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Prime Minister NarendraModi on Wednesday gave a

stern warning to China, sayingwhile India wished to maintainpeace, it will not stay quiet ifprovoked. In his first remark onthe killing of 20 Indian soldiersby the Chinese Army inLadakh on Monday, the PMsaid the nation must be proudto know that the Army jawanswho died in “Galwan valley”died fighting till the end.

The Prime Minister madethese remarks before address-ing the two-day videoconfer-ence of State Chief Ministers onCovid-19 crisis. He alsorequested the attending CMsand Union Ministers to main-tain two minutes of silence forthe slain warriors.

“India wants peace, but ifIndia is provoked, it is capableof giving a befitting reply. Withrespect to our Indian martyrs,the nation will be proud toknow that they died fighting. Iwant to assure the nation thatits martyrs’ sacrifice will not goin vain.

The PM is expected toaddress the nation on June 21.

The Prime Minister saidIndia believes in peaceful res-olution of any conflict anddidn’t want that differencesshould become disputes. “Wenever provoke anyone but wewill not compromise withintegrity and sovereignty.Whenever time has come, wehave proved our strength andcapabilities in protecting ourintegrity and sovereignty.Sacrifice and resilience is in ournational character. But valourand courage is also our coun-try’s character,” the PrimeMinister warned.

India will always protect itssovereignty and no one should be under any illusion,

Modi said.This is perhaps for the

first time in six years in officethat Modi has gone so offensiveagainst the Chinese regime.The PM visited China ninetimes during the last six yearsand held 18 meetings with theChinese President. But Chineseare obviously upset with Modifor joining hands with USPresident Donald Trump’s bidto isolate Beijing.

With Opposition partiescalling upon the Governmentto take them in confidenceregarding the face-off withChina, the Prime Minister has

called for an all-party meetingat 5 pm on June 19. Presidentsof various political partieswould take part in this virtual meeting.

Meanwhile, DefenceMinister Rajnath Singh metthree Service Chiefs (Army,Navy and Air Force) and theChief of Defence Staff BipinRawat on Wednesday andreviewed the country’s defencepreparedness to deal with anysituation along the LAC.

Singh also spoke toExternal Affairs Minister SJaishankar on the currentIndia-China border situation.

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On a day when the Congresswent on offensive against

the Modi Government over themartyrdom of the 20 India sol-diers by the Chinese forces atLadakh with party presidentSonia Gandhi asking howmuch India’s land Chinese havegrabbed, the Centre convenedan all-party meeting on June 19to brief the political leadersabout the ground situation.

“Today when there is somuch anger over Chineseintrusion, the PM should comeout and tell the nation how theChinese managed to committhis act of aggression,” Soniasaid in a video message.

Later, presidents of variouspolitical parties will participatein the meeting at 5 pm onFriday via video, the PrimeMinister’s Office said.

Former party chief RahulGandhi too turned up the heatagainst the Prime Ministerquestioning his silence on the

issue. “Why is the PM silent?Why is he hiding? Enough isenough. We need to knowwhat has happened,” he tweet-ed on Wednesday.

The Congress chief alsoasked how much of Indianterritory has been occupied byChina and what is theGovernment’s strategy to dealwith the situation.

“The PM should tell thenation how the Chinese occu-pied Indian territory and why20 of our brave soldiers weremartyred,” she asked.

Sonia said in this time ofcrisis, the Congress stands withthe Indian Army, its soldiersand their families, and theGovernment. “I’m confidentthat the entire country willunite to face the enemy in thesechallenging times,” she said.

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Taking strong exception tothe clashes on the Line of

Actual Control (LAC) in theGalwan valley in Ladakh result-ing in the martyrdom of 20Indian soldiers by the Chinese,External Affairs Minister SJaishankar on Wednesday saidthe attacks were “premeditatedand planned.”

Conveying this terse mes-sage to his Chinese counterpartWang Yi on the phone, he alsosaid these clashes will have an impact on bilateralrelations. China blamed Indiafor the incident.

In the end, both the sidesdecided to deal with the mat-ter in a peaceful manner andde-escalate as soon as possible,but there was no mention ofany Chinese willingness tovacate the area occupied.

This development came inthe aftermath of tension stillcontinuing at the flashpoint inthe Galwan valley even thoughthe troops from both the sides had disengaged after

bloody brawl.Conveying the country’s

strong reaction, Jaishankar saidthe Chinese soldiers took “pre-meditated and planned action”that was directly responsible forthe clash and casualties. In thefirst ever interaction betweenthe two leaders since the esca-lation of tension on the LAC,Jaishankar said the unprece-

dented development “will havea serious impact on the bilat-eral relationship” and Chinahad to reassess its actions andtake corrective steps. He alsosaid the attack reflected anintent to change the facts onground in violation of all “ouragreements to not change thestatus quo.”

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Amid demand of cancella-tion of a �1,126 crore con-

tract bagged by a Chinese firm,Shanghai Tunnel EngineeringCo Ltd (STEC), for the con-struction of a 5.6-km-longunderground stretch betweenNew Ashok Nagar-Sahibabadof Delhi Meerut RegionalRapid transit System (RRTS)project, the Ministry ofHousing and Urban Affairs onWednesday said the tender isstill under process and yet to befinalised.

According to the Ministry,the multi-lateral procurementguidelines do not allow dis-crimination among firms andcountries if the project is fund-ed by Asian Development Bankor World Bank. InMaharashtra, the StateGovernment has signed mem-

orandum of understandingwith 12 firms companies fromdifferent countries, includingthree firms from China, toinvest �16,000 crore.

The Ministry said this is anADB funded package fordesign & construction of 5.6km tunnel through TunnelBoring Machine and one RRTSstation. It said bids were invit-ed on November 9, 2019 whilethe technical bid was openedon March 16, 2020.

“Five bidders submittedbids and qualified for financialbid opening, including (i) TataProjects Limited - South KoreaE&C Joint Venture (TPL -SKEC JV) (ii) STEC (China),(iii) L&T (India), (iv) Afcons(India) and (v) Gülermak AgirSanayi Insaat ve Taahhut AS(Gulermak) (Turkey). OnJune 12, financial bids wereopened and Chinese construc-tion company STEC emergedas the lowest bidder.

The National CapitalRegion Transport CorporationLimited is the implementingagency for the project.

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New Delhi: The Supreme Courton Wednesday said there is“no merit in charging interest oninterest” for deferred loan pay-ment installments during themoratorium period announcedin wake of the Covid-19 pan-demic. A Bench headed byJustice Ashok Bhushanobserved the Governmentshould consider interfering inthe matter as it cannot leaveeverything to banks.

Detailed report on P10

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Amid apprehensions thatthe India casualties may

rise with four or five soldiersseriously injured in the Ladakhbrawl, Army sources said eventhough outnumbered in theinitial stages, the Indians alsomanaged to kill at least 40 to 45Chinese, including their com-manding officer, in hand tohand combat. Unconfirmedreports from Chinese mediapegged the figure of Chinesecasualties at 30 plus.

The brawl which claimedthe life of Colonel B SantoshBabu, the commanding officerof 16 Bihar and 19 others, brokeout after the Indian patrolasked the Chinese to vacate aparticular site at the Galwanriver valley as per an agreementreached some days back.

However, the Chinese didnot do so and returned aftersometime with a large numberof troops and attacked thesmall Indian team led by Babu.They were attacked withbatons, barbed wires and rods

studded with iron nails.Outnumbered, the Indians alsocalled for reserves and at least200 soldiers from both sidesthen went all out at each other.

In the ensuing fracas someinjured Indian soldiers slippedand fell into the Shyok andGalwan rivers. Severely injured,they lay submerged in the shal-low river for some hours beforerescue teams pulled them out.It is feared some of them dieddue to hypothermia as the wateris very cold in sub-zero hourtemperature at the confronta-

tion site at a height of more than14,000 feet, sources said.

The Chinese soldiers alsosuffered the same fate whenmany of them fell in the riverand some of them got hit bysubmerged stones causing seri-ous injuries, sources said. Theysaid the number of 45 deathswas deduced by radio inter-cepts, helicopter sortiesthroughout Monday night andTuesday morning besides fren-zied ambulance movementacross the LAC.

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Not willing to take anychances after the unprece-

dented clash at the Line ofActual Control (LAC) inLadakh, the Armed forces haveramped up their efforts bydeploying additional troops,placing fighter jets on thestandby and the warships onactive deployment in the strate-gically important Indian Ocean.

With growing maritimeprowess, the Chinese havestarted making forays into theIndian Ocean thereby threat-ening India’s strategic interestas more than 70 per cent exportand import come through sealanes of this ocean.

The Centre has also put theITBP on high alert post-Galwan valley bloody face-offwith People’s Liberation Army(PLA) in eastern Ladakh.

The ITBP posts are alsobeing reinforced even as theBSF has been asked to remainon maximum alert along theWestern frontier with Pakistan.

India has a distinct advan-tage in Indian Ocean as it caneasily choke off China’s energysupply. More than 90 per centof its oil supply imported fromthe Gulf and other regions passthrough the Malacca Straitsnear the Andaman and NicobarIslands. The Indian Navy has

been given the go ahead toblock it if need be, sources saidhere on Wednesday.

Similarly, the IAF is also inactive duty mode now after sit-uation worsened over the last one month on the LAC inLadakh.

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The Congress is all set tostake claim to form a

Government in Manipur afterthe N Biren Singh-led BJPGovernment in Manipur wasreduced to minority followingresignations of three BJP MLAswho immediately joined theCongress. Six other MLAswithdrew support to the 60-member Manipur Assemblytaking the Congress rally to 31.

The National People’sParty, which had four MLAs,including three ministers, thelone Trinamool MLA and anindependent MLA fromJiribam also withdrew theirsupport to the Government.

Manipur’s Assembly elec-tions in 2017 had yielded ahung verdict, with theCongress emerging as the sin-gle largest party with 28 MLAsin the house of 60.

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Seven more people — twowomen and five men —

tested positive for coronaviruseven as the dreaded infectionclaimed three lives in the statecapital on Wednesday.

Across the state, 30COVID-19 deaths — 15 inMeerut district alone — and583 new positive cases werereported on Wednesday, regis-tering the highest single-dayspikes on both counts in UttarPradesh.

Lucknow’s Chief Medical

Officer Dr Narendra Agarwalsaid that amongst the sevenpersons who tested positive inthe city, three were fromDaliganj and one each fromChowk, Gomti Nagar, Chinhatand Maulviganj.

He said the person whotested positive in Chowk wasundergoing treatment at a pri-vate hospital in Gomti Nagarwhich was sanitised.

The CMO said that four ofthose who tested positive onWednesday were in contactwith the members of CMHelpline who were foundinfected earlier. A bureau chief

of a TV channel also testedpositive on Wednesday.

According to King George’sMedical University spokesper-son Sudhir Singh, a 60-year-oldman hailing from Sahabganj inGonda died of respiratory fail-ure on Wednesday. The oldman was suffering from dia-betes and lung disease andwas admitted to KGMU hos-pital on June 13.

Another 60-year-old man,a resident of Saadatganj inLucknow also died in the hos-pital. He was admitted on June15 after water entered themembranes of his lungs.

A 70-year-old woman fromMaulviganj admitted to thehospital with blood pressure onJune 16 died due to acute renaland respiratory failure.

The CMO has asked thedistrict magistrate to declareJoshitola, Daliganj andMaulviganj as containmentzones and remove Charak hos-pital and Omax Residencyfrom the containment area.With this, the city has 27 con-tainment zones.

On Wednesday, samplesof 493 people were collectedand sent to the KGMU for test-ing.

Meanwhile, with the 30COVID-19 deaths and 591new cases of infect ion across the state onWednesday, the death tollrose to 465 and infected casesto 15,189.

Among the 30 new deaths,15 occurred in Meerut, four inGhaziabad, three in Agra andone each in Gautam BuddhaNagar, Varanasi, Hapur,Rampur, Mainpuri, Gonda,Bahraich and Bhadohi. Among465 deaths in the state till date,the maximum 77 haveoccurred in Meerut, followedby 72 in Agra.

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Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath onWednesday directed health offi-

cials to restart OPD services in allprimary health centres (PHCs) andcommunity health centres (CHCs) ina phased manner.

“The OPDs should start in PHCsand CHCs with all precautions andprotocols. The role of the medicalteam in the fight against coronavirusis crucial. The Health and MedicalEducation departments should workin tandem as a dedicated team tocontain coronavirus infection,” Yogisaid while presiding over a high-levelUnlock review meeting here onWednesday.

The government had announcedon Tuesday that PHCs and CHCswould start functioning but therewere reports that in many districtsthe message had failed to percolatedown.

“The treatment of non-Covidpatients should start at the villagelevel immediately,” the chief minis-ter said.

He said that the coronavirusinfection was coming from outsidethe state, particularly in western UP,so the number of beds in Covid hos-pitals in that region should beincreased immediately.

“Maintain a constant vigil inNCR districts. A solid action plan isrequired to double the bed capacityin the hospitals in Meerut division.The chief secretary and the princi-

pal secretary (health) should reviewhealth services in Meerut division,”Yogi said and added that additionalmedical staff could be deployedthere if required.

The chief minister was apprisedthat focus of the officials was onMeerut, Ghaziabad, Noida, Hapur,

Bulandshahr and Baghpat wherethe number of coronavirus cases hadgone up.

The chief minister stressed onbetter sanitation and cleanliness innon-Covid and Covid hospitals andexpected all equipment in the hos-pitals to be in adequate number and

functional.“The coronavirus patients should

be admitted to Level-1, Level-2 andLevel-3 Covid hospitals as per theircondition. The oxygen supply shouldalso be adequate with proper back-up,” he said.

Yogi directed officials to ensure

that the doctors and the paramedicstook regular rounds in the hospitalsand monitored the condition of thepatients. He directed the chief med-ical officers to inspect hospitals intheir respective districts regularly.

The chief minister was informedthat over 16,159 tests were conduct-ed in the state on Tuesday, which wasthe highest ever figure till date.

Yogi asked officials to makepeople aware of coronavirus throughpublic address system.

“In order to control the COVID-19 spread, the surveillance system isvery important hence the surveil-lance committees should be kept acti-vated in rural and urban areas,” hesaid while directing officials to keepcommunicating with the members toget feedback of their work.

Stressing the need for creatingawareness about COVID-19 amongthe people, the chief minister saidthat they should be made aware thathiding the symptoms of coronavirusmay infect others and such personsshould go to doctors immediately.

He said that the public addresssystem should be pressed into serviceto make people aware as it wasextremely necessary to break thechain of coronavirus.

He directed the police to contin-ue intensive patrolling to ensure thatsocial distancing was maintained andno crowd gathered anywhere.

He also asked officials to makeall arrangements to prevent infectionamong police and PAC personnel.

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Uttar Pradesh EnergyMinister Shrikant Sharma

has ordered a probe into thealleged supply of Chinesemeters under the garb of a shellcompany based in Indonesia.Amid the Indo-China borderstand-off, Indonesia-basedcompany PT Hexing had par-ticipated in the bidding processto supply the smart meters forinstallation at the premises ofthe electricity consumers inUttar Pradesh.

UP Rajya VidhyutUpbhokta Parishad chairmanAvadhesh Kumar Verma allegedthat PT Hexing was actually ashell company of China basedHexing Electrical CompanyLimited, since the two compa-nies shared the same logo. Onhis written complaint and doc-umentary evidence, EnergyMinister Shrikant Sharma onWednesday directed the princi-pal secretary (energy) to insti-tute an inquiry into the matterfor taking appropriate action.

The smart meters have beenprocured by the EnergyEfficiency Services Limited(EESL), which is mandated for

the installation of these energysaving and smart devices acrossIndia.

While Verma has raisedquestions on the quality of theChinese smart meters, he saidthat under the present circum-stances, when there was a mil-itary confrontation between thetwo countries, the UP govern-ment should not allow a China-origin company to supply thegadgets. Recently, a consign-ment of about 8,000 PT Hexingsmart meters had reached thestate capital for installation.“We have urged the state gov-ernment to cancel the order ofthe Chinese smart meters andhenceforth not allow anyChinese company to participatein such bidding process,” Vermasaid.

In the past, the VidhyutUpbhokta Parishad had alsocomplained about glitches in thesmart meters being installed bythe EESL in the state. Last year,the UP energy regulator hadissued notice to the state powerutility over the installation ofsmart meters based on old 2Gand 3G technologies in thepremises of consumers.

The total project cost of 40

lakh smart meters to be installedacross UP was then estimated atRs 1,927 crore, while 2 lakh gad-gets had already been installed.Smart meters are touted toimprove energy efficiencythrough real-time monitoringand transmitting power con-sumption data.

Hearing a petition filed bythe Vidhyut Upbhokta Parishadagainst the installation of smartmeters and modems based onold technologies, UP ElectricityRegulatory Commission hadsought a detailed status reportfrom the managing director ofUP Power Corporation Limited(UPPCL). The VidhyutUpbhokta Parishad had urgedthe power regulator to reviewthe matter as to why smartmeters being installed were notbased on latest 4G technology,even as 5G technology wasprojected to be introduced inIndia soon. In its notice, theUPERC had said when 2G and3G technologies would bephased out gradually, whowould bear the cost of upgrad-ing smart meters with latestmeters and what would be thenet impact on the operationalexpenditure in this regard.

Lucknow (PNS): The UttarPradesh government has drawngrand plans for promoting theacreage under organic farmingin the state. The government hasdirected that at least 200 acres ofland be identified in each districtfor organic farming. The govern-ment has also directed theHorticulture department to pre-pare a detailed proposal for thedevelopment of different vari-eties of plants in tissue culturelaboratory.

Chief Secretary RK Tiwarion Wednesday directed theHorticulture department todevelop its nursery as per thestandards of the national horti-culture board. He also directedthat integrated godown be devel-oped instead of godown by dif-ferent departments.

The chief secretary onWednesday presided over thesixth meeting of the state levelsanction committee in which 75schemes worth Rs 871 crore ofthe agriculture, sugarcane, silkdevelopment, animal husbandry,fisheries departments, agricul-tural universities and researchinstitutes were reviewed. Heasked the departments to fur-nish action taken report everymonth to the Agriculturedepartment and also ensure thatall directions were implement-ed within next 15 days.

He said the payment of sub-sidy and other benefits to thefarmers by the different depart-ments be made only throughdirect benefit transfer into theaccount of the beneficiaries ofthe schemes.

The meeting of the sanctioncommittee approved project forthe construction of 100 KisanKendras at 100 developmentblocks at a cost of Rs 80 crore.At the Kisan Kendra, the farm-ers will be provided all facilitiesat one place.

The scheme for digging of2,000 small and 500 mediumponds was also approved and Rs17.81 crore was allotted for theproject. The farmers will beprovided 50 per cent subsidy fordigging ponds. A sum of Rs70.63 crore was sanctioned forthe expansion of green revolu-tion in 16 districts of eastern UP.For the 11 districts of west UP,Rs 42.17 was sanctioned for agri-culture diversification project.

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In a sensational incident in Aligarh, SUV-borne miscreantsclaiming to be sleuths of the Special Operation Group (SOG)

of Aligarh police, abducted a trader, tried to extort Rs 20 lakhas ransom but later released him after collecting Rs 6 lakh.Surprisingly, two of the criminals were wearing police uniformwhile committing the crime.

According to reports, Suresh Kumar, who has a factory inBhaura Gaurva locality of Iglas, was going to his unit from hisresidence at Shishiyapada locality on Agra Road on Tuesday,when a Scorpio occupied by four men, including two in uni-form, intercepted him near his factory,

Claiming to be SOG team, the occupants of the Scorpio askedthe trader to sit in their vehicle, saying they wanted to questionhim in connection with a case. When the trader refused, theyforcibly bundled him in the Scorpio and fled.

Later, the abductors called Kumar’s wife and demanded Rs20 lakh for his release. Citing lockdown, the wife said that shecould arrange only Rs 10 lakh. Later, the lady along with herservant went to Mursan turn where the criminals collected Rs6 lakh from the servant and escaped after releasing the tradernear a brick kiln on Hathras road. SP (Dehat) Atul Sharma, whorushed to the spot after being informed about the incident,

claimed that they registered a case and were trying to nab theaccused.

In another sensational incident in Sultanpur, a gram prad-han was shot dead and his brother was critically injured whenunidentified miscreants opened fire at them over political rival-ry on Wednesday afternoon. The agitated supporters of the prad-han later went on the rampage and attacked the opposite group,setting their huts on fire. SP, Sultanpur, Shivhari Meena, reachedthe spot with a heavy police force and was trying to defuse thetension. Reports said that unknown miscreants roundedMoinuddeen, the pradhan of Sadipur Maharajganj in Kudawar,Sultanpur, and opened indiscriminate fire, killing him on thespot and critically injuring his brother Nurruddeen.

The injured was taken to the district hospital from wherehe was referred to KGMU Trauma Centre in Lucknow. A heavypolice force was present at the spot to avert any fresh clash.

Meanwhile, a minor was gang-raped in Ambedkarnagar.Reports said the victim, hailing from Neelkanth Sarai hamlet ofJahangirganj, was going to attend the birthday party of her friendon Tuesday when two youths intercept her and forcibly took herto a secluded place where they both raped her. They left the girlin a critical condition and escaped. The victim was shifted to hos-pital and the family was informed the police about the incident.The police registered a case and arrested both the accused.

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Uttar Pradesh Congress chief AjayKumar Lallu said the Yogi

Adityanath government was living in fearafter “committing” a series of frauds andscams and alleged that action against himor all those opposing the ruling party wasjust to suppress the facts.

“This UP government is living in fearafter committing a series of scams like PFscam in power corporation, animal hus-bandry scam, teachers scam, home guardscam and so many other frauds so theyare trying to suppress the voice of oppo-sition,” Lallu said soon after he wasreleased on bail on Wednesday evening.

Reacting to his arrest, Lallu said thatfor him, registration of cases or going to

jail were just like additional jewels andhe fell proud of them and ready to facesimilar action but would not stop work-ing for the welfare of poor and downtrod-den section of society.

“The fight of the Congress to ensurejustice for the poor and service tohumanity would continue and would notbe affected with such action of the gov-ernment,” he added.

Lallu also garlanded the statue ofMahatma Gandhi at GPO before pro-ceeding to party office. He was welcomedby several party leaders outside jail. Theyincluded MLA Aradhana Mishra ‘Mona’,Congress city president, Mukesh SinghChauhan, Ved Prakash Singh, GauravChowdhary, Amarnath Agarwal andothers. Interestingly, the procession ofLallu was also stopped at Cantonment byputting a truck across the road but onintervention of Aradhana Mishra, thecops allowed them to proceed to theGPO.

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Ason sold the dry straw ofthe thatched roof of their

house in a village in Banda sothat his father, suffering fromTB, could get treatment but lostthe battle as his father died ofthis dreaded disease in Attarablock of Banda district ofBundelkhand recently.

A patient with symptoms ofcoronavirus infection wasbrought to Ram Manohar LohiaHospital in Lucknow last week.He was a TB patient with badlydamaged lung. He died within24 hours of his admission in thehospital.

These are not solitary cases.TB has started taking its tollduring lockdown and Unlockperiods across the state with TBand HIV infected patientsbecoming the prime target.

Manohar and Rajkumar,two TB patients who died onSunday, belonged toKuchbandiyas caste (untouch-ables ) who live in Kherwa vil-lage in Banda. The villagersdetest interacting with theKuchbandiyas even in normalcircumstance; the fear of thecoronavirus has further exclud-ed this community from the

rest of society.Ramesh, son of Raj Kumar,

said that they did not have any-thing to eat. “My father was eat-ing food once in a day. He wassuffering from TB. I sold thestraw of our thatched roof sothat I could get medicines formy father but this did nothelp,” he said. “Today morningmy father died,” Rameshadded..

TB patients need nutri-tious food but during the lock-down, the supply chain wassnapped. “Go to any village ofBundelkhand and you will findTB patients. They are dyingbecause they are not gettingfood and they are missing outon the medicines that they aresupposed to take regularly,”said Raja Bhaiya of VidyaDham Samiti.

“Doctors are talking aboutcoronavirus but what aboutTB patients. Almost everyday 4-5 people are dying of TB in vil-lages” he said.

Incidentally, the govern-ment does not have record ofhow many people have died ofTB from March 25 to presentday. “We are compiling thenumbers,” a senior official saidrequesting anonymity.

Incidentally, the govern-

ment pays Rs 500 as sustenanceallowance to TB patients andofficials have no information inhow many cases this hasstopped.

Dr Suryakant, head of thedepartment of respiratory med-icine at King George’s MedicalUniversity in Lucknow, said that

any person with compromisedlung was vulnerable to coron-avirus. “People having TB needto take more precautions dur-ing this period,” he said.

Dr Suryakant said that TB

was the leading killer and anestimated 4.35 lakh people diedevery year because of this dis-ease. “So on an average, over1,000 people die every day ofTB,” he said.

Experts believe that duringlockdown, the number ofCOVID -19 cases must have

gone up because the TB patientsare living with their families andthis increases chances of themgetting infected with the dis-ease.

Over 28 million cases of

tuberculosis were alive pre-COVID-19 across India.

In India, once a patient isdiagnosed with TB, he/she isnotified as being part of India’sNational TuberculosisElimination Programme.Protocol mandates that com-munity health workers followup on notified patients, makingsure that they consume theirmedicines and show up forscheduled appointments at thetuberculosis unit for healthcheck-ups and to collect med-icines.

But the lockdown hasresulted in a significant disrup-tion of this system as patientshave been unable to travel to theclinics for their appointments.

“We have asked the TBhealth workers not to compro-mise and test any person forboth TB and COVID-19. Theprimary symptom of both thediseases is same. In TB, coughis accompanied with sputumwhile in COVID-19, it is drycough. Otherwise, both thepatients have fever. In case ofCOVID-19, the infected personwill develop pain in the bodywhich he cannot conceal,” DrSuryakant said.

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The Uttar Pradesh governmentis likely to announce tax

incentive for South KoreanSamsung electronics, which islooking to invest Rs 5,367 crorein smartphone display manufac-turing plant in the state.

Samsung, one of the topsmartphone sellers in India,signed a memorandum of under-standing with Uttar Pradesh in2019 on the project. A sourcefamiliar with the matter said itwould relocate manufacturingpreviously done in China.Samsung expects to create some1,300 jobs at the plant.

The facility is likely to beginoperations in 2021, the sourcesaid.

UP Industry Minister SatishMahana said the incentives wereunder consideration and a deci-sion was yet to be taken.

Invest India, an investmentpromotion body wrote to the UPgovernment in April for extend-ing tax incentive to Samsung.

“We are submitting our rec-ommendations to incentivise set-up of hi-tech industries in UttarPradesh and facilitate a keyinvestor, Samsung Display, inrelocating its operations to India,”the Invest India letter said.

Invest India said in the letter

that Samsung could benefit fromhigher capital incentives on theoverall investment over a 20-year-period, including reimburse-ment of spending on IT infra-structure.

The investment by Samsungwould be a plus for India whichis vying with nearby rivals such asVietnam to attract global smart-phone companies under the gov-ernment’s Make in India drive.

“Presently, competing nationssuch as Vietnam, Indonesia andThailand are offering targetedincentive packages on capitalexpenditure,” the Invest Indiasaid in the letter.

“It is imperative that Indiaalso promote investments throughappropriate fiscal and non-fiscalincentives,” it added.

Invest India, set up in 2009,is a non-profit venture under theCentral government’s Departmentfor Promotion of Industry andInternal Trade under Ministry ofCommerce and Industry.

Samsung already operatesone of the world’s biggest mobilephone manufacturing plants inUttar Pradesh.

Having a local display man-ufacturing business would helpSamsung save on import taxesthat India plans to levy on displayimports, and boost its smart-phone export capabilities.

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With monsoon around the cor-ner, Chief Minister Yogi

Adityanath has asked officials tomake arrangements for safe storageof wheat which has been purchasedfrom farmers so that it does not getwet during rains

In a review meeting held here onWednesday, the chief minister saidthat the officials should ensure safestorage of the wheat purchasedfrom farmers. “It is the responsibil-ity of officers to see that wheat is notkept in the open in view of rainy sea-son,” he said

This year, UP has recorded agood production of wheat. Theavailability of labourers and thegovernment’s decision to use com-bine harvester and other equipmentto harvest Rabi crops, helped in pro-duction of 363 LMT of wheat thisyear. The government has set a tar-get to procure 55 LMT of wheat. The

MSP for wheat was announced at Rs1,925 per quintal, Rs 85 per quintalmore than the MSP of the previousyear. Earlier, it was Rs 1,840 perquintal.

A senior official said that thestate’s existing total storage capaci-ty was only around 56 lakh metricton against the peak demand of 70LMT. The chief minister has askedprivate companies to set up modernsilos to accommodate the addition-al wheat.

The chief minister also direct-ed officials to arrange green fodderfor stray cattle for cow shelters andalso ensure safe storage of hay stockin fodder banks. “This will ensurethat cattle get good quality fodderduring rains,” he said.

Wheat harvesting was overrecently and therefore availability offodder is in abundance at relativelylow rates. The chief minister alsodirected officials to desilt drainsbefore rains.

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Son of a homoeopathicdoctor drowned in Gomti

river in Madiaon police sta-tion area on Tuesday morn-ing. His body was recoveredon Wednesday. As perreports, Kirti Mishra akaSaurabh of Ekta Nagar inBalaganj, along with hisfriends, had gone to take abath in the river at Ghailabridge in Madiaon.

While taking a dip in theriver, Kirti moved towards themiddle and drowned. Hisfriends could not save himand they later informed hisfamily. On being informed, ateam of police pressed diversinto service but the bodycould be fished out only onWednesday morning. Thepolice sent the body forautopsy and started furtherinvestigation. The police saidKirti was a class VIII student.

Meanwhile, a man wasaccused of securing loan from

a bank by submitting fakedocuments, in Madiaon. Thebank manager lodged a caseof fraud against the accusedand his guarantor.

According to the bankmanager, Akhilesh of IIMRoad applied for car loan (Rs7.5 lakh) on June 17, 2017.Akhilesh submitted a quota-tion issued by the companyand introduced MumtazShah, also of IIM Road, as hisguarantor. After the loan wassanctioned, Akhilesh reachedthe bank with the new car andsubmitted insurance papers,and not the registration doc-uments.

He later stopped payingthe installment and the bankstarted the process of recov-ery by declaring his accountas NPA. An investigationrevealed that Akhilesh did notdeposit cash to the companyfrom which he had secured a quotation and gotthe DD encashed from anoth-er bank.

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In the battle against Covid-19,CDRI has received permis-

sion from the Drug ControllerGeneral of India to conductclinical trials of a drug whichit has come up with recently.CDRI director Tapas Kundusaid it would be one of thecheapest drugs for the treat-ment of Covid-19 .

“Central Drug ResearchInstitute has received permis-sion for carrying out con-trolled trials of efficacy, safetyand tolerability of antiviraldrug ‘Umifenovir’. The phase-III clinical trials will be carriedout at KGMU, RMLIMS andEra’s Lucknow Medical College& Hospital,” media spokesper-son Sanjeev Yadav said.

“This drug has a goodsafety profile and it acts by pre-venting entry of virus intohuman cells and also by prim-ing the immune system. CDRIcame up with this drug by car-rying out a repurposing ofdrugs where they screened anumber of drugs. We havealso developed a process tech-

nology for manufacturing it.‘Umifenovir’ is mainly used fortreatment of influenza and isavailable in China and Russia,and has recently come intoprominence due to its potential

use for Covid-19 patients. Toevaluate its efficacy in Indianpatients, CDRI has taken upthe clinical trials. Further, it hasdeveloped the process technol-ogy for ‘Umifenovir’ in record

time and licensed the eco-nomical process technologyfor manufacturing and market-ing the drug to M/s MedizestPharmaceuticals Private Ltd(Goa) that has already receivedtest license from DCGI,” heexplained. Kundu said all theraw materials for the drug areindigenously available and ifthe clinical trial is successful,‘Umifenovir’ can be a safe,efficacious, affordable drugagainst Covid-19 and can bepart of the NationalProgramme against the disease.Prof. He added that this drughas the potential for prophylac-tic use.

CSIR Shekhar MandeShekhar Mande said the clini-cal trial is an integral part of theCSIR strategy of repurposingdrugs for Covid-19 and com-plimented the team of CDRIscientists. The clinical trialapplication was processed onhigh priority as per the DCGI’sinitiative against Covid-19. Thenext steps of the trial are beingfast-tracked to enable the avail-ability of the drug to patients assoon as possible.

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Renovation and upgrada-tion work in 22 schools of

Basic Parishad has startedunder the Smart City project,general manager Fareed Zaidisaid on Wednesday. The workwill be carried out in schools inand around Kaiserbagh, whichhas been selected for area-based development under theproject.

“We have started the ren-ovation and upgradation workin these schools. We areimproving the infrastructure,toilets and playground equip-ment. The condition of theseschools is not very good andthe project was sanctionedunder the socio-economicaspects of infrastructure devel-opment. An RO solar waterplant will be installed in theseschools by Non-ConventionalEnergy Development Agency,”Zaidi said.

Also on the agenda is thetask of developing one smartclass in each of these schools.This work will be carried outon the basis of learning in ane-classroom,” he said. Theschools will be decked up withchild-friendly paintings.

“In this age of computersand laptops, efforts will bemade to keep the old traditionof story-telling alive throughthese paintings. The aim is todo the best for children underthe child-friendly concept interms of building infrastruc-ture, playgrounds and class-rooms in the schools,” Zaidisaid.

“We have started the work

now because schools are closedand we will try to finish itbefore the schools reopen,” hesaid. He added that the civilinfrastructure developmentunder Smart City was beingcarried out only in Kaiserbaghwhile all information technol-ogy-related works were beingcarried across the city.

Other works being carriedout under Smart City is thedevelopment of parks and cur-rently, work is being done inthe park in front ofAmiruddaulah library.

Giving details of the workswhich have already been com-pleted, Zaidi said they havecompleted the work of façadelighting in Shaheed Smarak,Charbagh and LucknowUniversity. “All these build-ings are illuminated at night,”he said.

Eighty per cent of the workhas been completed under theITMS (Integrated TrafficManagement System) and thework which is pending isbecause of the permissionswhich have to be taken fromthe National HighwayAuthority for installment oftraffic signals. All the traffic sig-nals under ITMS are alreadyworking and being monitoredby the Traffic department.

“We are soon going tosanction the project of smarttoilets. Bids have been complet-ed and evaluation has alsobeen carried out. Similarly, incase of the smart road whichwill be constructed fromCharbagh to Hazratganj, tenderhas already been awarded,” hesaid.

Zaidi said 12 toilets in andaround Kaiserbagh were 20 to25 years old and they werebeing upgraded. “We areinstalling solar panels and weare trying to connect them tothe command and control cen-tre through the use of sensorsso that we can monitor themfor their cleanliness,” he point-ed out. As for smart roads,there will be footpath, zebracrossing and seating arrange-ments from Charbagh toHazratganj.

Zaidi said there were twocommand centres under theSmart City project. “One is theIntegrated Management TrafficSystem through which the traf-fic surveillance is carried outand the other is Master SystemIntegration Command Centrewhere all services are integrat-ed and these include publicgrievance system looking intothe aspects of the collection ofgarbage, complaints of housetax and water tax,” he added.

Currently, the officials aremonitoring all the hotspots ofthe city through this systemand santisation in these areas.Community kitchen is alsobeing monitored through thissystem. “The ‘Hello Doctor’scheme is also working throughthe MSI. All the environmentsensors are also connected tothis system,” he added.

Zaidi pointed out that thetotal budget of the Smart Cityproject was Rs 845 crore ofwhich Rs 150 crore had alreadybeen spent. “Fifty per cent ofthe budget is coming from thestate government and the restfrom the Centre,” he added.

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#%�� ��� 0�+����� �������������))��������Lucknow (PNS): Two persons

ended their lives in differentparts of the city on Wednesday.In Cantonment police stationarea, a youth, identified asShivam Mishra (23) of HataRamdas, was found hangingfrom the ceiling on Wednesdaymorning. His father VijayMishra, who works at a bakery,said Shivam looked normal lastnight before he retired to hisroom. On Wednesday morning,he didn’t wake up and Vijayfound the doors bolted frominside. He peeped through thekeyhole, only to find Shivamhanging from the ceiling. Hewas rushed to hospital where hewas declared brought dead. Thepolice said no suicide note wasrecovered from the scene.Shivam worked in a bakery onLatouche road.

Meanwhile, a vegetable ven-dor, identified as Rajesh Rawat(43), ended his life at his housein Bastauli village underGhazipur police station area onTuesday night. His son DurgeshRawat told the police that Rajeshwas found hanging from theceiling with a bedsheet tiedaround his neck. Durgesh fur-ther said the family was passingthrough a trying phase due tolockdown as they had littlemoney for daily needs.

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The state capital witnessedlight pre-monsoon showers

on Wednesday, bringing somerelief from the hot weathereven as the humidity increased.Met director JP Gupta said thesouth-west monsoon was stillin Bahraich. On Wednesday,the city recorded the maxi-mum temperature at 34.7

degree Celsius while the min-imum settled at 26.8 degreeCelsius.

In the state, Churk record-ed the maximum amount ofrainfall (61.4 mm), followed byPrayagraj (17mm). The fore-cast for Lucknow is partlycloudy skies while rains andthundershowers are likely insome areas. The maximumand minimum temperatures

are expected to be around 34degree Celsius and 27 degreeCelsius, respectively. Rains andthundershowers are likely atmany places over eastern UPand isolated places over west-ern UP. There is a warning ofthunderstorm accompanied bylightning and gusty winds (30-40 kmph) wile heavy rains arealso likely at isolated placesover eastern UP.

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With the arrest of four per-sons, the Kakori police

claimed to have worked out thedacoity case on Wednesday.The gang leader is said to be atravel agent and a resident ofthe same locality. He wasdetained on Tuesday night onthe basis of a CCTV footage.

Those arrested were iden-tified as Sumit Kori (brokerworking in facilitating visas/passports) of Saadatganj, IrfanKhan (almirah maker) ofKakori, Vijay Lodhi (cab dri-ver) of Kakori and Syed ArshadAli aka ‘Master’ (tutor) ofAmrapali Yojana in Kakori.The absconders have beenidentified as Riaz Ahmad (trav-el agent), Mahendra Chaurasiaof Saadatganj, Mukesh ofSitapur and Laddu of Kakori.

The police also recoveredlooted gold and silver orna-ments from the accused’s pos-session. On Wednesday, thepolice admitted that the inci-dent was a case of dacoity. Thepolice also disclosed that thenumber of miscreants waseight. On the day of the inci-dent, the police had claimedthat it was a case of theft andonly five miscreants wereinvolved in it.

To crack the crime, thepolice the sleuths of crimebranch into service and theyscanned hundreds of CCTVfootages. Vijay Lodhi wasfound to be the initial suspectin the case. Later, the policenabbed four accused. On June14, the accused had stormedthe house of HarikrishnaVerma, a retired employee ofSecretariat while holding his

wife and their son hostage.Meanwhile, a group of vil-

lagers attacked a doctor andhis staff at the Malihabadcommunity health centre aftertheir kin was referred toKGMU Trauma Centre inview of his serious condition.As per reports, some villagersreached the CHC with Kallu ofSarawan village complainingof cardiac problem around 2am on Wednesday. Dr JitendraVerma examined the patientand advised the attendants totake him to KGMU TraumaCentre. Irked over this, the vil-lagers took on the doctor andthe staff. The staff alleged thatthe villagers ransacked thehospital property and thrashedthem. The hospital employeescalled the police and the vil-lagers fled the scene with thepatient.

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Lucknow (PNS): Two youths,who had acted fresh with aminor girl and thrashed herfather on confronting them,were arrested on Wednesday,three months after a case wasregistered at Gomti Nagar policestation. They were identified asVijay Yadav and Vinod Rawat,both of Gwari village in GomtiNagar. Though the police wereat the loss for words on the rea-son behind the delay in arrest,sources said the case which hadbeen put on the back burner,was recently brought to thenotice of senior officers.

“Thereafter, the police wereasked to expedite the investiga-tion and ensure the arrest of theaccused,” one source said. Thepolice said a team led by inspec-

tor Dheeraj Singh nabbed boththe accused near Gomti Nagarrailway station.

Meanwhile, the Nagrampolice on Wednesday arrestedan accused named in a case ofa minor’s gangrape on May 5.The accused was identified asAwadhesh of Gosainganj. Thepolice said the victim’s fatherhad lodged the case after the girlwas kidnapped. The policerecovered the girl who was sentfor a medical test. On her state-ment, the police booked theaccused under sections506/376D and POCSO Act onJune 13. The police saidAwadhesh’s name figured inthe crime and he was nabbed onWednesday while efforts wereon to nab the other accused.

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Governor Anandiben Pateland Chief Minister Yogi

Adityanath paid tributes to theIndian soldiers who were mar-tyred in clashes with thePeople’s Liberation Army(PLA) of China, saying thebravery and sacrifice of the sol-diers will not be forgotten.

As many as 20 Indian sol-diers lost their lives in the clash-es which took place betweenthe Indian Army and the PLAin Galwan Valley region ofLadakh. One of the martyrs,Havildar Vipul Roy, was fromMeerut. “The country willalways remember these soldierswho displayed exemplarycourage and valour in the lineof duty and sacrificed their livesin the highest traditions of theIndian Army,” the CM said. Hesaid that the state was with thebereaved family of HavildarVipul Roy and would extend allpossible help.

Meanwhile, expressingconcern on the martyrdom of

20 Indian soldiers during vio-lent clashes with Chinesetroops in the Galwan valley of

Ladakh, Bahujan Samaj Party(BSP) supremo Mayawati onWednesday said that the

country’s people believe thatthe Union government willtake the right decision at the

right time and will not allowanyone to take away even aninch of land.

In a tweet on Wednesday,Mayawati said, “The news ofthe martyrdom of 20 Indiansoldiers in violent clashes withChina in Ladakh is extremelysad and shocking, especiallywhen the Indian government istrying to resolve the border dis-pute and tensions betweenboth the countries. The govern-ment now needs to take stepsin the interest of the countrywith utmost vigilance andunderstanding.”

She said, “The countrybelieves that the Governmentof India will take the right deci-sion at the right time in view ofthe pride and glory of thenation and will not allow any-one to take away even an inchof land. Forgetting the short-comings of the government, itis good that the entire countryis united during such a delicatetime. Now, the governmenthas to live up to the expecta-tions of the people.”

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After Anamika Shukla andReeta Yadav, yet another

name, Meena Devi, surfaced inAuraiya where two teachershaving similar identities andeducational documents werefound working as teacher. Thisdevelopment was disclosed byBasic Shiksha Adhikari inAuraiya on Wednesday. He saidthe matter came to light when aprobe was initiated and it wasfound that two teachers inAuraiya and Etah districts drewsalaries through one PAN. Now,the details of real and fakeMeena Devi are being ascer-tained.

BSA SP Singh said thatwhile the income tax returnswere being filed following theAnamika Shukla fraud case, theaccountant noticed that salarieshad been withdrawn from twoplaces through a single PAN.The accountant then informedthe BSA who asked both theMeena Devis, one posted at

Ajitmal in Auraiya and anotherin Etah, to come with theirrecords so that further actioncould be taken. Their salarieswere also stopped by the BSA tillinquiry was completed.

Singh said that when thedocuments were received onemail on Tuesday, they werematched and were found to beidentical. The roll numbers,years, schools were all identicalexcept changes in the marks.Due to the change in the marks,the documents would be verifiedso that the real marksheet couldbe found. The marksheets ofhigh school and inter were bothwith the same roll number andboth had marksheets of Auraiya’sAmauvata Inter College. Thegraduation degree was of JanataMahavidyalaya, Ajitmal of 2002session. The BEd degree was ofBundelkhand University of 2003academic session but the mark-sheet did not have the name ofthe college. The name of fathersof both teachers is Satya NarayanSingh. While Meena Devi in

Auraiya was recruited in 2006,Meena Devi in Etah was recruit-ed in 2010.

Meanwhile, another teacherworking with the help ofAnamika Shukla’s documentswas arrested from Amethi onWednesday. Reports said thatduring probe and interrogationof prime accused Pushpendra, itwas learnt that one Aarti akaAkriti aka Anu, hailing fromShardamai hamlet of Vishnugarhin Kannauj, was also working inAnamika Shukla’s name inKasturba Gandhi BalikaVidyalaya (KGBV) in Amethi.She had mentioned her addressas Badaov hamlet of Mainpuri.

According to police chief ofAmethi, Khayati Garg, theydeveloped the inputs andnabbed the accused from the busstand when she was going some-where on Wednesday morning.She revealed to have got appoint-ment in the name of AnamikaShukla with the help ofPushpendra who demanded Rs2 lakh.

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The Tunday Kebab shops inAminabad and Kapoorthala

reopened after lockdown onWednesday. Proprietor MohammedUsman said they were serving chick-en & mutton kebabs, roasted chickenand chicken & mutton biryani.

“We are not keeping many items tobegin with,” he said, adding that therewere few customers on the first day. Hesaid they were ensuring social distanc-ing while it was mandatory for all theemployees and customers to wearmasks. However, Idris (biryani) nearPatanala police outpost and Raheem at

Akbari Gate remained closed. AbuBakr of Idris eatery said they were notgetting mutton as all meat shops in thearea were closed because they werewaiting for licence renewal.

“We will not buy mutton or chick-en which is being sold in the marketillegally,” he said. Zuber Ahmad fromRaheem’s shop also said the eateryremained closed due to unavailabilityof mutton and chicken.

Meanwhile, an FSDA official saidthe meat traders who want to renewtheir licences can do it online. “Thewhole process is done online and any-one follow the procedure and get thelicences renewed,” he added.

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Ten new dialysis machines werestarted at the Nephrology depart-

ment of KGMU’s Shatabdi Hospital onWednesday. KGMU authorities saidthat with the new facility, over 60-70patients could be conveniently treated.The Nephrology OPD is currentlybeing run digitally and with this addedfacility, the patients can contact thedepartment even on Friday for dialysis.

Chief medical superintendent DrSankhwar said KGMU is seeing 1,500patients per day through digitisedOPD. All the patients who call thedepartments are being seen by doctorsof the respective departments. He said

they would open the general OPD onlyafter receiving directions from thegovernment.

Dr Sankhwar said they were con-ducting 50 operations every day in allthe surgical departments. “We are car-rying out emergency operations onlysince the elective operations can be car-ried out anytime in future and it isimportant to protect the patients fromcoronavirus,” he said. He pointed outthat 100 radiotherapy operations werebeing carried out everyday and theDental department is also lookinginto the semi-emergency operations.“The semi-emergency operations aredone with full Covid-19 care and doc-tors wear face shields and masks on thejob’” he added.

���)�����Piyush Kumar, a class XII

student of City MontessoriSchool, GomtiNagar CampusII, has beenselected forK i s h o r eV a i g y a n i kP r o t s a h a nYojana (KVPYFellowship) ofthe Government of India. Hewill be receiving a scholarshipof Rs 5,000 per month and Rs20,000 as annual contingencygrant during his graduation

period. At MSc level, he will begetting a monthly stipend of Rs7,000 per month and annualcontingency grant of Rs 28,000.Thus, he will be getting ascholarship of Rs 4,64,000 dur-ing five years of higher education.

�3����� ����Liquor Sellers Welfare

Association (LSWA) presi-dent KL Maurya has asked thestate government for a refundof licence fees during lock-down. He welcomed relax-ation being given to the shops

from mandatory quota ofliquor in the lockdown peri-od. Maurya said the shopown-ers suffered a huge setbackdue to lockdown as they couldnot do business for over 40days. Maurya pointed out thatthe excise department hadgiven a rebate in licence fee of66 days to new allottees in thee-lottery conducted in therecent past. He said the oldlicense holders had to depositthe total amount of fee (Rs86,000 for desi liquor) but thenew entrants were given relaxation.

'����-���������-������������Lucknow (PNS): In a first forthe city, a shipping consign-ment of mangoes was sent toOman from Mango PackHouse on Wednesday.Additional director, MandiParishad, Kumar Vineet said‘dussehri’ mangoes fromMalihabad and ‘saroli’ fromAmroha were sent to Oman. Atotal of 26 tonnes of mangoeswere sent for shipping fromMumbai. The shipping con-signment is being sent becauseit has the advantage of beingcheaper though it takes alonger time in reaching thedestination.

“This is the first time aconsignment of mangoes isbeing sent by ship to Oman.Many years back, efforts weremade to send the consign-ment to Dubai by ship, butthere is no written record andhence it can be taken as the firstconsignment to a Gulf coun-try,” he said.

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Sharing tricks of how to make quickmoney proved costly for a police offi-

cer in Rae Bareli when he was suspend-ed on Wednesday while in anotherstrange case in Gorakhpur, a police offi-cer faced action after an inquiry revealedthat he was running the police stationwith the help of a constable.

Reports said that an audio clip wentviral on the social media in which aninspector was heard telling tricks of howto earn money through various meansby taking advantage of ‘uniform’ andhow to pass the ‘share’ to senior officersto continue enjoying plum posting.

After the audio clip went viral,senior officers started probe and foundit to be the voice of station house offi-cer of Khero police station in Rae Bareli,Manishankar Tewari.

He was heard giving tip on allow-ing mining in Semri area as overload-ing fetched Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000 dailyor to nab people supplying liquor andget money for their release etc.

SP, Rae Bareli, Swapnil, later sus-pended the inspector and ordered aninquiry in the matter. ASP NityanandRai claimed that further action would

be taken against the inspector after theinquiry report was submitted.

In Gorakhpur, senior officersrecently learnt that Pradeep KumarShukla, posted as station house officerin Khajni police station in the district,had sidelined all the other cops postedat the police station and was running hepolice station with the help of consta-ble Radhey Shyam Yadav. It was allegedthat Yadav did all the work and Shuklajust appended his signature to completethe formality.

A complaint in this regard was alsomade at Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’sportal in which it was alleged thatShukla was posted at the police stationnow for a long time and that hefavoured some selected few after collect-ing money.

On the directions from CM Office,ADG (Zone) Gorakhpur, Dawa Sherpa,had ordered circle officer ofCantonment, Sumit Shukla, to conductan inquiry and submit his report for fur-ther action. When the inquiry reportsupported the allegations, Sherpa justtransferred Shukla to Shrawasti, whileconstable was shifted to Gonda. No dis-ciplinary action has been taken on othercharges.

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Sleuths of the Anti-Terrorists Squad (ATS)claimed to have arrested a youth who threat-

ened to kill member of parliament from Unnao,Sakshi Maharaj.

Reports said that an unknown personcalled Sakshi Maharaj from a mobile phone andclaiming to be calling from Kuwait, abused theMP and threatened to blow him up with a bomb.After being informed, the ATS registered a com-plaint and started investigation.

According to an official communiquéreleased on Wednesday afternoon, the ATSclaimed to have tracked down the caller hail-ing from Bijnor and finally nabbed him.

He revealed his identity as MohammedZafar, a resident of Mirza Saidpur Naya Gaonin Mandawali locality of Bijnor. The accusedlater confessed that he made the call when hewent to his kin’s house in Kuwait.

The cops recovered the mobile phone andSIM used to make the call from his possession.

A case for abusing, threatening and alsounder the IT Act was registered against him andhe was later sent to jail.

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From Page 1“Ground commanders

were meeting regularly toimplement this consensusthroughout the last week.While there was someprogress, the Chinese sidesought to erect a structure inGalwan Valley on our side ofthe LAC. While this became asource of dispute, the Chineseside took pre-meditated andplanned action that wasdirectly responsible for theresulting violence and casual-ties. It reflected an intent tochange the facts on the groundin violation of all our agree-ments to not change the sta-tus quo,” S Jaishankar told hisChinese counterpart.

In turn, the ChineseForeign Minister blamed Indiafor tension and asked it to“severely punish those respon-sible for conflict and controlits frontline troops,” as persome news agency reports.This statement indicatedBeijing’s stance that Indian sol-diers crossed into Chineseterritory, violating the under-standing between the twonations.

In a new statement earli-

er in the day, China said itwanted to avoid further clash-es and India should “strictlyrestrain frontline troops, notillegally cross the border, notmake provocative gestures,not take any unilateral actionsthat will complicate the bordersituation”.

Anyhow, both the leadersin the end agreed to de-esca-late saying, “Neither sidewould take any action toescalate matters and instead,ensure peace and tranquilityas per bilateral agreementsand protocols. It was alsodecided to defuse more thanmonth-long tension on theLAC in Ladakh as per theagreement arrived at betweenCorps Commanders LtGeneral Harinder Singh andMajor General Liu Lin onJune 6.

In conclusion, it wasagreed that overall situationwould be handled in respon-sible manner and both sideswould implement disengage-ment understanding of 6 Junesincerely. Neither side wouldtake any action to escalatematters and ensure peace asper bilateral agreements.

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From Page 1Frontline fighter jets

including SU-30s are carryingout regular sorties in the regionto familiarize themselves withthe operational area and dealwith any threat if need be.

Moreover, all the advancedlanding grounds (ALG) allalong the 4,000 km long LACfrom Ladakh in the west toArunachal Pradesh in the eastare now on full alert. Capableof handling landing and takeoff of transport planes carryingsoldiers and logistics, the ALGshave ramped up their facilities,sources said.

The Army has moved for-ward its additional units allalong the LAC in border Stateslike Utarrakhand, HimachalPradesh, Sikkim andArunachal Pradesh. There is arethink on reducing troops inLadakh region after the Galwanvalley incident.

When the stand-offs start-ed a month back, China broughtadditional troops besides heavyweapons to the operationalareas forcing India to match it.After the two sides decided tomutually pull back troops fromthe face-offs, it was also agreedto remove troops from the

operational areas to peace timelocations. Operational areas aregenerally located 20 to 25 kmfrom the LAC.

However, with the bloodybrawl on Monday night, theArmy may not withdraw itstroops as a precautionary step,officials said, adding it will waitand watch for the next fewdays.

In another development,the Army is now given emer-gency power to deal with com-plete freedom against anyChinese aggression at the LAC.The Government has reported-ly given a free hand to thearmed forces to act as they seedeem fit after the Galwan val-ley incident, sources said. Itwill be upto the local comman-ders now to assess and takeaction accordingly, they added.

In the aftermath of suffer-ing highest number of casual-ties in the last 40 years, theArmy is likely to revise its stan-dard operating procedure whilepatrolling on the Line of ActualControl (LAC). They do notcarry weapons as per an agree-ment some years back withChina. However, the brutalassault by vastly superior num-bers in the latest incidentresulting in 20 deaths, the deci-sion makers will have to take acall on it.

As of now, the IndianArmy patrols are strictly pro-hibited from opening fire at theLAC and as a precaution theydo not carry guns. This con-fidence building agreementwas inked between the twocountries in 1996. It binds boththe countries that neither sideshall open fire or conduct blastoperations within two km ofthe LAC.

In the Galwan valley inci-dent on Monday, the patrolteam was overwhelmed by alarger strength of soldiers fromthe other side. During theclashes, the Chinese used ironrods, stones and sticks withbarbed wires and nails on themto attack the Indian team.

The 1996 agreement sawboth the sides refraining frombrandishing weapons at eachother. The face-offs used to seepushing and jostling. TheChinese of late started peltingstones and now graduated tomore lethal weapons like clubswith barbed wires and nails.The latest incident may see theGovernment revisiting thestandard operating procedureat the LAC, officials said.

Meanwhile, ITBP DirectorGeneral SS Deswal on Tuesdaybriefed Union Home MinisterAmit Shah and updated himabout the ground situation in

the Galwan valley as also otherpoints along the LAC where thePLA has breached the sanctityof the de facto border betweenthe two countries.

The paramilitary has alsobeen positioned at many placeson the LAC in close coordina-tion with the Army and wasengaged in rescue and evacu-ation of Army’s personnel whowere injured during the attackby the PLA.

The Force has alreadymobilised troops from variousBattalions from different Statesand they were rushed fordeployment in the Ladakhregion for reinforcement ofthe posts.

ITBP is the nodal forcetasked to secure the 3,488 kmLAC from Karakoram Pass inLadakh to Diphu La inArunachal Pradesh.

Apart from maintainingmaximum vigil on the frontierwith Pakistan, the BSF hasalso been directed to keep aneye on the strategic road thatruns between Baltal nearSrinagar and Leh in Ladakh.The Srinagar-Ladakh highwayhas also been closed for thecivilian traffic except vehicularmovement for the carriage ofessential items in the wake ofthe heightened situation alongthe LAC.

��������:::

From Page 1After the issuance of the

letter of acceptance by theNCRTC, the Chinese firmhas to complete the tunnelingwork in 1,095 days. As per thecontract terms, the tunnelingwork will be carried out byTunnel B oring Machinethrough the cut and covermethod. After the Chinesefirm emerged as lowest bid-der, RSS affiliate SwadeshiJagran Manch (SJM) hasurged the Narendra ModiGovernment to cancel thefinancial bid of a Chinesecompany. Congress leaderRandeep Singh Surjewalaquest ioned CentralGovernment’s “AtmanirbharBharat” call. Expected to becompleted by 2025, Delhi-Meerut RRTS project is an82.15 km long, under-con-struction, semi-high speedrail corridor, connectingDelhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut. Asper NCRTC, it is one of thethree rapid-rail corridorsplanned under the RRTS pro-ject. With a maximum speedof 160 km/h (99.42 mph), thedistance between Delhi andMeerut will be covered inaround 62 minutes.

From Page 1The clashes came amidst

the “de-escalation” process inGalwan area that was startedlast week, after a month longstand-off between troops atseveral points along the LAC.The Chinese of late have start-ed understanding the Galwanvalley as their own while theIndians do not agree with thisperception. Incidentally, somebattles were fought in the val-ley in the 1962 war betweenIndia and China. Paying trib-utes to the soldiers, DefenceMinister Rajnath Singh in atweet message said, “Our sol-diers have displayed exem-plary courage and valour in theline of duty and sacrificedtheir lives in the highest tradi-tions of the Indian Army.”“The nation will never forgettheir bravery and sacrifice. Myheart goes out to the families ofthe fallen soldiers. The nationstands shoulder to shoulderwith them in this difficulthour. We are proud of thebravery and courage of India’sbravehearts,” he added.

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Guwahati: The army hasstarted to build a 150-metrebridge over a water body tofacilitate technical works tocontrol gas leakage and oilwell fire in the Tinsukia dis-trict of Assam, according toofficials, here on Wednesday.

In view of the urgency ofthe s ituat ion, TinsukiaDistr ic t Deputy

Commissioner Bhaskar Pegurequested the army to con-struct a bridge over a waterbody adjacent to the blowoutwell, said an OIL official.

"The army is ferrying 17trucks of material for thebailey bridge from 3 Corpsarmy base at Misamari in theTezpur district," the officialsaid.

Gas and oil condensateleakage at the Oil India's(OIL) oil well at Baghjan,around 550 km east of here,started on May 27. It caughtfire on June 9, killing two OILfire fighters and injuringmany others. Experts fromSingapore-based Alert alongwith ONGC, OIL and NDRFengineers and specialists are

making efforts to cap gasand oil leakage and douse thefire, which continued for theninth day on Wednesday.

Al l India R adio,Dibrugarh, is twice a daybroadcasting a bulletin called"Baghjan Barta" since June 13to inform people about theprogress in capping the well.

PTI

From Page 1The BJP had 21 MLAs. While the BJP is

now left with 18 MLAs, Congress tally rose to31 now making it the majority party in theState.

The Naga Peoples Front (NPF) and theNational People’s Party (NPP) bagged four seatseach. The Lokjanshakti Party, TrinamoolCongress and an Independent candidate wonone seat each.

AICC sources said that party high com-mand has been sent the letter of joining of theMLAs in Congress foray. “The leadership wantsto reassure before staking claim as soon as pos-sible,” said the party sources.

The Governor, Najma Heptulla, had invit-ed BJP to stake claim to form the next govern-ment in 2017. The BJP managed to form thegovernment enlisting the support of all non-Congress MLAs. Besides, Congress MLAShyamkumar Singh from Andro assembly con-stituency defected to join the saffron party.

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Indian Railways has deployed 960 Covid carecoaches in five States such as Delhi, Uttar

Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana andMadhya Pradesh.

Sustaining the fight against Covid-19,Indian Railways is making an all out effort tosupplement the health care efforts of StateGovernments. Indian Railways has geared upto provide its 5,231 Covid Care Coaches to theStates. Zonal Railways have converted thesecoaches as Covid Care Centres to be used forvery mild / mild cases, a senior railways offi-cial said. The official said that out of total 960covid care coaches, 503 are deployed inDelhi, 20 in Andhra Pradesh, 60 in Telangana,372 in Uttar Pradesh and 5 in MadhyaPradesh. In Delhi, 503 COVID Care coachesare deployed at 9 locations. 50 COVID Carecoaches are deployed at Shakurbasti, 267 atAnand Vihar, 21 at Delhi Safdarjung, 50 atDelhi Sarai Rohilla, 33 at Delhi Cant, 30 atAdarsh Nagar, 13 at Delhi Shahadra, 13 atTughlakabad and 26 at Patel Nagar, he said.

“In Uttar Pradesh, total 372 COVID Carecoaches have been deployed at 23 differentlocations i.e. Pundit Deen Dayal Upadhyayjunction, Lucknow, Varanasi, Bhadohi,Faizabad, Saharanpur, Mirzapur, Subedarganj,Kanpur, Jhansi, Jhansi Workshop, Agra, NakhaJungle, Gonda, Nautanwa, Bahraich, VaranasiCity, Manduadih, Mau, Bhatni, Bareilly City,Farrukhabad and Kasganj,” he said.

In Madhya Pradesh, a total five coaches aredeployed at Gwalior. In Andhra Pradesh, total20 coaches are deployed at Vijayawada whilein Telangana, a total of 60 such coaches aredeployed at 3 different locations i.e.Secunderabad, Kachguda and Adilabad, headded. As per guidelines of Ministry ofHealth and Family Welfare (MoHFW)Government of India, these State Governmentshave sent the requisition to Indian Railwaysand Railways have allocated these coaches tothe State/UTs. It is worth mentioning thatIndian Railways is working as Service Providerof Coaches as COVID Care Centres as its con-tribution to national cause. Doctors andparamedics are to be provided by StateGovernments, he said.

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Various organisations onWednesday came on the

road to raise their protestagainst the martyrdom ofIndian soldiers who werestoned and bludgeoned todeath in a violent face off withthe Chinese troops. It may benoted here that as many as 20Indian soldiers were stoned andbludgeoned to death in a vio-lent face-off with the Chinesetroops in the intervention nightbetween June 15 and 16 in theGalwan Valley.

The activists of socialorganisation Vishal BharatSansthan including womencame on the road at Lamahiand torched the effigies ofChina and Chinese President toraise their protest against themartyrdom of as many as 20Indian soldiers who lost theirlives in violent face-off withChinese troops.

They said that China hadbetrayed and the martyrdom ofIndian soldiers would not go invain and added that Indianarmy would give befitting reply.India would not tolerate intru-sion by Chinese army in its ter-ritory, they said further.

They pledged of not usingany Chinese product of homeappliance and said that eachand every citizen of India isready to teach a lesson toChina. Among those presenton the occasion were Dr RajivSrivastava, Najneen Ansari,Archana Bharatvanshi, NajamaParveen and Dr Mridula

Jaiswal.Meanwhile, the activists of

Samajwadi Party (SP) led byformer corporator ofSamajwadi RavikantVishwakarm reachedDashaswamedh Ghat and paidtheir tributes to Indian soldierswho gave their supreme sacri-fice while fighting the Chinesetroops. It was unfortunate thatthe nation had lost its 20 sol-diers at LAC after four decadesand thus there is a need of seri-ous talk on foreign and defensepolicies in present situation.There should be amicable rela-tion with neighbours but not atthe cost of martyrdom of oursoldiers, they said adding that

Indian army is competent todeal with its enemies. Theentire nation stand by the sol-diers who gave their supremesacrifice to protect the countryborder, they said further.Sandeep Mishra, Shanu Sinha,Shambhu Sahani, MikkiVishwakarm and Ronit Keshariwere mainly present on theoccasion.

The activists of SamajwadiLohia Vahini gathered atPandeypur and staged demon-stration to raise their ire againstthe martyrdom of Indian sol-diers and said that the Chinahad shown its cowardice as itstroops attacked by cheating.They demanded the Indian

government to give befittingreply to China and teach a les-son so as it could never dare torepeat such unethical act infuture.

They also demanded thegovernment at Centre to con-trol the gradually rising price inpetrol and diesel. They alsodemanded the government todirect the competent authori-ty to waive off three monthselectricity tariff and school feebecause of lockdown in view ofCOVID-19.

Deepchand Gupta,Kanhaiya Vishwakarma, KashiYadav, Sunny Gupta andPrabhakar Yadav were mainlypresent on the occasion.

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Allahabad University exam-ination committee has

decided to start conductingexaminations for final-yearstudents for all UG and PGcourses from August 17onwards. It has decided tocomplete the examinationprocess which was stoppedmidway in March due to thelockdown.

During a meeting here,the examination committeedecided that it will start con-ducting examinations for final-year students from August 17onwards. The duration of theexaminations for all courseswill be two hours and studentswould be asked to answer anyfour questions. AU’s PublicRelations Officer ShailendraMishra said the meeting waschaired by the varsity’s offici-ating Vice-Chancellor RRTewari and was attended by the

Controller of Examination,apart from all deans.

With students being able totravel via different means oftransport and being allowed tostay in hostels/delegacy byAugust first week, the commit-tee decided that AU can goahead and conduct the exam-inations in the first phase.

‘Students will be allowed tostay in hostels from August 7.In the first phase, AU willconduct examinations for final-year and final semester stu-dents of UG and PG coursesfrom August 17. In the nextphase, depending upon thenumber of students, examina-tions for first and second-yearstudents will be conducted,’said the PRO.

Second year students ofBA, BSc and BCom will not bepromoted to third year, but willbe allowed to continue attend-ing classes for the final year oftheir course. ‘The exams will be

conducted in between whenev-er it is feasible and papers canbe arranged.

The exercise will be carriedout during the winter vacation,so that the academic calendaris not disturbed. The sameprocess would be followed forconducting examinations forfirst year students of the threecourses.’

‘However, the assessmentof students in the practicallaboratories will be done on thebasis of assignments and viva-voce which can also bearranged in the conferencingmode. As social distancing is tobe maintained, the universitymay conduct the examinationsin three shifts and even onSaturdays and Sundays. Thenumber of centres may beincreased which will be prop-erly sanitised,’ said the PRO.

The assessment of finalyear students will be done onthe basis of the weighted aver-

age of the marks obtained inthe sessional assessment in thecurrent semester and the over-all performance in previoussemesters.

In the cases where session-al assessment has not been car-ried out until now, it will bedone by giving assignments tothe students. The evaluationof fourth semester studentsand the second semesterstudents will be done in thesimilar manner as specifiedabove.

For annual examinationsfor BA/BSc/BCom (III), theweighted average of marksobtained in the previous twoyears should be considered fortheir third year assessment.This relaxation is being provid-ed for the session 2019-20 onlyin view of the COVID-19 out-break. The second examinationwill only be conducted afterapproval from State andCentral governments.

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Though it is pre-monsoonshower in Prayagraj, people

are quite relieved by getting ridof humid hot weather. The wel-come showers brought cheerson the faces of the farmers whohad been waiting for a moder-ate downpour to begin with theprocess of paddy crop.

Monsoon clouds havealso entered UttarPradesh from the BalliaChhapra border and are mov-ing towards west. The mon-soon showers are expected tohit Prayagraj within two-threedays.

In the city people had toface the problem of water-log-ging is the low lying areas, butthe relief was much biggerthan the miseries, so peopleenjoyed the downpour andcool breeze.

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Ateam of surgeons per-formed a tough, life saving

surgery at SRN Hospital of theMotilal Nehru Medical Collegeof the city, here on Mondayevening. In the operation last-ing three hours, the doctorssuccessfully removed a twofoot section of a bamboo stickthat was embedded in thepatient’s body.

SRN Hospital surgeonSanjay Singh, quoting thepatient’s relatives, said thatParvati (15) a resident of

Chitrakoot, fell on a pile ofbamboo sticks from the roof ofher house, on Sunday morning.

A 5 feet bamboo stickpierced her body, passing fromthe left hand side of theabdomen to her right chest.Parvati’s parents rushed her tothe district hospital atChitrakoot, from where shewas referred to SRN Hospital,because of the seriousness ofher injury, he added.

The girl was admitted tothe surgical emergency and ateam of doctors was constitut-ed under Abhinav Agrawal

comprising vascular surgeonNeeraj Tripathi, Rahul Singhand assisted by the team ofanesthetists led by DharmendraYadav.

The patient arrived at thehospital at around 10 am andtests like CT scan, and otherinvestigations were performedin preparation for the surgeryand to assess the position of thetwo foot portion inside thebody. Three feet of the stick wasoutside the body and was cut.We then started the operationat around 2 pm, said Agrawal.

He said that the abdomen

region of the patient wasopened, and the doctors sawthat the stick had passed verynear the kidney and the pan-creas while her diaphragm andliver were ruptured along withmajor vessels. We not onlyremoved the stick but alsorepaired the vital organsincluding the liver, diaphragm,kidney and pancreas, added thesurgeon.

The girl has regained con-sciousness and doctors plan toswitch her to oral diet fromWednesday morning, headded.

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Famous Banarasi langdamango, which hogged the

limelight recently with itsexports to Dubai (UAE) andLondon (UK), is now inprocess of getting its registra-tion under GeographicalIdentification (GI), along withmany other famous products ofthe this region includingBanarasi Paan (betel),Ramnagar brinjal andAdamchini rice.

‘We’ve already startedefforts for as many as 10 moreproducts of the state includingall these local products so thattheir fragrance can be smelledacross the world,’ said that GIexpert and Director of HumanWelfare Association (HWA)Padma Shri Dr Rajani Kantwhile talking to ‘The Pioneer’here on Wednesday.

Banarasi paan is worldfamous apart from brinjal ofRamnagar, popularly known asChokha, Banarasi langdamango and Adamchini varietyof rice which is produced inthis belt of ‘Rice Bowl’ and theydo not need any recognition.‘Apart from these four productsof Varanasi region, the other

items which is in pipeline areBarabanki handloom,Muzaffarnagar Gur, leatherfootwear of Agra, Baghpathandloom products, Jalaunhandmade paper and JalesarGhanti-Ghungaroo,’ informedDr Rajani Kant, adding that theprocedures for getting GI reg-istration has started with thelocal institutions in associationin association with NABARD,Department of MSME (ODOPCell), UP Government andHWA. He said that after com-pleting all the formalities, theapplications for registrationunder Intellectual Property Act(IPA) would be sent to GIheadquarters in Chennai.

Dr Rajinikanth said that GI

application is always applied bylocal manufacturing institu-tions and for 10 productsselected under ‘One DistrictOne Product’ (ODOP) of thestate including Aligarh Tala(lock), Bakhira metal products,Banda Shahzar stone, BijnorNagina wood craft, PratapgarhAavla , Amroha dholak,Hathras Hing products,Mahoba Gaura Stone Craft,Mainpuri Tarakashi Craft andSambhal horn product, appli-cations have been applied bythe concerned HWA inOctober last year in collabora-tion with NABARD and UPGovernment .

‘For registration under GI,applications in the highest

number have been submittedduring the last one year and itis believed that in future, UPwill play a leading role in thefield of IPR and exports of mostGI products,’ he said.

Till now, a total of 13 prod-ucts of Purvanchal which havealready achieved GI status andthey include Kala Namak rice,Banarasi saree, metal craft,Gulabi Meenakari, stone craft,Chunar sandstone, glass beads,Bhadohi carpet, MirzapuriDhari, Ghazipur wall hanging,Nizamabad (Azamgarh) BlackPottery and Guava ofAllahabad. In the entire state,a total of 26 products havealready received GI certifica-tion.

Dr Rajinikanth has urgedthe Chief Minister (CM) YogiAdityanath that in the state GIincentive and promotion pol-icy should be implementedand State GI Board should beconstituted so that in this peri-od of coronavirus pandemic,the state can be led towardsself-sufficiency because GI tagwill help the local productsearn name at global levelapart from providing employ-ment to a large number of peo-ple.

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Five more jawans in the 18thBattalion of Indo Tibet

Border Police (ITBP) havebeen found infected with thecoronavirus here onWednesday. The number ofcorona infected in the ITBP isincreasing rapidly. So far, eightjawans have been infected withthe corona here.

In fact, 90 personnel of anITBP company located inBamrauli were doing duty inDelhi during lockdown. Oncompletion of the duty sched-ule, the company returned toPrayagraj on June 9. All thejawans who reached Prayagrajwere quarantined. Four daysbefore one of the quarantinedsoldiers showed signs of coro-navirus, his sample was takenand he tested corona positive inhis report. Thereafter, two sol-diers were found corona posi-tive on Tuesday. At the sametime, five other soldiers havealso been infected with this epi-demic in the report that cameon Wednesday.

All these soldiers have beenadmitted to COVID-19Hospital, Kotwa CHC. On theother hand, in the ITBP, thereis an atmosphere of panicamong the soldiers due to thecontinuously increasing casesof coronavirus. However, allarrangements have been madein the ITBP to prevent thespread of this epidemic. TheITBP campus is being sanitisedtwice a day. More than a hun-dred soldiers have been quar-antined here.

Two patients found sus-pected of corona infection inShankargarh area have beensent to Prayagraj for a test.Residents of Kherhat KhurdPatel Nagar, two youthsreturned from Mumbai andNoida were found to havesymptoms of corona infection.They were sent to COVID-19Testing Centre Kalindipuram,Prayagraj on Wednesday.

The village has beendeclared a hotspot after reportsof a man in Sarai Leeli aliasKhojapur village near the com-munity health centre and block

headquarters Phulpur and awoman in Savdih village on thePrayagraj-Gorakhpur highwaytested corona positive.

Administrative officialsincluding BDO SubhashChandra Tripathi and Kotwaliincharge Brijesh Singh reachedthe spot and barricaded the vil-lage and closed the way.Administrative officials areconstantly keeping an eye onthe hotspot village and advis-ing people to stay safe at home.After finding a corona positivepatient, village head UrmilaDevi in village Sarai Lily akaKhojapur, Gram Panchayatofficer Dhirendra Kushwahagot the streets and public placesof the village sanitised along themain road and advised peopleto stay at home.

Meanwhile, The AdditionalChief Medical Officer (ACMO)of the Health department hasalso been found infected withthe COVID-19 here onWednesday. This came justafter the outgoing SSP SatyarthAnirudh Pankaj tested positivefor coronavirus on Tuesday

evening, the ACMO has beenadmitted to L3 COVID-19SRN Hospital.

On Wednesday, when theACMO report came positive, Apanic-like situation prevailed inthe Health department.Because the ACMO was con-stantly going to the CMOoffice. He has been admitted toCOVID Hospital SRN.Confirming this, Nodal Officerof Coronavirus Dr Rishi Sahaisaid that the ACMO wasengaged in screening thosecoming from outside at the sta-tion. When his sampling wasdone, he came positive. Manyofficials of the departmenthave become quarantined assoon as they came to knowabout the ACMO being infect-ed. Now, their sampling willalso be done.

On the other hand, reportsof two corona-infected nursescame negative on Wednesday.Both were discharged fromCOVID Hospital Kotwa Banion Wednesday morning. Boththese nurses work in a privatehospital in the city.

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9�+ �������� �%�������������������� ��������ALLAHABAD (PNS): NorthCentral Railway will convertadditional 150 coaches as iso-lation wards. As part ofCOVID-19 preparedness,North Central Railway hasalready converted 130 Generaland Sleeper class coaches intoisolation coaches followingstandard modification issuedby Railway Board. Of 130 iso-lation coaches sufficient tocater 2,080 Covid patients,conversion of 50 coaches was

done by Jhansi coach midliferehabilitation workshop, 40 byPrayagraj division and 20 eachby Agra and Jhansi divisions.

Under the standard mod-ification work the first cabinnear the bathing room hasbeen provided with two plasticcurtains transversely in theaisle so that the entry and exitto the entire eight cabins can bescreened off. This first cabinhas been earmarked for thestore/paramedics area.

A detailed standard oper-ating procedure for use of iso-lation coaches for treatment ofmild Covid patients was issuedby the Ministry of Health onMay 6. These isolation coach-es have been made to augmentresources of state governmentsin the fight against novel pan-demic. A list of 215 stations wasalso issued having facilities ofwatering and charging howev-er being a on-wheel facility itcan be moved to other loca-

tions also. To further augment the

preparedness against COVID-19, North Central Railway hasdecided to convert additional150 coaches as isolation coach-es and coaches are beingarranged for undertaking con-version work. Of total 150coaches 70 shall be convertedby CMLR workshop Jhansi, 50by Prayagraj division , 20 byJhansi division and 10 by Agradivision.

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With the finding of twonew COVID-19 patients,

the district has inched furtherclose to touch 300-mark as itstotal number of patients hasreached 293. Since the findingof first patient of the region, thedistrict always remained on thetop till recently when Jaunpurof Varanasi division emerged asthe epicentre where the caseshave already crossed 400-mark.As many as two new COVID-19 patients have been detectedfrom the district here onWednesday. Out of the total293 patients, 216 have beenrecovered while eight havedied, leaving 69 active patients.Chief Medical Officer (CMO)Dr VB Singh has informed thatreports of 293 samples havebeen received fromMicrobiology department,Banaras Hindu University(BHU) and out of them, 291were negative while two posi-tive. Among the negativereports, there were follow-upreports of two patients admit-ted to ESIC Hospital. Later on,the patient has been dis-charged.

Among the positivepatients, there is a youth (34)from Sundarpur (Lanka), whois a doctor while the otherpatient is a woman (67) who isfrom hotspot Badi Piyari, whohas become red zone againfrom green zone. With thefinding of new patients, thenumber of hotspots remainedat 150. Out of total them, 81

have become green zones withnew ones are Umraha Barai(Choubeypur), Mokalpur(Choubeypur), Pragya NagarColony (Lanka), Saraiyya(Choubeypur), New ColonySoyepur (Cantt), Ratanpur(Badagan) and Devri(Badagaon), while among 69active hotspots, 32 are inorange zones while 37 are inred zones. As many as 161 sam-ples have been collected andsent for testing during the day.Till date 8,366 samples havebeen collected and results of8,109 have been received while257 are awaited. Out of allreceived reports, 7,815 werenegative and 293 positive.

Meanwhile, in this belt ofPurvanchal (eastern UP), thetrans-Ganga district ofChandauli, a large number ofpatients have been detected ascorona positive. All these 12patients including two womenare migrants.

With this, the total numberof patients in the district hasgone up to 63 with 35 active as27 have been discharged fromthe hospitals while one hasdied.

Earlier, since the imposingof lockdown, on Tuesday thenumber of vehicles challanedso far by the local police hascrossed one lakh figure as it was1,00,859 while the number of

vehicles seized was 1,035.Besides, 294 FIRs have beenlodged against 682 persons;2,983 were arrested underSection 151 of CrPC, whileaction was taken against 4,037under Section 188 or Section51 of Disaster ManagementAct. During the day, as many as70 persons have been arrestedunder Section 151 CrPC, whileaction was taken against 16under Section 51 of DisasterManagement Act apart fromtaking action against 131 formoving without wearingmasks. During checking at 14border points and 49 policebarriers, 1,224 vehicles werechallaned and four seized.

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Two persons lost their livesdue to lightning in the dis-

trict on Tuesday. As per thereports received here, Suhani(8), daughter of Vijay Patel, wasplaying outside her house inRaipuria village under theAdalhat police station whenlightning struck her as a resultof which she died on the spot.In another incident Ramvilas(30), a resident of Sujabad vil-lage under the Ramnagar policestation, died when he was hitby lightning while fishing atSagar Dekar dam in Hinautavillage under the Padari policestation.

COUPLE KILLED: A cou-ple was killed in a road mishapon Mirzapur- Prayagraj Roadunder the Jigna police station.Reports said that Hari Shankar,a resident of Tikra villageunder the Vindhyachal policestation, owas on his way toPrayagraj on a moped alongwith his wife that he was hit bya Bolero at Ghosi turn underJigna police station. The policebrought the victims to the hos-pital where Hari Shankar(53)was declared by the doctor asbrought dead while Usha (50)died during treatment. Thepolice took the bodies in pos-session for the legal formali-ties.Meanwhile the Chilh policearrested a cattle smuggler.Reports said that during inves-tigation in a case registered atthe police station regardingcattle smuggling the name ofthe accused had come to light.Acting on the information of

the informer the police arrest-ed Abu Saleem, a resident ofMohammadpur village underthe Kokhraj police station inKaushambi from Chilh trifur-cation where he was planningto commit another crime.Meanwhile the Katra Kotwalipolice arrested Gufran for usingcommunal and inflammatorylanguage regarding NRC andCAA in his post on Facebookin January. The police had reg-istered a case under relevantsections of IPC but he wasevading arrest. A reward of�15,000 had been declared bythe police for his arrest. SHOKatra Kotwali RameshChandra on the basis of inputsarrested him from his residencein Imlaha locality under KatraKotwali police station. Inanother incident a teenaged girlcommitted suicide in GaiviGhat locality under the KatraKotwali police station. As perthe received reports, Khushi(14), daughter of Anil Nishad,ended her lief by hanging her-self from the ceiling fan. Ongetting information the policereached on the spot, brokeopen the door and recoveredthe body. The body was sent forthe post-mortem examination.

ROUTE MARCH: Tomake people aware regardingprecautions to to taken in viewof Coronavirus route march-es were taken out by the policethroughout the district underthe leadership of police author-ities. In the town the routemarch was taken out under theleadership of SP Dr DharmveerSingh along with heavy police

force. During the march the SPappealed to the people to stayat home and avoid roamingaround unnecessarily and in

case they had to anywhere dueto some urgent work they shouldreturn after finishing it withoutinordinate delay. He told thepeople that precaution was thebest way to defeat Coronavirus.He appealed to the people to fol-low the social distancingnorms. CO City, the SHOs ofKatra and City Kotwali alongwith a large number of policepersonnel participated in it.

YOUTH DIES: A youthgulped some poisonous sub-stance in Chitang village underthe Lalganj police station.Reports said that Pankaj Yadav(20), a resident of Chitang vil-lage, gulped some poisonoussubstance. His family membersbrought him to district hospi-tal where he died during treat-ment. The police took his bodyinto possession for completinglegal formalities.

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On being tipped off by aninformer the personnel

attached to Alinagar policestation and SOG during check-ing at Chakia intersection joint-ly recovered liquor wortharound �3 lakh from a Gypsyduring checking on Tuesdaynight and arrested two accusedfrom there. Action was takenagainst them under relevantsections of law by bringingthem to the police station. Ongetting information that smug-glers were going towards Bihar

by loading liquor on the Gypsythe Alinagar police along withSOG team jointly startedchecking vehicles at Chakiaintersection. In the meantimethey spotted a Gypsy and sig-nalled its driver to stop. Afterinterrogating two people sittingin it, they searched the vehicleand found liquor there.According to the police the costof the recovered liquor wasaround �3 lakh. The arrestedaccused were identified asAman Jat, son of Suresh Singhand Amit Jat, son of BaljitSingh, residents of Haryana.

Action was taken against themunder relevant sections of law.The police team comprisedAbhay Kumar Singh, Swatincharge, S-I Anandi Deen,Rajendra Prasad Patel, headconstable, Anand Singh, con-stable Shivkesh Singh and oth-ers. Meanwhile a youth whohad committed suicide by hang-ing with the help of a rope in theoutskirts of Ritha Khajhra villageunder the Dhina police stationwas identified as Punit (25), sonof Sadhusharan Singh, a residentof Nauli Patti village under theDhanapur police station.

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DM Amit Singh Bansal andSP Siddharth Shankar

Meena along with ADMSantosh Bahadur Singh andCity Magistrate Surendra Singhmade a surprise visit toNihalpur Syodha sand mine inNaraini town on Tuesday. DMBansal told ‘The Pioneer’ onWednesday that the miningwork was found closed there.Later DM sent the ADM andcity magistrate to inspectKolaval Raipur sand minewhere the mining work wasalso found closed and no signof illegal mining was foundthere. Later DM Bansal and SPMeena inspected CHCNaraini/L-1-Covid 19 hospital.Bansal said that superintendentof the hospital Dr B S Rajput toldhim that 41 people had beenkept under quarantine there.The DM and SP also went toAtarra town on Tuesday andfound several shops open despiteweekly closure. DM and SP got15 shopkeepers arrested. DMBansal said that he had instruct-ed SDM Atarra to take legalaction against these shopkeep-ers under DisasterManagement Act, 2005,

Epidemic Act, 1997 andSection 188 of the IPC. DMsaid that he would continue tomake surprise visits to sandmines of the district in order tocheck illegal mining and over-loading of trucks.

SUICIDE: Anju Yadav(20), wife of Buddharaj com-mitted suicide by sprinklingkerosene on her clothes inPatna village under Mataundhpolice station on Tuesday. Shewas rushed to the district hos-pital Banda where she diedduring treatment. The policehad sent her body for the post-mortem examination. ASPLKB Pal said that the deceasedAnju wanted to go to her aunt’shouse in Palhari village but her

husband refused to send herthere due to unavailability ofpublic transport. Police saidthat the deceased felt it bad dueto it and committed suicide.

In another incident,Ramkesh (20), son of ChunnuVerma, committed suicide withthe help of a rope in Takuli vil-lage on Tuesday. SHO BisandaAkhilesh Misra said that theyouth, who was unmarried, wasworking in Punjab as a labour-er and had come to the villagedue to lockdown. The father ofthe deceased said that his sonwas facing financial problemsdue to which he committed sui-cide. SHO said that the body ofthe deceased had been sent forthe post-mortem examination.

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The North Eastern Railway(NER) administration is

using modern PQRS machinefor replacing rail tracks. Themachine, which was very use-ful for Indian Railways, wassmall in size which reduced thecost of its maintenance. It wasused in the construction of rail-way tracks and modernisationof old ones, Chief PublicRelations Officer (CPRO)Pankaj Kumar Singh said.

The rail tracks were beingreplaced in relatively less timewith this machine. It wasbecoming very useful for saferail travel. PQRS machinesalways worked together in set.Through them from the work-ing site the old rail and panelcan be brought back com-pletely to the base due to whichadditional freight carriage workdoes not have to be done. Themachine was capable of liftingweights ranging from nine to

12 tonnes. In order to run it atthe working site an auxiliarytrack was constructed alongside the old rail on which themachine brings the new paneland replaces the old one. Thismachine was being used inGorakhpur-Paniyehwa (Siswa-Ghughli) section for mod-ernising the old 52 kg sleeper.Under this work in place of 52kg sleeper 60 kg one and inplace of 52 kg rail the oneweighing 60 kg had to beinstalled. This will strengthensafety and speed could also beincreased in the coming time.

In this section with the help ofPQRS machine 12.5 km workhas been done so far. Due to themovement of trains on this linethe work was done only duringtraffic block. More work can bedone with the help of thismachine in less time besidesensuring quality in it. Due tothe excess weight of the con-crete sleeper it took a lot of timeto work manually whereas halfa kilometre work was done bythis machine in a block of fourhours. The Railways was com-mitted to ensuring safety, secu-rity and punctuality.

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Dr Shuchita Chaturvedi,Member State Child

Rights Protection Commission,UP while holding a meeting atCircuit House on Wednesdaysaid poor children under theRTE Act should be admitted toprivate schools. She said therewas a need to create a hype onthe issue so that more and morepoor children could be able toafford private and quality edu-cation. She said a proper andconstant survey need to be car-ried out and warned againstany laxity. Addressing themeeting she inquired about theprogress of the nurtitious fooddistribution where as she wasinformed that door to door theAnganwadi workers were pro-viding nutritious food. He saidif any migratory labourers orthe wife was pregnant then theyshould be provided with prop-er nutrition. She also took thefeedback of the Bal ShramikVidya Yojana.

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Hundreds of Congressmenformed a human chain at

petrol pump near NishatCinema, Mall Road onWednesday. The memberskeeping social distancing andsporting face masks protestedagainst the rapid price hike ofpetrol despite the crash inprices of petrol at the globalmarkets. The members shout-ed slogans demanding imme-diate roll back on the petrolprices. The members holdingplacards, posters and bannersthreatened to intensity theiragitation in case the govern-ment remained apathetic onthe issue.

Addressing the gatheringthe city president, Har PrakashAgnihotri, said while therewas constant fall in price ofcrude the government wasconstantly increasing the petroland diesel prices which was infact fleecing the common man.He said on the day the price ofcrude at the global level wasUS$ 40.66. He said the BJP

Government was selling petrolat ��78.38 a litre and diesel at�� � 68.61 a litre and this waswhen the people were totallyeconomically devastated onaccount of the lockdown. Hesaid this can be termed asopen loot of the BJPGovernment and the Congresswill not remain silent on theissue. He said when globalcrude price was US$107.09

the Congress government hadsold petrol at �� 71.41 and dieselat ��55.49.

He said this was betrayal ofthe government and can betermed a loot. He said if the BJPGovernment remained insen-sitive then the Congress will beforced to intensify its agitation.Later the party membersobserved two minutes silenceto mourn the death of the

defence personnel at Laddakhborder and raised slogan fortheir sacrifice. Prominent whotook part in the demonstrationwere Nizamuddin Khan, IqbalAhmed, Ashok Dhanvik, RKShukla, Naushad Alam, SamuelLucky Singh, Tufail Ahmed, BRRai and several others.

SP PROTEST AGAINSTWATER CRISIS: The citypresident, Moin Khan address-ing the dharna on the third dayto protest water crisis said theparty was prepared to intensi-fy its agitation. He said in viewof the heat wave coupled withwater and power crisis thepeople of the city were facinggreat problem.

He issued an ultimatumthat in case in three days thewater did not reach the tankthen they will be forced to siton dharna. The member laterheld a condolence meet tomourn the death of the armypersonnel at Laddakh anddemanded the resignation ofthe Prime Minister, DefenceMinister and the HomeMinister.

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Ajilted lover committed sui-cide by consuming some

poisonous substance at themarriage ceremony of his para-mour in a village of KanpurDehat district on Tuesdaynight.

While being taken to hos-pital, he died on the way.According to reports, when thejaimal ceremony was beingheld in Maitha village underSheoli police station of KanpurDehat, Ajay Kumar Singh (22)of the village reached there andconsumed some poisonoussubstance in front of all theguests. Ajay’s family memberswere informed about the inci-dent and they rushed him tothe community health centrewhere he was pronounced deadby the doctors. The villagerssaid that Ajay was in deep lovewith the girl and wanted tomarry her. He had also told hisfamily about his affair but thefamily members of the girlwere not ready to marry herwith Ajay. When the marriageof the girl was fixed elsewhere,Ajay tried to persuade hislover’s family to marry her tohim but they were not ready tolisten. The girl too shunnedhim. With the date of the girl’smarriage approaching fast, Ajaybecame upset and finally tookthe extreme step on Tuesday,

Investigations are on.

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Chief Medical Officer Dr AKShukla said on Wednesday

that the government had pri-oritised tests for pregnantwomen and those who wereundergoing surgery.

Addressing media persons,the CMO said with three RT-PCR (reverse transcriptionpolymerase chain reaction)machines working constantly,the LLR Hospital was now in aposition to give reports ofcoronavirus test at a fasterrate.

He said one TrueNatmachine had also beeninstalled and thus the focus wason carrying out more tests tocheck the spread of coron-avirus.

Dr Shukla said since thelast two weeks, it had beenobserved that people wereignoring social distancing afterthe lockdown was withdrawnand massive crowds were beingobserved and to top it all,majority of the people were notsporting face masks.

He said with the help offace masks, over 70 per centchances of contracting infec-tion and disease was reduced.

He appealed to people tocontinue to observe social dis-tancing in the right earnest.

He said in the past fewdays, the rate of COVID-19recovery had increased andthis was a good indication butstill the cases were coming inlarge numbers and thus it wasthe duty of every person tomaintain social distancing, usesanitisers and refrain fromgoing to crowded places.

Meanwhile, the CMO saidon Wednesday that 16 newcases of coronavirus infectionhad come to light, taking thetally of such cases detected in

the city so far to 779. He said 28 COVID-19

patients were discharged fromhospitals on Wednesday, takingthe count of recovered patientsto 479. He said 271 activecases were undergoing treat-ment.

He said two more Coviddeaths were reported in the last24 hours, taking the toll to 29.He said one of the two patientswho died was aged 82 and thesecond was 55 years old andboth had acute pneumonia.

The CMO said the newcases were from Chowk,Devnagar, Gora Kabristan,Kalyanpur, Colonelganj,Generalganj, Juhi Colony,Dayanand Vihar, Naubasta,Hemant Vihar, Govind Nagar,Civil Lines, and SwaroopNagar. He said 474 sampleswere taken for testing — 132from quarantine centres and160 pooled samples.

He said 175 teams visitedcontainment areas and scanned10,369 houses.

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Additional Director (Health & FamilyWelfare) Dr RP Yadav has asked the Kanpur

Nagar district administration to enforce lock-down in areas where coronavirus positive caseshave been detected in large number.

This strategy has been finalised by theHealth department for virus transmission clus-ters, Dr Yadav said, adding that activities in otherlocalities would continue as usual.

He added that after preparing the contain-ment plan, it would be enforced by the districtadministration.

Citing examples, Dr Yadav said 13 coron-avirus positive cases were detected from a spotin Narial Bazaar, 12 in Juhi and 19 each in ShivNagar and Barra in one day.

He said in such clusters, lockdown wouldbe enforced for 14-28 days to break the chainof infection and contain the spread of the virusin adjoining localities.

Dr Yadav pointed out that in densely pop-ulated areas linked with each other by a web oflanes, the inhabitants were more prone to rapidspread of coronavirus.

Besides, he said, due to violation of socialdistancing norms in rural areas, sudden rise incoronavirus positive case was noticed.

The additional director said the Healthdepartment had demarcated the coronavirusinfection clusters in urban and rural on the basisof positive cases found there.

He said work on containment plan was inthe final stage and the lockdown in clusterswould be enforced in the entire Kanpur division.

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On the line of Lucknowrailway station, authorities

at Kanpur Central station havedecided to install thermal cam-eras at all the entry and exitpoints to take photographs ofpassengers and record theirbody temperature simultane-ously.

North Central Railway’spublic relations officer AmitMalviya said the decision toinstall thermal power cameraswas taken for the safety of pas-sengers.

For thermal screening, thepassengers have to wait fortheir turn in long queues, andthe installation of thermalpower cameras would help inending this problem.

These cameras will beoperated from the luggagescanner control room at theentry point of the station. Withthe installation of this system,chances for spread of coron-avirus infection will be negli-gible, According to the PRO.

The system will becomeoperational within two weeks.

Kanpur Central StationDirector Himanshu ShekharUpadhyaya said at present,around 56 passenger trainswere passing through the sta-tion and around 30,000 pas-sengers travel daily fromKanpur Central station.

He pointed out that at pre-sent, for the mandatory ther-mal screening as per the Covidprotocol, the passengers board-ing or deboarding trains asKanpur Central were requiredto wait for their turn in longqueues.

For this, passengers arerequired to report at the railwaystation one-and-half hourbefore the scheduled departureof the train.

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The two-member audit teamcamping in Kanpur for the

past five days finally held ameeting with officials lateTuesday night and expressedconcern over the lack of coor-dination between the authori-ties of GSVM Medical Collegeand LLR Hospital.

It also expressed concernover admission of Level-1 andLevel-2 patients in the dedi-cated Covid hospital.

The team comprises NodalOfficer Anil Garg and seniorgastroenterologist at KGMU,Lucknow, Dr AbhijeetChandra.

The team sought the entirerecords of patients who haddied in hospital. It expressedconcern over the apathy of theofficials and doctors in admit-ting mild, very mild Covid sus-pect cases; and clinically mod-erate cases requiring healthcare at Level-1 and Level-2 hos-pitals with clinically severe

patients requiring hospitalisa-tion at Level-3 Covid hospitals.

The team also came toknow about the staff, doctorsand pathologists crises. It alsocalled for the audit records toverify the expenditure incurredby the hospital and the medicalcollege.

The team, however, refusedto interact with press persons.

It may be mentioned herethat there were rumours aboutthe doctored figures whichwas an audit concern.

The team was even cross-checking the documents of thepatients who needed Level-1care being kept in the Level-3dedicated Covid hospital andsubsequently dying there.

Two such prominent casesare of an asthmatic womanfrom Chunniganj and a clothmerchant. Both the patientshad died after beingadmitted to the Covid hospitalon account of infection, espe-cially after being put on venti-lators.

<��������������� ����� ���������KANPUR(PNS): Due to rapidurbanisation on the one handthere was far more greaterdemand for land to providefood, fodder and fibre forclothing while on the other thehealth and productivity ofexisting arable land was declin-ing more worsened by climatechanges. The biggest challengebefore the world was to man-age productive land to cater tothe needs of billions of peopleby 2050. Food, fodder andfibre must also compete withexpanding cities and the fuelindustry. However the endresult was that land was beingconverted and degraded atunstainable rates, damagingproduction, ecosystems andbiodiversity. This was stated byHoD of Environment Sciences,Prof SB Singh, CSA Universityof Agriculture and Technologywhile addressing a webinar on‘Desertification and DroughtDay’ on Wednesday. He saidland degradation and droughtcosts India about 4.54 per centof its Gross Domestic Product(GDP). in 2014-15, a new

study commissioned by theEnvironment Ministry hasfound. He said 25 per cent ofIndia’s total land was undergo-ing desertification, while 32 percent faced degradation whichwas affecting its productivity,critically affecting the liveli-hood and food security of mil-lions across the country. Hesaid a much as 105.19 millionhectares (Mha) of the country’stotal geographical area of328.73 Mha was being degrad-ed, while 82.18 Mha wasundergoing desertification. Hesaid the major forms of landdegradation included soil ero-sion ( which accounted for over71 per cent of the total degra-dation) and wind erosion(10.24 per cent). He said theother major forms of landdegradation were water-log-ging and salinity-alkalinity. Hesaid the government had con-ceded that land degradationcontinued to be a major envi-ronmental concern for thecountry with consequentimplications for sustainabledevelopment. Prof Singh said

Rajasthan accounted for themost desertified land (23 Mha),followed by Gujarat,Maharashtra and Jammu andKashmir(13 Mha each) andOrissa and Andhra Pradesh (5Mha each). He said as per thereport, 68 per cent of the coun-try was prone to drought, andthis was further heightenedbecause of the impact of cli-mate change, particularly indry lands. He added that deser-tification and loss of biologicalpotential will restrict the trans-formation of dry lands intoproductive ecosystem. He saidclimate change will furtherchallenge the livelihood ofthose living in these sensitiveecosystem and may result inhigher levels of resource scarci-ty. He said the degradation wasthe result of loss of vegetationdue to deforestation, cuttingbeyond permissible limits,unsustainable fuel wood andfodder extraction, shifting cul-tivation, encroachment on for-est lands, forest fires and over-grazing. He said the other fac-tors leading to largescale degra-

dation comprised “extension ofcultivation to lands of lowpotential or high natural haz-ards, non- adoption of ade-quate soil conservation mea-sures, improper crop rotation,indiscriminate use of agro-chemicals, improper planningand management of irrigationsystems and excessive extrac-tion of groundwater’.Discussing land degradation,Prof Singh said loss of vegeta-tion due to deforestation, cut-ting beyond permissible limits,unsustainable fuelwood andfodder extraction, shifting cul-tivation, encroachment intoforest lands, forest fires andimproper management of irri-gation systems and excessiveextraction of ground waterwere the major resons. He saidsimilarly for desertification itwas over-exploitation, defor-estation, inappropriate irriga-tion, population pressure,urbanisation, poverty,inequitable sharing ofresources. Others who spokewere Dr PK Verma, Dr AkhilPandey, Dr BB Singh & others.

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Abiography about a person and thattoo more than a century after his

death, speaks volumes about his great-ness. The man who would have been the“Mahatma” and “the Father of theNation” had he not rejected such titlesand honorifics is making a virtual comeback to India’s political narratives 103years after his demise.

It was Mahatma Gandhi himself whodescribed Dadabhai Naoroji as Mahatmaand Father of the Nation which he polite-ly declined. Later, the first Asian to getelected as the member of the BritishParliament, Dadabhai Naoroji was con-ferred the title “The Grand Old Man ofIndia” by the people of the country.

What makes Naoroji stand out inIndian history is the fact that it was thisGujarati-speaking Parsi born in Navsariwho told the world through his interna-tionally acclaimed work “Poverty and Un-British Rule in India” (1901) that focusedon how the British colonial rulers trans-ferred wealth from India to England.

“Britain is draining money out ofIndia,” said Naoroji and he proved thesame with economics, commerce andstatistics at a time when calculators and

computers were unheard of. It was in2006 Angus Maddison, economic his-torian, told the world that India andChina accounted for half the GrossDomestic Product (GDP) of the worldtill 1820.

Dadabhai Naoroji was the mostimportant modern Indian leader beforeGandhi. It is hard to imagine what Indiannationalism would have looked likewithout him. We can find his influencein its bedrock ideas, its institutions, itsguiding principles, and its ultimategoals.

He was also a remarkable figure inBritish history. Naoroji put Indian pol-itics in touch with the wider world. Hecultivated relations with anti-imperial-ists in Europe and America, suffragistsand women's rights advocates, interna-tional socialists, Irish home rulers, andmembers of the global African diaspo-ra. And yet, surprisingly, Naoroji is todaycuriously forgotten in India, GreatBritain, and the wider world. My bookis a direct response to this contemporaryneglect, stressing Naoroji's historicalsignificance and the continued relevanceof his ideas,” said Dinyar Patel, author ofthe book “Naoroji-Pioneer of IndianNationalism”.

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Despite an abatement in the num-ber of persons testing positive

for coronavirus on Wednesday inKerala, Chief Minister PinarayiVijayan has sounded a caution andasked the people to be careful in thecoming days in view of more num-ber of expatriates returning homefrom abroad. The State saw 75 per-sons testing positive for Covid-19 onWednesday out of which 53 wereexpatriates and 19 from other partsof the country.

‘We have entered a very seriousphase of the pandemic. Since the daywe relaxed the restrictions, the num-ber of covid patients have shot up.Till May 3rd there were only 3deaths in Kerala. But the lifting of therestrictions saw the fatalities increas-ing and till date 20 persons havedied,” said the Chief Minister whobriefed the media late Wednesdayevening.

Vijayan said the Centre shouldbear the expenses of Truenat BetaCovid-19 detection tests to be con-ducted at airport abroad for Keralitesreturning home. The Chief Ministeralleged that the Central Government

was wavering in its stance frequent-ly while his government has beensteadfast in its policies.

Earlier in the day, the Kerala cab-inet in its weekly meeting decidedthat only those expatriates whocarry no-covid-19 certificates wouldbe allowed to come back to Kerala.Those expatriates wishing to comeback to the State from abroad haveto get certified by a doctor at thebeginning of the journey back home.The Kerala Government has writtento the Centre to issue directives toembassies in all countries to makearrangements for Truenat BetaCovid-19 detection test at the air-ports for testing the passengersreturning to the State.

The decision is believed to be inthe backdrop of the surge in coron-avirus positive cases in expatriatescoming back to the State as part ofthe Vande Bharat Mission. There hasbeen increase in the number ofcovid-19 cases in the State followingthe return of expatriates.

K Surendran, Kerala BJPPresident, said the decision of theKerala Government making no-covid certificate mandatory is crueland with an eye to subvert the

Vande Bharat Flights instituted by theCentre. Dr Vishad Viswanath,Thiruvananthapuram based rheuma-tologist, is of the view that thoughoutwardly everything looks fine inthe State , the slow but steadyincrease in the number of coron-avirus cases was a matter of concern.“As on date there are nearly 1300covid-19 patients in the State. Withmore and more Non-ResidentIndians returning to the State in thecoming weeks, we do have fearabout a surge in the number ofcases,” said Dr Viswanath.

He said the absence of a vaccineand Kerala’s dependence on otherStates for food and vegetables are fac-tors causing worries even amongmedical fraternity. “The initial fearseems to have dissipated but there isa looming threat of wider outbreak,”said Dr Viswanath. He pointed outthat though people wear facemasksin public places, they are not keen onmaintaining social distancing.

The doctor who is keenly mon-itoring the character of the coron-avirus in the State expressed his sat-isfaction over the low mortality ofKerala which he explained as the oneof the lowest in the world.

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With 2,174 persons testingpositive for coronavirus

on Wednesday and 48 personssuccumbing to the pandemicon a single day, Tamil Nadu hasreached a new high in thenumber of covid-19 patientsand the intensity of transmission.

The release issued by theGovernment of Tamil Nadu onWednesday said the total num-ber of cases diagnosed as pos-itive for the pandemic covid tilldate reached 50,193 and thetotal fatalities 576.

The dead includeDamodaran (57), private sec-retary to Chief MinisterEdappadi Palaniswamy. He wasailing for sometime and hadbeen admitted to GovernmentRajiv Gandhi General Hospitalin Chennai where he breathedhis last on Wednesday. Thereare reports that 123 employeesworking in the State Secretariathave been tested positive forcoronavirus.

In a major achievement,the Health Department couldtest 25,463 samples in just 24hours, said the release. Tamil

Nadu has 79 laboratories acrossthe State functioning 24X7 totest samples.

While these laboratoriestested 24,621 persons onWednesday, till date the Statehas tested 7.37 lakh persons.The day saw 842 patientsreturning home cured of thepandemic and this took thetotal number of patients whohave been cured of the diseaseto 27,624.

Chennai continued to bethe epicentre of Tamil Nadu’scoronavirus cases as 1,276 ofthe 2,174 were from theMetropolis. Chengalpet(162),Tiruvallur (90) andKancheepuram (61) are theother districts with high coro-navirus cases. All these districtswould be locked down fromJune 19 for 12 days as part ofthe measures to control thespread of the pandemic.

Out of the 48 deaths onWednesday, ten persons diedwithout co-morbidities whilethe remaining 38 personsincluding a nonagenarian hadco-morbidities (they were suf-fering from serious ailments).

A release issued by ChiefSecretary K Shanmugam saidthe decision to lock down the

four districts was taken as a fol-low up to the requests made bythe collectors of remainingdistricts who told the govern-ment that they would getenough elbow room to controlthe pandemic if these four dis-tricts are shut down.

The lockdown has beenordered under DisasterManagement Act 2005, said therelease issued by the chief sec-retary.

Though factories havebeen allowed to function, theoperating staff have to stayinside the factory premises orin a spot close to the factory.Similarly construction activitieswould continue with workersdeployed in the site. Except formedical emergencies no pub-lic or private vehicles would beallowed in these four districts.

Wednesday saw shoppersin Chennai scrambling alonglanes and by-lanes to buyessential commodities andthrowing social distancingguidelines to the winds.

The government order hasclearly stated that all shops sell-ing essential commoditieswould remain open from 6 amto 2pm during the lock downperiod.

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Adopting a new practice, theJammu & Kashmir

Government on Wednesdaydecided to operationalise 'dur-bar move' offices in both thecities of Jammu and Srinagarwith effect from July 6, 2020.

As per the Governmentorder issued by the GeneralAdministration department,different departments havebeen directed to operationalisetheir headquarters along withrecords for the forthcomingAnnual durbar move- 2020.

According to a press state-ment issued by the departmentof Information and PublicRelations, “The departmentswhose headquarters will moveto Srinagar include CivilAviation, Culture, Estates,

Finance, Floriculture, GeneralAdministration, Horticulture,Higher Education, Hospitality& Protocol, Industries &Commerce, InformationTechnology, Law, Justice &Parliamentary Affairs, Labour& Employment, Public Works,Social Welfare, SchoolEducation, Skill Development,Tourism , Youth, Services &Sports.

While as Animal/SheepHusbandry & Fisheries , ARI &Trainings, Cooperative,Disaster Management Relief,Rehabilitation Reconstruction,Election, Food, Civil Supplies& Consumer Affairs, Forest,Ecology & Environment ,Health & Medical Education,Home, Housing & UrbanDevelopment, Information, JalShakti, Planning, Development

& Monitoring, PowerDevelopment, Revenue, RuralDevelopment & PanchayatiRaj, Transport and TribalAffairs will function fromJammu Secretariat.

Likewise, AgricultureProduction and Science &Technology would functionfrom both Jammu and SrinagarSecretariats.

In its previous order datedJune 8, the GeneralAdministration departmenthad made it clear that the civilsecretariat complex will remainfunctional both at Jammu andSrinagar and the moveemployees shall work on 'as iswhere is' basis i.e Kashmirbased staff shall work fromSrinagar secretariat andJammu based staff shall workfrom Jammu secretariat.

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The CBI has conducted raids at five locationsin Mumbai in connection with a case regis-

tered against two firms and four individuals,including city BJP leader Mohit Kamboj forallegedly defrauding Bank of India to the tune of�57.26 crore.

The locations where searches were conduct-ed in Mumbai included that of the residential &official premises of Kamboj and other accusedincluding private companies allegedly involvedin the fraud.

The searches led to recovery of certainincriminating documents including property,loan, various bank account details & locker keys.

The CBI has registered a case against twoMumbai based private companies & othersincluding MD, Directors of private company andunknown others including unknown public ser-vants/bank officials on the allegations of cheat-ing Bank of India to the tune of �57.26crore.

The firms and individuals named in the caseare: M/s. Avyaan Overseas Pvt. Ltd. (Nowknown as M/s. Bagla Overseas Pvt. Ltd.),Mumbai and its Managing Director MohitKamboj, Jitendra Gulshan Kapoor, SiddhantBagla, Irtesh Mishra (All Directors of privatecompany) and M/s. KBJ Hotels Goa Pvt. Ltd.

The CBI’s case that between 2013 and 2018,the Mumbai-based Avyaan Overseas Pvt. Ltd.represented by its MD and others includingunknown public servants allegedly entered intoa conspiracy with an intent to cheat the Bank ofIndia, Mid Corporate Branch, Fort, Mumbai inthe matter of availing FB Purchase/ Foreign BillsNegotiation Limit and Export Packaging CreditLimit.

As part of the alleged conspiracy, the com-pany allegedly got sanctioned and released saidfacilities of Rs.60 crore (approx.). After availingthe said limits, the accused company allegedlydiverted the funds and prepared forged and fab-ricated documents in support of the claim, result-ing in a loss to the tune of �57.26 crore (approx.)was caused to the Bank of India.

Kamboj, who is being investigated by theCBI's economic offences unit in the bank fraudcase, is general secretary of BJP (Mumbai).

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Apparently irked at being “ignored” inthe Wednesday’s virtual meeting

between Prime Minister Narendra Modiand the Chief Ministers, MamataBanerjee said a day would come whenBengal would not wait to be invited insuch meetings but would convene them.

While her senior party leaders onTuesday called the omission of hername from the list of speakers in the PM-CMs meet as an affront to Bengal, theChief Minister herself said that not beinginvited to speak in one meeting shouldnot be construed as big issue “becausethey (Centre) have not invited us to talkbecause they might have thought that weare not worth it or there could be someother reason. So there is no reason to takeit very seriously.”

The Chief Minister was briefing themedia on the State’s corona status reportson Wednesday when she made suchremarks reminding “Bengal is a State thatalways prefers to keep its head heldhigh… Invitation to speak or not we willcontinue to move ahead with our headsheld high,” she said adding a day willcome when Bengal will organize suchmeetings and invite others for talks.

“Remember the famous adage that‘what Bengal thinks today rest of Indiathinks tomorrow’ and be sure that oneday Bengal will take the centre stage andconvene such meetings and invite oth-ers for talks instead of being invited,” shesaid.

Claiming that the corona situationwas improving in Bengal she said that the

recovery rate in the State had crossed the50 percentage mark adding “today thereare more people who have recoveredthan those who are being treated.”

While the number of patients gettingtreated were about 5,386 the number ofthose getting cured were 6,028 she said.The total number of cases in Bengal hadcrossed 12,000 mark.

Insisting that the State’s corona sit-uation wa under control till the migrantworkers were shifted back to the StateBanerjee said “we have received about 12lakh migrant workers and the numberwill go up further as some more trainsare coming with people from hotspots,”and added that “the States corona situ-ation would have been far better hadthere not been a large-scale entry ofinfected people from the other States.”

Meanwhile, a former BengalMinister and Siliguri Mayor AshokBhattacharya has been found infectedwith corona sources said. He was initiallyadmitted with renal infection but sub-sequent tests conducted on him con-firmed his infection. The septuagenari-an CPI(M) leader from Siliguri was cur-rently undergoing treatment in a privatefacility in the North Bengal city.

Besides, a senior official of SouthEastern Railway and 10 policemen fromJagat Ballabhpur Police Station inHowrah were also found to be coronainfected sources said.

Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee hasexpressed solidarity with the Centre in its deci-sion vis a vis China and appealed to New Delhito take appropriate measures to resolve the issuesoon. Though the Chief Minister would not com-ment on the border dispute saying it was for theExternal Affairs Ministry to talk she welcomedthe Prime Minister’s decision to call an all-partymeeting on the issue.

Banerjee who on Wednesday announced acompensation of �5 lakh for the next of kin of thetwo soldiers who sacrificed their lives in Indo-China border skirmish also offered jobs to oneperson each from the two families. Rajesh Orangand Bipul Roy were from Birbhum and Alipurduardistricts of Bengal.

They fell to the cowardly acts of the enemysoldiers along with their 18 other comrades whenthe Chinese soldiers suddenly mounted amedieval-type barbaric attack on unsuspectingIndian soldiers when peace talks were going onin the evening of June 15.

Subsequently writing her condolencesBanerjee tweeted: “My heartfelt condolences tothe families of the brave men martyred atGalwan Valley. I’m at pain to say that two of thembelonged to West Bengal: Sepoy Rajesh Orang (VillBelgoria, PS Md Bazar, Birbhum) & Bipul Roy onGeneral Duty (Vill Bindipara, PS Samuktala,Alipurduar).”

She further wrote: “Nothing can compensatefor the supreme sacrifice made by them for thenation or the bereaved families’ loss. We stand bythe (families of the) next of the sons of our soilin this difficult time. To this regard, we'll provide� 5 lakh & a Go WB job to one member in thedeceased’s family.” PNS

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Congress on Wednesdaydecided to field senior

party leader BK Hariprasad andincumbent Naseer Ahmed ascandidates for the coming leg-islative council polls inKarnataka.

“The Congress PresidentSonia Gandhi has approved theproposal for the candidature ofBK Hariprasad and NaseerAhmed as Congress candi-dates to contest the biennialelections to the LegislativeCouncil of Karnataka to beelected by the MLAs,” theAICC said in a release.

The election is necessitat-ed as the term of seven MLCs— Naseer Ahmed, Jayamma,MC Venugopal, NS Bose Raju,HM Revanna (all Congress),TA Sharavana (JDS) and inde-pendent DU Mallikarjuna —will end June 30.

Polling will be held onJune 29 to fill seven MLCberths, and June 18 is the lastdate for filing of nominations.While the BJP is in a positionto win four out of seven seats,the Congress can win two andthe JD(S) one. Twenty-eightvalid votes of MLAs arerequired for each candidate towin.

Hariprasad's candidaturehas been announced as histenure in the Rajya Sabha iscoming to end on June 25. Hehas also served as general sec-retary of the party. NaseerAhmed, who is retiring asMLC on June 30, will be seek-ing another term.

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Amaravati: With 275 freshCovid-19 cases reported in thepast 24 hours ending 9 a.m. onWednesday in Andhra Pradesh,the cumulative tally of the statereached 5,555. The spike in thenumber of cases is the highestas the previous one-day highwas 253 reported on Sunday.

With two more deaths, thedeath toll on Wednesday wasreported to be 90. One deathwas reported from Kurnoolwhile the other was reportedfrom Guntur.

However, the mortality rateof the state has been improvingas it dipped from 1.31 per centto 1.27 per cent on Wednesday.

As per the latest data,Andhra Pradesh stands at 11thposition in terms of mortalityamong other states of the coun-try. The nationwide mortalityrate has jumped to 3.36 per centfrom 2.9 per cent.The totalnumber of active cases in theState went up to 2,559 from2,341 while 55 people recoveredand were discharged from thehospital. IANS

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New Delhi: After 20 soldierswere martyred in Ladakh, anti-China protests erupted withprotesters burning Chineseproducts and images of China’sPresident Xi Jinping acrossIndia.

From Uttar Pradesh'sVaranasi to Jharkhand’s Ranchiand Bihar’s Patna to Rajasthan’sBikaner, people came out onstreets to protest against theChinese troops. TheConfederation of All IndiaTraders (CAIT) has released alist of more than 500 Chineseproducts to be boycotted. Thetraders also demanded cancel-lation of Chinese firm bid for theDelhi-Meerut Regional RailTransit System. In the meantime,the Swadeshi Jagran Manchcalled for a ban on the Chinesecompanies in the tenderingprocess in the country.

“By calling for the boycott ofthese Chinese products, theobjective is to reduce import ofChinese Finished goods by $13billion or about Rs one lakhcrore, by December 2021,” CAITSecretary General PraveenKhandelwal said.

“We have raised some veryimportant issues with the gov-ernment today including can-cellation of Delhi-Meerut RRTSproject. It should be given to anIndian company instead of theChinese firm. Secondly, thegovernment should look close-ly at Chinese funding in variousIndian startups such as Paytmand BigBasket,” Khandelwalsaid. The issue of People's Bankof China (PBoC) recently rais-ing its stake in the country'slargest non-banking mortgageprovider HDFC was also takenup, Khandelwal added.

The list of over 500 itemsreleased by CAIT includeFMCG products, consumerdurables, toys, furnishing fabrics,textiles, builder hardware,footwear, apparel, kitchen items,luggage, hand bags, cosmetics,gift items, electrical and elec-tronics, fashion apparel, food,watches. gems and jwellery,clothing, stationery, paper,household items, furniture, light-ing, health and, packaging prod-ucts, auto parts, Yarn, FengShui Items, Diwali and HoliItems and optical items. PNS

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Several parts of North India saw a rise in tem-peratures as Rajasthan continues to endure

heat wave conditions with mercury soaring over48°C in Bikaner and Jaisalmer on Wednesday.

The India Meteorological Department(IMD) predicted heatwave to severe heatwaveconditions over West Rajasthan and heat-waveconditions over East Rajasthan and Punjab overthe next two to three days. In the national cap-ital, the heat wave is likely to continue for anoth-er 3 days with temperature remaining above40°C before light rains could bring somerespite.

Boosted by two low-pressure systems, oneover southeast Arabian which later turned into‘severe cyclone’ Nisarga and another system overthe Bay of Bengal, the IMD said the monsoonwas passing through Kandla and Ahmedabad(Gujarat), Indore, Raisen, and Khajuraho(Madhya Pradesh) and Fatehpur and Bahraichin Uttar Pradesh, where it has reached at leastfive days in advance. IMD said the low-pressure

system, which helped the monsoon flowadvance, has weakened now. So, there is unlike-ly to be any rain in northwest India over the nextthree days. It added the monsoon, was, howev-er, on a normal track.

It said that it is expected to arrive in Delhiearlier than the normal date of June 27. It hascovered areas of eastern Uttar Pradesh, westernand eastern Madhya Pradesh, IMD said. Thenational capital region and the nearby areas innorthwest areas will continue to experienceabove normal temperatures for the next threedays.

Meanwhile, “isolated to fairly widespread”rainfall with a thunderstorm, lightning and gustywinds are also expected over the WesternHimalayan Region and plains of Northwest Indiabetween June 19 and June 21, according to theweather office.

Widespread rains are also very likely alongthe West Coast with isolated heavy to very heavyfalls over Coastal Karnataka, Konkan and Goa,Northeast, East and adjoining Central India dur-ing the next five days.

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The Maharashtra Government added1000 additional Covid-19 beds to

the available health infrastructure inMumbai on Wednesday, as chief min-ister Uddhav Thackeray inauguratedthe Phase-II of the makeshift hospitalat Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) innorth-central Mumbai.

The state-run MumbaiMetropolitan Region DevelopmentAuthority (MMRDA), which hadundertaken the construction of thishospital facility on March 30 BKCgrounds today handed it over to theBrihanmumbai Municipal Corporation(BMC).

With these new beds, the totalnumber of Dedicated COVIDHospitals (DCH) and DedicatedCOVID Health Centres (DCHC) totreat patients classified as either “mod-erately ill” or “severely ill” has gone upto 11450.

While inaugurating the new make-shift health facility at a virtual function,chief minister Uddhav Thackeray saidthat by setting up a massive Covid-19facility – including Intensive Careunits -- on an open BKC ground,Maharashtra had set an example forother states in the country.

The new Phase II facility has addi-tional 1,000 beds, of which 100 bedswill serve as the intensive care unit(ICU), while the rest of the 900 bedswill have oxygen and non-oxygenfacilities.

The facility is equipped with ven-tilator machines (30 units), dialysismachines(18 units), ICCU beds (107)incuding five function motarised beds,CT-scan machine, R.O System(1250LPH), quarantine beds, oxygenpipeline connection, noiseless session,portable X-ray machine,Electrocardiography machine, PulseOxymetre, computed radiology solu-tions, digital BP apparatus, portal ses-

sion, mortuary (12 dead bodies) besideshaving housekeeping staff to take careof BKC's both the COVID care centre.

The makeshift hospital has beenconstructed using German tent tech-nology, and the structure is designedto be waterproof.

MMRDA Commissioner R ARajeev said: “We are really very happyto set up this mega health care centreat BKC for the treatment of COVIDpositive patients. It gives me immenseconfidence that we were able to do ourbit in this critical time of Pandemic”

“The patients who received treat-ment in the first phase facility of thehealthcare centre have shared their tes-timony and expressed their satisfactionin getting timely treatment and neces-sary care which was required to elim-inate corona. I only hope and pray thatwe as a nation fight corona and onceagain start living our routine life,Rajeev said.

For the construction of the firstphase of covid care centre at BKC, theMMRDA had incurred an expenditureof Rs 19.01 crore.

The Phase I facility has 1036 quar-antine beds, oxygen pipeline connec-tion, portable X-ray machines,Electrocardiography machine, PulseOxymetre, computed radiology solu-tions, digital BP apparatus, portal ses-sion, laboratory fridge and hot air oven,rapid point blood gas analyzer, bed sidelockers, CCTV cameras, etc to keep ancloser security and safety check on cen-tre

Apart from the first phase ofCorona Care Centre-2 (CCC-2) –having 1000-bed capacity – set up at theBKC grounds, the Maharashtra gov-ernment had earlier created secondsuch facility with a capacity of 2600beds at Goregaon’s NSE ground innorth Mumbai and modular hospitalat Mahalaxmi race course.

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Paradoxically, ChinesePresident Xi Jinpingappears to have beeninspired by the old impe-rial tradition that “every-

thing under the heavens belongs tothe emperor.” He has got himselfelected as the emperor by theCentral Committee of theCommunist Party of China. Likehim, Joseph Stalin, a Russian dic-tator (1924-53), dreamt superdreams. Before World War II,Russia was a normal Europeanpower. There was no superpowerin Europe. It was the Americaninfluence on the continent duringand after the war that gave rise tothis new geopolitical concept.Moreover, many Russians believedthat they had primarily won thewar because they reached Berlinfirst; perhaps so did Stalin.Thereafter, presumptuously,Moscow postured as a superpow-er equal to the US. America hadthe atom bomb and, therefore, theSoviet Union had to have one, nomatter the cost. By 1952, thePentagon had exploded a ther-monuclear device. Stalin was impa-tient and regardless of the cost pro-portionate to the Soviet economy,a thermonuclear bomb was readyin 1953. That was not really beat-ing the US and, hence, the Sputnik,the world’s first artificial earthsatellite, was floated in October1957. Here, the US appeared over-taken in the space race.

Stalin died in 1953 but his spir-it of superpowerdom, no matterthe cost, carried on, to the extentthat the First Secretary, NikitaKhrushchev, thumped his shoe onthe table at the United Nations(UN). He also told the US, implic-itly the entire capitalist world,that “we shall bury you.” No mat-ter who the First Secretary or thePrime Minister was, the intoxica-tion carried on merrily untilMikhail Gorbachev became theFirst Secretary. He immediatelyknew that his country was well pastbankruptcy and called forPerestroika (reconstruction) andGlasnost (openness). But hardlycould anyone realise that it was for-mer US President Ronald Reaganand his programme of “Star Wars”that finished the Soviet economy.It was a competition in escalationof arms that the Soviets could notafford and fell by the wayside. Totry and revive it, India’s thenPrime Minister, PV NarasimhaRao, doled out $1 billion toMoscow when Boris Yeltsin was

the President. Meanwhile, the16 Soviet Republics that madeup the Union broke up.

Had Joseph Stalin contin-ued to believe that he was a“European” and not “superian”,would such an eventuality havecome to pass? The empire theTsars had so assiduously builtover two centuries crashed in1990-91. Uncannily, it took atleast three decades until afterthe World War II before the USdevised a clear-cut, simple strat-egy to defeat the Soviet Union.That began when formerPresident Ronald Reagan cameto power in 1981 and soon con-demned the Soviet Union as an“evil empire” and decided on anarms race to test how far theSoviets could sustain such arace. They could not build any-thing similar to what theAmericans had envisaged ie,platforms in the skies to firelasers at and destroy incomingballistic missiles. The Sovietrulers could apparently notunderstand what was going on.All they knew was that theywere short of every kind ofnecessity, food, consumer goodsand industrial manufacturing ofsophistication. Yet, they didnot cut down on their militarybudget. In fact, formerPresident Mikhail SergeyevichGorbachev of the USSR reiter-ated his predecessors’ policy bystating that his country would“match the Star Wars build-upof the US.” Evidently, he wasoblivious of the economic situ-ation his country was in. Therewas no comparison between the

economic strengths of the twopowers and the inevitable crashof the USSR happened.

Nevertheless, it was alsoGorbachev, the last of the SovietUnion’s First Secretaries, whowas the first one to see the rotwithin his country’s system.He embarked on Perestroika,which meant reconstruction.Well-wishers of Russia wouldhave wished that he hadstopped at Perestroika and notcoupled his reform programmewith Glasnost or openness ordemocracy. These two reformstogether led to chaos ratherthan any improvement.

The contrast was seen inChina under Deng Xiaoping,wherein he confined his coun-try’s reforms to Perestroika. Ofcourse, Deng’s words were:“The colour of the cat does notmatter so long as it catchesmice.” To this day, over 30years later, there is no realGlasnost in China. There hasbeen Perestroika all the way butno freedom or democracy.Those classes, who haveenriched China and themselvesthrough these reforms, obvious-ly feel powerful. The questionis: Will they remain subservientin a communist regime or seeka democratic vote before long?

Communist China has pur-sued the same autocratic pathas has been its tradition for thelast 22 centuries as was theRussian from time immemor-ial. The Soviet regime wascalled a “dictatorship of the peo-ple.” Before 1917, it was theimperial rule of the Tsars. The

modern rulers probably pre-sumed that the old blood runsin the veins of the modernyouth, whether rich or poor. Inreality, the soil is ideal for dic-tatorship so long as the societyis feudal. The time the SovietUnion turned an industrialautocracy, inefficiencies beganto show up. The Soviet rulersdid not have the vision todetect this decline. World War-II, under the love of motherRussia to an extent, enthusedthe workers and concealed thedeficiencies. In this context,the worst enemy is the absenceof democracy. Rulers do notobtain any feedback from theirpeople. Those, who providesuch feedback, do so throughthe screen of terror.

The other factor is thatautocracy, whether Russian,Soviet or Chinese, acts as a per-petual inebriant and keeps therulers out of contact with theirpeople. In the bargain, theyshould have plenty of time tothink about governance;although they miss out on whattheir people want. This discon-nect is an eternal fault of dicta-torship. The commissars havesuffered from it; the Chineseless so and the Russians more.Perhaps they have learnt a les-son from the Soviets.

Another fault of autocracyis the immediate feeling ofpower in the ruler. The wiserperson restrains himself. Whileretiring, Deng had advised hissuccessors to “hide theirstrength and bide their time.”Three of his successors name-

ly, Zhao Ziyang, Jiang Zeminand Hu Jintao followed thisadvice. They took care not toannoy the US. China tradedprolifically with the West anddeposited dollars withWashington. All was hunkydory.

President Xi Jinping, how-ever, is given to ambition andhas had himself declaredemperor and, thus, made it clearthat he is recalling the entirepast imperial era of his country.The Chinese call themselves the“Middle Kingdom” and theiremperor has represented theheavens on earth. EarlierAmerican Presidents, confi-dent in their country’s suprema-cy, did not take much notice ofall this. However, US PresidentDonald Trump is a business-man by vocation and recently,the world has been ravaged bythe COVID-19 virus that beganfrom the city of Wuhan inChina. Business is an exchangeof goods or services for moneyand not for anything else,including diplomacy or flattery.But recently, China veered fromthe path of business to that ofovert power. In the process, ithas very few friends other thanNorth Korea and Pakistan.

This may not be the fault ofthe communist ideologybecause history has seen anynumber of dictators drunk withpower and embarking upondisproportionate campaigns,leading their countries to ruin.

(The writer is a well-knowncolumnist and an author. Viewsexpressed are personal)

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Sir — In a hearing last Sunday,a Supreme Court Bench grantedrelief from arrest until July 6 tojournalist Vinod Dua whilerefusing to stay the sedition caseagainst him. The case had beenlodged against him by a purport-ed BJP leader. Dua has beenbooked for allegedly instigatingviolence against the Governmentand of accusing the PrimeMinister of using deaths and ter-ror attacks to garner votes.

Interestingly, when Dua’slawyer asserted that the com-plainant in the case is a “pup-pet in the hands” of the rulingparty, he was reportedly askedby the court to not “use suchadjectives.” While respectfullyagreeing with this advice, onewonders how else can onedescribe the numerous newschannels and print media hous-es, which in the garb of nation-alism, praise the Governmentall day and spread fear againstdissent so that people whoagree with Dua and others likehim cannot speak up in theirsupport. How long can peoplebe expected to be silent?

Bidyut Kumar ChatterjeeFaridabad

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Sir — It was distressing to reada report about a 70-year-oldwoman from Odisha’s Nuapadadistrict, who was seen draggingher 100-year-old bedriddenmother on a cot to a nearby bankto withdraw pension money of�1,500. As a banker, I under-stand the plight of the manag-

er, who was the lone officer, andthe problems he faced in man-aging the surging crowd single-handedly. When it is a single-man branch and given the cir-cumstances, should not the high-er authorities have extendedstaff support to the manager?Are they, too, not equally or evenmore responsible for the incidentto happen? A policy decisionmust be taken by banks to

ensure at least two officers arepresent in every branch despitetheir size.

Tharcius S FernandoChennai

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Sir — This refers to the article,“Amid crisis, brewing politics canwait” (June 17) by Kalyani

Shankar. Differences betweenthe partners in the MaharashtraVikas Aghadi Government aswell as the Opposition’s bid toexploit the situation have furtherexacerbated problems for ChiefMinister Uddhav Thackeray.Generally, coalitionGovernments last as long as theykeep their partners in goodhumour. But in Maharashtra, thelatter harbour starkly adversepolitical ideologies. Of course,Uddhav succeeded in keepingthe Sena ship afloat but runninga Government and that, too, acoalition one, is a daunting task.

The writer’s suggestion thatUddhav should have soughtsage advice of NCP chief SharadPawar with regard to the han-dling of the pandemic holdsgood. The grand old party, too,could have helped in some mea-sure given his political adver-saries are up to fishing in thetroubled waters. The Congressshould not shrug off its respon-sibility either. Uddhav shouldkeep alliance partners abreastabout his significant decisionsvis-a-vis tackling COVID-19.

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The ability to sustain the momentum ofreforms amid an economic crisis is the markof a decisive and robust leadership.

Historically, wars, financial downturns, revolutionsand pandemics have tested the economic stew-ardship of national leaders, triggering tectonicshifts in policies that were previously inconceiv-able. That Modi 2.0 has the political will andretains enough political capital to pursue the pathof reforms is evident from the spate of recent pol-icy interventions. While Modi 1.0 accomplishedthe most ambitious social sector reforms post-Independence, Modi 2.0 in its second avatar haspersisted with the pace and scale of path-break-ing changes.

The series of watershed reforms under wayhave ranged from commercial mining of coal,making India a global hub for aircraft mainte-nance and repair, building more world-class air-ports in Public Private Partnership (PPP) andmoving towards indigenisation in defence pro-duction.

What remains to be undertaken on a war foot-ing in the second year of Modi 2.0 is what I call“rurbanisation” of the economy which needs togather pace as it will act as the much-needed socialequaliser to bridge the growing inequality gaps.The World Bank estimates that the Coronavirus-induced recession could push 60 million peopleinto extreme poverty in developing countries.

As India is among the most impactednations, policymakers need to resolve the hous-ing, education and healthcare deficits of rural Indiathat have persisted since 70 years. Given the lim-itations of revenue collections in 2020, these goalscan be achieved by the Government of India(GOI) in PPP mode, lowering the cost and avail-ability of land, power and capital.

To accomplish the objectives of education andhealthcare for all, the advanced onset of digitisa-tion post-Coronavirus will act as the vital “equal-ity enhancer” in expediting social and financialinclusion, extending to even rural India. This isbecause the pandemic has brought forward dig-ital adaptation across strata by at least three to fiveyears, virtualising almost overnight offices, edu-cation, healthcare, the marketplaces and gover-nance.

Towards this goal, Doordarshan has planned32 channels to deliver its Swayam Prabha content,which will act as a force multiplier.

Further, in order to complete the set of socialreforms undertaken during Modi 1.0, there is needfor few more additions to Jan Dhan, AyushmanBharat, village electrification, toilets and so on,by bringing migrant labour beneficiaries, too,under the ambit of Direct Income Transfers (DIT).With 380 million PMJDY accounts till date, theJan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile trinity has created anefficient database for social benefits to be trans-ferred to beneficiaries through Direct BenefitTransfer (DBT.)

The way forward is by providing income sup-port through digital delivery for displacedmigrants by way of Universal Basic Income andUniversal Basic Health and Education. TheCentre already spends five per cent of the GrossDomestic Product (GDP) on subsidies thatinclude multiple programmes. If an additional oneper cent of the GDP is apportioned for a speci-fied time, confined and limited to the durationof the Corona-induced crisis, this will provide themuch-needed mitigative relief to rehabilitate thedisplaced migrants. India has roughly 80 millionmigrant workers across the country, which is dueto the disproportionate economic development

across States that has persisted post-Independence.

As industrial activity resumes grad-ually, it faces a crippling shortage of upto 52 per cent in the construction andreal estate sector; 44 per cent in the man-ufacturing sector; 42 per cent in thehealthcare and pharmaceuticals sectorand 30 per cent in Fast-MovingConsumer Goods (FMCGs). With com-panies now willing to offer extra wages,incentives, bonus and transportation inan effort to woo labour back, the short-age in demand-supply makes it a plus,having the potential in the long-term toturn the job market into an “employee-market” as against an “employers’ mar-ket.”

The migrant crisis has bought to thefore the need for rural-urban rebalanc-ing, making it even more important forStates to grow their own Gross StateDomestic Product (GSDP) and turningaatma nirbhar (self-reliant) by incentivis-ing the domestic industry to invest intheir States by creating specialisedindustrial parks where possible, and pro-viding tax-exemptions for the first six toseven years.

Urban India has woken up belated-ly to realise just how crucial low-skilledlabour is to the host states. To providelabour an option to choose betweenworking in their state of origin, policymakers and domain experts need to re-design a modern, rural India: a ‘RurbanIndia’. The PM has already urged indus-try to invest in the rural economy, thinkon lines of Smart Villages and partici-pate in the rental housing scheme formigrant workers.

The fact is that in the interim, thereis no alternative to Government spend-ing on infrastructure or welfaristschemes and, therefore, we will just haveto “spend and borrow our way out of thecrisis”, till the job market stabilises. The

Mahatma Gandhi EmploymentGuarantee Act, 2005 (MNREGA) isalready looking at an ambitious targetof 10 million man-days of work per dayto absorb the influx of semi-literate/semi-skilled returnees.

Government-spend to handholdlabour through cash transfers andskilling until the economy recovers is nota wasted expenditure, but on the con-trary will yield remunerative outcomesin the near future as multi-lateral insti-tutions like the International MonetaryFund (IMF) count India as one of thefew economies that will rebound faster.This is because “India’s wide range ofstructural trends, including healthydemographics and competitive unitlabour costs, work in its favour.”

Blue-collared and low-skilled/semi-skilled labourers have made the largestcontribution to free market economiesin producing goods and services ataffordable rates, especially in develop-ing countries like India, which has stillnot fully adapted to automation. Theabundant skilled and semi-skilled labourpool is our single-largest human asset ifwage-costs remain well-priced, which isdifferent from being under-priced.India’s labour assets alone hold thelargest weightage factor in luring relo-cating global value chains.

Re-accommodating reverse migra-tions has thrown up a forced opportu-nity to rebuild the rural economy fromscratch, not repeat the blunders ofunplanned urbanisation and insteadmove towards well-planned “rurbanisa-tion.”

Labour-exporting States must cap-italise on their resident human assetsnow back with them in order to buildtheir own economies through those veryhands that built a prosperous urbanIndia. Out of 40 million migrants thatreturned home, 7.5 million are now

seeking employment closer to home insemi-urban and rural areas.

Further, post-pandemic, the indus-tries that are set to rise and which willhelp uplift rural India are in the sectorsof remote education through Ed-techplatforms, tele-health, agripreunership,and the Khadi Gramodyog, which hashelped in financing and setting up twolakh industry units since the last fiveyears, while directly employing 5,26,000artisans. Additionally, the Khadi andVillage Industries Commission (KVIC)is set to become a nodal agency that sup-ports jobs through the Prime MinisterEmployment Generation Programme(PMEGP) and also provide micro-credit. Micro finance lenders, too, canplay an important role by buildingproducts suitable for semi-skilled pro-fessionals who are returnees from bigcities, “So that in future they are not leftas appendages of urban economy capi-talists who had a ‘use and throw’ attitudeto the vulnerable.”

Finally, my one actionable recom-mendation to complete the virtuous setof reforms for social and financialinclusion is that the biggest enableraatma nirbharta is through owninggadgets like smartphones, televisions andtablets to bridge the digital divide.

Therefore, there is a need to lowerthe cost of these enabling gadgets byachieving economies of scale, increas-ing teledensity and improving digital lit-eracy which will enable the transition toremote education, e-commerce, Fintechand telemedicine.

As Modi 1.0 prioritised delivery ofsocial sector schemes, Modi 2.0 mustprioritise end-to-end solutions that willenable last-mile connectivity to helpIndia leapfrog to the digital revolution.

(The writer is author, columnist andchairperson for the Committee onFinancial Inclusion at the Niti Aayog.)

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It takes a village to raise a child,” goesa famous African proverb, empha-sising on the role of the communi-

ty to raise children in a safe and healthyenvironment. A contextual question intoday’s times is whether it must alsotake a village to teach a child? Becauseglobally and in India, education hasbeen one of the biggest victims ofCOVID-19. During and post-pan-demic, it will require a collaborativeapproach to rethink and reprioritisestrategies to keep children in school,especially girls.

A recent UNESCO report high-lighted that school closures due to thenational lockdown have affected over320 million children in India; of these,about 158 million are girls. One can-not argue against the principles ofschool closure because the idea is tokeep students safe at home. The real-ity, however, is that for millions of stu-dents, especially girls, closure of insti-tutions of learning could mean perma-nently dropping out of school andreversing the gains made in recentyears.

As the Coronavirus pandemictranslates into a migrant crisis and aneconomic slowdown, the damage toeducation will be severe. If people haveto make choices between survival,hunger and education, it is nobody’sguess which option will prevail. In acountry like India, where girls’ educa-tion already lags behind that of boys,this could have a catastrophic impacton the schooling of the girl child and

initiatives such as Beti Bachao, BetiPadhao.

Recently, in the fifth tranche of the�20 lakh crore COVID-19 packages,Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharamanannounced various steps to boostonline education during the lockdown,including the launch of the PrimeMinister e-Vidya programme underwhich, there will be 12 Direct To Home(DTH) channels introduced for class-es one to 12.

However, most of this discussionon e-learning still remains anurban/semi-urban privilege. It ignoresboth — India’s huge digital divide aswell as pre-pandemic education chal-lenges of keeping children, especiallygirls in school. According to theIAMAI-Nielsen India Internet, 2019report, India has 451 million activeinternet users. Internet penetration inurban areas is twice of that in ruralIndia. Even with an increasing num-ber of internet users, there is a huge

gender divide — only less than half ofthe users are women. This disparity isworse in rural India.

In a situation where many house-holds do not have internet or requisitegadgets and those where boys will begiven preferential treatment for use ofthe single, available internet-enabledgadget in the household, girls will suf-fer the most. The digital divide, cou-pled with gender and class divide,makes access to education unequal inthe current times.

Even before the pandemic, Indiawas off-track to meet the SustainableDevelopment Goal four target, whichfocusses on free, equitable and quali-ty primary and secondary educationto all girls and boys. According to edu-cational statistics (ESAG 2018) of theMinistry of Human Resources andDevelopment (MHRD), the overallGross Enrollment Ratio (GER) for ele-mentary education in India was 96.9,a marginal decline in enrolment in

absolute terms for 2015-16, in whichgender disparity was a continuingtrend.

Now add a pandemic scenario tothis pre-existing situation. There are noprizes for guessing what the out-comes are likely to be. If you look atglobal examples of health emergenciesand their linkage to education, thereare compelling reasons to believe thatwe have all must worry about India’seducation statistics.

In 2014, during the Ebola epidem-ic, a similar countrywide lockdown inthe African countries of Guinea,Liberia and Sierra Leone resulted inclosure of more than 10,000 schools.According to various studies, thisresulted in a large number of schooldropouts, especially girls. Most girlsdropped out of school due to increaseddomestic care and responsibilities,including supporting income genera-tion. Boys were prioritised over girlsto attend school. With limited eco-

nomic avenues within families and anincreasing financial burden due to joblosses, pay cuts and so on, many fam-ilies are likely to evaluate the oppor-tunity cost of sending girls to school,thus preventing their re-enrolment.Similarly, many boys will drop out ofschools to support their family throughthis financial crisis. Given the compa-rable socio-economic settings in Indiain today’s COVID-19 context, wecould face identical consequences inthe foreseeable future.

In addition to the impact on edu-cation, closure of schools could lead tomulti-pronged social and healthimperatives on vulnerable communi-ties. These could be from limitingaccess to proper nutrition to children,which was easily available in schoolsas part of the Mid-Day Meal pro-gramme, to making children vulner-able to trafficking, child marriageand more susceptible to physical andsexual violence.

If we do not invest in properrecovery planning and strategies oneducation during these times, this pan-demic is only going to undo all the suc-cesses achieved thus far in making edu-cation accessible and inclusive. We alsoneed to consider financial aid throughfee-waivers, more active private sectorparticipation in scholarships, provid-ing free resources for online andoffline learning to lessen the econom-ic burden of schooling on needy fam-ilies. It is vital to have a genderedapproach in post-pandemic restorationof education in India. We need to fac-tor in gender budgeting to support girleducation in these times and it is alsocrucial to monitor girls’attendance/rejoining upon schoolreopening. A multi-pronged strategyis necessary to manage this crisis inorder to build a resilient and inclusiveeducation system in the long term.

(The writer is Vice-President, PublicPolicy, Chase India.)

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The ongoing India-Chinaborder tensions may not

have any immediate impact onthe bilateral trade relations,according to experts. Experts,however, pointed out that if thesituation aggravates furtherthen it could affect bilateraltrade relationships.

“I do not see any impact onthe bilateral trade relationsdue to the current border ten-sions between the two keytrading partners,” Federation ofIndian Export Organisations(FIEO) President S K Saraf said.

He added that there arehuge trade opportunities forbusinesses of both the countriesto explore in each others’ mar-ket. Ludhiana-based HandTools Association PresidentSubhash Chander Ralhan saidthat China is a big market forIndian exporters and there is a

need to look at ways to boostexports to the neighbouringcountry to bridge the wideningtrade deficit.

“Putting any kind ofrestrictions on imports fromChina may impact our exports.

But if the tensions at theborders would get aggravatedthen it may impact the bilater-al trade relations,” Ralhanadded. Apparel ExportPromotion Council of India(AEPC) Chairman A Sakthivelalso hinted that trade may takea hit if both the countrieswould not be able to resolve theissues soon.

“If the situation get wors-ened then there will be a prob-lem. We do not export appar-el in huge numbers but weimport lot of fabrics fromChina,” Sakthivel said.

Biswajit Dhar, a professorof economics at JawaharlalNehru University, said putting

any kind of trade restrictionson China may have implica-tions for India.

“Our dependence onChina is huge on several criti-cal products like APIs (activepharmaceutical ingredients).

There are no serious alter-natives or market for us forthose critical products and sit-uation would not change in aday,” Dhar said.

He added that increasingtariffs or import duties will onlyburden domestic consumers.

“The only solution left is tostrengthen domestic manufac-turing in critical sectors,” he said.

The Indian Army onTuesday said that 20 Army per-sonnel, including a Colonel,were killed in the clash onMonday night, in the biggestever military confrontationbetween the two armies inover five decades.

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Equity benchmarks closedlower after a see-saw ses-

sion on Wednesday as bordertensions with China and spik-ing coronavirus cases keptinvestors on the back foot.

After gyrating 600.70points during the day, the 30-share BSE Sensex closed97.30 points, or 0.29 per cent,lower at 33,507.92.

Similarly, the broaderNSE Nifty sett led 32.85points, or 0.33 per cent, downat 9,881.15. Kotak Bank wasthe top laggard in the Sensexpack, shedding 2.81 per cent,followed by ITC, M&M,PowerGrid, HDFC, AsianPaints and NTPC.

On the other hand,Maruti rallied over 4 percent. Bharti Airtel, Axis Bank,IndusInd Bank and BajajFinance also finished in thegreen.

According to traders,border tensions with China,spike in Covid-19 cases andunabated foreign fund out-flows weighed on investorsentiment.

As many as 20 IndianArmy personnel were killedin a clash with Chinese troopsin Ladakh on Monday night,the biggest military con-frontation in five decades

that has significantly escalat-ed the already volatile borderstandoff between the twocountries.

There were around 35casualties on the Chineseside, sources said, citing USintelligence reports.

Adding to investors’woes, India witnessed itshighest single-day spike of2,003 Covid-19 deaths.

Meanwhile, foreign insti-tutional investors sold equi-ties worth a net Rs 1,478.52crore on Tuesday, provision-al exchange data showed.

“After another day ofindecisive trades, brought bythe threat of escalation inborder dispute with China,Indian benchmark indicesended slightly negative. Thelosses were mainly due tofinancial stocks. “The majorsectoral gainer was the autosector, led by gains in Maruti.FIIs have also been net sell-ers in equity this week whichhave impacted the markets,”said Vinod Nair, Head ofResearch at Geojit FinancialServices.

BSE power, ut i l it ies ,metal, finance, bankex, cap-ital goods and FMCG indicesshed up to 1.05 per cent,while telecom, auto, teck,consumer durables and real-ty rose up to 2.35 per cent.

Broader BSE mid-cap andsmall-cap indices outper-formed the benchmarks,spurting up to 0.71 per cent.

Global equit ies werelargely in the positive terri-tory as investors focused oneconomic recovery, even assome regions reported freshcoronavirus cases.

Bourses in Shanghai,Hong Kong and Seoul endedhigher, while Tokyo settled inthe red. Stock exchanges inEurope were trading on apositive note in early deals.

International oil bench-mark Brent crude futuresslipped 0.83 per cent to USD40.62 per barrel.

On the currency front,the rupee settled 4 paisehigher at 76.16 against the USdollar.

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In line with the PrimeMinister’s self-reliance call,

the coal ministry will onThursday launch the auctionprocess of 41 blocks for com-mercial mining with an aim toachieve self-sufficiency inmeeting energy needs andboost industrial development.

Prime Minister NarendraModi will address the launchevent through video confer-encing and outline his vision toachieve self-reliance in themining sector.

The commercial miningof these coal blocks is expect-ed to generate approximatelyRs 33,000 crore of capitalinvestment in the country over the next five to sevenyears, the coal ministry said ina statement.

These blocks will con-tribute Rs 20,000 crore rev-enues annually to the stategovernments, it added.

The ministry said that thecommencement of this auctionprocess of coal mines is part ofthe series of announcementsmade under the ‘AtmanirbharBharat Abhiyan’.

“Prime Minister will gracethe occasion by delivering anaddress during the launch ofthe auction process outlininghis vision for the country toachieve ‘atmanirbharata’ inmining sector which is thekey source of input for manybasic industries like power,steel, aluminium, sponge ironetc,” the statement said.

Coal and mines minister Pralhad Joshi will alsobe present during the launch event.

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The Government onWednesday asked state-

owned banks to defer avoidableexpenditure, including pur-chase of staff cars and refur-bishment of guest houses, toensure more productive utili-sation of financial resourcesamid the coronavirus pan-

demic.In a detailed advisory to

the heads of all public sectorbanks, the department of finan-cial services (DFS) said it wasnecessary that the banks takeappropriate measures to ensureproductive use of their finan-cial resources for core businessactivities.

The advisory also comes

against the backdrop ofPunjab National Bank (PNB)recently purchasing threeAudi cars worth over Rs 1.30crore for travel of its topexecutives.

Banks are advised to deferavoidable expenditure beyondthe current financial year,including purchase of staffcars, except where unavoidable,

the advisory said.DFS has also directed

banks to postpone expenditureon decorative, non-functionalitems for the interiors in non-customer facing premises likeadministrative offices and backoffices, and refurbishment ofguest houses. Further, thebanks have been asked to effectsignificant reduction in expen-

diture on activities other thanthose pertaining to core busi-ness activities.

“Economy in expenditureto the tune of 20 per cent year-on-year or more may be effect-ed on activities or heads ofexpenditure such as entertain-ment, publicity, by makingefficacious use of social mediaand press releases, and pooling

resources with other PSBs(Public Sector Banks) forcommon publicity campaignswhere appropriate,” it said.

Besides, DFS has directedbanks to avoid travel and adoptdigital means of communica-tion as well as make effectiveuse of locally available admin-istrative officers.

New Delhi: The SupremeCourt on Wednesday saidthere is "no merit in charginginterest on interest" fordeferred loan payment install-ments during the moratoriumperiod announced in wake ofthe Covid-19 pandemic.

A bench headed by JusticeAshok Bhushan observed thatonce moratorium is fixed thenit should serve the desiredpurposes and the Governmentshould consider interfering inthe matter as it cannot leaveeverything to banks.

"Once the moratorium isfixed then it should serve thedesired purposes and we see nomerit in charging interest oninterest," the bench, also com-prising Justices SK Kaul andJustice MR Shah, orallyobserved.

The counsel for petitionerGajendra Sharma, resident ofAgra, said that under theDisaster Management Act, theCentral Government has

“ample power and jurisdic-tion” to grant relief with regardto loan which is specificallyprovided for.

The lawyer also said thecircular of the Reserve Bank ofIndia of March 27, grantedmoratorium but no substantialrelief has been given to the bor-rowers.

Noting the submission,the apex court said, “It is sub-mitted that if moratorium is

being granted for a period ofthree months, the entireamount payable includingprincipal and interest shouldnot be charged during mora-torium period. Secondly, atleast the demand of interest oninterest should not be madeand these reliefs can be extend-ed by the Central Governmentand the Reserve Bank of India.”

The bench, prima facie,was also of the same view but

granted more time to theCentre and the RBI to have are-look of the matter and post-ed it for hearing in the firstweek of August.

Gajendra Sharma, in hisplea, has sought a direction todeclare the portion of theRBI's March 27 notification "asultra vires to the extent itcharges interest on the loanamount during the moratori-um period, which createdhardship to him being a bor-rower and created hindranceand obstruction in 'right to life'guaranteed by Article 21 of theConstitution..

Solicitor General TusharMehta, appearing for theCentre and the Reserve Bankof India, told the apex courtthat waiving the interest com-pletely will not be easy forbanks as they have to payinterest to their depositors.

"There are 133 lakh crorerupees in deposits with banksand interest has to be paid on

them and the waiver will havea cascading effect," Mehta toldthe bench.

The bench adjourned thehearing for allowing the Centreand the RBI to review the sit-uation and asked the IndianBanks Association to examinewhether they can bring newguidelines in the meantime onthe issue of loan moratorium.

Mehta argued that com-plete waiver of interest duringmoratorium period might riskthe financial stability of banksand this would put the inter-ests of depositors in jeopardy.The counsel representingbanks association and StateBank of India (SBI) urged thebench that the matter shouldbe deferred by three months.

The counsel appear-ing for banks said that pleaseeking waiver of interest dur-ing moratorium period is pre-mature and the banks wouldhave to consider the issue ona case to case basis.

On June 12, the top courthad asked the FinanceMinistry and the RBI to holda meeting within three days todecide on waiver of interest oninterest for deferred paymentsof instalments for loans duringmoratorium period.

The top court hadobserved that the question isnot of waiver of completeinterest for entire moratoriumperiod but it is limited only tointerest charged on interest bybanks.

The petitioner has soughta direction to the governmentand the RBI to provide relief inrepayment of loan by notcharging interest during mora-torium period.

On June 4, the top courthad sought the FinanceMinistry's reply on waiver ofinterest on loans during themoratorium period after theRBI said it would not be pru-dent to go for a “forced waiv-er of interest” risking financial

viability of the banks. The apex court had said

there are two aspects underconsideration in this matter -no interest payment on loansduring the moratorium periodand no interest to be chargedon interest.

On May 26, the top courthad asked the Centre and theRBI to respond to the pleachallenging levy of interest onloans during the moratoriumperiod.

The RBI in its reply hastold the court that it is takingall possible measures to pro-vide relief with regard to debtrepayments on account of thefallout of COVID-19 but itdoes not consider it prudent togo for a “forced waiver ofinterest, risking the financialviability of the banks it ismandated to regulate, andputting the interests of thedepositors in jeopardy”.

The RBI said the March 27circular announcing morato-

rium was later modified onApril 17 and May 23 by whichthe moratorium period wasextended by another threemonths that is from June 1 toAugust 31, 2020 on payment ofall installments in respect ofterm loans (including agri-cultural term loans, retail andcrop loans).

"It is submitted that regu-latory dispensations permittedby the Reserve Bank of Indiavide the aforesaid circularsdated March 27, 2020 whichsubsequently stood modifiedon April 17, 2020 and May 23,2020 were with the objective ofmitigating the burden of debtservicing brought about bydisruptions on account ofCOVID-19 pandemic and toensure the continuity of viablebusinesses.

"Therefore, the regulatorypackage is, in its essence, in thenature of a moratorium/defer-ment and cannot be construedto be a waiver," it said. PTI

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Prime Minister NarendraModi on Wednesday rub-

bished all speculation ofreimposition of lockdown,calling all Chief Ministers to“fight rumours”, as he askedStates and Union Territoriesto be ready for Unlock 2.0while being mindful of thechallenges ahead.

Addressing the secondday of the video conferencewith Chief Ministers of var-ious States , the PrimeMinister said that the coun-try has been able to fightCOVID-19 and control itsspread because of the timelymeasures taken by theGovernment.

“At present, ventilator andICU care is needed for veryfew patients across the coun-try. We have been able tofight COVID19 and controlits spread because of thetimely measures taken by us,"

said Modi. The number ofpatients who have recoveredfrom COVID-19 till now ismore than the number ofactive cases in the country,the Prime Minister reiteratedas he pointed out that a daybefore the recovery rate ofCoronavirus affected peoplewas over 50 percent in thecountry. India’s coronaviruscount stands at over 3,60,000by June 17.

The Prime Ministerrejected all speculations ofbringing back lockdown ashe asked states and UnionTerritories to get ready forUnlock 2.0 while being awareof the challenges. While dis-cussing strategy post lock-down 01 with the ChiefMinisters in his 6th videoconference with ChiefMinisters Modi told themthat there is a "need" to fight"rumours of lockdown”.

The Chief Ministersbriefed the Prime Minister

about the ground situation instates and their prepared-ness to tackle the impact ofcoronavirus. They talked

about health infrastructureavailable to meet the chal-lenge and steps taken tostrengthen it further.

Union Home MinisterAmit Shah who participatedin the meeting said thoughthe country has been suc-

cessful in its fight against thepandemic, but the “battle isfar from over”.

"We've so far been quitesuccessful in our fight againstthe virus under the leadershipof the Prime Minister, but thebattle is far from over. Heunderlined that as we beginto unlock, we must stay vig-ilant," a statement from thePrime Minister’s of f ice

(PMO) quoted Shah as say-ing.

"Chief Ministers thankedthe PM for his leadership andbriefed him about the groundsituation in states and theirpreparedness to tackle theimpact of coronavirus. Theytalked about health infra-structure available to meetthe challenge and steps takento strengthen it further”,

PMO said.An added focus in the

meeting was on UttarPradesh and Bihar. Thoughthe patient count has beenrelatively low in UP andBihar, it may rise due to lakhsof migrant workers who havereturned to their hometownsin the two states. The Centrehas pushed for increase intesting in these two States.

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Before a safe and effectivedrug/vaccine becomes

available, combining isolationand intensive contact tracingwith social distancing mea-sures might be the most effec-tive and efficient way toachieve and maintain pan-demic control, according to astudy published in The LancetInfectious Diseases journal.

Using social-contact dataon more than 40,000 individ-uals from the BBC Pandemicdatabase to simulate SARS-CoV-2 transmission in differ-ent settings and under differ-ent combinations of controlmeasures, the researchers esti-mated that a high incidence ofCovid-19 would require a con-siderable number of individu-als to be quarantined to controlinfection.

“Successful strategies willlikely include intensive testingand contact tracing supple-mented with moderate formsof physical distancing, such aslimiting the size of social gath-erings and remote working,which can both reduce trans-mission and the number ofcontacts that need to betraced," said study researcher

Dr Adam Kucharski from theLondon School of Hygiene&amp; Tropical Medicine inthe UK.

The researchers have usedsocial contact data to quanti-fy the potential impact of con-trol measures on reducing individual-level trans-mission of SARS-CoV-2 inspecific settings.

They aimed to identifynot only what would theoret-ically control transmission, butwhat the practical implica-tions of these measures wouldbe in terms of numbers quar-antined.

However, the authorsnoted that the model is basedon a series of assumptionsabout the effectiveness oftesting, tracing, isolation, andquarantine--for exampleabout the amount of time ittakes to isolate cases withsymptoms (average 2.6 days)and the likelihood that theircontacts adhere to quarantine(90 per cent)-which, althoughplausible, are optimistic.

In the study, researchersanalysed data on how 40,162people moved about the UKand interacted with othersprior to Covid-19 to simulatehow combinations of differ-

ent testing, isolation, tracing,and physical distancing sce-narios might contribute toreducing secondary cases.

They also modelled therate at which the virus istransmitted-known as thereproductive number (R), orthe average number of peo-ple each individual with thevirus is likely to infect at agiven moment--under dif-ferent strategies.

The model suggested thatmass testing alone, with fiveper cent of the populationundergoing random testingeach week (i.e. 460,000 testsper day in the UK), wouldlower R to just 2.5 because somany infect ions would either be missed or detectedtoo late.

Compared with no con-trol measures, self-isolationof symptomatic cases (athome) alone reduced trans-mission by an estimated 29per cent.

“Our results highlightseveral characteristics ofSARS-CoV-2 which makeeffective isolation and contacttracing challenging,” saidstudy co-author Dr HannahFry from University CollegeLondon in the UK.

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With the stigmatisation ofpeople with Covid-19

becoming disturbingly com-mon and hindering fightagainst the virus, the Centrehas issued an illustrated guide,saying that it is forcing peopleto conceal symptoms, hesitatein seeking medical care andnot follow interventions dur-ing home quarantine.

“There have been reportsof harassment of Covid-19patients as well as suicides byinfected persons fearingostracisation from the society.Hence the guidelines to createawareness among the com-munity about the disease aswell as how to behave with thepatients,” said an official fromthe Union Health Ministrywhich has prepared the guide-lines.

The guidelines with illus-trations notes that the stigma-tisation can lead to peoplehiding symptoms, hesitate inseeking medical help and not

following quarantine norms.Henceforth, delay in thereporting of cases or peoplehiding will make the pandem-ic management even more dif-ficult.

The guide stated, “Covid-19 pandemic is a public healthemergency that is causing astressful and difficult time foreveryone. During this crisis,rumours and misinformationcreate more stress and canhamper Covid-19 recovery.”

The ministry suggestedthat adopting preventive mea-sures can be effective in pro-tecting people from the dis-ease. Though the virus is con-tagious but preventive mea-sures such as physical distanc-ing, washing hands frequent-ly and wearing a face cover andmask are the key to preventinfection. Further, the guideStates that if a person getsinfected despite precautions, itis not his/her fault as anyone issusceptible to contracting thedisease.

The patients and their

families need support andcooperation. Those who haverecovered do not have thevirus and there is no risk oftransmission, the ministry stat-ed. The guide related by theministry has listed Dos andDon’ts according to which oneshould be appreciative andsupportive of the efforts madeby frontline workers and sharepositive stories of those whohave recovered from coron-avirus.

The official said that therehave been various cases report-ed about the way the commu-nities have behaved with theirneighbours who return afterhospitalisation.

There has also been thecases where a few Covid-19patients committed suicidebefore they could reach to thehospitals. Social stigma asso-ciated with a disease usuallyarises from lack of awareness,lack of education and lack ofcorrect perceptions about thenature and implications of thedisease in question, he said.

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London: The UK Government on Wednesdayauthorised the state-funded National HealthService (NHS) to use steroid dexamethasone, the“world’s first” coronavirus treatment proven toreduce the risk of death among severely illpatients.

The Department of Health said the cheap andwidely available anti-inflammatory steroid hasbeen immediately approved to treat all hospi-talised COVID-19 patients requiring oxygen,including those on ventilators, after an OxfordUniversity trial confirmed positive results onTuesday.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson hailed thegovernment-funded trial as the “biggest break-through”, which has “greatly reduced” patients’chances of dying from COVID-19.

“I am proud of these British scientists,backed by UK government funding, who have ledthe first, robust clinical trial anywhere in the worldto find a coronavirus treatment proven to reducethe risk of death,” he said.

According to scientists, the drug has beenproven to reduce the risk of death significantly inCOVID-19 patients on ventilation by as much as35 per cent and patients on oxygen by 20 per cent.“The standard treatment for COVID-19 willinclude dexamethasone, helping save thousandsof lives while we deal with this terrible virus,” saidUK Health Secretary Matt Hancock. AP

Washington: Following weeksof national protests since thedeath of George Floyd,President Donald Trump hassigned an executive order thathe said would encourage bet-ter police practices.

But he made no mentionof the roiling national debateover racism spawned by policekillings of black men andwomen.

Trump met privately withthe families of several black Americans killed in interactions with police beforehis Rose Garden signing ceremony and said he grievedfor the lives lost and familiesdevastated.

But then he quickly shift-ed his tone and devoted mostof his public remarks to a needto respect and support “thebrave men and women in bluewho police our streets andkeep us safe.” He characterizedthe officers who have usedexcessive force as a “tiny”number of outliers among“trustworthy” police ranks.

“Reducing crime and rais-ing standards are not oppositegoals,” he said before signingthe order Tuesday, flanked bypolice officials.

Trump and Republicans inCongress have been rushing torespond to the mass demon-

strations against police bru-tality and racial prejudice thathave raged for weeks acrossthe country in response to thedeaths of Floyd and otherblack Americans.

It’s a sudden shift thatunderscores how quickly theprotests have changed thepolitical conversation andpressured Washington to act.

But Trump, who has faced

criticism for failing to acknowl-edge systemic racial bias andhas advocated for rougherpolice treatment of suspects inthe past, has continued to holdhis ‘law and order.”

At the signing event, herailed against those who com-mitted violence during thelargely peaceful protests whilehailing the vast majority ofofficers as selfless public ser-

vants.Trump’s executive order

would establish a databasethat tracks police officers withexcessive use-of-force com-plaints in their records.

Many officers who windup involved in fatal incidentshave long complaint histories,including Derek Chauvin, thewhite Minneapolis police offi-cer who has been charged

with murder in the death ofFloyd.

Those records are oftennot made public, making itdifficult to know if an officerhas such a history.

The order would also give police departments afinancial incentive to adoptbest practices and encourageco-responder programs, inwhich social workers joinpolice when they respond tononviolent calls involving men-tal health, addiction and home-less issues.

Trump said that, as part ofthe order, the use of choke-holds, which have become asymbol of police brutality,would be banned “except if anofficer’s life is at risk.”

Actually, the orderinstructs the JusticeDepartment to push localpolice departments to be cer-tified by a “reputable inde-pendent credentialing body”with use-of-force policies thatprohibit the use of choke-holds, except when the use ofdeadly force is allowed by law.Chokeholds are already large-ly banned in police depart-ments nationwide.

While Trump hailed hisefforts as “historic,” Democratsand other critics said he did-n’t go nearly far enough. AP

Jakarta: An Indonesian courton Wednesday sentenced threePapuan pro-independenceactivists to nearly yearlong jailterms on treason charges fororganizing anti-racism protestslast year, despite calls fromrights groups and politicians todrop the charges and releasethem.

Judges in the BalikpapanDistrict Court in EastKalimantan province read outthe verdicts in three separate tri-als, which were held remotelydue to the coronavirus pan-demic. Four other defendantswere due to hear their verdictslater Wednesday. The judgesordered the period of detentionthat the men had already servedto be deducted from the sen-tences, meaning they will walkfree within several weeks. AP

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Washington: They are nursesand doctors, artists, students,construction workers, govern-ment employees; black, brownand white; young and old.

Hundreds of thousands ofdemonstrators have taken to thestreets in big cities and tinytowns in every US State — andeven around the world — toprotest the killing of GeorgeFloyd, who died after a policeofficer pressed his knee into hisneck as he pleaded for air.

They say they are protestingpolice brutality, but also the sys-tematic racism non-whiteAmericans have experiencedsince the country’s birth. Manysay they marched so that oneday, when their children askedwhat they did at this historicmoment, they will be able to saythey stood up for justice despiteall risks. Most say they do notsupport the violence, fires andburglaries that consumed someof the demonstrations, but some

understand it: these are desper-ate acts by desperate people whohave been screaming for changefor generations into a worldunwilling to hear them.

Yet suddenly, for a momentat least, everyone seems to bepaying attention.

A Washington Post-ScharSchool poll shows roughlythree-quarters of Americanssupport the protests, and a widemajority, 69 per cent, say theysee the killing of Floyd as a signof broader problems in policing.That is up dramatically from apoll six years ago, that showedjust 43% found the killings ofunarmed black men as signs oflarger problems. Some demon-strators describe losing friendsand family to police bullets, andwhat it feels like to fear the verypeople sworn to protect you.Their white counterparts saythey could no longer let theirblack neighbors carry this bur-den alone. AP

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AUS ambassador saidWednesday that

Washington “is committedto addressing its shortcom-ings, including racial dis-crimination,” and is beingtransparent about holdingviolators accountable — as theUN’s top human rights bodywas taking up an urgentdebate.

Andrew Bremberg, theU.S. Ambassador in Geneva,noted that President DonaldTrump has condemned theactions of police officerslinked to the May 25 death ofGeorge Floyd, and on Tuesdaysigned an executive order onpolice reform.

Floyd was a black manwho died after a whiteMinneapolis police officerpressed a knee into Floyd’sneck for several minutes as hepleaded for air and eventual-ly stopped moving.

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Beijing: Beijing’s airports can-celled more than 1,200 flightsand schools in the Chinese cap-ital were closed again onWednesday as authoritiesrushed to contain a new coro-navirus outbreak linked to awholesale food market.

The city reported 31 newcases on Wednesday while offi-cials urged residents not toleave Beijing, with fears grow-ing about a second wave ofinfections in China, which hadlargely brought its outbreakunder control.

Tens of thousands of peo-ple linked to the new Beijingvirus cluster -- believed tohave started in the sprawlingXinfadi wholesale food market-- are being tested, with almost30 residential compounds inthe city now under lockdown.

At least 1,255 scheduled

flights were cancelledWednesday morning, state-run People’s Daily reported,nearly 70 percent of all trips toand from Beijing’s main air-ports.

The outbreak had alreadyforced authorities to announcea travel ban for residents of“medium- or high-risk” areas ofthe city, while requiring otherresidents to take nucleic acidtests in order to leave Beijing.

Meanwhile, severalprovinces were quarantiningtravellers from Beijing, whereall schools -- which had most-ly reopened -- have beenordered to close again andreturn to online classes.

“The epidemic situationin the capital is extremelysevere,” Beijing city spokesmanXu Hejian warned Tuesday.

Officials have closed 11

markets and disinfected thou-sands of food and beveragebusinesses in Beijing after theoutbreak was detected.

The city has now reported137 infections over the last sixdays, with six new asymp-tomatic cases and three sus-pected cases on Wednesday,according to the municipalhealth commission.

An additional two domes-tic cases, one in neighbouringHebei province and another inZhejiang, were reported bynational authorities onWednesday, while there were11 imported cases.

Authorities have so farbanned group sports, orderedpeople to wear masks in crowd-ed enclosed spaces, and sus-pended inter-provincial grouptours in response to the out-break. AGENCY

United Nations: The UNGeneral Assembly has begunelections for President of the75th session of the Assembly,five non-permanent membersof the Security Council andmembers of the Economic andSocial Council on Wednesdayunder special voting arrange-ments put in place here due toCOVID-19 related restrictions.

India is expected to regis-ter a comfortable victory in theSecurity Council elections thatwill bring the country to theUN high-table as a non-per-manent member for the 2021-22 term. India’s victory is cer-tain since it is the sole candi-date vying for the lone seatfrom the 55-member Asia-Pacific grouping.

New Delhi’s candidaturewas unanimously endorsed bythe Asia-Pacific grouping,including China and Pakistan,in June last year.

President of the UNGeneral Assembly TijjaniM u h a m m a d - B a n d eannounced the commence-ment of the elections at around9 am Wednesday.

UN diplomats, staff andother personnel arrived at theGeneral Assembly hall wearingmasks and immediately leftthe venue after casting theirballots. In previous years, theGeneral Assembly hall waspacked to capacity during theelections as UN diplomats andofficials participated in theballots.

In adherence to social dis-tancing guidelines due toCOVID19 pandemic, the 193UN Member States have beenallotted different time slots tocast their ballots next week inthe General Assembly Hall forthe crucial elections.

Eight time slots have beenallocated to Member States tocast their ballots in the GeneralAssembly Hall starting at 9AM, in adherence to social dis-tancing guidelines. The votingwill continue till 1 pm with anadditional 30 minute time slotfor voters who are unable tovisit the GA hall during thespecific time slot communi-cated to them. The time slot forIndia to cast its ballot is 11:30am-12noon. PTI

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Seoul: North Korea said onWednesday it will redeploytroops to now-shuttered inter-Korean cooperation sites, rein-stall guard posts and resumemilitary exercises at front-lineareas, nullifying the tension-reducing deals reached withSouth Korea just two years ago.

The announcement is the latest in a series of hard-line steps North Koreahas taken in what expertsbelieve are calculated moves toapply pressure on Seoul andWashington amid stallednuclear diplomacy.

On Tuesday, the Northdestroyed an empty inter-Korean liaison office in itsterritory.

Though North Korea’srecent actions haven’t causedclashes or bloodshed, it’s stillraising animosity on thepeninsula to a level unseensince the North entered

nuclear talks in 2018.The North’s General Staff

said military units will bedeployed to the DiamondMountain resort and theKaesong industrial complex,both just north of the heavilyfortified border.

The sites, both built withSouth Korean financing during

a past era of reconciliation,have been shuttered for yearsdue to inter-Korean disputesand US-led sanctions imposedon North Korea because of itsnuclear program.The Northsaid it will resume militaryexercises, reestablish guardposts, boost military readi-ness in border areas and open

front-line sites for flying pro-paganda balloons towardSouth Korea.

These steps would end theSeptember 2018 agreementsreached between the Koreasaimed at lowering militarytensions at border areas.

Later Wednesday, SouthKorea’s military expressedregret over the North Koreanannouncement and warnedthat the North will faceunspecified consequences if itviolates the 2018 deals.

Maj. Gen. Jeon Dong Jin atthe Joint Chiefs of Staff toldreporters that South Koreamaintains a firm military readi-ness and will strive to preventmilitary tensions from rising.

Under the 2018 agree-ments, both Koreas halted live-firing exercises, removed someland mines and destroyedguard posts inside the world’smost heavily armed border. AP

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Washington: The United States onWednesday imposed its toughest sanc-tions ever targeting Syrian PresidentBashar al-Assad to choke off revenue forhis government in a bid to force it backto United Nations-led negotiations andbroker an end to the country’s nearlydecade-long war. The fresh round ofpenalties on Syria, which designateAssad and his wife Asma personally,come at a time when Assad is grapplingwith a deepening economic crisis aftera decade of war and amid a rare out-break of protests in government-held

areas. In a statement announcing thedesignations imposed under the CaesarSyria Civilian Protection Act – signedby President Donald Trump inDecember – U.S. Secretary of State MikePompeo said ‘many more’ sanctionsshould be expected in the comingweeks and months.

“We will not stop until Assad andhis regime stop their needless, brutalwar against the Syrian people and theSyrian government agrees to a politicalsolution to the conflict,” Pompeo said.

AGENCY

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UK Prime Minister BorisJohnson’s car was involved

in a crash outside the gates ofParliament in London onWednesday as a protesterrushed towards his convoy.

Downing Street said thereare no reports of any injuriesafter social media imagesemerged of the incident, whichtook place shortly after Johnson,55, left the House of Commonsafter the weekly Prime Minister’sQuestions (PMQs) session.

One of the security vehi-cles within his prime ministe-rial motorcade was seen tohave hit the back of the UKPM’s silver Jaguar as his driverslammed the brakes, resultingin a major dent.

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Kabul: Taliban fighters killed at least 18 Afghansecurity personnel on Wednesday in two attackson checkpoints in the north, officials said, the lat-est violence ahead of expected peace talks.

In one pre-dawn raid, militants killed 12Afghan security force members when theystormed a checkpoint in Jawezjan province,Maroof Azar, spokesman to the governor, toldAFP. He said four security personnel were cap-tured by the militants and five Taliban fighterswere killed in the fighting. The ministry ofdefense confirmed the attack and said six of itssoldiers were among the dead. The Talibanspokesman for the group’s fighting forces,Zabihullah Mujahid, gave a higher toll.

Separately, Taliban fighters were blamed fora raid on an army outpost in Kunduz. 6 soldierswere killed in fighting, said Aminullah Iddin, amember of the provincial council. Armyspokesman Hadi Jamal confirmed the attack, say-ing 4 Taliban fighters were also killed. TheTaliban has not commented on that raid. AFP

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Washington: Democrats con-trolling the House have slated avote next week to make theDistrict of Columbia the 51ststate, an issue that they say hasbecome far more important inthe aftermath of protests forracial justice in both Washingtonand across the nation.

Next Friday’s vote, if suc-cessful, would pass a D.C.Statehood bill for the first timein the House, but the legislationfaces insurmountable oppositionin the GOP-controlled Senate.

It comes even as theCOVID-19 pandemic has forceddelays in the consideration ofmost other legislation. Morethan enough lawmakers areofficially backing the bill for it to

pass. In 1993, the Democratic-controlled Congress defeated aD.C. Statehood bill by an almost2-1 margin.

But the much-criticisedadministration move to use fed-eral forces to clear LafayetteSquare near the White House ofpeaceful protesters to enablePresident Donald Trump totrumpet his law and order cre-dentials in a photo op twoweeks ago promptedDemocratic leaders to schedulethe vote.

“We both agreed this was anappropriate time to bring a billforward to show respect for thecitizens of the District ofColumbia,” said Majority LeaderSteny Hoyer. AP

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& ������������ ����������������� �����"�#����������Washington: The Trump administrationhas sued former national security advis-er John Bolton to delay the publication ofa book that the White House says containsclassified information and that is expect-ed to paint an unfavourable portrait of thepresident’s foreign policy decision-mak-ing.

The civil lawsuit filed Tuesday inWashington’s federal court follows warn-ings from President Donald Trump thatBolton could face a “criminal problem” ifhe doesn’t halt plans to publish the book,which is scheduled for release next week.

The complaint is the latest salvo in acontentious relationship between Trumpand the hawkish Bolton, who was abrupt-ly forced from the White House lastSeptember after repeated disagreementson national security matters.

It moves their rift into court, wherea judge will be asked to decide whetherBolton short-circuited proper proceduresto get his book on the market - somethinghis lawyer and publisher have stronglydenied.

His publisher, Simon & Schuster,called the lawsuit “nothing more than thelatest in a long running series of efforts bythe administration to quash publicationof a book it deems unflattering to the pres-ident.”

It said in a statement Tuesday eveningthat Bolton had worked with WhiteHouse officials to address their concerns,and that it “fully supports his FirstAmendment right” to tell his story.

Chuck Cooper, Bolton’s attorney, saidWednesday his team was “reviewing theGovernment’s complaint and will respondin due course.” Cooper has said Boltonworked for months with classification spe-

cialists to avoid releasing classified mate-rial. He has accused the White House ofusing national security information as apretext to censor Bolton.

In its lawsuit, the Justice Departmentadministration contends that the formeradviser did not complete a pre-publicationreview to ensure that the manuscript didnot contain classified material.

It requests that a federal court orderBolton to “instruct or request” that hispublisher further delay publication of thebook to allow for a completion of thenational security review process and to“retrieve and dispose” of existing copiesin a manner acceptable to the government.

The Justice Department also is seek-ing to prevent Bolton from profiting offthe book, particularly if he “refuses to com-plete the prepublication review process andobtain the required prior written autho-rization before proceeding with publish-ing the book.”

In its lawsuit, the Justice Departmentargues that Bolton’s job meant he “regu-larly came into possession of some of themost sensitive classified information thatexists in the US government.”

Officials said Bolton’s manuscriptwas more than 500 pages and was “rifewith classified information, which he pro-posed to release to the world.”

“The United States is not seeking tocensor any legitimate aspect of Defendant’smanuscript; it merely seeks an orderrequiring Defendant to complete theprepublication review process and totake all steps necessary to ensure that onlya manuscript that has been officially autho-rized through that process - and is thusfree of classified information — is dis-seminated publicly,” the lawsuit says.

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In 2016, actor Sushant SinghRajput told students at IITBombay how in pursuit of

becoming an actor, he left engineer-ing in the fourth year, when onlytwo months were left for the finaldegree. Why did he do so? He wasprecise and honest. Because his goalwas to get recognition and money.Fast. And guess what? He did getboth. He did find big breaks in anindustry about which many havedreamt of and started fromnowhere for it. Through his non-descript but realistic roles, he tran-sitioned from TV star into aBollywood A-lister! “I literallystarted from nothing, absolutelynothing. It’s not even zero, it’s likeminus. I was doing something elseand was at a momentum to becomean engineer. Suddenly, I discoveredthis thing I really like...” But storiesin Bollywood are never about per-fection, especially if talent races pastthe entitled and royalty. The result,the elite club pushes out the newtoast in town or coopts him/her asa servile courtier only to justify theirposition. Those who do not com-promise take the extreme step thatSushant did.

Why does Bollywood, the so-called and otherwise “talent recog-nition and management agency”,take outsiders for granted? Simplybecause they expose their inade-quacies, which would not otherwiselet them be where they are. Whatwould their reason for existing andflirting with stardust be? No won-der netizens called out Alia Bhattfor such hypocrisy when sheexpressed her grief over Sushant’sdeath through her post. Socialmedia was flooded with reposts ofone of her clips from an episode ofKoffee With Karan, where she askshost Karan Johar in a rapid firegame of listing actors according topreference, “Sushant who?”Netizens have also dug out similarvideos of Sonam Kapoor from thesame chat show and KareenaKapoor Khan from an award cer-emony. Even though, this does notsuggest that they are responsible forthe actor’s suicide, it does exposetheir sense of privilege and ivorytower logic. This stems from thefact that for all pretensions ofbeing an industry, Bollywood con-tinues to be ruled by family busi-nesses and incestuously works withits own. Even corporate studioshave not been able to break throughsuch lobbies and align with themfor joint ventures. The result?Newcomers are good enough forindependent films and ventures. It’sjust that the audience has receivedthem well and given them hightrading value. It is because of the lat-ter that someone like Dabanggdirector Abhinav Singh Kashyapwas picked up by Salman KhanProductions. But once it was amega hit, it was attributed toSalman’s persona and heft whileAbhinav was made to feel that hewas lucky to be chosen by the king.Through a Facebook post, Kashyapcalled out Salman Khan and hisfamily for “ruining his career overthe past decade and constantly sab-otaging all his projects and creativeendeavours.” He said that he hasbeen “repeatedly threatened withlife and rape threats given to/for thefemale members of my family.The sustained gaslighting and bul-lying destroyed my mental healthand that of my family and led to mydivorce and breaking up of my fam-ily in 2017.”

Talking about Sohail Khan,

Abhinav added, “Sohail intimi-dated the then Viacom CEO,Vikram Malhotra. My project wassabotaged and I was made toreturn my signing fee of Rs 7 croreplus an interest of Rs 90 lakh. It’sonly then that RelianceEntertainment came to my rescueand we forged an enduring partner-ship for my film Besharam.”

While actor Kangana Ranauttoo posted on Instagram a videosaying that such inside politicscompelled Sushant to take his life,director Shekhar Kapur tweeted, “Iknew the pain you were goingthrough. I knew the story of thepeople who let you down so badthat you would weep on my shoul-der. I wish you had reached out tome. What happened to you wastheir Karma, not yours.”

Actor Gulshan Devaiah alsotweeted, “As actors, somewheredeep down, we think we know whyhe did it and that’s why it’s so dis-turbing even if you didn’t know himat all. It’s a hard game to play buthe played it very well but the gamewon in the end. Really sorry to bedoing this, but Bollywood isn’t afamily, it never was and never willbe.”

How can nepotism beaddressed openly in Bollywoodsince smaller actors might find ithard to talk against the biggies inthe industry, fearing beingambushed in their careers that theyhave bet on? Interdisciplinary actorand director Sujoy ProsadChatterjee recalls the version ofnepotism he encountered. He says,“I have worked as an actor on stage,

television and a few films. The kindof nepotism I have faced is quite dif-ferent. For example, I was body-shamed by a TV director twice onthe floor and when I wanted toblow the whistle, I was victimised.Without taking names, the produc-tion company and the channel sub-stituted me on the grounds of mydate issues, misconduct (because Ispeak loud and clear) and of course,because I was doing some veryinteresting national work. InBollywood, star kids face a differ-ent kind of discrimination, too.Why should people expectAbhishek Bachchan to be a versionof Amitabh? Why should SandipRay be compared with SatyajitRay? Isn’t it silly? Having said that,privilege clubs exist everywhere. Inthe entertainment scene, the dan-

ger and harm posed by these clubsis of a different degree. There’s nopoint in isolating one Karan Joharbut yes it’s important to address theelephants in the room. The privi-lege clubs in Kolkata exist in artstoo.”

Actor Rajeev Khandelwal says,“Nepotism exists in every field andwill continue to as long as humansexist. It is a very human tendencyto prioritise your own over others.We live in a capitalist world and nota socialist world so it is very nat-ural to give preference and privilegeto your kith and kin over others.Parents will always favour their ownkids whether deserving or not. Theopportunities any parents will pro-vide for their own kids will alwaysbe way more than what they wouldprovide for the kids of anyone lessprivileged even if they are way moredeserving then their own kids.These are the challenges everyindividual from outside, who is try-ing to make a place for oneself ina new world, will have to face.

Those who have it in them willbreach the walls of nepotism andcarve out a place for oneself.Success comes when every obsta-cle in the way is breached withnepotism being one of the many.The important thing what I feel isthat every individual needs todefine success in their own headand not define it how the worlddoes.”

Social media has also beencomparing the#EndNepotismIn2020 campaignto the #MeToo movement.However, Sujoy says that the scaleof #Me too is more severe thannepotism. He adds, “You can fightback nepotism if you have talentbut #MeToo talks about assault.And yes, if you can unmask a fewfaces without fear of losing out onwork, you must. I don’t believe inpetition signatures for everything.I am not saying it is non-serious butit can be dealt with.”

Well, let’s see where this debateends!

Discovery’s new venture, Listento the Sea, sheds light on one

of the country’s greatest calamities,Cyclone Fani, taking a deep diveinto critical 48 hours before thelandfall of extremely severecyclonic storm, which threatenedwidespread damage to life andproperty in Odisha.

While the property, especial-ly critical infrastructure like power,telecom, roads — both nationalhighways, state highways and rural— were severely damaged, Indian’smeteorological department’s(IMD) pinpoint accuracy in pre-dicting the time, path and severi-ty of the cyclone, helped immense-ly in saving lives. The governmentactivated the disaster manage-ment program, leveraging the 48-hour notice by IMD, and evacuat-ed more than 1 million people tosafety. Listen to The Sea is a storyof hope as Odisha triumphed overthis sever cyclone through its gal-lant efforts.

“We cannot control naturaldisasters and catastrophes butafter the devastation caused bysuper cyclone in 1999, our aim wasto make sure that as much as pos-sible, no human life should be losthenceforth in such disasters. In a

state which has almost 500 kilome-ters of coastline, one should listento the sea,” said, Naveen Patnaik,Chief Minister of Odisha. “CycloneFani was a test of our preparedness.I would like to take this momentto highlight the efforts of all thosewho stepped in — over 45,000 vol-unteers who worked alongsidethe government officials to help inthe evacuation process. It is due tothis combined effort that Odishasuccessfully conducted Asia’slargest evacuation before CycloneFani by getting more than a mil-

lion people to safety.”Megha Tata, managing direc-

tor, South Asia, Discovery, said,“This is not a documentary abouta cyclone that threatened to ravagea state. It is a story of human willand what it can do in the face ofabject disaster. This two-part doc-umentary series is a story ofOdisha’s resilience.”

(The series launches on June 20on Discovery & Discovery HDChannel at 9 pm. Viewers candownload Discovery Plus app tostream the show on June 23.)

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Tackling an unprecedentedcrisis of the nature andcombating the challenges

thrown by the pandemic requiredifferent and innovativeapproaches. One segment that hasbeen severely impacted during theongoing crisis has been the tribalpopulation.

In such a scenario, the VanDhan start-ups, established underthe scheme initiated by TRIFED,Ministry of Tribal Affairs, hasemerged as a source ofemployment generation for tribalgatherers, forest dwellers and alsothe home-bound labour andartisans.

A media briefing wasorganised by TRIFED on June 15for members of the mediafraternity (both print andelectronic media) to familiarisethem with this innovativeapproach so that they can furtherspread awareness among people.

The webinar titled Van Dhan:Tribal Start-ups Bloom in India waschaired by Pravir Krishna,Managing Director, TRIFED andwas attended by over 40participants. Nanu Bhasin, ADG,PIB and Abhishek Singh, CEO,MyGov were among those whoattended the webinar to knowmore about the Van Dhan start-ups. The TRIFED team wasrepresented by all the heads ofdepartments and senior officials.

Krishna gave the welcomeaddress and a quick introductionof the Van Dhan Yojana. Heprovided a snapshot of what itintends to achieve and how thescheme has been faring in thesecurrent times. 1205 tribal

enterprises have been establishedto provide employmentopportunities to 3.6 lakh tribalgatherers and 18,000 self-helpgroups in 22 states. He also addedthat the slogan Go Vocal for Local,a mantra in these troubled times,has been adapted to include GoVocal for Local Go Tribal — MeraVan Mera Dhan Mera Udyam. Theaim of the start-ups scheme totreble the coverage to 10 lakhtribal gatherers through theCOVID-19 relief plan of theMinistry of Tribal Affairs underarticle 275(I) was also stated. Astate wise snapshot was alsopresented to show how the statesare faring. Started in Nagaland andfollowed by Maharashtra inDecember, 2019 the start-upsspread rather quickly to all the 22states, almost became acompetition once the statesrealised the value added by thisinitiative.

He presented some real lifeexamples from Nagaland,Rajasthan, which ensures that theproceeds from the sales of thesevalue-added products go to thetribals directly. The value-addedproducts benefit largely from thepackaging and marketing thatthese tribal enterprises provide.Testimonials from different partsof the country, along with contactdetails of the Van Dhan VikasKendras and the products that arebeing sold were showcased.Krishna mentioned that 2,000products have been identifiedthrough the country. A bird’s eyeview was provided to theparticipants and samples such aswild honey, broomsticks, donna

pattal, samidha sticks, coffee, bayleaf, bel pulp were displayed.

It has managed to createmarket linkages. Many of thesetribal enterprises are connected tomarkets and have received manyorders already. As an example, hecommended the efforts of thestart-ups in Manipur which haveturned out to be a modelenterprise for the rest of thecountry, in terms of the packaging,innovations, and training. Krishnaalso recounted the entire successstory in Manipur and hailed it as achampion state and as an exampleof how this tribal enterprisescheme can benefit the tribalsextensively, with the right pushand support.

In Manipur, 77 Van Dhancentres have been established forvalue addition and processing of

forest produces. They havereported sales of MFP productsworth ��49.1 lakh since September2019. What stood out in the case ofManipur is the exemplary foodsafety and hygiene standardsadopted by these 77 centres thathave been established, theattractive packaging of theprocessed products — Amla juice,tamarind amla candy and plumjams, and the innovative brandingand marketing of these products.A mobile van service has also beenstarted in one of the districts toensure the selling of theseproducts.

Krishna also spoke about thenext steps regarding theprogramme. The first is to expandthe current coverage of 18,000SHGs to 50,000 Van Dhan SHGsand to treble the coverage to 10

lakh tribal gatherers through theCOVID-19 relief plan. Theultimate aim is to transform of thetribal ecosystem across the countryby establishing this programme asthe next “Amul revolution” interms of MFPs. Krishna alsomentioned that convergences andpartnerships are being plannedwith other ministries anddepartments and key institutionsto take this cause ahead.

A major initiative which willshow the way forward is theplanned migration to complete thedigital platforms including forprocurement. Krishna informedthe audience that a TRIFEDw e b s i t e(https://trifed.tribal.gov.in/) wasbeing commissioned for a trial runtill 30 June (before the formallaunch by the Minister) and a

procurement platform which willbe launched by 30 July. All details,statistics and real-time informationof the programme across thecountry can be viewed athttps://trifed.tribal.gov.in/vdvk/auth/login.php

A peek look into the websiteand the mobile app was provided.He then followed up with hisconcluding remarks and openedthe floor (Zoom chat room in thiscase) for any questions. NanuBhasin, ADG, Press InformationBureau, Government of Indiakindly moderated the questions.Ambika Pandit, Times of Indiawanted to know whether thewebsite had any grievance andfeedback mechanism for the VanDhan Vikas Kendras. The teaminformed her that such amechanism in the form of afeedback form does exist and alltypes of feedback are welcome.Priscilla from PIB had somequeries about the level ofinvestment from the governmentin each of these centres and therevenue that has been generated sofar. He explained that 15 lakh fromthe central government has beenprovided to each of these centres.So far 25 to 30 per cent of thisgrant has been spent by theVDVKs on purchase of rawmaterials and labour costs. Heclarified and iterated that thebeauty of this scheme is that it isnothing but a set of flexibleguidelines. An amount has beenset aside for each of these kendrasand how they use the money andon what is for them to decide. Healso mentioned that in the case ofNagaland, approximately 3.5

crores worth of sales have beendone. Krishna was sure that onceall the other states pick up steamwith respect to this scheme, 1crores sales per state in a fewmonths would be possible. In aresponse to the question regardingthe medium through which thesesales have occurred, Krishnamentioned that the sales are takingplace through state governmentsales centre, states sales pitches,Tribes India retail outlets and thee-platforms.

Post the question-answersession, Krishna announced thenext webinar (in this series ofwebinars that will give a ringsideview into the lives of the tribalcommunities and the initiativesbeing undertaken to help easetheir plight) on MSP for MFPTakes Roots in Tribal Indiaplanned with the media fraternityon June 18. He gave a briefintroduction to the MinimumSupport Price for the Minor ForestProduce Scheme and said that hewould speak more about how thathas become another success storyin these troubled times.

He thanked Abhishek andNanu for their support and hailedthe enthusiastic response from allparticipants attending this session.He solicited feedback andrequested them to could reach outto the TRIFED team for anyinputs or further queries or anyfeedback. These initiativesrepresent the first steps in thejourney for Go Local for Vocal forTribal, as TRIFED sets out on itsmission to become the nextNDDB (albeit for the tribalpeople).

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Justice NV Ramana, ExecutiveChairman, National Legal

Services Authority (NALSA),released ‘Handbook of formats:Ensuring effective legal services’at a webinar in the presence ofExecutive Chairpersons of StateLegal Services Authorities,Chairpersons of High CourtLegal Services Committees andMember Secretaries of all StateLegal Services Authorities,Chairpersons and Secretariesof District Legal ServicesAuthorities.

In the keynote address,Justice Ramana highlighted thefollowing issues: Unfortunately,even though three months havepassed, the situation is still notunder control. Pursuant to thelockdown, thousands of peoplehave lost their lives and liveli-hood, large scale migration hastaken place. Women have beenburdened with more work andchildren are unable to go to

schools. In spite of all the trou-bles, the Legal ServicesAuthorities have done tremen-dous activities during the pre-vailing pandemic by adoptingthe latest technology.

One of the critical areaswhich has come to our noticewas rising violence within thefamily itself. We also sawincreasing rise in the number ofinstances of child abuse. Duringsuch times, when the victimscannot reach us, it’s imperativefor us to reach them.Acknowledging the urgency ofthe situation we have establishedOne Stop Centres (OSCs).Persistent efforts have beentaken to provide legal assis-tance through tele-services offemale panel lawyers in everydistrict. In other matters, peti-

tions have been filed under theDomestic Violence Act.

Another focus area for theLegal Services Authorities acrossthe country was to ensure thereduction of over-crowding inprisons. As per the directions ofthe Supreme Court, the SLSAshave actively assisted High

Powered Committees to identi-fy and complete the necessaryformalities for the release ofprisoners, both undertrials andconvicts.

It is equally imperative thatlegal aid providers are able todocument and report theirinterventions, which is essentialto effectuate the various NALSAschemes and frameworks. Thishandbook is the first crucial steptowards standardising andbringing in uniformity in the useof formats. This handbook is aneffective tool for management ofhuman resources and in futurewill prove as a small but signif-icant step in realising justice forall.

The pandemic has present-ed multiple emerging issuesbefore us. The most predomi-

nant one is that of reversemigration. Massive reversemigration will invariably lead toincrease in poverty, inequityand discrimination. This calls fora persistent and target orienta-tion action plan, which we allhave to work out together. Thefuture is going to be challenging— let’s stay committed.

Additionally, JusticeRamana also shared that it is alsobeing ensured that Toll freeNational Legal Helpline 15100remains fully functional. LegalServices Authorities have organ-ised hundreds of webinars acrossvarious states and are utilisingcost effective tools such as socialmedia, community radio sta-tions, local cable television chan-nels and other digital platformsto increase outreach.

He concluded by saying,“Let these challenging timesnot paralyse you, like all darknights this shall pass too.”

Bharti AXA General Insurance, a joint venturebetween Bharti Enterprises and AXA, said the

company has registered a 38 per cent increase inits premium income in the financial year 2019-20.

“We are pleased to grow much faster than theindustry and maintain a steady growth perfor-mance across key matrices of the business in thefinancial year 2019-20. The expansion of distri-bution network and partnerships, new businessalliances along with improved business activa-tions from the robust bancassurance accompa-nied by diversified product portfolio helped usachieve healthy premium growth at more thantriple of the industry growth rate in the last fis-cal,’’ said Sanjeev Srinivasan, MD and CEO, BhartiAXA General Insurance.

Driven by crop, commercial lines, motor andhealth insurance, he said that all product seg-ments witnessed strong double-digit growth in2019-20. Crop insurance grew by 59 per cent to�828 crore in the last financial year from �519crore in 2018-19. Commercial lines segmentfocused on SME and MSME to grow by 49 percent at �430 crore in the year ended March 31,2020, against �289 crore in the corresponding fis-cal a year earlier. Similarly, motor insurance post-ed 30 per cent growth to �1,488 crore in the lastfiscal from �1,143 crore in 2018-19, whilehealth insurance grew by 23 per cent at �410 crorein 2019-20 against �334 crore in the correspond-ing financial year a year ago.

Bharti AXA General Insurance, which cur-rently distributes through nine banks and over50 NBFCs and Cooperative Banks, also addeda significant number of distribution partnershipsin the financial year 2019-20. The combined ratio,a measure of profitability that takes into accountclaims and expenses as a proportion of premi-ums, has gone up by 5.4 per cent and stood at120.7 per cent in 2019-20 against 115.3 per centin 2018-19. This was a result of increased invest-ments in technology, infrastructure and humancapital to strengthen distribution network andservice delivery platforms as the company is cur-rently in the investment phase of its growth jour-ney.

Continuing on its path of innovation, the

company also proposed two new products —Short Term Health Insurance and Usage-basedMotor Insurance — under the Sandbox initia-tive launched by IRDAI and received approvalfor both the innovative products in 2019-20.

“The current financial year looks challeng-ing in view of the COVID-19 pandemic and dis-ruptions caused by the nationwide lockdown.Focus on technology and automation of process-es has helped us operate seamlessly as we con-tinue to service our customer and partnersremotely, successfully managing business, ser-vicing, surveys and claim settlement. In 2020-21, we will pursue opportunities across chan-nels with constant emphasis on customer cen-tricity, focus on superior risk selections, prudentcost management, claims efficiency with invest-ments in technologies and innovation to boostall lines of businesses,” Srinivasan said.

The Institute of CompanySecretaries of India (ICSI)

celebrated its first virtual PCSDay through a series of delib-erations on the significant roleof Practicing CompanySecretaries, recognitionsawarded to them and theiremerging areas of practice witheminent speakers from acrossthe country.

The Minister of State forFinance and Corporate Affairs,Anurag Singh Thakur, gracedthe occasion as a chief guestand appreciated the efforts androle that Company Secretarieshave been playing in creatingawareness about the reformmeasures taken by the Ministryof Corporate affairs,Government of India.

Thakur, emphasising onthe three ‘Es’, said, “Qualityeducation and employmentopportunities will lead toempowered CompanySecretaries, who in turn willempower the country.”

CS Ashish Garg, President,

ICSI, rejoicing the spirit of theday, echoed the sentiments ofthousands of PractisingCompany Secretaries byacknowledging the responsibil-ity showered onto the instituteby the regulatory authoritiesand the Government of Indiain making the country a fivetrillion economy by 2024. “Ourcommitment and dedication,

even in these times of pandem-ic, stands undeterred,” headded.

Pandey said, “CompanySecretaries should now be seenas Corporate Secretaries forthey are playing roles beyondthat of the traditional compli-ance officers and are helping inbringing in international busi-ness to the country.”

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Union Minister of State(Independent Charge),

Development of North EasternRegion (DoNER), MoS PMO,Personnel, Public Grievances& Pensions, Atomic Energyand Space, Dr Jitendra Singhlaunched an e-Booklet on oneyear achievements of theDepartment of Pension andPensioners’ Welfare(DoPPW)” through VideoConferencing.

While addressing theofficers of the department, hecongratulated the team forcarrying out a series of reformswhich not only highlighted thesensitivity of the governmentbut also the dedication of theteam during the trying timesof the pandemic. He stated thatthe department went outsideits call of duty to organise awebinar on COVID bybringing in doctors to addressthe anxiety of the pensioners.

Among a series of reformsin pension policy, the mostnotable was the Amendmentof Rule 54 of CCS PensionRules, 1972 to provideenhanced family pension inthe event of unfortunate death

of government servant evenbefore completion of sevenyears of service.

Earlier only those familieswere eligible for enhancedfamily Pension (@50 per centof last pay drawn) wherein thedeceased government servanthad completed seven years ofservice.

Another OM in the recent

year was extending the OldPension scheme to thoseemployees who joined on orafter January 1, 2004 butwhose result for recruitmenthad been declared before thesame date. This was a longstanding demand of employeescovered under the NationalPension System (NPS) and wasthe cause of several court cases

and anxiety among suchemployees.

Soon after the formationof the new government a seriesof welfare measures for thepensioners were also carriedout such as opening of anIntegrated Grievance Cell &Call Centre with toll freenumber 1800-11-1960 tofacilitate elderly pensioners inregistering their grievancesand get information ofpending grievances, holding of“All India Pension Adalat”wherein more than 50locations were connectedthrough live interactive videoconferencing which resulted inresolution of more than 4000grievances by a single event.

The other welfare activitiescarried out in the last one yearinclude facilitating doorstepservice for submission of lifecertificate with the help ofPension Disbursing Banks,DLC from home campaign byinvolving Pensioners’associations in 24 cities,organising the First RegionalAdalat at Jammu, and issuanceof consolidated instructions tobanks in order to ensure ease

of living for pensioners.The department also

organised a tele-consultationfor pensioners on COVID-19with pulmonologist anddirector, AIIMS, Dr RandeepGuleria and Dr PrasunChatterjee, Associate ProfessorAIIMS.

Dr Kshatrapati Shivaji,Secretary (P&PW), thankedthe Union Minister for guidingDoPPW to make pensionreforms which affected thelives of the pensioners. Hestated that departments, evenprior to the pandemic was ane-office and therefore, thetransition to work from homewas easy to implement. Allofficials have been providedwith a VPN which enablesthem to work from whereverthey are and therefore theworking of this departmentremained unaffected duringthe pandemic.

Joint Secretary, SanjivNarain Mathur conducted theproceedings which werecompletely online with allsenior officers of thedepartment. Ruchir Mittal, DSgave the vote of thanks.

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������ Roland Garros chiefs onWednesday said that the delayedFrench Open will get underwayon September 27 as the rulingbodies of world tennis revealeda new-look calendar for a sportplaced on ice since mid-Marchdue to the coronavirus.

The French Open wasswitched from its traditionalMay-June slot because of thepandemic with September 20pencilled in as a start date.

Now, the Paris main draw ofthe season’s final Grand Slamevent will begin a week later andfinish on October 11.

With the US Open alreadyconfirmed to start on August 31,the ATP and WTA toursannounced their restart dates.

The ATP Tour will resumein Washington from August 14while the WTA starts inPalermo, Italy, on August 3.

Unlike the US Open inNew York, Roland Garros willmaintain its qualifying event inthe week before the main draw.

“In the current, difficult cli-

mate, we are well aware that itis a privilege to be able to holdRoland Garros in its usual for-mat,” said Bernard Giudicelli,the president of FrenchTennis Federation (FFT).

“Especially since thequalifying tournamentwill help to financiallysupport a category of pro-fessional players who have beenseverely affected by this unprece-dented crisis.

“The responsible decision

we made on March 17 to post-pone the Roland Garros tourna-ment until the autumn means

that the 2020 clay season canbe saved, providing thecurrent situation contin-ues to improve.”

After Washington,the ATP Tour will skip the

now cancelled Rogers Cupin Toronto, and head for NewYork for Cincinnati Mastersand then the US Open.

Once the US Open is over,

the tour heads to Europe for claycourts events at the MadridOpen and Italian Masters in therun-up to the French Open.

The ATP said a furtherupdate on a possible Asia swingahead of European indoorevents, culminating with the sea-son-ending ATP Finals inLondon, is expected in mid-July.

Unlike the ATP, the WTAset out plans to visit Asia afterthe conclusion of Roland Garroswith the China Open in Beijingset for October 12, leadingtowards the WTA Finals atShenzhen from November 9-15.

WTA tournaments, howev-er, will not have fans on site.

“For now, the vital energyof spectators in stadiums willbe greatly missed, but ourbroadcast and social mediapartners are exploring newways to engage with our fantas-tic fans,” said WTA chief exec-utive Steve Simon. AFP

�3��� #5�:��

Robert Lewandowski saidBayern Munich hadproved they are the best

club in Germany after securingtheir eighth straight Bundesligatitle on Tuesday as the Polishstriker’s first-half volley sawthem claim a 1-0 win at WerderBremen.

Bayern were confirmedGerman champions for the30th time in the club’s proudhistory to maintain their iron-grip on the Bundesliga shield inrecent years.

“We have showed that weare the best team in Germany,”said Lewandowski.

Lewandowski struck twominutes before the break witha brilliant chest and low strike,but Bayern had to endure anervy final 11 minutes afterteenage left-back AlphonsoDavies was sent off for a secondyellow card.

At the end of a first 45 min-utes dominated by Bremen’sdogged defending and pouringrain, Bayern broke throughwhen centre-back JeromeBoateng chipped over the topfor Lewandowski to score.

It was the Poland striker’s31st league goal of the season,a career best, keeping him oncourse to be named the league’stop scorer for the fifth time.

The result means club stal-wart Thomas Mueller nowequals the league record of for-mer Bayern great FranckRibery with his ninthBundesliga title.

Head coach Hansi Flicklanded the Bundesliga title inhis first season in charge hav-ing stepped in when Niko

Kovac was sacked lastNovember.

Even the coronavirus lock-down could not stopBayern’s momentum,with the championswinning eight consecu-tive games in all compe-titions since theresumption of German footballlast month.

Flick, assistant coach when

Germany won the 2014 WorldCup, could land the treble asBayern face Bayer Leverkusen

in the German Cupfinal on July 4 and holda 3-0 first-leg lead overChelsea in theChampions League last16. “This is Bayern

Munich, the goals are alwayshigh,” said Flick after clubpresident Hainer Herbert had

said the treble is the goal thisseason.

“We have now reached ourfirst big goal, the cup is now thenext goal, then the ChampionsLeague, but you can’t plan forthat.”

The home defeat meansBremen, who are three pointsfrom guaranteed safety withtwo games left, badly need aresult at fellow strugglers Mainz

this Saturday or againstCologne at home on the finalday of the season.

Elsewhere, BorussiaMonchengladbach overpow-ered Wolfsburg 3-0. While lastplaced Paderborn was relegat-ed into the second divisionafter losing 0-1 to newly-pro-moted Union Berlin, whoremain another season inGermany’s top flight.

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Lionel Messi was rugby tack-led and then scored a penal-

ty as Barcelona put the pressureback on Real Madrid by easingto a 2-0 victory over Leganes atan empty Camp Nou onTuesday.

Messi was hauled to theground in the first half by a div-ing Unai Bustinza wrappingtwo arms around his waist andhe was knocked over again inthe second, this time earning apenalty, which he converted.

After 33 appearances,Messi now has 26 goals this

season. In his last eight games,he has seven goals and eightassists.

The 17-year-old AnsuFati had earlier givenBarcelona the lead, contin-uing his breakthrough sea-son with a fifth goal in eight

league starts.Leganes could have made

the reigning champions feeluncomfortable if Miguel-Angel Guerrero had takeneither of two golden earlyopportunities but the first wascleared off the line and the sec-ond denied by the post.

“We had a bit of luck at thebeginning,” admitted Barcacoach Quique Setien.

But his team’s reward for arather underwhelming perfor-mance is a five-point advantageover Madrid, who can reducethat back to two by winning athome to Valencia on Thursday.

�3��� �74�

The 2019-2020 ChampionsLeague, suspended since

March because of the coron-avirus pandemic, will be com-pleted in a ‘final eight’ format inLisbon in August, UEFA said onWednesday.

Europe’s top club competi-tion will be decided by a seriesof one-off matches beginning inthe Portuguese capital on August12, with the final on August 23,European football’s governingbody confirmed following ameeting of its executive commit-tee.

Similarly, the Europa Leaguewill be completed with a ‘finaleight’ across four German cities,with the final in Cologne onAugust 21.

The closing stagesof the women’sChampions Leaguewill also go ahead in aneight-team straightknock-out tournamentin Bilbao and SanSebastian, in Spain, from August21 to 30.

“Football is leading thereturn to a more normal life herein Europe,” said UEFA presidentAleksander Ceferin, but in allcases it remains to be seen if anysupporters will be allowed toattend matches.

Almost all games aroundEurope are currently beingplayed behind closed doors

amid strict health guidelines,and Ceferin said no decisionwould be made on whether to letspectators in “until mid-July”.

“If I would answer todaythen we don’t think we couldhave spectators at the Europa

League and ChampionsLeague quarter-finals,semi-finals and finalsbut things are changingrapidly,” he said.

“A month ago Icouldn’t even answer ifwe could play the com-

petition. Now we will play it,hopefully.”

With the European deathtoll from the coronavirus easingand numerous EU countriesthis week opening their bordersagain to visitors, there is somehope that matches can be playedbefore crowds.

The men’s ChampionsLeague final was initially due tobe played in Istanbul in May

before the Covid-19 crisis tookhold.

The Turkish city will nowhost the 2021 final instead, withSaint-Petersburg, Munich andLondon hosting the followingthree years.

Similarly, the Europa Leaguefinal that was supposed to beplayed in the Polish city ofGdansk, will now host nextyear’s final instead.

The quarter-finals andsemi-finals are usually held overtwo legs, home and away, butwill now be played as single ties.UEFA said all matches would besplit between Benfica’s Estadioda Luz, and the nearby EstadioJose Alvalade, home of Sporting.

The 65,000-capacity Estadioda Luz hosted the final of Euro2004 and the Champions Leaguefinal in 2014, while Sporting’s50,000-seater stadium was alsoused at Euro 2004 and for theUEFA Cup final in 2005.

���)��Napoli’s all-time top scorer DriesMertens signed a new contract until 2022with the Serie A club on Wednesday, justhours before they face Juventus in theItalian Cup final.

“Those who love Naples know thatthis love is eternal. I will giveeverything until the last dayto remain in the history ofthis club and this city,” theBelgium international saidin a video posted onhis Twitter account.

The 33-year-old’s new deal willrun until 2022 butalso has theoption of a thirdseason.

“Happy to betogether for a longtime. Long liveDries!” tweeted clubpresident Aurelio DeLaurentiis. AFP

�*�,����=�3�>� Serena Williams committed to play atthis year’s US Open on Wednesday as US TennisAssociation officials vowed they can safely stage the firstGrand Slam since the coronavirus pandemic shutdown.

With top men’s stars questioning the wisdom of thestaging the event, the USTA said the event will be stagedAugust 31 to September 13 without spectators at NewYork’s National Tennis Center, which in April became atemporary hospital facility to combat the coronavirus pan-demic.

“I really can’t wait to return to the US Open 2020,”Serena Williams said in a video message. “I think the USTAis going to do a really good job of ensuring everyone isgoing to be safe.

“This is crazy. I’m excited.”The Flushing Meadows fort-

night will be the first Grand Slamevent staged since the deadlyvirus outbreak shut down globalsport.

The site will also hostthe ATP Western andSouthern Open, typi-cally staged inCincinnati, the weekbefore the US Openwith a similar safety“bubble” that includestesting for players.

����� 34�3/&/

England captain Joe Rootsees a shade of Virat Kohli

in his deputy Ben Stokes andfeels the flamboyant all-rounder will lead by examplelike the Indian skipper if he hasto take charge during the three-Test series against the WestIndies beginning July 8.

Root is expecting thearrival of his second child inJuly and he could miss a matchor two to be with his wifeCarrie and also to maintain thebio-security protocols to tack-le Covid-19.

“You know Virat (Kohli)goes out there and performs

and expects everyone to goand do the same within thesame team and I imagine

that’s how Ben will go abouthis business,” the premier

English batsman said in achat show on Sony Ten’s PitStop.

Stokes has already said he’sready to take the challenge tobe the “the Scottie Pippen to JoeRoot’s Michael Jordan”, refer-ring to the basketball legend’sChicago Bulls team of the late1990s.

“I think Ben is better...Ben would make a better‘Michael Jordan’ than me. He(Stokes) has a great quality,

leads from the front, just asMichael Jordan did you know,”Root quipped.

“He’s already a big leader inthe team as the vice-captain...There’s a huge amount

of respect for him. He has obvi-ously accomplished so muchwithin the game and withinTest cricket that he’s more thanwell enough equipped to do areally good job.”

�3��� ����7453

Reigning world 100m cham-pion Christian Coleman

was provisionally suspendedon Wednesday over a misseddrugs test, putting him at riskof a two-year ban that wouldrule him out of next year’sTokyo Olympics.

Coleman, who only nar-rowly avoided being bannedlast year after three violationsof anti-doping “whereabouts”rules across 2018 and 2019,said in a statement on Twitterthat he was the victim of “apurposeful attempt to get meto miss a test.”

The Athletics IntegrityUnit (AIU), the anti-dopingarm of World Athletics,responded by saying testershad followed the rules whenthey visited Coleman’s apart-ment on December 9, 2019.

Coleman said he was out

shopping for Christmas pre-sents. “I was more than readyand available for testing and ifI had received a phone call Icould’ve taken the drug testand carried on with my night,”he said.

“I’ve been contacted byphone literally every other time

I’ve been tested,” said Coleman.The AIU responded in an

e-mail to AFP in which theysaid “we will not comment onthe specifics of an ongoingcase” but that “a phone call isdiscretionary and not amandatory requirement.”

“Any advanced notice oftesting, in the form of a phonecall or otherwise, provides anopportunity for athletes toengage in tampering or eva-sion or other improper con-duct which can limit the effi-cacy of testing,” the AIUadded.

Coleman, 24, is now barredfrom competition pending ahearing under World Athleticsanti-doping rules.

The news came 12 daysafter another 2019 worldchampion, Bahrain’s Salwa EidNaser, winner of the women’s400m, was provisionally sus-pended for the same reason.

�*� �)�� Young Indiabatswoman JemimahRodrigues believes a full-fledged women’s IndianPremier League (IPL) canmake a difference byunearthing talent such asShafali Verma which wouldhelp the national team do wellat the global level.

Countries such asAustralia and England organ-ised T20 tournaments forwomen to develop the gameand Rodrigues believes thesame will happen in India ifthere’s a women’s IPL.

“If you see the Big Bashand the Kia Super Leaguehave developed the game

out there so much forAustralia, England and noweven New Zealand has start-ed. That’s (IPL) definitelygoing to develop the game andit’s also going to get newer tal-ent,” Rodrigues said on ICC’s

100% Cricket.She cited the example of

the 16-year-old Shafali, whoshone at the ICC Women’sT20 World Cup with herexplosive batting, as one of thefinds of the IPL.

“We came to know aboutShafali Verma through theIPL, she did so well in the IPL.We knew she could do well inthe domestic circuit but afterthat playing against

International players andbeing that fearless person wecan get many more talents ris-ing up playing such matches,”she said.

The BCCI has hostedwomen’s IPL exhibitionmatches in the last two yearsbut has said a full-fledgedtournament will take sometime to take shape.

The Board had decided toorganise a four-team women’s

T20 challenge to run parallelto the men’s IPL play-offswith a total of seven matchesto be played .

Acknowledging theBCCI’s efforts to expand thewomen’s IPL, Rodrigues saidthe tournament was a greatlearning experience for theIndian players who got theopportunity to rub shoulderswith veterans of the game.

“Playing matches in frontof a crowd its a differentexperience, that’s what’s goingto help us play internationalcricket alongside the experi-ence we are going to get shar-ing the dressing room withSophie Devine, Meg Lanning,we ourselves will get to learnso much.

“It will be great to have awomen’s IPL, the BCCI are onit, and hopefully soon we willbe having a proper women’sIPL,” she added. PTI

����� 94�/���!#256�

Cricket is set to resume in SouthAfrica on June 27 as the country’s

board (CSA) on Wednesdayannounced the launch of an innov-ative competition titled 3TCricket,where three teams will play in a sin-gle match at SuperSport Park inCenturion.

According to a Cricket SouthAfrica statement, the three teams willcompete for the inaugural SolidarityCup. It will be the first Live sportingevent organised in the country sincethe coronavirus-forced lockdown inMarch.

As per the new format, 24 ofSouth Africa’s top cricketers will fea-ture in three teams playing twohalves in one match.

The teams are the Eagles, to becaptained by AB de Villiers,Kingfishers, to be led by KagisoRabada and the Kites, which will haveQuinton de Kock as captain.

The match will have 36 overs intwo halves of 18 overs each. Eachteam will bat for one innings of 12

overs, split into two 6-over periods.Each 6-over period will be bowled bya different opponent.

The starting positions will bedetermined by a draw. The teamsrotate from batting to bowling/dugoutin the first half.

In the second half, the teams batin order of highest score in the firsthalf. In case a team loses seven wick-ets, the last batsman can bat alone buthe can score only in even number ofruns.

The team with most runs bagsthe Gold, while the next two sides winSilver and Bronze respectively.

�*��)�� Rio Games Bronzemedallist Sakshi Malik has saidthat growing up she did notknow what the Olympics were,and the desire to one day sit inan aeroplane fuelled her ambi-tion to become successful insport as it would help her trav-el across the world.

“I had been playing sportssince I was a child but had littleidea about the Olympics,Commonwealth Games andAsian Games. It was after I gotinto wrestling and started win-ning medals at a junior level thatthe interest in these events start-ed going up,” Sakshi said onWednesday.

“Later on, as Sushil Kumarand Yogeshwar Dutt startedwinning medals including at theOlympics, it served as a hugemotivation for me. IANS

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$������� �A$���� ����'����������)����)������ ���4 �����3���'��������NME����� ��������J����)������ England includedeight uncapped players in a 30-man training group announcedon Wednesday ahead of nextmonth’s Test series against theWest Indies.

The England & WalesCricket Board last monthnamed a 55-strong traininggroup. But the selectors havenow whittled the number downto those who are more likely tobe in contention for the Test sideas opposed to the one-dayteam.

The new group will meet atthe Ageas Bowl on June 23 andremain at Hampshire’s head-

quarters as they prepare for anintra-squad match on July 1-3.

That will give players achance to press their case forinclusion in the Test squad.

Among the uncapped play-ers in the 30-man squad arebatsman Dan Lawrence, wick-etkeeper-batsman James Braceyand seamer Ollie Robinson.

But there were no majorsurprises in the squad, whichincludes Test skipper Joe Root.

Rory Burns, Jofra Archer,James Anderson & Mark Woodwere all selected even thoughthey have been making theirway back from injury. AFP

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