food security, Channi said these laws are a potent threat to the livelihood of farmers and their future gen-

erations. Making a firm resolve, the Chief Minister said that the earlier resolutions passed by the State Assembly in support of the state farmers' demand to repeal these black laws should be conceded by the Govern-ment of India forthwith with-out any further delay.

Expressing solidarity with the victim families of farmers who have lost lives during the ongoing agitation against dra-conian farm laws, the Chief Minister stressed on the need to win over their confidence as the Congress government has always stood firmly in support

of their demands from day one when the Government of India thrusted these anti-farmer laws upon them.

He asked all the Ministers to personally visit the houses of the deceased farmers to deliver the appointment letters for gov-ernment jobs to their family members.

He said nearly 155 such appointment letters are ready and the same should be deliv-ered to them within a week. He also asked the Chief Secretary to ensure verification of other remaining such cases expedi-tiously so as to complete the process of giving government jobs to the eligible next of kin.

‘Laws potent threat to livelihood of farmers’

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: BJP MP Varun Gandhi on Monday urged Uttar Pradesh Chief Minis-ter Yogi Adityanath to further increase the purchase price of sugarcane to Rs 400 per quin-tal, saying farmers are in "mis-ery" and have been hoping for a higher increase.

His remarks come a day after Adityanath announced a Rs 25 per quintal hike in the purchase prices of sugarcane in the state taking it to Rs 350 per quintal.

While thanking Aditya-nath for increasing the cane prices, Gandhi in a letter to the Uttar Pradesh chief min-ister suggested that the recent hike would be insufficient as the "farmers are in misery due to economic distress."

"In the last four years the input cost for farmers such as prices of seeds, fertiliser and power have substantially increased....Farmers are in mis-ery due to economic distress and have been hoping for a

higher increase in cane prices," Gandhi said.

The three-time MP from Uttar Pradesh had also writ-ten a letter to Adityanath ear-lier this month in which he had sought an increase in cane prices.

Reiterating his demand, Gandhi said lakhs of farm-ers are looking at Adityanath with hope that he will further increase the cane prices. "With continuous rise in input cost for farmers, the cane prices should be fixed at minimum Rs 400 per quintal. It is matter of livelihood of lakhs of farmers and labourers," Gandhi said.

Cane is mainly grown in western UP, which is the epi-centre of the farmers' protest in the state against the Centre's farm laws.

Gandhi had earlier sought various relief measures for farmers in Uttar Pradesh including subsidy on diesel, bonus above MSP of wheat and paddy and doubling the amount under the PM KISAN scheme.

Increase purchase price of sugarcane further: Varun Gandhi to Yogi‘Farmers are in misery’

BKU Spokesperson Rakesh Tikait prepares food during farmers' Bharat Bandh against central government's three farm reform laws, at Ghazipur border in New Delhi, on Monday

Format C-2(for political party to publish in website, newspapers, TV)

Declaration about criminal antecedents of candidates set up by the party(As per the judgment dated 25th September, 2018, of Hon’ble Supreme Court in WP (Civil) No. 536 of 2011 (Public Interest Foundation &Ors. Vs. Union of India &Anr.)Name of political party: ALL INDIA TRINAMOOL CONGRESS*Name of Election: WEST BENGAL, BYE ELECTIONS TO THE COUNCIL OF STATES, 2021Name of State/UT: WEST BENGAL

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.SL. No.

Name of constituency

Name of candidate (A) Pending criminal cases (B) Details about cases of conviction for criminal offences

Name of C o u r t , case No. & status of the case(s)

Sections of the Acts concerned & brief description of offence(s)

Name of Court & d a t e ( s ) oforder(s)

Desc r ip t i on of offence(s) & punishment imposed

M a x i m u m Punishment Imposed

1. WEST BENGAL, BYE ELECTIONS TO THE COUNCIL OF STATES, 2021

MISS SUSHMITA DEV C.R. No. 303/2010 of the Court of Judicial Magistrate (1st Class), SilcharCharges not framed

Section 15 of the E n v i r o n m e n t (Protection) Act, 1986 & Municipal Solid Waste (Management & Handling) Rules, 2000. One Sri Haridas Dutta filed a complaint case vide C.R. No. 303/2010 for n o n - c o m p l i a n c e of Provision of Municipal Solid Waste (Management & Handling) Rules, 2000 against the Silchar Municipal Board and the deponent, alongwith others, was impeded in the said case in the capacity of the then Chairperson of Silchar Municipal Board.

N/A N/A N/A

*In the case of election to Council of States or election to Legislative Council by MLAs, mention the election concerned in place of name of constituency.

7millenniumpost Editorial mpNEW DELHI | TUESDAY, 28 SEPTEMBER, 2021

Reaffirmation of ties

Thoughts of a legend

PM’ Modi’s visit to the US encompassed bilateral and multilateral engagements with the host country in the trade and defence sector

The lofty ideas of one of India’s finest revolutionaries — Bhagat Singh — around humanism and labour reflect his socialistic approach

Prime Minister Nar-endra Modi’s sojourn to the United States last week comprised

several engagements — bilat-eral, plurilateral and multilat-eral — with the United States, the United Nations and leaders from the Quad partners, along with interaction with global business CEOs as a throw-in.

Travelling overseas out-side the neighbourhood for the first time since the outbreak of Covid-19, PM Modi made most of the four-day trip on India-One — the latest dedi-cated aircraft for top Consti-tutional functionaries in the country.

There are several take-aways from the September 22-25 visit to Washington DC and New York, starting with the India-United States bilat-eral ties — now character-ised as Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership — that encompasses some 50 sectors between space and sea.

The depth of the ties and its upward trajectory needed reaffirmation since there was a change of administration in the United States this year, with the veteran Democrat, Joseph R Biden, assuming charge as the President of the United States of America.

A sit-down meet between PM Modi and President Biden formalised the acquaintance the leaders had during the lat-ter’s tenures as the Vice Presi-dent under President Barack

Obama. Biden has been extremely well-versed in inter-national affairs, in his previ-ous Avatar as the Chairman of the powerful Senate For-eign Relations Committee. It is little wonder that after the bilateral meet, which stretched beyond the scheduled time, the President remarked that considering the vast sweep of engagement, it required at least two days to cover the entire gamut.

Equally important from the bilateral standpoint is taking forward the initial contact with Vice President Kamala Harris, whose grip on the Democratic Party, and more importantly the Progressive section, has been significant. Harris, born to an Indian mother and Jamaican father, never hid her connection with India and deep ties with her maternal grandfather and the family. Yet, in her previous role as an

influential senator in the US Congress, she remained a vocal critic of some of the policies of the Government of India.

It was time to move for-ward since, as a Deputy to President Biden, she works on important portfolios of pre-paring for responses in the post-pandemic era while also working on immigration pol-icy that has entangled several successive administrations.

Despite the extensive reportage of the bilateral talks with thousands of words writ-ten or spoken on the momen-tum these ties acquired, there are a few tripwires that both sides would have to negotiate. The first comes in the form of the trade deal, an issue that blew up during the previ-ous President Donald Trump regime. Although there are indications that the ministers on either side will earnestly work on it, the political atmo-

sphere in the United States continues to face the overhang of the ‘America First’ policies of President Trump.

Both sides will have to find a ground that appears fair amid the pressure on the Biden administration to balance the aggressive push of the Repub-licans and the pull from the progressive section within his Democratic party.

The progressives, who enjoy the tacit support of Kamala Harris, are an influ-ential voice within the Dem-ocratic Party set-up and, interestingly, two of the four India-American members in the House of Representa-tives — Pramila Jayapal (Dem-ocrat from Washington State) and Rohit ‘Ro’Khanna (Dem-ocrat from California) — are the leading voices, both as Progressives and inside the party.

They, along with other members, should play a sig-nificant role on the issue of the S-400 Missiles deal India has with Russia under the CAATSA law requiring the imposition of sanctions on a country that acquires this weapon system unless there is a presidential waiver.

PM Modi mentioned the five Ts in bilateral relations — Tradition, Talent, Technology, Trade and Trusteeship. These should strengthen the ties from the Trump era’s transactional to a transformational phase once again.

Quad formulationThe first in-person Sum-

mit meeting after the Covid outbreak generated excite-ment when announced but, in the run-up to the actual meet, some of its sheens was shorn as the United States announced a military alliance with the United Kingdom and Austra-lia, known as AUKUS. With both the US and the UK work-ing in tandem and planning to equip Australia with nuclear submarines is a message to China.

The strategic community is divided on how this arrange-ment would translate for the world in general and those in the Indo-Pacific region in particular. In a way, the mil-itary alliance of these three countries can be interpreted as furthering India’s stand-point that Indo-Pacific and Quad are essentially a geo-economic construct. Amid nagging doubt whether the joint military exercises meant the formation of a geo-strate-gic arrangement can be put to rest with this new military alliance.

The Quad leaders’ state-ment, while taking an over-arching view, decided to focus on the immediate management of the global health pandemic by becoming a major vaccine supplier in the Indo-Pacific region — a move that has the potential to check the presence of China in this sphere.

Views expressed are personal

KV PRASAD

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

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

DearEditor

Bhagat Singh was not just a revolutionary, not just a youth seek-ing freedom by exer-

cising power, but a resolved visionary. Somewhere within himself, he was developing a philosophy, in the special con-text of India. He also thought and wrote a lot about Indian society, humanism and labour related issues. Some of his works, which he wrote while in prison, have been lost. Nev-ertheless, on the basis of many letters, many jail documents etc., many people have gath-ered a lot of information about Bhagat Singh. About Bhagat Singh, a journalist, Kanak Tiwari, says that “he was intox-icated by Indigenous social-ism”. He was trying to bring a special intellectual principle to India through his thinking.

While using power, bombs and pistols, on the one hand, he also tried to put this thing in front of the world on the other hand, behind all this, there is a specifically defined goal which he wanted to achieve for his country. And in that, not only the independence of India was the goal, he also wanted to remove all the aggressors or the tyrannical qualities of the ruling class. Famous jour-nalist Kuldeep Nayyar wrote a book ‘The Life and Trial of Bha-gat Singh’. In this book, he out-lined the philosophy of Bhagat Singh, the socialism of Bhagat Singh and his special emphasis on the values of human life. He wrote in this book that Bhagat Singh used to say that revolu-tionaries of his era attached great importance to human life. He considered human life to be absolutely sacred. “Instead of injuring someone else, we would prefer to sac-rifice ourselves in service of humanity.” Kuldeep Nayyar further explains that there was no vengeance in Bhagat Singh’s mind. It is pertinent to note that when Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt threw a bomb in the Central Assembly Hall of Delhi, they deliberately threw it in a place where no human life was in danger. In his words, these bombs were detonated because the ears of the British Raj were not lis-tening. And the British Raj will be forced to listen to this bomb blast in order to make

the Indian voices heard. They were opposed to the passing of the Public Safety Bill and the Trade Disputes Bill – both of which were anti-people bills. To quote Bhagat Singh: “If the deaf are to hear, the sound has to be very loud. When we dropped the bomb, it was not our intention to kill any-body. We have bombed the British Government. The Brit-ish must quit India and make her free.”

Gandhiji also once wrote: “Bhagat Singh was not a priest of non-violence, but did not consider violence as a religion. These heroes had conquered the fear of death too. Salute to their valour”. Bhagat Singh expressed grief over the dis-tances brought by script, caste and religion in Indian society. He also opposed the attacks by Indians on the weaker sec-tion of the society as strictly as the atrocities committed by the Englishmen.

Bhagat Singh raised the most critical political ques-tion – that of ownership of the means of production, almost a century back with such sharp-ness and so presciently. He stated: “The struggle of India would continue so long as a handful of exploiters go on exploiting the labour of the common people for their own

ends. It matters little whether these exploiters are purely Brit-ish capitalists or British and Indians in alliance, or even purely Indians.”

We all know that Gandhi ji always supported the strat-egy of ‘Pressure-Compro-mise-Pressure’. Certainly, it was uncharacteristic of Bha-gat Singh’s popular image – that of a non-compromising, radical revolutionary – when he declared that ‘compromise’ is a part and parcel of every political struggle, including the revolutionary ones. But, as a mature political ideologue, even though very young, he unabashedly and confidently advocated it by thoroughly substantiating his arguments with proper historical exam-ples. In Bhagat Singh’s view, a revolution does not mean a mere transfer of political power from one set of rulers to another set of rulers. Instead, a true revolution is about a radi-cal, transformative and par-adigmatic shift in the realm of political power, i.e., from the hands of exploitative rul-ers to the hands of a progres-sive democratic setup. A true revolution, therefore, is about the complete overthrow of the existing oppressive order, and the gradual and painstaking construction of a new egalitar-

ian and socialist order.As a spirited political ideo-

logue, Bhagat Singh observes: “The real revolutionaries are in the villages and in factories, the peasantry and the labour-ers. But, our leaders do not and cannot dare to tackle them.”

“‘Revolution’ is not the cult of the bomb and the pistol. By ‘Revolution’, we mean that the present order of things, which is based on manifest injustice, must change. Pro-ducers or labourers, despite being the most necessary ele-ment of society, are robbed by their exploiters of the fruits of their labour, and deprived of their elementary rights. The peasant, who grows corn for all, starves with his family; the weaver who supplies the world market with textile fab-rics, has not enough to cover his own and his children’s bodies; masons, smiths and carpenters, who raise magnif-icent palaces, live like pariahs in the slums. The capitalists and exploiters, the parasites of society, squander millions on their whims.” (from the text of Bhagat Singh and B K Dutt’s statement, read in the court by Asaf Ali on June 6, 1929)

“….Let us declare that the state of war does exist and shall exist so long as the Indian toil-ing masses and the natural resources are being exploited by a handful of parasites. They may be purely British Capital-ist or mixed British and Indian or even purely Indian. … All these things make no differ-ence. … The war shall continue … till the Socialist Republic is established and … every sort of exploitation is put an end to and humanity is ushered into the era of genuine and perma-nent peace.”

A voracious reader, Bha-gat Singh managed to pro-cure during his imprisonment a large number of selected works of prominent authors of his choice. He spent a lot of his time reading and making copious notes on what he read while he awaited execution in jail. His interests included both political and non-political sub-jects, and his favourite authors were Bernard Shaw, Bertrand Russell, Charles Dickens, Rousseau, Marx, Rabindra-nath Tagore, Lala Lajpat Rai, William Wordsworth, Omar

Khayyam, Mirza Ghalib, and Ramananda Chatterjee.

Bhagat Singh’s 404-page jail diary (In a book — ‘The Jail Notebook and Other Writings’— released in recent years) is filled with excerpts, notes and quotes on a wide variety of subjects that reflect not only his serious study and intellectual insight, but also his social and political concerns.

“I am a man and all that affects mankind concerns me”

“Every tiny molecule of ash is in motion with my heat. I am such a lunatic that I am free even in jail.”

“Lovers, lunatics and poets are made of the same stuff.”

“…by crushing individuals, they cannot kill ideas.”

“The sanctity of law can be maintained only so long as it is the expression of the will of the people.”

“Social progress depends not upon the ennoblement of the few but on the enrichment of democracy. Universal broth-erhood can be achieved only when there is an equality of opportunity – of opportunity in social, political and indi-vidual life.”

In another quote, Bhagat Singh bemoans the menace of child labour by quoting Char-lotte Perkins Gilman’s poem, Child Labour, on page 33 of his diary.

“No fledgling feeds the father-bird,

No chicken feeds the hen,No kitten mouses for the

cat,This glory is for menWe are the wisest stron-

gest race,Long may our praise be

sung,The only animal aliveThat feeds upon its young.”These are just a window

into the thoughts of the young charismatic revolutionary who was far ahead of his time; these ideas also put forth Bhagat Singh’s vision of an inclusive, just and better world. Indeed, his authentic legacy resides in the fact that he was among one of the first and finest Indian revolutionaries and modern political thinkers who adopted revolutionary progressiveness in thought and adhered to it uncompromisingly in his political actions.

Views expressed are personal

A sit-down meet between Modi and Biden formalised the acquaintance the leaders had during the latter’s tenures as the Vice President

EDITORIALNeed for reconciliation

In what could be called a clear signal to the government that they are ready for a long fight, protesting farm-ers at the borders staged a nationwide bandh to mark the completion of one year of the passage of the three

contentious ‘farm laws’. Rajesh Tikait even came out clearly to say that the farmers will continue with their protest even if it takes 10 years. Farmers’ protest has proved out to be the most challenging issue for the current government. And now it only seems to take greater space in the political discourse of the country — particularly in the North Indian states like Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Bihar and Punjab. The issue will undoubtedly play its part in the hotly contested UP elections. The agriculture sector in India and Indian farmers have been in a situation of distress for decades but the political aspect of agriculture has been limited to the provisioning of short-term economic benefits, rather than facilitating structural reforms. The current situation is somewhat different as there appears to be a strong political force behind it. While the politiciza-tion of farmers’ protests is being seen as a negative trend by many, this political force was imperative in the context of the undying distress in the sector. Politics, after all, is a strong instrument of social change. Ailments of the Indian agricul-tural sector are quite systemic in nature and to remove them, political perspective might be a useful tool. In the current sit-uation, perhaps a wrong perception is being created, linking politicization with the connotation of manipulation of farm-ers by opposition parties. This straightforward and inappro-priate interpretation forms a negative perception about the continuing farmers’ protest. All the opposition parties have extended their support to farmers’ agitation, and why should that be a problem? However, right since the farmers initi-ated their protest last year, they have been cautious that they remain in the position of bargaining and not manipulation by any political party. The protest remains that of farmers, and any possible takeover has not been allowed to date. What has been even more encouraging is that not only is the protest of farmers well organized at the ground level, they also have clearly laid out an objective — repeal of farm laws. The farm-ers have also exuded a great deal of maturity and resounding firmness in their resolve. They haven’t backed an inch from their core demands. Their resolve went beyond what certain experts had expected initially. It was believed that after ini-tial reluctance, they would cede to a certain extent to reach a middle path that is more in favour of farmers. The maturity shown all throughout the farmers has also been commend-able. This is being seen in the successful and peaceful execu-tion of protests and bandhs, with a few exceptions. The stated objective behind the passage of the laws has been to bring in transformative changes in the agricultural sector through the contentious laws and augment the income of farmers. How-ever, there are two aspects of the farm laws — subjective and objective. Subjective interpretation of the laws by the farmers may differ from that of the government. This gap can poten-tially create a long-standing disturbance and friction between the parties in controversy. It is here that the role of institu-tions like the Parliament and Judiciary comes in. Follow-ing the due institutional processes is very crucial for smooth functioning of the government and degree of harmony and growth in the society. It is incumbent upon the government to figure out the friction points and lapses in adopting the due institutional processes. One of the gravest allegations of the protesting farmers has been that their views were not taken into account while formulating and passing the laws. Such allegations are no less than a blot on the functioning of a democratic government. As the farmers’ protest is set to complete a year in November this year, the government should ensure that their voices are heard and the discord with them is eased out. This will not just end the impasse to relieve farmers as they continue to brave harsh weather and live in a dingy atmosphere at the cost of their livelihood, but also allow the space to the party at the Centre to devise their strat-egy for the upcoming elections. Though protests are a hall-mark of a living democracy, their prolongation has economic, social and political costs. Both the parties need to show some extra maturity and deliberate on the core of contention rather than beating around the bush. For a country that has a long and rich experience of protests and reconciliations, sorting out differences should be comparatively easy.

Tweet of the day

PRESIDENT BIDEN@POTUS

We’re building an economy where everyone has a fair shot to get ahead — not just those at the top.

Modi mentioned the five Ts in bilateral relations — Tradition, Talent, Technology, Trade and Trusteeship

millenniumpost.in

The BSE Sensex cracked a new lifetime peak of 60,000 on Friday. It took merely 167 trading sessions to leap from 50,000 points to 60,000—the fastest pace ever for a 10,000-point move. Having crossed new thresholds of statistical significance twice this year, experts believe that Sensex’s fortunes from 60,000 to 1 lakh is only two-three years away. Among emerging markets, India has been one of the best return-yielding markets. Easy liquidity, increased domestic inflows and reforms are moving the stock market towards fresh milestones, even overlooking concerns. Instead, Indian indices have a single-minded focus on improving corporate earnings, the mass vaccination drive and the anticipated rise in private consumption-led by the upcoming festive season. But the market boom seldom lasts sans a durable real sector. Currently, the Sensex is driven by improved FY21 earnings, which in turn was influenced by lower taxes, interest costs and expenses. The FY22 outlook appears bright on the anticipated rise in consumer demand, but retaining the pace of growth is critical. The price-earnings ratio, the barometer used for measuring valuations, is at the highest level, exceeding 20, which no market rally can ever sustain. It means a correction is coming. Hence the retail investors who began trading as a lucrative income must exercise caution.

— KHOKAN DAS, KOLKATA via email

BE CAUTIOUS

Human life was considered sacred by Bhagat Singh

RATNESH KUMAR GAUTAM

A true revolution is about the complete overthrow of the existing oppressive order and the gradual and painstaking construction of a new egalitarian and socialist order

C’GARH ADMIN GIVES ADDITIONAL CHARGE OF MD TO YASHPAL GARGCHANDIGARH: Chandigarh Administration has given the additional charge of the Managing Director of the CITCO to Yashpal Garg, Chief Executive Officer of the Chandigarh Housing Board. The orders issued by Advi-sor to Administrator, Dharam Pal, said that the move has been necessitated consequent to proceeding on leave by Jaswinder Kaur Sidhu, MD of the CITCO, from September 28 to October 31.

17 ANCIENT IDOLS UNEARTHED NEAR NAGAPATTINAM NAGAPATTINAM: A total of 17 ancient idols of deities and 36 other artefacts used in temples were unearthed while digging a piece of land for reno-vating a Chola-era temple at Thevur near here on Monday, officials said. The Devapureeshwarar temple is one among the ancient temples in the state believed to have been built during the early Chola era. The HR and CE department has commenced renovation works at this temple. On Sunday evening, when work-ers were digging a piece of land in the temple area, they spotted a few idols and artefacts at a depth of about 7-ft. The workers immediately alerted temple officials. Kilvelur Tahsildar Marimuthu and Temple Executive Officer Kannan rushed to the spot and ordered further digging, which continued till Monday afternoon. A total of 17 idols, and 36 artefacts have been unearthed so far. Further digging will take face in the presence of archaeology experts, the temple Executive Officer said.

Nation Briefs

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Union Hous-ing and Urban Affairs Min-ister Hardeep Singh Puri on Monday launched the 'Swachh-Survekshan 2022', the seventh edition of the annual clean-liness survey under which district rankings have been introduced for the first time.

In a statement, the minis-try said that this year's survey will create a level playing field for smaller cities by introduc-ing two population categories -- under 15,000 and between 15,000-25,000.

The scope of the survey has been expanded to now cover 100 per cent wards for sam-pling as compared to 40 per cent in previous years, accord-ing to the HUA Ministry.

Speaking at the event, Puri said that the Swachh Bharat Mission is an important and transformative programme of the country which has achieved success due to involvement of all stakeholders at the grass-root level.

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Monday said those filing public interest litigations (PILs) must do their homework and bear in mind that they cannot just ask for everything under the sun. The burden is on the PIL petitioner to show any shortcoming in a matter of policy and it should be backed with some data and examples, the apex court said.

A bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and B V Nag-arathna refused to enter-tain a PIL seeking direction for implementation of the National Health Policy-2017, besides other prayers includ-ing livelihood for the depen-dents of COVID-19 victims, and asked the petitioner to file a fresh pleas backed by data and examples. At the outset, the bench said, You see, the problem with these kinds of petitions is that you have too many prayers. If you seek just one prayer, we may deal with it, but you claim to seek every-thing under the sun .

The petitioner cannot just leave everything to the court

or the State and has to point out specific examples or data showing the shortcomings in the implementation of policy, the bench added.

Advocate Shravan Kumar, appearing for petitioner C Anji Reddy, said that he has given the example of one Ramesh from Andhra Pradesh who has, due to non-availability of free and affordable health facilities to the poor and middle class people, spent lakhs of rupees for hospital-ization during COVID-19 pandemic.

The bench said, You must come with proper petition and proper prayers before the court. We are willing to issue notice in

the matter and not dismissing it but you should show some-thing with some data. We can-not issue an all India direction on the basis of one Ramesh Kumar of Andhra Pradesh. What is the source of infor-mation about him? Shravan said he has attached some data which shows that for non fill-ing of vacancies for doctors in government hospitals, people are forced to move to private hospitals.

The bench said that besides a report of National Health Mission giving data, there is nothing in the petition and the petitioner must do some more homework.

You cannot just annex a report and expect the court to take charge. These are policy matters. You cannot just say implement the health policy. You cannot just simply say implement the budget of 2021. You have to specify the short-fall and indicate how there has been failure in compliance. You are not bereft of the burden of pleadings just because this is a PIL, it said. MPOST

GANDHINAGAR: Senior BJP MLA Nimaben Acha-rya became the first woman Speaker of the Gujarat Legislative Assembly on Monday.

The opposition Congress supported Acharya's nomi-nation for the post, following which she was elected unop-posed as the new Speaker on the first day of state Assembly's two-day mon-soon session which began here on Monday. Gujarat CM Patel proposed her name for the Speaker's post and LoOD-hanani gave consent. MPOST

OUR CORRESPONDENT

SHIMLA: Himachal Pradesh High Court on Monday issued notice to state’s Chief Secre-tary, Member Secretary, HP State Environment Protec-tion and Pollution Control Board and Deputy Commis-sioner, Solan in connection with issues pertaining large scale contamination of drink-ing water drawn by the locals from the traditional wells and borewells located near an industrial unit at Nalagarh in Solan district.

It was alleged that untreated chemical discharge at the Shivalik Solid Waste Manage-

ment Plant at Village Majra ( Nalagarh) has caused pollution and neither the Pollution con-trol board nor Deputy Com-missioner had taken any steps to check the discharge from the unit.

A Division Bench compris-ing Acting Chief Justice Ravi Malimath and Justice Jyotsna Rewal Dua passed the orders on a petition taken up suo moto by the Court as Public Interest Litigation on a letter written to Chief Justice by one Joginder Singh of village Majra in Dis-trict Solan.

The petitioner has alleged that Shivalik Solid Waste Management plant was set-

up in Village Mazra, 15 years ago after obtaining NOC from the Panchayat by mis-leading it that an environ-ment project was going to be set up there.

But, later, when Shivalik Solid Waste Management Plant was built, the villagers came to know that hazardous chemi-cal solid toxic waste of the dif-ferent factories of Himachal Pradesh was to be brought to this Solid Waste plant and responsibility for treat-ing this solid waste had been entrusted to the plant.

He has alleged that for the last 15 years the solid waste is being dumped in the ground

by the aforesaid plant by cover-ing it with soil, without proper treatment.

With passage of time, the water of natural sources, wells and borewells of Panchayat Mazra and the surrounding villages has become poison-ous due to seepage of chemi-cally contaminated water of this Plant into the ground and resultantly foul smell is coming from water.

He has alleged that villagers made many complaints to the Pollution Control Board as well as various other higher author-ities but till date no action has been taken against the Solid waste company.

MPOST BUREAU

CHANDIGARH: The CM Window and Twitter handle launched by Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khat-tar are being considered as a good medium through which grievances of the general public can reach the depart-ment concerned so that they can be redressed.

After taking immedi-ate cognizance and redressal of the complaints, the Chief Minister's Office asks for their satisfaction by taking feed-back from the complainants themselves in the presence of the enlightened persons of the society.

This platform of social media is being appreciated by the younger generation.

According to OSD to the

Chief Minister, Bhupeshwar Dayal, , to give a complaint on the CM Window, one has to give in writing on a plain paper, while only limited words can be used through the Twitter handle.

He said that as soon as complaints reach the Chief Minister's Office, immedi-ate cognizance is taken by the team of dedicated officers and the complaint is forwarded to the concerned department for further action.

He said that recently com-plaints were received on Chief Minister's Twitter handle from Panchkula, Karnal, Gurugram, Sirsa, Bhiwani, Hisar, and Faridabad districts. @jrohit708 from Gurugram tweeted @mlkhattar, @anilvijminister, @Dchautala, @narendramodi on September 13, 2021 that

even after four months of his mother’s death due to COVID-19 he has not been able to get the death certificate.

Young children are mak-ing rounds of the hospital and committee, but are not getting any answer.

The CMO took cogni-zance of this tweet the very next day on September 14, 2021 and sought informa-tion from the Municipal Corporation, Gurugram in the matter.

He said that on September 20, it was informed at cmc@mcg.gov.in that the certificate has been made available to the applicant by the Birth and Death Branch, Municipal Cor-poration, Gurugram. He said that @jrohit708 retweeted on September 21 that his problem was resolved.

No major impact of Cyclone Gulab in Odisha, says Government

Acharya becomes 1st

woman Speaker of Guj Assembly

Khattar’s Twitter handle proving good source for grievance redressal

HC notice to HP govt, CS on drinking water, borewell pollution at Nalagarh

NEW DELHI: China has put in place new modular container-based accommodations for its troops in several high-altitude forward areas on its side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh in response to Indian deployment in the region, people familiar with the developments said on Monday.

The shelters were installed in locations near Tashigong, Manza, Hot Springs and Churup among others, in reflection of simmering ten-sions between the two sides in the region, they said.

The people cited above said China's People Libera-tion Army has been feeling the heat of the Indian response to its "misadventure" in the region last year and that the Chinese military has been forced to go for long deploy-ments and boost infrastructure in the region.

They said the Indian response to the Chinese actions last year, particularly after the Galwan Valley clashes, sur-prised the neighbouring coun-

try and that it deployed troops in areas where it never used to earlier.

"Our strategy is hurting them. They are reacting to our response. We have forced PLA to go for forward deployment and boost infrastructure," said one of the people.

They said the new deploy-ments are appearing to be affecting the morale of the Chi-nese troops as they were not used to operate in such diffi-cult terrain.

The new container-based accommodations were built in addition to the additional

military camps that the Chi-nese military had set up fol-lowing the escalation in tension between the two sides last year.

The people said India is also ramping up construc-tion of tunnels, bridges roads and other critical infrastruc-ture in eastern Ladakh and other areas along the nearly 3,500-km LAC.

They said China is also sig-nificantly enhancing its airbases and air defence units near the LAC in eastern Ladakh.

The border standoff between the Indian and Chinese militar-ies erupted on May 5 last year following a violent clash in the Pangong lake area and both sides gradually enhanced their deployment by rushing in tens of thousands of soldiers as well as heavy weaponry.

The border row escalated after the Galwan Valley clashes on June 15 last year. Twenty Indian Army personnel laid down their lives in the clashes that marked the most serious military conflicts between the two sides in decades. MPOST

China installs new shelters for troops near LAC in Ladakh

‘PIL petitioners must do homework, can't just ask for everything under sun’

The burden is on PIL petitioner to show any shortcoming in a matter of policy and it should be backed with some data, examples

Hardeep Singh Puri launches

Swachh Survekshan ’22

NEW DELHI: Lt Gen Gur-birpal Singh on Monday took over as the new director general of the National Cadet Corps (NCC).

He has taken charge of the NCC at a time the Defence M inistry is looking at making it more relevant.

The ministry on Septem-ber 16 appointed a 15-mem-ber committee that included cricket icon Mahendra Singh Dhoni and industrialist Anand Mahindra to carry out a com-prehensive review of the NCC and suggest ways to improve its overall functioning,

Lt Gen Singh was commis-sioned into The Parachute Reg-iment in 1987.

He is an alumnus of the National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla, the Indian Mil-itary Academy, Dehradun as

well as the NCC.The officer served as a com-

pany commander in a coun-ter-insurgency environment in Nagaland and the Siachen Glacier.

He has commanded a Spe-cial Forces Battalion in Kash-mir, a mountain brigade and an infantry division on the Line of Control. MPOST

Lt Gen Singh takes over as new DG of NCC

OUR CORRESPONDENT

AMARAVATI/ BHU-BANESWAR/ Hyderabad: Cyclone Gulab, which crossed the Bay of Bengal coast near Kalingapatnam on Sunday night, weakened into a depres-sion and caused widespread rains in several districts of Andhra Pradesh on Monday and also left a trail of destruc-tion, as the death toll rose to two with a woman's death. Port city Visakhapatnam received a 30-year high rainfall of over 33.3 cm in 24 hours under the cyclone's impact and left a woman dead on Monday, tak-ing the toll to two since Sunday.

On Sunday, a fisherman was killed in the cyclonic storm in Bay of Bengal in Srikakulam dis-trict. Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy reviewed the situ-ation with Collectors of the rain-affected districts and directed them to step up relief works. The Chief Minister announced an ex-gratia relief of Rs 5 lakh each to the kin of those killed in

the cyclonic storm. In Vizianag-aram district, agricultural crops in 13,122 hectares and horticul-tural crops in 291 hectares were damaged, according to the Col-lector A Surya Kumari.

Nine head of cattle also died in the cyclone. In Visakhapat-nam, boulders fell on a house, causing its collapse and kill-ing a woman, district Collec-tor A Mallikarjuna said. The Collector, along with Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Cor-poration Commissioner G Sru-

jana, inspected the rain-affected areas in the city and supervised the relief operations. Chief Sec-retary Aditya Nath Das visited Srikakulam, the district worst affected by Gulab, and reviewed the rescue and relief operations.

Meanwhile, the Odisha government on Monday said cyclone Gulab did not have much impact on the state fol-lowing its landfall in neigh-bouring Andhra Pradesh but road connectivity was par-tially affected due to landslides

and uprooting of trees in some places of Gajapati, Koraput and Malkangiri districts.

Special Relief Commissioner P K Jena said administrations of seven cyclone-hit districts - Ganjam, Gajapati, Kandhamal, Rayagada, Koraput, Malkan-giri and Nabarangpur - have been asked to submit damage assessment reports in the next five days.

The East Coast Railway said 16 trains have been cancelled in view of waterlogging on tracks

in the Visakhapatnam-Viz-ianagaram-Rayagada section.

Cyclone Gulab made landfall at a place in Andhra Pradesh, about 95 kilometres from Gopalpur in Odisha where a large number of people have been evacuated as a precaution-ary measure.

Furthermore, rains pounded different parts of Telangana on Monday, even as the India Mete-orological Department (IMD) warned that heavy to very heavy rains with extremely heavy rains are expected at isolated places in different districts of the state over the next 24 hours.

The IMD, which issued a red alert for 14 districts in the state, warned that heavy to very heavy rain with extremely heavy rain is very likely to occur at isolated places in Nirmal, Nizamabad, Jagityal, Rajanna Sircilla, Karimnagar, Peddapally, Bhadradri Kothagudem, Kham-mam, Mahabubabad, Waran-gal (Rural), Warangal (Urban), Janagaon, Siddipet, Kamareddy districts today.

Gulab impact: Rain batters AP dists‘Our strategy is hurting them. They are reacting to our response. We have forced PLA to go for forward deployment and boost infrastructure’

SUSHIL MANAV

CHANDIGARH: Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi om Monday exhorted the administrative secretaries to prepare a comprehensive roadmap of 100 days of their departments to bring in more efficiency and transparency. He asked them to submit detailed proposals in this regard to the Chief Secretary within a week.

Chairing the 1st meeting of the Administrative Secre-taries of all the departments, Channi said that the core sec-tors of Health and Education should be prioritized so as to provide the best and affordable healthcare facilities to the peo-ple besides imparting quality education to the students espe-cially in the rural areas.

The Chief Minister also

asked them to discharge their duties diligently in ensuring clean, transparent and corrup-tion free administration to the people, which is the hallmark of his government. Channi fur-ther said, “I am soft and gen-tle but please don’t mistake my gentleness for something that will let inaction go unnoticed. I will act against those who won’t act for the common people”.

Showing zero tolerance

against corruption, the Chief Minister categorically said that this has to be eradicated at all costs and the works of the com-mon man should be done on priority. He also stated that jus-tice should be done to every citizen irrespective of his caste, creed and community.

The Chief Minister also asked them to give due respect to the Ministers, MLAs and elected representatives but at the same time directed them that rule of law should be the only criterion for decision making. Pointing out fur-ther, the Chief Minister said that complaints of corruption would not be tolerated. He also said if anyone approaches them for any wrong doing by using his name, he asked them to straightway come and bring it into his notice.

Prepare comprehensive roadmap of 100 days: Channi to admin secretaries

Punjab CM Charanjit Singh Channi

View of flood affected area following heavy rains induced by Cyclone Gulab in Visakhapatnam on Monday PIC/PTI

Lt Gen Gurbirpal Singh

MPOST BUREAU

CHANDIGARH: Around 69,655 children against a target of 68,480 (101.71%) were immunised during the two days of Sub National Immunisation Day (SNID) Polio Round held on 26th – 27th September, 2021 in U.T Chandigarh.

Teams of Health Depart-ment visited the vulnera-ble areas like Khuda Lahora, Khuda Jassu, Khuda Alisher, Sarangpur, Resettlement Colony Dhanas, Kaimb-wala, Maloya, Daddumajra, Madrasi Colony, Indira Col-ony, Bapudham, Mauli Vil-

lage, Mauli Complex, Vikas Nagar, Manimajra, Col-ony no 4, Faidan, Halloma-jra, Ramdarbar, Attawa, Palsora, Behlana, Raipur Khurd, Kajheri, Kishangarh, Dariya, Attawa, Tin colony, Janta Colony, Bhagwanpura, Citco, Shastri Nagar and all the construction sites to immun-ise the kids with pulse polio drops.

As many as 179 children had been immunized in the night hours during “TAARE ZAMEEN PAR”- A NIGHT VIGIL activity in different parts of the city on 26th Sep-tember, 2021. To execute this activity, four teams were con-

stituted comprising of Medical Officers, health functionar-ies and Police Personnel. This activity was carried out with support and cooperation of Police Department.

Stringent monitoring & supervision was done at var-ious levels by the internal supervisors & external mon-itors. Dr. Amandeep Kang, Director Health & Family Welfare cum Mission Direc-tor – NHM appreciated the efforts and motivation of all the volunteers who par-ticipated in this campaign and thanked all the team members for their tireless efforts.

69,655 immunised for polio in 2 days in UT Chandigarh

NEW DELHI: A magistrate should not summon an accused unless there are specific allega-tions, the Supreme Court said on Monday while dismissing an appeal by a complainant chal-lenging quashing of summons by a high court in a criminal case. The top court said that the magistrate has to record satis-faction about a prima facie case against an accused to summon him in a court. "Issuing sum-mons/process by the Court is a very serious matter and there-fore unless there are specific allegations and the role attrib-uted to each accused more than the bald statement, the Magis-trate ought not to have issued the process," a bench of Justices M R Shah and A S Bopanna said.

The observations came while deciding an appeal by a man who had lodged a complaint against a company, its director, and other functionaries alleg-ing offences punishable under Sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 418 (Cheating with knowledge that wrongful loss), 420 (cheating), 427 ( Mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees), 447 (criminal

trespass), 506 ( criminal intimi-dation) and 120B (criminal con-spiracy) read with Section 34 (common intention) of Indian Penal Code

The trial court issued the process against the accused. Later, the sessions court set aside the order, and the same was upheld by the High Court.

The apex court said an accused cannot be held vicari-ously liable unless there are spe-cific allegations and averments against the person.

The top court in its judge-ment said the order passed by the Magistrate issuing the pro-cess against the accused, there does not appear that the learned Magistrate has recorded his sat-isfaction about a prima facie case. Merely because respon-dent Nos. 2 to 5 and 7 & 8 are the Chairman/Managing Direc-tor/Executive Director/Deputy General Manager/Planner & Executor, automatically they cannot be held vicariously liable, unless, as observed hereinabove, there are specific allega-tions and averments against them with respect to their individual role. AGENCIES

Magistrate shouldn’t summon accused without

specific allegations: SC

8 millenniumpostNationmpTUESDAY, 28 SEPTEMBER, 2021 | NEW DELHI

8 World

Germany embarks on tricky search for post-Merkel govt

BERLIN: Germany is embarking on a potentially lengthy search for its next gov-ernment after the center-left Social Democrats narrowly beat outgoing Chancel-lor Angela Merkel's center-right bloc in an election that failed to set a clear direction for Europe's biggest economy under a new leader.

Leaders of the parties in the newly elected parliament were meeting Monday to digest a result that saw Merkel's Union bloc slump to its worst-ever result in a national election, and appeared to put the keys to power in the hands of two opposition parties.

Both Social Democrat Olaf Scholz, who pulled his party out of a years-long slump, and Armin Laschet, the candidate of Merkel's party who saw his party's fortunes decline in a troubled campaign, laid a claim to leading the next gov-ernment. Scholz is the out-going vice chancellor and finance minister and Laschet is the governor of Germany's most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia.

Whichever of them becomes chancellor will do so with his party having won a smaller share of the vote than any of his predecessors. Who gets the job looks likely to depend on whom the envi-ronmentalist Greens and the business-friendly Free Dem-ocrats parties that tradition-ally belong to rival ideological camps decide to join in gov-ernment. Neither Scholz nor a weakened Laschet has much leverage.

The only other option that would have a parliamentary majority is a repeat of the grand coalition of the Union and Social Democrats. That is the grouping that has run Ger-many for 12 years of Merkel's 16-year tenure and has often been marred by squabbling, but this time it would be under Scholz's leadership with Merkel's bloc as junior part-ner. There is little appetite for that, however.

Merkel's outgoing gov-ernment will remain in office until a successor is sworn in, a process that can take weeks or months. Merkel announced

in 2018 that she wouldn't seek a fifth term.

The Greens traditionally lean toward the Social Dem-ocrats and the Free Demo-crats toward the Union, but neither ruled out going the other way on Sunday night. The Greens made significant gains in the election to fin-ish third but fell far short of their original aim of taking the chancellery, while the Free Democrats improved slightly on a good result from 2017.

Julia Reuschenbach, a political analyst at the Uni-versity of Bonn, told ARD television that a Laschet-led

government isn't excluded in principle, though the Social Democrats will push the argu-ment that the result shows Germans want them to lead the new administration. Ulti-mately, the parties will of course have to agree on mat-ters of substance, she said.

Final official results gave the Social Democrats 25.7% of the vote and the Union 24.1%. Four years ago, they won 20.5% and 32.9% respec-tively. The Union made up of Laschet's Christian Demo-cratic Union and its Bavar-ian sister, the Christian Social Union had never previously polled below 31% in a national parliamentary election.

The Greens took 14.8%, the Free Democrats 11.5% and the far-right Alternative for Germany 10.3% a decline from the 12.6% it took to enter parliament for the first time in 2017. The smallest party in the new parliament is the Left Party, which won just 4.9% of the vote.

The new Bundestag, or lower house of parliament, will have a record 738 law-makers. The parliament varies in size because of a peculiar-ity of Germany's electoral sys-tem, which means that it can be considerably bigger than the minimum 598 seats.

The Social Democrats took 206 seats, the Union 196, the Greens 118, the Free Demo-crats 92, Alternative for Ger-many 83 and the Left Party 39. One seat went to the Danish minority party SSW, which will be represented for the first time in decades. AGENCIES

Merkel's outgoing govt will remain in office until a successor is sworn in, a process that can take weeks or months

Germany Federal Election Results 2021

KBK graphicsInfo

Seats in Bundestag: 735368Seats needed for majority:

206 196

11892 83

391

SPD CDU-CSU

Greens FDP AfD DieLinke

SSW

Source: The Federal Returning Officer

China defends visa curbs against

stranded Indians

BEIJING: China on Monday defended its visa curbs which have prevented thousands of stranded Indians from return-ing to Beijing, saying they are "appropriate" to control the spread of COVID-19 and do not target India alone, but are applied to even Chinese citizens coming back from overseas.

Responding to questions on Indian ambassador to Bei-jing Vikram Misri's criticism of China's prolonged stringent travel restrictions, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesper-son Hua Chunying also ruled out the easing of the curbs in the near future.

Misri, in his address to the Track-II Dialogue on China-India Relations last week, expressed disappoint-ment over China's reluctance to permit the return of thou-sands of stranded Indian stu-dents, employees and their families due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

He described China's restrictions as an "unscientific approach" to a purely humani-tarian issue.

Asked for her reaction, Hua told a media briefing here that the measures were taken for the safety and wellbeing of the people.

China's measures are appropriate and also I would like to say that China applies quarantine measures to all inbound travellers. China is willing to have good arrange-ments on the bilateral travel of personnel, she said.

Hua also said the travel curbs are applied to Chi-nese citizens returning from abroad.

According to reports, a large number of Chinese nationals stranded in India were not able to return due to stringent travel restric-tions and suspension of flights.

China has to make a lot of quarantine measures but they are not targeting India alone. It is applied equally to every-one including Chinese citi-zens coming back to China, Hua said. AGENCIES

Afghanistan, Myanmar will not address UNGA

UNITED NATIONS: Afghan-istan and Myanmar withdrew" their participation from the General Debate of the high-level 76th session of the UN General Assembly, a spokes-person for the President of the 193-member world body said.

According to the latest list of speakers for the last day of the General Debate on Mon-day, Afghanistan and Myan-mar are not listed to address the session, even as previous provisional speakers' lists had the countries' diplomats listed to speak at the General Debate.

When asked why Afghan-istan and Myanmar are not listed as speakers for the final day of the General Debate, Monica Grayley, Spokesperson to the President of the 76th ses-sion of the UN General Assem-bly Abdulla Shahid, confirmed

to PTI that: we have received information that the Member State withdrew its participation in the General Debate which was scheduled for today. Gray-ley said Myanmar withdrew its participation some time back and Afghanistan over the week-end, when we heard of it.

On Friday, spokesperson for the Secretary-General, Ste-phane Dujarric had said that as for now, the Afghanistan rep-resentative inscribed on the list for Monday is H.E. Mr. Ghulam M. Isaczai, the Permanent Representative. AGENCIES

9millenniumpost World mpNEW DELHI | TUESDAY, 28 SEPTEMBER, 2021

Public NoticeI Hira Vati w/o Mahender Singh R/o A-3/330, Amar Colony East Gokulpur North East Delhi-110094, Property No. A-3/330 Out of Khasra No-648, Gokul Pur Area Shahdara Delhi-110094, Located in Area Amar Colony, A Block, East Block, East Gokul Pur (New Address : A-3/330, Amar Colony East Gokulpur North East Delhi-110094) Original property papers and all related property chain papers are missing have gone.

COURT NOTICE (U/o 5 Rule 20 CPC) IN THE COURT OF

Sh. Mohd Imtiyaj Khan Civil Judge (Junior Division),

Mahendergarh PURAN SINGH

Vs. NET RAM CIS NO. CS-282-2018

CNR No. HRNRA0-000389-2018Next Date:-24-11-2021

PUBLICATION ISSUED TO: Defendant No. 1. Netram S/o Udmi Ram Defendant No. 2. Baldev Singh S/o Bahal Singh S/o Mukhram Defendant No. 4. Birender Singh S/o Bahal Singh S/o Mukhram R/o Ward No. 14 Mohalla Sainipura City Mahendergarh Tehsil and Distt Mahendergarh Defendant No. 5. Bimla Devi D/o Bahal Singh S/o Mukhram R/o Ward No.. 14 Mohalla Sainipura City Mahendergarh now at present Wife of Sh. Maman Ram Near Old Cantonment Jhajjar Distt Jhajjar Defendant No. 6. Chameli Devi D/o Bahal Singh S/o Mukhram R/o Ward No. 14 Mohalla Sainipura City Mahendergarh Now Wife of Sh. Ghanshyam Retd. Bijli Board Employee R/o Pautodi Road Gurgaon Distt Gurgaon. Defendant No. 9. Nirmla Devi D/o Balkirat Singh S/o Bahal Singh S/o Mukhram R/o Ward No. 14 Mohalla Sainipura City Mahendergarh Now wife of Sh Rajbir Saini R/o Village Naahad Tehsil Kosli Distt Rewari Defendant No. 10. Ujjawal D/o Balkirat Singh S/o Bahal Singh S/o Mukhram R/o Ward No. 14 Mohalla Sainipura City Mahendergarh Now Wife of Sh. Bhupender Singh R/o Mohalla Sainipura Charkhi Dadri Distt Dadri Defendant No. 16. Hanuman S/o Angna Ram S/o Mala Ram R/o Ward No. 10 Mohalla Sainipura City Mahendergarh Distt. Mahendergarh Defendant No. 18. Rajbala W/o Vikram Singh S/o Sultan Singh R/o Mohalla Sainipura Ward No. 10 City Mahendergarh Now Near Railway Line Jhunjhunu Distt Jhunjhunu (Raj) Defendant No. 20E. Rajjo Devi D/o Mahabir Parsad S/o Hardayal S/o Mamraj R/o Ward No. 10 Mohalla Sainipura City Mahendergarh now wife of Hanuman R/o Village Kojinda Tehsil Narnaul Distt Mahendergarh Defendant No. 21A. Joginder S/o Late Deepchand S/o Hardayal S/o Mamraj Defendant No. 21B. Sunny S/o Late Deepchand S/o Hardayal S/o Mamraj Defendant No. 21C. Savitri Devi W/o Late Deepchand S/o Hardayal S/o Mamraj All R/o Ward No. 10 Mohalla Sainipura City Mahendergarh Distt Mahendergarh Defendant No. 21D. Smt. Sonu Devi D/o Late Deepchand S/o Hardayal S/o Mamraj R/o Ward No. 10 Mohalla Sainipura City Mahendergarh Distt Mahendergarh Now Wife of Ghyan Singh R/o Village Akoda Ki Dhani Tehsil and Distt Mahendergarh Defendant No. 21E. Smt Renu Devi D/o Late Deepchand S/o Hardayal S/o Momraj R/o Ward No. 10 Mohilla Sainipura City. Mahendergarh Distt Mahendergarh Now wife of Sonu R/o Akoda ki Dhani Tehsil and Distt MahendergarhDefendant No. 21F. Smt Saroj Devi D/o Late Deepchand S/o Hardayal S/o Mamraj R/o Ward No. 10 Mohalla Sainipura City Mahendergarh Distt Mahendergarh through Lrs.Defendant No. 21F (I). VikramDefendant No. 21F (II). PinkuDefendant No. 21F (III) Billu (Minor) Ss/o Smt. Saroj Devi D/o Deepchand (Ss/0 Sh. Ramniwas R/o Village Baldor Tehsil Behror Distt Alwar (Rajasthan) Minor Billu through Ramniwas Father Self. In above titled case, the defendant(s)/respondent(s) could not be served. It is ordered that defendant(s)/respondent(s) should appear in person or through counsel on 24-11-2021 at 10:00 a.m. For details logon to https://highcourtchd.gov.in/?trs=district_notice&district=mahendragarh

Sh. Mohd Imtiyuaj Khan Civil Judge (Junior Division),

Dated 22-09-2021 Mahendergarh,

The Executive Engineer Jal Shakti Division Dehra invites following e- tenders on behalf of Governor of Himachal Pradesh from approved eligible contractors for the following work through e-tendering process:.

Name of work Estimated Cost

Earnest Money

Time of Completion

Repair and maintenance of Sewerage system to Jawalamukhi Town in Tehsil Jawalamukhi distt. Kangra (HP)(SH:- Operation and maintenance of 2.83 MLD capacity STP and sewerage network of 39.10 Kms for Five years)

34193281/- 374435 Five years

Last date of filling/ uploading the tender through e-tendering :- 11/10/2021 upto 11.00 A.M. The tender form and other detailed conditions can be obtained from the website www. Hpiph.org

Executive Engineer, No 4402/2021-2022 Jal Shakti Division Dehra

Government of Himachal PradeshJal Shakti Vibhag

“ Notice Inviting e-tender ”

10 millenniumpostBusinessmpTUESDAY, 28 SEPTEMBER, 2021 | NEW DELHI

OUR CORRESPONDENT

MUMBAI: Equity indices pared most of their early gains but managed to close at fresh life-time highs on Monday as robust buying in RIL and auto stocks offset profit booking in the IT pack.

Rising for the third straight session, the 30-share BSE Sensex ended 29.41 points or 0.05 per cent higher at its new closing peak of 60,077.88. Intra-day, it soared to an all-time high of 60,412.32.

On similar lines, the broader NSE Nifty inched up 1.90 points or 0.01 per cent to end at its fresh lifetime high of 17,855.10.

Maruti Suzuki was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, ral-

lying 6.53 per cent, followed by M&M, Bajaj Auto, NTPC, Reli-ance Industries, HDFC Bank and UltraTech Cement.

On the other hand, HCL Tech, Tech Mahindra, Bajaj Fin-serv, Infosys, L&T, Nestle India and HUL were among the main laggards, shedding up to 4.58 per cent.

The market breadth was negative, with 17 of the 30 Sensex components ending in the red, while 13 mustered gains.

“Domestic equities traded range-bound amid positive cues from global equities. Heavy profit-booking in IT and pharma nullified the impact of sharp recovery in auto stocks,”

said Binod Modi, Head - Strat-egy at Reliance Securities.

Auto stocks witnessed strong rebound as contin-ued underperformance for last couple of months, expec-tations of improvement in demand scenario from Octo-ber and positive commentary from select companies about semiconductor issue made investors buy quality names in OEMs, he noted.

Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, said, “Due to profit booking in IT, Pharma and FMCG, domestic markets failed to uphold its winning streak to close flat in a volatile session.”

“Realty stocks continued its rally on positive developments

NEW DELHI: Employment in nine selected sectors, includ-ing construction, manufactur-ing and IT/BPO, was at 3.08 crore in the April-June quarter of 2021-22, reflecting a growth of 29 per cent compared to 2.37 crore reported in the Economic Census of 2013-14, according to Labour Bureau survey.

Labour and Employment Minister Bhupender Yadav on Monday released the report of Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) part (April to June 2021), of the All-India Quarterly Estab-lishment-based Employment Survey (AQEES).

Announcing the results, Yadav said the estimated total employment in the nine selected sectors from the first round of QES is 3 crores and 8 lakhs approximately against a total of 2 crores and 37 lakhs in these sectors taken collec-tively, as reported in the sixth Economic Census (EC 2013-

14) reflecting a growth rate of 29 per cent. These sectors alto-gether account for a majority of the total employment in the non-farm establishments. These nine selected sectors are Manu-facturing, Construction, Trade, Transport, Education, Health, Accommodation and Restau-rant, IT/ BPO and Financial Services.

“Of the total employment estimated in the selected nine sectors, Manufacturing accounts for nearly 41 per cent followed

by Education with 22 per cent, and Health 8 per cent. Trade as well as and IT/BPO each engaged 7 per cent of the total estimated number of workers,” Yadav said. The union minis-ter mentioned that data on all aspects of labour is crucial.

Sharing the findings on the pandemic induced employ-ment retrenchment/ decline, he informed that it was found that the impact was evident in 27 per cent of the establishments however the silver lining was that 81 per cent of the workers received full wages during the lock-down period (March 25 June 30, 2020). According to the survey the most impressive growth of 152 per cent has been recorded in the IT/BPO sector, while growth rates in health is 77 per cent, in education it is 39 per cent, in manufacturing it is 22 per cent, in transport it is 68 per cent and in construction it is 42 per cent. PTI

Benchmarks rise to fresh highsMaruti Suzuki was top gainer in Sensex pack, rallying 6.53%, followed by M&M, Bajaj Auto, NTPC, RIL, HDFC Bank and UltraTech Cement

KBK graphicsInfo

Intra-day on September 27, 2021

9am 10 11 12 1pm 2 3 4 9am 10 11 12 1pm 2 3 4

Previous close:

17,853.20

NSE NIFTYIntra-day on September 27, 2021

BSE SENSEX

High:

17,943.50

Previous close:

60,048.47 Close:

60,077.88Close:

17,855.10

High:

60,412.32

Open:

17,932.20 29.41(0.05%)

Low:

59,887.19

Open:

60,303.79

Low:

17,802.90

1.90(0.01%)

Employment in 9 sectors at 3.08 cr in Q1: Labour Survey

These nine sectors are Manufacturing, Construction, Trade, Transport, Education, Health, Accommodation and Restaurant, IT/ BPO & Financial Services

LONDON: Google headed to a top European Union court Monday to appeal a record EU antitrust penalty imposed for stifling competition through the dominance of its Android operating system.

The company is fighting a 2018 decision from the EU’s executive Commission, the bloc’s top antitrust enforcer, that resulted in the 4.34 billion-euro ( 5 billion) fine still the biggest ever fine Brussels has imposed

for anti-competitive behaviour.It’s one of three antitrust

penalties totalling more than 8 billion that the commission hit Google with between 2017 and 2019. The others focused on shopping and search, and the

company is appealing all three. While the penalties involved huge sums, critics point out that Google can easily afford them and that the fines haven’t done much to widen competition.

In its original decision, the commission said Google’s prac-tices restrict competition and reduce choices for consumers.

Google, however, plans to argue that free and open source Android has led to lower-priced phones and spurred competi-

Google in court to appeal EU’s 2018 antitrust case

in the sector while the senti-ments in the auto sector were lifted on expectation of better sales numbers for September. The market is also awaiting the release of August’s core sector output data and September’s manufacturing PMI data this week,” he added.

Sectorally, BSE auto, realty, energy, oil and gas, bankex and utilities indices rallied as much as 3.11 per cent, while IT, teck, healthcare and FMCG indices closed lower.

Broader BSE midcap and smallcap indices ended on a flat note.

Asian markets were mixed after China’s central bank announced fresh liquidity mea-sures amid the continuing debt crisis at real estate giant Ever-grande. Bourses in Hong Kong and Seoul ended with gains, while Shanghai and Tokyo were in the red.

Stock exchanges in Europe were trading on a positive note, led by German shares after fed-eral election results showed that the hard-left Linke party did not get the requisite votes to enter parliament.

Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 1.32 per cent to $78.25 per barrel.

The rupee weakened by 15 paise to close at 73.83 against the US dollar on Monday as a stronger greenback against key rivals and rising crude oil prices weighed on investor sentiment.

KBK graphicsInfo(Inverted scale)

Rupee Dollarvs

20 21 22 23 24 27

September 2021

` per

US $

73.61

+13p 73.64

+23p 73.68

-4p

73.87

-26p

73.83

-15p

73.74

-26p

tion with its chief rival, Apple.Android has created more

choice for everyone, not less, and supports thousands of suc-cessful businesses in Europe and around the world. This case isn’t supported by the facts or the law, the company said as the five-day hearing opened at the European Court of Justice’s General Court.

The court’s decision is not expected until next year. Android is the most popular mobile operating system, beat-ing even PTI

MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank of India on Monday imposed a penalty of Rs 2 crore on private lender RBL Bank for deficien-cies in regulatory compliances and non-compliance of the provisions of the Banking Reg-ulation Act.

Following supervisory eval-uation of the RBL Bank, the Reserve Bank of India raised issues relating to contravention of certain regulatory directions and non-compliance with the provisions of the Banking Reg-ulation Act concerning open-ing of five savings accounts in the name of a cooperative bank and composition of the board of directors.

The Reserve Bank of India later issued a notice to the bank advising it to show cause as to why pen-alty should not be imposed for contravention of and non-compliance with the pro-visions of its directions and provisions of the Banking Regulation Act. PTI

Reserve Bank imposes

`2 cr penalty on RBL Bank

BEIJING: Several key Apple and Tesla suppliers said they had halted production on Sun-day at some of their Chinese facilities to comply with the country’s tighter energy con-sumption policy.

Apple supplier Unimicron Technology Corp said that three of its subsidiaries in China had to stop production from midday on September 26 until midnight on September 30 to “comply with the local governments’

electricity limiting policy”.It did not expect a major

impact, adding that other facto-ries would make up production, the company said in a statement late on Sunday.

The temporary stop to pro-duction by the companies puts supply-chain continuity at risk during a peak season for elec-tronics goods including the lat-est iPhones, Reuters reported.

Eson Precision Engineer-ing, an affiliate of Foxconn,

said it suspended its produc-tion from Sunday until Friday at its facilities in the Chinese city of Kunshan, Nikkei reported earlier.

IPhone speaker compo-nent supplier Concraft Hold-ing , which owns manufacturing facilities in the Chinese city of Suzhou, said it would sus-pend production for five days until noon Thursday and uti-lize its inventory to support the demand. AGENCIES

Many key Apple, Tesla suppliers halt output in China amid power pinch

This may be published in Newspapers and TV from the day following the last date for withdrawal of candidature and upto two days before the date of poll

Format C-1(for candidate to publish in Newspapers, TV)

Declaration about criminal cases(As per the judgment dated 25th September, 2018, of Hon’ble Supreme Court in WP (Civil) No. 536 of 2011 (Public Interest Foundation &Ors. Vs. Union of India &Anr.)Name and address of candidate: MISS SUSHMITA DEVof H/No-68, Kalimohan Road, S.M. Dev Road, Tarapur, Silchar – 788003, Dist. Cachar, Assam Name of political party: ALL INDIA TRINAMOOL CONGRESS(Independent candidates should write “Independent” here)Name of Election: BYE ELECTIONS TO THE COUNCIL OF STATES*Name of Constituency: WEST BENGAL, BYE ELECTIONS TO THE COUNCIL OF STATESI SUSHMITA DEV(name of candidate), a candidate for the above mentioned election, declare for public information the following details about my criminal antecedents:

(A) Pending criminal casesSl. No. Name of Court Case No. and

datedStatus of case(s)

Section(s) of Acts concerned and brief description of offence(s)

1. Court of Judicial Magistrate (1st Class), Silchar

C.R. No. 303/2010

Charges not yet framed

Section 15 of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 & Municipal Solid Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2000

(B) Details about cases of conviction for criminal offencesSl. No. Name of Court &

date(s) of order(s)Description of offence(s) & punishment imposed

MaximumPunishment Imposed

N/A N/A N/A

*In the case of election to Council of States or election to Legislative Council by MLAs, mention the election concerned in place of name of constituency.

11millenniumpost

CORPORATE KALEIDOSCOPE

LIC of India and The Department of Posts, Government of India have entered into an Agreement for Print to Post solutions. The Print to Post solutions is provided by the Department of Posts, Government of India for printing and dispatch of the Policy Booklet issued under a Life Insurance policy. Present for the event were MR Kumar, Chairperson of LIC of India and the Managing Directors, Mukesh Kumar Gupta, Raj Kumar, Mini Ipe, and Praveen Kumar, Executive Director (New Business & Reinsurance). The Department of Posts, Government of India was represented by Ajay Kumar Roy, Dy. Director General, Postal Directorate, New Delhi, T M Sreelatha, Post Master General & K A Devaraj, Director of Postal Services (Headquarters), Telengana Circle and Ganesh V Sawaleshwarkar, Post Master General, Navi Mumbai Region, Maharashtra Circle. MPOST

Business mpNEW DELHI | TUESDAY, 28 SEPTEMBER, 2021

COMMERCIAL COAL MINING

TO BRING GENDER BALANCE, PARITY & EQUITY

NEW DELHI: Privatisation-bound Bharat Petroleum Cor-poration Ltd (BPCL) plans to invest over Rs 1 lakh crore over the next five years in raising pet-rochemical production capacity, gas business, clean fuel and aug-menting marketing infrastruc-ture, its Chairman Arun Kumar Singh said on Monday.

The investment will help BPCL prepare for the future where conventional fuels and zero-carbon mobility in form of electric vehicles (EVs) and hydrogen will co-exist, while giving it the option to convert a greater degree of crude oil directly into high-value petro-chemicals. India’s second-largest fuel retailer is looking to create a 1,000 MW portfolio of renew-able power generation capac-ity, mostly through acquisitions while also invest in biofuels and hydrogen, he told reporters.

It is targeting to convert 7,000 out of over 19,000 pet-rol pumps into energy stations in the medium to long term by offering multiple fueling options

like petrol, diesel, flexi fuels, EV charging facility, CNG and even-tually hydrogen.

“In the years to come, BPCL has made aggressive invest-ment plans. We shall be invest-ing more than Rs 1 lakh crores at the group level majorly in enhancing petrochemical capac-ity and improving refining effi-ciencies (Rs 30,000 crore), gas proliferation (Rs 20,000 crore), upstream oil and gas explora-tion and production (Rs 18,000 crore) and augmenting (fuel) marketing infrastructure (Rs 18,000 crore),” he said.

Besides, the firm also plans to invest Rs 5,000 crore in renewable energy and another Rs 7,000 crore in biofuels.

BPCL owns and operates three refineries at Mumbai, Kochi in Kerala and Bina in Madhya Pradesh which con-vert crude oil into fuels such as petrol and diesel. It is adding petrochemical units at the refin-eries, the latest being at Kochi, to capture value addition from producing speciality chemicals.

“With the commission-ing of two units in Propylene Derivative Petrochemical Proj-ect (PDPP) at Kochi refinery in February 2021, we have joined the leaders in production of niche petrochemicals. We will increase our presence in petro-chemical space, integrating with our refining activity to diversify and hedge,” he said.

With the government look-ing to increase the share of envi-ronmentally safe natural gas in the energy basket to 15 per cent by 2030 from the current 6.2 per cent, BPCL too is investing heav-ily in city gas networks and set-ting up 12 LNG fuel stations, he said, adding the firm has license to retail CNG and piped natu-ral gas in 37 geographical areas.

Stating that the firm and its joint ventures have 1,393 CNG stations, he said, “Our presence in CNG stations is going to grow manifold in the next few years.”

BPCL, he said, is closely watching EV development in India and expects higher pen-etration in two- and three-

wheelers. “It is a new business opportunity as well as a hedge against the risk of displace-ment of auto fuels.” EV charg-ing facilities have already been installed in 44 petrol pumps in major cities, and plan is to ramp it up to 1,000 by 2023-24.

BPCL has also started pilot of battery swapping for three-wheelers in Kochi and Lucknow.

Singh said the firm is look-ing to have both solar and wind power generation capacities and would look to convert electricity thus generated into green hydrogen — the clean-est form of hydrogen. BPCL, which has a portfolio of 45 MW of renewable capacity, plans to increase it to 1,000 MW in the next five years.

This would “benefit the company in various ways — diversification, offsetting GHG emissions arising from fos-sil fuel portfolio. Renewable power can also help in enabling EVs and production of green hydrogen,” he said. MPOST

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Centre on Monday announced the launch of the “second attempt” of auc-tion process for 11 coal mines for commercial mining.

These were the mines which were offered in the first attempt launched on March 25 this year and had fetched single bids, the coal ministry said in a statement.

“The Nominated Author-ity of the Ministry of Coal has launched today the sec-ond attempt of auction pro-cess for eleven coal mines (4 mines under the Tranche 12 of CM(SP) Act and 7 mines under the Tranche 2 of MMDR Act) earmarked for sale of coal in accordance with the rules pre-scribed under these Acts,” the statement said.

Out of these 11 mines, six are fully explored and five are partially explored.

The auction will be held online through a transparent two-stage process, on the basis of percentage revenue share.

Key features of auction process include introduc-tion of National Coal Index, ease in participation with no restriction for prior coal min-ing experience, full flexibility in coal utilisation, optimised payment structures, efficiency

promotion through incentives for early production and use of clean coal technology.

“The commencement of sale of tender document shall start from September 27, 2021,” the ministry said.

The Ministry of Coal had earlier said that it has executed agreements with the eight suc-cessful bidders pursuant to the auction of second tranche of coal mines for commercial mining.

Eight coal mines have been successfully auctioned with the winning percentage of revenue share ranging from 6 to 75.5 per cent with an average per cent revenue share of 30 per cent, the ministry had said.

The electronic auction of these mines was conducted in the first week of August this

year.In the first attempt of auc-

tion under 11th tranche of auc-tion under the CM (S) Act 2015 and under first tranche of auc-tion under the MMDR Act 1957, out of the 38 coal mines, 19 were successfully auctioned.

Out of the remaining mines, four coal mines which had fetched single bid in the first attempt were put up for re-auction in a second attempt by the Ministry of Coal with the same terms and conditions but with the highest initial offer received in the first annulled attempt of auction as the floor price for the second attempt.

The coal ministry had launched the auction process of 38 coal mines in the first tranche of auction for sale of coal for commercial mining.

NEW DELHI: The government will borrow Rs 5.03 lakh crore in the second half of the current fiscal to fund the revenue gap for reviving the pandemic-hit economy, the finance ministry said on Monday.

During the first half (April-September), the government has raised Rs 7.02 lakh crore by issuing bonds, the ministry said in a statement.

“Out of gross market bor-rowing of Rs 12.05 lakh crore projected for FY 2021-22 in the Union Budget, Rs 7.24 lakh crore (60 per cent) was planned to be borrowed in first half (H1).

“The effective borrowing in H1 of FY 2021-22 was Rs 7.02 lakh crore. The Government now plans to borrow the balance Rs 5.03 lakh crore in second half year (H2) of FY 2021-22,” it said.

The H2 projection also fac-tors requirements for release of balance amount to states on account of back-to-back loan facility in-lieu of GST compen-sation during the year, it said.

During the first half, the Centre has released Rs 75,000 crore to states and union terri-tories (UTs) under the back-to-back loan facility in lieu of GST compensation. The remaining Rs 83,000 crore out of Rs 1.58 lakh crore has to be distributed to states and UTs in the second half beginning October 1.

The statement further said borrowing will be spread under 2, 5, 10, 14, 30 and 40-year secu-rities and floating rate bonds (tenors of 7-8 and 13 years). It will be done in 21 weeks in tranches of Rs 24,000 or 23,000 crore per week.

“The share of borrowing

Coal Min launches ‘2nd attempt’ of auction for 11 coal mines

Out of these 11 mines, 6 are fully explored & five are partially explored

NEW DELHI: India’s mas-sive fleet of coal plants are running dangerously low on stockpiles, which may force the nation to buy expensive shipments of the fuel or else risk blackouts.

Stockpiles have fallen to the lowest since November 2017, data from the Central Electricity Authority showed. The South Asian nation isn’t alone in facing a fuel crisis. Buyers from the U.K to China are grappling with energy shortages as a rebound in demand outpaces supply, Bloomberg reported.

As inventories dry up, plants may be forced to buy expensive imported coal or pay hefty premiums at domes-tic auctions, said Debasish Mishra, a Mumbai-based partner at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu. That may raise costs across an economy that’s already battling high petro-leum fuel prices.

“A sharp rise in post-pan-demic electricity demand is straining fuel supply chains across the globe,” said Mishra. “India has done well to expand its power generation capacity, but has failed to give similar attention to coal sup-ply infrastructure.”

Electricity demand from India’s state distribution util-ities rose more than 10% in July and 18 per cent in August as economic activ-ity rebounded after a sec-ond wave of the pandemic receded and more citizens were vaccinated.

About 124 gigawatts of plants, more than 60 per cent of the nation’s coal generation capacity, had less than a week of inventories as on Septem-bre 24, according to data from the power ministry. Power stations imported 1.9 million tons of coal in August, 42 per cent lower from a year earlier, government data show. AGENCIES

Coal shortage in India deepens amid plunging

plant inventories

Govt to borrow `5.03L cr in FY’22 H2 to fund revenue gap

under different maturities will be: 2 years: 4 per cent; 5 years: 11.9 per cent; 10 year: 28.4 per cent; 14 year: 17.9 per cent; 30 year: 13.9 per cent; and 40 year: 15.1 per cent. “Borrowing under Floating Rate Bonds will be 8.8 per cent. The Government will issue another Floating Rate Bond of 7-8 years, in addition to 13-year. Both will be issued on alternate basis,” it said.

According to the Budget for 2021-22, the government’s gross borrowing was estimated at Rs 12.05 lakh crore, while net bor-rowing was pegged at Rs 9.37 lakh crore in the financial year beginning April 1.

Gross borrowing includes repayments of past loans. Repayment for past loans in the next financial year has been pegged at Rs 2.80 lakh crore.

The government raises money from the market to fund its fiscal deficit through dated securities and treasury bills.

The Budget has estimated fiscal deficit at 6.8 per cent for the current fiscal, down from 9.5 per cent of the GDP projected for FY21. However, the actual fiscal deficit for 2020-21 came in lower at 9.3 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP).

According to the statement, the government will continue to carry out switching of securi-

ties to smoothen redemptions in coming years.

“Weekly borrowing under Treasury Bills in third quarter of FY 2021-22 is expected to be Rs 20,000 crore with net borrowing of (-) Rs 1.04 lakh crore during the quarter. “There will be issu-ance of Rs 10,000 crore under 91 DTBs (Days Treasury Bills), Rs 3,000 crore under 182 DTBs; Rs 7,000 crore under 364 DTBs during the quarter,” it said.

To take care of temporary mismatches in government account, it said, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has fixed the Ways and Mean Advance (WMA) limit for H2 at Rs 50,000 crore.

The RBI, in a separate state-ment, said it may trigger fresh floatation of market loans when the Government of India utilises 75 per cent of the WMA limit.

The central bank retains the flexibility to revise the limit at any time, in consultation with the government, taking into consideration the prevailing circumstances, it added.

Sharing details of borrow-ing in H1, the finance ministry statement said it has been com-pleted smoothly with weighted average yield at 6.19 per cent and weighted average maturity at 16.69 years.

In H1, good demand for government bonds was seen from all major investor seg-ments and the yields have remained stable, it said.

During the last fiscal, the government had done the highest gross borrowing in the history of the finance ministry. PTI

BPCL to invest `1L cr to become future-ready

NEW DELHI: Diesel price on Monday was hiked by 25 paise per litre — the third increase since last week — and more rate hikes for both diesel and petrol are in the offing in the coming days as international oil prices have soared to a three-year high.

The price of diesel was hiked to Rs 89.32 per litre in Delhi and to Rs 96.94 in Mumbai, accord-ing to a price notification of state-owned fuel retailers.

This is the second straight day of increase in diesel prices and the third since September 24 when the state-owned oil firms ended a three-week hia-tus in rates.

Just like the previous two occasions, petrol price was not changed on Monday. It costs Rs 101.19 a litre in Delhi and Rs 107.26 in Mumbai.

State-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC), Bharat Petro-leum Corp Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd

(HPCL) had on September 24 resumed daily price revisions, ending the pause in rates since September 5.

In all, diesel prices have gone up by 70 paise a litre, negating more than half of the Rs 1.25 a litre cut in prices that hap-pened between July 18 and Sep-tember 5.

However, industry sources said the price of petrol, along-side diesel, is likely to be increased in the coming days as the rally in international crude oil prices has continued, with Brent Future prices quoting at more than $78 per barrel since September 24.

Crude oil prices have reached a nearly three-year high as global output disrup-tions have forced energy com-panies to draw more crude oil out of their stockpiles. Accord-ingly, US crude oil inven-tory levels are also nearing a three-year low. PTI

NEW DELHI: Smriti Irani, Minister of Women and Child Development (WCD), Govern-ment of India on Monday said that many in our country want to enable more women in the organised sector speak of gen-der diversity. They speak of such plausible proposal within their organisations because there have been many studies that have shown gender diversities make companies report profitable and more productive.

Addressing the inaugural session of the two-day Greater

50 Virtual Conclave & Exhibi-tion, organized by FICCI, Ms Irani said, “‘Gender Intelligence’ is a nomenclature not often spo-ken about in Indian organisa-tions. Organisations that are still flummoxed over grappling with gender diversity now need to look at gender intelligence. While gender diversity is about encouraging organisations to have more women at the work-place, but gender intelligence is about ensuring that those women stay at work.”

The Minister stated that if

an organisation wants to bring about gender balance, gender parity, and gender equity, it will need to recognise that the term ‘gender’ does not mean only women. Irani noted that the Greater 50 Call to Action Report highlights that the SMEs now feel overburdened at the prospect of catering to spe-cific needs of women, which in turn, impacts their recruit-ment and retention of women at their workplace. “We hope that we can look at pathways to help SMEs in our country hire

and retain more women,” she said. Further, Irani said that FICCI has taken a giant step towards ensuring that not only is gender diversity is embraced but also understood and how leadership roles need to change from the perspective of gender and be all inclusive.

Speaking at the event, Uday Shankar, President FICCI said that FICCI will leave no stone unturned to address issues related to gender gap and digital divide that exist in the country. MPOST

Cos should realise ‘gender’ does not mean only women: Union Minister Smriti Irani

Diesel price up 70 paise in 4 days; petrol rate hike next

NEW DELHI: Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Monday said the existing foreign trade policy (FTP) will be extended for six months till March 31 next year.

The government had earlier extended the FTP 2015-20 until September 30 this year due to the Covid-19 crisis. The FTP provides guidelines for enhanc-ing exports to push economic growth and create jobs.

“We are notifying it today evening or tomorrow...We have decided to extend the policy (2015-20) until March

31 (2022)...and in the (new) financial year, we can start with the new policy,” he told report-ers here.

He expressed hope that by that time, Covid-19 issues would be resolved and stake-holder consultation would be carried out for the new policy.

“Since we have still not overcome the entire Covid issues, a lot of consultation which was expected to go in, is still continuing,” Goyal said at the closing ceremony of Vani-jya Saptah, organised by the ministry and the Federation of

Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) here.

On March 31, 2020, the government had extended the Foreign Trade Policy 2015-20 for one year till March 31, 2021, amid the coronavirus outbreak and the lockdown.

Under the FTP, the gov-ernment provide incentives under different schemes such as Duty Free Import Authori-sation (DFIA) and Export Pro-motion Capital Goods (EPCG).

Exports during April-Sep-tember 21, 2021, stood at over $185 billion, Goyal added. PTI

Existing foreign trade policy to be extended till March next: Goyal

NEW DELHI: Customs authorities of India and the US have signed an agree-ment to help exporters of both countries in faster clearances through customs procedures.

Chairman, Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Cus-toms M Ajit Kumar and Act-ing Commissioner Troy Miller of the US Customs & Border Protection, the Department of Homeland Security signed a Mutual Recognition Arrange-ment (MRA) to recognise each other’s Authorised Economic Operators (AEOs) on Septem-ber 22, 2021, Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) tweeted.

This Mutual Recognition Arrangement between India and the US is a major mile-stone towards supply chain security and trade facilita-tion and will help the export-ers of both countries in faster clearances through the other country’s customs procedures, it added. PTI

India, US sign pact for faster export clearance

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THEATRES REOPEN IN MAHARASHTRA

12 millenniumpostLeisure

Entertainmentmp

TUESDAY, 28 SEPTEMBER, 2021 | NEW DELHI

Acclaimed Ladakhi short film ‘Sekool’ was screened at the inaugu-

ral edition of the ‘Himalayan Film Festival’ in Ladakh union territory recently.

The short, which was part of the official selection line-up at various international and national film festivals including the ‘Clermont Ferrand Interna-tional Short Film Festival’ and the ‘Short Shorts (Film Festival and Asia 2020)’, was presented at PictureTime’s inflatable the-atre in Ladakh.

Written and directed by Stenzin Tankong, the film received a great response upon its screening from the audience in the jam-packed cinema hall.

A film about the people

of Changthang, a Nomadic tribe of southeastern Ladakh, ‘Sekool’ is set in a remote region of the Himalayas.

Tankong, who is also the editor of the short, described

‘Sekool’ as the story of a child - from one of the nomadic tribes - who is are excited about going to school until he learns that it would mean leaving behind everything he has ever known or loved.

“I hope I have done jus-tice in capturing the essence

of these people and what they stand for. This film is my effort on portraying the simplicity of the wants of every human being, despite their diverse social, cultural, economic and geographical backgrounds,” the director said at the film’s screening.

“The film has travelled all over the world but today the film is being screened here at the ‘Himalayan Film Festival’, which gives me great pride and joy to have it here among my audience for whom I played this film. It is a great pleasure for me,” he shared.

‘20 Years’ and ‘Walking with the Wind’ are also set to be screened at the movie gala. PTI

Makers of big-ticket Bollywood films like the Aamir

Khan-headlined ‘Laal Singh Chaddha’, Akshay Kumar’s ‘Prithviraj’ and ‘Bachchan Pandey’, Ranbir Kapoor-star-rer ‘Shamshera’ and Ranveer Singh’s ‘83’ announced fresh theatrical release dates after the Maharashtra government allowed cinema halls to oper-ate from next month.

The theatrical date calen-dar of the Hindi film industry - which had remained largely vacant, except for a few major releases like Kumar’s ‘BellBot-tom’ in August and Rajkummar Rao’s horror-comedy ‘Roohi’ in March - soon appeared to be booking slots for a release one after the other in the day.

Filmmaker Rohit Shetty earlier announced that his much-awaited cop action-

drama ‘Sooryavanshi’ will open worldwide theatrically on Diwali.

‘Laal Singh Chaddha’ was moved back from its earlier announced December release to Valentine’s Day 2022.

The Advait Chandan-directed movie, an offi-cial remake of Tom Hanks’ 1994 feature ‘Forrest Gump’, was scheduled to be released on Christmas 2021 but was delayed due to the pandemic.

The vacant spot of ‘Laal Singh Chaddha’ was swooped up by Ranveer Singh’s much-anticipated cricket drama ‘83’.

Directed by Kabir Khan, the film is now scheduled to be released theatrically in Decem-ber in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam.

The movie chronicles the Indian cricket men’s team’s first World Cup win under the cap-taincy of Kapil Dev in 1983 when they defeated West Indies

in the final.Apart from ‘83’, Singh will

also be seen in Yash Raj Films’ ‘Jayeshbhai Jordaar’, which is set for a February 25, 2022, release.

Billed as a family enter-tainer, the Divyang Thakkar directorial is set in Gujarat and features Singh as a man who becomes an unlikely hero.

After ‘Sooryavanshi’, Kumar-led ‘Prithviraj’ will release on January 21, 2022.

Backed by ‘YRF’, the Chan-draprakash Dwivedi directorial features the actor in the title role of the 11th century ruler Prithviraj Chauhan. The film also marks the screen debut of Miss World 2017 Manushi Chhillar.

Next up for Kumar will be the action-comedy ‘Bachchan Pandey’. Backed by Sajid Nadi-adwala, the film is scheduled to be released on March 4, 2022. The film features Kumar as a gangster, who aspires to be an actor.

‘YRF’ will also release ‘Shamshera’ on March 18, 2022 and ‘Bunty Aur Babli 2’ on November 19. PTI

Katherine Heigl has pledged to support behind-the-scenes

workers in the entertain-ment industry. She credits the crew she has worked with over the years for mak-ing her who she is today.

The Hollywood star has spoken out about the reported working condi-tions on ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ in 2009, when she said to have worked a 17-hour day on set and despite the backlash she subsequently encountered, the actor does not intend to back down amid her fight for justice.

Heigl in a post on ‘Ins-tagram’ wrote: “I have cel-ebrated life’s big and small milestones with my crews. First real love. Marriage. Babies. Turning 21. Turn-ing 30. Turning 40.”

“The crews I have worked with all these years have been just as instrumen-tal in making me who I am as anything else lasting and important in my life. They have been family in that way and I have always and will always continue to support

and stand by them,” the post read further.

Heigl subsequently addressed the backlash she encountered more than a decade ago, after she decided to speak up on the issue, reported ‘femalefirst.co.uk’.

“Some of you may remember over ten years ago I was very vocal about the absurdity of the work-ing hours’ crews and actors

were being forced into by production. Even Diane Sawyer interviewed me and not so kindly informed me ‘no one feels sorry for you’. I very publicly and for many years after I got kicked for speaking up,” she revealed.

She further said, “I let that public spanking shut me up and shut me down. I took a very big step back

from the hustle of my career and retreated into the woods of Utah. I spent a fair amount of time struggling with self-confi-dence and self-worth. I let myself be convinced that I was wrong. That speaking out made me seem ungrate-ful or precious or as if I were ‘biting the hand that fed me’.”

She is determined to fight for justice and to speak her mind on the issue.

She wrote, “I speak up today and say with zero hes-itation or regret 14, 16, 17, 18-hour workdays are not safe. They are not healthy. They cannot and should no longer be tolerated.” AGENCIES

Katherine pledges to support behind-the-scenes workersShe also addressed the backlash she encountered, after she decided to speak up on the issue

‘Massively grateful to have been given the chance to do it’

Daniel bids farewell to James Bond franchise

Daniel Craig thought he had wrapped up his tenure as James Bond with ‘Spectre’, but the actor said his final

fifth outing as the British secret agent in ‘No Time to Die’ allowed him to fully complete his 007 journeys.

Nearly 60 years after the first Bond film ‘Dr No’ premiered, the cinema’s favourite spy, known for his love of fast cars and cool gadgets, returns in the highly antici-pated 25th Bond movie next week after an 18-month delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Costing an estimated 200 million dollars to produce, ‘No Time to Die’ sees Bond come out of retirement from an idyllic life in Jamaica to help track down a new villain armed with lethal technology.

“I did not think that I was going to do another movie after ‘Spectre’. I genu-

inely thought that I was going to just pack it in,” Craig told ‘Reuters’.

He added, “But I’m so happy that I got the chance to come and do this one and we tied up lots of loose ends.

We have tried to tell one story with all my Bond movies. It is like they are all con-nected in some way and this one just sort of capped it off.”

Running at nearly three hours long, the film, directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, promises the usual Bond action, car chases and stunts in pictur-esque locations, including the cave dwellings of the southern Italian city of Matera.

It introduces the new char-acter Nomi, played by Black actress Lashana Lynch and described sim-ply as a 00 agent at Bond’s past employer, Britain’s MI6 foreign spy service. She looks just as fierce and skilled as Bond.

“She is also a real human being. She is grounded and she is from a good back-ground and takes every opportunity she gets and runs with it. She has shifted things up at MI6 and will continue to do so,” Lynch said.

After being postponed three times since its original April 2020 slot, ‘No Time to Die’ holds its world premiere on September 28

in London.“I enjoyed them all. They are always

a bit of a struggle but anything worth-while is always a bit of a struggle, so this was a joy to make,” said Craig,

who began his Bond journey in 2006’s ‘Casino Royal’.

He admitted, “I’m mas-sively grateful to have been given the chance to do it and all of the mem-ories and all the amaz-ing times. Working with just fantastic, amazing people has changed my life.” AGENCIES

Filmmakers announce fresh theatrical dates for big films

The list of films include names like ‘Shamshera’, ‘83’, ‘Prithviraj’ etc

‘Nomi is the woman I hoped to see on the screen’

Lashana Lynch has described her ‘No Time to Die’ character

Nomi as the woman she hoped to see on the screen when she was a ‘little girl’.

Lynch told Baz Bamig-boye’s column in the ‘Daily

Mail’ newspaper: “Nomi is the woman I hoped to see on

the screen when I was a little girl. She is highly skilled yet vul-nerable. She is learning on the job - as I had to.”

The movie, which is set to be Daniel Craig’s last as 007, sees Nomi team up with Bond to res-cue a kidnapped scientist and Lynch said that the intense stunt training has set her up for life.

The ‘Captain Marvel’ star said, “They gave me every-thing to ensure I was ready for the rest of my career.”

She also talked about that there is ‘mental and energetic’ sparring between Nomi and Bond during the movie.

She said, “They psych each other out.”

Bond producer Barbara Broccoli hopes that Lashana will return as Nomi in the next film but

ruled out the prospect of her replacing Craig as the iconic spy.

Asked if she will become a regular in the franchise, Broccoli said: “One hopes. But James Bond is a male character.”

Broccoli’s fellow pro-ducer Michael G Wilson also shared that there is no rush to find Craig’s replacement and that the search will begin next year. AGENCIES

Ladakhi short film ‘Sekool’ screened at ‘Himalayan Film Festival’

Lashana Lynch says she fulfilled her childhood dream with her ‘No Time To Die’ character

Written and directed by Stenzin Tankong, the film received a great response upon its screening from the audience in the jam-packed cinema hall

Heigl in a post on ‘Instagram’ wrote: ‘I have celebrated life’s big and small milestones with my crews. First real love. Marriage. Babies. Turning 21. Turning 30. Turning 40’

AparshaktiKhurana shares an adorable picture with wife and baby - who turned one month old, recently