?ZeZdY dVe e` UV_j CD eZT\Ve e` C4A - Daily Pioneer

12
A mid talks of strain in the relationship between the BJP and the Janata Dal (U), and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s hint to his MLAs that he would take some big decision in the interest of the nation, the JD(U) has kept suspense on the Rajya Sabha nomination to Union Steel Minister RCP Singh. “Barring a last-minute sur- prise, it looks unlikely that the JD(U) will nominate RCP Singh to the RS for the third time,” said a senior JD(U) leader. RCP’s Rajya Sabha tenure is ending on July 7. JD(U) MLAs and Ministers have authorised Nitish Kumar to take a final call on the issue. Nitish Kumar has been quoted as having said in his meeting with MLAs and Ministers that he could make a “big” decision in the interest of the nation. “That’s what he hinted at,” said an MLA who was present in the meeting on Saturday. The denial of RS berth will mean the end of the road for RCP Singh, unless the BJP adopts him and offers him a nomination from its own quota. RCP Singh is reported to have paid the price for his “closeness” to the BJP leader- ship. In the event of the JD(U) denying him the ticket, Nitish Kumar’s big decision could see him aligning with the RJD once again in Bihar. Nitish and RCP Singh fell out after the former bureaucrat reportedly sacrificed the party’s demand for two ministerial berths in the Union Cabinet and himself joined the Narendra Modi Government when he was heading the JD(U) at its national president. Thereafter, RCP Singh also differed with the JD(U) on con- testing the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls against the BJP. After Nitish removed him from the post of party presi- dent, the two leaders have at best shared a “social” relation- ship. For the last five days, RCP Singh is camping in Patna, barely one kilometer from the Chief Minister’s residence, but the two leaders have not met. On Sunday, while Nitish Kumar drove to the JD(U)’s office and met with senior party leaders and MLAs, RCP Singh was closeted with his supporters at his own resi- dence. Ever since Nitish Kumar met the Leader of the Opposition Tejashwi Yadav at an iftar party and then held one-on-one talks with him ten days ago, speculations have gained ground that like in 2015, the JD(U) and RJD could once again come togeth- er to form a Government to protect “secularism” across the country. I n another blow to Bengal BJP, its Barrackpore MP Arjun Singh on Sunday staged a homecoming by rejoining the Trinamool Congress (TMC). Arjun Singh joined the TMC in the presence of its national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee and a host of other leaders from the North 24 Parganas district where his constituency falls. Singh, a strongman of Bengal’s jute belt, had joined the BJP in March 2019 just ahead of the general elections and wrested the Barrackpore parliamentary seat in a fierce- ly-fought poll from the then sitting TMC MP Dinesh Trivedi. Incidentally, Trivedi is in the BJP at present. Singh followed in the foot- steps of former Railway Minister and BJP national vice-president Mukul Roy and ex-saffron MP Babul Supriyo to rejoin his old party. He claimed that no devel- opment of Bengal is possible without the guidance of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. At least half-a-dozen BJP MLAs have already deserted the party and joined the Bengal ruling outfit after it roared back to power with a thumping majority in last year’s Assembly elections. Dwelling on the immedi- ate reasons for his rejoining the TMC, Singh said, “I come from a jute belt and have been the product of jute politics …today, 15 out of the 62 mills are closed and the jute work- ers and farmers are in big trou- ble. Centre has an apathetic approach towards them …though there was given a small concession after I raised the issue … I think only Mamata Banerjee can address the issue in the right manner … in fact, I hadbeen support- ing her ever since she wrote a letter to the Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) Now I will directly work as per her guid- ance.” D elhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convener Arvind Kejriwal met his Telangana counterpart K Chandrashekar Rao in Delhi on Sunday and discussed a range of topics, including the current political issues. The second meeting in less than 24 hours between the two Chief Ministers, who also lead two regional political parties — the AAP and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) — assumes significance in the wake of efforts to float a non-BJP non-Congress political formation ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls to take on the BJP. After a lun- cheon meeting at Kejriwal’s residence, the duo reached Chandigarh to be part of a function in the presence of Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. KCR, who is on a week- long visit to Delhi to attend national-level political and social programmes, also met with Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday and discussed several nation- al issues including the upcom- ing Presidential elections. P rime Minister Narendra Modi will look to further strengthen the Special Strategic and Global Partnership between India and Japan dur- ing his conversation with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo when he would also attend the Quad summit. Modi will also hold a bilat- eral meeting with USA President Joe Biden. The Prime Minister is visiting Tokyo, Japan from May 23-24 at the invitation of the Prime Minister of Japan. In his statement ahead of his visit, the Prime Minister said, “In March 2022, I had the pleasure of hosting Prime Minister Kishida for the 14th India-Japan Annual Summit. During my visit to Tokyo, I look forward to continuing our conversation further, with an aim to strengthen the India- Japan Special Strategic and Global Partnership.” Modi further said he will also participate in the second in-person Quad Leaders’ Summit, “which will provide an opportunity for the leaders of the four Quad countries to review the progress of Quad initiatives”. We will also exchange views about developments in the Indo-Pacific region and global issues of mutual interest, he said. Modi said he will hold a bilateral meeting with President Joseph Biden, where “we will discuss further consolidation of our multi-faceted bilateral rela- tions with the USA. We will also continue our dialogue on regional develop- ments and contemporary glob- al issues”. The newly-elected Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will be join- ing the Quad Leaders’ Summit for the first time. “I look forward to a bilat- eral meeting with him during which the multifaceted coop- eration between India and Australia under the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and regional and global issues of mutual interest will be discussed,” he said. Modi said economic coop- eration between India and Japan is an important aspect of the Special Strategic and Global Partnership between the two countries. “During the March Summit, PM Kishida and I had announced our intention to realise JPY 5 trillion in public and private investment and financing over the next five years from Japan to India. During the forthcoming visit, I will meet with Japanese business leaders with the goal of further strengthening eco- nomic linkages between our countries, in pursuit of this objective,” he said. Japan is home to nearly 40,000 members of the Indian diaspora, who are an important anchor in our relations with Japan, the Prime Minister said adding “I look forward to inter- acting with them.” A 55-year-old woman and her two daughters were found dead in their house in the posh Vasant Vihar area on Saturday evening. Police sus- pect that the three died of inhaling deadly poisonous gas and “suffocation”. The women have been identified as Manju Srivastava and her daughters - Anshika (30) and Anushta (26). According to Manoj C, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), southwest dis- trict, it is presumed they died due to suffocation. Manju’s husband had died in April last year due to coro- navirus and since then the family was in depression, and she was also bed ridden due to illness, police said. After finding the bodies, police also found three suicide notes. One of the suicide notes read, “Too much deadly gas... carbon monoxide inside. It’s flammable. Please ventilate the room by opening the win- dow and opening the fan. Do not light match, candle or anything!! Be careful while removing the curtain because room is full of hazardous gas. Do not inhale.” The content and veracity of the note are yet to be veri- fied and are still under inves- tigation, said a senior police official. Police found that the cooking gas cylinder’s knob was turned on and an angithi (coal fire) was left burning. The coal fire and no ventila- tion must have led to the build-up of poisonous carbon monoxide in the room, killing the three, police said. Police said a police control room (PCR) call was received at Vasant Vihar police station around 8.55 pm on Saturday in which the caller, a local resi- dent, stated that a house is locked from the inside and the people are not opening the door. T he Delhi Police has busted an Indian Premier League (IPL) gambling racket and arrested six people in this con- nection on Sunday. The accused were identi- fied as Rahul Garg (30), Kunal Garg (30), Sanjeev Kumar (50), Ashok Sharma (51), Dharmatma Sharma (46), and Kanhaiya (21).”We have regis- tered a case under section 3/4/9/55 Gambling Act at PS Nihal Vihar. All the accused persons were arrested and the investigation was taken up,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Outer Sameer Sharma. “Acting on a specific input, received by Special staff on May 15, a team of Delhi Police arrived at the premises with the informer and raided the build- ing where they found six per- sons gambling on IPL match- es using a laptop and other electric devices,” the police said. According to the police, a special team was formed to conduct this raid under the supervision of the DCP. From the spot, they also recovered 74,740 in cash, 10 mobile phones, two laptops, three internet routers, two LED TVs, voice recorders, call merg- er microphones, two note- books (having a record of gam- bling) and one suitcase carry- ing a gambling device with five mobile phones (that were used for gambling) being attached to it. Last month, the Delhi Police arrested three people involved in an IPL betting racket in the Vijay Vihar area. The accused were identi- fied as Tarun, Deepak and Dinesh Khatri. The police had recovered 5 mobile phones, 1 laptop, 1 LED TV, 1,09,260 cash from the possession. According to MHA officials, over a dozen of gambling rack- ets have been busted across the country this season during IPL. U nion Culture Minister GK Reddy clarified on Sunday that no directions for excava- tion at Delhi’s iconic Qutub Minar complex had been issued by the Government. Asked if the Ministry of Culture had issued directions to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), Reddy reportedly said, “No such decision has been taken.” The clarification came as media reports that the ASI is to conduct an excavation at the popular tourist site have been doing the rounds. As in the Gyanvapi mosque row, the Qutub Minar contro- versy surfaced after the ASI’s former regional director Dharamveer Sharma claimed that the structure was con- structed by Hindu king Raja Vikramaditya, and not Qutb al- Din Aibak as is believed. Earlier, there were protests and demands by several Hindu groups regarding the renaming of the Qutub Minar complex amid claims that the place was earlier used for Hindu and Jain temples. As many as 44 members of two Right-wing groups were detained earlier this month after they recited the Hanuman Chalisa in front of the Qutub Minar complex and demanded it be renamed “Vishnu Stambh”. Recently, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) spokesper- son Vinod Bansal also claimed that Qutub Minar was actual- ly “Vishnu Stambh”. He said that the monument was built with materials obtained after demolishing 27 Hindu and Jain temples. One Vishnu Shankar Jain had also filed a petition in Delhi’s Saket court demanding the reinstallation of idols of Hindu deities in the complex and rights to prayer at the site. The matter will be heard on May 24. The court had asked the Centre and ASI to file responses in the matter. In this atmosphere, the rumours regarding the exca- vations were sparked off after Secretary, Ministry of Culture, Govind Mohan, visited the World Heritage monument on Saturday with three histo- rians, four ASI officers and researchers. The ASI officials informed the Secretary that excavation work in the Qutub Minar complex had not been done since 1991. Sources had earlier said that the Ministry of Culture had issued instructions to get iconography of idols done at the complex, and that excava- tion could be started at a dis- tance of 15 meters from the mosque to the south of Qutub Minar. However, on Sunday, GK Reddy clarified that no such decision has been taken. After Culture Secretary Govind Mohan visited the monument on Saturday, there were media reports that the ASI has been ordered to con- duct excavations to ascertain whether Qutub was built by Qutubuddin Aibak or Chandragupta Vikramaditya. However, the Ministry insists that it was a regular site visit by its officials and no such decision has been taken so far. U nion Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday claimed that the BJP has ended the “culture of corruption” in the Northeast and funds meant for development work now get percolated to the last man, whereas the middlemen siphoned off most of the amount during the Congress rule. Taking a direct swipe at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Shah said that he should take out his Italian spectacles to look at the development work done by the double engine Government in Arunachal Pradesh. “Congress leaders ask what happened in eight years, these people are awake with their eyes closed. Rahul Gandhi should take out his Italian spectacles and must have a look at the development work done by PM Modi and CM Pema Khandu,” he said. He alleged that the region had remained neglected during 50 years of the Congress’ rule and asserted that it came on the fast track of development only after Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014.

Transcript of ?ZeZdY dVe e` UV_j CD eZT\Ve e` C4A - Daily Pioneer

Page 1: ?ZeZdY dVe e` UV_j CD eZT\Ve e` C4A - Daily Pioneer

�������������� ��������

Amid talks of strain in therelationship between the

BJP and the Janata Dal (U), andChief Minister Nitish Kumar’shint to his MLAs that he wouldtake some big decision in theinterest of the nation, the JD(U)has kept suspense on the RajyaSabha nomination to UnionSteel Minister RCP Singh.

“Barring a last-minute sur-prise, it looks unlikely that theJD(U) will nominate RCPSingh to the RS for the thirdtime,” said a senior JD(U)leader. RCP’s Rajya Sabhatenure is ending on July 7.

JD(U) MLAs and Ministershave authorised Nitish Kumarto take a final call on the issue.

Nitish Kumar has beenquoted as having said in hismeeting with MLAs andMinisters that he could make a“big” decision in the interest ofthe nation. “That’s what hehinted at,” said an MLA whowas present in the meeting onSaturday.

The denial of RS berthwill mean the end of the roadfor RCP Singh, unless the BJPadopts him and offers him anomination from its ownquota. RCP Singh is reportedto have paid the price for his“closeness” to the BJP leader-ship. In the event of the JD(U)

denying him the ticket, NitishKumar’s big decision could seehim aligning with the RJDonce again in Bihar.

Nitish and RCP Singh fellout after the former bureaucratreportedly sacrificed the party’sdemand for two ministerialberths in the Union Cabinetand himself joined theNarendra Modi Governmentwhen he was heading theJD(U) at its national president.Thereafter, RCP Singh alsodiffered with the JD(U) on con-testing the Uttar PradeshAssembly polls against the BJP.

After Nitish removed himfrom the post of party presi-dent, the two leaders have atbest shared a “social” relation-ship.

For the last five days, RCPSingh is camping in Patna,barely one kilometer from theChief Minister’s residence, butthe two leaders have not met.On Sunday, while NitishKumar drove to the JD(U)’soffice and met with seniorparty leaders and MLAs, RCPSingh was closeted with hissupporters at his own resi-dence. Ever since NitishKumar met the Leader of theOpposition Tejashwi Yadav atan iftar party and then heldone-on-one talks with himten days ago, speculationshave gained ground that like in2015, the JD(U) and RJDcould once again come togeth-er to form a Government toprotect “secularism” acrossthe country.

��������������� ������ ������

��� ������ ������ ��� �

In another blow to BengalBJP, its Barrackpore MP

Arjun Singh on Sunday stageda homecoming by rejoiningthe Trinamool Congress(TMC).

Arjun Singh joined theTMC in the presence of itsnational general secretaryAbhishek Banerjee and a hostof other leaders from theNorth 24 Parganas districtwhere his constituency falls.

Singh, a strongman ofBengal’s jute belt, had joinedthe BJP in March 2019 justahead of the general electionsand wrested the Barrackporeparliamentary seat in a fierce-ly-fought poll from the thensitting TMC MP DineshTrivedi. Incidentally, Trivedi isin the BJP at present.

Singh followed in the foot-steps of former RailwayMinister and BJP nationalvice-president Mukul Roy andex-saffron MP Babul Supriyoto rejoin his old party.

He claimed that no devel-

opment of Bengal is possiblewithout the guidance of ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee.

At least half-a-dozen BJPMLAs have already desertedthe party and joined theBengal ruling outfit after itroared back to power with athumping majority in lastyear’s Assembly elections.

Dwelling on the immedi-ate reasons for his rejoiningthe TMC, Singh said, “I comefrom a jute belt and have beenthe product of jute politics…today, 15 out of the 62 millsare closed and the jute work-ers and farmers are in big trou-ble. Centre has an apatheticapproach towards them…though there was given asmall concession after I raisedthe issue … I think onlyMamata Banerjee can addressthe issue in the right manner… in fact, I hadbeen support-ing her ever since she wrote aletter to the Prime Minister(Narendra Modi) Now I willdirectly work as per her guid-ance.”

������������ ����������������������� ������

�����������������������������������������

Delhi Chief Minister andAam Aadmi Party (AAP)

convener Arvind Kejriwal methis Telangana counterpart KChandrashekar Rao in Delhion Sunday and discussed arange of topics, including thecurrent political issues.

The second meeting inless than 24 hours between thetwo Chief Ministers, who alsolead two regional politicalparties — the AAP and theTelangana Rashtra Samithi(TRS) — assumes significance

in the wake of efforts to floata non-BJP non-Congresspolitical formation ahead ofthe 2024 Lok Sabha polls totake on the BJP. After a lun-cheon meeting at Kejriwal’sresidence, the duo reachedChandigarh to be part of afunction in the presence ofPunjab Chief Minister

Bhagwant Mann. KCR, who is on a week-

long visit to Delhi to attendnational-level political andsocial programmes, also metwith Samajwadi Party chiefAkhilesh Yadav on Saturdayand discussed several nation-al issues including the upcom-ing Presidential elections.

�� ��������������� ������ �������������

������������������������������

Prime Minister NarendraModi will look to further

strengthen the Special Strategicand Global Partnershipbetween India and Japan dur-ing his conversation withJapanese Prime Minister FumioKishida in Tokyo when hewould also attend the Quadsummit.

Modi will also hold a bilat-eral meeting with USAPresident Joe Biden. The PrimeMinister is visiting Tokyo,Japan from May 23-24 at theinvitation of the PrimeMinister of Japan.

In his statement ahead ofhis visit, the Prime Ministersaid, “In March 2022, I had thepleasure of hosting PrimeMinister Kishida for the 14thIndia-Japan Annual Summit.During my visit to Tokyo, Ilook forward to continuingour conversation further, withan aim to strengthen the India-Japan Special Strategic andGlobal Partnership.”

Modi further said he willalso participate in the secondin-person Quad Leaders’Summit, “which will providean opportunity for the leadersof the four Quad countries toreview the progress of Quadinitiatives”.

We will also exchangeviews about developments inthe Indo-Pacific region andglobal issues of mutual interest,he said.

Modi said he will hold abilateral meeting with PresidentJoseph Biden, where “we willdiscuss further consolidation ofour multi-faceted bilateral rela-tions with the USA.

We will also continue ourdialogue on regional develop-ments and contemporary glob-al issues”.

The newly-electedAustralian Prime MinisterAnthony Albanese will be join-ing the Quad Leaders’ Summitfor the first time.

“I look forward to a bilat-eral meeting with him duringwhich the multifaceted coop-eration between India andAustralia under theComprehensive StrategicPartnership and regional andglobal issues of mutual interest

will be discussed,” he said.Modi said economic coop-

eration between India andJapan is an important aspect ofthe Special Strategic and GlobalPartnership between the twocountries.

“During the MarchSummit, PM Kishida and I hadannounced our intention torealise JPY 5 trillion in publicand private investment andfinancing over the next fiveyears from Japan to India.

During the forthcomingvisit, I will meet with Japanesebusiness leaders with the goalof further strengthening eco-nomic linkages between ourcountries, in pursuit of thisobjective,” he said.

Japan is home to nearly40,000 members of the Indiandiaspora, who are an importantanchor in our relations withJapan, the Prime Minister saidadding “I look forward to inter-acting with them.”

������������������ ���!�� ���"�#���������$���

���������������� ��������

A55-year-old woman andher two daughters were

found dead in their house inthe posh Vasant Vihar area onSaturday evening. Police sus-pect that the three died ofinhaling deadly poisonous gasand “suffocation”. The womenhave been identified as ManjuSrivastava and her daughters -Anshika (30) and Anushta (26).

According to Manoj C, theDeputy Commissioner ofPolice (DCP), southwest dis-trict, it is presumed they dieddue to suffocation.

Manju’s husband had diedin April last year due to coro-navirus and since then thefamily was in depression, andshe was also bed ridden due toillness, police said.

After finding the bodies,police also found three suicidenotes. One of the suicide notesread, “Too much deadly gas...carbon monoxide inside. It’s

flammable. Please ventilatethe room by opening the win-dow and opening the fan. Donot light match, candle oranything!! Be careful whileremoving the curtain becauseroom is full of hazardous gas.Do not inhale.”

The content and veracityof the note are yet to be veri-fied and are still under inves-tigation, said a senior policeofficial. Police found that thecooking gas cylinder’s knobwas turned on and an angithi

(coal fire) was left burning.The coal fire and no ventila-tion must have led to thebuild-up of poisonous carbonmonoxide in the room, killingthe three, police said. Policesaid a police control room(PCR) call was received atVasant Vihar police stationaround 8.55 pm on Saturday inwhich the caller, a local resi-dent, stated that a house islocked from the inside and thepeople are not opening thedoor.

������������ ������������������������������������������

���������������� ��������

The Delhi Police has bustedan Indian Premier League

(IPL) gambling racket andarrested six people in this con-nection on Sunday.

The accused were identi-fied as Rahul Garg (30), KunalGarg (30), Sanjeev Kumar (50),Ashok Sharma (51),Dharmatma Sharma (46), andKanhaiya (21).”We have regis-tered a case under section3/4/9/55 Gambling Act at PSNihal Vihar. All the accusedpersons were arrested and theinvestigation was taken up,”said Deputy Commissioner ofPolice (DCP) Outer SameerSharma.

“Acting on a specific input,received by Special staff on May15, a team of Delhi Policearrived at the premises with theinformer and raided the build-ing where they found six per-sons gambling on IPL match-es using a laptop and otherelectric devices,” the police

said. According to the police, aspecial team was formed toconduct this raid under thesupervision of the DCP.

From the spot, they alsorecovered �74,740 in cash, 10mobile phones, two laptops,three internet routers, two LEDTVs, voice recorders, call merg-er microphones, two note-books (having a record of gam-bling) and one suitcase carry-ing a gambling device with fivemobile phones (that were usedfor gambling) being attached toit. Last month, the Delhi Policearrested three people involvedin an IPL betting racket in theVijay Vihar area.

The accused were identi-fied as Tarun, Deepak andDinesh Khatri. The police hadrecovered 5 mobile phones, 1laptop, 1 LED TV, �1,09,260cash from the possession.According to MHA officials,over a dozen of gambling rack-ets have been busted across thecountry this season duringIPL.

����������� ����������������� �����

����� ��������

Union Culture Minister GKReddy clarified on Sunday

that no directions for excava-tion at Delhi’s iconic QutubMinar complex had beenissued by the Government.Asked if the Ministry ofCulture had issued directions tothe Archaeological Survey ofIndia (ASI), Reddy reportedlysaid, “No such decision hasbeen taken.” The clarificationcame as media reports that theASI is to conduct an excavationat the popular tourist site havebeen doing the rounds.

As in the Gyanvapi mosquerow, the Qutub Minar contro-versy surfaced after the ASI’sformer regional directorDharamveer Sharma claimedthat the structure was con-structed by Hindu king RajaVikramaditya, and not Qutb al-Din Aibak as is believed.Earlier, there were protests and

demands by several Hindugroups regarding the renamingof the Qutub Minar complexamid claims that the place wasearlier used for Hindu andJain temples.

As many as 44 members oftwo Right-wing groups weredetained earlier this monthafter they recited theHanuman Chalisa in front ofthe Qutub Minar complex anddemanded it be renamed“Vishnu Stambh”.

Recently, Vishwa HinduParishad (VHP) spokesper-son Vinod Bansal also claimedthat Qutub Minar was actual-ly “Vishnu Stambh”. He saidthat the monument was builtwith materials obtained afterdemolishing 27 Hindu andJain temples.

One Vishnu Shankar Jainhad also filed a petition inDelhi’s Saket court demandingthe reinstallation of idols ofHindu deities in the complex

and rights to prayer at the site.The matter will be heard onMay 24. The court had askedthe Centre and ASI to fileresponses in the matter.

In this atmosphere, therumours regarding the exca-

vations were sparked off afterSecretary, Ministry of Culture,Govind Mohan, visited theWorld Heritage monumenton Saturday with three histo-rians, four ASI officers andresearchers. The ASI officials

informed the Secretary thatexcavation work in the QutubMinar complex had not beendone since 1991.

Sources had earlier saidthat the Ministry of Culturehad issued instructions to geticonography of idols done atthe complex, and that excava-tion could be started at a dis-tance of 15 meters from themosque to the south of QutubMinar. However, on Sunday,GK Reddy clarified that nosuch decision has been taken.

After Culture SecretaryGovind Mohan visited themonument on Saturday, therewere media reports that theASI has been ordered to con-duct excavations to ascertainwhether Qutub was built byQutubuddin Aibak orChandragupta Vikramaditya.However, the Ministry insiststhat it was a regular site visitby its officials and no suchdecision has been taken so far.

����� �����

Union Home Minister AmitShah on Sunday claimed

that the BJP has ended the“culture of corruption” in theNortheast and funds meant fordevelopment work now getpercolated to the last man,whereas the middlemensiphoned off most of theamount during the Congressrule.

Taking a direct swipe atCongress leader Rahul Gandhi,Shah said that he should takeout his Italian spectacles tolook at the development workdone by the double engineGovernment in ArunachalPradesh. “Congress leaders askwhat happened in eight years,these people are awake withtheir eyes closed. RahulGandhi should take out hisItalian spectacles and musthave a look at the developmentwork done by PM Modi and

CM Pema Khandu,” he said.He alleged that the region

had remained neglected during50 years of the Congress’ ruleand asserted that it came onthe fast track of developmentonly after Prime MinisterNarendra Modi came to powerin 2014.

�������������������������������������� �������������������������� ������������������� ���������������������������� ��!��!���"��"������!#�"$%� ������&'��"%��'���(�)*����%�!+�,�-�!#�.��"���!�$�(��/���������0���������� �"�����"!����"��!�.+��+����������/���"$��.�!.!������������"���!"�����.����1

���������������������������������������������� ���"$�"!���!-������"$�"$��������"�-���!�%��0������"���� �!-��!#���--�����������"�%�!-�%����.��"�� �����!")����!+���" �-+��������-���"��,�$��"�����/��������2�����0�"%�#�"��"%����!*������"%��(������(����3!--�����0��!���"$����������������!(��"#�"�0��-��� �-�����!�4!�"����������%���.��%#�"�������!")�##�%����� ,1

������������������������������������� !"�# $ !� �"��&5���� �"$���#�����$��.��� ��##�%��"�!��������!"�� ���+������������"$���$���.�!.����"%�"4+��"$������0�.!��������%�!"�+"%� 1

������� ���������� ������������������� ��� ��������������

���� ����� �������� ��������!��� ��"��������������"� ������ �� �����������#�������� ����� ���������������$����%� �&�

'�����(����������� �)����$����"������� ������ �%����) ������� �����*������������$����%� �&�

&�����������!������ ������ �+���#����,�������) �����!�- �#���� �������������������#�,�������$����% �&�

� �!���"� �����#��� $ #�% ����$%�����&�����'�� ����(��%��%��%��)#�&�% ��#����������� ��*��� +�� #�� #�,%��� ����#�'(��)����$�#�����#��%�"

% ������ ��� ����� ��� ������ ������&������������#����������������������������

�������������������������� ���%��(��% # (�%�� ��%�����#����

�-(������,����������+��'' %

6 ������ '�!"��� -���*!!�1�!#�%��� .�!"������ ������ �"���$��#1�!#�%��� .�!"����

�������� �%�&'( �))*� 789:�����+�����$���/�����-��..����*��

'+*�����%�;�!#���������&���� <��'����<�&<�������

��������'&� ����������������&� �=����<���5>�=����

�)" +��)����'�(,��������������� ���������������� �������������������������������

�����-�����������./-�.0..1��� ���'.��.

!�"#�$% �?'�=�������������������;&����;��� ����������;���� @��?'�� �

��&!�'��(

��<���������� ����&� ����A�������������'��?�'�������&�

!�)�)!��* ����&���� ��������������'�� ��

����������� �������

���������� ��������� ����� ����

Page 2: ?ZeZdY dVe e` UV_j CD eZT\Ve e` C4A - Daily Pioneer

������ ��!�"#���$ !�"�$ %&'�%(%% ��% ���./

Cage fish culture in Hirakud a success model

In Nabarangpur

Handicapped siblings go3 km by tricycle for pension

Road safety film cash awards doubled

Aparajita nominated for IPU panelOCCL holds 60th foundation day

CIFA signs MoU with KISS

ICAI BBSR celebrates annual fest

Hardcore Maoist surrenders

2 die as car hits tree in Puri

Common facilitycentre, lab tofunction soonPIONEER NEWS SERVICE

����� BHUBANESWAR

The cage fish culture in theHirakud Reservoir is a successfulmodel and it would soonsubstantially augment inlandfreshwater fish production in theState, according to Chief SecretarySuresh Mahapatra.

He said this after assessing itsprogress both at a high-level reviewand a spot visit to the reservoirwhere he interacted with fishermen,fish entrepreneurs and field officials.

Mahapatra directed theconcerned departments tooperationalise the common facilitycentre and testing laboratory beforemass harvesting. The departmentwas asked to expedite fixing of fishlanding floating jetty in a time-bound manner.

He also assured theGovernment’s infrastructural

support for promotion of fishingactivities in the reservoir. An InlandFisheries Research Laboratorywould be made functional forsurveillance of aqua health andenvironmental impact assessment.It would also help the fish farmersin testing health of the fishes being

grown in the cages.The CS further directed to limit

the cage aquaculture maximum upto 1% surface area of the reservoir.Deputy Director, Fisheries BirajaDwibedi appraised that so far 32cage aquaculture zonesencompassing 625 sub-zones are

identified well within the limits ofnational guidelines. Out of this, 101subzones are allotted to localentrepreneurs through invitation ofthe expression of interest. So far,71 entrepreneurs have started theirfield operations after signing MoUswith the department. Cage

installation is complete in 30 sub-zones. It is decided to mobiliseother selected entrepreneurs forcompleting installation of 180circular cages over 60 sub-zones and264 rectangular cages over 11 sub-zones in coming 6 months.

Data show that the HirakudReservoir has a vast potential forcage fish culture. It wouldaccommodate 1,875 circular cagesof 16-mt diameters and 5-mt depthor 15,000 rectangular cages of4x6x4-mt dimensions withproduction potential of more than45,000 metric tonnes of fish.Different fish species could begrown in this cage culturetechnique. With installation ofcages in 101 allotted subzones overcoming six months, one couldexpect a bumper production ofaround 14,500 MT of fish in eachharvesting cycle. There could betwo harvesting cycles in a year.

The CS said the StateGovernment has also initiated aprocess for providing market-linksupport to the entrepreneurs.

MONOHAR MOHANTY

����� NABARANGPUR

The State Government has beenproviding financial assistance(pension) to the differently-abledand the elderly people. But theyhave been found to be strugglingto get their pensions every month.

An example of this is Rajiv Patraand his elder brother Deb Patra ofUdaipur village underTentulikhunti block inNabarangpur district. Deb Patra ismentally-challenged while hisyounger brother Rajiv is aphysically-handicapped. These twobrothers have to travel by a tricycleabout three km to get their pension

every month.Despite the unbearable heat, the

fact that the elder brother takes hisyounger brother in a tricycle andgo for the pension is heartbreakingsaid the villagers. Elder brother Debreceives Rs 500 per month whilehis younger brother Rajiv receivesRs 400 per month as disabilityallowance. Sadly, these two brothersare going from Udaipur village toTentulikhunti panchayat officeevery month to collect theirpension money. So the villagersof Tentulikhunti block havedemanded the administration toprovide allowance money to thedifferently abled and very old peoplein their home.

PNS ����� BHUBANESWAR

The Institute of CostAccountants of India (ICAI),Bhubaneswar Chapter held itsannual function-cum-studentfelicitation event at the CMABhawan here on Sunday. A blooddonation camp was organised inassociation with theCommissionerate police where over100 units of blood were collected.State DMET Director Dr RamaRaman Mohanty inaugurated thecamp.

Jajpur MP Sarmistha Sethiinaugurated the annual function aschief guest. Bhubaneswar CentralAnanta Narayan Jena was guest ofhonour. Nalco Finance DirectorCMA Ramesh Chandra Joshi; CMADr Ashish P Thatte; CMA NiranjanMishra and CMA Bibhuti BhusanNayak were special guests. Over 700students, members, faculties and

guests participated in the function.Chapter chairman Himoj Mishra

delivered welcome address andblessed the successful students for

their bright careers. Chaptersecretary Surya Narayan Tripathyextended a vote of thanks.

Meritorious students of the

chapter were awarded with trophiesfor their performances in theDecember 2021 term examinationof the ICAI.

Last date of entrysubmission June 3PNS ����� BHUBANESWAR

The cash awards for the NationalRoad Safety Short Film Festival,2022 have been doubled. The prizemoney for best film has been hikedfrom Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh.Similarly, the first runners-up prizehas been increased from Rs 40,000to Rs 80,000 and the secondrunners-up award is now Rs 60,000.

This was announced by PrincipalSecretary, Commerce andTransport Department BishnupadaSethi at the launching ceremonyof the festival.

Sethi said, "Seeing theenthusiasm, to encourage morepeople to send entries we haveincreased the prize money for filmsection for both

Odia and non-Odia languagescategories. Cash awards forindividual section remain as it is."The winners will be selected by ajudging panel of film industryprofessionals and non-industryprofessionals, luminaries fromdifferent walks of life. During theevent, jury members for the festivalwere introduced.

The entries are open for NationalRoad Safety Short Film Festival, afirst of its kind festival organisedin the country. Last date of entry

submission is June 3, 2022.Thefestival aims to raise awareness ofroad safety issues and promoteincreased engagement in roadsafety cooperation in the State ofOdisha as well as across the nationto reduce the road accidents andfatalities related to it.

Filmmakers, amateur filmenthusiasts and students can submittheir entries. The film can be adocumentary, experimental,narrative, fiction, non-fiction oranimation. The original film shouldbe in FULL HD (1920x1080)format or above. Total duration offilm can be maximum 120 seconds(2 minutes) in length, includingfront and end credits.

Aparajita's FBaccount hackedPNS ����� BHUBANESWAR

Bhubaneswar BJP MP AparajitaSarangi on Saturday complainedthat her verified Facebook accounthas been hacked and she is unableaccess to the account. She has filedan FIR in Cyber police station,Cuttack in this regard and has alsosent a complaint to the FacebookInc. It has also been reported thatearlier her Instagram account hadbeen hacked.

PNS ����� BHUBANESWAR

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla hasnominated Bhubaneswar BJP MPAparajita Sarangi as the Indiancandidate for the upcoming vacantposition in the ExecutiveCommittee of the InterParliamentary Union (IPU).

The vacancy is likely to be filledduring the 145th Assembly of theIPU scheduled to be held in Kigaliin Rwanda from October 11 to 15.

The IPU is an inter-parliamentary organisation with amembership of 178 Parliaments.The Indian Parliament has been amember of IPU since 1949. Variouspositions in the IPU bodies arefilled up on the basis ofgeographical representation. Indiais a member of the Asia PacificGeopolitical Group (APG).

As per IPU rules, Sarangi'scandidature is to be endorsed bythe Geopolitical Group. TheMinistry of External Affairs isendeavouring for the support of

APG members for her.Sarangi has thanked PM

Narendra Modi and Speaker Birlafor nominating her for the covetedpost.

PNS ����� JHARSUGUDA

The Brajrajnagar by-poll hasbecome a matter of prestige for allpolitical parties in Jharsugudadistrict.

On Friday, more than 150 BJPworkers, including party leaders,former Sarpanches of Lakhanpurblock, joined BJD in the presenceof Jharsuguda MLA and HealthMinister Naba Kisore Das, StateFinance Minister Niranjan Pujari,Agriculture Minister Arun KumarSahoo, Senior BJD leader andformer Minister Prasanna Acharyaand State BJD Mahila presidentSnehangini Chhuriya.

The senior BJD leaders welcomedthe newly inducted members withBJD's green shawl. They pledged tofollow CM Naveen Patnaik's idealsand policies. Das said, "CM NaveenPatnaik's determination to developJharsuguda district has inspired ourfriends from our opponent's foldto join us. So it is easy to guess thatBJD MLA candidate fromBrajrajnagar - Alka Mohanty willwin the bypoll."

The voters of Jharsuguda haveextended an overwhelming supportto the Chief Minister NaveenPatnaik and BJD, and they will dothe same in the upcoming bypoll,he added.

PNS ����� BHUBANESWAR

A Memorandum ofUnderstanding (MoU) signingceremony between the ICAR-Central Institute of FreshwaterAquaculture (ICAR-CIFA) and theKalinga Institute of Social ScienceUniversity (KISSU), Bhubaneswarwas held on May 20.

It will start a new beginning ofcollaboration in social scienceresearch, technology transfer anddissemination of scientificknowledge from the lab to the landof the underprivileged people of thecountry.

The ICAR-CIFA delegation washeaded by Director, ICAR-CIFA DrSaroj Kumar Swain.

National Professor, ICAR DrPramoda Kumar Sahoo andPrincipal Scientist Dr Mrinal

Samanta were present.Vice-Chancellor of KISSU Prof

Deepak Kumar Behera, Registrar DrPrashanta Kumar Routray, andother senior officers of KISSU werepresent.

While addressing the gathering,Prof Behera expressed his happinessin signing the MoU with ICAR-CIFA, and mentioned that thecollaboration will make a newbeginning in empowering theneedy people by training them withthe modern scientific fish culturemethods.

Formation of a joint expertgroup with representatives fromboth the institutes has beenemphasised. Director, ICAR-CIFADr Saroj Kumar Swain made a briefpresentation highlighting theresearch accomplishments of theinstitute.

BJP workers join BJDin droves in J'suguda

PNS ����� PHULBANI

A hardcore Maoist surrenderedbefore the KandhamalSuperintendent of Police onSunday. He is Ashok Pune of Bijapurdistrict of Chhattisgarh.

Pune was working as an areacommittee member and involvedin many violent activities. He wasan active member of the KBNDivision of Maoists and was activein Kandhamal district from 2016.

"Getting disillusioned by theanti-people activities of the Maoistsand mindless violence, Ashok Punesurrendered today," said KandhamalSP Vinit Agarwal. Pune would berehabilitated as per the surrenderand rehabilitation policy of theState Government, he said.

He said till date, 10 Maoists havesurrendered in the district.

Pune said the Maoists are killinginnocent tribals dubbing them aspolice informers.

PNS ����� PURI

Two persons were killed when acar by which they were travellinghit a roadside tree on the Puri-Satapada highway in Puri districtlate on Saturday night.

While one of the deceased wasthe driver of the car belonging toBhagabanpur village under theBrahmagiri police limits, the otherhailed from Sahadebpur villageunder the Arakhakuda Marine

police station.The mishap took place while the

duo was returning to Brahmagiri.According to reports, the car

rammed into the tree atMathapatna Chhak on the Puri-Satapada highway after the driverlost control over the wheels. Thetwo occupants of the vehicle diedon the spot.

On receiving information, FireService personnel recovered thebodies from the vehicle.

PNS ����� BHUBANESWAR

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaikon Sunday highly praised the Stateconstruction behemoth OdishaConstruction Corporation Ltd(OCCL) on its 60th foundation dayfor its contribution in building amodern Odisha.

He said the OCCL projects havecreated enormous employmentopportunities over the years andhave transformed the State'ssocioeconomic and industriallandscape by improving the water,

power and connectivity scenario.He said that like many iconic

institutions, this PSU was alsocreated by visionary leader andformer Chief Minister Biju Patnaik.

The CM also inaugurated anumber of projects and released acommemorative book on theoccasion. He also launched 18projects worth Rs 450 crore.

Water Resources MinisterRaghunandan Das presented acheque of Rs 14.75 crore to the CMas the dividend of the Governmentin the OCCL.

����������� ������ ���������������� ������������������������� �������������������� ������������������������������������������� ��!��"����#����$����#�������%�&'((���)(�*+%��,*���� �-.(&+(+,,', ������������� ���� ����������������!�"#"$��#"%����&��'������������(������� ���)����*+�����,�*�����-!,�� �������'.� .�#�./*��.��$�00*��-�������.�����1�� ���2��!����-���-3���-��� �4����� ������-1�5����4�������������-��������(����6�����-!��%�1�����/�� 1�2�� 1�������7����5�!�2(����"$$0008� �����-0$$"90$$09::�������������6�����-;"<$�������%�!6'(��/���1���!5�"80$<0$� ��������-0$80"9=>??00����)��26�����-9��;���������������5�������;�@ �.������)��2"88%0$%�A���������-0:88"8<9%99<"9:

Page 3: ?ZeZdY dVe e` UV_j CD eZT\Ve e` C4A - Daily Pioneer

uttarakhand 03

PNS DEHRADUN

PNS HEMKUND

PNS RAMNAGAR

PNS DEHRADUN

DEHRADUN | MONDAY | MAY 23, 2022

PNS DEHRADUN

State to make anti-conversionlaw stricter- Dhami

The Uttarakhand govern-ment is working towards

making the anti-conversionlaw stricter. Chief ministerPushkar Singh Dhami saidthis while speaking at a mediaconclave in Delhi on Sunday.He spoke on various politicaland strategic issues of the Stateon the occasion. Speaking onthe law and order situation inthe State, he said that the Ut-tarakhand police is takingstrict action against thosebreaking the law. There is noplace for criminals in theState, he stressed. Dhami saidthat after he took oath of officeas the chief minister for thesecond time, the State policestarted a special re-verifica-tion drive to ascertain thebackground of people livingin the State.

Regarding the uniform civilcode promised by him beforethe Assembly elections,Dhami said that a committeeis going to be formed to pre-pare the draft for the uniformcivil code for Uttarakhand. Hesaid that other states shouldalso implement uniform civilcode. Replying to questionsregarding land laws in thestate, the chief minister said

that the state government hasformed a high level committeefor this purpose. The govern-ment will bring a law on thissoon in the interests of thestate, he added. “The geo-graphic conditions in Uttarak-hand are very different fromthose in other states. Most ofour geographical area ismountainous. The govern-

ment is attempting to ensurethat there is focus on indus-trial expansion and employ-ment also,” he said.

The chief minister furtheraverred that Uttarakhand ismaking all-round progressunder the leadership of PrimeMinister Narendra Modi. The

endeavour of the governmentis to make Uttarakhandamong the best states in allspheres in the coming times.He also referred to the statebeing a centre of spirituality,religion and culture addingthat it is common for at leastone person from each familyjoining the armed forces toserve the nation.

Hemkund Sahibopened for devotees

The portals of HemkundSahib Gurudwara were re-

opened for devotees rituallyon Sunday. While a band fromPunjab played, the Panj Pyareled the ritual placing of theGuru Granth Sahib in the Gu-rudwara.

The portals of the Gurud-wara were opened to the pub-lic at 10 AM on Sunday. TheGurudwara committee hasspruced up the arrangementsat the site. As seen in the CharDham Yatra, there is consider-able enthusiasm among devo-tees visiting Hemkund Sahibas this pilgrimage too is beingheld properly after a gap oftwo years when it could not beheld properly due to the

Covid-19 pandemic. Themain Granthis, Sardar MilapSingh and Sardar Kulwant re-cited Sukhmani, Shabad Kir-tan and the first Ardas of thisyear at the Gurudwara on theoccasion. There were about5,000 persons at this high alti-tude location when the portalsof the Gurudwara wereopened to the public. TheHemkund Gurudwara man-agement trust vice chairmanNarendrajeet Singh Bindrasaid that much enthusiasm isbeing seen among the devo-tees as this pilgrimage is beingheld properly this year afterthe Covid pandemic pre-vented the same during thepast two years.

More than Rs 4Kcrore investment intourism- Maharaj

The State’sTourism and

Culture minister Sat-pal Maharaj said thatUttarakhand hasbeen attracting con-siderable investmentin the tourism sector,especially the hospi-tality sector. From2016 to the present,about Rs 4582.17crore has been in-vested in Uttarak-hand in this sector,he said. The Stategovernment is mak-ing all possible at-tempts to bring investment inthe tourism sector in Uttarak-hand, added the minister.

“ Uttarakhandamong the

most favouredStates for

tourism invest-ment ”

Maharaj said that duringhis recent trip to Dubai,

investors had shown consider-able interest in investing inUttarakhand. He said thatthere are 995 units includinghotels, motels, resorts, restau-rants and entertainment parksalong with car parkings in thestate. The nature of investmentshows that the majority of it ismade in large and small proj-ects. Of the total investment,about 69 per cent has come forlarge and small projects. This

investment is a major sourceof employment, he said. Smallbusinesses also generated 51per cent of total jobs throughsuch investments. TheTourism minister further saidthat the Uttarakhand TourismDevelopment Board has im-plemented the new tourismpolicy. All attempts are beingmade to make it conducive forinvestment. The State providesvarious opportunities for in-vestment including watersports, hospitality, nature andwildlife, health and ruraltourism. The minister furthersaid that the single windowsystem, subsidy and incentivefor investment have beenlinked to the tourism policy.The short distance from thenational capital, large touristarrival, dedicated relationshipmanagers for investors whoguide them according to theirinvestment life cycle make Ut-tarakhand among the mostfavoured States for investmentin the tourism sector, averredthe minister.

36 rescued snakes released in jungle

Due to the consider-able heat ahead of

the monsoons, snakesare increasingly strayinginto human habitationswhile searching for relieffrom the heat. The Forestdepartment is rescuingsuch snakes, also provid-ing relief to the peoplewhile others like snakeexpert ChandrasenKashyap are also doingtheir bit to rescue thesnakes. A total of 36snakes including a kingcobra rescued by Sen andhis team from urban andrural areas were releasedin the forest.

According to Kashyap,snake straying to human set-tlements is common in suchweather. Thirsty and hungrysnakes visited populated areasin search of food and whenscared on encountering peo-ple, they bite at times in self

defence. Save the Snake andWildlife Welfare Societymembers on Sunday released36 rescued snakes in the for-est. These included one kingcobra, three cobras, two Rus-sell's vipers, one krait, 14 ratsnakes, eight pythons, threecat snakes along with wolfsnakes and common sand

boa. Kashyap also said thatsnakes dying in road accidentsis also a cause for concern.Many snakes were killed onthe roads during the pastmonth, of which many wererare. He appealed to the peo-ple to give way to snakes whilepassing on roads adjoiningjungle areas.

Rain, squall & hail warning issued for StatePNS DEHRADUN

The State meteorologicalcentre has issued a

weather warning regardingthe possibility of thunder-storm accompa-nied withh a i l / l i g h t n i n glikely to occur atisolated places onMonday. Squall(70-80 kmphgusting up to 90kmph) is likely tooccur at a fewplaces in theplains and at iso-lated places inmountainous re-gions of the State.Further, heavyrainfall is likely tooccur at isolatedplaces in districts of Kumaonregion. Apart from this, lightto moderate rainfall/thunder-storm are likely to occur atmost places with intenseshowers at isolated places indistricts of Uttarakhand.

The provisional state capitalDehradun is forecast to expe-rience partly to generallycloudy sky. One or two spells

of rain/thundershower ac-companied with hail/squall(50-60 kmph gusting up to 70kmph) are likely to occur insome areas. The maximumand minimum temperaturesare likely to be about 33 de-grees Celsius and 21 degrees

Celsius respectively inDehradun on Monday. Mean-while, the rain experienced atvarious places on Sunday was

42 millimetresin Berinag, 39millimetres inNainbagh, 36millimetres inDidihat and 17millimetres inAgastyamuni.The maximumand minimumtemperaturesrecorded atvarious placeson Sundaywere 35.4 de-grees Celsiusand 21.2 de-grees Celsius

respectively in Dehradun, 35degrees Celsius and 25.4 de-grees Celsius in Pantnagar,21.1 degrees Celsius and 12.5degrees Celsius in Muktesh-war and 25.6 degrees Celsiusand 15.4 degrees Celsius re-spectively in New Tehri.

Nation moving away fromfalse narratives & towardsreal independence- Trivedi

Rajya Sabha MP andBharatiya Janata Party na-

tional spokesman SudhanshuTrivedi said that the nation ismoving away from false nar-ratives and is going towardsreal independence. He said

this while speaking at a pro-gramme organised by VishwaSamvad Kendra to markNarad Jayanti here on Sun-day.

Trivedi said that a basicprinciple of journalism is toacknowledge that one is un-aware of something and in-terested in learning the truthabout it. However, some havea preconceived notion aboutalready knowing it all. Hesaid that movies have alsoplayed a major role in settingnarratives during the pastmany decades. “A characterspeaking in pure Hindi wasmostly either a comical orvillainous character butrarely the hero. Similarly,anyone in a dhoti-kurta orwearing saffron was rarelyportrayed as a positive char-acter. Not only this, south In-dian and Sikh characterswere stereotyped as comic re-liefs in movies.”

Referring to politics hesaid that those calling them-selves left liberals shouldname one nation which iscommunist and also liberal atthe same time. “It is ironicthat in India, the communistscome out in support of Is-lamic fundamentalists. Incommunist countries,mosques are destroyed whilein Islamic countries commu-nism is not tolerated. It isonly in India that these twofactions appear to come to-gether.”

He said that India hadmoved towards real inde-pendence when NarendraModi became the PrimeMinister. Quoting an articlefrom The Guardian newspa-per, he said that this Britishnewspaper had stated thatgovernments before theModi government had per-petuated colonial systemswhile with the advent of

Modi, the nation would beachieving real independence.

The head of Arogyam Edu-cational Trust, Roorkee,Sandeep Kedia also addressedthe gathering. Journalists from

print, electronic and digitalmedia were also felicitated onthe occasion.

Polytechnicstudents caughtwith stolen bikePNS PAURI

Two polytechnic studentswere arrested by the Sri-

nagar police while riding a

stolen motorcycle. Both arestudents of polytechnic inJakholi and residents ofRudraprayag district.

According to the police,Badrish Prasad, a resident ofBadiyargarh, Kirtinagar(Tehri) had lodged an FIR inSrinagar police station regard-ing a motorcycle UK 09- B-3173 being stolen.TheSrinagar police registered acase against unknown undersection 379 of Indian PenalCode. On the instruction ofSenior Superintendent of Po-lice Yashwant Singh Chauhan,a police team was constitutedunder inspector in-charge ofSrinagar police station, HariOmraj Chauhan to crack this

case. The police team acted ona tip off and arrested Yogesh(20) alias Yogi and Abhishek

(22) alias Bobby with thestolen motorcycle about threekilometres ahead of Kalyasaurnear Goa beach. The arrestedaccused on being questionedtold the police that they hadcome to meet their friend.While returning at night, theyhad stolen a motorcycle bybreaking its steering lock nearDevalgarh. They brought thestolen bike to Jakholi fromtheir room in Tilwara. After afew days they altered the ap-pearance of the motorcycleand threw the number plate ina river. They had come to meettheir friend in Srinagar whenthey were caught by the police.The arrested accused were tobe produced in the court.

Four men arrested for drinking booze beside GangaPNS HARIDWAR

Four men consuming alco-hol in cars parked along

the Ganga were arrested inRodibelwala area of Haridwarby the police. The police postin-charge Anshul Aggarwalsaid that the four men drink-ing liquor in the car parkedalong the Ganga were appre-hended by the police as part ofoperation Mariyada. Activitieswhich desecrate the sanctity ofthe Ganga and other such sitesare being checked by the po-lice under this operation. Ag-

garwal said that the policewere patrol when they spottedtwo cars from Uttar Pradesh atShatabdi Ghat and found fourmen drinking liquor. The menwere arrested while challanswere issued for the cars underMV Act.He said that such actsalong the sacred Ganga riverwill not be allowed, addingthat the police will continue totake action against such per-sons as part of operationMariyada.

30 overloaded dumpersseized in VikasnagarPNS DEHRADUN

Acting on directions tocurtail illegal mining, the

authorities seized 30 over-loaded dumpers in the Vikas-nagar area. The chief ministerPushkar Singh Dhami has di-rected strict action against il-legal mining. In pursuance ofthis, Dehradun district magis-trate R Rajesh Kumar had di-rected all sub divisionalmagistrates to conduct raidsregularly acting on informa-tion regarding illegal mining,storage and transportation ofsuch material. Acting on theseinstructions, Vikasnagar subdivisional magistrate VinodKumar along with Tehsil andMining department personnelacted against illegal mining inKunja and Ramgarh. The offi-cial seized 30 dumpers over-loaded with mined material

and hidden in farms. The offi-cials were in the process ofcontacting the owners of theseized dumpers. As the vehi-cles were caught while trans-porting the mined material ona route other than the fixedroute, the officials were also inthe process of seizing the ma-terial and imposing penalty.The Dehradun district magis-trate has directed all the subdivisional magistrates to regu-larly take prompt actionagainst illegal mining andconduct raids to check suchactivities. The district magis-trate has also directed thatchecking drives should also beconducted on other routesfrom where there is possibilityof the illegally mined materialbeing transported.

UPES student gets Rs 48Ljob offer from MicrosoftPNS DEHRADUN

Muskan Handa, a finalyear student of BTech

(honours) CSE Big Data atSchool of Computer Science,UPES, has been offered an an-nual package of Rs 48 lakh byMicrosoft which indicates thein-demand for roles in bigdata. On being recruited byMicrosoft, Handa says, “I per-formed well in the first roundand to my delight they askedme to appear straight for thefinal round. Within 24 hours Ireceived my selection email,and I have never felt happier.”She added, “The concept ofbig data has been around for awhile, but it was not until re-cently that it has revolu-tionised the business world.What interested me is the rolebig data and analytics play in

organisations looking to har-ness their business potentialwhich made me choose thisfield.”

Similarly, industry giantslike Amazon, American Ex-press, Samsung, MX Player,Barclays India among othersare hiring students fromUPES pursuing big data spe-cialisations as software engi-neers, infrastructure engineer,app developers, data analystsamong others.

UPES VC Sunil Rai said,“The demand for analyticalroles is increasing and privateand public organisations arehiring people with the abilityto understand complex dataand turn them into intelligentinformation.”

Page 4: ?ZeZdY dVe e` UV_j CD eZT\Ve e` C4A - Daily Pioneer

��% ���.0������ ��!�"#���$ !�"�$ %&'�%(%%

����� ��������

Describing India's win in theThomas Cup and Uber

Cup team of the badmintonchampions as a " golden chap-ter in Indian sporting history",Prime Minister NarendraModi who interacted with theplayers on Sunday asked themthat they should "keep themomentum going".

The players spoke withPrime Minister and talkedabout different aspects of theirgame, life beyond badminton,and more. Kidambi Srikanthtalked about the great feelingamong the player about beingrecognized by the PrimeMinister in such a proud way.

The Prime Minister askedthe team captain about hisleadership style and challenges.Srikanth told that individually,everyone was performing greatand the task was to bring outtheir best as a team. He alsoexpressed his happiness overthe privilege of playing the cru-cial deciding match.

On being asked by thePrime Minister about his worldnumber 1 ranking and Gold inThomas Cup, the ace shuttlersaid that both the milestoneswere his dreams and he isdelighted to have achievedthem. The Prime Minister saidthat due to not so great per-formance in earlier years, theThomas cup was not verymuch talked about and he saidit took some time in the coun-try to sink in the enormity ofthe achievement of this team.

Modi said “On behalf ofthe entire country I congratu-late you and your entire teamas after decades, the Indian flaghas been firmly planted. This isnot a small feat…Keeping thenerve and team together undertremendous pressure is some-thing that I can understandvery well. I congratulated youon phone but now I am feelingthe joy of complimenting youin person".

"This is like a golden chap-ter in India’s sporting historyand champions like you and

players of your generation arethe authors of this. We need tokeep this momentum going”, hesaid. Chirag Shetty also narrat-ed his journey of the tourna-ment and recalled coming toPM residence with OlympicContingent. The Prime Ministersaid that he noted the disap-pointment among a few playerswhen some of them could notwin a medal at the Olympics.

“One defeat is not the end,one needs determination andpassion in life. Victory is a nat-ural outcome for such people,you have shown that”, he said.The Prime Minister told theteam that they will win manymore medals in the course oftime. They have to play a lot andbloom (khelna bhi hai khilnabhi hai) and have to take thecountry into the world of sports.

“Now India can’t lag behind.Your victories are inspiring thegenerations for sports”, ThePrime Minister added.

The Prime Ministerthanked Lakshya Sen for bring-ing ‘Bal Mithai’ from Almora,Uttarakhand, as promised dur-ing the telephone call imme-diately after the victory, accord-ing to Prime Minister's Office.“I want to keep winning medalsfor India and keep meeting youlike this”, said the young bad-minton ace.

The Prime Ministerenquired about the bout offood poisoning that Lakshyafaced during the tournament.When asked about his advicefor young children who are tak-ing up the sport, Lakshya askedthem to devote their full atten-tion to training.

������������2��� ��������

In a major decision, theRailway Board in one go

“removed” more than twodozen railway employeesworking in the capacity of thepersonal staff of a Minister ofState for Railways.

The officials includingthose in the ranks of DeputyDirector, Section Officer, andProtocol Officers were report-edly removed on charges ofcorruption operating. Sourcessaid of the total of 27 staffers9 are lowly-placed peons.They have punished for areseeking favours like transferpostings, reservations in lieuof money, and bookings at railguest houses etc.

Sources said the stafferswho are full-time rail employ-ees were attached to a Ministerof State after the last reshuf-fle in July.

An order issued by theRail Board Secretary's officedated May 20 directed the 27employees to go back to theirparent office and leave the RailMinisters secretariat without

any delay.“Various kinds of corrupt

practices were going on, andbased on intelligence infor-mation the action has beentaken. Further investigationsabout the alleged involvementof private parties like travelagents and tourist sectoragents are underway. If any-one is found guilty, they canbe dismissed from the servicesas is being done in recenttimes,” said a senior rail offi-cial.

Charges of sale of emer-gency rail reservation quotaare also being investigatedand the nexus of rail staffincluding the peons and otherlower staff will also be lookedupon, sources said.

Sources said many of the27 employees used to engagewith the Railways zonalGeneral Managers, DRMs andothers and seek favour bymisusing the name of MoS.

“The officials are beingdirected to report back totheir respective controllingauthority. The ministerial offi-cials and rail reservation offi-cials should place all the files,

records, documents pen drive,and electronic storage deviceswith official data, and officestationery securely in theoffice and hand them over tothe nominated caretaker fromthe Secretary rail board alsoeach of the ministerial staffshould prepare a note of pend-ing work and work in progresson their hands and noteshould be handed to the care-taker.” Said the Railway Boardorder attaching the names ofall the officials attached to theMoS, a copy of which is thewith The Pioneer.

Acting tough against theofficials falling either in the

category of nonperformers orcorrupt, Indian Railways inthe last few months have dis-missed at least 100 officialsincluding top Secretary levelofficers as well. Last weekalso Railways dismissed fromservices for 20 class one offi-cials including eight JointSecretaries level officers.

The move is part of theUnion government's efforts toweed out non-performers.Railway Minister AshwiniVaishnaw, after he took overas Rail Minister in July 2021,has been warning officials “totake VRS and sit at home” ifthey do not perform.

���� ������'' ��� ��������# ����������''�'������'�%��� �'������� ����� ��( �

����������������� ��������

The election tone in the poll-boundHimachal Pradesh and Gujarat will be

set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi whowill be visiting both the States by themonth-end and address rallies and pub-lic functions.

Modi is expected to be in Gujarat onMay 29 and Himachal Pradesh on May 31.

Prime Minister is to visit Rajkot,Gujarat, on May 29, and inaugurate a newhospital and other projects. SinceSeptember 2021, when Bhupendra Pateltook over from Vijay Rupani as ChiefMinister, Modi has been regularly reach-ing out to the public in Gujarat throughhis various virtual addresses while inau-gurating development projects or attend-ing cultural or social events.

Modi will also attend a public eventin Gandhinagar. BJP is in power inGujarat for the last 27 years and seeks toretain power again as Congress and thenew political entrant AAP are expected tothrow a challenge to the saffron party inthe home state of the Prime Minister.

BJP did win the last Gujarat assemblyelections but not before facing a good fightfrom the Congress which won 77 seatsagainst BJP's 99 in 182 Gujarat assembly.This time around, AAP could play a spoil-sport for the Congress by eating into its'secular votes' in the state.

In a setback to the Congress inGujarat, influential patidar leader Hardik

Patel suddenly quit the Congress thisweek.

Hardik is speculated to join the BJPwhich he has, so far, denied.

In Himachal Pradesh Modi is toaddress a big public rally in Shimla, thestate Capital on May 31.

State Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakurhas set the target of over 50,000 stronggatherings at the Prime Minister’s rally.

As in Gujarat, BJP will be facing anti-incumbency factors and an equal chal-lenge from Congress, the main opposition,in Himachal Pradesh.

BJP had faced humiliating defeat at thehands of Congress in the by-elections ofMandi parliamentary seat along with

Arki, Fatehpur, and Jubbal-Kotkhai assembly seats inNovember 2021.

Pratibha Singh, wife of lateCongress CM Virbhadra Singh,who for the third-time won theMandi LS seat in the bypoll,has recently been appointedCongress state Chief. Congressis seeking to encash her hus-band's image who was a nine-time MLA and six-time chiefminister and five-time MP.

But unlike the BJP, Congressfactionalism in the state unit isquite visible and may damage itspoll prospects.

Himachal is also a homestate of BJP's National President

JP Nadda who has been frequently visit-ing the hill state for lat two months andorganising booth-level meetings of BJPworkers. According to sources, henceforthModi will visit Himachal Pradesh once ortwice each month and keep the campaigntempo high for the party. BJP president hasalready announced that the incumbentBJP Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur willcontinue to be CM face of the party, sug-gesting there will not be any last-minutechange like those in Tripura, Gujarat, orUttarakhand.

In the 2017 assembly poll BJP won 44seats in Himachal Pradesh while Congresscollected 21 seats in the 68-memberr stateassembly.

���� �� ����� �� ������� ! "�#�$%#� �� ����%�� ��&&�%�� '�#(���#�

���������������������� ��������

The Congress on Sunday attacked theModi Government over the Centre’s

cut in fuel prices by saying the BJP isresorting to “trickery” and is creating an“optical delusion”. The party remarked thateven after the cut in excise duty, the pricesof petrol, diesel and LPG cylinder are muchhigher than in April 2014.

Former Finance Minister PChidambaram said whether the states canafford to give up revenue from VAT onpetrol and diesel unless the Centredevolves more funds or gives them moregrants, likening their situation to beingbetween "the devil and the deep sea".

The senior Congress leader remarkscome a day after the governmentannounced Rs 8 per litre cut in excise dutyon petrol and Rs 6 reduction on diesel.

"The notification on reduction ofduty on Petrol and Diesel is now available.FM used the words 'Excise Duty', but thereduction is in Additional Excise Dutywhich is not shared with the states. Hence,contrary to what I said yesterday, the entireburden of the reduction falls on theCentre. To that extent, I stand corrected,"Chidambaram said.

“The states are getting very little byway of share of duties on petrol and diesel,he said, noting that their revenue is fromVAT on petrol and diesel. I wonder if theycan afford to give up that revenue unless

the Centre devolvedmore funds or gavethem more grants,"Chidambaram said.

C o n g r e s sspokesman GauravVallabh said the BJPgovernment’s clue-lessness about theeconomy and finan-cial management hasbeen open for a longnow. “Instead ofaccepting it andseeking guidancefrom experts, BJPonly resorts to trick-ery to create an optical delusion,” Vallabhsaid at AICC press conference.

He added, in April 2014, the exciseduty on petrol was Rs 9.48 per litre, andtoday (Sunday), after reduction, it is Rs19.9 a litre. There is still an increase of Rs10.52 per litre. If it is compared to theexcise duty from 2014, it is more than dou-ble. Regarding diesel, in April 2014, theexcise duty was Rs 3.56 per litre. Today,after reduction, it is Rs 15.8 a litre. It ismore than four times. It is 444 per centmore than April 2014.Petrol prices haveincreased by Rs 10 per litre in the last 60days and then comes a reduction of Rs 9.5a litre. Isn’t this trickery? Diesel prices haveincreased by Rs 10 per litre in the last 60days and then comes a reduction of Rs 7

per litre. How is this welfare?,” Vallabh said.LPG prices have increased by 142 per

cent between May 2014 and May 2022.After the “generous” reduction of Rs 200,prices are still 94 per cent higher than inMay 2014. LPG prices have increased bymore than Rs 400 in the last 18 months.In May 2014, LPG Cylinder prices were atRs 414. In May 2022, it is Rs 803 only forUjjawala cylinders. The prices are almosttwice what it was in 2014, he pointed out.

“The true face of the BJP’s devotion tothe poor lies in the CMIE report in 2021,which mentioned that the income of 97 percent of Indians fell during the pandemic.Of course, there are certain close friendsof the government whose welfare is mak-ing headlines every day

������������ ��� ����������'� �#��� ���������������� �����#������� ������

����� ��������

Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman on Sunday

rebutted the Opposition's crit-icism of excise duty cutimpacting share of States inCentral taxes, saying the Rs 8a litre cut in petrol and Rs 6reduction in diesel have beendone in road and infrastruc-ture cess levied on the twofuels, collection on which wasnever shared with states.

First, former union financeminister P Chidambaram andthen other Opposition leaders

stated that the reduction inexcise duty announced onSaturday evening would reducethe share of states in centraltaxes.

Chidambaram on Sundayretracted his statement sayingthe cut in the levies accrues tothe central government alone.

Taking to Twitter,Sitharaman said she is sharingsome useful facts on levies onpetrol and diesel for the ben-efit of all.

"Basic Excise Duty (BED),Special Additional Excise duty(SAED),Road & Infrastructure

Cess (RIC) and Agriculture &Infrastructure DevelopmentCess (AIDC) together consti-tute Excise Duty on petroland diesel.

Basic ED is sharable withstates. SAED,RIC & AIDC arenon-sharable," she said.

The excise duty reductionof Rs 8 per litre on petrol andRs 6 a litre on diesel hasentirely been made in RIC.This was the case even inNovember 2021 when tax onpetrol was cut by Rs 5 and thaton diesel by Rs 10, she said.

As per the centre-state tax

sharing formula, 41 per cent oftaxes collected by the Centrego to states. These however donot include collections fromlevy of cess. Most of the tax onpetrol and diesel is made up ofcess.

While total incidence ofcentral tax on petrol prior toSaturday's cut was Rs 27.90 perlitre, basic excise duty wasonly Rs 1.40 a litre. Similarly,out of Rs 21.80 a litre total cen-tral tax on diesel, basic exciseduty was only Rs 1.80.

Special additional exciseduty of Rs 11 a litre on petrol

and Rs 8 per litre on diesel waslevied. A Rs 2.50 a litre agri-culture infrastructure anddevelopment cess (AIDC) waslevied on petrol and Rs 4 perlitre on diesel.

Petrol commanded Rs 13 alitre additional excise duty inform of RIC and Rs 8 of suchtax was levied on per litre ofdiesel. This has been cut inSaturday's excise reduction.Only Rs 1.40 per litre BED col-lected on petrol and Rs 1.80 ondiesel are shared with states.The SAED, AIDC and RIC arenot shared.

Basic ED which is sharablewith states has not beentouched. Therefore, the entireburden of these two duty cuts(made in Nov, 21 and yester-day) is borne by the Centre,"she said.

"The duty reduction madeyesterday has an implication ofRs 1,00,000 cr a year forCentre. The duty reductionmade in November'21 has animplication of Rs 1,20,000 cr ayear for Centre. Total revenueimplication to Centre, on thesetwo duty cuts is thus Rs2,20,000 cr a year."

Chidambaram had onSaturday evening stated thatthe cut in excise duty was"equal to rob Peter more & payPeter less!"

"FM's exhortation to Statesis meaningless. When she cutsCentral Excise by one rupee, 41paise of that rupee belongs tothe States," he had stated.

On Sunday, he retractedsaying contrary to what he hadsaid on Saturday "the entireburden of the reduction fallson the Centre. To that extent,I stand corrected."

Sitharaman said RBI data

shows total developmentalexpenditure incurred by theModi government during2014-22 was Rs 90.9 lakh crore.

"In contrast, only Rs 49.2lakh crore was spent on devel-opmental expenditure during2004-14." "The expenditureincurred by our Govt under@PMOIndia @narendramodiincludes Rs 24.85 lakh crorespent so far on food, fuel andfertiliser subsidies and Rs 26.3lakh crore on capital creation.Over the 10 years of UPA, onlyRs 13.9 lakh crore was spent onsubsidies," she added.

.�� �����/""0��� ��������� �����������%��������%������������������"����$��������� ����� ������

����� ��������

All logistics and connectivi-ty infrastructure projects,

entailing investment of over Rs500 crore, would now routethrough the network planninggroup (NPG) constituted underthe PM GatiShakti initiativewith the Finance Ministry issu-ing the necessary instructionsand creation of the nationalmaster plan digital platform, anofficial said.

According to an officememorandum of the depart-ment of expenditure dated April28, a revised format has beenissued for Public InvestmentBoard (PIB)/DelegatedInvestment Board (DIB) pro-ject proposals.

"The revised format of the

PIB/DIB memorandum...Willapply to all the PIB/DIB pro-posals for new projects sub-mitted on or after April 28,2022," it has said.

As per the revised format,proposals should includewhether the project has com-ponents of logistics or infra-structure connectivity; andwhether it has been examinedby NPG for convergence andintegration at the conceptuali-sation or feasibility study stage.

The PM GatiShakti planwas announced last year withan aim to break departmentalsilos and bring in more holis-tic and integrated planning andexecution of projects with aview to addressing the issues ofmulti-modal and last-mile con-nectivities.

.��������������� �������� � �� ��" �-���������� ������� ��������1���$�����0����1 ����� ��������

The Centre has constituted acommittee of 3 indepen-

dent experts to investigate thereasons for recent collapse of apart of under-constructiontunnel in Ramban on Jammu-Srinagar highway and suggestremedial measures.

State-owned NationalHighways Authority of India(NHAI) has already initiatedprocess to handle such emer-gency situation and also takingall possible measures to avoidsuch incidents in future, anofficial statement said onSunday. " A committee of 3independent eminent expertshas been constituted by thecentral government which hasalready moved to the site toinvestigate the reasons forslide/collapse and remedialmeasures thereof... Further

action will be taken based onreport of committee," it said.

According to the Ministryof Road Transport andHighways (MoRTH) officeorder, Professor J T Sahu of IITDelhi will be the chairman ofthe committee, and it will sub-mit the report to the ministrywithin 10 days.

According to the officialstatement, the stretch betweenDigdole and Khooni Nallah ofRamban Banihal section isprone to frequent landslideand shooting stones due tofragile geology.

Considering the strategicimportance of maintaining all-weather connectivity toSrinagar and after assessing thechallenges in ensuring stabili-ty of hill slopes on existingalignment, tunnels, viaductsare proposed under 3 packagesin Ramban-Banihal section, it

said."On 19.05.2022 around

10.30 to 11 PM, land slide andshooting of stones started whilethe execution of portal supportinstallation work of adit atKhooni Nallah was also beingdone. Before workers could bemoved out, suddenly huge rockmass fell above the false steelportal erected for constructionof adit which caved in leadingto trapping of 12 workers atthat spot," the statement said.

Senior NHAI officersimmediately reached the siteand rescue work was immedi-ately started by SDRF, NDRF,J&K Police, the statement saidadding two workers were res-cued immediately and werehospitalized; and all possiblemedical aid is being extendedto them.

It said the trapped workersdid not survive and bodies of

10 trapped workers were recov-ered by last Saturday evening.

Those whose life could notbe saved are being given work-man compensation and addi-tional ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh byEPC contractor which amountsto at least Rs 15 lakh.

The injured are also beingadequately compensated and inaddition, the UT administra-tion has announced ex-gratiarelief of Rs 1 lakh.

It is yet to be determinedwhether the incident occurreddue to work being executed ordue to natural reasons, thestatement added.

The twin tube tunnel workin 4-laning from Digdole toPanthyal on Jammu-Srinagarhighway was awarded toCeigall India Limited in JVwith Patel Engineering Limited.The construction work startedon February 1, 2022.

� ��� �'�����)*� �� ��#�� ������( ����� ������������ �������#�

���������������������� �������

Aimed at securing their mar-itime interests, India and

Bangladesh on Sunday com-menced the two-dayCoordinated Patrol(CORPAT)inthe Northern Bay of Bengal. Theexercise is taking place along theInternational MaritimeBoundary. Giving details of thejoint patrolling, Navy officialssaid here, it is the fourth editionof the Indian Navy-BangladeshNavy Coordinated Patrol (COR-PAT). The last CORPAT wasconducted in October 2020.Two indigenously built Indianwarships - Kora, a guided-mis-sile corvette and Sumedha, anoffshore patrol vessel are par-

ticipating in the exercise alongwith Bangladesh Navy ships AliHaider and Abu Ubaidah. Inaddition, maritime patrol aircraftof both navies would also be par-ticipating in the CoordinatedPatrol.

The regular conduct ofCORPATs has strengthenedmutual understanding andenhanced interoperabilitybetween both the navies incountering transnational mar-itime threats at sea.

Given the close ties betweenthe two countries, the IndianNavy and Bangladesh Navycooperate in various operationalengagements, which includebilateral exercise ‘BON-GOSAGAR’ and CORPAT. Shipsof the two Navies also visit eachother’s ports on a regular basis.

1�� ���*�������� ��/-��"��2!���� ����"��$�������

+��������,������)����-���,������������ ������������������2������&�������'� ���"��

Page 5: ?ZeZdY dVe e` UV_j CD eZT\Ve e` C4A - Daily Pioneer

������ ��!�"#���$ !�"�$ %&'�%(%% ��% ���.3

����� ���'&�

Defence Minister RajnathSingh on Sunday asked

stakeholders in the sector tofocus on being "self-reliant indefence technology while keep-ing pace with technology out-side".

During his visit to Nagpurin Maharashtra, Singh alsoasked defence commanders tofollow the correct maintenanceand operational practices withthe safety of personnel in mind,a release from a defencespokesperson said.

Air Marshal ShashikerChaudhary, AOC-in-CMaintenance Command, and

other dignitaries from civiland military establishmentsreceived Singh on his arrival atthe airport here.

Singh interacted with somedefence sector stakeholders atthe airport, the release said.

He was briefed about var-ious activities undertaken bydefence establishments, includ-ing the Army, the Air Force &defence PSUs, in this region, itsaid.

While addressing thedefence sector stakeholders,Singh advised them to focus onbeing "atmanirbhar (self-reliant) in defence technologywhile keeping pace with tech-nology outside".

����� ������2��&������'������3

Terming Arunachal Pradeshas a "jewel in India's

crown", Union Home MinisterAmit Shah on Sunday assertedthat people of the northeasternState bordering China are filledwith patriotism and greet eachother with 'Jai Hind' instead ofthe usual 'Namaste'.

Shah, while addressing arally after signing of aMemorandum ofUnderstanding (MoU) betweenthe Arunachal PradeshGovernment and the NationalDefence University (NDU) forthe establishment of a campusat Pasighat in East Siang dis-trict, said the institution willgive the youths of the State theopportunity to serve the coun-try.

"Whenever we come toArunachal Pradesh, we returnwith energy and patriotism.There is probably no otherplace in the country other thanArunachal Pradesh where peo-ple greet each other with 'Jai

Hind' instead of the usual'Namaste'," Shah said.

He said that after Gujarat,the second campus of the NDUwill be in Arunachal Pradesh.

"Prime Minister NarendraModi has established twofamous universities in thecountry – the National DefenceUniversity and the NationalForensic Science University.

"The defence universitywill create trained manpowerfor the army and paramilitaryforces. The youths ofArunachal Pradesh are notonly patriotic but also physi-cally fit. The institution willprovide them the opportunityto serve the nation," the Unionhome minister said.

He said projects worth Rs1,180 crore are either com-pleted or will be inauguratedsoon.

"A total of 33,466 familiesand 800 self-help groups in thestate were benefited throughvarious start-ups worth Rs 394crore, while 22 projects worthRs 436 crore have been com-pleted and inaugurated duringthe day and another 25 projectsworth Rs 350 crore would belaunched soon," he said.

Shah inaugurated and laidthe foundation for 40 projectsworth around Rs 1,000 croreduring the day.

He said the 2,000 MW

Lower Subansiri hydroelectricpower project will be opera-tional by 2023, and it will ben-efit the state immensely. Workon the 2,880 MW Dibang mul-tipurpose project, the biggest inthe world, will start soon whilethe 600 MW Kameng project isalready functioning.

Shah said that when ChiefMinister Pema Khanduassumed charge, the state'sannual budget was only Rs12,500 crore, but it has nowincreased to Rs 26,000 crore.Similarly, the state's GDP hasalso tripled to Rs 30,000 crorefrom Rs 10,000 crore.

"Around 3,000 villageshave 4G connectivity whileplans are afoot to expand it to1,680 more villages," he said.

Under the border villageillumination programme, workto provide street lighting to 700

villages is underway while con-struction of foot tracks in bor-der areas is also on, he said.

"When the country cele-brates 100 years ofIndependence, the states inNortheast will be at par interms of development withthose in other parts of thecountry," he said.

"For PM Modi, develop-ment should begin withArunachal Pradesh. Duringthe COVID-19 pandemic, hehad instructed that the vaccinesshould first be provided toArunachal Pradesh and nowthe state is free from the infec-tion," the Union home minis-ter said.

Shah, who laid the foun-dation of a 51-feet-bronze stat-ue of sage Parshuram atParshuram Kund in Lohit dis-trict on Saturday evening, saidthat the site has an immensepotential to attract tourists.

"Within five years,Parshuram Kund will becomea major tourist hub of thecountry with a railway line con-necting it. A survey is under-way for the project," he said.

Shah said that the NDAgovernment had started devel-opment initiatives in the stateand now it has good road, rail-way, air and digital connectiv-ity and soon, Itanagar will geta greenfield airport.

.���������/� ������)����-���� ����������(�������%4 %��5�� �6 ��7 ��%�����$5��'��%�+8�6�

���������3����� ������

Aslaughterhouse (kattighar)was being run illegally in

Chherat-based Hind AgroIndustries Limited. On thecomplaints that were comingfor several days, it was raidedby a joint team of police-administrative officers and thewhole game was caught.

The team arrested 37 peo-ple from the spot while illegal-ly slaughtering animals on theground and ignoring the rules.Illegal harvesting was beingdone here without ante-mortem and post-mortem. Itsvideo also went viral on socialmedia. The factory was run-ning closed for about 18 years.But recently got the license till2024. Apart from 37 arrested inthis case, factory owner SamarQureshi, production headAbdul Rauf and general man-ager Abid Qadeer are alsonamed as accused.

A team led by SDM KolSanjeev Ojha and CO CivilLines Shwetabh Pandeyreached Hind Agro IndustriesLimited. Here the police forcelaid siege and arrested 37 peo-ple from the spot. Here the

slaughter was being done ille-gally on the ground instead ofthe machine.

Along with this, the illegaldisposal of debris was alsofound. The meat of about 45animals and their remains andequipment have been recoveredfrom the spot. Sampling hasbeen done by calling the vetand the meat was destroyed.

According to SDM KolSanjeev Ojha, Hind AgroIndustries Chherat is lyingclosed since 2004. The factoryowner has given it on rent tothe contractor. Electricity con-nection has been cut due tonon-payment of outstandingbills. Buffaloes and manualslaughter of buffaloes werefound in the cattle slaughterhouse.

He told that the cattle werebeing slaughtered through fac-tory owner Samar Qureshi,Production Head Abdul Raufand General Manager AbidQadeer. During this time thevet was not in the factory.According to the rules, animalscan be slaughtered only fromeight to five in the morning, butthe factory owners were getting

the animals slaughtered atnight. Even three years ago, thisfactory was considered guilty ofspreading pollution. He saidthat the pollution control boardhas permission to open the fac-tory. License has also beenreceived till 2024.

A report has been regis-tered against 37 people in thepolice station under the AnimalCruelty Act, Prevention andControl of Pollution and thrFood Security Act. Theseaccused include Zubair, Suhail,Bilal, Suhail Miraj, RahatQureshi, Pappu Khan, Javid,Mohammad Kalim Qureshi,Sadab Qureshi, AdvocateQureshi, Salman Qureshi,Aleem Abbasi, Khalid Qureshi,Navi alias Navia, MohammadChhote Qureshi, AfsarQureshi, Wasim Qureshi. ,Kafeel Qureshi, HaseenQureshi, Raheesh Qureshi,Salman, Shanu Qureshi,Rizwan Qureshi, Afsar Ali,Imran Qureshi, Asif Qureshi,Sarfaz Qureshi, Alim Dhobi,Faisal Qureshi, TauseefQureshi, Ishtyaq Ahmed,Faizan Qureshi, Anas Qureshi,Irfan Qureshi , Asif Qureshiand Dilshad Rajput.

+�� ��������� ����� ����� ����,�������)-���� �� �

����� �&����

The Uttar PradeshGovernment on Sunday

made it clear that no neworder had been issued in theState regarding surrender orcancellation of ration cards.

Refuting misleading andfalse reports circulated in thisregard in a section of themedia, Food CommissionerSaurav Babu said that rationcard verification was a normalprocess and it took place fromtime to time. He said baselessreports were being circulatedregarding surrender of ration

cards and new eligibility crite-ria.

The food commissionerfurther clarified that the eligi-bility and ineligibility criteria ofhousehold ration cards wereascertained as per the govern-ment order (GO) datedOctober 07, 2014 and nochanges were made to it sincethen.

He also said that no rationcard holder could be declaredineligible on the basis of hav-ing a pucca house, electricityconnection, weapon licence,motorcycle owner, poultry/cowrearing farm.

) ����* � ���%� ������%#�%� �����# (����'�&�% �%+���� (��(�&���#,

����� ��� �

The CBI has filed an FIRagainst five members of

an advisory panel of the WestBengal School ServiceCommission in connectionwith its probe into allegedirregularities in recruitmentto Group C posts in state gov-ernment-aided schools, an offi-cial said on Sunday.

The central agency namedthe advisory committee's for-mer chairman Shanti PrasadSinha, SSC's ex-chairmanSoumitra Sarkar, commission'sformer secretary Ashok KumarSaha and its ex-programmingofficer Samarjit Acharya inthe FIR. It also mentionedKalyanmoy Ganguly, the pres-ident of the West Bengal Boardof Secondary Education in thefirst information report.

The CBI slapped charges ofcriminal conspiracy, cheatingand forgery against them, theofficial said.

The agency has asked thefive officials to submit "detailsof their bank balance andincome tax returns as well asdetails of properties they havepurchased in the names of

other people", the agency offi-cial said.

In its FIR, the centralagency also mentioned that theSSC advisory panel was formed"on the insistence" of the theneducation minister ParthaChatterjee, he said.

The development cameafter state minister PareshAdhikari was interrogated forthe third consecutive day onSaturday on the 'illegal"appointment of his daughter asa teacher in a government-aided school. The agency hadalso quizzed Chatterjee in con-nection with its investigationinto the alleged irregularities inrecruitment to schools.

Chatterjee, who is now theindustry and commerce min-ister of the Mamata Banerjeegovernment, was the educationminister when the alleged ille-gal appointments were made.

A division bench of theCalcutta High Court on May18 upheld a single bench orderfor CBI inquiry into "illegal"appointments made in gov-ernment-aided schools by theWest Bengal Board ofSecondary Education on therecommendations of the SSC.

�%(����"%#� �(�" �#-%#,�& �($��&�* .-��%,���%�� /�� �,��#�� 0

����� �������

Aportion of the newly con-structed Meghalaya

Legislative Assembly buildingcollapsed but there were noreported injury, officials said onSunday.

The 70 tonne dome of theRs 177.7 crore building con-structed by a UP-based UPN-RNNL collapsed at around12:30 am last night, they said.

According to an ExecutiveEngineer of PWD (Building)overseeing the constructions,the collapse could have beentriggered by a design fault.

"The weight of the steeldome was perhaps too muchfor the columns and the beamsto bear. This resulted in theentire structure coming down,"PWD Executive EngineerRansom Sutnga told PTI.

He said it would takeanother two weeks to clear thedebris.

The engineer who rushedto the site early morning, saidthat it would take at leastanother 8 months to raise anew dome structure.

$���������� ���#%3����� �����������%�)����%����"���

����� '&��

NCP chief Sharad Pawarhas said his party will sup-

port Sambhajiraje Chhatrapatior any other candidate chosenby the Shiv Sena in the upcom-ing polls to six Rajya Sabhaseats in Maharashtra.

Pawar was talking toreporters after meeting repre-sentatives some Brahmin com-munity organisations in Puneon Saturday.

The tenure of six RajyaSabha members fromMaharashtra — Piyush Goyal,Vinay Sahastrabuddhe andVikas Mahatme (all three fromthe BJP), P Chidambaram(Congress), Praful Patel (NCP)and Sanjay Raut (Shiv Sena)ends on July 4.

The polls are scheduled onJune 10. The BJP can win twoRajya Sabha seats with thenumber of MLAs it has, whilethe ruling allies Shiv Sena,Congress and NCP inMaharashtra can win a seateach. The contest will, there-fore, be for the sixth seat.

Sambhajiraje, a member

of the Kolhapur royal familyand descendant of ChhatrapatiShivaji Maharaj, was earlier aPresident-nominated memberof the Upper House ofParliament.

He recently announcedthat he would contest the nextelection to the Rajya Sabha asan independent candidate, andappealed to all parties to backhim. To a query from reportershere on Saturday, Pawar said,"Two years ago, we haddemanded two seats (in theRajya Sabha) and we got those.But, this time, we will get oneseat."

����� '&��

MNS chief Raj Thackerayon Sunday claimed that

political developments aroundhis proposed Ayodhya visitwere a ploy to "trap" his partyworkers into legal tangles andhence, he decided to defer histrip to the Uttar Pradesh city.

Addressing an indoor rallyat a hall in Pune city ofMaharashtra, Thackeray saidhe has to undergo a surgery onJune 1 and after recoveringfrom it, he would again addressa public meeting.

He reiterated that the MNSworkers will resume agitationif loudspeakers atop mosquesdo not follow the noise rules.Thackeray had earlier asked hispartymen to play 'HanumanChalisa' outside mosqueswhere loudspeakers play

'azaan'.Amid the controversy over

an AIMIM leader's recent visitto Mughal ruler Aurangzeb'stomb in Aurangabad city ofMaharashtra, the MNS leaderappealed to Prime MinisterNarendra Modi-led Centre tochange the name ofAurangabad to Sambhaji Nagar

and to bring the Uniform CivilCode.

Taking a swipe at NCPchief who had addressed arally braving rain before theMaharashtra Assembly polls in2019, Thackeray said, "We wereplanning a gathering in anopen space, but considering thepossibility of rain, we decided

to hold it indoors. Also, thereare no elections nearby tostand in rain for giving aspeech."

On Maharashtra ChiefMinister Uddhav Thackerayrecently slamming the BJP's"fake Hindutva", the MNS pres-ident said, "The CM claimedtheir Hindutva is real. Arethey talking about a washingpowder, like who's detergent isbetter than the other?"

He claimed the MNS hasshown "results" on the issue ofHindutva, in the wake of hisparty's protest against loud-speakers on mosques.

On Friday, Raj Thackerayhad announced that his visit toAyodhya scheduled on June 5has been put on hold for now,and said he would share thedetails about it during hisSunday rally in Pune.

. ' �� ��,�������(��������� ( ��#� �������������� � �#����������#/��0%� �� ��������� �������� �1�����$��� ���

����� ������2�<3

Bihar Police has allegedlydemolished nine huts in

West Bengal's Malda districtalong the inter-State boundaryand also beaten up several res-idents including women whenthey protested the drive, offi-cials said on Sunday. Malda dis-trict administration claimedthe incident happened inSadlichak gram panchayat areain Harishchandrapur 2 blockon the West Bengal side of aroad that marks the inter-stateborder on Friday night andbulldozers were used to demol-ish the huts.

"Nine houses belonging tothree families have beendemolished in West Bengal.

Higher authorities have beeninformed and the matter wasdiscussed with the Katihar dis-trict administration of Bihar,"Malda District MagistrateRajarshi Mitra said.

The uprooted people, whoclaimed to have been residingon the government land forgenerations, lodged a policecomplaint and alleged that aTMC supporter GaneshPramanik had bribed BiharPolice personnel to carry outthe demolition drive to clearthe land which shares borderwith his property.

They alleged that Pramanikfrequently quarrelled with theaffected people asking them tovacate the government land.

"We are living under the

open sky and are drenched inrain and haven't eaten food asBihar Police destroyed ourstocks. We need help," anaffected person said.

Maldaha Uttar BJP MPKhagen Murmu, who visitedthe spot, said, "This village andthe mouza falls within WestBengal. Bihar is on the otherside of the road. All of a sud-den without any provocation,Bihar Police demolished thesehuts on the West Bengal side."

"These poor people havebeen living here for decades. Ihave come to know that adja-cent to the land on whichthese demolished huts stood,there are lands of some TMCmembers and they wanted thearea to be cleared and bribed

-�$�� �&�(% �((��%� �' �%"�&��$�#,#�#% $��� �# -%#,�&1� ��&�� ������(������ �&����

Assam Director General ofPolice (DGP) Bhaskar Jyoti

Mahanta on Sunday said thatthe in-charge of Batadravapolice station, which was burntdown on the previous day bylocals over allegations of cus-todial death, has been sus-pended. Mahanta also claimedthat those involved in the burn-ing down of the police stationwith criminal records in itwere not grieving relatives ofthe deceased but were history-sheeters, and asserted that thiswas not a simple action-reac-tion incident and there is muchmore to it.

"We take this unfortunatedeath very seriously and haveput the OC of Batadrava policestation in Nagaon district onsuspension. If there is any foul

play at our end, we mean tofind that and punish the guiltyaccording to law. No two waysabout it," he said.

Narrating the incident in along Facebook post on theDGP's official page, Mahantasaid that 39-year-old SafiqulIslam was brought to the policestation at 9.30 PM on May 20after receiving a complaint ofhim being in a drunken state.

"He was in fact lying on apublic road before he wasbrought in. He was bookedafter a medical check-up. Thenext day he was released andhanded over to his wife. His wifeeven gave him some water/food.

"Later he complained ofsickness and he was taken totwo hospitals, one after anoth-er. Unfortunately, he wasdeclared dead," he said.

After this, a mob had set

ablaze the police station andseveral two-wheelers onSaturday afternoon alleging thatthe fish trader died due topolice torture. Speaking aboutthe violence, Mahanta said,"What took place later that day,we all know. Some local bad ele-ments took law into \their ownhands and burnt down the thana.These bad elements came in allforms — women, men, youngand old. But the preparednesswith which they came, the fero-cious and organised attack theystaged on the police force hasmade us think deeper."

The DGP asserted thatAssam Police does not thinkthe attackers were grieving rel-atives of the deceased, but as ithas identified "they were badcharacters and their relativeswith criminal records that werewithin the thana.

/�����"��������� �����������������)�����,1�

.��������������� 3 ���������,� �������������%�+�-������������������ �

����� �&����

In yet another milestonetowards creating a transpar-

ent mechanism after furtherstrengthening good governanceby expanding procedures likedirect benefit transfer (DBT)and extending online servicesto crores of beneficiaries, UttarPradesh also became the firstState in the entire country tomake the proceedings of theLegislative Assembly com-pletely digital and paperless.

Giving this informationhere on Sunday evening, aGovernment spokesmanclaimed that right from thetime Chief Minister YogiAdityanath came to power inUttar Pradesh after securing alandslide victory in 2017, therehas been a huge emphasis onintroducing technology in thefunctioning of the governmentand bringing in transparency.

Leaving no stone unturnedto make India’s most populousState truly a digital State, ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath inau-gurated the National e-VidhanApplication (NeVA) servicecentre at the State Assembly’spremises in the presence ofSpeaker Satish Mahana earlieron Thursday, the spokesmanadded while claiming that UPwas the first State to do so.

Now, under e-Vidhan (dig-italisation/digitisation of legis-latures) initiative, the MLAswill have electronic tabletsinstalled on their desks in theassembly to continually updatethem about the proceedings ofthe House, the questions takenup and their answers, agenda ofthe day, notices, etc. Also, theassembly will have fixed seatsfor each of the 403 members.

Moreover, it goes withoutsaying that for a state tobecome fully digitised, the

process of payments and trans-actions over digital platforms isthe backbone of the movement.

In this sequence, variousgovernment services have beenmade available online by theYogi Adityanath governmentin the last five years. At present,as per the National GovernmentServices Portal, about 178 ser-vices are available online inUttar Pradesh. Uttar Pradesh isamongst the best performingstates in the country in using theDBT system for the beneficia-ries to get the benefits of gov-ernment schemes directly intotheir bank accounts.

To strengthen the vision ofminimum government andmaximum governance, moreand more government schemesare being made available online.For the convenience of women,female students, senior citi-zens, farmers, athletes in gettingfinancial assistance in the form

of scholarships, grants, pension,medical aid or under schemeslike PM-Kisan Samman Nidhi,technology has been put in useto eliminate the role of touts,thereby eradicating corruption.From the year 2017 till now, theUttar Pradesh government hasset a record and has trans-ferred more than Rs 3 lakh croreto the beneficiaries throughDBT. In the year 2020-21 alone,a sum of Rs 56,000 crore hadreached the bank accounts ofthe beneficiaries. In pursuanceof the directives of ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath, asmany as 137 schemes of 27 gov-ernment departments have beenlinked to this system. Besides,during COVID-19 crisis, lakhsof farmers, MGNREGA bene-ficiaries, labourers, workers,women, old and disabled citi-zens and pensioners were pro-vided benefits without anydelay in a hassle-free manner.

�������'��"������(�(�������

����� �&����

Welcoming the Centre’sdecision to slash the excise

duty on petrol and diesel besidesgiving relief on LPG cylindersconnections sanctioned underUjjwala Scheme, Bahujan SamajParty chief Mayawati on Sundaysaid it was now the duty of StateGovernments, including that ofUttar Pradesh, to immediatelyannounce a similar cut in thevalue-added-tax (VAT) on fuel.

In a tweet in Hindi,Mayawati said: "After a longtime, the Centre has given somerelief, by reducing charges onpetrol- diesel, to the peoplewho were forced to live a mis-erable life due to rising inflation,poverty, unemployment and

stress. Now, it is the responsi-bility of Uttar Pradesh and otherstates to follow the advice of theCentre and immediately reduceVAT (on diesel and petrol)."

“Similarly, the Central andstate governments, while sacri-ficing their political interest,should pay attention to nation-al problems, which are becom-ing serious day-by-day, so thatlife can normalise,” the formerchief minister of Uttar Pradeshsaid in another tweet. Petrolprice on Sunday was slashed byRs 8.69 a litre and that of dieselby Rs 7.05 per litre following thegovernment’s decision to cutexcise duty on auto fuels, givingrelief to consumers battered byhigh fuel prices that had pushedinflation to a record high.

���� ��������%��� �2�(������ ��� �3,$����'� �

+$�"����2����""� ����%������������������%$����$�������%����#�

Page 6: ?ZeZdY dVe e` UV_j CD eZT\Ve e` C4A - Daily Pioneer

the family have only served tolight a torch to an alreadyexplosive situation. The dis-covery of a fleet of some of theworld’s most expensive auto-mobiles, including Ferrarisand Lamborghinis, hasn’texactly been a positive adver-tisement for responsiblebehaviour, let alone good gov-ernance.

If one talks to a Sinhalascholar or journalist, he maywell begin by blaming thecost of Lanka’s civil war withits Tamils. He would not admitthat the Tamils have been ineastern Sri Lanka since thebeginning of civilisation. Ifirst visited the country in1964, and could soon there-after sense that the Sinhala jeal-ousy towards the Tamils wasnoticeably intense. For exam-ple, my father-in-law predict-ed that the next chief executiveof the British CeylonCorporation (like the BritishIndian Corporation atKanpur) would be Pereira andnot Swamidasan, who wasmore competent. The formerwas a Sinhala. The latter sub-sequently migrated toAustralia. This was less thaneven the tip of the iceberg.

The other bias that themajority Sinhalas have har-boured has been towards

Hindus. Indians, therefore,would be well advised to gen-erally field a north Indian andcertainly avoid a Tamil oreven a Malayali when it comesto official dealings with Lanka.Some thinking Sinhalas appre-hend that it is not ruled outthat, sooner or later, TamilNadu could pressure NewDelhi to act against Sinhalainterests.

The dark clouds hoveringover Sri Lanka were visible asearly as 2020 when the globalpandemic struck. Internationalrating agencies like Standard &Poor’s and later Moody’sdowngraded Sri Lanka’s long-term sovereign credit ratings.These global agencies hadraised the issue of the SriLankan Government’s fiscalhealth and its ability to servicethe debt it had incurred fromthe World Bank andInternational Monetary Fund(IMF). The Ukraine war hasworsened things for theEmerald Isle.

The crisis there needsurgent succour and India mustdecide how far it wants to goin order to help. For the record,the new Prime Minister hasalready voiced hisGovernment’s priority of fur-thering relations with India.Secondly, Colombo must per-

suade its creditors to waitpatiently, so that what Indiasends would be of help toLanka’s future rather thanapplying balm to its past. Indiacould then offer that propor-tion of Sri Lanka’s future needswhich the island country canearn and utilise to pay back.We have mentioned the mutu-al stake in the Indian Ocean.Both countries must protecteach other’s interest in this vastpond. This ought to include aSri Lanka administration beingmore sympathetic to the peo-ple of Jaffna. Any Indianloan(s) should ideally be foruse to procure all or anygoods/items from India. Weare capable of supplying any-thing from butter to guns.

The Sinhalas are a frank,friendly and pleasure-lovingpeople and not very money-minded. As was revealed by ascholar in Kolkata, while KarlMarx had said that “religion isthe opium of the masses”, aloan is the opium of the class-es. It is in this innocent spritthat the Sri Lankas have bor-rowed money. Any new lendershould be conscious of this.

(The writer is a well-known columnist, anauthor and a former memberof the Rajya Sabha. The viewsexpressed are personal.)

������������ ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �����! ������������� "���������������#����#����������������������������������������������#����� ���� ���������������#�����

����������������������������������������������������������� ����������� ��##�������������������������� ���������������������������� ������������������������������������!$������������������������"��#������������������� ���� ������� #������������� ������������������������������������ "��� �����������#���������������������������������������������%���������������������������������������&�����������������������������������������������������������������������������'��

(�����)����������������#���������������������&����������������� ��������������� ��������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������������������������&��������������������� ����������# �� ��������������������� ��������� �#������������*����������'+,������ ����������������������������������������������������������-���� ��� ��� ���������������� ����������������������������� �����������������

.����#� ��������������������� ����������� �� ����������'������+����/��������� ��� �.�������0�� �������� ��� �� 1�233&��� ���� � ��� ������� �����������������'+,"� ������������� ���������-���#��

�������������������������������"������� �������� ��"� ��������� ��������� �%�����"�(����/���������������������"� ������������������##�������������� �������������������#� �������� ���������������������������������������������� ������������������������������ ������������������)����������� ���������������������������������������������� ����� "������ ������#���������������#�������� �����'��� ���������4������������������� ������ ��� ������ � ��������������##������'+,��������� ����������������� ���#��������������5� ������������������##������� ������ ���������.#�������������� ��"������������� ������������������� ������ ���������������� ������##������� ���� �����������#�����&�� #���.����������(� ������������������ ����������������������������������6�������������������� �������� ��� ���������������#�,������������������� � ���&������� ���������'+,"�������7���

�����������������#������� ������� ��������������������������� ��%�����&�����!������#�*�� "�8��*9�����������������������(�����������������������#������������������������������� �#������������������#� �������� � �����&

���� ���������������#�����#���& ������������������������������������� ��������� ��������������#������������� ������������*�����������)����������#������������������� ���������������� ��������#�������������������#���������������������������������������������������)����������������������������������&���������#���: �����#�������� ������������������������#�������*�������������������������������#�������� ����������������������������������������������������� ���������������������������� �������������#���������������#������&

����������������������������������������������������������������������������� �����.������� ��23�333&;3�333� ������� ������� ���� � ����� <��������������������������������#�������������������� ����������������������� ������������ ����������� ���� ���� �� ���#� ���� ��� ������ ���� ��������������' ��������������������#������������������������������������������*���������#� �����&������� �� ��� ��� �� ������� ����� ���� ������������� �����#��������������������: �������������������������: ���������������������������&�� ������������������� ����������������������

���� ������ �����������#������������������������������������������������������������� ��������������������*���� �������.������#�����#

������� ���������������������������������������������������� ��������� ��������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������#�������#���� ����������������������&03���������������������������� ���������������&��#����������������������������� ����������#������� ������ ����������������� ������������������������������4����#����#������������������������� ��������������������##�����������������������������#�������� ��#��������� ��������4����������������&������������������������� �����������������������������4����������<�������&�����#�#���������������������������������������������������������������=�������*��������������&������������� ��������������������������#���������=����������������������������������� ����������#��� ����� �#����������������4���������������&����������������������������������������������' ����������������������������������&���� �� ����������������#��� ����������������<����������*���������������������������������������� =�.������������������������������������������������������������ =�6�����*���������������#�������� ������������#��������������������������������������#���& �������������������������������������� ������4������������������������������������������������������ ����������

0����������

���������������������Sir — The SSC (School ServiceCommission) scam in Bengal has raisedquestions about the State Government’scredibility. It has exposed the deep-root-ed corruption and nepotism under theMinisters who were allegedly involved inGroup C teacher recruitment racket. TheCBI investigation ordered by the CalcuttaHigh Court against former EducationMinister Partha Chatterjee and otherministers over graft charges will damagethe TMC’s reputation beyond repair. It’s ashame that 221 candidates, who never tookthe SSC exam, are now working at differ-ent Government-aided schools. They areplaying with the future of students afterruining the chances of deserving candi-dates.

The Calcutta High Court has set agood precedent by ordering EducationMinister Parsh Adhikary’s daughter to dis-continue her job and return the salaryearned. Similar action awaits those who gotjobs after greasing the palms of corrupt offi-cials and Ministers. The scam, which hascropped up recently, will further delay theSSC exam announced by the Government.The CBI investigation is likely to open acan of worms as Partha Chatterjee is justthe tip of an iceberg. After the Sharada chitfund scam, the TMC Government are nowtrapped in alleged irregularities in teach-ers’ recruitment.

Janga Bahadur Sunuwar | Jalpaiguri

��� �������������������Sir — While allowing a petition for theremoval of the Shahi Idgah mosque, aMathura court has observed that thePlaces of Worship (Special Provisions) Act,1991, was not applicable in the KrishnaJanmabhoomi-Shahi Idgah case as thecompromise decree dividing the disputedland was signed in 1968, long before thelaw was enacted. The Act will not be applic-able in this case by virtue of Section 4(3)(b)of the 1991 Act, which states that the barunder Section 4 will not apply to any suit,appeal or other proceeding, with respect

to any matter referred to in sub-section (2)to finally decide, settle or dispose of by acourt, tribunal or other authority before thecommencement of this Act.

The judgment proves that our judicialsystem is on the right path. Unnecessarilydefaming the judicial system, people don’tunderstand the position judges and lawyersoften find themselves in. India is a deeplyreligious country, where even a small linecan cause a riot; it’s our duty to maintainthe dignity of the judges of our countrywho are trying to bring about peace. Nowthere is no need for God’s incarnation; hisdevotees are ready to fight for His rights.

Vinay Verma |Ujjain

�����������������������Sir — Whoever has deeply studied thepolitical relationship between the US andthe UK, will find that Britain is actually notonly a reliable partner of the US, but it isalmost a part of the US though not locat-ed in America. From British PM MargaretThatcher to John Major, Tony Blair toGordon Brown to David Cameron, they

all used to almost obey the White Housediktats. In the US, Jimmy Carter to RonaldReagan, and George Bush to DonaldTrump used to make foreign policy deci-sions while London used to bow its headand just say ‘Yes Sir’.

I have never seen any tension betweenthese countries. But on Thursday, USHouse Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a warn-ing to London, which surprised me. TheUS has explicitly stated that the unilater-al UK legislation affecting the NorthernIreland Protocol could jeopardise Britishprospects for a free trade agreement withthe US. The Northern Ireland Protocol wasthe result of negotiations with the EuropeanUnion on how to maintain a frictionlessborder between Ireland and the post-BrexitEU customs borders. But America, forget-ting the past, has issued a strict warningto Britain. Hope the Londoners will comeon the back foot.

Jang Bahadur Singh | Jamshedpur

� . � " � � & ) 1 2 � � . � � ) ! �

2223���&!+��#%%�3(�"-���*!!�1�!#�%��� .�!"�����B 6 ������ '�!"�����B �"���$��#1�!#�%��� .�!"����

������ ��!�"#���$ !�"�$ %&'�%(%%

.9

$����%%�� � �������������""�!)"%4�%#��!5$6 ��&7%6�

.�3������33�4$� ����� �����������%��(���'��� ��������� ��#������������� � ����� �#����� ���������'�����

�1���45

.����#���������� � ����� ����������� ���������#�������� "�������2��� ���"������������ "�� )�

��� ��������;������ �=

��'�����'������ ���������

��>�'���A������ ��������������<�� � ��<=�����<���������������< ��;�����������'��'��� �����

������������=�������<���������=�������

�����!� �2���6���*1�2!

��/)44 �2!�*1�$� �,��������������� ������ ����'��� ���������'���*� ����$�����'�.����

����+.��#���!+�����������"��������%���C��!"��!�+"������������+����"����.����!-����� �"(�.������1� ������������*��"����"�C

-����%��!�����%��������4+%$���"�5���"����-�!#������(���4+%$��2��"�!��%�(���!"31� �������!"���*���"%���������"�-���������������"�!���"%��/.�C���"��%�4+%������!--����������!���������������"� (���� !-� ���� �!#.��/������ �"%� ��"����(�� �"(!�(�%1� ����!+�� �!#�"$� �"� ���� �� � !-�+���#��-!���������*�+��!"�*�-!��������0�����.�/��!+�������!�%���%�-!������.�!�����!"�!-

���(��"$�%��.������$+#�"��-�!#������+���#��%�������������!"� ���-!+"���"0�"!������"$�#1�����"������� ��!�.�!��������+"����������%���%C�%��������������������(��"$�!����-!+"���"1�

����+.��#���!+����������%������"��������+����!��!#��!+�1�'�!.��������"�����%��!��"!�������+��1�"��������$��%0������+.��#���!+����������%����.�!.�����(!���1� ����!+������#�%����������������)������������"#�"��!-��������$�!+������������!-���.����������.�!����+C����"���+#�"��#� �"!��-����-!+��!-������!"�D!��8�!-�����'������!-��!����.����0�7EE7,1� ���+�����#��"���"�*���� ����"!��*��"$�%���%�%�������"��������+���#�.�"�����"��������!##��C��!"����� �..!�"�#�"�� �!� *�� ���%� (!�%� �������1�-��+���#����"�����$+��������������/����"!� ��"%+� ��#.��� !�� %��� � �"� ����#!�F+���(���"�� 0� ��� ��!+�%�%!������ �!� -���������� ����.�����!"�����"��������!����.1�

������"� ! 6 � ��8���� �����

�������������������� !�

$� ����� ���� �����4�����#�������

Now that a responsibleand experiencedreplacement for theunpopular and forcibly

ousted Prime Minister MahindaRajapaksa has been appointed, itis time for Sri Lanka to decidehow it wants to recoup the cur-rent economic depression. Onthe television, RanilWickremesinghe, the new PrimeMinister, has stated that he has arevival plan. He has some cred-ibility because of his track record,as well as his having served as thePM five times. What role Indiawishes to play is for South Blockto decide; I personally do feel thatIndia should try and play a sig-nificant role in Sri Lanka, espe-cially because of its geopoliticalsituation. Both New Delhi andColombo are aware that India hasa 7,500-km coastline in theIndian Ocean. On the otherhand, Sri Lanka is strategically atthe southern end of the Indianpraayadweep (peninsula).

Coming to the current situ-ation in our southern islandneighbour, there is an unalienablelaw and order scenario with SriLanka’s citizens in open conflictwith security forces. I have visit-ed Sri Lanka four times in mylifetime and am somewhat famil-iar with the political and ethnicissues there, but I must admit thatthe torching of recently deposedPM Mahinda Rajapaksa’s ances-tral home in Hambantota by amob has come as a bit of a shockas people there are generally anamiable and easygoing lot.However, keeping cordiality isdifficult when one has to wage adaily struggle merely to survive;in Sri Lanka’s case, the countryhas been suffering prolongedpower cuts (up to eight hours aday in several parts of the coun-try, according to several reports),lack of food and inflated cost ofall essential items.

Most international agencieshave severely downgraded thecountry’s sovereign ratings andits foreign exchange has fallen,too. Sri Lanka, even in happiertimes, lived mainly on tea, rub-ber, coconut and tourism as themain revenue earners.Moreover, the ruling Rajapaksadynasty’s profligate ways andallegations of corruption against

SOUNDBITE�(�� ���$�!"�����"$+�$���"�����!+"�� �����!����!����..�"$1

�!�6����#�)"�!G�����"%����!%�

�+�������!"��2>H0��������DI93�#�������%�--��+���-!��+���!�!�%���%���!$+������"%��1

� 9��%!��$#���#�)"�!G�<�������<�+��!�J��%���

'+��� ��"%��#.��� ����������!����"$������������!��%������ "��%��#!���!-1

�7"%!G���4�+##�����!

����������������������������������1��#-����"$�*������*+�"!�-+�+���.��"�� ��1

���� �+ !%#G�"%��"���+���4��

�����%���..!�"��%��������(�"���%!"�#+���-!��# ����#1 �����������*!�����#�0�"!�����������1

�#�� #�7!�79�"�!G�5�����!���

����"��������!"�!-���"��0��"%��/.����"��%0��!(��"#�"���"���������"%�"���!"��������*�"$���!-�$!!%����"$�0��"%�"%���#+�����"%������.�"$���"%

Page 7: ?ZeZdY dVe e` UV_j CD eZT\Ve e` C4A - Daily Pioneer

Bihar BJP and MD, AsianPharmaceutical Ltd, refused to buyHussain's optimism. Talking to thiswriter, Kumar said that in a statewhere a single road takes at least 10years to be built, industrialization isat best a leap of faith.

Acquisition of land fragmentedinto small holdings will be the great-est hurdle. Illustrious peasant lead-ers of yore Swami SahajanandSaraswati and Sir Ganesh Dutta hadtried to consolidate the land buttheir efforts were frustrated by theerstwhile govt which fragmented bigchunks of land into small acreagesand distributed among people oncaste lines.

Today, thousands of farmers willhave to be aggregated for land forsingle industry.The question of lawand order is forever an intimidatingone.

But Hussain found a cheerleader in Ajay Kumar, a renownedUrologist in Patna and former pres-ident of Indian Medical Association(IMA). He said Hussain is sincerein his intent and has raised hopesof industries dawning on Bihar. Headvised Hussain to put his energyin roping in Bihar owned pharma-ceutical honchos and bring themhome for investing in the state. Ifonly Bihari pharmaceutical honchosproducing medicines outside cometo state to manufacture, the statewould turn into a pharma hub in notime. Over 120 Bihari pharma lead-ers, many of them majors, manufac-

ture medicines outside Bihar. Theirony is that Biharis are the biggestconsumer of medicines but strange-ly enough not a single pharma com-pany representative made it to theInvestors Meet. Hussain made a fer-vent appeal to them in their absen-tia to come home to invest.

Unwittingly echoing Chiefminister Nitish Kumar,Shahnawaz himself dubbed indus-trialization of the state as impos-sible when he said that his partyalways assigns him impossibletasks and he was never foundwanting. Nitish Kumar not longago said without pretence thatBihar being landlocked is unfit forindustrialization.

Hussain said Prime MinisterNarendra Modi has mandatedhim to pull out all stops to bringindustries to Bihar and he has hisfull blessings. The ethanol planthas been a dream of Modi andBihar emerged as the first state totake it up. Textile and leatherpolicies are in the offing and oncethey are in place, investment pro-posals will pour in. Food Park,Mega Textile Park, Logistic Park,leather parks are in the pipeline.

MOUs are flaunted in anyInvestors' meet but they were con-spicuous by near absence. Hussainrationalised it by saying that themeet was organised just to fathomthe interests of industrialist. Theinterest they evinced was palpable.Hussains goodwill in the media

was equally palpable which sparedhim many blushes. The roughedges around gaps in InvestorsMeet were safely put on the backburner. Questions around CMNitish Kumar could have queeredthe pitch. The absence of NitishKumar itself was tricky issue.

However, Hussain must begiven credit for creating buzzaround an issue which has alwaysbeen a no go in Bihar. Making aspectacle of over 170 companiesout of which 30 were majors in dif-ferent domains is not a meanachievement. It certainly speaks avolume about Hussain's capabili-ty create event and must haveraised his stock among BJP lead-ers. But he should also hedge hisbets as such shows might havetriggered his detractors in theparty into action. To his credit,theprohibition questiondid not rearits head.

Giving it a reel touch, Hussainsaid the era of Prakash Jha'sfamous Gangajal had unarguablybeen replaced by that of GoodNewz, a recent hit film about treat-ment of infertility through assist-ed birthing technology IVF (InVitro Fertilization) meaning out ofwomb. The resemblance is spot onas the Investors Meet to turn theindustrially sterile Bihar into amanufacturing hub was also heldin Delhi, i.e., outside Bihar.Thevenue itself was pregnant withmeaning.

!�����������������15������ �� ����� �6

����������-����:������������;���������������������� ������� ������������������ �� �����������<��&=��������������� ����������������

���>2�������������>���������� ����-���������������������-�>��������>������ �������������>�������?��������������������>2�&

=��� ��������������� ���

�������������������������#����� ��������������+����� �0300�����(����������>1�>>�� ���������*���������?0���+����� �0300��������������������������������������.��?;���@� �0300�����

�������������#�������������&����������#�>>�A?�� ���������������������#�>;�BA�� �����������*�

������������������������������ �����6��������������������� �23������������������ ���������#�����*������������������6���� ������������������� ����������� ������#���������������������������� ��� ��������������#�����*���������#�����#�#���� �������������������?�2��������������#���#�������������������������������������������� �� ���������#������� �����������������%��������&#�#����#������C���������������������������� ������������'�������#�����(���&���������������������������������� �����������������������������������&����������������#��������033A������������������������� ���#�D?01�>3������� ����0300���������������������� ������ ��#�������*���������������������������������������������������#������#�������

�����������������������?3� ������ ���#�1�1E��#�)*,����� ��������&�� ��������������#��������������<��������������+������������������������������������� ������ ��������� �����������#�������������������������������� ��##�����������������#��������������������� �����������%���������������

,��#����� ������ ����������������������������##��������������&��������������������������##��������������������������#����������������������������� ������������������#���������##����� ����������#����� �� ������������������F��������������������������������� ��&���� �������� ������������#�� ������6�������� ��������������������#���������� ��������������������� ��������������������������������#� ���� (���&�������� ���� ���� �� �� ����� ��������� ��� ����������#���������� ��#��������#��#��������� ���������� �� �������������&��6���� ��#����������������������#������������#��#� ����������,�����������8,�9������������������ �������������������������� ���&���������������������#��� ����������������� ������%� ���������� �����&� �����������������#����������������������������&������� ��<��������������������#���������������������������&������� ���#�?2�?E����%����0300�������������������������?G�;E����@�����0300�%��������#��&�������������� ��������������� �� ������������������������ �������������������� �����������*�

��������������#�� ��#����������������(������'�����#��������������������� ���� ���������#�#���� ��������������D;G0�2��������#���� ��(���������#���������D2B>�>�����������������#������ ���������������������#������������ �#���� ��(�����������(������'�����#���������������������������������� �G3���������������� �� �#���GE����G�G3E�����((����������� �23�����������8G�2E9��������&�����#����������� �����#����� �������6������������������������������������������������������������������� ��#��������##������������� &�������#�������������������������������%��.�������������������������&������������������������#��������������������� ��������� �������&���������#�������#�������� ������ ��

����� ��� ��������� ����������� ����������� ��� ����������� ��������������������������������������������������������������� ������������!�������"�#��$��"�����#����%��!�����#�����&!�����'����(%!��"��)���*��������������������(+

������ ��!�"#���$ !�"�$ %&'�%(%%

.:2223���&!+��#%%�3(�" -���*!!�1�!#�%��� .�!"�����B 6 ������ '�!"�����B �"���$��#1�!#�%��� .�!"����

FIRSTCOLUMN12"��.5�"��!���5�""2)11)�+�.''61) "�'!&

POINTCOUNTERPOINT

����6�7 ���!

,���� ������������������������������������

���� �����'��� ����

<������������;��������

<�������������

���;�� � � �� �� �� �&'1� �? ��������� ���'����������� ����;;����������� ��=������'����0�5�� ��� '��'�����

����'�&���1;����'��0

����� �? ��'��0����� �'��0���� ���'��������� ���''����

(The writer is a journal-ist who has served for

long in Bihar. The viewsexpressed are personal.)

The temple economy is aslarge as the Indian budgetand is sustaining the

country. Its contours across reli-gious denominations - Hindu,Muslim and Christians - aremuch wider than expected. It ischanging the society and itsfinancial parameters.

The NSSO survey estimatesthat temple economy is worth Rs3.02 lakh crore or about $40 bil-lion and 2.32 percent of GDP. Inreality it may be larger. Itincludes everything from flow-ers, oil, lamps, perfumes, ban-gles, sindur, images and pujadresses. It is driven by the vastmajority of informal unprotect-ed labour.

The 2022-23 Central gov-ernment revenue is Rs 19,34,706crore and mere six temples col-lected Rs 24000 crore in cashalone. There are 5 lakh temples,

7 lakh mosques and 35,000churches in this country. Topofficials as devotees give a kick.

Donations for the RamTemple in Ayodhya collected in2021 is Rs 5450 crore, almostequal to Rs 5000-crore defencebudget. It surpassed the collec-tion in the first phase.

Others are TirumalaTirupati, Rs 3023 crore; VaishnoDevi, Rs 2000 crore, Ambaji, Rs4134 crore (Rs 5163 crore in2019-20), Dwarkadhish, Rs 1172crore, Somnath, Rs 1205 crore,Golden Temple, Rs 690 crore.Kamakhya temple in Guwahati,Krishna Janmabhoomi inMathura, Banke Bihar Mandirin Vrindavan, Padmanabhamandir, Siddhivinayak mandirand Kashi Vishvanath mandirhave similar large earnings.Gold donations at different tem-ples vary from 130 kg at Tirupati

to 380 kg at Shirdi.The Pew Global Attitude

survey shows that more than 25percent of Indians reported hav-ing become more religious overthe past four-five years. Between2007 and 2015, the share ofrespondents in India who per-ceived religion to be very impor-tant increased by 11 percent to80 percent now.

Ram Mandir movementand the court verdict has beena game changer. It has poured in

huge funding into a region thatwas one of the most backward.It boosted funding for mosquesand Islamic shrines too. Duringpandemic the silent real estateboom took place in Ayodhya,Varanasi, Vindhyachal,Mirzapur and Mathura. Landprices soared in the most back-ward places. The premium onland is unprecedented.

Whether religious activi-ties can sustain such placeswould be interesting to observe.The enthusiasm is high butwould it surpass the next indus-trial revival?

The domestic religioustourism is surpassing the num-ber of foreign visitors. Over 100crore domestic visits to new des-tinations suggest there is churn-ing beyond Delhi-Agra-Jaipurgolden triangle.

The NSSO figures suggest

that 55 percent of Hindusundertake religious pilgrim-ages patronizing mid and smallsized hotels. Expenses on reli-gious travel are Rs 2,717 perday/person, expenses on socialtravel, Rs 1,068 per day/person,expenditure on educationaltravel, Rs 2,286 per day/person.That comes to expenditure onreligious travel of Rs 1316 croreper day and an annual expen-diture on religious travel of Rs4.74 lakh crore

This NSSO data says thatIndians do more pilgrimagethan business trips and spendmore on pilgrimage than trav-eling for education purposes.

The government haschalked out religious circuittourism. The Ramayana circuitis over the life philosophy ofLord Ram. Along with this, theChar Dham road project has

also been prepared. The govern-ment has also strengthened theBuddha circuit.

Prime Minister NarendraModi relaunched Varanasi cor-ridor, Kedardham andBadridham. The government isrenovating about 50 thousandtemples in Jammu andKashmir. No other prime min-ister made the visit to religiousshrines an event.

The dargahs of Chisti, Aulia,Charar-e-Sharif, Jama masjidof Bhopal, Delhi and othershrines have large income incash and kinds. Similarly vari-ous churches also have decentincomes. The movement forRam temple in Ayodhya statedto have increased the incomesfor most Hindu and Muslimshrines. The earnings of theHindu temples are known tosome extent but whether it is the

Ajmer dargah or other Muslimshrines they are shy of telling theapproximate figures.

The holy fund is changingthe politics, hospital administra-tion and even university portalsand more. Dishing out degreesis not difficult and that becomesa money spinner.

During demonetization,some heads of mutts were in thenews for their wide connectionsand effective delivery. Their ser-vices were not limited to India.They could deliver new curren-cy notes with ease even in dol-lars to Dubai, Canada, Englandor other destinations at premi-um price. The hawala linkageshelp.

They are good at balancesheet manipulations Evenscrapped notes were exchangedwith élan. Yes, these are done toadjust the murky money.

������������� �����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������

$� �� ������� ������1�789��������������� ���

(The writer is a senior jour-nalist. The views expressed

are personal.)

�����6� ��! �!

���� ���!������ ������5 �;��� The list of participants at the BiharInvestors Meet in Delhi on May 12made a very impressive readingindeed- Adani, ITC, HUL, Coca

Cola, Amazon, Flipkart, Samsung, Amul,Britania Industries, Usha Martin, Honda,L&T, Arvind Mills, TATA Bluescope, ShreeCement, Ambuja Cement, to name a few.Presence of M A Yusuf Ali, Chairman, LuLugroup International from Dubai, was theicing on the cake. ITC Chairman Sanjiv Puriand many other notable industry biggiesembellished the occasion.

The man of the moment, Bihar Ministerfor Industry Shahnawaz Hussain, saidthings which even diehard Biharis will findtough to stomach. He went on to declarethat Bihar is now the most favoured invest-ment destination in the country. The per-ception that Bihar is off limits for industryis passe now, the minister asserted claim-ing that the perception particularly changedquickly after he took up the reins.

Those who used to say that when itcomes to industry Bihar was not even wortha needle must be rubbing their eyes in dis-belief after watching the milestone that theInvestors Meet turned out to be, he said. "Iam going to take the road shows toMumbai, Surat and other cities of the coun-try including Patna, and even to Dubai. Thegrand success of Investors Meet is symp-tomatic of the fact that the perception hasunmistakably changed and Industrializationof the state is a fait accompli, the beginningof which is marked by establishment of firstever ethanol plant and Pepsi's bottlingplant."

Mega Food Park, Mega Textile Park,Mega Leather Park, IT Park, EthanolPlants and youth from all over India seek-ing jobs in Bihar et al-- the promises thatHussain portrayed seemed so unreal.Butyou cannot fault Mr Hussain for dreaming.No one did. Despite not believing what hedreamt, people had glowing words for hisefforts and his chasing of gold at the endof the rainbow. It is said if you can dreamit, you can do it - in the light of this sayingall wished him all the best.

As for political stability, a sine qua nonfor industry, the minister said that there areno ifs and buts about the continuation ofNitish Kumar-led NDA government inBihar till 2025. Like an oracle he gushed -"Listen to my prediction, the day is boundto come when youth from other states willcome to Bihar for jobs".

Though showering profuse praise onShahnawaz Hussain for showing the nerveand determination to embark on the per-ilous path, Doubting Thomases as ever aredubbing it as nothing but "jumlas." Hisclaim of change in perception about Biharamong investors had few taker sin themedia and he had to evade questionsregarding it. The fact is there has been non-existent growth in industry in Bihar in thelast 30 years, export being less than 1 per-cent.

Not to talk of others, even NeerajKumar, State President, Commerce Cell of

$� �# �� #����������!���������''��������'���������������#��� ��� ��������������� ������� ��'���+������������� �%��� ��%����� �:��������

Page 8: ?ZeZdY dVe e` UV_j CD eZT\Ve e` C4A - Daily Pioneer

������ ��!�"#���$ !�"�$ %&'�%(%% 4�����.<

���� '���5��2&����3

Russia pressed its offensive inUkraine's eastern Donbas

region on Sunday as UkrainianPresident VolodymyrZelenskyy said the outcome ofthe gruelling conflict woulddetermine whether his coun-try's fate lies with the West orunder Moscow's domination.

After declaring its full con-trol of a sprawling seaside steelplant that was the last defenceholdout in the port city ofMariupol, the Russian militarylaunched artillery and missileattacks in Ukraine's industrialheartland, seeking to expandthe territory Moscow-backedseparatists have held since2014.

In a Saturday night videoaddress to the nation,Ukrainian PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyydescribed the situation in theDonbas as "really hard" but "thefact that we are able to say thison the 87th day of a full-scalewar against Russia is goodnews."

"Every day that our defend-

ers take away from these offen-sive plans of Russia, disruptingthem, is a concrete contributionto the approach of the mainday. The desired day that we areall looking forward to andfighting for: Victory Day,"Zelenskyy said.

Zelenskyy's remarks cameas Poland's president preparedto meet with him to supportUkraine's goal of becoming acandidate for European Unionmembership, a issue set to bedecided at an EU summit inlate June.

As the West rallies behindUkraine, Polish PresidentAndrzej Duda made an unan-nounced visit to Kyiv and onSunday became the first foreignleader to address the Ukrainianparliament since the start of thewar.

Poland, which has wel-comed millions of Ukrainianrefugees since Russia invadedits neighbour, has become amajor gateway for Westernhumanitarian aid and weaponsgoing into Ukraine.

The government inWarsaw also is a strong sup-

porter of Ukraine's desire tojoin the European Union.

Zelenskyy stressed onSaturday that the EU shouldconsider Ukraine's desire tojoin the 27-nation bloc as soonas possible within the context

of Russia's invasion."I want to emphasise that

our European integration pathis not just about politics,"Zelenskyy said. "It's about qual-ity of life. And about the factthat Ukrainians perceive the

values of life in the same wayas the vast majority ofEuropeans."

Russia appeared to havemade slow grinding movesforward in the Donbas inrecent days. It intensified efforts

to capture Sievierodonetsk, themain city under Ukrainiancontrol in Luhansk province,which together with Donetskprovince makes up the Donbas.

Lujansk Gov. Serhii Haidaisaid the only functioning hos-pital in the city has just threedoctors and enough suppliesfor 10 days.

On Sunday, the BritishMinistry of Defence saidRussia's only operational com-pany of BMP-T Terminatortank support vehicles, whichare designed to protect mainbattle tanks, "has likely beendeployed to theSievierodonetsk axis of theDonbas offensive".

It said, however, with amaximum of 10 of the vehiclesdeployed, "they are unlikely tohave a significant impact on thecampaign".

In a general staff morningreport, Russia also said that itwas preparing to resume itsoffensive toward Slovyansk, acity in Donetsk province that iscritical to Russia's objective ofcapturing all of eastern Ukraineand saw fierce fighting last

month after Moscow's troopsbacked off from Kyiv.

Russian shelling onSaturday killed seven civiliansand injured 10 more elsewherein Donetsk provice, the region-al governor said.

A monastery in the villageof Bohorodichne was evacuat-ed after being hit by a Russianairstrike, the regional policesaid Saturday.

About 100 monks, nunsand children had been seekingsafe shelter in the basement ofthe church and no one washurt, the police said in aFacebook post.

Zelenskyy on Saturdayemphasized that the Donbasremains part of Ukraine and hisforces were fighting to liberateit.

With Russia claiming tohave taken prisoner nearly2,500 Ukrainian fighters fromthe besieged Mariupol steelplant, concerns grew abouttheir fate and the future facingremaining residents of the city,now in ruins with more than20,000 residents feared dead.

The Russian Defence

Ministry released video ofUkrainian soldiers beingdetained after announcing thatits forces had removed the lastholdouts from the Mariupolplant's extensive undergroundtunnels. It said a total of 2,439had surrendered.

Family members of thefighters, who came from avariety of military and lawenforcement units, have plead-ed for them to be given rightsas prisoners of war and even-tually returned to Ukraine.

Deputy Prime MinisterIryna Vereshchuk said onSaturday that Ukraine "willfight for the return" of everyone of them.

The Russian DefenceMinistry on Saturday releasedvideo of its troops taking intocustody Serhiy Volynskyy, thecommander of the UkrainianNavy's 36th Special MarineBrigade, which was one of themain forces defending the steelplant.

The Associated Press hasnot been able to independent-ly verify the date, location andconditions of the video.

�������,���������7���33�����������������������������8���

���� �=���=

Australians awoke onSunday to a new Prime

Minister in Anthony Albanese,the centre-left Labour Partyleader whose ascension to thenation's top job from beingraised in social housing by asingle mother on a disabilitypension was said to reflect thechanged fabric of the countrytoday.

The 59-year-old careerpolitician, who has describedhimself as the only candidatewith a "non-Anglo Celticname" to run for prime minis-ter in the 121 years the officehas existed, referred to hishumble upbringing in theinner-Sydney suburb ofCamperdown while thankingelectors for making him thecountry's 31st leader.

"It says a lot about our greatcountry that a son of a singlemom who was a disabilitypensioner, who grew up inpublic housing down the roadin Camperdown, can standbefore you tonight asAustralia's prime minister,"Albanese told jubilant sup-porters after tipping ScottMorrison out of office to endnine years of conservative rule.

"Every parent wants more

for the next generation thanthey had. My mother dreamt ofa better life for me. And I hopethat my journey in life inspiresAustralians to reach for thestars," he said.

But it remained unclearwhether Albanese's party couldform a majority government orhave to rely on the support ofan increased number of inde-pendents and minor party law-makers who won seats inSaturday's election, in resultsanalysts described as extreme-ly complicated, and which alsomirrored the face of modernAustralia.

With counting set to con-tinue for many days as postalvotes are tallied, one prospectthat emerged was that Albanese

may need to be sworn in as act-ing prime minister - possibly asearly as Sunday - to attendTuesday's Quad summit inTokyo with US President JoeBiden, Japanese Prime MinisterFumio Kishida and IndianPrime Minister NarendraModi.

The election delivered aclear rebuke to Australia's tra-ditional two-party system, bothto Labour and the heavilydefeated conservative coali-tion led by the Liberal party'soutgoing Prime MinisterMorrison.

The major parties bledvotes to fringe parties andindependents, including inmany seats considered Labouror coalition strongholds.

Needing 76 seats in thelower Parliamentary chamber,the House of Representatives,to govern in their own right,Labour on Sunday morninghad won 72, with 66.3% ofvotes counted, according to theAustralian Broadcasting Corp.

The Liberal-National coali-tion had secured just 50 -drastically down from its bare-majority 76 in the 2019 poll, inwhat analysts called a fiercerejection of Morrison and histeam's handling of many issuesin its three-year term includingclimate, COVID-19, women'srights, political integrity andnatural disasters such as bush-fires and floods.

A total of 15 seats had beendeclared for independents orminor party candidates. Ofthese, three were from theenvironment-centric Greenparty and 12 were non-alignedpoliticians, with up to nine ofthose so-called teal indepen-dents. In a new wave inAustralian politics, the tealindependents are marketed asa greener shade than theLiberal Party's traditional bluecolour and want stronger gov-ernment action on reducingAustralia's greenhouse gasemissions than either the gov-ernment or Labour are propos-

ing.Most of their successful

candidates are women, theirsuccess seen partly as a repu-diation of Morrison for hishandling of gender issuesincluding sex scandals thathave rocked Parliament duringhis latest three-year term.

While Labour will formeither a majority or minoritygovernment, both major partieslost ground, with support forthe coalition dropping by morethan 6% from the 2019 elec-tion, and Labour's vote fallingby around 1.2% as of Sundaymorning.

Albanese vowed to bringAustralians together in a gov-ernment of unity, to increaseinvestment in social servicesand to "end the climate wars."

"My Labour team will workevery day to bring Australianstogether. And I will lead a gov-ernment worthy of the peopleof Australia," he said.

Albanese, who revealed ina 2016 interview he had trackeddown his biological father inItaly in 2009, four years beforehis death, said his surname andthat of new government Senateleader Penny Wong, who is ofChinese ancestry, reflectedmodern, multi-culturalAustralia.

,���� � � � �� ��,��������/��� �� ��������#� ;�#����� ����

����� �����<�

Sri Lanka's Minister of Justicehas said that the 21st

Amendment to theConstitution will be referred tothe Cabinet for approval onMonday, a media report said onSunday, paving the way to curbthe unfettered powers ofembattled President GotabayaRajapaksa.

The 21st Amendment isexpected to annul the 20Awhich gave unfettered powersto President GotabayaRajapaksa after abolishing the19th Amendment which hadmade Parliament powerful overthe president.

The amendment wouldmake it impossible for thosewith dual citizenship to hold aseat in Parliament, the NewsFirst news portal quotedMinister of Justice DrWijayadasa Rajapaksa as say-ing.

President GotabayaRajapaksa, who is facing grow-ing demand for his resignationfor mismanaging the coun-try's economy, had relinquishedhis US citizenship in April2019 before contesting the

presidential elections.In addition to the existing

Independent Commissions, theNational Audit Commissionand the ProcurementCommission will be amendedas Independent Commissions,the report said.

Wijeyadasa Rajapaksa saidthat the 21st Amendment tothe Constitution seeks to fur-ther strengthen the powers ofthe existing commissions andto make them independent aswell.

The minister said that thenew amendment also propos-es for the appointment of the

Governor of the Central Bankto come under theConstitutional Council.

The powerful Rajapaksafamily tightened their grip onpower after their massive vic-tory in the general elections inAugust 2020, which allowedthem to amend theConstitution to restore presi-dential powers and install closefamily members in key posi-tions.

In his 2019 presidentialbid, Gotabaya Rajapaksa wona convincing mandate for apresidency during which hesought full presidential powersover Parliament.

Sri Lanka is grappling withan unprecedented economicturmoil since its independencefrom Britain in 1948.

A crippling shortage offoreign reserves has led to longqueues for fuel, cooking gasand other essentials whilepower cuts and soaring foodprices heaped misery on thepeople.

The economic crisis hasalso triggered a political crisisin Sri Lanka and a demand forthe resignation of PresidentGotabaya Rajapaksa.

����� �����<�

An Indian ship carryingurgent relief supplies like

rice, life-saving medicines andmilk powder for the people ofcrisis-hit Sri Lanka arrived inColombo on Sunday and theconsignment was handed overto the government in the islandnation.

Indian HighCommissioner Gopal Baglayhanded over to Lankan ForeignMinister G L Peiris the con-signment which consists of9,000 metric tonne (MT) ofrice, 50 MT of milk powderand more than 25 MT of drugsand other medical supplies.

"Sri Lanka today receivedRs. 2 Billion worthHumanitarian aid includingmilk powder, rice and medi-cines from India. Our sinceregratitude to the Tamil NaduChief Minister Hon. @mkstal-in and the People of India forthe support extended. I alsoappreciate the assistance given

by the @IndiainSL and CWCLeader @S_Thondaman in SriLanka," Prime Minister RanilWickremesinghe tweeted.

This is also the first con-signment under a larger USD16 million commitment of40,000 MT of rice, 500 MT ofmilk powder and medicines byGovernment of Tamil Nadu, anofficial release said.

"A message of care!!! Fromthe people of India to the peo-ple of Sri Lanka… HighCommissioner handed overrice, milk powder & medicinesworth more than SLR 2 billionto Hon'ble FM Prof.G.L Peirisin #Colombo today," the HighCommission of India in SriLanka tweeted.

"More consignments from#India to follow," it said inanother tweet.Speaking at theceremony here attended byseveral Lankan ministers,Foreign Minister Peiris said"India has not sent any assis-tance anywhere of this scaleever before".

"They are to assist us morefor which we would be grate-ful," Peiris said, adding thatIndia had so far extended assis-tance worth USD 4.5 billion.

Tamil Nadu Chief MinisterM K Stalin had flagged off theship laden with relief supplies,the first to be dispatched to SriLanka, from Chennai onWednesday.

The items shall be distrib-uted among vulnerable andneedy sections in various partsof Sri Lanka includingNorthern, Eastern, Central andWestern Provinces byGovernment of Sri Lanka in thecoming days.

"More humanitarian con-signments and other forms ofassistance from India shall fol-low. Multi-pronged endeavourby both the Government andpeople of India underlines theimportance attached to SriLanka and reflects their con-cerns for the well-being of itspeople," said the release.

Support extended to Sri

Lanka ranges from economicassistance worth around USD3.5 billion, supply of vaccines,testing kits, close to 1000 MTof liquid oxygen to combatCOVID-19, immediateresponse by Indian Navy andCoast Guard to mitigate marinedisasters etc, it added.

Sri Lanka is going throughthe worst economic crisis sinceindependence in 1948.

A crippling shortage offoreign reserves has led to longqueues for fuel, cooking gasand other essentials whilepower cuts and soaring foodprices heaped misery on thepeople.

The economic crisis hasalso triggered a political crisisin Sri Lanka and a demand forthe resignation of the powerfulRajapaksas.

India has said that as aneternal and reliable friend of SriLanka, New Delhi is fully sup-portive of the island nation'sdemocracy, stability and eco-nomic recovery.

�$�+ (���!�#, �%&�%' "��%���&� '��" �#���'�� ��� 4�#8�# +%�+&% �%�($%� .�&�" �

���� ������ ��

Rudy Giuliani, who as alawyer for then-President

Donald Trump pushed boguslegal challenges to the 2020election, met for hours with theHouse committee investigatingthe Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection atthe U.S. Capitol, a person famil-iar with the interview saidSaturday. The interview withGiuliani took place virtuallyand lasted for much of the dayon Friday, according to the per-son, who spoke to TheAssociated Press on conditionof anonymity to discuss the pri-vate meeting.

A spokesperson for the

committee declined to com-ment.Giuliani had been sched-uled to meet with the com-mittee earlier this month, buta spokesperson for the panelsaid that meeting was resched-uled.

The former New Yorkmayor is seen as a critical aidefor the committee, which hasinterviewed nearly 1,000 wit-nesses, including family mem-bers of Trump and advisers inhis inner circle. The panelplans a series of hearings inJune. In January, the commit-tee subpoenaed Giuliani andother members of the Trumplegal team who sought to over-turn election results.

� � �� ��� �����$��������"�����9�#�'' %%��

���� <����

Voters in the Thai capitalheaded to the polls Sunday

to elect a new governor in acontest delayed by a militarycoup that still reflects a divid-ed country with main candi-dates either supported by theconservative establishment orthe liberal opposition.

A record 31 candidatesentered the race, but the bat-tle being watched most close-ly is between two who regis-tered as independents.

One is former TransportMinister Chadchart Sittipunt,a front-runner, and the otherAsawin Kwanmuang, whoserved as the military-appoint-ed governor since 2016. Hestepped down in March tocontest the election.

The candidates cam-paigned on issues includingcongestion, pollution and per-sistent flooding. There are 4.4million registered voters inthe city, the country's biggest.

Apart from governor, they'realso electing city council mem-bers. Bangkok's last guberna-torial election was in 2013, ayear before the military top-pled a democratically electedgovernment.

Neither the main opposi-tion party in Parliament, PheuThai, nor the ruling PalangPracharath party, associatedwith the military and the rul-ing conservative establishment,officially have candidates onthe ballot.

However, 55-year-oldChadchart is seen by bothsupporters and opponents as aproxy for Pheu Thai, for whichhe stood as a prime minister-ial candidate in the 2019 gen-eral election. He served astransport minister in a PheuThai government in 2012-2014.

His main rival is 71-year-old Asawin, who was appoint-ed governor in 2016 byPrayuth Chan-ocha. As armycommander, Prayuth seized

power in the 2014 coup to leada military regime, and he dis-missed the previous governorover corruption allegations.Prayuth was returned to officefollowing the 2019 election asprime minister in a coalitiongovernment.

Prayuth, in power for eightyears, is expected soon to facea no-confidence motion inParliament, and rivals on hisown side have long beenrumored to be seeking toremove him. Even if he sur-vives, there must be a generalelection by early next year.

Prayuth was able to rule bydecree as head of a militarygovernment but has struggledwithin the limits of parlia-mentary democracy, takingfire especially for fumblingThailand's coronavirus vacci-nation program and recoveryplan.

Other candidates includeSuchatvee Suwansawat of theDemocrat Party. He's seen ashaving an outside chance if

conservative voters supporthim instead of Asawin. TheDemocrats have historicallybeen a power in Bangkok buthave fractured badly in the pasttwo decades of polarized pol-itics that have seen street vio-lence and two coups.

A fourth candidate whoseresults will be carefullywatched is WirojLakkhanaadisorn from theprogressive opposition MoveForward Party, which takes amore critical stance than PheuThai toward the government.

Political science professorThitinan Pongsudhirak ofBangkok's ChulalongkornUniversity noted this was thefirst significant election sincethe 2014 coup.

"People are hungry to havea say," he said in an email toThe Associated Press. "Theresult, if it clearly goes againstruling Palang Pracharat, wouldbe consequential forParliament, Prayuth and no-confidence."

!����(�� ��'���2�( �������<��� � ���������� �=9<8����#

����� � �����&

US Special Coordinator forTibetan Issues Uzra Zeya

called on Nepal Prime MinisterSher Bahadur Deuba onSunday and the duo discusseda range of issues of mutualinterest, including ways toboost bilateral ties.

The meeting betweenDeuba and Zeya - who is alsothe US Under Secretary ofState for Civilian Security,Democracy, and Human Rights- was held at the prime minis-ter's residence here inBaluwatar.

"It was a pleasure receivingthe US delegation led by Under

Secretary of State for CivilianSecurity, Democracy andHuman Rights@UnderSecStateJ. Weexchanged views on Nepal-US relations and matters ofmutual interests," Deuba said ina tweet.

During the meeting, dis-cussions were held on Nepal-US bilateral relations and var-ious topics of mutual interest,according to Nepal's Ministryof Foreign Affairs.

Zeya, who is leading a USdelegation, arrived here onFriday in connection with athree-day visit to Nepal, theministry said.

After arriving in Nepal,

Zeya announced America'sUSD 659 million assistance toNepal.

"Happy to celebrate with@USAmbNepal &@USEmbassyNepal the new@USAID-Nepal assistanceagreement which will provide$659M to support our sharedvision for a democratic andprosperous future," she said ina tweet.

On Friday, she met theInternational Women ofCourage awardees BhumikaShrestha and Muskan Khatun.Zeya expressed her happinessover the meeting with the twowomen who have been felici-tated for their work in the

LGBTQI+ rights movementand against acid attacks, respec-tively.

She also visited the BoudhaStupa and praised Nepal's richreligious, architectural, andcultural history.

Zeya visited India beforearriving in Nepal. During hervisit to India from May 17-20,she met senior governmentofficials, including ForeignSecretary Vinay Kwatra, andthe discussions focussed onglobal and regional issues ofmutual interest, the Ministry ofExternal Affairs said onThursday.

Zeya also visitedDharamshala where she met

the Dalai Lama on Thursdayand discussed the rich tradi-tions of freedom and democ-racy in the United States andIndia.

The Tibetan government-in-exile, in a press statement onThursday, said Zeya expressedUS President Joe Biden and theAmerican people's greetingsto the Dalai Lama.

She visited the CentralTibetan Administration onWednesday and held discus-sions with its leadership. Zeyaalso visited the TibetanParliament-in-Exile, theTibetan Institute of PerformingArts, and the Tibet Museum,and also met with members of

the Tibetan civil society,according to the statement.

China sharply criticisedZeya's meeting with the DalaiLama and her visit toDharamshala, saying it violat-ed Washington's commitmentthat Tibet is part of China andit does not support Tibetanseparatists. "Tibet is part ofChina and Tibetan religiousaffairs are China's internalaffairs," China's ForeignMinistry spokesman ZhaoLijian told a media briefing onThursday when asked aboutthe Indian-origin senior USdiplomat's meeting with the 86-year-old top Tibetan Buddhistleader.

'$�$"�������� ������ � � �&�������������'4 ��5�%���������,����

�����0��67���)���������������������������%����������"� � ���������"" ��������%

Page 9: ?ZeZdY dVe e` UV_j CD eZT\Ve e` C4A - Daily Pioneer

'���"�.=������ ��!�"#���$ !�"�$ %&'�%(%%

New Delhi: As many as 425infrastructure projects, eachentailing an investment of Rs150 crore or more, have beenhit by cost overruns of morethan Rs 4.83 lakh crore, accord-ing to a report.

According to the Ministryof Statistics and ProgrammeImplementation, which moni-tors infrastructure projects ofRs 150 crore and above, out of1,579 projects, 425 projectsreported cost overruns and asmany as 664 projects weredelayed.

"Total original cost ofimplementation of the 1,579projects was Rs 21,95,196.72crore and their anticipatedcompletion cost is likely to beRs 26,78,365.62 crore, whichreflects overall cost overruns ofRs 4,83,168.90 crore (22.01per cent of the original cost),"the ministry's latest report forMarch 2022 said.

According to the report,the expenditure incurred onthese projects till March 2022stood at Rs 13,88,760.73 crore,which is 51.85 per cent of theanticipated cost of the projects.

However, the number ofdelayed projects decreased to561, if delay is calculated on thebasis of the latest schedule ofcompletion.

Further, for 606 projectsneither the year of commis-

sioning nor the tentative ges-tation period has been report-ed.

Out of the 664 delayed pro-jects, 94 have overall delays inthe range of 1-12 months, 124have been delayed for 13-24months, 331 projects for 25-60months and 115 projects havebeen delayed for 61 monthsand above.

The average time overrunin these 664 delayed projectswas 42.41 months.

Reasons for time overrunsas reported by various projectimplementing agencies includedelay in land acquisition, delayin obtaining forest and envi-ronment clearances, and lack ofinfrastructure support and

linkages.Delay in tie-up for project

financing, delay in finalisationof detailed engineering, changein scope, delay in tendering,ordering and equipment sup-ply, and law and order prob-lems are among the other rea-sons. The report also citedstate-wise lockdowns due toCOVID-19 as a reason for thedelay in implementation ofthese projects.

It has also been observedthat project agencies are notreporting revised cost esti-mates and commissioningschedules for many projects,which suggests that time/costoverrun figures are under-reported, it stated. PTI

�����������3��9:(;�'�����,���9<=���3���,�/���

New Delhi: Taxpayers whohave paid GST on 'OceanFreight' on imported goodswill be entitled to claimrefunds, following the SupremeCourt verdict, provided theyhave not claimed input taxcredit, experts said.

Giving its ruling in theMohit Minerals case, theSupreme Court held that sincethe Indian importer is liable topay IGST on the 'compositesupply', comprising of supply ofgoods and supply of services oftransportation, insurance, etcin a CIF (Cost InsuranceFreight) contract, a separatelevy on the Indian importer forthe ‘supply of services' by theshipping line would be in vio-lation of ... The CGST Act.

In this particular case, thecompany had challenged thevalidity of the CBIC notifica-tion regarding levy ofIntegrated GST on oceanfreight in the Gujarat HighCourt. The Supreme Courtupheld the decision of theGujarat High Court which hadfavoured the company.

Tax Connect AdvisoryServices Partner Vivek Jalansaid this is a big relief forimporters and GST taxpayers."Infact those taxpayers whohad already paid the GST mayalso seek a refund of the samenow".

Naresh Sheth, Partner, N AShah Associates said, "Suchlevy, in substance, was a tax ontransactions between two for-eign parties taking place out-side India which apparently isbeyond the territorial jurisdic-tion of the IndianGovernment."

Jalan further said general-ly, the value of imported goodsis CIF and includes the Cost,Insurance and Freight compo-nents. Hence Customs Dutyand GST is charged on suchvalue.

"However, CBIC alsosought to levy GST @5 per centon the value of Imported goodsconsidering 10 per cent of thevalue of imported goods as

deemed ocean freight," Jalanadded.

AMRG & AssociatesSenior Partner Rajat Mohansaid the Supreme Court hasupheld the Gujarat High Courtjudgement categorizing thelevy of IGST on ocean freightservices as unconstitutional.

This is a dual levy of IGSTas the same has already sufferedtax as part of the value ofgoods. Moreover, these servicesare received by the foreignexporter, thus the Indianimporter shall not be heldliable to pay GST on the same,he said.

"Through this, a window ofopportunity has been openedfor the importers who have

already paid the tax to demandrefund from the exchequer,"Mohan added.

Federation of IndianExport organisations (FIEO)DG Ajay Sahai said FIEO hasalready represented that oceanfreight on goods imported onCIF basis should not becharged as it is tantamount todouble taxation, adding to theliquidity problem.

"While the set off of IGSTon imports was available butafter a time lag, it was addingto the challenges for manufac-turers and exporters," Sahaisaid.

Nangia Andersen LLP,Director- Indirect Tax,Tanushree Roy said levy ofreverse charge on ocean freightis now unconstitutional in viewof the landmark judgement ofthe Supreme Court of India inocean freight matter.

"Indian importers (whohad paid GST under RCM onOcean Freight) should evaluatethe possibility of filing refundclaims for claiming the saidamounts (to the extent not uti-lized as input credit).

"Further, importers whohad not paid the tax on importof such Ocean Freight serviceswould no longer be required topay GST on such services inview of the said judgement,"Roy said. PTI

$�;#�� ��������� �������� '����'�+2%$������ ���'� ���1��;# ����

Kurnool: Greenko Group willsupply green power toArcelorMittal, AyanaRenewable Power and threestates from its 5,230 MWrenewable energy plant beingset up here, a top company offi-cial said.

The plant which is beingset up at a cost of USD 3 billionis the world's largest renewableenergy storage project. Globalsteel giant ArcelorMittal hasmade an investment of aroundUSD 600 million for 1,000MW capacity of the project.

Out of 5,230 MW, 3,000MW is solar, 550 MW windand 1,680 MW is pump storagecapacity. The daily storagecapacity of the project will be10,800 MW.

"Renewable energy will besupplied to ArcelorMittal,Ayana (Renewable Power) anddiscoms in Rajasthan, WestBengal, and Bihar," the com-pany's Joint Managing DirectorMahesh Kolli told PTI.

The power will be suppliedout of 1,680 storage capacity,Kolli said, adding that whileArcelorMittal will take away250 MW for its plant operatedby JV company AMNS India at

Hazira, Gujarat, AyanaRenewable Power will get 550MW and the rest will be sup-plied to the said states.

"Most of the PPAs (powerpurchase agreements) havebeen signed for supply of greenpower" Greenko Group CEOand MD Anil Chalamalasettysaid in reply to the question onagreements for buying power.

However, he did not shareany further information relat-ed to tariff etc.

The project is expected tobe commissioned by 2023, hesaid and informed that once theproject is operational it willhelp avoid 15 million tonnes(MT) of carbon dioxide, whichis equal to the emissions com-ing out of 3 million cars.

"With this project, we havepioneered the concept of stor-age... This was possible due topolicy support at the nationallevel and of the state govern-ment," the CEO had said.

Hyderabad-based GreenkoGroup is among the largestrenewable energy (RE) com-panies with an installed capac-ity of 7.5 gigawatt across solar,wind and hydro generationassets spread in 15 states. PTI

1 �����������""%�� ���"�#� ����) ��� ������)%����+���#����8$������ ���!� ����"���

New Delhi: Excise duty cut onpetrol and diesel and rational-isation of customs duties ongoods such as raw material forplastic and steel will helpreduce logistics cost, promotecompetitiveness of manufac-turing and exports of value-added goods, exporters said onSunday.

The government onSaturday announced reduc-tion in excise duty on petrol bya record Rs 8 per litre and thaton diesel by Rs 6 per litre. Italso cut import duty on rawmaterial of steel and plastic andincreased export duty on ironore and steel intermediates.

Federation of IndianExport Organisations (FIEO)President A Sakthivel said thesemeasures will bring down thedomestic prices of key inputsthereby softening inflation.

"This will also add to thecompetitiveness of the manu-facturing and export sectorand will further push value-added exports from the coun-try. These proactive measureswill also ease the logistics pres-sure and bring down the freightbill of the country as in somecases the same raw materialwas being exported from thecountry and subsequentlybeing imported by the down-stream users," he said.

Sharing similar views, lead-ing Mumbai-based exporterand Chairman of TechnocraftIndustries, Sharad Kumar Sarafsaid reduction in excise dutyon petrol and diesel will reducelogistics costs and will supportexports particularly of com-modities which are freight sen-sitive. "Export duty on iron oreand semi finished steel prod-ucts like HR coils and barsalready has a desired effect.Steel prices have started soft-ening and this will have a sig-nificant positive impact on ourengineering exports . The gov-ernment must be compliment-ed for such actions," Saraf said.

Ludhiana-based HandTools Association President SC Ralhan too said the iron andsteel industry should pass onthe benefits to the engineeringsector, particularly the MSMEunits, which are reeling underthe impact of high iron andsteel prices. Plastics ExportPromotion Council ChairmanArvind Goenka said it is a wel-come move that will help theplastic processors be morecompetitive in the domesticmarket for sure. "India's poly-mer production is much lowerthan consumption leading topolymer imports worth USD15 billion in FY 2021. PTI

�/�����%+� ��+��!".���!���!����.�.����!$��������!��K.�!#!����/.!���A

New Delhi: State-owned Oiland Natural Gas Corporation(ONGC) has repaired 100 off-shore installations in theArabian Sea that were damagedby Cyclone Tauktae a year ago,the company said.

Western offshore was hit bythe cyclone Tauktae duringMay 16-17, 2021. On May 17,2021, Barge P-305, deployed byAfcons for work it was doingfor ONGC, lost all anchors andhit a wellhead platform afterdrifting.

The sinking of Afcons'Barge P-305 and a tug boatVaraprada killed 86 persons.

"ONGC overhauls dam-ages caused by Cyclone#Tauktae in offshore installa-tions on Arabian Sea. 100 plat-forms (76 unmanned, 24process platform jackets)restored, using 1052 tons ofIndigenously-sourced materi-als," ONGC said in a tweet.Western offshore produces

bulk of India's oil and naturalgas.

ONGC has 14 process plat-forms, 2 floating productionand storage (FPSO) units, onefloating storage and offloading(FSO) and 229 unmanned plat-forms, 25 drilling rigs and 50offshore vessels.

To support offshore pro-ject works, 22 barges weredeployed.

Following the accident,ONGC hired DNV GL EnergyIndia Pvt Ltd, a renownedinternational safety consultant,for carrying out an assessmentof the safety management sys-tem in the company. The three-phase project is of 18 monthsduration and is to be complet-ed by April 6, 2023.

To facilitate single pointauthority for vessel informationand management (VIM) inoffshore, Marine Cell has beencreated at Mumbai headed byMaster Mariner with the

responsibility of managerialsafety of all vessels operated bythe company.

Marine Cell will be the sin-gle point availability of allinformation, pre and postdeployment of all vessels andmonitoring their movement

in offshore.The Cell will ensure sea

worthiness of all vessels oper-ating for ONGC, according toa report of the ParliamentaryStanding Committee onPetroleum and Natural Gas,which looked into the accident.

Also, a tax force has beenconstituted by ONGC to reviewrequired technical specifica-tions of each type of barges/ves-sels.

Uniform guidelines havebeen promulgated for issuingrisk based advisories duringadverse weather conditions.Emergency response plans foroffshore rigs and installationshave been revised to addresssuch extreme cyclone condi-tions.

Regional contingency planhas been revised in consulta-tion with regional coordinationcommittee comprising IndianNavy, Air Force and CoastGuard, the report, tabled inParliament in March, had said.

The panel had askedMinistry of Petroleum andNatural Gas to conduct thor-ough investigation to fixresponsibility of ONGC offi-cials at various levels in theincident. PTI

2;�����(� �����'�����"#��������%��#�����%�� %���$$������ ��%����% ���

New Delhi: Realty major DLF'snet debt fell 45 per cent duringthe last fiscal year to Rs 2,680crore on the back of better salesof residential properties thatimproved its cash flow.

According to an investorpresentation, DLF's net debtstood at Rs 2,680 crore as onMarch 31, 2022. Its net debtstood at Rs 4,885 crore at theend of 2020-21 financial year.

"Net Debt reduction of Rs2,205 crore in FY22. Consistentreduction from operationalsurplus," the presentation said.

DLF said that it is com-mitted to further debt reduc-tion in the medium-term.

The cash flow from the saleof completed properties andreceivables from sale of ongo-ing projects would be sufficientto discharge all current liabil-ities.

The company said thelaunch of new projects would

help generate healthy cashflows.

During the last fiscal,DLF's sales bookings jumpedover two-fold to Rs 7,273 crore,driven by better demand for itsproperties, especially luxuryhomes. Its sales bookings stoodat Rs 3,084 crore in the 2020-21.

DLF highlighted that thishas been its strongest perfor-mance in the last 10 years.

The company said it wouldcontinue to focus on tappingnewer geographies by bringingnew products.

It would launch new pro-jects at multiple price pointsacross segments to meet grow-

ing demand.As per the presentation,

DLF would focus on increasingmarket share in core geogra-phies and monetizing landbanks.

"High margin productscoupled with calibrated pricehikes to offset inflationarypressure; consistent valueenhancement across the prod-uct portfolio," the presentationsaid.

Recently, DLF reported a16 per cent decline in its con-solidated net profit at Rs 405.33crore for the quarter endedMarch due to lower-income.Its net profit stood at Rs 480.94crore in the year-ago period.

Total income declined toRs 1,652.13 crore during theMarch quarter, from Rs1,906.59 crore in the corre-sponding period of the previ-ous year. PTI

New Delhi: Drug major SunPharma is recalling around10,500 bottles of a genericdrug meant for the treatmentof major depressive disorders inthe US market following a cus-tomer complaint.

According to the latestenforcement report of the USFood and Drug Administration(USFDA), the US arm of thedomestic pharma major isrecalling 10,548 bottles ofbupropion hydrochlorideextended-release tablets in theAmerican market.

The drug is used to treatdepression and preventSeasonal Affective Disorder(SAD). It is also used to helppeople stop smoking.

As per the USFDA, thecompany is recalling the affect-ed lot due to "presence of for-eign substance: Customer com-plaint for the presence of dark,gritty substance found withinthe bottle, which was deter-mined to be activated carbonfrom the desiccant canisterinside the bottle".

The drugmaker is recallingthe product in 150 and 200 mgstrengths, it added.

The company is recalling9,804 bottles of 150 mgstrength and 744 bottles of 200mg strength, the US health reg-ulator stated.

The affected lot of themedication was manufacturedby the drug maker in its Halol(Gujarat) based manufacturingplant. In the US, the medica-tion was distributed by NewJersey-based SunPharmaceutical Industries Inc.

The company initiatedthe Class III nationwide (US)voluntary recall on April 29 this

year.As per USFDA, a Class III

recall is initiated in a "situationin which use of, or exposure to,a violative product is not like-ly to cause adverse health con-sequences."

Earlier this month, SunPharma had said that theUSFDA issued a 'Form 483'with ten observations afterinspecting its Halol plant inGujarat.

As per US FDA, a Form483 is issued to a firm's man-agement at the conclusion of aninspection when the investiga-tor has observed any conditionsthat in its judgment may con-stitute violations of the FoodDrug and Cosmetic (FD&C)Act and related Acts.

The US health regulatorconducted a GoodManufacturing Practices(GMP) inspection of the Halolfacility from April 26 to May 9,the Mumbai-based drug makerhad said in a regulatory filing.

The Mumbai-based SunPharmaceutical Industries isthe fourth largest specialtygeneric pharmaceutical com-pany in the world with globalrevenues of over USD 4.5 bil-lion.

With over 40 manufactur-ing facilities, it sells medicinesin over 100 countries across theglobe. PTI

��# $��"� �%(�&&���%� �9�999 ���&%� �',%#%��( �#��:�%+�%����#���, �# )#��%� ����%�

New Delhi: Public sectorlender Punjab National Bankhas said it earned over Rs 645crore by levying ATM transac-tion charges on customers dur-ing the financial year 2021-22.

Revenue earned by PNBfrom ATM transaction chargesstood at Rs 645.67 crore infinancial year 2021-22, thebank said in response to anapplication seeking informa-tion under the Right toInformation (RTI) Act.

Besides, the country's sec-ond largest lender collected Rs239.09 crore in the form of

penalty imposed on customerswho failed to maintain mini-mum balance orquarterly/monthly average bal-ance in their bank accounts,according to the bank'sresponse to Madhya Pradesh-based RTI applicantChandrashekhar Gaur.

In 2020-21, the bank hadearned Rs 170 crore by levyingcharges on customers for notmaintaining minimum bal-ance in their accounts.

This amount was collectedfrom 8,518,953 accounts dur-ing FY22. To a query on thenumber of zero balance

accounts with the bank, PNB(Punjab National Bank) saidthere were a total of 67,637,918such accounts as of March 31,2022.

Going by the trend for thelast four financial years from2018-19 to 2021-22, it wasrevealed that the zero balanceaccounts in PNB have gone upsteadily over these years.

As of March 31, 2019,there were 28,203,379 zero bal-ance accounts at PNB, whichincreased to 30,583,184 by theend of March 2020 and furtherto 59,496,731 as of March 31,2021. PTI

'�<����"��!(����L8M���!������!+$�� �����"�����!"�����$����"�;=CN9NN

New Delhi: Punjab & SindBank would not require furthercapital infusion from the gov-ernment to meet growth needsduring the current fiscal year,the top official of the bank said.

During the previous twoyears, the government infusedRs 5,500 crore and Rs 4,600crore through non-interestbearing recap bonds.With theinfusion of Rs 4,600 crore, thegovernment holding in thebank increased to 98.25 percent as on March 31, 2022.

Capital adequacy ratio ofthe bank improved to 18.54 percent in March 2022 from 17.06per cent as at March-end 2021with the help of capital support

from the government, bank'sMD and CEO S Krishnan said.

The bank is sufficientlycapitalised to meet expectedcredit growth in this financialyear and may not need supportfrom the government, he said.

As far as loan growth isconcerned, he said, it is expect-ed to grow at 8-10 per cent inFY23. He further said the bankhas strengthened its balancesheet by making additionalprovisions and it has proac-tively made 100 per cent pro-visions in all fraud cases.

The state-owned bank hasnot sought any dispensationfrom the Reserve Bank forstaggering the provision.

The bank last monthdeclared Srei InfrastructureFinance with outstanding duesof Rs 510.16 crore and SreiEquipment Finance Ltd withoutstanding dues of Rs 724.18crore accounts as fraud.

In October last year, theRBI had superseded the boardof directors of the two Sreigroup firms and appointed anadministrator, following gov-ernance issues and default inpayment obligations.It also ini-tiated a corporate insolvencyresolution process against bothcompanies. According to someestimates, banks have about Rs28,000 crore exposure to Srei,and bondholders. PTI

;��#�( %���� ��$��'���&%���������48������>�� ���������*

���(�����?*����������111���#���� �� � % �%��� ���@� %�% ��� ��4� #�����$������)(�����%����& ���% &��(���#%� ����%� ���"�%��#������&��������%��#����A��#��BC

,�.�����������"��9:;�����6�<=>�� ����.?�66@����� � ��� ����� ������������������3�� �

Page 10: ?ZeZdY dVe e` UV_j CD eZT\Ve e` C4A - Daily Pioneer

Way back in 2013, DrUma Tuli, a rehabilita-tion expert and

founder of Amar Jyoti School forchildren with disability hadpointed out that mostly peoplein the sector are forgotten whenassistive technology (AT) istalked about. “We need to con-sider ways to develop assistivetechnology for making inclusiveeducation a reality. We introduceso many things, but if we do notlook at their accessibility, thework remains half done. Wehave to look at education witha holistic approach to makevocational training a part of thecurriculum. We need to havestructured sports and culturalactivities for the differently-abled,” she had noted.

It’s now 2022. Seems notmuch has changed in the worldof the PwDs. A report “TheGlobal Report on Assistive

Technology” jointly released bythe WHO and UNICEF recent-ly has noted that almost one bil-lion children and adults with dis-abilities and older persons inneed of AT are denied access.

It reveals that more than 2.5billion people need one or moreassistive products, such as wheel-chairs, hearing aids, or apps thatsupport communication andcognition. Yet nearly one billionof them are denied access, par-ticularly in low- and middle-income countries, where accesscan be as low as 3% of the needfor these life-changing products.

The report presents evi-dence for the first time on theglobal need for and access toassistive products and providesa series of recommendations toexpand availability and access,raise awareness of the need, andimplement inclusion policies toimprove the lives of millions of

people.“AT is a life changer – it

opens the door to education forchildren with impairments,employment and social interac-tion for adults living with disabil-ities, and an independent life ofdignity for older persons,” saidWHO Director-General, DrTedros Adhanom Ghebreyesuswhile releasing the report.

“Nearly 240 million chil-dren have disabilities. Denyingchildren the right to the prod-ucts they need to thrive doesn’tonly harm individual kids, itdeprives families and their com-munities of everything theycould contribute if their needswere met,” added UNICEFExecutive Director CatherineRussell. “Without access to assis-

tive technology, children withdisabilities will continue to missout on their education, contin-ue to be at a greater risk of childlabor and continue to be subject-ed to stigma and discrimination,undermining their confidenceand wellbeing.”

Dr Satendra Singh who is amember of the StandardsDevelopment Group to developglobal WHO Standards forWheelchair Service Provision toassist Member States in settingup, improving or transformingtheir systems to improve accessto wheelchair services is nothappy with the steps beingtaken to ensure AT in India.

“The Union HealthMinistry has included the assis-tive products under the list ofhealth products vide notificationS.O. 648(E) dated 11th February,2020 under Medical Devices(Amendment) Rules, 2020

which is in force since 1st April2020.

“In lieu of above notifica-tion, it is the duty of medicalprofessionals to prescribe theassistive products as per medicalrequirements, which means allthe procedures and precautionswill be required for prescriptionof assistive products/technolo-gies. However, their draftNational List of EssentialAssistive Products (NLEAP)was full of errors as it did notconsult health professionals withdisabilities.

“Nepal and Tajikistan haveformulated the list of assistiveproducts involving people withdisabilities at all stages. We arestill waiting for the finalisedNLEAP,” rued Dr SatendraSingh.

It’s time to achieve the goalsof Inclusive India.

������"����#���#�$�����$������ ��� �A 19-year-old woman from Uttar Pradesh, who suffered

from primary pulmonary hypertension — a rare conditionfound in just one or two persons per 10 lakh people — wassuccessfully treated at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital (SGRH)here. The woman had a history of shortness of breath, malaise,persistent nausea, and palpitation which her parents correlat-ed with her unwillingness to attend school.

Dr. Atul Kakar, Vice Chairman, Department of Medicine,diagnosed that the woman had symptoms suggestive of pul-monary artery hypertension (PAH). “The patient was start-ed on drugs to decrease PAH which included endothelin recep-tor antagonist along with phosphodiesterase 5 inhibitor. Thesedrugs are now available for the treatment of this rare disease,”said Dr. Kakar who also arranged for the funds from UttarPradesh Chief Minister Relief Fund, the hospital said.

���������������%�"�������&��� �Adding cranberries to your diet, particularly in middle age,

could help improve memory and brain function, and lower'bad' cholesterol, according to new research that highlights theneuroprotective potential of cranberries, says a study publishedin the Frontiers in Nutrition.

���� ������ ����������������$��������UK researchers have developed a novel blood test that can

detect early-stage bowel cancer in 80 per cent cases. Bowel can-cer begins in the large bowel. Depending on where the can-cer starts, bowel cancer is sometimes called colon or rectal can-cer. It takes one of the longest waiting times for diagnosis andtreatments. Researchers at Swansea University developed theblood test using Raman spectrometry and a recent trial showedthe test picked up about 80 percent of early-stage cancers.

�%%�#����#����������$��� �������%����ICMR DG, Dr Balram Bhargava,released the 'IBD

NutriCare App' for inflammatory bowel disease patients onthe occasion of World Inflammatory Bowel Disease Day onMay 19. This Android and iOS-based digital health platformin the form of a smartphone application is developed and val-idated for real-time tracking of dietary details and recordingthe data on a large scale for patients with IBD, said the ICMR.

Dr. Ishwar V Basavaraddi,Director, MDNIY, under

Ayush Ministry, says though itis not easy, kids can be encour-aged to do yoga to strengthentheir eye muscles. “Before start-ing these practices it is recom-mended to splash your eyeswith cold water a few times.Some of the yoga for eyes areNetra shakti Vikasaka, that willhelp to increase blood circula-tion and strengthen the ocularmuscles.

Eye blinking, Up and downmovements (using thumb),Nasigra drishti -Nose tipGazing, Bhrumadhya Drishti-Gazing in between eyebrowsand Palming of eyes can bepracticed with kids. Among,asanas are Tadasana,Trikonasana, Ardhachakrasana, Paschimott-anasana, Ustrasana,Bhujangasana, Dhanurasana,Matsyasana, Shavasana. Theyoga expert said some studieshave shown yoga asanas arebeneficial for the kids above 14years of age.

#���� ��

�� ��'���������� ����

���� �����������=K�����5�����5���� �&�������; ��5��&��&� ���������� 1

G�>����<�����

������!-�����%�!!%�# !.�������!"�����������"�"%����"%������!��%1�����!���"!���$"��!-��*���"$1��.�����#!�!$����-��$��!"���"��������"��"������"$�"+#*���!-���%�������.�"%�"$�#!�����#��!"�%�$����������"������� 50��!#.+�����"%#!*�����"%������!"�!+�%!!������(�����1� �������"%����.�����#!�!$������!���� �2���3��������+�%�-����C!-C������"%$+�%���"���-!��.��(�"��!"��"%�#�"�$�#�"��!-�����%�!!%�# !.��1� ������� ��'��������.!����

,������( �$ �������1�!��� �$� �2�#'�!.����"�"��%�!-��������(������"!�!$ �2� 3��"��+%��!�%���.�!.����"%�����%���*��%�*���%�����!����--����%�������!##+"���*����"%�"!"C�!##+"���*���%�������0�#�"������������!"%���!"�0�$��%+���-+"���!"���%����"��!���!���!-��"���"������.���� ��"%�* ��+#�"������"������1��!��(��0����!����#��"���!�*��%�����%0�-�"%��!+�� ������� ��'�����

Astressful demanding job with long work hours is rou-tine for this Additional Professional and SurgeryOncologist at AIIMS, Delhi, where high-risk cancer

patients come for treatment from across India.However, that doesn’t deter Dr Sunil Kumar to visit the

Narayan Medical College (Jamuhar) in Bihar on the firstSaturday of every month to not only provide free treatmentto the cancer patients but also educate locals about the haz-ards of the fatal disease including those caused by productslike tobacco and alcohol.

And he has been doing this religiously for the past nineyears under the Chandrakanti Devi Cancer Foundation inBihar, set up in the name of his mother, a cancer survivorherself.

He says matter-of-factly that many are not lucky like hismother to get timely treatment. “Though treatment is freeat AIIMS, many of the patients cannot afford the travel coststo Delhi. Some do not have a relative to accompany them.The others are old while many are diagnosed with cancer atan advanced stage. Our foundation tries to reach out to themto ensure that detection and treatment is at the earliest. Thesepatients are suggested alternative treatments in neighbour-ing hospitals for palliative care.”

This foundation runs a cancer clinic where free consul-tation with treatment planning is done, and if advanced treat-ment at AIIMS is needed, the patients are provided with allthe assistance.

Born to a middle-income family--his father was a Class3 government employee—Dr Kumar knows the hurdles andchallenges of healthcare in the remote parts of the country.

“The motivation to help the needy rose from the circum-stances around me. I wanted to contribute my bit to the soci-ety,” he says modestly.

His foundation has no financial backup to help the needy.“Right now we are paying from our pockets. We do not havea dedicated person to help every patient apply for cancer treat-ment under government schemes to avail benefits,” he says.

“But once we can afford it, we will provide financial assis-tance and a volunteer to travel with the patient,” he pointsout. And he is confident about achieving it. That’s the spir-it Doc!

As told to Archana Jyoti(Medicos may write to us at [email protected])

%#���� ��,��>�'��������

�� ��>���3�

BEYOND THE STETHOSCOPE���"�"!��.+��+�"$�������.�!-����!"0��*���%�!-�%!��!���.��-����!������%�--���"�������!����.����#���(���-����"%���"����%1 ������� ��'�������������!�������+.��������#��(�� �����1

While there have been manyguidelines published bypediatric ophthalmolo-gists from the west, there

have been no such practice patternsavailable for Indian ophthalmologistsand what would be the preferred clin-ical practice for our country. Thisdocument, “Consensus Guidelines forPrevention and Management ofChildhood Myopia” hopes to fill thisvoid and provide guidelines in theIndian scenario, says Dr NamrataSharma, pediatric ophthalmologist,AIIMS, Delhi.

The goal is to spread awarenessabout the dangers of myopia and ulti-mately reinforce the benefits associat-ed with implementing myopia manage-ment treatment during early childhood,pointed out Stating that the myopia epi-demic will affect half of the global pop-ulation by 2050, she tells you.

The onset of myopia usually occursbetween six and 13 years of age. “Casesof shortsightedness in urban settings inIndia are all set to spike to 48 per centby 2050. Cases are on the increase inrural areas also,” the ophthalmologistsdwelled deeper into the threat creepingin the kids’ world at the AIOS meet.

The Members broke down casesfrom their real-life experiences to high-light the significant risks that are asso-ciated with myopia in children.

“Unattended or uncorrected short-sightedness is the most common causeof vision loss. In fact, too often, myopiais considered a simple refractive errorthat can be easily remedied with spec-tacles or contact lenses. But myopia canlead to physical changes in the eye’sstructure, increasing the risk for retinalcomplications, cataracts and glaucoma,Dr Nayak says.

“While in some children it remainsstable, others show gradual progression

till the age of 18 to 20 years. This makesthe 2nd part of preventing and arrest-ing the progress of Myopia, equallyimportant,” he adds.

It is mandatory to seek immedi-ate intervention to prevent complica-tions in adulthood, the members wereunison in their views.

Simple lifestyle modifications likemaking children spend more timeoutdoors, exposing them to naturallights during class recess and lessscreen time are some of the ways tocheck Myopia progression, they note.

The guidelines deal with the vari-ous aspects of myopia such as classifi-cation, appropriate clinical evaluation,and corrective options of manage-ment, counseling and guidelines for themeasures taken for arrest of progressionin myopia.

“There is an urgent need toaddress this potential public health cri-sis and raise awareness among ophthal-mologists about the various modifiableenvironmental risk factors for myopia,available anti myopia interventionsand their correct usage,” adds Prof.Rohit Saxena from Dr. Rajendra PrasadCentre for Ophthalmic Sciences,AIIMS, Delhi.

In fact, near doubling of myopia

prevalence in both rural and urban chil-dren aged 11-15 years has been noticedwhile data is not available for highmyopia, the doctors says.

“Though the prevalence is compar-atively less in India, considering thehuge population of the country theactual numbers may be staggering,”chips in Dr Namrata Sharma who alsohappens to be the general secretary ofthe AIOS.

Apart from the prominence ofgenetic factors where the risk factor fordevelopment of myopia in childrendoubles when both the parents are near-sighted, environmental factors and thedigital boom has also added to themyopia burden.

“Though the prevalence is compar-atively less in India, considering thehuge population of the country theactual numbers may be staggering,” shesays.

The doctors note that parentalmyopia and a younger age (5 to 8 years)at myopia onset may identify those chil-dren to monitor more closely, as theyare more likely to have progressivemyopia. Children who are found tohave difficulty reading the eye chart orcomplain of difficulty seeing in schoolshould be evaluated promptly.

“Hence, it is important that parentsand teachers are made aware of how toidentify onset of myopia in kids andwhen identifying what steps needed tocheck its progression. Facts should bepresented in simple, uncomplicatedterms and should include availableoptions to mitigate the risk.”

The document also dwells in detailabout the usefulness and limitations ofoptical Interventions like spectacles,contact Lenses, orthokeratology ormultifocal soft contact lenses besidespharmacological Interventions like lowdose atropine therapy.

��'����;�� =�����;�� �������������������'��������� ���& �����0��?'���� ���� ���� &������ ���&������������������������������� ������������;� �����=�� ��������=�'�'���������0����'������ ����

, �$����!���

������� )���*�#����������� ��!�"#���$ !�"�$ %&'�%(%%D.

Page 11: ?ZeZdY dVe e` UV_j CD eZT\Ve e` C4A - Daily Pioneer

������ ��!�"#���$ !�"�$ %&'�%(%%

(��AA+�����������B�����--�������%%���������������������� ��������"�����%C�����������"������� ����&&6>�����������""����%�����������##������������������"" ���� ������ ���������������������%���������������� E !1� F �2;�1;�

����� >��� �

Asecond-string Indian men'shockey team will have to

tactfully deal with the pressurewhen it opens its title defenceagainst arch-rivals Pakistan inthe Asia Cup here on Monday.

While Pakistan has fieldedquite a few new faces in thetournament, India will be rep-resented by its 'A' team underthe leadership of veteranBirendra Lakra, who came outof retirement after the TokyoOlympics.

For India, the Asia Cupprovides a platform to test itsbench strength ahead of a busyseason, that includes theBirmingham CommonwealthGames and the FIH WorldCup next year for which theTokyo Olympic medallists havealready qualified as the hostnation.

Pakistan, on the otherhand, is looking at the tourna-ment to make the cut for the

2023 World Cup inBhubaneswar. The top threeteams in Asia will qualifydirectly for the January show-piece.

Both India and Pakistanhave won the Asia Cup thriceeach.

India had won the last edi-tion in 2017 by beatingMalaysia in the final in Dhaka.

India's 20-member squad,to be coached by former cap-tain Sardar Singh, was original-ly supposed to be led by TokyoOlympic bronze medallistRupinder Pal Singh, who alsocame out of retirement but awrist injury ruled him out ofthe tournament.

The Indian squad includesanother veteran in SV Sunil,who too returned from retire-ment and is regarded as alivewire on the field.

Sunil, who had missed theTokyo Olympics squad due toan injury, will serve as Lakra'sdeputy.

����� �&�<�

Thank you, Mumbai, wewill remember this one,"

said Virat Kohli after RoyalChallengers Bangaloresneeked into the playoffs fol-lowing Mumbai Indians'thrilling five-wicket win overDelhi Capitals in their lastgame of the IPL here.

On Saturday, MI chaseddown a victory target of 160in 19.1 overs to knockoutDelhi from the competitionand paved the way for RCB'sentry as the fourth and finalteam in the knockout stage.

"It was unbelievable. Theemotions in the changingroom were unbelievable.Thank you, Mumbai, we willremember this one," Kohlisaid in a release.

RCB had defeated table-toppers Gujarat Titans byeight wickets in their finalleague match to keep theirhopes alive for a playoff,which depended on the clashbetween DC and MI.

Delhi needed to win thematch to make it to the play-offs but they came a cropperagainst bottom-placed MI.

RCB skipper Faf DuPlessis said the entire teamwatched the match togetherand was cheering each andevery move made by theMumbai team.

"It was so good, I thinkfirst of all it was really nice tosee that everyone was herefrom the start of the game, sowe watched it together," hesaid.

"We were all shouting forevery wicket that Mumbaigot and then when they arechasing every boundary. It'sgood for everyone to watchtogether and then the celebra-tion towards the end was awe-some to be a part of."

RCB will now take onthird-placed Lucknow SuperGiants in the Eliminator atEdens Gardens on May 25.

"The last game we playedwe felt almost like we playedour best game of cricket of thiscampaign so far and that ishow you want to enter theknockout stages, so we need-

ed someone to do us a favourand Mumbai did that for us,we are very thankful for that,"Du Plessis said. "Obviouslynow the work starts again, andwe get our work mode backon." RCB has never ever wonthe IPL and allrounder GlennMaxwell feels the team is veryclose to achieving that dream.

"Amazing result for ustonight. There is just onesmall step in us going fur-ther, we are that close tomaking history for RCB inthis tournament. We neededanother team, but from nowon it's all us."

����� �&�<�

Punjab Kings bowlersshowed a lot of disciplineagainst a demoralised SunrisersHyderabad, restricting themto 157 for 8 in an inconsequen-tial final league game of the IPLhere on Sunday.

Arshdeep Singh (0/25 in 4overs) celebrated his maidenIndia call-up with another par-simonious spell but it was hisstate team colleague HarpreetBrar (3/26 in 4 overs), who wasthe pick of the bowlers withwickets of Priyam Garg, RahulTripathi and Aiden Markram.

With four qualifiers alreadydecided on Saturday, there waslittle more than academic inter-est left in the game and the'Orange Army' in fact lookedjaded and more like goingthrough the motions while bat-ting before sprucing up theirscores in the final few overs.

SRH's best batter of the sea-son, Abhishek Sharma (43 off

32 balls) once again got a startbut should have converted itinto a big one which didn't hap-pen.

A solemn looking Tripathi(20) did cross a personal mile-stone of 400 runs for the seasonbut disappointment of not mak-ing it to the national team was

writ large in his body languageas he failed to connect the bighits.

Brar didn't do anythingextraordinary and kept it most-ly on the stumps, stifling theopposition batters for runs.

It was left to RomarioShepherd (26 not out off 15

balls) and Washington Sundar(25 off 19 balls) to take theSunrisers past the 150-runmark, as both of them used thelong handle to good effect intheir 58-run sixth-wicket part-nership off only 4.5 overs.

In fact, 50-plus runs camein the last four overs as Nathan

Ellis (3/40 in 4 overs) erred inlength despite a couple of back-to-back wickets that he got inthe bargain.

Ellis did bowl a good hat-trick delivery whichBhuvneshwar Kumar avertedonly to get run-out of the verynext delivery.

������&�<�

Mumbai Indians skipperRohit Sharma admitted

that a lot of things didn't go hisway with the bat but he is notlosing sleep over his "disappoint-ing" season as he is just one"minor adjustment" away fromfinding form again. Rohitendured his worst IPL season,failing to score a single half-cen-tury for the first time since hisdebut in the inaugural edition in2008. The swashbuckling open-er managed to score just 248runs at an average of 19.14 anda strike rate of 120.17 in 14 out-ings. "A lot of things that I want-ed to do didn't happen. I amvery disappointed with me sea-son. But this has happened withme earlier as well, so it's notsomething I am going throughfor the first time," Rohit saidafter MI's last match of the sea-son on Saturday.

"I know cricket doesn't endhere; there is a lot of cricketahead.

������� ��� ���O

Sergio Perez took second fora Red Bull 1-2 at the

Montmelo circuit behind theworld champion where in 2016Verstappen had opened his F1account as a teenager.

Leclerc was sitting com-fortably in the lead from poleuntil lap 23 when a sudden lossof power proved fatal to hisFerrari.

The man from Monacoarrived in Catalonia 19 pointsin front in the title race, but leftit six points behind Verstappenahead of his home race nextweekend.

Verstappen had to over-come being blown off the cir-cuit and into the gravel by agust of wind early on andsome technical niggles.

"Difficult beginning but agood end! I tried to stayfocussed, which is not always

easy," he said.Mercedes showed

improved form after a bumpystart to the season with GeorgeRussell claiming third.

Lewis Hamilton in the

other Mercedes threaded hisway through the field afterbeing forced into the pits short-ly after the start with a punc-ture to take fifth.

������������� >���&

Jammu express Umran MalikSunday earned the Team

India cap after the Board ofControl for Cricket in India(BCCI) announced India'ssquad for the five-match T20International Home seriesagainst South Africa startingJune 9.

In Jammu, celebrationsbroke instantly in the old cityarea where his father AbdulRashid Malik runs a freshfruit/vegetable shop. He wasgreeted and garlanded by thelocal residents and a victoryprocession was also taken outin the main streets via GujjarNagar area.

The shopkeepers andpassersby greeted him, dis-tributed sweets in jubilation.Large number of youngsterswere seen dancing on the drumbeats in celebration.

Thanking God AlmightyUmran's father prayed for hisbest performance in theupcoming series in SouthAfrica.

"I am very happy. My sonhas made all of us proud byearning the cap of Team India.All his hard work has beenacknowledged and he is goingto realise his dream of playingfor the country", said AbdulRashid.

"Today I want to thank thepeople of Jammu and Kashmir,the people of India and all his

well wishers for blessing myson and backing him while hewas performing well during theIPL series".

Ever since Umran startedbowling in the ongoing IPLseries he won hearts of cricketlovers with his best perfor-mance on the field. He bowledfastest bowls of the season andearned 13 awards in a row forbowling fastest deliveries.

Back home, his sisters andmother were busy receiving vis-itors who assembled at theirresidence to greet the familyand celebrate the selection oftheir youngest son in TEAMINDIA.

Political leaders and sportsadministrators congratulatedhim on earning the cap ofTEAM INDIA.

Former Chief MinisterOmar Abdullah tweeted Welldone Umran. "Well doneUmran Malik. We will bewatching the forthcoming T20series against the Proteas verykeenly".

Senior BJP leader and for-mer Deputy Chief MinisterProf Nirmal Singh posted atweet congratulating theJammu speedster."Congratulations to Speedsterof Jammu Umran Malik for hisselection in the Indian Cricketteam for the upcoming T20series against South Africa. Aproud moment for J&k".

Secretary J&K sports coun-cil Nuzhat Gull in a tweet said,

����� ��������

Jammu and Kashmir pace sen-sation Umran Malik on

Sunday earned an expectedIndia call-up for the upcomingfive-match T20 Internationalhome series against South Africastarting June 9.

Umran has picked up 21wickets in 13 games forSunrisers Hyderabad in the IPLbut it's his ability to bowl con-sistently at 95 miles per hour thathas caught the imagination of alland sundry with calls for hisimmediate selection in top-flight cricket. Along withUmran, Punjab Kings' deathovers specialist Arshdeep Singhhas also earned his maidennational call-up.

As reported on July 14 byPTI, regular captain RohitSharma, star batter Virat Kohli,pacers Jasprit Bumrah andMohammed Shami have allbeen rested for the white-ballseries in which Rishabh Pant willbe the vice-captain.

Rohit, Kohli, Bumrah,Ravichandran Ashwin andRavindra Jadeja will all fly toEngland on June 15 for the one-off Test against England atEdgbaston from July 1-5 and willbe joined by Cheteshwar Pujara,who has earned a recall to the17-member Indian Test teamafter a stupendous show inEnglish County Championshipfor Sussex. Ditto for all-rounderHardik Pandya, who has suc-cessfully led new franchiseGujarat Titans into IPL play-offs

and has been consistent with thebat, besides bowling a few oversat brisk pace.

While former players andexperts have all spoken in uni-son about Umran's selection inthe national team, it wouldn'thave been a cakewalk hadLucknow Super Giants pacerMohsin Khan been fully fit.

While Umran has 21 wick-ets (before Sunday's game), mostof which came in the first phasewhen batters were getting usedto his pace, it is understood thatthe selectors were far moreimpressed with Mohsin.

The Uttar Pradesh left-armer has taken 13 wicketsfrom 8 matches at an astound-ing economy rate of 5.93 com-pared to Umran's 8.93 in 13games. However, Mohsin'sdodgy hamstring made the deci-sion easier for Chetan Sharma'scommittee, which also pickedArshdeep especially for his deathovers bowling for Punjab Kings.

Arshdeep bowls at early tomid 130's and has only 10 wick-ets in 13 games (before Sunday'sgame) but his ability to bowl thechange-ups along with wideyorkers and deliveries in theblock-hole has earned him aplace in the squad.

Arshdeep was with theIndian team as a net bowler inan away series against Sri Lankalast year, while Umran was in theUAE, assisting the national teamduring T20 World Cup.

The selectors more or lesspicked up players who haveplayed in last two T20I series forIndia with Dinesh Karthik, at 36years of age and 18 years after hefirst played for India, making hisumpteenth comeback.

Karthik's inclusion will cer-tainly put Rishabh Pant under abit of pressure as both are des-ignated middle-order finishersunlike third keeping optionIshan Kishan, who is a special-ist opener. As per indication inthe team sheet, Karthik is secondkeeper and Ishan is a pure bat-ter.

If there was one player, whowould feel a bit let-down, it hasto be Rahul Tripathi, who, beforeSunday, had scored 393 runs ata strike-rate of above 160 andhad three fifty plus-scores to hiscredit.

Tripathi, who has been con-sistent in the IPL, may get hischance sometime during theseason but he might feel harddone by, consideringSuryakumar Yadav was left outdue to a hand injury.

����� '����

Two-time French Openrunner-up Dominic

Thiem said he was "a fewmore months" away fromreturning to his best aftercrashing out in the first roundat Roland Garros for the sec-ond straight year.

Thiem's ranking hasslipped to 194 after a lengthybattle with a wrist injury. Hehas lost 10 tour-level match-es in a row following a 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 defeat to Hugo Dellienof Bolivia on Sunday.

The 2020 US Openchampion has yet to win amatch in six attempts sincehis comeback in March. Hislast victory came in Rome justover a year ago.

"It's not the greatest feel-ing to go in a Grand Slamknowing that all is not perfectin practice. I don't play like Iwould like to in practice," saidThiem.

"It was not a good matchat all, but it is what it is. I

knew that it's going to taketime, that the level is extreme-

ly high from all the playerscompeting here and I'm not

there yet."The 28-year-old Austrian,

a former world number three,reached at least the quarter-finals at Roland Garros fiveyears running from 2016 to2020. He finished runner-upto Rafael Nadal in 2018 and2019.

"The key is just to bepatient, continue beingpatient, work on the stuffwhich is not working andthen it will come back, but itwill take time," said Thiem.

"I cannot say now I'm dis-appointed, I'll work hard for aweek and then next tourna-ment I'm playing super well.

"I have to be patient and Ithink it's going to take a fewmore months until I can real-ly say, okay, now I'm ready tobeat those top guys again."

Dellien, ranked 87th,recorded only his third GrandSlam main-draw win. He madethe second round of the FrenchOpen and US Open in 2019.

$����������������� � ���� � �� ��������� 1��������2��!�1�$=?6(�@���>8�

%�( ��� � $ � � %)� �DB ���G,H 78 79 8 9 N9 91D7L/B !!�G,H 78 E M 9 7P 91NEPIB����G,H 78 E M 9 7P 91NM70B !�� 78 P L 9 7L C91NMD3B *� 78 I I 9 78 91N989B �� � 78 I I 9 78 917NL:B ! 78 L P 9 7N 9178L<B �!6 78 L P 9 7N C91DIE=B �� 78 8 79 9 P C91N9DD.B �1 78 8 79 9 P C91M9L

(� �%�table

�#��� '�(% �8 �# ����.�+ $�(8%! �+%#%�

'� ����) �����"���������������" ��''�#������%���'���+������#% ��

�!����"!���!��"$����.�!(���.!!��-!�#�

�� �'��) %��?���#��2(������D�%���" ������� �������� ���� ���

9� $A%;*� AA=

������"meter

Page 12: ?ZeZdY dVe e` UV_j CD eZT\Ve e` C4A - Daily Pioneer

������ ��!�"#���$ !�"�$ %&'�%(%% �(��%��D/

���� <����

Ten-man RB Leipzig lifted theGerman Cup at the third

attempt on Saturday by winningthe final 4-2 on penalties havingfought back to draw 1-1 againstFreiburg after extra-time.

Maximilian Eggestein gaveFreiburg an early lead at Berlin'sOlympic Stadium beforeChristopher Nkunku equalisedinside 90 minutes after Leipzighad Marcel Halstenberg sent off.

Leipzig's triumph comeshaving lost on their previousGerman Cup finals appearancesto Bayern Munich in 2019, thenDortmund last season.

It is the first major title wonby RB Leipzig, who are backedby energy drinks giants RedBull and were only founded in2009.

"That's crazy, we played 60minutes with ten men,"Leipzig managing directorOliver Mintzlaff told ARD.

"We're going to partyhard, this is an historicevening for us."

They shot up Germany'sfootball pyramid with fourpromotions in seven years toreach the Bundesliga in2016/17, twice finishing sec-ond to Bayern Munich in thelast six years.

� �������� ������� ��

Manchester City wonthe title after theycompleted a remark-

able turnaround to beat AstonVilla 3-2.

Pep Guardiola's side knewthat a win here against AstonVilla would hand them a thirdPremier League title in fouryears.

And they went close toscoring after just nine minutesas Gabriel Jesus shut downgoalkeeper Robin Olsen but theblocked pass went just wide ofthe Villa goal.

But it was Steven Gerrard'sside who opened the scoring on36 minutes as Matty Cashheaded past Ederson.

After the break City weregoing all out for an equaliserbut Jesus's sliding effort some-how went over the bar.

It was Villa who got theirsecond though as Coutinhoturned Aymeric Laporte andfinished well.

But City did get one backwith 15 minutes to go as IlkayGundogan headed in at the farpost before Rodri slotted one infrom the edge of the area tomake the score level.

And it was Gundogan whoput City ahead with eight min-utes to go as he virtuallysecured the title for Guardiola'smen.

Liverpool beat Wolves 3-1at Anfield but couldn't claimthe title after Manchester City'swin.

Liverpool needed AstonVilla to do them a favour if anunlikely Premier League titlewas on the cards - but first theyhad to get their job done

against Wolves.But they got off to the

worst possible start as Netoghosted into the area and

tapped in from close range.Jürgen Klopp's side soon

got themselves back into thegame though as Sadio Mané

raced in and finished well.Into the second half and

the home side had a goal dis-allowed after 50 minutes as

Mané was slipped in but hisstrike was ruled out for offside.

They did get their goal lateon as Mohamed Salah joined

the action and bundled one infrom close range before AndyRoberson got a third.

Leeds won 2-1 against 10-

man Brentford and avoided rel-egation to the Championship.

Jesse Marsch's side trav-elled to west London knowingthat things were out of theirhands in the relegation zone asthey needed to better Burnley'sresult at Newcastle.

The Yorkshire side thoughtthey had opened the scoring on18 minutes but Joe Gelhardt'sgoal was disallowed for offsideafter a VAR call.

Leeds were fully on tophere and after the break wentclose to finally getting thatgoal only for Rodrigo's one-on-one effort to hit the goalkeep-er.

But they did get their goalon 55 minutes as Raphina slot-ted in a penalty after beingtaken out inside the area.

Brentford made thingsnervy for Leeds late on asSergi Canos levelled things upbut the Spaniard was then sentoff for two bookable offences.

But Leeds got a goal rightin stoppage time to confirmtheir top flight status next sea-son.

Burnley were relegatedafter a decade in the PremierLeague as they lost 2-1 to

Newcastle.An in-form Newcastle

went to Turf Moor looking toupset Burnley and send theClarets down to theChampionship.

Joelinton was in the warsearly on as he got stretcheredoff after a collision in midfieldbut the Magpies took the leadon 18 minutes as CallumWilson struck home a penalty.

After the break EddieHowe's side got their second asWilson tapped in from closerange.

Burnley's best player thisseason - Maxwell Cornet -pulled one back for the homeside with the home crowd nowurging their side on for anequaliser.

Tottenham claimed fourthplace and a spot in next sea-son's Champions League asthey beat Norwich 5-0.

It was advantageTottenham in the race for thatfinal Champions League placeas they knew that a win atNorwich would take them intoEurope next season.

Antonio Conte's side wereon top early on and needed just15 minutes to take the lead asDejan Kulusevski finished well.

Spurs then cemented theirplace in the top four as HarryKane doubled their lead justafter the half hour mark.

In the second halfKulusevski scored an absolutescreamer to all but secure theirtop four status.

Heung-min Son wasn'tgoing to let the day go by with-out a goal as he got his 22nd ofthe season and then netted his23rd to go top of the GoldenBoot race.

���� ;�������

Fiorentina will return to European football forthe first time in five years after beating

Juventus 2-0 to qualify for next season'sConference League.

Alfred Duncan's finish on the stroke of half-time and Nicolas Gonzalez's late penalty gaveVincenzo Italiano's side the win they needed toguarantee continental competition.

Fiorentina ensured seventh spot in Italy's topflight, three points ahead of Atalanta who lost1-0 at home to Empoli and miss out on Europefor the first time since Gian Piero Gasperini tookover as coach in 2016.

Giorgio Chiellini made his final appearancein a Juve shirt in a typically feisty match betweenbig rivals and he left the field with a bleedinghead after a clash with Fiorentina forwardKrzysztof Piatek in build up to Duncan's win-ner.

The 37-year-old didn't come back out forthe second half and ended his Juve career unableto help his team salvage something from thematch.

Lazio closed their season in fifth, a point andone place above local rivals Rome after an enter-taining 3-3 home draw with Verona.

���� &��

Lyon won the Women'sChampions League on

Saturday after beatingBarcelona 3-1 to be crownedqueens of Europe for arecord-extending eighthtime.

First half goals fromAmandine Henry, AdaHegerberg and CatarinaMacario were enough to takethe title from pre-matchholders Barca, who pulledone back through captainAlexia Putellas just beforehalf-time.

Expectation was highamong Barca fans, whodescended in large numberson the Allianz Stadium inTurin to watch a team whohave been tipped to endLyon's dominance of thewomen's game in Europe.

However they couldn'tcome back from going threegoals down in the first 33minutes.

"I'm super happy to havescored because it helped ussettle in to the match. It willremain engraved in mymemory," said Henry after

her blockbuster finish."I'm not used to scoring

but this will give me evenmore confidence and moredesire to keep playing."

The damage was done ina whirlwind opening periodin which Lyon showed their

European pedigree and forlarge tracts steamrolleredBarca.

Henry opened the scor-ing in the sixth minute witha beautiful strike which cameout of nowhere, the Franceicon picking up the ball way

out before letting off a rock-et which Sandra Panos couldonly grasp at in vain.

From there Lyon kickedinto gear and Hegerberg hadher 59th goal in 60Champions League appear-ances in the 23rd minute

when she calmly nodded inSelma Bacha's cross fromclose range.

Ten minutes later Barca'sheads were spinning after abaffling defensive mix-upleft Macario with a tap-in tomake it three from almost onthe goal line.

Barca looked dead andburied but Ballon d'Or hold-er Putellas dragged her teamback into it four minutesbefore the break when shesaved Caroline GrahamHansen's miscued cross bylashing home a low first-timefinish.

Patricia Guijarro thoughtshe had cut the deficit to justone in the most spectacularway possible when shelaunched an audacious shotfrom just after the half-wayline which crashed back outfrom the underside of the bar.

From there Barca werethe better team but lackedthe killer touch, with Ana-Maria Crnogorcevic volley-ing a great chance wide withseven minutes remaininghighlighting a wastefulnesswhich in the end cost themtheir European crown.

� '��5�� �'��=

In the series 'Champion born this month',I wish to present a story on a champion

who can considered to be the most origi-nal player of all times, someone who neverfollowed the known paths of the Chess strat-egy, someone who never worked hard,someone who was criticised of 'having noclue of what Chess is', someone whowouldn't elaborate on his thinking processand yet someone who was the most fearedopponent for almost two decades becausenot many could guess his next move! Yes,I am talking of the one and the only oneAnatoly Karpov!

Anatoly Evgenevich Karpov was bornon 23rd May, 1951 at Zlatoust, Russia in anormal simple Russian family. He showedexceptional talent in defeating well knownChess players very early in life and improvedmuch faster than other players of his age.In fact, as a boy, he was better than hisfriends in all intellectual activities and evencard games.

In 1969, Karpov won the World JuniorChess Crown, thereby becoming a real forceto reckon with. The Western Chess worldstarted taking him a bit seriously but still,he was never considered to be a geniusbecause the Chess fraternity did not pos-sess the objectivity to assess the depth ofKarpov's play. When Karpov won theWorld Championship Throne in 1975 dueto 'forfeit' by Bobby Fischer, the Westernmedia looked down upon Karpov as if it washis fault. However, despite all this, Karpovreigned supreme for a full decade before los-ing the World Championship Match to the'Child of change', Garry Kasparov. (We pre-sented a story on Gary Kasparov in our issue

of 13th April, 2022).Even today, Karpov is known to be

unique and unparalleled in several aspectsof Chess. Probably he is the strongestendgame player of all times, with deep senseof endgame planning and strategy, com-bined with engine-like accuracy. Karpov'sability of improving his position without let-ting the opponent have a slightest clue ofit often angered of his opponents. He pos-sessed the unique quality of easily winning'drawn' endgames. Karpov is probably theonly Chess player who remained the WorldChampionship Challenger for almost adecade after losing the World Chess Crown.In fact, Kasparov and his team took sever-al years to find the right way of fightingKarpov, which involved a multi-fold com-plex strategy. Karpov's contribution to

closed Ruy Lopez ( Spanish) opening andthe Boleslavsky Pawn structure in Siciliandefence is unparalleled. One of his movesin the Spanish opening, againstGrandmaster Unzicker, is still known as'Move of the (20th)Century'.

Today I have chosen a little knowngame of Karpov for two reasons. Firstly, itexhibits his extraordinary positional under-standing at tender age of 15 and secondly,it is the first known game of a variationwhich is now known as 'Karpov Variation'.

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf65.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.c3 0-0 9.h3Na5 10.Bc2 Bb7 11.d4 Nc4 12.b3 Nb613.Nbd2

This was the commonly occurringposition in the 1950s and 1960s, and theassessment was that White was slightly bet-ter. Perhaps the assessment is correct butKarpov's way of handling it with Blackresulted in remarkable changes in strategicbeliefs in the Spanish opening.

13...Nfd7! 14.Nf1 c5 15.Ne3 g6 16.Bb2 Bf6!Black is trying to provoke White in advanc-ing the 'd' Pawn.17.Qe2 Qc7 18.dxe5?!18.d5 leads to a sharp position with activeplay for both sides.18...Nxe5!Probably White expected 18...dxe5? 19.c4!when Black's pieces are not well placed tooccupy the 'd4' square.19.Nxe5 Bxe5! 20.Bd3 c4!The most ambitious and accurate contin-uation. Black strives for initiative on theQueen side.21.bxc4 Na4! 22.Rac1 b4! 23.Nd1 a5?!23...Nxb2! was better.24.Ba1! Rfd8 25.Qc2 Bc6 26.Rb1 Nc5!

27.Ne3 Ba4 28.Qd2 b3!Black has succeeded in creating a 'PassedPawn on the Queen side, despite being a'Pawn down'.29.Nd5 Qa7 30.Bf1 Rdb8 31.Kh1 bxa232.Qxa2 Bb3 33.Qe2 a4 34.f4 Bg7 35.f5 Re8!An important decision, the Black King Rookoccupies the semi-open 'e' file and success-fully interferes with White's King side attack.36.Qg4 Bc2! 37.Rb2 Rxe4 38.Rxe4 Bxe439.fxg639.f6 Bf8 is completely hopeless for White.39...hxg6 40.Rd2 Nb3 41.Rd1 Bc2! 42.Re1Qf2!The decisive infiltration into White's camp.43.Qe2 Qxe2 44.Bxe244.Rxe2 loses to Nxa144...Re8!Now White can't avoid loss of at least apiece.45.Bb2 Bd3 46.Nf4 Bxc4!Black intends to attack the White Knight on'f4' which is defending the 'pinned' WhiteBishop on 'e2'.47.Kg1 g547...Bh6 was equally good. For example,48.Kf2 Bxf4 49.Bxc4 Bg3+! etc.48.Kf2! Nd2!But not 48...gxf4? 49.Bxc449.Bd349.Bxc4 Rxe1 50.Kxe1 Nxc4 leads to loss ofat least one piece for White.49...Rb8!White resigned in view of 49...Rb8 50.Ba3Be5! 51.Bxc4 Nxc4 when he can't save boththe attacked pieces. This game broughtabout several important strategic changesto the then established ideas in Spanishopening. 0-1

(Pravin Thipsay is a Grandmaster andformer national champion.)

���� '���

Marseille clinchedautomatic qualifica-

tion for next season'sChampions League groupstage on a final night ofthe French Ligue 1 seasonon Saturday.

Marseille began theday in third place -- whichonly offered a place in theChampions League thirdqualifying round --behind Monaco on goaldifference, meaning theyneeded to better the prin-cipality club's result tofinish second as they eachcompleted their cam-paigns.

The 1993 ChampionsLeague winners duly ful-filled their part of the bar-gain as they crushedStrasbourg 4-0 at a packedVelodrome with Brazilianinternational Gersonscoring twice either sideof a Cengiz Under goalbefore Cedric Bakambuwrapped up the victorylate on.

Seconds after thatgoal went in, bedlamensued among the morethan 60,000 home sup-porters as news filteredthrough that Monaco hadconceded an injury-timegoal to draw 2-2 away atLens.

���� �������

Rangers ended a tumultuousweek by winning the Scottish

Cup after beating Hearts 2-0after extra time in the final.

Rangers lost the EuropaLeague final on Wednesdaynight in a penalty shootout, andit went into another extra timeon Saturday thanks to CraigGordon's save with his foot fromJoe Aribo near the end of regu-lation time at Hampden Park.

However, they dug deep yetagain and two goals in threeminutes by substitutes Ryan Jackand Scott Wright on Saturdaygave them the Scottish Cup forthe first time since 2009.

ANATOLY KARPOV- THE MOST ORIGINAL PLAYER

.�� �����������D������ �������� � �����������

�� �������� �����"���

�%��������� ������������������2����0���� ��"$������"��!�������+.

4%�+;�, 2�# �/-:�8�& �# +%#�&��%�

.���)1#�&)����" )"��'".+5"�5��'���

<�� ����5���DC7�� ���;���<& ���&���A ����� �� ����; ��������� ��� =A����1


VIDEO CD Player - Sony

VIDEO CD Player - Sony

cd zeletin 75 -

cd zeletin 75 -

DVE - DHE - ctc

DVE - DHE - ctc

CD-5273.pdf - Repositorio Digital - EPN

CD-5273.pdf - Repositorio Digital - EPN

booklet notes CD 'Naples 1759'

booklet notes CD 'Naples 1759'

WEA In European CD Push

WEA In European CD Push

So'dm Mm cd nUm

So'dm Mm cd nUm

How to Buy a CD Player CD Accessories CD for the Car CD ...

How to Buy a CD Player CD Accessories CD for the Car CD ...

Augusta ECO CD - Wittur

Augusta ECO CD - Wittur

Significato e funzioni della cd. Biblioteca di Adriano ad Atene

Significato e funzioni della cd. Biblioteca di Adriano ad Atene

CD-8175.pdf - Repositorio Digital - EPN

CD-8175.pdf - Repositorio Digital - EPN

CD Radio Cassette-Corder - Sony

CD Radio Cassette-Corder - Sony

Audio CD Track 14-15

Audio CD Track 14-15

SARAS CD/EoR Radiometer - arXiv

SARAS CD/EoR Radiometer - arXiv

:_UZR dVe e` ^R\V ^R[`c ]VRa Z_ 2^cZe `UZ Z_g ...

:_UZR dVe e` ^R\V ^R[`c ]VRa Z_ 2^cZe `UZ Z_g ...

CD 10141.pdf - Repositorio Digital - EPN

CD 10141.pdf - Repositorio Digital - EPN

I. Ravić, Dve povelje humskog kneza Andreja Dubrovčanima, SSA 12 (2013)

I. Ravić, Dve povelje humskog kneza Andreja Dubrovčanima, SSA 12 (2013)

CD-3 CD-1 CD-2 - United Nations Office for Disaster Risk ...

CD-3 CD-1 CD-2 - United Nations Office for Disaster Risk ...

Super Audio CD / CD Transport

Super Audio CD / CD Transport

Adobe After Effects CS6 What's New - dve cross media GmbH

Adobe After Effects CS6 What's New - dve cross media GmbH