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C ongress leader Priyanka Gandhi on Friday pitched herself as the party’s Chief Ministerial face in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls as she released a “youth manifesto” for the State, along with her broth- er Rahul Gandhi. Priyanka, who has been leading from the front in the crucial poll-bound State, how- ever, evaded queries on whether she would contest the Assembly polls. At the same time, she said the Congress would be open to a post-poll alliance if the need arose. Rahul on his part chose to attack the BJP alleging that those preach- ing Hindutva are spreading hatred in the cyber world. “Do you see any other face from the Congress party,” Priyanka said when asked who would be the party’s Chief Ministerial candidate in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls. “You are seeing my face every- where,” the Priyanka added while addressing the joint Press conference with Rahul to release the “Bharti Vidhan” (recruitment document) man- ifesto that promises a new vision for youth in the State and the creation of 20 lakh jobs, including eight lakh for women. To a question on whether she would herself contest the Assembly polls, Priyanka said, “We have not yet decided.” She said it would be known once that is decided. Continued on Page 11 D omestic air passengers will no longer be allowed to carry more than one hand baggage. In a bid to reduce con- gestion at airports, the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) has asked the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) to strictly implement the rule which mandates that only one handbag is allowed per pas- senger. The CISF has said flyers with more than one cabin handbag are choking the secu- rity check-in counters at air- ports as well as causing delays, congestion and inconvenience to passengers. CISF guards all key airports in India. Interestingly, BCAS’s own rules allow passengers to carry one hand baggage, the existing rules permit a passenger to carry one laptop bag, one ladies’ handbag, and one blan- ket, gift item purchased from duty-free shop, umbrella, and a reasonable amount of reading material on board an aircraft. In a letter to Director General, BCAS, the CISF’s IG/Airport Sector Vijay Prakash pointed out that it has been seen that passenger on average carries two to three handbags to the screening point. This has led to increased clearance time as well as delays, congestion in PESC points, and inconvenience to passen- gers. “As per BCAS AVSEC Circular Nos. 06/2000 & Lt12000, no passenger should be permitted to carry more than one handbag other than those items already listed in the cir- cular including lady’s bag,” the CISF said, adding, “All airlines and airport operators may be instructed to take steps to implement ‘One Hand Bag rule’ meticulously on the ground to ease the congestion and other security concerns. Continued on Page 11 A mar Jawan Jyoti on Friday was merged with the eter- nal flame at the newly con- structed National War Memorial (NWM) here. Some veterans and political leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, how- ever, criticised the move and said it was an insult to the fall- en soldiers. In a short military cere- mony, the flame at the Amar Jawan Jyoti at the India Gate was taken and merged with the War Memorial about 400 metres away in the afternoon. Chief of Integrated Defence Staff Marshal BR Krishna presided over the ceremony that included a parade and salute. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, meanwhile, announced that a statue of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose will be installed at India Gate as a symbol of India’s indebtedness to him. This announcement came ahead of Bose’s 125th birth anniversary. Until the installation is completed, a hologram of Netaji will be projected at the site of the statue, the Prime Minister said. “I will unveil the hologram statue on 23rd January, Netaji’s birth anniver- sary,” he tweeted. “At a time when the entire nation is marking the 125th birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, I am glad to share that his grand statue, made of granite, will be installed at India Gate,” Modi tweeted on Friday. “This would be a symbol of India’s indebt- edness to him.” The statue will be installed under the grand canopy near which the Amar Jawan Jyothi flickers. The canopy, which was built along with the rest of the grand monument in the 1930s by Sir Edwin Lutyens, once housed a statue of the former king of England George V. The statue was later moved to Coronation Park in Central Delhi in the mid-1960s. The National War Memorial, built in 2019, will now be the single point for mil- itary ceremonies and tributes to fallen soldiers. Continued on Page 11 I ndia on Friday recorded 3,47,254 new cases of Covid- 19, including 9,692 cases of the new Omicron variant, while 703 fatalities were reported in the last 24 hours. The active cases have increased to 20,18,825, the highest in 235 days, the Union Health Ministry data showed. The active cases comprise 5.23 per cent of the total infections. The Test Positivity Rate surged to 43.76 per cent in Kerala, paining a gloomy pic- ture about the Covid-19 situa- tion in the State which record- ed 41, 668 fresh cases during the last 24 hours on Friday. The samples tested on Friday stood at 95,218. By far this is the highest positivity rate recorded by any State in India ever since Covid- 19 spread in the country. Positivity rate is the percentage of people who test positive of those overall who have been tested. The Kerala Government suffered a setback on Friday as a Division Bench of the Kerala High Court asked the Kasaragod district adminis- tration not to allow any pub- lic meetings attended by more than 50 persons. Though the District Disaster Management Authority had issued an order limiting the number of persons that could assemble for any meeting to 50, the district col- lector reportedly under polit- ical pressure issued a new order stating that the number of persons that could be allowed to attend public meet- ings should be decided based on the Test Positivity Rate as well as the number of beds available in the district. Neighbouring Karnataka too is battling massive surge in Covid-19 cases. The State reported 48,049 new Covid-19 cases along with 22 deaths and 18,115 recoveries on Friday. Bengaluru registered 29,068 infections and six deaths. The Karnataka Government on Friday decid- ed to lift the weekend curfew that was in place with an aim to control the spread of Covid-19 infections. However, the night curfew hours between 10 pm and 5 am everyday will con- tinue. This comes as Karnataka registered a steep spike in Covid-19 cases on Thursday. Meanwhile, Delhi reported 10,756 new Covid-19 cases, 17,494 recoveries and 38 deaths in the last 24 hours. Continued on Page 11 D enied ticket from Panaji, his late father’s con- stituency, former Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar’s son Utpal Parrikar on Friday quit the BJP. He would contest the February 14 Assembly elections in the State from Panaji as independent, he announced here. The day before, the ruling BJP nominated from Panaji — which Manohar Parrikar had represented for over two decades — its sitting MLA Atanasio Monserrate, one of ten legislators who had joined the saffron party in July 2019 after quitting Congress. “I was left with no other choice. I have resigned from the party and I would be contest- ing as an independent from Panaji,” Utpal Parrikar told reporters. He also said that resigna- tion was a formality but the BJP will “always remain in my heart.” “It is a difficult choice for me, I am doing it for the peo- ple of Goa. No one should be worried about my political future, people of Goa will do it,” he said. The BJP had offered him “other options” (constituen- cies other than Panaji), Parrikar said. “I am fighting for the val- ues which I believe in. Let peo- ple of Panaji decide. I cannot negotiate with my party,” he added. Asked whether he would seek support of other political parties, he said the only plat- form for him was the BJP. “If not BJP, then I would go for (contesting as) indepen- dent. I will not go for any other political party,” Parrikar said. On Thursday, the BJP’s Goa in-charge Devendra Fadnavis had said while releasing its first list of candidates that the party offered some other seats to Utpal, but he was not willing to contest from any of them. Earlier in the day, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said his party, which had formed a tie- up with the NCP for Goa elec- tions, would support Parrikar if he promised not to back the BJP post elections. On Thursday, Aam Aadmi Party leader and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had slammed the BJP for adopting “use and throw” policy regard- ing the Parrikar family, and invited Utpal to join his party. E xpelled BJP leader and for- mer Uttarakhand Minister Harak Singh Rawat on Friday joined the Congress in Delhi along with his daughter-in- law Anukriti Gusain in the presence of party campaign head for Uttarakhand Harish Rawat, PCC president Ganesh Godiyal, Leader of Opposition in Uttarakhand Assembly Pritam Singh. Harak, who represented the Kotdwar seat in the Uttarakhand Assembly, was among the 10 MLAs who had rebelled against the then Chief Minister Harish Rawat-led State Government in 2016 and joined the BJP. Harak was expelled from the BJP five days back. A cting on intelligence inputs, the Government has blocked 35 YouTube chan- nels, two Twitter accounts, two Instagram accounts, two web- sites, and a Facebook account for spreading anti-India pro- paganda and spreading fake news in a “coordinated man- ner” on the Internet from Pakistan. Talking to the media, Apurva Chandra, secretary Union Information and Broadcasting Ministry, said these YouTube accounts had a total subscriber base of over 1.20 crore, and their videos had over 130 crore views. The Government last month had blocked 20 YouTube channels and two websites for spreading anti-India fake and divisive news and other content. According to Chandra, the 35 YouTube accounts blocked by the Ministry were all oper- ating from Pakistan and were identified to be part of four coordinated disinformation networks. These include Faisal Tarar Speaks, Apni Dunya TV, Haqeekat ki Dunia, Shahzad Abbas, Mera Pakistan with Shahab, Khabar with Ahmed, HR tv, Sabee Kazmi, Such tv network, Saqib Speaks, and Salman Haider Officials. The Apni Duniya Network operates 14 YouTube chan- nels, and Talha Films Network operates 13 YouTube chan- nels. A set of four channels and a set of two other channels were also found to be acting in syn- chronisation with each other. The channels were used to post divisive content in a coor- dinated manner on topics like Kashmir, Indian Army, minor- ity communities in India, Ram Mandir, General Bipin Rawat, etc. One of the groups identified on YouTube was “Naya Pakistan”. Continued on Page11 T he BJP on Friday fielded Aditi Singh and Rakesh Singh, who left the Congress to join it, and Asim Arun, who recently quit the IPS, in the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls as it released a list of 85 more candidates. Both Aditi Singh and Rakesh Singh are sitting MLAs from constituencies falling under Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s Rae Bareli par- liamentary seat. They have been fielded from their current seats of Rae Bareli and Harchandpur, respectively. The list also includes incumbent MLA Hariom Yadav, a relative of Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav. Hariom Yadav quit the opposition party recently and joined the BJP. Yadav has been fielded from his current seat Sirsaganj, while Arun, a Dalit, will con- test from Kannauj, a reserved seat. In the last assembly elec- tion in 2017, out of the five assembly seats in Rae Bareli, the Congress and the BJP had won from two constituencies each while one had gone to the Samajwadi Party. The five assembly seats of Rae Bareli — Bachrawan (SC), Harchandpur, Sareni, Unchahar and Rae Bareli — will vote in the fourth phase, while Salon (SC) will vote in the fifth phase on February 27. The BJP also announced its candidates for assembly con- stituencies in Lakhimpur Kheri district. In Lakhimpur Kheri dis- trict, the BJP has repeated Shashank Verma (from Nighasan), Arvind Giri (from Gola Gokrannath), Manju Tyagi (from Srinagar), Yogesh Verma (from Lakhimpur Kheri), Saurabh Singh Sonu (from Kasta-SC), Lokendra Pratap Singh (from Mohammadi) and Harvindar Romi Sahni (from Palia). Lakhimpur Kheri has been in the news recently after four protesting farmers were run over by vehicles. Four others, including a journalist and two BJP workers, were also killed in the violence in October last year. Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Kumar Mishra’s son Ashish Mishra has been named as an accused in the vio- lence. The BJP has fielded Vinod Shankar Awasthi from Dhaurahra in place of Bala Prasad Awasthi, who has joined the SP. The party has fielded Salona Kushwah from Tilhar in Shahjahanpur. Earlier, the seat was represented in the assem- bly by Roshan Lal Verma, who had recently joined the SP. Uttar Pradesh Assembly Deputy Speaker Nitin Aggarwal, who had also left the SP to join the BJP, will fight from Hardoi. Other key candidates include former BSP leader Ramveer Upadhyay from Sadabad, Archna Pandey from Chhibramau, and Satish Mahana from Mahrajpur. Riya Shakya, daughter of Bidhuna MLA Vinay Shakya who joined the SP, has also got a ticket to contest from her father’s seat. With the fresh list of can- didates, which includes 15 women, the total number of names announced by the party for the seven-phase election to Continued on Page 11

Transcript of UZV $ &= Z_WVTeVU Z_ R URj Rd T`c`_R ^RcTYVd ` - Daily ...

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Congress leader PriyankaGandhi on Friday pitched

herself as the party’s ChiefMinisterial face in the UttarPradesh Assembly polls as shereleased a “youth manifesto” forthe State, along with her broth-er Rahul Gandhi.

Priyanka, who has beenleading from the front in thecrucial poll-bound State, how-ever, evaded queries onwhether she would contest theAssembly polls. At the sametime, she said the Congresswould be open to a post-pollalliance if the need arose. Rahulon his part chose to attack theBJP alleging that those preach-ing Hindutva are spreadinghatred in the cyber world.

“Do you see any other facefrom the Congress party,”Priyanka said when asked whowould be the party’s ChiefMinisterial candidate in theUttar Pradesh Assembly polls.“You are seeing my face every-where,” the Priyanka addedwhile addressing the joint Pressconference with Rahul torelease the “Bharti Vidhan”

(recruitment document) man-ifesto that promises a newvision for youth in the State andthe creation of 20 lakh jobs,including eight lakh forwomen.

To a question on whethershe would herself contest theAssembly polls, Priyanka said,“We have not yet decided.”She said it would be knownonce that is decided.

Continued on Page 11

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Domestic air passengers willno longer be allowed to

carry more than one handbaggage. In a bid to reduce con-gestion at airports, the CentralIndustrial Security Force(CISF) has asked the Bureau ofCivil Aviation Security (BCAS)to strictly implement the rulewhich mandates that only onehandbag is allowed per pas-senger.

The CISF has said flyerswith more than one cabinhandbag are choking the secu-rity check-in counters at air-ports as well as causing delays,congestion and inconvenienceto passengers. CISF guards all

key airports in India.Interestingly, BCAS’s own

rules allow passengers to carryone hand baggage, the existingrules permit a passenger tocarry one laptop bag, oneladies’ handbag, and one blan-ket, gift item purchased fromduty-free shop, umbrella, anda reasonable amount of readingmaterial on board an aircraft.

In a letter to DirectorGeneral, BCAS, the CISF’sIG/Airport Sector VijayPrakash pointed out that it hasbeen seen that passenger on

average carries two to threehandbags to the screeningpoint. This has led to increasedclearance time as well as delays,congestion in PESC points,and inconvenience to passen-gers. “As per BCAS AVSECCircular Nos. 06/2000 &Lt12000, no passenger shouldbe permitted to carry more thanone handbag other than thoseitems already listed in the cir-cular including lady’s bag,” theCISF said, adding, “All airlinesand airport operators may beinstructed to take steps toimplement ‘One Hand Bagrule’ meticulously on theground to ease the congestionand other security concerns.

Continued on Page 11

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Amar Jawan Jyoti on Fridaywas merged with the eter-

nal flame at the newly con-structed National WarMemorial (NWM) here. Someveterans and political leaders,including Rahul Gandhi, how-ever, criticised the move andsaid it was an insult to the fall-en soldiers.

In a short military cere-mony, the flame at the AmarJawan Jyoti at the India Gatewas taken and merged with theWar Memorial about 400metres away in the afternoon.Chief of Integrated DefenceStaff Marshal BR Krishnapresided over the ceremonythat included a parade and salute.

Prime Minister NarendraModi, meanwhile, announcedthat a statue of Netaji SubhasChandra Bose will be installedat India Gate as a symbol ofIndia’s indebtedness to him.This announcement cameahead of Bose’s 125th birthanniversary.

Until the installation iscompleted, a hologram ofNetaji will be projected at thesite of the statue, the PrimeMinister said. “I will unveil the

hologram statue on 23rdJanuary, Netaji’s birth anniver-sary,” he tweeted.

“At a time when the entirenation is marking the 125thbirth anniversary of NetajiSubhas Chandra Bose, I amglad to share that his grandstatue, made of granite, will beinstalled at India Gate,” Moditweeted on Friday. “This wouldbe a symbol of India’s indebt-edness to him.”

The statue will be installedunder the grand canopy nearwhich the Amar Jawan Jyothiflickers. The canopy, whichwas built along with the rest ofthe grand monument in the1930s by Sir Edwin Lutyens,once housed a statue of theformer king of England GeorgeV. The statue was later movedto Coronation Park in CentralDelhi in the mid-1960s.

The National WarMemorial, built in 2019, willnow be the single point for mil-itary ceremonies and tributes tofallen soldiers.

Continued on Page 11

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India on Friday recorded3,47,254 new cases of Covid-

19, including 9,692 cases of thenew Omicron variant, while703 fatalities were reported inthe last 24 hours. The activecases have increased to20,18,825, the highest in 235days, the Union HealthMinistry data showed. Theactive cases comprise 5.23 percent of the total infections.

The Test Positivity Ratesurged to 43.76 per cent inKerala, paining a gloomy pic-ture about the Covid-19 situa-tion in the State which record-ed 41, 668 fresh cases duringthe last 24 hours on Friday. Thesamples tested on Friday stoodat 95,218.

By far this is the highestpositivity rate recorded by anyState in India ever since Covid-19 spread in the country.Positivity rate is the percentageof people who test positive ofthose overall who have been

tested.The Kerala Government

suffered a setback on Friday asa Division Bench of the KeralaHigh Court asked theKasaragod district adminis-tration not to allow any pub-lic meetings attended by morethan 50 persons. Though theDistrict Disaster ManagementAuthority had issued an orderlimiting the number of persons

that could assemble for anymeeting to 50, the district col-lector reportedly under polit-ical pressure issued a neworder stating that the numberof persons that could beallowed to attend public meet-ings should be decided basedon the Test Positivity Rate aswell as the number of bedsavailable in the district.

Neighbouring Karnatakatoo is battling massive surge inCovid-19 cases. The Statereported 48,049 new Covid-19cases along with 22 deaths and18,115 recoveries on Friday.Bengaluru registered 29,068infections and six deaths.

The KarnatakaGovernment on Friday decid-ed to lift the weekend curfewthat was in place with an aim tocontrol the spread of Covid-19infections. However, the nightcurfew hours between 10 pmand 5 am everyday will con-tinue. This comes as Karnatakaregistered a steep spike inCovid-19 cases on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Delhi reported10,756 new Covid-19 cases,17,494 recoveries and 38 deathsin the last 24 hours.

Continued on Page 11

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Denied ticket from Panaji,his late father’s con-

stituency, former Goa ChiefMinister Manohar Parrikar’sson Utpal Parrikar on Fridayquit the BJP.

He would contest theFebruary 14 Assembly electionsin the State from Panaji asindependent, he announcedhere.

The day before, the rulingBJP nominated from Panaji —which Manohar Parrikar hadrepresented for over twodecades — its sitting MLAAtanasio Monserrate, one often legislators who had joinedthe saffron party in July 2019after quitting Congress.

“I was left with no otherchoice. I have resigned from theparty and I would be contest-ing as an independent fromPanaji,” Utpal Parrikar toldreporters.

He also said that resigna-tion was a formality but the BJPwill “always remain in myheart.”

“It is a difficult choice forme, I am doing it for the peo-ple of Goa. No one should beworried about my politicalfuture, people of Goa will do it,”he said.

The BJP had offered him“other options” (constituen-cies other than Panaji), Parrikarsaid.

“I am fighting for the val-ues which I believe in. Let peo-ple of Panaji decide. I cannotnegotiate with my party,” headded.

Asked whether he wouldseek support of other politicalparties, he said the only plat-form for him was the BJP.

“If not BJP, then I would gofor (contesting as) indepen-dent. I will not go for any otherpolitical party,” Parrikar said.

On Thursday, the BJP’s Goain-charge Devendra Fadnavishad said while releasing its firstlist of candidates that the partyoffered some other seats toUtpal, but he was not willing tocontest from any of them.

Earlier in the day, ShivSena leader Sanjay Raut said hisparty, which had formed a tie-up with the NCP for Goa elec-tions, would support Parrikarif he promised not to back theBJP post elections.

On Thursday, Aam AadmiParty leader and Delhi ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwal hadslammed the BJP for adopting“use and throw” policy regard-ing the Parrikar family, andinvited Utpal to join his party.

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Expelled BJP leader and for-mer Uttarakhand Minister

Harak Singh Rawat on Fridayjoined the Congress in Delhialong with his daughter-in-law Anukriti Gusain in thepresence of party campaignhead for Uttarakhand HarishRawat, PCC president GaneshGodiyal, Leader of Oppositionin Uttarakhand AssemblyPritam Singh.

Harak, who representedthe Kotdwar seat in theUttarakhand Assembly, wasamong the 10 MLAs who hadrebelled against the then ChiefMinister Harish Rawat-ledState Government in 2016 andjoined the BJP.

Harak was expelled fromthe BJP five days back.

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Acting on intelligenceinputs, the Government

has blocked 35 YouTube chan-nels, two Twitter accounts, twoInstagram accounts, two web-sites, and a Facebook accountfor spreading anti-India pro-paganda and spreading fakenews in a “coordinated man-ner” on the Internet fromPakistan.

Talking to the media,Apurva Chandra, secretaryUnion Information andBroadcasting Ministry, saidthese YouTube accounts had atotal subscriber base of over1.20 crore, and their videos hadover 130 crore views. TheGovernment last month had

blocked 20 YouTube channelsand two websites for spreadinganti-India fake and divisivenews and other content.

According to Chandra, the35 YouTube accounts blockedby the Ministry were all oper-ating from Pakistan and wereidentified to be part of fourcoordinated disinformationnetworks. These include FaisalTarar Speaks, Apni Dunya TV,Haqeekat ki Dunia, ShahzadAbbas, Mera Pakistan with

Shahab, Khabar with Ahmed,HR tv, Sabee Kazmi, Such tvnetwork, Saqib Speaks, andSalman Haider Officials.

The Apni Duniya Networkoperates 14 YouTube chan-nels, and Talha Films Networkoperates 13 YouTube chan-nels. A set of four channels anda set of two other channels werealso found to be acting in syn-chronisation with each other.

The channels were used topost divisive content in a coor-dinated manner on topics likeKashmir, Indian Army, minor-ity communities in India, RamMandir, General Bipin Rawat,etc. One of the groups identifiedon YouTube was “NayaPakistan”.

Continued on Page11

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The BJP on Friday fieldedAditi Singh and RakeshSingh, who left the

Congress to join it, and AsimArun, who recently quit theIPS, in the Uttar Pradeshassembly polls as it released alist of 85 more candidates.

Both Aditi Singh andRakesh Singh are sitting MLAsfrom constituencies fallingunder Congress presidentSonia Gandhi’s Rae Bareli par-liamentary seat. They havebeen fielded from their currentseats of Rae Bareli andHarchandpur, respectively.

The list also includesincumbent MLA HariomYadav, a relative of SamajwadiParty patriarch Mulayam SinghYadav. Hariom Yadav quit theopposition party recently andjoined the BJP.

Yadav has been fieldedfrom his current seat Sirsaganj,while Arun, a Dalit, will con-test from Kannauj, a reservedseat.

In the last assembly elec-tion in 2017, out of the fiveassembly seats in Rae Bareli,the Congress and the BJP hadwon from two constituencieseach while one had gone to the

Samajwadi Party.The five assembly seats of

Rae Bareli — Bachrawan (SC),Harchandpur, Sareni,Unchahar and Rae Bareli —will vote in the fourth phase,while Salon (SC) will vote inthe fifth phase on February 27.

The BJP also announced itscandidates for assembly con-stituencies in Lakhimpur Kheridistrict.

In Lakhimpur Kheri dis-trict, the BJP has repeatedShashank Verma (fromNighasan), Arvind Giri (from

Gola Gokrannath), ManjuTyagi (from Srinagar), YogeshVerma (from LakhimpurKheri), Saurabh Singh Sonu(from Kasta-SC), LokendraPratap Singh (fromMohammadi) and HarvindarRomi Sahni (from Palia).

Lakhimpur Kheri has beenin the news recently after fourprotesting farmers were runover by vehicles. Four others,including a journalist and twoBJP workers, were also killed inthe violence in October lastyear.

Union Minister of State forHome Ajay Kumar Mishra’sson Ashish Mishra has beennamed as an accused in the vio-lence.

The BJP has fielded VinodShankar Awasthi fromDhaurahra in place of BalaPrasad Awasthi, who has joinedthe SP.

The party has fieldedSalona Kushwah from Tilhar inShahjahanpur. Earlier, the seatwas represented in the assem-bly by Roshan Lal Verma, whohad recently joined the SP.

Uttar Pradesh AssemblyDeputy Speaker NitinAggarwal, who had also left theSP to join the BJP, will fightfrom Hardoi.

Other key candidatesinclude former BSP leaderRamveer Upadhyay fromSadabad, Archna Pandey fromChhibramau, and SatishMahana from Mahrajpur.

Riya Shakya, daughter ofBidhuna MLA Vinay Shakyawho joined the SP, has also gota ticket to contest from herfather’s seat.

With the fresh list of can-didates, which includes 15women, the total number ofnames announced by the partyfor the seven-phase election to

Continued on Page 11

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A sale deed and lease deed both dated09.11.2004 which is executed by the VaranasiDevelopment Authority, Varanasi through autho-rised signatury Under Secretary in favor of Mr.Diwakar Dwivedi, son of Late Sheshdhar Dwivedi,resident of Flat No. LB 3‚ Badi Gaivi, VDA Colony,Varanasi, which is Flat No. LB 3‚ Second Floor,Badi Gaivi Awas Yojana, Badi Gaivi, Varanasi,propotionate plinth area 42.48 sqm and commonland area 2.28 sqm duly registered in Sub-Registrar Office IV Varanasi in Indenture (saledeed) book no.1, volume 2117 pages 109 to 130doc. no. 4130 and Lease deed book no.1, vol-ume 2117 pages 69 to 88 doc. no. 4128 dated09.11.2004, have been lost away. If anyperson/institution have any objection or informa-tion regarding these sale deed and lease deedplease inform with in 15 days Anand PrakashSingh Advocate S.21/116E-3, Subhash Nagar,Maldahiya, Varanasi. Mob.No.9450013575

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���� -/�5*6,

Launching Bharatiya JanataParty’s poll campaign and

new slogan, Chief MinisterYogi Adityanath on Friday saidthe BJP would return to powerbecause of its “imandaar soch”and “damdaar kaam” as thepeople had made up theirmind to bring the BJP back topower.

The campaign sloganwhich reads ‘Soch imaandaar,kaam dumdaar, UP phir mangebhajpa sarkar’ was launched onFriday

After the launch of cam-paign material, including theslogan, Yogi Adityanath saidthat the government had ful-filled the promise it had madeto the people. “The BJP govern-ment does not believe inappeasement of anyone as thepriority of our governmentwas to restore the rule of thelaw in the state,” he said.

Yogi Adityanath said thatrioters were once a threat to thepeace and harmony of the stateand were given patronage bythe previous government, buttoday posters of the same riot-ers were put up on the maincrossings.

"Our government did thework of strengthening law andorder so that everyone liveshappily in the state," he added.

The chief minister saidthat history-sheeters shouldnot run police stations, mafiashould not run the govern-ment, rioters should notriot, transparency should bemaintained in governmentrecruitment, no one shouldplay with the dignity ofsisters and daughters, henceBJP was the need of the statetoday.

He said, "We did what wesaid and this is possible whenthe thinking is honest and thework is strong. Earlier in thestate, due to the mafia, our sis-ters and daughters could notget out of their houses butnow the land of the mafia hasbeen confiscated by ourgovernment. Our governmenthas built houses for the poorby running bulldozers on theillegal properties of suchmafia."

Yogi Adityanath said thatthe sugar mills used to beclosed under the SamajwadiParty and Bahujan Samaj Partygovernments. "For many years,the sugarcane payment wasnot cleared and when BJPcame to power, record paymentwas made to the farmers,” hesaid.

He said that earlier in thegovernment the chief ministerused to build his own house,but the BJP government had

given one house each to thepoor.

"Our government hasworked keeping in mind themotto Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas-- development of all andappeasement of none. For thisthe BJP government must

come again,” he added.BJP state president

Swatantra Dev Singh said thattoday no one could make alle-gations of corruption in anyappointments in the state,adding that there used to beloot for recruitment earlier.

"Today sisters and daugh-ters in the state can leave thehouse even at 12 o'clock in thenight. They can go anywhere,no one is going to stop them.The Yogi Adityanath govern-ment has given this fear-freeenvironment to the state," he

claimed.He said that hooliganism

and corruption were wide-spread in the state during theprevious regime but YogiAdityanath's government hadcompletely eliminated themafia raj from the state.

���� -/�5*6,

Highlighting how the lawand order situation has

improved in Uttar Pradeshover the last five years, ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath onFriday said, it is same statewhere criminals ruled theroost and used to torture peo-ple but the present governmentreversed the trend.

"Now the criminals arerunning for their lives and thetranquillity is back in society,"the UP chief minister said,asserting that his governmentguaranteed security to thepeople as well as investorsand now big industrialistswanted to invest in the state.

“Those accused ofMuzaffarnagar riots used to berewarded by the previous gov-ernments but now they arebegging for their lives,” YogiAdityanath said, adding thatunder his regime, those whohad forced people to migratefrom Kairana had themselvesmigrated out of the state andthe rule of law had been estab-lished in Uttar Pradesh in fiveyears.

Yogi was interacting withthe entrepreneurs of westernUP through a virtual mediumon 'Aatmanirbhar UttarPradesh'. He called upon thebusinessmen and entrepre-neurs to make their contribu-tions in building a self-reliant

Uttar Pradesh without anyfear.

“Employment and invest-ment prospects have gainedmomentum in UP. They willgain more currency after theBJP government is formedagain with a thumping major-ity on March 10,” he said.

Expecting positive cooper-ation from the entrepreneur-ial class for the BJP in theassembly elections, Yogi saidthat Prime Minister NarendraModi’s dream was to make UPa one trillion US dollar econ-omy.

“This dream can be ful-filled only with the coopera-tion of entrepreneurs,” he said.

He hit out at the previousSamajwadi Party governmentheaded by Akhilesh Yadavforthe Saharanpur-Muzaffarnagarriots and said, “Between 2017,several families in Kairanahad migrated due to threats ofextortion and the merchant-entrepreneur society inGhaziabad was also plagued byextortion and kidnapping. Butthe BJP government adoptedthe policy of zero-tolerancetowards crime and criminals.As a result, the law and ordersituation has strengthenedtoday.”

Stating that the thinking ofpeople had changed towardsUP, the chief minister main-tained, “Industrial investmentof lakhs of crores came to UP.

Investments of Rs 66,000 crorealone came in the COVID-19period. This created hugeemployment opportunities inthe state and over 1.61 croreyouth got employment in ourMSME units in the last fiveyears.”

The chief minister saidthat today the state had goodconnectivity in the form ofPurvanchal Expressway, Delhi-Meerut Expressway,Bundelkhand Expressway,Ballia Link Expressway,Gorakhpur Link Expressway,Lucknow-Kanpur Expressway,and Ganga Expressway.

“Before 2017, one and ahalf airports were active in thestate, today nine airports arefunctional, 12 new ones arebeing built and flights areavailable for 75 cities. Till2017, UP had only 12 medicalcolleges, today 35 are beingbuilt. Be it the uninterruptedsupply of electricity or theavailability of land for indus-tries, the government has paidattention to every need, as aresult, UP has emerged as thebest destination for invest-ment in the country,’ he said.

The chief minister saidthat the government was mak-ing special industrial areaslike Film City, Medical DevicePark, Pharma Park, PlasticPark, and Toy Park in westernUP.

Narrating an interesting

incident from his Kairana visit,the chief minister said, “Afterthe formation of the govern-ment in 2017, he met a fami-ly of Kairana who wanted toreturn but were afraid. I askedthem not to be afraid as thegovernment was with them.The family returned and Iwent to meet them threemonths ago in Kairana whereI also met a girl studying inclass 6 who told me that therewas no problem but we hadcome to know that a goon wasout on bail and was roamingon the crossroads.”

I asked the officials tolook into the matter, andimmediately the next day itwas in the newspapers that thegoon got his bail cancelled andwent to jail again, he added.The chief minister said that UPneeded such law and order andonly the BJP government wascapable of providing it.

The entrepreneurs, too,while speaking to the chiefminister, appreciated theindustrial promotion policiesof the government and also putforward their expectationsabout future needs.

Deepak Gupta fromBulandshahr Industrial Areatold the chief minister that thebiggest change in five years wasthat children who wanted towork outside UP earlier, hadstarted talking about living inUP today.

���� -/�5*6,

Aparna Yadav, the daughter in law ofSamajwadi Party patriarch Mualyam

Singh Yadav, returned to Lucknow andtook blessings of her father-in-law.

She shared a picture touching the feetof Mulayam Singh Yadav on herTwitter account.

"After taking the mem-bership of Bharatiya Janata Party, on com-ing to Lucknow, took blessings fromfather/Netaji," she said in a tweet.

In another tweet, she wrote "Onreaching Lucknow Amausi Airport fromDelhi after taking membership of BJP wasgiven a grand welcome by supporters andworkers, I thank all of you that by com-ing in such large numbers, you all haveencouraged me."

Aparna, the younger daughter-in-

law of Samajwadi Party founder MulayamSingh Yadav, joined the BJP on Wednesdayat the party headquarters in New Delhi.

Expressing good wishes to AparnaYadav on joining the Bharatiya Janata

Party, Samajwadi Party chief and formerchief minister Akhilesh Yadav had toldreporters that Netaji had tried a lot to con-vince her.

In a sharp riposte to Aparna Yadavswitching allegiance to BJP on Wednesday,Akhilesh Yadav had quipped that he washappy at the "expansion" of the Samajwadiideology.

Moreover, he claimed that his fatherhad tried to convince her against takingsuch a step. Refuting the notion thatshe was miffed over denial of a partyticket, he also took a dig at her for justi-fying her BJP entry on the 'nationalism'plank.

Samajwadi Party ally Om PrakashRajbhar underplayed Aparna Yadav’sjoining the BJP saying “her entry into BJPwill make no difference as she has novotes”.

Lucknow (PNS): The SamajwadiParty has changed its strategy forselecting candidates following criti-cism from the ruling Bharatiya JanataParty of fielding candidates with taint-ed records and those involved inMuzaffarnagar communal riots andmigration of Hindu community fromKairana in 2013.

The SP candidates with taintedrecords are now seeking tickets for theirfamily members. The first casualty isformer MLA Nahid Hasan, SP candi-date from Kairana in Shamli district. SPhas now announced to field his sisterIkra Hasan from Kairana. She returnedfrom Britain where she was pursuing adegree course. Nahid Hasan has beenarrested under Gangster Act and sentto jail.

Ashok Dikshit, SP leader with atainted record, was front runner for theparty ticket from Fatehabad assemblyconstituency. He has now managed toget the party ticket for his daughterRupali Dikshit.

Among the Ansari brothers ofGhazipur, Sibgatullah, the elder broth-er of don-turned-politician MukhtarAnsari, has already joined the SP.Abbas Ansari, son of Mukhtar Ansari,has also joined the SP and may get aticket from one of the constituencies inGhazipur district.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanathhad recently lashed out at theSamajwadi Party, saying its choice of"candidates with criminal backgrounds"in Kairana, Bulandshahr, Muzaffarnagarand Loni had revealed its "true colours".

He said by giving tickets to peopleresponsible for the 2013 communal riotsin Muzaffarnagar and migration ofHindu families from Kairana (after theriots), SP had exposed its flawed socialjustice mentality. Yogi Adityanath hadalso pointed out that “the first list of can-didates released by Samajwadi Party wasa reflection of what they think about thepoor, Dalits, backward classes, business-men and other citizens whose proper-ties were robbed by such criminals.”

He added, “It's a habit that doesn'tchange easily. Hence, in a hurry to hidetheir faces, the SP has avoided makingthe list of candidates public and is silent-ly allotting party symbols by acceptingmoney under the table.”

Acting on the ElectionCommission’s new directive, the

Samajwadi Party earlier this weekdeclared the list of criminal casesagainst its candidates. Samajwadi Partyhas listed the criminal cases pendingagainst 20 of its candidates, theBharatiya Janata Party, on the otherhand, listed criminal cases of its 37 can-didates, including Deputy ChiefMinister Keshav Prasad Maurya withfour criminal cases pending againsthim.

The Samajwadi Party uploaded adocument on its official Twitter handlelisting 20 candidates with details of theircriminal cases and justification forselecting them. In several cases, theparty said that the selected candidateswork for public welfare and uplift ofweaker sections, thereby gaining“immense popularity” in their area.

���� -/�5*6,

Bharatiya Janata Party pres-ident JP Nadda and Union

Home and CooperationMinister Amit Shah will be inUttar Pradesh on Saturdayfor poll campaigning in west-ern region.

According to partysources here, Nadda andShah will hold many organi-sational meetings and guidethe workers and party func-tionaries for the elections.Along with this, they will alsolaunch a door to door cam-paign.

Nadda will reach Bijnoron Saturday at 1:00 pm andwill hold an important meet-ing with the Vidhan Sabhaofficials of Bijnor, NaginaMuzaffarnagar at JBS ResortBypass Road, Bijnor at 1:30pm.

Thereafter , the BJPnational president will reachGajraula at 3:00 pm and willhold an important meetingwith the office-bearers ofAmroha, Moradabad andMeerut assemblies at Gajraularesidence of MP Kanwar SinghTanwar.

On the other hand Shahwill reach Kairana on Saturdayat 2:30 pm and will launch adoor-to-door campaign fol-lowing the guidelines of theElection Commission at 2:45pm.

Thereafter at 3:15 pm, hewill hold a meeting with partyofficials and workers at HotelOrchid in Shamli.

Shah will hold discus-sions with prominent social

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Lucknow (PNS): TheSpecial Investigation Team(SIT) probing the LakhimpurKheri case, on Friday, filed fourmore chargesheets againstseven accused over the death ofa driver and two BharatiyaJanata Party workers during theviolence in Tikunia.

The SIT investigator filedthe 500-page chargesheet onFriday in the court of chiefjudicial magistrate in connec-tion with an FIR lodged by BJPworker Sumit Jaiswal.

All the seven are accused oflynching three people in theLakhimpur Kheri violence caseafter four farmers and a jour-nalist were allegedly moweddown by a speeding vehicle.They are currently lodged in ajail.

The Lakhimpur Kheri casepertains to the violence thaterupted in Lakhimpur Kheridistrict on October 3 last year.Eight people, including fourfarmers, two BJP workers, adriver and a local journalist,were killed in the incident.Union minister Ajay MisraTeni's son Ashish Misra is theprime accused in the case andhas been lodged in jail since hisarrest on October 9.

Two FIRs were lodged inconnection with the incident.

The first FIR, number219/2021, was lodged byfarmer Jagjeet Singh in connec-tion with the deaths of farmersand a journalist in which heimplicated Ashish Mishra aliasMonu, the son of the Unionminister, and 15 to 20 others.The second FIR, number220/221, was lodged by BJPworker Sumit Jaiswal in con-nection with the death of twoparty workers and a driver, inwhich he implicated unidenti-fied assailants. Sumit Jaiswal isalso a close aide of AshishMisra.

On October 3, 2021, eightpeople were killed inLakhimpur Kheri during vio-lence that erupted when farm-ers were protesting againstUttar Pradesh Deputy ChiefMinister Keshav PrasadMaurya's visit to the area. Avehicle allegedly linked to Ajayand Ashish Misra ran oversome farmers, killing five. Anangry mob burnt several vehi-cles and killed three people,taking the toll to eight.

The farmers’ bodiesclaimed that besides a journal-ist, four farmers, identified asNakshatra Singh (55), DaljeetSingh (35), Lavepreet Singh(20) and Gurvendra Singh(18), died as vehicles mowedthe protesters down on theTikunia-Banbirpur road. Threeother deaths were reportedfrom the BJP's camp.

figures of Meerut at 5:15 pm atHotel Godwin.

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For the first time in the lastsix months, 22 people died

of COVID-19 in one day asUttar Pradesh reported 16,142fresh cases on Friday while dur-ing the same period 17,600people recovered from coron-avirus infection, saidAdditional Chief Secretary(Health0 Amit Mohan Prasadhere.

He said there were 95,866active cases in the state ofwhich over 85,000 personswere in home isolation.

On Thursday, 2,41,457samples were tested out ofwhich 16,142 were found pos-itive. The overall positivity ratein the state is 1.97 per centwhile the recovery rate is 93.8per cent. The government ismaking all efforts to ensure thatthe maximum number of eligi-ble persons in the state are fullyimmunised against the novelcoronavirus before the assem-bly polls and on the directivesof the chief minister, screeningand testing has been intensifiedin the state.

The establishment of CovidHelp Desks in all the officesand industrial units has beenmade mandatory. The chiefminister has also issued

instructions to maintain con-stant communication with thepeople under treatment inhome isolation and to delivermedical kits to them asrequired. UP has so far admin-istered 24,29,28,849 doses ofCovid vaccine and has carriedout 9,74,62,647 tests of samples.“On Thursday, 26,12,031 peo-

ple took the vaccine,” the offi-cial said and added that UttarPradesh had so far adminis-tered vaccine doses to over 50per cent of the teenagers.

Since the beginning of theinoculation drive for this agebracket, more than 70,92,929teens have received their firstdose of vaccine within a span

of less than three weeks.While reviewing the

COVID-19 situation withsenior officials on Friday, ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanathdirected them to further rampup vaccination. He instructedthe officials concerned toensure 25-30 lakh vaccinationsper day.

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���� -/�5*6,

As many as 2290 peopletested positive for novel

coronavirus infection while2,615 COVID-19 patientsrecovered in the city on Friday.

At present there are 17,495active cases in Lucknow

Yogesh Raghuvanshi fromthe CMO office said that thesepositive cases included 1,586males and 1,018 females. Hesaid that two COVID-19deaths were reported in thecity from SGPGI whichincluded a 59-year-old diabet-ic patient who also had hyper-tension along with chronic

kidney disease and a 76-year-old man suffering from hyper-tension.

Chinhat reported 362fresh cases, Aliganj 349,Alambagh 299, Indiranagar262, Sarojininagar 240, SilverJubilee 157, Red Cross 124, NKRoad 150, Aishbagh 69,Bakshi-ka-talab 19, Tudiaganj69, Mohanlalganj 17,Gosainganj 16, Mall 16,Gudamba 15, Kakori 13,Malihabad 7, Itaunja andNagram 3 each.

Raghuvanshi said thatthose who were testing positivewere in the same age groupswhich had been infected in the

second corona wave. He saidthat 6-7 per cent were kidsbelow 18 years of age.

Meanwhile even as theOmicron wave sweeps throughand various predictionsregarding the peak come in,Covid experts admit that thereal projection of figureswould come if the testing isincreased.

“With directions beingcurrently of reducedtesting the projected figuresare not the real numbers andthe peak can be accuratelypredicted if the properfigures come up,” said a seniordoctor.

���� -/�5*6,

The Election Commission of India(ECI) set the election process rolling

for the second phase of Uttar Pradeshassembly polls on Friday with issuance ofnotification for 55 assembly constituenciesin nine districts of Rohilkhand and westUP region.

Friday was also the last date for filingnominations for the first phase of polls to58 assembly constituencies in 11 districtsof western UP.

Ten nominations were filed for the sec-ond phase of polling on the first day onFriday.

UP Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) AjayKumar Shukla said here on Friday thatnotification for the second phase polls wasissued at 11am on Friday. He said nomi-nations in these 55 assembly constituen-cies had commenced, strictly following theCovid norms and guidelines issued by theECI.

Shukla said this time, the candidatescould also submit their nomination papersonline. Only two persons along with thecandidate would be allowed during filingof nomination physically, he added.

He said that Friday was also the lastdate for filing nomination papers for thefirst phase polls.

As many as 815 candidates have filedtheir nominations in the first phase.

The state will witness a keen tussle ofballots in the seven-phase elections cov-ering 403 assembly constituencies withpolling to be held between February 10 andMarch 7 and announcement of result on

March 10.In the second phase polling to be held

on February 14, filing of nominations com-menced from January 21, the last date forfiling nominations is January 28, scrutinyon January 29 and last date for withdraw-al is January 31.

Altogether 55 assembly constituencieswill go to polls in the second phase cov-ering nine districts of Saharanpur, Bijnor,Amroha, Sambhal, Moradabad, Rampur,Bareilly, Budaun and Shahjahanpur.

In the second phase, 2,01,42,441 vot-ers will cast their votes in around 17,000polling booths.

In the 2017 elections, Bharatiya JanataParty had won 40 seats of these 55 assem-bly seats while Samajwadi Party won 13and Bahujan Samaj Party won 2 seats.

The assembly constituencies going topolls in the second phase are Behat,Nakhur, Saharanpur City, Saharanpur,Deoband, Rampur Maniharan (R),Gangoh, Najibabad, Nagina (R), BijnorChandpur, Noorpur, Kanth, ThakurDwara, Moradabad Rural, MoradabadCity, Kundarki , Bilari, Chandauli (R),Asmoli, Sambhal, Swar, Chamraua,Bilaspur, Rampur, Milak (R), NavgoaSadat, Amroha Hasanpur, Bisauli (R),Sahavasan, Bilsi (R), Budaun, Sheikhpur,Dataganj, Baheri, Mirganj, Bhojipura,Nawabganj, Fatehpur (R), Bithari,Chainpur, Bareilly, Bareilly Cantonment,Aonla, Katra ,Jalalabad, Tilhar, Puwaya (R),Shahjahanpur and Dadraul.

Already over 120 companies of Centralforces have reached UP to maintain lawand order during the polls. The ECI has

announced a seven-phase poll this timealso like in 2017 polls though the durationhas been reduced by five days. In 2017, thepoll dates were announced on January 4and results were declared on March 11.

The poll process commenced fromJanuary 14 with the issuance of notifica-tion for the first phase starting from west-ern UP on January 14 where polling willbe held on February10.

34+������������������ �� �������������������������� -/�5*6,

Atotal of 815 nominations have beenfiled for the first phase of assembly

polls to 58 constituencies in westernUttar Pradesh.

On Friday, the last day for filingnominations for the first phase poll, 426candidates filed their papers.

Sources in the Election Commissionof India said on Friday that 426 nomi-nations were submitted on Friday where-as 389 nominations were filed earlier.

On the last day, the highest numberof 27 nomination papers were filed in theMathura assembly constituency fol-lowed by 23 in Noida and 20 each in Bahand Meerapur and 12 in Kairana.

The scrutiny of the papers would bedone on Monday. The first phase pollingis scheduled on February 10.

��������"������� -/�5*6,

The Health department is targeting tocomplete 75 per cent double dose vac-

cination against COVID-19 till the pollingkicks off in the state on February 10.

Giving this information, a senior offi-cial from the Health department said thatall efforts were being made in this direc-tion.

It may be noted that Uttar Pradesh hasadministered 24.4 crore doses till now,which include 14.9 crore first doses, 9.37crore second doses and 6.9 lakh precau-tionary doses. Till January 20, the state hasachieved 63.06 per cent coverage of the sec-ond dose.

“We are aiming to complete 75 percent coverage of the second dose but itall depends on the first dose administered.If the first dose is administered late wecannot administer the second dose incase of Covishield. Hence if the first doseis administered in the month of January2022 or December 2021, the person willnot be eligible for the second dose if theperson has had a shot of Covishield,” hesaid.

When asked if this gap could bereduced now since the availability of thevaccine was sufficient, he said that it wasfor the Central government to decidewhether the gap of 84 days should bereduced for the entire country.

The official further pointed out thatthey were monitoring daily to see that thenumbers of the Covid vaccinationsincrease.

“Everyday, we are reviewing theprocess to see that the vaccination isexpedited and this is taking place atevery level whether it be the district orblock and workers are going from door todoor to see that all the people are vacci-nated,” he said.

The senior official said that the Centralgovernment had sent a letter for reductionof the gap in the booster dose which wascurrently at nine months. “The boosterdose will be reduced from nine months forCovishield for the healthcare workersand all frontline workers who are going forelection duty,” he said.

He admitted that the number of vac-cinations done had increased. “In Januarywe have already completed four crore vac-cinations in a period of 20 days in theentire state which includes the first, the sec-

ond and the precautionary doses and theseare the highest number of doses which wehave administered till now since the vac-cinations started on January 16 last year.In December we administered 3.86 croreof vaccines. This way the pace of the vac-cination is going well,” he said.

As per the figures provided by theHealth department till January 20, inGautam Buddha Nagar 92.33 per cent havereceived the second dose, in Shahjahanpur89.4 per cent, in Baghpat 76.8 per cent, inLucknow 75.86 per cent and in Ghaziabad71.42 per cent.

Districts which have not fared well inthe second dose administration includeMoradabad (52.08 per cent), Shamli (52.59per cent), Agra (55.81 per cent), Aligarh(56.81 per cent) and Farrukhabad (56.11per cent).

Meanwhile District MagistrateAbhishek Prakash said that in the battleagainst COVID-19, the Lucknow districthad completed 68 lakh vaccinationsthrough various phases at 148 centreswhich included 12 district level hospitalssuch as Balrampur Hospital, Civil Hospital,Lok Bandhu Hospital, Rani Laxmi BaiHospital, RML, KGMU, BRD Mahanagar,Ram Sagar Mishra, 100-bed hospital atThakurganj and Sadamau, 19 urban healthcare centres, 18 primary health centres, 104

workplace venues and seven other centres.He said that 37.8 lakh people had

already received the first dose and 28.44lakh had received the second dose and44,749 had received the precautionarydose.

“We will be working at war footing andcomplete the vaccinations by 100 per centin the coming days.

The DM said that a 100 per cent firstdose had been completed in the districtand that the officials worked day in andout to complete the target and would sooncomplete the second dose target too. Heappealed to the people who had not gotthemselves vaccinated to get themselvesvaccinated.

Meanwhile, Organized MedicineAcademic Guild secretary general IshwarGilada said that the current vaccinationprogramme should be speeded up in thecountry, especially for those above 60 yearsage who had not taken the first dose.

“Reduce gap between two doses ofCovishield, from 12-16 weeks to 4-6weeks. Speed up vaccination of 15-17 agegroup and start vaccination in 12-14 agegroup as early as possible. Provide a pre-cautionary dose for those who had takenthe second dose at least 6 months backrather than current guidelines of ninemonths,” he suggested.

���� -/�5*6,

Ameeting was held at theIndira Gandhi Pratishthan

here on Friday for the effectiveimplementation of the modelcode of conduct. It waspresided over by DistrictMagistrate Abhishek Prakashand Commissioner of PoliceDK Thakur.

Both the officials alsoreviewed the work done in thisregard by the video surveillanceteams, flying squads and stat-ic surveillance teams.

The DM said that as perthe instructions given by theElection Commission of India,the duties of these teams hadbeen fixed shift wise and avideographer had also beenposted in the static surveillanceteams and video surveillanceteams.

The DM said that the fly-ing squads would look into anyinstance of exchange of illegal

money and distribution ofliquor to lure voters. Each fly-ing squad is headed by an

incharge, a senior magistrate,police official, videographerand three to four police person-

nel.The static surveillance

team would look into theexchange of illegal money, anysuspected product, liquor andweapons. Every static surveil-lance team would be headed byan incharge, a senior magis-trate, police officers and video-graphers.

The district election officersaid that all the teams wouldput stickers on their vehicles.

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Lucknow (PNS): Three hundred Braillevoter guides have been provided for thenewly registered voters in the Lucknow dis-trict. Giving this information, a senior offi-cial from the district election office said thatthese were provided by the UP ChiefElectoral Officer and would be distributedthrough the returning officer.

It may be noted that to ensure ease ofparticipation and active engagement of per-sons with disabilities (PwDs) in the electoralprocess, the Election Commission of Indiahas given directions to issue accessible voterinformation slips with Braille features to per-sons with visual impairment, along with nor-mal voter information slips.

Officials said that the ElectionCommission of India had given directionsthat a voter guide shall be provided to everyelector’s household ahead of elections, giv-ing them information about the date andtime of polls, contact details of the BLOs,

important websites, helpline numbers, doc-uments required for identification at thepolling station besides other importantinformation including the Do’s and Don’tsfor voters at the polling station. The voterguide also contains important informationlike Covid guidelines. An official said thatas per the directions of the ElectionCommission of India for identification atpolling station, voters shall present the EPICor any of the identification documentsapproved by the ECI along with the voterinformation slips such as the Aadhaarcard, MNREGA job card, passbooks withphotograph issued by bank, post office,health insurance smart card issued under thescheme of the Labour Ministry, drivinglicence, PAN card, smart card issued by RGIunder NPR, Indian passport, pension doc-ument with photograph, service identitycards with photograph issued to employeesby Central, state governments, PSUs, pub-

lic limited companies, and official identitycards issued to MPs, MLAs and MLCs.

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Lucknow (PNS): AamAadmi Party, on Friday,released the third list of its 33candidates, including a retiredNaval officer and a formerIAS officer, for the UttarPradesh assembly elections.

AAP's UP in-charge andRajya Sabha member SanjaySingh along with state presidentSabhajit Singh announced thecandidates at a press conferencehere.

Singh said that in the thirdlist of candidates, tickets hadbeen given to deserving peoplewho had made significant con-tributions to society. He saidthat the third list includednames of a former IAS officer,two doctors, nine post-gradu-ates and 13 graduate candi-dates. Among the candidates,eight are from the general cat-egory, four are from theMuslim community, 11 from

Other Backward Classes, and10 from the Scheduled Castecategory. Singh said that theAam Aadmi Party had so farannounced 203 candidates inUP out of the total 403Assembly seats.

AAP has given the ticket toformer Navy personnel AjayKumar from LucknowCantonment, Vaibhav Shahifrom Gorakhpur Rural,Satyendra Kori from KanpurNagar, Shiver Nagvanshi fromBareilly Cantonment, Dr ShivPratap Singh Rajput fromEtawah, Nazir Khan fromFatehpur Sikri, Ajay Rai Munnafrom Ballia City, Arjun Singhfrom Nagina seat in Bijnor,Deepshikha from Orai seat inJalaun, Dr Chandrakant Yadavfrom Kannauj, Arjun SinghYadav from Etah and AbdulRajik from Hussainganj seat inFatehpur.

Lucknow (PNS): In ashocking incident, a couple,after being cheated by a plotowner, committed suicide.

While the woman hangedherself in the house onThursday evening in Atrauliarea of Hardoi, her husbandalso hanged himself inLucknow after learning of hiswife's death in the wee hours ofFriday.

The family members saythat the deceased youth hadmade a deal for a plot inLucknow, and the entireamount of the property wasalso given to the plot ownerexcept for Rs 30,000 which wasto be paid at the time of regis-tration of sale deal but the deal-er sold the same plot to some-one else. He neither gave theplot nor returned the moneydue to which both of themended their lives.

Reports said that Sunil, aresident of Majra Kesaripur ofvillage Mazhigaon in Hardoi,used to sell tea in Bramhrauli

under Kakori police station inLucknow. Sunil’s uncle, ShreeKrishna, said that his nephewlived with his wife Sonika,four-year-old daughter Sakshiand four-month-old sonYuvraj.

Sunil had made a deal tobuy a plot in Bramhrauli withhis savings and only Rs 30,000was left to be paid but the plotowner sold the plot to someoneelse.

On Makar Sankranti,Sonika had gone to her mater-nal home in Kesaripur villagein Sitapur with her children.Sunil told Sonika on Thursdayevening how the plot ownerhad cheated him after whichshe hanged herself in a room.On Friday morning, Sunil alsocommitted suicide by hanginghimself near the plot.

Atrauli police station in-charge Brajesh Kumar Mishrasaid investigation was on andaction would be taken as perthe outcome of the investiga-tion.

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���� -/�5*6,

Youth have traditionallyshown low numbers when

it comes to voting in eitherVidhan Sabha or Lok Sabhaelections. However, this yearthe youngsters and the firsttime voters are keen to vote andsay that they will show activeparticipation in the electoralprocess.

Prashant Pandey, a stu-dent of BCom from the citywho is also a first time voter,said the issue on which hewould vote would be education.“If we have proper educationthen only the country willprogress. Our expectation fromthe government is that caste,religion, creed should not bethe basis for getting selected fora job and only merit should bethe criterion for getting a job,”he said.

On why youth never par-ticipated so eagerly in elections,he admitted that it was likelythat they were focused on theircareers and did not give polit-ical process any importance.

“But when the COVID-19 peri-od came, they realised what agovernment can do in thisperiod,” he added.

Prashant said that the mainissues were that the govern-ment projects should be imple-mented properly because therewas a marked differencebetween what was on the paperand what was on the ground.

“Secondly, the condition ofgovernment colleges shouldimprove. The state govern-ment is spending a lot ofmoney on education with somuch spent on infrastructureand smart classes but thenthere teachers who teach do notcome regularly in these insti-tutes and hence students pre-fer private colleges. What isrequired is regular inspection,on the spot monitoring and aneffort to maintain standards aswell as ratings of the instituteswhich will make an impact,” hesaid.

Jai Singh, another first timevoter and a BA final year stu-dent, said that employmentwas the issue on which he

would cast his vote.“The current government

has given some avenues ofemployment but more workneeds to be done on this.Secondly, facilities should beprovided to the students tosuch an extent that they do nothave to go out of the state. Athird issue is that work needsto be done on urbanisation ofrural areas. All the hand-madecrafts are disappearing fromvillages which need to be pro-tected,” he said.

Singh said that the firsttime voters were very wellaware. “I am myself associatedwith many organisations andam carrying out awarenessprogrammes along with inter-actions with peer groups tomake people aware that it isimportant to vote. The votingpercentage of the youth willdefinitely increase this time,” hesaid. Talking about the previ-ous mindsets when youth didnot step out to vote, he said thatthe usual pattern of thinking

was that if they vote then noth-ing will happen.

Bhaskar Giri, a first timevoter, said that the main issueon which they would vote wasunemployment.

“We have seen that mostpolitical parties always promisethat they will give employmentbut these promises are not ful-filled. Secondly, the new edu-cation policy is good but if youlook at the education system,then the quality of education islow in the government schools.

As a student of a governmentschool, I have seen how teach-ers do not do any work andcarry out their own personalwork in the regular class timebecause of which students suf-fer. The education sector needsto be strengthened,” he said.

He said that earlier the stu-dents used to be busy with theirstudies but now they wanted toshow their power of vote andthe fact is that if their demandsare not listened to, they wouldnot vote.

Prince Dixit, a student ofBA first year, said that theyouth would vote in goodnumbers in the assembly elec-tion. “The rights of the youthhave been suppressed to a largeextent because of which theyouth will make an effort to seethat they are heard in theseelections and take the demandsto the political leaders.COVID-19 has also made a dif-ference for the kind of prob-lems which are faced by the stu-dents due to the closure of theschools and the colleges,” hesaid.

-�����The Confederation of

Indian Industry on Friday host-ed a webinar on Industry 4.0 todeliberate on the latest digitaltechnologies which can beadopted by industries to revo-lutionise the face of modern-day manufacturing.Addressingthe session, Kanpur DivisionalCommissioner Dr Raj Shekharpointed out that the status ofKanpur Nagar had been elevat-ed as a metro city with theoperation of the Kanpur MetroRail. He said the city was alsomoving towards smart trans-portation and 100 electric busesshall soon be operational.Shekhar pointed out that worktowards a new airport terminalis in progress, which would bea huge step towards endingconnectivity woes for entrepre-neurs. Speaking at the session,UPSIDA Additional CEO NehaJain mentioned that the trans-Ganga city in Auraiya andSaraswati Hi-Tech City atPrayagraj were fantasticavenues for investment in thestate. At present, there are 154industrial areas in UttarPradesh. Meanwhile, UP MetroRail Corporation director oper-ations Sushil Kumar sharedthat the Kanpur Metro Railproject is presently the world'sfastest constructed metro. It hasalso received the best metroaward and all the stations aregreen rated. CII Kanpur Zonechairman Akash Goenka stat-ed that while every companyand organisation operates dif-ferently, they all face a commonchallenge nowadays and that’swhere a forum like Industry 4.0comes into play.

"�����������2��� �The Kisan Mela 2022

kicked-off at CIMAP premis-es on Friday. Inaugurating thefair, CIMAP Director PrabodhTewari said that high qualityresearch in medicinal and aro-matic plants varieties and tech-nologies by the institute wasbeing disseminated to the gen-eral public through awarenessprogrammes and the fruits ofthe research were helping thefarmers to increase theirincome. He further stated thatdespite COVID-19 pandemic,the scientists and staff of theinstitute have been able to pro-vide online training, plantingmaterials and services to thefarmers, which has helped inincreasing their income duringthese difficult times. On thefirst day, 500 kgs of planting

material of high-yielding newlyreleased menthol mint variety'CIM-Unnati' along with theplanting material for 'Kosi' and'CIM-Kranti' was provided tomore than 150 farmers.

� ��2IET Director Vineet Kansal

discussed plans to focus onenhancement of the employa-bility exclusively to the IET stu-dents through their internshipprogrammes in a meeting,organised by the Institute ofEngineering and Technologywith their stakeholders. IET hassigned a non-financial MoUwith the stakeholders to pro-vide their services in digitalmarketing, analytics programs,training on manufacturing,SCM, automation, project for-mulation, start ups etc.

���C i t y

MontessoriS c h o o l ,A l i g a n jCampus II isorganisingthe UNInternationalDay ofE du c at i onvirtually onM o n d a y .

Deputy Chief Minister DineshSharma will be the Chief Guestat the inaugural ceremony.Students from schools ofKuwait, Bangladesh, UnitedArab Emirates and variousIndian states are participatingin this international educa-tional event which is beingorganised for students of pri-mary and junior sections.

���� -/�5*6,

Dr APJ Abdul Kalam TechnicalUniversity Vice Chancellor Prof PK

Mishra, on Friday, held a meeting with thedirectors of affiliated private institutionslocated in Lucknow.

The purpose of the meeting was to getacquainted with the problems of the pri-vate affiliated institutions and to get theirsuggestions for the betterment of the uni-versity.

On this occasion, the directors of theinstitutes informed the vice chancellor thatthere was a 20 per cent all India quota inthe institutes in which students from out-

side the state take admission.“These students do not get the bene-

fit of scholarship. In order to help these stu-dents get the benefit of scholarship, theuniversity should take the initiative to fillup the national scholarship form.

Along with this, a suggestion wasreceived to start a promotion scheme likeengineering courses to promote researchin pharmacy.

The directors of some institutes soughtinitiative from the university level to startcourses related to film and fashion whichare currently in demand.

The directors present in the meetingsaid that at present there were only two

payment options on the university's por-tal for various types of fee payments --challan and online banking. They said arequest was made to add the option of pay-ment through debit/credit card and UPA.

The directors said that at present theadmissions were through JEE and manyseats were left vacant. They proposed toincrease the management quota to 50 percent for direct admission.

Prof Mishra said that all the pointswould be considered and the issue of 50per cent management quota in admissionwould be taken up with the government.

About 30 directors participated in themeeting,

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Lucknow (PNS): Severalorganisations welcomed formerchief minister and SamajwadiParty president AkhileshYadav’s announcement torestore the pension scheme asit was before 2004 if his partycame to power in UP.

Lucknow UniversityTeachers Association (LUTA)president Vineet Kumar Vermasaid, “We welcome theannouncement made by theformer chief minister and SPchief Akhilesh Yadav to restorethe pension scheme as it wasbefore 2004, if voted to power.We are not supporting anyparticular political party forelections, but will appeal to allthe political parties to makesimilar announcements andmake their stand clear beforeelections.”

Vinay Kumar Singh,regional president of Prathmik

Shikshak Pratishthit SnatakAssociation Uttar Pradesh, alsowelcomed the announcement.“The pension scheme post2005 is of no use because theentire amount would have goneto the corporate sector. Thenew pension scheme is notbeneficial for an employeewhether from the Central orthe state government or work-ing as a teacher. The SP leaderneeds to be congratulated forthe same. We had always want-ed this to be included in theagenda and the entire teachers’

community is feeling veryhappy about it,” he said.

When asked whether thismove would translate into votesfor the Samajwadi Party, headmitted that other states hadalso announced the same butcould not implement it becausethe main role in this was playedby the Central government.

“However, since theSamajwadi Party has made anannouncement it wouldincrease the pressure on otherparties as well because this is avery important issue. It wouldtranslate into votes to someextent,” he said.

Rajya Karmachari SanyuktParishad welcomed the moveof the former chief ministerAkhilesh Yadav to include theissue in his party’s manifestoand said that other politicalparties should also take note ofthis.

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In a remarkable achievement,the Varanasi district has

achieved the 100 per cent tar-get to administer the first doseof Covid vaccine while approx-imately 65 per cent got a sec-ond shot of vaccine. More than50 lakh beneficiaries have beenvaccinated in a year.

A total of 13,136 personswere given the first shot of vac-cine on Thursday and in total,29,79,345 beneficiaries got thefirst dose of vaccine by a dayearlier. With this, the districtachieved the target of a cent percent of first dose (100.3 %)administered to the beneficia-ries. The District Magistrate

Kaushal Raj Sharma appreciat-ed the Health and other depart-ments and exhorted the con-cerned officers to achieve thetarget of 100 per cent admin-istration of second dose too atthe earliest.

A total of 28,348 beneficia-ries got a second shot of thevaccine on Thursday and withthis, 64.6 per cent beneficiarieswere administered the seconddose by a day earlier, the ChiefMedical Officer Dr SandeepChaudhary informed adding,the district has also achievedthe feat to administer the vac-cines to 50 lakh beneficiaries ina year as a total of 50,96,707people including 26,71,064men and 24,12,542 women

had been vaccinated a fewdays earlier.

The DM has emphasisedthat the 100 per cent vaccina-tion target of adolescents agedfrom 15 to 17 years is also to beachieved at the earliest and toachieve this, everyone shouldmake their best level effort.

According to the DistrictImmunisation Officer Dr VSRai, a total of 596 sessions wereheld at various vaccinationcentres of the district onThursday and a total of 43,176beneficiaries were vaccinatedincluding 1,692 precautionarydoses.

Besides, a total of 4,254beneficiaries aged from 15 to 17years, 27,236 beneficiaries from

18 to 44 years, 6,459 beneficia-ries from 45 to 59 years and3,481 beneficiaries above 60years were also vaccinated a dayearlier.

With this, a total of5,62,820 beneficiaries above60 years of age got Covid in ayear and similarly, a total of31,66,270 years from 18 to 44years and 10,19,093 from 45 to59 years have got the doses ina year. Since January 3 last,1,83,810 (71.3%) adolescents inthe age group from 15 to 17years have received the firstdose. At the same time, sinceJanuary 10 last, 13,053 precau-tionary doses havebeen administered, Dr Raiinformed.

������-��������:.#.*. �

Despite surge in COVID-19positive cases, heavy rush

of devotees thronged differenttemples of Lord Ganesh inthis city of Lord Shiva, special-ly Bada Ganesh temple atLohatia, here on Friday, on theauspicious occasion ofSankasthi Ganesh Chaturthi,falling the fourth day of theKrishna Paksha (the waningphase of the moon) in themonth of Maagh. Though theGanesh Chaturthi is fallingevery month as per the HindiCalendar, two of them fallingon months of Bhaadhoand Maagh are very popularin this region and on thisoccasion, a large number ofwomen in this region ofPurvanchal (eastern UP) andadjoining districts of Biharobserved fast.

As this year during the dayhours there were no muchrestrictions, like MakarSankranti recently heavy rushof devotees was also seen atGanesh temples. The maxi-mum rush was seen at the pop-

ular Bada Ganesh temple atLohatia, where long queues ofdevotees were seen right fromMaidagin and Kabirchaura.Due to long lines and heavyrush, it took hours for the devo-

tees to reach the templethrough the narrow lanes.Seeing the rush of devotees,several traffic restrictions wereimposed between Kabirchauraand Maidagin and the vehicles

were diverted. Rush was seen atother Ganesh temples includ-ing Chintamani Ganesh atSonarpura, Siddh Vinayak(Durgakund) and VighnaVinayak Ganesh.

������-��������:.#.*. �

District Magistrate/ DistrictElection Officer

(DM/DEO) Kaushal RajSharma has appointed zonal/sector magistrates (reserved) toconduct the Assembly GeneralElection-2022 peacefully andefficiently.

According to him, regis-trars of Banaras Hindu

University (BHU), TibetanUniversity (Sarnath),Sampurnanand SanskritUniversity (SSU) andMahatma Gandhi KashiVidyapeeth (MGKV)Neeraj Tripathi, HimanshuPandey, Om Prakash andSunita Pandey respectively willbe the reserved zonal magis-trates.

Besides, Sanjay (joint reg-istrar, BHU), Amit Kumar

Srivastava (finance officer),Keshalal (deputy registrar),Sunil Kumar (assistant regis-trar), Chandranath Mishra(assistant registrar, SSU),Harish Chandra (assistant reg-istrar, MGKV) have beenappointed as reserved sectormagistrates.

The DEO has orderedthese officers posted on elec-tion duty that they wouldmaintain their presence at the

district headquarters and theywould not go out of the districtheadquarters apart from notkeeping their mobile phonesswitched off. If it is necessaryto go out of the headquartersdue to any unavoidable reasons,then through the ADM (City),presenting the applicationbefore the DEO, will go out ofthe headquarters only afterobtaining permission, theywere directed.

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Five-day AICTE Trainingand Learning (ATAL)

Academy sponsored onlineFaculty DevelopmentProgramme (FDP) on‘Innovation Management’ wasinaugurated at the Institute ofManagement Studies, BanarasHindu University (IM-BHU)here on Friday. It is the fourthsuch online FDP, being organ-ised at IM-BHU in recenttimes. Director of IndianInstitute of Management (IIM),Tiruchirappalli, Prof PawanKumar Singh was the chiefguest in the inaugural session.

Speaking on the occasion,Prof Singh said that innovationmanagement is very muchimportant for the developmentof any country, illustrating the

technological innovations thatplayed a prominent role in theCOVID-19 times. He high-lighted on the latest innova-tions taking place in the fieldof management especially inthe area of artificial intelligence,machine learning and big dataanalytics are going at a fasterpace which help organisationsto have competitive advan-tage.

Emphasising on the impor-tance of innovation in teachingand learning to make it moreeffective, he said how one canbe innovative in different facetsof life. He appreciated the ini-tiative taken by the IM-BHUfor providing a learning oppor-tunity to the participants fromacademia and industry throughonline FDPs, which in turnwould help them to upgrade

their skills in their futureendeavors.

Director of IM-BHU ProfSK Dubey, welcoming the par-ticipants, emphasised theimportance of innovation man-agement and how it can makeIndia stand ahead of othercountries. He mentioned howessential innovation manage-ment is, especially in the cur-rent pandemic scenario. It ispervasive and is equally impor-tant for every sector in the soci-ety.

Coordinator of FDP DrRajkiran Prabhakar said inno-vation is one of those wordsthat suddenly seems to be allaround us. He further saidfirms care about their ability toinnovate, on which their futureallegedly depends, and manymanagement consultants are

busy persuading companiesabout how they can help themimprove their innovation per-formance. He emphasised thatthere is extensive scope forexamining the way innovationis managed within organisa-tions.

Dean of IM-BHU Prof HPMathur proposed the vote ofthanks. The inaugural sessionwas conducted by co-coordina-tor Dr Ram Shankar Uraon.More than 200 participantsfrom across the country haveenrolled for the FDP. Theexperts of innovation man-agement are from academiaand industry including IITs,IIMs, BHU, and several reput-ed industry leaders, consul-tants, freelancers and practi-tioners will deliver lectures intotal 14 technical sessions.

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Indicating an alarming situa-tion, the Varanasi district

recorded one death fromCOVID-19 on Friday. It is thefirst day when one death wasreported from the deadly coro-navirus in the third wave of thepandemic. The district alsorecorded an increase in Covidcases with 624 persons testedpositive. A total of 611 alsorecovered and thus, the activecases were reported as 3,881. Itis learnt that a total of 518 pos-itive cases were reported.

As per the data made avail-able by the Health departmentby Friday evening, one deathwas reported from the deadlycoronavirus indicating analarming situation. As per theinformation provided by theHealth department, the patient

who died of COVID-19 wasabout 28 years old and a resi-dent of Badagaon Block. Hewas admitted at trauma centrein BHU on January 16 last andwas shifted to Covid Ward onJanuary 19 last after being test-ed positive.

A total of 624 persons weretested positive (8.54% positiv-ity rate) increasing the cumu-lative figure to 8120, as per dataprovided by the Health depart-ment which added, 611(52.19% recovery rate) patientsalso recovered from home iso-lation as well as Covid hospi-tals taking the cumulative fig-ure of recovered patients to4238. So, the active cases werereported as 3881.

ADMN FLAYED FORNOT GIVING SECURITYTO RAI: Congress expressedits concern over not providing

security to the party’s formerMLA Ajay Rai, who is also aparty’s candidate from Pindraassembly constituency this year,by the district administrationdespite the order of the court.The city Congress chiefRaghavendra Choubey termedthe act of the administration aspetty politics. Meanwhile, AjayRai reached MP/ MLA Courtto testify against MokhtarAnsari without securityarrangements here on Friday ashe is the witness in the murdercase of his brother AwadheshRai against Mokhtar Ansari, anMLA of Mau. Choubeyexpressed displeasure over notbeing given security even afterthe court’s order and allegedthat the district administrationwas doing the same at thebehest of the ruling BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP).

According to him, this isnot the first time when theadministration failed to giveany security to Ajay Rai, whois a five-time MLA, formerminister and a strong leader ofthe Congress along with a can-didate from Pindra assemblyconstituency as his candidaturehad already been announced bythe party. Leveling allegationson the government for support-ing the criminals, Choubeyflayed the local administrationfor showing such laxity with aformer minister. He furthersaid that if any untoward inci-dent takes place against AjayRai, its full responsibility will beon the government and admin-istration. He further said thatthe court is being disregardedagain and again due to thegrowing popularity of AjayRai.

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President of the AkhilBharatiya Dandi Swami

Parishad, Swami BrahmashramMaharaja besides seers andsaints from different Hinduoutfits have demanded thattemples and Hindu mutts befreed from government control.

“Prominent saints andseers held a meeting on Melacampus and demanded that allHindu temples and muttsacross the country should befreed from government control.When the government has nocontrol over churches andmosques, why should onlyHindu temples and mutts be

controlled by it,” questionedMaharaja after holding animportant meeting at the campof Akhil Bharatiya DandiSanyasi Parishad, Sector-5 onthe Mela campus here.

He said, “According toSanatana Dharma tradition,ashrams and Sanskrit schoolsshould be run by temples andmutts. Therefore, the govern-ment should adopt a similarpolicy and free temples from itscontrol at the earliest.”

“Prominent seers, saintsof the country would launch amass movement to free Hindutemples and math across thecountry from the control of thegovernment,” said Maharaj.

He also claimed, “It’s anirony that Sanatana Dharmaand its followers have alwaysbeen on the target of the gov-ernment since the country'sindependence. Till now, not asingle mosque or church in thecountry has been controlled bythe government.”

“None of the governmenthas dared to look into theactivities taking place insidereligious places of other reli-gions, except temples,” saidthe Peethadhishwar Swami.

The seers claimed that “notonly the affairs of many promi-nent temples of the country areunder government control, butsome temples and mutts are

even being looked after bypersons of other religions whoare not even aware of our reli-gious practices and rituals”.

The Dandi sanyasi alsoclaimed that the day-to-dayaffairs or for that matter thereligious rituals and practices oftemples and mutts.

On being asked whom thesaint and seers’ community isgoing to support in the stateassembly election, they said,“We will support the partywhich will work in the interestof the country. It should alsohave a clear developmentagenda and is able to providea riot- free environment in thestate.”

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Strict measures have beenintroduced to check any

malpractice in UPTET to beorganised on Sunday. This testhad earlier been canceledowing to a paper leak.

Even the invigilators andofficials on duty will not beallowed to possess a mobilephone fitted with a camera.Only keypad mobiles will bekept by the officials to avoid thechance of leaking papers.

Massive videography planshave been chalked out thistime and the CCTV vigil has

also been tightened. All thepersons entering the examina-tion center, will have to be cap-tured in camera first at theentrance gate and then byCCTV camera on the campusand in the examination hall.

Prohibitory orders undersection 144 of the CrPC willremain enforced around exam-ination centers.

Examinations are to beheld in two meetings. As manyas 84017 aspirants will take theexamination in the first meet-ing at 183 centers, while in thesecond meeting 59895 per-sons will appear at the exami-

nation at 132 centers. Officialshave been asked to be extra vig-ilant for ensuring fair examina-tion.

District magistrate SanjayKhatri warned the officials inno uncertain words that strictaction would be initiatedagainst them in case of any foulplay or ignorance on theirpart.

Keeping in view theincreasing number of Covidcases, Covid Help Desk will becreated at every examinationcenter equipped with masks,sanitiser, thermal scanner, andoximeters. Seating arrange-

ment will also be done as perCovid guidelines.

Instructions have beenissued to complete all examina-tion related arrangements oneday in advance. No face shouldbe spared from videography,and the process of unsealing ofpapers and packing of answersheets after the test will be donein front of the camera. CCTVcameras will record all theactivities without any break.Unused rooms at examinationcenters will remain sealed.Officials will visit centers aftercenters to maintain the sancti-ty of the examination.

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Uttar Pradesh Public ServiceCommission (UPPSC) has

released the schedule of 19recruitment examinations to beconducted between March andDecember 2022. The commis-sion has formally released theannual calendar of proposedexaminations for the year on itswebsite http://uppsc.up.nic.in/

However, officials clarifiedthat in some circumstances, thedates of listed exams could berescheduled.

According to secretary,UPPSC, Jagdish, the examina-tions to be conducted for selec-tion of candidates for variousstate-level administrative postsinclude deputy collector anddeputy SP — CombinedState/Upper SubordinateServices (Preliminary)Examination-2022, commonlyknown as PCS (Pre)-2022 — as

well as the AssistantConservator of Forest/RangeForest ConservatorRecruitment Exam(Preliminary)-2022 will be con-ducted on June 12.

The calendar also lists PCS(Main)-2021 that was set to beheld from January 28 toJanuary 31 but following post-ponement in light of the resur-gence of Covid-19 cases in thestate would now be heldbetween March 23 and March27.The calendar is eagerlyawaited by aspirants who pacetheir preparations for the var-ious exams accordingly.

As per the calendar, thecommission would conductthe Computer Operator Grade-B and Programmer Grade-BRecruitment Exam underProgrammer Grade-2/Computer Operator Grade-B/Manager (system)Recruitment-2021 on March 5

followed by Lecturer(Male/Female) GovernmentIntermediate CollegeRecruitment (Main) Exam-2020 on March 13.

Likewise, the AssistantProfessor in GovernmentDegree College (Screening)Exam-2020 will be held onMarch 15 while TechnicalEducation (Teaching) ServicesExamination-2021 (RemainingSubjects) is scheduled forMarch 22.

The Combined State/Upper Subordinate Services(PCS)-2021 Main Exam will beconducted by the commissionfrom March 23 while theAssistant Conservator ofForests (ACF)/Regional ForestOfficer (RFO) Service (MainExam)-2021 will be held fromApril 3 while the commissionwould hold Staff Nurse (Male)Preliminary recruitmentExamination-2017 (Re-adver-

tised in 2022) on April 10.Similarly, Combined State

Engineering Services(General/Special Selection)-2021 Exam is scheduled to beheld on April 17, the ReviewOfficer (RO)/Assistant ReviewOfficer (ARO)(General/Special Selection)Main Examination-2021 is tobe conducted on April 24 whilethe Lecturer (GovernmentAshram system schools) MainExamination-2021 will be heldon May 1.

This would be followed bythe Veterinary Officer(Screening) Exam-2020 set totake place on May 15 andManager (System)Examination-2021 underProgrammer Grade-2/Computer Operator Grade-B/Manager (System)Examination-2021 on May 25.Staff Nurse (Male) Main Exam-2017 will be held on July 24.

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Ankur Chandra, who wasserving as Deputy Chief

Vigilance Officer has takencharge of Deputy GeneralManager/General, NorthCentral Railway.

Mr Chandra took chargefrom Mannu Prakash Dubeywho has been transferred toRailway Board as DirectorTraffic (Transformation).

Ankur Chandra is an offi-cer of Indian Railway StoresService of 2004 batch. He hadserved earlier as Deputy ChiefMaterials Manager in NCRand in different capacities in

Workshop ProjectsOrganization/Patna andPatratu Diesel Shed/EastCentral Railway in the past.

He joined NCR in 2013 asSenior Materials Manager.

He is an alumnus of IITKanpur from where he com-pleted his B.Tech in Civil engi-neering in 2001. He has earli-er received the GM award dur-ing his tenure at Patna.

Mr Chandra had under-gone training in High SpeedRailway in Japan.

At a small farewell functionof Mr Dubey, organised onThursday amidst all COVIDprotocol, Mr Chandra was

given a warm welcome by GMNCR.

PDA VICE- CHAIRMANTAKES STOCK OF MAGHMELA AREA: Officiating dis-trict magistrate (Magh Mela)and Vice- chairman ofPrayagraj DevelopmentAuthority (PDA), ArvindKumar Chauhan, inspected allfive sectors of the mela area andreviewed the sanitary arrange-ments.

He also directed all sectorin-charges to provide all sortsof basic amenities to devoteesand visitors. While carrying outinspection at Sector no.-5, theofficiating mela DM noticed

insanitation conditions pre-vailing near toilets, and clean-liness was not carried out as perthe norms. He further orderedthe suspension of circle inspec-tor and adverse entry into thecharacter role of sector medicalofficer. Officiating DM alsoinspected Ganga water enteringaffected camps on campus andasked to shift the affected kalp-wasis to Sector-5 at the earliest.Chauhan also directed offi-cials of the irrigation depart-ment (flood control division)and coordinated with con-cerned officers to keep a strictwatch on the rising water levelof Ganga.

,����(������� ���������ALLAHABAD (PNS): Ayouth was killed in a road acci-dent in Gangapur area of Yograjdistrict. The youth, who wascrossing the road in front ofRudrapur village at Chirauraintersection of Tharvai policestation area, was hit hard by aspeeding car coming fromPrayagraj side.

The youth got stuck in thecar but the driver did not stopthe vehicle. Due to this he wasdragged for some distance.Along with the car, the driverfled from there but left the carahead and fled. The youngman lost his life in the accident.After the accident, the peoplearound and the relatives of theyouth who reached thereinformed the Tharwai police.The police reached the spot andsent the dead body to the mor-

tuary for post mortem exami-nation. The accident happenedlate on Thursday night.

40-year-old Rajesh Kumarson of Ramdhan, resident ofDevaneri village of Tharvaipolice station area, was cross-ing the road on foot to go homeat Chiraura intersection late onThursday night. At the sametime, the car coming fromPrayagraj side at high speed hithard. After the collision, thedriver started running awaywith the car. Due to this, Rajeshdragged for about 100 meters.

The people around wokeup after shouting and theyreached the spot. By thenRajesh Kumar had stoppedbreathing and the driver hadfled with the car. Villagersinformed about the incident toTharwai police and Rajesh's

family members. After interro-gation, the police reached thespot and took the dead body tothe police station and sent it forthe post mortem examination.

On the other hand, the dri-ver ran for about a kilometerahead after hitting the youthwith the damaged car. He thenfled, leaving the damaged car.The police have seized the car.The police are trying to trace itsdriver and owner.

Rajesh Kumar used towork as a laborer to support hisfamily. Due to his death in theaccident, the condition of hiswife Krishna Devi, son ManishKumar, Sumit, Aditya and oth-ers in the family are aggrieved.

THREE YOUTHS HELDFOR DISTURBING PEACE:Panic gripped sangam andadjoining areas, under the lim-

its of Daraganj police station,after a group of youths arrivedto shave their heads to marktheir protest against unem-ployment. The police havearrested the three youths on thecharges of disturbing peace inthe area. Cops also exchangedheated arguments with agitat-ing youths, who arrived toshave their heads with demandto provide employment. Theyouths were keen to performpindaan activities of the gov-ernment. Daraganj police saidthat these youths have nottaken any permission to holdprotests at the Sangam area.

On the other hand, thethree boys alleged that thestate government has not gonethrough recruitment processesand all the recruitments arepending in the judiciary.

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Bipin Kumar Singh took overas the charge as Principal

Chief Personnel Officer(PCPO), North EasternRailway (NER) recently. Earlierhe was working as ChiefPersonnel Officer (CPO)/Administration in East CentralRailway (ECR), Hajipur.

Bipin Kumar Singhobtained his master’s degree inSociology from JawaharlalNehru University (JNU), NewDelhi. He entered the railway

service through Indian RailwayPersonnel Service (IRPS) batchof 1990. His first appointment

was on the post of AssistantPersonnel Officer(APO)/Dhanbad. Apart from ithe had worked on the post ofAdditional Divisional RailwayManager (ADRM) in Sonpurand Danapur divisions. He hassuccessfully worked as thePrincipal Chief PersonnelOfficer in ChittaranjanLocomotive Works.

Singh has experience inrailway administration andmanagement and is popularamong officers and employeesalike.

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In view of the assembly elec-tions on the instructions of

Superintendent of Police (SP)Ankur Aggarwal, paramilitaryforces and police personneltook out a flag march onThursday and gave a messageof security. The flag marchtaken out by security forcepersonnel was taken out fromNaugarh tehsil and passedthrough development Block,Community Health Centre andthe entire town. During itpolice officers also inspectedthe polling booth. CO(Naugarh) Sheshmani Pathaksaid the police force is fullyprepared to conduct elections.Naugarh police stationincharge Rajesh Saroj said ifvoters have any kind of prob-

lem then they should immedi-ately inform on the govern-ment contact numbers or to thepolice. In the flag marchChakarghatta police stationincharge Alakh Narayan Singhand others along with person-nel of police, PAC and para-military force were included.

FLAGGED OFF: Under

the voters’ awareness campaignthe Matdata Jagrookta Expressvehicle was flagged off by theDeputy District ElectionOfficer/Additional DistrictMagistrate and ChiefDevelopment Officer. On theoccasion Chief Medical Officer,District Panchayat Raj Officerand others were present.

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With the purpose of hold-ing the Uttar Pradesh

Teacher Eligibility Test(UPTET) on January 23 in afair, proper and peaceful man-

ner a meeting of the zonal/sec-tor/static magistrates andexamination centre superin-tendents was organised at ZilaPanchayat on Thursday.Addressing it DM PraveenKumar Laxkar said static mag-istrates had been deployed at allexamination centres. Theexamination was to be held intwo shifts — from 10 am to12.30 pm and from 2.30 pm to5.00 pm. He also said that it willbe mandatory for the candi-dates getting BEd training tobring the original copy of thetraining certificate or the pho-tocopy attested by the princi-pal. He directed all officialsconcerned to read the direc-tions properly. The DM saidthat students by showing admitcards could travel by Roadwaysbuses free of cost. The candi-dates were requested to sitonly on the seat having theirroll number. Giving details ofarrangements ADM(F&R) ShivPratap Shukla said that all thecentres were equipped withthe facilities like CCTV cam-eras, furnitures, lighting, toilets,

potable water etc. He furthersaid that as per the schedule infirst shift examination of 9,106students was to be conductedat 19 centres and in second shift5,629 students were appear at12 examination centres. He

said that flying squads hadbeen formed to hold the exam-inations in a transparent man-ner. Regarding Covid-19 theADM informed that all centreswill be equipped with Covidhelp desk, scanner, hand sani-tiser, some masks etc and dur-ing the examination Covidprotocal had to be followedstrictly. ASP (City) SanjayVerma said that proper policearrangements had been donenot only at the examinationcentres but at the roadways andrailway stations too along withother main places. The meet-ing was attended by the ADMs,city magistrate, SDMs, deputycollectores, DIOS and otherofficials concerned.

SP’s DIRECTIVE:Superintendent of Police (SP)Ajay Kumar Singh held a meet-ing of gazetted officers of theadministration at Police Lineson Thursday to ensure avail-ability of amenities at the placeswhere forces had to stay dur-ing assembly election. The SPdirected circle officers to visitall the places with SDMs where

the forces, including paramil-itary/state forces, had to stay.He said the management/prin-cipals of the schools should becontacted and ensure the avail-ability of essential amenities sothat forces could stay in aproper atmosphere and direct-ed the Electricity department toensure the availability of elec-tricity at all the fixed places.The DSO was directed toensure availability of ration tothe forces without any problem.The DPRO was asked to directthe village pradhans to keepcoordination with the officialsinvolved in the polling. TheBSA was asked to direct all theschool headmasters to cooper-ate and ensure the repair ofbuildings, if required. Themeeting was mainly attendedby the ADM(F&R) Shiv PratapShukla and the ASP (City)Sanjay Kumar and ASP(Operation) Mahesh SinghAttri.

FINE: A sum of �1,86,000was deposited as fine by liquorshop owners on Thursday. Asper the reports, on the direc-tion of the district magistrate,a surprise checking drive of theliquor shops had been con-ducted by Additional DistrictMagistrate (Finance &Revenue), city magistrate andall SDMs on January 11 and 12.Under the drive as many as 29shops had been checked inwhich irregularities weredetected in eight of them.Under the provisions, the finewas imposed on those shopsand as per the compliance�1,86.000 was deposited in theexchequer. ADM (F&R) ShivPratap Shukla said that thedrive will continue.

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In Dudhichua area ofGovernment of India’s

Miniratna company NorthernCoalfields Limited (NCL) onWednesday giving a new placeto employee welfare newly con-structed Vatsalya creche was

started in the Sector A resi-dential premises of the project.It was inaugurated by GeneralManager, Dudhichua Area,Anurag Kumar. With the start-ing of this creche proper carecan be taken of children ofwomen working in the project.Heads of departments ofDudhichua Area, representa-tives of trade unions and other

workers were present. It may bepointed out here thatDudhichua project is one of themega projects of NCL.

CLEANLINESS CAM-PAIGN: Under Azadi KaAmrit Mahotsav and SwachhBharat Abhiyan NCL is run-ning a massive cleanliness

campaign in the vicinity of thecompany. In this sequence,taking the campaign forward,the company, together withNagar Nigam, Singrauli, isstarting a new campaign onpublic awareness related towaste management, recycling,beautification and cleanliness.

Under the Clean andBeautiful Singrauli campaign,

district administration and var-ious units of NCL, Block B,Jayant, Amlohri, Jhingurda,Nigahi, CWS-Jayant andDudhichua projects will collectwet and dry waste from eachhouse separately and deposit itat a fixed place. Nagar Nigam,Singrauli, will pick up the col-lected waste from all the pro-jects and recycle it into com-post and other useful items. Forthe execution of this work, thefive projects of NCL located inMadhya Pradesh will soon signa Memorandum ofUnderstanding (MoU) withthe Nagar Nigam. Proper man-agement of waste already col-lected from households is beingdone at NCL headquarters.

It may be pointed out herethat in NCL every year themonth of October is celebrat-ed as Swachhta Month underwhich various efforts are madelike cleanliness on a large scalein all projects and units, atworkplaces, residentialremisess, hospitals and schoolsetc, ban on single-use plastic,cleanliness rally, organisingvarious competitions, tree plan-tation and cleanliness audit.

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The Kanpur DivisionalCommissioner, Dr Raj

Shekhar while reviewing themost ambitious 13700 sq mtrproject of Modern ConventionCentre on Friday said it will becompleted in the next 15months with the active techni-cal support of HBTU, IIT-Kanpur and IIM-Indore. Hesaid this Convention Centrewas a prestigious project ofKanpur and this Smarty CityInitiative will be ‘CentralActivity Hub’ to boost art, cul-ture, trade & industry not onlyin Kanpur but for the entireregion.

He said the total cost of thisproject was Rs 80 crore, out ofwhich the work of Rs 67.41crore was for construction of amulti-storey building whichincluded 500 seating capacitystate-of-the-art auditorium,another 16000 sq Ft ExhibitionHall, 12000 sq Ft ExhibitionHall, a 300 seating capacityconference room, three meet-ing rooms of 100 seating capac-ity each, six guest rooms andtwo special suites and also a8000 sq ft of Food Court.

The DC further informedthat a covered parking slot of68 vehicles and eight commer-cial shops along with a businesscentre and finally modernrestaurant will be part of thisprestigious project. Discussingthe features of the structure liketo come up he said the build-ing had been designed as a

‘Green Building’ following theNational Building Code(NBC). He added that theSewage Treatment Plant (STP)had been included in the build-ing itself and 90 per cent treat-ed water will be recycled againfor floor cleaning and also forwatering the plants to maintainthe green belt on the premises.

Shekhar said the entirebuilding will be energy efficientwith Solar Panels installed onroof by which basic aestheticillumination of this buildingwill be carried out. He said theentire facility will be air-con-ditioned, with eight elevatorsand four escalators for conve-

nient transit across the two andhalf stories structure.

He said the entire buildingwas differently abled- friendlywith lifts, ramps, toilets andseating areas. He said the devel-oper had started the work atsite on a full swing after prop-er soil testing of the land wascarried out.

He said instructions hadbeen issued that the architec-tural design will be approvedonly after the careful and crit-ical examination of theHarcourt Butler TechnologicalUniversity. He said in additionto this quality and progress willbe monitored strictly on a

monthly basis by a specialcommittee under theChairmanship of Professor ofIIT-Kanpur.

He said and special help inthe form of the module foroperation and maintenancefrom IIM-Indore. He saidalthough the work had to beaccomplished in 18 months butit had been directed that itshould be completed in thenext 15 months.

During the review he wasaccompanied by KanpurMunicipal Commissioner,Nodal Officer, Kanpur SmartCity Ltd and a few other offi-cials.

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Under the directives of theUP Government the

Chandra Shekhar AzadUniversity of Agriculture andTechnology on Friday sent itstrouble-shooting team of sci-entists to tackle the late blightdisease which had affectedover 25 per cent of potatocrop. The team also found thatthe farmers were using excessof pesticide which was leadingto more damage to the crops.Kanpur and Kannauj whichwere the major potato produc-ers spread out over 1.30 lakhacre of land includingFarukkhabad, Etawah andAuraiya.This was a major set-back to the farmers of theseareas and thus the govern-ment had decided to provide allpossible help to save the crop.

This was informed by SoilScientist of CSA, Dr SK Biswaswhile conducting a survey inthe surrounding areas. He saidthe fog coupled with rains hasled to late blight which wasaffecting the potato crop andthis will lead to not only loss-es of farmers but it will also lead

to price rise of the crop in thecoming times. He said theteam was advocating that thefarmers use a right amalgal ofMatco, Equation Pro andRadomil fungicide by mixingone ml mixture in one litre ofwater and spar on the cropsimmediately. He said the farm-ers should use the fungicideonly after consultation with thescientists of the CSA. Hewarned the farmers to refrainfrom storing the blight affect-ed potato crop in cold storageas it will rot leading to finan-cial losses.

He said late blight wascaused by the fungus calledphytophthora infestans whichwas the most important dead-liest disease of potato that canresult into crop failures in ashort period if appropriatecontrol measures were notadopted. He said losses inpotato yield can go as high as80 per cent in this epidemicyear. He added that whenplants become infected, lesions(round or irregularly shapedareas that range in colour fromdark green to purplish blackand resemble frost injury)

appear on the leaves, petioles,and stems. He said a whitishgrowth of spore-producingstructures may appear at themargin of the lesions on theunderleaf surfaces. He saidpotato tubers developed rot upto 15 mm (0.6 inch) deep. Hesaid secondary fungi and bac-teria often invaded potatotubers and produced rottingthat resulted in great losses dur-ing storage, transit, and mar-keting.

Prof Biswas said the causeof concern was that phytoph-thora survived in stored tubers,dump piles, field plants, bothsexual oospores and asexualsporangia were dispersed bythe wind to nearby plants, inwhich infection may occurwithin a few hours. He said attemperatures below 15 degreeC sporangia germinated byproducing zoospores (asexualspores with flagella) that encystand later form a germ tubeunder certain temperature andhumidity conditions. He saidabove that temperature mostsporangia produce a germ tubedirectly.

He said the disease can be

managed with a timely appli-cation of fungicide, thoughepidemics can occur rapidlyonce crops were infected. Headded that the oospores hadthickened walls and were ableto persist in the soil for sever-al seasons, the disease can bedifficult to eradicate. He sug-gested measures for controllingand preventing blights whichtypically involved the destruc-tion of the infected plant parts,use of disease-free seed orstock and resistant varieties,crop rotation, pruning andspacing of plants for better aircirculation. He said apart fromthis by controlling pests thatcarry the fungus from plant toplant and to avoid overheadwatering and working amongwet plants and, where needed,the application of fungicide orantibiotics.

He mooted proper sanita-tion was key to stop the spreadof the infestation. He said forbacterial blights fixed copper orstreptomycin was an effectiveantibiotic if applied weeklyduring damp weather whenleaves and shoots were expand-ing, deliver results.

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The Chief Medical Officer,Dr Nepal Singh addressing

a meeting on Friday said theresponse to the schoolchildrenvaccination had received agood response and as part ofthe ongoing drive another sim-ilar camp will be held onSaturday where the studentswho had been left out on anyground can avail themselves ofthe facility. He said the schoolshave been directed to ensurethat they submit their vacci-nation details positively onFriday. He said each child hasto sent in his or her detials tothe school including classAadhar Card number andmobile number as well. He theleft out schools can a submittheir left out students detailsafter the vaccination drive onSaturday.

He said till Friday a total of564 affected cases were identi-fied and out of the total 513have over come COVID-19home isolation. He said in thefirst and second wave the mosteffective pattern of recoverywas witnessed in HomeIsloation and the recovery was

massive. He underlined thegovernment directive to facil-itate home isolation to theCOVID-19 patients and saidspecial emphasis had beenmade for monitoring the homeisolation cases and also the dis-tribution of medicine kits. Hesaid the home isolation thistime had been reduced to oneweek.

Later addressing the sup-porting staff of the LLRHospital he said there wereumpteen doubts relating tohospital and home care bothfor an adults or childred, espe-cially confirmed or suspectedCOVID-19. He said the lastwave had clearly proved thatthe biggest number ofCOVID-19 affected peoplewho got cured were in homeisolation under the medicalsupervision and the adminis-tration ensured the supply ofmedicine kits to them timely.

He said in the event of theThird Wave the home isolationof people who were infectedwith can make an importantcontribution to breaking thechains of transmission of thevirus.

He said taking the decisioin

as to whether to isolate and carefor an infected person at

home depended on thefollowing three factors impor-tant factors first clinical evalu-ation of the COVID-19 patient,second evaluation of the homesetting and the third the abili-ty to monitor the clinical evo-lution of a person withCOVID-19 at home. He said atrained health worker shouldassess whether the home inquestion was suitable for theisolation and the provision ofcared of a COVID-19 patient,including whether thepatient, caregiver or otherhousehold members had allthey needed to adhere to therecommendations for homecare isolation.

He said for home isolationone needed hand and respira-tory hygiene supplies, envi-ronmental cleaning materials,the ability to impose andadhere to restrictions on peo-ple’s movement around or fromthe house. He said even theability to address safety con-cerns such as

accidental ingestion of andfire hazards associated withalcohol-based hand rubs and

cleaning products should alsobe made and symptomaticpatient meeting the case defi-nition for COVID-19 withoutevidence of viral pneumonia orhypoxia.

Dr Singh said moderate ill-ness may include in an adult oradolescent, clinical signs ofpneumonia (fever, cough, dys-pnoea,fast breathing) but nosigns of severe pneumonia. Hesaid in cases there was limitedor no access to water and san-itation, as well as to resourcesfor cleaning and disinfectionand hygiene posed risks forcaregivers and communitymembers for transmission ofCOVID-19. He said as perHealth Ministry guidelineschildren should remain withtheir caregivers wherever pos-sible and this should be decid-ed in consultation with thecaregiver and the child. He saidto prepare families with chil-dren for potential illness with-in a family, community pro-tection focal points and case-workers should help familiesplan and agree in advance onhow they will care for childrenin case the primary caregiversbecame ill.

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The Special InvestigationTeam (SIT) probing the

1984 anti-Sikh riots of Kanpurhas started investigation intotwo more cases. These includeone related to the murder of aman and his two sons inNaubasta after seeking detailsof documents, witnesses andaccused involved in it. Thesetwo cases were reported fromthe Naubasta and Nazirabadpolice station areas of the city.

It may be recalled that theSIT, set up to re-investigate theriots in the city in the aftermathof the assassination of formerPrime Minister Indira Gandhi,has so far identified 89 accusedin the 13 cases. Of these 89accused, 70 are alive andremaining 19 have died.

In the 11 cases, the SIT hasalready handed over the list ofthe accused to the govern-ment while the investigations intwo more cases (Nos 12 and 13)are still underway.

"The rioters had killed aman and his two sons in caseNo. 12 reported from Naubastapolice station area. The SIT hasgathered all the evidence in thisregard. More than a dozenaccused have been identified.The verification process is inprogress," sources in the SITsaid and added, "Similarly, incase No. 13, two persons of theSikh community were killed bythe mob."

SIT DIG Balendu BhushanSingh said, "So far, the investi-gation of 11 cases has beencompleted. The investigation ofcase Nos. 12 and 13 is alreadyunderway." All the documentsrelating to these cases likenames of witnesses, plaintiffsand accused had been recov-ered. In case No.12 registeredas 498/84 in the general diaryof Naubasta police station byVijender Kaur, her husbandGurmendra Singh, father-in-law Nagina Singh and brother-in-law were murdered, while incase No. 13 registered as 315/84in the GD of Nazirabad policestation, one Gurcharan Singhand Amlok Singh were killedby the rioters, DIG Singh said.

It may be recalled thatnearly 127 people were mur-dered in the city in the after-math of Indira Gandhi's assas-sination in 1984.

&,�� � +�����(���+����� ������(���������� �+�� ���� (�������+��������'� ��KANPUR (PNS): AdhivaktaKalyan Sangharsh Samiti(AKSS) has urged prominentpolitical parties to include theissue of lawyers’ pensionscheme in their election man-ifestoes. Addressing media per-sons, AKSS convener PtRavindra Sharma said theyhad sent a letter to this effect toall the prominent political par-ties. He said that a lawyer, after35 years of practice and attain-ing the age of 65 years, shouldbe paid a pension of a mini-mum Rs 10,000 per month aspart of his/her social security.He also demanded enforce-ment of young lawyers’ incen-tive scheme, envisaging pay-ment of Rs 10,000 per monthincentive for the first five yearsof his/her practice after regis-tration up to 30 years of age.Under the Lawyers’ HealthInsurance Scheme, he demand-ed free health insurance coverof at least Rs 5 lakh to eachlawyer and under theAdhivakta Awas Scheme,plots/houses to lawyers atcheaper price on 'no profit, noloss' basis. President of theCommissionery BarAssociation, Dinesh Sharma,SK Sachan, Gurmeet Singh,Sarvesh Tripathi, Vijay Sagar,Sanjiv Kapoor, BL Gupta,Anand Sethi, Raj KumarTripathi, Mohd Quadir, ShishirMohan, Arvind Sharma,Danish Qureshi, Ved Uttamand KK Yadav were present.

HEALTH INSTITUTELAB: The Director of theUniversity Institute of HealthSciences, CSJM University,Kanpur, Dr Pravin Katiyar onThursday informed the labo-ratory of the Health Institutehad received all the new pathol-ogy machines to run thepathology full fledged. He saidthis laboratory will conduct 129tests .

He said the pathology testsdone at the lab will be half theprice charged at pathologycentres in the city.

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New Delhi: A total 194 schoolshave been registered till nowfor affiliation with the SainikSchool Society and applicationprocess is underway, theMinistry of Defence said onFriday.

The Ministry said thatmarching ahead in tune withNational Education Policy(NEP), the government hasdecided to provide an increas-ing focus on value-based edu-cation enabling children todevelop pride in the rich cul-ture and heritage of this nation,effective leadership with char-acter, discipline, sense ofnational duty and patriotism.

In a paradigm shift to theexisting pattern of SainikSchools, the Union Cabinetchaired by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi in its meetinghas approved the proposal forlaunching of affiliated SainikSchools under Sainik SchoolsSociety, Ministry of Defence.

These schools will functionas an exclusive vertical whichwill be distinct and differentfrom existing Sainik Schools ofMoD.

In the first phase, 100 affil-iate partners are proposed to bedrawn from states, NGOs andprivate partners.

Scheme is aimed at pro-viding Sainik School pattern ofeducation to a larger cross sec-tion of aspiring students allover the nation.

Sainik Schools Society hasforwarded application forms toall such applicant Schoolswhich have registered them-selves upto January 15, 2022.

The application forms arerequired to be filled up andsubmitted back to SainikSchools Society through onlinemode by January 12, 2022.

IANS

New Delhi: A furious backlashin India has forced Nestle todiscontinue a range of KitKatbars covered by wrappers withimages of Hindu gods on them,the Daily Mail reported.

The range has sparkedworries that the chocolate barsadorned with the images ofLord Jagannath, Balabhadraand Mata Subhadra wouldinevitably be thrown away inbins and on the streets, thereport said.

It is only recently that theKitKat wrapper with a pictureof Lord Jagannath came intothe spotlight, sparking reac-tions on social media.

"Kindly remove the pic-tures...they might even getstepped on unintentionally,"one Twitter user posted.

Another Twitter usercommented that it is an hon-our to have "Odisha culture andLord Jagannath, Balabhadraand Subhadra on KitKat, butthrowing the wrappers in dust-bin or stepping on them acci-dentally would be an insult tothe deities."

The bars were introducedto "celebrate the culture",

according to Nestle. The com-pany has since issued an apol-ogy, and withdrawn the barrange.

A Nestle spokespersonsaid: "We do understand thesensitivity of the matter andregret if we have inadvertent-ly hurt anyone's sentiment. Wehad already withdrawn thesepacks from the market last year.We thank you for your under-standing and support.

"We wanted to encouragepeople to know about the artand its artisans. We do under-stand the sensitivity of thematter and regret if we haveinadvertently hurt people's sen-timents."

The KitKats bars thatproved offensive to the Hindupopulation were originally cir-culated in Odisha.

Nestle is the latest in astring of companies that havehad to apologise to the Hinducommunity in recent times.

Jewellery brand Tanishqhad issued an apology in 2020and withdrawn its campaignfeaturing what appeared to bea Hindu daughter-in-law of aMuslim family.

Companies includingZomato, Unilever andManyavar have also sparkedsimilar controversies in recentyears, the report said.

IANS

New Delhi: The SupremeCourt on Friday set aside aNational Consumer DisputesRedressal Commission order,in a matter connected withwrong deposit and withdraw-al, from an account at StateBank of India.

A bench of Justices SanjivKhanna and Bela M. Trivedisaid that calling for the reportby the National Commissionon its own from the officer ofthe bank was absolutely unwar-ranted. "Be that as it may, theimpugned order passed by theNational Commission solelyrelying upon the suo motoreport called for from therespondent-bank during thependency of the revision appli-cation, being highly erroneous,deserves to be set aside and isaccordingly set aside. The orderpassed by the StateCommission is restored," itsaid.

The matter is connectedwith the withdrawal of Rs 3Lakh from petitioner SunilKumar Maity's account at StateBank of India. Maity found thatthe money, which was deposit-ed through cheque, was with-drawn from the account. Later,it was found the bank had givenhim the account number ofanother person by name ofSunil Maity, which led to thisgoof-up. The bank refused toaddress Maity's grievance. Hemoved the district consumerforum, which allowed his com-plaint. The West Bengal StateCommission noted the bankshould have accepted its mis-take, by crediting the chequeamount to the account of SunilMaity, who had the account atthe same branch.

The top court noted:"There was no way that theappellant would have knownthat the second respondentnamely Sunil Maity had anaccount in the same branch. Nosane person would depositcash or cheque meant to be

deposited in his account in anaccount number belonging toanother person with similarname."

It pointed out that theNational Commission exceed-ed its revisional jurisdiction bycalling for the report from thebank and made it the basis toconclude that the two forabelow had erred in not under-taking the requisite in-depthappraisal of the case.

The top court said thereport that tries to absolve thebank of its liability is based onsurmises and conjectures, as itholds that bank has every rea-son to believe that wrongaccount number was inten-tionally inserted by the peti-tioner himself for reasons bestknown to him or on account ofnegligence by him by not keep-ing the passbook in proper cus-tody. "The suppositions arecontradictory as well as incred-ulous and fanciful," said thebench.

The National Commission,allowing a revision petition bythe bank, said the complainantcan move the competent civilcourt under the law.

The petitioner submittedbefore the top court that he didnot know Sunil Maity, the sec-ond respondent, and would nothave known his account num-ber unless it was given by abank officer.

IANS

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In what should come as ahuge relief for both parents

and children, wearing of masksis not recommended for chil-dren aged 5 years or belowaccording to the revisedCovid-19 guidelines issued bythe Union Health Ministry.Those aged 6-11 years maywear it depending on the abil-ity of the child to use a masksafely and appropriately underdirect supervision of parents.

Ensuring that the kidmasks up properly has been ofmuch concern to parents whilemasking up didn't go too wellwith children who felt suffo-

cated.As per the ‘Revised

Comprehensive Guidelines forManagement of COVID-19 inChildren and Adolescents(below 18 years)', those aged 12and above should wear a maskunder the same conditions asadults, the guidelines said.

It also said that use ofantivirals or monoclonal anti-bodies is not recommended forthose less than 18 years of age,irrespective of severity of Covidinfection, and if steroids areused, they should be taperedover 10 to 14 days, subject toclinical improvement.

The guidelines werereviewed by a group of expertsin view of the current surge that

is mainly attributed to theOmicron variant of the coron-avirus, which is also a variantof concern.

The available data fromother countries suggests thatthe disease caused by theOmicron variant is less severe.However, there is a need for acareful watch, as the currentwave evolves, the ministry said.

It categorized cases asasymptomatic, mild, moderateand severe.

According to the guide-lines, COVID-19 is a viralinfection and antimicrobialshave no role in the manage-ment of uncomplicatedCOVID-19 infection.

In asymptomatic and mild

cases, antimicrobials are notrecommended for therapy orprophylaxis while in moderate and severe cases,antimicrobials should not beprescribed unless there is clin-ical suspicion of a superaddedinfection.

In case of septic shock,empirical antimicrobials,according to body weight, arefrequently added to cover alllikely pathogens based on clin-ical judgement, patient hostfactors, local epidemiology andantimicrobial policy of thehospital, it said.

The guidelines stated thatsteroids are not indicated andare harmful in asymptomaticand mild cases of COVID-19.

They are indicated only inhospitalised severe and criti-cally ill COVID-19 cases understrict supervision, the guide-lines said.

Steroids should be used atthe right time, in the right doseand for the right duration,they stated.

Steroids should be avoidedin the first three to five dayssince onset of symptoms as itprolongs viral shedding, theguidelines stated.

Anticoagulants are notindicated routinely and all hos-pitalized children should beevaluated for risk of developingthrombosis and monitored fordevelopment of thrombosis,the ministry said.

As far post-COVID-19care is concerned, the guide-lines stated that children withasymptomatic infection or milddisease should receive routinechildcare, appropriate vacci-nation (if eligible), nutritioncounselling, and psychologicalsupport on follow up.

In addition to the above,parents or caregivers of chil-dren, who suffered moderate tosevere Covid, during dischargefrom hospital should be coun-selled regarding monitoringfor persistence or worsening respiratory difficul-ty and explained the indica-tions for bringing the childback to the facility, the guide-lines stated.

New Delhi: The SupremeCourt on Friday refused toentertain a plea seeking cen-sorship of actress KanganaRanaut’s all future statementson social media, clubbing mul-tiple FIRs lodged against her forremarks against the Sikh com-munity and investigation byMumbai police.

It asked the petitionereither to ignore the utterancesmade by her or avail remedyunder law.

The top court also said thatthe petitioner, a member of theSikh Community, as a publiccannot seek clubbing of multi-ple FIRs, and only the accusedor informant can seek suchremedy.

A bench of Justices DYChandrachud and Bela Triveditold petitioner SardarCharanjeet Singh Chanderpal,an advocate, appearing in per-son that remedy which he wasseeking cannot be grantedunder Article 32 petition andhe has to pursue relief underthe criminal law. “There aretwo possible solutions. Eitheryou ignore the utterances madeby her or avail remedy underlaw. We respect the communi-

ty. We respect your faith…Byspeaking these utterances youare doing more disservice tothe cause. Don’t try to prejudicethe mind of the court. Don’tpoliticise it. We have read theseutterances in your file. Youdon’t need to speak up”, thebench told Chanderpal, whenhe tried to read the remarkswhich Ranaut had made onsocial media. Chanderpal saidthat he has filed an interventionapplication in the FIR quash-ing petition of Ranaut and ispursuing it.

The bench then ordered,“As regards to first relief is con-cerned, the petitioner-in-per-son states that he has alreadyadopted proceedings for the

purpose of availing of his reme-dies in accordance with law byinstituting a private complaint.In view of the invocation of theremedy by the petitioner inperson, we, therefore, requestthis court to treat the petitionin so far prayer A (censoringsocial media posts) is con-cerned as being disposed ofwithout being expressed anyopinion by this court at the pre-sent stage”. Chanderpal saidthat the actress is going on andon with her “outrageous” and“defamatory” statements that“Sikh Farmers were KhalistaniTerrorists” and tried to portray the community as“anti-national”.

PTI

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Attorney General KKVenugopal on Friday

granted consent to activistShachi Nelli for initiation ofcriminal contempt of courtproceedings against contro-versial Yati Narsinghanand overhis recent derogatory remarksagainst the Supreme Court.The AG found thatNarsinghanand's statement"those who believe in this sys-tem, these politicians, in theSupreme Court, and in theArmy will all die the death ofa dog", was a direct attempt tolower the authority of theSupreme Court in the minds ofthe general public.

As per Section 15 of theContempt of Courts Act, theconsent of Attorney General isrequired before the SupremeCourt can hear a criminal con-tempt of court petition filed bya private individual. The com-plainant Nelli wrote to the AGseeking his consent for thesame.

In her letter seeking con-sent, Nelli had stated that in aninterview given byNarsinghanand which wentviral on social media was total-

ly contempt for the SupremeCourt and the Constitution ofIndia clear by saying, "We haveno trust in the Supreme Courtof India and the Constitution.The Constitution will con-sume the 100 crore Hindus ofthis country. Those who believein this Constitution will bekilled. Those who believe inthis system, in these politicians,in the Supreme Court, and inthe Army will all die the deathof a dog."

Narsinghanand's state-ments were made in responseto questions posed about thecourt proceedings in theHaridwar hate speech cases. Hewas arrested for the vitriolicspeeches at Haridwar DharamSansad.

���� *+,�&+-���

The Union Home Ministryon Friday amended the

rules to enable arms manufac-turing companies to enhancetheir production of firearmsand ammunition. Under theArms (Amendment) Rules,2022, the arms manufacturers,however, will have to submitonline every month details ofthe firearms manufactured,sold or transferred or con-sumed for the month.

"The manufacturer whohas been issued licence inForm VII under these rulesshall be permitted to haveenhanced annual production offirearms or ammunition orcaliber wise revision of hislicensed capacity by givingintimation to the licensingauthority and also to the StateGovernment concerned with-in ninety days from the end ofthe financial year and for whichno further endorsement onthe licence as to capacity shallbe required," the MHA notifi-cation said.

While applying, the man-ufacturer has to submit adetailed proposal for enhance-ment of manufacturing capac-ity or caliber wise revision oflicenced capacity, project out-lays, means of finance and jus-tification for economic viabil-ity and market demand pro-jections, duly certified by theauthorised signatory of thecompany. Monthly onlinereturns, detailing the produc-

tion, sold, transfer and con-sumed shall be submitted bythe manufacturer by close ofbusiness hours of the last dayof the month, the notificationsaid.

Prior approval of thelicensing authority will bemandatory for any change incontrol, either directly or indi-rectly, of the company or incase of any change in share-holding or beneficial interest inthe shareholding, resulting into

dilution of promoters share-holding below 10 per cent.

However, prior approvalwill not be required if there isincrease in shareholding of ashareholder, who held less than10 per cent in the share capi-tal of the company, to 10 percent or more provided that fortransfer of share holding between the two pro-moters which is alreadyapproved by the licensingauthority.

���� *+,�&+-���

The EnforcementDirectorate (ED) has filed

Prosecution Complaint(chargesheet) before SpecialCourt at Panchkula, Haryanaagainst Lalit Goyal, Vice-chair-man cum Managing Directorof IREO Group of companiesnamed in the Panama Papersleak, and others under thePrevention of Money-launder-ing Act (PMLA) in a caserelated to multi-crore real estatescam.

The ED investigation,inter-alia revealed that over1,050 homebuyers/investors ofIREO Projects were duped ofRs 1,225 crore.

The Special Court,Panchkula on Friday took cog-nizance of the present prose-cution complaint.

The ED had initiatedmoney laundering investiga-tion on the basis of FIRs under

various Sections of IndianPenal Code (IPC) registered atvarious police stations acrossGurugram, Panchkula,Ludhiana and Delhi. As manyas 30 FIRs have been identified

in the case so far, the ED saidin a statement.

“The ED investigationinter-alia revealed that over1050 homebuyers/investors ofIREO Projects, namely IREO

Fiveriver, The Corridors, IREOCity, Gurgaon Hills in Haryanaand IREO WaterfrontTownship in Punjab, amongothers, had made advance pay-ments but are yet to receivetheir booked flats/plots despitea lapse of more than 4-5 years,”it said.

Investigation furtherrevealed that IREO Group ofcompanies could not completethe projects due to diversionand siphoning of funds.Customer receipts to the tuneof Rs. 1,225 Crore have beendiverted outside India in theform of redemption / pur-chase/transfer and buy-back ofshares violating the FDI poli-cy and other laws, it said.

“The modus operandiadopted by the group includesrouting of funds to India fromvarious entities based in taxhavens like British VirginIslands, Mauritius, recording offictitious expenses in the books

of account, writing off projectin progress, interest free loansand advances to sister concernsand round tripping of fundsthrough shell companies andcreation of assets within andoutside India,” it said.

Investigation furtherrevealed that Lalit Goyal is “set-tler and named beneficiary” ofan overseas Trust which ownsand controls entities holdingassets outside India. RecentPandora Papers Leak has alsonamed four entities (which arebeneficially owned by LalitGoyal) which are holding assetsof more than USD 77.73 mil-lion (Rs. 575 crore approxi-mately) overseas, it said.

Goyal, was arrested onNovember 16 last year after aLook Out Circular (LOC) wasissued against him and hassince been in judicial custody.In the matter, searches werealso conducted on November22, it added.

���� *+,�&+-���

The EnforcementDirectorate (ED) has

attached assets worth Rs 2.37crore of Jeevendra Poddar andShipra Singh under Preventionof Money Laundering Act(PMLA) in the offence ofmoney laundering initiatedagainst Ameet Savant and oth-ers. The attached assets are inthe form of a flat in Goa,Office Space in Gera ImperiumGrand in Goa and BMW carsamong others.

The ED had initiatedmoney laundering investiga-tion on the basis of FIRs datedAugust 21, 2019 and December12, 2019 registered by GoaPolice under various sections ofIPC and Goa Protection ofInterest of Depositors (InFinancial Establishments) Act,1999 against Ameet Savant,Jeevendra Poddar, ShipraSingh, and others for duping ofinvestors to the tune of approx-imately Rs 21.38 crore bypromising fixed returns of 2 to5 percent per month.

Investigation by EDrevealed that Ameet Savant, asAuthorized Representative(AP) of Ventura Securities Ltd.had collected money to thetune of Rs 21.38 crore from thecomplainants between 2015and 2019. Instead of depositingthe same in the demat accountsof investors maintained withVentura Securities Ltd., hadmisappropriated the same bydepositing in the accounts ofhis own similarly named pro-prietorship firm, VENTURA,the agency said in a statement.

Savant had further laun-dered the money received fromcomplainants forgambling/speculation in thesecurities market and lostmoney to the tune of Rs 9.86crore approximately between2016 and 2018, it further said.

Further, Savant had trans-ferred Proceeds of Crime(POC) to the tune of Rs 5.45crore in the bank accounts ofJeevendra Poddar and ShipraSingh as commission/broker-age for sourcing clients forhim, it added.

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mental body within the UNsystem responsible for pro-moting and safeguardinghuman rights, MichelleBachelet, United Nations HighCommissioner for HumanRights, said on September 13,2021, “My office has receivedcredible allegations of reprisalkillings of a number of formerANSF (Afghan NationalSecurity Forces) personnel,and reports of officials, whoworked for previous adminis-trations, and their familymembers being arbitrarilydetained.... In some cases, theofficials were released and, inothers, they were found dead.”Bachelet also highlighted“deeply troubling informa-tion” about Taliban raids onoffices of some advocacygroups.

The UN bodies have acted.On September 17, the SecurityCouncil unanimously adopt-ed a resolution asking theTaliban to establish an inclu-sive Government that has “thefull, equal and meaningfulparticipation of women” andupholds human rights. TheHuman Rights Council adopt-ed a resolution on October 7to have, from March 2022, aspecial rapporteur, supportedby UN experts, on the groundto monitor the human rightssituation in Afghanistan.

There are some indications

that the Taliban are reacting.Abdul Baqi Haqqani, Ministerfor Higher Education,announced at a press confer-ence in Kabul on January 12that the Government wouldsoon reopen public universitiesfor male and female students.He also announced that thesestudents would be segregatedand cited Afghanistan’s eco-nomic crisis and the lack ofseparated classes for male andfemale students, as reasons forthe delay.

Earlier, in a decree onDecember 3 in the name of theActing PM, the Taliban hadstated that a “woman is not aproperty, but a noble and freehuman being; no one can giveher to anyone in exchange forpeace...or to end animosity”.Both women and men, it hadadded, “should be equal” andthat “no one can force womento marry by coercion or pres-sure”. The decree also enableda widow to re-marry 17 weeksafter her husband’s death —against the longstandingAfghan tribal custom of hermarrying one of her husband’sbrothers or relatives after hisdeath. Further, the Talibanleadership has reportedlyordered Afghan courts to treatwomen fairly, especially incases of widows seeking inher-itance as next of kin. Theannouncement also cites the

Taliban as saying they hadasked their Ministers to spreadawareness about women’srights across the population.

Significantly, the firstannouncement does not men-tion the precise date whenpublic universities will reopen.Nor does it mention women’sright to work. The third suraof the Koran (ayats 193 and194) forbids the wasting ofanyone’s — whether a man orwoman’s — labour. The fourthsura (ayats 36 and 37) says,“To the men a share of whatthey have earned,/ and to thewomen a share of what theyhave earned…” (translationfrom The Koran Interpreted byArthur J Arberry). The secondannouncement says nothingabout women’s right to educa-tion and work, which are cru-cial issues with the interna-tional community. Also, therights the decree announcesregarding marriage have allbeen enshrined in Islamicjurisprudence since the time ofProphet Mohammad. Clearly,neither announcement meansmuch and is unlikely toimpress the international com-munity sufficiently for thepurse strings to be loosenedgenerously or recognition tobe forthcoming soon.

(The author is ConsultingEditor, The Pioneer. The viewsexpressed are personal.)

������������������� �������Sir — A major midair collision was avert-ed earlier this month in Bengaluru’s skiesas two aircraft of the same airline, whichhad taken off almost simultaneously fromthe city’s Kempegowda InternationalAirport, almost brushed against eachother. While one of the planes washeaded for Kolkata, the other aircraft wasflying passengers to Bhubaneswar. It wasa really shocking incident as to how thetwo aircraft were allowed to take off atthe same time. It is a matter of grave con-cern as to how the planes were in thisdangerous situation; besides, the airtraffic control (ATC) didn’t even reportthis incident nor made a record of it inthe log book.

Luckily, an alert radar controllerspotted the potentially grave error andimmediately alerted both the pilots, thussaving hundreds of lives. In recognitionof his presence of mind, both the radarcontroller and his swift action should beapplauded and he should be suitablerewarded, too. The Government shouldorder a thorough probe into this matterand ask the DGCA to conduct an in-depth investigation, which should be fol-lowed by taking necessary action in whatcould easily have been one of the biggestair safety lapses at the Bengaluru airportand in the country in recent history.

Ramesh G Jethwani | Bengaluru

� ���������������������������������Sir — It appears that the BJPGovernment at the Centre is determinedto curtail the powers of the States byintroducing controversial Acts andamendments to the Constitution andother existing regulations, despiteprotests from the States concerned.Before the din on the undemocraticdenial of the participation of the tableauxfrom non-BJP ruled States like TamilNadu, Kerala and West Bengal in theupcoming Republic Day parade on flim-sy grounds could die down, the Centre hasnow proposed changes to the IAS cadrerules which, when implemented, wouldremove power from the States and theirrights as far as transfer/deputation of the

IAS cadres to the Centre are concerned.This amendment would entail the

Union Government to transfer IAS offi-cers without the consent of the States,which is clearly against the spirit of coop-erative federalism. Though many ChiefMinisters have raised their voice againstthis amendment and termed it dracon-ian, it is alleged that the BJPGovernment, as usual, is going to imple-ment the amendment unmindful of theobjections. This amendment, if imple-mented, will be another blow to thedemocratic norms and cooperative fed-eralism the country has been cherishingall these years.

Tharcius S Fernando | Chennai

���������� � ���������Sir — The Supreme Court has upheldthe constitutional validity of reservationfor OBC candidates and it is a right stepin the right direction. While upholdingthe constitutional validity of reservationfor OBCs in AIQ seats, the court elab-orated on the concept of merit and

observed that it is not of one's own mak-ing. It noted that “reservation is not atodds with merit” in open competitiveexams. While open examinations presentequal opportunity to candidates, reser-vation ensures distribution of suchopportunities, the court said.

It added that privileges of forwardclasses include not just having access toquality schooling and good coaching cen-tres but also social networks and cultur-al communication, including good speak-ing skills, accent and academic accom-plishments. All these ensure that childrenfrom forward classes take up jobs com-mensurate with the family’s standingwhereas first-generation learners fromOther Backward Classes, who lack these,are placed at a disadvantage. Marksalone are not an indicator of merit, butalso the resilience required to uplift one-self from the conditions of deprivation.

MR Jayanthi | Mumbai

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Two news items, pub-lished in newspapers onJanuary 20, 2022, meritattention. The first by

AFP, carried in the Delhi editionof a leading daily, is about ActingAfghan Prime MinisterMohammad Hassan Akhund’sappeal on January 19 to Muslimcountries “to take the lead andrecognise us officially”. He wasspeaking at a conference toaddress Afghanistan’s massiveeconomic problems. The second,by PTI, featured in the Delhi edi-tion of The Pioneer. It citedChinese Foreign Ministryspokesman Xiao Lijian as sayingat a media briefing on January 18that he hoped that the Afghanside would respond further to theinternational community’s expec-tations that it would “establish anopen and inclusive political archi-tecture, adopt moderate and pru-dent domestic and foreign poli-cies, firmly combat all sorts of ter-rorist forces” and be “on friend-ly terms with other countries,especially its neighbours andintegrate into [the] internation-al family at an early date”.

The statement, made fol-lowing a mention of the Talibanseeking China’s help to get glob-al diplomatic recognition, clear-ly indicated that the world didnot think that they had estab-lished an “inclusive” Governmentor that their policies towardswomen would not be a repeat ofthe horribly repressive ones thatmarked their earlier stint inpower from 1996 to 2001. Andthis, when they had promisedthat women would enjoy all therights to education and workavailable under Sharia law.

In fact, the UN and its bod-ies have, on several occasions,asked the Taliban to implementtheir promises and made criticalobservations about their actions.Its secretary-general, AntonioGuterres, told reporters onOctober 7 last year, “I am partic-ularly alarmed to see promisesmade to Afghan women and girlsby the Taliban being broken.” Headded, “I strongly appeal to theTaliban to keep their promises towomen and girls and fulfil theirobligations under internationalhuman rights and humanitarianlaw.” Speaking at the HumanRights Council, an inter-govern-

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Two controversial GovernmentOrders issued by the AndhraPradesh Government related toentertainment and culture have

created a lot of heat. The first Go issuedin April 2021 was aimed at regulating filmindustry. The second one was recentlyissued banning a popular and message-oriented stage play ‘Chintamani.’ Both theissues could have been dealt with skilful-ly had the Government consulted thestakeholders before taking the decisions.

The Government of YS Jagan MohanReddy which has been dabbling in con-troversies of all kinds has added two more,involving the film industry and stage plays.

About 170 of the 950-odd theatres inAndhra Pradesh have been closed sincethe GO was issued. The exhibitors say theylost hugely due to Covid during 2021when the theatres were completely shut.They were reopened with 50 per centoccupancy on July 31, 2021. Even beforethat, the State Government issued GO 35fixing slabs for tickets in cinema halls inmunicipal corporations, municipalities,nagar panchayats and village panchayatsunder economy, deluxe and premiumclasses for multiplex, AC theatres and non-AC theatres.

Filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma met APInformation, public relations and cine-matography minister PerniVenkataramaiah (Nani) and told him thatthe Government has no business to inter-vene in this issue. It is for the exhibitorsand audience to decide the price of tick-ets. Pawan Kalyan, film hero-cum-politi-cian (president of Jan Sena which hasalliance with the BJP) was rather aggres-sive in his criticism. He said since theGovernment has no money, it is indulgingin online ticketing and fixing ticketprices. Minister Nani asked the actor whywould the government which has nomoney would reduce the ticket priceinstead of increasing. Senior actor, PawanKalyan’s elder brother and former unionminister Chiranjeevi tried to break the icewhen he travelled to Amaravati to meetJagan Mohan Reddy over lunch on lastThursday. Some news channels and news-paper said Chiranjeevi was offered a RajyaSabha seat by the YSRCP chief which waspromptly and curtly denied by the megastar. He said the problem would beresolved soon.

What is the problem? Is it peculiar toTollywood? So, it appears. The problemsin the industry started with stardom. Atleast six stars today charge a fee of �45crore each for a movie. Heroines also arepaid in crores, though their remunerationis nowhere near the actors’. Directorsdonot take all the remuneration by chequeor cash but ask for share in the revenuearea wise. Together they eat away three-fourth of the budget.

Persons working in 24 crafts in filmsget a pittance. The presence of Chiranjeevi,Prabhas, Mahesh, Pawan Kalyan, NTR (Jr)and Ram Charan Teja makes the budget

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of any film cross �100 crore. Eachactor acts in one movie in one ortwo years.

In order to earn that kind ofhuge money the exhibitors organizebenefit shows and extra shows tocollect more. For benefit shows, theprice of the ticket would be above�1000 for big-ticket movies inwhich one of these stars acts.

If you have two stars like NTR(Jr) and Ram Charan Teja and astar director such as Rajamouli ofBahubali fame, as in RRR(Raudram, Ranam and Rudhiram),the budget would be around �300crore. The film RRR was supposedto be released on January 7 afterthree postponements. Some otherfilms slated to be released onSankranti postponed their datesthinking that RRR would bereleased by then. The release ofSarkaruvariPaata (featuringMahesh Babu) was put off till April1 and BhimlaNayak (PawanKalyan, Rana) till February 25. Ithappened because when a bigbudget film, such as RRR, isreleased, it is exhibited in most ofthe theatres for one week with spe-cial shows and higher ticket pricesto earn back the huge investment.The poor and the middleclassamong the audience are made topay through their noses to pay tothe stars. During that week no the-atres would be available for otherfilms.

Small cinema which used toflourish earlier has been thor-oughly discouraged. Small produc-ers have to depend on OTT plat-forms or sale of the cyber rights.The remuneration for artists is farless in Kannada, Malayalam and

Marathi movies. Once late Raj Kumar, the

Kannada Kanteerava, invited allKannada producers, directors andexhibitors to his residence, gavethem sumptuous dinner andpolitely asked them permission toraise his remuneration by �25,000since he has a number of children.The guests were stunned and toldhim he could enhance his fee bylakhs.

The late NTR acted for twen-ty years for less than a lakh ofrupees for a film. The days of NTR,ANR, Sobhan Babu and Krishnawere golden for Tollywood. Besidethe heroes, actors, directors, tech-nicians and other craftsmen usedto live happily. If the prices of tick-ets are low, small movies can gettheatres and reasonable revenue.Some exhibitors went to AP HighCourt which asked the governmentto appoint a committee to study theissue. In the absence of compliance,the HC has stayed the operation ofthe GO. Then the governmentorganized raids on theatres whichwere running without properlicense and selling refreshments athigher prices. The result is badblood between the government andthe industry.

Meanwhile, the TelanganaGovernment has agreed to thedemand of the film industry andallowed fixing of ticket prices by theproducers and exhibitors. ChiefMinister K Chandrasekhar Rao didnot want any trouble on this count.The ideal solution would be forboth the chief ministers of TeluguStates to sit with the important per-sons from Tollywood to sort outthe matter once for all. The remu-

neration of the stars, the strangle-hold of four families on hundredsof theatres in both the States(Families headed by Dil Raj, AlluAravind, Daggubati Suresh andSunil Narang) and the unethicalexploitation of the film lovers,scope for small budget film produc-ers to survive and the welfare oftechnicians and others (estimatedto be more than 50 thousand) haveto be discussed threadbare toarrive at a comprehensive andamicable solution. Sooner it isdone the better for both govern-ment and film industry.

The ban on Chintamani, thepopular stage play, imposed byRajat Bhargava, the PrincipalSecretary through a GO, was notwarranted although the complaintof a community is genuine. Theoriginal play written by socialreformer, writer and poet KallakuriNarayana Rao, exactly one hundredyears ago, was sophisticated andenlightening. It was a critique of theDevadasi system. Subbi Shetty, acharacter in the play, is a vaisya(bania), who loses his wealth toChintamani and his character isused to engage the audiencethrough his teasing chat withChintamani’s mother Srihari andsister Chitra. It is true that someactors introduced vulgarity andobscene dialogues between SubbiShetty, Chitra and Srihari, hurtingthe sentiments of a community.

The Andhra governmentshould have allowed the play to runwith a condition that vulgar char-acters and dialogues are removed.Even today, the play has great rel-evance. The AP Government’sdecision needs to be revised.

(The writer is Editor,Primepost, the newswebsite based out of

Hyderabad. The viewsexpressed are personal.)

After a week of intense dis-cussions about ‘security’between Russia and the

NATO countries, this is theweek when the Western allieswill send their written replies toRussian President VladimirPutin. Various pundits, some ofwhom have actually been toRussia, warn us that there will be‘War in Europe’ if Putin’sdemands are not met.

(You there, at the back. Stopgiggling! This is no laughingmatter! Peace is hanging by athread!)

Historians keen for amoment in the limelight arebeing wheeled out to draw par-allels with past diplomatic disas-ters like the Munich conferenceof 1938 (appeasement of Hitler)and Yalta in 1945 (carving upEurope and giving Stalin theeastern half in 1945).

And this just in! DeputyForeign Minister Sergei Ryabkov,just back in Moscow from thetalks, told Russian televisionthat if the talks failed, he could“neither confirm nor exclude”that Russia would send “militaryassets” to Cuba and Venezuela.

Wow! A dagger - no, twodaggers - pointed at the heart ofAmerica (although they’ll haveto work on the length of theVenezuelan dagger, since it’s2,000 km. from Caracas toMiami). If that does not force theAmericans to give in, what will?

I’m sorry. That’s enoughsarcasm. It’s just that all thisprancing around and muggingfor the camera gets tiresome.This is a minor diplomatic spatthat has been deliberately inflat-ed far beyond its merit, and it isbeing taken much too seriously.

Let’s start with Russia play-

ing the ‘Cuban card’. Cuba is stilla Communist country, andMaduro’s regime in Venezuelaalso has aspirations in that direc-tion - but Russia, in case you’veforgotten, stopped beingCommunist thirty years ago.

Putin’s regime in Moscow isnationalist-populist, and Cubahas absolutely no motive to hostRussian troops and risk trigger-ing a confrontation with theUnited States. In any case

Russian troops in Cuba wouldpose no military threat to theUnited States. What are theygoing to do? Invade Florida?

Ryabkov’s intention wasobviously to do a “How wouldyou like it if...?” on Americandiplomats. How would like it ifthere were Russian troops ‘90miles from Florida’ (as peopleused to say during the Cuban cri-sis of 1962), and not NATOtroops 450 km. from Moscow

(which is where they are now).The grown-up American

answer to that would be “Whocares?” In real life, there are anumber of troglodytes in the USCongress who would workthemselves up into a lather aboutRussian troops in Cuba - butsince the Cubans would notagree to it in the first place, it’sreally quite irrelevant.

Well, then, what about thealleged historical precedents:Munich and Yalta? They wereboth about granting a ‘sphere ofinfluence’ in Europe to a greatpower (Germany in 1938, theSoviet Union in 1945) that couldeasily enforce its wishes on theground.

Russia is effectively demand-ing a comparable sphere of influ-ence in its old ‘satellite’ countries,which would not be allowed tohave friendly foreign troops on

their soil even though they areNATO members, but it’s a com-plete non-starter. Russia lacks themilitary capacity to enforce itswill on the ground.

So will there be ‘War inEurope’, as the feverish headlinessuggest? Not in the sense theyimply: massive armoured forcesrolling across whole countries,with the threat of nuclear warlooming in the background. Butthere might be some shooting onor just inside Ukraine’s borderwith Russia.

Of course, there’s already alittle bit of shooting along thatborder, in the Russian-backedbreakaway provinces of Donetskand Luhansk. As Pentagonspokesman John Kirby said onFriday, Putin may now be plan-ning to cause a little more.

Kirby warned that Russia“has pre-positioned a group of

operatives to conduct what wecall a false-flag operation, anoperation designed to look likean attack on them or on Russian-speaking people in Ukraine, asan excuse to go in.” He may beright - and he may be wrong. Thesatellites can see their location,but not their intentions.

Something has got intoPutin, and he’s seeking conces-sions that he should know hecannot extract, with threats thathe cannot enforce.

It is possible that he couldblunder into a local clash thatwould bring harsh sanctionsdown on Russia.

It is extremely unlikely thathe would try to conquer all oreven half of Ukraine.

It is almost inconceivablethat this will end up with SecondWorld War-style battles betweenlarge armoured forces.

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(Gwynne Dyer’s new book is ‘The Shortest History of War’. The views expressed

are personal.)

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Though Kerala’s Departmentof Health brought down the

number of samples tested onFriday to 95,218, the Covid-19cases continued to remainunabated in the State. A total of41, 668 persons were diag-nosed with the pandemic dur-ing the last 24 hours and theTest Positivity Rate surged to43.76 per cent. A total of 51,607 persons succumbed to thepandemic in the State till Fridayevening, according to a releaseissued by Veena George, min-ister of health.

The Government of Keralasuffered a setback on Friday asa Division Bench of the KeralaHigh Court asked theKasaragod district adminis-tration not to allow any publicmeetings attended by morethan 50 persons. Though the

District Disaster ManagementAuthority had issued an orderlimiting the number of personsthat could assemble for anymeeting to 50, the district col-lector reportedly under politi-cal pressure issued a new orderstating that the number of per-sons that could be allowed toattend public meetings shouldbe decided based on the TestPositivity Rate as well as thenumber of beds available in thedistrict.

A Public Interest Litigationfiled in the High Court onThursday had pointed out therestrictions were compromisedpossibly to facilitate CPI(M)district meetings. It has beenargued by the petitioner thatthe Chairperson of the DisasterManagement Authority canonly amend his orders on cer-tain new circumstances for thepurpose of prevention of dis-

asters or their mitigation. The Kasaragod district

meeting of the CPI(M) wasunderway at Kasaragod in vio-lation of all safety protocolswhen the High Court deliveredits interim order. “What is sospecial about the political partymeetings? The number of per-sons who could attend theRepublic Day itself has beenrestricted to 50,” said theDivision Bench.

Taken aback by the HighCourt order, the State leader-ship of the CPI(M) decided tohold the Thrissur district com-mittee meeting which began onFriday. Though Chief MinisterPinarayi Vijayan was scheduledto be present in Thrissur for thethree day event, his hospital-ization in USA has led to thecancellation of the public meet-ings which were to be held onFriday and Sunday.

Mumbai: A court in Mumbaidenied bail to three studentsarrested in the Bulli Bai appcase by stating that the trio hadcommitted serious acts of"defaming womanhood" and,therefore, in the larger interestof society the personal libertyof the accused can be curtailed.

The Bulli Bai app hadmade public the details of sev-eral Muslim women in a bid tomalign them, allowing users toparticipate in their 'auction'.

Vishal Kumar Jha, ShwetaSingh and Mayak Rawat weredenied bail by BandraMetropolitan Court MagistrateKomalsing Raj on January 20,but a detailed cop of the orderwas made available on Friday.

While Singh and Rawatwere arrested by the Mumbaipolice's cyber cell fromUttarakhand on January 5, Jhawas nabbed from Bengaluru on

January 4."No doubt accused persons

are students of tender age andthey have fundamental right tolife and liberty, but those rightsare subject to reasonablerestrictions. They were arrest-ed for collection of evidencerelating to non-bailable offenceand, hence, their arrest is notin violation of any law," themagistrate said in the order.

"They were found to havecommitted serious acts defam-ing womanhood. The largerinterest of society is at stake.Therefore, their personal lib-erty can be said to be curtailedfollowing due process of law,"the magistrate said.

The court also noted therewas "some ill-intention" onpart of the creator and follow-ers of the app as well as personspropagating and disseminatinginformation about women of a

particular religion.Stating that, prima facie,

the involvement in of theaccused is noticed, the courtsaid, "The disputed fact is onlyin respect of exact role playedby them. It is contended onbehalf of the applicants thatthey are just followers and dis-seminated the informationcontaining its link. Even if it ispresumed they are just follow-ers/subscribers of the applica-tion, at this stage it cannot besaid they are innocent."

The court further saidrecords showed their "activeinvolvement" in propagatingand disseminating the informa-tion/data relating to the women.

Meanwhile, accused VishalKumar Jha has moved ses-sions court for bail, and his pleais likely to be heard on Monday.

In the bail application,moved through his lawyer

Shivam Deshmukh, theaccused claimed he had been"falsely implicated in this case".

"The accused hailsfrom a respectable family hav-

ing deep roots in the eyes ofsociety and any such act asalleged by the present com-plainant is beyond imagina-tion," Jha's plea said. PTI

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���������������L!����������������.���� ��Shillong: Meghalaya ChiefMinister Conrad K Sangma onFriday tested positive for COVID-19, a day after meeting UnionHome Minister Amit Shah andAssam Chief Minister HimantaBiswa Sarma in Delhi.Sangmaurged everyone who has come incontact with him to isolate them-selves and get tested if necessary.

"I have tested positive forCOVID-19. I am isolating myselffor the required time. I have mildsymptoms. All those who cameinto contact with me last few daysare requested to observe theirsymptoms and test if necessary,"he tweeted.

Sangma and Sarma had metShah on Thursday to submitreports on the amicable resolutionof dispute in a few areas along theMeghalaya-Assam inter-stateboundary. PTI

Amaravati: The daily infection positivity rateshot up to 30 per cent as 44,516 tests turned out13,212 Covid-19 positive cases in AndhraPradesh in the 24 hours ending 9 am on Friday.

Consequently, the number of active casesclimbed to 64,136.

The state reported five fresh Covid-19 fatal-ities and 2,942 recoveries in 24 hours, the lat-est bulletin said.

The cumulative case count is now 21,53,268,recoveries 20,74,600 and deaths 14,532, the bul-letin added.

Visakhapatnam district reported the high-est of 2,244 fresh coronavirus cases and threedeaths in 24 hours.

Chittoor district registered 1,585 morecases and one death.

Anantapuramu added 1,235, Srikakulam1,230, Guntur 1,054 and SPS Nellore 1,051 newcases.SPS Nellore also reported one death in aday. Kurnool logged 961, East Godavari 816,Prakasam 772, Vizianagaram 681, Kadapa649, West Godavari 596 and Krishna 338 freshpositives. PTI

(�%�,��!0%+�&!$%�%0%�,�����$�!!�$�"&��!�123% ��4��$�!0����15222��$��60��% ��7��!"�$ Srinagar: Authorities on Friday after-

noon imposed restrictions on thenon-essential movement of peopleacross Kashmir as a 64-hour lockdownbegan in the union territory in viewof an exponential rise in the numberof coronavirus cases since the begin-ning of the new year, officials said.

Jammu and Kashmir onThursday recorded 5992 fresh cases ofcoronavirus -- the highest single dayspike since the pandemic began.There are 31,044 active cases in the UT

Police vehicles fitted with publicaddress systems announced therestrictions at several places across thevalley in the afternoon after the gov-ernment ordered complete restrictionon non-essential movement duringfrom 2 pm on Friday till 6 am onMonday in the entire Jammu andKashmir, the officials said.

Shops and other business estab-lishments in the city and elsewhere inthe valley – which had opened thismorning – were forced by police toshut in view of the restrictions, they

said.The police closed the markets and

asked people to return to their homes.After the movement of people early inthe morning, the police erected bar-ricades at several places in the city hereand other areas of the valley and themovement of public was restricted, theofficials said.

They said only employees andemergency cases were allowed tomove and all other non-essentialmovement was restricted.

The district authorities appealedto the people to cooperate with theadministration and curtail their move-ment in view of the rising cases. PTI

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The Union Territory ofJammu and Kashmir is set

to witness cut throat competi-tion among different districtheadquarters as the UnionHome and CooperationMinister Amit Shah is set torelease the District GoodGovernance Index for 20Districts on Saturday.

The exercise on formula-tion of District GoodGovernance Index was set inmotion in July, 2021 which hasnow been completed andJammu & Kashmir will becomethe first Union Territory in thecountry to have GoodGovernance Index.

The index of Good gover-nance has been prepared afterassessing the different aspectsof development and districtadministration in sectors suchas agriculture, commerce andindustry, human resourcedevelopment, public health,public infrastructure and util-

ities, economic governance,welfare and development, pub-lic safety, judiciary, and citizen-centric governance.

The maiden event is beingorganized jointly by theDepartment of AdministrativeReforms & Public Grievances(DARPG), GOI and Jammu &Kashmir Institute ofManagement, PublicAdministration & RuralDevelopment in associationwith the Centre for GoodGovernance, Hyderabad.

Manoj Sinha, LieutenantGovernor of Jammu &Kashmir and Dr Jitendra Singh,Union Minister for Personnel,Public Grievances andPensions are also expected toaddress the event.

The District GoodGovernance Index of Jammuand Kashmir was prepared byDARPG in collaboration withGovernment of Jammu andKashmir in pursuance of theannouncements made in the“Behtar e-Hukumat – Kashmir

Aelamia” resolution adopted onJuly 2, 2021 in the RegionalConference on Replication ofGood Governance Practicesheld at Srinagar.

The District GoodGovernance Index ofGovernment of Jammu andKashmir represents a majoradministrative reform inbenchmarking good gover-nance at District level and a sig-nificant step for timely collationand publication of statistics atState/ District level. TheDistrict Good GovernanceIndex is a milestone and it isexpected that it will provide arobust framework for evidencebased assessment of the per-formance of all the districts inJammu & Kashmir.

The Chief SecretaryGovernment of Jammu &Kashmir Arun Kumar Mehtaand V. Srinivas, SecretaryDARPG, Government of Indiawill also be addressing theevent. The event will be attend-ed by Senior Officials of

Government of Jammu andKashmir, District Collectorsand Chief Planning Officers ofDistricts. Secretaries ofPlanning and Secretaries ofAdministrative Reforms of allState/ UT governments andDistrict Collectors of non-elec-tion bound States have alsobeen invited to participate inthe event by video conferenc-ing.

During the occasion, a pre-sentation on formulation ofDistrict Good GovernanceIndex will be made by Centrefor Good Governance,Hyderabad. This will be fol-lowed by district presentationsby selected 12 DistrictDevelopment Commissioners,who will be showcasingachievements of various sec-tors. Thereafter a panel dis-cussion will be held on DGGI-A Way Forward for futuristic2.0 version of DGGI for mea-suring and benchmarking per-formance and improvement ofDistricts in future as well.

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The Trinamool Congresscontinued to attack the

Narendra Modi Governmentfor ‘ignoring Netaji SubhasChandra Bose’ even after theCentre’s decision to install agranite statue of the legendaryfreedom fighter at the iconicIndia Gate in the nationalCapital.

When asked to commenton the latest developmentsenior TMC leader and MPSaugato Roy said, “today theyare installing Netaji’s statue …if they have so much of respectfor him then why they did notallow the Bengal Governmentto prepare a tableau on him tocommemorate his 125thbirthanniversary,” adding the belat-ed decision (to install hisstat-ue) had been taken as a dam-age control exercise.

Similarly Forward Blocleader Naren De said ‘simpleinstallation of Netaji’s statueswill not suffice … you have tofollow his principles and ideas… otherwise there are thou-sands of statues of this great

leader throughout India … Ifyou really have to respect Netajithen you should follow hisideals … he was a leader whorespected all thecommunities… he never mixed religion withpolitics.” Bose had joined andbuilt Forward Bloc after leav-

ing the Congress.Congress leader of Lok

Sabha Adhir Chowdhury tooattacked the Centre for politi-cizing the Netaji issue. “Whyhave they announced the deci-sion to install the statue ofNetaji now a day before his

birth anniversary … why wasit not installed earlier … theyare doing it as a face savingexercise,” he said.

Chowdhury would not sparethe Trinamool Congress either.He attacked the Bengal rulingout fit on different issue --- fordestroying the anti-BJP forumled by the Congress in India.

“Everyone knows that onlyCongress can take on the BJPwith the kindout outreach ithas through the length andbreadth of the country …TMCcannot do a fraction of whatthe Congress can do to dis-lodge the BJP … yet they aretrying to harm the Congress byentering the States like Goa,Meghalaya where the Congresshas a good support base … TheTMC is doing this to weakenthe Congress and strengthenthe BJP.”

On the TMC keenness toally with the Congress in GoaChowdhury who is also theBengal Pradesh Congress pres-ident said “today they are talk-ing of alliance when they knowthat they will be rejected by thepeople of Goa”.

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Kolkata: The daughter ofNetaji Subhas Chandra Bose,Anita Bose-Pfaff, on Fridayhailed as "a nice gesture" PrimeMinister Narendra Modi'sannouncement about installinga statue of the iconic freedomfighter at India Gate, and hopedit will put to rest the contro-versy over rejection of WestBengal's tableau for theRepublic Day parade.

Welcoming the decisionas "better late than never",Bose-Pfaff said the announce-ment took her by surprise.

"I am very happy about thedecision. It is very good loca-tion. I am certainly glad that his

statue would be put up at sucha prominent place. What sur-prises me is it came all of a sud-den now. One might have pre-pared a bit earlier, but betterlate than never, I must say. Ihope that the controversy aboutthe tableau can also be put torest in a satisfactory manner,"Bose-Pfaff told PTI over thetelephone from Germany,where she lives.

When asked if she thinksthat the decision was taken toend the tableau controversy, shesaid she is not in a position tocomment on it.

"I don't know. Let's put itthat way”, she said. PTI

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Mumbai: Mumbai police have arrested three persons fromHaryana in connection with the chat on Clubhouse app, in whichobscene comments were allegedly made against Muslim women,an official said on Friday. Personnel of the cyber police station ofthe Mumbai crime branch made the arrests late on Thursday night,he said.Two of the accused will be produced in a local court laterin the day, the official said.In a tweet posted early this morning, ShivSena's Rajya Sabha member Priyanka Chaturvedi praised the citypolice for the arrests in the case. "Kudos @MumbaiPolice, they havegot cracking on the Clubhouse chats too and some arrests have beenmade. Say no to hate. #Clubhouse," she said in the tweet. OnWednesday, the Delhi police had written to the Clubhouse app andsearch engine Google, seeking details about the organiser of thealleged audio group chat in which "obscene comments were madeagainst Muslim women". PTI

���� ����.����������A������ �������������������� ������ Kolkata: Four persons were

injured, three critical when aparcel bomb exploded at ashop in Hemtabad town ofNorth Dinajpur district bor-dering Bangladesh in NorthBengal, police said.

All the injured had beenadmitted to the Raiganj super-specialty hospital.

“The incident took placewhen a parcel (packet) sent in thename of one Bablu Chowdhurya medicine retailer was openedby him,” said alocal adding threeonlookers too were injured in the blast.

“The packet was deliveredto me by an unknown toto dri-ver,” said one of the injured per-sons adding “out of curiosity theinjured person opened it andthe thing exploded in his face.” PNS

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Ahead of the Republic daycelebrations a Core Group

consisting of top officials ofCivil Administration,Intelligence Agencies and secu-rity forces Friday reviewed thesecurity situation in Kashmir atBadami Bagh Cantonment.The meeting was co-chaired bythe General OfficerCommanding, Chinar Corps,Lt Gen DP Pandey andDirector General of Police,Dilbag Singh.

The core group discussedfresh strategies of the terroristorganizations and their han-dlers including use of Hybridterrorist and targeting of softtargets. 15 terrorists killed in2021 were fresh names not onthe security forces radar.

The officials stated thatthe ceasefire has improved thesecurity situation along theborder, however, intelligenceinputs of terrorist launch pads

and terrorist training activitiesin Pakistan indicate the need tobe alert along the Line ofControl. On the Line ofControl, late snow has kept theinfiltration routes open for alonger time, however effectivedomination has ensureddecrease in overall infiltrationincluding those from South ofPir Panjal. The vigil on the Lineof Control against infiltrationof men, drugs and weapons iscontinuing.

According to a Defencespokesman the officials sharedthe challenge of propaganda ofthe nexus through internetand social media. Sadly, theseefforts include propaganda tolegitimize killing of Kashmiricivilians by the terrorists."Deliberations were alsofocused on the use of socialmedia to spread disinforma-tion. The officials present in themeeting observed joint effortswere needed to counter it byexposing fake news, booking of

radicals trying to foment unrestand proactive sharing of infor-mation by state agencies.

The spokesman said, "Thesetting up of the StateInvestigative Agency and theincreased booking by NIA isshowing the impact of focusedintelligence and investigationefforts. These efforts have beeneffective in targeting drug,hawala and the OGWs net-works. Legal action on thosewillfully harbouring terroristsis being increased as the har-bourers have direct involve-

ment in terror activities.The DGP and the Corps

Commander commended theofficials present on improvedsecurity indicators. They appre-ciated that post the abrogationof Article 370, certain bench-marks were set which havebeen achieved successfully forthe restoration of peace andprosperity in the region. TheDGP stated that reduction inlocal terrorist recruitment isone parameter that all mustapproach with continued focus.A special mention was made

on the measures taken to min-imize the collateral damage inoperations despite risk to ownsoldiers. He recommendedcontinued efforts to give chanceof surrenders to local terroriststo give them a second chanceat living a fruitful life. TheCorps Commander calledupon all to treat 2022 as a trans-formative year where commonman used to zero civilian casu-alties in 2021 should see 2022as the year when things turnedfor good for the long term. Hecautioned the trend of the ter-rorists to use urban areas withthick built up area for opera-tions as they provide moreavenues to hide or escape andputs higher onus in securityforces to exercise restraint toavoid collateral damage. Hecalled for continued effortsalong with the civil society tocounter the separatist propa-ganda and break the cycle ofviolence for long term peace inKashmir.

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Mumbai: MaharashtraCongress general secretarySachin Sawant on Friday said theCBI probe into actor SushantSingh Rathod has been a hoaxand a disgrace to the renownedinstitution.

Taking to Twitter, Sawantsaid that at least 534 days afterthe CBI took charge and 474days since the AIIMS ruled outmurder in the case of Rajput'sdeath, the investigation has beena hoax and disgrace to therenowned institution.

The Congress leader took tosocial media to pay tribute to theactor on his birth anniversary.

“Tribute to a talented actor#SushantSinghRajput on hisbirth anniversary. His unfortu-nate death was horribly misusedby Modi govt & BJP for cheapelectoral gains in Bihar. Cheap

stunt to defame & destabiliseMVA govt," Sawant said. “534days of CBI took charge & 474days since the AIIMS ruled outmurder.

CBI, which shows extraor-dinary efficiency in investigatingmatters related to oppositionleaders, continues to drag its feeton the SSR case.

This investigation has beena hoax & disgrace to thisrenowned institution,” he tweet-ed.

The 34-year-old actor wasfound dead in his apartment inBandra on June 14, 2020.Starting with the Mumbai Police,Enforcement Directorate (ED),Central Bureau of Investigation(CBI) and Narcotics ControlBureau (NCB) were brought into investigate various angles inthe actor's death. PTI

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China on Friday criticisedWashington for imposing

sanctions on Chinese com-panies the US says exportedmissi le technolog y, andaccused the United States ofhypocrisy for selling nuclear-capable cruise missiles.

The United Statesannounced penalties on threecompanies it said wereengaged in unspecified "mis-sile technology proliferationactivities."

It said they were barredfrom U.S. Markets and fromobtaining technology that canbe used to make weapons.

"This is a typical hege-monic action. China strong-ly deplores and firmly oppos-es it," said Foreign Ministryspokesperson Zhao Lijian."China urges the UnitedStates to immediately correctits mistakes, revoke the rele-vant sanctions and stop sup-pressing Chinese enterprisesand smearing China.

"China accounted forabout 5 per cent of globalweapons exports in 2016-20,according to the StockholmInternational Peace ResearchInstitute.

The United States was thetop global exporter, account-ing for 37 per cent of the totalin 2016-20.

Cruise missiles and long-range ballistic missiles areregarded as among China's

strengths in weapons tech-nolog y.Zhao defendedBeijing's controls on weaponsexports.

He said China opposesproliferation of weapons ofmass destruction and strictlycontrols exports of missiles.

"Normal cooperat ionbetween China and relevantcountries doesn't violate anyinternational law and doesn'tinvolve proliferation" ofweapons of mass destruction,Zhao said.

Zhao pointed to U.S.

Plans to sell Australia's gov-ernment Tomahawk cruisemissiles capable of carryingnuclear warheads.

"The United States hasovertly pursued double stan-dards," Zhao said.The latestU.S. Penalties apply to ChinaAerospace Science andTechnology Corp.

First Academy, ChinaAerospace Science andIndustr y Corp. FourthAcademy and PolyTechnologies Inc. And theirsubsidiaries.

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The US Treasury Departmentlevied new sanctions on

Thursday against fourUkrainian officials, includingtwo current members of par-liament who administrationofficials say are part of a Russianinfluence effort to set the pre-text for further invasion ofUkraine.

The sanctions name parlia-mentarians Taras Kozak andOleh Voloshyn and two formergovernment officials. Accordingto Treasury, all four have beenintimately involved in disinfor-mation efforts by Russia's fed-eral security service, known asthe FSB.

The new sanctions wereannounced less than 24 hoursafter President Joe Biden said hethinks Moscow will newlyinvade Ukraine. He warnedRussian President VladimirPutin that his country wouldpay a "dear price" in lives lostand a possible restrictions inaccess to the global banking sys-tem if it does.

Biden faced criticism fromRepublicans and Ukrainian offi-cials that he invited a limitedRussian invasion by suggestingin comments to reporters onWednesday that US Wouldreact with a measured responseif there was only a "minorincursion" of Ukrainian terri-tory. Administration officialssought to clarify his remarks late

Wednesday and Thursday. TheWhite House last week warnedthat Russia has stationed oper-atives in and around Ukrainepossibly to create pretext for aninvasion. US And Ukrainianofficials have also been con-cerned about Russian weapon-ising of disinformation.

"The United States is takingaction to expose and counterRussia's dangerous and threat-ening campaign of influenceand disinformation in Ukraine,"said Deputy Treasury SecretaryWally Adeyemo said in a state-ment. "We are committed totaking steps to hold Russiaaccountable for their destabi-lizing actions."

Kozak, who controls sev-eral news channels in Ukraine,is accused of amplifying falsenarratives about UkrainePresident VolodymyrZelenskyy's inner circle andthe 2020 elections.

Voloshyn has worked withRussia's FSB to undermineUkrainian government officials,Treasury says.Treasury officialssay Voloshyn also worked withKonstantin Kilimnik, a Russiannational who was previouslysanctioned for allegedlyattempting to influence 2016presidential election and pass-ing on information to Russianintelligence. Treasury also sanc-tioned Ukraine's former deputysecretary for national securityand defense councils, VladimirSivkovich.

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At least 2.8 million doses ofCovid-19 vaccines donat-

ed to African countries haveexpired, the Africa Centers forDisease Control said Thursday,citing short shelf lives as themajor reason.

Donors of vaccines to thecontinent should send themwith a realistic shelf life ofabout "three months to sixmonths" before their expira-tion, Africa CDC director JohnNkengasong told an onlinebriefing. More African nationsare now refusing to acceptdonations of vaccines that haveonly one or two months beforetheir expiration, he said.

Although the number ofexpired doses is only about0.5% of the total numberdonated to Africa, Nkengasongsaid he is unhappy to see anybecome invalid."Any dose ofvaccine that expired pains mebecause that is a life that canpotentially be saved,"Nkengasong said.

Just over 10 per cent ofAfrica's population of 1.3 bil-lion people are fully vaccinat-ed, he said. The continent's 54countries have confirmed 10.4million COVID-19 cases and235,000 deaths. The conti-nent's omicron wave appears tobe receding, with new con-firmed cases down by 20 percent from the previous weekand deaths dropping by 8 percent, the World HealthOrganization's Africa officeannounced Thursday. More

than 60 per cent of the 572 mil-lion vaccine doses Africancountries have received havealready been administered,Nkengasong said. The "bigfight" for African countrieswill be "logistics and gettingdoses to the population even asmore supplies arrive," he said.

"We've seen remarkableuptake of vaccines in settingswhere we engage the commu-nity … and religious leaders,"Nkengasong said, urging coun-tries to use innovative ways to"bring vaccines to the popula-tion and not only require thatthe populations should go towhere the vaccines are." InNigeria, for instance, anincreasing number of vaccina-tion centers are being set atpublic facilities such as marketsand motor parks and healthauthorities are collaborating

with opinion leaders to fighthesitancy. Vaccines are Africa's"best defense" against severe ill-ness, death and overwhelmedhealth systems, MatshidisoMoeti, the WHO Africa direc-tor said at another online brief-ing Thursday."Africa must notonly broaden vaccinations butalso gain increased and equi-table access to critical COVID-19 therapeutics to save lives andeffectively combat this pan-demic," Moeti said.

"The deep inequity that leftAfrica at the back of the queuefor vaccines must not berepeated with life-saving treat-ments." In 2022, more testingis needed to fight the pan-demic, said Harley Feldbaum ofthe Global Fund. "We need tobring testing and treatmenttogether in a much more rapidfashion," said Feldbaum.

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.&���� �*8���*�7'�" �)#&�-� ��6��MF��6#�/���6-- the 403-member assembly has reached195. Last week, the BJP had released its firstlist of candidates for the upcoming UttarPradesh Assembly election. It wasannounced that Chief Minister YogiAdityanath will contest the polls from theGorakhpur seat and Deputy Chief MinisterKeshav Prasad Maurya from Sirathu

Uttar Pradesh elections for the 403Assembly constituencies are slated to beheld in seven phases starting fromFebruary 10. The counting of votes will take place on March 10.

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The Congress general secretary incharge of Uttar Pradesh said the partywould certainly look at supporting otherparties for Government formation and wasopen to backing them if the situation wereto arise after the elections.

She, however, said the Congress wouldkeep implementing its vision for youth,especially women, as a priority whileextending any such support forGovernment formation in UP. “We wouldbe open to considering that. If such a sit-uation arises, then we would certainly wantour agenda for the youth and women tobe fulfilled if we were going to be part ofany such dispensation,” she said to a ques-tion on whether the Congress would sup-port other parties in Government forma-tion.

The party has resolved to fill the “mas-sive backlog” of jobs in the public sectorand promised 20 lakh jobs, including eightlakh for women, in their manifesto for theyouth. The campaign in Uttar Pradesh isvery negative and is centred around casteand religion, Priyanka said, adding that theCongress is moving away from this to pre-sent a development oriented roadmap.

Addressing the media, Rahul stressedthat the country needs a new vision andtheir document is “not hollow words” butdrafted after consulting youth whoseviews are reflected in it. “There are polls

in UP and the youth there need a newvision and only the Congress party can givethat vision to the state,” the formerCongress chief said.

“We don’t spread hatred, we work tounite people and we want to build a newUttar Pradesh driven by the strength andconfidence of youth in the state,” he said.

In Uttar Pradesh, Rahul said, 880youth lose their jobs everyday and over 16lakh youth have been rendered unem-ployment in the last five years of BJP rule.The Prime Minister promised to providetwo crore jobs every year to youth and theentire country is seeing the truth, he said.

“Our understanding and our belief isthat India requires a new vision. The visionthat was proposed by the BJP in 2014 hascompletely failed. It is a disaster and it isturning our demographic dividend into ademographic disaster. India requires a newvision going forward,” he told reporterswhen asked about the need for such a man-ifesto focussed on youth.

Even people in the BJP, he alleged,admit that something has gone “verywrong” and the vision that was commit-ted to has failed. Uttar Pradesh would leadthe country in jobs and was the centre ofthe resistance to the British. It was fromwhere the far-reaching ideas came from,he noted, adding that the manifesto is astep towards providing a vision for thecountry and the Congress believes this hasto begin in Uttar Pradesh.

Countering the “untoward remarks”on social media, Rahul said those preach-ing Hindutva are spreading hatred in thecyber world. Calling them cowards, he saidthey do not have the courage to come outin the open and asked supporters to fightthe ‘hatred’. “’Hindutvavadis’ have beenspreading hatred in the cyber worldbecause cowards only attack while hiding.Had they mustered enough courage, theywould have come forward. We need to bestrong and keep tackling this hatred - thecountry needs to be saved! #NoFear,” Rahultweeted in Hindi.

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In the past three years, most militaryevents have been moved to the new

memorial from India Gate.Then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi

inaugurated the Amar Jawan Jyoti onJanuary 26, 1972 as a memorial for theIndian soldiers killed in action in the India-Pakistan war in 1971. Modi had onFebruary 25, 2019, inaugurated theNational War Memorial. Names of 25,942soldiers have been inscribed in golden let-ters on granite tablets at the memorial. Thememorial is spread over 40 acre and wasbuilt at a cost of Rs 176 crore.

Facing criticism from some ex-ser-vicemen and political leaders, sources inthe Government said “there is a lot of mis-information circulating regarding theflame of the Amar Jawan Jyoti.

The flame of the Amar Jawan Jyoti isnot being extinguished. It is being mergedwith the flame at the National WarMemorial. It was an odd thing to see thatthe flame at Amar Jawan Jyoti paidhomage to the martyrs of the 1971 andother wars but none of their names are pre-sent there, they said.

The names inscribed on the India Gateare of only some martyrs who fought forthe British in the World War 1 and theAnglo Afghan War and thus is a symbolof our colonial past, they said.

The names of all Indian martyrs fromall the wars, including 1971 and warsbefore and after it are housed at theNational War Memorial. Hence it is a trueshraddhanjali to have the flame payingtribute to martyrs there, officials said.

It is ironic that people who did notmake a National War Memorial for sevendecades are now making a hue and crywhen a permanent and fitting tribute isbeing made to our martyrs,” they said.

The Government’s response was to atweet by Congress leader Rahul. Writtenin Hindi, it said, “It is a matter of great sad-ness that the immortal flame for our bravesoldiers will be extinguished today. Somepeople cannot understand patriotism andsacrifice - never mind... We will once againlight the ‘Amar Jawan Jyoti’ for our sol-diers.”

“Whatever is being done is a nation-al tragedy and an attempt to rewrite his-tory. Merging the Amar Jawan Jyoti withthe War Memorial Torch means erasinghistory. BJP has built the National WarMemorial, that does not mean they can

extinguish the Amar Jawan Jyoti,” saidCongress leader Manish Tewari.

Air Vice Marshal(retired) ManmohanBahadur tagged Modi on Twitter andrequested him to rescind the decision.

“Sir, the eternal flame at India Gate ispart of India’s psyche. You, I and our gen-eration grew up saluting our brave jawansthere,” he stated. While National WarMemorial is great, the memories of AmarJawan Jyoti are indelible, Bahadur noted.

Colonel (retired) Rajendra Bhadurisaid the Amar Jawan Jyoti is sacred andneed not be extinguished. “India Gate hasnames of Indian soldiers who died in wars.It is immaterial who constructed it,”Bhaduri said on Twitter.

Former Lieutenant Colonel AnilDuhoon said on Twitter that “If one can’tmake it then break it, is the BJP’s mantrafor new India.

He said the Amar Jawan Jyoti is toosacred to be touched or relocated. “Whycan’t they have two of them? Can’t under-stand their functioning,” Duhoon added.

However, Lieutenant General (retired)Satish Dua expressed “great satisfaction”on merging the Amar Jawan Jyoti with theNational War Memorial’s eternal flame.

“As someone who had steered thedesign selection and construction of theNWM, I had been of this view all alongthat India Gate is a memorial to the fall-en heroes of First World War,” Dua stat-ed. The Amar Jawan Jyoti was added in1972 as we did not have another memor-ial, he mentioned. The NWM payshomage to the soldiers who were killed inaction after the country’s independenceand all homage ceremonies have beenshifted to the new memorial already, henoted.

Former Army Chief General VedMalik also supported the Centre’s decisionto merge the flames. He said on Twitterthat it is “a natural thing” to merge flamesnow as the NWM has been established andall ceremonials related to remembranceand honouring soldiers killed in action arebeing held there.

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The airline may be made responsibleand depute staff to guide pax, check andverify their handbag status, etc, beforeallowing the passenger for Pre-embarka-tion security checks. All airlines may bedirected suitably to inform pax and to dis-play “one handbag rule’ on their tick-ets/boarding passes very conspicuously,”reads the communiqué.

“Airport Operators may be instructedto place hoarding / banner/ board /standees displaying the contents of the‘One hand bag Rule’ near the check-incounters, vantage locations before SHA atthe airports so that passengers get sensi-tized and if required, have an option toswitch their extra handbags to registeredbaggage,” it said. CISF has requested itsheads at numerous airports to convey theidentical to all stakeholders.

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The channels had a combined sub-scriber base of over 35 lakh, and theirvideos had over 55 crore views. Some ofthe YouTube channels of the Naya PakistanGroup (NPG) were being operated byanchors of Pakistani news channels.

“The contest is absolutely fake andtoxic like the government is responsible forBipin Rawat’s death, Bipin Rawat’s daugh-ter is accepting Islam, North Koreanarmy is going to Kashmir, etc. What sortof nonsense is this! And these YouTubeaccounts had a total subscriber base of over1.20 crore. These videos had 130 croreviews, which is almost the population ofIndia. Our intelligence agencies are nowalive to the situation and more such newschannels on YouTube will get blocked,”Chandra said.

“ Indian intelligence agencies wereclosely monitoring these social mediaaccounts and websites and flagged themto the ministry for immediate action,” headded.

“Vide five separate orders issuedunder rule 16 of the InformationTechnology (Intermediary Guidelines andDigital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021,the Ministry has ordered to block thesePakistan-based social media accounts and

websites,” the ministry said in a statementlater.

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Active cases stood at 61,954. At thesame time, Mumbai recorded 5008 newCovid-19 cases, 12,913 recoveries and 12deaths in the last 24 hours.

In the meantime, the Union HealthMinistry said “isolation facility would notbe mandatory for international travellersarriving from at-risk countries fromJanuary 22. In a statement here, it addedthat they would still be required to under-go seven-day home quarantine. “If test-ed positive, their samples should be fur-ther sent for genomic testing atINSACOG laboratory network. Theyshall be treated/isolated as per laid downstandard protocol,” tweeted the Ministry.

In India, the active Covid-19 casescomprise 5.23 per cent of the total infec-tions, while the national Covid-19 recov-ery rate is at 93.50 per cent, the Ministrysaid. An increase of 94,774 cases has beenrecorded in the active Covid-19 caseloadin a span of 24 hours. The country hadreported 3,11,170 cases in a single day onMay 15 last year. The daily positivity ratewas recorded at 17.94 per cent while theweekly positivity rate was recorded at16.56 per cent, according to the Ministry.

The number of people who haverecuperated from the disease surged to3,60,58,806, while the case fatality ratewas recorded at 1.27 per cent. Thecumulative doses administered in thecountry so far under the nationwideCovid-19 vaccination drive has exceed-ed 160.43 crore, said the Ministry in thestatement.

India’s Covid-19 tally had crossed the20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 30 lakhon August 23, 40 lakh on September 5and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh onOctober 11, crossed 80 lakh on October29, 90 lakh on November 20 and sur-passed the one-crore mark on December19. India crossed the grim milestone oftwo crore on May 4 and three crore onJune 23.

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In a heartbreaking tragedy, afamily of four, including a

baby, all believed to be Indians,has died from exposure tocold weather on the Canadianside of the border with the USin an apparent human smug-gling operation, according tomedia reports.

Manitoba Royal CanadianMounted Police (RCMP) onThursday said that the bodiesof four people - two adults, ateen and an infant-were foundon the Canadian side of theU.S./Canada border nearEmerson on Wednesday.

US officials say the deadare believed to be a family fromIndia. They are thought tohave been attempting to crossinto the US, according tomedia reports.

RCMP Assistant

Commissioner Jane MacLatchyshared the discovery withreporters in a news conferenceon Thursday."What I am aboutto share is going to be difficultfor many people to hear," shesaid, calling it "an absolute andheartbreaking tragedy".

"At this very early stage ofthe investigation, it appears thatthey all died due to exposure tothe cold weather," MacLatchysaid, adding RCMP believethe four people are connectedto the group that was appre-hended on the U.S. Side of theborder. She said all four werelocated within 9-12 metres ofthe border.MacLatchy said thatthe group was "on their own inthe middle of a blizzard" and"faced not only the cold weath-er but endless fields, largesnowdrifts and complete dark-ness".Police are referring tothem as victims, as there are

concerns the group's attempt-ed border crossing was facili-tated in some way, and thatthey were left out in theextreme cold, Global Newsreported.

MacLatchy said work isunderway to ID the victims,but at this stage, it appears theyall died from exposure to thecold, the report said.ManitobaRCMP was notified by USCustoms and BorderProtection on Wednesdaymorning that a group of peo-ple had crossed into the U.S.Near Emerson, and that one ofthe adults was carrying itemsintended for a baby, but therewas no infant with the group.

An immediate searchbegan on both sides of the bor-der, and by that afternoon, thebodies of an adult man, anadult woman, and an infantwere found. The body of a boy

believed to be in his mid-teens was found shortly after-wards.

The U.S. Attorney's Officefor the District of Minnesotaissued a release late Thursdayafternoon and said 47-year-oldSteve Shand of Florida hadbeen arrested and charged withhuman smuggling in connec-tion with the incident.Shandwas driving with two passen-gers determined to be undoc-umented foreign nationalsfrom India, according to therelease.

Inside the vehicle, officersfound cases of plastic cups, bot-tled water, bottled juice andsnacks in the van.

As they were taking thetrio back to the border patrolstation in North Dakota, offi-cers came across anothergroup of five Indian nationalswalking.

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The UK government onFriday warned Russia of

"massive consequences" if it didnot step back from Ukraine,noting that it is working withpartners like India to countersuch growing threats to democ-racy and build a global networkof liberty.

UK Foreign Secretary LizTruss used a speech at theLowry Institute think tankhere to urge Russian PresidentVladimir Putin to desist froman invasion on its border withUkraine, where tensions havebeen building up in the pastfew weeks.

She went on to call outRussia and China workingtogether against forces ofdemocracy as they get"emboldened" in a way neverseen since the Cold War era.

"Russia and China areworking together more andmore, as they strive to set thestandards in technologies likeartificial intelligence, asserttheir dominance over theWestern Pacific through jointmilitary exercises and in spacethrough closer ties," Truss said.

"China and Russia havespotted an ideological vacuumand they're rushing to fill it.They are emboldened in a waywe haven't seen since the ColdWar. As freedom-lovingdemocracies we must rise up toface down these threats. As wellas NATO we are working withpartners like Australia, India,Japan, Indonesia and Israel tobuild a global network of lib-erty," she said. In her directappeal to Putin, she noted: "TheKremlin hasn't learned thelessons of history. They dreamof recreating the Soviet Union,

or a kind of 'Greater Russia'carving up territory based onethnicity, and language.

"We know what lies downthat path, and the terrible tollin lives lost and human suffer-ing it brings. That's why weurge President Putin to desistand step back from Ukrainebefore he makes a massivestrategic mistake."

Truss warned of sanctionsif such an invasion were to takeplace in Ukraine, where the UKhas announced a new packageof training, support and defen-sive weapons to boost defensivecapabilities.

"Last week, at the NATO-Russia Council we sent a clearmessage to Moscow that anyfurther incursion into Ukrainewould bring massive conse-quences, including throughcoordinated sanctions hittingthe financial sector, and indi-

viduals," Truss said."We're also pushing for

alternatives in energy supply, sothat nations are less reliant onRussia for their gas. We needeveryone to step up.

Together with our allies,we will continue to stand withUkraine and urge Russia to de-escalate. What happens inEastern Europe matters for theworld," she added.Russia deniesit is planning an invasion buthas moved around 100,000troops near its border withUkraine. The North AtlanticTreaty Organisation (NATO)members, which includes theUK, US and several formerSoviet Union states, agree onworking together against sucha conflict. Putin, on the otherhand, has made a series ofdemands to the West, includ-ing not allowing Ukraine tojoin NATO.

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Wildlife activists BenhailAntao and LouiseRemedios, in their new

show, Snakes SOS: Goa’s Wildest,were seen rescuing wild snakespecies and other undomesticatedanimals in Goa.

The 10-part adventure series isbringing in a spirit of adventure,thrill and adoration for wild ani-mals. The power couple will faceand rescue some of the wildestsnake species in the most unusualof situations. It showcases the duoin action and giving an up-close andpersonal experience of their tech-niques in rescuing the varied snakespecies and other undomesticatedanimals through the city of Goa. Itis understanding snake psychology101, if you may.

Read on for excerpts from acandid interview with the adrena-line junkies and wildlife rescuersabout insiders from their new series:

�National Geographic has intro-duced an Indian avatar of theshow, Snakes in the City. How is itgoing to be different or how areyou Indianising it?

BA: Snakes in the City, or, forthat matter, Crocodile Hunter, areextremely different shows. I thinkGoa’s Wildest is an independentshow and has everything uniqueabout it. Right from the snakes —they are Indian species and behavedifferently — to the places wherethey’re rescued from. It’s moreabout the snakes in this programmeand more about the people who areencountering the snakes.

I mean, snakes are a problemeverywhere. And the way peoplerespond, the culture shown pro-motes repulsion or aversion. Themessage that we give through thisprogramme is subtle — I wantpeople to watch this and findbetween the lines. It’s pretty clearwhere we stand when it comes tosnakes and, the term, conservation.You know, snakes are not that dan-ger lurking in the dark anymore.Snakes never were the danger lurk-ing in the dark. The ideology of theshow is pretty different.

�What is the aim of the show?LR: So, first, we want to educate

you about the kinds of snakes that

are in Goa because this show hasbeen shot there specifically. And alot of these snakes are also presentin different parts of India. Peopleassume we’re either dealing with ananaconda or a rattlesnake or BlackMamba. No, you don’t get those. It’scool that people are watching theseprogrammes, but they are not awareof the many varieties of venomous,non-venomous and different kindsof snakes that exist here. We wantto create awareness.

Besides that, we want people tounderstand that snakes are like anyother animal. You don’t look at themlike you look at a dog or a cat, right?There’s a lot of myth and mystery.In India, mythology, which is asso-ciated with a snake, makes peoplemore intrigued and more scared ofthem. People are unable to distin-guish between mythology and fact.So, we’re trying to bust these myths.There are so many more questionsassociated with our mythologywhen it comes to snakes, which wewill be answering in the show.You’ll find that message in everyepisode.

We also want to set people onthe right trend, which will be theremaybe even 10 years from now,which is a conservation techniqueof very ethical snake-rescue, to tryand impart empathy into people.Because when you can put yourselfinto another animal’s shoe, andunderstand where they come from,you will then feel empathy towardsthem, you will then understandthem, and you will start to admirethem.

We want you to understand thedifference between fear and danger.We’re trying to conserve the ecosys-tem, too. If you want to conserve anykind of habitat, you need to protectthe animals in them.

�You’ve mentioned that there areso many myths around the species.I wanted to know, what are somemyths and misconceptions aroundit?

BA: Yeah, that’s super interest-ing. What most people know hap-pens to be myths, like, for example,a very, very common myth is thata snake takes revenge. I’ve had peo-ple calling me up, like, you know, atthree in the morning and saying, ‘I

need help’. When I enquire why theysay they can’t sleep because theyrode over a snake in the daytimeand are scared it’s going to come andtake revenge. So, it’s no longer anyrescue call, it’s more of a counsellingcall (everyone laughs).

LR: So, what happens is thatthere are possibilities that thesesnakes, during mating season,release certain kinds of pheromonesand perhaps you know, anothersnake tracks that and comes look-ing for the dead snake. These areterritorial animals, if they see anopen territory, they might come.Also, if it’s a female’s hormones thatare put onto your tire or tube, there’sa very small chance that a male willsense that and follow. However, thesnake is definitely not interested inyou (chuckles). It can also be a coin-cidence.

BA: Funny how when peopleare given a choice, they will defer tothe most supernatural explanationfor it and the most expensive one.I heard of people who go aroundcatching snakes and charging ahuge sum of money. They feed peo-ple with all these myths, that snakesfly and coil around your neck, orthat snakes dance to music.

�Wait, snakes don’t dance tomusic? I mean that’s what thesnake charmer (sapera) does,right?

LR: Haha, see! Okay, so, first ofall, the snake needs to enjoy themusic, right? So, when we enjoy it,we are not scared of it. The fact isthat when a cobra spreads its hood,it signifies that it’s scared. Thehood is a form of defence. So, it isdefinitely not enjoying and second,most snakes do not have externalears and cannot hear audible music!They can hear very low-frequency

sound vibrations. Now, why does it shake or give

the impression that it’s dancing? It’sbecause it is scared of that flute. Itis following the movement of the

hand of the snake charmer. Most ofthe time, the snake charmer willhave a long needle with them topoke the snake so they’re scared ofthem and their hands. It looks to us

like they’re dancing, they’re not.BA: And they claim that there

is a diamond in the head. I mean,that’s not possible. There is nostone or precious stone. If thatwould’ve been the case, we wouldhave been multimillionaire (giggles).

A lot of times they pluck outthe teeth of these snakes. Whathappens is that there can be a lotof bacterial infections and thesnake can die from that. So thecharmers pluck out the teeth justin case they come too close to thesnake. They stitch the mouth some-times. It is extremely sad.

�I always thought that snakesknew how to protect themselves.If somebody does something likethis, don’t they bite?

BA: Oh, yeah, they do bite. Evensnake charmers get bitten all thetime. I mean, there are snake charm-ers that die of snake bites andsometimes they pull out the snakes’fang but don’t notice there is anoth-er fang and they’ve died of it.

LR: But usually a snake getsvery exhausted. If you provoke thesnake, initially it will try to stay awayfrom you, you provoke it a littlemore, it is going to give you a warn-ing, provoke it still further it is goingto bite you with a fake bite. It does-n’t want to waste its venom on you.And then you really provoke, it’sgoing to severely bite you. Whenyou do it repeatedly, the snake getsscared, almost traumatised andtired. They have no energy to evenstrike most of the time.

BA: Also, it’s not that every timethey strike you, there’s going to bevenom, they can control how muchvenom goes in or doesn’t go.Because that venom is a very impor-tant resource. And to producevenom, it takes a lot of energy forthat snake and it takes time for it todevelop venom back.

Look, the snake doesn’t want tobite you because it knows even if itdoes bite you with a full dose ofvenom, you can still kill it before youdie. Right? It will still give youmaybe like a fake strike, like a warn-ing to leave it alone.

�Makes sense. Tell us why did youchoose Goa as the location, specif-ically?

BA&LR: We live in Goa. Welove Goa (both laugh).

�You are a power couple who areluxurious wedding planners inthe day and deadly wildlife res-cuers at night. How did thisdynamic transpire?

BA: I can talk for myself. But wehave been passionate about rescu-ing wildlife and spreading aware-ness. I’ve been doing this for the last19 years now, spreading the messageof conservation.

Over a period of time, I didengineering, I worked in a compa-ny, we joined event management,

then we got married and started ourown event management company.So, all these happened along the way.But snake rescue has been thebackbone. I mean, it’s always beenthere. We never monetised it. But it’salways been a passion.

LR: So, when my mom askedme about Ben, when we were dat-ing, and what he does, I told them.My father was like, really? My momsurprised me. She said, ‘you know,baby, I always thought you’ll marrysomeone like this. You’ve alwaysbeen one wild child. Now we’rehashtag Goa’s wildest (chortles).

�That’s one sweet story! Howdoes it feel to have your entire pas-sion turned into a show that theentire world is watching?

LR: I will say it’s better than adream because nobody dreams ofsuch things as being associatedwith National Geographic. I remem-ber my neighbour picked up about50 magazines and I read themevery single day because it is sucha huge platform. So, when some-thing like this happens, it is anincredible feeling — nobody plansfor these things. And if you workhard, and you have a little bit of luckassociated with it, as well, andyou’re passionate about something.I mean, this is a dream come true.

BA: This awareness programmethat I’ve been doing for the last 15years in schools, colleges, gatherings,and the most, I’ve taught like 1,000people, but the most effective iswhen I’m rescuing the snake atsomebody’s house. If we can spreadthe knowledge to the entire worldthis way, I’m grateful and content.

�Benhail, you said that you werein this for 19 years now. Whatintrigued you to get into the pro-fession?

BA: Uhm... it never was a pro-fession, always has been my pas-sion. What intrigued me is I’vealways liked wildlife. I come froma background where in my grand-fathers, my uncles were hunters. Iwas brought up in a way that thefear of any wildlife was not instilledinto me.

When I was eight years old, Iremember being called by a neigh-bour to go and kill a snake that hadentered his bathroom. That’s whenI realised that killing was not theonly option. I could handle the sit-uation differently. There was nointernet or books that could teachme the procedure. I’ve had my fairshare of bites and stuff like that.Snakes don’t appreciate that theyare being rescued because theydon’t know they’re being rescued.So, experimenting and not resort-ing to violence was how I learntand I want to make others awareof the same.

(Watch Snakes SOS: Goa’sWildest on National Geographic at8 pm, on Mondays and Tuesdays.

After a challenging two years, the filmindustry is once again dealing with the

prospect of a possible third wave in 2022.However, given its intrinsic resilience, theindustry is ticking along with many of itscontent creators all set to surprise the audi-ences with fresh themes. Here are some ofthe female producers and directors whosepacked slates promise to bring somethingnew to the cinema-scape this year.

Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti: Thesetwo powerhouse creators have alreadyestablished their production house TigerBaby as a clutter-breaker and in 2022, theyare all set to bring The Archies on an OTTplatform in a unique live-action musical

adaptation. Set in 1960s India, this projectis directed by Zoya and recalls the nostal-gia and innocence of Archie comics. Thisis also Tiger Baby’s first solo project

though the duo will continue to collabo-rate with Excel Entertainment on futureprojects like Made in Heaven 2, Jee Le Zara(starring Katrina Kaif, Priyanka Chopraand Alia Bhatt), Kho Gaye Hum Kahan andDahaad amongst others.

Deepshikha Deshmukh: Among theyoungest female producers in the indus-try, Deepshikhastarted her careerwith the criticallyacclaimed filmSarbjit and evenhelmed big pro-ductions likeBellbottom whichwas shot andreleased duringthe pandemic.The year promis-es to be big forher as well, withtwo biggies lined

up for release. The much-awaited dystopi-an thriller, Ganapath will be released onDecember 23 and the yet-to-be-namedProduction 41 will also release this year.This dystopian action bonanza is headlinedby Tiger Shroff and Kriti Sanon while theiruntitled Production 41 stars AkshayKumar. Deepshikha has a strong footholdin the industry and her love for the envi-ronment has helped create greener filmproductions in India. She has also pro-duced movies like Jawaani Janeman,Coolie No. 1 among others.

Taapsee Pannu: The actor, whostarred in some of the most acclaimedfilms in recent times, is now producingBlurr, a horror-thriller directed by AjayBahl. This official Hindi remake of theSpanish film Julia’s Eyes is jointly producedby Pannu’s Outsider Films along with ZeeStudios and Echelon Productions. She alsostars along with Gulshan Devaiah in thisventure that promises to decisively

announce her foray into the production ofunapologetically women-led themes.

Meghna Gulzar: Often described asa maverick filmmaker, Meghna Gulzar isall set to return with another unforgettablestory in 2022. This time, with the biopic

Sam Bahadur which is based on the life ofField Marshal Sam Manekshaw, one ofIndia’s greatest war heroes, who served asthe chief of the Indian Army in 1971 dur-ing the Bangladesh Liberation War. Shewields the directorial baton for this storywhich will see Vicky Kaushal as SamBahadur along with Fatima Sana Shaikhand Sanya Malhotra. After Raazi,Chhapaak and Talvar, this is an entirelynew genre for the director but she isexpected to do full justice to it.

Charmme Kaur: In the post-pan-demic world of borderless entertainment,the cross-pollination of talent continuesacross industries. The latest example isLiger, a sports action film, written anddirected by Puri Jagannadh and pro-duced by Karan Johar, Charmme Kaur,Apoorva Mehta, Hiroo Yash Johar andJagannadh under the banners of DharmaProductions and Puri Connects. Charmmeis already well-established as an actoracross Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, andKannada cinema. To be shot simultaneous-ly in Telugu and Hindi, the film stars VijayDeverakonda and Ananya Panday in leadroles and is all set to release on August 25.

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Both AC Milan and Juventus haverecent bad memories of SanSiro ahead of their eagerly-antic-

ipated Serie A match at the iconic sta-dium on Sunday.

Juventus lost the Italian Super Cupto Inter Milan last week, when AlexisSánchez scored the winner with thelast kick of the match at the end ofextra time.

Milan's last match at its home sta-dium was on Monday when a referee-ing error cost it dearly in a dispiriting2-1 loss to relegation-threatenedSpezia.

“It's hard to lose like that. It's amissed chance that no one wanted,we've missed an opportunity,” Milancoach Stefano Pioli said.

“Unfortunately we didn't manageto bring home the win, but now we'llthink of the next matches.

“The season is still long, everyonecan have an off day. It's good for usthat now we have two difficult match-es because that will give us great moti-vation and we'll find the strength tobounce back.”

Milan could have moved aboveleague leader Inter Milan with a winbut Spezia scored in stoppage-timeshortly after a potential winner fromJunior Messias was disallowed forMilan because the referee whistled afoul on Rossoneri forward Ante Rebicin the buildup, just as Rebic was pass-ing the ball to Messias. Referee MarcoSerra apologized.

M i l a nnow finds itself twopoints behind Inter,which it plays the following weekend.Defeat to Juventus could see Milanhead into the derby five points behindits bitter rival and having played amatch more. Inter hosts relegation-threatened Venezia this Saturday.

Napoli is also only two pointsbehind Milan and plays last-placedSalernitana. Pioli will be hoping Milanrecovers its attacking prowess afteruncharacteristically stuttering againstSpezia. The Rossoneri missed severalopportunities to put the game to bedlong before the controversial finale.

Milan has the second best attackin Serie A, having netted 47 times thiscampaign. Juventus has scored only 34goals – fewer than any of the top 10teams in the Italian league, apartfrom Torino – but there are signs theBianconeri are beginning to get intotheir stride after struggling at thebeginning of the season under return-

ing coach Massimiliano Allegri. Inthe top five European leagues,

only Real Madrid hasscored as many goals as

Juventus in 2022(12) and Allegri's

last loss in theleague was

back in

November,a g a i n s tAtalanta.

That leftJuventus seventhin the league,seven points behindf o u r t h - p l a c e dAtalanta and thefinal ChampionsLeague spot. It hasnow moved to withinone point of Atalanta.

“We are doing well and wehave achieved many goodresults,” Juventus forward PauloDybala said.

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Ace Indian shuttler and two-time Olympicmedalist PV Sindhu kept aside the challenge

of Supanida Katething of Thailand 11-21, 21-12, 21-17 to enter the semifinals of the SyedModi International Super 300 tournament at UPBadminton Academy on Friday.

The top-seeded Indian came from behindto edge past Supanida, who had toppled her inthe Indian Open semifinal, in a one-hour andfive minutes match. Sindhu will now take onfifth-seeded Russian Evgeniya Kosetskaya in thesemifinals. Kosetskaya defeated Tereza Svabikova21-8, 21-14.

In the men's singles, title favourite HSPrannoy crashed out of the tournament with astraight-game defeat to Arnaud Merkle ofFrance in the quarterfinals. The Frenchmannever let his Indian opponent move ahead at anypoint in the match and staged a 19-21, 16-21

upset.Meanwhile, another Indian, Mithun

Manjunath, advanced to the semifinals afterupstaging Russian Sergey Sirant 11-21, 21-12,21-18 in a hard-fought tie. Manjunath will faceMerkle in the semifinals. It was a déjà vu feel-ing for Merkle as he lost in the same manner,in which he registered a win over Chirag Sen aday earlier.

In the mixed doubles, the Indian pair of MRArjun and Treesa Jolly beat eight-seeded Frenchduos of William Villeger and Anne Tran 24-22,21-17 in the quarterfinal match that lasted 42minutes. Arjun and Jolly will face compatriotsand seventh-seeded pair of Ishaan Bhatnagar andTanisha Crasto in the semifinals.

In the women's doubles quarterfinals,India's Ramya Venkatesh Chickmenahalli andApeksha Nayak conceded a walkover to eight-seeded Malaysian pair of Anna Ching YikCheong and Teoh Mei Xing.

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Daniil Medvedev faced ahostile crowd and a full

array of Nick Kyrgios' out-bursts and tricks, and stillremained calm for long enoughto reach the third round at theAustralian Open.

The 115th-ranked Kyrgiosworked up the crowd, hit'tweeners and drop shots,mixed up the pace of hisgroundstrokes and tossed in anunder-arm serve in a bid to ruf-fle the second-ranked Russian.

Medvedev kept his compo-sure, taking a quick trip to thelocker room after losing thethird set and recovering towin 7-6 (1), 6-4, 4-6, 6-2Thursday on a rowdy RodLaver Arena.

In an on-court TV inter-view with former championJim Courier, Medvedev wasasked how he managed to stayso composed.

"That's the only choicewhen you get booed betweenfirst and second serve,” he said,triggering some boos from thecrowd. “It's not easy.

The (service) games I lost,on the break points, it was thecase.

It's tough to play."Kyrgios usually likes to

play on John Cain Arena,

known locally as the People'sCourt because fans withground passes can get in andthe singing and chanting isalways less restrained than thetwo main show courts.

He managed to turn theall-ticketed stadium court intosomething more akin to a soc-cer stadium.

In the seventh game of thethird set, Kyrgios got twobreak-point chances when hebunted away a backhand fromMedvedev directed at his bodyand then took off on a circularrun behind the baseline to cel-ebrate like he had scored a goal.

When he converted thebreak, he danced in the change-over and worked up the crowd.Medvedev managed to lowerthe volume with two servicebreaks in the fourth set.

It was Medvedev's first winover Kyrgios following twolosses in 2019.

And there were cheers laterwhen Courier suggested a newcrowd favorite for the rest of thetournament.

Medvedev was the runner-up last year but avenged thatloss by beating Novak Djokovicin the U.S. Open final.

He's the quasi No. 1 now,anyway, because Djokovic wasdeported on the eve of the tour-nament for failing to meet

Australia's strict COVID-19vaccination regulations.

Another contender in hishalf of the draw had a moreroutine run to the third round,with fourth-seeded StefanosTsitsipas beating Sebastian Baez7-6 (1), 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-4 in amatch featuring two formertop-ranked junior players.

Five-time runner-up AndyMurray only lasted two rounds.Two days after winning his firstmatch at the Australian Openin five years, the former No. 1lost to 120th-ranked TaroDaniel 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.

Other winners among themen included No. 5 AndreyRublev, No. 15 Roberto BautistaAgut, No. 20 Taylor Fritz, 2014U.S. Open champion MarinCilic and No. 32 Alex deMinaur. No. 24 Dan Evansmoved on when the player hewas supposed to face in the sec-ond round, ArthurRinderknech, pulled out withan injured wrist.

Australian wild-card entryChris O'Connell upset 13th-seeded Diego Schwartzman 7-6 (6), 6-4, 6-4.

There were surprises inthe women's draw on Day 4,with No. 3 Garbiñe Muguruzabecoming the highest-seededplayer to exit only minutes afterNo. 6 Anett Kontaveit lost.

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The Indian women's team wastedinnumerable chances in a complete-

ly dominating performance as Iran heldthem to a goal-less draw in their AsianCup opening match here on Thursday.

Head coach Thomas Dennerbywill be disappointed with the outcomeof the match as a win against lower-ranked Iran would have put his side ina comfortable position in its bid toqualify for the quarterfinals.

But he must be happy in part as hiswards dished out some fine display ofpossession and passing football, espe-cially in the second half, at the DY PatilStadium.

He will hope that his team contin-ues in the same vein and score goals inthe second match on Sunday againstChinese Taipei, who were thrashed 0-4 by China in the day's earlier match,to keep their quarterfinals prospectsalive.

The Indians would have expectedIran to be defensive in their approachbut it turned out to be the opposite inthe initial period.

Iran, ranked 70th as against India's

55th, were the better side in the open-ing minutes during which they got twoscoring chances, including a hit on thecrossbar, but the home team took con-trol of the Group A match midway intothe first half and dominated till the end.

Iran had two chances in the peri-od they dominated with captain BehnazTaherkhani's header off a SamanehChahkandi free-kick ricocheting off thecrossbar after beating goalkeeper AditiChauhan in the 12th minute.

Though captain Ashalata Devi wasrock solid at deep defence, Iran almosttook the lead in 19th minute when anIndian defender's header went back-ward and fell before Negin Zandi, who,however, sent the ball wide underpressure.

After absorbing the initial pressure,India settled down and came on theirown. Indumathi, however, could notkeep her volley down in the 24thminute while Manisha Kalyan's free

header six minutes later also sailed overthe bar.

But the best chance for India camein the 32nd minute. Pyari Xaxa'sscuffed shot fell kindly for Indumathi,but her toe-poke took the ball over thebar.

India dished out a fine display ofpassing football in the second half andthey were all over a rattled Iranian sidewho had nothing to do but defend des-perately.

Dennerby's side were unlucky notto have scored any goal and win thematch easily. Iranian goalkeeperZohreh Koudaei made saves after savesto deny the Indians full three points.

As India pressed for a goal, Irandefended doggedly while facing a del-uge of attacks. The Indians were all over— crosses, shots, toe-pokes, headers -- all inside Iran box but a goal still elud-ed the home side.

In the 51st minute, Manisha Kalyansent a fine low cross from the left butPyari Xaxas toe-poke went just wide.A minute later, Xaxa again could notreach the ball off a lovely pass fromSandhya Ranganathan, as an Iranianmade a last-ditch defending.

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As Paris Saint-Germain waits for the trio ofLionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappé

to reach its full potential, another combinationis taking the spotlight in the French league.

Ludovic Ajorque, Habib Diallo and KevinGameiro aren't global names but together withmidfielder Adrien Thomasson — whose clin-ical efficiency has bagged seven goals and fourassists — they have made Strasbourg one of themost potent teams in Europe this season.

The Alsatian quartet has 31 goals out of theteam's total of 41 in 21 matches. Only PSG hasdone better, with a total of 42 goals.

This attacking verve has brought dividends,with Strasbourg sitting in fourth place afterwinning at Clermont 2-0 in a rescheduledmatch midweek. It's the club's best league posi-tion at this stage since 1997.

Ahead of a trip on Sunday to strugglingBordeaux, Julien Stephan's team are just twopoints behind Marseille, with qualification fora European tournament in sight. Marseille playsat Lens this weekend, with second-placed Nicetraveling to Metz, and runaway leader PSGhosting Reims. Stephan became the coachwhen he replaced Thierry Laurey following aseason of struggle.

"Being fourth doesn't change much, but itdoes validate the players' hard work,” Stephansaid. “Above all, it's our third victory in 2022,all of them won in different contexts, and thatis extremely promising. We remain very hum-ble.”

Strasbourg has 15 goals in its last six match-es while conceding just five, with Stephan wide-ly credited for the team's metamorphosis.

In his previous stint, Stephan securedRennes' first trophy in 48 years and led theBrittany club to the Champions League.

He preaches a fluid passing game.

��� 7.#�+-6*.

This season was supposed tobe Diego Simeone's chance

to firmly establish AtléticoMadrid as Spain's top team andcap his incredibly successfuldecade as its coach.

While Barcelona lost LionelMessi and Real Madrid had toreplace coach Zinedine Zidane,Atlético strengthened its cham-pionship squad with the returnof Antoine Griezmann and thesigning of attacking playersRodrigo de Paul and MatheusCunha.

It looked like the perfect sce-nario to repeat as Spanish leaguechampions for the first timesince 1950 and maybe even winthe Champions League titlewhich Simeone has twice comeoh-so-close to grasping. It has-

n't gone Atlético's way. Atléticohosts Valencia on Saturday infourth place in the league, trail-ing Madrid by 16 points withone more game to play. It is alsoout of the Copa del Rey andbarely advanced from theChampions League group phase.Atlético has lost six of its last 10

games across all competitions. It was dumped from the

Copa del Rey's round-of-16 ina 2-0 loss at Real Sociedad onWednesday, following a 2-1 lossto Athletic Bilbao last week inthe Spanish Super Cup played inSaudi Arabia.

In December, it lost four ina row in the Spanish league,falling to Mallorca, Madrid,Sevilla and Granada. Previously,Atlético had never lost morethan two consecutive leaguematches since Simeone becameits coach in December 2011.

"Last season was magnifi-cent and this one is proving tobe very difficult,” said Simeone,who has led Atlético to twoSpanish league titles, one Copadel Rey, two Europa Leaguetitles, and two ChampionsLeague final appearances.

"We still have opportunitiesin the league and the ChampionsLeague.

I am not going to just sit still.I can promise you that.”

Most surprisingly, Atléticohas lost its formidable defense.Loyal to Simeone's vision ofbuilding a team on a strongdefense, it is accustomed toleading the league in fewestgoals allowed. This season, eightleague teams have allowed fewergoals than the 24 conceded byAtlético. Atlético has also fal-tered up front. Except for a goalagainst a third-tier opponent inthe Copa del Rey, Luis Suárezhasn't scored since a 3-3 draw atValencia on Nov. 7. Griezmannwas playing well enough until amuscle injury sidelined him forall of but one match since mid-December.

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The NCAA has adopted a sport-by-sport approach for transgender ath-

letes, bringing the organization in linewith the U.S. And International OlympicCommittees.

Under the new guidelines, approvedby the NCAA Board of Governors onWednesday, transgender participationfor each sport will be determined by thepolicy for the sport's national govern-ing body, subject to review and recom-mendation by an NCAA committee tothe Board of Governors.

When there is no national govern-ing body, that sport's international fed-eration policy would be in place. If thereis no international federation policy, pre-viously established IOC policy criteriawould take over.

"Approximately 80% of U.S.Olympians are either current or formercollege athletes," NCAA President MarkEmmert said in a release. "This policyalignment provides consistency andfurther strengthens the relationshipbetween college sports and the U.S.Olympics." The NCAA policy is effec-tive immediately, beginning with the2022 winter championships.

NCAA rules on transgender athletesreturned to the forefront when Pennswimmer Lia Thomas started smashingrecords this year. She was on the men'steam her first three years, but she is com-peting for the women this season aftertransitioning. The Board of Governorsis suggesting NCAA divisions allow foradditional eligibility if a transgender stu-dent-athlete loses eligibility based on thepolicy change.

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The Indian Super League matchbetween Jamshedpur FC and

Mumbai City FC, scheduled forFriday, has been postponed as manyplayers representing the teams aredown with the COVID-19 virus.

"Hero Indian Super League (ISL)Match No. 67 between JamshedpurFC and Mumbai City FC scheduledfor Friday, January 21, 2022, atAthletic Stadium, Bambolim, standspostponed," the league organiserssaid in a statement.

"The decision was taken consid-ering advice from the League's med-ical team on Jamshedpur FC's inabil-ity to safely field a team and preparefor the match," the ISL added in itsstatement.

On Monday, the ISL matchbetween Hyderabad FC andJamshedpur FC was also postponed

due to COVID-19, and so wasThursday's game between KeralaBlasters FC and ATK Mohun Bagandue to unavailability of enough play-ers in the former's ranks after beinghit by COVID-19 inside the bio-bub-

ble. Three days back, JamshedpurFC's match against Hyderabad FCwas postponed hours before kick-offafter the Jharkhand-based club failedto field a team due to COVID-19cases in its ranks.

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The ICC's Event Technical Committee of theU-19 World Cup has approved Kevin

Wickham and Nathan Edward as replacementsfor Onaje Amory and Jaden Carmichael in theWest Indies squad.

Wickham and Edward are temporaryreplacements for Amory and Carmichaelwho have tested positive for COVID-19 andare undergoing isolation.

"A COVID replacement can be temporary,in that once the player has recovered he wouldbe eligible to return to the squad in positionof the player that replaced him," said the ICCin a statement.

The replacement of a player requires theapproval of the Event Technical Committee.

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Rattled by a COVID-19 outbreak but through to the last-eight stage, India will have just 12 players to choose from

in their final Under-19 World Cup group B clash againstUganda on Saturday as five of their six isolated squad mem-bers returned positive for COVID-19 in RT-PCR tests, here.

Only Vasu Vats came out negative but it is likely thatthe team management will field the same playing XI thatthumped Ireland by 174 runs on Wednesday and secureda place in the quarterfinals. Skipper Yash Dhull, his deputyShaik Rasheed, and Aaradhya Yadav, all of who tested pos-itive in the Rapid Antigen Tests (RAT), have been confirmedpositive in the latest RT-PCR reports along with ManavParakh, who had tested negative in RAT.

Sidharth Yadav had already tested positive in the RT-PCR test before the Ireland game. Fortunately, India alreadyhave two victories in pocket and an easy opponent to tack-le in the final Group game on Saturday.

Considering that Uganda is not a strong team, India,despite limited options, is expected to steamroll the min-nows from the African region and finish on top of GroupB. If the team does that, all the infected players, includ-ing the worst-affected Dhull, are expected to be back in thereckoning for selection for the January 29 quarterfinal.

National Cricket Academy Head VVS Laxman had laud-ed the players for the way they responded to the situationahead of the Ireland game.

"Tremendous show of character and maturity from theU-19 team. With just 11 players available, to go out andexpress themselves the way they did was phenomenal. Can'tsay how proud I am of them! The Ireland match is one theywill cherish for life," Laxman had tweeted.

The game against Uganda is inconsequential mathemat-ically for India but it would have been ideal if the affectedplayers got some time in the middle to be ready for theknockout stage.

The team would have obviously preferred to have all itsbest players on the park as it eyes a fifth trophy.

So far, openers Harnoor Singh and AngrikshRaghuvanshi have shown terrific form and are likely to con-tinue in the same vein but the following middle-order bat-ters need to score at better pace.

� �� �/ �.�

Former captain and batting star KevinPietersen has said that it's "stupid" to

blame the Indian Premier League forEngland's embarrassing 0-4 loss to Australiain the recently-concluded Ashes series.

England great David Gower was"annoyed" after their Ashes defeat and saidcurrent skipper Joe Root had players whowere "unavailable" because of the IPL.

Pietersen, an Ashes winner in 2005,2009, 2010-11 and 2013, laughed at theremark.

"It is stupid. You can't blame the IPL forthe demise of Test cricket in England. It'scrazy. I've commented on it quite a lot. It'sthe system, it's the county cricket system,which is poor. So there's no blame,"Pietersen, who is representing World Giantsin the Legends League Cricket here, said dur-ing an interaction here on Thursday.

"It's crazy to blame the Indian PremierLeague because if you have a look at the Testteam, there's only maybe (Ben) Stokes(Jonny) Bairstow and (Jos) Buttler who playthe IPL...

"Hardly any of the Test team players playthe IPL... So how can you blame the IPL? Youcan't blame the IPL. It's crazy," a former cap-tain of the IPL's Delhi franchise added. Off-

the-field, the English cricketers were alsomired in a controversy after a report claimedthat there was a "drinking culture" in theteam with the players and coaches drinkinglate into the night before police broke up thesession. Pietersen said there was no harm init as the players are affected by the strict bio-bubble restrictions.

"It's stressful. It's incredibly stressful. I'venever played in a bubble. I can't imagine butI think it must be very lonely.

"You're not allowed to go to coffee shops.You're not allowed to go down to the restau-rants, you're not allowed to do anything. Andwhat else do you do?

� �� 7. +�+##+�I ��5��� J

Skipper Tom Prest smashed anunbeaten 154 as former champi-

ons England cruised to the SuperLeague quarterfinals of the ICC U-19 World Cup with a thumping 189-run win over the UAE here.

Continuing his incredible runof form, Prest powered England toa mammoth 362 for six after elect-ing to bat.

The English bowlers, led by leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed (4/30), then

put up a disciplined effort to bowlout UAE for 173 in 38.2 overs.

Prest blasted 13 fours and foursixes in his scintillating 119-ballinnings, while Jacob Bethell (62),William Luxton (47) and GeorgeThomas (41) also chipped in as the1998 edition winners England putup an imposing total.

Bethell and Thomas gaveEngland a blistering start, adding 69runs in 11.5 overs.

The Young Lions' total alwayslooked like it would be a big ask tooverhaul and the UAE were reeling

when they were reduced to 61 forfive in the 15th over.

Ali Naseer's counter-attacking54 off 44 balls helped reverse someof the momentum as he put on 59with Nilansh Keswani for the sixthwicket. But when Nilansh departed,the last four wickets fell for 53 runsas leg-spinner Rehan excelled in hisfirst outing in the West Indies withfour for 30 from his allotted tenovers. Pakistan qualify for quarter-finals with win against Afghanistan

Pakistan too booked their placein the Super League quarterfinalswith a 24-run victory overAfghanistan.

Afghanistan did well to restrictPakistan to a modest 239 for ninein the group C match at Brian Larastadium in Tarouba, Trinidad.

However, the Afghans got thepace of their innings all wrong in

reply, managing 215 in the designat-ed 50 overs.

The top three soaked up far toomany balls in pursuit of the target.

It took them 170 balls to bringup 100 runs with Bilal Sayedi (42 off81), Nangeyalia Kharote (12 off 32),and Allah Noor (28 off 49) manag-ing strike rates under 58.

Despite the slow start,Afghanistan took the contest deepalthough their innings was charac-terised by some wild runningbetween the wickets, with three runouts as well as a number of nearmisses. Noor Ahmad blasted threesixes to leave his side in with achance of a shock victory, needing28 off the last two overs with twowickets in hand.

Reigning championsBangladesh bounce back againstCanada

Bangladesh bounced back fromdefeat with a dominant eight-wick-et triumph over Canada.

Off-spinner SM Meherob andpacer Ripon Mondol snapped fourwickets each as Bangladesh bowledout Canada for a lowly 136 in agroup A match at Conaree SportsClub in Basseterre.

Bangladesh then galloped to thetarget in 30.1 overs to register theirfirst win of the tournament.

Iftakher Hossain anchored thechase for the defending championswith a well-made 61 off 89 ballswhile Prantik Nawrose Nabil (33)and Aich Mollah (20 not out) alsochipped in.

Earlier, opener Anoop Chimastood amid the ruins with a 117-ball63 as Canada's decision to bat back-fired with only four of their battersreaching double digit figures.

� �� &/7.�

In a blockbuster T20World Cup opener for

India, the team was onFriday drawn to clashwith arch-rivals Pakistanon October 23 at theiconic MCG as theInternational CricketCouncil (ICC) releasedthe fixtures.

India had lost toPakistan for the first timein an ICC tournamentwhen the teams clashedin last year's T20 WorldCup in Dubai.

India's second Super12 match in Group 2 willbe on October 27 inSydney against a qualifi-er (runner up of GroupA) and will be followedby matches against SouthAfrica (October 30 inPerth) and Bangladesh

(Adelaide Oval onNovember 2). The Menin Blue's last Super 12match is scheduled forNovember 6 against thewinners of Group B atthe MCG. The Super 12s-- round two of the tour-nament, with two groups-- will begin on October22 with hosts anddefending championsAustralia playing NewZealand at the SCG on

October 22 in a re-matchof last year's men's T20World Cup final.

The Black Caps willalso face England at TheGabba on November 1in a re-match of theirepic semi-finalencounter at the 2021event. In Super 12s,Australia are in Group 1with world number oneEngland, New Zealand,Afghanistan plus the

winner of Group A andthe runner-up in GroupB from the first round.

The semi-finals willbe played at the SCG andAdelaide Oval onNovember 9 and 10,respectively. It will bethe first time theAdelaide Oval will host aWorld Cup semi-final.

The MCG will hostthe final, which will becontested under lightson November 13.

In the first round,2014 champions SriLanka and Namibia willplay the opening matchat Kardinia Park,Geelong on October 16.They'll be joined by twoqualifiers in Group A.

Two-time champi-ons West Indies will alsostart in the first round,joined in Group B.

� �� �/ �.�

Former England skipper KevinPietersen has suggested that the

"harsh" bio-bubble life could beone of the reasons for Virat Kohli'sstunning decision to quit Test cap-taincy and backed Rohit Sharma tolead India in all formats of the gamegoing forward.

Kohli stunned the cricketingworld by stepping down from theTest captaincy following India's 1-2series loss to South Africa. He hadrelinquished T20 captaincy afterthe World Cup last year, and wassubsequently removed from ODIleadership, leading to a war of wordswith the BCCI on the sequence ofevents leading to these develop-ments.

"People who are critical of themodern day sportsmen I think arefoolish because these bio-bubbles arevery hard to play in," the formerEngland star batsman told PTI in agroup interaction on the sidelines ofthe Legends League Cricket here.

"It will be very unfair to be tooharsh, to be critical. Because youhave not looked at Virat Kohli.

Kohli needs crowds, he gets going(from it), he is an entertainer.

"I think it's very difficult for hispersonality to perform to the best ofhis (Kohli's) abilities (in the bubble),"he reasoned as he reflected onsportspersons' life in a COVID-scarred world.

The 33-year-old Kohli held therecord for most Test wins by anIndian captain (40) with onlyGraeme Smith, Ricky Ponting, and

Steve Waugh having won morematches than him.

Pietersen said he was not sur-prised when Kohli quit captaincyfrom all formats.

"A lot of players have suffered.It is the greatest job in the world. Butwhen you put them in a bubble, it'scertainly not the

greatest job because there is nofun," the 41-year-old said.

"I'm actually not surprised that

Virat wants just a little bit of a breakfrom that extra pressure because it'sdamn difficult playing in these bub-bles," he said.

"It's very difficult to judge allInternational sportsmen, be it pre-mier league footballers or any sports-man around the world, playing in apandemic." Pietersen said from hisperspective, he would not have per-formed well for two years withoutany crowd in the stadiums.

"As a batter, I feed on the ener-gy of fans, and there are a lot of theseplayers, be it in football, rugby ortennis."

Vice-captain KL Rahul is lead-ing India in the ongoing ODI seriesin South Africa with Rohit Sharmainjured. Pietersen backed Rohit tocaptain India across all formatsonce he regains fitness. The big-hit-ting batter is expected to be back forthe home limited-overs series againstthe West Indies next month.

"I've always loved 'Hitman' RohitSharma. He's a fabulous player,every time he's batting I've got towatch. His captaincy is great for theMumbai Indians too. So he's prob-ably next in line," Pietersen said.

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Ayoung South Africapunished a jadedIndian team for its

outdated approach, hand-ing it one of the most com-prehensive series defeatsin recent times with aneasy seven-wicket victoryin the second ODI here onFriday.

A target of 288 wasbelow-par on a flat trackand the seasoned Quintonde Kock (78 off 66 balls) inthe company of rising sen-sation Janneman Malan (91off 108 balls) added 132 fora match-deciding openingstand.

The home team even-tually reached the target in48.1 overs to take an unas-sailable 2-0 lead in thethree-game series.

KL Rahul's captaincyambitions and head coachRahul Dravid's wish to seehim being anointed in thelong run, however, suffereda rude jolt following back-to-back defeats in 50-overgames on a track, whichwas more Indian thanSouth African in nature.

India's archaicapproach, a very '90s safe-ty first mind-set, hurt theteamas has been the casefor a while now in thewhite-ball format.

A tour that started witha great Test win at theCenturion is now in tattersand the Indian contingentwould be looking to boardthe charter flight backhome on Monday after theinconsequential third ODIat the Newlands, whichwould be a spicier trackcompared to the one atBoland Park.

The batting, saveRishabh Pant's cavalierstyle, was too defensivestarting with skipper Rahul,whose 55 off 79 balls wasan innings of bygone era,which cannot align with thefearless cricket that teamswant to associate with now.

The match slippedaway from India's grip dur-ing their innings once Pantwas gone as the others sim-ply failed to get going whenthe ball didn't come on tothe bat and it was not atrack that offered firm andeven bounce.

It's not a new malaise toplague Indian cricket butwhat should be worrying isthat nothing has been doneto address the issues.

A veteran likeBhuvneshwar Kumar (8-0-67-0) was swept as well aspulled for sixes by De Kockwhile Malan would comedown the track to hit himthrough the covers sig-nalling that his early 130kmph speed, with lack ofvariations, was simply notworking.

For Shardul Thakur (40not out and 5.1-0-36-0), thequality batting show won'tsave him if he doesn't cur-tail the number of bad ballsthat he is bowling per spell.

And RavichandanAshwin (10-1-68-0)'s sec-ond coming in white ballcricket might end in awhimper even before itgathers enough wind tosail through.

Yuzvendra Chahal (10-

0-47-1) tried his best buthis confidence, after beingunceremoniously dumpedfrom the T20 World upfinal squad, has been in tat-ters.

Venkatesh Iyer (22 off33 balls and 5-0-28-0) isstill a work in progress andhis fast-tracking in the lim-ited overs set-up is less ofpragmatism and more des-peration to find a fresh ver-sion of injury-plaguedHardik Pandya.

Iyer might develop intoa good cricketer but he is afar from finished productand may be some timeaway from being a successat the international level inall conditions.

As of now, he is not anatural No.6, who can be afinisher like Pandya was inhis best days before injury.

Had Pant not playedthe role of an enforcer toperfection, even a target of288 wouldn't have beenpossible. And this was afterit seemed India would scoreclose to 315 when he washaving a steady stand of115 with his skipper.

But there dismissals inquick succession sawProteas make a comebackon a Boland Park stripwhere stroke-making was-n't an easy proposition fora new batter.

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