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

VOL.16, ISSUE 206 | Monday, 26 July, 2021 | New Delhi | Pages 12 | Rs 3.00PUBLISHED FROM DELHI | KOLKATA

MILLENNIUMPOST.IN

No Half Truths

NEW DELHI: Defending champions Mumbai Indi-ans will meet Chennai Super Kings in Dubai on September 19 when the IPL resumes in the United Arab Emirates, the BCCI announced on Sunday.

The tournament was sus-pended in May after multiple COVID-19 cases were reported in its bio-bubble.

"The 14th season, which was postponed in May this year in the wake of the pandemic, will resume on 19th Septem-ber in Dubai with a blockbuster clash between Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians," said the BCCI in a statement.

A total number of 31 matches will be played in the duration of 27 days including seven doubles headers (five were held in India). After the CSK-MI clash, the action will shift to Abu Dhabi where the Kol-kata Knight Riders will square off against Royal Challengers Bangalore. Sharjah will host its first game on September 24 when Royal Challengers Ban-galore take on CSK. Turn to P4

IPL resumes on Sept 19

in UAE

City: Pg 2In one year, 14 banks in cityreport Rs 88L in fake notes

Film: Pg 12‘Want to grow and tap into my full potential’

DISPARITY

Labourers mowing the grass in front of graffiti depicting India's participation in Tokyo Olympics 2020, in Panchkula, on Sunday PTI

Nine tourists killed in landslide in Himachal

MPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI: The implications of the withdrawal of American troops on the security situation in Afghanistan and the need for sustained pressure on Pakistan on terror financing and terrorist safe havens will be on the agenda of talks during US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's two-day visit to India from July 27, official sources said on Sunday.

In the discussions, India will press for gradual resumption of international travel while main-taining health protocols, and will particularly seek easing move-ments of students, professionals and business travellers among others, they said.

India will continue to push for ensuring open and consistent supply chains for materials and items required for the produc-tion of coronavirus vaccines as it ramps up the manufacturing for domestic and global supplies

thereafter, the sources said.During his two-day visit,

Blinken is scheduled to meet External Affairs Minister S Jais-hankar and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and will call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The two sides are also expected to explore ways to deepen defence collaboration, including exercises, defence transfers and technolo-gies ahead of the next edition of the 2+2 defence and foreign min-isterial dialogue to be held in the US later this year, they said.

Discussions on deepening engagement in the Indo-Pacific region under the Quad or Quad-rilateral coalition will be another key focus area of talks with the possibility of a meeting of foreign ministers of India, the US, Austra-lia, Japan later this year.

The sources said both sides will discuss ways to take for-ward the Quad vaccine initiative to enable the supply of vaccines produced in India to countries in the Indo-Pacific region from

early 2022The fast-evolving situation in

Afghanistan is likely to be one of the main areas of discussions between Blinken and Indian leaders as his visit comes amid a massive spike in violence in that country, triggering increasing global concerns.

"On the regional security situation, implications of the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan and the need for sus-tained pressure on Pakistan on

terror financing and terror havens will be part of the agenda," said a source.

Afghanistan witnessed a series of terror attacks in the last few weeks as the US withdrew the majority of its troops and is look-ing at completing the drawdown by August 31, ending nearly two-decade of its military presence in the country. The visit will be an opportunity to further consoli-date bilateral cooperation across a vast agenda, the sources said.

They said issues like augment-ing trade and investment, and tap-ping opportunities in healthcare, education, digital domain, inno-vation and security will be impor-tant elements of the conversation between the two sides.

"India attaches considerable importance to the visit of Sec-retary Blinken and is looking to taking forward the conversation with the US on numerous issues, be it bilateral, regional, addressing COVID or global developments," the source cited above said.

Referring to COVID-19, the sources said the discussions will cover containment as well as recovery efforts.

"India will press for a grad-ual resumption of international travel, while maintaining health protocols, especially easing the mobility of students, profession-als, business travellers, family reunions, humanitarian cases, etc. The need for resilient supply chains of critical medicines and healthcare equipment is likely to come up," the source said.

"On vaccines, India will con-tinue to push for ensuring open and consistent supply chains for materials and items required for vaccine production, as India ramps up both for domestic vac-cination and as for global supplies thereafter," it said.

The sources said the two sides will also exchange assessments about the Indo-Pacific region, with a focus on COVID-19 assis-tance, economic slowdown and security scenario. Turn to P4

OUR CORRESPONDENT

SHIMLA/MUMBAI: In a frightening incident, visuals of which also went viral, nine tourists were killed and three others got injured when a land-slide triggered the movement of bounders from high mountains of Sangla valley in Kinnaur dis-trict of Himachal Pradesh on Sunday afternoon.

A tourists' vehicle, which was on its way to Chitkul — a high altitude village in Sangla valley, was engulfed by the fall-ing rocks and left eight tourists dead on the spot while one suc-cumbed to his injuries later.

The incident happened on Batseri-Chitkul road in the famous Sangla valley around 2.15 pm. The police said all the deceased were tourists from different parts of the country.

The deceased have been identified as Maya Devi Biyani (55), her son Anurag Biyani (31) and daughter Maya Devi Biyani (25) of Rajasthan, Pra-tiksha Sunil Patil (27) of Maha-rashtra, Deepika Sharma (34) of Jaipur, Amogh Bapat (27), Satish Katakbar (34) of Chhat-tisgarh, driver Umrab Singh (42) of West Bengal and Kumar Ulhas Vedpathak (37).

President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed condolences over the death of people due

to the landslides in Kinnaur.Modi said all arrangements

are being made for the treat-ment of those injured and announced an ex gratia of Rs 2 lakh each for the next of kin of the deceased and Rs 50,000 to the injured from the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund.

Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur has expressed shock over the incident and directed district administration at Kin-naur to take immediate steps to contact families of the victims and provide all medical care to the injured persons.

Chief Secretary Anil Khachi said the landslide appeared to be a freak incident as there were no rains in the areas.

“We are really shocked at the tragedy and express con-dolences to the bereaved fami-lies,“ he said.

The video shows there were multiple landslides and sudden rolling down of the boulders. A total 11 tourists were travelling in the vehicle which became the target of the rolling boulders.

Meanwhile, the death toll in various rain-related incidents, including floods and landslides, in Maharashtra rose to 149 on Sunday with 36 more bod-ies being found in Satara and Raigad districts as rescue oper-ations gathered pace, while 64 people remain missing.

So far, 50 people have been injured in these incidents, the state government said in a state-ment. A total of 2,29,074 people have been evacuated from the affected districts in the Konkan region and western Maharash-tra, to safer places.

A statement from the state secretariat control room said 28 more deaths were reported from the Satara district in west-ern Maharashtra and 8 from the Raigad district in the coastal region. The government said 60 deaths were so far reported in Raigad, 21 in Ratnagiri, 41 in Satara, 12 in Thane, seven in Kolhapur, four in suburban Mumbai, and two each in Sind-hudurg and Pune.

A total of 875 villages in Kolhapur, Sangli, Satara and Pune were affected by the tor-rential rains, it said. Turn to P4

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Stressing on 'Nation First, Always First' mantra, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday that as the country enters its 75th year of Independence, every citizen should lead a "Bharat Jodo Andolan" in the same manner as Mahatma Gandhi had led the "Bharat Chhoro Andolan".

In his monthly Mann Ki Baat radio broadcast, he noted that on the coming August 15, India will enter its 75th year of Independence and highlighted that Amrit Mahot-sav is being celebrated throughout the country to mark that year.

The need of the nation is to unite and work towards national progress, Modi said.

"Just like Bapu (Mahatma Gandhi) led the 'Bharat Chhoro Andolan' (Quit India movement), every Indian must lead the 'Bharat Jodo Andolan (Unite India Move-

ment)'. It is our responsibility that we do our work in such a manner that it helps in uniting our coun-try which is full of diversities," the prime minister said.

"We have to move forward with Nation First, Always First," he asserted.

Many programmes in connec-tion with Amrit Mahotsav are being run, the prime minister said, add-ing that the Ministry of Culture has

started an initiative to have maxi-mum number of Indians sing the national anthem together. For this, a website, http://rashtragan.in, too has been created.

"With the help of this website, you can render the national anthem and record it, thereby getting con-nected with the campaign. I hope you connect yourselves with this novel initiative. In the days to come, you will get to see many such cam-paigns and efforts," Modi said.

The prime minister urged the people to keep encouraging and supporting Indian athletes partici-pating in the Tokyo Olympics.

Noting that on July 26 the nation will mark Kargil Vijay Diwas, the prime minister asked the people of the country to pay tributes to those who made the nation proud in 1999.

Talking about his Mann Ki Baat programme, he said it celebrates positivity and collectivity.

We must move forward with 'Nation First, Always First' mantra: PM Modi

Antony Blinken

CityMAN HELD IN ATTEMPT TO MURDER CASE 3

Nation17,466 FRESH CASES IN KERALA 4

edit

UNDOCUMENTED? 7

internationalTYPHOON IN-FA HITS CHINA’S EAST COAST 8

businessGOLD IMPORTS JUMP TO $7.9 BN IN Q1 10

sportOSAKA WINS IN DEBUT AT OLYMPICS 11

In today’s paper

...

'MANN KI BAAT CELEBRATES POSITIVITY, COLLECTIVITY'

US SECRETARY OF STATE'S INDIA VISIT BEGINS ON JULY 27

Blinken's India visit: Situation in Afghanistan, terror safe havens in Pak to figure in talks

MPOST BUREAU

HYDERABAD: UNESCO has conferred the World Heritage inscription to the historic Rudre-swara Temple, also known as the Ramappa Tem-ple, at Palampet in Mulugu district of Telangana, Union Minister G Kishan Reddy said on Sunday.

The Rudreswara temple was constructed in 1213 AD during the reign of the Kakatiya empire by Recharla Rudra, a general of Kakatiya king Ganapati Deva. The temple is dedicated to Lord Shiva and worshiped by devotees.

The presiding deity is Ramalingeswara Swamy. It is also known as the Ramappa tem-ple, after the sculptor who executed the work in the temple for 40 years,an official release said.

The Union Culture and Tourism Minister G Kishan Reddy said in a tweet: "It gives me immense pleasure to share that @UNESCO has conferred the World Heritage tag to Ramappa Temple at Palampet, Telangana. On behalf of the nation, particularly from people of Telan-gana, I express my gratitude to Hon PM @naren-dramodi for his guidance & support". Turn to P4

Telangana’s Ramappa temple inscribed as a World Heritage Site

Nation : Pg 6Nadda rules out leadership crisis in K’taka, hails Yediyurappa’s work

COVID-19: India logs 39,742 new cases, 535 fresh fatalities

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: India added 39,742 new cases of corona-virus infection taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 3,13,71,901, while the death toll rose to 4,20,551 with 535 fresh fatalities, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Sunday.

The active cases have declined to 4,08,212 and com-prise 1.30 per cent of the total infections and the national COVID-19 recovery rate has been recorded at 97.36 per cent, the data updated at 8 am showed.

A decline of 765 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.

As many as 17,18,756 tests were conducted on Saturday taking the total cumulative tests conducted so far for detection of COVID-19 in the country to 45,62,89,567.

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 2.31 per cent. It has been less than three per cent for 34 consecutive days, the min-istry said, adding the weekly positivity rate was recorded at 2.24 per cent.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 3,05,43,138, while the case fatality rate

stands at 1.34 per cent, the data stated.

Cumulative vaccine doses administered so far has reached 43.31 crore under the nation-wide vaccination drive.

The 535 new fatalities include 224 from Maharashtra and 98 from Kerala.

A total of 4,20551 deaths have been reported so far in the country including 1,31,429 from Maharashtra, 36,352 from

Karnataka, 33,889 from Tamil Nadu, 25,041 from Delhi, 22,749 from Uttar Pradesh and 18,064 from West Bengal.

The health ministry stressed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.

"Our figures are being rec-onciled with the Indian Coun-cil of Medical Research," the ministry said on its website, adding that state-wise distri-

bution of figures is subject to further verification and reconciliation.

Meanwhile, health minis-try hosted a communication awareness workshop for repre-sentatives of community radio stations from 16 states for cre-ating campaigns about covid-appropriate behaviour and busting myths surrounding vaccination particularly among people residing in remote areas

of the country.The workshop was con-

ducted by the ministry in partnership with UNICEF, an official statement said.

The thematic session high-lighted the need to create meaningful awareness cam-paigns about Covid-appropri-ate behaviour and bust myths surrounding Covid vaccines and vaccination particularly among communities residing in remote and difficult to reach areas in the country.

ACTIVE CASES DECLINE TO 4,08,212 AND COMPRISE 1.30% OF TOTAL INFECTIONS

Beneficiaries wait in a queue to receive COVID-19 vaccine dose, at a district hospital in Noida PTI

Maha: Death toll in landslides and floods rises to 149 as more bodies recovered, 64 missing

Highlights » National COVID-19 recovery rate has been recorded at 97.36 per cent

» The daily positivity rate was recorded at 2.31 per cent

» The case fatality rate stands at 1.34 per cent

» As many as 17,18,756 tests were conducted on Saturday

» Health min urges community radio stations to bust myths surrounding Covid vaccination

A view of the Ramappa temple at Palampet village in Mulugu district. UNESCO declared Ramappa temple a World Heritage site

CHECKLIST

A worker fumigates inside Delite Cinema Hall on Sunday PTI

In one year, 14 banks in city report Rs 88L in fake notes

Several convoys of women farmers were reaching the borders to join Kisan Sansad

RAHUL SINGH

NOIDA: Two men, in their twenties, were killed while two others have been criti-cally injured after they fell into a sewerage water tank while trying to retrieve a cricket ball from there in Sec-tor 6 of Noida early on Sun-day morning.

According to police, the deceased have been identified as Sandeep (22) and Vishal Kumar Srivastava (27), resi-dents of Harola village. Those hospitalised are Rakesh, a local and Haider, an e-rick-shaw driver.

The incident occurred around 6:30 am when some youths were playing cricket near the sewage treatment plant of the Noida Author-ity located in Sector 6. While playing, a youth entered the sewerage plant by climbing the wall to get the ball, which had tipped over.

Narrating the incident, Mahesh Sahu, a local, said that the plant operator was asking them not to go near the tank. Sandeep came to get the cricket ball from the sew-age tank but fell inside.

“When he didn’t return,

his two friends Rakesh and Vishal came and saw him lying unconscious inside the sewerage tank. They tried to pull him out but fell inside and got trapped” said Sahu.

The pump operator raised an alert and shouted for help. An e-rickshaw driver pass-ing by rushed for help but he too fell inside and lost con-sciousness. Locals gathered at the spot and the police were informed.

“Following the informa-tion, a team rushed to the spot and the Fire department was also called to perform the rescue operation. The four men were pulled out from the tank and were rushed to nearby hospital where two of them were declared dead

on arrival and the other two have been referred to higher medical Center in Delhi and are undergoing treatment” said Munish Chauhan, sta-tion house officer of Sector 20 police station.

The officer further said that both bodies were sent for an autopsy and the report is awaited. “Prima Facie it appears that both of them have died of suffocation due to drowning. So far we have not received any complaint in the matter by the families” added Chauhan.

Following the incident, Additional Chief Executive Officer (ACEO) of Noida authority inspected the spot along with senior departmen-tal officials and ordered an enquiry.

MEN BARGE INTO JAHANGIRPURI HOUSE, ROB CASH & JEWELLERYNEW DELHI: A group of men, some of them wear-ing masks, barged into a house in Northwest Delhi’s Jahangirpuri, threatened a 17-year-old girl who was alone at that time, and robbed Rs 10 lakh cash and jwellery, police said Sunday. The incident took place Friday evening when the girl’s parents were at their shop, they said. Police said three-four unidentified men allegedly broke into the house and threatened the girl at knife point, made her sit in a corner and then searched the cupboard for cash and jewellery. Police said the entire incident was caught on a CCTV camera and the accused have been identified and efforts being made to nab them. The girl did not sustain any injury during the incident, police said.

9 HELD FOR ROBBING BUSINESSMANNEW DELHI: The police have arrested nine people involved in allegedly robbing Rs 30 lakh from a busi-nessman in northwest Delhi’s Pitampura area, officials said on Sunday. The five men involved in the daco-ity — Rajat (21), Santosh (24), Deepak (23), Parvez Siddiqui (24) and Sameer (25) have been arrested along with the four conspirators — Zafar (25), Rakesh (26), Vikas (26) and Sumit (21), they said. Police also claimed to have recovered Rs 30 lakh from their possession. On July 5, four unidentified men entered the office of Parveen Jain on the pretext of checking rice samples and robbed cash and mobile phones at gunpoint and fled, the police said.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The National Green Tribunal has rapped the AAP government over a fire incident in a West Delhi factory, saying the administration has shown utter lack of concern for human lives and that no steps have been taken to compensate family of victims.

A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel expressed surprise that despite death of six per-sons, the offence registered is for ‘’attempt to cause homicide’’.

“The DM has informed that ex-gratia compensation of only Rs 50,000 per deceased has been announced but not paid. These startling facts show utter lack of concern for the loss of human lives by authorities concerned.

“It is further surprising that inspite of notice, Director Industrial Safety and the unit in question have not even cared to put in an appearance. DPCC has merely paid lip service by showing inability to provide any

information on the subject,” the bench said.

The green panel said there is prima facie violation of envi-ronmental laws and victims are required to be compensated under section 15 of the NGT Act. However, before passing a final order in the matter, it is necessary to have authentic information about the factual position of the nature of activ-ity and nature of violation of law, the bench said.

The NGT constituted a com-mittee comprising officials of the Central Pollution Control Board, Delhi Pollution Con-trol Committee, District Mag-istrate of West Delhi, Director, Industrial Safety and Health and DCP, Outer Delhi to ascertain the cause of the incident.

“The Committee may par-ticularly ascertain whether any hazardous inflammable mate-rial was stored in the premises. CPCB and DPCC will be the nodal agency for coordination and compliance,” the tribunal said.

ABHAY SINGH

NEW DELHI: A 24-year-old man has claimed that he took his wife to Nainital and pushed her from the hill. Police have arrested the accused from Dwarka. Police said the accused was identified as Rajesh Roy who allegedly killed his wife after he was frustrated with daily fights.

As per the official, during the investigation, they found that a case under Section 376 (rape) of IPC was registered in 2020 at Dabri police station.

The complainant in the case was the woman (deceased). Dur-ing the investigation, accused Rajesh was arrested on August 8, 2020, and sent to judicial custody. Later, the accused was released on bail on October 19, 2020, as the victim gave an affidavit that they would marry each other and a chargesheet was filed by the investigating officer.

“Thereafter they married each other. Rajesh had family issues and got disturbed with his mother-in-law as his wife used to go to her house frequently for 4-5 days and he got frustrated of daily quarrels,” police said.

On June 7, 2021, his wife came to her matrimonial house and on June 11, the accused told his wife to come with him to his

hometown (Uttarakhand) but his mother-in-law and brother-in-law refused to send her with him as they told him that he did not give proper food and accommodation to the victim. “The accused told her to come with him on June 11 and she went with him,” the official said.

Later, the woman’s parents reported that their daughter was missing. A missing report was lodged on June 15 because her phone was switched off from June 12 and a search operation was carried out but nothing con-crete was found.

Later the deceased’s parents moved an application under Sec-tion 97 CrPC for the search of the woman as confined by her husband in the Dwarka Court and the application was marked to sub-inspector Narender Singh.

“With the help of CDR and technical analysis, we traced Rajesh and found that the last location of the victim on June 12 was in Nainital and accused’s location was also the same” the official said. Police said during the investigation, he disclosed that he took his wife to Naini-tal and pushed her off a hill in Nainital (murdered her) due to daily quarrels. “Search for the body is on and a team is being sent to Nainital,” the official said.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: An owner of a local sports club, who was wanted in an attempt to murder case, was arrested by the Crime Branch from the Najafgarh area here, police said on Sunday.

Sunil Dahiya is a member of the Najafgarh-based Krishan Pehelwan gang and on January 12, he along with his associates had shot at and injured Amit Shokeen, they said.

Shokeen was close to the Hemant gang, which is a rival of the Krishan Pehelwan gang, police said. It is a case of gang rivalry and Dahiya was booked for an attempt to murder by the Baba Haridas Nagar police, they said.

Dahiya, a resident of Uttam Nagar, has been a Kabbadi coach and player, and runs his sports club at Jafarpur, police said. Dahi-ya’s associates Rajesh and Jai Bhagwan were arrested earlier, but he was absconding, police said, adding that his brother-in-law, Krishan, is still at large.

Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Alok Kumar said, “On July 22, our team got a tip-off that Sunil Dahiya would be com-ing to Najafgarh.’’ “A trap was laid near Kairi village and the accused was apprehended and

a sophisticated 7.65 mm semi-automatic pistol along with two live rounds was recovered from him,’’ he said.

When interrogated, Dahiya told police that he met Krishan Pehelwan through his uncle Jai Bhagwan and later joined his gang. Pehelwan’s rival Hemant is currently lodged at the Tihar jail, and their rivalry has resulted in several cases of murder and attempt to murder in Delhi and the NCR, according to police.

Dahiya told police that on the day of the incident, he was at his friend’s house with his uncle when Shokeen came over to discuss an issue related to a property. However, they had a heated argument over their gang affiliations, which turned violent, police said.

‘’Even though Shokeen man-aged to escape in a friend’s car, to teach him a lesson, they (Dahiya and his associates) reached Sho-keen’s house in Dichau Kalan village. They shot at and injured him and also injured his cousin Ankush, before leaving the spot in their cars,’’ the officer said.

Efforts are being made to nab Dahiya’s brother-in-law, police said, adding they are also try-ing to trace Dinesh, who sold the gun to Dahiya in Daboda in Haryana’ Gurgaon.

NGT raps Delhi govt over fire incident in West Delhi, says no sensitivity shown

Took wife to Nainital to push her off cliff:

Man held for murder

Sports club owner arrested in attempt

to murder caseNEW DELHI: The Delhi Police has busted a fake call centre in east Delhi and arrested 12 people, including eight women, for alleg-edly duping over 100 job seekers by prom-ising them employment in a private airline, officials said on Sunday.

Surjeet (24) and his associate Sunda-ram Gupta (25) set up the fake call centre on the third floor of a commercial building at Ghazipur village here from where their 10 hired employees made calls to the vic-tims and duped them, they said.

The police initiated a probe based on a complaint from Indigo which stated that many people were being cheated in the name of providing jobs in their airline. The

police claimed the accused duped hundreds of people mainly from south India, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Uttrakhand.

The accused also gave them fake and forged appointment letters of Indigo Air-lines and collected over Rs 10 lakh.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (East) Priyanka Kashyap said, “A raid was con-ducted by our team which nabbed the two handlers of the fake call centre — Surjeet and Sundaram —along with 10 other employ-ees including eight women. They cheated people by falsely promising to secure them jobs in the Indigo Airlines.”

Sixteen mobile phones and SIM cards, seven computers, Rs 26,000 cash along with

other incriminating documents have been seized, she said.

The officer said the investigation so far has revealed that Surjeet and Sundaram had hired 10 employees on monthly sala-ries ranging from Rs 6,000- Rs 9,000. “They posted advertisements on online job por-tals inviting applications from job seekers and based on the data received, they called up job seekers and enticed them in their trap. They lured them to pay a ‘processing fees’ ranging from Rs 1,500 to even up to Rs 30,000 on the pretext of getting them jobs and also issued them fake and forged interview and appointment letters,” the DCP said. MPOST

ABHAY SINGH

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police have now registered cases on the complaints of over half a dozen banks after they reported to them that in the last one year they had received fake Indian currency notes worth Rs 88 lakh as deposits

As per the official, the Delhi Police have registered 14 cases under Section 489 C (Posses-sion of forged or counterfeit currency notes or bank notes) after they received complaints from 14 banks, which included four public sector banks.

The cases were registered from July 20 to July 23 this year. The banks have provided the FICN details from July 2020 to June 2021. The data accessed by Millennium Post showed that nearly 1.90 lakh worth of coun-terfeit notes were reported by public sector banks and more than Rs 86 lakh by private banks.

According to officials, dur-ing the investigation, they have found that most of the FICN were found inside the bundle

of currencies. “There is a pos-sibility that some people had mixed the counterfeit money in between the bundle real rupees notes,” one official said.

Most of the fake notes were Rs 100 and Rs 500. “Banks reported that over 7,300 FICN of Rs 100 and over 4,500 of Rs 500 were recovered,” according to information available with the police.

Axis bank reported over Rs 18 lakh in over 6,100 counter-feit notes. Whereas HDFC bank claimed that their office was

holding 5,298 FICN pieces worth more than Rs 15 lakh. Kotak Mahindra Bank claimed that they recovered 2,149 fake notes worth more than Rs 8 lakh.

Bank of Baroda, reported that from July 2020 to Decem-ber that year, they had recieved 158 FICN worth Rs 7,29,50 but this year till June, they found 190 fake notes worth Rs 7,58,00.

In DCB bank, only five coun-terfeit notes were reported. Dur-ing the investigation, these notes are sent to FSL for further inquiry. “We conduct a detailed

investigation and try to find out the money trail which can lead to the arrest of the person who was involved in the act,” the offi-cial said. Not only in Delhi, but fake notes recovered from dif-ferent states were also registered for probe with the Delhi Police.

As per an official, during a pandemic, they witnessed a sharp decrease in FICN cases as the lockdown was imposed. “We

have seen that during lockdown factories, markets were closed. Most of the people started pay-ing the money through differ-ent online payment modes,” the official said.

In few cases, where the accused were arrested, FICN were prepared at the local level through printers. Only in one case, money was pumped through another country.

DELHI POLICE HAVE REGISTERED MULTIPLE FIRs FROM JULY 20 TO 23 THIS YR

Fake call centre: 12 arrested for duping people on pretext of providing jobs in private airline

City Briefs

2 suffocate to death while trying to fetch ball from sewage tank

Highlights » Most of the fake notes were Rs 100 and Rs 500 » Axis bank reported over Rs 18 lakh in over 6,100 counterfeit notes » Whereas HDFC bank claimed that their office was holding 5,298 FICN pieces worth more than Rs 15 lakh. Kotak Mahindra Bank claimed that they recovered 2,149 fake notes worth more than Rs 8 lakh » Bank of Baroda, reported that from July 2020 to December that year, they had recieved 158 FICN worth Rs 7,29,50 but this year till June, they found 190 fake notes worth Rs 7,58,00 » In DCB bank, only five counterfeit notes were reported. During the investigation, these notes are sent to FSL for further inquiry

2 millenniumpostCitympMONDAY, 26 JULY, 2021 | NEW DELHI

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OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: BJP MP Gau-tam Gambhir on Sunday pre-sented a report card of the work done in his East Delhi constitu-ency in the second year of his term, highlighting that six lakh people were provided quality food at Re 1 per meal from two community kitchen started by him.

Highlighting various devel-opment and welfare works undertaken by him in East Delhi, Gautam said in a state-ment that 7,48,800 metric tonne of legacy waste has been treated at Ghazipur landfill.

“It is my duty to let the peo-ple of Delhi know what their elected representative has done. They should know that I am in debt of each and every vote cast in my favour and will not stop until the aspirations of citi-zens of my constituency are ful-filled,” he said.

Installation of three giant air purifiers, upgraded facilities at Yamuna Sports Complex, distribution of 1,000 oxygen concentrators and other relief material during the second wave of COVID-19 were some other work done by Gambhir, according to the statement.

He has also organised vac-cination camps for the needy under ‘Mission Vaccinate Delhi’ at his office as well as in some slum clusters, it added.

Gambhir presents

report card for work in East Delhi

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) announced on Sunday that women will conduct the ongo-ing ‘Kisan Sansad’ at Jantar Mantar here on Monday as the farmers’ protest against three farm laws completes eight months.

Thousands of farmers at Delhi borders have been press-ing for their demand to repeal the three farm laws enacted last year.

The collective of over 40 protesting farmer unions said in a statement that several convoys of women farmers were reaching the Delhi bor-ders to join the ‘Mahila Kisan Sansad’.

“Tomorrow’s Kisan Sansad at Jantar Mantar will be con-ducted entirely by women. The Mahila Kisan Sansad will reflect the key role that women play in Indian agri-culture, and their critical role in the ongoing movement too. Convoys of women farm-

ers from various districts are reaching the morchas for the Mahila Kisan Sansad,” the SKM said.

The umbrella body of farmer unions has been pro-testing against the three con-tentious farm laws at Jantar Mantar since July 22, dur-ing the monsoon session of Parliament.

It claimed that the last eight months witnessed several lakh farmers from almost all states of India joining the protests.

“The protests have been peaceful and reflect the cen-turies-old ethos of our ‘anna daatas’. They reflect their per-

sistence and perseverance in the face of hardships, and the determination and hope that they possess for the future,” the statement said.

SKM leaders will also be going to Lucknow on Mon-day to launch ‘Mission Uttar Pradesh’.

“As is known, Uttar Pradesh will be going into Assembly elections next year. In the pan-chayat elections held earlier this year, the farmers’ move-ment left its mark with BJP candidates punished in many places, and independents gain-ing the most number of seats,” it said.

All-women Kisan Sansad today to mark eight months of protest

REPRESENTATIVE PIC/PTI

REPRESENTATIVE PIC

REPRESENTATIVE PIC/PTI

3millenniumpost

PWD will install the national flag on 100-feet high polls at 500 locations in the city

Over 10,000 Covid vaccines administered in Delhi on Sunday: Cowin portal

City mpNEW DELHI | MONDAY, 26 JULY, 2021

City sees 66 new cases, two deaths

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The national capital reported 66 COVID-19 cases and two deaths due to the infection on Sunday, while the positivity rate stood at 0.09 per cent, according to data shared by the health department here.

With the new cases, the overall infection tally in the city climbed to 14,35,910. Of this, over 14.10 lakh patients have recovered from the disease.

The death toll now stands at 25,043.

On Saturday, Delhi reported 66 new cases of COVID-19

with a positivity rate of 0.09 per cent and zero deaths.

On Friday, the city had reported 58 cases and one death.

There are 579 active cases in Delhi at present and 167 of them are being treated at home.

The number of contain-ment zones stands at 309, the bulletin said.

The bulletin said 70,758 tests, including 49,568 RT-PCR tests, were conducted on Saturday.

Experts said that while a large number of people now have immunity against corona-virus due to previous infections

and vaccination, a guarded approach is needed in terms of implementing restrictive mea-sures to avoid a second-wave like crisis.

A total of 10,614 doses of coronavirus vaccine were administered in Delhi on Sunday, taking the cumula-tive number to over 96 lakh,

according to the Cowin portal till 12 am today.

The vaccines were admin-istered at only one government centre and 76 private centres as the former remain closed on Sunday.

The city administered 69,893 doses on Saturday, 21,253 out of which were first doses while 48,640 were sec-ond doses.

The vaccination bulletin issued by the Delhi govern-ment on Sunday said the city had 70,900 doses of Covishield along with 2,16,140 Covaxin shots.

The government has said that only 20 per cent of Covaxin stocks can be used for the first dose, since its reserves are lim-ited and its delivery cycles irregular. Also, on account of limited stocks of Covishield, the government has directed its stocks to be used only for the second dose till July 31 at all its centres.

The bulletin said that many in the 18-44 age group will be qualifying for the second dose in the coming weeks.

The city has adminis-tered over 96 lakh doses, including 23,84,076 second doses.

ACTIVE CASES

579DEATH TOLL

25,043

DELHI COUNT

COVID-19

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: An upcoming station on the Delhi Metro’s Grey Line will reflect the heri-tage, culture and biodiversity of the Najafgarh region through artwork panels on its walls, offi-cials said on Sunday.

The Dhansa Bus Stand metro station, built on the extension of the Grey Line, is expected to get operationalised by July end.

The 1.8-km long Najaf-garh Dhansa Bus Stand corri-dor is now ready for operations after receiving the mandatory approval from the Commis-sioner of Metro Rail Safety (CMRS). The exact date for opening of the corridor shall be intimated shortly, they said.

This extension of the over

4.2-km Grey Line (Dwarka-Najafgarh corridor) will immensely benefit the resi-dents of the interior areas around Najafgarh.

The upcoming station on the Dwarka Dhansa Bus Stand corridor has been adorned with attractive artworks and photo-graphs, which display the rich heritage, culture, flora and fauna of this suburban locality of the national capital.

“The Najafgarh Dhansa region of south west Delhi has deep cultural roots. It is rich in history and is also home to a marshy ecosystem which encourages the visit of migra-tory birds and flourishing of local wildlife. The artworks and photographic displays have tried to capture these unique characteristics of this area,” a

senior official said.‘Jheel’, a waterbody

located between Najafgarh and Dhansa is an ecologi-cal paradise for a large num-ber of perennial local wildlife and migratory birds. Parrots, eagles, ducks, sparrows, king-fishers dot this area and are a delight for bird watchers in the winters.

Photographs on printed glass panels at the station show-case the rich biodiversity of this area and is themed as ‘Migra-tory Birds’, the DMRC said in a statement.

Agriculture and animal husbandry are the main sources of income for the locals, but real estate projects and event venues contribute significantly to the economic progression, officials said.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Aam Aadmi Party held a protest in the Rohtas Nagar constitu-ency against the rising inflation caused by the failed policies of the Modi government, the party said in a statement.

The widespread corruption in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) instigated the AAP to come out on the streets with ‘Halla Bol’ protest on Sunday.

During the protest, the Delhi Police arrested the Delhi State Women’s Wing in-charge Sarita Singh and attempted to dictatorially suppress the voice of the workers of AAP as they

are dedicated in unveiling the real face of the BJP and its cor-ruption, the party said.

“During the protest, a ‘Bullock Cart Yatra’ was to be taken out which was to start

from Ram Mandir, Welcome and end at Ashok Nagar pass-ing through Rohtas Nagar Market, Kabool Nagar, Man-sarovar Park, Ram Nagar, Man-doli Road, Nand Nagri, but at

the instructions of the BJP, the Delhi Police, working under the Modi government, tried to stop the protest by taking former MLA and Delhi State Women’s Wing in-charge Sarita Singh into custody,” the AAP said in the statement.

AAP’s party workers in the Rohtas Nagar constituency demonstarted against the ris-ing inflation and unemploy-ment due to the failure of the Modi government’s policies at the Centre and to expose the widespread corruption in the MCD.

The AAP further stated that its aim is to show the real corrupt face of the BJP to the public.

NEW DELHI: Sultry weather conditions prevailed in Delhi on Sunday with the maxi-mum temperature settling at 37.3 degrees Celsius, three notches above the season’s average. Humidity levels oscil-lated between 89 per cent and 58 per cent, the India Mete-orological Department said. The minimum temperature was recorded at 27.6 degrees Celsius, normal for this time of the year.

The IMD has issued a yel-low alert for Monday and has forecast generally cloudy sky with moderate rain/thunder-showers towards evening/night. The maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to settle around 33 and 29 degrees Cel-sius, respectively. MPOST

Metro’s Dhansa stand station to reflect biodiversity of Najafgarh

AAP protests against ‘MCD’s corruption’Max temp settles at 37.3 deg Celsius

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Delhi government has started implementing the schemes announced under its Desh-bhakti budget’, with officials saying up to five high-mast Tricolours will be installed in the city by August 15.

The Public Works Depart-ment (PWD) has been tasked with the project under which it will install the national flag on 100-feet high polls at 500 loca-tions in the city.

Officials said that initially they will install high-mast Tric-olours at about five locations in as many constituencies as a sample exercise.

“To celebrate the country’s 75th Independence Day, we are planning to set up high-mast Tricolours in 4-5 assembly con-stituencies including New Delhi and Patparganj. We are hoping to set up these by August 15. In total, the PWD will install 500 such flags across the city,” said a senior PWD official, who wished not to be named.

He added that a tender for the project has also been floated

with another senior official say-ing that initially five assembly constituencies have been iden-tified where these flags are to be installed by August 15. These assembly constituencies include New Delhi, Patparganj, Shakur-basti, Kalkaji and Dwarka.

Officials said that high-mast flags will be set up on the lines of the one at the Connaught Place in such a fashion that at least one is visible at every two-three kilometres.

“The PWD has also been directed to conduct a survey and identify public places, parks, grounds, big commercial buildings complexes, big school premises, residential complexes to install high-mast Tricolours. The deadline of installing 500 Tricolours is yet to be fixed,” an official said.

AAISHA SABIR

NEW DELHI: AAP’s first ISO 9001 certified MLA office in the Timarpur constituency helmed by MLA Dilip Pandey is set to go online with complaint registra-tion taking place through SMS, a senior official aware of the developments in the Delhi Gov-ernment told Millennium Post.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejri-wal had inaugurated the office last week and had dedicated the office to the public and said that the real certificate will be the people’s trust and confidence in their leaders and asked them to

give feedback on the office’s func-tioning. In a government office, a grievance redressal may take 24-48 hours or more depending on the nature of the complaint but in the ISO certified office in Timarpur most complaints are resolved within 12 hours, the senior official said.

“The problems are solved at the local level hence it saves valu-able time and volunteers are also present to visit the complainant in case they cannot reach the office. In a typical government system where direction flows top-down in this office things are just the opposite. Local problems

are solved at the local level,” an official from the AAP office in Timarpur said. Most complaints are about household issues which are resolved within six hours.

Preparations are underway to make the complaint registration process online and through SMS where issues and their current status will be updated. “This will make the system more transpar-ent. People can see the status of their complaint and when it was resolved. They can upload their feedback too,” the official said.

Grievances related to the Jal Board, or ration or PWD or any other grievance, can be

resolved through the office with officials appointed from each of the departments.

The MLA office prepared a quality manual, conducted risk assessment and thereby attained the certificate for three years. Through grievance manage-ment software and a brand new app, manual intervention will be replaced by technology and people will receive updates on SMS and Whatsapp. “Every six months this office will be audited by an external agency even though we have been given a certificate for three years,” the AAP worker said.

Deshbhakti budget: City to get up to 5 high-mast Tricolors by August 15GGM WITNESSES A DIP IN SEX RATIO

NEW DELHI: Gurugram’s latest sex ratio figures show a marginal dip by registering 914 females to 1000 males. In early 2020, Gurugram had recorded sex ratio figures of 918:1000 as compared to 910:1000 in 2019. Gurugram has had a dismal record. In 2015, Gurugram reported a sex ratio of 875 women for ev-ery 1,000 men. For a long time, the number of females as compared to 1,000 males in Gurugram used to be less than 900 and it was in 2017 when Gurugram barely touched 900 figure mark and recorded a ratio of 903 females to 1,000 males. In 2018, however, this ratio dipped slightly to 901:1,000.

IP UNIVERSITY TO ORGANISE OPEN DAYS FOR POTENTIAL APPLICANTS NEW DELHI: IP University is going to organise open days for the convenience of potential applicants on July 30 and 31. The open days will be organized in webi-nar mode. Potential applicants desirous of participating in the open days will have to register online on July 28 & July 29. The complete schedule of the open days will be available on the website of the University shortly.

IL&FS MANAGING DIRECTOR HELD IN RS 100 CR CHEATING CASE NEW DELHI: The managing director of IL&FS Trans-portation Network Ltd was arrested from Mumbai by Delhi Police’s EOW in a 2018 case related to cheat-ing, forgery and criminal misappropriation of approxi-mately Rs 100 crore, police said on Sunday.

City Briefs

AAP MLA office to soon go online for plaints

Full seating permitted but DMRC insists 50 per coach

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Metro on Sunday announced that despite the Delhi Disaster Management Authority’s nod to allow 100 per cent passenger occupancy, only 50 passengers will be allowed in each coach — meaning that queues outside metro stations are likely to per-sist for the time being.

In a statement, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation said the Covid guidelines of ensur-ing social distancing and other Covid norms are binding on it as a result of which, even with these DDMA guidelines, only 50 passengers will be allowed to board each coach at any time — as opposed to 300 at full capacity. Entry to stations will continue to be regulated, the DMRC said.

“As a result, though the queues may slightly reduce, these might still be there out-side stations, especially during peak hours owing to the com-

pliance and adherence to the Covid-appropriate behaviour inside metro premises as per the government guidelines,” it said.

As and when further relax-ations are announced by the authorities, the DMRC will try and ensure that all steps are taken from its end to provide ease of entry and convenient travel to the general public, the officials said.

Significantly, the new guide-lines allow 100 per cent seating but no standing in the trains — a difficult rule to enforce. More-over, the Delhi Metro trains are designed for optimal standing capacity.

The DMRC said it is running maximum trains, performing over 5,100 trips with the highest frequency daily as was available during pre-Covid time.

The DMRC has been running trains with 50 per cent seating capacity since June 7 when the services had resumed after a long hiatus. Crowds of passengers have been reported at various stations since then, but the urban trans-porter has maintained that it’s on account of maintaining the Covid norms.

The DMRC, in a statement, reiterated that despite being per-mitted to carry restrictions on

numbers of passengers, it is still running maximum trains per-forming over 5,100 trips with highest frequency daily as was available during pre-Covid times, when over 60 lakh passenger journeys were performed daily, contrary to the general belief that the DMRC at present is running its services with reduced trains due to travel restrictions.

The DMRC again appealed to the public to travel by the metro “only when it is absolutely neces-sary and observe all Covid-related travel protocols in place for their own and everyone else’s safety in this fight against the pandemic”.

DMRC services were fully suspended from May 10 in view of the Covid-induced lockdown in Delhi — in view of the rising cases amid the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

However, from June 7, it has been running with 50 per cent seating capacity and no pro-vision for standing travel for commuters.

THE DELHI METRO SAID IT IS RUNNING MAXIMUM TRAINS

HALF-YEARLY AUDIT FOR ENSURING WORK QUALITY

Maharashtra sees 6,843 fresh COVID-19 cases, 123 deaths

No conflict in Raj Cong over Cabinet reshuffle: Maken

5,212 PATIENTS RECOVER

4 millenniumpostNationmpMONDAY, 26 JULY, 2021 | NEW DELHI

JAIPUR: AICC general sec-retary Ajay Maken on Sunday said there is no conflict among the party leaders in Rajasthan on the planned cabinet reshuf-fle and they have left the deci-sion on the central leadership.

After meeting ministers, MLAs and office bearers at the party office here, Maken said they have expressed confidence in the party high command for the reshuffle decision.

Maken did not disclose any date for the cabinet expansion, but he will again be in the state capital on July 28.

"I can say that there is no conflict among the party lead-ers and they all have left the final decision about the cabi-net expansion to the party high command," he told reporters.

Maken, together with AICC general secretary (organisa-tion) K C Venugopal, arrived at the party office in Jaipur for the meeting. He said issues like inflation and the Pegasus mat-ter were discussed.

"People of the country are suffering from high inflation, many have lost jobs during the pandemic, and instead of spending money and resources for people, the central govern-ment misused the resources for snooping and spying on lead-ers, journalists and judiciary. This is highly condemnable," he said.

To a question on the BJP's allegations against PCC chief and Education Minister Gov-ind Singh Dotasra of influenc-ing the interview process of the Rajasthan Administrative Services 2018 examination in favour of two relatives, Maken

said Dotasra is being cornered as he had targeted RSS leader Nimbaram and the BJP.

Nimbaram, the regional pracharak of the RSS, is named in an FIR registered with the Anti-Corruption Bureau in a matter related to graft, and recently, Dotasra had said that the state government would give "treatment" to the RSS leader.

By saying "treatment", he apparently meant action against the leader.

Maken said he would come to Jaipur on July 28 to hold dis-cussions with MLAs on the appointment of district and block presidents of the party.

Venugopal and Maken late on Saturday night held discus-sions on the issues of cabinet reshuffle and political appoint-ments with Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot at his residence.

After Punjab, the party high command has shifted its focus to Rajasthan, where demands for Cabinet expan-sion and political appointments have gained momentum after reports of resentment in the camp led by former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot, who along with 18 MLAs had rebelled against the leadership of Gehlot last year.

Three days back, Pilot had indicated that the Congress would take suitable steps soon to address issues raised by him.

He had said that he is in touch with the party high command over the issues raised by him and hoped that the required steps would be taken soon. MPOST

OUR CORRESPONDENT

MUMBAI: Maharashtra on Sunday reported 6,843 new coronavirus positive cases and 123 fatalities, raising the over-all tally to 62,64,922 and the toll to 1,31,552, the state health department said.

With 5,212 patients being discharged after treatment dur-ing the day, the count of recov-eries in Maharashtra went up to 60,35,029 so far, leaving the state with 94,985 active cases, it said.

Maharashtra's case recov-ery rate now stands at 96.33 per cent while the fatality rate is 2.09 per cent.

Mumbai reported 364 new cases and 10 deaths, taking the count of infections to 7,34,118 and the number of COVID-19 fatalities to 15,837. Mumbai division comprising the city and its satellite towns reported 1,184 fresh infections and 38 deaths, which raised the tally to 16,34,633 and the toll to 34,089,

as per the department.Nashik division saw 1,100

new cases including 943 in the Ahmednagar district. Pune

division reported 2,168 infec-tions including 665 in Satara and 657 in the Pune district. Pune city added 267 new cases

and Pimpri Chinchwad 161, it said.

Kolhapur division saw 1,963 cases during the day

including 691 in the Sangli dis-trict. Kolhapur district, which has been recording a spike in cases for the last few months, added 582 infections.

Aurangabad division reported 56 cases, Latur divi-sion 314, Akola division 40, while Nagpur division recorded 18 fresh cases, the department said in a report.

Nagpur reported just two new cases in the day. No COVID-19 fatality was reported in the city. The entire Nagpur division and Akola division in the Vidarbha region did not report a single death during the day.

With 2,02,536 new tests, the number of samples tested so far in Maharash-tra rose to 4,68,46,984, the department said.

Maharashtra's tally of COVID-19 cases is as follows: Positive cases 62,64,922, deaths 1,31,552, recoveries 60,35,029, total tests 4,68,46,984, active cases 94,985.

NEW DELHI: Asserting that there can be no democracy without freedom of press, Rajya Sabha member Vivek Tankha of the Congress on Sunday said the income tax searches against Dainik Bhaskar and Bharat Samachar smack of mala fides.

The strong public perception is that these draconian actions have been initiated against these two media companies selectively to punish them for public-spir-ited reporting on the COVID-19 pandemic, he said in a letter to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

"There is no denying that the publication in question was critical of the government's han-dling of the pandemic. It was stressing for more transparency while trying to hold account-able all those in power across political spectrum, said Tankha, a Rajya Sabha member from Madhya Pradesh.

He said it appears that the Income Tax Department has not adhered to the basic tenets

of rule of law in their sensa-tional press releases when the tax searches are in progress.

Tankha, also a senior Supreme Court advocate, said it is disheartening to take note of various articles in news-papers that the Income Tax Department has pre-decided evasion liability of assessee whilst the search proceedings are still in operation and the steps of appraisal are yet to commence.

Citing circulars by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and the search and sei-zure manual, he said they make it clear that such actions of issu-ing information pertaining to search operation to press are not only unwarranted, but also highly illegal .

"The basic tenets of rule of law require adherence to norms and prescriptions in vogue, lest our constitutional democratic values are rendered otiose and it turns into a power-centered rule of men, he said.

The CBDT had on Satur-day claimed to have detected "fictitious transactions" of Rs 2,200 crore after the Income Tax Department carried out multi-city raids against the Dainik Bhaskar media group.

It said the searches that were launched on July 22 in nine cit-ies, including Bhopal, Indore, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Noida, are "continuing and further inves-tigations are in progress."

The CBDT claimed to have seized documents and digital records that indicate "unac-counted" transactions of about

Rs 200 crore after it raided the Lucknow-based Hindi news channel Bharat Samachar and its linked businesses. These searches were also carried out on July 22 in Lucknow, Basti, Varanasi, Jaunpur and Kolkata and at the residential premises of Bharat Samachar Editor-in-chief Brajesh Misra, state head Virendra Singh, BJP MLA from Uttar Pradesh's Harraiya Assembly seat Ajay Singh and some others.

Tankha said, There can be no democracy without freedom of press. As a concerned citizen, I would not raise a public protest for any legitimate action under the Income Tax Act; but today the nation stands convinced that the action against Dainik Bhaskar and Bharat Samachar under Section 132 of the Income Tax Act smacks of malafides. "By doing this media trial, and making onslaughts on the 4th pillar of democracy, what mes-sage your officials are giving to the masses?" he asked. AGENCIES

MANDSAUR (MP): Three persons have died after drink-ing suspected spurious liquor at a village in Mandsaur dis-trict of Madhya Pradesh, while one more person is undergo-ing treatment at a hospital, offi-cials said on Sunday. Following the incident, a sub-inspector of the excise department was sus-pended for the dereliction of duty, they said.

The opposition Congress said that the deaths reported from Khakhrai village in Man-dsaur district were caused due to spurious liquor, while the police said that the exact rea-son behind the fatalities could be known only after the post-mortem report comes.

Police have arrested one person for illegally selling liquor and demolished a part of the house used for this work on Sunday night.

District collector Manoj Pushp and Superintendent of

Police (SP) Siddharth Choud-hary visited the village after the incident.

Sub divisional officer of police (SDOP) of the area, Trilokchand Pawar, said that three persons, identified as Modiram Meghwal (41), Ghan-shyam Mogia and Manohar Bagri (both 35) died in Khakh-rai village under Piplia Mandi police station area.

According to him, post-mortem of their bodies was being carried out.

"One person is still under-going treatment in the district hospital," he said.

When asked, Pawar said that the cause of their deaths could be known after receiving the post-mortem report.

Meanwhile, district col-lector Manoj Pushp said that teams have been constituted for the investigation into the case and all the responsible persons will be arrested. AGENCIES

MP: Three dead after drinking suspected

spurious liquor

A BMC health worker collects swab samples of a passenger for COVID-19 test, at Dadar station, Mumbai

‘Tax raids against Dainik Bhaskar and Bharat Samachar smack of mala fides’

Vivek Tankha

THIRUVANANTHA-PURAM: Kerala on Sunday logged 17,466 fresh COVID-19 cases, pushing the infection caseload to 32,71,530, with the Test Positivity Rate (TPR) going back to more than 12 per cent after falling below it for a day. The TPR had crossed 11 per cent on July 19 after remaining below it for several weeks and had continued to rise till 13.63 per cent on July 23.

On July 24, it went down to 11.91 per cent and then again rose to 12.3 on Sunday.

The number of people who succumbed to the virus rose to 16,035 with 66 more deaths.

As many as 15,247 people have been cured of the infec-tion, taking the total recoveries to 31,14,716, leaving 1,40,276 active cases, a state government release said.

Malappuram reported the maximum number of cases (2684), followed by Kozhikode (2379), Thrissur (2190), Ernakulam (1687), Palakkad (1552), Kollam (1263), Thiru-vananthapuram (1222) and Alappuzha (914). AGENCIES

17,466 fresh cases, 66 deaths in

Kerala ‘Decision left on high command’

Senior Congress leader Ajay Maken with Rajasthan Congress President Govind Singh Dotasra and KC Venugopal speak to media person at Pradesh Congress Committee Headquarter in Jaipur, on Sunday

Himachal: Kinnaur landslide kills 9 tourists

“Five relief camps have been set up in flood-hit Chiplun city in Ratnagiri dis-trict. 25 teams of the NDRF, four teams of the SDRF, two teams of the Coast Guard, five teams of the Navy and three teams of the Army are conducting the relief and rescue operations,” the statement said.

As the bridge over the Vashishthi river connecting Chiplun to Mumbai has collapsed, the road remains shut for the traffic.

The state government has provided a emergency financial aid of Rs 2 crore each to Raigad and Ratnagiri districts. Satara, Sangli, Pune, Kolhapur, Thane and Sindhudurg, also affected by rains, were provided with a financial aid of Rs 50 lakh each, the statement said.

Earlier in the day, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray visited Chiplun, the site of severe flooding, and interacted with residents, businessmen and shop-keepers. He promised them all help from the state government to restore normalcy in the area.

Thackeray said they will require “cen-tral assistance for long-term mitigation measures”, and added that he will tour western Maharashtra on Monday and comprehensive data of the extent of dam-ages will be prepared.

Heavy rains earlier this week trig-gered landslides in some areas of Maha-rashtra including the deadliest one at Taliye village in the Raigad district.

Blinken’s India visit:

Latest developments pertaining to West Asia and Central Asia are also likely

to be covered.Climate change remains an impor-

tant area of the conversation, particularly the potential for green collaborations as well as climate finance and transfer of clean technologies to developing coun-tries, they said.

“India will also engage with the US on other global issues. Political and cultural rebalancing are important trends. India supports a truly multipolar, democratic and diverse world order and expects international conversations to reflect this evolution,” the source said.

“We believe in equity and fairness, whether in development, climate change or global decision-making,” it added.

Discussions are also likely to cover working together in the UN, especially with India holding the Presidency of the UN Security Council in August.

It will be Blinken’s first visit to India after assuming charge as the US Secre-tary of State and the third by a high-rank-ing Biden administration official after it came to power in January.

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin visited India in March while US Special Envoy on Climate Change John Kerry travelled to New Delhi in April.

Secretary Blinken’s visit reciprocates the visit by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to the US in May.

Telangana’s Ramappa temple...

Kishan Reddy in a release said that owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, the meeting of the World Heritage Com-mittee of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) could not be conducted in 2020 and the nominations for 2020 and those for 2021 were discussed in a series of online meeting that are cur-rently underway.

The discussion on Ramappa Temple took place on Sunday, he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi also extended his greetings to the people of Telangana.

Telangana Chief Minister K Chan-drashekhar Rao hailed the decision of UNESCO to recognise the historical Ramappa Temple as the World Heri-tage Site.

The temple complexes of Kakatiyas have a distinct style, technology and dec-oration exhibiting the influence of the Kakatiyan sculptor.

The RamappaTemple is a manifesta-tion of this and often stands as a testi-monial to the Kakatiya creative genius.

The temple stands on a six feet high star- shaped platform with walls, pillars and ceilings adorned with intricate carv-ings that attest to the unique skill of the Kakatiyan sculptors.

Rudreswara (Ramappa) Temple is a masterpiece of Kakatiya style of temple architecture with the use of engineering innovation by creating floating bricks, sand-box foundations, material selection knowledge and ingenuity in stone sculpt-ing as a technological ensemble.

The sculptural and form modifica-tion, evolution of temple art, sculpture and use of technology in material selec-tion and making as displayed in Rudresh-wara Temple are masterpieces of human creativity.

The sculptural art and decoration specific to the time and Kakatiya Empire-have an outstanding universal value.

The distinct style of Kakatiyas for the gateways to temple complexes, unique only to this region confirm, the highly evolved proportions of aesthetics in tem-ple and town gateways in South India.

European merchants and trav-elers were mesmerised by the beauty of the temple and one such traveler had remarked that the temple was the “brightest star in the galaxy of medieval temples of the Deccan,” the release added.

IPL resumes on Sept 19 in UAE

In all, 13 matches will be held in Dubai, 10 in Sharjah and 8 in Abu Dhabi.

The first Qualifier will be played in Dubai on October 10, the Eliminator and Qualifier 2 will be played in Sharjah on October 11 and 13 respectively with Dubai hosting the final on October 15.

From Page 1

BELAGAVI: The flood situ-ation in Karnataka continued to remain grim with 10 people losing their lives in rain related incidets and two reported miss-ing over the past two days,even as Chief Minister B S Yediy-urappa said on Sunday that he would write to the Centre to release funds for carrying out flood relief work.

Belagavi, Uttara Kannada, Dharwad and Haveri bore the brunt of the heavy downpour among the 11 affected districts, officials said.

Karnataka State Natural Disaster Management Author-ity commissioner Dr Manoj Rajan said 10 people have lost their lives in the state so far while two are still missing.

He said 46,425 people have been evacuated to safety while over 31,000 people have been put up in 246 relief camps.

"We are receiving excel-lent coordination from SDRF, NDRF, Fire forces, Coast Guard, Navy, Army, Police, Dam authorities with untiring efforts of the District admin-istration," Rajan said. He said KSDMA is monitoring and managing the flood risk, res-cue and relief operations.

Meanwhile, Yediyurappa told reporters after inspecting flood affected areas in Belagavi district that he would write to the Centre to release funds to enable the state carry out relief work in the flood hit regions.

The Chief Minister said 19,035 people in the district have been evacuated, while 8,975 people have been shifted to 89 relief centres.

Food and accommodation for them has been taken care of, he said.

"Today I visited places like

Nipani and Sankeshwara and flood relief centres.

We had discussed the prob-lems and the prevailing flood situation in Belagavi.

Flood-related damage has occurred in 113 villages in seven taluks of Belagavi," Yedi-yurappa said. He attributed the floods to release of excess water from dams in the Krishna river in Maharashtra, where catch-ment areas had received tor-rential rain.

He said officials here were in touch with their Maharash-tra counterparts and were keep-ing an eye on the discharge.

"We are keeping an eye on the flow of water. Since all the dams on Krishna have filled up, the outflow has been increased, due to which there is flood situ-ation in various parts of the dis-trict," the Chief Minister

He cautioned that the inten-

sity of flood may increase.About the flood relief mea-

sures in the district, he said seven NDRF and 15 SDRF teams, fire and emergency ser-vices, helicopters, Coast Guard and members of village level disaster management teams have been pressed into rescue and evacuation operations.

The Chief Minister said he would arrange for release of more funds and added that which is required for the time being will be released imme-diately to repair roads and bridges. He said he would write to the Centre to release funds.

"I am expecting funds from the Centre," he said.

The Chief Minister said he would visit Karwar, the district headquarters town of Uttara Kannada district, on Monday afternoon following large scale flood damage there. AGENCIES

Flood situation in K’taka still grim; 10 dead in last 2 days

Commuters wade through a waterlogged street during rain at KR market in Bengaluru, on Sunday

Belagavi, Uttara Kannada, Dharwad and Haveri bore the brunt of the heavy downpour among the 11 affected districts

OUR CORRESPONDENT

GUWAHATI: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sun-day offered prayers at Kamak-hya Temple, seeking the deity's blessings for the country's progress.

Shah was accompanied by Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma during his visit to the Kamakhya Temple.

"Today I offered my prayers at Maa Kamakhya Temple for the progress and prosperity of the country," Shah tweeted after coming out of the Temple.

He also went to the State Cancer Institute to inaugu-rate a New Radiation Therapy Block. At the brief function, he launched the ambitious new facility in presence of Sarma and state Health Minister Kes-hab Mahanta.

The Union Home Minister also inaugurated a state-of-the-art Linear Accelerator Machine (LINAC) at the institute for treatment of cancer patients.

He, however, did not address the gathering and the waiting media, but had a closed-door interaction with senior doctors along with Sarma and Mahanta.

"Inaugurated the Radio Therapy Block and dedicated to people the new LINAC machine in the State Cancer Institute, Guwahati. This will go a long way in providing bet-ter and free of cost treatment for cancer patients," Shah later tweeted.

Meanwhile, the Assam Rifles in a statement said that the Union Home Minis-ter visited its headquarters in Shillong and interacted with jawans.

Shah offers prayers at Kamakhya

5millenniumpost Nation mpDELHI | MONDAY, 26 JULY, 2021

IMD issues orange and yellow alerts for MP

SEVERAL GUJ AREAS SEE OVER 100 MM RAIN

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The India Mete-orological Department on Sun-day issued orange and yellow alerts predicting heavy rainfall, thunderstorm and lightning in Madhya Pradesh.

Several parts of Kerala in south India also witnessed heavy rainfall on Sunday, with the MeT issuing a yellow alert for several districts, including Thiruvananthapuram, Kol-lam, Pathanamthitta, Idukki, Kottayam, Alappuzha and Ernakulam.

Parts of Uttar Pradesh recieved light rain on Sunday. Agra was the hottest place in the state with the maximum temperature settling at 37 degrees Celsius.

According to the MeT office, heavy rain is very likely at isolated places in the state on Monday, while thundershow-ers are likely at most places in the state on July 27 and July 28.

The India Meteorologi-cal Department (IMD) issued orange and yellow alerts pre-dicting heavy to very heavy rainfall, thunderstorms and lightning in large parts of Madhya Pradesh, which has been experiencing intermittent downpours for the last three days. Both these alerts are valid till Monday morning, IMD's Bhopal office senior meteorolo-gist P K Saha said.

Anuppur city in east MP received the highest 234.5 mm rainfall in the state in the last 24 hours ending 8.30 am on Sun-day, he said, adding that Sham-shabad area in Vidisha district of the west MP received 190.6 mm rainfall during the same period.

The orange alert' which asks authorities to be prepared for possible heavy rains and thun-derstorms accompanied with lightning at isolated places, has been issued for 23 districts, namely Indore, Dhar, Aliraj-pur, Jhabua, Khargone, Bar-wani, Khandwa, Burhanpur, Ujjain, Dewas, Ratlam, Sha-japur, Agar-Malwa, Mandsaur, Neemuch, Hoshangabad, Betul and Harda.

A yellow alert which advises authorities to be updated on the situation, warning likely heavy rains and thunderstorms accompanied with lightning at isolated places, was issued for Chhatarpur, Tikamgarh, Balaghat, Anuppur and Nars-inghpur districts in the state.

Saha said a low-pressure area was lying over the north-ern part of the central MP and adjoining areas, and an east-west trough was running

along 25 degrees north latitude. Besides, the monsoon trough was passing through the low-pressure area over the northern part of the central MP, he said.

"All these factors are caus-ing rains in Madhya Pradesh, he added.

Several parts of Kerala wit-nessed heavy rainfall on Sun-day morning as predicted by the meteorological department.

According to the MeT department forecast, moderate to heavy rainfall was expected in Thiruvananthapuram, Kol-lam, Pathanamthitta, Idukki, Kottayam, Alappuzha, Ernakulam, Thrissur, Palak-kad, Malappuram, Kozhikode, Wayanad, Kannur and Kasara-god districts. A yellow alert had been issued for all these dis-tricts for Sunday.

Meanwhile, several parts of Gujarat received heavy to very heavy rainfall on Sun-

day, throwing normal life out of gear, with 12 talukas seeing over 100 millimetres of rains in a 12-hour period ending at 6pm, officials said.

The State Emergency Operation Centre (SEOC) said Lodhika taluka in Rajkot and Chhota Udepur taluka in the district of the same name received 180 millimetres of rainfall, followed by 161 mm in Kwant taluka in Chhota Udepur, 142 in Kalavad in Jam-nagar, and 129 in Kaprada in Valsad. It said areas in Botad, Dahod, Panchmahal, Vado-dara, Aravalli and Gir Somnath districts also saw heavy rainfall during this period, adding that 197 out of the state’s 251 talukas received rainfall.

Heavy downpour in Rajkot city caused waterlogging in low-lying areas, disrupting traf-fic and inconveniencing peo-ple, it added.

A view of a waterlogged area after rain in Rajkot, on Sunday

NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday ques-tioned the pace of COVID-19 vaccination, and said had the country's "Mann ki Baat" been understood, such would not have been the state.

His remarks came just ahead of Prime Minister Nar-endra Modi's "Mann ki Baat" address to the people of the country. "Had you understood the country's 'Mann ki Baat', such would not have been the state of vaccinations," Gandhi said in a tweet in Hindi.

He used the hashtag "WhereAreVaccines" to ques-tion the government on the inoculation rate.

The former Congress President also shared a video

highlighting the alleged slow vaccination rate and media reports where people were not getting vaccines across the country.

The video highlighted India's vaccination equation which is aimed to stop the third wave of coronavirus and the target to vaccinate 60 per cent of population with both doses by December 2021.

The graph highlighted that the required vaccination rate (vaccinations per day) is 9.3 million per day (93 lakh) and the actual rate in the last seven days (average vaccina-tions per day) is 3.6 million per day, with a daily shortfall in the last seven days being 5.6 mil-lion per day. MPOST

Rahul slams govt for pace of vaccinations

‘Regional parties should form national front for 2024 LS polls’

NEW DELHI: Regional par-ties should come together and form a national front to take on the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Shriomani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal said on Sunday and asserted that his party's story with the saffron party was over.

Underlining that issues of farmers are at the core of the SAD ideology, Badal said his

party can never compromise on these and, therefore, severed its decades-old alliance with the BJP and moved out of the government at the Centre over three contentious farm laws.

"SAD is a farmers' party and their issues are core of our ide-ology. Whatever may happen and whatever cost we may have to pay, we wouldn't let these laws be implemented in Pun-

jab," Badal said in an interview.The Centre's three farm

laws have triggered a protest by farmers. In September last year, Badal's wife Harsimrat Kaur quit as Union minister in protest against the legislations.

The protesting farmers claim these laws will do away with the minimum support price system, leaving them at the mercy of big corpora-

tions. Over 10 rounds of talks with the government, which has been projecting the laws as major agricultural reforms, have failed to break the dead-lock between the two sides.

Talking about the SAD's new alliance with the BSP, Badal said the alliance between the two parties is permanent and that the Akali Dal's story with the BJP was over. AGENCIES

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Women and Child Development Minis-try has requested states and UTs to direct district magis-trates to identify the children who have lost their parents to the COVID-19 pandemic for receiving support under PM CARES for Children scheme and submit their details on a portal established to enable prompt assistance to them.

In a letter to all states and UTs' chief secretaries, WCD Ministry Secretary Indevar Pandey said a web-based por-tal "pmcaresforchildren.in" has been launched to facilitate submission of applications, identification of children eli-gible to receive support under the scheme and processing of applications for securing ben-efits to them.

"I would request you to direct the district magistrates in your state to identify the chil-dren eligible for receiving sup-port under the PM CARES for Children' scheme and popu-late the "pmcaresforchildren.in' portal with the details of eligi-ble children, to enable prompt assistance to them. This task may be completed within the next 15 days," he said in the let-ter issued on July 22.

The ministry further said that a dedicated help desk has been set up for the same.

Detailing the process that has to be followed, the ministry official asked the district mag-istrates to conduct a drive for identification of these children, with the assistance of police, DCPU, childline and civil soci-ety organisations.

Children, who have lost both their parents to COVID and requiring support under the scheme, may be produced before the Child Welfare Com-mittee (CWC) by Childline (1098), District Child Protec-tion Unit (DCPU) or any other agency or individual within 24 hours of noticing the child,

excluding the journey time, he said.

Application form for seek-ing support under the scheme may be filled up by the child or caregiver or any other agency producing child before the CWC. The CWC with help of DCPU shall gather the facts regarding the child who has lost both parents, including details of deceased parents, home address, school, contact details, credentials and annual income of extended family members, relatives or kith and kin.

He said the CWC shall verify the cause of death of the parents by way of their death certificate or by field enquiry. The information may be uploaded by the CWC on PM CARES for children portal, while submitting it for DM's consideration.

The CWC may upload details of all children produced or reported to them by other agencies on and after ascertain-ing the facts of each case, CWC may make its recommenda-tions to the DM on the portal.

"In case the CWC does not recommend a particular child, reasons should be recorded in the given space, for DM to take a view. Principle of 'First in First out' may be followed while processing the appli-cations. DM may accept the recommendations of CWC or seek a review through CWC or DCPU," he said

The district magistrate may make an independent assess-ment about every child recom-mended or not recommended by the CWC and the DM may be assisted by the Child Pro-tection staff, Police, Childline or any other agency deemed fit for the purpose. "After sat-isfying herself, DM may con-firm the eligibility of the child on the portal for the scheme and the decision taken by DM regarding the eligibility of a child under the scheme shall be final," he said.

WCD Min asks states to provide details

of children who lost parents to Covid

‘A portal has been launched to fa-cilitate submission of applications’

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: President Ram Nath Kovind on Sunday com-pleted four years in office, the Rashtrapati Bhavan said, high-lighting that he gave assent to 63 Bills of the Union and state governments, besides lauding frontline Covid warriors for saving countess lives across the country among others initiatives.

Kovind, aged 76, was sworn in as the 14th President of India on 25 July, 2017.

“President Ram NathKo-vind completes four years in office today,” the Rashtrapat-iBhavan said in a tweet and shared an e-book highlight-ing activities during his fourth year of presidency.

As Everyone’s President ,Kovind visited 13 states and two union territories and met 780 people during these visits, according to the e-book.

As the custodian of the Constitution, the president administered oath of office and secrecy to the members

of the council of ministers and the chief justice of India, and gave assent to 43 Bills of the Union government and 20 Bills of the state govern-ments, it said.

For the At Home recep-tion on Independence Day at the RashtrapatiBhavan, Kovind invited some front-line corona warriors work-ing in Delhi as special guests and lauded their courage and dedication in saving countless lives across the country, the e-book said.

He also celebrated Raksha-Bandhan with nurses of the Trained Nurses’ Association of India, Military Nursing Ser-vice and the President’s Estate Clinic, it said. MPOST

GLORY

A sand art on the banks of the Ganga river made by the students of Allahabad Central University to observe Kargil Vijay Diwas, at Sangam in Prayagraj on Sunday PIC/PTI

48-YEAR-OLD TEACHER ARRESTED FOR TRYING TO MOLEST MINOR GIRL IN UP MATHURA: A 48-year-old teacher has been arrested for allegedly trying to molest an 11-year-old girl here, police said Sunday. They said the alleged inci-dent took place in an area under the Barsana police station of Mathura on July 15, but the girl disclosed it to her parents a few days later. An FIR was filed Saturday based on a complaint by her father under section 354 (outraging a woman’s modesty) of the In-dian Penal Code and relevant sections of the POCSO Act. “The tutor, 48-year-old Netram, who tried to molest the 11-year old-girl in the absence of her family members over a week ago has been arrested,” Barsana Inspector Azad Pal Singh said.

FOUR ARRESTED FOR KILLING BJP WORKER’S FATHER IN UP MUZAFFARNAGAR (UP): Police have arrested four people for allegedly killing the father of a BJP worker in Bhalwa village in Muzaffarnagar on Sunday, an official said. Shyam Singh, the father of BJP worker Sushil Kumar, was found dead with his throat slit on July 21, Circle Officer Shakil Ahmad said. According to the police, Kumar had recently lodged a complaint against illegal cow slaughter in the village. An FIR was registered against seven people in connection with the murder case and of them, four were arrested on Sun-day, Ahmed said, adding that efforts were underway to nab the remaining three. Those arrested were iden-tified as Aas Mohammad, Shakil, Sukka and Zulfikar.

Nation Briefs

6 millenniumpostNationmpMONDAY, 26 JULY, 2021 | NEW DELHI

OUR CORRESPONDENT

PANAJI: Amid speculation about a change of guard in Karnataka, BJP president J P Nadda on Sunday ruled out any leadership crisis in the south-ern state and said Chief Min-ister B S Yediyurappa has done good work.

He termed as baseless the Pegasus snooping allegations, and hit out at the opposition parties over it, saying that there was no issue left with them.

Talking to reporters here at the end of his two-day Goa visit, Nadda also said that the BJP would fight the Assembly elections in Goa due early next year under the leadership of Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, but added that a formal deci-sion about it would be taken by the party's parliamentary board. On Karnataka, he said, "Yediyurappa has done good work. Karnataka is doing well. Yediyurappa is taking care of the things in his own way."

When asked if there is a leadership crisis in the south-

ern state, Nadda said, That is what you feel. We don't feel so."

Nadda's remarks assume significance as they came hours after the Karnataka CM said he will take an appropri-ate decision, once he receives directions from the BJP high command this evening, regard-ing his continuation in the post.

"By evening once it comes, you will also get to know about it, once it comes I will take an appropriate decision," Yediy-urappa had said in Belagavi in response to a question whether the directions from the party high command in Delhi were expected today.

Replying to a question over the Pegasus snooping row, Nadda said, It is baseless It is issueless. The opposition parties led by the Congress do not have any issue which they want to raise for people. That is why they raise this kind of issue."

Last Sunday, an interna-tional media consortium had reported that over 300 verified Indian mobile phone num-bers, including of two minis-ters, over 40 journalists, three opposition leaders besides scores of businesspersons and activists in India, could have been targeted for hacking

through the Pegasus spyware of the Israeli firm NSO. How-ever, the government has been denying all Opposition allega-tions in the matter. Speaking about frequent disruptions in Parliament, Nadda said, "We are ready for all types of dis-

cussion, but Congress along with other opposition par-ties has become disappointed and issueless, and hence resorts to such disruptions They do not know what to do. They want to stop Parliament over issueless things.”

BENGALURU: Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediy-urappa said on Sunday that a decision on whether he will continue in office or not will be known by tomorrow, but asserted that he would con-tinue to work for the BJP for the next 10-15 years.

The 78-year-old Lingayat strongman said this evening that he was yet to receive the "message" from the party's central leadership on whether he should continue in his post or quit. He expressed confi-dence that the communication may come by tonight or be

known on Monday morning.Yediyurappa said he

had offered to resign two months ago and reiter-ated that he would he would continue in the post if the high command so desired and quit if they asked him to resign and go about doing party work.

"I will work for the party day and night for the next 10- 15 years. Let there be no doubt about it", he said. He said he will speak on the achieve-ments of his government at a function, as planned earlier, on Monday. MPOST

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court will hear on Monday a plea by seven doctors’ asso-ciations against Yoga guru Ramdev for allegedly spread-ing misinformation by his statements against allopathy amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The matter will be heard by Justice C Hari Shankar who had earlier asked the counsel for the associations to place on record the videos pertaining to the alleged misinformation.

The associations before court are three Resident Doc-tors’ Association of the All India Institute of Medical Sci-

ences at Rishikesh, Patna and Bhubaneshwar, Association of Resident Doctors, Post Gradu-ate Institute of Medical Educa-tion & Research, Chandigarh, Union of Resident Doctors of Punjab (URDP); Resident Doc-tors’ Association, LalaLajpat Rai Memorial Medical Col-lege, Meerut and Telangana Junior Doctors’ Association, Hyderabad.

They alleged that Ramdev was misleading and misrep-resenting to the public at large that allopathy was responsible for the deaths of several people infected by COVID-19, and insinuating that allopathic doc-tors were causing deaths of the patients.

LUCKNOW: Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh continues to be on life support and there is no change in his health condition, a senior doctor at the Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Med-ical Sciences (SGPGIMS) here said on Sunday.

The 89-year-old BJP vet-eran was admitted to the ICU of the hospital in the evening of July 4 due to an infection and reduced consciousness level.

Singh is under close moni-toring of senior doctors of the critical care medicine (CCM), cardiology, nephrology, neurol-ogy and endocrinology depart-ments, the doctor said.

"Former UP chief minister and former governor of Rajas-than Kalyan Singh ji is on life saving support system (ventila-tor). There is no change in his health condition," the senior doctor said. Director of the institute Professor R K Dhiman is also keeping a close watch on all the aspects related to his health, he added.

Earlier, Singh was under-going treatment at the Ram Manohar Lohia Institute of Medical Sciences here. MPOST

OUR CORRESPONDENT

SRINAGAR: A month after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's outreach to mainstream leaders of Jammu and Kashmir, National Conference president Farooq Abdullah said on Sun-day that there has been "no fol-low-up results" on the ground.

Adbullah said this in ref-erence to the prime minis-ter's remarks at the June 24 meeting in New Delhi that he wanted to win the hearts of the people of Jammu and Kash-mir and remove "Dillikidoori" (the distance from Delhi) and "dilkidoori" (distance between hearts).

"That was a welcome state-ment but there is no effort on the ground to win the hearts of the people. People continue to be locked up and dissent is not tolerated. We want to see the change on the ground, a visible effort to win back the people who went through the trauma of their state being dis-membered, its special status

removed in one sudden blow," the three-time former Chief Minister told.

"...we are yet to see any follow-up results even after a month," he said.

"Trust is something that has been missing from both sides (Delhi and Srinagar). Succes-sive prime ministers -- Jawa-harlal Nehru, Narasimha Rao, Atal Bihari Vajpayee -- made promises but the trust deficit has persisted," he added.

The 83-year-old veteran politician said that he and his party had attended the Delhi meeting because it was an invi-tation from the prime minister

although he had no expecta-tions from it. Yet, he had hoped for steps to win the hearts and minds of people but nothing had happened.

Abdullah insisted that res-toration of "full, undiluted" statehood to Jammu and Kash-mir should precede the elec-tions to its Assembly. All major parties have demanded that and the Centre should prove its bona fide by agreeing to that.

Asked if his party would take part in the elections if the statehood was not granted before that, the NC president said, "We will decide at that time when the bugle is blown. We will then sit down and decide what we should do."

In reply to a question about the fate of the People's Alli-ance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), a conglomerate of six mainstream political par-ties including the NC and its arch rival PDP, Abdullah said the alliance stands and "we are together...we all are there. We haven't left."

DRAS (KARGIL): The cele-brations of 22nd Kargil Vijay Diwas commenced at Kar-gil War Memorial, Dras on Sunday.

Early in the morning, a spe-cial event narrating the stories of Operation VIJAY was orga-nized by the Army at Lamo-chen near Dras where an account of the epic battles on Tololing, Tiger Hill, Pt 4875 and other prominent features was narrated with these very landmarks visible to the audi-ence in front of their eyes.

A number of military per-sonnel including the gallantry award winners and families of Kargil War Heroes attended the event. The narration took everyone down the memory lane showcasing the daring feat achieved by the valiant soldiers of Indian Army.

Later in the day, the venue of the celebrations shifted to the Kargil War Memorial. A Fusion Military Band put up a display which was followed by a solemn ‘Beating the Retreat’ Ceremony and a Memorial

Service, where the attendees paid silent tribute to the fallen Heroes. At the memorial, 559 Lamps were also lit, which were a symbolic reminder of lives sacrificed by 559 bravehearts for the nation.

The last event of the day was, ‘A Twilight with Brave Hearts’, with the soldiers at Polo Ground, Dras. In a special tribute to the heroes of Kargil War, musician Aman Chandra enthralled the audience with his musical performance dur-ing the eve. MPOST

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Rajya Sabha member John Brittas has moved the Supreme Court seeking a court-monitored probe into reports of alleged snooping of activists, politi-cians, journalists and consti-tutional functionaries using Israeli spyware Pegasus.

A massive political row has erupted after media reports claimed that Pegasus spyware was used to conduct surveil-lance on about 300 Indians, including ministers, political leaders, government officials and journalists.

Brittas, who has filed a public interest litigation in the Supreme Court, said that recent allegations of snooping has caused concern among a large section of people in India and that snooping would have a chilling effect on free speech and expression.

He has sought a court-monitored investigation into allegations of snooping using Pegasus spyware.

In a statement on Sun-day, Brittas, who is a CPI-M member, said that despite the very serious nature, the cen-tral government has not cared to investigate into the allega-

tions involved in the issue but "made only a hopeful hope that the time tested processes in our country are well-established to ensure that unauthorised sur-veillance does not occur".

"Therefore, the queries were raised in the Indian Parliament with respect to this leakage. But the government has nei-ther denied nor admitted the snooping by the spyware," he said.

Amid a row over the Peg-asus spyware issue, the gov-ernment had said that illegal surveillance was not pos-sible with checks and bal-ances in the country's laws and alleged that attempts were being made to malign the Indian democracy.

On July 19, IT Minister AshwiniVaishnaw told the Lok Sabha that media reports

on alleged snooping pub-lished a day before the start of the Monsoon Session of Par-liament "cannot be a coinci-dence" and stressed that there is "no substance" behind the sensationalism.

However, the minister did not specify whether the Indian government was using Pegasus spyware.

Brittas, on Sunday, also claimed that allegations lead to two inferences, either snooping was done by the government or by a foreign agency.

If it was done by the gov-ernment, then it was done in an unauthorised manner. If snooping was carried out by some foreign agency, then that is an act of external aggression and needs to be dealt in a seri-ous manner, Brittas pointed out.

The NSO, the company which owns the technology, has also "clearly rubbished the claims in the report", the min-ister had said.

The NSO had said that the list of countries shown using Pegasus in the report was incorrect and many countries mentioned were not even the clients of the company, as per the minister's statement to the Lok Sabha on July 19.

MUMBAI: Shiv Sena MP San-jay Raut on Sunday asked who funded the alleged snooping of politicians and journalists by Pegasus and compared it with the Hiroshima bomb-ing, saying while the attack on the Japanese city had resulted in death of people, the spying by the Israeli software led to "death of freedom".

"The modern technology has taken us back to slavery," Raut said in his weekly column 'Rokhthok' in the Sena mouth-piece Saamana.

He said the Pegasus case is "no different from the atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima".

"People died in Hiroshima, while in the Pegasus case, it led to the death of freedom," he claimed.

He said politicians, indus-trialists and social activists fear they are being spied upon, and even the judiciary and media are under the same pressure.

"The atmosphere of free-dom in the national capital ended a few years ago," said Raut, who is the executive edi-tor of Saamana.

He also sought to know who paid for the alleged snoop-ing by the Israeli spyware.

Quoting a media report, he said the Israeli company NSO charged Rs 60 crore annually as license (fee) for the Pegasus software.

By way of one license, 50 phones can be hacked. Hence, to tap 300 phones, six to seven licenses are required, the Rajya Sabha member said. MPOST

NEW DELHI: Senior Congress leader P Chid-ambaram on Sunday said the government should either call for a joint parlia-mentary committee probe into the Pegasus snooping allegations or request the Supreme Court to appoint a sitting judge to investigate the matter, and demanded that Prime Minister Naren-dra Modi make a statement in Parliament clarifying whether there had been sur-veillance or not.

The former home minis-ter said he was not sure that one can go to the extent of saying that the entire elec-toral mandate of 2019 was vitiated by the "unlawful snooping" but added that it may have "helped" the BJP to score that victory which has been "tainted" by the allegations.

In an interview with PTI, Chidambaram also said a probe by a joint parliamentary commit-tee (JPC) can be more effective than an investi-gation by the Parliamen-tary Standing Committee on Information Technology, asserting that the former would be more empowered by Parliament. AGENCIES

Nadda rules out leadership crisis in K’taka, hails Yediyurappa’s work

Pegasus issue: RS MP moves SC seeking court-monitored probe

PATNA: The monsoon session of the Bihar Assembly, which will begin on Monday, is likely to witness noisy scenes as the ruckus during the last meet-ing of the House over a spe-cial armed police bill may cast a shadow on the upcoming proceedings.

Unprecedented chaos erupted on March 23 in the last budget session when police was called inside the Assembly to assist the mar-shals in evicting unruly oppo-sition members who tried to physically prevent Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha from tak-ing his chair.

The bone of contention was Bihar Special Armed Police Bill, 2021, which the Nitish

Kumar government had intro-duced in a bid to give its police more teeth, deemed necessary in view of the increasingly complex security needs of the state which has been witnessing rapid economic growth.

The opposition had termed it as "black" legisla-tion, taking strong exception to provisions that empower the Special Armed Police, previ-ously known as the Bihar Mili-tary Police, to conduct searches and arrests without producing a warrant.

The Bill was passed by the Assembly, amid a "walkout" by opposition MLAs who had squatted outside the building and raised slogans, slighted by the manner in which they were

ousted from the hall on that day by the men in uniform.

RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav has already written to the Speaker, saying that opposition legislators were scared to enter the House due to the March 23 incident.

Our MLAs are now afraid of entering the House and raising questions there...let us know the result of the investigation on the March 23 incident.

That was a black day which will never be forgotten," Yadav wrote in his letter.

Whether in the Assembly or on the road, anyone who asks questions related to the pub-lic interest is being thrashed by this government headed by Nitish Kumar," he said. MPOST

‘Whether I continue as CM or not will be known today’

Plea against Ramdev for remarks against allopathy

to be heard today

Monsoon session of Bihar Assembly to begin on Monday

Who funded Pegasus snooping? asks Raut

‘PM must clarify

whether snooping was done’

Kargil Vijay Diwas celebrations commence at Dras

Ex-UP CM remains

critical: Hosp‘No follow-up results’ after meeting with PM: Abdullah‘Successive PMs -- Nehru, Narasimha Rao, Atal Bihari Va-jpayee -- made promises but the trust deficit has persisted’

President Kovind completes four years in office

Yediyurappa is taking care of things in his own way, says Nadda

Supreme Court

President Kovind

Farooq Abdullah

BJP National President J.P. Nadda during his visit to Tapobhumi Math in Kundaim PIC/PTI

7millenniumpost Editorial mpNEW DELHI | MONDAY, 26 JULY, 2021

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

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

DearEditorChanu Saikhom Mirabai bagged India’s first medal at the Tokyo Olympics 2020. She also became the only Olympic silver medallist from Northeast. India is beaming with joy at her success at the grand event. Northeast has a sea of talent, but many of these talents have withered away because of lack of facilities and infrastructure. With this silver medal, Chanu has opened the floodgates for the talent pool of Northeast. I urge the Union Ministry of Sports to hold out a hand toward Northeast so that many talents like Mirabai can come up. Once again, congratulations to Mirabai Chanu, we are proud of her and wish her more such accolades in the future.

This refers to the edit ‘In the interest of democracy’. Orders of the Supreme Court to free Erendro Leichombam from custody with immediate effect will be welcomed by all who value liberty and democracy. To be charged by the NSA for a post on social media, no sensible person can disagree with, is a measure of how enforcement authorities misuse the laws meant for serious cases in order to please their political bosses. Unless the NSA is made to face the consequences of such a prejudiced action, such incidents, prevalent across the nation, are not likely to end.

— NOOPUR BARUAH, TEZPUR via email

— ANTHONY HENRIQUES, MUMBAI via email

EDITORIALUndocumented?

The past 4-5 years have been the years of hope for the vast farming community of India. The farmers are indeed dying and each death needs to be recognized and lamented upon. But there is much to be hope-

ful — these farmers are dying in protests, fighting against the injustices they have been subjected to for decades. These deaths are, of course, disheartening but not as much as the lakhs of suicides during the past few decades — where death was the only choice. Things have changed this way — be it the 2018 march to the Parliament to make their grievances heard before the People of India, or the current protests where they have shown commendable spirit in standing up for their cause. What has not changed though is the govern-ment’s approach. Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said Friday that the Centre has no record of the death of farmers during the protest period around the national capital and in some states. Subsequently, the Punjab Government came up with its verified record of the death of 220 farmers. Farm-ers unions are also planning to compile the number of deaths during the farmers’ protests, which they say may be over 500. This chaos is no different from the contradictions in the documentation of death due to the suicide of farmers over decades. As per the Government’s 2011 Census data, more than half of the country’s workforce has been engaged in the agriculture sector — including cultivators and agricultural labourers. These workers have been ending their lives, which lacked proper documentation until 2014 when National Crime Records Bureau came up with the data suggesting the suicide death of 6,750 agricultural workers in the year. And the number keeps fluctuating every year (the report was not made public in 2017). Agricultural experts suggest that the recorded numbers are grossly underreported. This is no hid-den fact that the agriculture sector is home to extensive dis-guised unemployment — meaning that all who work in the fields are not counted as being employed in the sector. On the ground, the entire family in a low- or middle-income group gets involved in the farming activity. Women consti-tute a major part of the agricultural workforce but are highly likely to be counted out. The suicide figures we have been going through all these years may represent just a fraction of the actual deaths. What is even more surprising is that many agricultural economy states like Bihar had, in the past, declared zero suicides in some years. P Sainath rightly puts the existing situation in the agriculture sector as a “social and civilizational crisis” rather than just an agrarian crisis. It is after this crisis has reached the saturation point that the farmers have started showing up in massive protest, chang-ing the way they live and die! The government should also change the way it perceives and counts the members of this community. The solution to this deep-rooted agrarian crisis cannot come through a straight and simple formulation of law without appropriate deliberation. There has to be a mas-sive exercise that would start from recognizing the different sets of problems faced by Indian farmers in different parts of the country. This diversity of topographical features, crop pattern, socio-economic conditions of farmers, and state pro-visions adds greatly to the complexity of the issue. While the farmers from Punjab, Haryana and UP are making headlines in Delhi, the Vidarbha farmer might just be waiting for the double-edged sword of drought-flood cycle to destroy the little that she/he has. Water scarcity remains a haunting prob-lem in this region, getting worse with each passing year. The farmers in Bihar may not have much to relate with the pro-testing farmers in Delhi, as they have already lost their man-dis a decade ago and they work under the increased influence of middlemen. These farmers are not just facing the ravages of a flood, they may also have more wounding problems like lack of formal credit among other things. It is welcome that the Central government has shown some intent for the wel-fare of the farmers. But it can be asked if these steps are broad enough to solve the diverse range of problems that the farm-ers are facing on the ground in different parts of the coun-try. Provision for guaranteed MSP in accordance with the Swaminathan Committee Report, and the uncertainty over the sustainability of mandis under new framework are two broad-based issues that will impact a major portion of the farming community. But there is a lot more that needs to be done to find a solution to the crisis. The deadlock between the government and the farmers is significantly hurting the pro-cess of empowering our food-givers. At this point, it would be wrongful to expect the farmers to head backwards without having their problems addressed. The government should ini-tiate a more comprehensive process by taking on board the representatives of farmer groups from all across the country, make a detailed assessment of different issues faced by them, and look for a more amicable and comprehensive solution. In a nutshell, it is not just the lives and deaths of the farmers that need to be properly documented, but also their problems and concerns. Then only the talks of farmer welfare will have any meaning and real solutions could be found.

millenniumpost.in

SILVERY START

A WELCOME DECISION

Lasting solutions

Cheers to humanity

A hygienic and nature-oriented plan, equipped with social infrastructure and upskilling goals, could add durability to the development process of cities

The core values of the Olympics are emboldened with the fielding of EOR — providing identity to millions of stateless refugees

This is indeed one of the toughest chal-lenges facing all gov-erning models. There

is no one answer for all cities nor can there be one answer for all times. Going forward, the mantra has to be: simplify, digitize and localize.

Let us take a few givens. Cities will be populated and, as economic opportunities expand, populations will con-tinue to be added. Cities will harbour the dreams of various segments and will thus have to have fertility in their ambience that will inspire and nourish these dreams. In this singular strength of the city will lie its own prosperity.

Cities in India are no dif-ferent in their potential and offerings. Economic and job opportunities, education, healthcare and a chance for a better life, at least for the gen-next, are some of the factors that attract youth from the countryside. The poor undergo a million hardships to do some-thing better for their families. Last year, the COVID-19 pan-demic destroyed many lives. Lakhs of people fell victim to Coronavirus, thousands could not get healthcare facilities. Lakhs abandoned the cities of their work, left with no money, no food, no shelter and no one to turn to. Lakhs of them went home facing extreme hard-ships, some on foot, some on cycles, trudging thousands of miles to be amidst their near and dear ones. The world as they knew it, of hope and a better future in some distant time, had closed out on them in one sudden strike. Nobody knew the answers as all those in governance struggled with finding an adequate response. No mitigation, no rehab and a bleak future. This is a tragedy

of our times and will always be a historic black spot, despite so much of the famed march of modern medicine.

Be that as it may, do we have better answers now? Can we build on some answers that we can turn to in times of dis-tress of the magnitude of this pandemic?

Our urbanization story has to stop playing with the logic of nature, as a first start. We have built cities in disregard of the water tables, topography and green spaces.

We have to make hygiene the matter of utmost priority. Waste, of all kinds, is adding to the toxicity of the environment on a daily basis. It is impacting lives and reducing life spans. We need to pay heed to the fact that a clean environment is a non-negotiable basis for going

forward. People cannot get jobs unless

they have skills. They cannot acquire skills if there is no capacity building. So, we need skill givers. A massive effort is needed in locating skill-build-ing capacities in the proximity of the poor neighbourhoods, both in urban and rural set-tings. To build this, we need to tap into the ability of the voluntary sector to organize and deliver. They need a core driving nucleus to maintain focus, to keep building content, testing and certifying those. Formal schools have to be mul-tiplied at a colossal speed and there has to be an authority to ensure standards.

Simplify, digitize and deliver has to be the motto. Our ener-gies are being sapped by oner-ous processes. To access civic

needs, these have to be made easy.

Communities will improve through better and faster con-nectivity. Transportation and telecom — two important drivers — will build these relationships.

We need social infrastruc-ture in every city so that culture, cohesion and co-exis-tence can thrive. Peace is a vital ingredient of a thriving economy.

Countryside and open spaces need improvement. The distinctions will have to go. City limits have lost their relevance. We need to find new demarcations.

The real challenge is sustain-ability. How to make reforms durable and lasting? There is one fundamental fact: Nothing is permanent. Any beautiful

garden needs to be tended well. In the same way, cities have to be nursed and nourished. We have to keep ahead of vol-umes in step with technologies and evolve a policy of compat-ibility as we go ahead. Politics of incompatibility in so far as building a city is concerned, has no place in our campaign for sustainable living.

The economy will flour-ish only if we have a frame-work of facilitation, including an attitude and inclination for assistance. To reiterate and emphasize: simplify, digitize and universalize the gover-nance system otherwise, we can muddle along as we are wont to do.

The writer is the now retired-Director of the India Habitat Centre.

Views expressed are personal

RAJ LIBERHAN

BHOPINDER SINGH

Beyond the lofty ideal of Pierre De Cou-bertin — ‘the impor-tant thing is not to

win, but to take part’ — which underpins individual pursuit and fair play, nationalism is also at the heart of the Olympic spirit. Athletes subsume their individuality and club identi-ties towards the higher glory of winning medals for their nation, with the unmatched exhilaration of seeing the national flag raised and sing-ing along the national anthem. Emotions besetting Olympic triumph are deeply personal, symbolic and above all, very political. The intermeshing of these emotions has birthed timeless ‘moments’, the most glorious of which included the most impressive lineup of the US Basketball ‘Dream Team’, Parkinson-afflicted Muham-mad Ali lighting the flame of Centennial Olympics, the rare time when both North and South Korea walked together in Sydney in 2000, waving the unification flag etc. Whereas the unsavoury moments included the supremacism of Nazi Germany’s 1936 Berlin Olympics, the Black Septem-ber attack in Munich (1972) to the boycott era of the Cold War years. The platform has always afforded a political identity context beyond sporting excel-lence, for better or worse. This could theoretically deny the millions of ‘stateless’ with-out the dignity of a ‘flag’ the opportunity to partake in the Olympics?

As per the United Nations High Commissioner for Refu-gees (UNHCR), there are 82.4 million people who are forcibly displaced on account of perse-cution, conflict, human rights violations or events disturbing public order — many amongst these are denied a nationality. Such a tragedy poses a chal-lenge to the Olympic spirit seeking ‘to build a peaceful and better world in the Olympic spirit which requires mutual

understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play’. Recognising this human-itarian aspect, the 2016 Rio Olympic fielded the first-ever Global ‘Refugee Team’ to com-pete against other citizens. This ensuing Tokyo Olympics, as the global refugee crisis wors-ens over the years, a 29-mem-ber team with athletes from 11 former countries will have the opportunity to uphold the Olympic motto Citius, Altius, Fortius (Faster, Higher, Stron-ger). The athletes from the ‘Refugee Team’ don’t just rep-resent denied identities, but the world is in turmoil. Sig-nificantly, they have their own flag and anthem to ‘represent’ humanity. Movingly, their flag is visualised as bright orange crossed by a single black band, colours that evoke the life jackets, that so many refugees have worn in their journeys to safety! For the millions of identity-less refugees across continents who are addition-ally ‘United by Despair’ (Tokyo Olympics motto is ‘United by Emotion’) — from the Syr-

ian boat refugees risking their lives to escape the madness of war to the ‘nowhere people’ or Rohingyas — the symbolism of the flag would trigger a reso-nating and powerful emotion. At the opening ceremony, the proud contingent of the ‘Ref-ugee Team’ was symbolically given the second marching spot, just after Greece (owing to its role in the origin of the Olympics), to send a ‘powerful message of solidarity, resilience and hope to the world’.

Though certainly not ‘state-less’, another act of political denialism is that of the so-called ‘Chinese Taipei’, instead of Taiwan, even as the sixth fundamental principle of Olympism disallows discrim-ination based on nationality or political perceptions. For decades, the Taiwanese con-tingent is denied the use of its legitimate name, flag and even the national anthem. Clearly, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has sur-rendered to the Chinese and forsaken neutrality, by abid-ing to Beijing’s diktat, even as

an overwhelming Taiwanese do not identify themselves as Chinese. Ironically, in Tokyo Olympics 1964, Taiwan had competed under its own name and flag — today, the Chinese brazenly flex their muscles — be it in diplomacy or sports. Russia too is denied sovereign participation in Tokyo owing to the ban by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) after the Russian ‘State’ was con-victed of complicity in dop-ing and forgery. They face the ignominy of identifying as ROC (Russian Olympic Com-mittee) and not Russia, or its flag.

But for each of the 29 Ref-ugee athletes, it is the triumph of the human spirit that has taken them from unimagin-ably perilous journeys to the honour of competing against the best in the world! Syrian Yusra Mardini and her sis-ter had once tirelessly strug-gled to stay afloat for three hours after pushing their boat towards the shore while escap-ing to Europe. Today, that Yusra who had swum for her

life, will now have the dignity and pride of competing in her second Olympics in 100m but-terfly. Just like Anjelina Nadai Lohalith, who escaped bru-tal conflict in war-torn South Sudan as an eight-year-old to seek refuge in Kenya’s Kakuma Refugee Camp. The unmiti-gated hurt in the words of someone who hasn’t seen her family is echoed in the inno-cent simplicity: ‘If I go far and have success, then my dream is just to help my parents’. No real expectation of a bounty, com-mercial contract or sovereign recognition awaits these con-testants, except the desire to live peacefully and dignifiedly. Beyond the personal commit-ment, strength and resolve that underlies and defines each and every Olympic partici-pant, those from the ‘Refugee Team’ bring yet another price-less dimension of ‘hope’.

As the TV sets beam Olym-pic sports with the occasional identification code ‘EOR’ for some athletes, it will sig-nify the participant from the ‘Refugee Team’ who coalesce under the French term Équipe olympique des réfugiés or EOR. Closer home, as the war rages in Afghanistan and is poised to sadly return to its oppressive and regressive past, a young cyclist, Masomah Ali Zada, will break many stereotypes as one from a persecuted minor-ity Islamic sect (Shia Hazara). As she says beautifully: ‘By tak-ing part in the Olympic Games, I want to convince those who think a woman on a bicycle is inappropriate or find it strange that a Muslim woman with a headscarf is a cyclist, that no, it’s normal’. If there is another team that humanity needs to cheer for this year, other than the national teams, it’s the ‘Refugee Team’ or EOR, as it belongs to humanity.

The writer is the former Lt Governor of Andaman

and Nicobar Islands & Puducherry. Views

expressed are personal

As the first step, we need to sync our urbanization process with nature

The Refugee Team was provided with the second marching spot after Greece in the opening ceremony

Simplify, digitize and deliver has to be the motto. Our energies are being sapped by onerous processes. To access civic needs, these have to be made easy

For the millions of identity-less refugees across continents, who are additionally ‘United by Despair’, the symbolism of the flag would trigger a resonating and powerful emotion

8 millenniumpostWorldmpMONDAY, 26 JULY, 2021 | NEW DELHI

Monsoon rains flood Philippine villages

MANILA: Thousands of resi-dents fled flooded communi-ties and swollen rivers in the Philippine capital and outlying provinces Saturday after days of torrential monsoon rains, which left at least one villager dead, officials said.

Officials said they struggled to open more emergency shel-ters in order to allow social dis-tancing among the displaced residents and prevent evac-uation camps from turning into epicenters of COVID-19 infections.

In the hard-hit city of Marikina in the capital region, nearly 15,000 residents were evacuated to safety overnight as waters rose alarmingly in a major river.

This situation will be too difficult if there won't be a permanent solution to flood-ing, especially now with the threat from the delta variant, Marikina Mayor Marcelino Teodoro told ABS CBN News, referring to the highly conta-gious COVID-19 viral strain that has been detected in the country.

Many of the residents were evacuated from flood-prone villages in Marikina overnight, depriving them of sleep, said Teodoro. He blamed years of illegal logging in nearby moun-tains and heavy siltation in Marikina River for constant flooding in his city.

In the mountainous north-ern city of Baguio, a resident died Friday afternoon after the taxi she was riding in was hit by a falling tree, police said, adding two other people in the taxi were injured. The northern Philippines has been swamped by days of monsoon rains that flooded low-lying villages and set off minor landslides.

Typhoon In-fa, which

has churned off the country's eastern coast and dumped rain on Taiwan before blow-ing toward China, intensi-fied the seasonal downpours, forecasters said.

A cargo boat overturned after being lashed by strong waves Saturday close to a port in Pio Duran town in Albay province, southeast of Manila. Its 10 crewmen were rescued by police, firefighters and villagers, who used a long rope to pull the overturned boat closer to the coast, the coast guard said.

Coast guard personnel res-cued several residents trapped in their houses by rising flood-waters Friday in Naujan town in Mindoro Oriental prov-ince south of Manila. As they carried the villagers through waist-high waters, the emer-gency crew held on to a rope to prevent themselves from being swept away by the current.

About 20 typhoons and storms batter the Philippines each year, aside from seasonal monsoon rains.

The country also lies in the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, a region prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, mak-ing it one of the world's most disaster-prone nations. AGENCIES

PoK legislative elections marred by irregularities,

violence; 2 deadISLAMABAD: Voters in Pak-istan-occupied Kashmir cast their ballots on Sunday to elect the region's legislative assem-bly, in an election marred by allegations of irregularities and violence that killed at least two workers of Prime Minister Imran Khan's party.

The gates of polling stations were closed to new voters at 5pm. However, those inside the polling stations were allowed to cast their ballot. The polling started at 8am and continued till 5pm. Counting will start after the voting ends.

India has previously slammed Pakistan for its deci-sion to hold elections in Gilgit-Baltistan and said any action to alter the status of the mili-tarily occupied region has no legal basis. The assembly has a total of 53 members but only 45 are directly elected, while five seats are reserved for women

and three are meant for the technocrats.

A tough triangular competi-tion involving Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan People's Party (PPP) is expected.

At a polling station in Char-hoi area of Kotli district, at least two PTI workers were killed in clashes with PPP activists, Dawn reported. Citing police, the paper said the two men were shot dead by unidentified per-sons. In another incident, five police constables were injured after Jamaat-e-Islami activists attacked them with batons at the Dhal Chakhya polling sta-tion of Jhelum valley district.

Region's Chief Election Commissioner Justice (retd.) Abdul Rashid Sulehria con-demned the killing in Kotli and said action will be taken against whoever is involved. AGENCIES

Death toll rises to 15 in China's warehouse fireBEIJING: The death toll from a fire at a warehouse in Chi-na's northeastern Jilin province has risen to 15, local authorities said on Sunday. The fire broke out on Saturday afternoon at a logistic warehouse in Jingyue high-tech industrial developme zone in Jilin's province's capital Changchun.

The Changchun municipal government said the local fire brigade received reports of the accident at around 3:48 p.m. on Saturday and launched search and rescue efforts, which con-cluded on Sunday. The death toll has risen to 15, they said, add-ing that 25 people are injured. The injured people are receiving treatment in hospitals and have no life-threatening injuries, the government said. AGENCIES

California's largest fire torches homes as blazes lash West

BLY (US): Flames racing through rugged terrain in Northern California destroyed multiple homes Saturday as the state's largest wildfire intensi-fied and numerous other blazes battered the US West.

The Dixie fire, which

started July 14, had already lev-elled over a dozen houses and other structures when it tore through the tiny town of Indian Falls after dark. It was burning in a remote area with limited access, hampering firefighters' efforts as it advanced eastward, fire officials said.

The blaze has charred more than 181,000 acres (73,200 hectares) in Plu-mas and Butte counties and prompted evacuation orders in several small communities and along the west shore of Lake Almano, a popular get-away. The fire was 20% con-tained as of Saturday night.

Meanwhile, the nation's largest wildfire, southern Ore-

gon's Bootleg fire, was nearly halfway surrounded Satur-day as more than 2,200 crew members worked to corral it

in the heat and wind, fire offi-cials said. The growth of the sprawling blaze had slowed, but thousands of homes remained

threatened on its eastern side, authorities said.

This fire is resistant to stop-ping at dozer lines, Jim Hanson, fire behaviour analyst, said in a news release from the Ore-gon Department of Forestry. With the critically dry weather and fuels we are experiencing, firefighters are having to con-stantly reevaluate their control lines and look for contingency options.

In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency for four north-ern counties because of wild-fires that he said were causing conditions of extreme peril to the safety of persons and prop-erty. The proclamation opened

the way for more state support.Such conditions are often

from a combination of unusual random, short-term and natu-ral weather patterns heightened by long-term, human-caused climate change. Global warm-ing has made the West much warmer and drier in the past 30 years. On Saturday, fire crews from California and Utah headed to Montana, Gov. Greg Gianforte announced. Five fire-fighters were injured Thurs-day when swirling winds blew flames back on them as they worked on the Devil's Creek fire burning in rough, steep ter-rain near the rural town of Jor-dan, in the northeast part of the state. AGENCIES

The blaze has charred more than 181,000 acres (73,200 hectares) in Plumas and Butte counties and prompted evacuation orders in several small communities and along the west shore of Lake Almano, a popular getaway

Bus swerves off road in Croatia; 10

killed, 45 hurtZAGREB (Croatia): A bus swerved off a highway and crashed in Croatia early Sun-day, killing 10 people and injur-ing at least 45 others, police said.

The crash happened at around 6 am (0400 GMT; 12 am EDT) near the town of Sla-vonski Brod on the highway between the capital, Zagreb, and the Serbian border.

Photos from the scene showed the bus on the side in the grass near the edge of the road. Firefighters and rescuers could be seen around the bus while traffic on the highway was halted.

Police said the bus had Kosovo license plates and was on a regular route from Ger-many to Kosovo capital Pris-tina, which is located south of Serbia. The cause of the crash wasn't immediately known.

Local police chief Franjo Galic said the bus was full, with more than 60 people on board. He described the crash as one of the worst accidents I have ever seen." The 45 injured were transferred to the hospi-tal in Slavonski Brod. Hospi-tal chief Josip Samardzic said eight people had serious inju-ries. It wasn't immediately clear whether there were any children on the bus. Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plen-kovic expressed sadness and grief and extended his condo-lences to the relatives of the people who died in the crash and the people of Kosovo. We hope the injured will recover, Plenkovic tweeted. State-run HRT television reported that Croatia's government officials were on their way to the scene. The highway where the crash happened is a key traffic artery through Croatia which is busy over the summer because of tourism and foreign workers travelling home from Western Europe. AGENCIES

Residents wade along floodwaters as they are evacuated to safer grounds in Naujan, Oriental Mindoro province, central Philippines PTI

FULL MOON

A full moon rises behind the downtown skyline as One Burrard Place, right, a condo and rental home tower under construction which will be the city’s third tallest building, is seen in Vancouver, British Columbia PTI

COVID-19: Pakistan bans domestic air travel for unvaccinated people

CORONAVIRUS CASES CROSS 1 MILLION-MARK

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has banned the domestic air travel for unvaccinated people as the COVID-19 cases crossed the 1 million-mark in the country on Sunday, according to officials.

The travel restriction, imposed by the National Com-mand and Operation Centre (NCOC), will be applicable from August 1 on unvaccinated people of over 18 years of age.

Restriction is for domes-tic air travel and people trav-

elling from Pakistan to abroad or from abroad to Pakistan are exempted from restriction. It is also not applicable on link flights if these are within 72 hours of arrival or depar-ture, according to an NCOC document.

Partially vaccinated peo-ple, foreign nationals, Pakistani nationals having documentary proof of vaccination abroad and patients with clinical con-ditions will be exempted from

the restriction, it said.Meanwhile, the Ministry of

National Health Services said that 45 people died in the last 24 hours due to the COVID-19, taking the death toll to 23,016.

It said that 2,819 new cases were reported, taking the national tally to 10,04,694.

The positivity rate reached 6.32 per cent which is the high-est during the fourth wave of the pandemic which hit the country early this month.

Minister for Planning Asad Umar, who is also the chief of the NCOC, said that the Coro-navirus death toll in Pakistan was lower as compared to other regional countries.

Covid deaths/million popu-lation in our region: Iran 1,037, Nepal 326, India 301, Sri Lanka 186, Afghanistan 160, Bangla-desh 113, Pakistan 102, he tweeted. He said that the risk was not over, urging people to get vaccinated. AGENCIES

Covid: Europe’s summer tourism outlook dimmed by variants, rulesLONDON: Chaos and con-fusion over travel rules and measures to contain new virus outbreaks are contribut-ing to another cruel summer for Europe's battered tourism industry.

Popular destination coun-tries are grappling with surg-ing COVID-19 variants, but the patchwork and last-minute nature of the efforts as the peak season gets underway threatens to derail another summer.

In France, the world's most visited country, visitors to cul-tural and tourist sites were confronted this week with a new requirement for a special COVID-19 pass.

To get the pass, which comes in paper or digital form, people must prove they're either fully vaccinated or recently recovered from an infection, or produce a negative virus test. Use of the pass could extend next month to restaurants and cafes.

Italy said Thursday that peo-ple will need a similar pass to access museums and movie the-atres, dine inside restaurants and cafes, and get into pools, casinos and a range of other venues.

At the Eiffel Tower, unpre-pared tourists lined up for quick virus tests so they could get the

pass to visit the Paris landmark. Johnny Nielsen, visiting from Denmark with his wife and two children, questioned the useful-ness of the French rules.

If I get tested now, I can go but then I (could) get corona in the queue right here," Nielsen said, though he added they wouldn't change their plans because of it.

Juan Truque, a tourist from Miami, said he wasn't vacci-nated but took a test so he could

travel to France via Spain with his mother.

Now they are forcing you to wear masks and to do similar kind of things that are imposi-tions to you. To me, they are vio-lations to your freedom. he said.

Europe's vital travel and tourism industry is desperate to make up after a disastrous 2020. International tourist arriv-als to Europe last year plunged by nearly 70%, and for the first five months of this year, they're

down 85%, according to UN World Tourism Organisation figures.

American, Japanese and Chinese travellers aren't con-fident it will be possible to visit and move freely within Europe, the European Travel Commis-sion said. International arrivals are forecast to remain at nearly half their 2019 level this year, though domestic demand will help make up the shortfall.

The UK's statistics office sus-

pended its monthly interna-tional passenger data, because it said there aren't enough peo-ple arriving to provide robust estimates.

The United States this week upgraded its travel warning for Britain to the highest level. The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention advised Americans to avoid travelling to the country because of the risk of contract-ing COVID-19 variants, while the US State Department raised its alert level to do not travel from the previous less severe reconsider travel advisory.

The recommendations are constantly under review and not binding, although they may affect group tours and insur-ance rates. Britain's warning has fluctuated several times this year already.

Some countries are showing signs of a rebound, however.

Spain, the world's second-most visited country, received 3.2 million tourists from Janu-ary to May a tenth of the amount in the same period of 2019. But visits surged in June with 2.3 million arrivals, the best monthly figure since the start of the pandemic, although still only 75% of the figure from two years ago. AGENCIES

Typhoon In-fa hits China’s east coast, flights cancelled

DEATH TOLL IN FLOODING MOUNTS TO 63

BEIJING: Typhoon In-Fa made landfall in China's east Zhejiang province on Sun-day, packing winds of up to 38 meters per second at its centre, while the death toll from the rain-triggered unprecedented floods in Henan province has risen to 63, officials said.

The typhoon, the sixth of this year, hit land in Zhoushan city's Putuo district at approx-imately 12:30 PM, the local flood control headquarters said.

Weather authorities have forecast the typhoon will make a second landfall in coastal areas between Zhejiang's Jiax-ing city and Jiangsu province's Qidong city on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the death toll in the July 21 unprecedented floods in Henan province climbed to 63 with five people still unaccounted for.

The death toll included 12 people who were killed when floodwaters inundated a sub-way metro train and a tunnel in the provincial capital Zheng-zhou which was ravaged by the floods.

China's military blasted a damaged dam to divert the surging waters of a flooded river after the heaviest rainfall in 1,000 years hit Henan.

The torrential rains have affected about three million people in Henan province and

a total of 376,000 local resi-dents have been relocated to safe places, according to the provincial emergency manage-ment department said.

The direct economic losses have gone up to 65.5 billion yuan (USD 10 billion), it said on Friday.

As Zhengzhou city of 12 million people limped back to normalcy, rescuers are assisting thousands of people caught in the floodwaters.

Zhengzhou was hit by sev-eral days of heavy rainfall, caus-ing floods of an intensity not seen in decades.

Over 8,000 military person-nel worked in 10 different dan-ger zones around the city, the

state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Donation counters were set up around the city to dis-tribute essential supplies after the panic-stricken residents bought supplies during the first days of the flood.

Fire crews toured the sur-rounding villages to help resi-dents who have been injured or are trapped and were working throughout the day to drain the flooded roads.

Streets were turned into rushing rivers, washing away people and vehicles and apart-ments. Hundreds of cars washed away in floods have piled up in different parts of the city. AGENCIES

Popular destination countries are grappling with surging Covid variants

Festival goers at Latitude festival in Henham Park, Southwold, England PTI

Rescuers use a motorized raft bridge to evacuate residents from a flooded rural area in Xinxiang in central China's Henan Province PTI

9millenniumpost

REC’s 52nd FOUNDATION DAY

On the occasion of 52nd foundation Day of REC Limited celebrated on Sunday, Power and New & Renewable Energy Minister RK Singh inaugurated the Corporation’s new State-of-the-art futuristic Corporate Office at Gurugram, Haryana, in the presence of Minister of State for Power and Heavy Industries Krishan Pal Gurjar, Secretary (Power) Alok Kumar, CMD - REC Limited Sanjay Malhotra and key officials of the Ministry of Power and REC. As part of the ongoing Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, to celebrate the 75th Anniversary of Indian Independence, the Ministers also released a report on Key Regulatory Parameters of Power Utilities MPOST

Business mpNEW DELHI | MONDAY, 26 JULY, 2021

NEW DELHI: JSPL on Sun-day announced it has received a revised offer of Rs 7,401 crore from Worldone Private Limited for divestment of its subsidiary company Jindal Power Limited (JPL).

Jindal Steel and Power Limited (JSPL) had ear-lier announced accepting a Rs 3,015-crore offer from Worldone Private Limited to divest 96.42 per cent stake it holds in the subsidiary company JPL.

The divestment is in line with JSPL’s strategic objec-tive to continuously reduce its debt and carbon emissions and focus on steel business.

“After various rounds of discussions and negotiations,

JSPL and its transaction advi-sors have successfully negoti-ated a revised and improved binding offer from Worldone accommodating all inves-tor feedback received by the company.

Worldone will (now) buy out all the equity shares and redeemable preference shares of JPL held by JSPL for a total consideration of approxi-mately Rs 7,401 crore,” JSPL said in a statement.

The company informed that out of Rs 7,401 crore, Rs 3,015 crore will be paid cash, while the balance Rs 4,386 crore will be settled by “way of assumption and takeover of liabilities and obligations of JSPL in relation to inter-cor-

porate deposits and the capi-tal advances extended by JPL to JSPL”.

JSPL further said it has also taken a decision to undertake a competitive bidding process to realise the highest possible value for JPL stake sale to pro-tect the interests of its inves-

tors, especially the minority shareholders.

In the bidding process, if JSPL receives a higher offer compared to that of Worl-done’s offer of Rs 7,401 crore, the company will accept it.

The transparent bidding process will be advertised in the public domain and will present an equal opportunity for interested bidders from around the world to come for-ward and improve the offer, JSPL said.

In the statement, a JSPL spokesperson said, “JSPL has been able to successfully negotiate an improved revised offer accommodating all of the investor feedback received over the last several weeks.

JSPL has also announced to undertake an additional trans-parent competitive bidding process open to the world to see if the company can secure an even higher value than the present revised offer given by Worldone.”

Part of O P Jindal Group, JSPL is an industrial pow-erhouse with a dominant presence in steel, power, mining and infrastructure sectors.

According to the state-ment, Worldone Private Lim-ited is a private company owned by the Promoter Group of JSPL, and managing and holding investments across various listed and unlisted companies. PTI

MUMBAI: HDFC Bank’s Aditya Puri emerged as the highest grossing banker among the top three private sector lend-ers in his retirement year with total emoluments of Rs 13.82 crore. His successor Sashidhar Jagdishan, who took over as the chief executive and managing director of the largest private sector lender on October 27, 2020 grossed a salary of Rs 4.77 crore for the fiscal year, which included payments as a group head till his elevation.

Puri’s overall payments included Rs 3.5 crore as post-retirement benefits.

Its immediate rival ICICI Bank’s MD and CEO Sandeep Bakhshi “voluntarily relin-quished” his fixed compensa-tion of basic and supplementary allowances for FY21, which had seen wide-scale impact of the COVID pandemic, as per the second largest lender’s annual report.

Bakhshi, however, did receive allowances and per-quisites amounting to Rs 38.38 lakh, the document said, add-ing he also got Rs 63.60 lakh as performance bonus from ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Com-pany as deferred variable pay for

FY17 and FY18.Amitabh Chaudhry, who

has been leading the third larg-est private sector lender Axis Bank, got paid Rs 6.52 crore, the bank’s annual report said, adding that the top manage-ment was not given any salary increment in FY21.

In the case of ICICI Bank,

material risk takers including executive directors, chief finan-cial officer and company secre-tary voluntarily opted for a 10 per cent salary reduction from May 1 in their payments, pos-sibly because of the impact of COVID. Its executive director in-charge of wholesale banking Vishakha Mulye grossed Rs 5.64 crore, as per the annual report.

When compared with the bank’s median salary, the allowances drawn by Jagdishan were the highest at 139 times the median salary of a bank employee, while Chaudhry earned 104 times the median

and ICICI Bank executive direc-tors drew 96 times the median salary. Data available for ‘cro-repati’ bankers, or those earn-ing above Rs 8.5 lakh a month, revealed that HDFC Bank had 200 executives in this exclusive club, including key management personnel, serving officials and those who left the lender mid-way through the fiscal year.

In comparison, Axis Bank had 69 bankers in the category who served throughout the year, while 17 employees who would otherwise have been in the club left it midway through the year, as per the annual report. PTI

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Reliance Indus-tries Ltd (RIL) will start nat-ural gas production from MJ field - the third and the last set of discoveries that the firm is developing in the eastern off-shore KG-D6 block - in the last quarter of 2022 to raise over-all output by about two-thirds.

In an investor presentation announcing first quarter earn-ings, RIL said it has completed its first offshore installation campaign and a second one would commence in Novem-ber this year.

“Drilling and completions of wells (are) underway,” it said. “First gas expected by 3Q FY23.”

Fiscal year 2023 starts in April 2022 and the third quar-ter would be October-Decem-ber 2022.

RIL and its partner BP plc of the UK plan to use a floating production system at high-sea in the Bay of Bengal to bring to production the deepest gas discovery in the KG-D6 block.

The MJ-1 gas find is located about 2,000 metres directly below the Dhirubhai-1 and 3 (D1 and D3) fields - the first and the largest fields in KG-D6 block. MJ-1 is estimated to hold a minimum of 0.988 Trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of contingent

resources.The field also has oil depos-

its which would be produced using a floating system, called FPSO.

“FPSO and subsea produc-tion systems (are) on track,” the company said in the presentation.

RIL-BP are developing three deep-water gas devel-opments in block KG-D6 R

Cluster, Satellite Cluster and MJ which together are expected to produce around 30 million standard cubic meters per day of natural gas by 2023, meet-ing up to 15 per cent of India’s gas demand.

R-Cluster started produc-tion in December 2020 and the Satellite Cluster came onstream in April. While R-Cluster is expected to reach plateau

gas production of about 12.9 mmscmd in 2021, Satellite Cluster will have a peak out-put of 6 mmscmd. The MJ field will have a peak output of 12 mmscmd.

RIL said average produc-tion in April-June this year was 16.6 mmscmd from KG-D6.

The firm had in three rounds of bidding sold 18 mmscmd of gas from the fields,

it said.Oil-to-telecom conglom-

erate RIL has so far made 19 gas discoveries in the KG-D6 block. Of these, D-1 and D-3 the largest among the lot were brought into production from April 2009 and MA, the only oilfield in the block, was put to production in September 2008. While the MA field stopped producing in 2019, the out-put from D-1 and D-3 ceased in February 2020. Other dis-coveries have either been sur-rendered or taken away by the government for not meet-ing timelines for beginning production.

RIL is the operator of the block with a 66.67 per cent par-ticipating interest and BP holds a 33.33 per cent stake.

The company in the pre-sentation said it got $3.62 per million British thermal unit for KG-D6 gas in the April-June quarter. This was lower than $3.99 per mmBtu it got in the previous quarter.

For the gas it produces from below coal seams in CBM blocks in Madhya Pradesh, it got $6.01. In January-March, the firm had got $5.20 per mmBtu for coal-bed methane (CBM). The rates vary because the firm used different pricing formulas to price the gas from KG-D6 and CBM.

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka plans to repay a $1 billion bond by the Tuesday deadline, keeping intact its reputation for hon-oring debt as concern mounts about the nation’s overseas financing.

Authorities will transfer the required funds on Mon-day, Ajith Nivard Cabraal, the state minister for money and capital markets, said by phone Sunday. He didn’t share details.

Moody’s Investors Service placed Sri Lanka’s ratings under review for a downgrade last week, citing its assessment of the country’s increasingly frag-ile external liquidity position and the risk of default, Bloom-berg reported.

“I have been saying right throughout that we will pay. Unfortunately some bond-holders panicked due to rat-ing actions and analyst reports and sold off at huge discounts,” Cabraal said. “Those who came last profited most.”

The payment marks the clearing of only the first test. Two more payments — a $500 million bond and $1 billion of

debt — become due next year, with Colombo saying arrange-ments have been made for the

transactions.Doubts about Sri Lanka’s

ability to service debt began growing last year after the International Monetary Fund prematurely ended a $1.5 bil-lion loan facility in the midst of the pandemic. While steps to control the coronavirus’s spread hurt the government’s capacity to generate earnings through sectors such as tour-ism, a downgrade of the sover-eign’s rating deeper into junk hit investors’ confidence.

The island nation has since secured a $1.5 billion cur-rency swap agreement with China, besides negotiating funding lines from its South Asian neighbors India and Bangladesh.

Sri Lanka’s central bank ear-lier this month said that while the government is expecting some inflows, it will dip into its foreign exchange reserves to bridge any shortfall in repaying the bonds.

The stockpile stood at about $4 billion in June, enough to cover about three months of imports. AGENCIES

Reliance to start gas output from MJ field in Oct-Dec 2022Reliance Industries said it has completed its first offshore installation campaign and a second one would commence in November this year

Highlights » RIL and its partner BP plc of the UK plan to use a floating production system at high-sea in the Bay of Bengal to bring to production the deepest gas discovery in the KG-D6 block » RIL said average production in April-June this year was 16.6 mmscmd from KG-D6 » The company in the presentation said it got USD 3.62 per million British thermal unit for KG-D6 gas in the April-June quarter. This was lower than USD 3.99 per mmBtu it got in the previous quarter

Oil-to-telecom conglomerate RIL has so far made 19 gas discoveries in the KG-D6 block. Of these, D-1 and D-3 the largest among the lot were brought into production from April 2009 and MA, the only oilfield in the block, was put to production in September 2008

Sri Lanka to repay $1 billion bond, ending default threat

Ajith Nivard Cabraal, Sri Lankan State Minister for money and capital markets

Sri Lanka has since secured a $1.5 billion currency swap pact with China, besides negotiating funding lines from India and Bangladesh

HDFC Bank’s Puri top earner among bankers in FY21HDFC Bank’s immediate rival ICICI Bank’s MD and CEO Sandeep Bakhshi ‘voluntarily

relinquished’ his fixed compensation of basic and supplementary allowances for FY21

NEW DELHI: Equity markets would be guided by the ongo-ing quarterly earnings season and global trends this week and may witness volatility amid the scheduled derivatives expiry, analysts said.

Investors would also keenly track the US Fed interest rate decision, they added.

“We expect volatility to remain high due to the sched-uled derivatives expiry of July month contracts. Besides, the earnings season would gain pace and some of the prom-inent names like Axis Bank, Kotak Bank, LT, Tata Motors, Maruti, Colgate, Tech Mahin-dra, BHEL, IOC, Sun Pharma and Indigo will announce their numbers during the week along

with several others.“Besides, update on the

global COVID situation and US Fed meeting outcome on July 28 will be in focus. Mar-kets will first react to the results of index majors like Reliance, ICICI Bank and ITC in early trade on Monday,” said Ajit Mishra, VP Research, Relig-are Broking.

Reliance Industries Ltd on

Friday reported a 7 per cent drop in its June quarter net profit as retail business got hit by the second wave of COVID infections.

“This week, markets will first react to results of Reliance Industries, ITC and ICICI Bank on Monday. It will track global cues for further market direc-tion,” Siddhartha Khemka, Head - Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd said.

ICICI Bank on Saturday reported a 52 per cent jump in its June quarter consolidated net profit at Rs 4,747.42 crore.

FMCG major reported an impressive 30 per cent growth in Q1 net profit and 35 per cent increase in revenue on the back of rebound in segments. PTI

‘Quarterly earnings, global trends to drive equity market this week’

NEW DELHI: With global electric vehicles (EVs) sales expected to boom in the next 12 months, nearly 90 per cent of consumers in India are willing to pay a premium for buying an EV, according to a survey by consultancy firm EY.

The EY Mobility Consumer Index (MCI), a survey of more than 9,000 respondents from 13 countries, including 1,000 respondents from India, also found that 40 per cent of the respondents were ready to pay a premium of up to 20 per cent. The survey concluded in the second half of July. “Among the car buyers in India, 3 in 10 respondents would prefer to buy an electric/hydrogen vehicle,” the survey said.

A majority of the respon-dents surveyed in India con-sider a driving range of 100 to 200 miles from a fully charged EV, EY said. It further said, “Nearly 90 per cent of consum-ers in India are willing to pay a premium for buying an EV and over 40 per cent of respondents are ready to pay a premium of up to 20 per cent.”

Existing and future EV owners, who intend to buy a car, have a relatively higher preference for digital chan-nels compared to the existing and future ICE owners.

Commenting on the find-ings, EY India Partner and Automotive Sector Leader Vinay Raghunath said, “The reducing gap in cost of owner-ship between electric and other technology platforms and the increasing segment of consum-ers vocal about environmental impact will drive a fundamen-tal change in consumer buying behaviour for electric vehicles.”

He further said, “Consum-ers are willing to pay extra for an added value of being envi-ronmentally responsible.”

According to the sur-vey, the top reason for buy-ing an EV is environmental concern, with 97 per cent also stating that the COVID-

19 pandemic has heightened awareness and concerns about environmental issues.

About 67per cent of those looking to buy an EV feel it is their responsibility to reduce their personal environmen-tal impact, and 69 per cent feel buying an EV is one way to achieve this goal. When it comes to charging, the survey found that “nearly a third of the existing EV owners expect vehi-cle charging to take less than an hour compared to 45 per cent of the respondents who are plan-ning to buy an EV”. PTI

‘Nearly 90% Indian buyers willing to pay premium for purchasing EV’

JSPL receives revised `7,401 cr offer for arm Jindal PowerIn the bidding process, if JSPL receives a higher offer compared to that of Worldone’s offer of Rs 7,401 crore, the company will accept it

ICA- T8921(2)/2021

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ELECTRICITY (AMENDMENT) BILL, 2021

10 millenniumpostBusinessmp MONDAY, 26 JULY, 2021 | NEW DELHI

NEW DELHI: The finance ministry has moved a file for extension of tenure of three public sector banks’ manag-ing directors, including Punjab National Bank (PNB), accord-ing to sources.

Besides, the sources said the ministry has also recommended the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) for exten-sion of 10 executive directors (EDs) of various public sec-tor banks.

The three-year term of S S Mallikarjuna Rao, MD and CEO of PNB, is coming to an end on September 18 but the finance ministry has recommended for extension for four months till January 31, 2022, when Rao attains his superannuation age

of 60 years.Atul Kumar Goel’s term as

MD and CEO of UCO Bank has been recommended for a two-year extension beyond Novem-ber 1 this year. A S Rajeev, MD and CEO of Bank of Maharash-tra, has been suggested for an extension of two years beyond December 1.

The finance ministry has simultaneously forwarded the name of S L Jain for the appoint-

ment of MD and CEO of Indian Bank. The BBB, the headhunter for state-owned banks and financial institutions, had rec-ommended the name of Jain in May after the interview.

With regard to EDs, the ministry has recommended names of 10 for extension of their term till their superannua-tion age or two years, whichever is earlier.

The MD and CEO of a pub-lic sector undertaking is given a maximum tenure of five years as a government guidelines.

According to sources, the ministry sought extension of the executives from the Appoint-ments Committee of Cabinet (ACC). The proposal has been sent to the Dof Personnel and

Training for the same after con-sultation with BBB. The final call for extension will be taken by the ACC.

Interestingly, the Banks Board Bureau (BBB) has also invited applications for appoint-ment of new MDs of PNB.

For PNB, the BBB on June 16, had sought public appli-cation for the MD and CEO post. The eligibility criteria as announced in public notice is that the applicant should be in the age group of 45 to 57 years in mainstream banking, of which, at least one year has to be at the board level.

The compensation offered is in line with the MD and CEO of a large public sector bank, it said. PTI

NEW DELHI: Industry cham-ber CII on Sunday called for relaunch of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) scheme with mandatory life insurance for all borrowers to ensure that the intent of providing ‘Hous-ing for All’ does not take a hit due to death or disability of the primary borrower.

The PMAY is the ambi-tious mission of the govern-ment aimed at ‘Housing for All’ as India completes 75 years of Independence by the year 2022.

The scheme, however, falls short of covering the risk of death or disability of the bor-rower as the loans sanctioned under the scheme do not have an in-built insurance provision, the chamber said in a statement.

Addition of insurance com-ponent will ensure that in all circumstances, the intended benefit of the scheme of ‘Hous-ing for All’ is fulfilled, and the families are able to retain their home, it said.

“There is a need for a relaunch of the PMAY scheme with an in-built credit-linked insurance or a mandatory life insurance for all borrowers under the PMAY scheme to ensure that the intent of provid-ing ‘Housing for All’ does not take a hit due to death or dis-ability of the primary borrower. The family should inherit a home-not a loan,” CII Direc-tor-General Chandrajit Baner-jee said.

He said affordable housing

is one of the vital components of economic growth, provided “we are able to address prevail-ing impediments of untimely death of borrower and impact on the residual loan, the status of the home and family in case of such exigency”.

He added that now, with

the pandemic hitting lives and livelihood of citizens hard and with increased mortality rate, the importance of protection to families becomes paramount as all sections of society struggle to meet medical costs, unem-ployment, and inflationary pressures.

“With an in-built insurance cover in the PMAY loans, the inherent lacuna of risk-protec-tion can be plugged with min-imum additional disruptions,” Banerjee said.

The scheme could have standard premium rates which could be utilised by any insurer to offer the credit cover with their partner banks, he said adding that the in-built level cover equal to the loan amount

could be taken at by the bor-rower at the inception.

As per the current version of the scheme, the banks or lenders are partially protected as the property is mortgaged with them, however the fam-ily is left to pay the loan or lose their home, the director-gen-eral said.

“This also means that the intended long-term benefit of the scheme is not fully utilised and instead of providing hous-ing for all, the bereaved fami-lies may not have a house and may slide further down the eco-nomic ladder, while lenders/ banks may be left behind with some NPAs and recoveries hav-ing a cascading effect on eco-nomic growth,” he added. PTI

NEW DELHI: The sale of Khadi products across the country has grown tremendously since 2014, thanks to the repeated appeals of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to promote Khadi. Since Octo-ber 2016, the single-day sale at Khadi India’s Flagship Outlet in Connaught Place, New Delhi, has crossed Rs 1 crore mark on 11 different occasions. This record performance of Khadi found a special mention in the latest episode of Prime Minis-

ter’s radio program “Mann ki Baat” aired on Sunday, 25th July.

What makes this perfor-mance even more significant is the fact that Khadi’s single-day sales exceeded Rs 1 crore for 4 times in October - November 2020, despite the economic dis-tress and the fear surrounding Coronavirus pandemic. Earlier in 2018 also, the single-day sales at Khadi’s CP outlet had crossed Rs 1 crore mark for 4 times. On October 2, 2019, Khadi and Vil-

lage Industries Commission (KVIC) registered the highest single-day sale of Rs 1.27 crore at the CP outlet which contin-ues to be a record till date. It was for the first time on October 22, 2016, that the single day sale at Khadi India outlet in CP had reached Rs 1.16 crore. Earlier, the highest single day sale of Khadi stood at Rs 66.81 lakh that was recorded on October 4, 2014, just a day after the PM’s first address through “Mann

ki Baat”. In the first episode of his radio program, the PM had appealed the countrymen to buy at least one Khadi product as it would help poor artisans to light lamps on Diwali.

KVIC Chairman Vinai Kumar Saxena attributed the growth in Khadi sales to the constant support of the Prime Minister to promote Khadi. “It is because of the PM’s appeals that a large number of people partic-ularly youths have been inclined

to buy Khadi. The growing buzz around “Swadeshi” has signifi-cantly helped lakhs of village industries prosper even during the challenging times of Covid-19 pandemic,” he said. It is perti-nent to mention that despite the severe impact of Covid, KVIC, in 2020-21, registered its high-est ever annual turnover of Rs 95,741.74 crore, as compared to Rs 88,887 crore turnover in 2019-20, and thus registering a growth of 7.71 per cent. MPOST

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Union Cabinet is likely to take up for approval the Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2021 in the next few days, which seeks to enable power consumers to choose from multiple service providers as in the case of tele-com services, a source said.

“The Electricity (Amend-ment) Bill, 2021 could come up for consideration and approval before the Union Cabinet in the next few days as the govern-ment plans to introduce it in the monsoon session of Par-liament which concludes on August 13, 2021,” the source in the government said.

According to a Lok Sabha bulletin issued on July 12, 2021, the government has listed this bill as one of the new 17 bills it plans to introduce in the ongo-ing parliament session.

The bulletin explains that the proposed amendments (in the Electricity Act) entail de-licensing of the distribution business and bring in compe-tition, appointment of member from law background in every Commission, strengthening of APTEL (Appellate Tribunal For

Electricity), penalty for non compliance of RPO (Renew-able Purchase Obligation).

The RPO is a mechanism by which the obligated enti-ties (mainly power distribu-tion utilities or discoms) are obliged to purchase a certain percentage of electricity from renewable energy sources, as

a percentage of the total con-sumption of electricity.

Earlier last month, Power and Renewable Energy Min-ister R K Singh had said that the bill seeks to de-license dis-tribution of electricity. “We proposed to de-license distri-bution of electricity just like the generation. The Cabinet note

on the bill was circulated and all concerned ministries have approved it. But the law min-istry has one or two queries,” Singh had said.

He had exuded confidence that the bill would be sent for the Union Cabinet approval soon, and hopefully it would be introduced and pushed for

passage in the ongoing session.The proposal to seek the

Cabinet approval for the Elec-tricity (Amendment) Bill 2021 was circulated in January this year and the draft law was to be pushed for passage in the Budget session.

The bill seeks to delicense power distribution to reduce entry barriers for private play-ers for creating competition in the segment, which would ultimately enable consumers to choose from multiple ser-vice providers.

The bill also prescribes the rights and duties of electricity consumers.

Last month, the power min-ister had also said the penalty for non-compliance of RPO would be increased.

Under the RPO, discoms and other large consumers are required to buy a certain pro-portion of renewable energy prescribed by their respective regulators. They can also buy renewable energy certificates to meet the RPO obligation.

Earlier on many occasions, the minister had expressed dismay over persistent non-compliance of RPO norms, especially by state utilities.

NEW DELHI: The central board of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is facing shortage of nine non-official directors, including seven from the cat-egory of people of eminence from various fields.

The central board is the highest decision making body of the apex bank headed by the RBI governor. According to the RBI Act, the government nominates 10 eminent persons from vari-ous fields to the central board of the RBI, besides four direc-tors (one from each of the four local boards).

The government is yet to appoint seven non-official direc-tors from the category of people of eminence from various fields while representations from local board from western and south-ern areas are missing.

Currently, only three emi-nent personalities — Tata Sons Chairman Natarajan Chan-drasekaran, seasoned banker S K Marathe and chartered accountant and RSS ideologue Swaminathan Gurumurthy — are serving the central board. They are nominated under Sec-tion 8(1)(c) of the RBI Act, 1934, according to the RBI’s website.

With regard to directors from local boards, eastern area is represented by Sachin Chaturvedi and northern area by Revathy Iyer, while nomina-tion of two directors is awaited.

These non-official directors are appointed for a period of

four years and are eligible for re-appointment. In June last year, Chandrasekaran was re-appointed retrospectively as non-official director for a fur-ther period of two years beyond March 3, 2020.

Besides, there is a provision for two government officials to be appointed on the central board. Under this category, Eco-nomic Affairs Secretary Ajay Seth and Financial Services Secretary Debasish Panda have been appointed as directors.

As far as official directors are concerned, the board has full representation with the gover-nor and four deputy governors.

Taking into consideration

five official directors, the central board of the RBI as prescribed by the Act can have a total of 21 directors.

As many as four non-official directors, including Gujarat’s former chief secretary Sud-hir Mankad and Mahindra & Mahindra’s former group CFO Bharat N Doshi, completed their term last year. Other two direc-tors, Prasanna Kumar Mohanty and Dilip S Shanghvi, served on the central board till February 8, 2021, and March 10, 2021, respectively. Eminent agricul-ture economist Ashok Gulati and Teamlease co-founder Man-ish Sabharwal also completed their term earlier this year. PTI

Cabinet likely to take up Bill for approval in next few days

The Bill seeks to enable power consumers to choose from multiple service providers as in the case of telecom services, a source said

Highlights » Bill seeks to delicense power distribution to reduce entry barriers for private players for creating competition in the segment » The bill also prescribes the rights and duties of electricity consumers » Last month, the power minister had also said the penalty for non-compliance of RPO would be increased. Discoms are required to buy a certain proportion of renewable energy prescribed by their respective regulators

According to a Lok Sabha bulletin issued on July 12, 2021, the government has listed this bill as one of the new 17 bills it plans to introduce in the ongoing parliament session

RBI central board short of nine non-official directors

According to RBI Act, govt nominates 10 eminent persons from various fields to the central board, besides four directors

Currently, only three eminent personalities — Tata Sons Chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran, seasoned banker S K Marathe and chartered accountant and RSS ideologue Swaminathan Gurumurthy — are serving the central board

Finance Ministry moves file for extension of three MDs, 10 EDs of public sector banks

NEW DELHI: Foreign port-folio investors (FPIs) offloaded Indian equities to the tune of over Rs 5,689 crore in July so far as they continued to adopt a cautious stance in view of vari-ous domestic and global factors.

During July 1-23, FPIs took out Rs 5,689.23 crore from equi-ties, as per depositories data.

During this period, they invested Rs 3,190.76 crore in the debt segment.

So, net withdrawal during the period under review stood at Rs 2,498.47 crore.

Rising valuations, surge in oil prices and firmness in US dollar would have made for-eign investors wary of the near-term risks, which would have prompted them to stay on the

sidelines, Himanshu Srivastava, associate director - manager research, Morningstar India, said.

Harsh Jain, co-founder and COO at Groww, said that in addition, with Sensex and Nifty hovering around the all-time high mark, foreign investors are being cautious in invest-ing money.

V K Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said, “They have been continuous sellers in the cash market for the last six trading days.”

With respect to other emerg-ing markets, Arun Agarwal, deputy vice president, funda-mental research at Kotak Secu-rities, said that all key emerging

markets and Asian markets have seen FPI outflows this month to date except Indonesia.

“FPI flows to India is expected to remain vulnerable to US Fed monetary policy and rising crude oil prices. Addition-ally, investors should note that the wide valuation gap between large-caps and small and mid-caps has been filled,” said Shri-kant Chouhan, executive vice president, equity technical research at Kotak Securities.

Srivastava added that India remains an attractive investment destination from the long-term perspective. As the macro envi-ronment improves and domestic economy starts treading on the recovery path, FPI flows can be expected to rebound. PTI

FPIs so far pull out `5,689 crore from Indian equity markets in July

NEW DELHI: Gold imports, which have a bearing on the country’s current account deficit, jumped multi-fold to $7.9 billion (Rs 58,572.99 crore) during the April-June 2021 quarter due to low base effect in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to data from the Commerce Ministry.

Imports of the yellow metal had plunged to $688 million (Rs 5,208.41 crore) in the cor-responding period last year, the data showed.

Silver imports, however, dipped by 93.7 per cent to $39.4 million.

Significant increase in the gold imports has led to widen-ing of the country’s trade defi-cit, difference between imports and exports, to about $31 bil-lion during April-June this fiscal.

India is the largest importer of gold, which mainly caters to the demand of the jewellery industry. In volume terms, the country imports 800-900 tonnes of gold annually.

Gems and jewellery exports increased to $9.1 billion during the first three months of the current fiscal as against $2.7 billion in the same period pre-vious year. PTI

Gold imports jump multi-

fold to $7.9 bn in June qtr

WASHINGTON: Bitcoin traded above a crucial tech-nical level over the weekend for the first time since early May, after comments from Ark Investment Management LLC’s Cathie Wood and Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk helped boost its momentum.

The largest cryptocurrency rose above its 50-day moving average on Saturday for the first time since May 12. It rose again Sunday, its fifth consecutive day of gains, to as high as $34,609, Bloomberg reported.

Bitcoin had looked to be in danger of further declines after it fell below $30,000 ear-

lier in the week, a level widely flagged by strategists as poten-tially spurring further drops. But it got a boost when Musk -- at “The B Word” conference on Wednesday -- said he wants Bitcoin to succeed and that his space-exploration company SpaceX Inc. owns some.

Wood said corporations

should consider adding Bitcoin to their balance sheets, while Square Inc. CEO Jack Dorsey said the coin is resilient.

“For the first time in many weeks we are seeing bullish signs here and expect Bitcoin to head toward the upper end of the $30,000 to $40,000 range,” Pankaj Balani, CEO of crypto-derivatives exchange Delta Exchange, said in an email Friday. Options activity indi-cate that $35,000 could act as a ceiling for Bitcoin for July, he said, but added that in the next couple of months “Bit-coin should face little resis-tance between $35,000 and $40,000 levels.” AGENCIES

NEW DELHI: Six of the 10 most valued companies wit-nessed a combined erosion of Rs 76,640.54 crore in market valua-tion last week, with HDFC Bank emerging as the biggest laggard.

During the last week, the 30-share BSE benchmark dipped 164.26 points or 0.30 per cent. From the top-10 list, Reliance Industries Limited, HDFC Bank, Hindustan Unile-ver Limited, HDFC, State Bank of India and Kotak Mahindra Bank witnessed erosion in their market capitalisation.

The market valuation of HDFC Bank tumbled Rs 43,578.18 crore to reach Rs 7,97,422.67 crore. The valuation of Hindustan Unilever Limited eroded by Rs 13,004.97 crore to Rs 5,54,326.75 crore. HDFC’s

market valuation plunged Rs 9,543.39 crore to Rs 4,48,566.27 crore and that of Kotak Mahin-dra Bank dipped Rs 5,392.88 crore to Rs 3,41,634.86 crore.

The market capitalisation of Reliance Industries dropped by Rs 4,184.03 crore to Rs 13,34,579.57 crore and that of State Bank by Rs 937.09 crore to Rs 3,82,999.70 crore.

In contrast, the valuation of Infosys jumped Rs 15,055.86 crore to Rs 6,77,343.70 crore.

ICICI Bank added Rs 11,370.14 crore to its valuation to Rs 4,68,639.08 crore and Tata Consultancy Services witnessed a gain of Rs 6,436.35 crore to Rs 11,88,153.80 crore.

The valuation of Bajaj Finance zoomed Rs 3,190 crore to Rs 3,73,000.18 crore. PTI

Mcap of 6 of top-10 firms erode by ̀ 76,640.54 crore

Need for relaunch of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana scheme with in-built credit-linked insurance: CII

PMAY is the government’s ambitious mission aimed at ‘Housing for All’ as India completes 75 years of Independence by the year 2022

Manifold rise in Khadi India sales following Prime Minister’s push through ‘Mann ki Baat’What makes this performance even more significant is the fact that Khadi’s single-day sales exceeded

Rs 1 crore for 4 times in October - November 2020, despite the economic distress due to COVID-19

Bitcoin hits key level not seen since May amid Wood, Elon Musk boost

11millenniumpost Sport mpNEW DELHI | MONDAY, 26 JULY, 2021

No medals for India on Olympics Day 2; Mary, Manika, Sindhu shine

AFTER A HIGH, THE REALITY CHECK

TOKYO: The shooters came undone once again and the hockey team took a ham-mering but badminton ace P V Sindhu, boxing great M C Mary Kom and table tennis star Manika Batra went about their jobs with trademark resolve to keep India's Olympic campaign on track despite a medal-less second day at the Games here on Sunday.

A day after Mirabai Chanu sent Indian spirits soaring with her weightlifting silver, it was huge disappointment at the Asaka shooting range where the young Indian marksmen and women failed to make a single final.

In between these disap-pointments, there were some successes to be celebrated with Sindhu, Mary Kom and Batra showcasing the woman power of the contingent.

The 26-year-old Sindhu, seeded sixth, beat the 58th ranked Ksenia Polikarpova 21-7 21-10 with consummate ease to start her quest for a second Olympic medal in style.

Batra, on the other hand, had to toil hard to upstage world number 32 Margaryta Pesotska and she did that with finesse to make the women's singles third round.

The world number 62 from India made a remarkable come-back after losing the first two games to prevail 4-11, 4-11, 11-7, 12-10, 8-11, 11-5, 11-7 in a match that lasted 57 minutes.

In the boxing ring, six-time world champion Mary Kom (51kg) powered into the pre-quarterfinals after a superb tac-tical victory over Dominican Republic's Miguelina Hernan-dez Garcia.

The 38-year-old Mary Kom, who is a 2012 Olympic bronze-medallist, prevailed 4-1 against a rival who is 15 years her junior to start her pursuit of a second medal.

But it was a deflating day overall with tennis veteran Sania Mirza, partnering Ankita Raina, bowing out from the women's doubles contention after actually dominating for a good part of

their match against Ukrainian twin sisters Nadiia and Liud-myla Kichenok.

But nothing beat the heart-break at the shooting range where 19-year-old Manu Bhaker, appearing in her maiden Games, finished 12th after los-ing nearly 20 minutes during the qualifications when the cocking lever in her pistol broke down.

Yashaswini Singh Deswal, the other first-timer at the Games, ended 13th, with a total score of 574.

In the men's 10m air rifle event, both the experienced Deepak Kumar and the teen-aged Divyansh Singh Panwar

finished a lowly 26th and 32nd respectively.

Deepak aggregated 624.7 while Divyansh shot 622.8 over the six series, scores which were never going to be enough to make the final.

Taken together, the first two days' performance, or, the lack of it, is certainly going to raise a few eyebrows within the Indian shooting fraternity, including the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI), which has done its bit in preparing its athletes.

And it was mayhem at the hockey field where Austra-lians simply steam-rolled the men's team with a sensational

star turn.It would take quite a lot

from the side to recover from this 1-7 thrashing and make fresh ground in the clash against Spain on Tuesday.

In sailing, Nethra Kumanan was placed 27th after two races while Vishnu Saravanan was at 14th after his first race.

Kumanan finished 33rd in the first race of the women's laser radial before recovering a bit by taking the 16th spot in the second for an overall 27th place with 49 net points.

Saravanan then finished 14th in the men's laser event before the second race was post-poned due to bad weather con-ditions at the Enoshima Yacht Harbour.

India's lone gymnast, Pra-nati Nayak, also failed to qualify for the All Round finals of Artis-tic Gymnastics competition.

The 26-year-old from West Bengal recorded a total score of 42.565 over the four categories -- floor exercise, vault, uneven bars and balance beam -- at the Ariake Gymnastic centre.

On Monday, the women's hockey team will look for a fresh start when it takes on Germany after being outplayed by the Netherlands in the lung-opener.

Sumit Nagal will take on Russian Daniil Medvedev in his men's singles second round match of the tennis competition.

The men's archery team will also be in action against Kazakh-stan. AGENCIES

India take 1-7 hammering from Australia in Olympic men's hockeyTOKYO: The Indian men's hockey team was pummelled 1-7 by world number one Aus-tralia in their second pool A match of the Olympic Games here on Sunday, a morale-shat-tering loss that exposed every possible chink in the side's armour.

The mighty Kookaburras simply toyed with the Indian defence after the first quar-ter and scored goals at will to comfortably secure their second consecutive win in the compe-tition. For India, it was their biggest loss since Australian Graham Reid took charge of the team as coach in April 2019.

Australia looked dominant and were in complete control from the onset, scoring goals through Daniel Beale (10th minute), Joshua Beltz (26th), Andrew Flynn Ogilvie (23rd), Jeremy Hayward (21st), Blake Govers (40th, 42nd) and Tim Brand (51st) to secure the easy win.

India's lone goal came from the stick of Dilpreet Singh in the 34th minute.

India had earlier defeated New Zealand 3-2 in their open-ing fixture on Saturday.

The Manpreet Singh-led side will next play Spain on Tuesday

The eight-time former champions looked completely off colour from the first whistle and the team's backline was put under relentless pressure by the Australians.

In the first quarter, the Indi-ans put up a semblance of fight but in the next 15 minutes it was all Kookaburras, pumping goals at will.

However, it was India who had the first chance at the goal, earning a penalty corner in the eighth minute, but Harman-preet Singh failed to execute from the set piece.

Two minutes later, Austra-lia surged ahead when Beale deflected in Jacob Whetton's strike after a poor penalty cor-ner execution.

A minute later, Dilpreet missed a golden chance from close range to level the scores.

India custodian PR Sreejesh then made a double save to keep the Australians at bay.

India were unlucky not to have equalised just seconds from the first quarter when Rupinder Pal Singh's low flick from their second penalty cor-ner was brilliantly saved at the goalline by Andrew Flynn Ogilvie.

But the second quarter com-pletely belonged to Australia as they scored three goals in a span of five minutes to take the game away from their opponents.

First Hayward found the net from Australia's third pen-alty corner and then Ogilivie slammed home from top right corner of the circle with a fierce hit past Sreejesh in front of the Indian goal.

If that was not enough, Beltz added to India's misery with a fourth goal, four minutes before

half time with a reverse hit.The Indians showed some

spark after the change of ends and attacked the Australian goal in numbers. In the pro-cess they secured three back-to-back penalty corners but wasted all of them.

Four minutes into the third quarter, Dilpreet infused some life into the game by pulling one back for India, beauti-fully deflecting in Rupinder's defence splitting pass from the mid-field.

India wasted another pen-alty corner in the 40th minute when Mandeep Singh failed to deflect in Amit Rohidas' lay-off.

But that was all India could manage as Australia slowly tightened their defence and withstood the pressure.

The Kookaburras managed to turn the tide and scored three more goals to hand India a humiliating loss.

Govers scored two goals in quick succession -- first from the spot and then from a pen-alty corner -- before Tim Brand rounded off the tally by finding the net from a tight angle nine minutes from the hooter. AGENCIES

Rowers Arjun, Arvind produce best-ever Indian performance at Olympics

SAIL TO DOUBLE SCULLS SEMIS

TOKYO: Arjun Lal Jat and Arvind Singh on Sunday pro-duced the best-ever Olympic performance by Indian rowers as they cruised into the men's lightweight double sculls semi-finals at the Tokyo Games.

The Indian duo clocked 6:51.36 to finish third in the repechage round at the Sea For-est Waterway.

"We followed exactly what-ever had been told to us by our coach. The coach told us that we should try to get the best position for India," the duo said.

"It's (rowing) not a very popular sport in India. So our coach told us that getting to the semifinals is also a big motiva-tion for us, and we had to do our best."

Poland's Jerzy Kowal-ski and Artur Mikolajcze-wski finished at the top with a timing of 6:43.44, followed by Spain's Caetano Horta Pombo and Manel Balastegui, who clocked 6:45.71 in the repechage 2.

While Arjun assumes the

role of the bower, Arvind is the team's stroker. The two had finished fifth in their heats on Saturday.

"This is the best ever perfor-mance by Indian rowers in the Olympics. No Indian team has ever reached the semifinals," Rowing Federation of India president Rajlaxmi Singh Deo told PTI.

"Arvind and Arjun are now among the 12 semifinalists. It can be difficult to win a medal but they will be competing in the semifinals. There will be two semifinal races of six boats each and top three from each semifinals will reach the final," Deo added.

The event includes two row-ers in a scull boat using two oars each. The long, narrow and broadly semi-circular in cross-section boats helps to reduce the drag.

The maximum weight set for each male competitor is 72.5kg and the average weight cannot exceed 70 kg.

The semifinals will be held on July 27. AGENCIES

Swimmers Srihari, Maana fail to reach semisTOKYO: Indian swimmers Srihari Nataraj and Maana Patel's Olympic campaign came to an end as the two youngsters failed to qualify for the semifinals of their respec-tive events here on Sunday.

Competing in their maiden Olympics, both swimmers put up underwhelming per-formances and were unable to match their personal best times in the 100m backstroke events.

Srihari managed a time of 54.31s to finish his men's 100m backstroke heat in sixth place.

It was a disappointing dis-play by the Bengaluru swim-mer who has raised everyone's expectations by consistently shaving off time from his per-sonal best in the run up to Tokyo Games.

The 20-year-old has a per-sonal best of 53.77s that he had clocked at the Sette Colli Tro-phy in Italy to qualify for the Olympics last month.

Had Srihari clocked his personal best he would have

qualified for the semifinals as Joseph Armstrong of USA and Greece's Apostolos Christou, the last two swimmers to qual-ify for the semis, clocked the the same time.

Overall, Srihari was ranked 27 among the 40 swimmers. The top 16 swimmers qualify for the semifinals.

On the other hand, Maana, swimming in the slowest heat, finished with a time of 1.05.20s behind Zimbabwe's Donata Katai, who clocked 1:02.73s, while Grenada's Kimberly Ince (1:10.24s) finished third in the three-swimmer field. AGENCIES

Naomi Osaka wins in debut at Olympics

TOKYO: Naomi Osaka is back and still winning.

The Japanese superstar who lit the Olympic cauldron defeated 52nd-ranked Zheng Saisai of China 6-1, 6-4 on Sun-day in her first match in nearly two months.

Osaka hadn't played since she withdrew from the French Open in May to take a mental health break, revealing that she has dealt with depression. She then sat out Wimbledon.

The second-ranked Osaka was sharp from the start, serv-ing an ace down the T on the opening point of the match and and racing out to a 5-0 lead.

Wearing a bright red dress and a red visor and with her hair styled in red-and-white braids to match the colors of the Japanese flag stitched onto the left side of her chest, Osaka served six aces in all and pro-duced 25 winners to Zheng's 10.

Osaka's match was origi-nally scheduled to open the tournament on Saturday but then was pushed back a day before her starring role in Fri-day's opening ceremony.

Osaka will next face 50th-ranked Viktorija Golubic of Switzerland.

For other top players in the tennis tournament at the Tokyo Games, it wasn't so straightforward.

Top-ranked Ash Barty was upset by 48th-ranked Spanish opponent Sara Sorribes Tormo 6-4, 6-3 and two-time defend-ing gold medalist Andy Murray withdrew from singles because of a right quad strain.

Both still remain in the doubles competition.

Barty won with Australian partner Storm Sanders on Sat-urday while Murray and Brit-ish partner Joe Salisbury beat the second-seeded French team of Pierre-Hughes Herbert and Nicolas Mahut. AGENCIES

Indian archers look to hit restart button after mixed pair debacle

TOKYO: Indian archers would look to make amends of a for-gettable start to their Tokyo Olympics campaign when the men's team takes the field for the elimination round here on Monday.

The men's trio of Pravin Jad-hav, Atanu Das and Tarundeep Rai all finished outside top-30 in the ranking round to get a ninth seeding. The team would start off against Kazakhstan.

Making his Olympic debut, Army man Jadhav was the best among the Indians to be ranked 31st, four places ahead of Das, while veteran Rai, in his third Olympics appearance, took a lowly 37th spot among the 64 archers.

Jadhav would be taking the field two days after the quarter-final defeat in the mixed pair competition, along with Deep-ika Kumari.

Maintaining consistency would be the key for Jadhav while Das and Rai would look to step up the momentum.

"He is a calm and com-posed shooter but lacks expe-rience. Hopefully his mixed team exposure would put him in good stead," India chief coach Mim Bahadur Gurung told PTI.

If they get past the first

round hurdle, the men's trio will face top seed Korea who have got a bye into the last-eight.

The individual elimina-tion round for the Indians will begin on Thursday as ace archer Deepika Kumari would look for redemption.

Deepika and Jadhav had failed to live up to the hyped build-up to the Olympics, mak-ing a quarterfinal exit in the mixed pair competition on Saturday, an event considered their stronghold.

Many saw the loss against an ordinary-looking Korea as a tactical blunder after the

Indian think-tank broke up husband-wife pair of Das and Deepika, who were coming off after winning a World Cup gold medal in Paris less than a month ago.

Olympic debutant Jadhav was preferred ahead of Das on the basis of his ranking round score. Jadhav and Deepika shot together for the first time ever, that too at the biggest stage of the Olympics.

Deepika herself sounded upset and was visibly down, failing to hit a single 10 to lose an easy match against Korea who fielded a young team with a combined age of 37. AGENCIES

Chinese duo easily win 1st diving gold of

OlympicsTOKYO: China got off to a winning start in diving at the Tokyo Olympics, claiming gold in women's 3-meter synchro-nized springboard to start what the Chinese hope is a sweep of the eight events.

Shi Tingmao and Wang Han totaled 326.40 points on Sunday, easily winning by 25.62 points.

Jennifer Abel and Melissa Citrini-Beaulieu of Canada took silver with 300.78. Lena Hentschel and Tina Punzel of Germany earned bronze with 284.97. The U.S. duo of Alison Gibson and Krysta Palmer fin-ished last among eight teams in their Olympic debuts.

Shi and Wang led each of the five rounds, tying with the U.S. after their second dive.

Shi and Wang earned scores ranging from 8.0 to 9.0 for their last dive, an inward 2 1/2 som-ersaults pike that carries a 3.0 degree of difficulty. AGENCIES

Indian women's hockey team looks for consistency

against GermanyTOKYO: Hammered by the mighty Netherlands in the campaign opener, the Indian women's hockey team would look to pull up its socks and bounce back in the tournament when it takes on world no. 3 Germany in a second Pool A match at the Tokyo Olympics here on Monday.

Against world no.1 Nether-lands, the Indians fought val-iantly in the first two quarters before losing steam to go down 1-5 on Saturday. The Indian team would look to make amends of the patchy show and seek consistency throughout the game against the Germans.

It was a closely-contested affair till the first two quarters with the brave Indian defence, led by goalkeeper Savita Punia, showing tenacity to thwart Netherlands' persistent raids before the Dutch side ran riot

in the last two quarters.The Indian women, who are

playing in their second succes-sive Olympics, can take a lot of heart from their performances against three-time Olympic champions and current silver medallist Netherlands, at least in the first half time.

But sustaining the momen-tum for the entire 60 minutes is what counts in interna-tional hockey and India's chief coach Sjoerd Marijne very well understands that fact.

"We have watched the match against the Nether-lands together and have spo-ken about the points we need to improve and we are currently focusing on that. Germany are also a very strong side," Mari-jne said.

"If we can be consistent dur-ing the whole match then the result will be better." AGENCIES

Govt exempts Olympic

returnees from RT-PCR test

TOKYO: Athletes, officials and media returning to the coun-try from Tokyo Olympics will not be required to produce RT-PCR negative test reports for COVID-19 before their depar-ture from the Japanese capital, the Government of India said on Sunday.

The decision was inti-mated in an official letter by Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare after the Indian Olympic President Narinder Batra had earlier in the day requested the government to exempt returnees from the Tokyo Games to produce RT-PCR negative report before boarding their flights.

The Health Ministry offi-cial, however, said that only those individuals who have returned negative in the saliva-based test prior to their depar-ture to India will be allowed to board the flight.

Besides, all those return-ing from Tokyo will be retested upon landing in India. AGENCIES

The 26-year-old Sindhu, seeded 6th, beat Ksenia Polikarpova 21-7 21-10 with consummate ease to start her quest for a 2nd Olympic medal in style

Indian archer Deepika Kumari during the mixed team event at the 2020 Summer Olympics, in Tokyo, Japan PTI

India's Pusarla V. Sindhu competes against Israel's Ksenia Polikarpova during their women's singles badminton match at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Sunday, in Tokyo, Japan PTI

India's Nilakanta Sharma tries to shoot past Australian defence near the goalmouth during the Summer Olympics 2020 Pool A Hockey match between India and Australia, in Tokyo, Sunday PTI

India's Manna Patel before the start of Womens' 100m Backstroke Heat 1 Swimming event at 2020 Summer Olympics, Sunday, in Tokyo, Japan PTI

Naomi Osaka PTI

T20 Int’l: Surya, Bhuvneshwar star in easy India victory

COLOMBO: Suryakumar Yadav's golden run with the bat was beautifully complemented by the Indian bowling unit led by Bhuvneshar Kumar as the visitors outclassed Sri Lanka by 38 runs in the first T20 Interna-tional here on Sunday.

If Surya's second T20 International half-century -- an attractive 50 off 34 balls -- ensured a decent total of 164 for 5, Yuzvendra Chahal (1/19 in 4 overs) oozed class while Deepak Chahar (2/24 in 3 overs) and Bhuvneshwar (4/22 in 3.3 overs) picked up wickets when it mattered most, bowling the hosts out for 126 in 18.3 overs

In fact, from 111/4 in the 16th over, Sri Lanka lost their last six wickets for only 15 runs.

In what will be the final international audition before T20 World Cup, Chahal gave his all in presence of IPL star and debutant mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy, who as per grapevine could be the Indian team management's choice for the marquee event.

Chahal not only bowled 10 dots apart from the 'jaffa deliv-ery' to dislodge Dhanajaya de Silva but also bowled a superb 15th over that turned the course for India with only three runs conceded.

After a whirlwind start in the first two overs, Dhawan intro-duced Krunal Pandya (1/16 in 2 overs), who quickly removed Minod Bhanuka. Chahal argu-ably bowled the delivery of the

match -- a flighted delivery fox-ing Dhananjaya de Silva (9) to play inside the line to get castled.

Last ODI hero Avishka Fer-nando (26) also paid for slow-ness of the track as he tried to pull Bhuvneshwar.

However, debutant Charith Asalanka (44 off 26 balls) had other ideas as he launched into opposition rookie Chakravarthy (1/28 in 4 overs), smoking him for two sixes into cow corner even as his partner Ashen Ban-dara (9 off 19 balls) struggled at the other end. Bandara's misery was ended by slow off-break from Hardik Pandya (1/17 in 2 overs) but Asalanka kept Sri Lanka in contention with some big hits before being dismissed by Chahar. AGENCIES

From 111/4 in the 16th over, Sri Lanka lost their last six wickets for only 15 runs

12 millenniumpostLeisure

Entertainmentmp

MONDAY, 26 JULY, 2021 | NEW DELHI

LOS ANGELES: Hollywood actor

Michael B Jordan is developing a Black Super-man project for streamer ‘HBO Max’.

According to ‘Collider’, Jor-dan’s ‘Outlier Society’ pro-duction banner is working with the streaming service and has hired a writer to work on the script.

The project is said to be based on

the Val-Zod version of the iconic super-

hero character.However, it is yet to

be known whether the project is being developed as a film or a series.

As per the ‘DC Com-ics’, Val-Zod, who is also

from Krypton is from a dif-ferent universe but follows a similar origin story. He is sent away from his home-world to Earth after the death of his parents and becomes the second person to take up the mantle of Superman.

Jordan’s Black Superman project is separate from the rebooted movie by ‘Warner Bros’, which is expected to fol-low the Kal-El/Clark Kent’s version of the character.

The movie will feature a Black actor in the titular role.

This project has author Ta-Nehisi Coates attached as a writer and it will be produced by filmmaker JJ Abrams and his company ‘Bad Robot’.

Jordan had most recently featured in ‘Amazon Prime Video’ and Paramount Pic-tures’ ‘Without Remorse’. He will next make his debut as a director with the third instal-ment of his highly successful ‘Creed’ franchise. PTI

Gehana Vasisth was recently summoned by the Mum-bai Crime Branch office

regarding the ongoing Raj Kundra’s adult film racket case, but she failed to appear as she was out of Mum-bai. However, she said that she will share the names of ‘people involved in the porn industry’.

“When I will meet the Crime Branch officials, I will give them names of the girls and the people involved in the porn industry. Both men and women are involved in the industry and those names will be shared with the police,” she shared.

She added, “Those girls who are playing the victim card today are worried that once their names come out, they will be bound to turn into the accused in the case. There are others, who are making allegations but are involved in making porn content, which is available on the internet.”

“I have all the names and am going to file an official complaint against all those involved in the porn industry. Why one person should be targeted when I and Raj Kundra are still accused and not convicted?” she asked.

Gehana further revealed, “There were several more people who were

making erotic content and they should also be summoned in the case.”

Vasisth, who is currently out on bail in the same case that Raj Kundra is accused of being the ‘key conspirator’ of, claimed that he is innocent.

She opened up about her arrest

in February and alleged that the police pressured her into naming Raj during questioning. She also said that Sherlyn Chopra and Poo-nam Pandey are ‘lying’ about him.

In an interview with a lead-ing daily, Vasisth claimed that she was arrested and taken to court despite ‘no evidence’ tying her to porn films. She said that she did not know about the allegations levelled against her since the remand

applica-tion and other doc-

uments were in Marathi, a lan-guage she did not understand. She also alleged that the police, during questioning, tried to coerce her to name Raj.

“They kept saying, ‘If you name Raj Kundra, we will let you go’. I refused to do that,” shared Gehana.

She also claimed that the police pressured others to make false alle-gations against her and she ‘spent five months in jail for an offence that she did not commit’.

Gehana said that the case against her and Raj ‘has no basis’.

“Raj has a business running from outside India. ‘HotShots’ was his app. ‘Armsprime’ was his company that had created apps for Sherlyn Chopra, Poonam Pandey, me and others. All the girls who are alleging that they were pushed into it, particularly Sherlyn and Poonam, are lying,” revealed Vasisth.

She added, “Poonam has been doing nude videos for years. Her husband and she have worked on so many videos. Poonam’s app today has nothing to do with ‘Armsprime’. Whatever they create has nothing to do with Raj. They all feared being embroiled in the matter and so they named Raj.” AGENCIES

In the alleged porno-graphic content produc-tion and distribution, Raj

Kundra landed in further trouble. According to a lead-ing news organisation, police sources revealed that four of Raj’s employees turned wit-nesses in the pornography racket case.

After being arrested on July 19, Kundra was sent to police custody till July 23 and the same was further extended till July 27.

On July 24, Mumbai Police Crime Branch report-edly found a hidden cup-board in Kundra’s ‘Viaan’ and ‘JL Stream’ office.

“Crime Branch has found a hidden cupboard in actor Shilpa Shetty’s husband and businessman Raj Kundra’s ‘Viaan’ and ‘JL Stream’ office in Mumbai’s Andheri during searches in connection with a pornography case,” stated a police official as per quoted by the news organisation.

The ‘mystery’ cupboard was ‘well concealed’ in the

walls of Kundra’s office. From the cupboard, several files and boxes about his finances were recovered.

A news report stated that

the Enforcement Director-ate may join to probe the money laundering angle that surfaced recently related to the case. As per the report, a suspicious financial transac-tion between Kundra and a South African bank account of ‘Mercury International’ company (online betting and casino gaming) came to the fore.

The police added that Shilpa Shetty denied any role in the racket.

According to a source close to the actor, she also told the police that she had no idea about the content of the ‘Hot-Shots’ app through which her husband allegedly distributed pornographic films.

The source shared that the actor told the police that she was not linked to the app business in any way and that she had resigned from the post of director of Kundra’s firm ‘Viaan Industries’.

The source further said that Shilpa would like to refrain from comment-ing about the ongoing investigation.

“There have been a lot of rumours and accusations. A lot has been said in the media. Shilpa Shetty Kundra would like to refrain from com-menting on the case. She requests everyone to refrain from commenting on half-baked information without verifying the veracity of the

same,” revealed the source.

AGENCIES

On the completion of her remarkable 12 years in Bollywood, actor Shruti Haasan said that she feels blessed and

wants to get better every day.The Bollywood actor had made her Hindi

film debut with the film ‘Luck’, which was released in 2009.

Taking to her ‘Instagram’ handle, Shruti Haasan penned a heartfelt note expressing her gratitude towards her fans.

“12 years ago today, I had no idea what I was getting into. All I knew was that I like it and I wanted to get better every day and I still feel that way. A lot has changed and for that, I am so grateful. Thank you for all the love and support. I have a special place in my heart for you. I feel blessed truly onwards and upwards every day feels like a new journey has just begun,” she wrote.

Along with it, Shruti posted a few pictures of herself from the movie ‘Luck’.

Currently, the ‘Ramaiya Vastavaiya’ star is busy shooting for her web series in Mumbai. AGENCIES

MUMBAI: Tanya Maniktala, who is

aware that her work post the success of her

2020 series ‘A Suitable Boy’ will be under the spotlight,

said that she does not want to get bogged down by the weight of

expectations.The Delhi-based actor got

her breakthrough last year with Mira Nair’s ‘A Suit-able Boy’, an adaptation of Vikram Seth’s 1993 novel of the same name. The show earned Maniktala global acclaim for her portrayal of the lead char-acter, Lata Mehra.

Tanya said that she is at a stage in her career where she wants to push herself as an artiste and not hold back fearing any ‘pressure’.

“As an actor, I want to now grow as much as I can and tap into my full poten-tial. The pressure has increased but I want to channelise it into something that will bring out the productive side in me and not in a way that will dismantle my peace of mind,” shared Maniktala.

‘A Suitable Boy’ released at a time when the county was under the Coro-navirus-induced nationwide lockdown.

“The pandemic and the show’s release

on ‘BBC One’, followed by its debut on streamer ‘Netflix’ helped her work reached a bigger audience,” Maniktala said.

At a personal level, the 24-year-old actor believes the show’s success opened the doors for more work and reaffirmed her passion to act.

“From not wanting to be an actor to now fully pursuing it, that is a

big change in me. My fam-ily has accepted that I am

getting into this profes-sion and are support-

ive,” she admitted.The actor cur-

rently features in the ‘Netflix’ anthol-

ogy ‘Feels Like Ishq’. Maniktala stars in

the ‘Ishq Mastana’ seg-ment, directed by Jaydeep

Sarkar. The short chronicles the story of a spirited activist,

Mehr (Maniktala) and a privileged teen, Kabir, played by actor Skand Thakur.

“Romance needs a lot of love. Not just from the actors or the director, but the entire team. We were fortunate to have a great team. All of us clicked with each other, everything just fell into place,” said Tanya.

Talking about her character, Man-iktala said, “Mehr is a vocal person. If she believes in something, she will go for it. She has a fire in her, which I found appealing.” PTI

‘Want to grow and tap into my

full potential’

‘From not wanting to be

an actor to now fully pursuing it, that

is a big change in me,” says the actor

Employees turn witnesses in Raj’s case

On July 24, Mumbai Police Crime Branch found a hidden cupboard in Kundra’s ‘Viaan’ and ‘JL Stream’ office

The actor made her debut with 2009 film ‘Luck’

Vasisth claims she ‘spent five months in jail for an offence she did not commit’

LOS ANGELES: Pop star and Hollywood actor Jennifer Lopez made her relationship with actor-director Ben Affleck ‘Instagram’ official on her 52nd birthday celebration.

The Hollywood couple rekindled their romance after almost 20 years and used to

be spotted by the paparazzi on regular dates in recent months.

Lopez, who celebrated her birthday on a boat on July 24, shared a series of pictures clicked by her friend and pho-tographer Ana Carballosa on ‘Insta-gram’. The last of the four photos was of

Lopez and Affleck sharing a kiss.“52, what did it do,” the singer-actor

wrote with a heart emoji in the caption.Lopez and Affleck first met on the sets

of the comedy movie ‘Gigli’ in early 2002 and got engaged later that year only to part ways in 2004.

The couple was first spotted spend-ing time together again in April, following Lopez’s split from former fiance and pro-fessional baseball player Alex Rodriguez.

Affleck previously dated actor Ana de Armas, his co-star of the upcoming movie ‘Deep Water’ for a year.

On her 52nd birthday, the pop star made her relationship official with Affleck on ‘Ins-tagram’ PTI

Jennifer announces her relationship with Ben

On her 52nd birthday, the pop star made her relationship official with Affleck on ‘Instagram’

I feel blessed: Shruti

Haasan, who completed her 12 years in Bollywood, took to ‘Instagram’ to express her gratitude towards her fans

Michael, ‘HBO Max’ collaborate for Black Superman

The new project is based on the Val-Zod version of the iconic superhero character

Gehana admits there were several more people who were making erotic content

Tanya shares she is at a stage in her career where she wants to

push herself as an artiste

‘Will give names involved in porn industry’