14
A s the standoff between the farmers and Centre con- tinues over agriculture laws, farmers are going to block the Jaipur National Highway-8, which passes through Gurugram, on Monday. Following which the Delhi Police has upped security on the national Capital’s border with Haryana. On Sunday heads of all farmer unions declared that now they will observe a one- day hunger strike on Monday, farmer leader Gurnam Singh Chaduni said here on Sunday. Farmers said the hunger strike between 8 am and 5 pm on Monday is part of the farmers’ plan to intensify their agitation from December 14. The announcement by farmers’ unions to block the Jaipur-Delhi highway comes amid protests by thousands for the last 17 days at the var- ious other border points of the national Capital, including Singhu and Tikri, against the laws. Farmers are demanding that the Centre withdraws the legislations. Addressing a Press confer- ence at Singhu border, where the farmers have been camping in agitation for over two weeks, Chaduni said the leaders will observe the hunger strike at their respective places. “Also dharnas will be staged at all district headquarters across the country. The protest will go on as usual,” he told reporters. “There are groups that are end- ing protest and saying they are in favour of laws passed by the Government. We want to clar- ify that they are not associated with us. Continued on Page 4 W ith the farmers protesting at the Delhi/NCR bor- ders against the three new farm laws, wheat cultivation back home in their States of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan has taken a hit in the current rabi season. States like Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, from where not many farmers have partici- pated in the protests, have sown more wheat or rabi crops this year. As per Agriculture Ministry data, the area under wheat cul- tivation is down by 60,000 hectare in Punjab, 1.2 lakh hectare in Haryana and 2.25 lakh hectare in Rajasthan so far. Data showed that total wheat cultivation in Punjab was at only 33.3 lakh hectare so far in the current rabi season as against 33.9 lakh hectare last year. Similarly, Haryana has reported wheat cultivation in only 22.04 lakh hectare against the 23.06 lakh hectare last year. Rajasthan has reported 25.05 lakh hectare under wheat cul- tivation as compared to the 27.29 lakh hectare last year, a reduction of 2.25 lakh hectare. Wheat is the biggest rabi (winter sown) crop of Punjab and is the biggest contributor of the food grain to the nation- al buffer stock. Wheat is expected to be sown over near- ly 35 lakh hectares in Punjab with an output target of near- ly 170 lakh tonnes. Normally, wheat sowing starts in the last week of October in the State. Interestingly, in absence of adult males, women have taken the charge of irrigating fields, sprinkling fertilisers in them, tending cattle, milking cows and chopping fodder for them with their children’s help, while keep- ing their spouses and adult sons assured all the while not to worry about the chores back home and focus on their protests. Continued on Page 4 I n a move to end farmers’ protest, the next round of talk between the Government and the agitating farmer unions is likely to be held soon. Union Minister Som Prakash, who is among the Government representatives negotiating with farmers protesting against the three new farm laws, indicated that efforts are on to call next round of meeting with leaders of the agitation to end the stalemate. Sources said the Government and representa- tives of farmer unions are in touch to hold the next round of talks after the nationwide protest on December 14. According to sources, Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait said if the Government gives another pro- posal for talks, our committee will decide on it. Sources said the Government is in touch with Sanyukt Kisan Morcha’s leaders and other moderate farmers leaders to chalk out a strategy to end the stalemate. Earlier, Haryana Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala, who met Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and Food, Railways and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal on Saturday to discuss the farmers’ protest, has stat- ed that he was hopeful that the logjam would end in the next 24 to 48 hours. Chautala’s Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) counts farmers as an important constituency and has faced prickly ques- tions about his alliance with the BJP amid the mounting protests. Earlier, a delegation of 29 farmers led by BKU (Mann) leader Guni Prakash from Haryana and a delegation of 90 farmers’ leaders from Uttarakhand meeting with Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar was also the part of the back door channel diplomacy. According to farmers’ lead- ers, differences erupted among the farmer unions. Continued on Page 4 T he story of valour, grit and commitment of the CRPF jawans has been compiled in a rare collection, which was released by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Sunday coincid- ing with the anniversary of the Parliament attack. The glorious history of the Central Reserve Police Force has been scripted by its bravehearts who served the nation with sheer grit, indomitable courage, and unflinching commitment to duty, the CRPF said in a state- ment. “The acts of valour of these fearless men and women have been recognised with more than 2,000 gallantry medals — the highest among any Central Armed Police Force,” it said. With the belief that every citizen deserves to know and take pride in the stories of these acts which serve as true exam- ple of courage, patriotism, integrity, discipline, and selfless devotion to duty, the CRPF has penned ‘The Shaurya Unbound-Tales of Valour of the Central Reserve Police Force’. The book is a collection of 13 most exemplary acts of val- our of CRPF bravehearts who were awarded with Chakras. On the anniversary of the attack on the Indian Parliament, Birla released the English and Hindi version of the book which includes tales of insur- mountable gallantry, of Constable Kamlesh Kumari Ashok Chakra (posthumously) and four Shaurya Chakra recip- ients while retaliating the attack on Parliament in 2001. Continued on Page 4 T here has been a drastic rise in obesity among children under five years in 20 out of the 22 States where a study was conducted, according to the lat- est National Family Health Survey (NFHS) with experts attributing it to lack of physi- cal activity and unhealthy food habits. According to the NHFS-5, several States and Union Territories, including Jammu & Kashmir, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Mizoram, Tripura, Lakshadweep and Ladakh have registered many fold increase in cases of obesity among children below five years of age in com- parison to NFHS-4 conducted between 2015 and 2016. The data reveals that only Goa, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, and Daman and Diu registered a drop in the number of over- weight children under five years of age. “About 13.4 per cent chil- dren under the age of five were found to be obese in Ladakh which was highest among the 22 States and Union Territories surveyed, followed by Lakshadweep at 10.5 per cent, Mizoram 10 per cent, Jammu and Kashmir, and Sikkim 9.6 per cent each,” as per the data. Not just children, rise in obesity has even been record- ed in adults in the latest survey in comparison to NFHS-4. Continued on Page 4 B JP president JP Nadda who has just returned from West Bengal tested positive on Sunday for the Covid-19. Nadda said he has been fol- lowing all the guidelines for home isolation. “I got the test done after experiencing the initial symp- toms of corona and the report came back positive. My health is fine and I have been follow- ing all the guidelines for home isolation on the advice of doctors. “I request everyone who has come in contact with me in the last few days to please iso- late yourself and get yourself checked,” Nadda tweeted in Hindi. Prior to this, Nadda was on a two -day tour (December 9 & 10) of the West Bengal for the party poll campaign. Continued on Page 4 S peaking tough against the vested interests who are compromising unity, security and the integrity of the coun- try by using innocent farmers, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that such elements would be dealt with a heavy hand. Addressing a rally at the Agriculture University in Meerut on Sunday, the chief minister said that those behind this conspiracy did not want to see the farmers prosper. “It is for everyone to see that some elements are advo- cating an anti-India voice in the name of the farmers’ movement,” he said and called upon the farmers to stand with the integrity of the coun- try because solution of a problem lay in dialogue and not in struggle. Details on Page 2 P unjab Deputy Inspector General (Prisons) Lakhminder Singh Jakhar on Sunday said he has resigned from the service in support of farm- ers who are protesting against the Centre’s three new farm laws. Jakhar said he tendered his resignation to the State Government on Saturday. In his resignation letter to Principal Secretary (Home), “I would like to inform you of my considered and introspec- tive decision to stand with my farmer brothers who are peace- fully protesting against the Farm Ordinances, 2020 which are detrimental to interest of farmers and their future gen- erations.” He wrote that he was himself a farmer. Continued on Page 4

7Rc^Vcd e` deVa fa ac`eVde e`URj - Daily Pioneer

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

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

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As the standoff between thefarmers and Centre con-

tinues over agriculture laws,farmers are going to block theJaipur National Highway-8,which passes throughGurugram, on Monday.Following which the DelhiPolice has upped security onthe national Capital’s borderwith Haryana.

On Sunday heads of allfarmer unions declared thatnow they will observe a one-day hunger strike on Monday,farmer leader Gurnam SinghChaduni said here on Sunday.Farmers said the hunger strikebetween 8 am and 5 pm onMonday is part of the farmers’plan to intensify their agitationfrom December 14.

The announcement byfarmers’ unions to block theJaipur-Delhi highway comesamid protests by thousandsfor the last 17 days at the var-ious other border points of thenational Capital, includingSinghu and Tikri, against thelaws. Farmers are demandingthat the Centre withdraws thelegislations.

Addressing a Press confer-ence at Singhu border, wherethe farmers have been campingin agitation for over two weeks,Chaduni said the leaders willobserve the hunger strike at

their respective places.“Also dharnas will be staged

at all district headquarters acrossthe country. The protest will goon as usual,” he told reporters.“There are groups that are end-ing protest and saying they arein favour of laws passed by theGovernment. We want to clar-ify that they are not associatedwith us.

Continued on Page 4

������������ '()�*(+,&

With the farmers protestingat the Delhi/NCR bor-

ders against the three newfarm laws, wheat cultivationback home in their States ofPunjab, Haryana and Rajasthanhas taken a hit in the currentrabi season.

States like Madhya Pradeshand Maharashtra, from wherenot many farmers have partici-pated in the protests, have sownmore wheat or rabi crops thisyear. As per Agriculture Ministry

data, the area under wheat cul-tivation is down by 60,000hectare in Punjab, 1.2 lakhhectare in Haryana and 2.25 lakhhectare in Rajasthan so far.

Data showed that totalwheat cultivation in Punjab wasat only 33.3 lakh hectare so farin the current rabi season asagainst 33.9 lakh hectare lastyear. Similarly, Haryana hasreported wheat cultivation inonly 22.04 lakh hectare againstthe 23.06 lakh hectare last year.Rajasthan has reported 25.05lakh hectare under wheat cul-tivation as compared to the27.29 lakh hectare last year, areduction of 2.25 lakh hectare.

Wheat is the biggest rabi(winter sown) crop of Punjab

and is the biggest contributorof the food grain to the nation-al buffer stock. Wheat isexpected to be sown over near-ly 35 lakh hectares in Punjabwith an output target of near-ly 170 lakh tonnes. Normally,wheat sowing starts in the lastweek of October in the State.

Interestingly, in absence ofadult males, women have takenthe charge of irrigating fields,sprinkling fertilisers in them,tending cattle, milking cows andchopping fodder for them withtheir children’s help, while keep-ing their spouses and adult sonsassured all the while not toworry about the chores backhome and focus on their protests.

Continued on Page 4

������������ '()�*(+,&

In a move to end farmers’protest, the next round of talk

between the Government andthe agitating farmer unions islikely to be held soon.

Union Minister SomPrakash, who is among theGovernment representativesnegotiating with farmersprotesting against the threenew farm laws, indicated that

efforts are on to call next roundof meeting with leaders of theagitation to end the stalemate.

Sources said theGovernment and representa-tives of farmer unions are intouch to hold the next round oftalks after the nationwideprotest on December 14.

According to sources,Bharatiya Kisan Union leaderRakesh Tikait said if theGovernment gives another pro-

posal for talks, our committeewill decide on it.

Sources said theGovernment is in touch withSanyukt Kisan Morcha’s leadersand other moderate farmersleaders to chalk out a strategyto end the stalemate.

Earlier, Haryana DeputyChief Minister DushyantChautala, who met DefenceMinister Rajnath Singh,Agriculture MinisterNarendra Singh Tomar andFood, Railways andCommerce Minister PiyushGoyal on Saturday to discussthe farmers’ protest, has stat-ed that he was hopeful that thelogjam would end in the next24 to 48 hours.

Chautala’s Jannayak JanataParty (JJP) counts farmers asan important constituencyand has faced prickly ques-tions about his alliance withthe BJP amid the mountingprotests.

Earlier, a delegation of 29farmers led by BKU (Mann)leader Guni Prakash fromHaryana and a delegation of 90farmers’ leaders fromUttarakhand meeting withUnion Agriculture MinisterNarendra Singh Tomar wasalso the part of the back doorchannel diplomacy.

According to farmers’ lead-ers, differences erupted amongthe farmer unions.

Continued on Page 4

��������������������� ��

���� '()�*(+,&

The story of valour, grit andcommitment of the CRPF

jawans has been compiled in arare collection, which wasreleased by Lok Sabha SpeakerOm Birla on Sunday coincid-ing with the anniversary of theParliament attack.

The glorious history of the

Central Reserve Police Force hasbeen scripted by its braveheartswho served the nation withsheer grit, indomitable courage,and unflinching commitment toduty, the CRPF said in a state-ment. “The acts of valour ofthese fearless men and womenhave been recognised with morethan 2,000 gallantry medals —the highest among any CentralArmed Police Force,” it said.

With the belief that everycitizen deserves to know andtake pride in the stories of theseacts which serve as true exam-ple of courage, patriotism,integrity, discipline, and selflessdevotion to duty, the CRPF has

penned ‘The ShauryaUnbound-Tales of Valour of theCentral Reserve Police Force’.

The book is a collection of13 most exemplary acts of val-our of CRPF bravehearts whowere awarded with Chakras.

On the anniversary of theattack on the Indian Parliament,Birla released the English andHindi version of the bookwhich includes tales of insur-mountable gallantry, ofConstable Kamlesh KumariAshok Chakra (posthumously)and four Shaurya Chakra recip-ients while retaliating the attackon Parliament in 2001.

Continued on Page 4

���� '()�*(+,&

There has been a drastic risein obesity among children

under five years in 20 out of the22 States where a study wasconducted, according to the lat-est National Family HealthSurvey (NFHS) with expertsattributing it to lack of physi-cal activity and unhealthy foodhabits.

According to the NHFS-5,several States and UnionTerritories, including Jammu &Kashmir, Maharashtra, Gujarat,Mizoram, Tripura,Lakshadweep and Ladakh haveregistered many fold increase incases of obesity among children

below five years of age in com-parison to NFHS-4 conductedbetween 2015 and 2016.

The data reveals that onlyGoa, Dadra and Nagar Haveli,

and Daman and Diu registereda drop in the number of over-weight children under fiveyears of age.

“About 13.4 per cent chil-dren under the age of fivewere found to be obese inLadakh which was highestamong the 22 States and UnionTerritories surveyed, followedby Lakshadweep at 10.5 percent, Mizoram 10 per cent,Jammu and Kashmir, andSikkim 9.6 per cent each,” asper the data.

Not just children, rise inobesity has even been record-ed in adults in the latest surveyin comparison to NFHS-4.

Continued on Page 4

���� '()�*(+,&

BJP president JP Nadda whohas just returned from West

Bengal tested positive onSunday for the Covid-19.Nadda said he has been fol-lowing all the guidelines forhome isolation.

“I got the test done afterexperiencing the initial symp-toms of corona and the reportcame back positive. My healthis fine and I have been follow-

ing all the guidelines for homeisolation on the advice ofdoctors.

“I request everyone whohas come in contact with me inthe last few days to please iso-late yourself and get yourselfchecked,” Nadda tweeted inHindi.

Prior to this, Nadda was ona two -day tour (December 9 &10) of the West Bengal for theparty poll campaign.

Continued on Page 4

���� +-.�'/)

Speaking tough against thevested interests who are

compromising unity, securityand the integrity of the coun-try by using innocent farmers,Uttar Pradesh Chief MinisterYogi Adityanath said that suchelements would be dealt witha heavy hand.

Addressing a rally at theAgriculture University inMeerut on Sunday, the chief

minister said that those behindthis conspiracy did not want tosee the farmers prosper.

“It is for everyone to seethat some elements are advo-cating an anti-India voice inthe name of the farmers’movement,” he said and calledupon the farmers to standwith the integrity of the coun-try because solution of a problem lay in dialogue andnot in struggle.

Details on Page 2

�������

����� .,0'*&102,

Punjab Deputy InspectorGeneral (Prisons)

Lakhminder Singh Jakhar onSunday said he has resigned fromthe service in support of farm-ers who are protesting against theCentre’s three new farm laws.

Jakhar said he tenderedhis resignation to the StateGovernment on Saturday.

In his resignation letter toPrincipal Secretary (Home),“I would like to inform you ofmy considered and introspec-tive decision to stand with myfarmer brothers who are peace-fully protesting against theFarm Ordinances, 2020 whichare detrimental to interest offarmers and their future gen-erations.” He wrote that hewas himself a farmer.

Continued on Page 4

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Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary RK Tiwari hasissued directions to all additional chief

secretaries and principal to ensure that applicationsof entrepreneurs for obtaining various clearancesfor establishing or running their business orindustrial units are accepted online without excep-tion.

Warning officials of stringent departmental anddisciplinary action, the chief secretary directed var-ious departments to issue government orders pro-hibiting offline acceptance of entrepreneurs’ appli-cations for the services available online on the sin-gle window portal Nivesh Mitra, officials said herein a statement on Sunday.

He further stated that despite clear orders issuedearlier, it had been noticed that a few departmentswere either accepting offline applications or doingoffline processing of applications received onlinethrough Nivesh Mitra and entrepreneurs were being compelled to personally visit offices ofdepartments to submit hard copies of required doc-uments. Tiwari said that this practice was unaccept-able and contrary to the state government’s com-mitment to improving ease of doing business in thestate.

The additional chief secretaries and principalsecretaries of the departments concerned have beendirected to issue government orders without delayto forbid offline acceptance of entrepreneurs’applications for the services available online on thesingle window portal.

He also asked the additional chief secretariesand principal secretaries to review the complianceof these directions on a monthly basis and penaliseany officer found to be violating the orders.

These directions have been issued toAgriculture, Revenue, Commercial Tax, Excise,Labour, Stamp & Registration, Legal Meteorology,Energy, Food Safety & Drug Administration,Environment, Forest and Climate Change,Housing and Urban Planning, Public Works,Medical and Health, Urban Development, Home,Mining, IT and Electronics, Information andPublic Relations, Namami Gange and Financedepartments.

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The 4-day internationalsports, arts and music compe-tition (The SAM-2020), organ-ised by City Montessori School,Jopling Road, was inauguratedonline on Sunday.

The chief guest on theoccasion was divisional manag-er, Indian Railway, MonikaAgnihotri, who virtually inau-gurated the event amidst scin-tillating educational-culturalpresentations. CMS founderJagdish Gandhi wished theparticipants good luck. Studentteams from Iran, Russia,Greece, Nepal and variousstates of India are participatingin this competition whichaims to encourage collabora-tion and unity amongst youths,students and public atlarge.

Speaking on the occasion,Monika Agnihotri said thecoronavirus pandemic has lefta negative impact on the mindsof people all over the worldaffecting education too, butthere has been a lot of creativ-ity and positive thinking aswell, which clearly pointstowards India’s culture seekingunity in diversity.

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Within months of itslaunch, Uttar Pradesh’s

Scheme for Adolescent Girls(SAG) has reached out to about3.50 lakh girls aged between 11and 14 years against a target offive lakh.

The scheme is primarilyproviding them with a supple-mentary diet.

The broad objectives ofthe SAG scheme in UP is toimprove the nutritional, healthand development status of girlsand promote awareness abouthealth, hygiene, nutrition andfamily care.

The scheme also providesthem opportunities for learn-ing life skills, going back toschools, helps them in gaininga better understanding of thesocial environment and takeinitiatives to become produc-tive members of society.

Under the SAG, currentlycovering 53 districts, food con-taining grains like millet,wheat, corn, black gram anddesi ghee is being provided to

the girls as supplementarydiets. Besides, girls in 22 dis-tricts are being provided withdaliya and laddoo premix everymonth. In addition, the girls arealso being given pills of iron,calcium, folic acid and vitaminC.

During the ongoingCOVID-19 restrictions, thescheme is being carried outwith the help of self-helpgroups (SHGs) which are facil-itating door-to-door serviceswith the help of Anganwadiworkers. They have been dis-tributing dry ration like rice,pulses, lentils, skimmed milkpowder, desi ghee to the girls.

Besides this, over 1.67 lakhAnganwadi centres and over22,000 mini Anganwadi centresof 987 schemes under theIntegrated Child DevelopmentScheme (ICDS) are being suc-cessfully operating in the state,focusing on the all-rounddevelopment of kids agedbetween six months and sixyears, pregnant women andmidwives through various pro-grammes.

2�"���"��������������"��������������?@?5���� +-.�'/)

An expert committee formed by the Shri RamJanmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust for the con-

struction of a grand Ram temple in Ayodhya willsubmit its report on December 15 and the construc-tion can start by mid-January next year.

The 8-member team will suggest ways andmeans for construction of a strong and long-lifetemple which will be constructed at the RamJanmabhoomi in Ayodhya.

According to sources, Prof VS Raju, formerdirector IIT-Delhi is heading the experts commit-tee while Prof N Gopalakrishnan, Director, CBRI,Roorkee is the convenor. The other members of thecommittee are Prof. SR Gandhi, Director NIT, Surat,Prof TG Sitamram, Director, IIT Guwahati, Prof BBhattarcharya, IIT-Delhi, AP Mal, advisor to TCI,Prof Manu Santhanam, IIT-Madras and ProfPradipta Banerjee from IIT-Mumbai.

The expert team will suggest details of construc-tion and design of the temple on five acres of landand the remaining area of the total 70 acres areawould be developed as a Vedic city.

The Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth KshetraTrust member said that Uttar Pradesh ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath wanted the parisar (cam-pus) to be developed as a Vedic city.

While attending the recently-held Deepotsavfestival in Ayodhya, Yogi Adityanath said it wasPrime Minister Narendra Modi’’s dream to devel-op Ayodhya as a Vedic Ramayana City.

As per a government spokesperson, the UttarPradesh chief minister has said a ‘Navya Ayodhya’will be developed and the grandest and divine tem-ple of Lord Ram will be the world’s tallest.

The UP government plans to develop Ayodhyaas a global city for tourism and will set up a mod-ern sewage treatment plant there to maintain theflow and cleanliness of the Saryu river.

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Speaking tough against thevested interests who are

compromising unity, securityand the integrity of the coun-try by using innocent farmers,Uttar Pradesh Chief MinisterYogi Adityanath said that suchelements would be dealt with aheavy hand.

Addressing a rally at theAgriculture University inMeerut on Sunday, the chiefminister said that those behindthis conspiracy did not want tosee the farmers prosper.

“It is for everyone to seethat some elements are advo-cating an anti-India voice in thename of the farmers’ move-ment,” he said and called uponthe farmers to stand with theintegrity of the country becausesolution of a problem lay in dia-logue and not in struggle.

Yogi Adityanath was allpraise for the diligence of thefarmers, especially those from

western Uttar Pradesh, sayingthe land of Meerut belongs tothe revolutionaries and hascontributed a lot to the coun-try since Independence.

“We are committed to thedevelopment of this region.We have already initiated theprocess for building a Rs32,000-crore rapid rail projectfrom Delhi to Meerut and havesent a proposal for anotherrapid rail project from Meerutto Muzaffarnagar,” he said,adding that the governmentwas working on a proposal toconstruct Kanwad road tillHaridwar to reduce the dis-tance to the Uttarakhand town.

The chief minister saidthat the UP government hadmade payments to the tune ofmore than Rs 1.12 lakh crore tocane farmers during the lastthree years besides expandingthe Ramal Sugar Mill and giv-ing licence to 300 khandsariunits in the state.

He pledged to clear all

cane dues.“Sugarcane will also be

used to produce ethanol andfor this, ethanol plants will beset up,” he said.

Hitting out at Congressfor its stand on the farmers’issue, the chief minister said thegrand old party could not com-prehend that the vexed prob-lems of Ayodhya and Kashmircould be solved.

“Instead of being thankfulto Prime Minister Narendra

Modi for his pro-farmers poli-cies, they are instigating thefarmers unnecessarily,” he said.

Yogi Adityanath said thethree farm laws were aimed atdoubling the income of farm-ers, giving them freedom to selltheir produce anywhere theywant and keeping intact theirownership of land and crop.

“In fact, the opposition,which is being funded by for-eign agencies, is conspiringagainst the farmers and adding

fire to the fuel to serve theirulterior motives,” he said.

The chief minister spelledout the priority of his govern-ment for the safety and securi-ty of women and girls and saidcrime against them would notbe tolerated.

He said that “Behan, betiy-on ki suraksha mein sendhlagane waalon ka hogaRamnam satya, suraksha meinsendh lagane waalon ka hogaRamnam satya” (Those whobreach the security of the coun-try, women and girls will notsurvive).

On this occasion, the chiefminister laid the foundationstones of 88 projects worth Rs325 crore in Meerut. He laud-ed the achievements of SardarVallabhbhai Patel AgricultureUniversity and said it was real-ising the dream of Sardar Patelin a true sense.

He also inaugurated anagriculture exhibition and hi-tech central library.

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The Health department isposting social and pre-

ventive medicine experts inareas having maximum coro-navirus cases. According to asenior health official, it is anew idea for effective contain-ment of the virus. These areasinclude Gomtinagar,Indiranagar, Sarojininagar,Chinhat and Aliganj. “Thesedoctors will supervise all theactivities going on in theseareas for effective contain-ment,” the official said. Headded that the cases are con-tinuously seeing a dip in thedistrict.

The official said prepara-tions are underway for Covid-19 immunisation and a hall isbeing set up at the DistrictImmunisation Centre as anight shelter by HAL and itwill also be completed by theend of this year. Two residen-tial flats will also be used as thestorage area for the Covid-19

vaccine. “We could not con-struct a new building, hencewe are using these flats. Theywere in a dilapidated conditionbut we have renovated them sothat they could be used forvaccine storage,” he said.

He pointed out that theystill do not know what type ofvaccine will come, what will bethe storage and what will bethe dosage. The official saidtraining of the vaccinators inthe district will begin oncethese things are known.

On Sunday, 209 personstested positive for coronavirusin Lucknow while 249 patientsrecovered. With six moredeaths, Lucknow’s toll climbedto 1,056 while there are 3,043active cases. The fresh casesincluded 22 from Gomtinagar,27 from Indiranagar, 14 fromTalkatora, 12 each from RaeBareli road & Jankipuram, 11from Mahanagar and 10 fromChowk. Across the state, 1,441persons tested positive, includ-ing 43 in Kanpur, 152 in

Ghaziabad, 49 in GautamBuddhnagar, 123 in Varanasi& 95 in Meerut, taking the UPtally to 5,65,556.

Meanwhile, tributes werepaid to 12 doctors from UttarPradesh and Bihar who hadsacrificed their lives duringCovid care, at a programmeheld online on Sunday.

Dr Surya Kant fromKGMU was the chief guestwhile former national presi-dent of IMA Dr KK Agarwalthe moderator. An article onthese doctors was published inthe journal of the IndianMedical Association (IMA)by Dr Surya Kant, head of thedepartment of RespiratoryMedicine, KGMU. His initia-tive paid off and various insti-tutions came forward to helpthe families of these doctors.

A pharma company pro-posed to provide financialassistance to the families of300 out of 800 doctors of thecountry who lost their liveswhile fighting against the

coronavirus, which the IMAaccepted and appreciated theinitiative. A campaign wasstarted by paying tribute to the12 doctors who lost their livesin Uttar Pradesh and Bihar onSunday.

Dr Surya Kant said simi-lar programmes would beorganised for the martyreddoctors of other zones.

Meanwhile, spokespersonForest department MukeshKumar said that over 10 forestofficials and staffers have losttheir lives to coronavirus,including those at the direc-torate and in the field. Amongthe first ones to lose the bat-tle was senior off icialPrabhakar Dubey and hissteno. On Sunday, the ShalomMethodist Church in the cityfelicitated over 40 Covid war-riors, including police staff andother employees from the statecapital. Father Morris saidthat the warriors were felicitat-ed for their support in Covid-19 times.

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Principal of a private school andher sister were duped of Rs 5

lakh during their bid to purchase aland under Pradhan Mantri AwasYojana in Gudamba. As per reports,Laxmi Singh of Gomtinagar and hersister Sudha Singh gave the moneyto Zaid Ubai, who is the projectdirector of a real estate company,eight months back. Singh met Zaidthrough a friend and was shown apiece of land near Sports College inthe area. Later, Zaid and his friendAshfaq told her that she would geta rebate of 50 percent under thescheme if she paid the total amount.“We trusted them and paid themoney. However, time passed by butthey did nothing. They even threat-ened us when we demanded themoney back,” she alleged.

In another case in Gudamba, awoman was duped of Rs 30 lakhduring her bid to purchase a housein the locality. As per reports,Chandraprabha Saurabh ofIndiranagar sought to purchase thehouse of Sangeeta (of Kalyanpur inGudamba) some time back. In her

complaint, Chandraprabha saidSangeeta, her husband RameshGupta and her brother-in-lawRavindra agreed to sell their houseto her. As per deal, she gave Rs 20lakh as the advance sum to Sangeetaand later paid Rs 10 lakh. However,in due course of time, Sangeeta andothers refused to register the housein Chandraprabha’s name. Whenshe demanded her money back,Ramesh boasted of his links with thepolice brass and allegedly threatenedto kill. “After much efforts, they gaveus a cheque which was dishonouredby the bank. I went to their housebut Ramesh and his family mem-bers lost their cool. They hurledabuses at us and also issued threats,”Chandraprabha alleged.

������������ ���� ���&������Lucknow (PNS): A man shotat his son during a verbal spatat their house in Gudamba onSunday night. The victim wasidentified as Zohaib Khan ofKalyanpur locality in the areawhile his father as NaeemKhan. Zohaib was admitted toKGMU Trauma Centre whileNaeem Khan was said to beabsconding. Reports said bothNaeem and Zohaib picked upa fight over some issue. In a fitof rage, Naeem whipped out apistol and opened fire atZohaib, leaving him injured.Police said Naeem is a retiredpolice officer while Zohaib isjobless.

Meanwhile, a youth, iden-tified as Amit Kumar (25) ofRanjeet Kheda, was killed in aroad mishap while two of hisfriends suffered grievous, inMohanlalganj on Sunday after-noon. The injured were iden-tified as Nagesh and Diwakar,also of Ranjeet Kheda. Theywere going to the town area inMohanlalganj for some work.Around 1 pm, a speeding truckknocked the bike when theyreached the highway.

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Atheft suspect, allegedly caught red-handed, wasaccused of attacking the son of president of UP

Adarsh Vyapar Mandal (UPAVM) on being challengedand warned of police action, in Hussainganj on Saturdaynight. He was overpowered and later handed over topolice. As per reports, Sanjay Gupta of DiamondApartment, along with his family, had gone to a weddingin Krishnanagar and his son Shreyas Gupta was all alonein the house.

“Shreyas left the flat for some work for around 10 min-utes after we left the house. When Shreyas returned, hefound the door bolted from inside and he sought helpfrom neighbours, who broke open the door and founda man inside carrying a knife. The articles were lying scat-tered. The man attacked my son and tried to flee but wasoverpowered,” Sanjay stated in the FIR.

He said neighbours called the police and a team ofcops reached there and took the accused in custody. “Theaccused was identified as Vikesh Maurya aka Brijesh ofGudamba,” the police said. A case of attempt to murderwas registered against the accused.

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Two persons were foundmurdered in separate inci-

dents in Mohanlalganj andNigoha on Sunday.

In Mohanlalganj, the vic-tim was identified as JeevanPrakash of Adauli village in thearea. As per reports, JeevanPrakash, along with an elderlyman Ramakant, had gone toattend a marriage function.Both got drunk at the functionand while returning, they againhad a drinking session near a

dhaba. A little later, JeevanPrakash left for some placewhile Ramakant stayed back.Ramakant told police that hewent to search for JeevanPrakash but could not find himand later returned home.

On Sunday, the body ofJeevan Prakash was recoveredfrom a place close to the road.The police said the body boreno injuries. In another incident,body of an unidentified manwas recovered near the tollplaza in Nigoha. The policesaid the identity of the deceased

could not be ascertaineddespite strenuous efforts.

Meanwhile, a 50-year-oldman welder was found hangingat his house in Maal police sta-tion area on Sunday. Thedeceased was identified asMahadev Pasi of Gahdo villagein the area. Reports saidMahadev had returned homeon Saturday night after pur-chasing vegetables. OnSaturday night, his son foundhim hanging from the ceilingwith a rope tied around his neck.

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The Uttar Pradesh unit ofBharatiya Janata Party will

organise state-wide kisan sam-melans for five days fromMonday to educate farmersabout the farm laws recentlyenacted by the Narendra Modigovernment at the Centre.

BJP national vice-presi-dent and in-charge of UPRadha Mohan Singh, party’sstate president Swatantra DevSingh, Deputy Chief MinisterKeshav Prasad Maurya andother ministers and seniorparty leaders would addressthese kisan sammelans, whichwould continue till December18. Swatantra Dev Singh saidthat the opposition was spread-ing lies in the name of farmbills.

“The political partieswhich misled farmers whenthey were in power are nowshedding crocodile tears on thename of farmers,” he said.

The BJP state presidentsaid that the new farm bill gavemore options to the farmers tosell their produce whereverthey want to sell.

“This will help in breakingthe monopoly of middlemenand in turn help the farmersearn more,” he said.

BJP state general secretaryGovind Narain Shukla saidthat party’s vice-presidentRadha Mohan Singh wouldaddress kisan sammelans inBasti and Ayodhya on Monday,while the next day BJP statepresident Swatantra Dev Singhwould address a kisan samme-lan in Gonda.

H said Deputy ChiefMinister Keshav PrasadMaurya would address thekisan sammelan in Varanasi, JalShakti Mantri Mahendra Singhin Moradabad, Co-operativeMinister Mukut Bihari Vermain Amethi and Information andCulture Minister NeelkanthTiwari in Pratapgarh.

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The Samajwadi Party hasannounced to stage a protest

in support of the ongoing farm-ers’ agitation on Monday. The SPalso attacked the BharatiyaJanata Party and the Centralgovernment for linking thefarmers’ protest to “Naxaliteand anti-national elements”.

SP spokesman RajendraChaudhary in a statement hereon Sunday said, “The farmers ofthe country are on a continuousstrike for their legitimatedemands from the governmentin the chilly winter, but the gov-ernment wants to suppress thefarmers’ movement. We areaware that the DNA of Savarkarand Godse is in the DNA of theso-called nationalist govern-ment which is seeing Naxalitesand Anti-Nationals among thefarmers.”

He said that SamajwadiParty president and former chiefminister Akhilesh Yadav had

instructed party leaders andworkers to stage protests at thedistrict headquarters in a non-violent manner on Monday insupport of the agitating farmers.

“Akhilesh Yadav has decid-ed that our protest, in support ofthe farmers, will continue fromvillage to village, no matter howmuch the government wants usto frame in cases, send us to jailor beat us to suppress the move-ment. But we are not going toback off even one step. Untilthen, the Samajwadi Party willcontinue to oppose all threeblack laws,” Chaudhary said.Earlier, Akhilesh Yadav askedthe BJP government to stop“atrocities” against farmers andwithdraw the three agriculturelaws brought in for “lootingfarmers”. In a press release issuedby the party headquarters here,Yadav said the farmers of thecountry had understood that theBJP government was adoptingdifferent tactics “to snatch theirland and harvest”.

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Principal chief commercial man-ager (PCCM), North Eastern

Railways (NER), SC Prasad inspect-ed the ongoing work for civicamenities and development atLucknow Junction andBadshahnagar railway station on

Sunday. He was accompanied bydivisional commercial managerAnuj Singh and Lucknow Junctionstation director Girish KumarSingh. Prasad inspected the circu-lating area, platforms, inquiry coun-ters, display boards, TT runningroom, cabway, lift and foot over-bridge. He also inspected cleanli-

ness of railway station, drinkingwater facility, lighting and securi-ty arrangements. He asked the offi-cials to ensure better facilities.

Prasad asked the officials toimprove the quality of civic ameni-ties, increase revenue and ensurestrict implementation of Covid-19protocols.

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Stressing that research is religion andage no bar, director of the Institute

of Liver and Biliary Science Dr SK Sarinurged the faculty members of SGPGI totake up research work. The eminenthepatologist was speaking at the firstResearch Day celebrations of the insti-tute on Sunday.

Dr Sarin said one must have the gritand vision to carry out research.Projecting the picture of a man sailingthrough rough waters of the sea in hispresentation, he said this is what hebelieves is the true projection of a per-son going for research.

“You must know what to do, whereto go and have the confidence to sailthrough the choppy waters of the sea,”he said. He added that every student isan academic head of an institute andevery day is the potential day to startresearch.

“Every faculty should go forresearch, and not just once. You shouldalways ponder on what you are leav-ing behind – a loan, a car or your abil-ity that you can carry out research. Bea role model for your students withyour research and start a trend,” hesaid. Dr Sarin said that the administra-tions should help doctors taking upresearch. Dr Aruna Loke from PGI(Chandigarh) shared the ground real-ity of doctors not taking up research.“There is a general feeling among doc-tors that when the career is assuredwithout research, they do not getextra money for the research whichthey do and if it does not guaranteethem promotion, why should theycarry out research. However, there are30 percent of doctors still carrying outresearch. Every time a clinician is try-ing to manage a disease, he or she isalways caught in the throws of what,

when and how, which is equivalent toresearch. Whenever you are facedwith unforeseen circumstances, youalways start thinking and your mindbegins questioning,” he said. He addedthat a good researcher must keep ask-ing questions.

“The hospital administrationshould also take initiative to ensure thatfaculty members are encouraged totake up research because it is theresearch work which gives a betterranking to any institute,” he said.

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Early flowering in mangotrees in the month of

December is becoming a causeof concern for the farmers.Director of Central Institute forSubtropical Horticulture(CISH) Shailendra Rajan saidunusual flowering has beennoticed in the mango orchardsof Malihabad.

“In several orchards, theinitiation of the panicles hasbeen reported by farmers.Some farmers were happythinking that this year flower-ing will be early and profuse.But when they interacted withthe scientist, they came toknow that the flowering duringthis time of winters is of no use.The panicles which haveemerged will not transforminto fruits,” he said. He point-ed out that in the last mangoseason, farmers suffered loss-es at many places due to verypoor crop.

“Late harvesting usuallydelays the flowering time of thenext crop. This is one of thereasons why mango floweringhas started early due to poorcrops earlier this year. Anotherimportant reason for earlyflowering is early use of chem-icals. For getting regular flow-ering and fruiting, farmers ofMalihabad and nearby areashave started application of achemical which is being mar-keted by many names in themango-growing areas of the

state and readily available in themarket. The most significantproblem is the excessive use ofchemicals by contractors whowant to get the crops.Contractors don’t bother forthe health of the trees, but theyare interested only in gettingheavy crops. This is more prob-lematic in the orchards wherethe contract is for multipleyears, as the owners hand overthe orchards to contractors forcrops and maintenance forseveral years,” Rajan pointedout. He said CISH is gettingsuch complaints by farmersfrom different parts of thestate.

“Many contractors do notreveal to the orchard ownersthat they used chemicals. Manyfarmers requested the institutefor the analysis of the chemicalcontent in soil for legal actionagainst contractors,” he said.

He added that in general,panicles emerging duringFebruary are the most produc-tive, but December flowering isadvanced for over 50 days infew orchards. “These panicleswill be damaged by low tem-perature and frost. CISH isworking on the residue of thechemical in soil and plant sys-tems so that recommendationsfor balanced chemical applica-tion to plants are made.Judicious use will ensure abalance between shoot growthand flowering required for sus-tainable mango production,” headded.

7��������#������������������#������������� Lucknow (PNS): The UttarPradesh Chapter of PHDChamber of Commerce andIndustry (PHDCCI) organiseda virtual conference on‘Importance of skill mappingand creating skilled workforcebank for MSMEs’ on Sunday.The webinar was supportedUttar Pradesh SkillDevelopment Mission. Theobjective was to deliberate theways to promote skilling andself-employment amongst theyouth. The virtual conferencewas also aimed at enhancingthe employability of migrantlabourers in the state.

Joint director, UPSDM,Rohit Gupta laid emphasis onthe significant role played byMSMEs in contributingtowards the economy of thestate and also said that withsuch technological advancesand effective steps in ease ofdoing business, UP is soongoing to be the hub of MSMEs.

He also shed light on theRecognition of Prior Learning(RPL) programmes byUPSDM in every district of thestate and said that RPL aims toalign the competencies of theunregulated workforce of thestate to National SkillsQualifications Framework(NSQF).

1�������� �����2��������������������������!�������Lucknow (PNS): The Special Task Force (STF),on Sunday, nabbed the kingpin of a gang whichhacked the tatkal ticket system of the IndianRailways and sold tickets illegally. He wasidentified as Saddam Hussain Ansari of Basti.

The STF team recovered 243 used tatkal tick-ets, two tatkal tickets for a journey in the daysto come, a mobile phone, two laptops and otherarticles from him. He was arrested fromChhawani police station area of Basti.

The police were tipped-off that a gang washacking the tatkal ticket system by using vari-ous softwares to get illegal access to it.

The police were also tipped-off that the gangsold these tickets to different agents who soldthem to those travelling in urgency. An STF teamworked on the case and traced the location ofthe accused. He was later arrested. The accusedowned up his crime and disclosed that his gangwas active in UP, Bihar, West Bengal, Haryana,Delhi and Punjab. He also disclosed the modusoperandi of the gang. As per his confession, thegang used to install different extensions in thelaptop and then bypass the Captcha and usedautoread the OTP needed at the time of onlinebooking of a ticket within 60 seconds.

The police said booking of a tatkal ticket atthe booking counter consumed 1:30 to 2:30 min-utes. “By using the software, the gang membersused to do the work in comparatively very smalltime and this way they hacked the system,” thepolice explained.

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3������������ ���������+(+4)������������Lucknow (PNS): Chief Minister YogiAdityanath will be the chief guest at theFoundation Day of SGPGI on Monday.He will also address the gathering onthe occasion. SGPGI celebrates itsFoundation Day on December 14every year. “On this day in 1980, thethen President of India, Neelam SanjivaReddy laid down the foundation stoneof this institute. Over the years, SGPGIhas constantly endeavoured to providestate-of-the-art medical care to patientsand quality medical education andtraining to students. It has also con-tributed to research activities towardsamelioration of diseases,” thespokesperson said. The FoundationDay oration will be delivered by direc-tor-general of ICMR Prof BalramBhargava. In view of the ongoing pan-demic, the programme will be observedwith social distancing and the numberof guests will be limited while otherswill take part in the celebrations viavideo-conferencing.

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������������$$$After Haryana, a delegation of

90 farmers from Uttarakhand metUnion Agriculture MinisterNarendra Singh Tomar at his res-idence and extending their supportto new farm laws enacted byParliament. The agitating farmershave claimed members of thesedelegations are not genuine farm-ers and the Government haspropped them up to create confu-sions. In another developmentNational Working Group of AllIndia Kisan SangharshCoordination Committee disasso-ciates itself from a statement madeto media by VM Singh. The state-ment was neither authorised byAIKSCC nor did it follow protocolsof decision making by workinggroup. The working group ofAIKSCC reiterated that it firmlystands with the demands of thefarmer organisations agitating inunison for the repeal of 3 anti-farmer acts and legal guarantee ofMinimum Support Price. SardarVM Singh has stated that AIKSCCwas ready to talk to theGovernment on the issue of legalguarantee of MSP. The last sixrounds of talks between the Centreand 40 farmers’ union leadershave remained inconclusive. TheGovernment has sent a draft pro-posal to the farmer leaders for con-sideration. But the farmer leadershave rejected the Government’sproposal and intensified theirprotest.

.����������"�����$$$According to the Agriculture

Ministry, area sown to wheat, themain rabi crop, has increased mar-ginally by 2.53 per cent to 254.73lakh hectares so far in the ongoing2020-21 rabi season from 248.44lakh hectares in the year-ago peri-od. Total area under all rabi cropsremained higher by 3.87 per centat 507 lakh hectares so far this rabiseason as against 488 lakh hectaresin the year-ago period.

Madhya Pradesh reportedhigher areas ( 4.55 lakh hectare),followed by Gujarat ( 2.34 lakhhectare) and Maharashtra ( 2.12lakh hectare)”, the data showed.The data showed farmers fromthose States who have not partic-ipated in the ongoing protestshave planted more in the rabi sea-son. Rabi sowing begins fromOctober while harvesting fromMarch onwards. Besides wheat,gram and mustard are other mainrabi crops. “Overall trend of rabisowing progress is very good.Increased area coverage has beenrecorded under wheat, pulses andoilseeds including rapeseed andmustard,” officials of the Ministrysaid. As per the Ministry’s latestdata, area sown to pulses rose 9.10per cent to 130.59 lakh hectares ason December 11 of this rabi sea-son from 119.70 lakh hectares inthe same period last year. Areasown to oilseeds also increased by7 per cent to 73.79 lakh hectaresfrom 68.93 lakh hectares in the saidperiod. However, area sown to ricewas lower by 6 per cent to 10.47lakh hectares so far this rabi sea-son as against 11.13 lakh hectaresa year ago.

Similarly, area sown to coarsecereals remained lower by 6.20 percent to 37.43 lakh hectares asagainst 39.90 lakh hectares in thesaid period.

!������������$$$“They have been hand-in-

gloves with the Government, theyconspired to sabotage our protest.The Government is hatching a con-spiracy to derail the ongoing farm-ers’ protest,” added Chaduni.Farmer leader Shiv Kumar Kakkasaid, “Government agencies havebeen stopping farmers from reaching Delhi, but the protest will continue till theirdemands are met.”

“Our stand is clear, we want thethree farm laws repealed. Allfarmer unions participating in thismovement are together,” he said.Another farmer leader, RakeshTikait, said, “if the Governmentgives another proposal for talks,our committee will decide on it. Weappeal to all to maintain peace dur-ing protest”.

Sandeep Gidde, anotherfarmer leader, announced at thePress conference that the pro-posed indefinite hunger strike byfarmers from December 19 hasbeen cancelled and it will be a day-long strike on Monday instead.

Farmer leaders on Saturdayhad said they are ready to hold talkswith the Government, but will firstdiscuss repealing of the three newfarm laws, and announced that rep-resentatives of their unions wouldsit on a hunger strike during anationwide protest on Monday.

They had also said thousandsof farmers will start their ‘’DelhiChalo’’ march with their tractorsfrom Rajasthan’s Shahjahanpurthrough the Jaipur highway at 11am on Sunday.

The Delhi Traffic Police hasdeployed its personnel acrossimportant border points to ensurecommuters do not face difficultiesand is constantly updating peopleabout open and closed routes on itsTwitter handle. On Sunday,the traffic police tweeted the Tikriand the Dhansa borders are closedfor traffic movement but theJhatikara border is open only fortwo wheelers and pedestrian move-ment. Those going towardsHaryana, can take Jharoda (onlysingle carriageway), Daurala,Kapashera, Badusarai, Rajokri NH-8, Bijwasan/Bajghera, Palam Viharand Dundahera borders as they areopen, the traffic police said.

“The Gazipur border is closedfor traffic from Noida & Gaziabadto Delhi due to farmers’ protests.People are advised to take alternateroute for coming to Delhi viaChilla, Anand Vihar, DND, Apsara& Bhopra borders,” it tweeted.

The traffic police alsoinformed commuters about theclosure of the Singhu, Auchandi,Piau, Maniyari and Mangesh bor-ders. Since these borders areclosed, it suggested that motoriststake alternative routes via Lampur,Safiabad,Saboli and Singhu Schooltoll tax borders, it said.

Traffic was diverted fromMukarba and GTK Road. So, com-muters have been advised to avoidOuter Ring Road, GTK Road andNational Highway-44, the trafficpolice said. Farmers have beenprotesting against the Farmers(Empowerment and Protection)Agreement of Price Assurance andFarm Services Act, 2020; theFarmers Produce Trade andCommerce (Promotion andFacilitation) Act, 2020; and theEssential Commodities

(Amendment) Act 2020.Enacted in September, the

three farm laws have been project-ed by the government as majorreforms in the agriculture sectorthat will remove the middlemenand allow farmers to sell anywherein the country.

Farmers from Rajasthan andsome other places gathered inlarge numbers on the Haryana-Rajasthan border near Rewari fortheir march towards Delhi and satin protest on side of the Delhi-Jaipur national highway as theHaryana police put up barricadesto stop their onward march.

Rewari’s Superintendent ofPolice Abhishek Jorwal toldreporters at the site that districtauthorities had imposed Section144 of the CrPC banning assem-bly of five or more people.

“We have set up barricades andwe will try to stop them here,” hesaid, adding, besides adequateforce of the Haryana police, threecompanies of paramilitary person-nel have been deployed to ensurelaw and order.

The farmers were sitting inprotest at Jaisinghpur Kheda areain Rewari along Rajasthan-Haryana border (NH-48). Gurgaonis over 70 km from the site whileDelhi is nearly 80 km away.

Swaraj India chief YogendraYadav, who was at the site, saidsince the barricades have been put,the farmers had no option but tostage a sit-in. A farmer fromRajasthan who was among thosewho wanted to march to Delhiagainst the Centre’s new farm lawssaid they will “force the govern-ment to rollback the anti-peasantlegislations.” Earlier, the farmershad threatened to block the Jaipur-Delhi highway. Thousands of farm-ers have been protesting at variousborder points of Delhi for over afortnight demanding repeal of thenew farm laws. Enacted inSeptember, the three farm lawshave been projected by theGovernment as major reforms inthe agriculture sector that willremove the middlemen and allowfarmers to sell their produce any-where in the country.

However, the protesting farm-ers have expressed apprehensionthat the new laws would pave theway for eliminating the safetycushion of Minimum SupportPrice and do away with the mandisystem, leaving them at the mercyof big corporates.

��������������2$$$Also, the book contains tales of

Head Constable Yam BahadurThapa, Constable D SantoshKumar, Constable SukhwinderSingh and Constable ShyambirSingh. Co-authored by DIGs ofCRPF Nitu and M Dhinakaranalong with their team comprisingAmit, Assistant CommandantCRPF and Inspector DeepakSaxena, the book has stories of therecipients of Ashok Chakra -- thehighest peacetime gallantry award,Vir Chakra, and Shaurya Chakras.

As CRPF has been going onpeacekeeping missions to differentcountries, it is no surprise that thetale of valour scripted by its brave-heart in foreign land has alsofound a place in the book.

The Speaker congratulated theForce for bringing such a detailedbook and said that he is sure that

this book will fill hearts of every-one with pride and inspire the gen-erations to come.

Lauding the release of thebook, Dr AP Maheshwari DGCRPF said that these true storiesare our heritage and every citizenhas the right to know about thesestories and take pride in them.

The authors have sought tobring out the intricate details of theoperations with valuable insights.

The book often comes up withinteresting anecdotes from thelives of these intrepid warriors.

Dedicated to the citizens of thecountry and a homage to thosewho made supreme sacrifice at thealtar of duty, the book is writtenwith reverence to bravery, adher-ence for accuracy, and most impor-tantly a passion that simmers in theheart of a patriot.

������������$$$Former BJP President Amit

Shah had also earlier testedCoronavirus positive. Incidentally,Shah too intends to visit the WestBengal later this month to moni-tor law and order in the State.During Bihar poll around twodozen BJP leaders, including for-mer union minister Rajiv PratapRudy, were infected by theCoronavirus.

����������$$$According to the survey data,

16 States and Union Territories reg-istered a rise in obesity amongwomen while 19 states and UTsrecorded an increase in obesityamong men. Kerala and theAndaman and Nicobar Islandsrecorded the highest percentage ofobesity among women at 38 percent. Also, the Andaman andNicobar Islands and Lakshadweeprecorded the highest percentage ofobesity among women at over 40per cent. Men and women werecounted as obese whose bodymass index was found to be overor equal to 25.0 kg/m2 while chil-dren’s obesity was counted in termsof weight-for-height. The presentNFHS was conducted on 6.1 lakhsample households, involvinghousehold-level interviews to col-lect information on population,health, family planning and nutri-tion related indicators. Doctorshave blamed rising obesity onunhealthy food choices and lack ofphysical activities among childrenand even adults. Dr RK Dhamija,Professor from Delhi-based LadyHardinge Medical College saidthat children are “not eatinghealthy” and “not getting enoughexercise,” leaving them obese.

He warns that obesity is like-ly to get worse during the Covid-19 pandemic which has restrictedkids and elders inside the homes.“Many children are moving lessand eating more and that too junkfood,” he said adding that this mayresult into various ailments like dia-betes and breathing problems. Hesuggested adopting health lifestyleincluding eating health foods andphysical activities.

Dr Arun Gupta fromBreastfeeding Promotion Networkof India (BPNI) underlined impor-tance of breastfeeding in thisregard, pointing out that it preventsbabies from getting obese andundernourished. “It is well knownbabies in India are either under-nourished or getting obese in

some sections of the population.Breastfeeding provides a doubleduty action to prevent both theseproblems,” he said. He cited aWHO study involving 16 countriesthat says breastfeeding reduceschild obesity risk by up to 25 per-cent. The NFHS results of 17States and five Union Territorieshave been released now as phase-one. The phase-two results cover-ing other States will be releasednext year, the Union HealthMinistry had said.

���������2$$$“I have always listened to my

conscience and now I earnestly feelthat I should stand by my broth-erhood,” he wrote in his resignationletter. He further wrote that he maybe treated as prematurely retiredfrom the service with effect fromDecember 12. Thousands of farm-ers from Punjab, Haryana andother areas have stayed put at var-ious Delhi border points, protest-ing against the new farm laws,which they fear will dismantle theminimum support price (MSP)system, leaving them at the“mercy” of big corporate firms.

Earlier, Akali Dal stalwart andformer Punjab chief ministerParkash Singh Badal had said thathe had returned his PadmaVibhushan award in protest againstthe farm laws. SAD (Democratic)leader Sukhdev Singh Dhindsahad also announced he wouldreturn his Padma Bhushan awardin solidarity with the farmers.

Several internationalsportspersons from Punjab hadalso extended their support to thefarmers’ agitation. Noted Punjabipoet Surjit Patar had also stated hewould return his Padma Shriaward. PTI

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Asserting that China andPakistan are enemies of

humanity and peace as the for-mer is behind to spread out theglobal pandemic COVID-19while the latter is responsiblefor the menace of terrorism inthe world, the Member ofNational Executive, RashtriyaSwayamsewak Sangh (RSS)Indresh Kumar has on Sundaysaid, there should be boycottnot only of both these nationsbut also of their supporters ateach level.

Indian Muslims should beaware of Farooq Abdullah andMehbooba Mufti as bothfavour the anti-India act ofChina and indulge in defamingMuslims. These both ex-CMsof J&K are free to take shelteranywhere in China or Pakistanif they dislike India as IndianMuslims have become aware oftheir reality and they will notstand by the leaders who areworking against the country,the RSS leader said while

speaking as chief guest in theconvention of MuslimRashtriya Manch. The repre-sentatives of districts of thiseastern belt of UP associatedwith the Manch participated inthe convention convened atLamahi, here.

All the countries of theworld should unite againstChina and Pakistan if they

want to protect humanity asboth countries have posed aserious threat to humanitybecause of their policy of impe-rialism, he said adding, IndianMuslims will expose those whostand by both nations and alsoboycott them. The Manch willnot only boycott the support-ers of these two nations but alsowrite letters to the UNO against

them, he said further.India shows an example of

human sensitivity before theworld by extending its help toother countries during theCOVID-19 pandemic andIndia is ahead to become theWorld Power under the leader-ship of Narendra Modi, hesaid adding, this is why theentire world is looking towardsIndia for global peace.

The convention chalkedout a strategy at block level toboycott those who stand byChina and Pakistan and inthis order the organisation hasalready launched an aware-ness drive which will last tillJanuary 10. The conventionalso gave a slogan to evictGilgit Balochistan fromPakistan and Aksai Chin fromChina. Mo Azaharuddin con-ducted the convention andTusharakant offered a formalvote of thanks at last. Amongthose attended it includedMaulana Shafiq Mujddidi, HajiMobin, Afsar Baba, SabanaKhan and Ayaz Khan.

����������.���"�������>020'0�&�

Chief Medical Officer(CMO) Dr VB Singh made

a surprise inspection at differ-ent health centres to see theirconditions and available ser-vices here on Friday. As manyas 14 teams have been consti-tuted at CMO office level andalmost all medical teams madesuch surprise inspections at dif-ferent places. During theinspection, 16 persons includ-ing four doctors and 12 otherhealth workers were foundabsent without any priornotices. They all were warnedand their one day salary waswithheld.

These teams visited 44health units in the urban andrural areas in the districtincluding CHC Arajline, PHCsMahgaon, Payagpur,Jagardevpur, Cholapur,

Chiraigaon, Badagaon, Shivpur,Sadar Bazar, Pandeypur,Chowkaghat, Sikraul, OrderlyBazar, Badi Bazar, Adampur,Konia, Rajghat, Sewa Sadan,Madhopur, Manduadih,Anandmai, Madanpura,Ashfaqnagar, Durgakund,Bajardiha, Sewapuri andGangapur.

During the inspection, theprogress of all the nationalhealth and family welfare pro-grammes were also reviewedapart from seeing the cleanli-ness condition and availabilityof medicines, bed-sheets andother facilities.

Meanwhile, presiding overa meeting of the Task Force

Committee, District Magistrate(DM) Kaushal Raj Sharma hasinstructed the concerneddepartment to complete thewellness centres and hand overthe same to the Health depart-ment soon.

He also directed the Healthand ICDS departments to con-duct a special campaign fromMonday to Friday to ensureproviding 100 per cent benefitsof various schemes to the ben-eficiaries.

He also directed them tocomplete all the pre-assignedwork within the next 5–6 days.He said that on-site review andevaluation of the works wouldbe made by the senior officersduring their visits there. Themeeting was also attended byChief Development Officer(CDO) Madhusudan Hulgi,CMO and officers of otherdepartments.

ALLAHABAD (PNS): Mask isa powerful weapon to break thechain of coronavirus infection.In the coronavirus period, it isalso giving shade of self-reliance to the people. Manypeople are making masks andselling them by setting upshops along the road. Thissource of income helping themearning their livelihood fortheir family. Among them aremany people who once workedin metros like Delhi andMumbai. Now they are makingand selling masks locally intheir own family. There are also

some people, who are sellingmasks by getting them fromoutside in the district. NaseerAhmed of Sikandra said that heused to work in a textile sewingfactory in Mumbai. His jobstalled when there was a lock-down due to a corona infection.He was unable to get anymeans to return home butarrived at home somehow. Buthe kept sitting unemployedfor seven months and wan-dered in search of employmentin the district. Last month,work started by placing asewing machine on the foot-

path near Lal Bahadur ShastriHospital in Shantipuram. Theymake masks themselves and arealso bringing designer andfancy masks from the marketand selling them at their shop.He said that the economic sit-uation was not good. Somehowhe arranged for money andbought an old sewing machine.He has no ability to pay rent forthe shop. So, he opened theshop on the sidewalk. Masksfrom � 5 to � 25 are availablein their shop. He told that 300masks are sold daily. GhulamMohammed of Nai Basti,

Phaphamau, said that he usedto work as a vendor in the train.The coronavirus knock had puta break on life. Due to thestalled operation of the trains,no work was going on. Eightmonths later, about 15 days ago,he decorated the shop on thefootpath on Lucknow roadnear his house. He gets thegoods from the Chowk marketsells designer and fancy masksfor �10 to � 30. He said thatabout 250 masks are solddaily. On the strength of thiswork, his family came back ontrack.

����������.���"�������0++0,0!0*

Atotal of 49 cases of coron-avirus were reported in

Prayagraj district within the last24 hours on Saturday. At thesame time, 51 patients alsobecame infection-free on thesame day. About 45 personsalso completed their home iso-lation while 6 patients also dis-charged from different Covidhospitals. With this number ofpeople completing their homeisolation, a total of 19,740 per-sons have completed theirhome isolation.

One patient also suc-cumbed to the deadly virus onthe same day. On Saturdayevening, a total of 5,517 per-sons got their corona test con-ducted. Of them, as many as 49persons were tested positive forCOVID-19.

Meanwhile, scientists inthe Department of MechanicalEngineering of Motilal NehruNational Institute of

Technology (MNNIT) haveclaimed to detect corona infec-tion in just 30 seconds throughx-rays. Also, it has soughtfinancial support fromDepartment of Science andTechnology (DST). So thatmachines can be prepared fortesting.

MNNIT Director ProfRajiv Tripathi informed thatour scientists have achieved thisimportant milestone under theleadership of Prof MukulShukla of MechanicalEngineering Department.Digital x-ray and ArtificialIntelligence (AI) can detect injust 30 seconds whether a per-son is infected with COVID-19or not. Financial assistance hasbeen sought from theDepartment of Science andTechnology on behalf of theinstitute to further this project.With the help of DST, amachine will be made for test-ing, which will be taken to ruralareas and it will be easier to

check for COVID-19 infection.MNNIT Director Prof

Rajiv Tripathi said that theAllenger Company has alsorecognised the work of our sci-entists. Soon, on the advice ofthe scientists of the institute,the testing work can be start-ed afresh by making necessarychanges in the normal x-raymachine. Project HeadMechanical EngineeringDepartment Prof MukulShukla said that x-ray exami-nation of corona infectionwould be done throughArtificial Intelligence. For this,x-ray screening of corona infec-tives in China, Italy and Indiahas been seen on scannerswith the help of ArtificialIntelligence.

It has been closely studiedwhat kinds of spots have beenfound on the x-ray film of theinfected person.

Prof Mukul Shukla saidthat the help of Dr DeepakGupta, a well-known radiolo-

gist of the city, has been takenin this project. Dr Gupta hasdescribed this entire testingprocess as scientific. Heinformed that testing has start-ed in Indore on the basis of thistechnique.

Prof Mukul informed thatMayank Mayukh of MNNIT,Dr Sameer Saraswati and DrPradeep Agarwal are also asso-ciated with the project. It wasalso informed that earlier thescientists of the institute haveprepared many instrumentsincluding Woralizer 1.0,Viroshield, Sterilizing Box,Power Base Hand Free WashBasin, Paper SanitisationScanner, turning disaster intoopportunity in Covid period.Seeing these achievements ofthe institute, Union Minister ofState for Education,Communication andTechnology Sanjay Dhotre,who visited MNNIT onDecember 11, has also appre-ciated these achievements.

����������.���"�������0++0,0!0*

Minister of State forE d u c a t i o n ,

Communications andElectronics and InformationTechnology, Government ofIndia Sanjay Dhotre, who vis-ited Prayagraj on Saturday toldmediapersons that approxi-mately � 1 crore counter trans-actions under Post OfficeSaving Bank (POSB) took placein UP circle and a total of �22,000 crore have been deposit-ed or withdrawn during March25 and June 14, 2020.

More than �1467.56 crorecash has been disbursed, and �73.43 lakh transactions havebeen done while 24.06 lakhaccount have been opened inthis financial year up to

December 6, 2020 throughAPS.

The minister stated thatUP Postal Circle has collaborat-ed with different drug agen-cies/e-Commerce companiesfor delivering the medicines,COVID-19 testing kit, PPEkit.

During first phase of lock-down (upto July) UP Circledelivered 0.47 crore article,booked 1.06 crore articles andearned revenue of �41.15crore. One hundred tonnesessential items booked anddelivered. In this financial yearup to November-2020 morethan 3.13 crore items havebeen booked, 1.99 crore itemshave been delivered and a rev-enue of �136.44 crore has beenearned

The Minister stated thatDepartment of Posts, U.P.Circle has tie-up with HealthDepartment, UP Governmentwhich would help in the visionof CM of UP to make first TB-free state in India. UP PostalCircle is collecting TB Sputumsamples from laboratories ofHealth department and thesame is being delivered to test-ing labs within 24 hours insome district and 48 hours inanother district. He informedthe media that MoUs havebeen signed with KashiVishwanath Temple Trust,Varanasi and Hanumaan GarhiNyas, Ayodhya for distributionof Prasad through PostalChannel across the country. Toprevent the spread of world-wide pandemic COVID-19 and

to promote MSME sector, UPPostal Circle has signed anagreement with MeghdootGramodyog Sewa Sansthan(MGSS) to sell hand sanitiserand other Ayurvedic productsat reasonable prices in postoffices.

As many as 1,21,425Aadhar Registration andUpdation Centres are function-al across the state. Alreadyabout 16,55,391 Aadhar trans-actions have been done in2020 (up October 2020).

Passport Sewa Kendras(PSK) have been set up in 48post offices. This facility haseased the process of applyingpassports. Now the citizenscan approach the nearest PostOffice-Passport Sewa Kendrafor availing the service.

����������.���"�������0++0,0!0*

In a shocking incident, a 52-year-old woman and her 26-

year-old son were brutally mur-dered with sharp edgedweapon by some unidentifiedgoons late on Saturday night inSaraidina village, under theSoraon police station. This hascaused sensation in the village.The police reached the spot assoon as the information wasreceived and started investigat-ing. Some people have beenpicked up for questioning.

Dharmo Devi and her sonSurendra Pasi were asleep inthe verandah outside the housein Saraidina village. Panicgripped the area in the morn-ing when villagers spotted thebodies of mother and son in apool of blood lying outsidetheir house. They were brutal-ly killed with a sharp edgedweapon. This caused a stir inthe family. Initial investiga-tions have revealed land dis-putes with some people livingin the neighbourhood. Policehave started an investigation.

Mother and son were bru-tally murdered in Prayagraj dis-trict. The incident took placeon Saturday night. The incidentcame to light when a girl fromthe village came to fetch milkon Sunday morning. Policeofficers and the forensic teamreached the spot after gettingthe information. Dog squadwas also called. Land dispute issaid to be behind this brutalmurder. Two people are beinginterrogated in the case.

Dharma Devi, a resident ofSaraidin village, has three sons.The eldest son Jagjivan liveswith his family in another vil-lage Sikanderpur. At the same

time, his two sons SurendraPasi alias Tidoo (22) andyoungest Mahendra lived withher. On Saturday nightMahendra had gone to attenda marriage procession. Dharmaand Surendra were in thehouse. After having dinner,both were sleeping in theverandah. Late in the night, themiscreants killed both by hit-ting them with brick-stoneand sharp edged weapons.

On Sunday morning, a girlfrom the village arrived atDharma Devi’s place to getcow’s milk, after seeing thebody of both of them in a poolof blood, she raised an alarmand immediately informed ayoung man from the neigh-

bourhood. Following which,the young man reached thespot and seeing the corpse ofthe two, called Mahendra andinformed him. Mahendrareached home after receivingthe news.

By then the crowd of vil-lagers had gathered there.Police reached the spot aftergetting information. Mahendrasaid that there was a disputeover the land from the neigh-bour. It is suspected that theyhad committed this murder,Mahendra alleged.. The policetook the neighbour and his soninto custody. Police said thatthe case is being investigated.Those who have been suspect-ed, are being questioned in cus-

tody. Apart from this, otherpoints are also being investigat-ed, police added.

Dharma Devi wife of lateRam Sajeevan in Sarai Dina vil-lage under the Soraon policestation and her son Surendrawere murdered on Saturday latenight.

People were shocked whenthe incident was detected in themorning. Police arrived oninformation suspected that themurder took place over a landdispute. Police have receivedinformation about a disputewith the neighbour over land.Police have detained twoyouths in this connectionand are being grilled, policeadded.

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As many as 66 more newpatients have been detect-

ed in the district on Sunday,increasing the total number to20,255. The day also saw twomore deaths, increasing the tollto 335. During the day, the fol-low-up negative reports includ-ed 117 and all of them havebeen recovered from homeisolation, increasing the num-ber to 16,327. As no patient hasbeen discharged from any ofthe hospitals, the numberremained at 2,886. The totalnumber of patients who have

been recovered so far is 19,213,leaving 707 active cases. Therecovery rate is 94.85 per cent,while the mortality rate is 1.65per cent.

Chief Medical Officer(CMO) Dr VB Singh hasinformed that in the firstreport of the day, 42 positivepatients were found out of2,520 reports received. Tillthen, the total test reportsreceived were 4,66,533 and theresults of 3,489 are awaited.Out of them, 4,46,302 werenegative, while 20,231 posi-tive. The total number ofsamples collected was

4,88,114. Earlier, a femaleaged 40 from Bharati Nagar(Garhwaghat) succumbed toCOVID-19 at Sir SundarlalHospital, Banaras HinduUniversity (SSH BHU) whilea male aged 71 fromPhulwaria died at MedwinHospital. With the addition ofseven new red zones, the totalnumber of hotspots hasincreased to 2,565 including218 red zones. There are 2,347green zones with 15 new ones.

Meanwhile, on theinstructions of the DistrictMagistrate (DM) Kaushal RajSharma, mass/ group antigen

tests continued to be conduct-ed at Varanasi Junction(Cantt.) and Manduadih rail-way. At Cantt, three out of 38tests have been detected pos-itive but all the 26 tests atManduadih have been foundnegative. Besides, all the 210tests have been found negativeat Shree Shiv Prasad Gupta(SSPG) Hospital, Kabirchaura,167 at LBS HospitalRamnagar, 115 atGovernment Women’sHospital, 31 at CHC Shivpur,22 at Swami VivekanandHospital, Bhelupur and 55 atSSH BHU.

����������.���"�������>020'0�&�

Several senior citizens werehonoured at Lal Girjaghar

here on Sunday when at thischurch like all the otherchurches of the city, thirdSunday of the Advent prior tothe forthcoming festival ofChristmas was celebratedwith traditional gaiety. Adventis the period of four Sundaysbefore Christmas, being cele-brated as coming of Jesus intothe world. On the occasion,carol songs were sung at thechurches.

At Lal Girjaghar, felicita-tion function was organised inwhich the outstanding contri-butions of some old persons

were highlighted. Besides, aspecial prayer was held andRev Sanjay delivered discours-es on Bible.

The function was con-

ducted by Vijay Dayal. Amongthose who were honoured onthe occasion were BS Lal,Orleen Dayal, Roseleen Das,Hemant Das, John Dayal,

Rakesh Hamla, PushpaSidney, Asha Tagore, EvaPrakash, Sheela Andrews,Morin Phillips, SV Das andAshok Das.

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Inspector General (Range)Vijay Singh Meena handed

over a cheque of �30 lakh to thefamily of deceased police con-stable Rahul Kumar who diedin a tragic road accident recent-ly. As the cop was an accountholder of the HDFC Bank, sothe bank paid the same to hisbereaved family being thebank’s salary account holder.The cheque was received by thedeceased cop’s brother SantoshKumar.

Speaking on the occasion,Meena said that the bank pro-

vides this special facility to thesalary account holders of thepolice employees, which showsthe bank’s respect towards thewarriors of our society. Hepraised the bank for its com-mitment to the special sectionof the society, which is contin-

uously committed for 24 hoursservice to the society and in anycase of tragic mishaps, suchcontribution gives an econom-ic support to the dependents.On the occasion, the bank’sregional head Manish Tandon,zonal manager Deepak Jha

and branch manager VarunBansal were also present. Onbehalf of the bank, ManishTandon said that the bank hasalways stood by and will con-tinue to work for these guardsof the society and make effortsto further benefit the peoplethrough its world-class bank-ing and financial services.Expressing his thanks, SeniorSuperintendent of Police (SSP)Amit Pathak said that a societyis prosperous and empoweredwhen all the institutionswork together for the benefitsof the individual, group andsociety.

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As many as 5,206 cases were settled at the National LokAdalat held on Saturday. Under the aegis of District Legal

Services Authority (DLSA) the litigat-ed matters were settled. The achievementof the programme was that pre-litigationmatters too were settled and through thefamily courts 13 couples agreed to livetogether. The Lok Adalat was jointly inau-gurated by DJ Lal Chand Gupta, princi-pal judge Diwakar Prasad Chaturvedi andpresiding officer MACT Veer Nayak.Through 54 courts cases of revenue, land,

bank loans, motor accident claims, telephone bills etc were settled. MASS MARRIAGE: As many as 40 couples tied the nup-

tial knot during a mass marriage held at block headquar-ters of Narainpur on Saturday. Under the scheme run by thestate government 40 couples were eligible. The rituals of 37 Hinducouples were performed by the team of Kewla Shankar andMaulvi Faiyaj performed the rituals of three Muslim cou-ples. Under the scheme the couples were presented tradi-tional jewellry and utensils and was sent to �35,000 to thebride’s account. Among those who blessed the couples wereUP Minister of State for Energy, Rama Shankar Singh Patel,MLA Shuchismita Maurya and CDO Avinash Singh.

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The railway administrationfor the convenience of pas-

sengers has decided to run thefollowing three pairs of specialtrains between Anand ViharTerminus-Raxaul-Anand ViharTerminus. All coaches in themwill be of reserved category,CPRO PK Singh said.

04008 ANVT-RAXAULSPL: The 04008 Anand ViharTerminus-Raxaul biweekly spe-cial will from December 15 tillthe next order every Tuesdayand Thursday will leave AnandVihar Terminus (ANVT) at 17.06hrs, Ghaziabad at 16.30 hrs,Pilkhua at 17.34 hrs, Hapur at17.50 hrs, Amroha at 18.53 hrs,Moradabad at 19.40 hrs, Raja KaSahaspur at 20.07 hrs, Chandausiat 20.35 hrs, Amla at 21.30 hrs,Shahjahanpur at 23.28 hrs, on thesecond day Hardoi at 00.26 hrs,Alamnagar at 01.51 hrs,Lucknow at 02.25 hrs, Nihalgarhat 04.23 hrs, Musafir Khana at05.02 hrs, Sultanpur at 05.38 hrs,Lambhua at 06.04 hrs, SriKrishna Nagar at 06.30 hrs,Jaunpur City at 06.58 hrs,Varanasi at 09.10 hrs, VaranasiCity at 09.28 hrs, Aunrihar, at10.00 hrs, Nandganj at 10.22hrs, Ghazipur City at 10.54 hrs,Yusufpur at 11.15 hrs, Ballia at12.22 hrs, Suraimanpur at 12.59hrs, Chhapra at 14.08 hrs,Dighwara at 15.05 hrs, Hajipurat 16.23 hrs, Muzaffarpur at18.15 hrs, Sitamarhi at 19.25hrs, Bargania at 20.01 hrs, andreach Raxaul at 21.50 hrsDuring the return journey,04007 Raxaul-ANVT biweek-ly special will leave Raxaulfrom December 16 till the nextorder at 23.45 hrs everyWednesday and Friday, thesecond day Bargania at 00.48

hrs,Sitamarhi at 01.30 hrs,Muzaffarpur at 04.00 hrs,Hajipur at 04.55 hrs, Dighwaraat 05.28 hrs, Chhapra at 06.40hrs, Suraimanpur at 07.05 hrs,Ballia at 07.41 hrs, Yusufpur at08.23 hrs, Ghazipur City at 08.49hrs, Aundihar Jn at 10.02 hrs,Varanasi City at 11.04 hrs,Varanasi at 11.45 hrs, JaunpurCity at 12.42 hrs, Sri KrishnaNagar at 13.14 hrs, Lambhua at13.49 hrs, Sultanpur at 15.30 hrs,Musafirkhana 15.56 hrs,Nihalgarh at 16.14 hrs, Lucknowat 18.27 hrs, Alamnagar at 18.46hrs, Hardoi at 20.07 hrs,Shahjahanpur at 21.16 hrs, Amlaat 23.00 hrs, Chandausi Jn at23.55 hrs, Raja Ka Sahaspur at00.23 hrs, Moradabad at 01.13hrs, Amroha at 01.43 hrs, Hapurat 03.12 hrs, Pilkhua at 03.28 hrs,Ghaziabad at 04.12 hrs andreach, ANVT at 04.45 hrs. In thisspecial train A total of 23 coach-es, will be attached.

04016 ANVT-RAXAULSPL: The 04016 ANVT-Raxaul biweekly special willfrom December 18 till the nextorder every Friday and Sundayleave Anand Vihar Terminus at16.30 hrs, Ghaziabad at 17.06hrs, Pilkhuah at 17.34 hrs,Hapur at 17.50 hrs, Amroha at18.53 hrs, Moradabad at 19.40hrs, Chandausi at 20.35 hrs,Aonla at 21.30 hrs,Shahjahanpur at 23.28 hrs, thesecond day Hardoi at 00.26 hrs,Alamnagar at 01.51 hrs,Lucknow at 02.25 hrs,Nihalgarh at 04.21 hrs, MusafirKhana at 05.00 hrs, Sultanpur05.38 hrs, Lambhua at 06.04hrs, Sri Krishna Nagar at 06.31hrs, Jaunpur City at 06.58 hrs,Varanasi at 09.10 hrs, VaranasiCity at 09.26 hrs, Aunrihar at09.55 hrs, Nandganj at 10.17hrs, Ghazipur City at 10.55 hrs,

Yusufpur at 11.15 hrs, Ballia at12.25 hrs, Suraimanpur at 13.00hrs, Chhapra at 14.25 hrs,Dighwara at 15.05 hrs, Sonpur at16.08 hrs, Hajipur at 16.23 hrs,Muzaffarpur at 18.15 hrs,Motipur from 17.44 hrs, Chakiaat 19.03 hrs, Bapudham Motihariat 19.29 hrs, Sugauli at 20.05 hrsand will reach Raxaul at 21.10 hrs.During the return journey 04015Raxaul-Anand Vihar Terminusbiweekly special will fromDecember 20 leave Raxaul everyTuesday and Sunday at 22.55 hrs,Sugauli at 23.47 hrs, BapudhamMotihari on the second day at00.04 hrs, Chakia at 00.33 hrs,Motipur at 00.54 hrs, Muzaffarpurat 04.00 hrs, Hajipur at 04.55 hrs,Sonpur at 05.07 hrs, Dighwaraat 05.28 hrs, Chhapra at 06.40hrs, Suraimanpur at 07.07 hrsand after stopping at Ballia,Yusufpur, Ghazipur City,Aunrihar Jn, Varanasi City,Varanasi, Jaunpur City, Sri KrishnaNagar, Lambhua, Sultanpur,Musafirkhana, Nihalgarh,Lucknow, Alamnagar, Hardoi,Shahjahanpur, Aonla, ChandausiJn, Moradabad, Amroha, HapurPilkhua and Ghaziabad reachANVT at 04.45 hrs. A total of 23coaches will be attached in thisspecial train.

04018 ANVT-RAXAULSPL: The 04018 ANVT-Raxaulweekly special will fromDecember 16 till next orderleave ANVT at 16.30 hrs everyWednesday and reach Raxaul at21.50 hrs. During the returnjourney the 04017 Raxaul-ANVT weekly special will fromDecember 17 till the next orderleave Raxaul every Thursday at23.45 hrs, the second daySitamarhi at 01.30 hrs andreach ANVT at 04.45 hrs. Atotal of 23 coaches will beattached in this train.

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The Northern Coalfields Limited(NCL), the Singrauli- based sub-

sidiary of Coal India Limited (CIL),has set a new record by despatchingmaximum coal in a day on Friday. NCLdespatched about 3.76 lakh tonnes onFriday which is the highest in a day since the incep-tion of this miniratna company. The NCL also did4.02 lakh tonnes of record coal production on Fridaywhich is more than any single day production ofthis financial year. On this spectacular achievement,the CMD and functional directors of the compa-ny have congratulated the team NCL. With therelentless efforts of NCL employees even in the toughtime of the Covid-19 pandemic, the company has

produced about 77.4 million tonnes ofcoal in FY 20-21 with a growth of 5.4per cent. NCL has also recorded a phe-nomenal growth of about 20 per cebty-o-y in OverBurden Removal, thematerial above coal layers which isto be removed for coal exposure.Overburden removal is an important

factor to judge the performance of opencastmining companies. NCL has despatchedabout 73.16 million tonnes of coal out of anannual coal despatch target of 113.25 milliontonnes. Going by the figures it is expected thatthe NCL will once again cross its assigned tar-gets and will set new records. In the last FY2019-20 also NCL had produced and despatchedmore coal than its set targets.

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The railway administrationfor the convenience of the

passengers will run the fol-lowing triweekly superfast pujaspecial train in 20 trips fromDecember 16 to January 31. Allcoaches in these trains will be ofreserved category and passengerstravelling in them will have to fol-low the Covid-19 preventionguidelines, Chief Public RelationsOfficer (CPRO) Pankaj KumarSingh said. The 02107 LokmanyaTilak Terminus (LTT)-LucknowJunction triweekly superfast pujaspecial train from December 16to January 30, 2021, will everyMonday, Wednesday andSaturday depart from LokmanyaTilak Terminus at 16.25 hrs,from Thane at 16.45 hrs, fromKalyan at 17.10 hrs, from NashikRoad at 19.35 hrs, from Bhusavalat 23.25 hrs, from Bhopal the nextday at 05.40 hrs, from Lalitpur at08.19 hrs, from Jhansi at 09.45hrs, from Orai at 11.35 hrs,Kanpur Central at 14:00 hrs andleaving Lucknow at 15.30 hrs.During the return journey, the02108 Lucknow Jn-LokmanyaTilak Terminus tri-weeklysuperfast puja special train willfrom December 17 to January31, 2021, every Tuesday,

Thursday and Sunday departfrom Lucknow Jn at 22.45 hrs,the second day from KanpurCentral at 00.15 hrs, from Oraiat 01.40 hrs, from Jhansi at03.45 hrs, from Lalitpur at05.07 hrs, from Bhopal at 08.25hrs, from Bhusaval at 14.30 hrs,from Nashik Road at 18.00 hrs,from Kalyan at 20.50 hrs, fromThane at 21.10 hrs and reachLokmanya Tilak Terminus at21.50 hrs. A total of 22 coach-es, including two of generator-cum-luggage van, 12 of sleep-er class, four of AC third class,one AC second class and threegeneral second class coacheswill be attached in this train.

CANCELLATION/REDUCTION IN FREQUENCY:The cancellation and reductionin frequency of the followingtrains will be done by the rail-way administration fromDecember 16 to January 31 dueto operational difficultiescaused by dense fog and badweather, CPRO said. The 02179Lucknow-Agra Fort daily spe-cial train will remain cancelledfrom December 16 to January31, 2021. Likewise the 02180Agra Fort-Lucknow daily spe-cial train will remain cancelledfrom December 16 to January31, 2021. The 02561 Jaynagar-

New Delhi special train will becancelled on December 17, 24,31 and January 7, 14, 21 and 28,2021 (every Thursday). The02562 New Delhi-Jaynagar spe-cial train will be cancelled onDecember 18 and 25 andJanuary 1, 8, 15, 22, 29 days(every Friday). The 05273Raxaul-Anand Vihar Terminusspecial train will be cancelled onDecember 17, 24, 31 andJanuary 7, 14, 21 and 28 (everyThursday). The 05274 AnandVihar Terminus-Raxaul specialtrain will on December 18,and25 and on January 1, 8, 15,22 and 29, 2021, be cancelled(every Friday). The 02553 Saharsa-New Delhi Special train will becanceled on 22, 29 December2020, 05, 12, 19, 26 January, 2021days every Tuesday. The 02554New Delhi-Saharsa special trainwill be cancelled on December 23and 30, and January 6, 13, 20 and27 (every Wednesday). The 02557Muzaffarpur-Anand ViharTerminus special train will be can-celled on December 16, 23 and 30and on January 6, 13, 20 and 27,2021, (every Wednesday). The02558 Anand Vihar Terminus-Muzaffarpur special train will becanceled on December 17, 24, 31and on January 7, 14, 21 and 28(every Thursday).

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Agang of thieves sneaked into ahouse in Chakia village under

the Pipraich police station anddecamped with booty. They enteredthe room and took away ornamentsand cash along with a sewingmachine. The theft came to lightwhen the landlady who had gone toher relative’s place returned homeon Saturday. According to infor-mation, Sundravati Gupta, wife ofSudeep, a resident of Chakia village,lives in a house along with her chil-dren on Bhathat Bailon Marg. Sheruns a grocery store in the houseitself. She had gone to Ramkolaalong with children to attend a mar-riage. The thieves entered the room,broke open the locks of cupboardsand boxes and fled with ornaments,including two pairs of anklets, uten-sils etc from there. SHO PipraichDinesh Mishra said that the case wasbeing investigated and the thieveswould be arrested soon.

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Kanpur DivisionalCommissioner Raj

Shekhar has ordered a freshinquiry into the house collapsein Coolie Bazar on December3 and directed the KanpurDevelopment Authority vicechairman to probe the incidentas per the new guidelines andsubmit the report by December15.

He has also asked the dis-trict magistrate and the DIG tofind out if the builders wereworking as per the sanctionedbuilding plan and take sternaction against the guilty.

The divisional commis-sioner said on account of dig-ging for construction of a base-ment, the building had col-lapsed and one person had diedand 22 family were left shel-terless and this could not be

taken lightly. Shekhar returned the

reports which had been put upand sought further investiga-tion on certain points. He saidthe report did not mention ifthe work was being done as perthe sanctioned building plan ornot.

He said it was a grave issueand a thorough inquiry had tobe carried out to find the root-cause of the accident.

It may be mentioned herethat the aggrieved parties hadapproached Member ofParliament Satya Dev Pachauriand requested that an inquirybe ordered again as the reportdid not mention of the role ofbuilders who were digging theground for construction of abasement.

The report termed thebuilding collapse as an acci-dent.

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Mayor Pramila Pandey onSunday said that from

January 2021, the KanpurNagar Nigam would launch adrive to remove encroach-ments from parks.

She said the KNN ownedvaluable lands measuring 100acres in the city that wasencroached by vested interestand thus it had been decided tofree the entire land.

She said these encroachedlands were worth crores frupees and located near CODdrain, Swarup Nagar,Ghantaghar, besides severalparks encroached upon by landsharks.

She said the KNN had alsodecided to launch a drive tocreate awareness among peopleabout the need to curb poly-thene littering.

She said in the new year, aspecial drive would belaunched against milk dairies inthe city and they would beshifted to the outskirts of thecity.

She also warned againstgarbage burning and said if anyperson was found to beindulging in it he/she would befined and punished.

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The Sanatan MandirChetna Society (SMCS) willpresent the Sanatan DharmaRatna award posthumously toVishwa Hindu Parishad inter-national president AshokSinghal.

The award would be givento the kin of Ashok Singhal bythe society’s patron PadmaVibhushan Jagatguru SwamiRambhadracharyaji in a func-tion to be organised on January14, 2021. SMCS secretary AjayKumar Mishra said the award,carrying cheque of Rs 1 lakh,a silver medal and a certificate,would be given to the nearestkin of Ashok Singhal. In 2019,this award was given to SwamiRambhadrachryaji. The SMCSfelicitate one person every yearfor his/her contribution forthe uplift and protection ofsanatan dharma.

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Kanpur Nagar reported 51more coronavirus positive

cases on Sunday evening. ChiefMedical Officer Dr Anil KMishra said that 51 more peo-ple had tested positive forcoronavirus infection betweenSaturday evening and Sundayevening taking the tally ofconfirmed cases to 31,468cases. He said that 5 patientswere discharged from hospi-tal. He said one COVID-19deaths in the city was report-ed till Sunday evening keep-ing the death toll to 801. TheCMO said at present 706active cases were undergoingtreatment. Dr Mishra said3096 samples were sent fortesting in the city.

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The JK Centre for TechnicianTraining and JBM Group

joined hands and signed amemorandum of understand-ing for skill promotion.

A campus placement drivewas also held in which 132 can-didates were selected.

JKC for TechnicianTraining Chief LK Khannasaid the objective of this cen-tre was to extend opportunitiesto the youth of UP and sur-rounding areas by impartingskill development training tothem.

He said this was strictly incontinuation with the SkillIndia programme proposed byPrime Minister NarendraModi.

He said today skill devel-opment was the focused areaand the objective was to devel-op skill

and also identify the skillsneeded and the gap present,and then with the right skilldevelopment training, bridgingthis gap for the best results andhigh productivity.

He aid with the ever evolv-ing corporate culture, the needof the hour was to have talent-

ed employees and leaders whocould master any skill andbecome an asset for the organ-isation and work towardsnation uplift.

Khanna said this traininghelped in increasing employeeengagement so that employeescould work towards their goalsand accomplish them. He saidit created a culture that wasbacked by accountability andownership. He said it alsoincreased employee motiva-tion by helping them be updat-ed with latest trends in theindustry and reduced employ-

ee turnover and increased theadaptability towards acceptingnew technologies and policies.

He added that it alsoenabled leaders to shape uptheir experiences and beliefs ofthe people they are leading tohelp them achieve their goals.It helps in persistent and long-term change-related problemsas well.

The JBM CGM (SkillDevelopment) said profes-sionals these days were alwayson the lookout for methodolo-gies that could help themrecede the gap between their

skills and on-job requirement. He said there was so much

that one could learn on-job thatwas never taught in B-schoolsor in textbooks. He added thatwhen an organisation encour-aged the culture of skill devel-opment and invested in skilldevelopment training pro-grammes for employees, itautomatically helped thembecome more engaged towardstheir job.

He said the company wasa 2.2-billion-dollar profession-al group and its mission was toprovide newer services andsolutions through its productslike motor vehicle, engineeringdesigns and services, renewableenergy, railways, electrical andCNG buses, lithium batteriesand e-charging. He said it had60 centres in 60 countries.

The vote of thanks wasproposed by M Omar.

A total of 52 recognised fit-ters and fabricators and 80 ITIfitters were selected in theplacement drive. Later theywere given certificates .

Prominent among thosepresent in the drive wereAshutosh Tiwari, AK Pandey,M Omar, RK Agarwal.

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After a long gap, 133 reg-istries were executed in

one day in a special registrycamp organised at KanpurDevelopment Authority officeon Saturday.

The camp was organised atthe KDA office on the demandof the clerical staff who hadstruck work due to allegedmisbehaviour by a lawyer in theregistry office in the recentpast.

Keeping in view theirdemand, KDA Vice ChairmanRakesh Kumar Singh hadallowed the registry camp at thedevelopment authority’s office.

A large number of allotteesarrived on Saturday to get theirproperties registered.

Keeping in view the winterseason, the KDA had madearrangements to serve tea to allthe visitors.

As many as 45 registrieswere executed in Zone 2 fol-lowed by 18 in Zone 3 and 70in Zone 4.

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Afour-year-old boy waskilled when a speeding

truck knocked down a scootyin Chakeri police station areaon Saturday night.

The local residents caughthold of the truck driver andbrutally beat up him. He waslater handed over to the police.

According to reports,Adnan, son of Enalhuda ofSujatganj, was going to ChishtiNagar on scooty with hisyounger brother Arham (4)when a loaded truck comingfrom FCI godown hit theirtwo-wheeler near Shyam Nagaroutpost. Both brothers fell onthe ground and before theycould be removed, in a bid toescape, the truck driver moweddown Arham, killing him onthe spot.

On hearing about the inci-dent, the kin of the deceasedreached the spot and staged ademonstration with the bodyand blocked the road.

ASP Cantonment NikhilPathak assured the kin of thedeceased of stern penal actionagainst the guilty truck driver.

Enalhuda is employed inSaudi Arab. He is presently inKanpur for the construction ofa house in Chishti Nagar.

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As its impressive run in pollafter poll continues – this

time in Assam — the BJP onSunday decided to join handswith the United People’s PartyLiberal (UPPL) and the GanaSuraksha Party (GSP) to joint-ly form the next BodolandTerritorial Council (BTC) afterthe results threw up a hungHouse. And in the process, theBJP junked the offer of its NDAally Bodoland People’s Front’s(BPF), which has threeMinisters in the SarbanandSonowal Government, to joinhands with it to form the BTC.The BJP and BPF had contest-ed separately.

Prime Minister NarendraModi and Union HomeMinister Amit Shah promptlycongratulated the BJP’s Assamunit along with ally UPPL forthe win.

“NDA is committed toserving the people of theNortheast. I congratulate ourally UPPL and BJP Assam forsecuring a majority in theAssam Bodoland TerritorialCouncil (BTC) election,” Moditweeted.

The 40-member newCouncil will be headed byUPPL Chief Pramod Boro,Sonowal told reporters after ameeting with the representa-tives of all the three parties.Boro is the former president ofAll Bodo Students’ Union andwas a signatory of the peaceaccord earlier this year.

The United People’s Party

Liberal (UPPL) has won 12seats, the BJP nine, while theCongress and the GanaSuraksha Party (GSP), headedby Lok Sabha MP NabaSarania, got one each. TheBPF emerged as the singlelargest party with 17 seats.

Shah said the BTC win isvindication of his party’s com-mitment to the development ofthe North-East. “NDA secureda comfortable majority inAssam Bodoland TerritorialCouncil polls. Congratulationsto our ally UPPL, ChiefMinister Sarbananda Sonowal,State Minister Himanta BiswaSarma and party’s Assam unit.I thank people of Assam fortheir continued faith in PrimeMinister’s resolve towardsdeveloped North East,” tweet-ed Shah.

“We’re going to stake claimto form the next BTC. PramodBoro, UPPL will be the nextBTC chief. UPPL urged JPNadda (BJP president) toinclude them in NDA,” Sarma,Assam’s Minister and NEDAconvenor, said.

The BTC is an autonomousdistrict council covering thefour districts of Kokrajhar,Chirang, Baksa and Udalguri,which fall under the BodolandTerritorial Region.

Addressing a press con-ference here, Union MinisterPrakash Javadekar said theBJP which had one seat in theoutgoing council has nowwon nine seats this timeround.

“We are winning, be it inAssam, Arunachal Pradesh,Rajasthan or Telangana.. BJPis winning and Congress is los-ing,” said Javadekar.

The elections in 40 con-stituencies in the region wereheld in two phases onDecember 7 and December 10while the results were declaredon December 12.

Pyramid Borough

BPF chief HagramaMohilary appealed to BJP toextend its support in formingthe BTC, but the latter chose toally with the UPPL and GSP.

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President Ram Nath Kovind,Vice President Venkaiah

Naidu and Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on Sunday ledthe nation in paying homage tothe security personnel wholost their lives in the 2001Parliament terror attack.

“The nation gratefullyremembers the brave martyrswho laid down their livesdefending the Parliament onthis day in 2001. While com-memorating the great sacrificeof those defenders of the tem-ple of our democracy, westrengthen our resolve to defeatthe forces of terror,” thePresident tweeted.

“We will never forget thecowardly attack on ourParliament on this day in 2001.We recall the valour and sacri-fice of those who lost their livesprotecting our Parliament.India will always be thankful tothem,” the Prime Minister saidin his tweet.

The Vice President said ter-rorism is a serious threat todemocracy, individual free-doms and global economicadvancement which are thecore values of present day civil-isation.

In a Facebook post, Naidusaid December 13 is a starkreminder of the menace ofterrorism and its professedantagonism to democratic val-ues and economic aspirations.

Earlier, he along withPrime Minister NarendraModi, Lok Sabha Speaker Om

Birla, Deputy Chairman, RajyaSabha Harivansh and DefenceMinister Rajnath Singh paidtributes to the martyrs who laiddown their lives while defend-ing Parliament from the ter-rorist attack.

Homer Minister AmitShah, Minister of Social Justiceand Empowerment and Leaderof the House ThaawarchandGehlot and Leader of theOpposition Ghulam Nabi Azadalso paid floral tributes.

It was on this day in theyear 2001, that nine personsnamely Jagdish Prasad Yadav

and Matbar Singh Negi, bothSecurity Assistants of RajyaSabha Secretariat, KamleshKumari, Constable, CRPF,Nanak Chand and Rampal,Assistant Sub-Inspectors, DelhiPolice, Om Prakash, BijenderSingh and Ghanshyam, HeadConstables, Delhi Police andDeshraj, Gardener, CPWD,had sacrificed their lives whiledefending Parliament againstthe terrorist attack.

Naidu said their acts of sac-rifice will forever be etched inthe minds of our countrymen.Praising the courage of the

CRPF Constable KamleshKumari, who first spotted theterrorists and kept trackingand informing about theirmovements in the ParliamentHouse complex, the VicePresident said that her braverywas instrumental in quicklyputting down the terrorists’game plan.

“She fell to the barrage ofthe bullets pumped into herand became a martyr, leavinga saga of inspiration and com-mitment to fight for the coun-try,” he said.

Referring to the attack on

the World Trade Center thesame year, the Vice Presidentsaid in the first year of this mil-lennium, the most populousdemocracies of the world, Indiaand the USA, were at thereceiving end.

Observing that in the lasttwo decades several suchattacks of different degreeswere witnessed by humanity,Naidu cautioned that the onlyagenda of terror outfits is todisrupt the democratic andeconomic fabric of the worldand force humanity into a darkera.

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As countries across the globeshift focus on Covid-19

vaccination exercise,researchers at Johns HopkinsBloomberg School of PublicHealth have developed a newonline “Covid-19 mortalityrisk” calculator to help healthauthorities prioritise certaingroups for vaccination.

“Our calculator representsa more quantitative approachand should complement otherproposed qualitative guide-lines, such as those by theNational Academy of Sciencesand Medicine, for determiningindividual and communityrisks and allocating vaccines,”said study lead author NilanjanChatterjee, BloombergDistinguished Professor in thedepartments of Biostatisticsand Epidemiology at theBloomberg School.

The new risk calculator ispresented in a paper publishedin the journal Nature Medicine.

The researchers also col-

laborated with PolicyMap, Inc.to develop interactive maps forviewing numbers and the pro-portion of individuals at vari-ous levels of risks across U.S.cities, counties and states.These maps will allow localpolicymakers to plan for vac-cination, shielding high-riskindividuals, and other targetedintervention efforts.

“Although we have longknown about factors associat-ed with greater mortality, therehas been limited effort toincorporate these factors intoprevention strategies and fore-casting models,” Chatterjeesaid.

He and his team developedtheir risk model using severalCovid-19-related datasets,including from a large U.K.-based study and state-leveldeath rates published by theCenters for Disease Controland Prevention, and then val-idated the model for predict-ing community-level mortali-ty rates using recent deathsacross U.S. cities and counties.

The calculator based onthe model is available onlinefor public health officials andinterested individuals alike. Itenables a user to determineindividual risk based on factorssuch as age, sex, race/ethnici-ty, and medical history and canbe used to define risk for agroup, such as for a particularcommunity, corporation, oruniversity, based on the mix ofrelevant factors that define the

group.The calculator allows users

to calculate mortality risk ofindividuals by combininginformation on individual-level factors with community-level pandemic dynamics, asavailable from a large variety offorecasting models. Thus,when a big wave of infectionshits a population, the risk esti-mates for individuals will risein that community. Currently,

the tool is updated on a week-ly basis to incorporate infor-mation on state-level pan-demic dynamics.

“People may understandbroadly that with a preexistingcondition such as obesity ordiabetes, for example, they areat higher risk, but with our cal-culator they should be able tounderstand their risk in a waythat takes multiple factors intoaccount,” Chatterjee said.

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An Indo-Swiss study titled‘Monitoring of communi-

ty wastewater for early sig-nalling the spread of COVID-19’ has found that monitoringof community wastewater is anearly, cost-effective, unbiasedcommunity-level indicator ofthe presence of COVID-19and also of ‘hotspots’ within acommunity.

It can alert asymptomaticinfections in the communitythrough real-time communitysewage detection and guidedecisions about where andwhen to impose or relax moretargeted restrictions on move-ment and activity. It can poten-tially also alert a second andsubsequent wave of the pan-

demic .The study was supported

by the Swiss Agency forDevelopment and Cooperation(SDC) and conducted by aconsortium of scientists, acad-emicians and policy scientistsfrom The Energy andResources Institute (TERI),Mu Gamma Consultants PvtLtd (MGC), SRM Institute ofScience & Technology(SRMIST).

The study analysed thepresence of SARS-CoV-2 in thecommunity wastewater of dif-ferent catchments in Chennai,the first-of-its-kind in theregion. A total of 156 sampleswere analysed in the STPs ofChennai City, SRM campusand Chennai Metro Area dur-ing partial and post lockdown

period, out of which 48% (75nos.) was found to be positive.

Dr. Girija Bharat of MuGamma Consultants said thatwastewater has emerged as agood indicator for the presenceof SARS-CoV-2 as confirmedby several research studiesacross the globe. “With thatbackground, we set out to con-duct this study in Chennaiwhich confirmed that the levelof presence of SARS-CoV-2virus in community waste-water is directly correlated tothe spread of COVID-19 in thecommunity,” said Dr Girijasaid.

Jonathan Demenge, Headof International Cooperation,SADC, India, was also part ofthe webinar on Friday where thestudy report was unveiled.

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Non-communicable dis-eases (NCDs) accounted

for seven of the top 10 causesof death before the coron-avirus pandemic, the WorldHealth Organisation (WHO)said recently with heart diseasetopping the list, killing morepeople than ever before.Strokes, chronic obstructivepulmonary disease, lower res-piratory infections, and neona-tal conditions were among topfour conditions.

Just a decade ago, theWHO’s new Global HealthEstimates show, that NCDsmade up just four of the top 10causes of death. It also point-ed out that people were livinglonger lives — but those extrayears were not necessarily livedin good health. Good news isthat HIV/AIDS dropped fromthe eighth leading cause ofdeath in 2000 to the 19th in2019.

Covid-19 is likely to figurein the 2020 top 10, WHO offi-cials said, with the death tollhaving passed the 1.5 millionmark on December 3.

The top 10 causes of deathaccounted for 55 per cent ofthose fatalities. They fall intothree broad categories: cardio-vascular, respiratory andneonatal. The figures “clearlyhighlight the need for an inten-sified global focus on prevent-

ing and treating cardiovasculardiseases, cancer, diabetes andchronic respiratory diseases, aswell as tackling injuries,” theWHO said in a statement.

Heart disease has been theworld’s leading cause of deathfor the last 20 years. “However,it is now killing more peoplethan ever before,” the WHOsaid, with nine million fatalitiesin 2019 — up by two millionsince 2000.

Heart disease represents16 per cent of total deaths fromall causes, with strokes claim-ing 11 per cent and chronicobstructive pulmonary diseasesix per cent.

Diabetes has entered thetop 10 causes of death follow-ing a 70 per cent increase in thenumber of deaths since 2000.Bente Mikkelsen, the WHO’sNCDs chief, said that althoughinsulin was discovered nearly100 years ago, fewer than halfof the people who need it haveaccess to it.

Mikkelsen said the mostefficient way to protect peopleagainst NCD risk factors was“to increase the tax on tobac-co and sugar-sweetened bev-

erages” and other unhealthyproducts.

“It’s also a very importantway to increase the health bud-gets.” NCDs together account-ed for 74 per cent of deathsglobally in 2019.

“We need to rapidly step upprevention, diagnosis and treat-ment of NCDs,” said WHOdirector-general TedrosAdhanom Ghebreyesus.

It however remains infourth place in Africa, despitethe number of deaths on thecontinent dropping from morethan one million to 435,000over the 20-year span.

The new estimates foundthat in low-income countries,communicable diseases took aheavier toll, accounting for sixof the top 10 causes of death,including malaria (sixth),tuberculosis (eighth) andHIV/AIDS (ninth).

Global average lifeexpectancy was more than 73years in 2019, compared withnearly 67 in 2000, with thebiggest gains in the least-devel-oped regions. However BochenCao, from the WHO’s data andanalytics department, warnedthat healthy life expectancywas not increasing at the samerate.

The NCD Alliance globalpartnership said the reportdepicted a “devastating toll” onhuman life that could havebeen prevented.

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Replanting Banj oak treesand conservation of exist-

ing patches of the specieswhich are sleeping and feed-ing sites of local langurs in thefragile high-altitude GarhwalHimalayas can help mitigateconflict between humans andthe primates in the region,researchers have said.

In a first-of-its kind study,published in Global Ecologyand Conservation journal,the researchers tried to inves-tigate the reasons responsiblefor crop-foraging by any high-altitude langur species andsuggest important steps forthe mitigation of conflict overresources between the non-human primates and humans.

Oak is the dominant treespecies found in theHimalayan zone and depen-dency of local communitieson oak forests for livelihoodis quite high and as thesedense forests are in wane,Himalayan langur (HL) arebeing forced to raid the agri-cultural crops.

Langurs are leaf-eatingprimates, found along theHimalayas, ranging fromnorth-western Pakistan,through Jammu and Kashmir,

Himachal Pradesh andUttarakhand in the westernHimalayas in India, to Nepalin the East.

The study noted thatmain food source of the lan-gurs was oak during the fruit-ing season, but also that 22per cent of their feeding timewas spent on cultivated cropsaround harvest time.

To better frame a human-langur conflict-mitigationstrategy for this particularlandscape, lead authorHimani Nautiyal from KyotoUniversity, Primate ResearchInstitute, Inuyama, Japan saidit was important to under-stand the peoples’ percep-tion of langur crop-foragingand obtain a more detailed picture of langurhabitat resource use by monitoring their feeding andsleeping site activity.

The study was conduct-ed in the five villages of theMandal valley, Chamoli dis-trict, Uttarakhand frequentedby the langur troops.

The researchers foundthat villagers, who owned rel-at ively more agricultural land and hadgood production throughoutthe whole year, had low inter-actions with langurs due totheir low dependency on nat-ural resources for their live-stock.

However, farmers withrelatively less agricultural landand low productivity d e p e n d e dsignificantly on livestock forextra income and thus reliedmore on the neighboring for-est for grazing their cattle and col-lecting fodder for them.

“This high pressure onthe surrounding forests islikely to have been a driver forlangurs to forage more onagricultural crops in theseareas at times of the yearwhen natural food availabil-ity in the forest was low,” saidthe study.

Moreover, respondents

who owned a relat ivelygreater number of livestock,as compared to other house-holds, perceived a reductionin the available resources inthe nearby forests due to theirintensified use of the nearbyforest areas for livestock fodder.

Hence, the researcherssuggested that this increasedlivestock-driven pressure onthe forest compels wild her-bivores to compete with live-stock for food.

“ This may also helpexplain the reportedly highercrop damage to householdsthat had more cattle and hadtheir perceptions of signifi-cant loss of resources in thevillage managed forests.“Agricultural land, annualcrop production and live-stock populations thusemerged to be the strongestpredictors of crop damage bylangurs in the Mandal valley,”they said.

The other researcherswere VirendraMathur fromIndian Institute of ScienceEducation and Research,Mohali, Anindya Sinha fromNational Inst itute ofAdvanced Studies, Bangalore,Indiaand Michael A.Huffman,also from Kyoto University.

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Ahead of the Assembly pollsdue in April-May next year,

Deputy ElectionCommissioner In-charge ofWest Bengal Sudeep Jain will bevisiting the State on December17 to review preparedness forthe Assembly elections.

Sources said that Jain isscheduled for a two-day tourduring which he might alsovisit North Bengal. He will bereviewing the preparedness for

the ensu-ing pollsamid theC OV I D -19 pan-demic sit-u a t i o n .Jain willalso lookinto com-plaints ofoppositionparties, thes o u r c e s

added. On December 14, WestBengal State ElectionCommission will have an inter-nal meeting with district mag-istrates.

With the introduction ofnew election procedures inBihar Assembly elections amidthe pandemic, it may be pre-sumed that West Bengal elec-tion too will have a change inrules if the pandemic persists.Election to the 294-memberstate assembly is due in April-May next year.

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The Enforcement Directorate(ED) has arrested a member

of the PFI’s student wing, RaufSharif, after he was apprehend-ed by authorities at theThiruvananthapuram airport inKerala, official sources said onSunday.

They said Sharif has beenplaced under arrest under sec-tions of the Prevention of theMoney Laundering Act (PMLA)on Saturday and a Kerala courthas sent him to judicial custody.The ED is expected to move forhis custodial remand onMonday.

Sources said Sharif, report-ed to be the general secretary ofthe PFI’s student wing-- campusfront of India—was “evading”ED summons in connectionwith a criminal money laun-dering probe being conductedagainst the Kerala-based Islamicorganisation Popular Front ofIndia (PFI).

The ED, sources said, hadgot notified a look out circularagainst Sharif after he allegedlyskipped multiple summonsissued by the ED under thePMLA.

Following this circular, theysaid, he was intercepted byauthorities at theThiruvananthapuram airporton Saturday following which the

ED was alerted and thecentral probe agency pickedhim up.

Sharif, they said, was plan-ning to take a flight to a foreigndestination from the airport.

The ED is probing Sharif ’srole with regard to some suspectmonetary remittances receivedby him in the past and it hadrecovered “incriminating” doc-uments linked to him during therecent country-wide raids itconducted against the PFI, itschairman O M Abdul Salam,Kerala state chief NasarudheenElamarom and others.

The PFI, formed in 2006 inKerala and headquartered inDelhi, had called the raids agimmick and an attempt todivert attention from the farm-ers’ issue. Sharif ’s role in con-nection with movement offunds in the aftermath of analleged gangrape and death of aDalit woman in Uttar Pradeshs’Hathras district is also under thescanner of the ED, sources said.

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By virtue of being a fatherto two lawyers, I have theopportunity to comeacross certain legal par-lance from time to time.

One such legal construct is that ofa “reasonable man”. This standardcan be found in quite a few laws aswell as judgments passed by judi-cial authorities in most jurisdic-tions. The reasonable man orwoman standard is typicallyemployed to examine the conductof a particular person against whatmay be considered as “reason-able” according to most people.Cases that fall outside of this wideberth of reasonableness are onesthat usually attract judicial or legalscrutiny.

In India, we have now beenintroduced to a completely newsocial or political standard, allthanks to the Bharatiya JanataParty and our Honourable PrimeMinister. This new standard is thatof the ‘Misled Man’. The concept isfairly easy to understand andapparently refers to all Indians whoare being “misled” by either foreignpowers or the Opposition or byexperts when it comes to mattersof opposing this Government’spoorly thought through policies.

One of the earliest applicationsof the Misled Man standard wasduring the Prime Minister’s now-infamous decision around demon-etisation. We were told thatdemonetisation was a “surgicalstrike” on black money and targetsonly those people who have some-thing to hide. Therefore, whenrenowned economists, public pol-icy experts and members of theOpposition raised questions aboutthe manner in which the policy wasimplemented without prior consul-tation and without expertise, wewere told by the Prime Ministerthat the public was being misled.Similarly, when people brought for-ward evidence of how duringdemonetisation the only peoplewho benefitted were corrupt bankofficials or how there is just asmuch — if not more — counter-feiting with the new currency aswith the old, the Prime Ministeronce again said that we were beingmisled. At no point, however, hasthe Prime Minister taken anyquestions from the Press or fromthe public or taken the opportuni-ty to rescue our misled public.Instead all we got was an introduc-tion to what future years provedwas the BJP’s go-to explanationbehind a protest or any sort of pushback from the general public —

that in reality there are no prob-lems at all and that anysort of protest was a result ofthe lamb-like public beingmisled by people with vestedinterests.

Demonetisation was just thebeginning; we also saw the BJPand the Prime Minister rely onthe same excuse when it came tothe issue of One Rank OnePension or OROP, an issue thatour servicemen have beenfighting for. The BJPGovernment has come out andclaimed that they have, in fact,implemented OROP. However,the former service men andsoldiers who, one can safelyassume, know enough aboutthe issue, are staunchly of theview that OROP in fact has notbeen implemented at all by theBJP Government. Here too, wesaw the Prime Minister say thatthe public is being misled onOROP.

The most recent applicationof this excuse has been theexplanation for the huge protestsby farmers that we have seentaking place in and around NewDelhi. Since the introduction ofthe three Central Governmentfarm laws that were passed in acontroversial and frankly unde-mocratic fashion in the RajyaSabha on September 20, theprotesting farmers have consis-tently maintained their protestand have marched in large num-bers demanding that the CentralGovernment roll back the con-troversial farm laws. TheCongress has highlighted and

consistently support the fight ofthe farmers by arguing that thecontroversial farm laws takeaway any real support for theaverage farmer and give anopen road for powerful indus-trialists and businesses to con-trol the entire farming systemand thereby expose farmers togreat risk and barely any nego-tiating power. What theCongress has most significant-ly argued against is the mannerin which these farm laws werepassed without talking to thestakeholders who will actually bedirectly affected by the laws —the farmers.

There is widespread angeramong farmer unions aboutthe high-handed and arrogantmanner in which the CentralGovernment has conducteditself during this entire process.It should be obvious to the BJPand the Prime Minister thatthese concerns are genuine andwhich is why we see tens ofthousands of farmers on theroad demanding that theGovernment listen to theirdemands. However, here too theBJP and the Prime Ministercould not resist relying on theold faithful theory that the farm-ers are being “misled”.

This pathetic explanation isforwarded by many in the pre-sent administration and notjust by the Prime Minister. Forexample, a BJP Union Ministersaid that the farmer protests areessentially being motivated andsponsored by Pakistan andChina. One cannot blame the

Union Minister who merelydecided to take a leaf out of thePrime Minister’s handbook.Such a response is unbecomingof a Government of a majordemocracy. It assumes that Indiais meant to be led by a ‘messi-ah’ who knows the one true pathand that all of us are merelysheep who should have no sayin the matter. It is antithetical tothe basic tenets of a functionaldemocracy which relies onpeaceful protest and public par-ticipation while making laws.Perhaps, this is why Niti Aayogchief Amitabh Kant said that“too much democracy” makeslaw-making hard in India. TheGovernment should realise thatlaw-making is meant to be hardbecause it requires public partic-ipation of which peaceful protestis the last recourse. The firstoption for most people, if theGovernment had paid attention,is to be involved as stakeholdersin the decision-making process.Instead by labelling the public,representatives of the public, oursoldiers and now our farmers as“misled”, the BJP is insulting theintelligence of all Indians.

The Prime Minister is rightabout a few things though. Weare currently not only misled butalso misgoverned and misun-derstood. If the Prime Ministerwants to attribute blame onwho is responsible for our piti-ful state, his Government wouldbe a good place to start.

(The author is former IPSand member of the CongressParty)

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������������� ���Sir — The Centre is playing withfire by indulging in dirty politicswith Mamata Banerjee's BengalGovernment to create an air ofhatred. The BJP-led Governmenthas ignored the State with regardto Central funds which has result-ed in bitterness and a no-holds-barred fight between the parties.

The recent attack on BJP chiefJP Nadda during his Bengal visitagain underlines that all is not wellwith the Centre's relations with theState. The BJP is trying hard towrest power in the 2021 Assemblyelections by hook or by crook.

I strongly feel that the BJP isplaying dirty games by trying tounseat a democratically-electedGovernment which is nothingbut the murder of democracy. Theneed of the hour is for the BJP-ledGovernment to stop this vendet-ta politics as the day is not far whenit may backfire on them. It is cor-rectly said that nothing or nobodyis permanent in power. If theCentre doesn't immediately stopsuch brand of politics with thenon-BJP ruled States, the arisingsituation for the country could turnout to be disastrous..

Bhagwan ThadaniMumbai

�� ����������� ��Sir — This refers to the editorial‘Year of the pandemic’. Indeed mostof us were not used to words likethe pandemic, social distancing oreven lockdown. So many firstshave occurred during 2020.

But the biggest lessons for allof us should be to become moresensitive towards nature, compas-

sionate towards society and havean attitude of gratitude as we haveseen the plight of migrant work-ers and how frontline Coronawarriors have gone out of theirway to help millions of fellowcountrymen.

We can never know about thefuture but we should be hopefulthat the worst is behind us and thatwe don't get to witness a year like

this again and remain content withour existing vocabulary.

Bal GovindNoida

�������������� ���� ����Sir — It appears that the CentralGovernment would have to com-pletely step back from its statedstand on the agriculture laws,

thanks to the determination andwillpower of the farmers, especial-ly those from Punjab and Haryana.

Employees and depositors ofthe public sector banks (PSBs) ear-marked for distress sale also needto register a similar resistance todefeat the Centre's plan to exposelakhs of crores of deposits thesebanks built up painstakingly overthe years to private, mostlyunscrupulous, corporates.

Lakshmi Vilas Bank was ahoary institution. Where was theneed to merge it with a foreignbank when it could have beentaken over by one of the big five?Today the Government of India isselling its banks. Tomorrow itmay even resort to selling one ofits States.

It is just like parents sellingtheir children to overcome thefamily's financial problems. Theright and honourable course ofaction with regard to the remain-ing six Government-owned banksis to go for another merger exer-cise. Our PSBs are peace-lovingpigeons but it seems that theCentral Government is trying toset a cat among them.

MR AnandChennai

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There’s an old saying about poverty: Give aman a fish, and you feed him for a day;show him how to catch fish, and you feed

him for a lifetime. However, in today’s context,one of the most effective tools to fight povertyis not a fishing rod, but a savings account. Overfour decades ago the most popular retail bank-ing product was the Pigmy Deposit or the DailyDeposit Scheme. Housewives would scrapetogether a few rupees daily to give to a savingscollector who would visit their homes. Themoney was deposited in a bank account that paidinterest and was insulated from the dailydemands of life. The depositors squirrelledaway a decent sum by the end of a year. Most ofthe time it was enough to buy a much-desiredhome appliance. The simple message was, sav-ing money, even if it was only a few rupees at atime, was a sure way to build wealth.

Later, a very innovative idea — microcred-it — was born out of a radical concept: Poor peo-ple, when lent small amounts of cash, pay it backin a timely manner. In the meantime, that moneycould be put to use in ways that would help boostincome and ostensibly, raise a family’s standardof living. The world soon witnessed a great glob-al rush, with banks pouring billions into micro-credit to help the poor. It was a powerful revo-lution, but it bypassed the centuries-old idea ofwealth creation: Savings, the most trusted and theoldest building block of financial managementfor all societies. As impoverished borrowersdefaulted on debts at alarming rates and oftenwith fatal consequences, many organisationsquestioned the power of credit. This led to soul-searching by the industry and the rediscovery ofa new radical idea, specifically the realisation thatwhat the people really need — more urgently thanbusiness loans —was a safe place to save theirmoney. This is what development expert,Robert Vogel, once famously called the “forgot-ten half of rural finance.” It is now universallyacknowledged that the most fundamental instru-ment of personal finance is the piggy bank.

The tide is now turning, sparked in part bymicrocredit’s discredit. We all now know thatthere may be families who have the intelligenceto benefit from loans, but there may be many whocan be ruined. When they miss loan paymentsbecause a lingering illness keeps them away fromtheir business, they get into a regular defaultcycle.This soon leads to acute indebtedness andmakes life stressful for the entire family.

On the contrary, every family in the worldcan benefit from the habit of stashing smallamounts of cash away. Given the variability oftheir income, the poor are vulnerable to sickness,death and natural calamities, which can be a drainon finances and may even prevent families fromhanging on to accumulated assets, including pro-ductive ones.

These shocks can quickly sink families intoa financial mire. As a result, the poor lead pre-carious, anxiety-ridden lives with the riskslooming much larger than opportunities. Thebenefits of microcredit are often extolled, but debtremains debt; it always increases the risk and bor-rowers are sometimes overstretched. Savings canhelp people manage such risks conveniently, witha smaller monetary burden. And savings do mat-ter, especially to women.

Credit can be both, an opportunity and a riskfor low-income families. Though it is necessaryto open the doors of self-reliance, but this canalso be a barrier. You can dig yourself into a fairamount of debt, and that prevents you from mov-ing up financially. It may become a deepening

hole. Loans can be malignant. Somepeople just cannot handle debts. Certainbusiness enterprises are too risky. Andthere is always the temptation to takethese costly loans and scrimp on thenecessities of life. However, in contrast,savings are a vital way for the poor toweather financial shocks and captureincome-generating opportunities. Nesteggs increase the capability of thepoor to manage cash flow, address theproblems of uneven income, reduce theimpact of the lean season, become moreresilient in the face of shocks, buildassets or invest in a family business and,most importantly, become empow-ered to improve one’s status within thehouseholds and communities.

Savings involve little risks and notmuch expertise in financial manage-ment. Even in traditional societies, nomatter how oppressed women are or thelevel of their literacy, they are oftenstewards of the family’s savings. Sadly,most people do not put aside enoughmoney. That is because humans sufferfrom economic myopia: The failure togive adequate weight to future benefitsover immediate pleasures.

This is because, the self-disciplinerequired to save is greater and the con-sequences of failure are worse. Theinstinct for gratification of immediatepleasures overrides the urge to putmoney away in a savings account for arainy day. This is particularly true ofmen. The key to effective financialinclusion is a safe and confidential sav-ings account for every woman. Theolder ones always advise the youngerwomen to keep a store of value thatother family members do not knowabout. When there is an emergency,they will understand your wisdomand appreciate you. The poor requirelittle compulsion to save. They simplywant a reasonable mechanism to do soand the assurance that they will be ableto access the nest egg as per their needs.Households normally put away moneyin order to have an insurance againstemergencies, for religious and social

obligations, for investment, for thehigher education of their children andfor future consumption. Savings havebeen the mainstay of the impoverishedacross the country. In particular vil-lagers, who cope with a veritablyBiblical range of hazards. Nature deliv-ers snakes, scorpions, malaria, dengue,drought, floods, hurricanes, tuberculo-sis and pests that ravage crops and ani-mals. Then there are the environmen-tal and vocational risks arising out ofchanges in market climates. Families arenormally financially prepared for edu-cation and marriages, but health emer-gencies are usually a nasty surprise.

A safe and smart savings accountcan transform the lives of people.Accumulation of money also serves asa form of self-insurance and enhancesthe sense of well-being. They are a gate-way to self-employment and job cre-ation. Lower-income families can con-vert savings into home purchases, edu-cation and microenterprise. Despiteconventional wisdom, the underprivi-leged actually do save, even if it is justa few rupees each day.

The importance of savings for thepoor is also demonstrated by the manyingenious (but often costly) ways theyfind to put money aside. They use avariety of informal mechanisms likehiding cash at home, loaning funds torelatives, participating in rotating sav-ings groups with their neighbours,engaging deposit collectors and so on.However, for a variety of reasons, mostsuch mechanisms fail to meet theneeds of the poor in a convenient, cost-effective and secure manner.

As a consequence, when poorhouseholds are provided a safe, easilyaccessible opportunity to save, theircommitment to saving, and theamounts they manage to put aside, areremarkable. In fact, Indian householdscontribute to about 60 per cent of thecountry’s savings. However, like every-thing this year, the Coronavirus pan-demic that crippled the economy tooka toll on much-needed savings, too. The

country’s savings rate touching a 15-year low, with household savings alsofalling. However, once the economystarts booming again, the rate of sav-ings is expected to go up.

The fact remains that institutionsthat promote credit, to the exclusion ofsavings, place poor clients in bondage.To finance a child’s primary school edu-cation, clients must take on debtbecause they are not in a position tosave. To deal with a health emergencyor family food shortage, to finance wed-dings, funerals or social ceremonies,they must keep borrowing, again andagain. To acquire essential gadgets, theywill need to borrow at prohibitiverates of interest that keep them on thedebt treadmill since there is no otheroption. Financial institutions ought torealise that they owe poor people a safe,flexible entity to save. With creditalone, they cannot free them from thetangled web of poverty. Putting moneyaway is a vital prerequisite for the eman-cipation from poverty. We must thinkbeyond the standard microcreditmodel.

One of the lessons imbibed duringthe current pandemic is that there is nosubstitute for savings, given the fact thatmost of the people, in rural and urbanIndia, too are surviving on savings dur-ing this crisis. Thankfully, this wisdomis now particularly influencing youngpeople. Earlier the usual refrain was“young people don’t save enough.” Itrepresented the conventional wisdomabout our millennials. This is nowchanging. This cohort of young peopleis putting away more funds, though forshort-term goals. Millennials now havea savings discipline that the precedinggenerations lacked. It is heartening tosee people realising the wisdom ofputting some cash aside. StuartRutherford put it pithily long ago: “Thechoice to save rather than to consumeis the foundation of money manage-ment.”

(The writer is a well-known devel-opment professional)

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The insensitivity of the people ofthe country towards the differ-ently abled is nothing new. In

2014, Satendra Singh, a person withdisabilities (PwD) faced humiliationat the Hyderabad Airport whileundergoing a security check underthe Bureau of Civil Aviation Security(BCAS) guidelines. The disabilityrights activist, who was on his wayto speak at the InternationalConference on Evidence in GlobalDisability and Health, in Hyderabad

was asked to remove the callipers heuses for walking, resulting in humil-iation and harassment. This was indirect violation of his fundamentalrights under Articles 15 and 21 of theConstitution. And this is not an iso-lated incident. Scores of PwDs facehumiliation at the hands of their fel-low citizens in the country on a dailybasis. Hence, it is not surprising thatthe media, too, ignores the plight anddaily struggles of divyangs in India.It was only because Satendra Singhwas a high-profile person that hisnightmarish experience was report-ed extensively across the country.

Even today, the situation has notchanged much in India. While scoresof differently abled people are strug-gling for survival during the ongo-ing Coronavirus pandemic, the newsmedia is chasing celebrities likeKangana Ranaut and her ongoingspats with actors and politicians ofall hues.

Even though the PwDs were in

penury, their tales of woe wentunheard and unheeded. The address-able mechanism for the differentlyabled from governmental apparatusis potentially developing an urban-rural dichotomy. Diversity, equityand inclusion remain a distant dreamfor the PwDs who represent 2.21 percent of India’s total population.

The media, being the fourth pil-lar of democracy, has the responsi-bility to highlight the issues that themarginalised sections of society,including the PwDs, face in the coun-try. Particularly during such uncer-tain times that leave them more vul-nerable than before.

However, the lack of objectivereporting, a plethora of paid news,unethical engagement with the pub-lic and advertising agencies, high-decibel and manufactured televisiondebates leave little space for genuineproblems of the common man, leavealone the highly-marginalised PwDs.Instead, Audit Bureau of Circulation

(ABC), Television Rating Points(TRPs) and pay-per-click (PPC) arethe decisive factors, determiningnews value and coverage these days.Suffice to say, the ethical compass ofthe news media, especially that oftelevision channels, has gone com-pletely awry.

Despite the Accessible IndiaCampaign, accessibility to publicinstitutions remains well-nighimpossible. Several Governmentestablishments are not PwD-friend-ly. Women with disabilities are dou-bly marginalised and the genderinequality dimensions have come tothe fore like never before.

While the PwDs in urban areashave a voice at least, unfortunately,the differently abled residing inrural pockets are facing double dis-crimination. The inclusive approachto address their issues has beendiluted. This has further posed athreat to achieve the United Nation’ssustainable development goals.

Suffice to say, the media’s job isto highlight the issues pertaining tothe PwDs. However, disability rightsare being violated time and again andthe media remains a mute spectator.The media’s disconnect with disabil-ity throws up numerous questions.

It is only around December andJanuary, when the International Dayof Persons with Disabilities and theWorld Braille Day are observed onDecember 3 and January 4, respec-tively, that some token coverage isgiven to the woes of the differentlyabled. Despite the growing level ofactivism on rights of the PwDs, thecoverage largely remains sporadicand the emphasis is on the rehabil-itative model of disability.

Newsrooms and reporters pan-India are facing flak for their man-nerism and lack of sensitivity andawareness on disability issues. Thelanguage used is yet to be socially andpolitically inclusive. The narrative onthe gender and rural-urban dichoto-

my is missing which has invited dis-content among the rights activists.Moreover, even though India is a sig-natory to the United NationsConvention on the Rights of Personswith Disabilities (UNCRPD), theIndian media does not heed theguidelines on reporting on disabili-ty that have been brought out by theInternational Labour Organisation(ILO).

News value and media ethicsshould not be swayed by ABC, TRPand PPC, which are market driven.There should be a holistic approachin the mainstream media towardscoverage which can contribute toensuring the rights of the PwDs inone of the largest democratic coun-tries of the world. Media literacy isthe pressing need of the hour and wecannot ignore it for too long.

(Biswal and Chakraborty areAssistant Professors at SIMC andSIBM respectively and are working atSymbiosis International, Pune)

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NewDelhi:Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman took stockof progress made under variousschemes under the threeAatmanirbhar Bharat Packages(ANBP) to help revive econo-my hit hard by the outbreak ofCOVID-19 pandemic.

Following announcementby the Prime Minister,Sitharaman presented thedetails of the Rs 20.97 lakhcrore ANBP 1.0 in a series ofpress conferences from May13-17. It was followed byAatmaNirbhar Bharat Package2.0 on October 12 and the thirdtranche on November 12.

Sitharaman on Friday con-cluded a comprehensive reviewof ANBP with the Secretariesof various Ministries andDepartments concerned overthree days, the FinanceMinistry statement said onSunday.

Sharing details of theprogress made by variousschemes under the ANBP, thestatement said, banks havesanctioned loans worth Rs

2,05,563 crore to about 81 lakhaccounts under the Rs 3-lakhcrore Emergency Credit LineGuarantee Scheme (ECLGS)for the MSME sector that wasimpacted by disruptions causeddue to the coronavirus pan-demic.

While 40 lakh MSMEaccounts have received Rs1,58,626 crore till December 4,Rs 3 lakh crore collateral-freeguaranteed loans - budgetaryprovision of Rs 4,000 croremade for the Scheme in FirstSupplementary Demand forGrants for FY 2020-21.

A n n o u n c i n gAatmanirbhar Bharat Package3.0 last month, the FinanceMinister had said that Rs 2.05lakh crore sanctioned and Rs1.52 lakh crore disbursed underECLGS 1.0.

As part of theAatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan3.0 (announced on November12), ECLGS Scheme has beenextended through ECLGS 2.0for the 26 stress sectors andhealth care sector with creditoutstanding of above Rs 50crore and up to Rs 500 crore ason February 29, 2020.

Under ECLGS 2.0, entitieswith outstanding credit aboveRs 50 crore and not exceeding

Rs 500 crore as on February 29,2020, which were less than orequal to 30 days past due as onFebruary 29, 2020 are eligible,the ministry said.

The loans provided underECLGS 2.0 will have a five-yeartenor, with a 12-month mora-torium on repayment of prin-cipal.

The entire scheme (ECLGS1.0 and ECLGS 2.0) valid tillMarch 31, 2021, it said.

Some of the sectors iden-tified by the KamathCommittee for one-time debtrestructuring included power,construction, real estate, tex-tiles, pharmaceuticals, logistics,cement, auto components andhotel, restaurants and tourism.

The RBI had in August setup the committee headed byformer ICICI Bank chairman KV Kamath for suggesting finan-cial parameters to be factored

in the resolution plans underthe ''Resolution Framework forCOVID-19 related Stress''along with sector specificbenchmark ranges for suchparameters.

Talking about progress ofother schemes, the financeministry said Rs 775 crorehave been released to SmallIndustries Development Bankof India (SIDBI) under the Rs1,500 crore 'Interest Subventionfor MUDRA-Shishu Loan'.

Of this, Rs 206.73 crorealready disbursed to MemberLending Institutions (MLIs)as part of the first tranche forimmediate release of interestsubvention benefit.

With regard to the KisanCredit Card (KCC) scheme,another tweet said, it has cov-ered 1.69 crore farmers withsanctioned credit limit of Rs1.54 lakh crore as on December4, 2020.

As part of theAatmanirbhar Bharat Package,the government has announcedto cover 2.5 crore farmersunder the KCC scheme with acredit boost of Rs 2 lakh crorethrough a special saturationdrive.

It further said that publicsector banks (PSBs) have pur-

chased bonds and commercialpapers worth Rs 27,794 croreissued by 67 NBFCs under therevamped Partial CreditGuarantee Scheme (PCGS).

"PCGS 2.0-Purchase ofportfolio of Rs 27,794 cralready approved by banks...Rs25,000 cr. Disbursed fromAdditional EmergencyWorking Capital Funding forfarmers through NABARD (ason December 4)," it said.

New front loaded refinancefacility of Rs 30,000 crore sanc-tioned by National Bank forAgriculture and RuralDevelopment (Nabard) duringCOVID-19 to Regional RuralBanks and Cooperative Banks.This is over and above Rs90,000 crore to be provided byNABARD through the normalrefinance route during thisyear.

"Central Board of DirectTaxes (CBDT) has issuedrefunds of over Rs 1,45,619crore to more than 89.29 lakhtaxpayers between 1st April2020 and 8th December 2020.Income Tax refunds of Rs.43,274 crore have been issuedin 87,29,626 cases & corporatetax refunds of Rs. 1,02,345crore have been issued in1,99,554 cases," it said. PTI

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New Delhi: The FinanceMinistry will take a call onresidual Rs 14,500 crore capi-tal infusion in the public sec-tor banks (PSBs) in the fourthquarter of this fiscal, sourcessaid.

Following the financialperformance review after thefirst half, sources said, it wasfound that Punjab & SindBank, out of the 12 PSBs, wasin need of Rs 5,500 crore tomeet the regulatory require-ment.

So, the governmentapproved capital infusionthrough preferential allotmentof equity shares in Punjab &Sind Bank last month.

The fund was approvedfrom Rs 20,000 crore cleared byParliament in September forcapital infusion of PSBs as partof the first batch ofSupplementary Demands forGrants for 2020-21. With Rs5,500 crore going to Punjab &Sind Bank, the government isleft with Rs 14,500 crore.

When the performancereview post third quarter num-bers takes place, sources said,by that time banks would haveclear idea about additional

burden on them due to one-time restructuring beingundertaken as per the RBIguidelines to help the industrytide over the risk of default dueto subdued business environ-ment in the COVID-19 crisis.

Besides, sources said therewould be a clarity on NPArecognition as the SupremeCourt may decide on intereston interest case by then. NPArecognition process has beenhalted by the apex court till fur-ther order.

During 2019-20, the gov-ernment proposed to make Rs70,000 crore capital infusioninto the PSBs to boost credit fora strong impetus to the econ-omy.

However, the governmentrefrained from committing anycapital in the Budget 2020-21for the PSBs, hoping that thelenders will raise funds fromthe market depending on therequirements

In the last financial year,Punjab National Bank got Rs16,091 crore, Union Bank ofIndia received Rs 11,768 crorewhile Canara Bank and IndianBank got Rs 6,571 crore and Rs2,534 crore, respectively.

Allahabad Bank receivedRs 2,153 crore, United Bank ofIndia got 1,666 crore andAndhra Bank received Rs 200crore. These three lenders havebeen merged with variousPSBs.

, Bank of Baroda got a cap-ital infusion of Rs 7,000 crore,Indian Overseas Bank receivedRs 4,360 crore and UCO Bankgot Rs 2,142 crore. Punjab &Sind Bank received Rs 787crore and Central Bank ofIndia got Rs 3,353 crore. PTI

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New Delhi:Petrol prices marchtowards all time high levels hasbeen temporarily halted by theoil marketing companies(OMCs) as they chose to keepthe retail rates of petrol and dieselstatic for sixth consecutive dayeven though global oil pricesremained firm with crude closeto $50 a barrel.

Accordingly, there was nochange in retail price of auto fuelson Sunday with price of petrolremaining at Rs 83.71 a litre anddiesel Rs 73.87 a litre in Delhi.Across the country as well the

price of the two petroleum prod-ucts remained unchanged.

OMCs have gone on a pausemode at a time when news ofsuccessful coronavirus andexpectations of big pick up indemand had kept crude on theboil with prices breaching $50 abarrel mark. Crude, however, hasremained static for late few daysreducing any pressure on upwardrevision in fuel prices.

Petrol prices was very closeto breaching the all time highlevel of Rs 84 a litre (reached onOctober 4, 2018) when it

touched Rs 83.71 a litre onMonday. But the March hasbeen halted ever since then withno price revision by the OMCs.

Global crude prices haverisen almost $10 a barrel in lastone month to reaching over$50 a barrel now. But even at thislevel, it is far less than than aver-age crude price of $80.08 a bar-rel in October 2018 when petrolprices reached highs of Rs 84 alitre in the Capital.

With Sunday's pause, fuelprices have now increased on 15of the past 24 days with petrol

prices rising by Rs 2.65 per litreand diesel by 3.41 a litre.

Petrol prices had been stat-ic since September 22, and dieselrates hadn't changed sinceOctober 2. Though retail pricingof petrol and diesel has beenderegulated and oil marketingcompanies were following adaily price revision formula, thesame was suspend ended foralmost two months to preventvolatility in international oilmarkets from impacting fuelprices regularly during the pan-demic. IANS

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New Delhi: The Centre's pro-duction-linked incentive (PLI)scheme for key sectors has thepotential to add $520 billionworth of manufacturing in thenext five years, NITI AayogCEO Amitabh Kant said onSaturday. Recently, the Centrehad announced the PLI schemewith a budgetary support of$26 billion.

Addressing the virtual ses-sion, 'PLI for ExponentialGrowth of Manufacturing',organised during Ficci's 93rdannual convention, Kant saidthat the PLI scheme in the 10champion sectors will supportIndian manufacturers.

He emphasised that this isthe time for supply chainsacross the world to get relo-cated and India must leveragethe opportunity to become themost preferred destination formanufacturing.

According to Kant, the PLI

scheme is a game-changer forthe manufacturing sector andthe 10 sectors will attractinvestment in large scale, boostexport potential and give riseto economic space which willensure India's integration in theglobal value chain.

"If we want size and scaleof manufacturing, we shouldsupport manufacturing for thenext five years so that compa-nies become an integral part ofthe global value chains," Kantsaid. He further mentionedthat the government has sup-

ported both labour intensiveand cutting-edge technologyareas with PLI that will helpMSMEs in the value chain.

"We want India to becomeglobal champion in manufac-turing in areas where we haveannounced PLI," Kant said.

"Our 73-74 per centexports were concentrated initems where global trade is only30 per cent and with the PLIscheme, we are supportingareas where we can take lead inmajor globally traded items," headded. IANS

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Mumbai: With a view to effec-tively deal with increasing cir-culation of banknotes, theReserve Bank of India (RBI) hasdecided to set up an AutomatedBanknote Processing Centre(ABPC) in Jaipur for receipt,storage and dispatch of curren-cy notes.

The functions of the ABPCwill also include processing ofbanknotes received from cur-rency chests (CCs) and bankbranches, and destruction ofsoiled banknotes in an auto-mated manner, said the RBI'sRequest for Proposal (RFP) forengagement of consultant forcomprehensive consultancy ser-vices for establishment of ABPCat Jaipur."Cash remains animportant mode of payment formost Indian citizens, notwith-standing the growth in digitalpayments. In fact, the banknotesin circulation have been con-currently growing with the risein digital payments. The globaltrend of increasing volume of

banknotes in circulation hasbeen witnessed in India as well,"the document said.

The volume of banknotes incirculation has increased three-fold from March 2001 to March2019, and is expected to rise fur-ther in the years to come.

Besides, supply of banknotesby the presses has increasedabout four times from March2001 to March 2019 and isexpected to increase manifolds.

"This has necessitated arelook at the present system ofcash management and a need isfelt to automate the handling ofbanknotes for receipt, storage,retrieval, processing and destruc-tion, in line with the globalchanges, adopting modern tech-nology," the document said.

One of the desired activitiesat the proposed ABPC would beautomated receipt and storage offresh banknotes received fromthe printing presses, automatedretrieval and dispatch of freshbanknotes to the identified issue

offices (IOs)/CCs."The proposed ABPC is

expected to provide for storageand dispatch of fresh banknotesand storage and processing ofsoiled banknotes to/from theidentified CCs/bank branchescovering the jurisdiction of thestates being catered," the docu-ment said. It has also projectedstorage capacity requirements forthe ABPC in Jaipur -- fresh notestock (daily average) at 1,883 mil-lion pieces during 2024-25, 2,950million pieces during 2029-30and 6,853 million pieces during2039-40, and soiled notes at7,718 million pieces during 2024-25, 11,568 million pieces during2029-30 and 27,757 millionpieces during 2039-40.

“The facility may bedesigned to store the daily aver-age fresh note stock requirementand hold a stock of about 15 daysof soiled banknotes and providecommensurate processing anddestruction capacities," it said.

PTI

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New Delhi: Businesses willnow get complete auto-popu-lated monthly sales return formGSTR-3B, GST Network saidon Sunday.

"For ease of taxpayers, nowthe system will auto populateGSTR-3B (monthly) on thebasis of details filed in GSTR-1 and auto-drafted ITC state-ment GSTR-2B fromNovember 2020 tax periodonwards," Goods and ServicesTax Network (GSTN) said.

Based on the suppliesreturn GSTR-1 filed by busi-nesses, GSTN will auto-popu-late the liabilities, while inputtax credit (ITC) would be pop-ulated from system-draftedstatement GSTR-2B.

"If the total liability of aparticular period is negative onaccount of debit/credit notes,the same will be auto-populat-ed as zero liability," GSTN

said. While businesses fileGSTR-1 of a particular monthby the 11th day of the subse-quent month, GSTR-3B is filedin a staggered manner between20th-24th day of the succeed-ing month.

Also, the facility of com-munication between taxpayershas been enabled on the GSTportal. EY Tax PartnerAbhishek Jain said GSTN hasenabled the facility for suppli-ers and recipients to commu-nicate with one another overthe online portal itself.

"This shall enable the busi-nesses to raise a red flag to theirsuppliers/ recipients in relationto various discrepancies at theirend, as well as receive their com-ments. This development by theGSTN should facilitate betterreconciliation of GST creditsbetween suppliers and recipi-ents," Jain added. PTI

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Mumbai: The Real Time GrossSettlement System (RTGS) forhigh-value transactions willbecome available round-the-clock from 00:30 hours Mondayonwards, making India one ofthe few countries in the world tooperate the system 24X7.

In October, the RBI hadannounced that RTGS will beavailable round-the-clock on alldays of the year.

"RTGS facility becomesoperational 24X7 from 12.30 amtonight. Congratulations to theteams from RBI, IFTAS and theservice partners who made thispossible," RBI GovernorShaktikanta Das said in a tweet.

India will become one of thefew countries in the world tooperate its RTGS system round-the-clock throughout the year.

RTGS on 24X7X365 facili-ty comes within a year of RBIoperationalising NEFT 24x7.

NEFT is a popular mode forsmall-value transactions.

RTGS, which began its oper-ations on March 26, 2004 with asoft launch involving four banks,presently handles 6.35 lakhtransactions daily for a value ofRs 4.17 lakh crore across 237 par-ticipant banks.

The average ticket size forRTGS in November 2020 was Rs57.96 lakh, making it a truly largevalue payment system.

RTGS uses ISO 20022 for-mat which is the best-in-classmessaging standard for financialtransactions. The feature of pos-itive confirmation for credit tobeneficiary accounts is also avail-able in RTGS. "Round the clockavailability of RTGS will provideextended flexibility to business-es for effecting payments and willenable introduction of addi-tional settlement cycles in ancil-lary payment systems. PTI

'���� �� �����'�+�� �������� ��!!�� �������������� New Delhi: GST authorities

have arrested as many as 140 per-sons, including five charteredaccountants, in about a month'stime on charges of issuing fakeinvoices, and have now trainedtheir guns on entities transport-ing under-valued goods.

In its nationwide driveagainst fake invoice frauds sincethe second week of November,the Directorate General of GSTIntelligence (DGGI) have alsounearthed cases of GST evasionby way of transporting under-valued and unaccounted goods,they added.

Revenue Departmentsources said some companies ofDelhi and Himachal are underinvestigation for under-valuationof goods and its transportationthrough transporters ofLudhiana and Jalandhar.

During searches and sur-veys, the field formations haveseized unaccounted goods aswell. PTI

Ahmedabad: VipulChaudhary, former Chairmanof Gujarat Cooperative MilkMarketing Federation(GCMMF) has been arrestedfor his alleged role in a Rs 14.8crore embezzlement caseinvolving bonus of employeesof a Mehsana-based dairy enti-ty to which he was connected,police said on Sunday.

Chaudhary was arrestedon Saturday from Gandhinagarfor allegedly embezzling Rs14.8 crore that was meant togive bonus to employees ofDudhasagar Dairy coopera-tive in Mehsana, of which hewas a former chairman, a stateCID (Criminal InvestigationDepartment) official said.

An FIR was lodged againstChaudhary and others, includ-ing Dudhsagar chairpersonAshaben Thakor, vice chair-man Modhjibhai Patel andmanaging director NJ Bakshi,in CID Crime police station inGandhinagar, the CID said ina release.

They were booked undervarious sections of the IndianPenal Code (IPC) and thePrevention of Corruption Actfor breach of trust and crimi-nal conspiracy among otheroffences, it added. PTI

New Delhi: Domestic indiceswill track macroeconomic dataannouncement and global eventslike the US Fed interest rate deci-sion for its movement this week,analysts said."This week, domes-tic markets will be waiting formajor data points like inflationand import-export updates.

"The trend in global mar-kets will be guided by develop-ments in Brexit deal talks andupdates on the expected USstimulus package," said VinodNair, head (research) at GeojitFinancial Services.

Siddhartha Khemka, head(retail research) at Motilal OswalFinancial Services, said, "Theoverall trend of the marketremains positive as it is showingresilience on the back of abun-dant liquidity, positive develop-ments on the vaccine front andsigns of economic recovery."

He, however, added that themarket may consolidate at theselevels for some time given stale-mate in US stimulus and con-cerns over probable no-dealBrexit talk.During the last week,the 30-share BSE benchmarkindex jumped 1,019.46 points or2.26 per cent."Indications are infavour of some consolidation inthe index and it would behealthy for the markets," AjitMishra, vice-president (research)of Religare Broking Ltd, said.

PTI

New Delhi: Gems and jew-ellery exporters have been per-mitted to send their goodsacross the globe to their buy-ers using the convenience ofcost effective and reliable couri-er services.

The Central Board ofIndirect Taxes and Customs(CBIC) has issued a circularclarifying that extant regula-tions do not restrict exports ofgems and jewellery through thecourier mode and such restric-tions only apply to imports.

This would mean that gemsand jewellery exports could bedone through courier servicesfollowing all other regulationsin place for such exports.

Doubts had arisen overuse of courier services forexports as Regulation2(2)(a)(iv) of the CourierImports and Exports(Electronic Declaration andProcessing) Regulations, 2010places a restriction on importsof precious and semi-preciousstones, gold or silver in any

form, through courier.The Regulation 2(2) (a) (iv)

reads as "These regulationsshall not apply to the followingimported goods requiring test-ing of samples thereof or ref-erence to the relevant statuto-ry authorities or to expertsbefore their clearance, namelyprecious and semi-preciousstones, gold or silver in anyform".

Thus, the restrictionimposed by Regulation2(2)(a)(iv) on gems and jew-

ellery is applicable only on theirimports, CBIC has clarified.

Earlier, the Gems andJewellery Export PromotionCouncil represented beforeCBIC seeking clarification onwhether gems and jewellery isallowed to be exported throughcourier under the CourierImports and Exports(Electronic Declaration andProcessing) Regulations, 2010as also the Courier Imports andExports (Clearance)Regulations, 1998. IANS

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New Delhi: The IndianRailways on Sunday refutedclaims about issuance of unre-served tickets, saying that therehas been no change in policy torun all Express trains, includ-ing festival specials and clonespecials, as fully reserved trainsonly, by issuing reserved tick-ets for second class coachescoaches and passenger portionof SLRs coach.It clarified that"permission" given to zonalrailways to issue unreservedtickets is meant for suburbanand limited number of trains.

In a statement, the RailwayMinistry said: "There has beenno change in policy to run allexpress trains including festivalspecials and clone specials asfully reserved train only asyet.

Accordingly till further

advice, the existing mail expressspecial trains including festivalor holiday specials, clone spe-cials which are running on fullyreserved basis (as on date)shall be continued as fullyreserved only, by issuingreserved tickets for secondclass coaches and passengerportion of SLRs also.

"Permission has been givento zonal railways to issue unre-served tickets is meant only forsuburban and limited numberof local passenger trains oper-ating on few zones.

"It said that running oftrains, norms of travel andreservations are constantlyevolving under Covid times.Further changes, as and whenthey happen, would beinformed to all concernedaccordingly. IANS

New Delhi: India's airline indus-try which was heavily battered bythe pandemic's onslaught is nowgearing up to take the fightback to the virus via lending thekey logistical support for anti-Covid-19 vaccine deployment.

The industry is expected toplay a vital role in the country'simpending anti-Covid offensivevia vaccines.Already at anadvance stage of planning, theindustry and especially its lead-ing players have formed dedi-cated teams, new specialisedlogistical arms to safely and effi-ciently transport veils acrossIndia and potentially aroundthe world.

Notably, the airline indus-try has the capability to quicklytransport the temperature sen-sitive vaccines across the coun-try from the pharma hubs of

Hyderabad and Pune.From apure business standpoint, theintegration of cold-chains, logis-tics and the last-mile delivery willboost the revenue stream of thesector.

Lately, the segment hasbecome a lifesaver for the indus-try."Cargo operations havealready gained pace for the air-lines in the absence of adequatepassenger traffic. And depend-ing on the economics for the vac-cine, air transportation is a prob-able option," said Kinjal Shah,Vice President, ICRA."This candefinitely be an additional rev-enue stream for the airlines.

"According to Vasudevan S., Partner, Aviation, KPMG inIndia: "It is a huge business andrevenue generation opportunityfor India and can create new jobsas well, but the larger focus

should be on nation building andstamping our reputation global-ly as a reliable ally and businesspartner.

"Besides, Suman Chowdhury,Chief Analytical Officer, AcuiteRatings & Research contendedthat: "It is unlikely that such anactivity will have strong profitmargins at least in the initial stagesince it is expected to be viewedmore as a corporate socialresponsibility (CSR) particular-ly by the government.

"On their part, some airlinesplan to deploy a dedicated num-ber of freighters, while othershave formed a new logistics' arm.

A case-in-point is airline majorSpiceJet, which has tied-up withlogistics' firms to provide seam-less end-to-end cold chain solu-tions for Covid-19 vaccine deliv-ery.

Furthermore, SpiceJet's cargoarm, SpiceXpress launched anew specialised service, SpicePharma Pro, dedicated to trans-porting Covid vaccines, medi-cines, blood samples and tem-perature-sensitive cargo.WithSpice Pharma Pro, SpiceXpresshas said that it has the capabili-ty to transport extremely sensi-tive drugs, vaccines, blood sam-ples and medicines in controlledtemperatures ranging fromminus 40 degrees Celsius to(plus) 25 degrees Celsius.

On its part, AirAsia India hasmarshalled a dedicated cargo ser-vices team for evaluating the spe-cial logistics requirement, suchas temperature controlled con-tainers, that may be needed fortransportation of vaccine and areevaluating various measures tosupport the same. IANS

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Washington: Shortly afterPresident-elect Joe Biden’s vic-tory last month, Cabinet hope-ful Marcia Fudge pointedlynoted that Black people areoften typecast into positionssuch as housing secretary.

On Friday, Bidenannounced Fudge, a prominentBlack congresswoman fromOhio, was his nominee for thatvery role. She was introducedalongside Biden’s pick for thejob she initially sought, head ofthe Agriculture Department.That went instead to TomVilsack, a 70-year-old whiteman who already spent eightyears in the position during theObama administration.

Those nominations high-light the competing prioritiesBiden is facing as he fills out thetop ranks of his administration.He’s pledged to nominate themost diverse Cabinet in histo-ry and restore experience atbeleaguered federal agencies.He’s seeking to reward loyalistswho have stood with himthroughout his lengthy careerand give opportunities to newvoices in the Democratic Party.

Each of his nominees hasto win confirmation in a nar-rowly divided Senate that couldbe controlled by Republicans,depending on who wins tworunoff races in Georgia nextmonth. The GOP has barelyacknowledged Biden’s victoryso the cooperation of its sena-tors in the confirmation

process is far from certain.“There’s a lot of pressure,

and part of the reason you sawsuch big turnout is that peopleare eager for change from theTrump years,” said Democraticstrategist Karen Finney. “Thatcreates a lot of high expecta-tions.”

The challenge won’t geteasier. Biden is facing a decisionon attorney general that willcome under intense scrutinyfrom Black leaders, who wantsomeone with a background incivil rights advocacy, andRepublicans who are demand-ing political independence asBiden’s son, Hunter, faces a fed-eral investigation into hisfinances.

Some of those tensionsemerged last week during ameeting between Biden andcivil rights leaders who pressedthe incoming president todiversify his Cabinet and

warned about the Vilsack pickin particular.

Vilsack has been criticisedfor the firing of departmentofficial Shirley Sherrod, who isBlack, during his last stint at theUSDA, a move he later apolo-gised for. NAACP PresidentDerrick Johnson warned Bidenthat the Vilsack selection couldhurt Black turnout in the crit-ical Georgia contests.

“Vilsack could have a dis-astrous effect on voters in thestate of Georgia,” NAACPPresident Derrick Johnson toldBiden during the meeting,which was private. Audio wasleaked to The Intercept, whichreleased excerpts.

Biden bristled at such con-cern, saying, “Let’s get some-thing straight, you shouldn’t beupset.” “What I’ve done so faris more than what anyone elsehas done this far,” he added. “Imean what I say.” The presi-

dent-elect has several moreCabinet posts to fill, and hasmade history with some of hisearly selections.

He nominated retiredArmy Gen. Lloyd Austin to bethe first Black person to leadthe Pentagon, while pickingCalifornia Attorney GeneralXavier Becerra to be the firstLatino to lead the Health andHuman Services Department.His nominee for U.S. Tradeenvoy, Katherine Tai, was bornin Connecticut to Taiwanese

parents.But those choices were

announced after AfricanAmericans, Latinos and AsianAmericans in Congress voicedconcerns that their perspec-tives may not be fully repre-sented in the new administra-tion. Some nominees will faceother hurdles, most notablyAustin who needs a waiver tofill the civilian role leading thePentagon. That’s a step someDemocrats have historicallyopposed. AP

Khartoum: Sudanese PrimeMinister Abdalla Hamdok onSunday arrived in Ethiopia,his office said, amid a growingrefugee crisis that has seenmore than 50,000 Ethiopiansflee conflict in the Tigrayregion into neighbouringSudan.

Ethiopian Prime MinisterAbiy Ahmed greeted hisSudanese counterpart at AddisAbaba’s airport, where Hamdokarrived with the actingSudanese Foreign MinisterOmar Qamar al-Din and topintelligence and military offi-cials.

“I look forward to havingproductive discussions onpolitical, humanitarian andsecurity matters of commonconcern,” Hamdok tweeted.

The visit came two weeksafter the Ethiopian leaderdeclared victory in the fight

against the regional govern-ment in Tigray. However, clash-es between Ethiopian federaland regional forces have con-tinued.

The fighting, which start-ed early in November, hasthreatened to destabilise

Ethiopia, which is the linchpinof the strategic Horn of Africa,and its neighbours.

The conflict has alarmedthe international humanitariancommunity since the eruptionin violence has largely cut offfrom the world the Tigray

region of 6 million people.The UN refugee agency

said more than 50,000Ethiopians have fled intoremote areas of Sudan, firststraining the generosity of localcommunities and then chal-lenging the capacity of human-itarian groups that have hurriedto set up a system to feed, shel-ter and care for the refugees.

The influx of refugees addsto Sudan’s economic and secu-rity burdens. The transitionalgovernment has already beenstruggling under the weight ofdecades of US sanctions andmismanagement under formerruler Omar al-Bashir, who wasousted from power last year.

Eastern Sudan, whichborders Ethiopia’s Tigrayregion, was the scene of boutsof tribal violence in recentmonths that claimed dozens oflives. AP

Lagos (Nigeria): Hundreds ofNigerian students are missingafter gunmen attacked a sec-ondary school in the country’snorthwestern Katsina state,police have confirmed.

The Government ScienceSecondary School in Kankarawas attacked Friday night by alarge group of bandits who shot“with AK 47 rifles,” KatsinaState police spokesman GamboIsah said in a statement.

Police engaged the attack-ers “in a gun duel which gave(some of) the students theopportunity to scale the fenceof the school and run for safe-ty,” Isah said.

About 400 students aremissing, while 200 are account-ed for, Isah said. The school is

believed to have more than 600students.

“The police, NigerianArmy, and Nigerian Air Forceare working closely with theschool authorities to ascertainthe actual number of the miss-ing and/or kidnapped stu-dents,” said Isah. “Search par-ties are working with a view tofind or rescue the missing stu-dents,” he said. AP

Tehran: Iran on Sunday sum-moned the German envoy toTehran after the EuropeanUnion condemned the execu-tion of an Iranian journalistwhose work helped inspirenationwide economic protestsin 2017, Iranian state media hasreported.

IRNA said that an Iranianforeign ministry official sum-moned the German ambas-sador because of EU state-ments on the exiled reporterRuhollah Zam, 47, who washanged on Saturday.

Zam was being held in jailin Iran after Iranian authoritiesseized him while he was trav-eling in neighbouring Iraq lastyear. The German ForeignMinistry on Saturday expressedits shock about the circum-stances of Zam’s sentencingand what it described as his“abduction from abroad” andforced return to Iran.

Iran will also summon

today the French ambassadorto Tehran over European reac-tions to the journalist’s execu-tion, IRNA added.

“This is a barbarous andunacceptable act,” the FrenchForeign Ministry said in astatement, which also con-demned the hanging as a “graveblow” to freedom of speech inIran.

Zam had been living inexile in France, before his kid-napping and conviction in Iran.

Iranian state televisionreferred to Zam as “the leaderof the riots” in announcing hisexecution by hanging earlySaturday. In June, a court sen-tenced Zam to death, saying hehad been convicted of “cor-ruption on Earth,” a chargeoften used in cases involvingespionage or attempts to over-throw Iran’s government.

Zam’s website AmadNewsand a channel he created on thepopular messaging app

Telegram had spread the tim-ings of the 2017 protests andembarrassing information aboutofficials that directly challengedIran’s Shiite theocracy.

Those demonstrations,which began at the end ofDecember 2017 and continuedinto 2018, represented thebiggest challenge to Iran’s rulerssince the 2009 GreenMovement protests and set thestage for similar mass unrest inNovember of last year.

The initial spark for the2017 protests was a suddenjump in food prices. Manybelieve that hard-line oppo-nents of Iranian PresidentHassan Rouhani instigated thefirst demonstrations in theconservative city of Mashhad innortheastern Iran, trying todirect public anger at the pres-ident. But as protests spreadfrom town to town, the back-lash turned against the entireruling class. AP

Colombo: Sri Lanka hasrecorded the highest number ofelephant deaths in the worlddue to the human-elephantconflict, according to a mediareport.

The island-nation’sCommittee on Public Accounts(COPA) had ordered a specialaudit into the human-elephantconflict by renowned elephantexpert Dr Prithviraj Fernando,the head of the Centre forConservation and Research.

In a meeting of the COPAheld recently, it was also dis-closed that Sri Lanka rankednumber two globally after Indiawhere highest number ofhuman deaths were reporteddue to the human-elephantconflict, according to DailyNews.

COPE CommitteeChairman Tissa Vitarana saidthat in the past 12 months, the

number of elephants killed inconflict with humans in SriLanka was 407 as against theprevious annual average of272. The number of peoplekilled also increased from anaverage of 85 humans to 122per year in the country.

COPE CommitteeChairman Vitarana and othermembers emphasised the needfor the Wildlife Department

and other relevant agencies towork together on a more effi-cient programme to resolve thehuman-elephant conflict in SriLanka, which has become aserious problem.

He also said that despite60 years of efforts to resolvethe human-elephant conflict,no significant progress hadbeen made and that a newapproach was needed to find

a solution.The COPA directed the

Department of WildlifeConservation to set up aNational CoordinatingCommittee with all relevantinstitutions as soon as possibleto reduce the human-elephantconflict.

The Committee pointedout that although 4,211 km ofelephant fences had been con-structed by 2016 to control thehuman-elephant conflict, theyhad become inactive in a shortperiod of time due to improp-er maintenance.

Although �86 millionrupees is spent annually for themaintenance of the electricfences, the committee pointedout the need for the WildlifeConservation Department tomonitor whether this mainte-nance is being carried out on adaily basis, the daily said. PTI

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Four people were stabbedand one shot as rallies back-

ing President Donald Trump’sbaseless claims of election fraudled to clashes in major US citieson Saturday.

Scuffles broke out in manyplaces between rally-goers andcounter-protesters who turnedup to criticise the president,

who lost the November 3 elec-tion to Democrat Joe Biden butis yet to concede.

Washington State Policesaid in a tweet late Saturdaythat a shooting had taken placeafter clashes near the capitolbuilding in Olympia, and thata suspect had been detained.

In the US capital, DC Fireand EMS Department com-munications chief Doug

Buchanan told AFP that fourpeople had been stabbed andwere now hospitalized “withserious injuries.” The New YorkTimes reported that 23 hadbeen arrested throughout theday.

There was no indication ofwhether any of the victimshad been involved in theprotests, on either side of thedivide.

Washington: The 2020 presi-dential election is over. ButPresident Donald Trump’sbaseless efforts to undermine it,and the consequences of thoseundemocratic actions, willlinger in America for far longer.

It is increasingly clear thatthere is no fact, no piece of evi-dence and no court ruling thatwill dissuade Trump from try-ing to mislead Americansabout President-elect JoeBiden’s victory.

And Trump has hardlybeen alone in that effort;numerous Republicans havestood with him or stood bysilently, including 126 GOPmembers of the House whobacked a bid to get the SupremeCourt to invalidate Biden’s vic-tory in four key states. Thecourt emphatically rejected thecase Friday night.

Trump responded onTwitter late Friday, “TheSupreme Court really let usdown,” but he vowed to “fight

on!” The actions of Trump andhis allies have exposed a strik-ing reality about America:Many lawmakers in one of thenation’s two major politicalparties are either willing toback efforts to overturn a freeand fair election or unwilling tospeak out against such a cam-paign.

That lays the predicate forpoliticians to question theintegrity of any election if theresults don’t go a party or a can-didate’s way, a dangerousnotion that is likely to furthererode Americans’ trust in gov-ernment and test the durabili-ty of the nation’s democraticinstitutions.

With the sitting presidentleading the way and friendlymedia outlets standing by toamplify his claims, the resultis that millions of Americanswill likely remain convincedBiden’s victory was illegiti-mate and the election wasfraudulent. AP

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Washington: His time in theWhite House rapidly ending,President Donald Trump isrewarding some supportersand like-minded allies withthe perks and prestige thatcome with serving on federaladvisory boards and commis-sions.

On Thursday, Trumpannounced his intention tonominate two authors whowrote books that flattered himto a board that makes recom-mendations on educationresearch. Another author whohelped write a favourable bookabout the president was chosenfor the same board a few daysearlier.

On Wednesday, theDepartment of Defenseannounced that China hawkMichael Pillsbury wouldbecome the chair of a boardthat gives Pentagon leadershipadvice on how to enhancenational security. Pillsbury hasserved as an outside adviser tothe president on China.

And on Tuesday, Trumpsaid he would appoint his for-mer counselor and 2016 cam-paign manager, KellyanneConway, to serve on the boardof visitors to the U.S. Air ForceAcademy. Going to the sameboard will be Heidi Stirrup, anally of top Trump adviserStephen Miller. AP

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Kabul: Separate bomb andgun attacks on Sunday left atleast three dead inAfghanistan’s capital, localpolice said, a day after a barrageof mortar shells shook the city.

A sticky bomb attached toan armored vehicle in northernKabul killed two, and wound-ed at least two others, accord-ing to Ferdaws Faramarz, aspokesman for the Kabul policechief. No further details wereimmediately available.

Faramarz also said that anAfghan Government prosecutorwas shot dead in eastern Kabul.The prosecutor was on his wayto his office when he wasattacked in Kart-e Now neigh-borhood, the police spokesmansaid. No one immediatelyclaimed responsibility for theattacks in Kabul. The IslamicSate group has claimed respon-sibility for multiple attacks onthe capital in recent months,including horrific attacks on

educational institutions thatkilled as many as 50 people,most of them students.

The Sunday attacks hap-pened as a day earlier the ISmilitants hit the capital with abarrage of mortar shells, killingat least one civilian and wound-

ing a second, amid a country-wide spike in violence. Theextremist group claimedresponsibility on its affiliatedAmaq News site, saying it fired10 Katyusha rockets toward thecapital’s Hamid KarzaiInternational Airport. AP

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Lahore: The PakistanDemocratic Movement, an 11-party Opposition alliance seek-ing the ouster of “puppet”Prime Minister Imran Khan, isset to hold its final rally here onSunday, despite a ban on thegathering of more than 300people owing to an increase inCOVID-19 cases across thecountry.

A number of workers ofthe Pakistan DemocraticMovement (PDM) havereached Minar-i-Pakistan.They broke the locks of itsmain gate, placed chairs andhave installed lights forSunday’s much-hyped powershow of the Opposition.

The rally will be addressed

by former prime minister andPML-N supreme leader NawazSharif from London, his daugh-ter Maryam Nawaz, Jamiat

Ulema Islam chief and PDMhead Maulana Fazlur Rehmanand PPP Chairman BilawalBhutto Zardari. PTI

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Dubai: Bahrain said Sunday itapproved the use of a Chinesecoronavirus vaccine, followingits earlier approval of a vaccinemade by Pfizer and its Germanpartner BioNTech.

Bahrain’s state-run newsagency said the Sinopharmvaccine would be available inthe island kingdom off thecoast of Saudi Arabia in thePersian Gulf.

It offered few detailsthough on study results of thevaccine, in line with the UnitedArab Emirates, which last weekannounced the vaccine was 86per cent effective. The Emiratistatement provided few detailsbut marked the first publicrelease of information on theefficacy of the shot.

Bahrain said over 7,700signed up to take part in a trialof the Sinopharm vaccine inthe kingdom. The kingdomearlier said it plans to give thepublic free coronavirus vac-cines, but has yet to answer anyquestions about its pro-gramme.

The Sinopharm vaccinehas been approved for emer-gency use in a few countriesand the company is still con-ducting late-stage clinical tri-als in 10 countries. Morocco isgearing up for an ambitiousCOVID-19 vaccination pro-gramme, aiming to vaccinate80 per cent of its adults in anoperation starting this monththat’s relying initially on theSinopharm vaccine. AP

Dallas: Charley Pride, countrymusic’s first Black superstar, hasdied of complications fromcoronavirus at age 86.

Pride, known for hits like“Kiss an Angel Good Mornin’”and “Is Anybody Goin’ to SanAntone”, died Saturday inDallas, Texas, according to astatement shared on the singer’sofficial website.

Born a sharecropper’s sonin Sledge, Mississippi, onMarch 18, 1934, Pride emergedfrom Southern cotton fields toalso become the first Blackmember of the Country MusicHall of Fame.

Veteran country singer andPride’s friend, Dolly Partonwas among the first to pay trib-utes on social media. PTI

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What we achieve inwardly, willchange outer reality. Plutarch,Greek historian and philoso-

pher once said. The outbreak of the COVID-19

coincided with the arrival of the newyear and even before the world enteredFebruary, there were already a lot ofchanges and travel restrictions in place.However, the most remarkable aspect ofhumanity is its resilience and the abil-ity to bounce back from such events.The virus is still raging out there inmany parts of the world, but it is nolonger novel. Even a potent vaccinemight just be available before long.

The one major change this yearmade to our lives was the focus on phys-ical wellness and keeping ourselvessafe from the virus. Lockdowns, isola-tions, social distancing, face masks andwork from home have become the newnorm. However, this has also lead to alot of stress, anxiety, fears and paranoiaamong the people. Mental health hastraditionally failed to gain as muchattention as physical health and notmuch has changed. People have becomeincreasingly conscious of their physicalhealth in the wake of the pandemic, butmental health and its impact on variousaspects of living is still not adequatelyunderstood.

It is only a healthy mind which canensure continuation of our emotionalwellness, social behaviour and intellec-tual prowess. A sound mind is more effi-cient at analysing situations andenhances the quality of decision mak-ing. As the world grapples with theunprecedented chaos, acknowledgingthe importance of mental health andhow it benefits us has become a keylearning in 2020.

There is ample incentive for peopleto focus on their emotional and men-tal health. After all, it impacts the waythey think, react and conduct them-selves. In the prevailing turmoil, it iseasy to start feeling low, exhausted. Wemight even find ourselves preoccupiedwith negative thoughts, inaction and feellike withdrawing from social interac-tions even when there is a lot we wantto talk about. This is where stress canlead to depression and anxiety overtime.

By being emotionally healthy andresilient, we can improve our social andprofessional standing. According tothe World Health Organisation, millionsof work days annually are affected bydepression and mental health issues.The unfortunate part of the phenome-non is that this illness is considered adisability. In the wake of a global pan-demic, such risks become more pro-nounced. Hence, it is really importantto keep ourselves mentally fit and alert.This can help in improving productiv-ity, performance, and the ability to workenthusiastically.

Another key aspect of our lives isthe relationships we have with self,friends and family. The outcome andquality of these relationships is com-pletely governed by our emotionalhealth. A person’s thoughts reflect hisbehaviour and the kind of people theywill attract. By instilling discipline in ourmental space, we can reap similar ben-efits that one gets for the body after reg-ularly working out at gym. Avoid neg-ativity, over analysing situations and thetendency to undervalue own perfor-mance. Give yourself a pat on the back

and know that you deserve happiness asmuch as anyone ever did.

Nobody can completely escapestress. In fact, many psychologistsbelieve that stress in moderation isessential to drive us towards our goals.If one were to be completely care-freethen there might be no motivation towork towards the goals. This is exem-plified by the ‘hare and the tortoise’story that has been repeatedly narrat-ed from playschools to corporate board-rooms.

However, extreme stress can lead tovarious ailments such as weak immuni-ty, diabetes, heart diseases and

migraines and even chronic fatigue. Bymanaging stress and remaining mental-ly healthy, we can dynamically managelife’s challenges, relish moments andprogress towards our goals.

The global health scare that we arecurrently dealing with this year hasmade it clear that ignoring mental healthwill sooner or later cause problems foroverall well-being. The good thing is thatthese issues are as curable as any physi-cal ailments. There are plenty of mentalhealth experts, psychologists, and coun-selors available even on digital platforms.They will listen to you, effectively under-stand your mental struggles and help you

cope with them. If you feel that you don’tneed professional help, but just needsomeone to talk with, then you can openup to a trusted friend or family member.

Live a mentally healthy life to enjoy

all the boons that future has in store foryou. This is what 2020 has taught us andit is a lesson for lifetime.

(The writer is Shumita Kakkar,Founder, United We Care.)

Actor Rani Mukerji’s superhitMardaani 2 became a must-

watch film last year as it shockedand gripped the nation with its sto-ryline. Inspired by shocking truecrimes against women by juveniles,the edge-of-the-seat thriller sawRani in a race against time to cap-ture a brutal serial rapist who sys-tematically targets women. Thefilm received incredible apprecia-tion from media and critics andtook the gritty female-cop franchiseforward in leaps and bounds. Onthe first anniversary of the thriller,Rani opened up about why theMardaani franchise is close to herheart.

“The franchise of Mardaani isvery important to me, not onlybecause it’s talking about womenempowerment and certain brutal-ities that take place on women, andthere is a woman, who is the mainprotagonist, who is standing upagainst all of this, but because it isalso an informative film as it pro-jects a lot of things women need tobe aware of. It speaks about all thatbecause in a society we tend toalways see the positive things. It isgood to be positive and but in real-ity, certain people have bad inten-tions and on a bad day we canencounter them,” said she.

Rani added, “So, I think thisfilm empowers women to think thatthey are strong. It gives a lot of hopeand courage to women. Whenthey are watching it, they feel thatthey are getting introduced to theirinner strength, so I think the entirefranchise being what it was madefor and the fact that it was receivedthe way we wanted it to be received,

makes it truly special.When we set out tomake a film as film-makers and as peo-ple who are a partof a project, wehad certain aspi-rations for thefilm but to seethose aspirationsgetting fulfilledand resonatewith thew o m e nis sohearten-ing.”

R a n ir e v e a l e dthat thereaction shegot fromf e m a l e -cops acrossIndia has beenvery overwhelming.She said, “WheneverI have met lady cops, theyhave not reacted to just thefilm. They have alsoreacted to theportrayal ofShivani ShivajiRoy, which they feel isvery positive and itshowcases the entiregamut of things that

they have to deal with during thecourse of their lives and career. Thecredit for that should actually go tothe writer and those who haveenvisaged Mardaani as a franchisewhich is Adi, Gopi (Puthran –

director and writer),Pradeep da (Sarkar) puttogether because I think

the fact is that theactors get to por-

tray a characteronly when it’s

written andf l e s h e dout well.”

S h ea d d e d ,

“The factthat they

took time andenergy tobuild Shivani’sc h a r a c t e r

around real-lifewoman cops also

adds to the persona of the film.So it makes everything look realand you could encounter some-

body like that in your lifetime.She is relatable

and larger thanlife in her

actions, in terms ofthe courage. The

character is true toevery person who is on the battle-

field and for cops. Also, it’s not asuperhuman portrayal where theperson can fight goons all by her-self. So, as a cop, I think it’s a com-bination of using brains and brawn.”

The film enables Rani to bringstartling realities of society out inthe open. She said, “It gives me anopportunity to actually bring outthese topics, which are slightly dif-ficult to digest and talk about, butunfortunately that’s the reality,that’s what we read and see in thenewspaper and news channels dayin and day out. And what is themost disturbing part in all this isthat it’s not ending. These incidentsare not getting over and done with.No matter how much we do, we stillhave to do much more. The film isjust a small drop in the ocean ofthings that need to be done for thiscause.”

Rani added, “It generates con-versation and there is awarenesswhen women watch these kind offilms. They understand that we livein a world where things are guard-ed but you never know which per-son, in which corner of the street,is lurking with a bad intention. Younever know whom you willencounter. So, one has to be alwaysready and prepared and that is thetruth of life. The film seeks to findsome answers.”

������������������ ���������������Prodigal daughter Tumi tries to make things right after

completely ruining what should have been her sister’spicture-perfect Christmas wedding. The first season of thecomedy-drama releases on December 16 on Netflix.

��������� ��������������As humans turn into savage monsters and wreak

terror, one troubled teen and his apartment neighboursfight to survive — and to hold on to their humanity.Starring Song Kang, Lee Jin-uk and Lee Si-young theseries releases on December 18 on Netflix.

�������������������� �������Get inspired as musicians dig deep into the creative

process of songwriting and reveal their intimate thoughtsin a series based on the hit podcast. Starring HrishikeshHirway, the series releases on December 15 on Netflix.

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The world is surrounded by many problems, butwe all do not have a common understanding of

why it is so. Why is the world full of problems?Unless we know the underlying causes, we cannothave the right solutions and for that we need to studyand observe individuals as well as institutions andtheir aims and methods of achieving those aims andthen find out what is the basic flaw in them that ulti-mately takes the world to a situation where it findsitself struggling for human rights, rule of law, peaceand happines. We all know that the first fundamen-tal truth about all living beings is that they have thenatural will and the aspiration to live a peaceful andhappy life unless and until life becomes an unbear-able burden. Similary,all institutions are also formedto work for certain laudable, useful, meaningful ornecessary aims and goals. And for that they organ-ise and administer themselves for achieving thoseaims which form the basis for like-minded peopleto form an association or institution. An objectivestudy of this situation would lead us to the conclu-sion that the aims andobjects of an institution orthe goal and desires of anindividual generally gives ita vested interest and makesit slightly or greatly selfish.Not only do these aims andobjects give the individualsand institutions the neces-sary focus and the emotiveforce but these also, bytheir very nature, give thema narrow or sectional out-look. Hence, their first andforemost object and effort always is to achieve theirgoals, for which each one, manipulates human andmaterial resources first to its own advantage what-ever be the effects of these on others. Now this inter-est or self-interest or institutional interest is, by itsvery nature narrow as it does not encompass thewhole globe. This, therefore, segregates the individ-ual or the institution from others to the extent it isnarrow. However noble and laudable be it's aims,these relate to particular class, group, country, com-munity,etc and hence these cannot be consideredas holistic (wholistic) in their nature, for these havetheir own confines or boundaries. So, when each onetries to exert itself to realise its own aims or ambi-tions which are only sectional or which relate to asegment only, there arises the possibility of strug-gle among themselves, for each one tries to havehuman resources, funds, facilities, etc., for fulfillmentof its own goals first. It is this struggle that causespressures and problems and leads to predicamentto which it has led. Thus, self-interest, narrow-mind-edness, exclusiveness, monopolistic tendencies,expansionist attitude and, in the process, margin-alisation of others, etc., have been manifestly themain causes of pressures, problems and the presentpredicament that the world faces today.

So, considering the very nature of the things asthey are, only such an institution or individuals canbring about harmony, unity, wellbeing of all and uni-versal goodness that is an instrument ofSupreme,because only HE alone is the one who isabsolutely above narrow or group interests, who actsonly on merits and not on any other considerations,who is impartial and who loves all as HIS belovedchildren. We must realize that human beings, bynature, have social, cultural, political and other lim-itations and cannot rise above all these. Only bybeing associated with Supreme Almighty, they canimbibe his qualities and work for the welfare of all.

If we go deeper within, our analysis would revealthat the root cause of all these sufferings is identi-ty crisis. YES! it’s a truth that man does not knowhimself, nor does he correctly know his place in thecosmic scheme. As a result of this, he does not knowhis correct relationship with Almighty and otherhuman beings. This, in turn, leads to lack of moralor spiritual values and it is that which has ultimate-ly led to the break-down of all the systems. Weshould understand that nothing can work unlessman has cordial relationship with his fellow beingsbased on some values which determine his rightsand duties.

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Power demand can beenhanced through energy

efficient appliances, according toa report by Smart Power India(SPI), a subsidiary of TheRockefeller Foundation.

The survey titled DemandGeneration Manual for SolarMini-grid noted that meeting theneeds of energy-efficient appli-ances contributes up to 40 to 45per cent of the total demand forelectricity of the mini-grid. Theintroduction of energy-efficient

appliances (EEAs) createsnumerous additional benefits forboth the consumers as well theESCOs.

The mini-grid sector hasplayed a critical role in provid-ing access to reliable electricityin rural India. Reliability ofelectricity not only enhances thelighting and productive usesbut only spurs micro-enterpriseactivities in the villages, said thereport.

The energy service compa-

nies (ESCOs) running mini-grids need to focus on meetingrural India’s existing powerdemand along with buildingadditional demand for power bysupporting the development of

local micro-enterprises toensure financial viability andeconomic growth, it added.

Jaideep Mukherji, CEO,Smart Power India said, “Indiahas made phenomenal strides in

achieving universal electrifica-tion. It is indeed a welcomedevelopment that due to thegovernment’s persistent efforts,all villages in India have beenelectrified and today, almost

100 per cent households havereceived electricity connections.”

He noted as the governmenthas achieved this feat, it is timeto shift attention to the nextelectrification challenge of pro-viding reliable electricity supplynot just for lighting purposes butalso for productive use.

As per the report, targetinga high demand area is critical forgenerating adequate demand. Arobust site selection frameworkshould be able to estimate thepotential demand of the villageas well as provide inputs to thedemand generation strategy.

“The critical factor for thesuccess of any solar mini-grid isits reliability in meeting con-sumer demand cost-effectively.At the core of the framework isthe generation of electricitydemand to ensure that the mini-grid is sustainable, scalable, andattractive for an ESCO,” it said.

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Kohiti Bai, a resident of Dhanelivillage in the Naxal-affectedKanker district of Chhattisgarh,

was at the mercy of quacks for hertreatment of an unknown ailment. Itwas during a random health check-upat the haat bazar (local market) Clinicat Tarandul, where she was diagnosedwith high sugar levels. Hailing from apahunch vaheen (inaccessible due toNaxal activism) village, the formersarpanch Kohiti was initially reluctantand insisted on continuing hertreatment with a local quack.

“After a lot of persuasion andmotivation by the haat bazar Clinicstaff, she agreed for the treatment,” saidNavin Pandey, Rural Medical Assistant,who is also in charge of the Hatkarrasector in Bhanupratappur area of thedistrict. Kohiti’s diabetes is now undercontrol. Seeing a vast improvement inher sugar levels, Kohiti has now startedvisiting the check-up centre regularlyto get medicines for her treatment orsometimes, she also pays a visit at thebazar Clinic, as per her convenienceand medical requirements. Moreimportantly, using her influence as ex-sarpanch, she has been able to motivateothers to come to the Primary HealthCentre (PHC) and the bazar Clinic.

Following that, a fall in thevillagers’ dependency on the quackshas been observed. “Seeing theimprovement in my health, villagerswere curious to know about thetreatment I had been taking. I toldthem about the clinic and theconvenience it offers. Having been asarpanch earlier, I was able to convincethem to consult the doctors at the PHCfor check-ups and treatment forunknown ailments,” said Kohiti.

Not just quacks, owing tounawareness and high rate of illiteracy,many people depend on the so-calledmendicants or faqirs, who claim totreat people with occultism or otherpowers they claim to possess. Beingdominated by tribal population, theseremote areas with difficult topographylack presence of health facilities.Hopeless, they turn to such quacks fortreatment. It is mainly to cater to thehealth issues of people residing innondescript villages that theMukhyamantri Haat Bazar ClinicYojana was launched in October 2019.

As part of the scheme, mobilehealthcare vans have been deputed atweekly Haat bazars. Medical teams andmedicines to these weekly markets areprovided. These clinics also facilitateOPD consultations. From blood testfor several ailments like diabetes,malaria, anaemia, these clinics alsohelp monitor blood pressure, conducteye check-up, pregnancy tests andother health-related tests.Immunisation facilities are alsoprovided free of cost.

One of the major benefits of thesemarket clinics is that many a times,ailments and diseases can be detected

at the initial stages, which allows fortimely treatment avoiding alarming orsevere situations.

It was during a random healthcheck-up at the clinic at Koda village inKhadganva block of Koriya district,when Dr Tejkant Sonkar, sector in-charge, PHC, Salka, suspected a man ofhaving leprosy. He was asked to get histest done at the PHC which confirmedthe doctor’s fears. The man is nowavailing treatment at the PHC. Theearly detection of the disease and thestart of the treatment means that theman will be cured of this disease that istagged with social stigma.

Dr Sonkar shared that among themany challenges they face, convincingthe tribal villagers to take treatment isthe most difficult task. Theunawareness deeply rooted in theirbelief system has created a gap betweenthem and the government trying totackle the misconception. People inseveral villages still prefer to consultquacks.

“One has to adopt different ways ofpersuasion, coaxing and sometimeswarning of the dire consequences ofnot taking the right treatment. Thishelps pushing the villagers to go for

further health check-ups at the PHCsand continue with the prescribedtreatment,” explained Dr Sonkar.

It is easier to do the tests at theclinic, where villagers come to buy orsell their goods. The issue ofaccessibility and availability isaddressed through these haatsas theyform an important part of rural life.Here, many villagers agree for randomcheck-ups. As per Dr Tejkant, many ofthe villagers suffer from high bloodpressure. While some agree fortreatment at the PHCs, many of themjust don’t bother. It is only when thesituation grows serious and the quacksare unable to handle that they come tothe PHCs.

Dr Gyanendra Kushawaha,Ayurveda Chikitsa Adhikari,Khadgawan sector, Majhhauli HaatBazaar agrees with Dr Tejkant. “Due toavailability of Mahua - a prominentforest tree in tribal areas, the villagersdrink the local beer made from itsflowers and believe that this is the cureof all diseases,” explained DrKushawaha pointing towards the levelof misconceptions these villagers have.

Many deaths have been reported inthe past due to snake bites as even in

such serious scenario, tribal villagersprefer going to the quacks than visitinga doctor. The field workers face adifficult time trying to spreadawareness among the people.

“The ongoing Covid-19 pandemichas acted as a further deterrent as thenumber of the people in these villagescoming to the PHCs has reducedfurther because of misconceptions anddoubts about the pandemic despite thespread of awareness,” said DrKushawaha.

When the Haat Bazaar Clinicswere re-organized after the nationwidelockdown due to the pandemic, theywere used as a platform to createawareness among villagers. Rapidantigen test for Covid-19 was also doneon 12 people and all of them werefound to be negative.

Over 1200 Haat Bazaar Clinicswere organized across all the districtsof the state and nearly one lakh tenthousand peoplebenefitted from thesehealth clinics from July tillNovemberduring the current financialyear. Nearly 97000 patients were givenmedicines for various ailments as perthe details provided by Dr KamleshJain, state nodal officer of the

HaatBazar Clinic scheme.As per Dr Jain, rural and tribal

area mobile clinics should be mergedwith the Haat Bazaar scheme forsynergic impact. “Besides continuedmonitoring of the implementation ofthe scheme, adequate and dedicatedhuman resources and improvedmobility will enhance the quality andassurance of this scheme,” advised DrJain. He also feels that the scheme willwin the trust of the people if referralsfrom Haat BazarClinics get priority atthe higher health facility centres.

The concept of Haat Bazar Clinicis ideal for villagers as most ruralpeople flock together for treatment atthese clinics where healthcareworkers, besides treatment, provideconsultation, medicines, follow-upcourse and pathological facilities. Theonly thing required at the moment isto make this scheme more effective bylistening to the voices of the expertsworking with the villagers.

This will address the urgent needof improving the health care servicesaccessible and available for theremote, rural population of thecountry.

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Real Madrid reignited their LaLiga title push on Saturday

beating leaders Atletico 2-0 astheir city rivals suffered a firstleague defeat of the season.

Real, who salvaged theirChampions League campaign inmidweek by making the last 16,moved to third in the table, threepoints behind Atletico.

It was a disappointing nightfor Diego Simeone’s side who hadboasted a 26-match unbeaten runin the league, stretching back toFebruary.

That was a run which consist-ed of 17 wins and nine draws. Realhad been the last team to beatAtletico in the league.

“We confirmed theimprovement we showed inmany areas against Sevillaand Borussia, and gaveanother good display,” saidReal coach Zinedine Zidane,reflecting on his side’s winsin the past week which havehelped turn around the season.

His team were in front after 15minutes when Casemiro headedhome a corner from Toni Kroos.That was reward for Real’s earlypressure which had seen KarimBenzema denied by a fine savefrom Jan Oblak moments earlier.

Atletico, who also made theChampions League knockout

round in midweek, strug-gled to make any impressionand star striker Luis Suarezwas an anonymous figure upfront.

Real went 2-0 up after 63minutes with Kroos again

the provider. His pass eventuallyfel l for Dani Car vajal whounleashed a 30-metre drive whichhit the post but was diverted intothe net by the helpless Oblak.

The ‘keeper was credited withan own-goal for his troubles. It wasonly the fourth goal conceded bythe usually water-tight Atleticodefence in 11 league games thisseason.

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Pakistan sustained a major injury blow ahead of nextweek’s three-match T20 series against New Zealand

when its captain Babar Azam was ruled out becauseof a fractured thumb.

Azam sustained the injury on his right thumb atQueenstown on Sunday during team’s practice session.

The Pakistan Cricket Board said in a statement thatAzam will not be able to attend net sessions for at least12 days after scans confirmed the fracture.

“During this period, the doctors will continue tomonitor Babar’s injury before confirming his partici-pation in the first Test,” the PCB said.

The T20 series begins at Auckland on Dec 18, fol-lowed by matches at Hamilton (Dec 20) and Napier(Dec 22). The first Test begins on December 26.

“I have spoken with Babar and he is sad to missthe T20 series,” Pakistan head coach Misbah-ul-Haqsaid. “We have a long season of cricket ahead and wenow hope that he regains complete fitness as early aspossible so that he can return tocompetitive cricket.”

It’s a second injury blowto the Pakistan team afteropening batsman Imam-ul-Haq fractured his leftthumb, also in a practice ses-sion, on Thursday.

All-rounder ShadabKhan will lead Pakistan inthe T20 series in theabsence of Azam, pro-vided he recoversfrom groin injury sus-tained on Sunday.

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West Indies captain Jason Holder heldoff a venomous New Zealand attack

as the tourists survived to be 244/6 at stumpson Sunday on day three of the second Testin Wellington. They require a further 85 runswith four wickets remaining to make NewZealand bat again and avoid a secondinnings defeat.

Against a four-pronged pace attack,rated by the West Indies as “one of the best”in the world and who continued to getbounce and movement off the pitch, thetourists lost seven wickets in the first twosessions but only one after tea as Holderlaunched into the bowling. He was not out60, with eight fours and two sixes, when badlight ended play an hour early.

Joshua da Silva, in his debut Test, wasnot out 25 with the pair adding an unbeat-en 74 for the seventh wicket.

West Indies opener John Campbell ekedout 68 runs in the second innings but saidit was hard going in New Zealand conditionswhere the ball does a lot.

“It’s difficult. It’s one of the best bowl-ing attacks in the world right now in Testcricket and in their own conditions,” he said.“When they bowl they put us undertremendous pressure.”

New Zealand needed less than five overs

at the start of the day to take the remainingtwo wickets and end the West Indies firstinnings at 131.

Tim Southee mopped up the tail to fin-ish with 5/32 to go with the 5/34 by KyleJamieson, who was not required to bowl onthe third morning.

Faced with a 329-run deficit, the WestIndies second innings was already waver-ing at 73/2 by lunch with Trent Boultaccounting for Kraigg Brathwaite (24) andDarren Bravo (4).

Campbell and Shamarh Brooks put on89 for the third wicket but just as they lookedcomfortable the West Indies lost their waylosing three wickets for three runs.

Neil Wagner accounted for Brooks(36) and Kyle Jamieson removed RostonChase for this second duck of the match andbowled Campbell for 68 and the West Indieswent to tea at 158/5.

But the only wicket to fall in the finalsession was that of Jermaine Blackwood,bowled by Boult for 20 before the stubbornresistance of Holder and da Silva ensuredthe Test went into a fourth day.

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Manchester United andManchester City did their

Premier League title ambitionslittle favours in a drab 0-0 drawat Old Trafford as Chelsea’schallenge also suffered a setbackin a 1-0 defeat at Everton onSaturday.

The pressure on Unitedmanager Ole Gunnar Solskjaerwas ramped up after his sidecrashed out of the ChampionsLeague with a midweek defeatat RB Leipzig.

The beleaguered boss des-perately needed an upliftingresult in the derby to win backsome support, but there was lit-tle for either side of theManchester divide to get excit-ed about as both teams failed tofire.

United have won just one oftheir last four games in allcompetitions and have onlyone win at Old Trafford in sixPremier League games thisterm.

However, Solskjaer defend-ed his side’s performance as

they restricted City to justone big chance when Davidde Gea saved from RiyadMahrez midway throughthe first-half.

“In my time against

Manchester City that’s thebest performance we havehad. Not the best result butthe best performance,”Solskjaer said.

A draw leaves Unitedstill one point above City but theRed Devils are now eighth withPep Guardiola’s men ninth.

“The important thing is wedidn’t concede,” said Guardiolaafter his side kept a club recordsixth consecutive clean sheet.

United were awarded apenalty two minutes into thesecond half when Kyle Walkerkicked Marcus Rashford, onlyfor the decision to be overruledby VAR as the forward hadstrayed offside in the build-up.

���������������A penalty was the dif-

ference between the sidesat Goodison Park asEverton fed off the atmop-shere created by 2,000 fans

for the first time since Marchto arrest their slide.

Ancelotti’s men had wonjust once in their previousseven games after a flyingstart to the campaign hadtaken them top of the table inearly October.

The only goal came on 22minutes when DominicCalvert-Lewin was wiped outby a rash challenge fromChelsea goalkeeper EdouardMendy and Gylfi Sigurdsson

coolly slotted away the spot-kick.

Chelsea hit the post twicethrough Reece James andMason Mount from shots out-side the box, but were limitedwithout the creative spark ofthe injured Hakim Ziyech andChristian Pulisic.

A first defeat in 18 games,excluding penalty shootouts,leaves Frank Lampard’s menstill two points adrift ofTottenham and Liverpool whocan extend that advantage tofive points with win onSunday.

Victory lifts Everton up toseventh and back to within onepoint of the top four.

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Australian team will be bolstered by the return ofMitchell Starc for the first Test against India as

the senior speedster has been phenomenal in pinkball games, said his pace bowling partner JoshHazlewood.

The left-arm pacer, who has the top bowling fig-ures in the pink ball with 42 wickets at an averageof 19.23 in from seven D/N Tests, will rejoin the squadhere on Monday after his ‘compassionate leave’ dueto family illness.

“He’s obviously a huge part of our team and attack.Everyone knows his numbers with the pink ball. Wewelcome him with open arms,” Hazlewood said dur-ing a virtual news conference on Sunday.

Starc was withdrawn after the first T20I last weekafter learning of a family illness, but Cricket Australiaon Sunday has announced that the Aussie pacer wasready to return.

“I think he would be fine. Nothing goes to plan.He is a professional player and would have been doingeverything he could have over the last week. He willbe ready to go and jump straight in,” Hazloood saidwhen asked if a two-day preparation is enough.

With vice-captain Pat Cummins, Hazlewood,Starc and spinner Nathan Lyon, the Aussies wouldhave full strength, even as their batting faces somequestion marks with injury woes to opening duo ofDavid Warner (groin) and young gun Will Pucovksi(concussion).

All-rounder Cameron Green, who bats in themiddle-order, too faces injury concerns after suffer-ing concussion from a Jasprit Bumrah hit duringAustralia A’s tour match in Sydney last week.

Asked about the disruptive preparation, he said:“It’s been an unusual one. Pretty much every guy was

playing soon after the IPL andwe struggled in the limitedovers cricket.

“It’s been a little bit dif-ferent but every International

cricketer is sort of ready. Wehad a few days out in the mid-dle of Adelaide Oval and stillhave some sessions to gobefore the game. We will be all

ready to goand it’s

been ag o o dprep so

far.”

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The Indian cricket team will headinto the first day-night Testagainst Australia with a lot of opti-

mism and happy selection dilemmas,having managed to tick most of theboxes before drawing the three-daypink-ball dress rehearsal againstAustralia A here at Sydney CricketGround on Sunday.

Australia A gave a better account ofthemselves on an eased out third daytrack, despite being reduced to 25 for3, ending on 305 for 4 riding on BenMcDermott and Jack Wildermuth’scenturies. Both the batsmen survived abarrage of bouncers under lights fromIndian pacers.

The talented McDermott (107 off167 balls), younger son of CraigMcDermott who was India’s tormentorduring the forgettable 91-92 series,along with his skipper Alex Carey (58,111 balls) added 117 runs in a counter-attacking fourth wicket partnership topartially save the game.

Rookie Wildermuth (111 off 119balls) also got his ton and added 165runs with McDermott but Virat Kohliand Ravi Shastri, watching the proceed-ings from the dug-out, will be happywith multiple options that emergedfrom the game.

In the first hour itself, the probablefirst Test opening pair of Joe Burns (1)and Marcus Harris (5) was sent back byMohammed Shami (2/58 in 13 overs).

While out-of-form Burns shuffledacross to a straight delivery and wascaught plumb in front, Harris was setup nicely with a leg-slip and his flicklanded into Prithvi Shaw’s hands sta-tioned for that particular shot.

The lack of runs from the two open-ers will certainly increase the Australianteam’s worries.

Shubman Gill’s composure andtechnique opening the innings would-n’t have gone unnoticed compared toShaw’s loose batting during his twoknocks in the game.

There is a lot of time at Gill’s dis-posal and the upright stance with anability to get his body behind the lineof the ball like any top internationalbatsman does, gives his team a lot ofhope going into the series.

Similarly, Hanuma Vihari stronglykept himself in the hunt with a hundredthat again reflected his patient approach.With his handy off-breaks, one suchdelivery got rid of Carey, he can be agood option for the sixth specialist bats-

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The BCCI will start its much-delayed domestic season with the

Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy fromJanuary 10 to 31 in six different stateswhere bio-secure hubs will be cre-ated.

The participating teams will beexpected to report to their respec-tive hubs on January 2.

It is learnt that BCCI secretaryJay Shah has e-mailed all the stateunits that Mushtaq Ali will kick-startthe domestic itinerary althoughthere is no clarity as to when theRanji Trophy will start.

“After having gone through yourresponses and in accordance withthe feedback received, I am pleasedto inform you that BCCI is planningto start the domestic season 2020-21with the scheduling of the T20

tournament for the Syed MushtaqAli Trophy,” Shah wrote to stateunits.

“By Saturday, January 2, 2021,teams will have to assemble in theirrespective hub. From Sunday,January 10, 2021, tournament willstart and the final will be played onJanuary 31, 2021.”

Shah, however, said that a deci-sion on Ranji Trophy and the VijayHazare Trophy will be taken once thegroup stage of the Mushtaq Ali getsover. Feedback from members willbe factored in.

It is understood that MushtaqAli is being held because the BCCIwants to have a mega players’ auc-tion in early February ahead of thenext IPL which may have nine or 10teams.

As far as one more tournamentis concerned, it could well be theVijay Hazare Trophy instead of theRanji Trophy as it can be organ-ised in a shorter span of timelike Mushtaq Ali Trophy.

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Backing his case, KuldeepYadav reckons it may not

be a bad idea to play him in theseries-opening day-night Testagainst Australia, as batsmenoften find spinners “difficult toread” under lights.

Kuldeep, who representsKolkata Knight Riders in theIPL, will be in reckoning forthe day-night match startingDecember 17 at the AdelaideOval.

“I feel it’s difficult to readspinners at night, because if aspinner uses variations it’s notalways easy to spot the seamposition of the ball. That canbe an advantage for us,” he toldKKR.in.

It will be India’s first day-night Test overseas, havingplayed their maiden one inKolkata in 2019.

“I have never experienceda pink ball match outsideIndia. So, it will be exciting tosee how it goes.”

He added, “It’ll be unfairto say spinners haven’t domi-nated in Australian condi-tions, there have been manyinstances when spinners havedone well Down Under. Itcompletely depends on howquickly you adapt to, and readthe conditions.

“A lot of us, having playedso much T20 cricket of late,

will have to be patient whenplaying Test cricket. Mentaltoughness is very important.

“When switching to thelonger format, you sometimestend to try too many thingstoo quickly. Wickets don’tcome easy in Test cricket, sopatience is the key.”

Kuldeep also slammedsuggestions that India’s first-ever Test series win inAustralia during their last tourwas made easy by the absenceof Steve Smith and DavidWarner.

“You need to win Testmatches to win a series. Wewon two of them, and couldhave won the fourth one toohad there been no rain. Thecriticism holds no merit.Whenever you are playingagainst a team, your ownteam’s performance mattersthe most.

“So instead of looking atthe other team — who theyhave in their squad, and whothey don’t — it makes moresense to talk about your ownteam.”

Kuldeep has so far playedsix Test matches, including twoagainst Australia. Providedthe fast bowlers strike form,India can win again, he said.

“We did well, and hencewe won the Test series. If ourfast bowling works well and weperform as prolifically with thebat as we did the last time, wewill win this time too.

“Yes, their team has nowimproved with the return ofthe experienced DavidWarner, Steve Smith and thelikes of Marnus(Labuschagne), who has real-ly done well for them in recenttimes.

“But last time too, theirteam was good but we playedsome really, really good crick-et to win. Looking forward tothe challenge once again, it’sgoing to be a great contest.”

man’s spot in the side.But then there is an extremely stylish KL Rahul,

who has been sweating it out at the nets under thewatchful eyes of his skipper.

Rahul gives multiple options both as an open-er and a middle-order batsman.

The fact that he has experience of 36 Test match-es won’t be lost on the decision-makers when theysit back and pick the playing XI for the Adelaideopener.

If the day/night warm-up game is any indica-tor, then Rishabh Pant, after his 73-ball hundred,is the primary contender for donning the big gloves.

The selection will be purely on Pant’s ability toturn the game around in a session with his batting,which unfortunately his senior and more accom-plished keeper Wriddhiman Saha is not really capa-ble of.

As far as bowling is concerned, Jasprit Bumrah,Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav andRavichandran Ashwin look all set to start the Testmatch.

While Umesh and Ashwin were not played inthe second warm-up game. It was more about check-ing the other pacers and letting Bumrah and Shamiadd miles to their legs.

On the third day, both bowled 13 overs eachrespectively and rightly conserved their energies forthe big battle allowing back-up pacers Navdeep Saini(0/87 in 16 overs) and Mohammed Siraj (1/54 in 17overs) bowl longer spells without much success.

McDermott looked a stylish player with someattractive drives on the off-side and Wildermuthunder lights negotiated the short ball well enough,picking up a few runs in the process.

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The reticent Hanuma Vihari has slow-ly but surely cemented his place in the

Indian Test team and is confident of con-tributing to the team’s cause, saying he iswell-equipped to execute plans in the tra-ditional format.

Vihari scored a hundred and also gota wicket with his part-time off-breaksagainst Australia A in the pink ball warm-up game. He looks set to bat at numbersix in the first Day/Night Test at Adelaide.

“In 2018, it was my second overseastour (after England) and it was a goodchallenge for me back then. Although Icontributed a little (back then), I feel I ammore well equipped with my game andpretty sure with my gameplan as well andlooking forward to the Test series,” Viharisaid after the end of the warm-up tie.

While he will be batting at numbersix in the Test match, during the warm-

up game, he did get a chance to bat atnumber 4 and 5 along with seasoned proslike Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane

“At number four, I always feel youhave more time than you think. Indomestic cricket, I have always battednumber three, so I am a bit familiar bat-ting up the order,” he said.

“Obviously, batting with Pooji(Pujara’s nickname) is completely differ-ent. We always have a good communica-tion and he tells me what the bowler istrying to do,” he observed.

His assessment of Rahane is that theMumbaikar is more flamboyant and hasa good grip on game situations. “Battingwith Ajinkya, he is more flamboyant andhe has also got a good sense of game sit-uation “....But coming to bat at numbersix is a total different game situation. Youhave to bat with the keeper or an all-rounder or the bowlers. I enjoy battingat both position and it’s about what the

team needs,” he said.Having been in Australia for a month

along with two first-class matches undertheir belt, Vihari said the players are nowwell-prepared to tackle the pace andbounce of Australian tracks. “First twogames, if you see we are leaving the ballvery well and trying to acclimatise to con-ditions here. Going into the first Test, weare very well equipped with pace andbounce of the wicket,” Vihari said.

Asked about skipper Virat Kohli,Pujara and Ravichandran Ashwin, Viharisaid the veterans are sweating it out in thenets and are ready to come out all gunsblazing on Thursday.

“They have been practising everydayin the nets and have been putting in thehardwork. We have played a Pink Testbefore this as well so they are used it andare practising every day. Being profession-als they are the will be very well-equipped.”

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