17
A week after North-east Delhi’s deadly communal violence, the situation in riot- hit areas was peaceful but tense on Sunday as four more bodies were fished out from drains in Gokalpuri and Shiv Vihar and heavy police deployment continued. However, it is yet to be ascer- tained if they are linked to the riots and authorities have not updated the death toll figure. The heavy presence of police in the riot-hit areas has helped in bolstering the confi- dence of residents and more people and vehicles were seen on main roads on Sunday. In parts of North-east Delhi, people complained of cash crunch as several bank branches and ATMs have remained closed in the after- math of the riots. Delhi Police officials said they have registered 254 FIRs including 41 cases pertaining to Arms Act and have arrested 903 people till now. The police said they did not receive any PCR calls of rioting in the last four days. The two Special Investigation Teams (SITs) of the Crime Branch have fast tracked the probe and more people could be arrested, said sources. “Autopsy on bodies of 32 of 38 bodies has been performed and bodies have been handed over to the family members. Three of the six bodies still remain unidentified,” a senior police official said. Till Saturday, at least 42 people had lost their lives and more than 200 people have sus- tained serious injuries. Moreover, properties worth crores of rupees have been damaged in the communal violence. While 38 deaths were reported at the GTB Hospital, three were reported at Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Hospital. At the GTB Hospital, 28 victims were brought dead while 10 died during treatment. The GTB Hospital offi- cials said it has admitted 271 injured patients since February 24, of which many were criti- cal. “At present, only 40 victims remain at the hospital. Only 32 victims with minor injuries were brought to the hospital in the last 24 hours. Out of the 32 injured people that were admit- ted at the GTB hospital, 31 peo- ple have been discharged while one injured person is being treated,”, an official of the hos- pital said. Meanwhile, acting Delhi Police Commissioner SN Shrivastava visited DCP Amit Sharma, undergoing treatment at a hospital in Patparganj after suffering serious injuries dur- ing the violence in Gokulpuri on February 24. Also, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) deputed a fact-finding team to investigate the cases of violence. In a statement, the NHRC said it had asked its Director General (Investigation) to depute its fact-finding team for on-spot enquiries into vio- lation of human rights during the violence. Soon after taking charge on Saturday, acting Delhi Police chief SN Shrivastava said his priority is to restore peace and ensure communal harmony in the national Capital, which earlier this week witnessed its worst riots in three decades. Shrivastava was given the addi- tional charge of Delhi Police Commissioner with effect from Sunday, following Amulya Patnaik’s retirement. Police have also started a massive outreach programme and senior officers have been meeting and speaking with people from every communi- ty in order to build confidence among them. Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar visited some of the riots-hit areas, including Brahmapuri, and consoled the people disturbed by the worst violence in three decades in Delhi. The situation in Shiv Vihar, among the worst hit areas, is yet to improve. Even days after the violence, the lanes in the area were deserted and almost all the houses locked. In Mustafabad, people were wary of stepping out of their homes in narrow bylanes. H undreds of saffron-clad BJP workers raised “goli maaro…” slogans as they marched down close to the venue of a massive rally where Home Minister Amit Shah insisted that “come what may” Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) will not be taken back. Scores of workers marched down the streets towards Saheed Minar, the venue of the rally, repeatedly shouting “desh ke gaddaron ko … goli maaro …” (shoot country’s traitors dead)” even as a helpless police force stood a mute spectator in absence of appropriate orders. On his arrival at the airport on Sunday, Shah faced protest by the Opposition parties whose cadres greeted him with “go back” slogans. Hundreds of protesters of the Left Front and Congress, holding black flags and anti-CAA posters, demon- strated outside gate number 1 of the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport. Addressing a well-attend- ed BJP rally, Shah attacked Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for misleading the people on the controversial Act. “It is a law to provide cit- izenship and not to take it away from any citizen. Mamata Didi is misleading the Muslim brothers and sisters that their citizenship will be taken away if this Act is implemented,” said Shah. Linking violent anti- CAA protests in Bengal and the Delhi riots that claimed 42 lives, Shah accused the Chief Minister for letting her State to burn for several days in the wake of the enactment of the CAA. He said from today our workers will take part in “aar noy annyay” drive which will be a door-to-door outreach campaign to tell the people about our strong resolve that Bengal’s days of woes are com- ing to an end. Accusing the Chief Minister of “patronising” rioters who torched trains to oppose the controversial law in December last year, he said the Chief Minister instigated the violence and added “in spite of all her opposition the CAA cannot be stopped. It will not be taken back.” Playing to the refugee gallery, Shah said lakhs of Hindus, particularly those from the Matua (SC) community who had to leave Bangladesh in the face of persecution will now get Indian citizenship. “Mamata Didi is trying to stall the effort of the Central Government to provide citi- zenship to the Matuas. I n an ambitious project aimed at boosting self reliance in defence manufacturing, the public sector aerospace major Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) has worked out a detailed proposal to produce attack helicopter in the 10-12 tonne category by 2027, five years ahead of the Indian Air Force’s planned phase out of the bulk of the helicopter fleet comprising the Mi-17 by 2032. The proposed copters when realised will be compa- rable to medium-lift military choppers like the Apache of the Boeing. Chairman and Managing Director of HAL R Madhavan said the aim of the mega pro- ject is to stop import of military helicopters, worth over 4 lakh crore, for the three services in the coming years. This is the biggest project undertaken by the HAL after development of the Tejas mil- itary aircraft and the move is in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision to min- imise dependence on import of military hardware. In an interview to news agency PTI, Madhavan said the HAL has completed the pre- liminary design of the heli- copter and that initial plan is to produce at least 500 units with the first prototype set to be ready by 2023 if the Government gives the go ahead to the project this year. “One major project we are focusing on is to produce a helicopter in 10 to 12 tonnes category to replace the Mi-17 fleet. It will be an indigenous platform with the potential to manufacture around 500 heli- copters. It will stop import of more than 4 lakh crore worth of platforms from foreign countries,” he told the agency. A fund of Rs 9,600 crore will be required for formulation of the design and production of the prototype of the helicopter, the HAL chief said. “If we get the approval in 2020, we will be able to man- ufacture the first chopper by 2027. We are looking at pro- ducing at least 500 helicopters of the variant. It will be a major project we are working on,” Madhavan said. T he second half of the Budget session of Parliament is expected to start on stormy note on Monday with the Opposition parties set to raise the issue of riots in Delhi and demand the resig- nation of Union Home Minister Amit Shah for the “failure” to control the law and order in the Capital. The Congress, Trinamool Congress, NCP, CPI(M), CPI leaders told media on Sunday that they will give adjournment notice demanding the debate on the communal violence which resulted in 42 deaths and lapses from police machinery. Reacting to Opposition’s demand, Arjun Ram Meghwal, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs said the Government is always for debates and it should not be used to “play politics.” Congress’ leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said the party will strongly raise the issue of riot- torn Delhi and ask why the vio- lence happened. “The Government has miserably failed to maintain law and order. I think there must be some sort of a nexus between the rioters and a section of police officials which resulted in gruesome killings and arson that has tarnished our image across the globe. This is a mat- ter of serious concern for us,” he said. “We will continue to raise the demand of Shah’s resigna- tion on the floor of the House,” Chowdhury added. Trinamool Congress as well as the CPI and the CPI(M) will also raise the issue in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, and demand answers from the Home Minister. “Left parties will strengthen the voice of the Opposition in Parliament and raise the issue of Delhi violence in both the Houses. I have given a notice under Rule 267 to the Rajya Sabha chairman to discuss the issue in the House,” CPI(M) MP KK Ragesh said. CPI general secretary D Raja said his party will demand that Shah answer for the “inac- tion” of the Delhi Police, which comes under the Ministry of Home Affairs . “The violence in Delhi will be raised in Parliament by our party. We will also reach out to other par- ties on the issue. We will also raise the issue of hate speech- es by BJP leaders and question why they have not been arrest- ed. Also, Shah needs to be held accountable,” he said. T ension prevailed at Rajmahal Square in Bhubaneswar on Sunday dur- ing checking of vehicles as part of implementation of the amended Motor Vehicles Act as a woman created a scene after violating traffic rules. The woman was driving a two-wheeler on the wrong side at Rajmahal Square, for which a police officer seized her vehi- cle and initiated procedure to take it to police station. But the woman opposed the move of the officer saying that necessary signage was not installed on the road. Passersby soon gathered at the spot as the ruckus escalated. But in the end, she had to cough up a fine of Rs 5,000 as the police didn’t flinch from their stand. In Baleswar, there was panic among the com- muters due to different reasons as the enforce- ment drive against rule violators began. Several applicants are yet to get valid documents for some rea- son or other. Hundreds of applicants, who have applied for driving licenses with the RTO, are yet to get their documents. As many as 18,000 applicants were not able to get their licences although they have complied with the required procedures. Not only the learners licences, the RTO failed to issue driving licences and renewal licenses due to the huge rush. Sources said that till February 25, while 30,493 applications were received by the RTO yet till now 10,404 licences have been issued and 726 applicants have failed in the driving test. From Saturday, the joint teams including staffs of the traffic police station and RTOs began checking at different prominent squares. They were seen informing the riders about the regulations and penalty amount in case of flouting of rules. Although enforcement began from the day, yet the infrastructure except man- power for regulating and man- aging traffic is inadequate. The traffic signal lights which are lying defunct for years were not rectified nor the traffic mark- ing are in place, pointed out several residents. Traffic police station OIC Prasant Ransing said, “It is decided that we will be lenient towards the riders and drivers who couldn’t get documents from the offices although applied. The vigil will be fucussed more on the young mass who indulge in rash dri- ving and minor riders.” R egional Transport Office staff on Sunday slapped a penalty of Rs 1.10 lakh on a truck driver for allegedly vio- lating traffic rules under the Motor Vehicles (MV) Act in Rayagada district. As per an official, the truck driver was not having the required road permit and tax. The truck (AP-31-TW-3249) was carrying timbers to the JK Paper Mills from Andhra Pradesh. On Saturday, the State Transport Authority (STA) had asked ths district Collectors, SPs and DCPs (Traffic) to enforce road safety rules across the State from March 1. Transport Commissioner Sanjeeb Panda directed the officials to carry out strict enforcement against dangerous and life threatening road safe- ty violations. The officials were asked to check drunken driving, over speeding, red light jumping, driving against flow of traffic, using mobile phone while dri- ving, dangerous driving, triple riding on two-wheeler, hel- metless driving, not wearing seat belt and overloading. C hief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Sunday appointed senior Biju Janata Dal leader and former Minister Sanjay Dasburma as the Deputy Chairman of the State Planning Board. Dasburma, who was given a Cabinet Minister rank in his new post, said he would ensure the State Planning Board is revamped so that it would work effectively. He would dis- cuss with the Chief Minister about a restructuring of the board. With his new assignment, the speculations that Dasburma, who had unsuc- cessfully contested from his Brahmagiri Assembly con- stituency in the last polls, would be rehabilitated as a Rajya Sabha member have come to an end, say political observers. In another development on the day, BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik named MLAs Byomakesh Ray, Muktikanta Mandal, Sanjib Kumar Mallick and Susant Kumar Rout as party observers for Mayurbhanj district. Byomakesh was given charge of Karanjia and Jashipur while Muktikanta was appoint- ed as observer of Rairangpur and Saraskana constituencies. Sanjib was given the charge for Udala and Badasahi con- stituencies while Susant was made observer for Baripada and Morada. A female member of a vol- untary group has gone on hunger strike for last three days, protesting against a dog’s death due to beating by a per- son and action against the accused. The other members of the voluntary group have also joined her and were firm on their stand demanding justice for the deceased dog. Police haveissued notice to the accused and were further investigating the case. Abani Das, a resident of Koel Nagar, on Thursday night, had seen a dog sleeping inside an auto and thereafter he had dragged that dog outside and beaten the beast severely with a stick following which the dog had died and thereafter he had thrown him inside a drain there. After getting information about this, one Subhashree Nayak, a member of Spark, a voluntarygroup, had reached there and when asked Das why they killed an innocent dog and made a video, son of Das argued with Subashree and tried to attack her. After the incident, Subashree alongwith other team members of Spark had gone to Jhirpani police station to lodge complaint but police laughed and had not received the complaint.On Thursday night, they had lodged com- plaint in Jhirpani police station. When they requested to do post mortem of dog, the post mortem was also not done. Later, when Spark team brought it to the notice of office of People for Animal, a call came from office of Maneka Gandhi and there- after post mortem was done and police also registered a case against Abani and his son under IPC section 428

8 days ago · of the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport. Addressing a well-attend-ed BJP rally, Shah attacked Chief Minister Mamata ... valid documents for some

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������%������ �68��6+79

Aweek after North-eastDelhi’s deadly communal

violence, the situation in riot-hit areas was peaceful buttense on Sunday as four morebodies were fished out fromdrains in Gokalpuri and ShivVihar and heavy policedeployment continued.However, it is yet to be ascer-tained if they are linked to theriots and authorities have notupdated the death toll figure.

The heavy presence ofpolice in the riot-hit areas hashelped in bolstering the confi-dence of residents and morepeople and vehicles were seenon main roads on Sunday.

In parts of North-eastDelhi, people complained ofcash crunch as several bankbranches and ATMs haveremained closed in the after-math of the riots.

Delhi Police officials saidthey have registered 254 FIRsincluding 41 cases pertaining toArms Act and have arrested903 people till now. The policesaid they did not receive anyPCR calls of rioting in the lastfour days. The two SpecialInvestigation Teams (SITs) ofthe Crime Branch have fasttracked the probe and morepeople could be arrested, saidsources.

“Autopsy on bodies of 32 of38 bodies has been performedand bodies have been handedover to the family members.Three of the six bodies stillremain unidentified,” a senior

police official said.Till Saturday, at least 42

people had lost their lives andmore than 200 people have sus-tained serious injuries.Moreover, properties worthcrores of rupees have beendamaged in the communalviolence.

While 38 deaths werereported at the GTB Hospital,three were reported at LokNayak Jai Prakash Hospital. Atthe GTB Hospital, 28 victimswere brought dead while 10died during treatment.

The GTB Hospital offi-cials said it has admitted 271

injured patients since February24, of which many were criti-cal. “At present, only 40 victimsremain at the hospital. Only 32victims with minor injurieswere brought to the hospital inthe last 24 hours. Out of the 32injured people that were admit-ted at the GTB hospital, 31 peo-ple have been discharged whileone injured person is beingtreated,”, an official of the hos-pital said.

Meanwhile, acting DelhiPolice Commissioner SNShrivastava visited DCP AmitSharma, undergoing treatmentat a hospital in Patparganj aftersuffering serious injuries dur-ing the violence in Gokulpurion February 24.

Also, the National HumanRights Commission (NHRC)

deputed a fact-finding team toinvestigate the cases of violence.In a statement, the NHRC saidit had asked its DirectorGeneral (Investigation) todepute its fact-finding teamfor on-spot enquiries into vio-lation of human rights duringthe violence.

Soon after taking charge onSaturday, acting Delhi Policechief SN Shrivastava said hispriority is to restore peace andensure communal harmony inthe national Capital, whichearlier this week witnessed itsworst riots in three decades.Shrivastava was given the addi-tional charge of Delhi PoliceCommissioner with effect fromSunday, following AmulyaPatnaik’s retirement.

Police have also started amassive outreach programmeand senior officers have beenmeeting and speaking withpeople from every communi-ty in order to build confidenceamong them.

Art of Living founder SriSri Ravi Shankar visited someof the riots-hit areas, includingBrahmapuri, and consoled thepeople disturbed by the worstviolence in three decades inDelhi.

The situation in Shiv Vihar,among the worst hit areas, is yetto improve. Even days after theviolence, the lanes in the areawere deserted and almost allthe houses locked. InMustafabad, people were waryof stepping out of their homesin narrow bylanes.

������ ���%���� -4+-.'.

Hundreds of saffron-cladBJP workers raised “goli

maaro…” slogans as theymarched down close to thevenue of a massive rally whereHome Minister Amit Shahinsisted that “come what may”Citizenship Amendment Act(CAA) will not be taken back.

Scores of workers marcheddown the streets towardsSaheed Minar, the venue of therally, repeatedly shouting “deshke gaddaron ko … goli maaro…” (shoot country’s traitorsdead)” even as a helpless policeforce stood a mute spectator inabsence of appropriate orders.

On his arrival at the airporton Sunday, Shah faced protestby the Opposition partieswhose cadres greeted him with“go back” slogans. Hundreds ofprotesters of the Left Front andCongress, holding black flagsand anti-CAA posters, demon-strated outside gate number 1of the Netaji Subhash ChandraBose International Airport.

Addressing a well-attend-ed BJP rally, Shah attackedChief Minister MamataBanerjee for misleading thepeople on the controversial

Act. “It is a law to provide cit-izenship and not to take it awayfrom any citizen. Mamata Didiis misleading the Muslimbrothers and sisters that theircitizenship will be taken awayif this Act is implemented,” saidShah. Linking violent anti-CAA protests in Bengal and theDelhi riots that claimed 42lives, Shah accused the ChiefMinister for letting her State toburn for several days in thewake of the enactment of theCAA.

He said from today ourworkers will take part in “aarnoy annyay” drive which willbe a door-to-door outreachcampaign to tell the peopleabout our strong resolve thatBengal’s days of woes are com-

ing to an end. Accusing theChief Minister of “patronising”rioters who torched trains tooppose the controversial law inDecember last year, he said theChief Minister instigated theviolence and added “in spite ofall her opposition the CAAcannot be stopped. It will notbe taken back.”

Playing to the refugeegallery, Shah said lakhs ofHindus, particularly those fromthe Matua (SC) communitywho had to leave Bangladesh inthe face of persecution will nowget Indian citizenship.

“Mamata Didi is trying tostall the effort of the CentralGovernment to provide citi-zenship to the Matuas.

%� �� �68��6+79

In an ambitious project aimedat boosting self reliance in

defence manufacturing, thepublic sector aerospace majorHindustan Aeronautics Ltd(HAL) has worked out adetailed proposal to produceattack helicopter in the 10-12tonne category by 2027, fiveyears ahead of the Indian AirForce’s planned phase out of thebulk of the helicopter fleetcomprising the Mi-17 by 2032.

The proposed copterswhen realised will be compa-rable to medium-lift militarychoppers like the Apache of theBoeing.

Chairman and ManagingDirector of HAL R Madhavansaid the aim of the mega pro-ject is to stop import of militaryhelicopters, worth over �4 lakhcrore, for the three services inthe coming years.

This is the biggest projectundertaken by the HAL afterdevelopment of the Tejas mil-itary aircraft and the move is inline with Prime MinisterNarendra Modi’s vision to min-imise dependence on import ofmilitary hardware.

In an interview to newsagency PTI, Madhavan said theHAL has completed the pre-liminary design of the heli-

copter and that initial plan is toproduce at least 500 units withthe first prototype set to beready by 2023 if theGovernment gives the go aheadto the project this year.

“One major project we arefocusing on is to produce ahelicopter in 10 to 12 tonnescategory to replace the Mi-17fleet. It will be an indigenousplatform with the potential tomanufacture around 500 heli-copters. It will stop import ofmore than �4 lakh crore worthof platforms from foreigncountries,” he told the agency.

A fund of Rs 9,600 crorewill be required for formulationof the design and production ofthe prototype of the helicopter,the HAL chief said.

“If we get the approval in2020, we will be able to man-ufacture the first chopper by2027. We are looking at pro-ducing at least 500 helicoptersof the variant. It will be a majorproject we are working on,”Madhavan said.

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

%� �� �68��6+79

The second half of theBudget session of

Parliament is expected to starton stormy note on Mondaywith the Opposition parties setto raise the issue of riots inDelhi and demand the resig-nation of Union HomeMinister Amit Shah for the“failure” to control the law andorder in the Capital.

The Congress, TrinamoolCongress, NCP, CPI(M), CPIleaders told media on Sundaythat they will give adjournmentnotice demanding the debateon the communal violencewhich resulted in 42 deaths andlapses from police machinery.

Reacting to Opposition’sdemand, Arjun Ram Meghwal,Minister of State forParliamentary Affairs said theGovernment is always fordebates and it should not beused to “play politics.”

Congress’ leader in LokSabha Adhir RanjanChowdhury said the party willstrongly raise the issue of riot-torn Delhi and ask why the vio-lence happened. “TheGovernment has miserablyfailed to maintain law andorder. I think there must besome sort of a nexus betweenthe rioters and a section ofpolice officials which resultedin gruesome killings and arsonthat has tarnished our imageacross the globe. This is a mat-ter of serious concern for us,”he said.

“We will continue to raisethe demand of Shah’s resigna-tion on the floor of the House,”Chowdhury added.

Trinamool Congress as

well as the CPI and the CPI(M)will also raise the issue in theLok Sabha and Rajya Sabha,and demand answers from theHome Minister. “Left partieswill strengthen the voice of theOpposition in Parliament andraise the issue of Delhi violencein both the Houses. I havegiven a notice under Rule 267to the Rajya Sabha chairman todiscuss the issue in the House,”CPI(M) MP KK Ragesh said.

CPI general secretary DRaja said his party will demandthat Shah answer for the “inac-tion” of the Delhi Police, whichcomes under the Ministry ofHome Affairs . “The violencein Delhi will be raised inParliament by our party. Wewill also reach out to other par-ties on the issue. We will alsoraise the issue of hate speech-es by BJP leaders and questionwhy they have not been arrest-ed. Also, Shah needs to be heldaccountable,” he said.

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Tension prevailed atRajmahal Square in

Bhubaneswar on Sunday dur-ing checking of vehicles aspart of implementation of theamended Motor Vehicles Act asa woman created a scene afterviolating traffic rules.

The woman was driving atwo-wheeler on the wrong sideat Rajmahal Square, for whicha police officer seized her vehi-cle and initiated procedure totake it to police station.

But the woman opposedthe move of the officer sayingthat necessary signage was notinstalled on the road. Passersbysoon gathered at the spot as theruckus escalated. But in theend, she had to cough up a fineof Rs 5,000 as the police didn’tflinch from their stand.

In Baleswar, there was

panic amongthe com-muters dueto differentreasons asthe enforce-ment driveagainst rulev i o l a t o r sb e g a n .S e v e r a lappl icantsare yet to getvalid documents for some rea-son or other.

Hundreds of applicants,who have applied for drivinglicenses with the RTO, are yetto get their documents. Asmany as 18,000 applicants werenot able to get their licencesalthough they have compliedwith the required procedures.

Not only the learnerslicences, the RTO failed toissue driving licences andrenewal licenses due to thehuge rush. Sources said that tillFebruary 25, while 30,493applications were received bythe RTO yet till now 10,404licences have been issued and726 applicants have failed in thedriving test.

From Saturday, the jointteams including staffs of thetraffic police station and RTOsbegan checking at different

prominent squares. They wereseen informing the riders aboutthe regulations and penaltyamount in case of flouting ofrules.

Although enforcementbegan from the day, yet theinfrastructure except man-power for regulating and man-aging traffic is inadequate. Thetraffic signal lights which arelying defunct for years were notrectified nor the traffic mark-ing are in place, pointed outseveral residents.

Traffic police station OICPrasant Ransing said, “It isdecided that we will be lenienttowards the riders and driverswho couldn’t get documentsfrom the offices althoughapplied. The vigil will befucussed more on the youngmass who indulge in rash dri-ving and minor riders.”

%� �� 1.3.5.�.

Regional Transport Officestaff on Sunday slapped a

penalty of Rs 1.10 lakh on atruck driver for allegedly vio-lating traffic rules under theMotor Vehicles (MV) Act inRayagada district.

As per an official, the truckdriver was not having therequired road permit and tax.The truck (AP-31-TW-3249)was carrying timbers to the JKPaper Mills from AndhraPradesh.

On Saturday, the StateTransport Authority (STA) hadasked ths district Collectors,

SPs and DCPs (Traffic) toenforce road safety rules acrossthe State from March 1.

Transport CommissionerSanjeeb Panda directed theofficials to carry out strictenforcement against dangerousand life threatening road safe-ty violations.

The officials were asked tocheck drunken driving, overspeeding, red light jumping,driving against flow of traffic,using mobile phone while dri-ving, dangerous driving, tripleriding on two-wheeler, hel-metless driving, not wearingseat belt and overloading.

%� �� �7#�.�6�8.1

Chief Minister NaveenPatnaik on Sunday

appointed senior Biju JanataDal leader and former MinisterSanjay Dasburma as theDeputy Chairman of the StatePlanning Board.

Dasburma, who was givena Cabinet Minister rank in hisnew post, said he would ensurethe State Planning Board isrevamped so that it wouldwork effectively. He would dis-cuss with the Chief Ministerabout a restructuring of theboard.

With his new assignment,

the speculations thatDasburma, who had unsuc-cessfully contested from hisBrahmagiri Assembly con-stituency in the last polls,would be rehabilitated as aRajya Sabha member havecome to an end, say political

observers.In another development

on the day, BJD supremoNaveen Patnaik named MLAsByomakesh Ray, MuktikantaMandal, Sanjib Kumar Mallickand Susant Kumar Rout asparty observers for Mayurbhanjdistrict.

Byomakesh was givencharge of Karanjia and Jashipurwhile Muktikanta was appoint-ed as observer of Rairangpurand Saraskana constituencies.Sanjib was given the charge forUdala and Badasahi con-stituencies while Susant wasmade observer for Baripadaand Morada.

%� �� 14#1-6+.

Afemale member of a vol-untary group has gone on

hunger strike for last threedays, protesting against a dog’sdeath due to beating by a per-son and action against theaccused.

The other members of thevoluntary group have alsojoined her and were firm ontheir stand demanding justice

for the deceased dog.Police haveissued notice

to the accused and were furtherinvestigating the case.

Abani Das, a resident ofKoel Nagar, on Thursday night,had seen a dog sleeping insidean auto and thereafter he haddragged that dog outside andbeaten the beast severely with astick following which the doghad died and thereafter he hadthrown him inside a drain there.

After getting informationabout this, one SubhashreeNayak, a member of Spark, avoluntarygroup, had reachedthere and when asked Daswhy they killed an innocentdog and made a video, son ofDas argued with Subashreeand tried to attack her.

After the incident,Subashree alongwith otherteam members of Spark hadgone to Jhirpani police stationto lodge complaint but policelaughed and had not receivedthe complaint.On Thursdaynight, they had lodged com-plaint in Jhirpani police station.

When they requested to dopost mortem of dog, the postmortem was also not done.Later, when Spark teambrought it to the notice ofoffice of People for Animal, acall came from office ofManeka Gandhi and there-after post mortem was doneand police also registered a caseagainst Abani and his sonunder IPC section 428

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At a time when Odisha is alreadyviewed as a nutrition champion, the

State has gone a step further to becomethe only one in the country to introducea nutrition budget towards a new andempowered Odisha.

In a clear admission of the impor-tance, the nutrition budget documentstates, “The Government of Odisha isthe first State in India to initiate the con-cept of Nutrition Budgeting in theFinancial Year (FY) 2020-21.”

The budget has made a distinctionbetween Nutrition Specific (directnutrition-centric) and NutritionSensitive (indirect nutrition centric)schemes and intervention, which fol-lows the global nutrition framework.

While there is an increase of morethan Rs 1,000 crore in Nutrition Specificscheme allocation for 2020-21,Nutrition Sensitive schemes have seena jump of more than Rs 10,000 crore.

Associate Director at IPEGlobal,Neha Saigal said Odisha hasestablished itself as a clear leader in mat-ters of nutrition. “We would like to con-gratulate the Government of Odisha on

this amazing initiative. Thetargeted focus on the most vul-nerable communities likescheduled tribes (STs) is also anexemplary step. This will helpthe State in achieving keySustainable DevelopmentGoals (SDGs), such as reduc-tion of hunger and improve-ment in nutrition outcomes,”she said.

The IPE Global is a devel-opment sector organisationwhich helps design innovativeand sustainable solutions forvarious stakeholders, includingGovernments.

The budget also intro-duced several new schemesfor nutrition including thescheme on nutrition gover-nance and a scheme to supplysubsidised rice.

Executive Director, Centre forBudget and Governance Accountability(CBGA)Subrat Das said that it isencouraging to see a State focusing onnutrition governance and trying toprovide every community memberaccess to nutrition services.

“We hope that an allocation of Rs 12crore, even though a small amount, willnot only fix responsibility but alsoensure accountability from all levels ofnutrition workers. It will now be inter-esting to know how the government usesthis money to fix the governance issues

that exist in this space,” he said. In addition to these, Odisha

Government ’s nutrition budget hasincreased the allocation for constructionof Anganwadi Centres (AWCs) by 25times. AWCs are the first point of con-tact for community members whoavail nutrition related Governmentservices and schemes. It has gone upfrom Rs 4.53 crore in 2019-20 to Rs113.29 crore in 2020-21.

Saigal said that the next exercise theGovernment needs to take up imme-diately is to map and identify the areas

that require these AWCs urgently.Integrated Child Development

Services (ICDS) Scheme, the world’slargest scheme to improve the nutri-tional status of women and children inthe country, has also seen a hugeincrease. Allocation for SupplementaryNutrition Programme (SNP) underthe ICDS saw an increase of 25 per centfor the year 2020-21.

Thus, the State set an example forthe whole country by making nutritionrelated matters an important part of thebudget.

%� �� �7#�.�6�8.1

Chief Minister NaveenPatnaik on Sunday

announced formation of a 10-member team for advising theState Government regardingtransformation of the SCBMedical College Hospital inCuttack.

The team comprises teneminent doctors while seven ofthem are Padma awardees andfour are SCB Medical Collegealumni. Ramakant Panda, DeviShetty, K Srinath Reddy, SubratAcharya, Mukut Minz,Digambar Behera, RanjanBadwe, Jagat Narula, GN Raoand Purna Chandra Mohapatraare members of the team.

Director of MedicalEducation & Training, ProfCBK Mohanty is the convenerof the group.

Notably, the Governmenthas announced a package of Rs1,000 crore for developing thehospital into a world-classhealth facility having an inte-grated ultramodern health sys-tem with a total of 3,000 beds.

%� �� �7#�.�6�8.1

Abody of a youth was foundhanging from a tree in

mysterious circumstances neara slum in the Sikharchandi areaof Bhubaneswar on Sunday.

The deceased were identi-fied as Meghanad Dalei. He wasworking as a plumber. Localsspotted the body in the morn-ing and informed the police.

Cops recovered the bodyand sent it for postmortem.Though the reason behind thedeath was yet to be ascer-tained, his family membersalleged that he was murderedover an issue pertaining toborrowing of money.

The Infocity police havestarted investigation into theincident.

%� �� �7#�.�6�8.1

Chief Minister NaveenPatnaik on Sunday

announced Rs 10 lakh as aid forBSF Constable MohammadAnees posted in Maoist-affect-ed Malkangiri district whosehouse was recently set on fireduring communal riots inDelhi.

Patnaik, who spoke to 29-year-old Anees and sympa-thised with him, sanctioned theamount from the ChiefMinister’s Relief Fund. Anees isposted at the Hantalguda camp

in Chitrakonda.Notably, Anees’ house at

Khajuri Khas extension inDelhi was pelted with stonesand burnt down during com-munal violence on February 25.The Border Security Force(BSF) has extended its help inrebuilding the house.

Anees hails from Biharand his family has settled inDelhi four decades ago. He isto get married in May this year.BSF DIG Pushpendra SinghRathore has reportedly assuredhis family of his transfer toDelhi from Odisha soon.

������������� ������#19

An attempt to unify thetwo parallel groups of

the Muktimandap of theJagannath Temple has suf-fered a setback after electionof its president is now sched-uled in April this year.

Though both the groupsof pr iests namelyMuktimandap andMuktimandap Pandit Sabha

(MPS) unanimously resolvedto merge into a single body,the president election of theSabha has caused the trouble.

It had been decided in themeetings of both the bodiesthat the MPS founded in1905 would merge into theMuktimandap to form a sin-gle unit. An attempt wasunderway how to unite thetwo parallel groups for thesake of pilgrims. With acommon objective both bod-ies are operating indepen-dently and enjoying rights inthe temple.

This besides, the ChayanCommittee (empanelmentboard), which was to be con-stituted for selection of newmembers to the Muktimdaphas yet not taken a shape evenafter three years of order. Adecision in the temple admin-

istration was that as part ofreform, a Chayan Committeewould be formed throughwhich the selection of newentrants would take place.Like the servitors, the mem-bers of the Muktimandapwould be given identity cardson behalf of the templeadministration. But that hasnot yet yielded any resultwith most members pointinga finger at the temple officialsfor nexus with dissidentgroup of the Muktimandap.

Reportedly, the selectionprocess would be conductedby Administrator (Nit i)assisted by Officer In-Charge(OIC). However, a file signedby former ChiefAdministrator PradaptaKumar Mohapatra has beenpending at the OIC chamberwithout any movement.

The aspirants to enterMuktimadap complained thatthe dissidents scaring to berejected by the ChayanCommittee are putting trou-ble in selection process.

Notably, a tussle in theMuktimandap is on over theidentity of some sitting mem-bers. Sources said that over 50members possessing a seathere have no whereabouts oftheir ancestries who are liv-ing in the pilgrim city.

As per guidelines of theMuktimandap, a sitting mem-ber must have an ancestralhouse in the villages of Puriand enrol in the traditions ofvillage lords. And they are theones who are opposing theChayan Committee andselection of new entrants,sources to the Muktimandapsaid.

%� �� �7#�.�6�8.1

Adding another feather to itssuccess cap, the SCB

Medical College Hospital con-ducted a ‘first-of-its-kind’ crit-ical surgery by which a four-fingered 15-month-old girlchild got a thumb.

A team of doctors headed

by PlasticS u r g e r yDepartment’sProf BibhutiNayak conduct-ed the surgeryon SmrutiRekha Pradhan,daughter ofS u r e n d r aK u m a rPradhan fromDeogarh dis-t r i c t ’ sChatabara.

Smurti hadfour fingers onthe right hand. Her index fin-ger was shortened and trans-ferred to the thumb throughmicrosurgical technique(Pollicization). The new thumbis behaving well and startedfunctioning one week followingsurgery. The child is recoveringwell. This is the first polliciza-

tion in the State.Prof Nayak, Dr Ashish

Patnaik, Dr Mahesh Mandal,Dr Chandan and Dr Rosalinconducted the surgery. DrSanjeev, Dr Kamal and histeam administered anaesthesia.The team has been lauded bymedical fraternity.

%� �� �7#�.�6�8.1

As many as 68 personsdonated blood at the vol-

untary blood donation camporganised at the VSS NagarDurga Puja Mandap here onthe occasion of the 100th yearcelebration of the Indian RedCross Society. The camp wasorganised by the PoliceCommissionerate Red CrossSociety.

Interestingly, a youth,Sumant Patra, of Baramundaorganised his ring ceremony

after donatingblood at the camp.

Red Crossjoint-secre tar yACP LalitenduMohanty and exec-utive memberDillip Dashsharmaguided the campwhile Swarup Das,Dr Dwarika NathMohanty, MamataPadhee, PrasannaRath andG h a n a s h y a m aMallick providedc o o p e r a t i o n .Among others, for-mer Corporator RashmitaMohanty, VSS NagarDurgapuja Committee presi-dent Artatrana Dalai, vice-president Nimain Das, gener-

al secretary Shital ChandraMohanty, treasurer PratapKumar Nanda, joint-secretaryMaheshwar Bishwal, Er NaliniMohanty, Manoj Sahoo and

Sanjay Swain provided sup-ports. Many such programmeswould be undertaken as part ofthe 100th year celebration ofthe Red Cross, said members.

%� �� �.+6�8.1

The Jaleswar police on Sundayseized 400 grams of brown

sugar from a two-wheeler inSekabada village of Baleswar dis-trict and arrested three personsin this connection.

Acting on specific inputs,the police team searched atwo-wheeler near Sekabadaand seized brown sugar worthRs 40 lakh. Dina, Abhik fromWest Bengal and Sadik Ahmedof Sekabada village were arrest-ed on charges of possessing the

contraband. Also, Rs 17,000 andfour mobile phones were seizedfrom the possession of thethree accused. In another inci-dent, a three-member team ofthe Special Task Force (STF) ofthe Crime Branch searched thehouse of wanted drug peddlerSeikh Samiruddin alias TacklaRaju’s father-in-law in Rajpurvillage on Sunday morning.

During the two-hoursearch at the house, the STFteam also questioned the fam-ily members of the Taklu Raja’sfather-in-law.

%� �� �7#�.�6�8.1

The Odisha Engineers’Service Association

(OESA) organised its 53rdannual general body meetingfor 2020 here on Sunday.

Steel and Mines and WorksMinister Prafulla Mallick andPanchayati Raj and DrinkingWater and Law Minister PratapJena attended as guests. OESApresident Tara Prasad Mishra,general secretary Abinash Roul

and joint secretary-cum-trea-surer Debrabrata Mohantyshared the dais.

President Mishra said theexecutive committee with sup-port of members is trying hardto achieve the goals set by theassociation. The goals includeimplementation of approvedrestructuring arrangement,active district committees, set-tlement of land issues around theassociation premises, completionof building as per plan, consti-

tution of a group of serving engi-neers with the support of mem-bers from Mechanical, Electricaland Architecture Associations.

During the last fivemonths, the OESA has held 11meeting of EC and one jointmeeting with district commit-tees. It has now obtained a PANcard and created a website,www.oesa.in. The GADepartment has ordered theBDA for eviction around theOESA premises.

%� �� -6��1.�.�.

A14-year-old girl, who hasbeen appearing in the

ongoing matriculation exam-ination, was allegedly rapedby a youth residing under theMahakalpada police limits.

According toMahakalapada police stationIIC Manoranjan Choudhury,the victim was raped onFriday in broad daylight ather house by one Balia Routof Dhudipur. The youth waslater detained by locals, butlater he fled from the spot.

According to IIC, thevictim lodged an FIR at theMahakalpada police station,alleging that while she wasalone in her house, Baliaforcibly entered into herhouse and raped her. Thenhe tried to kidnap her butthe victim was rescued bythe locals, who also nabbedhim when she shouted forhelp. But Balia later fled thespot.

Meanwhile, police wereconducting raids to nab theaccused youth, informed IICChoudhury.

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%� �� �7#�.�6�8.1

The Students for DemocraticRights and Secularism

(SDRS) organised a studentconvention here on Sundaydemanding withdrawal of theCitizenship Amendment Act(CAA)-2019, the NationalRegister for Citizens (NRC)and the National PopulationRegister (NPR).

The convention alsodemanded stopping of com-munal riots and stringentaction against those involved inthe Delhi violence that killedover 45 people recently.

Activists like GaneshTripathi, Subas Nayak,Somnath Behera and SiddharthRath coordinated the meeting.AIDSO national vice-presidentPrajjal Deb graced as the chief

guest. Terming the CAA, theNPR and the NRC as anti-peo-ple, the speakers alleged thatthe BJP Government at theCentre is trying to protect itsvote bank by dividing the soci-ety on religion basis.

While Saptshjini Raul readout the main draft proposal,Bhagyarabi Das presented aproposal condemning Delhiviolence.

Among others, BobbyBalabantray, Jayant Mohanty,Nimain Sahu, Tarunsen Nayak,Damayanti Muduli,Harekrushna Das, RajendraRana, former Utkal UniversityProf Dr Birendra Nayak,“Samadrushti” editor SudheerPatnaik spoke. It was decidedthat agitation against the CAA,NPR and NRC would be inten-sified in coming days.

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7.1.

The annualfunction and

prize giving cere-mony ofU t k a l a m a n iG o p a b a n d h uM a h a v i d y a l a ,Khamar, underPallahara Sub-Division was heldon Saturday,where DhenkanalMP Mahesh Sahoo attended aschief guest.

Former Principal of UGM,Khamar, Dr Adhara ChandraPradhan was the chief speaker,while Sub- Collector cumCollege Governing Body presi-dent Ajit Kumar Pradhan, stu-dent union advisor JayadevBiswal and Dr Sarojini Satpathywere present as guests of honour.Principal Basanta Kumar Sahu

chaired. Student MonalishaMishra read out the annualreport and focused about theproblems of the college. Theguests advised for efforts amongstudents, guardians and lectur-ers for inclusive education anddevelopment of teaching system.

Chief Guest Sahoodeclared about the constructionof an auditorium hall by anallocation of Rs 25 lakh besides

other projects of the college. While Dr Panda, Reader in

English, was conducting thewhole meeting under the pres-identship of Principal DrBasanta Kumar Sahu, DrSarojini Satpathy gave the wel-come speech. Lecturer JayadebBiswal gave vote of thanks.After that a cultural pro-gramme by the college studentswas held.

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With Japan eyeing to investin Odisha, chances are

bright for setting up of indus-trial townships across the State.

The Shinzo AbeGovernment of Japan has beenidentifying sites for setting upof industrial townships acrossthe country in order to pro-mote India’s infrastructure anddomestic manufacturing as ithas decided to double its invest-ment.

As part of their initiative,Ambassador of Japan SatoshiSuzuki called on Chief MinisterNaveen Patnaik on February 27led by Union Minister SteelDharmendra Pradhan.

In fact, Japan has alreadyidentified 11 sites in Karnataka,Rajasthan, Gujarat andMaharashtra. As Japan is inter-ested for steel hub in Odisha,it needs to re-identify moresites for industrial townships,which will serve as hubs ofinvestment into the State.

Japan authoritiesare providingknowhow andindustrial townshipadvance soft skillsand in other coun-tries these projectshave been able toattract huge invest-ments.

Prime Minister NarendraModi was very much interest-ed for Japanese support forindustrial township andGujarat has offered MandalIndustrial Zone for develop-ment of a major industrialtownship.

Similarly, with Ministry ofSteel coming up with first steelhub at Kalinga Nagar, it willoffer a major attraction forJapanese authorities to go foran industrial township, officialsfeel.

In fact in the meeting withChief Secretary Asit Tripathy,Tata BSL chief Manikant Naikhad urged the StateGovernment to develop indus-trial townships with infra-structure.

Idco CMD Sanjay KumarSingh is also favorable for suchan initiative as other corporate

sector honchos are urging forthe same.

Sources said the Idco chiefwas working out modalities forindustrial townships so thatthose zones would serve ashubs of investment.

Some in the corporate sec-tor also are asking for devel-opment of downstream parksfor inviting investments, saidPrincipal Secretary Sharma.

Vedanta Limited CEORahul Sharma pointed out thatthere was a requirement todevelop downstream park atJharsuguda. Major investorshave harped on rail, road andair connectivity for which ChiefSecretary Tripathy has assuredthem that the StateGovernment would take nec-essary steps for these types ofphysical infrastructure requiredfor industries.

%� �� .�5#+

Armed mis-c r e a n t s

locked up afamily in aroom and loot-ed cash andgold jewelleriesfrom the houseat Purunagarhvillage underthe Chhendipada police stationin Angul district in the weehours of Sunday.

One of the family memberssustained injuries when heoffered resistance to the rob-bers.

The robbers had snappedthe power supply before enter-ing the house of PramodMohapatra (49). They con-fined all the family members ina room and looted gold jew-elleries and Rs 6 lakh cash.

Sources said that the rob-

bers looted 90 grams gold jew-elleries, including three neck-laces, two chains and three pairof earrings kept inside a

wardrobe for wedding ofMohapatra’s daughter sched-uled on March 24.

When his son Patitapabaonresisted the robbery, the rob-bers attacked him with a sword.He was rushed to theChhendipada CommunityHealth Centre (CHC).

On Sunday morning,Mohapatra lodged a complaintwith the Chhendipada policefollowing which an investiga-tion was initiated to nab therobbers.

%� �� �.+6�8.1

More than 25 persons wereinjured when a

Bhubaneswar-bound bus bywhich they were travellingoverturned on NH-16 nearBhogia Chhak under theSimulia police limits inBaleswar district on Sunday.

The bus that was carryingaround 50 passengers fromBaripada to Bhubaneswarturned turtle early in the morn-ing as its driver lost controlover the wheels, reports said.

Being informed, police res-cued the victims and admittedthem to the SimuliaCommunity Health Centre.Some of them were later shift-ed to the Bhadrak DistrictHeadquarters Hospital for bet-ter treatment while three of theinjured ones were taken to theSCB Medical College Hospitalin Cuttack as their conditionsdeteriorated.

The bus driver fled fromthe spot after the mishap. Policeseized the vehicle and startedinvestigation.

%� �� �7#�.�6�8.1

Delhi based forumof the progressive

intellectuals of Odias,'The Intellects' con-ferred the PrabasiBhasa Samman for2020 uponJ a g a t s i n g h p u rCollector SangramKeshari Mohapatra,recently.

M o h a p a t r aamong 11 other notedpersons were awardedfor their contributionto classical language tomark the occasion ofthe World MotherLanguage Day and 6th anniver-sary of classical status to Odialanguage.

Mohapatra received theaward in an international con-clave on February 20 in NewDelhi.

Mohapatra has been nom-inated for the award as an

eminent Odia writer who con-tributed immensely to the Odialiterature, said Debendra Rout,chairman of The Intellects anddirector, Odia Language VirtualAcademy.

Mohapatra spoke onpreparing Indian Languagesfor A Digital Age: A Multi-stakeholder Approach, whichwas highly appreciated by theaudience which included lan-guage experts, technologists,policymakers, journalists, dig-ital entrepreneurs, digital con-

tent creators, digitizers, execu-tives from commercial organi-zations working on Indian lan-guages, and translators.

The other awardees includ-ed noted film writer, producer,

director and actor PrashantNanda, senior journalistPrashant Patnaik, BasantKumar Tripathy, eminenttranslator AN Ansari, mediapersonality Gayatri Joshi,Odishi exponent SangramKeshari Senapati andKhetrabasi Nayak.

%� �� �#.�.�.

Work orders for construction ofhouses under the Pradhan Mantri

Awas Yojana (Urban) were distributedto houseless people of the Khariar andKhariar Road NACs of Nuapada districtin a legal awareness camp held atNuapada on Saturday.

"A total of 598 people of these twoNACs (445 in Khariar and 153 inKhariar Road) had been selected under thePMAY for the year 2019-20. Forty-three bene-ficiaries of the total selected (Khariar Road 33and Khariar 10) received their work orders inthe camp from Member Secretary, OdishaState Legal Service Authority (OSLS) andMadhusmita Sahu, Collector, Nuapada. The restwill be provided the work orders in the respec-tive NACs," informed Khariar NAC housing pro-gramme in-charge Devchandan Rout.

"Each beneficiary will get Rs 2 lakh for houseconstruction." said Rout. He also informed thatthe Khariar NAC had a target for constructing630 houses under the PMAY (U) last year outof which 605 beneficiaries have already com-

pleted their works. Likewise, as per informationprovided by Amit Raula, the programme incharge of Khariar Rd NAC, they had a target of559 houses last year out of which 231 have beencompleted and the rest are in progress.

"Support under PMAY has proved a greatsuccour for almost all beneficiaries who wouldnot have been able to construct a Pucca housewithout the support under the scheme," saidjournalist Tapan Dash. "The officials involvedin the implementation of the scheme alsodeserve praise for sincerely monitoring theprogress to help the beneficiaries get their duesin time," he added.

%� �� �7#�.�6�8.1

Union Minister of AnimalHusbandry, Dairying and

Fisheries Giriraj Singh visitedICAR-CIFA on February 26and 27.

He visited different farmfacilities like fish hatcheries,feed mill, fish farm and KrishiVigyan Kendra, Khordha andinteracted with the scientists ofthe institute and had elaboratediscussions on various aspectsof freshwater aquaculture.

He urged the scientists todevelop water-smart technolo-gies like RecirculatoryAquaculture System andBiofloc Technology to increasethe per-unit productivity ofaquaculture systems. He alsosuggested to find out strategiesto reduce cost of fish feed bythe inclusion of locally available

raw materials.He asked the scientists to

explore the export potential ofthe high-valuefreshwaterspecies. He called for develop-ing integrated farming sys-tems and region-specific tech-nology packages to benefit thefarmers across the country.

Later in the day, he inter-acted with the 100 farmers andmotivated them to adopt sci-entific technologies to increase

their farm productivity. Many farmers shared their

experience on Moringa culti-vation, indigenous poultry birdfarming, fish seed production,polyculture and aqua-eco-tourism. Commissioner-cum-Secretary,FARD Raghu Prasad,Director of Fisheries Er SmrutiRanjan Pradhan, Director DrBindu R Pillai, scientists andstaff members were presentduring the interaction.

%� �� �.+6�8.1

One of the major religiousplaces, a symbol of unity

among Hindus and Muslims,the shrine of Baba Bhuja KhiaPir located at Sunhat village onChandipur road would get afacelift after Chief MinisterNaveen Patnaik announced Rs1 crore for its improvement.The decision of the StateGovernment has been hailed byone and all of the district.

The famous and prominentshrine of the district is oneamong the 23 religious placesincluded in the list of renova-tion and improvement of theState Government.

There had been demandsby the shrine committee forimprovement of the religious

place where hundreds ofdevotees of different faithscongregate on everyThursday and lakhsincluding those outsidethe State, visit duringannual Urs which isobserved each year duringlast week of Marchbetween Wednesday andFriday for three days.

The shrine was lacking aguest house for the outsidevisitors. Besides, it lacks awider space for worship.

It is said that Hajrat SawaleMohammad had come to Indiawith six brothers from Arabcountries. Among seven broth-ers, while four had settled inBaleswar, three others settledelsewhere in India. He satunderneath a neem tree and

resolved problems of the peo-ple. Since he was only con-suming bhuja, puffed rice, he isknown as Bhuja Khia PirBaba.

While people across allreligions visit the shrine seek-ing fulfillment of their desiresand mitigation of distress, infact, Hindus outnumber theMuslims in the shrine duringfestive occasions.

%� �� �.19�.�.

The Mayurbhanj NescoPower Employees’ Union

on Saturday held here a well-attended conference of itsmembers and discussed dif-ferent problems facing theNesco employees.

The conference also unan-imously raised its demand forabolition of Nesco’s practice ofkeeping employees on con-tractual basis and for makingthe already-employed employ-ees permanent.

The meeting presided overby Subramanyam Mohanty washeld at the local Ganesh

Mandap. Whileunion joint secretaryJyotikrushna Beheraintroduced theguests, union secre-tary TarakantPatnaik initiated thediscussion. Speakerafter speaker spokeof the problemsbeing faced by theemployees. Besidesraising the demand to makecontractual employees perma-nent and making regular pay-ments of their EPF and ESIdues, they talked of the short-age of fuse wires, gloves, kitkats,insulators etc, which, accordingto them, comes in the way oftheir rendering better service tothe consumers.

Those who took part in the

deliberations included ParthaSarathi Das, BudheswarMarandi, Chhabi Mohanta,Jnanaranjan Parida, UtpalKumar Bhanjbabu, Vijaykumar Sahu, Rudra KumarDas, Aswini Kumar Panda,Debasis Behera, Dipti Buyan,Karunakar Pati, Manas RanjanShukla and Chandan KumarMohanty.

%� �� �.�.1.�5�#1

Even as bureaucrats are oftencriticised for allegedly not

being aware of grassroots real-ities, Chandahandi BlockDevelopment Officer (BDO)Dharmaraj Majhi has set anexample by working as alabourer for construction of ahouse under the PradhanMantri Awas Yojana (PMAY)in Nabarangpur district.

According to reports, aPMAY beneficiary at Pipalpada

village under Chandahandiblock was unable to completethe house construction report-edly due to unavailability ofworkers. When the BDO cameto know about the matter, hereached the village along withthe local Panchayat ExtensionOfficer (PEO). Villagers weretaken aback as the BDO extend-ed help for construction of thehouse as a worker. He carriedconcrete on a sling along withlocals. The BDO’s act has earnedaccolades and praises for him.

����������� �$.5.'�9�57�#1

The SVM College's fake cer-tificates row virtually ended

on Saturday, as 121 certifi-cates from 124 were correctedfollowing efforts of collegeprincipal, college governingbody and Utkal Universityauthorities.

Reports said that 124 stu-dents who graduated from thecollege in the year 2015 hadbeen given fake certificatesand university registrationnumbers by the college author-ity. As a result, they had beendenied migration certificatesfrom Utkal University. Theywere unable to pursue higherstudies.

Protesting the event, thevictim students had resorted to

an agitation in front of the col-lege premises several times.They had also staged the latestprotest on January 11, wherethe students, comprising theirparents and guardians had par-ticipated in the stir, demandingissue of original valid certifi-cates.

College principal NitaraniKar and governing body pres-ident MLA Bishnu Das hadapproached agitating studentsand assured them to resolvetheir crisis shortly. Later, theagitation was called off.

Principal Kar informedthat the crux of problem hadstarted when these 124 studentswere taken admission in plusthree streams beyond its affil-iated 256 seats for college.

She said at the first stageshe had approached the UtkalUniversity authority and StateHigher Education Departmentdescribing the facts. The

Higher Education Departmenthad conducted a probe andfound the then admission incharge and two technical staffof the college were guilty ofadmitting more studentsbeyond capacity.

Meanwhile, two technicalstaff computer data entry oper-ators were dismissed andadmission in charge lecturer

Dhiren Mohanty's salary wasstopped. Besides, a show causenotice was issued against him,the Principal revealed.

On the other hand, UtkalUniversity authority consid-ered the problems faced by thestudents and asked them toregister their names afresh inthe university. The process of

fresh registration had beencompleted by the studentsalong with furnishing theirplus two college leaving cer-tificates.

Later, 121 fulfilled univer-sity's requirements and weregiven university registrationnumbers. Besides, they gotcorrected certificates onSaturday.

%� �� �.+6�8.1

The district unit of BJDwould observe the 104th

birth anniversary of formerChief Minister Biju Patnaik fortwo weeks from March 5 andduring the periods several pro-grammes would be undertakenby the party leaders and cadresacross all the blocks, besides atthe district headquarters andurban local bodies.

Regarding the plan, apreparatory meeting was heldon Saturday under the chair-manship of party district pres-ident and former MP RabindraKumar Jena.

Besides, MLA BastaNityananda Sahoo , MLARemuna Sudhansu Sekhar

Parida , former MLA JP Dash, MLA candidates, heads ofwomen, youth and studentwing leaders of all blocksattended.

Jena informed that theanniversary would be observedacross all blocks and duringthe observation garlandingwould be made in all theinstalled statues in their areas. The best performing womenfor their notable contributionsto the society of their areawould be identified and felici-tated by the women wing ofBJD, he said.

“Along with these pro-grammes there is a target ofcollecting 1,000 units of bloodthrough voluntary donations,”said Jena.

%� �� �7.�#1�C�.3.5.17D

The Fategarh police inNayagarh district have reg-

istered a torture case againstArjun Barik of Gamei villageunder the Badamba PS inCuttack district on a com-plaint lodged by his wifePratima Barik recently.

In her allegation, Pratimamentioned that she had beenstaying in her parental house atBaunshabati village underFategarh block for long afterher husband drunkard Arjunaand in-laws tortured her andbeaten her many for her failureto bring dowry as demanded bythem.

On February 8, 2020,Arjun came to her parents’house at Baunshabati andscolded her with filthy lan-guages and thrashed her. Shealso alleged that her father-in-law Indramani Barik, mother-in-law Kanchan Barik andbrother-in-law Badal and Bulahad beaten her earlier overdowry.

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%� �� �1.7�.�#1

Brahmapur MLA BikramKumar Panda and

Brahmapur MunicipalCorporation (BeMC)Commissioner ChakravartiSingh Rathore took stock of thedrainage facilities to ensurethat no flood-like situation iscreated in the city during therainy season.

Panda and Rathore visitedareas like Bijepur andGandhingar in which water-logging is mainly caused dur-ing the rainy season. The excessrain water besides entering thehouses force the residents tostay indoors.

Besides, inspecting themain drains they also spoke tolocals about the problem. Theyassured the residents that thedrains would be repaired on awar-footing to ensure that peo-ple don’t face any problemsduring the rainy season.

On Monday, the MLA andthe BeMC Commissioner are

scheduled to visit Tulasi Nagarand Gajapati Nagar to reviewthe situation there.

Notably, during the rainy

season many parts of the cityare waterlogged. This problemhas continued to bring miseryfor residents over the years.

%� �� �1.7�.�#1

The Ganjam dis-trict unit of the

Sathya Sai SevaSangathan organisedan annual healthcheckup and consul-tation programmesfor patients, who hadundergone heartsurgery at the SathyaSai Super SpecialtyHospitals atBengaluru and Puttaparthi, atthe Satya Sai Seva Samiti andthe Sathya Sai Vidya Viharhere on Sunday.

Former head ofDepartment of Cardiology,Sathya Sai Hospital Dr PKDash examined about 50patients and given good piecesof advice for healthy living.

Seva Sangathan State vice-president Dr Satya SwarupPatnaik coordinated the pro-gramme. Dr MS Prasad Rao,Dr J Appa Rao, Dr NilabalaPatnaik, Dr Sonali Gupta, DrTM Rao, Dr Manas Patnaikalso examined patients.Diagnostic centre “Nidan’ pro-vided all cooperation.

%� �� �76�-.�.+

One Sarthak Pattnaik ofMahabir Bazar here has

filed a damage suit against DrPrasanta Samal for alleged neg-ligence in treatment to hispregnant wife.

Pattnaik has alleged that hiswife Suchismita was under DrSamal’s treatment during herpregnancy. Dr Samal conduct-ed ultrasound four times fromMay to November last year. Allthe time, he reported thateverything was normal relatingto the child and the mother.

According to Pattnaik, Dr

Samal asked him to admit hiswife in his Kalyani Polly Clinicon December 9. His wife gavebirth to a female child after asurgery. But as the child was ill,Pattnaik showed the kid tomany paqediatric specialistsin Odisha and, lastly, took herto the Rabindranath TagoreInternational Institute ofCardiac Science in Kolkata.There, doctors informed himthat the child is suffering Hypo-Plastic Left heart syndrome,which has no treatment as theleft heart of the child has notbeen properly built. The childmay die at any time.

Pattnaik, who is thenephew of late Justice DMPattnaik, is aggrieved becauseDr Samal had assured him allthe time that there was no com-plicacy in delivery of the child.

%� �� 14#1-6+.

Chief Minister NaveenPatnaik would visit

Sundargarh headquarters townon March 3. Besides addressinga huge gathering at Bhabaniground, Patnaik would launcha slew of projects worth Rs1,000 crores.

According to party sources,the leaders and workers areoverjoyed with Patnaik as fourleaders of the district wereinducted in party’s 80- memberexecutive committee. Whiletotal 30 districts have 80 rep-resentations, only Sundargarhhas four, indicating the prior-ity given by the State leadershipto the district.

Now the total party mem-bership in the district hastouched 3,96,429. So, the CMprogramme will be a megaevent with big gathering, saidsources.

In the last Cabinet meetingheld on February 7, provisionwas made for supply of safedrinking water to the 63 GPs ofKuarmunda, Nuagaon,Gurundia, Koira and Lahuniparablocks worth Rs 660,50,20,000.3.3 lakh people will be benefit-ted from the project.

Besides sanctioning Rs 1crore each to a Rajgangpurmosque and a Rourkela churchfor renovation also signifies theconcern of the CM for the dis-trict, said a party leader.

Apart from this, the CMmay declare for a sports clubworth Rs 245 crore.

So, to make the pro-gramme a grand success,preparation at a public meetingplace has been geared up afterdue puja (worship of ground).Almost all the front-line lead-ers of the district are campingat Sundargarh to supervise thepreparation work.

%� �� �7#�.�6�8.1

Cultural diversity is an out-standing source of

exchange, innovation and cre-ativity and has enormouspotential to accelerate sustain-able development.

Odishan cultural heritagereflects values, norms, symbolsand forms of communication.Dialogues on the relationshipbetween memory, heritage andcultural diversity bring in inter-national solidarity and peace.

Participants spoke at lengthabout culture and heritage in aninternational conference oncultural diversity and heritageeducation organised by JRP-Jeevan Rekha Parishad.

JRP organised the meet incollaboration with six interna-

tional non Government organ-isations from France, Spain,Italy, Ecuador, Kenya etc withthe support of the EuropeanCommission here fromFebruary 25 to 29.

The objective of the con-ference was to bring together asignificant number of diversescholars from different conti-nents to share their thought,good practices and experiencesin the field of heritage educa-tion and cultural diversity.

In fact the conferencebrought together leading civilsociety organizations toexchange and share their expe-riences and research results onall aspects of cultural heritage.

Different cultural pro-grammes were organised byJRP during a cultural evening

where each participating coun-try performed and exhibitedtheir culture, art and craft.

A Round Table on“Sustainable DevelopmentGoals – with reflection tointernational cooperation” wasorganised in Utkal Universitywhere Vice Chancellor Dr ProfSM Patnaik addressed the par-ticipants.

A heritage tour was organ-ised, in which the internation-al delegates went to Konark,Puri and Raghunathpur craftvillage and enriched their expe-rience.

The conference broughtout several concrete sugges-tions and recommendationsfor Odisha, which will boostour cultural tourism and her-itage worldwide.

%� �� 1.$5.�5�#1

The Dalmia OCL EyeCentre has completed

five years of serving under-privileged sections of thesociety in Sundargarh dis-trict.

The eye hospital wasjointly instituted by LVPrasad Eye Institute andDalmia Cement (Bharat)Limited at Rajgangpur in2015, with the vision ofmaking Sundargarh districtblind free. On the occasionRegional Manufacturing Head,East, Dalmia Cement (Bharat)Limited, Sunil Gupta was theguest of honour. Vice chair-man, LVPEI Dr TaraprasadDas was also present on theoccasion.

Regional ManufacturingHead (East), DCBL, SunilKumar Gupta said, “We aredelighted to complete 5 years ofserving the people ofSundargarh. Through our cen-tre, we have treated and sup-ported over 1,00,000 patients inlast five years. With the vision

of making the district blindfree, we are working towardsexpanding our various initia-tives and door-to-door ser-vices so that it reaches far-offareas of the district."

LVPEI, vice-chairman DrDas said, “We are extremelyhappy on achieving the land-mark of 5 years. Our goal is toprovide high-quality, low-cost,self-sustaining permanent eyecare infrastructure."

From this year onwards,the LVPEI run eye centre willalso be benefited by the eye care

provider’s newest initiative‘Pashyantu’ which is advanceeye care on wheels. It wouldreach Dalmia OCL Eye Centre,Rajgangpur at least twice amonth and take care of retinalconditions including veinocclusion, diseases in childrenand follow up care of thepatients operated atBhubaneswar LVPEI. Thiswould substantially reduce thetravel and all indirect costincurred by patients for followup care and checkups, said arelease.

%� �� $.5.'�9�57�#1

The district administrationin collaboration with

authorities of different collegesheld a coordination meeting onThursday and chalked out aplan to conduct the Plus IIexaminations smoothly andincident free, which beginsfrom March 3.

District Collector SKMohapatra chaired a coordi-nation committee meet attend-ed by principals and lecturersfrom 34 colleges, officials fromthe civil administration andpolice personnel.

The Collector emphasisedon carrying out guidelinesissued by CHSE Odisha while

conducting the Plus II exami-nations. As many as 34 exam-ination centers have beenestablished in different col-leges across district. Questionpapers would be stored inseven examination hubs withround-the-clock CCTV obser-vation and police surveillance.

The question papers wouldbe transported to respectiveexamination centers in morn-ing and would be opened inpresence of center superinten-dent, examination observersand civil administration offi-cials deputed by the Collector.

After completion of exam-ination, efforts would be madeto send the answer sheets toexamination hubs or council.

%� �� $.$�#1

Police on Saturday nightarrested BJD youth leader

Subash Khuntia for the allegedabduction and rape of an 11-year-old Dalit girl on February23.

“The minor girl of a villageunder the Kuakhia police sta-tion was kidnapped by Khuntiain the afternoon while she wasreturning to her village. Afterkidnapping the girl, the accusedconfined her in a house atKolathan village and sexuallyassaulted her for three days,”said Jajpur SDPO ChinmayaNayak.

But the girl managed to fleefrom the house on February 26and reached her village andrevealed her ordeal to her par-ents, following which her fatherfiled an FIR at the Kuakhiapolice station on February 27and alleged that her daughterwas forcefully kidnapped andraped by the accused, saidNayak.

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Food delivery business hasturned sour for those with

no or poor hygiene rating inPunjab. For, the PunjabGovernment has decided toimpose one year ban on theonline FBOs (food businessoperators) without or less thanthree marks hygiene rating.

Ban orders, which wouldcome into effect from April 30,2020, will also be applicable onthose Online Food SupplyAggregators (OFSAs), likeZomato, Swiggy, Food Panda,Uber Eats, among others, whichwould supply food from theunrated FBOs. Issuing prohibi-tion orders, the State Food andDrug AdministrationCommissioner KS Pannu onSunday said that exercising thepowers conferred under section30(2)(a) of Food Safety and

Standards Act, 2006, read withsection 18(1)(a) of Food Safetyand Standards Act, 2006, in theinterest of public health, the“distribution, supply or sale ofarticles of food through OnlineFood Supply Aggregators(OFSAs), related to those FoodBusiness Operators (FBOs) whohave not got their hygiene rat-ing done, has been prohibited”.

The orders also prohibitOFSAs from sourcing the foodfrom FBOs which are nothygienically rated and alsowhere such rating is less thanthree marks out of five, saidPannu, adding that the prohi-bition orders would be effectivein the entire State of Punjab forthe period of one year witheffect from April 30, 2020.

Pannu said as per theorders, in Punjab, informationtechnology driven online foodsupply aggregators (OFSAs)

such as M/s Uber Eats, M/sSwiggy, M/s Zomato, M/s FoodPanda etc have been distribut-ing, selling or supplying food tothe consumers after sourcingthe same from Food BusinessOperators (FBOs).

“This food delivery,through an IT-based platform,is a very recent phenomenon inwhich the direct and primarycontact between the consumerof food articles and the manu-facturers of food articles, espe-cially the hot cooked food arti-cles, has snapped,” said Pannu.

Pannu added the mecha-nism of distribution, sale orsupply of food by OFSAs hasobliterated the system ofresponsibility of maintainingthe quality of food, which tillnow was being directly verified by the consumers fromthe food business operators athis counter. With the intro-

duction of mechanism ofOFSAs, it has become impor-tant to ensure that these aggre-gators supply only the goodquality and properly hygienicfood articles to the consumers.

“Although, it is the moralresponsibility of FBOs andOFSAs to ensure quality andhygiene of food delivered.However, the duty is also castupon the State Authorities toensure safe food to publicunder the Section 18(1)(a) ofFood Safety and Standards Act,2006,” said Pannu.

He said the Food Safetyand Standards Authority ofIndia (FSSAI) has issuedinstructions, vide which thesystem of hygiene rating of thefood business operators hasbeen introduced and the FSSAIhas empanelled various agen-cies to conduct the hygiene rat-ing of the FBOs.

Pannu informed that theoffice of Food and DrugAdministration, Punjab, hadadvised all the OFSAs to ensurethat the FBOs from where theyare sourcing the food for distri-bution to consumers should beasked to get the hygiene rating oftheir business done and theOFSAs should source and supplythe food from only those FBOswho secure at least three smiliesout of a range of five smilies inthe matter of hygiene rating.

The date of getting thehygiene rating of the FBOsdone was extended till October31, 2019. However, it has beenobserved that even after creat-ing awareness regarding theimportance of hygiene rating,OFSAs have not taken thematter seriously, resulting inconsumers continuously facingthe potential of delivery ofunsafe or unhygienic food.

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The top body of RashtriyaSwayamsevak Sangh (RSS)

which is to meet at Bengaluruon March 15 will, amongother key issues, deliberate oncommunal violence in Delhiand protests against the newcitizenship (Amendment ) Actduring its three-day discus-sions.

The annual meet of ‘AkhilBharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha ‘,the highest decision makingbody of RSS, will be held fromMarch 15-17 in Karnataka’sCapital. The Pratinidhi Sabhameets once a year to take stockof RSS work and lays downplan for future and also navi-gates its cadre on the ideo-logical and policy issues .

BJP president JP Naddaand the party’s general secre-tary (organisation) BLSanthosh are expected to attendthis all-important meeting.

The recent violence inDelhi, protests against the CAAare among the issues likely todominate the brain-stormingsessions during the meeting.

Top Sangh leader BhaiyyajiJoshi had this week soughtGovernment to establish peacein the violence hit areas ofNorth-East Delhi. Over 44people have been killed in thecommunal violence in thenational Capital with rulingBJP and opposition partiesblaming each other for insti-gating it by high-pitch provoca-tive statements.

`Inaction` by the Delhipolice which is under controlof union home ministry andalso seen to be partial in favour

of one community in thebeginning has been widelycriticized by the oppositionparties.

RSS Delhi unit may beasked to come up with adetailed presentation on theviolence, according to sources

The annual meet will alsodiscuss ways to take Sangh toareas and people where it is yetto reach.

Planning for expansionand consolidation of theSangh’s work, includingimproving Shakhas (centres)

and increasing the number oftraining camps, will be dis-cussed in the meeting. Morethan 1,400 representatives willparticipate from all over thecountry and also pass resolu-tions on important issues.

RSS representatives work-ing in its different outfits havebeen invited to share theirexperiences and inputs on dif-ferent issues of national impor-tance. Representatives fromRSS women wing ‘RashtraSevika Samiti’ will also attendthe three-day meet.

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The Congress has claimedthat the Central force was

being used for “politicalvendetta” like other investiga-tive agencies.

Describing CRPF-assistedIncome Tax raids inChhattisgarh as retaliatorymeasure to the StateGovernment’s probe intoalleged corruption under theprevious BJP Government ,the Congress on Sundayclaimed that the central forcewas being used for "politicalvendetta" like other investiga-tive agencies.

Describing it as "coerciveand insecure centrism",Congress chief spokespersonRandeep Surjewala alleged that"fly-by-night midnight opera-tions" and "cover-up corrup-tion" raids were being con-ducted in Chhattisgarh todestabilise the ongoing inves-tigations in corruption cases.

The I-T teams were assist-ed by central paramilitary forcein the raids in Raipur and a few

other locations.Over the last few days, the

Income Tax department con-ducted searches at multiplelocations linked toChhattisgarh government offi-cials and others. The searchesare being conducted to probecharges of alleged tax evasionby these people who includethe family of a senior IAS offi-cer in Chief Minister BhupeshBaghel-led Congress govern-ment in the state.

"The Modi Government’sso called alliance with centralinvestigative agencies in non-BJP states has now beenextended to include the CRPF,"Surjewala said.

He said that the way inwhich I-T department and theCRPF carried out raids in thelast four days, without inform-ing the police and the democ-ratic government in the state,shows that the Centre is run-ning scared.

"A PDS scam worth Rs36,000 crore broke out inChhattisgarh earlier. The diarythat came into police posses-

sion by chance, which gaveinformation about the scam hasbeen put forth in front of themedia by Congress party lead-ers like Bhupesh Baghel, T SSingh Deo and myself," hesaid.

Surjewala said that theraids have been conducted in aclandestine, cloak-and -daggermanner without any informa-tion being provided to thestate government or to thestate police.

"This deployment of acentral force to assist in moti-vated income tax raids under-mines almost every line of DrAmbedkar’s caveat and theconstitutional scheme laid outin List II of the SeventhSchedule of the Constitutionwhich places law and orderunder the state’s exclusiveremit," he said.

Surjewala also said that itis not surprising that the raidsbegan only after the econom-ic offences wing of the stategovernment launched an inves-tigation into alleged acts of cor-ruption that took place under

the purview of the previous BJPGovernment.

The Congress leader stat-ed that the CongressGovernment of Chhattisgarhwill take this as a "sign ofencouragement" that their owninvestigations are proceeding inthe right direction.

a "We as a country havebecome familiar with thesetactics over the alast five and ahalf years.

But Modi-Shah duo, intheir zeal and desperation tointimidate, have done thenation a huge disservice,"alleged Surjewala.

"When we say thatConstitution is a federalConstitution, it means that theProvinces are as sovereign asthe Centre. In other words, bar-ring the provisions which per-mit the Centre to override anylegislation that may be passedby the Provinces, which have aplenary authority

to make any law for thepeace, order and good govern-ment of that Province," theCongress leader said.

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Rapidly changing climateand inadequate urban plan-

ning is causing water insecuri-ty in the Hindu KushHimalayan (HKH) region, anew study said on Sunday.

The study covering 13towns across four countries -Bangladesh, India, Nepal, andPakistan shows that the inter-linkages of water availability,water supply systems, rapidurbanisation, and consequentincrease in water demand (bothdaily and seasonal) are leadingto increasing water insecurityin towns in the HKH region.

"This water insecurity isattributed to poor water gov-ernance, lack of urban plan-ning, poor tourism manage-ment during peak season, andclimate-related risks and chal-lenges," said the study con-ducted by the InternationalCentre for Integrated MountainDevelopment (ICIMOD), anintergovernmental knowledgeand learning centre, based inKathmandu, working on behalfof the people of the HKH

region.The study said that com-

munities are coping throughshort-term strategies such asgroundwater extraction, whichis proving to be unsustainable.

"There is a lack of long-term strategies for water sus-tainability in urban centres, andthis requires the special atten-tion of planners and local gov-ernments," it said.

"Urbanisation has pulledpeople from rural areas in theHKH region into nearby urbancentres. Although only threeper cent of the total HKHpopulation lives in larger citiesand 8 per cent in smaller

towns, projections show thatmore than 50 per cent of thepopulation will be living incities by 2050," it said.

This will naturally placetremendous stress on wateravailability, it added.

The study shows that thewater demand-supply gap ineight of the surveyed towns is20-70 per cent.

"There is a high depen-dence on springs (rangingbetween 50 and 100 per cent)for water supply in three-fourths of the urban areas.

Under current trends, thedemand-supply gap may dou-ble by 2050," the study said.

%� �� �68��6+79

The India MeteorologicalDepartment (IMD) on

Sunday said a formation offresh western disturbance islikely to affect WesternHimalayan Region from thenight of March 3, and plains ofnorthwest India from March 4.This will cause widespreadrainfall and snowfall accom-panies by thunderstorm andlightning over westernHimalayan region and overPunjab, Haryana, Chandigarh,Delhi and Uttar Pradeshbetween March 5 and 7.

The IMD said that due toconvergence in easterlies, lightrain at isolated places withisolated thunderstorm likelyover Southern Karnataka andKerala next 2 days.

According to the IMD, thesoaring mercury levels aretouching new highs asFebruary 2020 is recorded asone of the hottest second

months in the last decade. In February 2020, the aver-

age minimum temperature hasbeen recorded at 14.2 degreesCelsius. In the past 10 years,according to the IMD data, thehighest minimum average tem-perature was recorded in 2010at 14.7 degrees Celsius.

In 2013 the minimumaverage temperature wasrecorded at 14.3 degreesCelsius, and in 2016 it was 14.6

degrees Celsius. According to Skymet

Weather, a private weatherbroadcaster, an upper Troughwhich currently lies overMadhya Pradesh would beshifting east/northeastwardsand start affecting the easternparts of the country. "Thus,during the next 24 to 36 hours,a light spell of rain and thun-dershowers along with gustywinds may occur in Bihar,

Jharkhand, West Odisha and inone or two parts of WestBengal. Places like Gaya,Aurangabad, Patna,Daltonganj, Ranchi,Jamshedpur, etc, are likely towitness rainfall activities," itsaid.

"Due to increased moisturelevels along with the formationof a Cyclonic Circulation overSub Himalayan West Bengaland adjoining region, the rain-fall activities may increase inthe northeastern states for thenext few days. These weatheractivities are expected to bemore in Arunachal Pradesh ascompared to other states ofNortheast India," Skymet said.

Meanwhile, the IMD’s earlyearly trends suggest, the sum-mer months of March, Apriland May are likely to bewarmer than normal acrossmost parts of India. Forecastssuggest warmer-than-normaltemperatures over northwest,west and central India and

some subdivisions from south-ern India from March to May2020. Moreover, the seasonalaverage mean temperatures areexpected to remain more than1°C over few northwesternparts like Himachal Pradesh,Uttarakhand and westRajasthan, resulting in a swel-tering summer this year.

Average seasonal tempera-tures of 1°C above normal canmean a rise of several degreesabove normal on extremelyhot days of the season. For tem-peratures, the normal value isconsidered to be the average oftemperature values from 1981to 2010. As per the IMD fore-cast, both maximum and min-imum temperatures are likelyto remain 0.5 to 1°C warmerthan the long period averageacross western coast, northwestas well as central parts of Indiathis summer. Only parts ofeastern and southeastern statesare likely to witness near-nor-mal temperatures.

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Congress MP Manish Tewarihas written to Lok Sabha

Speaker Om Birla suggestingconstitution of a permanentParliamentary StandingCommittee on comprehensiveadministrative reforms. Tewarihas suggested that the com-mittee be headed by Lok SabhaSpeaker individually or jointlywith Rajya Sabha Chairperson

The senior Congress leadersaid that time has come forParliament to set up a perma-nent Standing Committee onthe issue of comprehensiveAdministrative Reforms, whichshould be headed by theSpeaker or jointly with theChairman of the Rajya Sabha.

"It should consist of 30members just like any otherStanding Committee ofParliament with the mandate to

examine reports of both theprevious administrative reformcommissions, take evidence,hold broad-based consulta-tions with the experts andcome up with detailed recom-mendations as to how India’sarchaic administrative systemcan be holistically overhauled,"he stated in the letter

"Despite twoAdministrative ReformsCommissions set up earlier,there has been no attempt oreffort in the past seven decades

to reform the ‘colonial admin-istrative paradigm bequeathedto us by our erstwhile ImperialMasters’," he said.

Tewari said that govern-ments irrespective of theirpolitical colour have been"completely inept" at taking anyinitiative in this regard.

"The government maystrongly resist any such pro-posal to set up a permanentStanding Committee. There isalso a huge vested interest,ably led by the bureaucracy,that will go to any length tostymie any such effort," Tewarisaid.

The second half of theBudget Session of Parliamentwill begin on Monday.

The Government is expect-ed to push its legislative agen-da that includes Bills relating tosurrogacy and resolution of dis-puted tax.

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The CRPF, the lead counter-terrorism and anti-insur-

gency paramilitary, hasembarked on a mission to pre-pare a doctrine of the Force andcodify a Unique selling propo-sition so as to capitalise on thestrengths and replicate thesame for repetition of success-es in different operational areas.

Director General ofCentral Reserve Police Force(CRPF) AP Maheshwari hasarticulated to senior officials ofthe Force that there is a need toprepare strategies and set agen-da for the next year and wherethe paramilitary wants to seeitself in the next two-threeyears.

While operating in multi-ple operational theatres, theCRPF has recorded a fair share

of success stories andMaheshwari has sought a sys-tematic study of the achieve-ments to bring out the USP ofthe paramilitary, identify inad-equacies, if any and measuresto overcome them.

"The findings should bedocumented, duly codified, sothat we can capitalize onstrengths of the organizationand replicate then to pave theway for repetition of such suc-cess stories," reads an orderissued by the CRPF recently.

The CRPF is not only thelargest paramilitary with over300 operational battalions butalso the oldest Force in thecountry and is engaged incounter-terror operations inJammu and Kashmir and anti-insurgency roles in theNortheast as also fighting theNaxals in the affected States.The anti-Naxal force Combat

Battalion for ResoluteAction (CoBRA) has inthe last few monthsrecorded significantachievements againstthe ultra-Left extremists,officials said.

Maheshwari hasserved in the CRPF asInspector General(Operations) in the pastand the move is aimedat streamlining the pro-fessional approach tominimize casualties inthe operations, officialssaid.

As part of the pro-posed overhaul, there is a needto revive the existing trainingprocedure by incorporatingthe latest equipment and tech-nology.

The aim of the formulatingthe doctrine of the Force is toenhance operational synergy,

revitalize organisational struc-ture and combat preparedness.

The last vision documentof the CRPF was preparedover two-decades back.

While Standard OperatingProcedure of the Union HomeMinistry has laid down that the

paramilitary forces will chalkout their own operationalstrategies but the same is oftenignored by the CRPF officerson the ground and they followthe deployment strategy of thelocal police, a senior paramil-itary official said.

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The Supreme Court will onMonday consider ‘in cham-

ber’ the curative plea of one ofthe four death row convicts,Pawan Kumar Gupta, in the2012 Nirbhaya gang rape andmurder case, a day before theirscheduled hanging.

The curative petition willbe considered by a bench ofjustices NV Ramana, ArunMishra, RF Nariman, RBanumathi and AshokBhushan in the chamber ofJustice Ramana.

Pawan, 25, against whomthe death warrant has beenissued for execution on March3 along with the three othercondemned prisoners, hasclaimed juvenility to seek com-mutation of sentence to lifeimprisonment.

He has filed the curativeplea through lawyer A P Singhseeking setting aside of the apexcourt’s earlier verdicts on

appeals and review petitions inthe case.

Advocate A P Singh saidhe has filed an application inthe apex court registry onSunday seeking an oral hearingon Pawan’s curative plea in theopen court.

Pawan is the last death rowconvict in the case to move thetop court with his curativeplea, the final legal remedyavailable to a person.

A 23-year-old physiother-apy intern, who came to beknown as ‘Nirbhaya’ (fearless),was gang raped and savagelyassaulted in a moving bus inSouth Delhi on December 16,2012. She died a fortnight later.

Pawan and another con-vict Akshay Singh also moveda trial court here on Saturdayseeking stay on the executionof death warrants. The trialcourt has issued notice to TiharJail authorities on the pleas,directing the officials to filetheir response by Monday.

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Guwahati: The BJP on Sunday assert-ed that the agitation against theCitizenship (Amendment) Act hadstarted in Assam with Oppositionparties “emotionally influencing”people claiming that Bangladeshiswould enter the State in droves andharm their culture following the pas-sage of the CAA.

However, people have now real-ized that nothing of that sort is goingto happen and the agitation hasweakened, Assam BJP presidentRanjeet Kumar Dass told reportershere.

“An attempt was made to influ-ence people emotionally and they gotaffected. A large number of people hasasked me why we were trying to bringin Bangladeshis. Our people are veryemotional,” he said.

Dass said he along with other topleaders of the party toured 12 con-stituencies of Upper Assam and metover 2,400 booth committee presi-dents and elected representatives.

“We asked them about their sen-timent on the situation since

December 10. We all know that a mis-information campaign was going onclaiming that over one croreBangladeshis would come and attackthe culture, language and identity ofthe Assamese people,” the BJP leadersaid.

Dass said he asked the boothpresidents how many Bangladeshishave come and they replied that none has reachedthere.

“They confessed that people weremade emotional, but now they haveunderstood the situation. There is noimpact of anti-CAA campaign andthe agitaion has been weakened,” headded.

Opposition parties and variousorganisations started agitation againstthe Citizenship (Amendment) Billfrom Decenber 10, a day after it waspassed in the Lok Sabha. The Billseeks to grant Indian citizenship tominority community people ofBangladesh, Pakistan andAfghanistan who fled religious per-secution and entered India beforeDecember 31, 2014. PTI

Mangaluru: The country is fac-ing a huge challenge with thenegative politics being playedout by the ruling BJP at theCentre and the CitizenshipAmendment Act (CAA) is aploy to implement their agen-da of divide and rule, notedhuman rights activist TeestaSetalvad said on Sunday.

Delivering a speech on thetopic 'Understanding our times:People's struggle and Stateresponse,' organised by theCitizens Forum for MangaluruDevelopment and 'We thePeople,' she said there was anurgent need to break awayfrom the vicious politics of theruling party.

Setalvad said it was wrongto assume that the CAA wouldaffect only Muslims.

The amended law wouldadversely affect the interests ofdalits, advivasis, tribes, migrantlabourers and other sections ofsociety.

The attempt to target acommunity to reap politicalgains has been happening inthe country for long, shealleged.

The people have nowdescended on the streets as theBJP's hidden agenda has beenexposed.

This is a welcome trend,she said adding the protestsshould be held in a systematicway to fetch desired results.

She accused the govern-ment of using brute force tocrush peaceful anti-CAAdemonstrations at many places,which was a “clear violation” ofhuman rights.

A large section of peoplewould be denied the right tovote if citizenship was givenbased on documents underthe proposed NRC as hap-pened in Assam.

They also would not getbenefits under governmentwelfare schemes which would

amount to a civil death, sheclaimed.

While one cannot opposethe census process which isrequired to count the totalpopulation, the new columnsfor parents' addresses are meantto create a divide by portrayingrefugees as 'infiltrators' whichis objectionable.

Setalvad said the entireNRC exercise, if taken up,would cost the country dear asit would have to spend at leastRs 55,000 crore for the process.

The government wasspending the money while fail-ing to address the unemploy-ment issue in the country.

People should continuous-ly put pressure on elected rep-resentatives and the state gov-ernments through theirprotests against the CAA. Adecisive movement of themasses against the Centresmove to divide and rule is theneed of the hour, she said. PTI

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In smart city Jammu con-tractors engaged by the BJP-

ruled, Jammu MunicipalCorporation (JMC) are turningout to be one of the biggest “jobproviders” (on temporarybasis) for Rohingyas, illegalimmigrants from Myanmar.

According to Rinku Gill,President of the SafaiKaramchari Union, JammuMunicipal Corporation, “anestimated number of around200 Rohingyas have beenengaged by the contractors toclean big and small drainsacross the municipal limits ofJammu city”.

In return for their day-longlabour, these illegal immigrantsare paid �400 per head to runtheir kitchen fires.

In contrast to this, localsanitation workers/sweepersengaged by the contractors ofJammu Municipal Corporationare paid a paltry sum of �225per head. The glaring dispari-ty is already causing lot of fric-

tion among the work force.Not only this, JMC con-

tractors have also deployed afleet of transport vehicles onground zero to ferry theseworkers at work in time. Beforeheading to work, these work-ers mark their attendance in theoffice of local JMC supervisor.

Ironically, local State BJPleaders and even the top brassof the ruling party in centrenever shy away from makingloud statements claiming theyremain committed to identifyand deport Rohingyas to theircountry as per the internationallaw.

Most recently, UnionMinister Dr Jitendra Singh hassaid that Rohingyas living inJammu & Kashmir will bedeported since they do notbenefit under the CitizenshipAmendment Act enacted bythe Centre in November lastyear. He also added that theRohingyas will not be able tosecure citizenship by “anymeans”.

Speaking at the inauguralceremony of a three-day work-shop on General Financialrules in Jammu on January 3,Singh said there were “no ifsand buts” over CAA’s imple-mentation in the Union

Territory.“Its immediate implication

would be in relation toRohingyas here. We have asizeable population ofRohingyas here. They have togo,” Singh said.

In the last oneyear,Union HomeMinister Amit Shahhas repeatedlymade these state-ments at electionrallies and also clar-ified stand of theUnion Governmenton the floor of thehouse insideP a r l i a m e n t .Responding to thequestion in theRajya Sabha on July17, 2019, AmitShah said that itwas the NRC basedon which theBharatiya JanataParty (BJP) came topower after the2019 Lok Sabhaelections.

“It is a very good question.The NRC is part of the AssamAccord and was also in (BJP's)election manifesto based onwhich the Government hascome to power. TheGovernment will identify ille-

gal immigrants living on everyinch of the country's soil andwill deport them as per theinternational law,” Amit Shahsaid.

Referring to the statementsof Union leaders, Rinku Gillmaintained on one hand thegovernment says, theseRohingyas pose a securitythreat and on the other handthey have been roped in by theJMC ignoring local work force”.He demanded local workersshould be engaged first andprovided with the opportuni-ty to earn their livelihood thanthese illegal immigrants.

When contacted, Mayorof Jammu MunicipalCorporation Chander MohanGupta said, “after the passageof Citizenship Amendment Billin the Parliament, the entirecountry is witnessing chaos.The way union governmentremain committed to deportRohingyas and all other illegalimmigrants, we are also goingto deport them from Jammu”.

JMC, Mayor also claimedwe have not engaged anyRohingya as daily wager tocarry out works. We checkcredentials of workers and evenNGO's engaged by JMC keeprecord of theirworkforce.According to aHome department reporttabled in the state assembly onFebruary 2, 2018, “a totalnumber of 6523 Rohingyaswere found camping across 39different locations spreadacross five districts of Jammuand Kashmir”.

According to the Homedepartment report, “6461Rohingyas were staying inJammu division and 62 inKashmir division.

However, local activistsand politicians, spearheadinga campaign in support of theirdeportation often contest thesefigures claiming large numberof these illegal immigrants arescattered and even their biometrics have not been collect-ed by the security personnel

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The Citizenship Amendment Act(CAA), the root cause of the Delhi

riots, is having a major impact in TamilNadu. A shocking development of the Actis not the resentment against theGovernment of India but the communalpolarisation that has set in the State, knownfor communal harmony and revolution-ary social justice.

The rallies and demonstrations stagedagainst the CAA by members of theMuslim community are being sponsoredby extremist Islamic organisations like theSocialist Democratic Party of India (SDPI),Popular Front of India (PFI) and TamilNadu Thowheed Jamaat (TNTJ). “Thereare 23 Islamic organizations in Tamil Naduwhich finance and lead the rallies stagedin regular intervals. What is causing con-cern is the kind of slogans raised duringthese gatherings. We can understand thekind of sloganeering against the CAA andthe Government of India. But most of theslogans are provocative and inflammato-ry. They are all against one particular com-munity,” said an intelligence official.

Kolakala Srenivasan, author andcolumnist, said a line of divide is clearlyvisible in the relations between Hindus and

Muslims in Tamil Nadu. “This is the firsttime we are seeing a demarcation betweenthe two communities. The anger againstthe CAA has led to communal polariza-tion,” said Srenivasan.

Coimbatore, Tirupur, Erode,Tirunelveli, Ramanathapuram, districtswith considerable Muslim populationsubstantiate fear expressed by Srenivasan.The social gatherings which used to fea-ture both communities have become athing of the past. The ‘we’ and ‘they’ divideis clearly visible. T Palanivelu, a business-man based in Chennai who has commer-cial interests in these districts says thatmembers of the Muslim community areshowing apprehension in dealing withHindus. “I blame the political parties forthe same. This is not the way to fight anykind of draconian laws,” said Palanivelu.

Krishna Pillai a farmer fromTirunelveli says the division is complete inhis district as well as in Kanyakumari. “Wehave decided to boycott shops owned byMuslim community. The Islamic hardlin-ers are encouraging their communitymembers not to have any kind of dealingswith Hindus. What else do you expectfrom us?” asked Pillai.

Even as Hindus have launched an un-declared social and business boycott of the

Muslim community, the Sangh Parivarorganizations are in the process of settingup small kirana shops in areas where theHindus do not have any provision storesor super markets. “In course of time, wewill have our own super market chainstoo,” said Arjun Sampath, president,Hindu People Party.

Sampath said this is a reaction to the“blockade” enforced by the Muslim com-munity on the Hindus.

Though the Centre claims that Delhiriots have subsided and the region is limp-ing back to normalcy, situation in TamilNadu is in the reverse process. “Till nowthe agitations remained peaceful. Butwhat next is a major question,” saidMalan, political commentator.

Indications are that the agitationsagainst CAA would continue in TamilNadu in days to come. Thamimun Ansari,Manithaneya Jananayaga Katchi, anextremist Islamic organization in the fore-front of the agitation declared atCoimbatore that the agitation would con-tinue till the Centre repeals the CAA.

“If the Centre and the Tamil NaduGovernment continue to ignore us, we willlaunch a jail bharo agitation across theState,” said Gulam Dasthakir leader, TamilNadu Thowheed Jamath.

Srinagar: Two Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) militants werearrested in Srinagar and armsand ammunition seized fromtheir possession, police said onSunday.

They have been identifiedas Vakeel Ahmed Bhat alias AbuZarrar and Omar Ismail Das,both residents of Bijbehara,area of South Kashmir'sAnantnag district. On a credi-ble input, security forces inter-cepted a car on Barzulla-Chanapora road on Saturday, apolice spokesman said.

He said while checking thevehicle, officers recovered armsand ammunition from the twopersons. According to policerecords, the two are active mil-itants affiliated with proscribedoutfit LeT, the spokesman said,adding, both have been arrest-ed and shifted to police stationwhere they remain in custody. PTI

Kolkata: The ruling TrinamoolCongress in West Bengal onSunday slammed Union HomeMinister Amit Shah for attack-ing the State Government overlaw and order situation, sayinginstead of preaching he shouldapologise for failing to saveinnocent lives during the Delhiviolence.

Senior TMC leaderAbhishek Banerjee also saidWest Bengal is better off with-out bigotry and hatred that, healleged, the BJP “is trying tospread”.

“Rather than coming andpreaching #Bengal @AmitShahyou should have explained andapologised for failing to savemore than 50 innocent lives in#DelhiViolence right underyour nose,” Abhishek, nephewof Chief Minister MamataBanerjee, said in a tweet.

At least 42 people werekilled and over 200 injured asfrenzied groups of people

torched houses, shops, vehicles,a petrol pump, and pelted localpeople and police personnelwith stones earlier this week,the worst riots in Delhi in overthree decades.

Delhi Police is under theUnion Ministry of Home.

“Mr Shah, Bengal is betteroff without bigotry and hatredthat BJP is trying to spread,”Abhishek said in thetweet.

Shah, who was in the cityto address a rally, exuded con-fidence that the Bharatiya

Janata Party (BJP) will form thenext government in the Statewith two-third majority afterthe 2021 Assembly polls andexpressed anguish over the“worsening” law and order sit-uation in Bengal.

With an eye on 2021Assembly polls in the state,Shah also launched the BJP's'Aar Noi Annay' (no moreinjustice) campaign andaccused the TMC Governmentof not allowing “central welfarepolicies to be implemented inthe state”. PTI

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Shirdi: Amidst protests against the newCitizenship law, Maharashtra BJP chiefChandrakant Patil on Sunday accusedthe “Leftists, urban and rural Naxals”of trying to destabilise the country andmislead people over differentissues.

The former Maharashtra Ministeralso said that as the Government hascrushed the Naxals in the last five years,“silent Naxalism” has started and mis-leading people was part of it.

He said the Congress, NCP and theMuslim community should realisethat the Leftists were trying to disturbthe country's peace and push their ownagenda.

Patil was addressing a press con-ference during his visit to the SaibabaSamadhi in Shirdi town inAhmednagar district of Maharashtra.

“Muslims in the country, Congressand NCP are not able to understandthat Leftists, Maoists, urban Naxals andrural Naxals, who are on the rise, wantto destabilise the country. Urban Naxalsare trying to mislead the people on var-ious issues,” he said in response to aquery on the forces behind the anti-

CAA protests.“I appeal to our opponents

Congress and NCP that elections andrunning a Government are differentthings. Sometimes you win, sometimeswe. But they should take note of theincidents that are destabilising thecountry,” he added.

Patil said members of the Muslimcommunity should tell in a debate whattheir problems are (concerning theCAA).

“It is being fed in your mind thatyou have a problem. Anywhere it isbeing said that (PM Narendra) Modijiis going to build a jail in Delhi andMuslims from across the country willbe put there. Is it possible? So how doesthis get into the minds of Muslims?” headded.

“In this, Muslims are harmingthemselves...Disturbing the long-estab-lished brotherhood. This disturbancewill make life difficult. They don'trealise that they are being trapped.

“Congress, NCP don't realise thatthey are opposing the CAA in favourof Muslims, but the Leftists are bene-fiting from it. They want to disturb the

country. It is not about any politicalparty. It is all the agenda of theLeftists,” he said.

“For years, despite using guns, theydid not get success through ruralNaxals. The government completelydrove them away. In five years, theNaxals were finished. Now 'silentNaxalism' has started and misleadingpeople is part of it,” he alleged.

When asked whether the use ofabusive language allegedly by BJPleader Narayan Rane and his politiciansons against Chief Minister UddhavThackeray and Shiv Sena leader SanjayRaut suits the party's culture, Patil saidhe hasn't noticed anything likethis.

“The BJP believes in culture, but itdoes not mean that we are cowards.Everyone has a different personality. Ifanyone says anything wrong, then theparty will act against it. I have notnoticed anything like it,” he said.

“If Shiv Sena does whatever itwants, and if Raut writes whatever hewants in the editorial of 'Saamana'(Sena mouthpiece)...Does it suit theirculture?” he asked. PTI

Bengaluru: The area outside the SirPuttana Chetty Town Hall, the venue ofmany pro and anti-CAA protests over thelast few months, will be out of bounds toany stir as the city civic body has bannedany such activity, citing dip in bookings andtraffic congestion.

The Bruhat Bengaluru MahanagaraPalike council passed a resolution to thiseffect at its meeting on Saturday, sourcessaid. Opposition parties protested againstthe resolution, noting that the subject wasnot even part of the agenda.

Defending the move, Mayor GauthamKumar said that protests in front of SirPuttana Chetty Town Hall had led to a dipin bookings by event organizers, affectingBBMP's revenue and was also causing traf-fic congestion in the area.

BBMP has also communicated its deci-sion to the city police chief and have saidthat protesters can state demonstrations atthe Freedom Park and Mourya Circle.

The Opposition has termed the reso-lution as 'undemocratic' and done torestrict anti-CAA protests and threatenedto stage protestsin front of Town Hall itselfto revoke it. PTI

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Mumbai: Maharashtra deputy ChiefMinister And senior NCP leader AjitPawar on Sunday said the new citizenshiplaw, the proposed NRC and the NPR willnot take away anybody's citizenship andflagged “misinformation” on the issue.

Addressing the convention of theNationalist Congress Party (NCP) here,he also ruled out any need to bring a res-olution against the CitizenshipAmendment Act (CAA) and the NationalPopulation Register (NPR) in the stateLegislative Assembly.

“The CAA, NRC and NPR will nottake away anyone's citizenship,” he said.“It is unnecessary to pass a resolutionagainst the CAA and the NPR in theMaharashtra Assembly,” the deputy CMsaid.

He said some people were spreading“false information” about the CAA, NRCand NPR by referring to a resolutionpassed in Bihar, and called for moreawareness on this issue.

The Bihar Legislative Assembly lastmonth unanimously resolved that therewas no need of NRC in the state and that

the NPR exercise be done strictly accord-ing to the 2010 format.

Notably, NCP chief Sharad Pawar hadsaid in last December that like eight otherstates, Maharashtra should also refuseimplementation of the new citizenshiplaw, which he feared would hurt the reli-gious and social harmony ofIndia.

NCP leader and state minister NawabMalik had last month said the NRC willnot be implemented in Maharashtra.

The Congress, another constituent inthe Shiv Sena-led government, haddemanded that a resolution against theNPR and the CAA be brought in theAssembly.

After meeting Prime MinisterNarendra Modi in Delhi last month, ChiefMinister Uddhav Thackeray had said thatno one needs to fear about the CAA. Hehad also said that the NPR was not goingto throw anyone out of the country.

Earlier, Thackeray had said that hisgovernment will not allow the proposedNRC to be implemented as it wouldimpact people of all religions. PTI

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Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala ChiefMinister Pinarayi Vijayan on Sundayappealed to the External AffairsMinister to take necessary stepsand arrange for safe return of hun-dreds of fishermen, includingKeralites, trapped in Iran followingcoronavirus scare.

In a letter to External AffairsMinister S Jaishankar, he said thestate government has receivedinformation that more than hundredpeople, including around 60 fromKerala, were trapped in Azalur inIran.

"When contacted by state gov-ernment officials, it has been statedby the persons trapped in Azalur thatmore than hundred persons arethere out of which around 60 arereported to be from Kerala," Vijayansaid in the letter.

He said it was learnt that they

were unable to return to India onaccount of the COVIT19 spread.

"...I request you to direct the(Indian) Embassy officials (in Iran)to take necessary steps and arrangefor the safe return of these persons,"Vijayan wrote.

Earlier, the Fisheries Minister JMercykutty Amma had said the stategovernment will take all necessarysteps to bring fishermen from thestate stranded in Iran.

She said the state governmentwill collect details of Keralitestrapped in Iran and coordinate withthe Indian embassy there throughNoRKA (Department of Non-Resident Keralite Affairs).

A video of the Kerala fishermenseeking help was forwarded to thefamilies of the fishermen and mediahouses in the state.

One of them is heard saying in

the video that they were unable tomove out of their rooms due to therestrictions imposed by the Iran gov-ernment due to the coronavirusscare.

"Like us many people are fromIndia are stranded here. We are shortof food. We tried to contact oursponsor. But he asked us to contactthe government authorities," theman said.

The fishermen were in Iran,working for a fishing company forlast many months.

Most of the Keralites are fromPozhiyur and Vizhinjam areas inThiruvananthapuram.The TamilNadu government had on Fridaytaken up with the Centre the issueof over 300 stranded fishermenfrom the state in Iran and soughtsteps for their immediate evacuation. PTI

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Amid speculation that asenior party MLA may

soon jump ship to the BJP, JDSpatriarch and former PrimeMinister HD Deve Gowda onSunday said he was not both-ered by such developments asthey would have no impact.

"If someone goes or comeagain, I will not get disturbedby it, if someone goes.. Nothingwill happen.

GT Devegowda had in thepast gone to BJP and comeback, he had even becomeMinister here. Now he mayagain go back (to BJP). Whyshould I bother?" Gowda askedin response to a question.

Senior JD(S) legislator GT Devegowda, who has beenmaintaining distance fromJD(S) for some time now hasreportedly met the BJP nation-

al secretary recently, triggeringspeculations.

Speaking to reporters inHassan, the JD(S) supremosaid, "I will not fear such things.I have spirit to build this party.I may be 87-years-old, but myspirit won't go down.." headded.

According to sources,JD(S) leadership is even con-sidering issuing notice to G TDevegowda for his recentactions and it is likely to be fol-lowed by expulsion.

JD(S) state President H KKumaraswamy on Saturdaysaid, he will warn G TDevegowda.

"If he (GTD) wants toremain loyal to the party, hecan stayhis certain statementshave embarrassed the party.

Let him take a clear stand,let him not stay here and speakin favour of someone else," he

said, adding that we are watch-ing his conduct some of whichamounts to indiscipline, we areyet to issue him any notice.

G T Devegowda had sev-eral times in the recent pastopenly expressed his differ-ences with leadership, and hadpraised BJP leaders.

He had also allegedly votedin favour of BJP during therecent legislative councilbypolls, despite JD(S) legisla-ture party in its meeting decid-ing not to take part in voting.

Responding to a question,without naming GTDevegowda, BJP leader andDeputy Chief Minister CNAshwathnarayan on Sundaysaid if someone wants to join theparty believing in its ideologyand principles, we are ready towelcome happily.

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Rashmi Thackeray, wife of ChiefMinister Uddhav Thackeray,

replaced him as the editor of the ShivSena’s official mouth-piece“Saamana”, a Marathi daily newspa-per, on Sunday.

The change in guard in“Saamana” set-up was expected asUddhav had quit as the editor of theparty’s official mouth-piece aftertaking over as the Chief Minister ofMaharashtra three months ago.

Uddhav Thackeray had takenover as the Editor of “Saamana” afterthe death of Shiv Sena chief and hisfather Bal Thackeray on November18, 2012. After having been its edi-tor for eight years, Uddhav resignedas the editor of Saamana , before tak-ing the oath as the Chief Minister onNovember 28, 2019. So much so thatUddhav’s name had disappearedfrom the print line of the newspaper.

In a public notice issued in thenewspaper by publisher of“Saamana” Madhukar Bhagwatunder the Regulations of Newspaperson Sunday, Rashmi Thackeray wasnamed as the Editor of the Sena’s offi-cial mouth-piece.

“Saamana” began its publicationon January 23, 1988, with lateThackeray as its founding editor.'Dopahar Ka Saamana', a Hindiafternoon edition of “Saamana” waslaunched by the Shiv Sena onFebruary 23, 1993.

In her capacity as the editor of“Saamana”, Rashmi Thackeray willalso be the Editor of 'Dopahar KaSaamana'.

Rashmi’s position of the editor of“Saamana” is more of a titular natureas the Thackeray family’s closeconfidante Sanjay Raut and RajyaSabha Member will continue to be itsexecutive editor and will pen edito-rials and write weekly columns in theMarathi newspaper.

Nashik:A man who was quarantined in Nashikin Maharashtra for possible exposure to novelcoronavirus after his return from Italy, has test-ed negative, officials said on Sunday.

The man, who hails from Chandrapur dis-trict, had returned to the country on February26 from Italy, where he had gone for studies, anofficial said.

"He came directly to his sister's place inNashik. As he suffered from cough, cold andfatigue, the health officials of the NashikMunicipal Corporation (NMC) conducted amedical check-up on him and got him admittedto the civil hospital here," district civil surgeonDr Suresh Jagdale said.

"He was quarantined as a precautionary mea-sure as he showed symptoms of coronavirus. Hissamples were sent to Pune for testing," headded. A Maharashtra health department offi-cial later confirmed that he was found negativefor the infection. PTI

Patna: Bihar Chief MinisterNitish Kumar on Sundayasserted that the ruling NDA isand will remain united in theState, dispelling "confusions"that had arisen in the wake ofhis recent meeting with RJD'sTejashwi Yadav followed bysome opposition GrandAlliance leaders beckoning himto cross over.

Addressing a 'karyakartasammelan' of the Janata Dal(United), of which he is thenational president, Kumarexhorted party workers tostrive towards ensuring theNDA's win in "more than 200seats" when elections to the243-member Bihar Assemblyare held this year.

Disapproving of political"controversies" around theCitizenship (Amendment) Act(CAA), which his party hadsupported in Parliament,Kumar called for "patience" asthe matter was sub judice.

Anxieties in some sectionsof society, particularly amongthe minorities, have beenaddressed with a resolutionpassed by the Bihar assemblyagainst the National Register ofCitizens (NRC) and insertionof contentious clauses inNational Population Register(NPR) forms, he said.

The JD(U) chief also reit-erated his commitmenttowards ensuring justice and

welfare of all, including minori-ties, and slammed the opposi-tion Congress-RJD combine,which keeps attacking himover his alliance with the BJP,by recalling the Bhagalpur riotsof 1989 that had claimed over1,000 lives.

"It is well known who wasin power when the riots tookplace and how justice eludedthe victims for 15 years there-after. We brought the guilty tobook and justice was ensuredto the victims. I am more con-cerned about working for theminorities than getting theirvotes," said Kumar as he high-lighted the various schemesbeing run by his Governmentfor minority communities.

The chief minister, whospoke for close to an hour anda half, also dwelt at length onhis Government's accomplish-ments with regard to improv-ing law and order, and bring-ing in all round development.

Kumar asked party work-ers to apprise the common peo-ple about the same and debunkthe opposition's propaganda.

On allegations of deterio-ration in law and order levelledby opposition parties and theconcern expressed of late byally Chirag Paswan, who headsthe Lok Janshakti Party, thechief minister quoted NationalCrime Records Bureau statis-tics to suggest that the crime

rate in Bihar, when taken intoaccount in proportion to thepopulation, was among thelowest in the country.

Sore over widespread crit-icism of the poor health andeducation scenario in the state,Kumar highlighted his gov-ernment's success in reducingschool dropout rates and men-tioned the adulation fromMicrosoft founder Bill Gateswho, during his visit to Patnalast year, had praised the state'sefforts towards "fighting pover-ty and disease".

The chief minister, whowill aim at a fourth consecutiveterm in power in the assembly

elections due by November,urged his party's workers todraw inspiration from theNDA's stupendous perfor-mance in the Lok Sabha pollslast year when the BJP, theJD(U) and the LJP had togeth-er won 39 out of the 40 seats inBihar. Indirectly referring to hisone-to-one meeting withTejashwi Yadav inside hischamber at the Bihar Assemblycomplex, which had promptedGrand Alliance leaders likeformer chief minister JitanRam Manjhi to "welcome" himto the opposition formation,Kumar said, "There is no scopefor confusions. We met over the

NPR and the NRC debate, andthe matter has been settled witha unanimous resolution passedby the assembly".

"Now there should bedhairya (patience) as the CAAis before the court. Stirring acontroversy is not proper," saidthe JD(U) chief in a veiledadmonition to the opposition.

He also pointed out thatthe law providing for citizen-ship to refugees fleeing adjoin-ing countries out of religiouspersecution was conceptualisedwhen Atal Bihari Vajpayee wasthe prime minister.

Flaying the RJD-Congresscombine for their agitations

over the citizenship law, Kumarsaid, "I was a member ofParliament then. And, what Iam saying can be verified fromthe records of the proceedingsof the time. Leaders like PranabMukherjee, Manmohan Singhand Lalu Prasad all were infavour of such a legislation backthen."

He also spoke of the "JalJeevan Hariyali" campaignwhich aims at combating cli-mate change through environ-ment preservation andexpressed delight over theenthusiastic public participa-tion in the human chain thatwas formed in its support inJanuary.

Kumar also asserted thatprohibition, brought in forcefour years ago, has had manypositive social and economicefforts and reiterated his com-mitment to securing specialcategory status for Bihar which,he holds, is necessary for accel-erated development of a statethat has been historically back-ward.

The Chief Minister paidtributes to Valmiki Nagar MPBaidya Nath Prasad Mahto,who died in Delhi earlier thisweek. Condoling his deathbefore he commenced hisspeech, Kumar winded up hisaddress by making the crowdsobserve silence in the memoryof the departed leader. PTI

Jalna (Maha): Maharashtra LegislativeAssembly Speaker Nana Patole on Sundaysaid he would support the demand of OBCleaders to boycott the exercise to conductthe General Census 2021 if a caste-basedenumeration is not allowed.

Speaking at an event here, the Speakersaid leaders cutting across the party lineshad demanded that a delegation be sent tomeet Prime Minister Narendra Modi andUnion Home Minister Amit Shah forallowing the caste-based Census to find thepopulation of people from Other BackwardClasses (OBCs).

"OBC leaders have decided that if thecaste Census is not conducted they wouldboycott the General Census (exercise) andI would support them.

"If a government does not follow thenorms of the Constitution, then an indi-vidual has the freedom to boycott (anyexercise mandated by the government). Wewill follow the mantra of MahatmaGandhi," he said.

Patole said since the prime ministerbelongs to a backward community (OBC)

he should understand the pains of the peo-ple.

The Maharashtra Legislative Assemblyon January 8 unanimously passed a reso-lution urging the Centre for a caste-basedCensus to find out the population of OBCsacross the country.

The resolution was moved suo moto("on its own") by the Speaker. Referringto that resolution, Patole said the state gov-ernment can examine if a separate Censusexercise can be undertaken in Maharashtralike the demands made in Tamil Nadu andBihar.

Patole also said a "right" decisionwould be taken on the Citizen AmendmentAct (CAA) in the state legislature which iscurrently in session.

Patole, a former BJP MP, had quit thesaffron party following differences with thePrime Minister on agrarian issues, andrejoined the Congress in December2017.

The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) gov-ernment in the state comprises the ShivSena, the NCP and the Congress. PTI

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Patna: Bihar Chief MinisterNitish Kumar on Sunday saidmigration of people from oneState to another should not beseen as a problem as he assert-ed that the "nation is one" andpeople are free to move fromone place to another.

The Janata Dal (United)chief 's reaction came afterelection strategist and formerparty national vice-presidentPrashant Kishor and CPI'sKanhaiya Kumar flagged theissue of migration of youthsfrom Bihar to other states andunemployment recently.

Recounting a conversa-tion that he had withRaghunandan Lal Bhatia, whoserved as the governor ofBihar in 2008-09, Kumar said,"He asked me why was it thatPunjab had started getting sofewer migrant workers fromBihar. Similar was the obser-vation of the then Punjabdeputy chief minister SukhbirSingh Badal."

He said, a fall in the num-ber of migrant workers fromBihar was also the commonrefrain in Bhutan when he vis-

ited the Himalayan kingdom.

"Those who are interestedin knowing the facts can cometo us. We will provide themwith exact figures of the num-ber of vacancies filled by thestate public service commis-sion and other bodies entrust-ed with recruitment of man-power. They will be also givenan exact idea of how muchthings have changed since thepreceding regimes," Kumarsaid.

He, however, also said "ekgandi cheez shuru ho gayi haimigration ke naam se (a badthing has started by way of thisdiscourse over migration)."

"The nation is one andbelongs to all. People from allparts of the country are andmust be free to travel to anyother part. Has Bihar not ben-efitted from the services ofnurses from Kerala since longback? Are people from otherparts of the country not con-tributing to the states growthby making use of their talentshere?" the Chief Minister asked. PTI

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Holding the BJP cent percent responsible for the

riots in Delhi, NCP chiefSharad Pawar on Sundaycharged that having realised inthe run-up to the recentAssembly polls it was notreceiving public support andwould not come to power, theruling party at the Centre triedto derive political mileage bycreating a communal divide inthe national Capital.

Launching an all-out attackagainst the BJP at party work-ers at Somaya grounds atChunnabatti north-centralMumbai, Pawar said: “The BJPis 100 per cent responsible forthe recent riots in Delhi. TheNarendra Modi governmenthas miserably failed in pre-venting in riots in Delhi and inthe process failed to maintainlaw and order fin the nationalCapital”.

Pawar also accused PrimeMinister Narendra Modi andformer BJP president AmitShah of fomenting communaltension during the Assemblypolls in the national Capitalthrough their vitriolic speech-es.

“One could realise from thespeeches of Narendra Modi, hewas triggering controversieson religious issues. It was wor-risome that Modi — as thePrime Minister of India —wasresorting to this of election-eering. Instead of making effec-tive use of power in hand at thehand for the benefit of people,the BJP leaders used ‘Golimaro” language in their speech-es”.

“Having all lost all electionsin the recent times, the BJPrealised that the mood that wasin its favour during the LokSabha polls was suddenly goingagainst it. No wonder the BJPwas creating a divide in the

society in an effort to derivepolitical mileage in the DelhiAssembly polls.

The speeches made byModi, Shah, Union Ministersand party leaders in their elec-tion rally appeared to be break-ing social and communal amityin the society,” the NCP chiefsaid.

Underscoring the dire needto unseating the BJP frompower at the Centre, Pawarsaid: “There is serious concernin all sections of the societyacross the country about whathappened in the national cap-ital. Apart from preventing recurrence of thesituation witnessed in Delhi inany other parts of the country,there is a need to keep all suchforces which are threateningunity and integrity of the coun-try. It time for us to think aboutalternatives (to the currentGovernment at the Centre)”.

Taking objection to lan-guage used by Modi in his pub-lic speeches, Pawar said: “Modisaid that there was no need toinvestigate as to who were theopponents of the BJP and itsGovernment at the Centre.This, he said, was because onecould recognise the people bythe headgears they were wear-ing. It is a matter of seriousconcern that the PrimeMinister of the country wasmaking such statements whichdrive a wedge in the society.The ̀ Goli Maro..’ statement bya union minister was aimed atcreating an atmosphere of ter-ror in the society”.

Slamming the Modi gov-ernment for the prevailing eco-nomic crisis in the country,Pawar said: “Our industry indire straits. There is phenom-enal rise in unemployment inthe country. The government atthe Centre does not seem tobother about the future of the

country. A party (BJP) that wonmore 300 seats in the LokSabha polls is not in power inmany states. The people areregretting as to why they re-elected BJP — a party that doesnot have the country's interestin the mind—to power at theCentre”.

Pawar said that the NCPwould play prominent part infighting the forces which weredividing the country on reli-gious and casteist lines. “Wehave shove aside forces thatwhip up communal passionand engineer riots in their dia-bolic design to win elections,”he said.

Dismissing speculationabout the possibility of collapseof MVA government inMaharashtra, Pawar said: “TheMVA government is commit-ted to resolving the issues of thepeople. This Government willcomplete its full five-yearterm”.

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The outbreak of Coronavirus thathas stymied economic activityacross China and the rest of theworld, including neighbouringSoutheast Asia, has gradually

been brought under control, at least inWuhan, its epicentre. The viral outbreak,now termed as “COVID-19” by the WorldHealth Organisation (WHO), has dis-rupted manufacturing supply chains acrossthe world, crippled tourism and tradeindustries and sharply reduced consump-tion of oil, gas and coal as economic activ-ity has come to a shuddering halt. Weirdlyenough, this may not be a bad thing indeed.However, there are a couple of threads thathave emerged due to the spread of thisvirus. It relates to the way China has tack-led COVID-19 back home. This will beworth exploring.

Its initial response was actually praise-worthy. Once the Chinese Central leader-ship was made aware of the ramificationsand the impact of this virus on its popu-lation, it acted speedily and in a way thatonly a nation-State with such a centralisedcommand structure can do. Informationspread was controlled, medical workers andthe armed forces mobilised in a way thatfrankly only China, which counts amongthe world’s largest nations, can do. Back inIndia, if we were to face such a situation,one can only imagine television anchorsgoing hammer and tongs against the pan-elists. Political parties, too, would not desistfrom giving a communal angle to the viraloutbreak. The speed at which it construct-ed hospitals and quarantine centres in thecity of Wuhan and central Hubei provinceis noteworthy.

That said, the second issue is one thatthe Chinese leadership ought to be con-cerned about. Almost no nation on theplanet trusted the statements/informationcoming out from China about the epidem-ic. Nor did anyone believe the statistics putout by it. Such fuss about a viral fever thathas a low fatality rate. According to offi-cial data, Coronavirus infected less than ahundred thousand people in the fourweeks it was around. Xinhua, the officialpress agency of the People’s Republic ofChina, put these statistics on Twitter. Butit likely failed to see the irony of using asocial network banned in China. More peo-ple have died from the common flu in theUS in the past year than have officially diedfrom the COVID-19 virus in China and therest of the world.

Going by the average toll of 400deaths per day, in the past month alone,more people must have died on Indianroads. As far as official statistics releasedby China, the infection and fatality rates arelower than previous major outbreaks,even other flu outbreaks in the past thathave emerged such as SARS.

So why this panic and a near war-likeemergency in cities across China to con-

tain the outbreak? Is China hid-ing something? The Chineseauthorities claim not to behiding anything but then, whyis everyone talking about theCOVID-19 outbreak? People inIndia and across the worldbelieve that China is hidingsomething. Is it true?

Videos, purportedlyemerging from China, showedhow authorities over there areforcibly detaining people andputting them into detentioncamps. The Chinese authoritieswere ham-fisted in the waythey dealt with Li Wenliang, thedoctor who first warned aboutthe possibility of an outbreakand ultimately died of the newcoronavirus. Some bloggers,too, have been documentinglife in the worst-hit provinces.Supposed presentations byChinese conglomerates havebeen leaked into the wild,which claim that the real num-ber of deaths is many multiplesof the official numbers, whichat the last count stood ataround 2,500 and the numberof confirmed cases may possi-bly be in millions.

Here is the thing: AllGovernments lie — whether itis the Chinese or theAmericans and even our own.Lies are propagated to cover upincompetence than to hide

malafide intentions. Well, dur-ing the Cold War, theAmericans and the Soviets liedwith malafide intentions. Butthat’s another story for anoth-er day. Politicians and bureau-crats lie more often than not tocover up their incompetenceand ineptitude.

The problem with lies, asalmost everyone knows, is thatthe web just gets bigger andbigger. But when matters ofpublic health and safety areinvolved, at least a degree oftruth will be of help even ifbeing economical with thetruth is essential to maintainpublic order. It was, therefore,almost amusing to see how theChinese Government sudden-ly sent its Ambassadors on apublic relations offensive evenas access to information wasrestricted not only for foreigncorrespondents but also for itsown journalists.

Of course, coming back tothe first point, the ChineseGovernment must be applaud-ed for its initial response to theoutbreak, once they realised theseriousness of it all, even if fewGovernments across the worldhave the necessary informationabout it, officially at least. Buteven with a new public rela-tions outreach, it should beapparent to the Chinese

Government that almostnobody, with the exception ofPakistan Prime Minister ImranKhan, trusts China. One sus-pects that in private, even he isskeptical of the Chinese stance.

What does this say aboutChinese President Xi Jinpingand China, a country thataspires to stand next to the USas a superpower? Forget otherGovernments, citizens in othercountries have lost faith inChina, a trend that seems to beaccelerating over the past fewyears. The Communist Party ofChina (CPC) ought to intro-spect why this is the case andhow the COVID-19 outbreakhas made matters worse on thetrust front.

There are lessons for otherGovernments as well, includingIndia, because “trust” is impor-tant. Whether one likes thePress or not, engagement withboth the local and global mediais vital. We have moved aheadfrom an age of information tothat of affirmation. It is impor-tant that this changes soon.Otherwise, we run the risk ofa complete and total break-down in “trust” with gover-nance across the world, thiscontagion having being startedby a real-life one.

(The writer is ManagingEditor, The Pioneer)

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Sir — In times when the BJP, oneof the ruling alliance partners inBihar, is treading cautiously andkeeping an eye over the fast-changing political developmentsin the State, Bihar Chief MinisterNitish Kumar’s meeting withRashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)leader Tejashwi Yadav on thesidelines of the ongoing BudgetSession twice within a weekmust have triggered jitters in theparty.

But then, in its singular pur-suit of electoral AshwamedhaYagna (horse sacrifice), the BJPmay not be inclined to introspect.In its journey thus far, it has rid-den roughshod over institutionsand ignored the innate inclusiveethos of a nation with hoary tra-ditions. It has never known to beany different.

After cutting a very sorryfigure in Maharashtra, where itsoldest ally snapped ties with it,the BJP was decimated yet againin Delhi, thanks to its overbear-ing attitude and pure disdain foropponents and allies alike. Now,it faces a similar situation inBihar. If the Shiv Sena and theCongress, two parties as differ-

ent as chalk and cheese, couldmerge in the west, can the eastbe an exception? More so whenthe BJP worships rigidity in theway it does politics?

R NarayananNavi Mumbai

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Markets get the f lu”(February 29). The Coronavirusspread rapidly outside China, in

countries such as South Korea,Italy and Iran among others dueto the lax screening and isolationmethods followed by thesenations. India, where three caseswere reported from Kerala, couldsail the tide because we followed

due processes of screening, iso-lation, tracing and followed uprigorously. Thus, we could pre-vent the spread of the virus. Allaffected nations must follow theguidelines of the World HealthOrganisation to prevent furtherspread of the virus and also limitthe death toll.

Sweta SankrityanNoida

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Sir — Even if for a minute webelieve that there is merit in theGovernment’s argument thatJustice S Muralidhar’s transferwas routine and that thePresident’s approval was soughta month back, one fails tounderstand why did it have toissue a late-night notification,especially when the judge was inthe midst of a hearing? Thereappeared to be no urgency. Thetiming of the Government’sdecision has raised apprehen-sions of bias, amounting to“obstruction of justice.”

Anurag SangarVia email

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Public spending on healthcare in the countryis among the lowest in the world at just a lit-tle over one per cent of the Gross Domestic

Product (GDP). Hence, the healthcare system isbeset with various problems that include shortageof workforce, infrastructure and dismal quality andavailability of services.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharamanannounced a set of measures to stimulate and boostthe healthcare sector as an industry in the UnionBudget, 2020-21 and allocated �69,000 crore for it,which also includes �6,400 crore for the AyushmanBharat-Prime Minister Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY). In the last Budget, the appropriation was�62,659 crore. Though there has been an increasein the allotment, the fact remains that it is quiteinsignificant when adjusted to inflation. Moreover,�69,000 crore amounts to barely one per cent of theGDP — a far cry from the National HealthPolicy’s much-talked about target of increasing thehealth budget to 2.5 per cent of the GDP by 2025.

There is quite a slack in the pace of increase inthe budgetary allocations for healthcare and willresult in India finding it difficult to achieve someof its objectives, like reducing infant mortality. Indiaranks 12 out of the 52 lower-middle income coun-tries with a high infant mortality rate. Even thoughthere has been a gradual increase in allocation, thedismal percentage of the GDP spent on healthcareis a concern, and will remain so for a long time,unless the Government makes some drastic changesin the future.

However, Mission Indradhanush, covering 12new diseases including five new vaccines, is defi-nitely a boon as it will provide the people of thecountry the much-needed relief and care.

Setting up of hospitals on the Public PrivatePartnership (PPP) model, along with medical col-leges to address the shortage of doctors and open-ing up DNB and FNB certificate courses is a stepin the right direction. Large hospitals runningResidency programmes will also provide a train-ing platform for medical professionals.

However, private hospitals which venture intoPPP projects should be assured of all help by theGovernment and reimbursement for patients treat-ed in them must be done within a month of thetreatment/completion. This is because long delaysin reimbursement will affect the volume of workdone by hospitals and will not encourage privatehospitals to come forward and join this genuineattempt to help the needy.

With 2020 being celebrated as the InternationalYear of the Nurse and the Midwife by the WorldHealth Organisation (WHO), the Finance Minister’sannouncement of bridge courses for nurses andother healthcare professionals to match internation-al standards, by allotting �3,000 crore for skill devel-opment, is a good incentive.

Skill development of Physician Assistants andparamedical personnel through courses should alsobe done and these courses must be recognised byregulatory bodies and other associations such asthe Indian Medical Association, the MedicalCouncil of India and so on. This is prevalent theworld over but is still not implemented in the coun-try and recognition of these courses will enhancethe services provided by the healthcare sectorimmensely. Last year, the AB-PMJAY was able tocover over 6.9 million treatments. However, theworld’s largest Government-funded health insur-

ance scheme’s budgetary allocation for thisyear is the same as last year, i.e. �6,400crore. So are the allocations for thescheme this year sufficient to make AB-PMJAY a success? There is a possibilitythat the payments would be delayed, lead-ing to insurance companies not being apart of it actively. Currently, over 20,000hospitals are empanelled in this scheme.Many hospitals, especially in smallertowns, are yet to be covered. The plan toset up 150,000 health and wellness cen-tres by 2022 and fund them through thebudgetary allocation for AB-PMJAYseems to be insufficient in regards toachieving this initiative. In order toaddress the shortage of hospital beds andenhance healthcare accessibility throughPPP, innovative business models will becrucial. Also, cognizance about preven-tive healthcare and the habit of routinescreening and monitoring could reallyreduce the liability from the entire ecosys-tem.

Even in the present economic sce-nario, India imports over 70 per cent ofits medical devices, with a fourth of themcoming from the USA. While the inten-tion to impose a five per cent health cesswas to strategically redistribute suchearnings to set up tier-II and tier-IIIhealthcare facilities, it does not resolve toboost the local medical devices industry.A legitimate certification authority forsuch devices would aid in use and adop-tion of equipment and devices made inIndia. Sadly, start-ups in medical devices,indigenous research and innovative prod-ucts such as bioprosthetic valves and ven-tricular assist devices are not beingencouraged and the attitude of the regu-latory bodies in this country has to bereviewed. We have just one medical sci-

ence park in the country with SpecialEconomic Zone approval. However, dur-ing the last eight years no progress hasbeen made to start research units like inthe Biopolis in Singapore. But, this is notdue to the lack of talent in the country.Many attempts are being hindered by theattitude of financial institutions such aspublic sector banks and so on. Hence,loans for these intuitions should be at parwith NABARD rates or the Governmentshould give grants rather than taking theentrepreneurs to Debts RecoveryTribunals, the National Company LawTribunal and so on. Also, medical researchshould be identified separately rather thanclubbing it with commercial ventures.

While healthcare services are on thenegative list of the Goods and Services Tax(GST) for provision of services, the basicinput costs of creating such services havehad an upward tax implication with GSTand hence increased the overall consumercost of such services, with the inability ofhealthcare services to offset such coststhrough input credit. Clarification in thisregard would have ideally balanced thecost outcome and kept rising costs incheck. With a huge focus on the Internet-of-Things, Machine Learning, ArtificialIntelligence and analytics, it is believedthat the Budget will provide a boost to thecountry’s digital economy. However a dig-ital incentivisation plan is completelymissing. While 2019 saw various frame-works initiated such as the NationalDigital Health Blueprint, guidance andadoption remains unaddressed and thefact remains that budgetary guidance forfurtherance and utilisation can go a longway.

This being said, the fact remains thatthe Government has a holistic vision of

healthcare that translates into wellness ofcitizens. The Finance Minister proposeda viability gap funding window for settingup hospitals which is a good move.

The Budget also declared that thegeneric medicine retail outlets JanAushadhi stores would be availablethrough expansion to every district.Apart from medicines, these stores in par-ticular would also stock up on more sur-gical necessities. Currently the JanAushadhi stores sell 154 surgical instru-ments, which will now be expanded toabout 300. This will result in a positiveoutcome for both SME pharma manufac-turers and small domestic medical devicesmakers. While a lot of schemes and poli-cies have been initiated, there are no clearroadmaps to see these through till the end.Proper channels and information centresshould be set up, where potential bene-ficiaries can seek details and makeinformed decisions. A system or a specialtask force should be set-up to monitoreach scheme. A robust feedback mecha-nism from the masses about the samewould also help in their realisation andimprovement.

There is a dire need for theGovernment to stress on R&D in basicmedical sciences and medical research,which will pave the way for growth andprogress of indigenous technology. Inaddition, special provisions should bemade under the ‘Make in India’ initiativefor manufacturing, which will in turncontribute to India becoming a frontrun-ner in medical technology and innovationacross the globe.

(The writer is a Padma Sri awardeeand cardiothoracic surgeon credited withIndia’s first bypass. He is Chairman andCEO of Frontier Lifeline Hospital)

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The horrific mass molestation ofstudents at Gargi College —where over 30 men forcibly

entered the women’s college — issymptomatic of an atmospherewhich is permissive of sexual intim-idation. No doubt, sexual harassmentis a universal phenomenon, thoughit may differ in its manifestation,depending upon how a society takesit. Sexual harassment of women ineducational institutions is one of themost common and largely underre-ported forms of gender-based vio-lence, often inflicted by male col-leagues, teachers or perpetratorsfrom outside. In a significant num-ber of cases, women adopt a cultureof silence as they have learnt to

“ignore” certain forms of predatorybehaviour of men, like passing lewdcomments, wolf-whistling, staringand so on.

Sexual harassment infringesupon the fundamental right of awoman to gender equality underArticle 14 and her right to life withdignity under Article 21 of theConstitution, which includes theright to a safe working environment.

Before the Vishaka Guidelinescame into existence in 1997, sexualharassment at the workplace wasdealt with under Indian Penal CodeSection 354, (assault or criminal forceto woman with intent to outrage hermodesty) and Section 509, punish-ing the guilty for using a “word, ges-ture or act intended to insult themodesty of a woman.” However, theinterpretation of the provisions on“outraging a woman’s modesty” wasleft to the police officer.

On the basis of the VishakaGuidelines, the Sexual Harassment ofWomen at the Workplace(Prevention, Prohibition andRedressal) Act, 2013 was enacted toensure safe working spaces for them.

Consistent with the Vishaka judg-ment, the Act provides a civil rem-edy to women and is in addition toother laws that are currently in forceto pursue a criminal case.Consequently, any woman who wish-es to report sexual harassment at theworkplace has the right to takerecourse to both civil and criminalproceedings.

While there is no denying theimportance of legal protectionagainst sexual harassment, its pub-lic health aspects and their therapeu-tic interventions are no less impor-tant. They need to be examined andaddressed to restore the physical andmental health of the victim and gointo the reasons for the deviantbehaviour of the perpetrators. Eventhough, environment is significant-ly responsible, what is of pressingconcern is the reason why some peo-ple and not others, go on to exploitthat permissive atmosphere andcommit sexual crimes.

By nature, some people are morehostile, authoritarian and sexist,which might make them more proneto becoming an aggressor. The com-

plexity of the interaction between anaggrieved woman and the perpetra-tor needs to be understood and thepersonality profile of the aggressorrequires to be examined in depth toevolve effective measures to preventthe occurrence and reduce the preva-lence of sexual harassment at theworkplace.

Psychological studies show thatsexual predators lack a social con-science; they are callous about theirsocial commitments and have a ten-dency to exaggerate the situation.They justify their misdeeds andlegitimise their aggression, particu-larly against women when it is relat-ed to the endorsement of sexually-coercive behaviour.

Studies also show that the psy-chopathic traits of exploitation ofothers and lack of empathy, areboth commonly associated withrapists, stalkers and molesters. Whensexual harassment escalates, it posesa potential risk of a more serious sex-ual crime like rape. This link high-lights the fact that sexual harassersare potential rapists and to preventrapes, those indulging in harassment

need to be treated for their deviantbehaviour.

Sexual harassment not onlyresults in strained interpersonal rela-tions and an hostile working environ-ment, it adversely affects the produc-tivity of the organisation, leading tofinancial losses. But more than any-thing else, it affects the mindset of thevictims, causing a wide range of men-tal health issues. And as physicalhealth and emotional well-being areinter-related, victims often suffer lossof appetite, headaches, weight fluc-tuations and sleep disturbance. Thecommonly-reported negative effectsincluded fear, concerns for safety, andpost traumatic stress disorder.

No other form of discriminationhas such a wide impact on the phys-ical and mental health of the victims.Sexual harassment has emerged as amajor public health problem withlong-term physical and mental healthconsequences for the victims.However, the impact is not restrict-ed to their health and seeps into thevictim’s social and professional life.This aspect often gets ignored andvictims mostly remain preoccupied

with legal remedies. Clinicians havedescribed case histories, symptomprofiles, stress factors and attemptsat intervention. Theoreticians work-ing in the fields of women’s develop-ment, cognitive functioning andgender-based trauma have generat-ed a parallel body of relevant infor-mation, applying their theories to thefield of harassment.

Sexual harassment presents sig-nificant challenges to a victim’s inter-nal and external stability. Primarilyrecognised as a legal or organisation-al management issue, it belongs to aclinical continuum with other gen-der-based abuses. If untreated, it cancause psychiatric illness and long-term negative changes in the victim’sinternal perception of self, others,and the world and severely hinderher potential. Appropriate clinicalinterventions for both, the victimsand the perpetrators, can provide anopportunity to assess the seriousnessof the crisis and make the workplacefree from sexual harassment.

(The writer is Professor ofPsychiatry at Hamdard Institute ofMedical Sciences and Research)

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The government on Sundaysaid it has collected �1.05

lakh crore as GST revenue inFebruary, up 8 per cent over thesame month last year.

The collection from Goodsand Services Tax (GST) inFebruary was, however, lowerthan the �1.10 lakh crore col-lected in January 2020.

"The gross GST revenuecollected in the month ofFebruary, 2020 is �1,05,366crore of which CGST is �20,569crore, SGST is �27,348 crore,IGST is �48,503 crore andCess is �8,947 crore," theFinance Ministry said in astatement. The total number ofGSTR 3B returns filed for themonth of January up toFebruary 29 stood at 83 lakh —same as last month.

The government has set-tled �22,586 crore to CGST and�16,553 crore to SGST fromIGST as regular settlement.

"The total revenue earnedby Central Government andthe State Governments afterregular settlement in the monthof February, 2020 is �43,155

crore for CGST and �43,901crore for the SGST," the state-ment added.

The GST revenues duringthe month of February fromdomestic transactions hasshown a growth of 12 per centover the same month last year.

"Taking into account theGST collected from import ofgoods, the total revenue duringFebruary, 2020 has increased by8 per cent in comparison to therevenue during February,2019," the statement said.

During this month, theGST on import of goods hasshown a negative growth of (-) 2 per cent as compared toFebruary 2019, it added.

Meanwhile, Deloitte IndiaPartner M S Mani said with themonthly collections now sta-bilising at over Rs 1 trillion permonth, the GST authoritieswould now go all out toenhance the March collectionsso that the deficit is reduced tothe extent possible.

"These numbers indicatethat the GST collections arebecoming stable, with newchanges like e-invoicing andnew returns slated for next

month, more stability is expect-ed in future," he said.

EY Tax Partner AbhishekJain said one possible signifi-cant reason linked to reason-able collections is the differen-tial liabilities discharged bybusinesses in reference to theobservations in GST Annualreturns and audit for FY 2017-18, which was due in January2020.

PwC India Partner &Leader Indirect Tax Pratik Jainsaid while the GST collectionagain looks impressive consid-ering the overall economic sce-nario, one will have to see howmuch of it is due to restrictionand blockage of input creditswhich has been happening inthe last three months or so.

"The issue of blockage ofinput credit from the backend(on account of alleged differ-ence between credit claimedand that disclosed by vendors)is becoming a concern for theindustry and the GST Councilshould look into this.Otherwise, we may see lowercollections later, when the cred-it is actually utilized," Jainadded.

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Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman on Sunday

asked civil accounts officers tofocus on bringing in more effi-cient and adaptive technologiesto further smoothen the work-ing of the Public FinancialManagement System (PFMS).

Speaking at a function hereto mark the 44th CivilAccounts Day, she said there isso much more to be accom-plished and officers need to beresponsive to the changes.

The minister further saidthe officers are not only com-petent accounts persons, butalso competent technology pro-fessionals.

"Even as we are talking oftechnology, that itself is a chal-lenge. Everyday it changes,newer versions come in, rapidchanges are happening andtherefore to keep on top of it isa big exercise. You have to con-stantly keep changing the mile-post, bring in more and moreefficiency and adaptive tech-nology," Sitharaman said.

She also said that theyhave "revolutionised" technol-ogy-driven PFMS and it hasempowered India to beaccountable, responsive andtransparent.

"Today all over the worldDBT (direct benefit transfer)and GST (Goods and ServicesTax) are being talked about asone of the silent revolution thatdemocracy can show off to theworld," the minister added.

She said the officers haveshown that public finance is notopaque, but efficient andresponsive to the public.

"This is biggest revolution.The �1 lakh crore you havesaved through DBT, these arenot just symbolic. The �1 lakhcrore being saved for the pub-lic (is) by efficient use of tech-nology without making anyonefeel sorry," she said.

Through efficient use oftechnology, this service hasproven that corruption andwrongdoing can be removedfrom the system, she added.

PFMS is designed to helpthe Government agencies forprocessing payments, track-ing, monitoring, accountingand reconciliation.

It tracks funds disburse-ment and ensures that state

treasuries are integrated withthe Centre to ensure money issent as and when required.

Speaking at the function,Expenditure Secretary T VSomanathan said integration ofPFMS with railways, defenceand postal service needs to betaken forward and the officersshould expeditiously imple-ment further ongoing initia-tives so that it realises its fullpotential.

"I would like to draw yourattention to huge volumes ofdata PFMS have within itwhich can be effectively use toimprove the quality of expen-diture," he said.

He added greater attentionis required to ensure timelypayments.

Expenditure payments andtax refunds should be paidpromptly without any kind ofunnecessary delay, he said.

"I am aware that in most ofthese systems, there are multi-ple agencies involved and youare often at the tail end and thedelay can be for various reasonsbeyond your control, but thereis one element of the systemwhich is in your control andwhat I would like you to do isto make sure that, that elementof system is never a source ofdelay or complaint," he added.

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Tata Motors, Mahindra andMahindra (M&M) and MG

Motor India on Sunday saidthey are facing challenges interms of component supplyfrom coronavirus hit-China.

M&M has reported a 42per cent decline in total sales at32,476 units in February.

"...Because of the unfore-seeable challenges on the parts-supply from China, our BS VIramp-up has been affected,"Veejay Ram Nakra, Chief ofSales and Marketing,Automotive Division, M&MLtd said in a statement.

This has resulted in highde-growth in billing volume forFebruary and dealer inventoryis now under 10 days, he said.

"Going into March, weanticipate the challenge onparts-supply to continue foranother few weeks, before weget back to normalcy," headded.

Mayank Pareek, President,Passenger Vehicles BusinessUnit, Tata Motors Ltd said theoutbreak of Covid-19 in China

and a recent fire incident at oneof its strategic vendors affect-ed the vehicle production andwholesale volumes.

MG Motor India tooreported lower retail sales of1,376 units in February, hit bycomponent supply constraintsfrom China and other loca-tions.

"The MG ZS EV hasreceived a stupendous responsein its debut month, with over150 units delivered to our cus-tomers already," MG Motor

India Director - Sales RakeshSidana said in a statement.

The unforeseen coron-avirus outbreak has severelyaffected the company'sEuropean and Chinese supplychains, disrupting its produc-tion and impacting sales inFebruary, he added.

The disruption in saleswill continue through March,Sidana said.

"We are working towardsstabilising the situation and arehopeful that reasonable nor-malcy will be restored by theend of March," he added.

However, major automo-bile manufacturers MarutiSuzuki, Hyundai and ToyotaKirloskar Motor do not see anyimmediate impact on theirproduction schedules due todisruption in supply of com-ponents from plants located inChina.

The companies, however,said they continue to monitorthe situation closely, especial-ly the operations of their majorsuppliers, in order to face anyadverse situation that may cropup in the future.

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The gloom in the Indianequity markets might be

short-lived as a number ofglobal and domestic stimulusinducing factors are expected togive a boost to investors' sen-timents. Supporting such amove is a technical fact thatFIIs have net shorted 156,261futures contracts on the Nifty.

A similar movement wasseen in September 2019 whena slump was followed by aspurt, however, with a lag ofsome 20-30 days.

If the overall patternrepeats itself, then an up moveis imminent.

"We witnessed shortrollovers from the Februaryseries and further shorting wasseen on the first trading sessionof the March series. FIIs aggres-sively shorted index futures inthe last couple of weeks and asa result, their 'Long Short Ratio'in index futures reached tobelow 13 per cent, which islowest since April 2018," saidJay Purohit, technical andderivatives analyst at MotilalOswal Financial Services.

"Technically, strong sup-port for Nifty is placed in thezone of 11,000-11,100 points.The overall data clearly indi-cates that the market is hover-ing in oversold territory and abounce towards 11,450-11,500levels cannot be ruled out incoming weeks. However, sus-tenance at higher level wouldbe a challenge for the Bulls,"Purohit added.

According to EdelweissProfessional Investor Research'sChief Market Strategist SahilKapoor, reversal signs such asthe US Fed's signals of anupcoming rate cut along withthe EU's expected fiscal sup-porting measures might givethe much needed boost to theglobal and Indian markets.

On last Friday, fears ofwidespread disruption to eco-nomic activities due to coron-

avirus caused a massive stockmarket crash. Dalal Street mir-rored global stocks and head-ed for its worst week since the2008 financial crisis.

The benchmark Sensex lost1,448 points in a broad basedsell-off which saw none exceptFMCG major ITC withstandingthe carnage. The 'Fear Index' orvolatility index jumped by 30per cent to settle at 22.87 asfresh cases of coronavirus infec-tion surged outside China.Domestic investors were alsocautious ahead of the 3QFY2019-20 GDP data release onthat day. The growth rateremained subdued.

Nifty Metal index plum-meted 7 per cent, the mostamong the 11 Nifty sectoralindices. It was followed by IT,media and PSU Bank index.The pivotal banking and finan-cial service sectors index closedover 3 per cent lower.

The Wall Street's bench-mark index Dow JonesIndustrial Average closed(down 4 per cent) with recordlosses on Thursday. China'sShanghai SE Composite Indexwas trading 3.71 per cent lowerwhile Japan's Topix tumbled 3.6per cent. Hong Kong's HangSeng plummeted over 3 percent. Besides, the futures mar-kets pointed at no near-termrelief for investors. FTSE 100Index Futures pointed at arough start. The index wasdown 3.44 per cent, NASDAQ100 Future also traded lower by1.29 per cent.

The coronavirus outbreakis likely to be declared a pan-demic and focus is now shift-ing from China to South Korea,Iran, Italy and Japan wherecases are escalating fast. EvenGermany, Brazil and severalother nations have joined thelist, Moody's said on Friday.

The World HealthOrganization (WHO) has saidthat the coronavirus outbreakhas reached a "decisive point"and has "pandemic potential".

%���� �68��6+79

The "test checks" as promisedby the Government on

AGR-hit telecom companies'dues assessment could start thisweek for large telcos, accordingto a senior DoT official.

The government also wantsVodafone Idea to expedite itsself-assessment, and TelecomSecretary Anshu Prakash isbelieved to have communicat-ed DoT's views in this regardto VIL, CEO and MD RavinderTakkar during a recent meetingon Friday evening.

A DoT official said that"test checks" of AGR calcula-tion for a sample year wouldcommence shortly and it couldbe as early as this week at leastfor large telecom companies.

On Saturday, telecomoperator Bharti Airtel said ithas made payment of Rs 8,004crore towards adjusted grossrevenue (AGR) dues to the gov-ernment, an amount over andabove �10,000 crore it hasalready paid.

The amount of �8,004crore includes �3,004 croretowards full and final settle-ment on AGR dues based onself assessment, and a depositof buffer �5,000 crore to coverDoT's reconciliation differ-ences.

"Based on the aforesaidpayment we have now com-plied with AGR judgementand the directions in the orderof the Supreme Court datedOctober 24, 2019," Airtel saidin a regulatory filing.

According to theDepartment of Telecom (DoT)estimates, however, Airtel owesnearly �35,000 crore.

DoT is also asking threetelecom companies Bharti

Airtel, Vodafone Idea and TataTeleservices to provide sub-stantiating documents to sup-port their claims on AGR arith-metic.

Once substantiating docu-ments are filed by the compa-nies, the telecom departmentwill initiate random 'test checks'on the AGR calculation in atime-bound manner.

The 'test check' will bedone for any one year (of tel-cos' dues) to examine the devi-ation between telecom com-panies' assessment and thegovernment's own calculationof AGR liabilities.

In all, 15 entities owe thegovernment �1.47 lakh crore inunpaid statutory dues —�92,642 crore in unpaid licencefee and another �55,054 crorein outstanding spectrum usagecharges.

Of the estimated dues thatinclude interest and penalty forlate payments, Airtel andVodafone Idea account forabout 60 per cent.

These dues arose after theSupreme Court, in October lastyear, upheld the government'sposition on including revenuefrom non-core businesses incalculating the annual AGR oftelecom companies, a share ofwhich is paid as licence andspectrum fee to the exche-quer.

The Supreme last monthrejected a plea by mobile car-riers such as Bharti Airtel andVodafone Idea for extension inthe payment schedule andasked companies to deposittheir past dues for spectrumand licences.

Since then, telecom firmsand the telecom ministry hadbeen doing separate maths onthe actual dues.

%���� �#��.9

Bank credit growth declinedto 8.5 per cent in January

from 13.5 per cent in the year-ago period led by a sharp slow-down in loans to the servicessector, according to RBI data.

Growth in advances to theservices sector decelerated to8.9 per cent from 23.9 per centin January 2019.

Bank loan growth to non-banking financial companies(NBFCs) slowed to 32.2 percent in the reporting monthfrom a growth of 48.3 per centa year-ago. During the month,personal loans segment grewby 16.9 per cent.

Within personal loans,credit to housing segment grewby 17.5 per cent from 18.4 percent, while education loanshowed a negative growth of3.1 per cent as against a nega-tive growth of 2.3 per cent inJanuary 2019, RBI data showed.

Advances growth to agri-culture and allied activitiescontracted to 6.5 per cent from7.6 per cent rise last year.

Credit growth to industrydecelerated to 2.5 per centfrom 5.2 per cent. Withinindustry, loan growth to paperand paper products, rubberplastic and their products andconstruction accelerated.

“However, credit growth totextile, food processing, chem-ical & chemical products, basicmetal & metal products, allengineering and infrastructuredecelerated,” RBI said.

According to the latestquarterly statistics on depositsand credit of banks, bank loangrowth decelerated to 7.4 percent in the October-December,2019 from 12.9 per cent theyear-ago quarter. During thequarter, loans by public sectorbanks grew by 3.7 per centwhile credit from private sec-tor banks saw a growth of 13.1

per cent. In the fortnight endedFebruary 14, 2020, bank cred-it grew by 6.3 per cent to�100.41 lakh crore, from�94.403 lakh crore in the year-ago fortnight. Deposits grew by9.2 per cent to �132.35 lakhcrore in the fortnight comparedto �121.19 lakh crore, the RBIdata showed.

In February, the ReserveBank Governor ShaktikantaDas had said that slowing cred-it growth is the biggest chal-lenge the banking industry isfacing.

"The most critical chal-lenge today for banks, not justin India but also elsewhere, isslowing credit off-take. It affectsthe profitability of banks," Dassaid a media event.

Rating agency Crisil, in arecent note, said credit growthis likely to be around 6 per centin this fiscal but is expected toaccelerate to 8-9 per cent inFY21.

%���� �68��6+79

In a bid to address weakness-es in cooperative banking

sector, the Parliament is likelyto clear a Bill to amendBanking Regulation Act tobring multi-state cooperativebanks under effective regula-tion of RBI during the BudgetSession.

The proposed legislationwill help prevent a repeat ofPunjab and MaharashtraCooperative Bank-like crisis,sources said.

There are 1,540 coopera-tive banks with a depositor baseof 8.60 crore having total sav-ings of about �5 lakh crore.

The Union Cabinet head-

ed by Prime Minister NarendraModi last month gave approvalto amend Banking RegulationAct.

The Bill in this regard islikely to be passed during thesecond leg of Budget sessionstarting Monday. The sessionends on April 3.

Having undertaken a slewof measures, including clean upof public sector banks (PSBs),private sector banks, financialinstitution like IL&FS, non-bank financial corporations(NBFCs), housing finance cor-porations (HFCs), auditors,rating agencies, this is the laststep in making the entire finan-cial ecosystem almost impos-sible to be gamed, with securi-

ty of depositors' money beingparamount.

To further bolster the con-fidence of customers, theGovernment has increaseddeposit insurance cover byfive-fold to �5 lakh to ensuresecurity of public money inbanks.

In the last couple of years,the Department of FinancialServices has taken several stepsto promote responsive andresponsible banking.

As part of clean bankinginitiative, project cash flowswere ring-fenced, enforcementof terms of loan agreementsand prior validation of back-ward and forward linkageswere made integral to lending

processes.Besides, the number of

banks in loan consortium wascapped, reducing borrowers'ability to play one lender offagainst another.

This was accompanied bydata driven risk scoring andscrutiny, comprehensive dili-gence across data sources andstrengthened credit assessment.

To ensure financial healthof public sector banks (PSBs),recapitalization of �4 lakh crorewas undertaken in the last fiveyears.

Provision coverage ratioreached a record high of 77 percent. NPA and slippages aredeclining with improved assetquality.

%���� �#��.9

Companies are increasinglyentrusting recruitment

tasks in the hands of profes-sional organisations for quali-ty talent acquisition even associal media platforms andjob sites are still one of the keyhiring channels, says a study.

According to a study byCIEL HR Services, that focusedon the latest trends in Indiantalent market, companies arenow resorting to recruitingcompanies for quality talentacquisition across junior, midand senior-level positions.

Titled, 'CIELWorks 2020:Latest Trends in Indian TalentMarket 2020' the study notedthat social media platformsand job sites were still relevantat hiring candidates, however,an increasing number of com-panies now prefer to gothrough employment agencies.

"The main reason behindcompanies shifting gradually torecruiting companies is becausethese firms are cutting downtheir work and time by screen-ing and selecting relevant andquality talent," Aditya Narayan

Mishra of CIEL HR Servicessaid.

The study that coveredover 200 senior to mid levelexecutives across sectors fromDecember 2019 till January2020, noted that though jobopportunities were robust butsecuring quality talentremained a challenge during2019.

It further noted that entry-level roles were filled in lessthan 30 days, mid-level in lessthan 60 days and senior-leveljobs roles saw positions fill inmore slowly at around 180days.

The key factors thatattracted candidates and

retained them at the juniorlevel were salaries and careerdevelopment, while at the mid-level the trend was dominatedby designation, job security,salary and development oppor-tunities.

At the senior-level, the keyfactors that drove employeehiring and retention were cen-tered on the role within theorganisation, the variable pay,the study noted.

Other major factors thatinfluence senior-level hiringinclude financial health of thecompany, work culture,employer brand and long termvision of the organisation, itnoted.

%���� �68��6+79

The government has decid-ed to pump �200 crore

into IFCI, the country's oldestterm lending institution,through the preferential allot-ment route next fiscal to shore up its capital andenhance operations, sourcessaid.

Government of India hold-ing in the non-banking financecompany, which stood at 56.42per cent at the end ofDecember 2019, wouldincrease after the capital infu-sion.

"The (�200 crore) provi-sion is for equity support toIndustrial Finance Corporationof India (IFCI) keeping in viewthe business programme andcapital requirement," as perthe Budget documents pre-sented in Parliament lastmonth.

For the current fiscal aswell, the government has ear-marked �200 crore capital infu-sion for IFCI, as per theRevised Estimate.

%���� 6@616''

As Vistara took delivery ofits first wide-body

Dreamliner 787-9 aircraft at theBoeing facility here to start longhaul operations, the airline'sCEO Leslie Thng said therecent coronavirus outbreakwould have a short term impacton the aviation industry andthat airlines need to remainflexible and nimble while deal-ing with the situation.

The recent novel coron-avirus outbreak has killed near-ly 3,000 people across the world,with 2,870 deaths in China alone.On February 26, Vistaraannounced 20 flights betweenDelhi and Bangkok, 26 betweenMumbai and Singapore and eightbetween Delhi and Singaporewere cancelled for March inresponse to weak demand due tothe virus outbreak.

Standing in the airline'sfirst Dreamliner 787-9 aircraft,which was officially acquiredon Friday, Thng toldreporters,”The coronavirusdoes indeed have a short-termimpact.”

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Pune: Telcos are citing freevoice calls to duck action onpoor quality of service, but thatwill not pass regulatory muster,Trai Chairman R S Sharma saidon Sunday, assuring users thatthe issue of call drops remainson its agenda.

The Telecom RegulatoryAuthority of India (Trai) headsaid the watchdog's earlier pro-vision for a penalty on telcomfirms for call drops was suc-cessfully challenged in theSupreme Court, but the regu-lator will continue to work forimproving the quality of service.

"Most of the telcos areoffering voice free, their argu-ment is that if something is free,how much can you (Trai) pun-ish me because I am not gettinganything for that, which maynot be correct because they areessentially cross-subsidising,"Sharma said at the AsiaEconomic Dialogue here. PTI

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Scheme NAV 1Yr %SBI Tax Advantage Fund-III-Reg(G) 29.47 34.52SBI Tax advantage Fund-II(G) 42.10 30.67SBI LT Advantage Fund-IV-Reg(G) 14.89 28.69BNP Paribas India Consumption 13.26 25.70Fund-Reg(G)Sundaram Services Fund-Reg(G) 12.74 24.11Invesco India PSU Equity Fund(G) 19.27 23.29Sundaram Multi Cap Fund-Sr 11.38 22.52II-Reg(G)Sundaram Fin Serv Opp Fund(G) 45.11 22.41Sundaram Multi Cap Fund-Sr 11.41 22.27I-Reg(G)DSP Equity Fund-Reg(G) 43.39 21.01SBI Banking & Financial Services 19.59 20.93Fund-Reg(G)Tata Banking & Financial Services 20.18 20.66Fund-Reg(G)Invesco India Smallcap Fund-Reg(G) 11.59 20.60Sundaram Select Small Cap 15.87 20.36Series-IV-Reg(G)Sundaram Select Small Cap 15.83 20.30Series-III-Reg(G)SBI Focused Equity Fund-Reg(G) 155.05 19.90ICICI Pru Smallcap Fund(G) 26.28 19.67DSP Healthcare Fund-Reg(G) 11.87 19.10Baroda Banking & Fin Serv Fund(G) 24.64 18.98Sundaram Select Small Cap 10.49 18.79Series-VI-Reg(G)Sundaram Select Small Cap 10.76 18.49Series-V-Reg(G)Axis Focused 25 Fund-Reg(G) 30.48 18.41Invesco India Infrastructure Fund(G) 18.16 18.38Invesco India Financial Services 60.18 18.32Fund(G)Axis Bluechip Fund-Reg(G) 31.68 18.30Axis Long Term Equity Fund-Reg(G) 48.88 18.00Motilal Oswal Focused 25 23.42 17.79Fund-Reg(G)Motilal Oswal Midcap 30 27.57 17.58Fund-Reg(G)Axis Multicap Fund-Reg(G) 12.60 17.32Canara Rob Consumer Trends 43.12 17.27Fund-Reg(G)DSP World Gold Fund-Reg(G) 13.70 16.97Axis Midcap Fund-Reg(G) 40.74 16.83Aditya Birla SL India GenNext 89.83 16.66Fund(G)Motilal Oswal Long Term Equity 18.54 16.27Fund-Reg(G)SBI LT Advantage Fund-VI-Reg(G) 11.11 16.12Canara Rob Bluechip Equity 26.80 15.87Fund-Reg(G)SBI Small Cap Fund-Reg(G) 54.88 15.65JM Multicap Fund(G) 33.87 15.61Kotak Small Cap Fund(G) 75.74 15.57BNP Paribas Large Cap Fund(G) 93.97 15.51L&T Emerging Opp Fund-II-Reg(D) 10.44 15.33Canara Rob Equity Tax Saver 69.77 15.23Fund-Reg(G)DSP Midcap Fund-Reg(G) 58.78 15.22BNP Paribas Long Term Equity 40.64 15.12Fund(G)Axis Emerging Opp Fund-1-Reg(G) 13.40 14.92Principal Focused Multicap Fund(G) 68.47 14.86Edelweiss Small Cap Fund-Reg(G) 11.58 14.60BNP Paribas Mid Cap Fund(G) 33.77 14.49Invesco India Midcap Fund(G) 52.48 14.46Kotak Emerging Equity Fund(G) 41.15 14.42PGIM India Midcap Opp 19.26 14.30Fund-Reg(G)Axis Growth Opp Fund-Reg(G) 11.80 14.12SBI LT Advantage Fund-V-Reg(G) 10.62 13.95DSP Focus Fund-Reg(G) 24.06 13.94Tata Mid Cap Growth Fund(G) 145.83 13.88JM Tax Gain Fund(G) 18.05 13.82Axis Emerging Opp Fund-2-Reg(G) 12.83 13.64Mirae Asset Emerging 55.78 13.59Bluechip-Reg(G)UTI Equity Fund-Reg(G) 152.81 13.40Canara Rob Equity Diver 142.55 13.31Fund-Reg(G)DSP A.C.E. Fund-Sr 2-Reg(G) 10.48 13.27Nippon India Growth Fund(G) 1173.25 13.24SBI LT Advantage Fund-III-Reg(G) 13.95 13.14UTI Focussed Equity Fund-I(G) 14.20 13.13BNP Paribas Multi Cap Fund(G) 48.24 13.00UTI Focussed Equity Fund-IV(G) 10.23 12.99Axis Capital Builder Fund-4-Reg(G) 11.30 12.89PGIM India Global Equity Opp 20.71 12.80Fund(G)Canara Rob Emerg Equities 99.25 12.80Fund-Reg(G)BNP Paribas Focused 25 Equity 9.94 12.67Fund-Reg(G)SBI LT Advantage Fund-II-Reg(G) 14.35 12.63Tata Large & Mid Cap Fund(G) 210.73 12.62Invesco India Tax Plan(G) 53.52 12.58ICICI Pru LT Wealth Enhancement 11.14 12.53Fund(G)Kotak Equity Opp Fund(G) 125.13 12.48Sundaram Select Focus(G) 186.22 12.47L&T Emerging Opp Fund-I-Reg(D) 9.81 12.35Sundaram Large and Mid Cap Fund(G)36.12 12.31Invesco India Multicap Fund(G) 49.32 12.30DSP 3Y Close Ended Equity 15.71 12.25Fund-Reg(G)Franklin India Feeder - Franklin 34.01 12.21U.S. Opportunities Fund(G)IDFC Equity Opportunity-6-Reg(G) 10.66 12.21DSP A.C.E. Fund-Sr 1-Reg(G) 10.46 12.17Sundaram Emerging Small 11.23 12.15Cap-Sr-VII-Reg(G)Mirae Asset Healthcare Fund-Reg(G) 11.44 12.06

Tata India Pharma & Healthcare 9.62 12.05Fund-Reg(G)DSP Top 100 Equity Fund-Reg(G) 211.93 12.01UTI India Consumer Fund-Reg(G) 27.02 11.88Aditya Birla SL Equity Advantage 419.71 11.84Fund(G)Axis Capital Builder Fund-1-Reg(G) 10.74 11.64Aditya Birla SL Banking & Financial 28.99 11.63Services Fund-Reg(G)L&T Business Cycle Fund-Reg(G) 15.44 11.53Principal Emerging Bluechip 108.11 11.50Fund(G)Kotak Tax Saver Fund(G) 45.59 11.49DSP Tax Saver Fund-Reg(G) 49.20 11.48SBI Equity Opp Fund-Sr I-Reg(G) 16.44 11.45ICICI Pru Banking & Fin Serv 64.80 11.44Fund(G)UTI Focussed Equity Fund-V(G) 9.89 11.43UTI Focussed Equity Fund-VI(G) 10.36 11.29IDFC Focused Equity Fund-Reg(G) 38.11 11.27DSP Equity Opportunities 226.96 11.21Fund-Reg(G)Edelweiss Large & Mid Cap 32.40 11.10Fund-Reg(G)Edelweiss Mid Cap Fund-Reg(G) 27.54 11.05IDBI Banking & Financial Services 10.66 11.04Fund-Reg(G)

Mirae Asset Great Consumer 36.40 11.03Fund-Reg(G)SBI Large & Midcap Fund-Reg(G) 228.43 10.82L&T Focused Equity Fund-Reg(G) 11.11 10.74SBI LT Advantage Fund-I-Reg(G) 13.67 10.69ICICI Pru Bharat Consumption 10.45 10.58Fund-4-(G)Nippon India Consumption Fund(G) 68.13 10.38IDBI India Top 100 Equity Fund(G) 24.66 10.34Invesco India Growth Opp Fund(G) 35.43 10.31Nippon India US Equity Opp Fund(G)16.45 10.06DSP Small Cap Fund-Reg(G) 55.55 10.03SBI Magnum Equity ESG 107.01 10.01Fund-Reg(G)IDFC Multi Cap Fund-Reg(G) 95.39 9.99SBI Infrastructure Fund-Reg(G) 15.02 9.96PGIM India Diversified Equity 13.48 9.86Fund-Reg(G)ICICI Pru US Bluechip Equity 30.05 9.75Fund(G)JM Value Fund(G) 32.60 9.73Mirae Asset Tax Saver Fund-Reg(G) 17.99 9.68Kotak India Growth Fund-Sr 5(G) 9.81 9.62SBI Equity Opp Fund-Sr IV-Reg(G) 15.60 9.53ICICI Pru Value Fund-18(G) 11.70 9.45Sundaram TOP 100-Sr VII-Reg(G) 12.63 9.38UTI LT Equity Fund (Tax 89.86 9.37Saving)-Reg(G)L&T India Large Cap Fund-Reg(G) 27.49 9.37SBI Magnum Multicap Fund-Reg(G) 49.21 9.33Sundaram Rural and Consumption 42.76 9.32Fund(G)Edelweiss ETF - Nifty Bank 2969.41 9.29SBI Healthcare Opp Fund-Reg(G) 125.73 9.25ICICI Pru Bharat Consumption 11.11 9.24Fund-5-(G)Sundaram TOP 100-Sr VI-Reg(G) 12.83 9.24IDBI Equity Advantage Fund-Reg(G) 27.16 9.21Tata India Tax Savings Fund-Reg(G) 18.27 9.16UTI Value Opp Fund-Reg(G) 62.49 9.15Kotak Standard Multicap Fund(G) 35.65 9.14L&T Large and Midcap Fund-Reg(G) 47.64 9.08Aditya Birla SL Focused Equity 59.95 9.00Fund(G)Kotak Bluechip Fund(G) 237.80 8.85Aditya Birla SL Equity Fund(G) 736.88 8.75Edelweiss Large Cap Fund(G) 36.17 8.62Tata Value Fund-Sr-2-Reg(G) 9.65 8.57Edelweiss Long Term Equity 47.02 8.54Fund (Tax Savings)-Reg(G)UTI Mid Cap Fund-Reg(G) 102.19 8.46Tata Resources & Energy 14.23 8.30Fund-Reg(G)Sundaram Emerging Small 11.03 8.27Cap-Sr-VI-Reg(G)Parag Parikh Long Term Equity 26.15 8.24Fund-Reg(G)IDBI Healthcare Fund-Reg(G) 10.82 8.20SBI Magnum Comma Fund-Reg(G) 35.74 8.18Kotak India Growth Fund-Sr 7(G) 10.66 8.18Invesco India Contra Fund(G) 48.42 8.18Nippon India Vision Fund(G) 518.01 8.03PGIM India Large Cap Fund(G) 167.81 8.03Sundaram Mid Cap Fund(G) 471.91 7.93IDFC Large Cap Fund-Reg(G) 32.89 7.91Aditya Birla SL Sensex ETF 358.27 7.91Tata Value Fund-Sr-1-Reg(G) 9.94 7.91SBI Magnum Global Fund-Reg(G) 175.70 7.90HDFC Sensex ETF 4031.75 7.85IDBI Diversified Equity Fund(G) 21.45 7.79

UTI Infrastructure Fund-Reg(G) 51.76 7.70Franklin Asian Equity Fund(G) 23.39 7.70IDFC Sensex ETF 395.67 7.69Invesco India Largecap Fund(G) 29.12 7.69Motilal Oswal Multicap 35 26.02 7.67Fund-Reg(G)Tata Index Fund-Sensex Plan(G) 94.55 7.34HDFC Index Fund-Sensex(G) 340.25 7.34L&T Midcap Fund-Reg(G) 134.19 7.31Kotak Global Emerging Mkt Fund(G) 16.35 7.28Baroda Large Cap Fund(G) 14.54 7.23ICICI Pru Sensex Index Fund(G) 11.91 7.18Tata Large Cap Fund(G) 217.14 7.12Aditya Birla SL Resurgent India 11.91 7.01Fund-2-Reg(G)SBI BlueChip Fund-Reg(G) 38.77 6.93UTI Mastershare-Reg(G) 122.88 6.90Aditya Birla SL MNC Fund-Reg(G) 781.89 6.82Kotak India EQ Contra Fund(G) 52.78 6.76Edelweiss Multi-Cap Fund-Reg(G) 14.56 6.75Baroda Multi Cap Fund(G) 97.93 6.75ICICI Pru Growth Fund-2(DP) 12.04 6.74Nippon India Index Fund - 18.82 6.73Sensex Plan(G)Sundaram Emerging Small 9.67 6.57Cap-Sr-IV-Reg(G)Mirae Asset Large Cap Fund-Reg(G) 50.67 6.53Tata Small Cap Fund-Reg(G) 10.52 6.42Nippon India Banking Fund(G) 267.57 6.41Sundaram Emerging Small 9.27 6.41Cap-Sr-III-Reg(G)IDFC Equity Opportunity-5-Reg(G) 9.91 6.33SBI Magnum Midcap Fund-Reg(G) 73.22 6.33Baroda Mid-cap Fund(G) 9.06 6.21L&T Tax Advt Fund-Reg(G) 52.82 6.06Aditya Birla SL Global Emerging 13.18 6.03Opp Fund(G)HDFC Mid-Cap Opportunities 54.06 6.03Fund(G)ICICI Pru Value Fund-16(G) 10.82 5.97PGIM India Large Cap 12.35 5.93Fund-2-Reg(G)Canara Rob Infrastructure 43.67 5.89Fund-Reg(G)Sundaram LT Tax Adv Fund-Sr 14.64 5.84II-Reg(G)IDFC Core Equity Fund-Reg(G) 44.48 5.83Franklin India Technology Fund(G) 171.05 5.74Principal Multi Cap Growth Fund(G) 140.18 5.63IDBI Dividend Yield Fund-Reg(G) 10.64 5.56Aditya Birla SL Intl. Equity Fund-A(G)22.23 5.45Sundaram Value Fund-III-Reg(G) 16.59 5.42Sundaram Emerging Small 8.49 5.36Cap-Sr-II-Reg(G)JM Core 11 Fund(G) 9.12 5.26DSP India T.I.G.E.R Fund-Reg(G) 85.55 5.26Aditya Birla SL Resurgent 9.37 5.16India Fund-5-Reg(G)Mirae Asset Nifty 50 ETF 113.64 5.13ICICI Pru Growth Fund-1(DP) 10.95 5.09Nippon India Small Cap Fund(G) 38.94 5.07Tata Nifty ETF 113.50 5.05DSP Global Allocation Fund-Reg(G) 12.89 5.05ICICI Pru FMCG Fund(G) 241.00 5.04Tata India Consumer Fund-Reg(G) 17.55 4.97Sundaram Emerging Small 8.24 4.97Cap-Sr-I-Reg(G)Nippon India Value Fund(G) 71.60 4.96Nippon India ETF Nifty Midcap 150 62.82 4.96Axis Nifty ETF 1155.79 4.96HDFC Nifty 50 ETF 1176.23 4.95Tata Ethical Fund-Reg(G) 158.94 4.90IDFC Nifty ETF 116.01 4.84Sundaram Small Cap Fund(G) 79.10 4.83Nippon India Capital Builder 9.61 4.81Fund-IV-A(G)UTI Nifty Index Fund-Reg(G) 73.53 4.77Nippon India Pharma Fund(G) 155.77 4.75Franklin India Focused Equity 39.30 4.70Fund(G)Aditya Birla SL Tax Relief '96(G) 31.39 4.67Aditya Birla SL Tax Relief '96(ELSS 31.39 4.67U/S 80C of IT ACT)(G)Tata Infrastructure Fund-Reg(G) 52.09 4.65PGIM India Euro Equity Fund(G) 14.01 4.63ICICI Pru Value Fund-14(G) 10.43 4.61Kotak Infra & Eco Reform Fund(G) 19.08 4.61UTI Banking and Financial Services 93.78 4.57Fund-Reg(G)ICICI Pru Large & Mid Cap Fund(G) 314.66 4.52HDFC Index Fund-NIFTY 50 102.28 4.51Plan(G)Tata Index Fund-Nifty Plan(G) 67.96 4.50IDFC Nifty Fund-Reg(G) 23.25 4.50Sundaram Diversified Equity(G) 98.73 4.48ICICI Pru Nifty Index Fund(G) 108.57 4.41DSP NIFTY 50 Index Fund-Reg(G) 10.44 4.41Franklin India Prima Fund(G) 944.20 4.38UTI Healthcare Fund-Reg(G) 86.44 4.34SBI Consumption Opp Fund-Reg(G) 115.93 4.27UTI MEPUS 106.41 4.15Sundaram Emerging Small 9.72 4.12Cap-Sr-V-Reg(G)SBI Nifty Index Fund-Reg(G) 96.23 4.06Sundaram Infra Advantage Fund(G) 30.84 4.04Principal Dividend Yield Fund(G) 52.35 3.97ICICI Pru S&P BSE 500 ETF 149.29 3.97IDBI Nifty Index Fund(G) 20.65 3.90Aditya Birla SL Index Fund-Reg(G) 109.82 3.90Nippon India Index Fund - Nifty 18.73 3.88Plan(G)Franklin India Index Fund-NSE 88.62 3.82Nifty(G)Aditya Birla SL Global Real Estate 20.26 3.81

Franklin India Equity Fund(G) 554.89 -1.29ICICI Pru Value Fund-15(G) 9.96 -1.39HDFC Equity Fund(G) 607.17 -1.42Edelweiss Eur Dynamic Equity 10.69 -1.56Off-shr Fund-Reg(G)Aditya Birla SL Infrastructure 28.69 -1.68Fund(G)UTI LT Adv Fund-VII(G) 8.37 -1.73UTI Core Equity Fund-Reg(G) 57.40 -1.73Tata Digital India Fund-Reg(G) 14.80 -1.77UTI LT Adv Fund-V(G) 8.82 -1.93HDFC Top 100 Fund(G) 447.44 -1.98Sundaram Select Micro Cap-Series 8.17 -2.02XIV-Reg(G)Invesco India Feeder - Invesco 12.50 -2.06Global Equity Income Fund(G)ICICI Pru Infrastructure Fund(G) 45.21 -2.06UTI LT Adv Fund-IV(G) 9.59 -2.08HDFC Focused 30 Fund(G) 69.63 -2.13ICICI Pru Bharat Consumption 9.33 -2.51Fund-2-(G)Sundaram Select Micro Cap-Series 12.11 -2.72X-Reg(G)Sundaram Select Micro Cap-Series 9.22 -2.73XI-Reg(G)Sundaram Select Micro Cap-Series 8.88 -2.74XII-Reg(G)ICICI Pru NV20 ETF 53.22 -2.81Nippon India Capital Builder 7.00 -2.85Fund-IV-C(G)Principal Nifty 100 Equal Weight 65.88 -2.89Fund(G)Templeton India Equity Income 43.38 -3.00Fund(G)Franklin India Smaller Cos Fund(G) 48.51 -3.05IDFC Sterling Value Fund-Reg(G) 46.04 -3.13Nippon India Tax Saver (ELSS) 49.33 -3.19Fund(G)SBI Contra Fund-Reg(G) 98.88 -3.30HDFC Equity Opp Fund-Sr 9.50 -3.382-1126D-May 2017(1)-Reg(G)IDFC Equity Opportunity-4-Reg(G) 6.85 -3.39Sundaram Smart NIFTY 100 Eq 10.84 -3.53Weight Fund-Reg(G)UTI LT Adv Fund-VI(G) 8.00 -3.54HDFC TaxSaver(G) 467.34 -3.61DSP World Agriculture Fund-Reg(G) 15.73 -3.68Sundaram Select Micro Cap-Series 7.41 -3.79XVI-Reg(G)HDFC Capital Builder Value 265.79 -3.81Fund(G)Sundaram Value Fund-VII-Reg(G) 8.05 -3.93Sundaram Select Micro Cap-Series 7.88 -3.95XV-Reg(G)IDFC Infrastructure Fund-Reg(G) 12.85 -4.03SBI-ETF Sensex Next 50 300.56 -4.12Sundaram LT Micro Cap Tax Adv 7.91 -4.21Fund-Sr IV-Reg(G)Sundaram Value Fund-VIII-Reg(G) 10.04 -4.33ICICI Pru Manufacture in India 9.42 -4.37

Fund(G)Sundaram LT Micro Cap Tax Adv 7.75 -4.37Fund-Sr V-Reg(G)ICICI Pru Focused Equity Fund(G) 27.13 -4.40Aditya Birla SL Resurgent India 7.49 -4.46Fund-7-Reg(G)ICICI Pru Value Discovery Fund(G) 130.62 -4.59Sundaram Select Micro Cap-Series 6.95 -4.87XVII-Reg(G)Sundaram Value Fund-X-Reg(G) 8.33 -4.93Sundaram Value Fund-IX-Reg(G) 8.38 -4.99Sundaram LT Micro Cap Tax Adv 9.26 -5.21Fund-Sr III-Reg(G)ICICI Pru Technology Fund(G) 57.06 -5.23ICICI Pru India Opp Fund(G) 9.43 -5.51Sundaram LT Micro Cap Tax Adv 7.18 -5.52Fund-Sr VI-Reg(G)DSP Equal Nifty 50 Fund-Reg(G) 8.95 -5.86Aditya Birla SL Small Cap Fund(G) 29.92 -6.03L&T Emerging Businesses 21.89 -6.03Fund-Reg(G)ICICI Pru Dividend Yield Equity 14.36 -6.63Fund(G)Aditya Birla SL CEF-Global 21.44 -7.65Agri-Reg(G)Invesco India Feeder - Invesco Pan 9.98 -7.77European Equity Fund-Reg(G)Templeton India Value Fund(G) 220.12 -7.85HDFC Small Cap Fund-Reg(G) 37.44 -8.24DSP World Mining Fund-Reg(G) 7.64 -10.69Aditya Birla SL Pure Value Fund(G) 42.51 -10.78DSP Natural Res & New Energy 26.71 -11.62Fund-Reg(G)HDFC Infrastructure Fund(G) 13.22 -12.84UTI Transportation & Logistics 81.05 -12.91Fund-Reg(G)DSP World Energy Fund-Reg(G) 11.44 -13.95

Fund(G)Sundaram LT Tax Adv Fund-Sr 13.35 3.79I-Reg(G)ICICI Pru LT Equity Fund (Tax 363.53 3.74Saving)(G)L&T India Value Fund-Reg(G) 34.50 3.70ICICI Pru Value Fund-8(D) 10.38 3.70ICICI Pru Bluechip Fund(G) 41.13 3.55SBI PSU Fund-Reg(G) 9.55 3.52ICICI Pru Bharat Consumption 10.21 3.44Fund-1-(G)Aditya Birla SL Frontline Equity 217.59 3.42Fund(G)Baroda ELSS 96(G) 43.29 3.39Nippon India Japan Equity Fund(G) 12.99 3.33ICICI Pru Global Stable Equity 15.30 3.32Fund(FOF)(G)ICICI Pru Value Fund-17(G) 10.27 3.32Aditya Birla SL Intl. Equity Fund-B(G)18.08 3.11Nippon India Focused Equity Fund(G)44.84 3.07IDBI Focused 30 Equity Fund-Reg(G) 9.75 3.07PGIM India LT Equity Fund-Reg(G) 13.72 3.00L&T Equity Fund-Reg(G) 78.99 2.97Aditya Birla SL Digital India Fund(G) 54.72 2.92IDBI Small Cap Fund(G) 9.10 2.82ICICI Pru Bharat Consumption 10.27 2.80Fund-3-(G)SBI Technology Opp Fund-Reg(G) 66.16 2.72JM Large Cap Fund(G) 66.33 2.72ICICI Pru Exports & Services Fund(G)54.77 2.68Nippon India India Opp Fund-Sr-A(G)10.15 2.68ICICI Pru Midcap Fund(G) 91.13 2.66HDFC Growth Opp Fund-Reg(G) 107.41 2.65Nippon India Quant Fund(G) 25.21 2.64IDBI Midcap Fund(G) 10.64 2.60Principal Global Opportunities 29.66 2.58Fund(G)Aditya Birla SL Resurgent India 11.42 2.51Fund-3-Reg(G)Aditya Birla SL Resurgent India 9.47 2.49Fund-4-Reg(G)UTI MNC Fund-Reg(G) 195.61 2.27Canara Rob Small Cap Fund-Reg(G) 10.29 2.18Principal Tax Savings Fund 197.66 2.04Aditya Birla SL Dividend Yield 154.75 2.00Fund(G)ICICI Pru Growth Fund-3(DP) 10.19 2.00Aditya Birla SL Midcap Fund(G) 271.64 1.84Principal Personal Tax saver Fund 184.62 1.69IDFC Tax Advt(ELSS) Fund-Reg(G) 52.57 1.53Kotak India Growth Fund-Sr 4(G) 9.07 1.48SBI Long Term Equity Fund-Reg(G) 136.53 1.38UTI-Nifty Next 50 ETF 272.95 1.38Nippon India Multi Cap Fund(G) 92.65 1.06Aditya Birla SL Nifty Next 50 ETF 267.40 1.02Nippon India Large Cap Fund(G) 32.82 0.99Tata Equity P/E Fund(G) 127.65 0.89DSP US Flexible Equity Fund-Reg(G) 24.90 0.86Edelweiss Emerging Markets Opp Eq. OffshoreFund-Reg(G) 12.85 0.69

IDBI Long Term Value Fund-Reg(G) 10.05 0.60Franklin India Taxshield(G) 536.52 0.55ICICI Pru Multicap Fund(G) 277.26 0.50UTI Nifty Next 50 Index Fund-Reg(G) 9.45 0.49ICICI Pru Nifty Next 50 ETF 26.77 0.49Aditya Birla SL Mfg. Equity 12.48 0.48Fund-Reg(G)ICICI Pru Value Fund-13(D) 9.89 0.30Sundaram LT Tax Adv Fund-Sr 8.03 0.17III-Reg(G)DSP NIFTY Next 50 Index 10.24 0.12Fund-Reg(G)Franklin India Opportunities Fund(G)68.81 0.06ICICI Pru Nifty Next 50 Index 23.48 0.04Fund(G)Edelweiss ETF - Nifty 100 Quality 30 271.20 -0.03IDBI Nifty Junior Index Fund(G) 19.98 -0.09Franklin India Equity Advantage 74.89 -0.28Fund(G)Sundaram LT Tax Adv Fund-Sr 9.33 -0.37IV-Reg(G)Franklin Build India Fund(G) 38.07 -0.46Franklin India Bluechip Fund(G) 439.68 -0.47ICICI Pru Nifty Low Vol 30 ETF 85.85 -0.52Nippon India Capital Builder 7.15 -0.54Fund-IV-B(G)Sundaram Select Micro Cap-Series 12.46 -0.68IX-Reg(G)Nippon India Capital Builder 7.28 -0.76Fund-IV-D(G)Sundaram Select Micro Cap-Series 12.53 -0.77VIII-Reg(G)Sundaram Global Brand Fund(G) 16.87 -0.81L&T Infrastructure Fund-Reg(G) 14.65 -0.81Nippon India Power & Infra Fund(G) 89.02 -0.82UTI Dividend Yield Fund-Reg(G) 62.32 -0.88UTI LT Adv Fund-III(G) 12.72 -0.93

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Beijing: China’s coronavirusdeath toll climbed to 2,870 with35 new deaths, while the con-firmed cases increased to79,824 even as the infectionsoutside the worst-hit Hubeiprovince dropped with onlythree positive cases reported ina single day, continuing thetrend of slowdown in the restof the country, health officialssaid on Sunday.

The National HealthCommission (NHC) said itreceived reports of 573 newconfirmed cases of novel coro-navirus infection and 35 deathson Saturday from the Chinesemainland.

Among the deaths, 34 werein Hubei and one in HenanProvince.

COVID-19, which at onetime started spreading rapidlyall over China, showed adeclining trend with three newconfirmed cases reported out-side Hubei on Saturday.

Of the 573 confirmedcases, 570 were reported fromHubei and its capital Wuhan,which remained a battleground for the virus ever sinceit originated from there inDecember last year.

Meanwhile, 132 new sus-pected cases were reported, itsaid, adding that the number ofsevere cases decreased to 7,365.

Among the 79,824 con-firmed cases, 2,870 people havedied, 35,329 patients are stillbeing treated while 41,625 havebeen discharged after recovery.

However, some recoveredpatients are showing relapse of

the virus. The commission added

that 851 people were still sus-pected of being infected withthe virus.

The commission said51,856 close contacts were stillunder medical observation.

By the end of Saturday, 95confirmed cases including twodeaths had been reported inHong Kong, 10 confirmedcases in Macao and 39 inTaiwan, including one death.

Meanwhile, an officialreport on Coronavirus Disease2019 (COVID-19) releasedjointly by the World HealthOrganisation (WHO) andChina’s National HealthCommission identified theinfection as a zoonotic virus,meaning an infectious diseasecaused by bacteria, viruses, orparasites that spread from ani-mals to humans. PTI

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L ondon: British healthauthorities on Sundayannounced 12 more con-firmed cases of the new coro-navirus, bringing the country’soverall tally to 35.

The government’s chiefmedical officer, Prof. ChrisWhitty, said one of the newpatients “had no relevant trav-el and it is not yet clearwhether they contracted itdirectly or indirectly from anindividual who had recently

returned from abroad.”Whitty said medical work-

ers were still investigating thecause of that one infection.

Three of the new COVID-19 patients were contacts of anexisting patient.

Of the remaining eightnew cases, six infected peoplehad recently traveled from Italyand two had arrived from Iran,both countries hard hit by thecoronavirus that emerged latelast year in central China. AP

A0���������5����,�%��������!�!�����&������ Tehran: Iran’s health ministry

raised on Sunday the nation-wide death toll from the newcoronavirus to 54 as the num-ber of infected cases jumpedovernight to 978 people.

The ministry’s spokesmanKianoush Jahanpour said newcases were confirmed in anumber of cities, includingMashhad, which is home toIran’s most important Shiiteshrine that attracts pilgrimsfrom across the region.

Calls by Iran’s civilian gov-ernment to clerics to close such

shrines to to the public havenot been uniformly followed.The shrine in Mashhad isamong those that haveremained open.

The new figures repre-sent 11 more deaths thanreported on Saturday and awhopping 385 new cases ofinfections. The new numbers,however, bring down the per-centage of deaths to infec-tions from 20 per cent toaround 5.5 per cent. Still, thatis much higher than othercountries, suggesting the num-

ber of infections may also bemuch higher. Jahanpour said inhis daily briefing that the num-ber of cases is “still inclining”across Iran. Also on Sunday,Iran’s state broadcaster said allflights to the city of Rasht, thecapital of nothern Gilanprovince, had been suspended.

It gave no reasons why.The area of Gilan has some ofIran’s highest number of infec-tions after the capital, Tehran,and the holy city of Qom, theepicenter of the virus out-break in the country. AP

���� ��������=����%�����������Sydney: A 78-year-old manevacuated from the coron-avirus-stricken DiamondPrincess cruise liner in Japandied at a Perth hospital onSunday, becoming Australia’sfirst fatality from the disease,officials said.

His 79-year-old wife wasalso infected with the diseaseduring the cruise and remainsin a Perth hospital, a spokes-woman for the WesternAustralian state healthdepartment told AFP.

The couple were amongabout 160 Australians evacu-ated from the DiamondPrincess last month and theytested positive for the coron-avirus during their flighthome.

They were immediatelytransferred to isolation unitsin the Perth hospital onFebruary 21 while the rest ofthe evacuees were quaran-tined in a former miners’camp near the northern cityof Darwin. AFP

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Seoul: South KoreanPresident Moon Jae-in said onSunday the Government waswaging “all-out responses” tocontain the novel coronavirusas the country added 586more cases, taking the total to3,736.

South Korea has thelargest national total in theworld outside China, after itsaw a rapid surge in the num-ber of coronavirus cases inrecent days. Scores of eventshave been cancelled or post-poned over the contagion,while the country’s centralbank has warned of a minusgrowth in the first quarter forthe world’s 12th-largest econ-omy, noting the epidemic will

hit both consumption andexports. “The Govt is nowwaging all-out responses afterraising the crisis alert to thehighest level,” Moon said at anIndependence Movement Dayceremony, scaled down due tothe outbreak.

“We will be able to over-come the COVID-19 out-break and revive our shrunk-en economy,” he added.

Samsung Electronics sus-pended operations at itsdomestic smartphone plant inGumi — 200 kilometres (210miles) southeast of Seoul —on Saturday for the secondtime in a week, after a thirdemployee tested positive forthe virus. AFP

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Johannesburg: South Africawill evacuate 151 citizens fromthe coronavirus-hit Chinese cityof Wuhan within days, thehealth minister said Sunday, asthe death toll and number ofinfected worldwide mounted.

The virus has spread tomore than 60 countries aroundthe globe — killing nearly 3,000people and sickening 87,000 —prompting the World HealthOrganization to raise its riskassessment to its highest level.

The decision to airlift thetrapped South Africans cameafter President Cyril Ramaphosaon Thursday directed the repa-triation of those who have asked

to return home.“We were asked by the pres-

ident to start the process imme-diately — (so) within seven to 10days (the evacuation team) musthave completed the task,” HealthMinister Zweli Mkhize said.

The minister told a newsconference at the country’smain OR Tambo Internationalairport that there were 201South Africans in Wuhan —the epicentre of the virus, andthat “151 have indicated theywant to be repatriated”.

The group will be kept inquarantine for 21 days at a siteauthorities have refused todisclose. AFP

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Islamabad: Pakistan will closeits border with Afghanistanfor seven days from Monday toprevent the spread of novelcoronavirus, the InteriorMinistry said on Sunday, as theauthorities ramped up efforts tostop the new cases of infection.

The announcement came aday after two more people test-ed positive for the novel coro-navirus in Pakistan, taking thetotal number of infections in thecountry to four.

The border at Chaman inBalochistan will remain closedfor seven days from March 2 “inorder to prevent the spread of

coronavirus on both sides of theborder in the best interest of thepeople of the brotherly coun-tries”, said a statement issued bythe Ministry of Interior.

“During the period, neces-sary measures will be taken tosafeguard the health of thepeople of both countries,” itsaid.

The authorities have shutschools in the southernprovince of Sindh, including inKarachi where the first case wasreported, and the southwesternprovince of Baluchistan, whichborders Iran, The ExpressTribune reported. PTI

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Kuala Lumpur: MahathirMohamad called Sunday for anurgent sitting of Malaysia’sParliament to contest theappointment of a former ally asprime minister under a Malay-majority coalition that could fur-ther split the nation followingthe collapse of Mahathir’s mul-tiracial reformist alliance.

Muhyiddin Yassin, a sea-soned politician who oncefamously quipped that he isMalay first and Malaysian sec-ond, was sworn in as the newleader at the palace Sundayafter getting the support of sev-eral opposition parties.

Among the supporters wasthe corruption-tainted UnitedMalays National Organization,which was ousted by Mahathir’sAlliance of Hope in a historicvote in 2018.

Muhyiddin, 72, pulled hisBersatu party out of the alliance

on Monday, triggering its col-lapse. Mahathir resigned asprime minister in protest of theplan that would bring UMNOback to power. After a week ofpolitical turmoil, the king saidSaturday that he believedMuhyiddin had the majority

support of lawmakers andnamed him the new leader.

But Mahathir’s camp hascontested that assertion, sayingthe 94-year-old two-time primeminister has the backing of 114lawmakers to return as premierfor a third time, surpassing the

112 votes needed for a simplemajority. Mahathir said Sundaythat the palace had refused tohear him out.

He called for an urgent sit-ting of the lower house ofParliament to test Muhyiddin’sclaim of majority support. Thehouse is due to resume March 9,but Mahathir said it could bedelayed. “People on our side maybe offered to be ministers. Theymay be offered other things,” hesaid. “We feel we have 114, butafter the actions taken by thesevery rich and very powerfulpeople, we may not have the114,” he said.

“So the test of the puddingis in the eating; hold theParliament sitting now.”

Already, two of the law-makers among the 114 havedenied supporting Mahathir.

Mahathir said he feltbetrayed by Muhyiddin’s move

and warned that UMNO lead-ers including ex-Prime MinisterNajib Razak, who is facing trialon corruption charges, may getoff the hook. UMNO is thebiggest party in Muhyiddin’snew coalition. “The court mayfind it embarrassing to takeaction against the government,”Mahathir said.

“We have seen this happenbefore during Najib’s time whenhe was able to manipulate thecourt, change the charges and toa certain extent, influence thedecision of the court. I believe ifthe new government is installednow with Najib in it, this is whatis going to happen.”

Attorney General TommyThomas, who oversaw a slewof graft charges against Najib,his wife, Rosmah Mansor, andseveral UMNO leaders afterhis appointment by Mahathir,has quit. AP

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Virginia Beach (US): BernieSanders’ presidential campaignsaid Sunday that it raised morethan USD 46.5 million inFebruary, a show of financialstrength after the Vermont sen-ator finished a distant secondbehind Joe Biden in SouthCarolina’s primary.

Sanders’ team alsoannounced that it was makingtelevision ad buys in nine morestates: Idaho, Michigan,Mississippi, Missouri andWashington, which vote onMarch 10, and Arizona, Florida,Illinois and Ohio, which vote aweek later. The campaign saidit is “currently on the air in 12out of the 14 states” that are vot-ing on Super Tuesday, in twodays.

“The senator’s multi-gen-erational, multiracial workingclass coalition keeps fuelling hiscampaign for transformationalchange a few bucks at a time,”Sanders’ campaign managerFaiz Shakir said in a state-ment. He said that, of the morethan 2 million donationsreceived this month, more than1.4 million were from voters inSuper Tuesday states.

The eye-popping haul fol-lows an already impressiveJanuary that raised more than25 million. Sanders’ campaignimmediately said it would usethe January funds to purchaseUSD 5.5 million in televisionand digital advertising in 10Super Tuesday states.

That investment could still

be paying off at a time whensome rivals in a Democraticfield that remains crowded maystruggle to raise money afterdisappointing finishes in earlystates. Most other White Househopefuls haven’t yet releasedupdated fundraising totals, butMassachusetts Sen.

Elizabeth Warrenannounced Sunday that shecollected USD 29 million inFebruary — potentially soften-ing the blow of her fifth-placefinish in South Carolina.

Both she and Sanders con-tinue to demonstrate the for-midable power of attractingsmall, online donations nation-wide and then can’t ask againwithout the intervention of anoutside political group. AP

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Kabul: As US troops prepare toleave Afghanistan, opening thedoor for a potential Talibancomeback, women across thewar-torn country are nervousabout losing their hard-wonfreedoms in the pursuit ofpeace.

The militants were in powerfor around five years until theUS invasion of 2001. They ruledAfghanistan with an iron fistthat turned women into virtu-al prisoners under a strict inter-pretation of sharia law.

The Taliban’s fall trans-formed women’s lives, muchmore so in urban areas likeKabul than in conservative ruralAfghanistan.

But across the country,women remain wary of theinsurgents, desperate to see anend to the violence, but fearfulof paying a heavy price.

Under the Taliban, womenwere barred from seeking edu-cation or work -- rights thatAfghan female professionalsare fiercely protective of today.

In the western city of Herat,saleswoman Setara Akrimi, 32,told AFP: “I will be very happy

if peace comes and the Talibanstop killing our people.” “But ifthe Taliban come back topower... With their old mental-ity, it is a matter of concern forme,” the divorced mother ofthree added.

“If they tell me to sit at

home, I will not be able to sup-port my family,” she said.

“There are thousands ofwomen like me in Afghanistan,we are all worried.”

Akrimi’s anxieties areechoed by Kabul-based veteri-narian Tahera Rezai, who

believes “the arrival of theTaliban will affect women’s rightto work, freedom and inde-pendence”. “There has been nochange in their mentality,” the30-year-old told AFP. Passionateabout her career, Rezai said shewas pessimistic about herprospects if the insurgentsreturn to government, even ina truncated capacity.

“Looking at their history, Ifeel less hopeful... I believe thesituation will get harder forworking women like me,” shesaid. In the run-up to the USdeal, the militants made a vaguecommitment to respect women’srights in line with “Islamic val-ues”, prompting warnings fromactivists that the pledge wasmere lip service and open tobroad interpretation.

The Taliban control largeswathes of Afghanistan and

while they now allow girls toattend primary school in someareas, occasional reports of flog-gings and even the public ston-ing of women persist, fuellingfears they will turn back theclock if they return to power.

Many ordinary Afghans arestruggling to balance their desirefor peace with their dread of theinsurgents.

“Every family here is griev-ing because they have lost theirchildren, sons, husbands, broth-ers in the war,” government offi-cial Torpekay Shinwari toldAFP in eastern Nangarharprovince, which witnessed fiercebattles between the Taliban andthe Islamic State group’sAfghanistan affiliate.

The 46-year-old said shewas praying for peace, but wasincreasingly concerned that“women would be looked upon

as the second sex and sup-pressed” if the militants gainground. But in Kandahar, thebirthplace of the Taliban,schoolgirl Parwana Hussainistruck a rare optimistic note.

“I am not worried. Who arethe Taliban? They are our broth-ers,” the 17-year-old told AFP.

“We are all Afghans andwant peace.”

Furthermore, she added:“The young generation haschanged, and will not allow theTaliban to enforce their oldideology upon us.”

For those who bore thebrunt of the insurgents’ merci-less rule, however, there is littledoubt that a Taliban comebackwill bring anything other thana repeat of “dark and painfulmemories”. Factory workerUzra, from the mainly ShiiteHazara ethnic minority, sobbed

as she recounted life as a youngmother, alone at home with herchildren when the Sunni-fun-damentalist Taliban arrived inher village.

“I still vividly remember theday... They massacred all themen, and then came to myhouse,” the 40-year-old said, toofrightened to give her full name.

The militants threatenedto behead her then three-year-old daughter, she toldAFP from her home in centralBamiyan province. The fami-ly survived and f led toPakistan, but her husband wasdisabled and traumatised bythe brutal beatings he suffered.“To this day, when the word‘Taliban’ comes up, he startscrying,” she said. “Everybodywants peace, but not if theTaliban returns. I don’t wantthis so-called peace.” AFP

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Kabul: Afghanistan’s presidenton Sunday said he will not freethousands of Taliban prisonersahead of all-Afghan power-sharing talks set for next week,publicly disagreeing with atimetable for a speedy prison-er release laid out just a day ear-lier in a US-Taliban peaceagreement.

President Ashraf Ghani’scomments pointed to the firsthitch in implementing the frag-ile deal, which is aimed at end-ing America’s longest war aftermore than 18 years and gettingrival Afghan factions to agreeon their country’s future.

Still, the US has said aplanned US troop withdrawalover the next 14 months islinked to the Taliban’s counter-

terrorism performance, not toprogress in intra-Afghan talks.

Washington’s Peace Envoy,Zalmay Khalilzad, who servedas America’s first ambassador toAfghanistan after the 2001 U.S.Invasion, spent the past 17months running on-again, off-again talks with the Taliban tohammer out the agreement.

The US-Taliban deal signedon Saturday in the MiddleEastern State of Qatar envisionsthe release of up to 5,000Taliban prisoners by the Afghangovernment ahead of talksbetween Afghan factions meantto begin March 10 in theNorwegian capital of Oslo. TheTaliban would release up to1,000 prisoners.

Ghani told a news confer-

ence in the Afghan capital ofKabul on Sunday that this was-n’t a promise the United Statescould make. He said the releaseof any prisoners was a decisionfor his government to take andthat he wasn’t ready to releaseprisoners before the start ofnegotiations.

“The request has beenmade by the United States forthe release of prisoners and itcan be part of the negotiationsbut it cannot be a precondition,”Ghani said.

The US-Taliban deal is seenas a historic opportunity toextricate the United States fromAfghanistan, a nation con-vulsed by conflict since theSoviet invasion in December1979. AP

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Kastanies (Greece): The UnitedNations migration organizationsaid Sunday that at least 13,000people were massed on Turkey’sland border with Greece, afterTurkey officially declared itswestern borders were open tomigrants and refugees hoping tohead into the European Union.

Turkish President RecepTayyip Erdogan’s decision toopen his country’s borders withEurope made good on a long-standing threat to let refugeesinto the continent. Hisannouncement marked a dra-matic departure from the cur-rent policy and an apparentattempt to pressure Europe.

The UN’s InternationalOrganization for Migration

said Sunday that by the previ-ous evening, its staff workingalong the land border “hadobserved at least 13,000 peoplegathered at the formal bordercrossing points at Pazarkuleand Ipsala and multiple infor-mal border crossings, in groupsof between several dozen andmore than 3,000.”

Greek authorities fired teargas and stun grenades throughSaturday to prevent repeatedattempts by a crowd of morethan 4,000 people massed at theborder crossing in Kastanies tocross, and fought a cat-and-mouse game with groups cut-ting holes in a border fencealong the border to crawlthrough. AP

Beirut: Turkish forcesdowned two Syrian war planesover northwest Syria Sunday,a war monitor said, afterAnkara announced a cross-border military operationthere.

The Syrian Observatoryfor Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said the twoSukhoi jets fell in regime-held territory, likely afterbeing targeted by Turkish F-16 planes.

Syrian state news agencySANA said Turkish forces“targeted” two of its planesover northwest Syria.

Since December, Russia-backed regime forces haveled a military offensive againstthe last major rebel stronghold

of Idlib, where Turkey sup-ports some rebel groups.

Turkey’s defence ministryalso reported the downingsSunday, but did not confirmwho was responsible.

“Two SU-24 regime planesthat were attacking our aircrafthave been downed,” it said.

Youssef Hammoud, aspokesman for the NationalSyrian Army — a pro-Turkishgroup — said two Sukhoi 24planes were brought down,also without saying who wasresponsible.

The downings come afterTurkey announced a militaryoperation in northwest Syriaafter regime air strikes onThursday killed over 30Turkish soldiers. AFP

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Damascus: The Syrian militarySunday threatened to downany aircraft over northwestSyria after Turkish dronestrikes killed dozens of pro-regime forces in the embattledregion. “Syrian military highcommand announces the clo-sure of the airspace for planesand any drone above north-western Syria and especiallyabove the Idlib region,” statenews agency SANA reported amilitary source as saying. AFP

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�����������In a rough inner-city Los Angeles neighborhood,

four smart, funny and streetwise teens find theirlifelong friendship tested as they begin high school.Starring Sierra Capri, Jason Genao and Brett Gray,Season 3 releases on March 11 on Netflix.

������ ��The doomed passengers aboard a spectral bus head

toward a gruesome, unknown destination in thisdeliciously macabre horror anthology series. Starring IneMarie Wilmann, Bjørnar Teigen and Emma SpetalenMagnusson, Season 1 releases on March 13 on Netflix.

����������A fearless teen leans into the rush of high-speed go-

kart racing, backed by good friends — and a surly ex-dri-ver who becomes his coach. Starring William Lodder,Anastasia Bampos and Darius Amarfio-Jefferson, the filmreleases on March 13 on Netflix.

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The United States of America, theland of the free and the home

of the brave. Or so ‘The StarSpangled Banner’ goes, but onething that country does have iswide, open roads and thousandsupon thousands of acres of pristinewilderness. It is that sort of coun-try where the car has become apotent symbol of individual free-dom and mobility. It is also a sym-bol of speed and power, this is afterall, the country of the Great SaltLake, a flat pan of mesozoic layersupon which countless speedrecords have been set. It is, there-fore, odd that the US has some ofthe strangest speed limits in theworld, given its culture and roads.It is even stranger that the UnitedStates is the leading market forGerman carmaker BMW’s M series,buying fully 30 per cent of the2,00,000 full-fat, full-power M carsproduced in 2019, becauseAmerican Freeways and even localroads have the most bizarre speedlimits.

And when it comes to BMW’sM division, the cars that mad sci-entists drop their crazy glitter on,can go very, very fast indeed. Takethe BMW X5M Competition andX6M Competition that I was flownhalfway around the world to drive.Both these Sports Utility Vehiclesthat weigh the wrong side of twoand half tonnes and can get from0-100 kilometres per hour in 3.8seconds. I have been on even fastercars than these, but in these cars Iam sitting four feet up above theroad surface, lording over meremortals in sedans. In all the otherfast cars that I have driven, my rear-end is separated from the road sur-face by about four inches. These arebig, heavy vehicles and luxurious aswell. But they have a 4.4 litre tur-bocharged V8 engine up front thatproduces 625 horsepower, andeven if you get the slightly lessinsane X5M and X6M, you still get600 horsepower and a 0-100 time3.9 seconds.

Sure, you might say, put a bigenough motor and anything can gofast, even a bungalow. Believe mewhen I tell you that I really tried to

behave because after all, it was notthe speed that got to me. It was thesensational handling of the cars.You would expect that given thehuge 315-track Michelin Pilotsthese cars were wearing, theywould take a corner at speed. Andthe roads through the mountains ofMaricopa County, Arizona, werebeautiful with the right amount oftwists, dips and straights. But inyour average SUV, usually whenyou take a turn at speed, you areholding onto the steering for dearlife as inertia throws you out of yourseat. And inertia and momentumare usually your enemies because asone knows from secondary schoolphysics, it takes a lot of force tochange the momentum. Ergo, alight, sporty car takes corners wellbecause the lighter the car and thelower the centre of gravity, the lessforce it takes to change direction.Those of you who have drivenearly-build Gypsys would knowhow much they hated taking turnsat speed. If you remember whatangular momentum was, you’dunderstand why one saw so many

Gypsys lying sideways. This is where these cars excel

— cornering. I swear on my grand-mother’s memory that there was noperceptible body roll. None. I real-ly did not even feel my sidespushed into the seats, you couldput a spirit level on the dashboardand it wouldn’t really move. Youtake the car faster and fasterthrough the corner and still it did-n’t protest, there was nary a soundfrom the tires. Honestly, I reallydon’t know how this is physicallypossible on a car of this heft. Thiswas like a Sumo wrestler matchingthe sprinter Michael Johnson onthe inside lane of a 400 m track.The sheer speed of the car might

stretch physics, the handling ofthese cars defied physics. Thisshould not be possible. Yet, BMW’smad scientists have taken thephysics textbook and torn it apartyet again. Thankfully, the MaricopaCounty Sheriff ’s Department hadvery kindly closed off a section ofroad for us road testers to do ourthing. Trust me when I tell you thatI tried damn hard, even at the riskof running into a giant Saguarocactus to push these cars. Thesecars could easily beat a sportscoupe on a track, not just on astraight but through the cornersand I really hope that I get to dothat sometime.

Personally, between the two Iwould choose the X5M over theX6M simply because of the fact thatthe X5 is a slightly roomier car thanthe X6, rest everything else is thesame. They’re both fast and theyboth defy physics. Come to thinkof it, maybe one should ask the Mdivision guys to develop a timemachine, I mean since they lordover physics anyway, maybe theycan break it altogether.

Bas ek thappad, lekin nahimaar sakta.” (only one slap,but he cannot beat me)

This line from the film Thappadquestions the normalisation ofsuch instances in our society.

Domestic violence — physi-cal, sexual, verbal and emotion-al — cannot be justified. But asignificant population of womenoften find themselves at itsreceiving end. One might ques-tion why do they continue withsuch toxic relationships, but theanswers are certainly too com-plex to understand.

�What made you go for therole?

As an actor, some charactersset you free and some suffocateyou. It was latter for me withAmrita, my character inThappad. Her righteousness andmaturity to handle every situa-tion helped me grow as a personand an actor but a determinationdeep inside and an infectiouscalmness on the outside was suf-focating at times.

�Your films have mostly beenupfront about women’s safety.How challenging it is to workon such issues that openlychallenge patriarchy?

I have understood themeaning of the word “patri-archy” in recent years. Forinstance, if your father saysyou cannot go out, youdon’t question that. Yourmother may agree withyou but she is just run-ning the house and itdoes not matter much toher. You have to be in thehouse by 8 pm becauseguys can’t controlthemselves, so youhave to take charge of

being safe from them. When a film is made on such

a topic, people listen to you, theymay agree or disagree but atleastlisten. In this fast-paced life peo-ple usually don’t have the time toaddress such issues. So if youhave been given that kind ofpower, then you should use it inthe right direction.

�How do you think the filmexplores the grey areas of a rela-tionship?

Thappad will make you seethings that are taken for grantedin a relationship. There is a dia-logue in the film which says “Ican suddenly see all the unfairthings which I did not notice ear-lier.” So it gives you a trigger ini-tially and then you notice thingsthat were taken for granted.

Usually, what happens is,there is an abusive husband anda wife who tolerates this abusevaliantly because at the end, it isall about getting a meethi, adrakwaali chai from him. He mightget drunk and thrash her atnight but in the morning every-thing gets back to normal with a

“sorry” because it wasn’t doneconsciously.

� In the trailer, it can be seenthat the mother and mother-in-law of your character do notapprove the idea of divorce...What’s your take on this?

I don’t have a take on this.

�Usually, such violence (ekthappad) are normalised in oursociety. Why do you think peo-ple ignore it? Or even if they tryto take it seriously, a small actof love is looked at as compen-sation.

Women are often told to“tolerate” and are expected tobehave more patiently than menin a given situation. But violenceis violence and you shouldn’t tol-erate it at all. Staying in a toxicrelationship isn’t acceptable.

�As much as your roles havebeen versatile, they have beenstandalone in giving a strongmessage...How do you chooseyour scripts?

I only choose scripts that Ifeel will emerge as hits. I always

look at a film from the perspec-tive of the audience. I ask myself,will the audience feel that thisparticular film is worth theirmoney and time? If I feel positiveabout it, only then I sign it.

�Do you think artistes have aresponsibility towards society?How?

Yes, an artiste should beresponsible when it comes to por-traying various roles on screen.The impact a film makes on theaudience should not be takenlightly. The audience responsereflects the mindset of the soci-ety at large.

�Do you feel the pressure ofputting across the right contenton social media as you haveevolved as a youth icon?

I want to better myself formyself and not because I will getmore likes on Instagram. I’veheard horror stories of girls try-ing to ape an actress’ picture justto get more likes. For some peo-ple, it is all about the number oflikes they get. But for me, it is waybeyond that.

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Social turbulence is now a chronic condition inIndia like many other parts of the world. On one hand, our government has been try-

ing hard to sell its idea of a “New India” to theworld while on the other there are disturbinginstances of strikes due to a communal riot,Bharat bandh and what not. For example,Mumbai, the financial, commercial and entertain-ment capitalwitnessed astrike by pri-vate cab dri-vers for dropin incentivesby cab aggre-g a t o r s .Similarly, thewhole nationsaw studentsand parentscoming out onroads toprotest againstre-examina-tion due topaper leak.Next in theseries wasgreat commo-tion by theemployees ofessential ser-vices which held people of Mumbai to ransom.The strike by municipal employees just added tothe chaos. One can see that anger and cry for jus-tice is common in all the events.

We must understand that through pro-longed strikes and rebellious attitude, violent sit-uations are created. It is seen as the only way tograb attention and seek answers. And that is whatthe whole nation saw when young students werelathi charged. Imagine how such situations areperceived globally. India has been trying to posi-tion itself as a growth-oriented country but allthese seem to shatter its image.

We don’t realise the inconvenience andharassment these strikes must have caused to mil-lions. Such an atmosphere dilutes law and order.People defy all authorities and even children goon strikes if they are not heard. There is tensioneverywhere and the nation even suffers huge eco-nomic loss. A developing nation like India, can-not afford to waste its energies on avoidable con-flicts. According to the government sources, thestrikes in Mumbai have led to a loss of around�1,000 crore and as per a leading economic week-ly of Mumbai, it is �2,000 crore. And this then,leads to rise in prices of commodities. As a result,even if the employee get a pay-hike they do notbenefit from it.

One wonders if there is no peaceful methodof resolving such disputes. The most effectivenon-violent method which does not create tur-bulence in the society is through yoga. No soci-ety has tried these methods and yet, one may,therefore, feel skeptical about adopting this. Butthe very rationale behind the whole idea of yogawill convince people that it is the only methodthat can bring silence in the desired direction, sat-isfying all sections of the society and ending allstrikes and turbulence.

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8�������(���!����!����������������������������(�������"�%������"��������"�"�������������������&�������������������������������&��"�� �/8�������������"���������������������������������!��&��%�(�����"�"������"���������������������������������������������������������%0���������������������$����,�����9M&�������������!�����������9��������������#�

8������������������������������������������������(����������������� �����������&�����������������"���������� �'������������������������������������%����1.$3459�1.7�.-#�.1 �9-#�$ $9Being a part of the educational sec-

tor, you come across thousands ofstudents who appear for board

examination. Only some pass it with fly-ing colours and a few with the feeling ofsatisfaction. As you move ahead in lifeand become more experienced, thecount of these examinations keeps onincreasing. However, there is one thingthat stays constant in most of students —the fear of board and competitive exam-ination. Parents, relatives, neighbours andeven teachers have already made a fussabout it. These exams have always beena self-proclaimed ‘acid test’ for studentsto prove their mettle. So it is very natur-al to have the element of fear. It’s just anemotion like any other. But they cannotlet this feeling overpower their minds,which later, can affect their results. It’s afact that even extraordinary students per-form badly if they are under pressure.Students may not acknowledge it butexams can trigger stress, which stopsthem from putting their best foot for-ward. Hence, it’s important to address theissue and get it back under control. Butthe question is that ‘How can they over-come the fear?’ Well, here are a few tipswhich can help fight the exam fever:

TALK: Students must talk about theirfear with family and friends. Ask them

how did they do it, how did they man-age? They will tell you their experiences,which can help you in reducing the fearfactor. Spending good time with them canmake you relaxed.

LISTEN TO MUSIC: They say musicis an expressive therapeutic tool that canhelp students improve their physical andmental health. It relaxes the mind and hasa functional effect on the brain. So taketime out and listen to your favourite song.

DO ACTIVITIES: Exam doesn’tmean that you stop doing your favouriteactivity. Dance on the beats you want to,cook if you like, play your favourite gameor start doodling. Doing things you loveare the best stress busters. But don’t gettoo involved.

MINIMISE THE USAGE OFMOBILE PHONE: Phones keep youbusy for longer hours. Children areaddicted to their phones. Parents mustmonitor the usage. Sacrificing yourphone for a few days will not harm you.Experts suggest no screens for at least onehour before bedtime, so consider havingyour child turn in their phone in theevening.

PRACTISE: You panic when youdon’t know things.

So try to learn before hand and revise.Practise last five year question papers.They give you a clear vision about thepattern of the exam paper and the weigh-tage of each chapter. Practice themthoroughly and the board exams will notbe a shock for you.

MOTIVATE YOURSELF: “Nothingis impossible, even the word impossiblesays ‘I m possible’. Keep this quote inmind and you can touch the skies. Putmotivating play cards and posters in yourroom or near you study table. Wheneveryour eyes will go through it, you will befilled with positivity. And yes, this actu-ally works.

DON’T LET EXPECTATIONSEXERT PRESSURE: Your parents oryour well wishers always want you to doyour best. They want a bright future foryou. But don’t let these expectations toturn in unwanted pressure. Do things atyour pace.

BALANCED DIET: Diet alsobecomes an important aspect duringexams. Eating more sweets and oilythings will make you sleepy and can alsolead to acidity. It can make you restless.So eat right and stay fit. Drink someherbal tea or a hot chocolate. It’s a wellknown fact that hot drinks are knownto soothe the soul (avoid too much caf-feine).

DON’T WORRY ABOUT THERESULTS: Results are important but itdoes not decide your future. Whilepreparing for exams never think aboutthe results. Just concentrate on yourpreparation process. Scoring good orlow marks can never give you the assur-ance of success.

LAST DAY, LAST MINUTE: Don’tread new things at the last momentinstead revise the ones on which youhave good command already. Makeshort notes and write important formu-las on a paper and just quickly gothrough it before the exam. Always tryand reach before time on the day ofexam.

Remember, this is not the firstexam you have given and it wouldn’t bethe last one. Chris Hardwick has oncesaid, “No human ever became interest-ing by not failing. The more you failand recover and improve, the better youare as a person. Ever meet someone

who’s always had everythingwork out for them with

zero struggle? They usuallyhave the depth of a puddle.

Or they don’t exist.” So,it does not matter ifyou fail, all that mat-ters is the courage oftrying.

(The author is theManaging Director ofCambridge MontessoriPreschool.)

What a waste,” I was thinkingthis morning as I spat out

a seed from an orange. That seedcould have grown into a wholeorange tree. Growing an orangetree or any citrus tree from a seedis no more difficult than growinga bean plant from seed. In fact,tangerine seedlings have shared apot with a houseplant near myrocking chair, evidently “planted”casually as someone ate the fruitwhile sitting in the chair. And it’snot unusual to find an overenthu-siastic grapefruit seed sproutingwhile still inside the fruit.

� ����� There’s only one secret to

growing citrus from seed: Don’tlet the seed dry out. Helpful,though not critical, would be tosoak the seed for a couple of hoursbefore planting it, to leach out anysprouting inhibitors that might bepresent. After all, the seeds don’tusually sprout inside the fruits, sosomething — perhaps aninhibitor — in or near the seeds

must be preventing sprouting.Another possibility is that theseeds are held back by low oxy-gen levels within the fruit.

Once the seed has beensoaked, plant it like a bean seed,about three-quarters of an inchdeep. Do this in a pot filled withthe same potting soil you woulduse for houseplants or any otherseed.

Being tropical (again like abean plant), citrus seeds needwarmth to sprout. A minimum of60 degrees fahrenheit is goodenough but 80 degrees would beideal. Once the seed sprouts,which should not take longer thana few weeks, move the develop-ing seedling to a sunny window.

����2��������� ������>To end up with a good-tast-

ing fruit from a tree grown fromseed has always been a tenuousproposition. All apple, pear, plumand peach varieties are clones,propagated by grafting or cut-tings.

A tree grown from seed willbear fruits different from — andprobably worse — than the treethat bore the fruits that bore theseeds. That’s because plants grownfrom seeds, in contrast to plants

propagated by grafting or cut-tings from stems, leaves, androots, represent the comminglingand shuffling around of genes ofthe parent tree and whateverother variety pollinated the

flower that preceded the fruit.However, citrus has the

quirk, known as apomixis, of fre-quently producing seeds thatare not the result of pollination,but that develop from the same

kind of cells that make up the restof the plant. Bingo! A seed thatis genetically identical to itsmother and hence, will bearidentical fruit when grown intoa tree.

����2����������������>Sorry, a few hurdles still

stand in the way. For one thing,not all the seeds even in a singlefruit are necessarily apomictic,although sometimes it is possi-ble to identify those produced bypollination by their weakergrowth.

Second, citrus, like otherplants, must go through a juve-nile phase before becoming oldenough to bear fruit. This phase,marked in the case of citrus bythorny branches, can last manyyears.

And finally, even after a cit-rus tree gets old enough topotentially bear fruit, it won’t doso except under good growingconditions, which are difficult toachieve unless you garden in asubtropical or tropical climate.When growing citrus in a pot,which is necessary in cold cli-mates, more attention must bepaid to providing sufficient food,water and light.

With that said, even a barrencitrus tree is worth growing forits glossy, vibrantly green leaves.Growing a citrus tree from a seedis an especially nice long-termproject for a child. The plants arefast-growing and if interestbegins to wane, just crush a leaf.The aroma offers a mouth-water-ing hint of the taste of fruit pos-sibly to come.

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Liverpool manager JurgenKlopp warned his side thePremier League title is not

won yet after a 44-game run with-out defeat in the league came to acrashing end as Watford beat theEuropean champions 3-0 onSaturday.

Klopp's men still enjoy a 22-point lead at the top of the table,but their sluggish return from atwo-week winter break earlier thismonth was finally punished.

Ismaila Sarr’s quickfire doubleand Troy Deeney’s strike 18 min-utes from time ended Liverpool'shopes of romping to a first leaguetitle in 30 years with an unbeatenseason.

“What the boys did so far isexceptional but it is not over,” saidKlopp.

“We did not expect the num-ber of games we won. It was nevereasy and it will never be easy, sonow let’s carry on.”

After single-goal victories overstruggling Norwich and West Hameither side of a Champions Leaguedefeat at Atlet ico Madrid,Liverpool were comprehensivelybeaten at Vicarage Road.

A 55-point gap separated thesides before kick-off, but the out-of-sorts visitors failed to mustereven a single effort on goal in thefirst 45 minutes.

“You break records becauseyou are 100 percent focused oneach step you have to do,” addedKlopp. "For that you have to per-form. Tonight we were not goodenough.”

Watford’s bright start threat-ened to be blown off course whenGerard Deulofeu had tostretchered off with a nasty look-ing knee injury that seems certainto end his season.

Andy Robertson’s driven effortfinally forced Ben Foster into a

save early in the second half,but just as Liverpool werebeginning to build up a head ofsteam, they were stung by twoquick strikes by Sarr.

?�������%����?�Firstly, the Senegalese beat

Robertson to AbdoulayeDoucoure’s low cross to stabhome at the near post.

Six minutes later, Sarr hadtoo much pace for a flat-foot-ed Liverpool defence as heraced onto Deeney's throughball and showed fantastic com-posure to lift the ball over theadvancing Alisson Becker.

Sarr also had a big part toplay in Watford’s third as hepounced on a short passbackand had the vision to pick outDeeney, who lofted the ballnonchalantly over Alisson tomake it 3-0.

“It’s not acceptable we lose3-0 here,” said Liverpooldefender Virgil van Dijk. “Wewant to strike back straightaway.”

Watford had thrown away alead in three of their last fourPremier League games to fallback into the bottom three.

But they never looked inany danger of doing so again asthey moved back out of the rel-egation zone on goal difference.

“It’s such an important winfor us. But it is one win,” saidWatford boss Nigel Pearson.

“It’s in our own hands, andwe have to deliver that perfor-mance week in, week out."

Sarr should even have hada famous hat-trick with hisfinal touch as he curled widewhen one-on-one with Alisson.

However, that was the onlygloss missing from a gloriousnight for Watford as Liverpoolremain four wins away from thetitle.

��%�� +4��.�56+6�

World No. 2 RafaelNadal captured

his first title of 2020,easily defeatingunseeded Taylor Fritzin straight sets, 6-3, 6-2, in the final of theATP Mexico Open onSaturday.

The 33-year-oldNadal, playing in hisfirst tournament sincelosing in the quarter-finals at the AustralianOpen last month, did-n't drop a set all weekand improved to 19-2all-time at this event.

He nabbed his

third Mexico Opentitle to go with victoriesin 2013 and 2005.Nadal wasted no timefiguring out Fritz'sgame in the first careermeeting between thetwo.

The 19-timeGrand Slam winnermade eight unforcederrors and needed justone ace but it came inthe final game of thesecond set to get tochampionship point.

Nadal closed it outwith a blistering servethat handcuffed Fritzand gave Nadal his85th career title.

Nadal ceded theworld number oneranking to NovakDjokovic after theAustralian Open,where the Serb won arecord eighth title.

Nadal could haveregained the top spotwith a win in Acapulco,but he also neededDjokovic to fail toreach the final in thisweek's Dubai event.

Nadal won thefinal eight points totake the first set. Heseized control bybreaking Fritz's servein the ninth game togo up 5-4. He then

served for the set, win-ning four straightpoints.

On set point hehammered a servewhich Fritz barely gotback. That set up anoverhead smash forNadal which he putaway nicely.

Nadal broke Fritztwice in the secondset, including the fifthgame to go up 3-2. Hebroke Fritz again totake a 5-4 lead andthen served out thematch.

Nadal has nowwon a title 17 consec-utive years.

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Indian men’s hockey team coachGraham Reid on Sunday said

they need to be “consistent acrossmatches and in all quarters” if theyare to stake a claim for a podium atthe Tokyo Olympics.

Reid was happy with his team’sperformance in the recently-con-cluded FIH Pro League matchesagainst the Netherlands, worldchampions Belgium and Australia.

"One of the takeaways from theFIH Hockey Pro League was that we

have proven that we can producegood results against the best in theworld. It’s a step forward in build-ing self-belief,” he said.

“Also it shows that the things wehave been focusing on is working.But we still need to be more consis-tent not only across matches but alsoacross all quarters,” expressed Reid.

Hockey India on Sunday nameda 32-member core probable groupfor the men’s national camp whichbegins at the Sports Authority ofIndia in Bengaluru on Monday.

The coach minced no words in

expressing that the camp will be agood foundation ahead of the 2020Tokyo Games.

“The four-week camp will bringfocus back on our skill — tackling,goal shooting, trapping. We alsoneed to work on our attacking abil-ities, especially to move the ballfrom attacking 25 into the circle.

“After this camp, we will go toGermany and England to playwhich we help us further assessimprovements required as we worktowards 2020 Olympic Games,”stated Reid.a

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Novak Djokovic set his sights on anoth-er marathon run of invincibility after

capturing his 79th career title on Saturday.The world number one claimed the

Dubai Championships for the fifth time,defeating Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-3, 6-4 in thefinal.

Djokovic is now on an 18-0 winning runthis season, and 21-0 overall since late 2019,as he ended an eight-match win streak forhis Greek opponent, champion last weekendin Marseille.

Djokovic claimed his third trophy of2020 after helping Serbia to the ATP Cup andwinning an eighth Australian Open.

It is the seventh time that the 32-year-old Djokovic has won more than 20 match-es on the trot.

His record is 43 set in 2010 and 2011with a run of 28 his next best, achieved ontwo occasions in 2013-14 and 2015.

“This has been one of the best starts ofall seasons I’ve had. I feel great on the court,”said Djokovic.

��%�� �47.

Aryna Sabalenka won hersixth career title on Saturday

when she swept past formertwo-time Wimbledon championPetra Kvitova 6-3, 6-3 in theQatar Open final and dedicatedvictory to her father who died lastyear.

The Belarusian ninth seed’swin over the eighth-seededCzech, who was Qatar champi-on in 2018, will see her rise to 11in the world rankings onMonday.

The 21-year-old said thememory of her father Sergey,who died in November, wasvery much in her mind on

Saturday.“It was a long journey here

and I put everything on tennis,”Sabalenka toldwww.wtatennis.com as shedescribed the influence of herfather.

“I was actually only playingtennis and focusing on tennisand nothing else. And I think Igave everything for tennis. AndI just lost my dad in the pre-sea-son and he was my biggest moti-vation, and I’m doing it forhim.”

Sabalenka fired seven acesand 21 winners past Kvitova whowas playing in her 37th WTAfinal.

“Aryna played an amazingmatch,” said Kvitova.

“She didn’t give me anythingfor free, I had a chance once inthe second set to break herserve, but I just couldn't make it.”

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Kylian Mbappe scored twice andgrabbed an assist as runaway

Ligue 1 leaders Paris Saint-Germaincoasted to a 4-0 win over Dijon onSaturday despite the absence of thesuspended Neymar.

Pablo Sarabia struck the openerinside three minutes at the Parc desPrinces, as PSG played withoutNeymar who was serving a one-match ban after his red card in lastweek's win over Bordeaux.

Dijon, who beat PSG 2-1 athome in November, are hovering justabove the relegation play-off place butheld out for 70 minutes before PSGadded a second through Mbappe.

The France international then setup Mauro Icardi for a third goal justmoments after the Argentine came onas a replacement for Edinson Cavani.

Mbappe bagged his second andPSG’s fourth in stoppage time asThomas Tuchel’s side preserved their13-point lead over Marseille at the topof the table.

“It was a good match. We wereable to score quickly which settled usdown,” said PSG captain Marquinhos.

PSG travel to Lyon on

Wednesday for a French Cup semi-final and play Strasbourg next week-end, with the return leg againstBorussia Dortmund in theChampions League on March 11.

“The group absolutely wants toshow against Dortmund that it’scapable of taking this step forward,"

said Tuchel.“They’re having a very consistent

season with lots of wins and strongperformances. We can’t lose confi-dence in this team. The playershave shown this week they want toplay that game, and they did againtoday.”

The hosts were already withoutMarco Verratti due to suspensionand injured skipper Thiago Silva, andlost Angel Di Maria to a thigh prob-lem early in the first half.

Tuchel said he was confident DiMaria would make a swift recovery,adding the decision to take him offwas one of precaution.

By that point PSG were alreadyleading through Sarabia’s ninth goalof 2020— and PSG’s second quick-est of the campaign — after he redi-rected a mishit shot fromMarquinhos.

Dijon goalkeeper AlexRunarsson produced a number ofsaves to keep the visitors in touch,but he was eventually beaten againwhen Mbappe rounded the Icelandinternational following a slick ballthrough from Julian Draxler.

Mbappe turned provider whenhe helped the ball across for Icardito apply a sharp finish on 74 minutes.He then increased his league-bestgoals tally to 18 in stoppage timeafter a scramble in the area.

Marseille strengthened their gripon second place on Friday as DarioBenedetto scored a hat-trick in a 3-2 win at lowly Nimes.

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Defending championsBengaluru FC registered a

narrow 1-0 win over ATK in thefirst leg of their Hero IndianSuper League semi-final clash atthe Sree Kanteerava Stadium hereon Sunday.

Deshorn Brown's opportunis-tic strike (31st minute) proved tobe the difference in what was aclosely-fought first leg battle.

ATK’s dangerous duo, RoyKrishna and David Williams,combined well to put the ball intothe net in the 17th minute.Krishna found his teammate witha well-timed lob in behind theBlues defence. Williams handledthe ball as he brought it down andstruck it brilliantly past GurpreetSingh Sandhu, but the goal waseventually disallowed due to thehandball.

The hosts continued to putpressure on the ATK defenceand their effort bore fruit aminute after the half an hourmark.

Gurpreet’s punt from his own

half ended up at the feet of Juananwhose shot from inside the boxwas hit straight at ArindamBhattacharya. The ATK custodi-an messed up the save and spiltthe ball into the path of DeshornBrown, who broke the deadlock.

Bengaluru suffered a late blowwhen Nishu Kumar was sent off

for a tug on Krishna. The Fijianstriker was brought down outsidethe box by the full-back and thelatter's last-man challenge waspunished by the referee.

ATK, however, were unable toforce an equaliser and now haveto come from behind in thereverse leg in Kolkata next Sunday

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Raul Jimenez boosted Wolves'bid to qualify for the Champions

League as his late winner capped thevisitors' dramatic fightback in their3-2 victory at Tottenham on Sunday.

Nuno Espirito Santo's sidetrailed twice in north London, buthit back from 2-1 down thanks tosecond half goals from Diogo Jotaand Jimenez.

Wolves moved two points aboveTottenham into sixth place in thePremier League.

As it stands, finishing fifth couldlead to a Champions League place,owing to second placed ManchesterCity's European ban, against whichthey are appealing.

Sitting level on points with fifthplaced Manchester United and justthree behind fourth placed Chelsea,Wolves are firmly in the hunt for anunexpected berth in Europe's eliteclub competition

They fell behind to StevenBergwijn's first half opener, butMatt Doherty equalised and evenSerge Aurier restoring Tottenham'slead couldn't knock Wolves out oftheir stride.

It was a bitter blow for injury-hit Tottenham, who suffered threeconsecutive defeats in all competi-tions for the first time this season.

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Everton manager CarloAncelotti was sent off afterapproaching the referee as yet moreVAR controversy contributed to afiery finish in a 1-1 draw withManchester United.

Goalkeeping errors by bothUnited's David De Gea andEverton's Jordan Pickford were cen-tral to the outcome at GoodisonPark.

But Everton thought they hadwon the game in stoppage timewhen a shot from Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who had opened the scoring,deflected off United's Harry Maguireand into the net.

The goal, however, was ruled outby the video assistant referee with

the offside Gylfi Sigurdsson, lying inthe path of De Gea, deemed to haveobstructed the view of the keeper.

Veteran Italian managerAncelotti was as unhappy as thehome crowd on Merseyside, with theToffees boss sent off after approach-ing referee Chris Kavanagh on thefield.

The draw saw fifth-placedUnited miss the chance to cut thegap to Chelsea in fourth to a singlepoint in the Premier League table asEverton stayed in 11th position.

It took Everton just three min-utes to break the deadlock with abizarre goal that delighted theGoodison Park faithful.

There seemed little danger as DeGea dwelt on a clearance.

But his eventual kick downfieldwas blocked by the charging Calvert-Lewin, with the rebound flying intothe unguarded United net.

De Gea did make amends inpart by denying Calvert-Lewin a sec-ond goal by tipping a shot widewhile, at the other end of the pitch,Nemanja Matic hit the crossbar asUnited sought an equaliser.

Another goalkeeping errorhelped United draw level in the 31stminute when England number onePickford, with national managerGareth Southgate watching from thestands, failed to cover BrunoFernandes' speculative, if well-struck, effort from long range.

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India’s top-order frittered away agolden chance with another shod-dy batting show as New Zealand

regained complete control of thesecond Test after Mohammed Shamiand Jasprit Bumrah’s hostile fast-bowling spell had given the visitorsa slender first-innings lead here onSunday.

Shami (4/81 in 23.1 overs) andBumrah (3/62 in 22 overs) were bril-liant in their execution, dismissingNew Zealand for 235 in 73.1 overs asthey showed why they are one ofdeadliest fast bowling pair in Testmatch cricket.

However, India’s top-order failedmiserably once again as New Zealandbounced back, reducing India to 90for six in their second innings atstumps on day two as a third day fin-ish is on the cards.

India is now effectively 97 runsahead with only four wickets in handand it will take a herculean effort toavert another series whitewash afterthe ODIs.

Trent Boult (3/12 in 9 overs) gotMayank Agarwal (3) and CheteshwarPujara (24) with conventionalinswingers that tails into right-han-ders.

Prithvi Shaw (14) was out infamiliar fashion, fending a short ballfrom Tim Southee, while skipperVirat Kohli's (14) indecisive footworkbrought his downfall once again.

Vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane,who was hit on the helmet, paid theprice for an ugly shot, while UmeshYadav expectedly didn’t survive arampaging Boult after he was inex-plicably sent in as nightwatchmanwhen nearly half an hour was left.

A target of 250 in the fourthinnings could well be a challenge forthe Black Caps as there is still some-thing in the track for the speed mer-chants despite batsmen getting avalue for their shots.

India would have ideally hopedthat skipper Kohli would end hisdreadful tour of New Zealand withone big knock but it was not to be asColin de Grandhomme trapped himleg before with an off-cutter.

No wonder Trent Boult washappy having kept Kohli quiet.

In the morning, the first two ses-sions belonged to Shami and Bumrah,who were nothing short of brilliantwith their precision length, sidewaysmovement and an occasional heavyball that was slipped in between.

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Amaiden international century byHeinrich Klaasen set up a 74-run win

for South Africa in the first one-day inter-national against Australia at Boland Park.

Klaasen hit 123 not out in a SouthAfrican total of 291 for seven. Australia wereon target midway through their reply but losttheir last seven wickets for 43 runs to bebowled out for 217 on Saturday.

Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagneput on 84 for Australia’s third wicket after theearly loss of opening batsman Aaron Finchand David Warner, both dismissed by LungiNgidi, who finished with three for 30.

Smith (76) and Labuschagne (41) hitonly three boundaries between them as scor-ing proved difficult on a slow pitch and a bigoutfield.

When they tried to accelerateLabuschagne was caught at long-on off left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj.

Mitchell Marsh helped Smith add 41 for

the fourth wicket but Marsh was bowled byNgidi and three balls later Smith wastrapped leg before wicket by Anrich Nortje.

It was always going to be difficult for newbatsmen to get established and the inningssubsided.

By contrast Klaasen and David Miller(64) put on 149 for South Africa’s fifth wick-et and were not parted until Miller was out

in the 49th over.Klaasen said he felt “pure emotion” when

he reached his century after a difficult recentperiod when he lost his place in the team andhad to fight his way back. He gave credit toMiller and new cap Kyle Verreynne, whomade 48 and helped Klaasen add 78 for thefourth wicket after South Africa had been 48for three after winning the toss.

Verreynne, 22, made an impressivedebut which included three catches in theoutfield by a player who keeps wicket indomestic cricket. Two of Verreynne’s catch-es were spectacular, one to dismiss Warnerwhen he dived forward from point and latein the innings when he ran in from long-onand dived to take a steepling catch from PatCummins.

Quinton de Kock was phlegmatic aftera topsy-turvy few weeks when South Africahave had good wins interspersed by heavydefeats. “It’s a matter of being consistent inwhat we do and then we will be alright goingforward,” he said.

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Australian great IanChappell on Sunday reck-

oned Indian batsmen need tostrike a balance between cau-tion and aggression, his viewscoming in the wake of theirstruggles in the Test series inNew Zealand’s testing condi-tions.

Chappell’s opinion was incontrast to the view shared byVirat Kohli after the drubbingin the first Test. The India cap-tain had said, in part, “I don’tthink being cautious or warywill help because you mightstop playing your shots.”

Known for his sharpcricketing mind, Chappell’sline of thinking is a bit differ-ent from that of Kohli.

“New Zealand, much like

England’s seaming surfaces, isa place where caution isrequired more often than inAustralia, where most pitch-es are extremely true,”Chappell wrote inESPNcricinfo.

“Whatever the cause, atthe Basin Reserve it was anabysmal batting effort fromthe No. 1-ranked Test team,who failed to reach 200 ineither innings,” he added.

“Placing a batting order isnot playing a game of "pin thetail on the donkey”. It’s impor-tant to get the balance rightand to place players in posi-tions where they are comfort-able and hence more likely tosucceed.”

While he defended theobdurate Cheteshwar Pujara,who had the lowest strikerate in Wellington, Chappellsaid he should be carefulabout not going into a shell.

“It’s hard to be critical ofa No. 3 who was heavilyinvolved in India beatingAustralia in 2018-19 withsome lengthy stays at thecrease anchoring the innings.

“Pujara normally batsbehind (Rohit) Sharma andMayank Agarwal and ahead ofKohli. That’s an adequateamount of strokeplay sur-rounding Pujara, and as ajudicious shot maker he’s idealat No. 3 for balance.

“Mind you, Pujara needsto be careful he doesn’t slipinto net-practice mode andforget that the object in amatch is to score runs regu-larly.

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Ishan Porel complementedAnustup Majumdar’s unbeat-

en century with a five-wickethaul to put Bengal in commandagainst a star-studdedKarnataka in their Ranji Trophysemifinal here on Sunday.

After Majumdar’s 149 notout propelled Bengal to 312after being down at 67 for 6 atone stage, the 21-year-old Porelsnared 5 for 39 as the three-pronged Bengal pace attackdismissed the batting-heavyKarnataka for a paltry 122 in36.2 overs, their lowest total thisseason.

India opener Rahul, whowas adjudged man-of-the-seriesin their 5-0 T20I whitewash ofNew Zealand recently, lookedout of sorts and scored a forget-table 67-ball 26 (2x4s).

Spinner KrishnappaGowtham (31) top-scored forKarnataka in a quick 56-run (46balls) eighth-wicket stand withAbhimanyu Mithun (24) tohelp Karnataka avoid the fol-low-on but only to concede amassive 190-run first inningslead.

A total of 15 wickets tum-bled on day two as Bengalwere 72 for 4 at stumps withSudip Chatterjee (40 not out)giving Majumdar (1 not out)company, extending the hosts’overall lead to a sizeable 262-run.

���� ����������%RAJKOT: Sheldon Jacksonstruck a gritty hundred beforethe bowlers shone as Saurashtragained the upper hand on thesecond day of their RanjiTrophy semifinal againstGujarat here on Sunday.

Jackson's knock of 103helped Saurashtra post 304 andthen the home team bowlerswreaked havoc on Gujarat'sbatting line-up to reduce themto 119 for six.

Resuming on overnight217 for five, through SheldonJackson and Chirag Jani (29),Saurashtra negated the earlychallenge posed by the opposi-tion bowlers.

Jackson got a reprieve on 82when skipper Parthiv Pateldropped a catch off pacer ArzanNagwaswalla. He made themost of this by notching up his19th first-class hundred andthird this season.

Jackson and Jani were look-

ing good before Gujaratbounced back with medium-pacer Roosh Kalaria sendingboth the batsmen back to thepavilion.

He first trapped Jani infront of the wicket and then gotJackson to edge to Parthiv asSaurashtra slipped to 266 forseven.

Jackson and Jani added103 run wicket for the sixthwicket.

Prerak Mankad (15) andDharmendrasinh Jadeja (15)ensured the hosts didn't loseany further wicket till lunch.Saurashtra took lunch at 290 forseven.

After lunch, Gujaratbowlers wrapped up the tail asSaurashtra lost three wickets forseven runs.

Pacer Arzan Nagaswalla(5/81) grabbed a five-for, whileAxar Patel took three wicketsand Roosh Kalaria bagged two.

However, Saurashtra pacersreduced Gujarat to one for 2after Unadkat sent PriyankPanchal (0) in the first over andin the second over ChetanSakariya cleaned up SamitGohel (1).

Then, Dhruv Raval (35)and Bhargav Merai (13) tried tosteady the ship, but the latterwas dismissed when he offereda sitter to Jackson off PrerakMankad, as the visitors slippedto 37 for three.

Raval, too, was unable toconvert his start as he becameUnadkat's second victim withGujarat in deep trouble at 58 forfour.

Dharmendrasinh Jadejathen struck twice and got theprize wicket of Parthiv (27) asGujarat had lost half the side for95. It soon became 97 for sixwhen Jadeja sent back ChiragGandhi for a zero.

Rujul Bhatt (27 not out)and Axar Patel (7 not out) madesure that there were no furtherlosses before stump.

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Kusal Mendis andDhananjaya de Silva

smashed half-centuries as SriLanka posted 307 in the thirdone-day international againstWest Indies on Sunday.

Mendis top-scored with55 while De Silva hit 51 after SriLanka— enjoying an unbeat-able 2-0 lead in the three-match series — elected to batfirst in Kandy.

Paceman Alzarri Josephclaimed four wickets as SriLanka were bowled out in 50overs.

Avishka Fernando andskipper Dimuth Karunaratnegave the hosts a brisk start witha 60-run opening stand beforethe West Indies struck.

Joseph got Fernandocaught behind for 28, and spin-

ner Roston Chase caught andbowled Karunaratne for 44.

Kusal Perera, who made44, and Mendis then rebuilt theinnings during their 89-runstand to take the attack to theopposition.

The in-form Mendis, whohit a century in his team’sthrashing of West Indies onWednesday, completed his 17th

ODI fifty before falling toJoseph. Fast bowler SheldonCottrell bowled former captainAngelo Mathews for 12, but therest of the batsmen kept up thecharge.

De Silva, who completedhis fifty in just 45 balls with aboundary off Jason Holder,and Thisara Perera put on 64runs for the sixth wicket.

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Afemale elephant was diedafter being hit by a speed-

ing train between Kokpara andChakulia under Chakuliapolice station area in Ghatshilasub-division in the wee hoursof Friday.

According to informationKoraput-Howrah SamaleswariExpress was running at a speedat about 2.40 am when the trainhit the elephant causing on therailway track. The female ele-phant succumb to injurieswithin an hour. The villagershad gathered to see the ele-phant.

Concerned over the ele-phant's death on the railwaytrack, Jamshedpur divisionalforest officer, Abhishek Kumarwrote a letter to the railwaydemanding a restricted speedlimit to be followed for thetrains, including the goodstrain between Chakulia andKokpara as the stretch is verysensitive in view of the elephantmovement.

"We are really hurt over the

incident. We have demandedthe railway authority concernedto keep the train's speedbetween Kokpara and Chakulianot beyond 40 kmph. TheGhatshila sub-division comesunder the Project Elephantarea and move of tuskers areregular in this area. But as wehad never asked for a restrict-ed movement of trains through

the stretch as mentioned above,we intimated an assistant engi-neer of railway posted atTatanagar and made him awareabout concern" said Kumar.

The Jamshedpur DFO saidat the time the mishap tookplace, two elephants were nearthe railway track -- one of themcrossing the track and theother one was at a little distance

from the track. After themishap the injured kept onlying near the track, but theother elephant returned toChakulia jungle.

In the day, a team of forestdepartment arrived at the spotand got autopsy of the carcassbefore getting it buried.

According to sources, theelephant that was killed todayhad come in a small herd fromChakulia jungle, close to theBengal border.

“It was really shocking toread about death of elephantson railway track.

Trains continue to kill ele-phants despite the governmentclaiming to pay active attentionto the problem for at least thepast five years. In consultationwith the Environment andForest Ministry and the forestdepartments of state govern-ments, Railways must attemptto find a more lasting solutionin the matter through depositworks consisting of measuressuch as construction of rampsand underpasses,” said a pas-senger.

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The festival of colours isright round the corner.

And here is an opportunity tocelebrate Holi by replacing thetraditional gulal with its moreeco-friendly and naturalcounterpart.

People are preparing to turnred, blue and yellow with the

festival of colours. City mar-kets are witnessing enthusi-astic crowd.

The Bistupur and Sakchimarket are most sought afterplace to buy the colours. Anumber of people frequentthese markets for the festivalof the year and a dozen oddshops sell different variants ofcolours. It is also a choicestplace for the children to buytoys that can store in somecolor water.

“Holi has always been anightmare for me because ofthe dangers of syntheticcolours. Eco-friendly coloursare the best way to celebrateHoli. Thanks to the annualawareness drives, gradually,people are realising theimportance of eco-friendly

colours,” said AmalaAkkineni.

The rising awarenessabout the ill effects of the syn-thetic colours have motivatedpeople to opt for the naturalcolours or to say eco friend-ly colours to play and enjoythe festival of colours, Holi.

“The colours are madeout of turmeric, rice flour andrecycled flowers, and con-tain no artificial colours.Fillers or preservatives thatare used have been lab testedfor zero heavy metal content,”said Radheshyam Goyal, aleading colour trader ofJugsalai.

Ranging from Rs 10 apacket to Rs 260 per kilo-gram, these natural coloursmay be a little heavy on thepocket as compared to theregular colours, but the dif-ference is a small price to payfor a safe Holi.

“Regular colours can costanything between Rs 100-200 per kilogram. However, asnatural colours have a high-er density, the buyer gets ahigher amount for less,” Goyaladded.

For Mukesh Agarwal, ashopkeeper at Sakchi Market,personalized gift baskets forHoli are a sure-shot way to upbusiness at this time.

"The designer masks havefound many takers. Eventhough the demand for pakkacolours has seen a dip, wehave a few packets kept withus. Kuch log aise hote hain jokehte hain ki do din tak tohlagna chahiye ki Holi khelihai.

That's why they prefer

pakka colours to organic Holicolours.

But at the end of the day,it's all a traders of the city whoexperimented with herbal holicolours last year doubled theorders this year but almost theentire stock has been sold outa week before the festival.

“Though, the sales of rosewaters are also on its pick andthe products are very reason-ably priced at Rs 20-25 for aherbal colour pouch and Rs75-80 for a rose water bottle,”said Manoj, a trader.

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Afive-day annual sportsevent ‘Shaurya-2020’ cul-

minated with vibrancy andprize distribution at FriendshipSports venue at Hundru villageunder Chandankiyari Block ofBokaro district on Friday.

The concluding day wit-nessed exciting and captivatingperformances by the enthusi-astic employees of Vedanta-Electrosteel Steels Limited, whoparticipated in different sportsevents.

Speaking on the occasionChief Executive Officer of thecompany, Pankaj Malhan,extended a warm welcome toall the participants and encour-aged them to participate insports for good health. “Sportsdevelop team spirit which alsoteaches us management skills,”he added.

The event Shaurya-2020was inaugurated on 18February, includes severalsports events include 100-meter race, 200-meter race,400-meter race, relay race,marathon, walkathon, bad-minton, table tennis, highjump, long jump, shot put,carrom, javelin, tug of war and

kabaddi, informed VivekAnand PRO of VedantaElectrosteel.

Among the winnersJitendra Kumar in both 100 and200 meters race (men) andAnushka Kumari also in 100and 200 meters race (women),Mahmud, Ashish, SoumyajitPal, and Anand in the 400-meter relay (men), in womenAnushka Kumari, MamtaMandal, Pragya Shri, VidyaPriya, Mohammad Shabbir(men) and Kajal Singh(women) wins in long-jumpswhile in high-jumps JitendraKumar and Anushka Kumari,Abhishek Kumar and Ankit in(shot-put), Ansuman Samantaand Shruti wins the badminton

doubles men and womenrespectively. Ranjan Pandeyand Pragya in table tennis,Md Mahmud and Pragya Shreein Carrom, Sanjay Bauri winsthe marathon race, informedAnand.

The Security department ofthe company won the Kabbadiand Tug of War matches whileManoj won the best photogra-pher award.

Besides others, SLVPReady COO of the company,SBU Director Samar Suri,Sumit Burman, Kundan Karna,S Venkataraman, AnandReddy and a large number ofofficials and employees of thecompany were present on theoccasion.

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The court of District andSessions Judge-I of Bokaro

Ranjit Kumar awarded lifeterm rigorous imprisonment(RI) to a man for killing hiswife. The court awarded lifeterm to Kartik Das (36) forkilling his wife Rina Das as thecourt found him guilty.Presently he was residing atMahala village under

Chandankiyari police station ofBokaro district.

The court also fined Rs50,000 to him, said SanjayKumar Jha Advocate of theDistrict Court Bokaro.

According to FIR lodged atthe local police station by AjitDas the father of the deceased,Kartik killed his wife over thedemand of dowry. She was reg-ularly tortured for a bike sinceafter her marriage. On 20December 2018 she wasthrashed brutally by her hus-band. “It is stated in the post-mortem report that Rina dieddue to rupture of her chest’sbone,” informed Jha

%� �� 1.�,79

As the country marksthe National Science

Day, UMU commemorat-ed the day by organising anin-house competition in avariety of events includingon-spot poster making,nukkad-natak, English-lan-guage debate and quiz. NationalScience Day is celebrated onFebruary 28 each year com-

memorating Indian physicist CV Raman’s discovery in 1928 ofthe Raman Effect – the scat-tering of photons or light par-ticles by matter.

Since this years’ theme forScience Day was ‘Women inScience’ the competitionsacknowledged issues related towomen’s role in recent scientif-ic concerns & scientific dis-courses, developments & ben-efits of technology, gender gapin science, and preventableproblems for women scientists.

The program aimed to dis-seminate the importance ofscientific learning and scientificculture among the students toencourage their understandingof science and scientific temper.

Addressing the valedicto-ry session, Binod Kispotta,Registrar of the Universitysaid that universities shouldencourage women to excel inthe field of science and entre-preneurship.

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Aworkshop wasorganised by WIPS,

CMPDI in associationwith the CSR teamunder projectSwawlambi here onFriday, which aims atproviding skill devel-opment and employability tounderprivileged women of

Hatma Basti and nearby areas ofKanke Road. Under this pro-gramme, women are beingtrained in tailoring with the helpof master trainer from UshaInternational limited, Patna.

The programme was inau-gurated by Mita Sharan,President, Kasturi MahilaSabha on the premises of RI-III,CMPDI. The programme wasalso graced by the presence ofManoj Kumar, RD, RI-III, MSAKhan, CM (Personnel), HRDDept. and others, where theygave their valuable views onnecessity of women self-employment and its necessityfor their progression and sur-vival in the society.

Zeba Imam, Chief Manager(Geo)/General Secretary, WIPSCMPDI introduced the pro-grammr and the participantsamong the assemblage. MamtaToppo, Sr. Manager(P)/Executivemember, WIPS CMPDIinformed about the features andbenefits of the programme.

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