1 day ago  · in 2015 assembly polls when the jd(u) was not part of the nda the ljp had contested...

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T he BJP and the Janata Dal(U) started preliminary talks on the sharing of seats for the forthcoming Assembly polls during a two-hour meet- ing between BJP president JP Nadda and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in Patna on Saturday. But more than the number of seats, the issue of dealing with LJP chief Chirag Paswan has emerged a major challenge for the alliance. Chirag Paswan will meet Home Minister Amit Shah on September 14 in Delhi after which more clarity will emerge on the seat-sharing talks. Chirag has held several rounds of talks with Nadda in Delhi. Nadda is reported to have assured Nitish Kumar that the BJP will try to iron out his dif- ferences with Chirag Paswan, who has often targeted the Bihar Chief Minister during the last few months. Nadda is also reported to have advised the LJP president not to attack the Bihar Government and agree to con- test a realistic number of seats. Sources said that the BJP and the JD(U) may agree to contest 123 and 120 seats each. The strength of the State Assembly is 243. The BJP will allot seats to the LJP out of its quota and JD(U) will meet the demand of former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi from its share of 120 seats. If this agreement holds, the LJP may be asked to contest 23 seats since the BJP will not contest less than 100 seats, sources said. In Delhi, Chirag said he will go with the BJP choice of the Chief Minister and he has no problem with the name of Nitish Kumar as the face of the NDA. “I am okay with any Tom, Dick or Harry chosen by the BJP,” a TV channel quoted the 37-year-old leader. However, it was not clear how will the LJP react if offered 23 seats to contest. The party has been pressing for allotment of at least 43 seats. In 2015 Assembly polls when the JD(U) was not part of the NDA the LJP had contested 42 Assembly seats. The BJP chief accompa- nied by party colleagues like Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, national gener- al secretary and State in-charge Bhupendra Yadav and State president Sanjay Jaiswal, called on Nitish at his official resi- dence amid a growing row between NDA partners. The NDA in Bihar consists of the JD(U), the BJP, the LJP and Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustan Awam Morcha (HAM). In the middle of the visi- ble fissures in the alliance, Union Minister for Home and former Bihar BJP president Nityanand Rai has claimed that the NDA would win 220 Assembly seats in the October- November slated polls. Rai said that developmen- tal works carried out across the country under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the help given to the underprivileged popu- lation during the coronavirus crisis phase, as well as the beginning of Ram temple con- struction in Ayodhya, will be the important issues in the upcoming elections in the State. “NDA will form Government in Bihar under the leadership of Nitish Kumarji after winning 220 seats in the upcoming State Assembly elections,” Rai told newspersons in Patna BJP office after Nadda discussed on Friday campaign strategy with party leaders in the election management committee meeting. Patna: Former Union Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, whose recent resignation from the RJD founded and headed by Lalu Prasad has left political waters in Bihar astir, has fall- en critically ill and put on a ventilator, a close aide said on Saturday. “Singh sahibs condition deteriorated considerably last night. At 11.56 pm, he was put on ventilator. We are praying for his well-being”, said the aide told PTI-Bhasha over phone. PTI C ontinuing its crackdown on the drug peddlers and deal- ers, the Mumbai Zone officials of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) conducted raids in Mumbai and Goa on Friday night and Saturday. Though a senior NCB offi- cial said that the raids were not directly linked to the drug case registered in connection with the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, official sources said that its teams had con- ducted the raids on Friday night and Saturday based on “specific information” thrown up during the investigations in the Sushant death-related drug case. During the course of her prolonged questioning by the NCB ahead of her arrest on September 8, actress Rhea Chakraborty had reportedly told the investigators that actress Sara Ali Khan and Rakul Preet, designer Simone Khambatta, Sushant’s friend and former manager Rohini Iyer and filmmaker Mukesh Chhabra consumed narcotics substances. However, Rhea has retracted the confessional statement recorded by the NCB ahead of her arrest. Unconfirmed reports said that the NCB might summon anywhere from “15 to 25” Bollywood personalities for questioning over the reports about their allegedly procuring and consuming narcotic drugs. Sources said that the NCB officials had conducted the raids on the basis of specific information provided by alleged drug peddler Anuj Keswani who was arrested by the NCB after Kaizan Ebrahim disclosed his name. Kaizan Ebrahim had reportedly told the investigators that Anuj Keshwani was his supplier of narcotic drugs. Keswani and Kaizan are among the ten persons arrest- ed in connection with the drug case registered by the NCB. The other arrested accused in the case are Rhea Chakraborty, her brother Showik, Abbas Lakhani, Karan Arora, Zaid Vilatra, Abdel Basit Parihar, Samuel Miranda and Dipesh Sawant. During the 19-long hours of grilling carried out during a span of three days, Rhea reportedly admitted that she had procured drugs for Sushant through her current- ly arrested brother Showik Chakraborty, that she had acknowledged that she knew about Samuel purchasing drugs for the actor from drug peddler Zaid Vilatra and that she had accepted that she had accepted drug-related WhatsApp chats between her and others. M aharashtra may be just a State, but its overall Covid-19 tally will soon sur- pass Russia, which occupies the fourth place in the list of worst affected countries. While Maharashtra has a total of 10,37,000 cases as on Saturday, Russia’s tally stood at 10,57,362. Maharashtra is adding around 22,000-24,000 cases every day while Russia’s daily count is around 5,500 new cases. It means Maharashtra will surpass Russia in terms of the total number of cases by Monday. Then Maharashtra will trail only the USA, India, and Brazil in terms of total numbers of infection. With a tally of 66,39,386, the USA is the worst-hit coun- try followed by India at the second spot with over 47 lakh cases. Meanwhile, Andhra Pradesh with 5,57,587 sur- passed Argentina (5,35,705 cases) which is at the 10th spot in the country-wise rankings. London: Oxford University says trials of a coronavirus vaccine that it is developing with pharmaceutical com- pany AstraZeneca will resume, days after being paused due to a reported side-effect in a patient in the UK. In a statement, the uni- versity said in large trials such as this “it is expected that some participants will become unwell and every case must be carefully eval- uated to ensure careful assessment of safety.” F ive villagers from Arunachal Pradesh who went missing last week near the Chinese border were back home on Saturday after China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) hand- ed them over to the Indian authorities. The five youth were received at Kibitu, a small town in Arunachal Pradesh’s Anjaw district, located on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and were sent to quarantine for 14 days as per the coronavirus protocol. “The Indian Army took over all five individuals at Kibitu on September 12, 2020, after completing all the for- malities. Individuals will now be quarantined for 14 days as per Covid-19 protocol and will thereafter be handed over to their family members,” a state- ment released by the Army read. The youth went missing after they went into the forest for hunting and reportedly strayed across the LAC into the Chinese territory. However, Tapir Gao, MP from East Arunachal, had quoted local reports to allege the five villagers were “abduct- ed” by the PLA. On Monday, China made light of concerns over the whereabouts of the five youths and said it has never recognised Arunachal Pradesh as an Indian territory. “China’s position on the eastern sector of the China- India boundary, or Zangnan (the southern part of China’s Xizang (Tibet)), is consistent and clear,” Chinese foreign min- istry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said at a media briefing in Beijing. Lijian said the Chinese Government had never recog- nised “Arunachal Pradesh”. T he Centre has offered 1,000 Oxygen Concentrator Machines to Madhya Pradesh and the administration has supplied these machines to different districts facing covid19 outbreak. Sucking air from the atmosphere directly, these machines could convert five litre oxygen per minute and could ensure oxygen supply to two patients simultaneously. The department of Health and Family Welfare has decided to offer minimum two machines and at most 20 machines per district. On Saturday, 400 of these machines were sent to districts and medical colleges which will be sent to hospitals according to need. The Health ministry has said that these machines could deal with emergencies. Sensing a possible shortfall in medical oxygen supply in Madhya Pradesh, the Centre has offered 1,000 such machines to the state recently. The supplies were recently hit as neighbouring Maharashtra had stopped oxygen supplies to Madhya Pradesh. Bhopal has received 3 machines, Indore 2, Jabalpur 9, Gwalior 2 and Ujjain 5. Districts lagging in terms of medical facilities includ- ing– Chhatarpur has received 23 machines, Shahdol 20, Balaghat 18, Guna 17, Shivouri, Satna, Rajgarh and Narsinghpur have received 15 machines each. Indore region which is the worst affected area in terms of covid19 outbreak has decided that from now on oxygen sup- ply will only be done to hospi- tals which means local indus- trial units won’t be allowed to source oxygen supply. Wth the implementation of unlock in phased manner, the industrial demand for oxygen has picked up significantly of late. On Thursday, the Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had asked the oxygen plants to manufacture oxygen in full capacity and sanctioned an oxygen plant from a private company in Hoshangabad’s Mohasa which will start pro- ducing 200 tonnes of oxygen within next six months. In a tweet, Chouhan had said that Maharashtra used to supply only 20 tonnes of oxygen to Madhya Pradesh and the company which sourced supplies from Maharashtra will now be doing the same from Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh. By September end, we will ensure oxygen supplies of 150 tonnes, Chouhan had said. From a monthly demand of 40 tonnes in July, the demand surged to 90 tonnes in August and to 130 tonnes in September as covid19 patients have surged in numbers in last few months. The state gov- ernment has urged state gov- ernments of Gujarat and Chhattisgarh to supply oxygen after Maharashtra has issued orders to only supply oxygen in the state amid massive surge in corona cases. Chouhan has said that there is no shortage of oxygen in the state and the state gov- ernment was making arrange- ments to keep the supplies intact. RNI Regn. No. MPENG/2004/13703, Regd. No. L-2/BPLON/41/2006-2008

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Page 1: 1 day ago  · In 2015 Assembly polls when the JD(U) was not part of the NDA the LJP had contested 42 Assembly seats. The BJP chief accompa-nied by party colleagues like …

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The BJP and the JanataDal(U) started preliminary

talks on the sharing of seats forthe forthcoming Assemblypolls during a two-hour meet-ing between BJP president JPNadda and Bihar ChiefMinister Nitish Kumar inPatna on Saturday. But morethan the number of seats, theissue of dealing with LJP chiefChirag Paswan has emerged amajor challenge for thealliance.

Chirag Paswan will meetHome Minister Amit Shah onSeptember 14 in Delhi afterwhich more clarity will emergeon the seat-sharing talks.Chirag has held several roundsof talks with Nadda in Delhi.

Nadda is reported to haveassured Nitish Kumar that theBJP will try to iron out his dif-ferences with Chirag Paswan,who has often targeted theBihar Chief Minister duringthe last few months.

Nadda is also reported tohave advised the LJP presidentnot to attack the BiharGovernment and agree to con-test a realistic number of seats.

Sources said that the BJPand the JD(U) may agree tocontest 123 and 120 seats each.The strength of the State

Assembly is 243.The BJP will allot seats to

the LJP out of its quota andJD(U) will meet the demand offormer Chief Minister JitanRam Manjhi from its share of120 seats. If this agreementholds, the LJP may be asked to

contest 23 seats since the BJPwill not contest less than 100seats, sources said.

In Delhi, Chirag said hewill go with the BJP choice ofthe Chief Minister and he hasno problem with the name ofNitish Kumar as the face of the

NDA.“I am okay with any Tom,

Dick or Harry chosen by theBJP,” a TV channel quoted the37-year-old leader.

However, it was not clearhow will the LJP react if offered23 seats to contest. The party

has been pressing for allotmentof at least 43 seats. In 2015Assembly polls when theJD(U) was not part of theNDA the LJP had contested 42Assembly seats.

The BJP chief accompa-nied by party colleagues likeDeputy Chief Minister SushilKumar Modi, national gener-al secretary and State in-chargeBhupendra Yadav and Statepresident Sanjay Jaiswal, calledon Nitish at his official resi-dence amid a growing rowbetween NDA partners.

The NDA in Bihar consistsof the JD(U), the BJP, the LJPand Jitan Ram Manjhi’sHindustan Awam Morcha(HAM).

In the middle of the visi-ble fissures in the alliance,Union Minister for Home andformer Bihar BJP presidentNityanand Rai has claimedthat the NDA would win 220Assembly seats in the October-November slated polls.

Rai said that developmen-tal works carried out across thecountry under Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, the help givento the underprivileged popu-lation during the coronaviruscrisis phase, as well as thebeginning of Ram temple con-struction in Ayodhya, will bethe important issues in the

upcoming elections in the State.“NDA will form

Government in Bihar underthe leadership of NitishKumarji after winning 220seats in the upcoming StateAssembly elections,” Rai toldnewspersons in Patna BJPoffice after Nadda discussed onFriday campaign strategy withparty leaders in the electionmanagement committee meeting.

Patna: Former UnionMinister RaghuvanshPrasad Singh, whose recentresignation from the RJDfounded and headed by LaluPrasad has left politicalwaters in Bihar astir, has fall-en critically ill and put on aventilator, a close aide saidon Saturday.

“Singh sahibs conditiondeteriorated considerably lastnight. At 11.56 pm, he wasput on ventilator. We arepraying for his well-being”,said the aide told PTI-Bhashaover phone. PTI

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Continuing its crackdown onthe drug peddlers and deal-

ers, the Mumbai Zone officialsof the Narcotics ControlBureau (NCB) conducted raidsin Mumbai and Goa on Fridaynight and Saturday.

Though a senior NCB offi-cial said that the raids were notdirectly linked to the drugcase registered in connectionwith the death of actor SushantSingh Rajput, official sourcessaid that its teams had con-ducted the raids on Fridaynight and Saturday based on“specific information” thrownup during the investigations inthe Sushant death-related drugcase.

During the course of herprolonged questioning by theNCB ahead of her arrest onSeptember 8, actress RheaChakraborty had reportedlytold the investigators that

actress Sara Ali Khan andRakul Preet, designer SimoneKhambatta, Sushant’s friendand former manager RohiniIyer and filmmaker MukeshChhabra consumed narcoticssubstances. However, Rhea hasretracted the confessionalstatement recorded by theNCB ahead of her arrest.

Unconfirmed reports saidthat the NCB might summonanywhere from “15 to 25”Bollywood personalities forquestioning over the reportsabout their allegedly procuringand consuming narcotic drugs.

Sources said that the NCBofficials had conducted theraids on the basis of specificinformation provided byalleged drug peddler AnujKeswani who was arrested bythe NCB after Kaizan Ebrahimdisclosed his name. KaizanEbrahim had reportedly toldthe investigators that AnujKeshwani was his supplier of

narcotic drugs.Keswani and Kaizan are

among the ten persons arrest-ed in connection with thedrug case registered by theNCB. The other arrestedaccused in the case are RheaChakraborty, her brotherShowik, Abbas Lakhani, KaranArora, Zaid Vilatra, AbdelBasit Parihar, Samuel Mirandaand Dipesh Sawant.

During the 19-long hoursof grilling carried out during aspan of three days, Rheareportedly admitted that shehad procured drugs forSushant through her current-ly arrested brother ShowikChakraborty, that she hadacknowledged that she knewabout Samuel purchasingdrugs for the actor from drugpeddler Zaid Vilatra and thatshe had accepted that she hadaccepted drug-relatedWhatsApp chats between herand others.

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Maharashtra may be just aState, but its overall

Covid-19 tally will soon sur-pass Russia, which occupiesthe fourth place in the list ofworst affected countries.While Maharashtra has a totalof 10,37,000 cases as onSaturday, Russia’s tally stood at10,57,362.

Maharashtra is addingaround 22,000-24,000 casesevery day while Russia’s dailycount is around 5,500 newcases. It means Maharashtrawill surpass Russia in terms ofthe total number of cases byMonday. Then Maharashtrawill trail only the USA, India,and Brazil in terms of totalnumbers of infection.

With a tally of 66,39,386,the USA is the worst-hit coun-try followed by India at thesecond spot with over 47 lakhcases. Meanwhile, AndhraPradesh with 5,57,587 sur-passed Argentina (5,35,705cases) which is at the 10th spotin the country-wise rankings.

London: Oxford Universitysays trials of a coronavirusvaccine that it is developingwith pharmaceutical com-pany AstraZeneca willresume, days after beingpaused due to a reportedside-effect in a patient in theUK. In a statement, the uni-versity said in large trialssuch as this “it is expectedthat some participants willbecome unwell and everycase must be carefully eval-uated to ensure carefulassessment of safety.”

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Five villagers from ArunachalPradesh who went missing

last week near the Chineseborder were back home onSaturday after China’s People’sLiberation Army (PLA) hand-ed them over to the Indianauthorities.

The five youth werereceived at Kibitu, a small townin Arunachal Pradesh’s Anjawdistrict, located on the Line ofActual Control (LAC) and weresent to quarantine for 14 daysas per the coronavirus protocol.

“The Indian Army took

over all five individuals atKibitu on September 12, 2020,after completing all the for-malities. Individuals will nowbe quarantined for 14 days asper Covid-19 protocol and willthereafter be handed over totheir family members,” a state-ment released by the Armyread. The youth went missingafter they went into the forestfor hunting and reportedlystrayed across the LAC into theChinese territory.

However, Tapir Gao, MPfrom East Arunachal, hadquoted local reports to allegethe five villagers were “abduct-ed” by the PLA.

On Monday, China madelight of concerns over thewhereabouts of the five youthsand said it has never recognisedArunachal Pradesh as an Indianterritory. “China’s position onthe eastern sector of the China-India boundary, or Zangnan(the southern part of China’sXizang (Tibet)), is consistentand clear,” Chinese foreign min-istry spokesperson Zhao Lijiansaid at a media briefing inBeijing. Lijian said the ChineseGovernment had never recog-nised “Arunachal Pradesh”.

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The Centre has offered 1,000Oxygen Concentrator

Machines to Madhya Pradeshand the administration hassupplied these machines todifferent districts facingcovid19 outbreak.

Sucking air from theatmosphere directly, thesemachines could convert fivelitre oxygen per minute andcould ensure oxygen supply totwo patients simultaneously.The department of Health andFamily Welfare has decided tooffer minimum two machinesand at most 20 machines perdistrict. On Saturday, 400 ofthese machines were sent todistricts and medical collegeswhich will be sent to hospitalsaccording to need. The Healthministry has said that thesemachines could deal withemergencies.

Sensing a possible shortfallin medical oxygen supply inMadhya Pradesh, the Centrehas offered 1,000 suchmachines to the state recently.The supplies were recently hitas neighbouring Maharashtrahad stopped oxygen supplies toMadhya Pradesh.

Bhopal has received 3machines, Indore 2, Jabalpur 9,Gwalior 2 and Ujjain 5.

Districts lagging in termsof medical facilities includ-ing– Chhatarpur has received23 machines, Shahdol 20,Balaghat 18, Guna 17, Shivouri,

Satna, Rajgarh andNarsinghpur have received 15machines each.

Indore region which is theworst affected area in terms ofcovid19 outbreak has decidedthat from now on oxygen sup-ply will only be done to hospi-tals which means local indus-trial units won’t be allowed tosource oxygen supply.

Wth the implementation ofunlock in phased manner, theindustrial demand for oxygenhas picked up significantly oflate.

On Thursday, the ChiefMinister Shivraj SinghChouhan had asked the oxygenplants to manufacture oxygenin full capacity and sanctionedan oxygen plant from a privatecompany in Hoshangabad’sMohasa which will start pro-ducing 200 tonnes of oxygenwithin next six months.

In a tweet, Chouhanhad said that Maharashtraused to supply only 20tonnes of oxygen to MadhyaPradesh and the companywhich sourced supplies fromMaharashtra will now be

doing the same from Gujaratand Uttar Pradesh. BySeptember end, we will ensureoxygen supplies of 150 tonnes,Chouhan had said.

From a monthly demandof 40 tonnes in July, thedemand surged to 90 tonnes inAugust and to 130 tonnes inSeptember as covid19 patientshave surged in numbers inlast few months. The state gov-ernment has urged state gov-ernments of Gujarat andChhattisgarh to supply oxygenafter Maharashtra has issuedorders to only supply oxygen inthe state amid massive surge incorona cases.

Chouhan has said thatthere is no shortage of oxygenin the state and the state gov-ernment was making arrange-ments to keep the suppliesintact.

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Page 2: 1 day ago  · In 2015 Assembly polls when the JD(U) was not part of the NDA the LJP had contested 42 Assembly seats. The BJP chief accompa-nied by party colleagues like …

�What is your role in PinjaraKhoobsurti Ka?

I play Omkar Sanyal, a mine owner.The show talks about his rags to richesstory. He is obsessed with beauty. He can’ttolerate anything which is black even hishouse is painted in white. The reasonbeing his dark childhood due to poverty.Now he wants everything beautiful in lifebe it anything, even his love. When hefirst sees Mayura, he finds her beautifuland he wants her. It was not love at firstsight, but more like ‘I want her’. That’show he is, if he wants something, hewants it by hook or by crook. He is nota negative character though. A lot ofpeople treat him like God because of hiskind nature. He never disrespects anyone.So, the character has shades of grey.�What made you say yes?

It’s been seven years since I am in thisindustry and never ever I felt that aproject is mine during auditions. This isthe first time that I was sure that this roleis mine when I auditioned for it. I am apositive person but realistic as well. It’snot as if I am over-confident, but thistime my gut feeling said that the role ismine. After the auditions, I have done sixmock shoots, but my confidence level wasintact. I got finalised just before thelockdown and we started shooting inAugust.�When the lockdown was announced,were you apprehensive about theproject?

Yes. I was scared when will things getback to normal and we would startshooting because I was very excited aboutthis show. It’s the biggest show for me tilldate. But I was happy that I had work andknew we would began shooting soon. Itwas not like that I have to search for workpost lockdown, so I was looking forwardto it and worked hard for it. I was neverlaid back by the halt.�How was the journey from Noida toMumbai?

First of all, I am grateful that I got achance to be a part of this industry andkeep working. The career graph is slowbut I believe in slow and steady alwayswins the race. It all started with an ad.Before that I was shy and introvert andI never thought that I would pursueacting. When I was in college, I cameacross this ad on radio about PantaloonsFashion Hunt. So I enrolled myself intoit. I was selected in the top 10 boys ofDelhi and fortunately I won thecompetition. Then the competitionhappened pan India and I became thesecond runner-up. Disha Patani andParth Samthaan were also a part of thatcompetition and Disha emerged as the

winner, while Parth became the firstrunner-up. Then onwards I realised thatI could do something in this industrybecause let’s be honest almost everyoneis fascinated by this industry and wantsto be a hero. Moreover, my father wasextremely supportive. He alwaysencouraged me to join an acting skill.This is how I started modelling in Delhi.After six months, I got an ad offer fromMumbai and also I was told that if I wantto make a career in this field then Ishould fly to Mumbai. So I did. InDecember, 2013, I was in Mumbai andgot a reality check that the industry is nothow it looks like from outside. Hence, inthe initial days I worked hard. I gavearound six auditions every day. My firstshow happened after around two yearsand since then acting became a passion.�Did you ever feel like quitting?

Not really. Because when I started toget shortlisted, I knew that I havesomething in me otherwise someonewouldn’t choose me in a crowd ofhundred people. Even when I went formock shoots, there were only threeactors other than me. So it is a big thingin itself. I had that hope and belief thatI would be getting an offer sooner or later.Also because in those two years, I hadalready given lots of auditions, so I hadthat confidence in me. But yes, it felt badwhen I was shortlisted, but was notselected for a role.

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Hostages 2 takes off from whereit ended in Hostages. Yet boththe seasons couldn’t be more

complete in themselves. If first wasabout a doctor’s predicament in theface of a political and corporateconspiracy to kill the Chief Minister,this one is equally tantalising but withanother twist to the earlier take.

This time the Chief Minister is thehostage but for a repentant medicalcause. Ronit Roy is in the lead asPrithvi, the larger than life retired copin the series and generally the largerthan life actor he takes himself to bewith his penchant to accord a cockyseriousness to his ‘I will never smileinto the camera’ pledge that he madeto himself way back as a TV characterhe immortalised as Mr Bajaj.

But this one from the fastupcoming Applause house of mountsis interesting, thrilling for most bitswith adequate twists and turns thatshould accompany a hostage crisis.

All the mumbo jumbo aboutATS sleuths, night snipers andgameplans, including the survellienceset up and talk of storming in are inplace around a ruins of a colonial

structure where the hostages arehoused. The rotating search lights withaccompanying conspiracy music areused well by series director veteranSudhir Misra as props that enhancethe experience as does the storywhich keeps weaving in side talesseamlessly into the main plot of arogue Chief Minister (played to the hiltby Dalip Tahil) with a rapacious pastmade to stone for his sins with a forcedmarrow transplant with he as a donoreven as the situation gets hot alongsideDivya Dutta, the master negotiator,doing a brilliant job trying to save thehostages.

Some side stories are unnecessaryand some quite pertinent to the mainplot but the characters involved in allof them doing their bit to giveauthenticity and moments to a seriesthat keeps the act going the best itknows. The certain predictability tothe progression of events becameinevitable only late into the 12 episodeventure.

Actors are chosen carefully intheir screen habits even though thepresence may be largely unexplained,like Dino Morea as the smilingassassin who keeps killing as a fetishmore than as a reason. Why is he eventhere and what is the purpose of all hiskillings get a very flimsy explanationin the end. However, Hostages 2 stillmanages to hold on to your brain cellsand eyeballs with established finesse.

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There are some subjects on which Bollywoodwill take years to master. One such subject lineis sci-fi. There is a big reason for this. We just

don’t spend enough on the sets. Though full marksto Arati Kadav, the writer-director of Cargo to havecome up with an inventive storyline about death andYamraj, giving it an interesting spin, what this movielacks is execution.

There is no imagination when it comes to thespaceship itself. While the out of the ships looksgood, the interior looks as if it was designed byamateurs.

One could have taken clues from any numberof Hollywood films. But the makers decided thatthe story was enough to hold one’s interest.Unfortunately, once one knows what is happening,it is on a repeat what is left is the gizmos that makea sci-if movie great to watch, not to see tin boxeswith knobs for gadgets. How is it possible to havea huge spaceship with only one tiny space for itsastronaut — read modern-day Yamraj. If this wasnot bad enough, the spaceship Pushpak 634Awhile does allow room for an assistant, there is noroom for the person. There are boxes lined on a

platform which makes up the room for theassistant. Cardboard boxes on a spaceship? Thathas got to be the new low for a sci-if movie whichis bound to give the makers of films like The Abyssand Star Trek nightmares for weeks to come.

Even though the lead look like they areuncomfortable in each other’s presence, theindividual acting is passable.

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Hollywood’s love for blood and gore continuesin the sequel to The Babysitter. The movietakes a jump for a few years with the lead

protagonist— Cole, played by Judah Lewis — nowin High School and no longer requires a babysitter.Nobody naturally believes his story of a cult andpeople dying because once the cops show up, thereare no dead bodies.

Therapy is the parent’s answer to Cole’s story.But we know that the dead who disappear havean uncanny habit of appearing when leastexpected. And lo and behold — the sequel. Thisalso means heads being ripped off, people beingset on fire and blood flying in all direction but tono avail. They come back from the dead like badpennies for what reason? To drink the blood of a

pure human being to become all powerful. If wehope that given what happens in the end, thereare no more undead people rising from the dead.

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Creators Rohan Sippy and AnuvabPal have struck gold with this 10-episode web series. The story is

simple — a divorce via videoconferencing. The inspiration comesfrom how many court cases in thecountry were heard via videoconferencing due to COVID-19. Butthe way Rohan Sippy plays this out isabsolutely brilliant. It is such a relief towatch something on the OTT platformthat is not dark, edgy or has layers ofcomplexities that something becomedifficult to decipher. Wakaalat FromHome offers pure unadulteratedentertainment with plenty of laugh outloud and roll on the floor momentseven though there is an underliningmessage — don’t not get involved withdivorce lawyers.

While it is sad to laugh, eventhough it is a fiction show, at twopeople who have major differences andwant to separate after 10 years ofmarriage despite being childhood

sweethearts, the way it unfolds isquirky and funny.

The whole idea of making a serieswith actors at different places and bringthem together as one has beenbeautifully played out here. Anotherplus is that each episode is not morethan 15 minutes. One doesn’t have tobinge watch to know how it all ends.The 10 episodes can be watched overtwo hours and thirty minutes.

Sumeet Vyas, Gopal Datt andNidhi Singh give a great performance.Kubbra Sait needs a special mention.Her transformation from an uptightdivorce lawyer to a sexy one is amazingand so brilliantly done making theseries a must watch.

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Page 3: 1 day ago  · In 2015 Assembly polls when the JD(U) was not part of the NDA the LJP had contested 42 Assembly seats. The BJP chief accompa-nied by party colleagues like …

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While inaugurating the‘Grah Pravesham’, Prime

Minister Narendra Modi gavepossession of 1.75 lakh housesto the beneficiaries of PradhanMantri Awas Yojana. Today, thewhole country became wit-ness of the fabulous executionof Pradhan Mantri AwasYojana through online housewarming programme.

The Prime Minister saidthat the Pradhan Mantri AwasYojana has been given a vibrantform by avoiding unnecessaryGovernment interference. Hefurther said that the joy of fes-tivals will be more for the ben-eficiaries of the scheme thisyear. I myself would have comein person to join such a greatmoment of jubilation in yourlife, but corona compelled meto stay back. Prime MinisterModi interacted with GulabSingh Adivasi of Dhar district,Pyarelal Yadav of Singrauli dis-trict and Narendra Namdev ofGwalior.

On this occasion, ChiefMinister Shivraj SinghChauhan, who attended theevent through video conferencefrom Morena, welcomed PrimeMinister Modi. Governor ofMadhya Pradesh AnandibenPatel, Union Minister forPanchayat and RuralDevelopment Narendra SinghTomar, Minister for Panchayat

and Rural Development ofMadhya Pradesh MahendraSingh Sisodiya, Union Ministerof State for Rural DevelopmentSadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, RajyaSabha Member JyotiradityaScindia were also attended thevirtual programme. The PrimeMinister Narendra Modi alsotalked with affinity with thebeneficiaries of MadhyaPradesh. Chief Secretary IqbalSingh Bains also attended theprogramme through VC fromMantralaya, Bhopal. AdditionalChief Secretary Panchaya andRural Development ManojShrivastava conducted the pro-gramme.

Chief Minister ShivrajSingh Chouhan said that PrimeMinister Modi, who has takenthe country to new heights iswelcome. Every poor hasdream of having their ownhouse. Thirty seven lakh peo-ple of Madhya Pradesh who didnot have the eligibility slips, willnow get food grains. ChiefMinister Chouhan mentionedthat the ‘Grah Pravesham’programme is being celebratedin 26,548 villages of 16,440Gram Panchayats. One crore 24lakh 92 thousand 394 peopledid pre-registration to con-nect themselves with this pro-gramme, which is a symbol ofpeople’s excitement towardsthe scheme. Chief MinisterChouhan said that MadhyaPradesh will not lag behind in

fulfilling the resolution ‘Everyindividual should have theirown pucca house’ of the PrimeMinister by the 75thIndependence anniversary ofthe country.

Prime Minister Modi start-ed conversation in local dialectwith Gulab Singh Adivasi ofDhar district. He praised thebeneficiary Gulab Singh forconstructing a good house.When Prime Minister inquiredabout his health, he said that heis not keeping good healthsince the last few days. So myson will talk on my behalf.Meru, the son of Gulab Singh,told that he has constructed ahouse with Halma tradition,prevalent in the region. Underthis, the people of the villagework together to build housesand the person whose house isbeing built, he feeds everyone.Praising this tradition, PrimeMinister Modi said that this isan amazing example of gov-ernment initiative and socialcooperation. It uses the skills ofall the people of the village.This is a practical way to sim-plify life.

The government is alsoworking on this method to ful-fill the dreams of the poor.Prime Minister Modi praisedthe painting made at GulabSingh's residence. Gulab Singhsaid that it is Mandna, which ismade to decorate house in thisregion.

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A46-year-old man was founddead under suspicious cir-

cumstances at Shirdipuramunder Kolar police station areaon Friday. The man had diedaround ten days ago, said police.

After the locals found smellemanating from the house,police were informed and apolice team rushed to the spotand made forced entry into thehouse by breaking windowglass pan only to find man deadinside. The deceased was iden-tified as Nitin Dable.

After the preliminary inves-tigation, the body was sent forthe post mortem. The policehave registered a case underSection 174 of the CrPC andhave started further investiga-tion.

Police said that thedeceased died around 10 daysago and body has been sent forpost mortem. The deceased

was suffering from mental ill-ness and his family membersused to live in another house inKolar.

The deceased used to workwith AG Office and used to livewith his mother and family ofhis elder brother. In the monthof April and May he got trans-ferred to Gwalior and as hismental condition was not goodhis mother and family of elderbrother shifted in a rentedhouse.

Meanwhile, a 61-year-oldman was found dead in AshokaGarden area on Friday; a sharpedged weapon was found nearthe spot, said police.

The deceased identified asRamkishan was found in aninjured state and when taken tohospital he was declared dead.Police have started investiga-tion that it was Ramkishan waskilled or it was a suicide. Hewas suffering from mental ill-ness.

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In a shocking incident, aration scam of around �50

crore was unearthed in Mhowtehsil of Indore district onSaturday. An FIR has beenlodged against all thoseinvolved in the scam.

Collector Manish Singhreached the Mhow SDM officeon Saturday and exposed thescam. More than 600 quintalrice of PDS was recovered fromthe warehouse of Joyful Traders.

Considering the serious-ness of the case, an inquiryteam was formed and in theprima facie fact was revealedthat Mohanlal Aggarwal, alongwith his associate businessmenAyush Agarwal and MukeshAggarwal did manipulation inthe ration meant for distribu-tion at fair price shops.

During initial investiga-tion, it was found that theirtransport bills were sent byMohanlal Aggarwal to the fairprice shops and the receipt ofthe full bills was signed whileonly 8-10 quintal of the goodsreached at the ration shops (fairprice shops).

This grain scam is a State-level scam and is connected tovarious districts of MP includ-ing Balaghat Mandla andNeemuch. Main accused andmastermind of grain scam is atransporter of MP state civil

supply corporation Mohan LalAgrawal who had the contractof supplying PDS grains to dif-ferent controls but the grainsbag after reaching to the con-trol were again sent back to theprivate godown of MohanlalAgrawal by the control owners. Mohanlal Agrawal pri-vate go down is given to him onrent by Mhow Krishi Upajmandi and is located adjacentto MP state civil supply corpo-ration go down.

Few days back a complaintof people of Mhow not receiv-ing the grains reached to MhowSDM Abhilash Mishra who inturn suddenly examined theprivate go down of MohanlalAgrawal and around 650 bagsof government rice was confis-cated at his go down. Further

when SDM Abhilash Mishravisited the different controlshops of Mhow tehsil area hefound that the quality of rice atthe control were poor and it wasdifferent from the good quali-ty of rice issued by the govern-ment for public distribution.

On further investigation itwas found that MohanlalAgrawal his sons Mohit andTarun Agrawal and other twobusinessman of Mhow AyushAgrawal owner of firm AyusFood and Lokesh Agrawalowner of firm Lokesh KumarSardanand and owners of fourdifferent Government controluse to work like a team and useto manipulate the Governmentgrains and were also sending itto different businessman ofMandla Neemuch and Balaghatfor sale in open market.

The administration is alsoinvestigating the role ofemployees of food department,Krishi Upaj mandi and MPstate civil supply because with-out their support the grainscam of such a magnitude is notpossible.

The administration hasregistered FIR against MohanlalAgrawal his sons Mohit andTarun, two business man AyushAgrawal and Lokesh Agrawaland owner of 4 control shops inKishanganj and Badgondapolice stations of Mhow tehsil.

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Piplani police has booked aproperty dealer for fraudu-

lently selling property and dup-ing a woman to the tune of �7lakh. The accused collectedmoney and never providedownership.

Police said that the victimSunita Choudhary was dupedby operator of SQC builder BKSingh who sold a plot havingarea 800 sqft at Sharawankantaestate but never transferredownership.

The victim in her com-plaint stated that she would beprovided with a land measur-ing 800 sqft at Rs 2 7 lakh inSharawankanta estate andaccused demanded for makingpayment in which the dealwas done in the year 2010.

Later, when the victimwent for obtaining ownershipby transferring the ownershipshe found that the accused used

to escape with excuses afterwhich she asked for refund ofmoney or provide other landwhich was refused by theaccused. When the victimfailed to get money or land shelodged a complaint, followingwhich police have registered acase of fraud against theaccused.

Earlier, the victim, alongwith other victims, lodgedcomplaint against the accusedbut no action was taken. Thevictim lodged complaint withthe Piplani and a case was reg-istered against the accused.

The victim is a resident ofSaket Nagar who wanted to buyland near Sonagiri area andcame into contact with theaccused who duped her in thename of providing land on thedesired place in the area. Policesuspects that more victimshave been duped by theaccused by selling same prop-erty to different people.

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A reward of �10,000 hasbeen declared on provid-

ing information about the twobike-borne miscreants whorobbed a gold chain worth�40,000 from a 61-year-oldwoman at Awadhpuri in theafternoon on Friday.

Police said the victim,Savitri Thakur, was relieved ofher gold chain while she wasworking inside her house.

The incident took place inthe afternoon when the victimwas working and while she wasbusy, the two bike-borne mis-creants came and robbed her ofher gold chain. The victimlodged a complaint with the

Awadhpuri police. Shocked at the attack, the

victim raised an alarm but themiscreants managed to escape.The victim is a resident ofShyamapalli Colony. The policehave registered a case undersection 392 of the IPC and havestarted further investigation.

Later, the police circulatedCCTV footage of the miscre-ants who escaped on a bike.

The police patrolling par-ties and outposts were alertedbut the accused managed toescape with the gold chain.After the police failed to trackthe bike-borne miscreants, areward to provide whereaboutsof the miscreants was declared.

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Chief Minister Shivraj SinghChouhan said that he will

leave no stone unturned for thedevelopment of Sumawali. Nopoor will remain hungry. Allpoor families will be identifiedand given ration. The StateGovernment will identify everypoor and give foodgrain slips tothem and provide them rationat the rate of Re1 per kg. A mas-sive campaign is being launchedfor this from September 16.

Chief Minister Chouhanwas addressing the programmeorganised for the bhoomi pujanand dedication of developmentworks in Chhaira village ofSumavali assembly constituen-cy in Morena district.

Chouhan, Union Ministerfor Agriculture, Panchayati Rajand Rural Development, ShriNarendra Singh Tomar, RajyaSabha MP Jyotiraditya Scindiaand State’s Public HealthEngineering Minister AidalSingh Kanshana jointly dedi-cated and performed the bhoo-mi pujan of the developmentworks worth �68 crore.

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh

Chouhan said that the ChambalAtal Progress-Way will be builtat a cost of about Rs 8500crores. It will provide employ-ment to the youth of Chambalregion. He said that a sports sta-dium will also be constructed forchildren.

The government has alsodecided to restart the SambalYojana for the welfare of farm-

ers and poor. Similarly, the gov-ernment has resumed theschemes started to help childrenof economically weaker familiesin higher education. TheGovernment will pay the fees forpoor children who wish to studyin IITs, IIMs and medical insti-tutions etc.

He said that the recruitmentprocess would be started soon.

To ensure that women do notface problems, water will bemade available through taps inevery house.

Union Minister NarendraSingh Tomar said that ChiefMinister Shivraj Singh Chouhanis a sensitive public servant whoworks in the interest of the pub-lic. He is working for the welfareof every class. The state gov-ernment is operating severalschemes for the welfare of farm-ers, labourers, poor, womenand children. He said that he willleave no stone unturned in thedevelopment of the region.

Today, he has given a gift tothe region by performing bhoo-mi pujan and dedicating devel-opment works costing about �68crores here. Work is being donefor education, health, road con-struction, electricity, tap waterfor every house etc.

Rajya Sabha MP JyotiradityaScindia said that dedication andbhoomi pujan is being done forthe development of Sumavali onSaturday. He said that today theChief Minister has opened newdoors for the development of thearea by gifting these develop-ment works.

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The Prime Minister of India,Narendra Modi has seen

poverty and knows when theweather behaves harsh andcircumstances faced by familyliving in the mud house have toface and never did a poor per-son think that the dream of aroof for his family will be ful-filled but PM Modi has madethe dream true of families byproviding permanent houses inin different gram panchayatssaid Protem SpeakerRameshwar Sharma.

Sharma said that the plan-et has been entered by the ben-eficiaries today in 165 newlyconstructed Prime Minister's

houses in various gram pan-chayats of Hazur assembly.

The process of housingconstruction is going on con-tinuously. The resolution ofproviding houses will be ful-filled to every poor.

Many public representativeleaders who work in the polit-ical social field, never thoughtthat the government wouldbuild a permanent house. Butcertainly the Prime Minister,Narendra Modi showed thisunimaginable work, today,through the Prime MinisterHousing Scheme in India, mil-lions of families could get ahouse.

This was stated by theProtem Speaker of Madhya

Pradesh Legislative AssemblyRameshwar Sharma whileaddressing the beneficiarieson the occasion of providingpossession of houses con-structed under the PradhanMantri Awas Yojana inMendori.

The providing of posses-sion of 1.75 houses built in dif-ferent gram panchayats wasdone. In the same sequence, inthe newly built 3 PrimeMinister's residence in villageMendori of Huzur constituent.He said that Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and MadhyaPradesh Chief Minister ShivrajSingh Chauhan are constantlyworking for the up liftment ofvillage-poor-farmer-youth.

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The Central Study Team,which came to take stock of

the damage caused by excessrainfall and floods in the State,has lauded the promptnessshown in moving people fromflood-affected areas to saferplaces and the ongoing reliefworks. The members of theteam said that it is indeed anoverwhelming fact that despitesuch extreme rainfall and floodsituation, no casualties werereported.

There has been loss ofcrops, houses, livestock, butpeople in the flood affectedareas have faith that their loss-es will be compensated and thestate government will re-estab-lish the arrangements as soonas possible.

The team lauded the floodrelief management at the dis-trict level. The Central StudyTeam expressed this view in ameeting with the ChiefSecretary Iqbal Singh Bains inMantralaya after visiting themost affected districts of rainsand floods including Raisen,Sehore, Hoshangabad, Hardaand Dewas.

Chief Secretary Iqbal SinghBains urged that a separate cen-tral team should be sent ontour of the state as soon as pos-sible to assess the loss of cropsdue to insect diseases. He saidthat with this the team willenable direct observation of theaffected crops which will helpthe central government inpractical assessment of lossesfor fixing proper relief.

Members of the CentralStudy Team said that it is clear

from the beginning during thevisits to the districts that therehas been large scale loss ofcrops, houses, livestock andinfrastructure. Water logging inthe fields has damaged soybeanas well as paddy crop. Apartfrom damage from excess rainand floods, insect disease hascaused more damage to crops.This requires separate assess-ment. If necessary, the teamwill once again visit the state.

The Central Inter-Ministerial Team led by JointSecretary, Union Ministry ofHome, Ashutosh Agnihotri,includes Director, UnionMinistry of Finance ShriSubhash Chandra Meena,

Director of Union Ministry ofAgriculture A.K. Tiwari,Superintending Engineer ofUnion Jalshakti Ministry ManojTiwari, SuperintendingEngineer of Union Ministry ofRoad Transport Sumit Kumarand Director (NRLM) of UnionMinistry of Rural DevelopmentSaurabh Kumar Dube.

State AgriculturalProduction Commissioner,K.K. Singh, Additional ChiefSecretary Water Resources S.N.Mishra, Principal SecretaryFarmers Welfare Ajit Kesari,Principal Secretary RevenueManish Rastogi and other offi-cials were present in the meet-ing.

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Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) president Adesh

Gupta slammed the KejriwalGovernment for not imple-menting Ayushman BharatYojana in Delhi.

Why such yojana which pro-vides health insurance of Rs 5lakh to the poor was stoppedfrom being implemented by theDelhi Government, he asked?“Who is responsible for poorpeople who died without treat-ment due to lack of money? Whois responsible for those whocould not get treatment,” he said.

Gupta said Kejriwal shouldknow that in the States wherethis scheme has been imple-mented, more than 1 crore peo-ple have taken advantage of it sofar. “More than 12.54 crore peo-ple have been issued e-cards ofAyushman Bharat Yojana andmore than 20 thousand hospi-tals have been listed,” he said.

The BJP president said that

the Kejriwal government frombeing implemented in Delhistopped even such an importantscheme. He said that if thisscheme were implemented inDelhi, 50 lakh people of 10 lakhfamilies would have benefiteddirectly. “They could have gothealth insurance of up to Rs 5lakh under the AyushmanBharat Yojana in Delhi.Beneficiaries could have gotfree treatment up to Rs 5 lakh inthe Corona period,” he said.

Gupta said this is not the firsttime that the KejriwalGovernment has deprived peo-ple of their rights. “The Kejriwalgovernment did the same withthe Pradhan Mantri AwasYojana. This scheme was also notallowed to be implemented inDelhi, whose consequences arebeing faced by 48 thousandslum-dwellers of Delhi today. Itis because of the Kejriwal gov-ernment that today 48000 slumdwellers are about to lose theirhome,” he said.

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Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)chief spokesperson

Saurabh Bhardwaj on Saturdaysaid that a massive scam tookplace in BJP-ruled UttarPradesh in the name of pro-curement of medical itemsduring Covid-19.

Bhardwaj demanded anindependent probe into thematter. Bhardwaj said that in

Uttar Pradesh, corruption wasbeing done by increasing theprice of thermometers andoximeters by 500, 400 and 300per cent at 65 districts.

“The BJP MLA DevmaniDwivedi wrote a letter to CMYogi's Principal Secretaryregarding the procurement ofmedical items at a much high-er price at Sultanpur. Bhardwajsaid that Sultanpur DistrictMagistrate immediately held a

press conference, stating thepurchase of medical equip-ment followed the instruc-tions of the government andrubbished the allegations ofBJP MLA,” he said.

Bhardwaj said that screen-shots of WhatsApp sent by theMLA show how the DistrictMagistrates were pressurizingthe panchayats to pay themoney for the equipmentquickly.

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A36-year-old man who was abscondingsince 2015 after threatening to bomb a mar-

riage pandal if the owner failed to pay Rs. 15lakh has been arrested from Rampur in UttarPradesh.

Police said that the accused identified asVishnu was declared as a proclaimed offenderin the case by a Delhi court in 201. He wasarrested from his village in Rampur district ofUttar Pradesh on September 4 with the help oftechnical surveillance.

According to a senior police official, thematter was reported to police in 2015 where inthe complainant, Pranab Seth, a resident of RoopNagar had stated that he was running a mar-riage pandal near wave cinema in the name ofJanak Villa.

“In his complaint, Seth stated that theaccused had been threatening to blast his pan-dal if he failed to pay Rs. 15 lakh,” said the seniorpolice official.

“Based on his complaint, a case under sec-tion 384 (Punishment for extortion) and 506(Criminal Intimidation) of Indian Penal Codewas registered at Rajouri Garden police stationand an investigation was initiated, followingwhich the accused absconded,” said police.

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Providing quality education to all is thedream of the Delhi Government and our

agenda will be to focus on higher, technical andskill education in the next few years, DeputyChief Minister Manish Sisodia said on Saturday.

Sisodia was speaking at the annual day cel-ebrations of Vivekanand College in East Delhiin its golden jubilee year through video con-ferencing. While congratulating the staff for thecompletion of 50 years, he said, “It was a braveeffort to start a women’s only college 50 yearsago in this area and successfully running it forsuch a long duration.” The college was estab-lished in 1970 and is one of the most soughtafter colleges in the Trans-Yamuna area forwomen education.

The Deputy Chief Minister said “I congrat-ulate all the staff members, students, and par-ents who were a part of this journey. VivekanandaCollege under the able leadership of PrincipalDr Hina Nandrajog is well positioned to buildon the excellent foundation of the last 50 yearsto build a world class institution. In the future,when the college will be celebrating its 100 yearanniversary, the second fifty years that took shapeunder this team’s vision should be considered assignificant as the first 50 years.”

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Doctors of Delhi Govern-ment hospitals have

hailed the efforts of ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwal inthe second week of the 10Hafte 10 Baje 10 Minute Anti-Dengue campaign.

The ten weeks long anti-dengue mass awareness cam-paign on preventing dengueurges people to inspect theirhouses for signs of stagnantclean water inside their homesor their surroundings, whichcan lead to the breeding ofmosquitoes that spreaddengue.

The doctors, who contin-ue to remain the backbone inthis fight against Dengue, havecome out in support of theanti-dengue campaign and areassuring the citizens that Delhiwill cope up with Denguetogether.

The Delhi government hasbeen providing free of costtreatment and testing forDengue in all Delhi govern-ment hospitals and has alsolaunched a telephonic andWhatsApp helpline to assistthe general public for Dengue.

Kejriwal launched thecampaign on September 6 byinspecting his residence forstagnant water to prevent the

breeding of mosquitoes.Taking to social media,

had tweeted, "The people ofDelhi had once again starteda war against dengue. On thefirst Sunday of this 10-weekmassive campaign, I have alsochanged the clean water accu-mulated in my house andeliminated the possibility ofmosquito-borne diseases. Forthe next 10 weeks, everySunday at 10 AM, we need tocheck our homes for just 10minutes. Along with savingour families from Dengue, wehave to save Delhi fromDengue. I am sure the peopleof Delhi will defeat dengue thistime as well."

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In order to contain the spreadof COVID-19, Minister of

Transport Kailash Gahlot hasconstituted a task force toexplore the options of contact-less mobile ticketing in busesrun by the Delhi TransportCorporation (DTC).

The move is taken with anaim to avoid physical contactbetween bus conductor andcommuters during exchange oftickets and cash. Further, on therecommendations of the taskforce, DTC is conducting anactual trial of contactlessmobile ticketing from 14 to 21September.

“This trial will be con-ducted on 29 buses of routenumber 534. To publicize andpopularize the contactless tick-eting, posters and QR codehave been affixed inside thesebuses explaining the mecha-nism to download the App andto buy mobile tickets,” theDTC said in a statement.

“The pink pass for womencommuters can also beacquired from this App insteadof paper pass. DTC checkingteams have been deployed tophysically inspect the trial inthe 29 buses on route number534 on all days of trial and getfeedback from the commuters,”it said.

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Delhi International AirportLimited ( DIAL ) launched

India’s first on-site Coronavirustesting laboratory on Saturdayat Indira Gandhi InternationalAirport (IGIA)for arriving international passengers.

For this venture DIAL hascollaborated with GenestringsDiagnostic Centre – aDelhi-based laboratory, which is cur-rently associated with Delhigovernment to test COVID-19samples.

The facility ensures a safejourney of all passengers enter-ing the city or scheduled fordomestic connecting flights.

The laboratory will have

walk-in option to get the testconducted after landing atDelhi Airport. However,International arrival passengerswho would travel without avalid COVID negativecertifi-cate can opt this facility onlineas well and book a slot inadvance.

A DIAL spokesperson saidPassengers will have to providewith their details such as, name,contact details and valid IDproof while applying online forthis facility. They will also havean option to modify the slot incase they are not able to reachat the scheduled appointmenttime.Besides, passengersbelonging to the same familycan book a single slot alltogether through online.

Interestingly, results of

samples collected at the labo-ratory will be declared within4-6 hours to the incomingpassengers. With a negativeRT-PCR test report, passengers cancontinue their onward journeywith confidence.

Until the results are con-firmed, passengers will be iso-lated at the waiting lounge ormay opt to stay in a hotel. Incase of a positive result, pas-sengers will be processed in linewith applicable ICMR (IndianCouncil of Medical Research)protocols by the State author-ities.

This will help the author-ities concerned to avoid pas-sengers affected with the dis-ease from coming in closecontact with those already hav-ing RT-PCR negative report.

Constructed in 3500square feet area at multi-levelcar parking (MLCP) ofTerminal 3, this is the first sucharrangement among Indianairports. Additionally, samplecollection stations have beenpositioned near the arrivalpier.

As the Government ofIndia is preparing to open thesky with the rising air bubbles,the laboratory will be a key ele-ment in facilitating a safe jour-ney for all the passengers.

Based on Ministry ofHealth & Family Welfare(MoHFW) guidelines, inter-national arriving passengershaving RT-PCR negative cer-tificate would be exemptedfrom institutional quarantinegranted by the State authorities

and will be allowed for onwardair journey. This exemptionwill be basis negative RT-PCRtest report for which the testhas to be conducted within 96hours before undertaking thejourney.

However, if the passengercould not get the same donewithin the desired time limitbefore boarding a flight fromabroad, the RT-PCR testingfacility at Delhi Airport willallow them to get tested oncethey have landed at DelhiAirport.

“ A COVID-19 negativereport will allow these passen-gers to take a connecting flightto other domestic destinationsin India without needing to bequarantined in the city,” DIALofficial said.

Videh Kumar Jaipuriar,CEO-DIAL, said: “DelhiAirport continues to be a hubfor international travellers evenduring the pandemic. The pilotinitiative has been taken toensure testing of all arrivinginternational transfer passen-gers scheduled to board adomestic connecting flight postarrival in Delhi Airport. TheCOVID-19 testing laboratoryat Delhi Airport has been ade-quately equipped for testingand sample collection that willbe conducted in compliancewith the protocols establishedby ICMR and NABL. We arealso developing online facilityof RT-PCR test for the passen-gers to book a slot in advancethat will help smoothen theironward journey.”

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Delhi Police Commissioner,SN Shrivastava on Saturday

held a Crime and Covid-19review meeting in the NationalCapital to discuss the law andorder situation and implemen-tation of Covid guidelines forsafety of police personneldeployed across the city.

The CP during the meetingalso rewarded personnel from

Outer, West, Southeast andRohini districts in recognitionof courageous and outstandingworks done by them during thepast few days.

The CP also briefed all theAssistant Commissioners ofPolice (ACsP), Station HouseOfficers (SHOs), ATOs andInspectors of the districts andTransport Range and empha-sised them to address all thecomplainants who wish to meet

them, through video-confer-encing.

The CP directed them toredress the complaints swiftlyand conduct empatheticallywith victims. The CP furtheralso directed them to ensuresafety and convenience of seniorcitizens who are staying alone.

“Beat officers should bedirected to meet them regular-ly to look for their well beingand safety,” the CP said.

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Parents staged protest againstschool management seek-

ing fees deposits in the time ofpoor financial situation of theparents and demanded inter-vention of State Government totake stand on the situationand help parents.

The protest in Ujjainregarding the collection of feesin schools continued and par-ents want M.P. Governmentshould clarify the situation onissue.

The parents of the studentsreached St. Paul's School onSaturday morning about thefees being sought by the school

and the managers closed due toCovid-19 and lodged a protestagainst the recovery of fees.

The financial situation ofparents as the economy of thecountry has hit badly is poorfrom the month of March dueto Corona infection.

The school has been closedfor the last five months. Afterthe lockdown ended on June 1,school managers started study-ing online and pressure wasimposed on parents to recov-er fees.

Regarding which, there hasbeen a series of demonstrationsoutside schools continuouslyfor the last 2 months.

On Saturday morning, the

parents of the students sur-rounded St.Paul School on thefees and demanded not to takethe fees till the school is closed.On Thursday, parents lodged StThomas School and lodged aprotest against the collection offees. Last month, parents inIndore demanded a ban on thearbitrariness of schools by stop-ping the convoy of ChiefMinister Shivraj SinghChauhan.

Despite the assurancesgiven to the parents by Chiefthe arbitrariness of the schoolmanagements has not changed.The case is been in the HighCourt.

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Chief Minister ShivrajSingh Chouhan visited

Morena on Saturday withmany gifts. He said that amedical col lege wil l beopened in Morena, while thebest modern medical facilitieswill be made available in theentire district and Chambalproject worth Rs 135 croreswill be given final shape fordrinking water supply inMorena city.

Along with thisannouncement, Chouhan alsoannounced the constructionof a magnificent auditoriumin the name of former PrimeMinister Late Atal BihariVajpayee in Morena city andopening of a col lege atRithoura in Morena district.

Chouhan along with

Union Minister ofAgriculture, Panchayati Rajand Rural Development,Narendra Singh Tomar andRajya Sabha MP JyotiradityaScindia dedicated and per-formed bhoomi poojan of 27development works costingRs 268.59 crore for theplanned development ofMorena city and rural.

This includes the dedi-cation of 8 developmentworks costing Rs 184.60crore and bhoomi pujan ofdevelopment works costingnearly Rs 84 crores.

Chief Minister Chouhanalso distributed assistance toabout two dozen beneficia-ries under various welfareschemes of the government.

Shivraj Singh Chouhansaid that the central andstate government together

are writing a new chapter ofdevelopment. Prime MinisterNarendra Modi has givenpossession of pucca houses to1.75 lakh beneficiaries. Thisseries of development willcont inue. He said thatapproval in-principle hasbeen given to Chambal AtalProgress-Way project costingRs�round development ofChambal region on the ini-tiative of Union MinisterTomar. Atal Progress-Waywill not be just a road, it willhave an industrial corridoron either side through whichthousands of youth will getemployment.

He said that with theefforts of Union MinisterTomar, Sainik School is goingto open on the Bhind andMorena district border.

Chouhan reiterated that

the state government is work-ing with the basic mantra‘Gharib ki Thali Kabhi NaRahe Khali”.

For this, the governmentwill start distributing rationto the remaining poor families at the rate of Re oneper kg through a massivecampaign on September 16.

He asked the public rep-resentatives and officials pre-sent in the programme tosearch for the remaining eligible families in the districtso that no family remainsdeprived of the benefits ofthe scheme.

The Chief Minister alsosaid that the government isproviding financial assistanceof �10,000 each withoutinterest to those working onthe footpath such as cobblers(boot-polish), vegetable-fruit

sel lers , roadside barbershops, kachori-samosa sellersand other small-scale tradersso as to enable them to dotheir business better.Chouhan said that previouselectricity bills have beenpostponed to reduce the bur-den of electricity bill.

On this occasion, theChief Minister said that thefarmer-friendly governmentis in power in the State.

The Government is goingto deposit Rs 4,600 crore ofcrop insurance in theaccounts of 20.04 lakh farm-ers on September 18 thismonth.

The government has pur-chased mustard, wheat etc.crops from farmers on sup-port price.

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Principals should send pro-posals for the up gradation

and development of theirrespective institutions to thegovernment so that it can beapproved by the governmentsaid.

Higher EducationMinister Dr. Mohan Yadav onSaturday at GovernmentMadhav Science College dur-ing meeting of all govern-ment college principals in thecity.

At the meeting the princi-pals were given necessaryguidelines in relation to workof higher education and saidthat the Government MadhavScience College will be madean Institute of Excellence inHigher Education.

It was informed in themeeting that M.Sc. inGovernment Madhav ScienceCollege Physics (traditional),computer science will be start-ed. Higher education minis-ter Dr. Yadav instructed theprincipal of the institute con-cerned.

Government Madhav ofregional office building of MPBhoj University in Ujjain cam-pus of Science CollegeConstruction was also dis-cussed.

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As negotiations commencedon Saturday in Doha for

bringing peace to strife-tornAfghanistan, External AffairsMinister S Jaishankar said herethe process must respect sov-ereignty and territorial integri-ty of that country. He alsohoped that its territory will notbe used for anti-India activities.

In a virtual address on theinaugural intra-Afghan peacenegotiations, Jaishankar saidthe peace process must pro-mote human rights anddemocracy, ensure interest ofminorities, women and thevulnerable sections, and “effec-tively” address violence acrossthe country. US Secretary ofState Michael Pompeo alsoparticipated in the inauguralevent.

Giving a gist of his addressin a series of tweets, Jaishankaralso reaffirmed India’s long-held position that the peaceprocess should be “Afghan-

led, Afghan-owned andAfghan-controlled”.

Outlining New Delhi’sapproach to Afghanistan, hesaid “the friendship of ourpeoples is a testimony to ourhistory with Afghanistan. Nopart of Afghanistan isuntouched by our 400-plusdevelopment projects.Confident that this civilisa-tional relationship will contin-ue to grow,” he said.

Last month, AfghanPresident Ashraf Ghani agreedto release 400 Taliban prison-ers, paving the way for thebeginning of the long-awaitedpeace process aimed at endingnearly two-decades of conflictin the war-torn country.

India has been a majorstakeholder in peace and sta-bility of Afghanistan. It hasalready invested USD two bil-lion in aid and reconstructionactivities in the country.

It has been backing anational peace and reconcilia-tion process which is Afghan-led, Afghan-owned andAfghan-controlled.

Moreover, India was keen-ly following the evolving polit-ical situation after the US inkeda peace deal with the Taliban in

February. The deal provided forthe withdrawal of Americantroops from Afghanistan, effec-tively drawing curtains toWashington’s 18-year war in thecountry. The US has lost over2,400 soldiers in Afghanistansince late 2001.

India has all along main-tained that care should betaken to ensure that any suchprocess does not lead to any“ungoverned spaces” whereterrorists and their proxies canrelocate.

It also called upon all sec-tions of the political spectrumin Afghanistan to work togeth-er to meet the aspirations of allpeople in that country includ-ing those from the minoritycommunity for a prosperousand safe future.

The external affairs min-istry said Jaishankar’s partici-pation was in response to aninvitation extended to him byDeputy Prime Minister andForeign Minister of the State ofQatar, Mohammad binAbdulrahman bin Jassim AlThani. A senior official dele-gation led by J P Singh, JointSecretary (PAI) in the Ministryof External Affairs participat-ed in the inaugural ceremony.

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Apple is cheaper than toma-toes in the retail market.

Tomato retail prices onSaturday skyrocketed to �85-100 per kg depending on thequality and the residentialcolonies in parts of India dueto disruption in supply fromgrowing areas due to floods,landslides and other reasons.

According to the ministryof consumer affairs data, toma-to prices have touched �100 akg in Aizwal, Itanagar, Tura andImphal while apple is being soldat �50-60 in the markets. Mostof the vegetables are being soldat �60-70 across India whilebanana retail prices are ruling�40-50 a dozen; Pomegrante at�50 a kg and Papaya at �30-40a kg.

In Delhi, Mother Dairy’sSafal vegetable outlets wereselling tomatoes at �78/kg, e-tailer Grofers at �74-75/kg andBig Basket at up to Rs 60 per kgwhile vendors in unorganisedmarket are selling it at �80-85per kg.

At Azadpur mandi, Asia’slargest fruits and vegetablewholesale market, tomatoprices were ruling at �40-60 per

kg, according to trade data.According to tomato associa-tion president Ashok Kaushik,the situation is expected tocome to normal in the next 20-25 days.

“Normally, 70-80 trucksloaded with tomatoes wouldarrive in mandis regularly,which has decreased to 25-30trucks since July end. The newcrop of Maharashtra andKarnataka is yet to arrive in themarket and then only the pricesof tomatoes will cool down,”said a wholesale vendor fromGhazipur mandi in Delhi.

Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan,Jharkhand, Punjab, TamilNadu, Kerala, Jammu andKashmir and ArunachalPradesh are the states withdeficit tomato production.The country produces about19.73 million tonnes of toma-to annually, while the con-

sumption isabout 11.51 mil-lion tonnes, asper the ministryof consumeraffairs data.

“During thelockdown, bigretailers, restau-rants, catering

were all closed, which firstbrought down the prices of theproduce and thereafter thesupply. Now, the demand hasbeen growing on a daily basis,but the supply remains thesame,” said Pradeep Sonkar ofBandil wholesale market fromWest Bengal.

Tomato prices have beenfirm since June and were rul-ing in the range of �50-60 perkg depending on the varietytill the last few weeks.

The rates have again shotup since July end on reportsof lower arrival of the newcrop from key growing States.Not only tomatoes, all veg-etables including are pinchingthe common man duringCovid 19 when people are fac-ing salary cut and loss of jobsacross India. Potato retailprices have touched �40 a kgin several States.

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Hyderabad-based BharatBiotech on Saturday said

that its Covid-19 vaccine can-didate, Covaxin, has success-fully completed phase I animaltrials and the results showedthe shot’s “remarkableimmunogenicity and protec-tive efficacy”.

Covaxin is one of thefrontrunners in the race for aCovid-19 vaccine in Indiaand developed by the IndianCouncil of Medical Research(ICMR) and Bharat Biotech, isbeing tested at 12 institutesacross India. The drug makersaid the data from the studyon primates substantiate theimmunogenicity of the vac-cine candidate.

“Bharat Biotech proudlyannounces the animal studyresults of COVAXIN - Theseresults demonstrate the pro-tective efficacy in a live viral

challenge model,” the compa-ny tweeted.

It also said in a statementhere that it developed andassessed the protective effica-cy and immunogenicity of aninactivated Sar-CoV-2 vac-cine (BBV152) or Covaxin inrhesus macaques. Twentymacaques were divided intofour groups of five animalseach, it said.

“One group was adminis-tered a placebo while threegroups were immunised withthree different vaccine candi-dates at 0 and 14 days. All themacaques were challengedwith SARS-CoV-2 14 daysafter the second dose. Theprotective response wasobserved with increasingSARS-CoV-2 specific IgG andneutralising antibody titresfrom third week post-immu-nisation,” the drug companysaid.

It added that viral clear-ance was observed from

“bronchoalveolar lavage fluid,nasal swab, throat swab, andlung tissues at 7 days post-infection in the vaccinatedgroups.”

“No evidence of pneu-monia was obser ved byhistopathological examina-tion in vaccinated groups,unlike the placebo groupwhich showed features ofinterstitial pneumonia and

localisation of viral antigen inthe alveolar epithelium andmacrophages by immunohistochemistry,” itadded.

“To summarise, the vac-cine candidate was found togenerate robust immuneresponses. Thus, preventinginfection and disease in theprimates upon high amountsof exposure to live SARS-

CoV-2 virus,” it added.Bharat Biotech had

received approval from theCentral Drugs StandardControl Organisation to con-duct the Phase-II trials earli-er this month. It hadannounced in June that itsuccessfully developedCovaxin in collaboration withICMR and the NationalInstitute of Virology (NIV).

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Amid record surge in theCoronavirus cases on

Saturday, the Union HealthMinistry found solace in therecoveries being reported.

With its focussed strategiesand measures, India has beencontinuously reporting highernumber of recoveries. India hasscaled yet another peak today,tweeted the Ministry. Thehighest ever single day recov-eries of 81,533 have been reg-istered in the last 24 hours.

“The gap between the per-centage of Recovered Cases

and percentage of Active Casesprogressively growing wide.More than 3/4 of total cases(more than 36Lakhs ) recov-ered & discharged,” it said inthe tweet.

The active cases in thecountry are known to be onlya “small portion”, which is lessthan one-fourth of total cases,it said.

A senior official said thatat least 60 per cent of the totalrecovered cases were beingreported from five States, viz.Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu,Andhra Pradesh, Karnatakaand Uttar Pradesh.

Maharashtra has alonecontributed more than 14,000and Karnataka has contributedmore than 12,000 to the newsingle day recoveries.

With this, the total numberof recoveries has crossed 36lakh (3,624,196)taking therecovery rate to 77.77 per cent,said the official.

In the past 24 hours,1,201deaths have been registered. Ofthe total deaths, 69 per centdeaths are concentrated in fiveStates/UT of Maharashtra,Tamil Nadu, Karnataka,Andhra Pradesh and Delhi, headded.

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The Congress will opposeat least four ordinances,

including the three related tofarmers, in the monsoon session of Parliament begin-ning Monday.

The Ordinances likely tobe replaced are The Farmers(Empowerment andProtection) Agreement onPrice Assurance and FarmServices Ordinance, 2020,The Essential Commodities(Amendment) Ordinance,2020 and The Farmers’Produce Trade andCommerce (Promotion andFacilitation) Ordinance, 2020.

The main Oppositionparty will oppose it in bothHouses of Parliament.

Congress chief spokesper-son Randeep Surjewala saidthere are several errors in TheBanking Regulation(Amendment) Ordinance,2020.

Al leging that theOrdinances would subjugatethe farmers “at the altar of ahandful of crony capitalists”and were a “death knell” for

agriculture, the party asserted that it wi l l oppose the legislation bothinside and outside Parliament and reachout to like-minded parties toput up a joint resistance onthe issue.

The Modi Governmenthas promulgated 11 ordi-nances and will seek toreplace them with bills in thef o r t h c o m i n gsession that starts fromSeptember 14.

An ordinance has a shelflife of six months and needsParliament’s approval to makethe law permanent.

The amendments in thefarm-related laws were rolledout in June to help farmersamid the tough pandemiccrisis.

The Ordinance aimed toimprove upon the country’sfarm sector as the Centrechanged the six-decade-oldEssential Commodities Actand moved the other twoordinances to remove allrestrictions on farm tradefrom while guaranteeing alegal f ramework for pre-agreed prices to farmers.

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Severely-ill Covid-19 patientson ventilators are placed in

a prone (face down) positionbecause it’s easier for them tobreathe and reduces mortality.However, a new study pub-lished in the British Journal ofAnaesthesia shows that thelife-saving position can alsocause permanent nerve damagein these vulnerable patients.

According to the study,published in the British Journalof Anaesthesia, nerve damageis the result of reduced bloodflow and inflammation. Othernon-Covid-19 patients on ven-tilators in this position rarelyexperience any nerve damage.

“This is a much higher per-centage of patients with nervedamage than we’ve ever seen inany other critically ill popula-tion,” said study author ColinFranz from NorthwesternUniversity in the US.

“Ordinarily, very sick peo-ple can tolerate the position

that helps their breathing. ButCovid patients’ nerves can’ttolerate the forces other peoplecan generally bear,” Franzadded.

Based on this study, 12 to15 percent of the most severe-ly ill COVID-19 patients havepermanent nerve damage.Based on the number of Covidpatients worldwide, Franz esti-mated thousands of patientshave been impacted.

“The injury has beenmissed because people whohave been critically ill areexpected to wake up with somegeneralized, symmetric weak-ness because they have beenbedridden, Franz said.

The pattern of weakness inthe Covid-19 patients caughtthe researchers’ attention dur-

ing rehabilitation since quiteoften an important joint suchas the wrist, ankle or shoulderwould be completely para-lyzed on one side of the body.

“We noticed patients aregetting a lot of pressure at theelbow or at the neck, so we’vemade some adjustments tothe way we position the jointsas well as putting extrapadding under the elbow andthe knee where there is themost pressure,” Franz said.

The most common injuriesare wrist drops, foot drops, lossof hand function and frozenshoulder. Some patients had asmany as four distinct nerveinjury sites.

Some people who are drag-ging a foot need assistance withwalking such as a wheelchair,brace or cane.

“This could mean perma-nent difficulties with walkingor critical hand functions likewriting or operating a com-puter or cell phone,” Franzsaid.

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Prime Minister NarendraModi on Saturday

launched the ‘Grih Pravesham’event in Madhya Pradesh,where 1.75 Lakh Familieswere delivered pucca housesunder the Pradhan MantriAwas Yojana- Grameen(PMAY-G). The launch wasthrough video-conferencing.

Modi said the beneficiaryfamilies who are moving intotheir new houses have gottheir dream home and also aconfidence about the future oftheir children. He said that thebeneficiaries who got homes“today have joined the ranksof the 2.25 crore families whohave got their own house inthe last 6 years and will nowbe living in their own houserather than living in a rentedhouse or a slum or a kutchahouse”.

The Prime Minister saidthat while this strengthensthe hope of the homeless inthe country this also proveshow the Government schemewas launched with right strat-egy and intention reach thetargeted beneficiaries.

Modi said that notwith-standing the challenges duringthe Corona period, work of 18lakh houses has been com-pleted throughout the countryunder the Prime MinisterAwas Yojana-Gramin andamong that 1.75 lakh housescompleted in Madhya Pradeshitself.

He said that on an aver-age, building a house underPMAY-G takes about 125 daysbut during this period ofCorona, it was completed in

just about 45 to 60 days whichis a record in itself.

He said this was madepossible owing to the migrantsreturning from cities to theirvillages. The Prime Ministersaid this is a great example ofturning a challenge into anopportunity.

He said that these migrantlabour took care of their fam-ilies by taking full advantageof the Prime Minister GaribKalyan Rozgar Abhiyan andat the same time worked to

build homes for their poorbrethren.

He added that the poorare not only getting a house,they are also getting toilets,

Ujjwala Gas connection,Sowbaghya Yojana, Powerconnection, LED bulb andWater connection also alongwith it.

He said that schemes likePM Awas Yojana, SwachhBharat Abhiyan are playing animportant role in changingthe lives of rural sisters.

Prime Minister said about27 welfare schemes of theCentral Government arel inked to the PM AwasYojana.

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In a move that might raise thehackles of green activists,

the Union EnvironmentMinistry’s Forest AdvisoryCommittee (FAC) has recom-mended that mining andexploration companies shouldbe allowed to pay Net ProduceValue (NPV) on the basis ofboreholes instead of the presentpractice of paying 2 or 5 percent NPV of the total leased outforest area.

NPV is the upfront pay-ment made to compensate forthe loss caused to a forest andits ecosystem services by aninfrastructure project and isused for conservation efforts.The Supreme Court had in2002 mandated NPV for allinfrastructure projects in for-est areas.

Mining companies used topay 2 to 5 percent of NetPresent Value (NPV) of the for-est areas leased out to them forexploring hydrocarbons. Asper the revised norms whichare yet to get the Ministry’sapproval, the NPV would nowbe based on the area dug up foreach borehole (around 0.1 ha)which is nearly a fraction ofwhat was charged earlier.

The FAC in a meeting onAugust 18m recommendedtweaking of a clause of theForest (Conservation) Act,1980 in this regard.

The Union Mines Ministryhad requested that exploration

in forest areas may be exempt-ed from the purview of the FCAct and hence from priorapproval. The Mines Ministrycalled NPV payments an avoid-able expenditure because only1 per cent of areas explored areconverted to mining. “It wassubmitted that even payment ofNPV at a rate of 2% or 5% isone of the major challengeswhich leads to delay in theexploration/prospecting activ-ities,” said the minutes of themeeting.

However, FAC remindedthe Mining ministry that therate of NPV for use of forestland for non-forestry purposehas been fixed by the SupremeCourt. The FAC also told theMinistry that exemption ofNPV cannot be considered bythis Ministry

The FAC, therefore, rec-ommended that UnionEnvironment Ministry mayconsider charging NPV onborehole basis instead of thepresent practice of charging 2or 5 per cent NPV of the totalforest area in the lease area. Inthis regard, necessary clarifi-cation in FCA guideline 6.8(v)may be issued by the Ministry,said the FAC.

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Activist-lawyer PrashantBhushan, convicted and

awarded one rupee fine for hiscontemptuous tweets againstthe judiciary, on Saturdaymoved the Supreme Courtseeking the right of appealagainst convictions in originalcriminal contempt cases to beheard by a larger and a differ-ent bench.

Bhushan on August 31 wasdirected to deposit the fine withthe Supreme Court registry bySeptember 15 and failure tocomply would entail a three-month jail term and debarmentfrom law practice for threeyears.

In a fresh plea filedthrough lawyer Kamini Jaiswal,he has sought a declaration thata “person convicted for crimi-nal contempt by this court,including the petitioner here-in, would have a right to anintra-court appeal to be heardby a larger and different bench”.

Bhushan, in the plea, sug-gested procedural changes toreduce the chances of “arbi-trary, vengeful and high-hand-ed decisions” in criminal con-tempt cases saying that in suchcases the top court is theaggrieved party, the “prosecu-tor, the witness and the judge”and hence they raise fear ofinherent bias.

The petition said the rightof appeal is a fundamentalright guaranteed under theConstitution and is also guar-anteed under international law

and this would act as a “vitalsafeguard against wrongfulconviction and would trulyenable the provision of truth asa defence”.

The plea, to which theMinistry of Law and Justice andthe Registrar of the apex courthave been made parties, hasalso sought a direction forframing rules and guidelines“providing for intra-courtappeal against conviction inoriginal criminal contemptcases”.

Under the present statuto-ry scheme, a person convictedfor the criminal contempt hasthe right to file review petitionagainst the judgement and thatplea is decided in chambers bythe bench usually without hear-ing the contemnor.

Bhushan said his petitionhas been filed for the enforce-ment of fundamental rightsguaranteed under Articles 14(right to equality), 19 (Freedomof speech and expression) and21 (right to life) of theConstitution.

“That the existing Act andRules, do not bar or prohibitthe prayers as sought by thePetitioner. In fact, it is in thespirit of the

Contempt of Courts Act,1971 to lay down such a pro-cedure. This Hon’ble Courthas in the past framed specialrules to deal with cases con-cerning death penalty and hasalso devised special remedy inthe nature of ‘curative petition’against a final judgment of theSupreme Court.

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The Government onSaturday said it is in the

process of implementing sev-eral international standards onemissions and safety measures,including electronic stabilitycontrol systems and brake assistsystems, in transport vehicles.

The plans are to bringIndian automotive industry atpar with developed nations insuch regulations.

"The government hasembarked upon a transforma-tional programme of imple-menting international stan-dards of emission and safetymeasures in the transport vehi-cles. As such government ismoving on the path of a long-term regulatory road map forthe automobile industry togrow and increase its contri-bution to GDP," Ministry ofRoad Transport and Highwayssaid in a statement.

The Ministry is in theprocess of finalisation of imple-mentation of standards forelectronic stability control sys-tems (ESC) and brake assistsystems for relevant categoriesby next two years, it said.

The notification of ESCfor buses has been issued last

year. "Draft notification has

also been issued for electronicstability control systems forbuses, which is likely to bebrought into force by April2023. We are contemplatinghigher level of safety for all cat-egories of vehicles," the state-ment said.

The ministry has identi-fied certain priority areas forinternational standardisationin this field, it said and addedthese include the tyre pressuremonitoring system for certaincategories of vehicles which islikely to come into force byOctober this year. The stan-dards for vehicle dimensionsand safety of constructionequipment vehicles have beennotified.

Similarly, notifications havealready been issued for sidestands, foot rests and externalprojections of 2-wheelers, itsaid and added these will comeinto force soon.

The ministry said that theIndian automotive industryhas kept pace with thesechanges and in recent years hasundergone a number ofchanges in the domain of pas-senger safety, emission con-troland connected technology.

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Expected fund inflows intoIndia Inc. and the domes-

tic equity market will strength-en the rupee's value during theupcoming short term, sectorbased analysts said on Saturday.

Last week, the rupee weak-ened to �73.55 against a green-back.

"Rupee will strengthen asReliance Retail stake money isexpected to come in by next 2-3 months and more stake buysare likely to be announced onthe lines of Reliance Jio," saidSajal Gupta, Head, Forex andRates, Edelweiss Securities.

"Strong reserves and vocalsignals from the RBI that strongrupee helps lower importedinflation will also support therupee."

He predicted a range of73.50 to 72.75 with downward

bias for next week.According to Rahul Gupta,

Head of Research-Currency atEmkay Global FinancialServices, the previous tradeweek, saw a minute recovery inthe dollar index, which draggedall Asian currencies along withthe rupee lower.

"There are a lot of corpo-rate dollar inflows due in com-ing sessions with Reliance sell-ing its stake," Gupta said.

"Thus, unless the USD-INR spot doesn't consistentlytrade above 73.75, the spot willremain sideways between 73-73.75."

New Delhi:The �90,000-croreliquidity package for discoms tohelp them pay their dues till themonth of March would soon beenhanced to Rs 1.2 lakh crorefactoring in these utilities' out-standing till June, said a seniorofficial. Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman in Mayannounced a �90,000 crore liq-uidity infusion into cash-strapped discoms for paymentof their dues till March 2020.Discoms have been facingdemand slump due to the lock-down to contain COVID-19.

Participating in a webinaron 'Innovation in RenewableEnergy' organised by PHDCCI,Power Secretary S N Sahaisaid the liquidity packagewould cover the outstandingdues of discoms for the monthsfrom April to June also and itwould be enhanced to Rs 1.2lakh crore.

While announcing thepackage, the government hadsaid, "At present discoms havea total outstanding of �94,000crore towards power generationfirms (gencos)." However, laterstates demanded that the pack-age be extended toinclude out-standing dues towards powergeneration and transmissionfirms for the month of Apriland May as well.

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Fair practices regulatorCompetition Commission

of India (CCI) has approved theacquisition of 20 per cent stakein Pharma Co by special pur-pose acquisition vehicle 'Curie'or (CA Clover Intermediate IIInvestments).

Accordingly, PiramalEnterprises will transfer theglobal pharmaceutical busi-ness to its wholly owned sub-sidiary -- Pharma Co. -- whose20 per cent stake (issued andpaid-up equity share capital)'Curie' will purchase.

"The proposed combina-tion relates to the transfer ofglobal pharmaceutical busi-ness (Transferred Business) byPiramal Enterprises Limited(PEL) to a wholly owned sub-sidiary of PEL, i.e. Pharma Co.,followed by, the acquisition of20 per cent of the issued andpaid-up equity share capital ofPharma Co. by Curie(Proposed Combination),"Ministry of Corporate Affairssaid in a statement.

'Curie' is a special purposeacquisition vehicle, owned andcontrolled by investment fundsadvised by the affiliates of theCarlyle Group Inc.

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Retail prices of tomato onSaturday skyrocketed to

�80-85 per kg in the nationalcapital due to tight supplyfrom growing areas, accordingto private traders.Tomato priceshave been firm since June andwere ruling in the range of �50-60 per kg depending on thevariety till last few weeks. Therates have suddenly shot up thisweek on reports of lower arrivalof the new crop from keygrowing states, traders said. OnSaturday, tomato was quoted at�80-85 per kg by vegetablehawkers and vendors in unor-ganised markets depending onthe quality and residentialcolonies. But the governmentdata showed the average retailprice of tomato at �60/kg inDelhi.

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Diesel price on Saturday fellbelow �73 a litre mark

while petrol saw a secondreduction in rates in sixmonths, according to state-owned fuel retailers.

While petrol price wascut by 13 paise per litre onSaturday, diesel rates droppedby 12 paise, price notificationof state-owned fuel retailerssaid.

Petrol price in the nation-al capital fell to �81.86 a litrefrom �81.99 per litre. This isthe second reduction in rates inthree days.

Petrol price was for thefirst time cut in six months onSeptember 10 when rates werereduced by 9 paise a litre.

Diesel price fell to � 72.93per litre in the national capitalfrom �73.05.

Diesel rates had seen their

first reduction since mid-March on September 3. Sincethen, rates have fallen by 63paise.

The September 3 was thefirst reduction in diesel pricesince mid-March when IndianOil Corp (IOC), BharatPetroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL)and Hindustan PetroleumCorp Ltd (HPCL) froze ratesfor 82 days to adjust a recordhike in excise duty on auto fuelsagainst falling benchmark cost.

Diesel rates had gone upby �12.55 a litre between June7, when oil firms resumedrevising prices in line withcost, and July 25.

Diesel price has remainedunchanged in the country sinceJuly 25, except in Delhi wherea reduction in VAT lowered therate by �8.38 per litre. Petrolprice went up by � 9.17 per litrebetween June 7 and June29before hitting a pause.

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India's fuel demand is show-ing signs of stress with a

sharp fall in August, the biggestmonthly decline since Aprilwhen the Covid-related lock-down brought economic activ-ity to a standstill.

Coronavirus surge contin-ues in the country and at locallevels lockdowns continueaffecting a real pick up in eco-nomic activity.

The sales of petroleumproducts (refined productssuch as petrol, diesel, ATF etc)have registered a 16 per centdecline to 14.39 million tonnesin August this year as com-pared to the same month lastyear.

The fall is also over previ-ous month of July at 7.5 percent, data from the PetroleumPlanning and Analysis Cell

(PPAC) of the Ministry ofPetroleum and Natural Gasshowed. This is the sharpest fallin demand since April.

What is worrisome is thesale of diesel has also fallen inAugust. Diesel is considered abarometer of economic activ-ity in the country and accountsfor about 40 per cent of over-all sales of petroleum products.

Diesel consumption, fellby about 12 per cent to 4.85million tonnes in August from5.51 million tonnes in July.

The decline has also beenwitnessed in the case of petrolwhich fell by 7.4 per cent froma year earlier to 2.38 milliontonnes. However, petrol saleshave risen 5.3 per cent from2.26 million tonnes in July, asthe Unlock phase and contin-ued restrictions on publictransport have pushed up useof personal vehicles.

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Amazon sold several itemsincluding essentials such as

toilet paper and hand sanitis-er at inflated rate during theCovid-19 pandemic, said areport by US-based consumerrights group Public Citizen.

Amazon set prices of prod-ucts during the pandemic tolevels that would be consideredviolations of price gouginglaws in many states of thecountry, showed the findings ofthe report released this week.

Numerous examples ofprice increases were found onessential products sold direct-ly by Amazon, it added.

While the e-commercegiant publicly blamed so-calledthird-party sellers for priceincreases, it continued to allowthem to increase their prices,the research showed.

"Amazon claimed that it

took several steps to curb pricegouging," said the report.

"But we have uncovered apattern of significant priceincreases on essential productssold directly by Amazon, aswell as price gouging by third-party sellers," it added.

This report details 15essential products that havebeen sold by Amazon duringthat Covid-19 pandemic withmarkups over the recent priceon Amazon.com or othernational retailers ranging from76 per cent to more than 1,000per cent.

It also details 10 productssold on Amazon by third-party sellers during the sameperiod with markups rangingfrom 225 per cent to 941 percent.

It showed that prices ofmany items increased manifoldbetween May and August.

Responding to the report,

Amazon said that its servicehas "no place for price goug-ing," The Verge reported onFriday.

"Our systems are designedto offers customers the bestavailable online price and if wesee an error, we work quicklyto fix it," a spokesperson of thecompany was quoted as say-ing.

The e-commerce giant'sleadership had earlier alsomade clear that they do not tol-erate price gouging and thatthey will stop third-party sell-ers from taking advantage ofthe pandemic.

"However, it is clear thatnot only are third-party sellersengaged in price gouging, butAmazon itself is selling essen-tial products at significant priceincreases, and in many cases ata much higher price than othernational retailers," the report byPublic Citizen concluded.

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New Delhi: RK Singh, Hon’bleMinister of State (IndependentCharge) for Power, New andRenewable Energy andMinister of State for SkillDevelopment andEntrepreneurship, Governmentof India, today inaugurated ahost of community focusedfacilities developed by NTPC inBihar in the vicinity of NTPCBarh (1320 MW), NabinagarPower Generation CompanyPvt. Ltd. (NPGCL), Nabinagar(660 MW) and Kanti BijleeUtpadan Nigam Limited(KBUNL), Kanti (610 MW).

While inaugurating thefacilities from Patna, Shri R. K.Singh, Hon’ble Minister said“In the past 3-4 years, thePower Ministry has invested Rs11,000 Crore worth of initia-tives for electrification in Bihar,which includes substations,transmission and rural electri-fication projects that we seetoday. NTPC has given gooddividends for every investmentmade in terms of nation build-ing. In the past 5 years, cost ofcoal and railway freightincreased by 40%, but due toefficiency displayed by NTPC,they were able to limit powerprice hike by only 12%.”

Hon’ble Minister R. KSingh further added, “The

organisation has given Rs 257.5Crore, the highest amongstPower PSUs to PM CARESfund. It has given over Rs 12Crore to AIIMS, Patna. NTPCis diversifying its portfolio intoother ways of generating powerand we have a vision to trans-form it into a true multina-tional company. NTPC wasalso given the responsibility forelectrification for the ruralareas in Odisha, which theycompleted well before thedeadline.”

The construction of thesefacilities and infrastructureinaugurated today will makethe life convenient for thelocals, improve access and helpsave travel time.The inaugura-tion ceremony was graced byShri Sushil Kumar Singh,Hon’ble MP-Aurangabad, ShriGyanendra Kumar Singh,Hon’ble MLA-Barh, Shri AshokKumar Choudhary, Hon’bleMLA-Kanti, Shri VirendraKumar Singh, Hon’ble MLA-Nabinagar along with ShriGurdeep Singh, CMD, NTPC,senior officials of Ministry ofPower, NTPC andAdministration of Bihar.

Speaking on the occasion,Shri Sushil Kumar SinghHon’ble MP, Aurangabad said“I would like to extend my grat-itude to NTPC for its CSR andpower generation efforts.

New Delhi: Lt. Governor –Delhi, i Anil Baijal inaugurat-ed Integrated Command &Control Centre of NDMCSmart City through video con-ferencing in the presence ofMember of Parliament –Meenakashi Lekhi and NDMCChairperson – Dharmendra.He also inaugurated SheraMaidan Sports Complex atMandir Marg, New Delhi.

After inaugurating theIntegrated Command andControl Centre of NDMC, ShriBaijal said that it is a smartpackage of technologies toimprove the monitoring andtracking of citizen servicesdelivery in new digital era con-tinued.

He suggested that themaintenance of this high tech-nological asset must be ensuredby the civic body for properperformance in the interest ofcitizens.

Baijal suggested to theNDMC Chairperson to callthe head of other civic bod-ies and agencies of Delhilike MCDs or others to getthe idea for implementing itin the other parts of Delhi.

He was also impressed bythe high standard facilities atShera Maidan Sports Complex,Mandir Marg, New Delhi andsaid that it is not only animportant facility for the fitnessof any citizen but also useful tomake high quality sportsper-sons.

Congratulating the NDMCfor operationalization ofIntegrated Command andControl Centre at PalikaKendra, Smt.Meenakashi Lekhiexpressed that it is a uniquestep in the capital city of thenation for making it a SmartCity as per dream of ourHon’ble Prime Minister.

She said that this smartstep is now becoming a tool forconstant monitoring and track-ing of citizen services deliveryin a smart manner.

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Washington: The US hassigned a framework fordefence cooperation with theMaldives to deepen engage-ment in support of maintain-ing peace and security in thestrategic Indian Ocean, the

Pentagon has announced, asthe Trump administrationlooks to strengthen alliances inthe Indo-Pacific to counterChina’s growing presence inthe region.

The framework for defenceand security relationship wassigned in Philadelphia onSeptember 10 betweenDeputy Assistant Secretary ofDefense for South andSoutheast Asia Reed Wernerand Maldivian Minister ofDefence Mariya Didi.

“The framework setsforth both countries’ intent todeepen engagement andcooperation in support ofmaintaining peace and secu-rity in the Indian Ocean, and

marks an important step for-ward in the defence partner-ship,” the Pentagon said.

The Indo-Pacific is a bio-geographic region of Earth’sseas, comprising the tropicalwaters of the Indian Ocean, thewestern and central PacificOcean.

During discussions aftersigning the agreement, MariyaDidi said the framework willstrengthen defence and secu-rity cooperation between thetwo countries, Maldivian por-tal Sun Online reported.

Mariya Didi said thatpeace and security in the Indo-Pacific and Indian Oceanregion is tied to the best inter-ests of both countries. AFP

Tehran: Iran on Saturdaystrongly condemned Bahrain’splan to normalise relationswith Israel, calling it a shame-ful and ignominious move bythe Gulf Arab country.

Bahrain’s announcementFriday followed a similar nor-malisation agreement lastmonth by the United ArabEmirates, a fellow U.S. Ally. Thetwo Arab nations’ establish-ment of full relations withIsrael is part of a broader pushby the Trump administrationfind common ground withcountries that share U.S.Wariness of Iran. Tehran’s archrival Saudi Arabia may also beclose to a deal.

In a statement, Iran’s

Foreign Ministry said Bahrain’snormalisation “will remain inthe historical memory of theoppressed and downtroddenpeople of Palestine and theworld’s free nations forever.”

Iran’s paramilitaryRevolutionary Guard alsodenounced Bahrain’s moveusing similar language, callingit a betrayal of the Palestinianpeople and a “threat to securi-ty in West Asia and the Muslimworld.”

The agreements by theUAE and now Bahrain are asetback for Palestinian leaders,who have urged Arab nationsto withhold recognition untilthey have secured an indepen-dent state. AP

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President Donald Trump andDemocratic rival Joe Biden

both say they want to pull USforces out of Iraq andAfghanistan.

But their approaches differ,and the outcome of theNovember 3 election will havelong-term consequences notonly for US troops, but for thewider region.

During his election cam-paign four years ago, Trumppledged to bring all troopshome from “endless wars,” attimes triggering pushback frommilitary commanders, defenseleaders and even Republicanlawmakers worried aboutabruptly abandoning partnerson the ground.

In recent months he hasonly increased the pressure,working to fulfill that promiseand get forces home beforeElection Day.

More broadly, Trump’s‘America First’ mantra hasbuoyed voters weary of war andfrustrated with the billions ofdollars spent on nationaldefense at the expense ofdomestic needs.

But it has also alienatedlongtime European partnerswhose forces have foughtalongside the United States, andhas bruised America’s reputa-tion as a loyal ally.

Biden has been moreadamant about restoring USrelations with allies and NATO,and his stance on these wars ismore measured.

He says troops must bewithdrawn responsibly andthat a residual force presencewill be needed in Afghanistanto ensure terrorist groups can’trebuild and attack Americaagain.

That approach, however,angers progressives and otherswho believe the US has spenttoo much time, money andblood on battlefields far fromhome.

“We’re getting out of theendless wars,” Trump told WhiteHouse reporters recently.

He said the “top people inthe Pentagon” probably don’tlove him because “they want todo nothing but fight wars sothat all of those wonderfulcompanies that make thebombs and make the planesand make everything else stayhappy.”

He continued: “Let’s bringour soldiers back home. Somepeople don’t like to come home.Some people like to continue tospend money.”

Biden, the former vicepresident, has sounded lessabsolute about troop with-drawal. In response to a can-didate questionnaire from theCenter for Foreign Relations,he said some troops could stayin Afghanistan to focus on thecounterterrorism mission.“Americans are rightly weary ofour longest war; I am, too. Butwe must end the war respon-sibly, in a manner that ensureswe both guard against threatsto our homeland and neverhave to go back,” he said.

Istanbul: Turkey’s presidenthas taken aim at France’s leader,following French criticismabout Turkish maritime activ-ities in the easternMediterranean that have ignit-ed tensions with Greece andthe European Union.

In a speech Saturday,Turkish President Recep TayyipErdogan claimed that FrenchPresident Emmanuel Macronwas targeting him.

“You will have many moreproblems with me,” Erdogansaid, adding, “don’t mess withthe Turkish nation and Turkey.”

On Friday, Marcon saidthat Europe needed to be “clearand firm” with Erdogan’s gov-ernment over its actions.

France and Turkey, bothNATO members, have been atodds over an arms embargo forLibya and over the situation inthe eastern Mediterranean,where Paris is supportingGreece and Cyprus, who sayTurkey is looking for oil andgas in their waters.

Turkey says it has equalrights to the resources in thosewaters. Erdogan also saidFrance has no right to criticiseTurkey, considering its colonialrecord. AP

Hong Kong: Relatives of 12Hong Kong activists detained atsea by Chinese authorities calledon Saturday for their familymembers to be returned to theterritory, saying their legal rightswere being violated.

At an emotional news con-ference, the group said their rel-atives should be allowed tomeet with lawyers they them-selves have hired, not thoseappointed by Chinese authori-ties, They also said they shouldbe provided with needed med-ications, be allowed to call theirfamilies and eventually beallowed to return to HongKong.

The relatives wore masks,

hoods, sunglasses, jackets andhats to hide their identities infront of the television cameras.

Secretary of State MikePompeo said Friday that the USwas “deeply concerned” that the12 had been denied access to thelawyers of their choice, alongwith the lack of informationabout their welfare and thecharges against them.

“We question ChiefExecutive Lam’s stated com-mitment to protecting the rightsof Hong Kong residents, and callon authorities to ensure dueprocess,” Pompeo said, referringto Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’sleader.

Lam said Tuesday that the

12 must be “dealt with accord-ing to mainland laws” if arrest-ed for breaking Chinese law.

The detention of the 12,who include a 16-year-old boy,follows China’s imposition of asweeping new national securi-ty law on the former Britishcolony, which was wracked bymonths of anti-governmentprotests last year.

Critics say the law amountsto a major crackdown on freespeech and political activity bythe opposition and furthererodes the civil libertiespromised to Hong Kong underthe “one country, two systems”principle in place since it revert-ed to Chinese rule in 1997. AP

Dubai: Afghanistan’s warringsides started negotiations onSaturday for the first time aimedat ending decades of war, bring-ing together delegates appoint-ed by the Afghan governmentand the Taliban.

US Secretary of State MikePompeo attended the openingceremony, which was held inQatar where the meetings willtake place. It’s the latest in a flur-ry of diplomatic activity by theTrump administration ahead ofthe US presidential election inNovember.

The discussions are impor-tant in the search for lastingpeace that will also provide anexit for US and NATO troopsafter nearly 19 years.

The sides will try to tackletough issues. This includes theterms of a permanent cease-fire,the rights of women andminorities and the disarming oftens of thousands of Talibanfighters and militias loyal towarlords, some of them alignedwith the government.

The talks in Doha followthe US-brokered recognitionof Israel by two Gulf nations —Bahrain on Friday and theUnited Arab Emirates earlierthis month.

The Afghan sides are alsoexpected to discuss constitu-tional changes, and powersharing. Even seemingly mun-dane issues like the flag and thename of the country — theIslamic Republic of Afghanistanor as the Taliban’s administra-

tion had been known, when itruled, the Islamic Emirate ofAfghanistan — could find theirway on to the negotiation tableand roil tempers.

Among the government-appointed negotiators are fourwomen, who vow to preservewomen’s rights in any power-sharing deal with the funda-mentalist Taliban. This includesthe right to work, education andparticipation in political life --all denied women when theTaliban ruled Afghanistan forfive years.

The Taliban were ousted in2001 by a US-led coalition forharbouring Osama bin Laden,the architect of the September11 terrorist attacks on America.

There are no women on theTaliban’s negotiation team, ledby their chief justice AbdulHakim.

Pompeo has said he expect-ed the discussions to be con-tentious.

Washington’s peace envoyfor Afghanistan ZalmayKhalilzad said on Friday thatlaunching the talks is an impor-tant achievement, but that “thereare difficulties, significant chal-lenges on the way to reachingagreement”.

“This is a test for bothsides, for the Taliban and thegovernment,” he said. “Can theyreach an agreement despite dif-ferences, in terms of theirvisions for the future ofAfghanistan?”

The intra-Afghan negotia-tions were laid out in a peacedeal Washington signed withthe Taliban on February 29. Atthat time the deal was touted asAfghanistan’s best chance atpeace in 40 years of war. AP

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Moria (Greece): Thousands ofasylum-seekers have spent afourth night sleeping in theopen on the Greek island ofLesbos, after successive firesdestroyed a notoriously over-crowded migrant and refugeecamp during a coronaviruslockdown.

Officials have said theTuesday and Wednesday nightblazes were deliberately set bysome camp residents angeredat quarantine and isolationorders imposed after 35 peoplein the Moria camp tested pos-itive for COVID-19.

With the camp gutted,

Saturday morning found men,women and children sleepingunder improvised sheltersmade of reed stalks, blanketsand salvaged tents. Thousandsgathered for a protest todemand to be allowed to leavethe island.

Mostly children andwomen stood at the front ofcrowed as the protest gotunderway peacefully as riotpolice observed. Participantsheld up banners with sloganswritten on pieces of cardboardor sheets.

“We need peace & freedom.Moria kills all lives,” read one.

Leaving the island wouldrequire a bending of EuropeanUnion rules, under which asy-lum-seekers reaching Greece’sislands from Turkey must staythere until they are eithergranted refugee status ordeported back to Turkey.

The Moria camp was builtto house around 2,750 peoplebut was so overcrowded thatthis week’s fires left morethan 12,000 in need of emer-gency shelter on Lesbos. Thecamp had long been held upby critics as a symbol ofEurope’s failings in migrationpolicy. AP

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Tehran: Iran said it executed awrestler on Saturday for mur-dering a man during a wave ofanti-government protests in2018, drawing widespread con-demnation and eliciting shockfrom the International OlympicCommittee.

Navid Afkari, 27, was exe-cuted at a prison in the south-ern city of Shiraz, provincialprosecutor general KazemMousavi was quoted as sayingon state television’s website.

Afkari had been foundguilty of “voluntary homicide”for stabbing to death HosseinTorkman, a water departmentemployee, on August 2, 2018,the judiciary said.

Shiraz and several otherurban centres across Iran hadbeen the scene that day of anti-government protests and

demonstrations over econom-ic and social hardship.

The International OlympicCommittee said it was“shocked” by the execution andthat it was “deeply upsetting”that pleas by athletes around theworld and international bodieshad failed to halt it.

“Our thoughts are with thefamily and friends of NavidAfkari,” the IOC said in a state-ment. London-based rightsgroup Amnesty Internationalsaid the “secret execution” wasa “horrifying travesty of justicethat needs immediate interna-tional action”.

Reports published abroadsay Afkari was convicted on thebasis of confessions aired ontelevision after being extractedunder torture, prompting onlinecampaigns for his release.

Amnesty has repeatedlycalled on Iran to stop broad-casting videos of “confessions”by suspects, saying they “violatethe defendants’ rights”.

The judiciary’s MizanOnline news agency deniedthe accusations.

According to Amnesty,Afkari’s two brothers Vahidand Habib are still in the sameprison where he had beendetained.

The death sentence hadbeen carried out at “the insis-tence of the victim’s family”, saidMousavi, the prosecutor generalfor Fars province.

Afkari's lawyer, HassanYounessi, tweeted that a num-ber of people in Shiraz were tomeet on Sunday with the slainworker's family to ask for theirforgiveness. AFP

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Australian pacer JoshHazlewood insisted it was a

case of “onwards and upwards”after he starred in a 19-run winover world champions Englandin the first ODI at Old Traffordon Friday.

Hazlewood took a miserly3-26 from his maximum 10overs that stifled England’s pur-suit of a target of 295 from theoutset, removingopener Jason Royand Test skipperJoe Root for sin-gle figure scoresas the hosts limped to 22-2 offthe first 10 overs.

This was Australia’s first50-over match against Englandsince a crushing eight-wicketdefeat by their arch-rivals in thesemi-finals of last year’s WorldCup at Edgbaston.

Hazlewood, however, didn’tplay in that match after beingcontroversially omitted fromthe World Cup squad, with theselectors instead wanting him toregain full fitness following aback injury for the subsequentAshes in England.

Asked if the way he bowledon Friday made his World Cupabsence all the more painful,Hazlewood replied: “Nah it’sonwards and upwards. That’s along time ago now, so alwayslooking forward.”

The 29-year-old was close tounplayable during a stunningopening spell of two wickets forfive runs in six overs.

“England’s top order is prob-ably the form top order in the

world in the last three or fouryears, so I guess going againstthem is a good measure ofwhere you’re at,” Hazlewoodsaid after what was justAustralia’s third win in 14 ODIsagainst their oldest foe. “Tokeep them down to 20-odd fortwo in the first 10 was great.”

Meanwhile England cap-tain Eoin Morgan saidHazlewood had enjoyed a “dayout” after his side went 1-0 downin a three-match series thatcontinues on Sunday.

“They (Australia) were out-

standing, incredibly accurateand they got the ball moving,” hesaid. “It’s not often it happens tous.”

‘KEEPING STOKESY’S CHAIR WARM’Sam Billings kept England

in the game with 118, his maid-en ODI hundred, after sharinga century partnership withJonny Bairstow (84) followingthe hosts’ collapse to 57-4.

Billings was the only mem-ber of England’s XI on Friday notinvolved in the World Cupsquad, with his inclusion owing

much to star all-rounder BenStokes still being on compas-sionate leave with his ill father.

Billings, reflecting on his“mixed feelings” at making ahundred in a losing cause, toldSky Sports he was keen to “keepputting scores on the board”after what was just his 19th ODIappearance in a five-yearEngland career.

The 29-year-old Kent bats-man added, however: “I don’tthink it matters how many runsI get, I know I’m only keepingStokesy’s chair warm for him.”

Morgan, however, insistedBillings had batted brilliantly onthe back of “sporadic” chancescaused by the fact he, as well asJos Buttler and Stokes, had oftenbeen at No 6 instead.

“But today he (Billings)really stood out in a spot that isreally difficult to bat, whereyou can be thrown in at all dif-ferent circumstances,” saidMorgan.

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For two full sets, Alexander Zverevwas confused and listless, his bodylanguage as poor as his winner-to-

error ratio against Pablo Carreño Bustain the US Open semifinals on Friday.

Zverev double-faulted and smackedhis left high. He put a backhand into thenet to cede the opening set and covered

his face with both hands. He netted aforehand early in the next set, thenturned a forlorn face toward his guest boxand put his palms up. When he pusheda backhand long after 1 hour, 25 minutesof play and shook his head, Zverev trailedby two sets, a deficit the 23-year-oldGerman never had overcome. Never hadbeen to a Grand Slam final, either.Done and done. Zverev constructed

quite a comeback, getting his game ingear to beat a fading Carreño Busta 3-6,2-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 and reach the title matchat Flushing Meadows.

Zverev, the No 5 seed, will play No2 seed Dominic Thiem on Sunday, andone will walk away with his first GrandSlam trophy in a mostly empty ArthurAshe Stadium; spectators were barredbecause of the coronavirus pandemic .

“Mentally, I stayed in it. ... A lot ofplayers would have gone away,” Zverevsaid. "There’s no easy matches anymore.Sometimes you have to dig deep. TodayI dug deep, dug very deep.”

Thiem, a 27-year-old from Austria,won a far more entertaining match onFriday night, holding off 2019 US Openrunner-up Daniil Medvedev 6-2, 7-6 (7),7-6 (5). Medvedev held a set point in boththe second and third, but Thiem hung inthere both times and now will try toimprove his 0-3 record in Grand Slam

finals. He has lost to Rafael Nadal at theFrench Open the past two years and toNovak Djokovic at the Australian Openthis February.

“I love these big matches — evenmore when there’s a full stadium, but it’salso great in front of many, many TVspectators,” Thiem said. “To face the bestguys in the world, that’s what I do thehard work for all the time at home andin the offseason.”

The No 3-seeded Medvedevhadn’t dropped a set all tourna-ment until facing Thiem. He’dbeen broken just three times, atotal Thiem matched by Friday’ssecond set.

After conceding first set,Medvedev went up an earlybreak in the second and was two pointsfrom taking it while ahead 5-3 and Thiemserving at love-30, but couldn’t camethrough. Medvedev held a set point at 6-5 in the tiebreaker and falteredagain, even though Thiem feltsomething in his right heelwhile chasing a drop shot.

Thiem began limpingand wincing and was workedon by a trainer before thethird set. His team also sent himsome fresh shoes, but after heslipped behind the baselineon one point, Thiemshouted in German,clearly miffed. Afterthe match, Thiemsaid he was pain-free.

Medvedevwas a pointaway from takingthe third set at5-3, 40-30, butframed a fore-hand.

“I lost themost impor-tant points,”Medvedevlamented,“and that’show hegot thewin.”

Zverev is the firstman to win a US Open

semifinal after a 2-0 set deficit sinceDjokovic did it against Roger Federer in2011 — and, keeping good company, he’salso the youngest male finalist at anymajor tournament since Djokovic was 23in New York in 2010.

Zverev’s first trip to amajor semifinal came inJanuary at the AustralianOpen, where he was eliminat-ed by Thiem, who leads theirhead-to-head series 7-2.

“A great friendship, a greatrivalry,” Thiem said.

A day after a pair of well-played andcompetitive women’s semifinals — wonby Naomi Osaka and Victoria Azarenka,who face each other Saturday night forthe championship — Carreño Busta vs

Zverev offered little in the way of thosecharacteristics for two sets.

“A big opportunity,” the 20th-seed-ed Carreño Busta called it.

Zverev simply kept missing themark, even on neutral balls.

Yet after totaling 25 winners and 36unforced errors over the first two

sets, Zverev had 46 winnersand just 21 unforced errorsover the last three.

“I started taking theball much earlier. I start-ed taking the ball moreon the rise. I started giv-ing myself the chanceto be the one that is

aggressive,” Zverevexplained. “I think inthe first few sets, Pablowas the one dictatingmuch more than I did.This is how the matchslowly turned around.”

Undeterred whenCarreño Busta twice hit

balls right athim duringpoints in the

fourth set, Zverevcould throw his head backand allow himself a widesmile at the end.

New York: Vera Zvonareva and LauraSiegemund stood awkwardly facing eachother, rackets and arms in the air in confu-sion.

Finally, Siegemund turned to the chairumpire for a ruling.

“Are we allowed to give a hug?” she asked.The rules of tennis during the coronavirus

pandemic were the only thing Zvonareva andSiegemund couldn’t figure out in their firsttournament together.

The duo won the US Open women’s dou-bles title on Friday, beating the third-seededteam of Xu Yifan and Nicole Melichar 6-4, 6-4.

Zvonareva and Siegemund collected$400,000 — and also their hug — by racingto quick leads in both sets and holding onwhen their opponents began to play better.

Unseeded after deciding to play togeth-er shortly before the tournament, Zvonarevaand Siegemund found their games workedtogether and plan to partner again at theupcoming French Open.

“I felt like the third match we really start-ed communicating well, we really started tounderstand each other,” Zvonareva said.“Yeah, it just got better and better from thereon.”

Zvonareva, a Russian who turned 36 thisweek, added this title to the 2006 US Opentrophy she won with Nathalie Dechy. She alsowas the runner-up in singles at FlushingMeadows in 2010, falling to Kim Clijsters, androse to a career-high singles ranking of No 2the following month.

She also won the 2012 Australian Opendoubles title but later battled injuries andbegan playing less, especially after giving birthto daughter Evelina in 2016.

As for Xu and Melichar, they finished sec-ond for the second straight tournament inNew York. The pair was runners-up at theWestern & Southern Open that’s usuallyplayed in Ohio. AP

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After leading the TrinbagoKnight Riders to victory in

the Carribean Premier League,star West Indian all-rounderKieron Pollard has joined theMumbai Indians camp in AbuDhabi on Saturday.

Not only Pollard, all theother players Caribbean and a fewfrom other countries have alsotouched base with their teamsafter completing CaribbeanPremier League engagements.

“From the Caribbean Isles toAbu Dhabi The Pollard familyand Rutherford have arrivedOneFamily MumbaiIndians MIDream11IPL @KieronPollard55,”Pollard’s team Mumbai Indianssaid in a tweet.

Along with Pollard, WestIndian Sherfane Rutherford, hasalso joined the squad.

Kolkata Knight Riders tweet-ed that star all-rounder AndreRussell was on his way to theUAE.

Mumbai Indians, will take onChennai Super Kings, in thelung opener of the cash rich T20league on September 19.

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The Adelaide Oval’s onsitehotel is set to serve as

biosecure bubble for theAustralian men’s squad aheadof the high-profile Test seriesagainst India later this year.

Cricket Australia (CA)announced on Saturday that itsnational squad would returnform the current tour of the UKto Adelaide for its mandatoryquarantine period and prepa-ration for the upcoming homeseason, a report incricket.Com.Au said.

Those players not involvedin the Indian Premier League,

as well as coaching and supportstaff, will make the AdelaideOval their home once thewhite-ball tour of Englandconcludes followingWednesday’s third ODI inManchester.

They can train throughouttheir quarantine period at thenew Oval Hotel based atAdelaide Oval.

According to the report,CA also “remains in productiveconversations with stateGovernments regarding arrivaland quarantine arrangementsfor the Indian team, as well asAustralian players returningfrom the IPL in the UAE”.

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The Indian Premier League(IPL) is the right kind of

tournament that allows play-ers to get into the groovenicely, an absolute must beforethey hit the Australian shoresfor two and half months, feelsIndian team’s premier speed-ster Mohammed Shami.

The Australia-boundIndia players will fly directlyafter the IPL concludes onNovember 10 for the much-anticipated tour which is like-ly to begin with a T20 seriesfollowed by four Tests andODIs.

“It would be great that theAustralia-bound players areplaying IPL. It will set thebody and momentum per-fectly by then,” the KingsXI pace spearhead said.

India under ViratKohli achieved the his-toric feat of win-ning in Australiafor the firstt ime in2 0 1 8 - 1 9but thehosts didnot haveSteve Smithand DavidWarner backthen becauseof their involve-ment in the ball

tampering scandal.The duo’s presence would

make the series even moreexciting and Shami said every-one is focused on the tour aswell.

“I feel it’s better that we areplaying IPL before a big series.Apart from IPL, everyone isalso focused on that tour(Down Under). There is a lotof talk about that series. Wewill have a good contest.”

With the IPL shifted to theUAE, the tournament will beheld across three venues ofAbu Dhabi, Dubai andSharjah, comprising 60matches spread over 53 days.

Shami feels unlike in Indiawhere they have to fly all overthe country for away match-

es, the IPL in UAE wouldbe less hectic this time.

“Yes, there’re back toback matches, training,

travelling that’s a bit ofheadache. But it’s ashort format, shortmatches, physicallythere should not beany workloadissue. This time,there won’t bemuch travelling.You will have totravel just abouttwo hours by bus

(when there is amatch in AbuDhabi).”

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Kolkata Knight Riders speed-ster Lockie Ferguson is rel-

ishing the prospect of bowlingalongside one of the world’s bestpacers, Pat Cummins, in theupcoming IPL.

Two-time winners KKRcomprise a heavy pace artillerythis time. Most of the bowlerscan clock 140-150kph consis-tently, with the star Australianrecruit leading the attack.

“We are always nice to theguy who can bowl at 150kmph.Yeah, pace-offs we are surelygoing to have with each other,”the New Zealander told kkr.in.

“I don’t know if you areaware of this fast bowling club.Look, Pat is an exceptionalbowler, there is no secret aboutthat. He is the bowler of the year

internationally almost everyyear. “He seems to be gettingbetter and better and he is stillso young. He is a lovely guy andI am thoroughly looking for-

ward to rubbing shoulders withhim,” the 29-year-old said of theNo 1 speedster in Test cricket.

Back for his second season,Ferguson was training with thesquad on Friday after serving themandatory quarantine.

Ferguson said he’s workingon some variations but his pri-ority is to get back to the grindand bowling again.

“Certainly, in my arsenal, Ipack my yorkers and slowerballs. But I am also working onsome other variations. It was anice little break (during thelockdown) but yeah, my bodyneeds to adjust now from nobowling to lots of training.”

With New Zealand greatBrendon McCullum back atKKR as the head coach,Ferguson said he’s super excited

“Brendon (McCullum) was

definitely one of our heroeswhile growing up. After watch-ing him do so well in the firstmatch for KKR, it was hard notto be a Kolkata fan.

“The team we have (for this

season) is looking super strong.Last year, we ended up sort ofmid-table, so hopefully, thisyear we will get a chance toimprove on that performance,”he said.

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Former India pacer MunafPatel and West Indians

Chris Gayle and Daren Sammyare among 150-odd overseasplayers to go under the hammerfor the inaugural Lanka PremierLeague auction to be held onOctober 1.

Former Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridi,Bangladesh star Shakib AlHasan, another West IndianDarren Bravo, England’s RaviBopara and South Africa’sVernon Philander and KiwiColin Munro have also beenincluded for the auction.

Five franchises will play inthe inaugural edition of LPLwhich is scheduled to run fromNovember 14 to December 6.

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/�?�����"���������-?���,������"����%�Manchester: Star Australiabatsman Steve Smith has beencleared to take part in the sec-ond ODI against Englandafter passing a second concus-sion test on Saturday.

The 31-year-old waswithdrawn from the playingXI of the first ODI “as a pre-cautionary measure” after sus-taining a blow on the head inthe nets from a throw-downby a coaching staff memberon the eve of the match.

However, Smith haspassed the two concussiontests, one on Friday and theother on Saturday, accordingto cricket.Com.Au.

Left-arm seamer MitchellStarc experienced some groinpain on Friday. He managedto complete his 10 overs afterslipping on the field but isalso expected to play onSunday. PTI

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7��� ������/������+���������%� ������ �+���������� ���M�������������A����MM:Abu Dhabi: The IPL is set to seeparticipation of a player fromthe USA for the first time withKolkata Knight Riders roping infast bowler Ali Khan for theupcoming 13th edition of theleague.

The two-time winners willpick the 29-year-old fast bowler— pending IPL approval — asa replacement for the Englishseamer Harry Gurney, accord-ing to an ESPNcricinfo.comreport. Khan’s signing will make

him the first USA player to fea-ture in the IPL.

He was part of the TrinbagoKnight Riders’ squad whichremained unbeaten on the wayto their CPL title win. Hepicked up eight wickets with aneconomy rate of 7.43.

Bravo, in one of hisInstagram stories, posted avideo with Khan, BrendonMcCullum and a few moreinside a plane with the caption‘Next stop Dubai’. PTI

Page 9: 1 day ago  · In 2015 Assembly polls when the JD(U) was not part of the NDA the LJP had contested 42 Assembly seats. The BJP chief accompa-nied by party colleagues like …

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Life expectancy has constantly been on therise for the last 150 years in developedcountries, mainly due to better living con-ditions, higher hygienic standards andimproved medical care. According to the

World Health Organisation (WHO), global averagelife expectancy increased by 5.5 years between 2000and 2016, the fastest increase since the 1960s. Lifeexpectancy in India has increased from 49.7 yearsin 1970-75 to 68.7 years in 2012-16, as per theNational Health Profile 2019.

The high life expectancy we face today has ledto a significant increase in the number of seniorcitizens in our society. And they have become astrong and independent segment and a communityby themselves. Parallely, the world has seen a hugegrowth in technology, which now supports andstreamlines many day-to-day activities. It wouldhave been almost impossible to navigate our waythrough world lockdowns and isolation periods if itwas not for the internet, technology-based plat-forms and apps that home delivered conveniencesto us.

Even in the pre-Covid world, we saw peoplechanging their lifestyles and even asset buyinghabits because of the massive changes brought inby technology. Many preferred not to buy carsbecause of apps offering rides on call. From ourhealth to our home and work place everythingbecame entwined in technology. For our SeniorCitizens technology has come as a boon, helpingthem stay at home and be able to handle manytasks. But has embracing technology been smoothfor this segment? We all know many older personswho can barely text let alone manoeuvre mobileapps! In fact, many older adults say they still don’tfeel confident about using gadgets and tech-basedplatforms.

As was recently published, according to thelead author of a study, Shengzhi Wang of theDesign Lab at the University of California SanDiego (UCSD), researchers found that many times“frustration” with new technology made olderadults unsure of their ability to use it, leaving themunmotivated to even try. So, what are these barriersthat are causing the frustration?

● Barrier of Constant Updates and Change: Oneof the biggest barriers that frustrated the elders wasremoval of buttons from mobile phones. They hadadapted well to the “Button Mobiles”, but with thetechnology advancements and introduction of new“Touch Mobiles”, they started feeling uncomfort-able. The Smartphone became an all new beast toconquer and many of them still struggle.

● Barrier of Remembering too many passwords:Although this problem is quite prevalent for all agegroups, but the burden of having a password forevery different app and account affects the Seniorsthe most. Nowadays, it is impossible to get into anyonline or app-based service without the “log in”procedures. Although Google allows accessingmany of the online portals through a single loginaccount, but there are still many platforms outthere that will require a separate account setup. Inmany instances the tech of most mobile apps istedious and complicated, whereas it should havebeen inclusive and guiding. Moreover, Seniors usu-ally prefer to have one password for all their onlineaccounts so that they won’t forget it. However, thisis no longer a recommended practice as it attractscybercriminals and hackers. This itself shouldencourage mobile apps to have simpler ways forlogin.

● Barrier of Fear of making a mis-take: The fear of navigating amobile app indicates that you aregetting old! The main reason ofbeing afraid is making mistakes.Even in the past, the earlier genera-tion used to think twice before han-dling the VCR remote due to thesame fear. Although touch andvoice commands can do wondersfor seniors, we must build confi-dence in them enough to experi-ment with these tech monsters!Like when we buy a smart televi-sion, someone from the Companycomes and give us a demo, Techcompanies should go to that leveland provide doorstep demo servicesfor their mobile apps. Once the fearof losing money isn’t there, rest allother worries can be taken care ofby giving them confidence to hitand try. It’s okay to make a mistakeas long as there is no price to payfor their mistakes.

● Barrier of too many Options: Welive in an era where we have numer-ous choices of products. Eventhough it is beneficial for us, it hasmade the buying process even moreconfusing, especially for Seniors.They can’t select which product isbest for them in a plethora of prod-uct options. There has to be an hon-est and simple grading system whichhelps the elderly understand what’savailable, and how does it rank inquality and service.

● Barrier of Barrier of VisualImpairments: Visual functionsdecrease as people age. The changein visual functionality or the abilityto see details decelerate at the age of55 and above. The age-relatedchanges in colour vision and con-trast sensitivity creates more troublefor older adults particularly whilereading smaller fonts and differenticons in smartphones and other gad-gets.

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The IT industry needs to rede-fine and inculcate new practices tomake tech more inclusive. To beginwith, for the aging population, a

great deal of attention has to befocused on design to support theperformance of important everydayactivities such as transportation,healthcare, and work.

We need to take inspirationfrom “Button Mobiles” and create“Touch Button Technology” which issimple and easy to use. For instance,the recently launched app, IndiaAssist that has been created for theSenior Citizens uses technology todeliver 24X7 assistance to the elderlyvia a phone app. Prototype of usingan Elder-friendly design can be seenin this app. Big buttons, clearly men-tioning what they are supposed todo, with the right visuals, remove alot of barriers that we discussedabove.

We also need to focus on thevalue tech can create in their lives,like assisting them to live an inde-pendent and dignified life. Weshould ensure use of easy and non-confusing language. The new wordsthe Internet has created in our dic-tionary might not make sense tosomeone who barely uses a com-puter.

Apart from that we should helpthe elders understand and takeadvantage of social use of technolo-gy, like connecting with their familyand friends through video calls,building their own community andforums on Social Media platforms,use Whatsapp Groups to stay con-nected and exchange information...Technology should give them theconfidence that they are not alone. Ifand when they would need support,the support will be provided to themat the touch of a button. Not onlythis, tech should help them in man-aging their medication records.Many senior citizens find it chal-lenging to keep a track of their med-ication. This should lead to keepinga track of their health related issues.

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If technology becomes inclusiveof the elderly population it standsto improve their quality of lifetremendously. So, even if it feelsoverwhelming at first to introduceit into your life at a later stage, it is

totally worth the effort of learninghow to use it.

● Financial Management: Bankingand investments are extremelyimportant in everyone’s life. The has-sle of making a trip to the bank,standing in queues and getting yourwork done in crowded spaces is frus-trating for the best of people. For theSeniors, it can actually end upbecoming a heavy burden. Usingtechnology and netbanking simplifiesthis completely and empowers themto manage their finances from thecomfort of their homes. Most banksoffer phone apps now. And thismakes it possible for the elderly toknow their statements, transfer funds,receive money all very conveniently.

● Social Interaction: Video calls area nicer way to connect with yourloved ones. As are emails, whatsappgroups and of course social mediaplatforms like Facebook. With grow-ing nuclear families, many peopleare living alone and as they retirefrom work-life and their social lifedecreases due to health issues, orcost-of-living issues, they find them-selves lonely and isolated. The avail-ability to communicate with othersis something easily accessible viatablets and smartphones. It helpsseniors combat feelings of depres-sion and isolation, which are com-mon to living alone.

● Entertainment: This is a big ben-efit. Once the Seniors learn to navi-gate and subscribe to apps they have24x7 streaming of their favouriteshows and films and music. Withcinema halls becoming difficult toaccess as people age, they have noreason to be deprived of theirfavourite films. In fact, a whole newworld of knowledge and informationopens up too with documentariesand non-fiction shows. Readingbecomes tough as you get older andthe visual media and audio booksdownloaded can easily replace that.● Assistance & Support: This is ahuge and very relevant advantage oftechnology. When parents and ourelders live alone, children are alwaysworried about their support struc-

ture. Now, medicines purchase anddoctor consultation can be doneonline. One doesn’t need to go outfor daily needs. Groceries and otherconveniences can be delivered athome. Cleaning services, electri-cians, plumbers, para-medicalhelpers are all available at the clickof a button. As are cabs and travelassistance. What’s very important tonote is that these services are veri-fied and the personnel are credibleand safe. Once the Elderly are taughtto overcome their resistance to tech-nology and use it, they will love theease of living and social fulfillment itbrings to their lives.

The responsibility of supportingthe agings is collective. The mobilecompanies need to ensure that theyprovide large screen mobiles ataffordable prices. The internet com-panies need to ensure that they runspecific campaigns to target SeniorCitizens and try to bring them intomainstream by providing them wifiaccess at reasonable cost. The mobileapps development companies needto ensure that they create easy-to-use tech and provide a demo of theirproduct at the doorstep of the cus-tomers. Governments need to incen-tivise companies making their techinclusive for senior citizens. Once allthe stakeholders start playing theirroles well, we will see seniorsbecoming comfortable and in factdepending on technology to maketheir quality of life better.

With increasing number of fam-ilies going nuclear units in India,and children living away from par-ents due to professional pursuits, it isnot only a need but a necessity toequip our Elders with friendly tech-nology that will be their safety net.And, this is not just about doingsocial good! Given that the elderlysegment makes for a large part ofthe world’s population, intelligentlyconceived and specialised technolo-gy driven products for the OlderAdult segment would not be a badthing for new businesses and theIndian economy either!

The writer is the founder of India Assist, a startup that has

created a mobile app for thesupport of senior citizens

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THE BARRIERS & SOLUTIONSFOR SENIOR CITIZENS

EMBRACINGTECHNOLOGY

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With no end in sight, the Corona pandemic contin-ues to take its toll on human health. More in termsof mental than physical. The fatality rate due to

the corona infection still hovers around two to three per-cent but the intriguing feature is that the fear of the pan-demic is such that as if anybody who catches corona is goingto die. There are diseases that kill more people than coro-na, yet more people are fearing corona than all the otherdiseases taken together. One probable reason may be thatthere is no certain treatment in sight. Of course, claims tothe contrary are there in big numbers. However, the impor-tant point is the fear of the pandemic and its impact onhuman mind. And the answers are not easy to find. Evenas the International Labour Organisation study finds thatone out of two young people are subject to anxiety anddepression, there are scant efforts to handle this psycodem-ic. The young apart, the old as well as the children, are alsosuffering from the mental distress. The Covid-19 protocolfurther adds to stress and fear. The very feeling that wear-ing mask gives is sickening. People are scared to venture outand are confined to homes unless it is necessary. As weappear clueless about the answer to the pandemic, let us tryto find the solution in the Bhagavad Gita. The lessons may,perhaps, show us the way to cope with Corona fear and anx-iety. Many of us, like Arjuna, are burdened with anxiety andfear of the impending war and seem to have given up. It isthis giving up that is the most dangerous of all the psycho-logical states that leads to most of the problems of mentalhealth. Arjuna, out of fear of adverse outcome, tells the Lordthat he sees little point in fighting the war which he is notsure to win. Rather, in the heart of his hearts, he thinks heis going to lose. It is then that Lord Krishna recites his essen-tial Gita lessons, suggesting why fighting is important, win-ning or losing being of little consequence. So Krishna tellsArjuna to drive away his fear and ready himself for the war.We are in a similar plight in this Covid situation and ourfear is of defeat or death and anxiety of uncertainty of theoutcome. Gita lessons offer the panacea for living in tur-bulent times which in Management jargon is a VUCA world,that is Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous. Theprincipal lessons of Gita can be summed up in the follow-ing basic tenets. First and foremost is to drive away yourfears and submit to God with full faith. The second is toprepare yourself to fight and for this you need to learn tocontrol your mind, which is the biggest distraction. The thirdtenet is to focus on effort and not to worry about the results.Worrying about the results will sap vital energy you needto apply, in order to put wholehearted efforts. The resultsare not in your hands as some other force controls the out-come. You only have right to efforts. But the Lord also saysthat if efforts are put in wholeheartedly and with full faithin God results will be achieved. As the battle with Coronais still on, fear is the biggest detriment in influencing theefficacy of our response. Have faith in God and fight.

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Let me start with the definition ofthe word faculty. It is any of thephysical or mental abilities that a

person is born with. The first faculty Iwill take up is intelligence, because it isin use most of the waking hours orshould be. Lord Krishna has describedthe proper use of intelligence in theverse #18.30 of the Gita, where He hasstated, that one should know what isworth doing and what is not. However,this is not so simple. One must have suf-ficient spiritual knowledge, otherwiseone may go wrong. All our other fac-ulties require guidance.

The next faculty — the mind, is alsosubtle. Its control is crucial for a qual-ity life. We have been alerted in the Gitathat if the mind has not been conqueredby self it acts as an enemy of self. (6.6)And we see this all the time. Take thepresent situation. There is a pandem-ic, and almost the entire world isaffected. But we don’t have to be fright-ened; we can take necessary precautions,especially social distancing, and we willbe reasonably safe. However, such con-trol of the mind comes mainly with thehelp of God. Theoretically, one can havegood mental control, but I wouldrather take help from God.

The third faculty is equally impor-tant because its use must be limited todoing duties and nothing more. I amreferring to ego or ‘ahankar’. It was givento us to feel motivated to do our duties,that is, I will do it; I am the doer; whoelse but I must do my duties. What hap-pens when we cross its ‘maryada’, i.e. useit beyond what it was meant for we getin serious trouble. The worst thing wecan do is not to heed God’s instructionsor account of ahankar. And what canhappen is not very pleasant; we will per-ish. (18.58) How does one protect

oneself from that happening? Onemust take shelter of God, who is theMaster of the universe. (13.13-16)There are innumerable benefits indoing so. One has to do so to realisewhat was being missed. Ask me.

Now I take up our gross facultiesbeginning with the eyes. These are mostprecious. Our eyes are the best tool forgaining information/knowledge. Wecan see as well as read. However, themodern man has corrupted this mag-nificent faculty. This harms both thepsyche and consciousness. Obviously,we should restrain ourselves. I will takeup the tongue next. This faculty wasprovided to us to enjoy what we eat. Sowhat have we done? We have corrupt-ed it as well by eating all kinds of meats.This meat-eating craziness harms theclimate, when we burn forests to growmore grains, which can then be fed toanimals, whom we can eat. There is apossibility that this dangerous virus hasfound entry into human beings this way.

The speech and hearing were meantto help us communicate and sharegoodness. Our eyes and ears are excel-

lent tools to gain information andknowledge. But we waste these facultiesby spewing venom, passing rumoursand creating unpleasant environmentaround us, full of suspicion and aggres-sion, especially on social platforms.

Our hands are best used when theyare made us of, i.e. in extended position.Bending them fully is necessary to eat.Legs, likewise, should be in the verticalposition to stay healthy; keeping the legsup should be restricted to the limitedperiod of entertainment. Sitting downto work or lying down to sleep is fine.These days nose should be kept coveredto guard against the virus. Good qual-ity masks must be worn when in pub-lic places.

Similarly, we must protect ourskin, especially hands to avoid contactwith the virus. Proper hygiene is cru-cial if we wish to avoid getting strick-en. Good care of ourselves and carefuluse of our faculties — spiritual andphysical — can help us lead a satvik andhealthy life.�� ������ ��� ���������+�������������%������

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As a plant needs sunlight togrow, so does our soulneed to focus on the innerLight. Once connected tothe Light and Sound with-

in, we need to concentrate on it toexperience spiritual growth. Dailymeditation is the daily sunlight oursoul needs to grow.

When we learn to meditate on theinner Light and Sound of God, oursoul experiences God’s love for itself,and the sleeping seed of our soul isawakened. Through connection withthe current of Light and Sound, theseed of the soul is watered. This cur-rent reverberates in all forms of life,from humans, to animals, to plants.

Plants need the carbon dioxidethat we give off. Then, the plantsutilise the carbon dioxide and waterand give off their waste, which is theoxygen we require to breathe.Similarly, the seed of the soul needsthe breath of God’s grace to help itgrow. This divine grace is the boostthat helps our soul soar into the spir-itual realms beyond. Thus, we cannurture the seed of the soul by sittingin meditation. There are also many lifelessons we can learn from the garden.These lessons help us grow and thriveon our spiritual journey.

����������������Once we learn to meditate, we

need to practice it diligently.

Unfortunately, many grow impatientwhen they do not see instant results.We live in an instant society. We wantinstant coffee, instant pudding, andinstant oatmeal. We want our comput-ers to boot within microseconds or weget impatient. When we plant a gar-den, we expect to see the sprouts with-in a day. If we do not see the sproutsshoot up immediately, we becomeimpatient. Similarly, when we aregrowing the inner garden of the soul,we need to keep tending it, day afterday, with meditation, even when wedo not instantly see the dramaticresults we want.

Yet, with patience and diligence,we are ultimately rewarded when westart seeing new growth. When we seethe sprouts of Light shoot forth with-in and hear the faint whispers of theinner Sound calling to us, we realisethat our efforts sprinkled with God’sgrace are bearing fruit. Then, thesteady growth of the plant reveals thatall was not wasted. Our efforts haveborne fruit and we grow spiritually.

We do not see the seeds in theground through the long winter, yetwith proper care, they sprout intobuds and then flowers. Similarly, wemay not see the fruits of our medita-tion right away. But with diligent prac-tice, we will find that the blossoms willappear. We will be blessed with theinner vision and inner hearing of thedivine Light and Sound that will carry

us into the inner realms until our soulmerges back into God.

���������The plants and trees in the gardens

of the world cannot move or act ontheir own. They cannot talk, so theycannot ask for what they want. Theycannot walk, so they cannot go out ontheir own to get what they need. Theyare planted in one place with no abili-ty to communicate, move, or takeaction. They are at the mercy of Natureand God. Yet, everything is provided forthem. God provides them with soil,sunlight, air, and water. Whether theyare in a tended garden or out in thewild, God has provided for them forages. If God can provide for every bladeof grass on this planet, can’t we trust thatGod is going to provide for us also?

From the garden, we learn the les-son of trust in God. There is a plan foreach of us. When we do not realisehow much of our life is provided byGod’s plan for us, we spend a tremen-dous amount of time worrying overthings that are bound to happen any-way. If we could learn the lesson oftrust in God, much energy that wewaste in worrying could be used formore productive endeavours.

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Since we do not know what isplanned and what is not planned at

our physical level, we need to do ourbest in all circumstances. We need totake the best possible action, but thenleave the results to God. Even if we doour best, but another result was des-tined, then we need to let go. We canbe confident we did our best, but Godmay have another plan for us. Whensomething is not going our way, weneed to accept that there is anotherplan for us and let go. We did what wecould, but we should leave the rest inGod’s hands.

In a garden, when we have givenour seed fertile soil, water, sunlight, andair, we know we have done our best.How the plant grows then is not in ourhands. It is in the hands of God. If theplant does not turn out the colour wewanted, the size we wanted, or the shapewe wanted, we know there was some-thing beyond our control. We do notblame ourselves for we know we did ourpart. Then, we know that God had a dif-ferent plan for that plant. Similarly, wedo our best in all circumstances, andthen leave the results to God. In thisway, we free ourselves from blame, guilt,or regret. We need to do our best andtrust in God to take care of us.

��������������From the plants, we learn the les-

son of humility. If we watch the treesand bushes on a windy day, what do wesee? We find that trees that resist thewind, crack and split. Trees that bendlow to the ground with the wind do notbreak. When the wind passes, the treesspring back up to their upright posi-tions. Often when challenged by thewinds of other people or winds ofchange, we push back. We resist or fightback. We get into arguments. We mayeven push back physically and get intoa physical fight. We may push back ver-bally and say things that cause alterca-tions or a vicious exchange of words.We may even keep quiet, but mental-ly go into an outburst of negativethoughts towards the person, which theperson may not directly hear but canfeel through the strong vibrations ofanger we spew out. Thus, we intensifytheir initial attack with our ownresponse, and the cycle of violence con-tinues. We should learn to observe howthose trees, bushes, and flowers that gowith the flow of the wind are able toprevent themselves from breaking andcracking. This is the secret of humili-ty.

Let us learn from the garden thesecret of nurturing the seed of our soulwith meditation on the Light andSound of God. Let us learn from thegarden the value of patience, trust, andhumility. We will then experience theeternal springtime as we bask inGod’s blissful garden.

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Man is a social animal and we allremain interconnected. People whoare emotionally and mentally

strong also need social interaction and can-not thrive being islands unto themselves.

This came home to me many years agowhen my neighbour knocked at my door toborrow some sugar. When she was leaving,she thanked me, but said that I made heruncomfortable because I never asked herfor anything, and was so self contained.This made me reflect — Yes, I would dowithout something rather than ask another.Going deeper, I realised that, in my mind,everything was all right if I could managethings on my own. From the outside it wasa perfect picture, but like everyone else, Ihad my frailties, highs and lows. I justcouldn’t show them. It made me feel vulner-able. Yet, I didn’t think any less of a personwhose shortcomings were apparent. Sothere is nothing to be afraid of — the firststep towards healing is Acceptance.

Some things are in our control and wehave the power to take steps in a certaindirection. This will only happen if we takeResponsibility for our good and bad, rightand wrong decisions, without blaming oth-ers. Every situation has a root, triggers, asupport system and help lines. Acceptanceand taking responsibility is the key. We canthen move towards finding solutions.

Be it stress, failed relationships, com-plexes, anger issues, trauma or grief; attimes we are not able to handle our life situ-ations and need help. Art Therapy is onesuch remedy. It uses the creative process ofArt to improve the physical, mental andemotional well being of individuals of allages.

Why Art? you may ask. As PabloPicasso said: “Art washes away from thesoul, the dust of everyday life”. It helps us todisconnect our mind from stress and futilethoughts — helping us find solutions lying

undiscovered within us. Here, it is not arecreational activity, nor is the focus on aes-thetics. It is used as a tool to impact themind in a positive manner. As humans, weconstantly go through different thoughts,emotions, beliefs and attitudes. These canhave a negative effect on our bodies. ArtTherapy helps guide our thought process ina positive way. It activates inner dialoguethat helps us recall traumatic memories,share them and start healing.

Creative methods are used to expressemotions and pain, find solutions and iden-tify false assumptions that govern actions.The next step is to restructure the thoughtprocess with realistic and positive expecta-tions. This helps in regaining control ofone’s life in a calibrated manner.

A minimum of eight sessions are need-ed on an individual basis to address mostproblems. In the case of stress, 2-3 sessionsmay be good enough, and can be conductedin a small group.

The therapist is bound to follow a strictcode of ethics. At the closing of every ses-sion, there is a review and the closure is on

a happy note. This is very important andhelps carry the person through till the nextsession. It is a cathartic exercise where themind and body work in conjunction witheach other. Our mind impacts the health ofour body as well.

To follow a more holistic approach, ArtTherapy could be integrated with otherforms of healing, like Chakra balancing.The whole universe is made up of energy —and so is our body. This energy is our lifeforce — Prana. It constantly spins androtates inside us. It has seven main centresin the body, starting from the base of ourspine to the top of our head. In a healthyperson, these seven chakras provide theright amounts of energy needed for everypart of the body, mind and spirit. Over timesome chakras get blocked through emotion-al upheaval, fear, stress, loss or accidents.When blocks accumulate there is a disrup-tion in the flow of energy and our healthsuffers. Chakra healing with Art Therapy realigns and balances the body, mind andspirit.���+������ �������� ��B����������� ��%� �����6���5��;

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1#������� ��� ��0�������� .�#�����Indeed it is often the case that

my patients are only pieces ofa total situation which I have toexplore. The single patient whois by himself is rather the excep-tion.

The psychiatrist in TSEliot’s The Cocktail Party

Gifted with ability toobserve keenly and sensitivelyhuman behaviour, literary fig-ures, those who penned poems,novels and plays, brought tohuman knowledge many scin-tillating and moving descrip-tions of characters displayingabnormal behaviour. This hap-pened much before abnormalbehaviour became an area ofscientific enquiry. Even psy-chologists believe that literaryclassics while describinghuman abnormality in all itsinfinite elegance often achieveexplicitly representationalaccounts that science cannotarchive. Othello introducedreaders to deep insight intofacets of obsessive jealousy.Euripides in his play Medeadescribed emotions of jeal-ousy and revenge by a motherwho killed her children.Sophocles in Orestes vividlyexplained delusional and hal-lucinatory symptoms stem-ming from severe feelings ofremorse and guilt. The intenseguilt reaction of Lady Macbethafter her having participated inkilling of King Duncan gotexpressed in her symbolic handwashing and turning a som-nambulist. The noteworthydescriptions of “world within”,one can come across in twobooks: one by Thomas DeQuincey in his eighteenth cen-tury unforgettable autobiogra-phy Confessions of An EnglishOpium-Eater and SalmanRushdie’s book East, West. DeQuincey, inter alia, describedthe content of his dreamsinduced by consumption ofopium:

“I brought together all crea-tures, birds, beasts, reptiles, alltrees and plants, usages andappearances that are found inall tropical regions, and assem-bled them together in China orIndostan. From kindred feelings,I soon brought Egypt and all hergods under the same law. I wasstared at, hooted at, grinned at,chattered at, ran into pagodas:and was fixed for centuries atthe summit, or in secret rooms:I was the idol; I was the priest;I was worshiped; I was sacri-ficed. I fled from the wrath ofBrama through all the forests ofAsia; Vishnu hated me; Seevalaid wait for me. I came sud-denly upon Isis and Osiris…Iwas kissed, with cancerous kiss-es, by crocodiles; and laid, con-founded with all unutterableslimy things, amongst reeds andNilotic mud.”

Moving to as recent past as1994, in a story titled “TheHarmony of the Spheres”included in: EAST, WEST,Salman Rushdie portrayed acharacter named Eliot Crane,a thirty-two year man, who wassuffering from what he called“brainstorms” of paranoidschizophrenia. As part of these“brainstorms”, Eliot used tonarrate tales of local Sabbats.He sold his haunted houseand shifted to a new one but ithad not worked. Rushdiewrote, “...the demon had tracedthe number of his (Eliot’s) carlicence plates, that it couldcall him any time on his unlist-ed telephone; that it had redis-covered his home address.”Analysing Eliot’s condition,Rushdie reconnoitered, Lucy,wife of Eliot, “…would phonewith bulletins: the drugs wereworking, the drugs were notworking because he refused totake them regularly, he seemedbetter as long as he did not tryto write, he seemed worsebecause not writing plungedhim into such deep depres-sions, he was passive and inert,he was raging and violent, hewas filled with guilt anddespair.”

One day, Eliot along withhis wife had lunch together. Heappeared joyful, told his wife heneeded rest and would go tobed early. He kept his wordsbut an hour later, though Lucywas awake with “a premonitionof disaster”, she slept soundlyuntil morning. In the mean-while, Eliot used his shotgunand pulled the trigger. Herepeated the history

bequeathed to him by hisfather. The only note Eliot leftafter committing what Rushdiecalled, “this final act of macabresymmetry” was how to cleanand take care of the gun.

It’s interesting to glimpsethrough some of the Eliot’styped and hurriedly writtenpapers containing “inchoaterants against the universe ingeneral”. These included alter-native personal futures “ofextra-ordinary distinction andrenown” for himself or a self-pitying of himself as a geniuslost in obscurity ultimatelyending in agonising illness orassassination by jealous rivals,etc.

While De Quincey haddelved deep into his own men-tal and physical experiencesand thought processes, Rushdierecorded virtually the same incase of his character Eliot.Both explanations deal withconcerned individual’s intenseemotional turmoil, and a night-marish sense of utter confu-sion. These also highlightedunderlying symptoms of vari-ous types of behavioral devia-tions, indicative particularlyof disorders like schizophrenia,bipolar disorders and drugaddiction, etc. De Quincey’sbook and Rushdie’s story pro-vide the world an account ofirrational motivations andimages that come to fore underthe influence of delirium, theinfluence of drugs or severemental disorders when innerrestraints become feeble lead-ing to distortions of percep-tions and an inward orientationaway from reality. These twostorytellers, through their lit-erary creations, exactly do thejob of a well-trained psychia-trist.

The term “abnormal” con-notes “away from the normal”.In case of physical deviations orillness the norm is functionaland structural integrity of thebody and any disequilibrium insuch integrity can be easilymeasured by medical sciencethrough various tests. But isthere any such norm for gaug-ing abnormal deviation?Psychologists suggest normalbehaviour conforms to socialexpectations whereas abnormaldoes not. Another view iswhen a person’s behaviour ismaladaptive i.e when he/she isunable to cope with life situa-tions as he/she sees these,he/she is abnormal.

The word “deviance” or

“deviant behaviour” in the pasthas been equated with bizarreand dangerous behaviour. Oflate with discovery of betterand very effective medicinesavailable for treatment andpsychosocial and family helpavailable to patients, the notionof mental disorders andpatients suffering from thesehas undergone completechange. That is also possiblebecause of realisation that thesedisorders cover a wide range ofbehavioural patterns. Whilesome may be pathological bynature, others need not havepathological causes, but they

have displayed an inability tocope with various problems ofday to day life. Excessive wor-ries and apprehensions aboutfailure in examination by bril-liant students, failure of rejec-tion by young and beautifulgirls for modelling, fear of los-ing jobs, fear of divorce, etc,may be such examples. Peoplenurture “free-floating” sourcesof anxieties where the elicitingstimuli causing deviations inbehaviour are nebulous andpervasive. These people admitthey have no real cause to be

fearful of an object or situationbut they cannot help worrying.These are definitely cases ofcause for concern but wellwithin the bounds of ordinary,understandable human expe-rience. More severe casesinclude examples such as a manbelieving irrationally that hisenemies have plotted a devicefor pouring sludge into hismind and controlling histhoughts or a man who seesdreams while he is awake andbelieves these to be true (hal-lucinations) or who has audi-tory voices commanding him.

Broadly speaking, mental

disorders have been classifiedunder two categories: neurosisand psychosis. Neurotic symp-tom patterns include ailmentslike anxiety involving light tosevere anxiety the source ofwhich is not specific, phobiainvolving various irrationalfears from which the patientcannot obtain freedom, obses-sive-compulsive neurosisinvolving irrational actionsand thoughts which keep per-sisting, hysterical neurosisinvolving amnesia and multi-ple personality, hypochromic

neurosis involving preoccupa-tion with one’s health and mostimportantly depressive neu-rosis commonly called depres-sion involving abnormally pro-longed dejection, internal con-flict and interpersonal loss.However, depression is con-sidered the most common andmost talked of mental healthissues. It is said to be a form of“existential neurosis” indicativeof a maladaptive patternmarked by chronic feelings ofalienation and purposeless-ness. Joseph Cowen rightlycaptures a depressed individ-ual’s state of health in follow-ing lines: “In the slave marketof my melancholy mind Imount the auction block to sellmyself to the highest bidder ofmisery.” Depression is believedto be a “byproduct of our con-temporary society”.

When we move from therealm of neurosis to that of psy-chosis, we enter a far moreserious field of abnormal psy-chology where patients sufferfrom distortions of reality, dis-organisation and fragmenta-tion of perceptions, thoughtsand emotions and withdrawalfrom social interaction. Theprincipal symptoms are delu-sions (irrational beliefs thatpatient treats as truths likeothers are talking about him orenemies are harming him or heis a great scientist and writer orleader) Hallucinations of dif-ferent types (seeing demons orangels, hearing voices orderinghim what to do, sensing irra-tional taste: sensing poison inhis food, etc)

Last century and of coursecurrent one has witnessed useof psychotropic or psychoactivedrugs that have therapeuticvalue for medicinal purposesfor treating mental disorderslike depression, schizophreniaand bipolar diseases. Howeverthe danger lies in concurrentmisuse of such drugs for drugdependence or addiction.Alcoholism being an importantexample. There are drugs thataffect mental processes and thedrugs most commonly associ-ated with dependence wouldappear to be narcotics, seda-tives, stimulants, tranquilisersand hallucinogens. Man hasused opium and its derivativesfor more than 5000 years.Literary figures of eminencehad bragged about opium’s so-called benevolent effects. Let usvisit a few.

Coleridge was unques-

tionably a poet of extraordinaryabilities and imagination. Hesuffered rheumatism. Seekingremedy from excruciating painhe came across what he called“infallible” remedy: opium. Itworked like magic for him; hispains disappeared. He becamealive again. Once he sleptunder the influence of thedrug to be invaded by gloriousdreams and ecstasies.Immediately on waking up, hepenned down a poem knownas Kubla Khan where hedescribed the gardens andfountains, ancient forests andincense bearing trees. The verywords he wrote occurred tohim as he saw them in hisdreams. In the meanwhile, avisitor came to meet him andafter he left, there were noremains of his rendezvous withhis dreams. He kept keenlyexploring the haunts of for-bidden experience. All futile.

Similarly De Quinceycalled the opium selling drug-gist “unconscious minister ofcelestial pleasures” and furthersummarised his experiencesan hour later after takingopium: ‘O heavens! What arevulsion! What a resurrection,from its lowest depths of theinner spirit! What an apoca-lypse of the world within me.’

Citing these is only for lit-erary/academic interest andnot meant in any way to justi-fy the misuse of these legallybanned drugs.

Recently, there are veryeffective medicines available fortreatment not only of milderversions of abnormal behaviourbut also serious illnesses likeschizophrenia and bipolar dis-orders the prognosis for whichuntil quite recent times wasgenerally unfavorable.Psychiatrists and behaviouraltherapists very effectively han-dle serious cases by focusing onremoving the reinforcing con-ditions that appear to con-tribute to development andmaintenance of symptoms.Patients with proper treatmentand family care can lead a nor-mal, healthy life dischargingfamily and social responsibili-ties.

Towards the end, one maylike to pause and visit thetotality of circumstances that isbeing spoken about in TheCocktail Party as cited in thebeginning. World over increas-ing public awareness of themagnitude of contemporarymental health problems may

make it possible to do a con-certed attack on these disorderswith a view to obtain better andmore holistic understanding,more effective treatment andlong-range prevention. Wehave to realise the interdepen-dence among us. If any indi-vidual loses his ability toachieve his full potentialbecause of mental health issues,it is a loss to us both individu-ally and collectively. Societyloses. One cannot forget thegenius mathematician fromBihar late Vashishtha NarayanSingh, who was affected byschizophrenia and the conse-quential loss to society whichwas deprived of his immensecontribution. What anirreparable loss to the world!

It is enthusing that theCentral Government recentlydecided to launch 24X7 toll-free mental rehabilitationhelpline KIRAN in thirteenlanguages that will definitely goa long way in providing muchneeded succour to needy peo-ple. The helpline is dedicated toresolve issues concerning men-tal health and provide coun-selling relating to various dis-orders like anxiety, depression,suicide, substance abuse, etc.Such and similar efforts by theGovernment of India will cer-tainly add a new dimension toemergent New India, for themental health of a nation isdetermined and manifested invarious ways: in its courage,purposes, scientific and cul-tural achievements, moralresponsibility, self-reliance andquality of life. The New Indiahas got to be fit: physically, spir-itually and mentally.

(The writer, is a poet,writer and columnist. Author ofthree volumes of poetry. Hispoems have been translated intoHindi (Andhere Se NikliKavitayen-VANI PRAKASHAN(2017) and his book “Shadowsof the Real” into Russian by vet-eran Russian poet AdolfShvedchikov. His fourth book“Soliloquy of a Small-TownUncivil Servant”: a literary non-fiction published in March 2019by Rupa Publications, NewDelhi, has been receiving inter-national acclaim in literary field.He was Additional DeputyComptroller and AuditorGeneral in the office ofComptroller & Auditor Generalof India when he superannuat-ed recently.Views expressed hereare his personal views)

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Parents of a daughter, worried aboutundue delay in her marriage, cameasking the other day: “My daughter

has already entered her forties and yetwe could not organise her marriagedespite our relentless efforts. Why so? Isshe cursed? What is in store of her des-tiny? Is her marriage promised, and if so,when? Suggest some remedial measures,if that could help expedite her marriage.”

“At the outset, let me tell you thatyour daughter’s marriage is promised,but is due for a delayed marriage. Havepatience, it is now round the corner.” Iassured them. Remember, everybodycomes into life with a preordained pro-gramme that usually drives one’s courseof life, coming as it may with Karmiccarryover from the past. It is ordinarilydifficult to change that course. No pujacan undo Karmic carryover. It is only aspiritual process that can help figure outone’s basic fabric of making throughself-reflection, and then make necessaryamends. Provided, the person concernedpursues the process in all seriousness fora continued stretch of time. The prob-lem, however, is that ordinarily at mar-riageable age, the youngsters live in theirown dream world, often distanced from

ground realities, and seldom drawntowards spirituality.

Here again, it is unfair to assigndelayed marriage to any curse. Thedelay, if indicated in a horoscope isalways purposeful. It needs to be appre-ciated here that marriage by itself is notthe end game. More important is a har-monious and stable marriage. Only amatured person could handle the sub-tleties of marital life with ease and com-fort. Remember, marriage means unionof two characters, both born unique,each marked with a particular mind-trend — habits and attitudes as well asvirtues and attributes. The habits andattitudes deserve particular attention asthey often prove a spoiler. Marriagesdon’t go bad because it would be soscripted in one’s horoscope. It often hap-pens because of one’s unseemly conduct,primarily guided by habits and attitudes.So, if there is delay, it offers time andspace to develop the maturity necessaryto efficiently negotiate marital issues.Going through learning lessons of life,one is able to improve interpersonalrelationship skills, which helps being inaccord with each other, overriding allindividual limitations.

Let us now look at the astrologicalpointers to her personality trends. She isborn in Scorpio lagna, a fixed and anaggressive sign. Lagna lord Mars is therein lagna itself together with its direenemy Saturn. This needs to be readtogether with mind signifying Moon in afixed sign Leo, and placed adverse toMars. It speaks of a stubborn characterhaving a fixated one track mind. Shewould be having a commanding nature,keen to live in a demanding mode. Ifever provoked, she may get into fightingmode, at times taking things to extreme.What could further compound herproblems is her volatile emotionality,coming as it may with combust Venus.That makes her too much touchy andsensitive. She may get over exercisedeven of trivial issues, and stretch thembeyond their due. She may keep mullingover them, scheming how to fix theother side at the earliest possible oppor-tunity. If that would not be enough,Mars is also placed adverse to Jupiter,which speaks loud of her inflated ego.That makes her stuck to self-definedlimits, not keen to look beyond for areality check. If ever, things don’t happenher way, it becomes difficult to digest.She may then go wild, and in an agitated

state, could become a victim of her ownmaking.

Uranus in the lagna, placed adverseto Mercury, which is also ill-disposed offto erratic Rahu, makes her eccentric andopinionated. It also accounts for insensi-ble reasoning and judgment. She lacksthe focus and patience necessary todwell on any issue in hand, which does-n’t let her figure out the underlyingtruth. All the more because Moon isplaced adverse to Saturn, which bringsin a sense of negativity, whereby shewould habitually blame others for all thewrong happening, and be overcritical ofthem. On top of that, the Sun placedadverse to Uranus makes her self-willedand tactless.

To sum, it is girl’s good luck that shedid not have an early marriage.Otherwise, given her habits and atti-tudes, it would have proved disastrous.So, let her marriage happen when natu-rally due, which is expected early nextyear. Rest assured, given her astrologicaldirections, it will prove a stable and suc-cessful marriage.

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