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SAIF’S ‘TANDAV’ LANDS INTO ROW FOR ‘OFFENDING RELIGIOUS SENTIMENTS PG12

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MP: 13-year-old girl abducted, raped by 9 men; 7 arrested

Parents of road accident victim entitled to compensation for loss of dependency: Delhi HC

MPOST BUREAU

UMARIA: A 13-year-old girl has been allegedly raped by nine men on separate occa-sions after being abducted twice in Madhya Pradesh’s Umaria city earlier this month, a police official said on Sunday.

The girl’s mother lodged a police complaint on Janu-ary 14 following which seven of the accused were arrested on Friday. Search is underway for two other culprits, said the official, who is conducting an investigation into the case.

The girl was lured and abducted from a market place here by a person known to her on January 4. She was taken to a secluded spot where the per-son and six others allegedly raped her and later released on January 5, the police offi-cial said.

As the accused threat-ened the girl with dire conse-quences, she was scared and did not make any complaint, she said.

The victim was again abducted by one of these accused on January 11.

She was taken to a deso-late place where five peo-ple, including three accused in the previous incident and two unidentified truck driv-ers, allegedly raped her on that day and January 12, the offi-cial said.

In the meantime, the girl’s family members lodged a missing person’s complaint with police on January 11.

The girl later managed to come home following which her mother lodged a police complaint on January 14 and the victim’s statement was recorded, she said.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Parents are dependent on their children at some stage of life and it would be inequitable to deny compen-sation to those who lost their ward in a road accident, the Delhi High Court has said.

Justice J R Midha said even if parents are not dependent on their children at the time of an accident, they will certainly be dependent, both financially

and emotionally, upon them at the later stage of their life, as the children were dependent upon their parents in their ini-tial years.

The high court’s obser-vations came while award-ing compensation for loss of dependency to a woman, who lost her 23-year-old son in a road accident in 2008, and enhanced the award amount from Rs 2.42 lakh to Rs 6.80 lakh.

Farmer unions to go ahead with R-Day

tractor march in DelhiOUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Farmer unions pro-testing against the Centre’s farm laws said on Sunday that they will go ahead with their proposed tractor parade in Delhi on Republic Day. Addressing a press conference at the Singhu border protest site, union leader Yogendra Yadav said, “We will carry out a tractor parade on the Outer Ring Road in Delhi on Republic Day. The parade will be very peaceful. There will be no disruption of the Republic Day parade. The farmers will put up the national flag on their tractors.”

Earlier, the authorities had moved the Supreme Court seeking an injunction against the proposed tractor march or any other kind of protest by farmers which seeks to disrupt the gathering and celebrations of Republic Day on January 26. The apex court is likely to hear the petition on January 18 along with other pleas relating to controversial farm laws and the ongoing farmers’ protest at Delhi borders. SC may take into account the matter of recusal of a member of the committee set up by it to resolve the impasse.

Meanwhile, a farmer union leader, Darshan Pal Singh, alleged that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) is filing cases against those who are part of the protest or supporting it.

“All farmer unions condemn this,” Pal said, referring to the NIA summons reportedly issued to over three dozen people in a case related to the banned Sikhs For Justice outfit, which advo-cates Sikh secessionism and is allegedly aiding the protesters.

Labelling the NIA notices as harassment, farmer unions said that it could create a hurdle in ongoing talks. According to a media report, unions have also decided that those who have received notices will not appear before the NIA.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: The second con-signment of Covishield vac-cine is expected to arrive in the state next week, sources in the state Health department said on Sunday.

The number of Covishield vials that will be coming to the state has not been confirmed by the Health department yet. A senior health department offi-cial said that the Union Health Ministry has communicated saying that the second batch of the vaccine would arrive in the city from Pune very soon but the date of arrival and the num-ber of vaccine doses are yet to be confirmed.

The first consignment of around 6.89 lakh doses of Covid vaccine arrived in Kolkata on Jan-uary 12 and the drive was already launched across Bengal on Sat-urday. Around 15,700 health workers were inoculated on the first day. The Health department is introducing 20 more vaccine vans fitted with GPS mecha-nisms which would be used for transporting the vaccines from the medical store to the various vaccine centers. The number of vaccination sites would also be increased gradually. The vacci-nation drive was conducted in 207 venues across the state on the first day.

State Health department sources said that the number of vaccination venues was deliber-ately reduced to avoid any cri-

sis of vaccine. The department wanted to ensure that those who have already received the first dose do not face any hiccup while getting the second dose. If there is any shortage of vaccines, it would put the department in jeopardy. The second dose would be administered to the health workers 28 days after receiving the first dose. The Health depart-ment chose it more prudent to formulate a policy whereby the health workers would not have to wait to receive the second shots.

The state government has already initiated a process to vac-cinate the front line Covid war-riors beside the health workers. A comprehensive data is under-way where the names of police personnel, civic body staff, PWD employees, DM office staff and the employees of various other departments would feature. All of them would be vaccinated in the same phase after the health workers.

2nd consignment of Covishield vaccine slated to arrive in Bengal next week

Health department to introduce 20 more vaccine vans fitted with GPS mechanisms

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: A total of 2,24,301 beneficiaries have been inoculated with COVID-19 vaccine so far, out of which only 447 adverse events following immunisation (AEFI) were reported, the Union Health Ministry said on day two of the nationwide vaccination drive on Sunday.

Addressing a press briefing, the ministry’s Additional Secre-tary Manohar Agnani said out of the 447 adverse events follow-ing immunisation, only three required hospitalisation.“Today being Sunday, only six states con-ducted vaccination drive and in 553 sessions a total of 17,072 ben-eficiaries were vaccinated,” he said.

The six states where the vac-cination drive was carried out on Sunday are Andhra Pradesh (308 sessions), Arunachal Pradesh (14 sessions), Karnataka (64 ses-sions), Kerala (one session), Mani-pur (one session) and Tamil Nadu (165 sessions), he said.

“A total of 447 AEFI have been reported on January 16 and 17, out of which only three required hospitalisation. Most of the AEFI reported so far are minor like fever, headache, nausea,” he said.Agnani said that of the three peo-ple hospitalised post vaccination,

two have been discharged from the Northern Railway Hospi-tal and AIIMS in Delhi and one is under observation in AIIMS Rishikesh and is doing fine.

Agnani said an adverse event following immunisation (AEFI) is any unexpected medical occur-rence which follows immunisa-tion and it may or may not be related to the vaccine or vaccina-tion process. Noting that only a few AEFI cases may require hos-pitalisation which are classified under serious AEFI, Agnani said protocols are in place for report-ing, immediate case management at vaccination session site, trans-portation and hospitalisation and further care of such cases.

India’s COVID-19 tally of cases climbed to 1,05,57,985 on Sunday with 15,144 new cases in a day, while 1,01,96,885 people have recuperated so far pushing the national recovery rate to 96.58 per cent.

There are 2,08,826 active cases of Coronavirus infection in the country which comprises 1.98 per cent of the total caseload.

The death toll climbed to 1,52,274 with the novel Corona-virus virus claiming 181 lives in a span of 24 hours in the country, the data updated by Health Min-istry at 8 am showed.

2,24,301 beneficiaries given vaccine so far; 447 cases of adverse effect reported: Govt

KOLKATA|MONDAY, 18 JANUARY, 2021|millenniumpostmp city2

News at a glance44

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Bengal has reg-istered 565 fresh Covid cases in the past 24 hours. Around 26,231 samples were tested in the past 24 hours. The per-centage of positive cases has gone down to 7.39 on Sun-day. Bengal has consistently been witnessing a dip in the Covid infection for the past few weeks.

The number of total patients infected with Covid so far in Bengal reached 5,65,272 out of which 5,48,136 patients have been released from the hospitals.

Around 621 patients were discharged from various hos-pitals in the past 24 hours. The recovery rate has gone up to 96.97 percent. Around 76,47,363 samples have been tested in Bengal till date. Around 10,053 Covid patients have so far died in the state out of which 12 in the past 24 hours.

Kolkata has seen 3,044 peo-ple to Covid so far and North 24-Parganas 2,436. Three peo-

ple died in North 24-Parga-nas and two in Kolkata in the past 24 hours. Kolkata has reg-istered 151 fresh cases in the past 24 hours taking the total

tally to 1,26,722. The number of infected patients in North 24-Parganas so far reached 1,20,392 out of which 164 were found positive in the past 24

hours. South 24-Parganas has registered 24 new Covid cases in the past 24 hours. The total number of Covid infected patients in South 24-parganas has gone up 36,748. Hooghly has witnessed 26 Covid cases in the past 24 hours while the total tally from the district reached 29,183.

Poulami Basu, daughter of legendary actor Soumitra Chatterjee who died recently, has tested positive for Covid. She has been undergoing treat-ment at her residence.

She has respiratory dis-tress and weakness. Soumitra Chatterjee was admitted to a private hospital in the city with Covid and various other ail-ments on October 6 last year and later died after more than 40 days.

Meanwhile, Pinky Sur, a staff nurse of BC ROY Hospi-tal who was admitted to NRS Medical College after receiving a vaccine on Saturday has been in stable condition. She had an ailment of shortness of breath. She had been allergic to vari-ous medicines.

Swasthya Sathi helps elderly undergo heart operation free-of-cost, family thanks CM

Bowbazar murder probe: Cops to use cell phone tower location dump method

Metro decides to keep more gates open for passenger convenience

Naihati: Miscreants hurl bombs in front of TMC office

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OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: State Health department has issued an order saying that if a patient is transferred from a private hospital to a government-run establishment and he/she dies on the way, the previous hos-pital is bound to issue a death certificate.

The Health department has come up with the decision after it found some instances where the family members of the deceased had to face harassment.

During the Covid period, the family members of the deceased patients had faced dif-ficulties to receive death certifi-cates from the hospital after the patient died while on the tran-sit. Many family members had to shift their patients from the private establishments to a gov-ernment hospital after failing to bear the cost.

In a recent notification, the Health department said: “It has been observed during Covid pandemic situations, there is an acute crisis of ICU/CCU beds. Often the patients who are admitted in ICU facilities of private hospitals are likely to be shifted to the government des-

ignated Covid hospitals due to their financial crisis. The prob-lem arises if any patient unfor-tunately expires during shifting within the ambulance before arrival to the government des-ignated Covid hospitals. Very recently the admission cell as well as the patient parties had to face problems.”

The order also says: “As per section 10 (3) of the Registra-tion of Births and Deaths Act, 1969 the medical practitioner who attended the patient dur-ing his/her last illness shall, after the death of that per-son, issue without charging any fee, to the person required under this Act to give infor-

mation concerning the death; a certificate in the prescribed form stating to the best of his knowledge and belief to the cause of death should be issued by the doctors/authorities of the health institutions where from the patients had been discharged.

The Act is applicable for all kinds of patients in the CCU/ICU/non-ICU/non-CCU etc. Hence it is further to be reminded to all the pri-vate health institutions to avoid any kind of harassment to the patient parties. All the private health establishments have been asked to strictly follow the instruction in this regard.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: The initiative of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to extend the facility of Swasthya Sathi scheme to every resident of Bengal has given a new lease of life to an elderly man as he underwent a completed heart surgery in a pri-vate hospital in Kolkata completely free-of-cost.

Krishna Sadhukhan, wife of the elderly person, expressed her gratitude towards Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and their local MLA Indranil Sen as they got enrolled in the scheme in almost no time through Duare Sarkar initiative.

Sanjib Sadhukhan, resident of Kolupukur area at Chandernagore in Hooghly, was diagnosed with a heart ailment a few days ago and was advised to undergo a major surgery the expense of which was of around Rs 4.30 lakh.

They found themselves in a helpless condi-tion for not belonging to a financially strong fam-ily to bear such a huge expense. However, they were provided with the health scheme’s card on an urgent basis.

Subsequently, the patient was taken to a pri-vate hospital in Kolkata following advice of local

doctors. He not only underwent the critical surgery but also a pacemaker was installed in his chest.

Sanib has now returned to his Chandernagore home and leading a healthy life. With Sanjib sit-ting beside her, Krishna said: “We had to bear nothing for my husband’s treatment. The expense of the operation was Rs 4.30 lakh and it was car-ried out completely free of cost just because the state government has issued the Swasthya Sathi card for our family. I am thankful to Mamata Banerjee and Indranil Sen for such a great ini-tiative that helped me to bring my husband back home alive.”

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: The homicide sec-tion of Kolkata Police is going to use cell phone tower location dump method to find active mobile phones at the flat where an elderly man was murdered on Friday.

The 73-year-old man Ayub Ali Fida Aga was found mur-dered inside his flat at 81/1, Phears Lane where he lived with his daughter.

His son lives nearby with his family. Aga’s daughter in law used to serve him tea in the eve-ning. On Friday around 5 pm, when Aga’s daughter-in -law went to his house it was found trhat the door was locked using a latch from outside. When she opened the door and went inside,

she found him lying in a pool of blood. Cops found Aga’s throat was slit and an injury mark on his head. During prelimi-nary investigation, police recovered a pressure cooker and a kitchen knife with blood stains.

Aga’s daughter in law and other family members identi-fied the pressure cooker and the knife that belonged to them. Police are almost sure that the murderer is very much close to the Aga family as after murder-

ing a person in broad daylight, it is impossible to flee from such a congested place.

Also as Aga’s body was found in his bedroom, it is impos-sible for an unknown to gain access inside the flat with-out a scuffle. Forensic experts had visited the flat on Satur-day and collected samples for examination. However, no sign of forced entry was found on the door. As the murder was committed between 2 pm and 4 pm, police will scrutinize the cell phone tower details of the active mobile phones in and around the residential building.

This apart, cops are still inter-rogating Aga’s family members and neighbours if they have seen any person entering the flat.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: The Metro Rail-way authority has decided to open more gates for the pas-sengers’ convenience at sev-eral metro stations which were closed due to the pandemic situations.

After the metro services resumed during the post lock-down phase, it was decided to open only a few number gates for entry and exit as it would help the authority to control the crowd. As the number of Rail-way Protection Force (RPF) and metro staff were less owing to the pandemic situation, use of all gates was not possible. Also as the number of passen-

gers was restricted in each rake, it had helped the metro author-ity to keep the stations and plat-forms less crowded to maintain physical distance.

Since the e-passes will not be required anymore from Monday, the number of pas-sengers is expected to increase a lot. For the reason, if the other gates are not opened, then a

huge crowd would gather at the gates which are kept open at present.

From Monday, five more gates will be opened at Cen-tral, Chandni Chowk, Kalighat and Rabindra Sarobar metro stations. It may be mentioned that from Monday 240 metro services will run instead of 228 services.

KOLKATA: Tension spread at Bijoynagar in Naihati of North 24-Parganas after some unidentified miscre-ants hurled bombs in front of a Trinamool Congress (TMC) party office late on Saturday night.

According to sources, on Saturday around 2:30 am, resi-dents of the Bijoynagar area heard explosion noise.

But nobody came out of their houses out of fear.

On Sunday morning peo-ple saw particles of bombs scattered in front of the party office.

Immediately police were informed. Cops after scrutinis-ing CCTV footages of the area, found two bombs were hurled by a few miscreants.

A probe has been started to identify the accused persons. Local Trinamool Congress leaders alleged BJP is behind the incident. MPOST

SOUMITRA CHATTERJEE'S DAUGHTER POULAMI BASU TESTS +VE

COVID-19 STATS » Number of deaths in past 24 hours 12 » Total death toll so far 10,053 » Tested COVID positive in the past 24 hours 565 » Total COVID positive cases so far 5,65,272 » Discharged from hospitals in past 24 hours 621 » Patients recovered so far 5,48,136 » Total sample tested so far 76,47,363

Hosp accused of medical negligence

State Haj Committee to provide coaching for Civil Service

KOLKATA: NRS Medical College and Hospital has been accused of medical negligence. Niranjan Chakraborty, a resi-dent of Kalyani in Nadia, a cancer patient was taken to the hospital after he tested Covid positive. The family members of the patient alleged that Chakraborty had to wait outside the hospital for nearly 40 minutes. He felt severe respiratory distress and later died before being admitted to the hospital. The family members later staged an agitation and it sparked off tension inside the hospital complex.

In a separate incident Good Samaritan Hospital in Park Circus has allegedly refused to accept Swasthya Sathi card. A patient was admitted to the private hospital with burn inju-ries and she died on Saturday. The family members alleged that the hospital did not accept Swasthya Sathi card. The private hospital however, claimed that they are yet to enroll under Swasthya Sathi scheme.

KOLKATA: West Bengal State Haj Committee (WBSHC) is all set to start offering Civil Service Coaching to youths.

“This is for the first time we are starting free res-idential coaching for the minorities,” said an official of WBSHC.

He reiterated that the West Bengal State Haj Committee will receive online applications on or before January 31, 2021.

While the course duration is 11 months, candidates with bachelor’s degree or above are eligible to apply. Candidates applying for the course should have a valid mobile number and an email id.

Aspiring candidates should log on to West Bengal State Haj Committee’s official website (wbhaj.com).

They should go to the extreme right and then click on the WBCS coaching option and carry out application pro-cess. For queries, candidates can also call the toll free num-ber 1800 345 7155. They can also email their queries at wbshc2011@gmail.com.

Meanwhile, West Bengal Urdu Academy (WBUA), the chairperson of which is Chief Minister Mamata Baner-jee, has also started offering Civil Service Coaching to the youths. The admission criteria include an entrance test. The age of the candidate should be between 21 and 34 years.

“The entrance exam will be held in the last week of Jan-uary. Successful candidates will be allowed to continue the coaching classes,” said Nuzhat Zainab, secretary of West Bengal Urdu Academy.

Percentage of positive cases down to 7.39%

SULAGNA SENGUPTA

KOLKATA: Frontline workers who took the Covishield vaccine were of the opinion that there has been no adverse reaction of the Covid vac-cine and they were able to work normally.

Dr Santanu Sen, IMA president and TMC MP said: “This is a great moment for all of us. Till now there is no side effect of the vaccine. We are maintaining our regular livelihood.”

Dr Arunabha Sengupta, ENT surgeon associ-ated with SSKM Hospital said: “After receiving the vaccine I am doing my regular work. There is no side effect and I have to undergo regular check up for the next seven days. After 28 days the second dose of vaccine will be administered and I am waiting whether any side effects will occur after administering the second dose.”

Dipak Ghosh, another senior surgeon said: “It’s a great feeling to take the vaccine. I have

not had any side effects yet and my wish is that everybody, especially those who are suffering from comorbidities, should get the vaccine as early as possible.”

Senior doctors who are the frontline warriors are of the opinion that those who are treating Covid patients and doctors who have comorbidi-ties should get priority in terms of vaccination.

According to research data available, there is no severe side effects of Covishield vaccine and so there is no need for any concern. The vaccine will be administered under medical surveillance, so any adverse effect will be dealt with immediately.

Dr Sengupta said: “I myself suffered from COVID-19 and as I had comorbidities I can gauge the severity of the situation if any one suf-fer from Coronavirus. As Covishield is the only option available for the frontline workers, I have vaccinated myself.

Till now there is no side effect of the vaccine, says Santanu Sen

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: A man has been arrested for allegedly trying to kill a person over some previous enmity late on Saturday night from Sealdah area.

Police claimed that late on Tuesday night, around 2:20 am, a 45-year-old man identified as Lalbabu Yadav was found lying unconscious near the exit gate of Kolkata Police headquar-ter Lalbazar.

Police personnel spotted him and rushed Yadav to SSKM Hospital where he was admitted. Later after his health condition improved, Yadav told the cops that a youth identified as Md Selim stabbed him with a razor in front of Ghanteswar mandir on B B Ganguly street under jurisdic-tion of Muchipara police station and snatched away his mobile phone along with Rs 18,000. A case was registered at the Muchipara police station on charges of attempt to murder, volun-

tarily causing hurt in committing robbery and robbery, or dacoity, with attempt to cause death or grievous hurt.

During probe police traced Selim on the basis of source information near the NRS Medi-cal College and hospital on Saturday night and nabbed him. During interrogation Selim con-fessed that he had stabbed Yadav and snatched away the mobile phone only. But he denied to have taken any money.

Selim also told the cops that he knew Yadav as Mangal and had a scuffle with him a few days ago on Prem Chand Boral street in Bowbazar area. Over the issue a personal grudge was devel-oped. Late on Tuesday night around 1:30 am, when he was roaming around Madan Dutta Lane near the Ghanteswar mandir, Selim saw Yadav and attacked him. However police are trying to be sure about the allegation of snatching away the money. Cops will again interrogate both the accused and the complainant to solve the case.

One arrested for attempt of murder, robbery

If patient dies while shifting hospitals, departing hosp must issue death certDecision taken after instances where the family

members of the deceased had to face harassment

A double-decker bus plys on a city road on Sunday PIC/MPOST

JOY RIDE

REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE

KOLKATA: Kolkata Police has found a new trick used by fraudsters to dupe subscribers of a particular mobile service provider by in the name of Know Your Customer (KYC) update.

On Sunday Joint Commis-sioner of Police (Jt. CP), Crime,

Murlidhar informed about it through Twitter.

The miscreants are asking people to download a software using a link sent by them and put their bank, credit and debit card details.

The fraudsters then ask peo-ple to send Rs 10 as verification which would be refunded. If any-one sends money, a huge amount get deducted from their account.

Police have requested people not to click on any such link and if they find any then they should inform police on the number 8585063104. MPOST

Online fraud: Cops warn

people against a new way of duping people

Police have requested people not to click on any such link and inform cops at 8585063104

millenniumpost|KOLKATA|MONDAY, 18 JANUARY, 2021mp city 3

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Nandigram is going to be the centre of all attraction on Monday with Tri-namool Congress chairperson Mamata Banerjee to address a political rally of her party at Thekhali that was the epicenter of the downfall of the erstwhile Left Front government.

Banerjeewill also hold a political rally at Hutmura High School’s ground in Purulia Town on Tuesday. She will be directly going to Purulia after addressing the rally at Nandi-gram in East Midnapore.

Moreover, Banerjee is also slated to address-ing a rally of her party at Pursurah in Hooghly on January 25.

The people are eagerly waiting for the moment when Banerjee will set her feet in Nandigram, which has recently witnessed crucial political developments, to raise her voice against the divisive politics of the saffron brigade.

Around 3 lakh people are expected to turn up at the Tekhali ground to listen to the party supremo who will be giv-ing them directions on how to give a tough fight to defeat BJP

in the forthcoming Assembly polls. Nandigram recently hit the headlines of newspa-pers after its MLA Suvendu Adhikari joined BJP some days ago.

In the subsequent series of incidents the state Public HealthEngineering minister Saumen Mahapatra has been made Trinamool Congress dis-trict president replacing his father Sisir Adhikari, who is

still the party’s chairman in the district.

“He is the chairman in the district. So there is nothing to send him any invitation card for the meeting,” Mahapatra said.

Trinamool Congress was ahead in all 16 Assembly con-stituencies in 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

The party workers are now waiting for the moment to

give a befitting reply, politi-cally, to the turncoats by ensur-ing win in maximum number of Assembly seats in the dis-trict and Banerjee’s rally is going to give them impetus to keep the party’s vote bank intact by reaching to the grass-root level creating awareness on the development work carried out by the Mamata Banerjeegovernment.

It was the land of Nan-

digram from where the slo-gan “Maa Mati Manush” was first given when Baner-jee had initiated her protest against forcible acqui-sition of land at Nandigram to set up a chemical hub in 2006.

Farmers, who had resisted the acquisition of land, were attacked by anti-socials allegedly backed by the CPI(M).

Fourteen people were killed in police firing while many had received bullet injuries.

The bodies of many villag-ers could not be traced as they had been killed and thrown into the river allegedly by the CPI(M) goons and the then state administration headed by Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee did not allow the media to go to the area and talk to the hap-less people.

It subsequently turned as the death bed of the 34-year-long Left Front regime in Bengal.

Banerjee was initially scheduled to hold the rally at Nandigram on January 7.

It was rescheduled as one of key leaders in the district, Akhil Giri, got infected to Covid.

People who did not let me work are now in BJP: Siraj Khan after joining TMC

No decision yet on reopening of Education institutions: Min

Centre is not adequately supplying Corona vaccine to Bengal: Partha Satabdi Roy appointed

as vice-president of TMC’s Bengal unit

Electronic delivery service system & automated mutation programme: State bags SKOCH award

Trinamool South Dinajpur unit: Biplab Mitra appointed as

chairman

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Siraj Khan, the Khadya Karmadhaksha of East Midnapore Zilla Parishad joined back Trinamool Con-gress (TMC) on Sunday.

Khan was handed over the party flag by Trinamool Con-gress secretary general Par-tha Chatterjee in presence of Soumen Mahapatra who has recently been appointed as the head of the East Midnapore district unit at Trinamool Bhavan.

Khan had joined BJP in November after being mis-guided into leaving Trinamool Congress.

In 2016 he had contested as an independent candidate from Nandakumar in East Mid-napore and had then joined the Trinamool Congress.

He contested Zilla Parishad election in 2018 from Panskura Block and was appointed as Zilla Parishad Khadya Kar-madhaksha. “He was mis-guided by BJP leaders and he defected to the saffron party. He has realised his mistake and he believes that the develop-ment of Bengal in the real sense of the term can happen only under the leadership of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. We welcome him back to the party,” said Chatterjee. Khan soon after joining the Trin-

amool Congress reiterated that he had realised that he cannot work with the BJP because the ones who hadn’t allowed him to work before are now in that party. “I was given Khadya Kar-madakshya instead of fisher-ies where I am good at. The Adhikaris have been promising me ticket since 2011 but that did not happen, and I fought independently from Nanda-kumar where I lost by 5,000 votes,” he added.

Pointing out to Soumen Mahapatra who was present he maintained that the lat-

ter who is a dynamic leader was also sidelined by the Adhikaris.

“BJP is a party of big lead-ers, Trinamool Congress is a party that works for all, for ordinary men and I want to work under Mamata Baner-jee,” he said.

Khan who has been involved in fishery business for more than 30 years is well known for his social work in Panskura, Tamluk and Moyna and had also reached out to several needy people during Amphan and Covid.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: State Education minister Partha Chatterjee said on Sunday that his department has not yet taken any decision regarding opening of educa-tional institutions across the state.

“We are holding discus-sions at the appropriate level. We have already started saniti-sation at the educational insti-tutions. We have to ensure the health safety of the students before we open up schools and colleges amidst the Covid situa-tion. Some states had opened up schools but had to close them down with the spread of Covid virus. We will open up schools only after we are convinced that Covid health protocols can be adhered to properly,” said Chatteree.

He reiterated that the aca-demic activities in educational institutes have been going on through virtual mode through technological intervention. We have also resorted to radio, television and even phone calls for imparting education to the students.

“The dates of Board examinations have also been announced. We will take up the matter with the state gov-ernment and then decide on

opening up educational insti-tutions,” he added.

The minister announced that recruitment of 475 teachers in Santhali medium schools across the state will be completed by February 3.

The examinations will be held in 22 centres. The move is in accordance with Chief Minister Mamata Baner-jee’s announcement of start-ing schools in Santhali (Alchiki) catering to the demands of this section of the people.

Chatterjee said that the West Bengal Board of Primary Education and the West Bengal Central School Service Com-mission has been instructed to speed up recruitment of teachers in school level as per guidelines of Calcutta High Court.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

BALURGHAT: Veteran Tri-namool leader Biplab Mitra has been appointed as the new chairman for South Dinajpur Trinamool Congress (TMC), a press release stated. Mitra was posted in place of Shan-kar Chakraborty, a former Bal-urghat MLA and minister.

Earlier Goutam Das was appointed as the district party president a few months ago in place of Arpita Ghosh. Subhash Chaki and Lalita Tigga were given the responsibility as the party coordinators. Chaki was appointed as the party coordi-nator for Balurghat, Kumarganj and Tapan Assembly constitu-encies while Tigga for the rest of the three assembly constitu-encies-Kushmandi, Hariram-pur and Gangarampur. Jayanta Das was named as the party spokesperson.

“The All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) under the guidance of Hon’ble party chairperson Mamata Banerjee is pleased to announce updated posts for WB Trinamool Con-gress District Committee, Dak-shin Dinajpur. Please note the rest of the functionaries are to remain the same. We congratu-late the new committee mem-bers on their appointments and wish them the absolute best for their endeavours,” the press release stated.

Notably after the defeat in Lok Sabha poll in Balurghat Parliamentary seat in 2019, Mitra was removed from the post of district party presi-dent. Arpita Ghosh was given the responsibility as party president.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Three time MP Satabdi Roy was appointed the vice-president of the West Ben-gal unit of Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Sunday.

The development came barely two days after she met party MP Abhishek Banerjee and set aside rumours of her joining BJP.

“I welcome the decision. I will work as a dedicated worker and will try my best to ensure the defeat of the BJP in the forthcoming Assembly elec-tions,” said Roy.

Roy had expressed her dis-enchantment with the party a few days back and had indi-cated that she will reveal her next step on Saturday. How-ever, the popular actor-turned parliamentarian changed her stance after an hour-long meeting with the president of TMC’s youth wing Abhishek Banerjee on Friday evening and made it clear that she will be with the Trinamool Congress.

“If you take up the mat-ter concerning the party with the top leadership, it is addressed. This develop-ment proves that,” she had said after her meeting with Banerjee.

Trinamool Congress leader Moazzem Hossain and Sankar Chakraborty, former minister of the state Cabinet have also been appointed as vice-presi-dent of the Bengal unit of the party.

Meanwhile, party MLA Jitendra Tewari has not found his place in the district com-mittee of West Burdwan.

Apurba Mukhopadhyay has been appointed as the presi-dent of the committee. State Labour and Law minister Moloy Ghatak continues to be the Chairman of the district committee.

“I had myself resigned from the district commit-tee. I am with the party and will continue to work for the good of the party,” said Tewari.

On December 16, Tewari had resigned from the post of district president as well as the chairman of Board of Admin-istrators of Asansol Municipal Corporation.

When asked about the new appointment of Roy and Tewari not finding his place, Trinamool Congress secretary general Partha Chatterjee said: “It is the internal matter of the party.”

Trinamool Congress also announced the updated dis-trict committee for Malda district with Krishnendu Nara-yan Chowdhury as Chair-man and Mausam Noor as President.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: The West Bengal Transport Cor-poration (WBTC) has come up with City travel passes to make multimodal transport within the city easy and seamless.

The Travel pass, an all in one transport ticket for unlimited travel in Kolkata, will be valid for three main public transport modes – trams (AC and non AC), ferries and buses (AC and non AC).

“A big advantage of the Travel pass is also the ease of not buying tickets again and again while exploring Kolkata,” said Rachhpal Singh, Chair-man of WBTC.

Passengers can get the travel passes (Rs 100 per person for a day) from the conductors in the buses, trams or ferry ticket counters. They can also avail it from all POS (Points of Sale) of

the WBTC.This apart, Travel pass and Tram pass

will be available on WBTC website from January 21.

“The idea behind the Travel pass and Tram pass is to make travelling in the city convenient for regular passengers and also for people who visit Kolkata to appreciate its extreme beauty especially on a tram,” said Rajanvir Singh Kapur, Managing Director of WBTC.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: The state Land and Land Reforms and Refugee Relief and Rehabilitation depart-ment has bagged the SKOCH award for its unique electronic delivery service system and automated mutation programme.

It was on Saturday when the award was announced adding another feather in the crown of the Bengal government in the field of e-gover-nance. The state government had introduced an online based system using which it had become possible to ensure automatic mutation of land in the name of its buyer within 24 hours after regis-tration takes place in his or her name.

A senior official said: “It brought to an end any sort of harassment of a buyer as he or she no longer needed to give any fresh application to get the property mutated in his or her name. It auto-matically takes place if the property is a mutated one in the name of the seller. It also helps the government in maintaining a proper land record with immediate update in the data. It helps to know the name of the current owner of a plot

in just a single click.” Meanwhile, the state Land and Land Reforms department is also going to introduce a robust online mechanism soon for easy registration of brick kilns in the state. It will also help the department to check the legality of the brick kilns. The brick kiln owners can easily apply for registration and will have to key in all necessary details for further verification. Once verified, they can deposit the required fees and necessary steps would be taken if the details pro-vided found to be untrue.

There is a possibility of introducing the same in a month’s time as the work for its introduction is going on in full swing.

SOUMITRA NANDI

KOLKATA: The inland water-ways transport infrastruc-ture in the state is all set for a major boost with the Trans-port department executing the “Inland Waterways Transport Logistics and Spatial Develop-ment Project”.

The World Bank has recently signed an agreement with the central government and the state government to provide a loan of $105 mil-lion against the project which is aimed at facilitating both passenger and freight move-ment in five densely populated districts of south Bengal that covers the Kolkata Metropol-itan Area (KMA) where one third of the state population resides.

The five year project has

already taken off with the fea-sibility and socio-environmen-tal impact study already over.

“The other important aspects of the project will involve institution strengthen-ing and best business practices, integrated strategic develop-ment plan, safety study, link-age of water connectivity with city’s logistics, development of jetties and promotion of ves-sels that includes both passen-ger and cargo,” an official in

the state Transport department said. KMA covers four munic-ipal corporations and 37 municipalities with Kolkata, parts of North 24-Parganas, South 24-Parganas, Howrah, Nadia and Hooghly within its jurisdiction.

The riverine route along the bank of river passing adja-cent to Kolkata, Baranagar, Barrackpore, Chandannagore, Serampore, Uluberia, Budge Budge, Maheshtala, Pujali etc

come under its aegis.“The development of the

jetties have already started. 48 jetties have suffered dam-ages due to the severe cyclonic storm Amphan that hit the state on May 20 last year. Smart ticketing gates will be devel-oped at 103 places across 40 locations,” the official said.

The development of a robust system for streamlining issuance of permits, controlling ferry movement along the river route and ushering in the best practices for efficient manage-ment is a major challenge for the department. “The promo-tion of vessels for cargo as well as passengers is a very impor-tant aspect and the department is holding talks for providing incentives for players so that they can invest in this area,” the official added.

The existing ferry sys-tem, operational for decades, caters to less than 2 per cent of the passenger traffic and a small portion of the freight movement.

This project will not only help improve the river trans-port infrastructure in Ben-gal and help in the economic development of the state by connecting the hinterland with markets and job centres in KMA.

Sources in the department said that some powerful mid-dlemen had tried to disrupt the execution of this project under the patronage of a former min-ister who had joined BJP.

However, the intervention of the Chief Minister’s Office ensured the maintenance of transparency and now the proj-ect is on track.

MAMATA SET TO ADDRESS ANOTHER RALLY IN HOOGHLY ON JAN 25 I WILL WORK UNDER MAMATA BANERJEE: KHAN

Mamata to address a public rally in Nandigram today, at Purulia on Tue

Inland waterways transport infrastructure in state is set to get a major boost Travel pass for multimodal

transport launched in city

‘He was misguided by BJP...He has realised his mistake and he believes that development of Bengal in the real sense of the term can happen only under the leadership of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’

‘We have to ensure the health safety of the students before we open up schools and colleges amidst the Covid situation’

FILE PHOTO

‘A big advantage of the Travel pass is also the ease of not buying tickets again and again while exploring Kolkata’

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Trinamool Con-gress (TMC) secretary general Partha Chatterjee said that the centre is doing politics by keeping control of the supply of Covid vaccines.

“The Centre is not ade-quately supplying the Corona vaccine to Bengal. It is keeping control over the supplies. We want everyone in the state gets vaccination and if needed, the state government is ready to bear the expenses of admin-istering vaccine to every single person in the state,” Chatter-jee said.

As per sources in the state government Bengal was sup-posed to receive 10 lakh vac-

cines in the first phase, but have got 6.89 lakhs so far.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had expressed her dissatisfaction over inadequate supplies of Covid vaccines in the state.

Chatterjee further stated that the saffron party had not joined the fight against Covid and alleged that they have been carrying out personal attacks on TMC leaders in the run up to the Assembly polls.

“It was Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who had joined hands with doctors, healthcare workers and NGOs and other stakeholders to fight against COVID -9,” Chatterjee reiterated.

His outburst came in the wake of allegations that sev-eral Trinamool Congress lead-ers were administered Covid vaccine that were meant for healthcare personnel and front-line workers.

‘...We want everyone in the state gets vaccination and if needed, the state government is ready to bear the expenses of administering vaccine’

‘It brought to an end any sort of harassment of a buyer as he or she no longer needed to give any fresh application to get the property mutated’

REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE

KOLKATA|MONDAY, 18 JANUARY, 2021|millenniumpostmp nation4

MP HOOCH TRAGEDY: MAIN ACCUSED HELD FROM CHENNAI BHOPAL/MORENA (MP): The main accused in the January 11 Morena hooch tragedy in Madhya Pradesh which killed 24 people was arrested from Chennai on Sunday, officials said. The home of main accused Mukesh Kirar in Chhera village was also de-molished as part of the action following the tragedy, they added. Additional Chief Secretary Rajesh Rajora said Kirar was held from Chennai, while Jaura Sub Di-visional Magistrate Neeraj Sharma confirmed that the accused’s home had been brought down. Morena BJP MP and Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar visited the houses of the victims on Sunday.

TRIPURA CONGRESS CHIEF ATTACKED BY ‘BJP WORKERS’ AGARTALA: Tripura Congress chief Pijush Kanti Biswas on Sunday alleged he was attacked by “BJP workers” in Sipahijala district, a charge denied by the ruling party. The Congress called a state-wide dawn-to-dusk bandh in protest against the alleged attempt on the life of the party’s state chief. Biswas said the incident took place in Bishalgarh when he went there to attend a meeting in the morning. “A group of armed goons of the BJP attacked me and my party colleagues with the intention to kill me. Police was present at the spot but remained mute spectators. The BJP workers vandalised my car and seriously injured me, my driver and five other Congress activists,” Biswas told reporters at the Congress Bhavan here.

GUJARAT SEES 518 NEW COVID CASESAHMEDABAD: Gujarat on Sunday reported 518 fresh coronavirus positive cases, taking the total number of infections to 2,55,872, the state health department said. With two more patients succumbing to the viral disease, both in Ahmedabad, the cumulative death toll in the state rose to 4,365, it said. At the same time, 704 patients were discharged from hospitals, taking the count of recoveries in Gujarat to 2,45,107, the department said.

BRIEFSNATION

Will poor & underprivileged get vaccine for free? Cong asks govt

‘Corona vaccine for all should be the policy of this government’: Surjewala

Day 1 inoculation: Highest number of vaccines administered in UP

NEW DELHI: Of the 1.91 lakh beneficiaries administered COVID-19 vaccine shots on the first day of the countrywide vaccination drive, the highest number of inoculations were carried out in Uttar Pradesh with 21291 people taking the jab. The first COVID-19 vac-cine shots in India were given on Saturday.

Of the 208826 total active COVID-19 cases in the coun-try, Kerala has the highest number at 68633 followed by Maharashtra at 53163, UP at 9162, Karnataka at 8713, West Bengal at 7151, and Tamil Nadu at 6128, according to the Health ministry data.

More than one crore cases and 1.5 lakh fatalities later, India took its first steps out of the pandemic with shots of the Covishield and Covaxin vaccines being administered at medical centres across the country.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the vaccina-tion drive while reassuring the country that emergency use authorisation was given to two Made in India vaccines only after scientists were convinced of their safety and effectiveness, and urged people to beware of

propaganda and rumours.According to the Health

ministry data, the highest num-ber of vaccines were adminis-tered in UP at 21291 followed by Andhra Pradesh at 18412, Maharashtra at 18328, Bihar at 18169, Odisha at 13746, Karna-taka at 13594, Gujarat at 10787, Rajasthan at 9279, West Ben-gal at 9730, Madhya Pradesh at 9219, Kerala at 8062.

Besides, 5592 people in Chhattisgarh, 5,589 in Hary-ana, 4,319 in Delhi, 3653 in Telangana, 3528 in Assam, 3096 in Jharkhand, 2276 in Uttarakhand, 2,044 in Jammu and Kashmir, 1,517 in Him-achal Pradesh and 1319 in Punjab were administered the vaccine on the first day.

Of the first day benefi-ciaries, 585 people were vac-

cinated in Manipur, 561 in Nagaland, 509 in Meghalaya, 426 in Goa, 355 in Tripura, 314 in Mizoram, 274 in Puduch-erry, 265 in Chandigarh, 225 in Andaman & Nicobar Islands, 120 in Sikkim, 80 from Dadra And Nagar Haveli, 79 from Ladakh, 43 from Daman and Diu and 21 from Lakshadweep.

The Health ministry said 3,352 vaccination sessions were held and 1,91,181 beneficiaries vaccinated on the first day.

The 11 states and union ter-ritories where both Covishield and Covaxin were admin-istered were Assam (65 ses-sions), Bihar (301), Delhi (81), Haryana (77), Karnataka (242), Maharashtra (285), Odisha (161), Rajasthan (167) Tamil Nadu (160), Telangana (14) and UP (317). AGENCIES

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: A day after India rolled out the world’s largest inoculation drive against COVID-19, the Con-gress on Sunday asked whether the government plans to pro-vide free vaccines to all Indians, especially the underprivileged and the poor, and when.

Congress chief spokesper-son Randeep Surjewala said that though the government claims it will cover three crore people in the first round of the vaccination drive, it is yet to clarify if the remaining popu-lation of India will get a vac-cine and whether they will get it for free.

“Is the government not aware that 81.35 crore peo-ple are eligible for subsidised ration under the Food Security Act? Will the SC, ST, BC, OBC, BPL, APL, the poor and the underprivileged get the vaccine for free or not? If yes, what is the roll-out plan and by when

will the government ensure free vaccination,” he asked at a press conference. “Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP government need to answer...Who will get free corona vac-cine? How many people will get the free corona vaccine? Where will you get free corona vac-cine,” he said.

Surjewala also raised ques-tions over the pricing of the two vaccines –Covaxin developed by Bharat Biotech and Cov-ishield from the Oxford/Astra-Zeneca stable manufactured by the SII –approved for emer-gency use in India and asked why the government has not put them in the National List of Essential Medicines.

The Congress general sec-retary asked why the govern-ment should pay Rs 95 more to Bharat Biotech for a vaccine that has been developed with the expertise and experience of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) scientists.

“Should the price of such

a vaccine not be cheaper than the AstraZeneca-Serum Insti-tute? Why is the price of corona vaccine Rs 1,000 per dose in the open market,” he asked.

He said the government should seek transparency from companies on the cost of pro-duction and profits being made from the vaccine.

Surjewala also dubbed the launch of the vaccination drive as a “publicity stunt” and said many vaccines have been

developed by the country’s scientists in the past but those were never turned into such an event.

“Vaccine development and mass immunizations are nei-ther events nor publicity stunts, but important milestones in the service of people. While India stands united in pro-viding immunisation against the coronavirus to our front-line corona warriors –doctors, health workers, police person-

nel and others –let’s remember that vaccinations are an impor-tant public service and not a political or business opportu-nity,” he told reporters.

Surjewala said, “Corona vaccine for all should be the policy of this government.”

Congress leader P Chidam-baram also said that it is not the government but the vac-cine developed by scientists that will win the war against the coronavirus.

“It is the vaccine or vaccines that will win the war against COVID-19, not the govern-ment or mythological beliefs. If we win this battle, the entire credit should go to the scien-tists and researchers around the world, including India. Let us salute our scientists and pledge to promote science and develop a scientific temper,” he tweeted.

The first COVID-19 vac-cine shots in India were given on Saturday to nearly two lakh frontline healthcare and sanita-tion workers.

NEW DELHI: Smokers and vegetarians were found to have lower seropositivity indicat-ing that they may be at a lesser risk of getting infected by coro-navirus, according to a pan-India serosurvey conducted by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research in its nearly 40 institutes.

The survey also found that those with blood group 'O' may be less susceptible to the infec-tion, while people with 'B' and 'AB' blood groups were at a higher risk.

For its study, the Coun-cil of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) took sam-ples of 10,427 adult individu-als working in its laboratories or institutions and their fam-ily members, based on volun-tary participation, to assess the presence of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2.

The study which was piloted by CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), Delhi said of the 10,427 individuals, 1,058 (10.14 per cent) had antibod-ies against SARS-CoV-2.

A follow up on 346 sero-positive individuals among the samples after three months revealed stable' to higher' anti-

body levels against SARS-CoV-2, but declining plasma activity for neutralizing the virus, Shantanu Sengupta, senior scientist at IGIB and one of the co-authors of the paper said.

A repeat sampling of 35 individuals, at six months, revealed declining antibody levels while the neutralising antibody remained stable com-pared to three months.

However, both the normal antibody as well as the neu-tralising antibody were much above the required threshold, he said.

Our finding that smokers are less likely to be seroposi-tive is the first report from the general population and part of growing evidence that despite COVID-19 being a respiratory disease, smoking may be pro-tective, the study said.

The paper also cites two studies from France and simi-lar reports from Italy, New York and China, which reported lower infection rates among smokers.

Along with demographic information, possible risk fac-tors were evaluated through self-filled online forms with data acquired on blood group

type, occupation type, habits including smoking and alcohol, diet preferences, medical his-tory and transport type utilised.

The study found that higher seropositivity was found for those using public transport and with occupational respon-sibilities such as security, housekeeping personnel, non-smokers and non-vegetarians, Sengupta said.

The presence of such anti-bodies is a reliable marker of infection and recovery. How-ever, some infected people may not develop antibodies, Anurag Agrawal, IGIB direc-tor, and one of the co-authors of the paper said.

Use of private transport, lower-exposure occupations, smoking, vegetarianism and A' or O' blood groups appeared to be protective, using seroposi-tivity as a surrogate for infec-tion, the paper added.

Sengupta said this is for the first time that a study has been done in India wherein individ-uals have been monitored for three months (35 individuals) to six months (346 individu-als) for antibodies including those with probable neutralis-ing activity. This is the first such cohort survey, he said. AGENCIES

NEW DELHI: The Congress alleged on Sunday that probe agencies such as the NIA have become puppets in the hands of the government and are now being used against farm-ers, who will not be cowed down by their notices. Con-gress's chief spokesperson Ran-deep Surjewala questioned the government's intention behind sending notices to farmers from agencies meant to probe terrorists, after it attempted to dub them as separatists, Naxals, terrorists and agents of China and Pakistan.

"Now the government sends notices to farmers of the country from such agen-cies probing terrorists. What is the intention of the (Naren-dra) Modi government, after it dubbed farmers as terrorists, Naxals and agents of China and Pakistan? What are you trying to probe Modiji?" he asked at a press conference.

"Regrettably, Prime Minis-ter Modi and BJP leaders are out to prove that all farmers, the 62 crore farmers of this country

are terrorists, militants, Nax-alites, agents of China and Pak-istan, but these fake notices of a puppet agency like the NIA to farmers will neither deter them nor cow them down. Modiji should understand that the farmers will not be scared by attempts at Income Tax raids on small shopkeepers in the grain markets or NIA or CBI notices to farmers and journal-ists. We will carry on until the three black laws are repealed," the Congress leader said.

He said the National Inves-

tigation Agency (NIA) and its successive chiefs have been "puppets in the hands of the government" and there is evi-dence to support such a view.

"These puppet agencies -- the NIA, the CBI, the ED, the Income Tax (department) -- are frontal organisations of the BJP and not the statutory bod-ies that they are supposed to be," he alleged.

Replying to a question on controversial WhatsApp chats involving national security coming out in the public, Sur-jewala said the conversations are damning and the Congress will come up with a compre-hensive reaction to the issue within the next 48 hours.

"We are examining every-thing. Before giving you a detailed comment, I will like to defer the issue.... We will give you a complete summary on it and our view, including why it requires a thorough inves-tigation, who should be inves-tigated, who should be held accountable, who is responsi-ble...," he said. MPOST

NAGPUR: Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait on Sunday said farmers are prepared to protest against the Centre’s new farm laws “till May 2024”, and termed the ongoing agitation by peasants at Delhi borders as an “ideo-logical revolution”.

Addressing a press confer-ence in Nagpur, Tikait said they want a legal guarantee on Min-imum Support Price (MSP).

Farmers have been protest-ing near Delhi since November 26, 2020, demanding scrapping of the three new farm laws, which have been projected by the Centre as major reforms in the agriculture sector that will remove the middlemen and allow farmers to sell anywhere in the country.

However, the protesting farmers have expressed appre-hension that the new laws would pave the way for eliminating the safety cushion of the MSP and do away with the mandi system, leaving them at the mercy of big corporates.

The Supreme Court last Tuesday stayed the implemen-

tation of the three new farm laws till further orders and decided to set up a four-member com-mittee to resolve the impasse over them between the Centre and farmers’ unions protesting at Delhi borders.

Asked how long will farm-ers will sit in protest, Tikait said, “We are prepared to sit in protest till May 2024...our demand is that the three laws be taken back and the government provide a legal guarantee on the MSP.”

The next Lok Sabha elec-tions in the country will be due around April-May 2024.

Dismissed allegations that the protest was being fuelled by “rich farmers”, Tikait said people from villages and various outfits have joined the protest.

“This is an ideological revo-lution of farmers started from Delhi and will not fail. Farmers from villages do not want us come back until the three farm bills are taken back,” he said.

“The government is ada-mant on its stance of not withdrawing the bills and this agitation will continue for long,” Tikait added. AGENCIES

MUMBAI: Maharash-tra's COVID-19 tally rose to 19,90,759 with the addition of 3,081 fresh cases on Sunday, the state health department said.

With 50 new deaths reported during the day, the state's fatality count rose to 50,438, it said in a statement.

Of the 50 fatalities, 21 were from the past 48 hours, while 8 from the last week. The remain-ing 21 deaths are from the period before the last week, it said. A total of 2,342 patients were discharged from hospitals on Sunday, which took the total number of recovered persons in Maharashtra to 18,86,469, the department said.

There are 52,653 active cases in Maharashtra at present.

With 62,901 new tests for coronavirus, the total number

of samples tested for coronavi-rus so far in Maharashtra has gone up to 1,38,06,387, it said.

At 531, Mumbai city reported the highest number of coronavirus positive cases in the state in the day.

Mumbai's overall caseload has reached 3,02,757. With seven more deaths, the total toll in the megapolis mounted to 11,244. In the limits of munic-ipal corporations of Nagpur and Pimpri-Chinchwad, 267 and 123 cases were reported, respectively, the department said. Pune city reported 271 fresh cases.

Of the total COVID-19-re-lated deaths reported on Sun-day, eight were from Nagpur city. Five persons died each in Thane district (barring Thane Municipal Corpora-

tion area) and Pune city, the department said.

Out of the total 3,081 new cases, the Mumbai Met-ropolitan Region (MMR), accounted for 992 cases. The MMR, which includes Mum-bai city and Thane, has till now reported 6,82,679 cases and 19,354 deaths. Maharashtra's current case recovery rate is 94.76 per cent, while the fatality rate is 2.53 per cent, the depart-ment said. Currently, 2,25,308 people are in home quaran-tine and 2,045 in institutional quarantine.

Maharashtra's COVID-19 tally is as follows: Posi-tive cases: 19,90,759; new cases 3,081; deaths: 50,438; discharged 18,86,469; active cases: 52,653; people tested so far: 1,38,06,387. AGENCIES

OUR CORRESPONDENT

CHENNAI: The second day of the immunisation drive against COVID-19 saw the Health Sec-retary being administered the vaccine as the total number to get the shots in Tamil Nadu crossed the 6,000 mark on Sun-day, with no adverse reaction reported, the government said.

According to updated fig-ures for vaccination on the opening day, 3,027 people were administered Covishield and 99 Covaxin.

On Sunday, 2,847 benefi-ciaries received Covishield and 183 Covaxin and in total, 6,156 persons, including doc-tors have got the jabs and no adverse reaction was seen, the Tamil Nadu Health department said in an official release.

The government-led vac-cination drive is being held in 160 plus centres across the state, in addition to private hospitals.

Health Secretary J Rad-hakrishnan, overseeing the vaccination exercise in Tiruchi-rappalli district, was adminis-tered the vaccine.

“I have been administered Covaxin and both Covishield and Covaxin vaccines are safe,” the top official said and thanked the doctors and nurses for their work.

On the cumulative, tar-geted beneficiaries for vacci-nation and the actual turnout, Radhakrishnan said the vac-cination programme was not target oriented, but based on the willingness of the proposed recipients.

Day 2: Over 6,000 get Covid vaccines in TN

Maha sees 3,081 fresh cases, 2,342 recoveries; 50 die

Seropositivity for COVID-19 found to be lesser in smokers, vegetarians: Survey

Farmers prepared to protest till May 2024: Rakesh Tikait

Farmers will not be cowed down by NIA notices, says Congress

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Parts of north India remained under the grip of an intense cold wave on Sun-day with night temperatures dropping below the 5 degrees Celsius-mark at some places and dense fog enveloping sev-eral areas. Intense cold wave conditions persisted in Kash-mir, even as the minimum tem-peratures increased marginally across the valley.

The meteorological depart-ment said a western distur-bance is likely to affect Jammu and Kashmir for a few days starting January 22, bringing snowfall and rain to the union territory.

The night temperature in Kashmir improved slightly but remained several notches below the freezing point, a Met

department official said.Srinagar city –the summer

capital of Jammu and Kashmir –recorded a low of minus 7.6 degrees Celsius, up from minus 8.2 degrees Celsius the previous night, he said.

Pahalgam, which also serves as a base camp for the annual Amarnath Yatra in south Kashmir, recorded a low of minus 8.7 degrees Celsius, up from the previous night's minus 9.4 degrees Celsius.

Qazigund was the coldest place in Jammu and Kashmir with a minimum temperature of minus 9 degrees Celsius, the official said. The intense cold wave in Kashmir has resulted in the freezing of water supply lines in several areas. A thick layer of ice has covered several roads, making it difficult for motorists to drive.

Several water bodies, including the famous Dal Lake, have also frozen. The State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and river police are conducting patrolling around the frozen water bodies to ensure the safety of people.

Parts of Uttar Pradesh wit-nessed dense fog and cold day

to severe cold day conditions prevailed at isolated places.

Churk in Sonbhadra dis-trict was the coldest place in the state with a minimum temper-ature of 4.6 degrees Celsius, it said. Agra recorded a low of 6.3 degrees Celsius, followed by 6.6 degrees Celsius in Kanpur and 8.7 degrees Celsius in Jhansi.

Cold weather conditions continued to persist at many places in Haryana and Pun-jab with temperatures hovering below the normal limits.

According to the Met department, Narnaul in Hary-ana reeled under intense cold, recording a low of 2.5 degrees Celsius, three notches below normal limits. Hisar, too, experienced a cold night at 3.4 degrees Celsius, down four notches, while Sirsa, Bhiwani and Rohtak registered below normal minimums at 4 degrees Celsius, 4.7 degrees, and 5.6 degrees respectively.

In Punjab, Bathinda recorded below normal min-imum at 3.4 degrees, while Faridkot and Gurdaspur, too, recorded below normal lows at 5.5 degrees and 7 degrees Cel-sius respectively.

Cold wave conditions persist in north India

BHAGALPUR/PATNA: BJP national spokesman Syed Shahnawaz Hussain, who has been fielded in a by-election to the legislative council in Bihar, on Sunday stated that he was looking forward to working for "the party in the state".

The former Union minis-ter also debunked murmurs in some quarters that the develop-ment was tantamount to loss of status for the BJPs Muslim face in Bihar and asserted "I would have worked for the party gladly even if it had decided to make me a district unit chief.".

Hussain, who has formerly represented Bhagalpur in the Lok Sabha for two consecu-tive terms, was addressing party workers near here, before leaving for Patna where he is scheduled to file his nomina-tion papers on Monday.

According to party sources, Hussain has been fielded from the seat vacated by former Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi who was recently elected to the Rajya Sabha.

By-poll is also scheduled for another seat vacated by BJP leader and former min-ister Binod Narayan Jha who has got elected to the assembly.

The party has decided to field Mukesh Sahni, state min-ister and founding president of Vikassheel Insaan Party, from the seat. The term of the seat offered to Hussain expires in 2024. AGENCIES

Shahnawaz Hussain, Bihar minister to file nomination for Council seats

A ‘Nihang’ or Sikh religious warrior ties his turban during the farmers’ agitation in New Delhi

View of the frozen Dal Lake in Srinagar

millenniumpost|KOLKATA|MONDAY, 18 JANUARY, 2021mp nation 5

‘Culling of poultry birds in Maha, Haryana underway’

Doubling farmers income biggest priority of Modi govt: Amit Shah

Fresh cases of bird flu confirmed in poultry in Mumbai as well as in Mandsaur district of Madhya Pradesh: Centre

OUR CORRESPONDENT

BAGALKOTE (KARNA-TAKA): Union Home Minis-ter Amit Shah on Sunday said doubling farmers income was the biggest priority of the Nar-enda Modi government and that the three central farm laws would ensure manifold hike in their earnings.

Since coming to power, the Modi government had increased the budget for the farm sector and also the mini-mum support price (MSP) for various crops, he said.

"I want to say that if there is any big priority of the Nar-endra Modi government it is to double the farmers income," he said at an event in Kerakal-matti village in this district in Karnataka.

Speaking after laying the foundation stone and inaugu-ration of farmer-friendly proj-ects of the MRN group, headed by newly inducted Karnataka Minister Murugesh R Nirani, Shah listed out various pro-grammes and initiatives of the central government for the wel-fare of the farmers.

Chief Minister B S Yediy-urappa led BJP government in the state too has not left any stone unturned to work for the welfare of farmers, the Home Minister said.

If there was any govern-ment that was in the fore-front of implementing central

schemes and programmes in the country, it was the govern-ment here, he added.

Questioning the Congress as to why it could not take up measures like Rs 6,000 cash support per year for farm-ers and Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana insurance scheme among others, he said, it was because the party's intentions were not right.

"The Narendra Modi gov-ernment is a government ded-icated to farmers. Three new laws that the Modi government has brought in, which the Kar-nataka government has also passed...

I want to congratulate Yedi-yurapp for it. Farmer's income will increase multifold due to them," he said.

His remarks came amid the continuing agitation by farm-ers, especially from Punjab

and Haryana, on the borders of Delhi, demanding the repeal of the three laws.

Farmers were not com-pelled anymore to sell their produce at one place and can get access to global and Indian markets of choice for their crops, the Home Minis-ter added.

Shah also said none had the courage to abrogate the provi-sions of Article 370 and Arti-cle 35A in Kashmir in the past 70 years.

"You made Modi the Prime Minister and on August 5, 2019 he ended Article 370 and Arti-cle 35A from Kashmir and connected it with India per-manently. Today elections have also happened there peace-fully without shedding even a drop of blood and Kashmir has become ours permanently," he added.

BENGALURU: Accusing Union Home Minister Amit Shah of an anti-Kannada atti-tude, JD(S) leader H D Kuma-raswamy on Sunday asked him to clarify to the people of Kar-nataka regarding the local lan-guage not finding place on the foundation stone plaque of the RAF unit in Bhadravathi, which he inaugurated.

Hitting out at Chief Min-ister B S Yediyurappa and his Deputy Govind Karjol for ignoring the same, he said in a series of tweets that those who tolerate insult to the dignity and honour of the land as well as its language were not fit to hold the reins of the state's adminis-tration, as he accused them of "betraying" Kannadigas.

Shah on Saturday had laid the foundation stone of a new battalion campus of the Rapid Action Force (RAF) near Bhadravathi in Shiva-mogga district in the presence of Yediyurappa, Union Min-ister Pralhad Joshi and Karjol among others.

"...the inscription plaque unveiled on the occasion to mark the foundation stone laying is in only Hindi and English. It clearly shows that Kannada has been ignored though the foundation stone that has been laid in Karnataka," Kumaraswamy tweeted. AGENCIES

Kumaraswamy accuses Shah

of ignoring Kannada

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has sought responses from the Centre and others on a plea which alleged inaction by authorities in preserving ancient monuments in Fateh-pur Sikri and sought direction for implementing a plan for integrated development of the heritage city.

A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde issued notices to the Centre, the Uttar Pradesh government, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and others seeking their replies on the plea which has claimed that authorities have failed to curb illegal con-struction and encroachment in Fatehpur Sikri.

“Issue notice,” the bench, also comprising Justice A S Bopanna and Justice V Rama-

subramanian, said in its order passed last week.

The plea said there are sev-eral monuments in and around Fatehpur Sikri which are pro-tected and maintained by the ASI.

Filed by Fathehpur Sikri resident Amarnath Parashar, the petition said the apex court had earlier passed orders and directed the authorities con-cerned to take steps towards the preservation of protected monuments and the heritage city.

Alleging non-compliance of the top court directions, the plea claimed, “After passage of more than 16 years of the orders passed by this court, and due to the lack of co-ordination among the competent agencies of the state neither the monu-

ments nor the heritage city is protected and preserved, nor the illegal construction was stopped, due to which several protected monuments are com-pletely vanished.”

The petition, drawn by advocates Uzmi Jameel Husain and Mohd Parvez Dabas, said that since 1994-1995 there is gradual increase in city’s pop-ulation and alleged that this has resulted in illegal encroach-ment and unauthorised

constructions.Referring to an earlier

order, the plea said the top court had directed the author-ities concerned to have a devel-opment plan for Fatehpur Sikri after which the ASI had in May 2001 filed a draft proposal to the state government regard-ing integrated development of the heritage city.

It said the apex court had in May 2005 asked the authori-ties to implement the develop-ment plan.

Alleging non-implemen-tation of the plan, it claimed that despite the undertaking filed before the top court and powers given under the law, the Agra Development Author-ity has failed to provide basic infrastructure to the habitants of Fatehpur Sikri. AGENCIES

JAIPUR: Six passengers were burnt alive and more than 30 others injured when a bus caught fire after coming in con-tact with a live electricity wire in Rajasthan's Jalore district, police said.

The incident occurred in Maheshpura village on Satur-day night when the bus driver lost his way and entered into a rural area where the vehicle came in contact with a hang-ing wire and caught fire, Dep-uty Superintendent of Police, Himmat Singh, said.

The private bus carrying around 40 passengers was on its way to Beawar in Ajmer from Nakoda in Barmer. The vic-tims were returning to Beawar after visiting a Jain temple in Nakoda.

"A total of six persons died in the incident. Six critically

injured were admitted in Jodh-pur while others are under treatment in Jalore. Many of those admitted in Jalore would be discharged today," he said.

Five of the deceased were identified as Surmi Devi, Sonal Jain, Char devi, Rajendra Jain and Dharmchand Jain. The bus driver and conductors are among the deceased.

Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot condoled the loss of lives in the accident.

"Deeply saddened by the loss of lives in an unfortunate bus accident near Mahesh-pura, Jalore in which 6 people hv lost lives & several others hv been injured. My heart-ful condolences to bereaved families, may God give them strength to bear this loss. May those injured recover soon," Gehlot tweeted. AGENCIES

OUR CORRESPONDENT

JAMMU: National Confer-ence (NC) president Farooq Abdullah on Sunday requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to restore 4G mobile internet services in Jammu and Kash-mir as he highlighted various problems due to lack of the facility and the harsh winter in the Union Territory.

He prayed for the success of the COVID-19 vaccine and urged people to maintain com-munal harmony and brother-hood at all costs for overall prosperity and development.

The prime minister is say-ing 5G is coming in India while we are deprived of 4G (mobile internet service). May he come

and live here after leaving the chair and see how we are living under 2G (service), Abdullah, the former chief minister of the erstwhile state, said at a book release function here.

The 4G mobile internet ser-vice was snapped across Jammu and Kashmir in August 2019 following revocation of special status and bifurcation of the erstwhile state into two union territories.

While the service was restored in two districts, Udhampur in Jammu and Gan-derbal in Kashmir, after over a year, it is still suspended in rest of the 18 districts.

The well-attended function was organised by Gurjar Desh Charitable Trust to release the

biography of its patron-in-chief Masud Ahmad Choudhary, a retired Additional Director General of Police and ex-vice chancellor of Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University (Rajouri).

Students are sitting in their homes and getting education through internet and the busi-nessmen are also dependent on internet connectivity. My request to the prime minister is that if you are saying this place is on the path of development, give us 4G for the sake of god so that we too can benefit and our children move forward, Abdul-lah said.

He said attention is required to be given towards it.

There is a talk of Rs 28,000

crore package. First, let us know what happened to the earlier Rs 80,000 crore pack-age and where the money had gone. See our condition and had there been no army, the Srinagar-Jammu national highway would have remained

closed for one year, the NC leader said referring to the restoration of the highway by Border Roads Organsiation (BRO), which constructed a bailey bridge near Kela Morh to restore traffic on the strategic highway after a portion of the road caved-in on January 10.

Earlier this month, the Jammu and Kashmir adminis-tration had announced a new industrial development scheme (IDS) with a total outlay of Rs 28,400 crore to encourage new investment and to take indus-trial development to the block level. Abdullah said people in Kashmir are faced with a lot of problems amid sub-zero temperature.

What can I say about the

problems we are facing in Kashmir where there is no elec-tricity, petrol, diesel, kerosene oil and shortage of daily use food items. Jammu is the door to Kashmir and it is pathetic that former prime minister A B Vajpayee promised a rail link (between Kashmir and rest of the country) by 2007, which was revised to 2022 by this regime. Hope it would not extend to 2040 when I will be no more, he said.

Abdullah said he is advising his brother Mustafa Kamal not to travel by Jammu-Srinagar national highway in view of the lurking threat of shoot-ing stones from the hillocks overlooking the highway from Udhampur onwards.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

SHIMLA: Despite his fail-ing vision and aching knees, India’s first voter Shyam Saran Negi reached his polling booth in Himachal Pradesh’s Kinn-aur to exercise his franchise in the state’s panchayat elec-tions, for which over 70 per cent turnout was recorded on Sunday.

In the first round of the three-phase elections, 1,227 panchayats went to the polls on Sunday. The remaining two phases are slated to be held on January 19 and 21. The state has 3,615 gram panchayats.

At 103, Negi cast his vote at the Kalpa polling booth, where he was given a warm welcome by laying a red carpet by the district administration.

Deputy Commissioner Hemraj Bairwa honoured Negi with a Kinnauri ‘topi’ and

shawl. The DC said young vot-ers should get inspiration from Negi, who turned up to cast his vote despite bad health.

In his message to people, Negi said voters should partic-ipate in the election process to elect honest and capable can-didates. Negi, who had made a special appearance in a Hindi film, Sanam Re, said he never missed casting his vote, be it panchayat, assembly or the Lok Sabha polls.

Believed to the first voter in the 1952 General Election, Negi was born on July 1, 1917 and retired as a schoolteacher, as per official records.

Remembering how he became the country’s first voter, Negi had earlier said the India’s first General Election was held in February 1952 but in tribal areas of the state, the voting took place five months in advance on October 23,

1951 due to fears of inclement weather rendering the exercise impossible during winter.

I was a schoolteacher then and had been put on election duty. Due to it, I reached my polling booth at the Kalpa pri-mary school in Kinnaur at 7 am to cast my vote. I was the

first one to reach there and vote, he had said.

Meanwhile, Electoral Offi-cer Sanjeev Mahajan said a voter turnout of over 70 per cent was recorded in the first round.

Over 63 per cent voters of two panchayats in Kaza block

in Lahaul-Spiti braved extreme cold weather conditions at a temperature of minus seven degrees Celsius to cast their vote, a district official said.

A voter turnout of 76 per cent was recorded in Hamir-pur district.

Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur and his family mem-bers cast their votes at Gov-ernment Primary School at Kurani in Murhag panchayat of Mandi district.

State Congress presi-dent Kuldeep Singh Rathour and his wife Tripta Rathour voted at Medhavani village in Kumarsain tehsil of Shimla.

The Himachal Pradesh Election Commission also wrote to the Kangra admin-istration, ordering an inquiry into the omission of former state minister Sudhir Sharma’s name from the electoral rolls for the panchayat polls.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

CHENNAI: AIADMK founder and former Chief Minister M G Ramachandran was paid rich tributes and remembered on his 104th birth anniversary on Sunday by leaders includ-ing Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"Bharat Ratna MGR lives in the hearts of several people. Be it the world of films or poli-tics, he was widely respected," Modi tweeted.

"During his CM tenures, he initiated numerous efforts towards poverty alleviation and also emphasised on women empowerment. Tributes to MGR on his Jayanti," the prime minister said.

Leading the birth anni-versary celebrations in Tamil Nadu, Chief Minister K Palaniswami said the late leader slogged for the welfare of the people and devised many

schemes for the benefit of poor and ordinary people.

Deputy Chief Minister O Panneersevlam, showering encomiums on MGR, said the former Chief Minister lived in the hearts of the people.

Panneerselvam and Palaniswami, coordinator and co-coordinator of AIADMK respectively visited the party headquarters here and gar-landed the statue of MGR and hoisted the party flag. The two top party leaders distrib-uted sweets to the cadres and

gave away welfare assistance to beneficiaries.

AIADMK functionaries organised functions in several parts of the state, paid floral tributes to the late leader and held mass feeding programmes.

In Puducherry, Chief Min-ister V Narayanasamy, Con-gress MLAs and AIADMK office-bearers, A Anbalagan and Om Sakthi Segar were among those who paid hom-age to the late leader.

In Delhi, AIADMK Rajya Sabha member A Vijayakumar garlanded the statue of MGR in the Parliament premises, a party release said.

Makkal Needhi Maiam chief Kamal Haasan, who latched on to the late leader's welfare legacy in his ongoing poll propaganda denied that he had 'all of a sudden' clung on to MGR's legacy. Haasan garlanded a statue of MGR and paid rich tributes to him.

AIADMK founder MGR remembered on his 104th birth anniversary

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Centre on Sunday said culling of poul-try birds is underway in Maha-rashtra and Haryana, while fresh cases of bird flu have been confirmed in poultry in Mum-bai as well as in the Mandsaur district of Madhya Pradesh.

So far, bird flu has been confirmed in 11 states –Chhat-tisgarh, Delhi, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Gujarat.

However, the Centre has requested states to "rethink their decisions to impose ban on sale of poultry and poultry products and allow such selling sourced from the non-infected areas/states".

In India, bird flu or avian influenza is spread mainly by migratory birds coming into India during winter months between September and March. The disease is zoonotic.

In a statement, the Minis-try of Fisheries, Animal Hus-bandry and Dairying said bird flu cases have been confirmed

in poultry at the Central Poul-try Development Organisation (CPDO), Mumbai, and Kheda Road in the Mandsaur district of Madhya Pradesh.

Not only poultry, the dis-ease has also been confirmed in crows at Panna, Sanchi, Raisen and Balaghat; in crow and owl at Sheopur; while in swan and pigeon, in the Mandsaur dis-trict of Madhya Pradesh, it said.

The viral disease has also been confirmed in crow and pigeon in Bastar, while crow in the Dantewada district of

Chhattisgarh. Similarly, the dis-ease has also been confirmed in crow samples from Harid-war and Lansdowne in Uttara-khand. Additionally, in Delhi, Heron samples in Rohini have been tested positive for bird flu, it added.

On the culling operation, the ministry said it is underway in all the affected epicentres, including CPDO in Maha-rashtra. The culling operation of poultry is continuing in the epicenters of Haryana.

The Maharashtra Animal

Husbandry Department have started a toll-free helpline for farmers to report any unusual mortality of birds.

The state government has put requisite information about the disease in line with the revised Avian Influenza Action Plan 2021, it added.

Further, the ministry said rapid response teams (RRPs) have been deployed in Mad-hya Pradesh.

"Today, samples tested from Rajasthan and Gujarat have been found negative for avian influenza," the ministry noted.

According to the state-ment, the central team formed for monitoring the situation in the affected areas of the coun-try are visiting the affected sites and conducting epidemiologi-cal studies.

The ministry said con-sumers should not pay heed to baseless rumours that are unscientific and often lead to confusion. These adversely affect not only poultry and egg markets but also poultry and maize farmers, who are already affected by the COVID-19 pan-demic lockdown.

ORISSA HC ASKS WOMAN TO HAND OVER BABY TO HIS FATHER CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court has allowed a man to take custody of his 15-month-old son observing that continuance of the custody of the toddler with the mother, who is now staying separately, would be det-rimental to the child’s mental and physical develop-ment and may also affect his psychology negatively. The court direction came after watching a video in which it is seen that the mother was repeatedly tortur-ing and beating the child mercilessly. A Division Bench of Justices S K Mishra and Savitri Ratho on Friday while allowing a writ of Habeas Corpus filed by one Chakradhar Nayak of Puri district directed his wife to hand over the baby boy to his father within 7 days.

WILL INCORPORATE ‘K’TAKA-OCCUPIED AREAS’ INTO MAHA: UDDHAV THACKERAY MUMBAI: Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday said his government is committed towards incorporating into the state the areas of Karnataka where Marathi-speaking people are in majority. This will be the “true tribute” to martyrs of the cause, the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) said in a tweet. Maha-rashtra claims Belgaum and some other areas, part of the erstwhile Bombay Presidency but currently in Kar-nataka, on linguistic grounds. Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti, a regional organisation fighting for the merger of Belgaum and some other border areas with Maha-rashtra, observes January 17 as the ‘martyrs’ day’ for those who laid down their lives for the cause in 1956.

SCHOOLS, COACHING INSTITUTES IN RAJASTHAN SET TO REOPEN TODAYJAIPUR: Schools and coaching institutes in Rajast-han are set to reopen in the state on Monday after remaining closed for nearly 10 months with wear-ing of face masks, maintaining social distancing and thermal scanning made mandatory for the students. These institutes were closed on March 21 last year. The government has decided to restart schools from classes nine to 12 with each room having 50 per cent seating capacity and students attending classes with consent from their parents.

BRIEFSNATION Farooq Abdullah requests PM to restore 4G internet in J&K

Bus comes in contact with live wire in Rajasthan, six killed

SC agrees to hear plea alleging inaction in preserving monuments in Fatehpur Sikri

At 103, India’s first voter casts vote in Himachal Pradesh panchayat polls

Union Home Minister Amit Shah offers prayers to a cow in Kerakalamatti, Bagalkot

Shyam Saran Negi shows his inked finger after casting vote for Panchayat elections, at Kalpa in Kinnaur, on Sunday

mp nation6

CURFEW AND PROHIBITORY ORDERS IN PARTS OF BHOPAL BHOPAL: The Bhopal district administration on Sunday imposed curfew in three police station limits and pro-hibitory orders in some other areas as a precaution-ary measure over a construction work by a community in the old city area. The order, issued by Bhopal District Magistrate Avinash Lavania, said a community is carrying out construction in the old city and there is a possibility of opposition by locals. The Madhya Pradesh capital is “sensitive from communal point of view”, hence the decision to impose curfew has been taken, the order said. The curfew has been clamped in Hanumanganj, Tila Jamalpura and Gautam Nagar police station areas of the old city till further or-ders, Additional Collector Dilip Yadav said. Besides, prohibitory orders under Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) Section 144 have been imposed in 11 other police station areas-Shahjahanabad, Chhola Mandir, Nishatpura, Talaiya, Mangalwara, Ashoka Garden, Aishbagh, Jahangirabad, Station Bajaria, Berasia and Najirabad.

SCHOOLS IN MIZORAM TO REOPEN FOR CLASS 10 & 12 STUDENTS FROM JAN 22 AIZAWL: The Mizoram government has decided to allow reopening of schools for students of class 10 and 12 from January 22 and places of worship from February. According to the new unlock guidelines issued on Saturday schools and hostels will reopen from January 22 for students of class 10 and 12. The guidelines said churches will be allowed to open with 50 per cent seating capacity or 200 attendees on ev-ery Saturday and Sunday at noon from first February. Churches in Christian majority Mizoram are closed since March 22 last year due to COVID-19 pandemic. The new guidelines also said any student intending to join his or her hostel must produce a COVID-19 nega-tive certificate obtained within 96 hours before entry into the hostel.

BRIEFSNATION

ELECTRIFYING

Workers of Torrent Power Limited remove kites and thread tangled up in electric power cables in Ahmedabad, on Sunday PTI

KOLKATA|MONDAY, 18 JANUARY, 2021|millenniumpost

‘MORE TOURISTS FLOCK TO THE STATUE OF UNITY THAN THE STATUE OF LIBERTY IN THE US’

PM flags off 8 trains to boost connectivity to Statue of Unity

OUR CORRESPONDENT

AHMEDABAD: Prime Minis-ter Narendra Modi on Sunday flagged off eight trains connect-ing Gujarat’s Kevadia, where the Statue of Unity of Sardar Patel is located, to different regions of the country. Modi said more tourists flock to the Statue of Unity than the Statue of Lib-erty in the US, adding nearly 50 lakh tourists have visited the former since it opened in 2018. He referred to the Dedi-cated Freight Corridor project as “an example of the way things functioned in our country in the past.”

“A few days ago, I inaugu-rated a large section (of the Ded-icated Freight Corridor). On this very important project, in eight years work was done only on paper. From 2006 till 2014, not even one km track was laid. Now, in the next few months, 1,100-km work will be com-pleted,” he said.

Modi also inaugurated three railway stations and a broad gauge line connecting Dab-hoi to Kevadia, via video link on Sunday. The prime minis-

ter said this is possibly the first time that so many trains were flagged off at the same time for one destination.

With increased connectiv-ity, over one lakh people will visit Kevadia daily in the near future, he said citing a survey.

The amount of work done to modernise the country’s railway infrastructure in recent years is unprecedented, Modi said.

Unlike in the past when less focus was given to new ways of thinking and technology, wide changes have been made in the

railway system on many fronts, with the government’s focus on self-reliance in railway manufac-turing and technology being a big reason behind the change, he said. Besides tourists vis-iting the Statue of Unity, the local populace will be the big-

gest beneficiary of the new rail connectivity, he said.

“Today, Kevadia is no lon-ger a small place in a remote area of Gujarat. It is emerging as the world’s biggest tourist destination,” he said. Despite everything remaining closed for months during coronavirus pandemic, the number of tour-ists visiting Kevadia is increas-ing fast, he added.

He said the new Kevadia railway station is an example of his government’s efforts to ensure that the Railways remain environment-friendly. “Kevadia station is the country’s first to get green building certification from the beginning,” he said.

The Ahmedabad-Kevadia Jan Shatabdi Express, one of the eight trains, is equipped with the Vistadome coache which offers large viewing areas with rooftop glasses and seats for passengers. Modi said the Vis-tadome coaches on trains to Kevadia will make the travel attractive. The amount of work done to modernise the country’s railway infrastructure in the recent years is unprecedented, he said. AGENCIES

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Central Information Commission has directed the CBI to cite rules under which two different look out circulars were issued against Vijay Mallya, accused in loan default of Rs 9,000 crore, in October and Novem-ber 2015.

The CBI had issued a fresh LOC against Mallya in the last week of November, 2015 ask-ing airport authorities across the country to “inform” it about Mallya’s movements, thus replacing its previous cir-cular which had sought deten-tion of the businessman if he attempted to leave the country, sources had said.

Mallya left the coun-try in March 2016 for the United Kingdom where he is legally contesting the extra-dition ordered by the British Government.

Acting on a petition by Pune-based RTI activist Vihar Durve, who was denied infor-mation by the CBI, the panel directed the central agency to cite him regulations under which look out circulars (LOCs) were issued in Octo-ber and November, 2015.

The CBI had cited Section 8(1)(h) of the RTI Act to deny information to Durve.

The section exempts from disclosure of informa-tion which would impede the process of investigation or apprehension or prosecution

of offenders. The CBI had issued the first

LOC against Mallya on Octo-ber 12, 2015, when he was already abroad, calling for his detention if he intends to leave the country or arrive here from abroad.

Upon his return, the agency was asked by the Bureau of Immigration if Mallya should be detained as sought in the LOC, to which the CBI said there was no need to arrest or detain him as he was a sit-ting MP and there was no war-rant against him, according to sources. They said the agency only wanted information on his movements.

Besides, the probe was in an initial stage and the CBI was collecting documents from the IDBI in the Rs 900 crore loan default case. Later another case was filed against him, sources said.

Durve sought from the agency rules under which both the look out circulars were issued. He also had sought other details such as a copy of these circulars, all of which were denied by the CBI.

In her order, Information Commissioner Saroj Punhani directed the agency to provide regulations under which both the LoCs were issued by the agency.

She also directed it to pro-vide a revised reply giving cogent reasons as to how Sec-tion 8(1)(h) is applicable in the case.

‘Cite rules under which look out circulars were issued against Mallya’

MUMBAI: The Shiv Sena and the Congress, which are rul-ing allies in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, on Sunday sparred over renam-ing Aurangabad city, with the Uddhav Thackeray-led party saying it is not “secular” behav-iour if one finds “cruel and reli-giously blind” Mughal emperor Aurangzeb “dear”.

Hitting back, the Congress accused the Sena and the oppo-sition BJP of playing politics over renaming and asked them why they did not they remem-ber the issue while they were in power in Maharashtra for the past five years. Maharashtra Congress president Balasaheb

Thorat, however, maintained that the MVA government of the Sena, NCP and Congress in the state is stable. Thorat, who holds Revenue portfolio, also said the government works as per the common minimum programme (CMP) and there is no scope for the “politics of sentiment”.

Erstwhile allies, the Sena and the BJP, have been pitch-ing for renaming Aurangabad as ‘Sambhajinagar’ after Chha-trapati Sambhaji Maharaj, son of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.

Writing for ‘Rokhthok’, the weekly column in Sena mouth-piece ‘Saamana’, party MP San-jay Raut said, “secular parties

like the Congress are of the view that Aurangabad should not be renamed as Sambhajinagar”.

He said these parties feel that minority communities like Muslims will not be happy if Aurangabad is renamed and it will affect their vote banks, which will raise questions over their “secular image”. Raut stressed that Aurangzeb was not secular but “a cruel” admin-istrator. “Aurangzeb was reli-giously blind and harboured hatred towards other religions,” he wrote. Raut stated that the Mughal emperor considered Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj as his enemy and killed Chhatra-pati Sambhaji Maharaj brutally.

“There should be no city named after such Aurangzeb at least in Maharashtra. This (demand) is not religious blindness. Call it ‘Shivbhakti’ (devotion to Shivaji Maharaj), Maharashtra’s self-esteem or the sense of history. Prostrating before those who find Aurang-zeb dear! This is not secular behaviour!” Raut said.

Countering the Sena, Thorat said those who were in power at the Centre and in Maharashtra for the past five years are now playing renaming politics. He asked why did not the parties (read the Shiv Sena and the BJP) remember the renaming issue while they were in power. PTI

Maha allies Shiv Sena, Cong spar over renaming Aurangabad city

KOCHI: The country’s first Labour Movement Museum, showcasing the history of world labour movement, would be launched in Kerala’s houseboat tourism hub, Alappuzha.

The museum will feature a huge repository of documents and exhibits that shaped the labour movements across the continents and impacted Alap-puzha, the cradle of the labour movement in the country, in particular and Kerala in gen-eral, state Tourism department said on Sunday.

Located alongside the Port and Coir museums displaying the town’s rich maritime her-itage, the Labour Movement Museum, the first such window in the country on the class strug-gle and spirited fight of workers, is part of a larger project that will also be of tourist appeal, it said in a release.

The museum would be launched as part of the LDF government’s second 100-day programme.

“The New Model Coopera-tive Society Limited, previously run by the Bombay Company, has been converted into the Labour Movement Museum.

It will portray, through pictures, documents and other

exhibits, the growth of the world labour movement and the his-tory of Keralas labour move-ment”, the tourism department said.

Packed with history predat-ing the advent of the Western colonialism, Alappuzha had a virtual monopoly over the pro-duction and shipping of coir made of coconut husk, a prod-uct that had immense global demand.

“Besides its unsurpassed natural beauty, Alappuzha has a rich commercial and mari-time heritage dating back to the ancient times and connected to distant lands.

The Alappuzha Heritage Tourism project is conceived to bring this legacy before tour-ists, in which these museums are important components.

They will also serve schol-ars specializing in the commer-cial and labour- related topics,” Tourism Minister Kadakam-pally Surendran said.

The Museums will open as soon as the restoration of heri-tage structures is complete.

Kerala State Coir Corpora-tion Ltd building, formerly run by the Volkart Brothers, will become the Museum of Coir History. AGENCIES

India’s first Labour Movement museum to come up in Kerala

OUR CORRESPONDENT

RAIPUR: Closed mining sites which are lying aban-doned in Chhattisgarh will be developed as sources of water storage, a government official said on Sunday.

Various employment gen-eration activities, including fish farming, will be carried out at these sites with an aim to provide a source of liveli-hood to local people, he said.

On Friday, Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel instructed all district collectors to draft an action plan on this within a month, the public relations department official said.

Baghel referred to the closed Kenapara coal mine in the state’s Surajpur district which has been developed as a water conservation site, where pisciculture and boat-ing activities have become a source of income generation for locals, the official said.

The CM has directed to identify all mined out sites

which are lying abandoned in every district and prepare an action plan to convert them into water storage bodies where employment-oriented activities can also be started, he said.

The expenditure to be incurred for developing these sites can be arranged from funds available under the MGNREGA, District Min-eral Fund, Corporate Social Responsibility, environment and infrastructure fund and other departmental schemes in the respective districts, Baghel said.

The abandoned huge mine pits pose a threat to human life and several untoward incidents have been reported there, he noted.

The chief minister has asked the collectors to start the renovation pro-cess of such mining sites before April this year so that water collection could begin there during the next mon-soon season.

AHMEDABAD: Senior Supreme Court lawyer Har-ish Salve has said courts must be open to public scrutiny and criticism as “institutions of governance”.

Addressing a lecture organ-ised in Ahmedabad through video-conference on Saturday, Salve said criticism of judges, judicial overreach and the manner of functioning is not scandalising courts, and the language in which such crit-icism is addressed should be treated with a grin.

“We today have accepted that judges, or rather courts, and especially constitutional courts, have become institu-tions of governance. As an institution of governance it must be open to public scrutiny and public criticism,” he said.

“We have always accepted that the decisions of courts can be criticised, including in lan-guage which may be impolite. So the decisions can be criti-cised. Can we criticise the deci-

sion-making process? Why not?” Salve said.

He was addressing the 16th Justice P D Desai Memorial Lecture on’Criticism of judi-ciary, contempt jurisdiction and its use in the age of social media’.

“Governance has to be under the sharp blaze of sun-light...in fact, I think a time may come when the Supreme Court may seriously consider a very large number of provi-sions of the Official Secrets Act, how far do they square with democracy,” he said.

Most of them have fallen into disuse, said Salve, who was last year appointed the Queen’s Counsel for the courts of Eng-land and Wales.

To say an institution has lost its independence, to say that an institution is acting at the behest of someone, to allege corruption--that, if it is estab-lished to be untrue, is clearly undermining public faith, Salve added.

“This residue of power to deal with those who are capa-ble of influencing public opin-ion...you may be in public life, influencer.

“Those are cases where courts must retain with itself this slender jurisdiction of addressing any rupture in pub-lic faith which may be caused,” he said.

Salve further said “if we do need the principles of con-tempt, where do we draw the lines?”

The lines must be drawn in a way that the overall sys-tem of governance--the insti-tutions and the criticism of the institutions--helps everybody march forward in this march of democracy.

“There is one area where I think judges need to be pro-tected. And that area is casting aspersions on an institution in consistent with its character as an independent institution,” the former solicitor general of India said. AGENCIES

Courts must be open to public scrutiny & criticism, says Salve BIKANER: An interfaith mar-

riage here has led the Hindu woman’s family to allege the alli-ance to be a case of love jihad, prompting a Union minister to demand a law in Rajasthan against the alleged practice of marriage for religious conver-sion. Union Minister of State for Agriculture Kailash Chaudhary demanded the law in the state despite the girl in a video state-ment on social media and to the police asserting that she married on her own accord and police too rejecting the allegation.

The controversy erupted after Bikaner resident Mani-sha Dudi, 18, married 22-year-old Mukhtiyar Khan last month after a brief love affair, prompt-ing the woman’s family to issue a statement on social media, terming the alliance to be a case of love jihad .While the woman’s father, in his video statement, sought the community’s help in the matter, her grandfather threatened that he would com-mit suicide with the entire fam-ily members if no justice is done to them. AGENCIES

Interfaith marriage triggers row in Raj

A decorated train halts at the Nizamuddin Railway Station during the launch of eight trains connecting Statue of Unity in Kevadia, Gujarat with different regions of the country on Sunday PTI

Chh’garh to develop abandoned mines as

water storage sites

GUWAHATI: Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora is scheduled to arrive in Assam on Monday on a three-day visit to take stock of preparations for assembly polls due in March-April, officials said. The CEC will hold separate meetings with senior officials of the state gov-ernment, including the chief

secretary, home secretary, direc-tor general of police, chief elec-toral officer and police nodal officer. He will also hold discus-sions with leaders of political parties, election related Central and state regulatory authorities, district election officers and SP.

The CEC will be accompa-nied by Election Commission-

ers Sushil Chandra and Rajiv Kumar, Director General of the Election Commission of India Dharmendra Sharma, Deputy Election Commissioner Chan-dra Bhusan Kumar, Senior Prin-cipal Secretary Narendra N Butolia, Director of Expendi-ture Pankaj Srivastava and EVM consultant Vipin Katara. PTI

EC team to visit Assam today

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The CBI arrested the chief administrative officer (construction) of the Northeast Frontier Railways on Sunday for allegedly receiving a bribe of Rs one crore for granting favours in awarding lucrative contracts to a private company, officials said.

Mahender Singh Chauhan, 1985-batch Indian Railways Ser-vice of Engineer (IRSE) officer, was nabbed from Maligaon in Assam’s Guwahati, while two others — Bhupendra Rawat, an employee of accused company ABCI Infrastructures Private Limited, and Indra Singh — were apprehended from Utta-rakhand’s Dehradun, where the bribe amount was allegedly being delivered on Chauhan’s instructions, they said.

Besides the arrested accused and the company, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has also booked railway offi-cials Hem Chand Borah (dep-uty chief engineer), Laxmi Kant Verma (assistant executive engi-neer) and director of ABCI Infrastructures Private Lim-ited Pawan Baid. It is alleged that Chauhan (58) had demanded the bribe to show favours to the accused company in awarding contracts for various projects in the Northeast Frontier Railways, the officials said.

“The contractors were alleg-edly being facilitated in award-ing the contracts, processing of subsequent bills, release of payments etc. by the public functionaries in lieu of illegal gratifications,” CBI Spokesper-son Joshi said in a statement.

The agency has alleged that Baid, the director of the private company, was in contact with Chauhan in connection with various ongoing projects in the Northeast Frontier region.

“It was also alleged that on his demand, the said Director, through his employee, got deliv-ered bribe of Rs one crore to the relative (private person) of said CAO at his residence in Dehra-dun,” the statement said.

CBI teams launched a wide-spread search operation at 21 locations in five states — Delhi, Uttarakhand, Tripura, West Bengal and Assam — it added.

The agency has recovered the bribe amount and other incriminating documents related to project contracts in the Northeast Frontier Railways, the statement said.

CBI arrests senior railway official, two others in Rs 1-cr bribery case

Following the approval of two vaccine candi-dates in India, the first lot of vaccines have

reached the states for prior-ity vaccination of healthcare workers. One can hear the immense sigh of relief that is widespread and already there is a sense of euphoria that the crisis is behind us and we can look forward to a quick return to normalcy even though it might now be the new nor-mal. In my life — and I am over sixty years old — I have not seen a crisis of this dimen-sion which has shaken the entire world. People have lost their near and dear ones and a lot has changed, including the imperative of moving to a digital economy, online edu-cation and work from home. Many of these changes that the pandemic has forced upon us have shown hidden benefits which might enable them to continue in the future. But it must be emphasised that by no means is the pandemic over and there is no cause for relax-ing precautions.

I feel that the Government handled the crisis reasonably well but now is faced with the herculean task of admin-istering the vaccine which presents a logistics and gover-nance nightmare. In the order of priority set by the Centre, healthcare workers and front-line workers are to be vacci-nated first, followed by those above the age of 50. One has to register to avail of the vaccine. The first part of vaccinating the health care and frontline work-ers should not pose much of a problem as they can be easily identified and administered the two doses at requisite inter-vals. However, my experience of administration shows that administering the vaccine to those above 50 is not going to be that easy. In India, we are plagued by VIP culture and the most annoying habit of queue jumping which is likely to take place in a big way. I can visual-ise politicians and senior civil servants trying to get them-selves and their families vac-cinated on priority once they are convinced that the vaccine that does not have any adverse effects. District magistrates and directors of various hos-pitals will have to wrestle with this problem as it would be dif-ficult to evolve a rational sys-

tem for this. It is possible to vaccinate people on the basis of a list drawn on the basis of the date of registration and that should be made public so that it is difficult for influential peo-ple to try and get preferential treatment. However, there are going to be numerous vacci-nation centres making it dif-ficult to have such a simplistic solution.

On the other hand, there could also be many people not wanting to take the vaccine as they are not convinced of its efficacy or fear the adverse effects. Further, with regis-tration being a requirement how would those not having a smartphone or awareness of the online registration process avail of this facility?

The vaccine will be sup-plied in batches and the first question will be that of allo-cation between states. What should be the criteria of allo-cation? Should equal doses be given to each state or the amount should vary according to the level of the infection in a state or the fatality rate? The next stage would be the alloca-tion of the vaccine to different districts at the state level where again similar questions will have to be addressed. What-ever the decision is, some peo-ple are bound to feel unhappy about it.

The most important thing

is to communicate the scien-tific truth about the vaccine to the people so that they take the vaccine and develop a rational attitude towards it. We do not want a situation where a single adverse reaction may derail the entire campaign. Often such vaccines lead to allergies and provisions have to be made for immediate handling of these allergies so that it does not fuel the rumour mills. A close watch has to be kept on rumour-mongering through social media on deaths tak-ing place which have no con-nection to the administration of the vaccine. It is impor-tant to inform the people and keep doing so on a continu-ous basis and thereby build an atmosphere of trust. We can use celebrities as we did for pulse polio where we had Amitabh Bachchan re-enforc-ing the message of pulse polio continuously. That apart, gov-ernment officers and doctors and experts whose voice has authority should be on media as well as social media to give authentic information about the vaccine and it’s likely after-effects. Communication will have to be done in all languages used in various parts of the country to reach the maximum number of people and some-times I have found that such messages are best commu-nicated through street plays,

poems, storytelling and com-munity events which involve the entire population in the campaign. Any campaign suc-ceeds only when the people own it and give it their total support.

The objective of adminis-tering this vaccine is to con-trol the pandemic and save the life of the people and as such would require sustained efforts over the next two years to reach a significant percentage of the population of the coun-try. This work cannot be done by the health department alone and would need coordination amongst various departments of the state. The coordinating role will have to be performed by the district magistrate at the district level and the Secretary Health/Chief Secretary/Cabi-net Secretary at the state or the Central level. One significant point raised by many people is regarding the existence of cold chain points to ensure that the vaccine is kept at the right temperature. Former Health Secretary Sujata Rao recently wrote in an article that of the 28,932 cold chain points half are in the five southern states, Maharashtra and Gujarat while the eight states in the north and Odisha that account for over 40 per cent of the country’s population have only 28 per cent of the cold chain points. She has rightly pointed out that

along with this uneven distri-bution and the fact that weaker states suffer from a shortage of doctors, health care profes-sionals and medical equipment means that different states of India have different capac-ity to implement the vacci-nation program with quality and accuracy. The same will apply to large states like UP which has huge regional imbal-ances. Moreover, it would be quite a task to ensure the sec-ond dose of the vaccine within the stipulated time and also to maintain the cold chain in extremely remote and back-ward areas.

The Prime Minister and several chief ministers have been talking about implement-ing this campaign in an elec-tion mode. There is no doubt that conducting elections in such a vast and diverse country has been a tremendous admin-istrative success. It is amazing how polling booths are set up in almost every village or mohalla and polling parties are nominated and sent there with all necessary equipment to conduct the elections. Massive transportation and security arrangements are undertaken and free and fair elections con-ducted. There is no doubt that a similar level of commitment, dedication and organisation as well as the involvement of all concerned government officers are required to make the vac-cination campaign a success. This is possible but the ques-tion is whether this momen-tum can be maintained for a period which is likely to be almost two years? Elections, at best, require this kind of sustained effort for about two months. Then if the entire gov-ernment machinery is focusing on the vaccine campaign for such a long time, would not other aspects of governance and administration which are equally necessary to bring about economic recovery suf-fer in the process? Already because of the pandemic, the education of the children, the nutrition programs and han-dling diseases like TB have been adversely impacted.

Ultimately, we all must rise above politics and ideologies and join hands to make this campaign a success.

The writer is an ex-Chief Sec-retary, Govt of Uttar Pradesh. Views expressed are personal

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ALOK RANJAN

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DearEditor

In a welcome judgment, last week Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court barred Uttar Pradesh police from taking any coercive action against an interfaith couple in a three-year-old case, now being investigated under the newly promulgated UP Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Ordinance 2020. Earlier the week, another bench of same High Court had held that it should be optional rather than mandatory for an interfaith couple to give 30 days’ prior notice to register their wedding under the Special Marriage Act (SMA) with an observation that the unhelpful public notice violated the fundamental right to privacy recognised by the Supreme Court. The Court also flagged sweeping societal changes since SMA’s enactment in 1954 and that the very purpose of laws is to serve society as per its needs, which SC judgements have consistently satisfied through greater fulfilment of personal freedoms. In fact, in a modern, secular society that recognises the right of consenting adults to marry, the SMA should entrust the marriage officials with no other duty than verifying identity, age and valid consent. Incidentally, it’s a matter of concern that interfaith couples have been facing constant harassment in Uttar Pradesh. Through a series of interventions, Allahabad High Court has struck some powerful blows for such couples torn apart by society, state officials and mistaken laws. With these resounding HC verdicts, the apex court must step in and examine the constitutionality of SMA provisions and the near-identical UP, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh laws targeting interfaith marriages and religious conversions. Unlike the farm laws with political and policy imperatives which have opposition and supporting farmers making adjudication dicey, threats to individual liberties and privacy lie squarely in Supreme Court’s domain.

By the middle of next week, the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris administration will

assume office in the United States of America. The change the Americans voted for remains contested by a vocif-erous section of supporters of the outgoing Donald Trump government. And a sizable number of them left the world aghast at the riotous act on the Capitol Hill.

The political jostling on the impeachment of President Trump in the United States Congress notwithstanding, on January 6, the Halls of the US Congress witnessed an unprecedented attack inside the parliament of a country whose President gave the tal-isman of a government as: “Of the People, By the People, For the People”.

The centuries-old building adorned by the Statue of Free-dom remains a witness to the act by this mob clashing with the Capitol Police disputing the votes in the presidential elec-tions on the day Congress was completing its constitutional duty. This development will form an unforgettable back-drop as Washington DC pre-pares for significant changes from January 20, 2021.

For after over a decade, the Democratic Biden administra-tion in the White House can draw comfort that the party is in control of Congress albeit with a slender majority in the House of Representatives and a casting vote edge through Vice President Kamala Harris in the Senate where both the Demo-crats and the Republican hold 50 seats each.

The altered political land-

scape offers the incoming administration an elbow room to effect changes the Demo-crats promised to the people of the United States and chisel its approach to the world, articu-lated through the campaign and positions held by those who will occupy prime posi-tions in the new government.

How would this change translate for India is what should be of interest to the policy planners in New Delhi. Notwithstanding the fact that relations with India enjoy bipartisan support in Wash-ington DC, it is important to note that when the Biden administration hits the road running, pulls and counter-pulls would come into play in the two distinct branches of the governance structure in the United States, Congress and the executive.

The US Congress is a sepa-rate branch and every govern-ment is acutely aware of the need to work its way through the corridors of the Senate and the House with deftness.

Unlike President Trump, Joe Biden brings to office immense advantage of one who can craft a foreign policy and boast of personally knowing most lead-ers on the world stage since his days as the Chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Rela-tions Committee and as the Vice President in the Obama administration.

The Biden-Harris admin-istration is familiar with India and everything connected to the country, its people and most importantly the large and influential Indian-American community who play a signifi-cant role in American politics.

Then there will be key aides in the incoming administration who are either Indian-Ameri-cans or those whose familiarity with India needs no empha-sis. Secretary of State-select Anthony Blinken, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, William Burns as the Direc-tor of the Central Intelligence Agency and Kurt Campbell, tipped to be the pointsman for Indo-Pacific, are the people

who, over the years, remained engaged with India.

That the United States administration is guided by its well-rounded institu-tions should lend weight to its approach crafted by the National Security Council, which among others has Tarun Chhabra, Sumona Guha and Shanti Kalathil, with an accent on human rights.

Shades of what India should keep a watch on include countering any lingering per-ception of its proximity in relations with the outgoing Trump administration, and the approach of the Indian-Amer-icans on the Capitol Hill. Of the later, Pramila Jayapal and Ro Khanna have been more vocal in raising issues during the previous Congress.

Biden administration’s direction notwithstanding, New Delhi will have to inten-sify interaction with the law-makers, who are substantially influenced by the constitu-ents and their issues includ-ing those in their countries of

origin.For India and the Demo-

crats, the H1B visas is a leg-acy issue that would have to be dealt with from the prism of domestic compulsions of accommodating local work-force and balance it against the requirements of the industry.

Post-Trump, jobs for locals and manufacturing in the United States will remain hot button issues alongside migra-tion and visas. One issue that remains on the table but talked less is the long list of Indians waiting patiently to convert their status to Green Card.

These should be looked at from a larger perspective of the Democratic Party’s pol-icy on undocumented immi-grants amid concerns of the misery the Trump administra-tion policy of deportation and forced separation of families, triggered in the United States.

Any administration in the White House knows that to further its agenda it will have to negotiate with Members of the Congress. A majority is no guarantee on contentious mat-ters. Simultaneously countries too, embark on independent outreach on the Hill.

In the past, the Indian-American community did some heavy lifting in this regard with the outreach on the Civil-Nuclear Deal as a shining example. It is equally heartening to note that the Indian Embassy under Ambas-sador Taranjit Sandhu engaged in quiet diplomacy with mem-bers of the Congress during the period the attention was on the polls. The engagement with a new administration and Congress has just about begun.

Views expressed are personal

Biden administration’s direction notwithstanding, New Delhi will have to intensify interaction with the lawmakers, who are substantially influenced by the constituents and their issues including those in their countries of origin

How will a new Biden administration and Democrat-led Congress affect the existing state of Indo-US relations going into the future?

A new dynamic

Unprecedented undertakingIndia’s vaccination campaign will pose many challenges of logistics and governance

The most important thing is to communicate the scientific truth about the vaccine to the people so that they take the vaccine and develop a rational attitude towards it. We do not want a situation where a single adverse reaction may derail the entire campaign

EDITORIAL

In the age of the internet, the idea of access being a right rather than a privilege has been a relatively new one. It is only in the last decade or so that the idea of the inter-net being a neutral resource that is available to all has

caught on. An important discussion in this regards is that of net neutrality, hot topic a few years ago which the pandemic has some part in reviving once again. Very simply put, the basic idea of net neutrality is to stop internet service providers from being able to manipulate network traffic for discrimina-tory purposes. In our free-market capitalist societies, many would and have argued that the internet must also be a part of the free market with any government oversight or regula-tion being seen to have a suppressive effect on the internet service providers. Naturally, said ISPs have fought the rollout of net neutrality laws across the world tooth and nail. Most ISPs maintain that net neutrality laws will, in effect, reduce their incentive to build out the internet and also add signifi-cant operating costs that will be passed down to the customer. In 2015, Obama made efforts to operationalise net neutral-ity in America with relevant measures to address the many apprehensions of ISP companies. But, as is the case with many things in the US, net neutrality became a target of partisan politics in the US which only served to draw the benefits and losses of net neutrality along political lines.

Thus, when Donald Trump made Ajit Pai the head of the Federal Communications Commission, few were surprised when one of the first things he did was target Obama-era internet neutrality legislation. Pai effectively made under-mined all the things the legislation required to function on a Federal level before repealing the legislation altogether. It must be noted that there were outliers like California that drafted its own net neutrality laws and kept them operational, a decision that led to the state being a target of multiple ongoing lawsuits.

But all this may be set to change. 2020 forced remarkable changes throughout the world. As the pandemic forced us inward, digital access became more central to almost every functional aspect of our life. In recent years, governments worldwide have taken an increasingly more stern stance with governing the digital realm as the risks of leaving the whole thing to private self-regulation have become increasingly apparent. In the US as well, the fight to regulate big tech is actually one of the few unifying factors that both sides can increasingly agree on, if for different reasons. Ongoing inves-tigations into Google, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Apple, etc., signal that Congress is no longer content to allow the internet to be as much of a free-market as it previously was. In this regard, the US is in line with similar actions worldwide. Now with a new administration only days away, there is hope in policy circles and internet activist groups that legislation on big tech and the internet can finally move through the pre-viously airtight Republican-controlled Senate. Net neutrality is just one of the many tech legislations that Democrats are urging Biden to consider on an immediate basis with other significant decisions to be made on digital surveillance, facial recognition, political advertising and the much-discussed Section 230 that has kept social media companies safe from being held liable for content that is posted on their platform. With Pai gone, the FCC has a real opportunity to become a force for corrective change on the conversation of the internet and the still gaping digital divide that continues.

In conclusion, it is easy to see how laws like net neutral-ity are absolutely vital in the modern day when monopolistic tie-ups between big tech on the internet are the norm rather than the odd exception. Even India has rallied behind digital neutrality and a much broader regulation of the tech compa-nies in recent years. Just last year, TRAI recommended that a multi-stakeholder agency be set up to assist the Telecom Department in maintaining net neutrality.

The journey ahead is long and the march towards a post-Covid India has only just begun

....KHOKAN DAS, KOLKATA via email

PRASHANT BHUSHAN@Pbhushan1

UN Special Rapporteur of Human Rights, Mary Lawlor, criticised India’s treatment of human rights activists such as Fr Stan Swamy.“I am appalled by the treatment of human rights defenders such as Father Stan Swamy, who embodies solidarity,”

tweet OF THE DAY

millenniumpost|KOLKATA|MONDAY, 18 JANUARY, 2021

As Obama’s Vice President, Biden had many prior opportunities to build relations with India

For a free internet

KOLKATA|MONDAY, 18 JANUARY, 2021|millenniumpostmp world8

Biden ropes in 20 Indian-Americans in his admin, 17 at key WH positions

WASHINGTON DC: US President-elect Joe Biden has nominated at least 20 Indian-Americans, including 13 women, to key positions in his incoming administration, a record for the small ethnic com-munity that constitutes one per cent of America's population.

As many as 17 of them, including Neera Tanden who has been nominated as the Director of Management and Budget, would be part of the Biden administration in the powerful White House complex.

The January 20th inaugu-ration, the 59th in all, where Biden, 78, would be sworn in as the 46th President of the United States is already historic in the making as for the first time ever a woman, Kamala Harris, would be sworn as the Vice-President of the country.

Harris, 56, is also the first ever Indian-origin and African-American to be sworn in as the Vice President of the United States.

It is also for the first time ever that so many Indian-Americans have been roped into a presidential administra-tion ever before the inaugura-tion. Biden, a Democrat, is still quite far away from filling all the positions in his administration.

Topping the list is Tanden, who has been nominated as Director of the White House

Office of Management and Bud-get and Dr Vivek Murthy, who has been nominated as the US Surgeon General.

Vanita Gupta has been nom-inated as Associate Attorney General Department of Jus-tice, and on Saturday, Biden nominated former foreign ser-vice official Uzra Zeya as the Under Secretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy and Human Rights.

The dedication that the Indian-American commu-nity has shown to public ser-vice over the years has been recognised in a big way at the very start of this administra-tion! I am particularly pleased that the overwhelming major-ity are women. Our community has truly arrived in serving the nation, Indiaspora founder M R Rangaswami told PTI.

Mala Adiga has been appointed as Policy Director to the future First Lady Dr Jill Biden and Garima Verma would be the Digital Director of the Office of the First Lady, while Sabrina Singh has been named as the White House Deputy Press Secretary.

For the first time, the Indian-Americans nominated for Biden administration include two who trace their roots to Kashmir: Aisha Shah, who has been named as Part-nership Manager at the White House Office of Digital Strategy

and Sameera Fazili, who would occupy the key position of Dep-uty Director at the US National Economic Council (NEC) in the White House.

White House National Eco-nomic Council also has another Indian-American, Bharat Ramamurti, as Deputy Director.

Gautam Raghavan, who served at the White House in the previous Obama admin-istration returns to the White House as Deputy Director in Office of Presidential Personnel.

Among Biden's inner cir-cle is his top confidant for years Vinay Reddy, who has been named as Director Speechwriting.

Young Vedant Patel is all set

to occupy a seat in the White House lower press, behind the briefing room, as Assistant Press Secretary to the President. He is only the third-ever Indian American to be part of the White House press shop.

Three Indian-Americans have made their way to the cru-cial National Security Council of the White House, thus leav-ing a permanent imprint on the country's foreign policy and national security.

They are Tarun Chhabra: Senior Director for Technology and National Security, Sumona Guha, Senior Director for South Asia, Shanthi Kalathil: Coor-dinator for Democracy and Human Rights.

Sonia Aggarwal has been named Senior Advisor for Cli-mate Policy and Innovation in the Office of the Domestic Cli-mate Policy at the White House and Vidur Sharma has been appointed as Policy Advisor for Testing for the White House COVID-19 Response Team.

Two Indian-American women have been appointed to the Office of the White House Counsel: Neha Gupta as Asso-ciate Counsel and Reema Shah as Deputy Associate Counsel.

Also, for the first time in any administration, the White House would have three other South Asians in key positions -- Pakistani-American Ali Zaidi as Deputy National Climate Advi-sor White House; Sri Lankan American Rohini Kosoglu as Domestic Policy Advisor to the Vice President and Bangla-deshi-American Zayn Siddique: Senior Advisor to the White House Deputy Chief of Staff.

During the campaign, Biden had indicated that he would rope in a large number of Indian-Americans.

As President, I'll also con-tinue to rely on Indian-Amer-ican diaspora that keeps our two nations together, as I have throughout my career, Biden had said in his address to the Indian-American community during a virtual celebration of India's Independence Day on August 15, 2020. AGENCIES

Kamala Harris to be sworn in as US Vice President by

Justice SotomayorWASHINGTON DC: Kamala Harris, who will script history as the first female, first Black and first South Asian US vice president on Wednesday, will be sworn in by Justice Sonia Soto-mayor, the first Hispanic justice in the US Supreme Court.

Harris will resign her Sen-ate seat on Monday, two days before she and President-elect Joe Biden are inaugurated.

Aides to the California Democrat confirmed the timing and said Gov. Gavin Newsom was aware of her decision, clear-ing the way for him to appoint fellow Democrat Alex Padilla, now California’s secretary of state, to serve the final two years of Harris’ term.

Harris will give no farewell Senate floor speech. The Senate is not scheduled to reconvene until Tuesday, the eve of Inau-guration Day.

For the historic day, Har-ris has chosen to be sworn in using two Bibles. One previously belonged to Regina Shelton, who was like a second mother to Harris and her sister Maya.

Harris and Maya often visited Shelton's house after school while their mother was still at work as a breast cancer researcher. AGENCIES

10 new mass vaccination centres

to open up across UK

LONDON: Ten new large-scale centres, including a rugby ground, racecourse, food court and a cathedral, will open up next week across Britain to join the seven already delivering vaccines to immunise against COVID-19, the UK's National Health Service (NHS) said on Sunday.

It comes as a further 324,233 vaccine doses were adminis-tered across the UK to take the total above 3.5 million, a mile-stone hailed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson as a "fantastic national effort".

The state-funded health service leading the UK's "big-gest" vaccination programme in history also confirmed more than 1 million people aged 80 or over have been invited to book a Coronavirus jab at a Vaccina-tion Centre.

There are now 1,000 general practice (GP) led services and more than 250 hospitals offer-ing Coronavirus vaccinations, with dozens of new high street pharmacies stores also jabbing people by the end of next week.

"The NHS vaccination pro-gramme, the biggest in NHS history, is off to a strong start with more than three million people receiving the life-saving jab, including more than a third of those aged 80 or over," said Ruth May, chief nursing officer for England.

"We are adding more sites as more vaccine supplies become available, so that people can choose a convenient option, with around a million invites sent over the last week for those aged 80 and over. Hav-ing worked alongside clinicians at my local hospital I know how tough it is for our staff treating an increasing number of seri-ously ill people with COVID-19 so I cannot stress enough how important it is that everyone plays their part by practicing social distancing and following the national guidance," she said.

The UK government is also urging the public to "play their part" in supporting the drive by helping people attend their appointments.

UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock asked people to commit to three pledges to "help out", "join up" and "stay informed" during ongoing efforts to vaccinate, run clin-ical trials and share accurate health advice.

The NHS said that vaccina-tion centres offer a convenient option for those who do not want to wait to be contacted by GPs or hospitals. People aged 80 or over living up to a 45-minute drive from the 17 centres are being written to with the option of choosing to arrange a vacci-nation there or at a pharmacy site through the new national booking service. Alternatively, people can choose to wait to be contacted in due course by their local GP-led vaccination service.

The NHS said it sent out 641,000 invitations last week and another 380,000 are land-ing on doormats this weekend. Another half a million will go out in the coming week.

Appointments are staggered to allow for social distancing and people who do book one are being asked not to turn up early to avoid creating queues. The 10 new centres mean there will be at least one in each health region and help to ensure that people are within reach of a jabbing service, including more rural parts of the country.

Care home residents who are unable to travel to vaccine cen-tres, hospitals or GP-led sites, are being jabbed at their homes.

The NHS highlighted how it made history when Maggie Keenan became the first per-son in the world to be protected against Coronavirus outside of a clinical trial when she received the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine at Coventry Hospital on December 8, 2020. AGENCIES

Cargo ship sinks in Black Sea; 3 dead, 6 rescued

ISTANBUL: A cargo ship sank off Turkey’s Black Sea coast on Sunday, leaving at least three people dead, Turkish author-ities said. Six others were rescued.

The transport ministry said the Palau-flagged ship named Arvin had anchored off the port of Bartin in northern Tur-key due to bad weather, before breaking into two pieces and sinking.

Emergency workers saved at least six crew members and reached the bodies of two oth-ers, the ministry’s naval branch

said on Twitter. Bartin’s Gov. Sinan Guner

said a third person had died, according to the official Anadolu news agency.

The navy sent a frigate to assist rescue efforts. The transport ministry said the ship had 12 crew members, including two Russians and 10 Ukrainians.

The cargo ship was en route to Bulgaria from Geor-gia but the Black Sea region has been buffeted by heavy rains, snow and strong winds. AGENCIES

All travellers to Singapore to undergo mandatory COVID-19 test on arrival

SINGAPORE: All travel-lers, including Singaporeans and permanent residents, will need to take a COVID-19 poly-merase chain reaction (PCR) test upon arrival in Singapore, the Ministry of Health (MOH) has announced.

This will take effect from 11.59 pm on January 24 as part of tighter border measures to manage the risk of imported COVID-19 cases, reported the Channel News Asia.

Singapore has seen an increase in the number of

Coronavirus cases, mostly imported or those arriving from other countries.

The Ministry on Saturday confirmed four Coronavirus cases from the community (or local), one from the dormito-ries for foreign workers here and 19 imported cases.

The dormitory case is a 37-year-old Indian national who was detected through ros-tered routine testing on Janu-ary 14. The work permit holder lives in Tuas South Dormitory and works at Chevron Oronite

as a thermal insulator installer.His earlier tests from rou-

tine testing the last being on December 17 - were negative for COVID-19 infection, said the Channel report.

Currently, travellers who are not Singaporeans or per-manent residents and who have a recent travel history to high-risk countries or regions are required to take a PCR test within 72 hours before depar-ture. They are then tested again at the end of their stay-home notice period. AGENCIES

Indonesian teams find more bodies, clear roads after earthquake

MAMUJU: Indonesian rescu-ers retrieved more bodies from the rubble of homes and build-ings toppled by a 6.2 magni-tude earthquake, raising the death toll to 56 on Sunday, while military engineers managed to reopen ruptured roads to clear access for relief goods.

More heavy equipment reached the hardest-hit city of Mamuju and the neighbouring district of Majene on Sulawesi island, where the quake hit Fri-day night, said Raditya Jati, the National Disaster Mitigation Agency's spokesperson.

Power supply and phone communications also began to improve. Thousands were left homeless and more than 800 have been injured, more than half still receiving treatment for serious injuries, Jati said. A total of 47 people died in Mamuju

and nine in Majene.Jati said at least 415 houses

in Majene were damaged and about 15,000 people were moved to shelters. The agency is still collecting data from the area. Mamuju, the provincial

capital of nearly 300,000 peo-ple, was strewn with debris from collapsed buildings. The governor's office building was almost flattened by the quake and a shopping mall reduced to a crumpled hulk. Two hospitals

were damaged.The disaster agency said the

army corps of engineers cleared the road connecting Mamuju and Majene that was blocked by landslides. They also rebuilt a damaged bridge, Many on Sulawesi island are still haunted by a magnitude 7.5 earthquake that devastated Palu city in 2018 and set off a tsunami that caused soil to collapse in a phenome-non called liquefaction.

More than 4,000 people were killed, including many who were buried when whole neighbour-hoods were swallowed in the falling ground. Indonesia, home to more than 260 million peo-ple, is frequently hit by earth-quakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis because of its location on the Ring of Fire, an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin. AGENCIES

COVID-19 found on ice cream in eastern China

BEIJING: The Coronavi-rus was found on ice cream produced in eastern China, prompting a recall of cartons from the same batch, accord-ing to the government.

The Daqiaodao Food Co, Ltd in Tianjin, adjacent to Beijing, was sealed and its employees were being tested for the Coronavirus, a city government statement said. There was no indication any-one had contracted the virus from the ice cream.

Most of the 29,000 cartons in the batch had yet to be sold, the government said. It said 390 sold in Tianjin were being tracked down and authorities elsewhere were notified of sales to their areas.

The ingredients included New Zealand milk powder and whey powder from Ukraine,

the government said.The Chinese government

has suggested the disease, first detected in the central city of Wuhan in late 2019, came from abroad and has high-lighted what it says are dis-coveries of the Coronavirus on imported fish and other food, though foreign scientists are skeptical.

China on Sunday reported

109 new confirmed COVID-19 cases, two-thirds of them in a northern province that abuts Beijing, and no deaths.

There were 72 new cases in Hebei province, where the government is building iso-lation hospitals with a total of 9,500 rooms to combat an upsurge in infections, accord-ing to the National Health Commission.

China had largely con-tained the virus that first was detected in the central city of Wuhan in late 2019 but has reported hundreds of new infections since December.

The Health Commission on Saturday blamed them on travelers and imported goods it said brought the virus from abroad. China’s death toll stands at 4,653 out of 88,227 total cases. AGENCIES

Navalny departs from Berlin on Moscow-bound

flight

Pakistan approves emergency use of Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccineISLAMABAD: Pakistan has approved the emergency use of Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine and the government hopes to make the drug available by the first quarter of the year, as the country's Coronavirus tally surged to 519,291.

Special Assistant to Prime Minister Imran Khan on Health Dr Faisal Sultan confirmed on Saturday that the Drug Regula-tory Authority Pakistan (DRAP) has granted approval for emer-gency use of the Oxford-Astra-Zeneca Coronavirus vaccine across the country, according to a report in the Geo TV.

Minister for Planning Asad Umar, who is also the chief of National Command and Oper-

ations Centre (NCOC), the country's Coronavirus con-trol body, said that the vaccine will be rolled out by March, the report said.

In the first phase, the vaccine will be given to health workers and those aged 65 years and above, Umar said.

The vaccine is designed by scientists at the University of Oxford and produced by Astra-Zeneca, a British-Swedish mul-tinational pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical company.

Pakistan reported 43 deaths in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of fatalities due to the disease to 10,951, accord-ing to the ministry of National Health Services. The total num-

ber of COVID-19 cases in the country reached 519,291 after 2,521 new infections were detected in the past 24 hours.

Dr Sultan said on Friday that Pakistan was in touch with China and other compa-nies to purchase the COVID-19 vaccine.

He said trials of the vaccine produced by the Chinese firm, Cansino, were near completion and if its tests were found to be successful, the government would register the medicine with the DRAP for procure-ment. He said international coalition Covax had announced that it would provide Pakistan 50 million free doses of COVID-19 vaccine. AGENCIES

Death toll from violence in Sudan's West Darfur rises to 48

CAIRO: The death toll from tribal violence between Arabs and non-Arabs in Sudan's West Darfur province climbed to at least 48, including women and children, a doctor's union and aid worker said, as sporadic violence continued Sunday.

The deadly clashes grew out of a fistfight Friday between two people in a camp for dis-placed people in Genena, the provincial capital. An Arab man was stabbed to death and his family, from the Arab Rizeigat tribe, attacked the peo-ple in the Krinding camp and other areas Saturday.

The violence led to local authorities imposing a round-the-clock curfew on the entire province. Besides the 48

killed, at least 97 others were wounded, according to Sudan's doctors' union. It said the casu-alty toll was likely to rise.

The clashes pose a chal-lenge to efforts by Sudan's transitional government to end decades-long rebellions in areas like Darfur, where most people live in camps for the dis-placed and refugees.

Sudan is on a fragile path to democracy after a popu-lar uprising led the military to overthrow longtime autocratic president Omar al-Bashir in April 2019. A military-civil-ian government now rules the country. That bout of vio-lence came two weeks after the U.N. Security Council ended the joint U.N.-African Union

peacekeeping force's mandate in the region. It also puts into question the transitional gov-ernment's ability to stabilize the conflict-ravaged Darfur region.

Salah Saleh, a physician and former medical director at the main hospital in Genena, said clashes renewed Sunday morn-ing at the Abu Zar camp for internally displaced people, south of the provincial capital.

Adam Regal, a spokesman for a local organization that helps run refugee camps in Darfur, said there were over-night attacks on Krinding.

He shared footage show-ing properties burned to the ground, and wounded people on stretchers and in hospital beds. AGENCIES

Uganda says president wins 6th term as vote-rigging alleged

KAMPALA: Ugandas elec-toral commission said Sat-urday that President Yoweri Museveni won a sixth five-year term, extending his rule to four decades, while top oppo-sition challenger Bobi Wine dismissed cooked-up, fraudu-lent results and officials strug-gled to explain how polling results were compiled amid an internet blackout.

In a generational clash watched across the African continent with a booming young population and a host of aging leaders, the 38-year-old singer-turned-lawmaker Wine posed arguably Musev-eni's greatest challenge yet.

The self-described ghetto

president had strong support in urban centers where frus-tration with unemployment and corruption is high. He has claimed victory.

In a phone interview from his home, which he said was surrounded by sol-diers who wouldn't let him leave, Wine urged the inter-national community to please call Gen. Museveni to order by withholding aid, impos-ing sanctions and using Mag-nitsky legislation to hold alleged human rights users accountable.

Wine repeated that all legal options are being considered, including challenging the results in court and calling for peaceful protests. AGENCIES

As many as 17 of them, including Neera Tanden who has been nominated as the Director of Management and Budget, would be part of the Biden administration

President-elect Joe Biden departs the St. Joseph on the Brandywine Catholic Church, in Wilmington, Delaware PTI

Travellers wait for their Covid-19 test results at Heathrow Airport in London, Sunday PTI

Members of police K-9 squad lead a sniffer dog during a search for victims at a hospital building collapsed in Friday's earthquake in Mamuju, West Sulawesi, Indonesia, Sunday PTI

BERLIN: Leading Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny departed from Germany on Sunday to return to Russia, where he faces the threat of arrest, after recovering from his poisoning in August with a nerve agent.

Navalny, who announced on Wednesday that he planned to return, said he was very happy as he boarded a plane in Berlin bound for Moscow's Vnukovo Airport.

It remains to be seen what reception awaits him in Mos-cow. On Thursday, Russia's prison service said that he faces immediate arrest once he returns.

Navalny, who has blamed his poisoning on the Kremlin, charged that Russian President Vladimir Putin was now try-ing to deter him from coming home with new legal motions. The Kremlin has repeatedly denied a role in the opposition leaders poisoning.

At the end of December, the Federal Penitentiary Ser-vice, or FSIN, warned Navalny that he faced time in prison if he fails to immediately report to its office in line with the terms of a suspended sentence and probation he received for a 2014 conviction on charges of embezzlement and money laundering that he rejected as politically motivated. The European Court for Human Rights had ruled that his con-viction was unlawful.

The FSIN said Thursday it issued an arrest warrant for Navalny after he failed to report to its office. AGENCIES

mp business � 9millenniumpost|KOLKATA|MONDAY, 18 JANUARY, 2021

GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGAL

NIT Nos. (1) WBDPL/PP/T/GM(PP)-172/2020/E/129 for Diversion of telephone cable from Power plant to Administrative building, CHP, Laboratory building. Bid submission end date : 25.01.2021 and Technical Bid Opening date : 29.01.2021 (2) WBDPL/Civil-TS/NIT-(E) 003/20-21 for Collection and disposal of garbage by engaging Lorry Truck within A B C Zone area of DPL Township for the year 2020 2021 Bid submission end date : 28.01.2021 and Bid Opening date : 02.02.2021 For d e t a i l s , p l e a s e v i s i t h t t p s : / / w b t e n d e r s . g o v . i n www.dpl.net.in

TENDER NOTICE

THE DURGAPUR PROJECTS LIMITED(A Govt. of West Bengal Enterprise)CIN NO. U40102WB1961SGC025250

ICA- T1033(5)/2021

ICA- T1037(6)/2021

GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGAL

Name of work : Construction of Composite Bridge over River Dharala at PanisalaTarabari to Devo Colony in Changrabandha G.P. under Mekliganj Block in the District of Cooch Behar. E s t i m a t e d A m o u n t : Rs.16,06,48,362.00 /- Last date of Bid submission : 12/02/2021 up to 15:00 Hours. Details can be seen in the Official Website www.wbnorthbengaldev.gov.in For all details and online tender s u b m i s s i o n v i s i t h t t p s : / / w b t e n d e r s . g o v . i n S d / - Superintending Engineer, North Bengal Development Department.

North Bengal Development DepartmentBranch Secretariat

Uttarkanya, Fulbari, JalpaiguriABRIDGED –NIe-T

NIe-T- 12 of 2020-21

GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGAL

NEW DELHI: Food Corpora-tion of India celebrated its 57th foundation day on January 14, 2021. FCI started its operations in 1965 from Tamil Nadu on the auspicious occasion of “Makar Sankranti and Pongal”.

Consumer Affairs and Pub-lic Distribution Minister Piyush Goyal embellished the celebra-tory occasion as Chief Guest at FCI Head Quarter, New Delhi and addressed the officers and employees of the corporation throughout India on online mode.

On this occasion, Goyal also inaugurated the Office Build-ing of FCI Divisional Office, Mysuru. In his address he con-gratulated the corporation for its exemplary journey so far and specially appreciated the efforts taken by FCI through-out the lockdown period during COVID-19 pandemic. He spe-cially mentioned the successful implementation of two schemes PMGKAY and Atma Nirbhar Bharat by quoting a third party audit for PMGKAY wherein a survey conducted among 80 crore beneficiaries around 94

per cent of them appreciated this scheme. He also reiterated the commitment of FCI in its role of ensuring food security to the nation and acting as bridge between the farmers as well as consumers.

Goyal further emphasized on importance of continued development, transparency, and digitization process in the corporation. He said that FCI will further be strength-ened and modernized in the next 12 months by embracing the technologies like Big Data, Internet of things, artificial intelligence etc. in our routine work and he stressed that the MSP procurement system will continue. A simple and efficient system will also help reduce the operational expenditure of FCI, he said, adding that discretion-ary powers should be cut down. At last he once again congratu-lated all the employees of FCI for successful completion of 56 years of establishment of FCI and asked the employees to take an oath to do their duties in a mission mode as a service to the nation and not as a job. MPOST

FCI celebrates its 57 th foundation dayNMDC SETS 100 MT IRON ORE

PRODUCTION TARGET BY 2030NEW DELHI: State-owned NMDC aims to utilize 97 per cent of its production capacity to produce 35 million tonne (MT) of Iron ore this fiscal and has set an ambitious target of producing 100 MT by 2030, in a bid to ensure a continuous and smooth supply of the mineral for steel makers, according to a senior official. By the targeted year 2030, the government also aims to increase India’s total steelmaking capacity to 300 MT. Iron ore is the main ingredient used for producing the metal besides coking coal. “In the ongoing financial year, NMDC has targeted to utilize 97 per cent of its production capacity to produce 35 MT of Iron ore. Go-ing forward, NMDC has a target of achieving 50 MT production capacity by 2023, and 100 MT by 2030,” P K Satpathy, NMDC Director, Production, said.

FRANKLIN TEMPLETON MF’S 6 SHUT SCHEMES GENERATE `13,789 CRORENEW DELHI: Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund on Sunday said its six shut schemes have received Rs 13,789 crore from maturities, pre-payments and coupon payments since closing down in April. Franklin Templeton MF shut six debt mutual fund schemes on April 23, 2020 citing redemption pressures and lack of liquidity in the bond market.The schemes — Franklin India Low Duration Fund, Franklin India Dynamic Accrual Fund, Franklin India Credit Risk Fund, Franklin India Short Term Income Plan, Franklin India Ultra Short Bond Fund, and Franklin India Income Opportunities Fund -- together had an estimated Rs 25,000 crore as assets under management (AUM).

6 OF TOP-10 MOST VALUED FIRMS ADD OVER `1.13L CR IN CUMULATIVE M-CAP NEW DELHI: Six of the top-10 most valued domestic firms together added Rs 1,13,018.94 crore in market valuation last week, with Tata Consultancy Services and Bharti Airtel emerging as the biggest gainers. Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), TCS, HDFC Bank, Infosys, ICICI Bank and Bharti Airtel were the gainers. On the other hand, Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL), HDFC, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Bajaj Finance took losses in their market valuation for the week. The valuation of TCS jumped by Rs 42,495.76 crore to Rs 12,13,371.12 crore.Bharti Airtel’s market capitalisation climbed by Rs 33,960.84 crore to Rs 3,28,697.33 crore.

BRIEFSBUSINESS

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The mines min-istry has made a proposal to terminate the iron ore leases of those working mines that have not started production even after lapse of 7-8 months of auc-tion and have not maintained minimum dispatch for three consecutive quarters.

The mines ministry pro-posed to do so through the amendment of certain min-ing rules and has invited com-ments from the stakeholders on the same.

“The Ministry of Mines has prepared the Minerals (Other than Atomic and Hydro Car-bons Energy Minerals) Conces-sion (Amendment) Rules, 2021, seeking to amend the Miner-als (Other than Atomic and Hydro Carbons Energy Min-erals) Concession Rules, 2016,” the mines ministry said.

It added that as part of the pre-legislative consultation policy, the draft amendment rules are made available. “Com-ments/suggestions are invited from the general public, govern-ments of states and union ter-ritories, mining industry, stake holders, industry associations,

and other persons and entities concerned, on the draft amend-ment rules.”

Several successful bidders of such working mines whose previous mining leases expired on March 31, 2020, have not started production even after lapse of 7-8 months of auction and execution of mining leases in their favour.

Further, many of the suc-cessful bidders who have started production have not main-tained the production and dis-patch quantity up to the level required under Rule 12A of the MCR, the ministry said.

“Accordingly, it is proposed

to strengthen the norms of min-imum production/dispatch through amendment of Rule 12A of the MCR Rules, 1960, in order to ensure sustained sup-ply of mineral in the market in future,” the ministry said.

It added that the Rule 12A is proposed to be amended to mandate the successful bidder to make payment equivalent to the revenue share and other statutory levies that would have been payable at the prescribed level of minimum production/ dispatch targets on a quarterly basis.

“It is also proposed to pro-vide in the Rules that failure to

maintain prescribed production level for three consecutive quar-ters may lead to termination of the leases,” the ministry said.

Of the total 46 operat-ing and working mines in the country whose leases expired on March 31, 2020, 24 mines are in Odisha, seven in Karna-taka, six in Jharkhand, four in Andhra Pradesh, two in Rajas-than, two in Gujarat and one in Himachal Pradesh. All 24 mines in Odisha and four mines in Karnataka were auctioned last year.

Non-operationalisation of

these mines has created an acute shortage of iron ore in the coun-try, the mines ministry said.

Decline in production and dispatch of important mineral such as iron ore not only leads to spike in its market prices but also adversely affects the man-ufacturing of iron and steel in the country.

“It is proposed to strengthen the norms of minimum produc-tion / dispatch through amend-ment of Rule 12A of the MCR Rules, 1960, in order to ensure sustained supply of mineral in the market in future,” it said.

Govt plans to end lease of mines that failed output after 7-8 months

IRON ORE MINES AUCTION

Highlights » ‘The Ministry of Mines has prepared the Minerals (Other than Atomic and Hydro Carbons Energy Minerals) Conces-sion (Amendment) Rules, 2021, seeking to amend the Minerals (Other than Atomic and Hydro Carbons Energy Minerals) Concession Rules, 2016,’ the mines ministry said

» Several successful bidders of such working mines whose previous mining leases expired on March 31, 2020, have not started production even after lapse of 7-8 months of auction and execution of mining leases in their favour

» Further, many of the successful bidders who have started production have not maintained the production and dis-patch quantity up to the level required under Rule 12A of the MCR, the ministry said

The mines ministry proposed to do so through the amendment of certain mining rules and has invited comments from the stakeholders on the same

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The road minis-try on Sunday said that a record 534 km of national highways was constructed in one week, beginning January 8, 2020.

In a statement, the Ministry of Road Transport and High-ways said that it has “created a record by constructing 534 km of National Highways (NHs) in the last week commencing 8 January”.

The ministry has con-structed 8,169 km of NHs from April 2020 to January 15, 2021 in the current financial year 2020-21, i.e. with a speed of about 28.16 km per day.

During the same period in the last fiscal, 7,573 km roads were constructed, with a speed of 26.11 km per day.

The ministry is hopeful that with such pace it should be able to cross construction target of 11,000 km by March 31.

The road ministry also awarded NH projects of 7,597 km during this period (April 2020 to January 15, 2021). In 2019-20, projects of 3,474 km were awarded during the same period. Thus, the pace of award has also more than doubled this fiscal.

In total, projects of 8,948 km of roads were awarded in 2019-20 while 10,237 km of roads were constructed.

The achievement assumes

significance given the fact that the first two months of the current fiscal were lost due to nationwide lockdown in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic.

The ministry has taken sev-eral initiatives to increase the pace of construction. The pace of construction is expected to increase further in the remaining months of the cur-rent financial year, which are conducive for construction activities.

Record construction of 534 km of national highways in 1 week: Govt

NEW DELHI: Foreign port-folio investors (FPI) put in Rs 14,866 crore in Indian mar-kets in the first half of Janu-ary with participants expecting strong third-quarter results by companies.

As per depositories data, FPIs invested a net Rs 18,490 crore into equities but pulled out Rs 3,624 crore from debt segment between January 1-15.

This translated into a total net investment of Rs 14,866 crore during the period under review.

The strong flows are on account of the positive bias towards emerging markets and because of strong third-quar-ter earnings thus far besides decreasing domestic COVID-19 cases, said Rusmik Oza, executive vice president, head of fundamental research at Kotak Securities.

The forthcoming US stim-ulus could be another trigger for positive FPI bias towards emerging markets and India, he added.

“The earnings season is expected to be very strong going forward which along with budget expectations could keep sentiment alive and FPI flows also positive,” Oza said.

Giving an overview of emerging markets, Oza said that the “start of calendar year has been mixed for emerging

markets”.Countries apart from India

that are witnessing positive FPI flows are Taiwan, Thailand, Brazil and South Africa, while favourites of FPIs like South Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam and Phillipines have seen outflows since the start of this year, he noted.

Harsh Jain, co-founder and COO at Groww, said that earlier, investors were putting money in a few select bluechip stocks but as their valuations climbed, more investors are now looking towards smaller companies and even outside the large-cap category to invest in.

Going forward, focus of FPIs on domestic front would continue to be on the active covid case count coming fur-ther down and the economy getting back on growth trajec-tory, said Himanshu Srivastava, associate director - manager research, Morningstar India.

There has been improve-ment in the macro economic environment which has so far ensured that FPI flows remain intact, he added.

He further said that worries about rising covid infections in several parts of Europe and US could play spoil sport as this could lead to investors turn-ing risk averse if the situation deteriorates. PTI

NEW DELHI: Two companies — Indian Railway Finance Cor-poration and Sequoia Capital-backed Indigo Paints — are set to hit the market with their ini-tial share-sale offers this week to raise an estimated over Rs 5,800 crore.

The companies are expect-ing to benefit from an equity market, which is flush with liquidity and has seen a sharp increase in new retail investors.

The three-day initial share-sale of Indian Railway Finance Corporation (IRFC) would be open for public subscription during January 18-20, while the IPO of Indigo Paints would open on January 20 and con-clude on January 22.

IRFC IPO comprises up to 178.20 crore shares, com-prising a fresh issue of up to 118.80 crore and offer-for-sale of up to 59.40 crore shares by the government.

The price band has been fixed in the range of Rs 25-26 per equity share and at the upper end of the price band, the IPO is expected to fetch Rs 4,633.4 crore.

On Friday, the company raised Rs 1,390 crore from anchor investors.

IRFC, set up in 1986, is a dedicated financing arm of the Indian Railways for mobilising funds from domestic as well as overseas markets. Its primary objective is to meet the pre-dominant portion of “extra bud-getary resources” requirement of the Indian Railways through market borrowings at the most competitive rates and terms.

The Union Cabinet had in April 2017, approved list-ing of five railway companies. Four of them -- IRCON Inter-national Ltd, RITES Ltd, Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd and Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corp -- have been listed.

Meanwhile, the IPO of Indigo Paints comprises fresh issuance of stocks aggregating to Rs 300 crore and an offer-for-sale of up to 58,40,000 equity shares by private equity firm Sequoia Capital, through its two funds -- SCI Investments IV and SCI Investments V --

and promoter Hemant Jalan.The price band has been set

at Rs 1,488-1,490 a share for its initial share-sale. The public issue would gather Rs 1,170.16 crore at the upper end of the price band.

Half of the issue is reserved for qualified institutional buyers, 35 per cent for retail investors, 15 per cent for non-institutional bidders and there is a reservation of up to 70,000 equity shares for subscription for employees, who will get a discount of Rs 148 per equity share to the offer price.

Proceeds from the fresh issu-ance of shares would be used for expansion of the existing manu-facturing facility at Pudukkottai in Tamil Nadu, for purchasing of tinting machines and gyro shakers and repayment/prepay-ment of borrowings.

Kotak Mahindra Capital Company, Edelweiss Financial Services and ICICI Securities are the book running lead man-agers to the issue.

The Pune-based company manufactures a range of decora-tive paints and has an extensive distribution network across the country. As of September 30, 2020, the company has three

manufacturing facilities located in Rajasthan, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

In 2020, 15 main-board IPOs raised a little over Rs 26,600 crore, which was much higher than Rs 12,362 crore garnered by 16 companies in 2019. PTI

Two IPOs to hit market this week, eye over ̀ 5,800 cr

NEW DELHI: The government has procured 25 per cent more paddy so far in this kharif mar-keting season at 564.17 lakh tonnes for Rs 1,06,516 crore amid farmers’ protest against three new farm laws. Kharif marketing season runs from October.

“In the ongoing Kharif Mar-keting Season (KMS) 2020-21, government continues to pro-cure Kharif 2020-21 crops at MSP from farmers as per exist-ing MSP schemes,” an official statement said. The Food Cor-poration of India has procured 564.17 lakh tonnes of paddy till January 16, an increase of 25.25 per cent from 450.42 lakh tonnes in the corresponding period of the previous year.

“About 79.24 lakh farmers have already been benefitted from the ongoing KMS pro-curement operations with MSP value of Rs 1,06,516.31 crore,” the statement said. Out of the total purchase of 564.17 lakh tonnes, Punjab has contributed 202.77 lakh tonnes. PTI

FPIs invest `14,866 crore in Indian markets till Jan 15

Govt procures paddy worth `1.06L cr so far

this Kharif season

NEW DELHI: The Jawahar-lal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), one of the 12 major ports in the country, plans to attract Rs 4,000 crore investments from public and private players for its special economic zone (SEZ), as per a draft proposal.

The Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) at Navi Mumbai (formerly known as the Nhava Sheva Port) is India’s number one container port handling more than half of the container cargo across all major ports in India.

“SEZ is planned to generate

about 72,600 direct job opportu-nities, attract public and private investments of about Rs 4,000 crore, enhance JNPT Port traffic while providing the utmost ease of doing business for investors,” as per a report on draft develop-ment proposal for JNPT SEZ.

SEZ is planned to gener-ate total employment with multiplier effect to the tune of 1,50,000, it said.

Housing requirement gener-ated from the SEZ development will be catered by the housing schemes planned by JNPT and CIDCO around SEZ site.

As per the draft proposal, the project is planned to be devel-oped in a phased manner and wholly funded by JNPT.

The capital cost for infra-structure provisions is broadly estimated to be over Rs 500 crore, it said.

JNPT SEZ is an initiative under ‘Sagarmala’ national

flagship policy of Ministry of Shipping.

Sagarmala is an ambitious national initiative aimed at bringing about a step change in India’s logistics sector per-formance, by unlocking the full potential of India’s 7,500 km coastline and 14,500 km of potentially navigable waterways.

The vision of Sagarmala is to reduce logistics cost for both domestic and export-import cargo with optimised infrastruc-ture investment.

Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust is the largest container port in

India located on the western coastline.

With 8 million TEU (twenty foot equivalent) capacity, the port is ranked 28th amongst the top 100 container terminals of the world.

The port handles more than half of the container cargo across all major ports in India with a present market share of 52 per cent of major port con-tainer traffic.

It plans a capacity expan-sion to 10 million TEUs by 2022 to occupy a slot among 18 top ports of the world. PTI

JNPT SEZ plans to attract ̀ 4K cr investment, generate 72,600 direct jobs

DUBAI: Abu Dhabi’s gov-ernment-run oil company is teaming up with two of its sov-ereign wealth funds to turn the petroleum-rich emirate into an exporter of blue and green hydrogen, Bloomberg reported.

Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (Adnoc) formed an alliance with Mubadala Investment Co. and ADQ to produce hydrogen from natural gas and renew-able energy and to market the fuel overseas as well as in the United Arab Emirates, ADQ said in a statement.

In a related deal, Abu Dhabi Future Energy Co., also known as Masdar, agreed with Siemens Energy AG to develop a facil-ity to make green hydrogen at Masdar City in Abu Dhabi,

Mubadala said in a statement. Munich-based Siemens Energy is already building a hydro-gen demonstration plant at the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park in the

neighboring emirate of Dubai.Some Middle Eastern states

that built their fortunes on oil are seeking to develop hydro-gen as fuel, given a shift among some of their buyers toward

less-polluting alternatives to crude. Saudi Arabia’s energy minister has said he wants the kingdom -- the world’s biggest oil exporter -- to become the largest shipper of hydrogen.

Abu Dhabi, like Saudi Arabia, produces natural gas, which it could use to develop

what is known as blue hydro-gen. It also has ample sun-shine, which can be harnessed to make a variant called green hydrogen. Abu Dhabi is the capital and largest emirate in the UAE.

Adnoc will develop blue hydrogen independently, while cooperating with the two wealth funds to make the green variety, according to ADQ.

Adnoc produces around 300,000 tons of hydrogen annu-ally for its downstream opera-tions, and it intends to expand output to more than 500,000 tons, according to a statement. It’s “well-placed to build on its advantaged position as a major natural-gas reserves holder and producer,” Adnoc said. AGENCIES

Oil-rich Abu Dhabi targets hydrogen as future export fuelAbu Dhabi National Oil Co. formed an alliance with Mubadala Investment Co. and ADQ to produce hydrogen from natural gas

mp business10 KOLKATA|MONDAY, 18 JANUARY, 2021|millenniumpost

OUR CORRESPONDENT

MUMBAI: Bank credit grew 3.2 per cent to Rs 107.05 lakh crore in the first nine months of the current financial year, against a growth of 2.7 per cent registered in the corresponding period of 2019-20.

In the fortnight ended March 27, 2020, bank advances stood at Rs 103.72 lakh crore.

Bank deposits rose 8.5 per cent to Rs 147.27 lakh crore in the April-December 2020 period as against an increase of 5.1 per cent a year ago, according to the recent data released by the Reserve Bank of India.

The sharp accretion in deposits during the year was due to the safe haven appeal of banks.

In the fortnight ended Jan-uary 1, 2021, the year-on-year growth in bank credit was 6.7 per cent and 11.5 per cent in deposits, the data showed.

CARE Ratings in its recent report had said the bank credit growth has returned to the lev-els observed in early months of the pandemic — average bank credit growth in March and April 2020 was around 6.5 per cent.

The bank credit growth in the fortnight ended January 1, 2021, increased compared to

last fortnight (December 18, 2020) which can be ascribed to an increase in retail loans.

However, the credit growth remained marginally lower compared with the year-ago period (7.5 per cent as of Janu-ary 3, 2020) reflecting subdued demand and risk aversion in the banking system.

Lenders are being selective with their credit portfolios due to asset quality concerns, the rating agency said.

According to the recent Financial Stability Report, under a baseline stress sce-nario, gross non-perform-ing assets of all banks may rise to 13.5 per cent by Sep-tember 2021, which would be the highest in over 22 years, from 7.5 per cent in Septem-ber 2020.

NEW DELHI: Cost of paper used to publish newspapers and magazines has jumped 20 per cent in the past three months due to demand-sup-ply imbalance following the pandemic, prompting news publishers to rush to the gov-ernment seeking waiver of 5 per cent import duty to help cut cost.

An industry that was fac-ing headwinds from a slow-ing economy even before the pandemic, was hit hard when most readers stopped buying newspapers and magazines on fears of them being carriers of viruses.

While there are no medical studies that have established the virus transmission theo-ries, sales did not pick up even after lockdown restrictions were relaxed, industry leaders said.

Now, the rising cost of newsprint created due to a drastic fall in supplies after 3 million tonnes of manufac-turing capacities were either closed or converted to brown paper grades worldwide has dealt a second blow that is threatening the survival of the industry.

Indian Newspaper Society

(INS) President L Adimoolam said most newspapers have stopped sending the hard cop-ies to the rural areas with read-ership of less than 50 copies, to reduce the distribution cost.

In a representation to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, INS has suggested cutting customs on import of newsprints.

They also want a fiscal stim-ulus package for the industry or raising tariffs of government advertisements by 50 per cent.

“If working out a stimu-lus package for print media is difficult at this juncture, DAVP (Directorate of Adver-tising and Visual Publicity) may please consider releasing advertisement for all its depart-ments to all publications with an increased tariff of 50 per cent, which would be highly helpful for the industry as a whole,” the INS representation said.

It has also sought extension of the validity of RNI (Regis-trar of Newspapers for India) Circulation Certificates up to March 31, 2022, which will enable DAVP rates to remain the same till next year.

It is estimated that the print media would take two-three

years to recover from the cur-rent situation, the INS added.

Adimoolam said, “The gov-ernment helped a few indus-tries (during the pandemic) with stimulus packages. We are (also) expecting some stimulus.”

Several newspapers have responded to the situation by cutting costs that included shutting down editions, reduc-ing the number of pages and laying off staff.

Several small papers have also closed down, Adimoolam added.

He said the newspaper distribution has become very costly. The Indian publishers continue to be dependent on imported newsprint due to insufficient domestic capacity/output and poor quality.

“Prices of newsprint have shot up by 20 per cent in the past three months. Another increase of 10-15 per cent is on the anvil next month which will severely impact the pub-lishers,” said the INS in the memorandum.

Domestic producers are severely under-stocked on their raw materials to sup-ply adequate quantities, it added. PTI

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: While the pan-demic pummelled tax collec-tion across the board, excise duty mop-up jumped 48 per cent in the current fiscal on the back of a record increase in taxes on petrol and diesel, that more than made up for the below normal fuel sales.

Excise duty collection dur-ing April-November 2020, was at Rs 1,96,342 crore, up from Rs 1,32,899 crore mop-up dur-ing the same period in 2019, according to data from the Controller General of Accounts (CGA).

This despite the fact that over 10 million tonnes less die-sel - the most used fuel in the country - was sold during the eight months period.

Diesel sales during April-November 2020, stood at 44.9 million tonnes as compared to 55.4 million tonnes a year back, according to data from the oil ministry’s Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC).

Petrol consumption too was lower at 17.4 million tonnes,

compared to 20.4 million tonnes during April-Novem-ber 2019.

While Goods and Services Tax (GST) apply on most prod-ucts since its introduction in 2017, oil products and natu-ral gas has been kept out of its preview.

Excise duty, which accrues to the centre, and VAT that goes to the state government, are levied on their sale.

Industry sources said the jump in excise duty was pri-marily because of a record increase in taxes on petrol and

diesel during March and May last year.

The government had raised excise duty on petrol by Rs 13 per litre and that on diesel by Rs 16 a litre in two tranches to mop up gains arising from international crude oil prices falling to a two-decade low.

With this, the total inci-dence of excise duty on petrol rose to Rs 32.98 per litre and that on diesel to Rs 31.83 a litre.

Petrol costs Rs 84.70 a litre in Delhi and a litre of diesel comes for Rs 74.88.

In full 2019-20 fiscal (April

2019 to March 2020), excise collection totalled Rs 2,39,599 crore, according to CGA.

Central excise duty makes up for 39 per cent of petrol and 42.5 per cent of diesel. After considering local sales tax or VAT, the total tax incidence in the price is about two-third of the retail rate.

The excise tax on petrol was Rs 9.48 per litre when the Modi government took office in 2014, and that on diesel was Rs 3.56 a litre.

The government had between November 2014 and January 2016, raised excise duty on petrol and diesel on nine occasions to take away gains arising from plummet-ing global oil prices.

In all, duty on petrol rate was hiked by Rs 11.77 per litre and that on diesel by 13.47 a litre in those 15 months that helped government’s excise mop up more than double to Rs 2,42,000 crore in 2016-17, from Rs 99,000 crore in 2014-15.

The government had cut excise duty by Rs 2 in Octo-ber 2017, and by Rs 1.50 a

year later. But it raised excise duty by Rs 2 per litre in July 2019. It again raised excise duty on March 2020, by Rs 3 per litre each. In May that year, the government hiked excise duty on petrol by Rs 10 per litre and that on diesel by Rs 13 a litre.

While basic excise duty on crude is not so significant, it is ad valorem (a certain percent-age of value) on ATF at 11 per cent and on natural gas-com-pressed 14 per cent. In case of an ad valorem system, earn-ings happen only if the product price goes up.

According to CGA, over tax revenue of the govern-ment is down 45.5 per cent at Rs 688,430 crore during April-November. For the full 2020-21 fiscal (April 2020 to March 2021), the government had budgeted Rs 16.35 lakh crore tax revenue.

Corporation tax mop-up is down 35 per cent at Rs 185,699 crore and income tax collec-tion is 12 per cent lower at Rs 235,038 crore, the CGA data showed.

Excise duty collection up 48% in FY21 on record hike in taxes on fuelExcise duty collection during April-November 2020, was at Rs 1,96,342 crore, up from Rs 1,32,899 crore mop-up during same period in 2019, according to data from CGA

Bank credit grows 3.2% in first 9 months of FY21

NEW DELHI: Retirement fund body EPFO has settled 56.79 lakh COVID-19 non-refund-able advance claims, and has disbursed Rs 14,310 crore till December 31, 2020, reflect-ing the adverse impact of the pandemic on the formal sector workforce.

When the Coronavirus-induced lockdown was imposed in March, the central govern-ment had allowed over 6 crore subscribers of the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation’s (EPFO) to withdraw an amount not exceeding their three months basic pay and dear-ness allowance from their EPF account, to support them dur-ing the nationwide lockdown.

“The EPFO has settled 56.79 lakh COVID-19 withdrawal claims and disbursed Rs 14,310 crore to subscribers during the pandemic till December 31, 2020,” a source said.

According to the source, the EPFO has settled 197.91 lakh claims related to final settle-ment, death, insurance, advance claims and disbursed Rs 73,288 crore till December 31, 2020.

The amount of disbursals under COVID-19 claims to sub-scribers is a sizable amount of over one fifth of the total dis-bursement during the period by the EPFO.

According to the source, the quantum of the disbursement amount under the COVID-19 claims reflects the stress among the formal sector workers due to the adverse impact of the pandemic, which resulted in job loss, pay cuts and forced migration etc.

The Centre introduced the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY) on March 26, to provide aid to the economi-cally weaker sections in view of the pandemic.

The government announced a provision for withdrawal from the EPF Scheme, providing for non-refundable withdrawal to the extent of basic wages and DA for three months or up to 75 per cent of the amount standing to member’s credit in the EPF account, whichever is less.

Further, private EPF trusts also settled 4.19 lakh COVID-19 claims and disbursed Rs 3,983 crore to the members to pro-vide liquidity to meet the exi-gencies due to pandemic, the source said.

Private EPF trusts manage the fund as well as EPF accounts of their members themselves. These firms are exempted from filing EPF returns to the EPFO. These are regulated by the EPFO. PTI

EPFO settles 56.79L Covid advance claims, releases over `14K crore till Dec

NEW DELHI: The govern-ment should allow commer-cial real estate developers to set off GST paid on inputs like cement from the tax liability on rental income to avoid dou-ble taxation and give a boost to the office market to help India maintain its advantage in vari-ous sectors like IT and startups, realty firms and consultants said on Sunday.

In its Budget recommen-dation for the 2021-22 fiscal year, industry body CII has demanded that Section 16 read with Section 17(5) of the CGST Act should be amended to enable the real estate players to avail ITC (input tax credit) on procurement of goods and services during the construction phase where the said immov-able property is intended for commercial leasing or renting.

The denial of ITC, leads to blockage of funds for a real estate player, it said.

“In case of commercial leas-ing of properties and outlets at malls, the renting of such premises attracts 18 per cent which is available as credit to the client. Disallowance of credit during the construction phase leads to the increased cost of construction, working capital loss, increased financing costs impacting the entire supply chain,” CII said.

Tata Realty & Infrastruc-ture Ltd MD & CEO San-jay Dutt mentioned that as per current GST provisions, input GST credit during the construction phase (for com-mercial properties) is not avail-able for set-off against output GST liability from earning of rental income. PTI

Real estate sector seeks ITC on

development of leased commercial

properties

Nandita Banerjee

Low-cost Insurance products that are easily affordable are referred to as sachet insurance

or bite-sized products. Think of small shampoo sachets costing Re1/-. You may prefer to pur-chase them rather than a big container of shampoo. This is a similar concept in insurance.

There are a whole range of products costing less than 50 paise or just a Rupee and going upto Rs. 1000/- annu-ally. If you are aware of them, then you can give yourself the benefit of insurance protec-tion both economically and conveniently

We can make the best use of these policies in the present pandemic-ridden times. They are also tailored to cover your specific needs. Some examples are given below.

Any reference or men-tion of third-party companies’ products and/or services made in this article is for illustrative purposes only. Such reference or mention does not comprise an endorsement, or recom-mendation of the efficacy of any product or service.

Please obtain advice from a suitably qualified professional consultant based on your per-sonal requirements.

The views, opinions or advice expressed in the article do not amount to professional, commercial or legal advice and the author accepts no liability arising directly or indirectly in connection with reliance

on the use of the information provided.

Should one purchase these schemes?

It would always be advis-able to examine all the terms and conditions and particularly the exclusions carefully, before purchase, to avoid unpleasant surprises at the time of claims. The available toll-free numbers should also be utilised to clarify doubts, if any. The claim settle-ment ratio of the insurer should also be verified, before entering into the contract.

Whilst this genre of low-cost schemes is affordable, well packaged and convenient to access, it would be prudent to remember that they are not comprehensive insurance cov-ers. They may address specific needs conveniently and for a busy millennial or someone without any insurance cover, it is quite handy. They can also help to supplement existing insurance covers in specific areas. However, one should eventually move on to compre-hensive insurance covers which provide more adequate insur-ance protection for your needs.

Some common attri-butes of Low-Cost Insurance products

Can they be accessed online?

Yes. All these products are marketed digitally and are dependent on a robust IT plat-form. You can even use your mobile phone for this purpose. Their claim procedures are also streamlined and supported by

their digital platform. Some of the important players in this segment are insurance start-ups like Toffee Insurance, Digit Insurance, Acko Insurance and Mobikwik. Established insur-ers have partnered with them to sell their products. There are even some low cost gov-ernment sponsored schemes.

Some examples of existing low cost insurance products:

1. Train Travel Insurance:IRCTC (Indian Railway

Catering & Tourism Corpora-tion) provides travel insurance at an unbelievably low pre-mium of 49 paise only, inclusive of all taxes, whilst booking tick-ets through the IRCTC site or through the mobile app. Cov-erage starts from the departure of train from the originating station and ends on arrival at destination station. The policy is for a Sum insured of Rs. 10 Lakhs for accidental death and permanent total disablement, Rs. 7.5 lakh for permanent par-tial disability, Rs. 2 lakh for hos-pitalization expenses in case of injury and transportation of mortal remains is covered upto Rs. 10,000.Only Indian citizens above 5 years of age can be covered. The insurers pro-viding these covers are Bharti Axa General Insurance, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance and Shriram General Insurance.

2. In-trip insurance cover:Cab aggregator Ola, in con-

junction with Acko General Insurance and ICICI Lom-bard General Insurance, has

launched an in-trip insurance cover named ‘Chalo Befikar’ at a premium of Re1/-.The pre-mium can go up to Rs 15/- and the cover can go upto Rs. 5 lakhs. It is available for use for its users at major cities across the country.

The insurance purchase can be done while booking an Ola cab by the mobile application. It covers accidental death or disability, loss of baggage, back-pack or laptops, missed flights, accidental medical expenses, daily allowance for hospital-ization, ambulance transpor-tation covers, emergency hotel requirement costs, fire and bur-glary at home etc. The claim process is also fairly simple with quick settlement and min-imum documentation.

3. Back-pack insurance:Many cannot do without

their trendy and faithful back-pack, especially the modern millennial.

Backpack Insurance is pro-vided by HDFC Ergo through

the insurance start-up Toffee Insurance, at a reasonable pre-mium. The premium starts at Rs 25 and goes up, accord-ing to the value of the back-pack. Insurance is provided for duration of 6 months from the invoice date of purchase of the backpack/rucksack or lap-top bag against theft. There is zero depreciation and a token deduction of Rs 250/- at the time of claim.

4. Dengue Insurance:Vector borne diseases have

taken a heavy toll in India, especially in the Metro cit-ies. HDFC Ergo is offering Dengue Care Policy through insurance start-up, Toffee Insurance. It covers hospital-ization expenses due to Den-gue for a sum Insured of Rs 1 lakh for a year, for an annual premium of Rs. 682/-. Even if hospitalization is not required OPD expenses upto Rs. 10,000 are payable for Dengue treat-ment. There is a 15-day waiting period for claims, in the first year. It is available for persons

in the 18 to 65 year age profile and is renewable lifelong.

5. Health Insurance:The Daily Cash Plan offered

by HDFC Ergo through Tof-fee Insurance is a handy cover for taking care of only daily expenses during hospitaliza-tion. If you have a plain vanilla health insurance or a corpo-rate cover, the odds are that this add-on will not be available for you, as part of your existing health plan. You can then buy this Plan to supplement your existing health insurance.

The annual premium is just Rs 449/-. Hospitalization of more than 24 hours is required for a claim pay-out Rs. 1000/- per day, for a maximum of 30 days in a year. This is enhanced to Rs 2000/ per day, in case of admission to an ICU for a max-imum period of 15 days.

There is a waiting period of 30 days in the first year. Pre-existing diseases are covered after 48 months of continuous coverage.

6. Delayed flight insurance cover:

Start-up Digit Insurance is providing a low cost domestic travel cover. It is a fixed-benefit cover for only domestic flight delays at a premium of Rs. 49/-, for a single flight. An amount of Rs.1000/- is payable for a delay of 90 minutes or more during the travel months of February to November.

For delays of 120 minutes or more during the travel months of December and January, there

is a benefit of Rs. 750/-. Sudden and uninformed delays are cov-ered and not delays commu-nicated in advance. The claim process is mobile phone ori-ented and simple and hassle free.

The claim amount is cred-ited to the account of the Insured and can be used for any purpose that he deems fit.

7. Personal Accident Insurance:

Pradhan Mantri Surak-sha Bima Yojana or (PMSBY) is a low cost personal acci-dent insurance scheme. It covers accident insurance for Rs. 2 lakhs at just Rs. 12/- per annum, regardless of economic criteria. Death and Permanent Total Disablement (PTD) are covered for Rs. 2 lakhs. Per-manent Partial Disablement (PPD) is covered for Rs. 1 lakh. PTD is total disability due to the total and irrecoverable loss of both eyes or loss of use of both hands or feet or loss of an eye and loss of use of a hand or a foot. PPD is partial disability due to the total and irrecover-able loss of an eye or loss of use of a hand or foot. This scheme is available to persons between 18 years to 70 years of age. This scheme is available online (on identical terms) in all public sector banks and most private banks who have tied up with various insurers for this pur-pose. The applicant requires an Adhaar card linked savings account and a mobile num-ber. The claim procedure and documentary requirements

are also streamlined for conve-nience. You could even avail of this scheme yourself or enable your domestic staff and others to cover themselves, as a social security measure.

8. Life Insurance:Pradhan Mantri Jeevan

Jyoti Bima Yojana or (PMJJBY) is a low cost life insurance scheme. For an annual pre-mium of Rs. 330/-, irrespective of any economic criteria, an applicant can cover themselves against the risk of either acci-dental or natural death (except suicide) for an amount of Rs. 2 lakhs.

It is a plain term insur-ance cover and there is no pro-vision of any survival benefit or money-back in case of sur-vival. It is available to persons between the ages of 18 years to 50 years and can be renewed upto 55 years of age.

This scheme is also avail-able online (on identical terms) in all public sector banks and most private banks who have tied up with various insurers for this purpose. The applicant requires an Adhaar card linked savings account and a mobile number.

The claim procedure and documentary requirements are also streamlined for con-venience. You could even avail of this scheme yourself or pay the premium as a gift to enable your domestic staff and others to cover themselves, as a social security measure.

Writer is former manager at National Insurance Company Ltd.

Low-cost insurance products in era of Covid pandemic

NEW DELHI: Debt-ridden mortgage lender DHFL Ltd on Sunday said the Committee of Creditors (CoC) has approved resolution plan submitted by Piramal Capital and Hous-ing Finance Limited, a Pira-mal Group company. This was approved by the CoC in its 18th meeting concluded on January 15, 2021, DHFL said in a regu-latory filing.

The “resolution plan sub-mitted by Piramal Capital and Housing Finance Limited was duly approved by CoC by majority voting under sec-tion 30(4) of the Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code....as the suc-cessful resolution plan,” it said.

Piramal’s bid received 94 per cent votes as compared to 45 per cent for the US-based Oaktree Capital.

Since the conclusion of the fifth and final round of the bidding process last month, Piramal and Oaktree Capi-tal each claimed that their bid was the highest and fully implementable.

According to sources, suit-ors have submitted bids in the range of Rs 35,000-37,000 crore.

In November 2019, the Reserve Bank referred Dewan

Housing Finance Ltd (DHFL), the third-largest pure-play mortgage lender, to the National Company Law Tri-bunal (NCLT) for insolvency proceedings.

DHFL was the first finance company to be referred to NCLT by the RBI using spe-cial powers under Section 227 of the IBC. Prior to that, the company’s board was super-seded and R Subramaniakumar was appointed as the admin-istrator. He is also the resolu-tion professional under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC).

As of July 2019, the com-pany owed Rs 83,873 crore to banks, the National Hous-ing Board, mutual funds and bondholders.

Its large lenders are SBI, including SBI Singapore with Rs 10,083 crore exposure. Others are Bank of India (Rs 4,125 crore), Canara Bank (Rs 2,681 crore), NHB (Rs 2,434 crore), Union Bank (Rs 2,378 crore), Syndicate Bank (Rs 2,229 crore), Bank of Baroda (Rs 2,075 crore), Indian Bank (Rs 1,552 crore), Central Bank (Rs 1,389 crore), IDBI Bank (Rs 999 crore) and HDFC Bank (Rs 361 crore). PTI

Newsprint cost up 20% in 3 months; publishers seek waiver in customs duty

DHFL resolution: Lenders approve Piramal’s bid

mp sports 11millenniumpost|KOLKATA|MONDAY, 18 JANUARY, 2021

Debutant Washington, Shardul keep India in contention

NO STOPPING THE NEWCOMERS

BRISBANE: Debutant Wash-ington Sundar and Shardul Thakur punched above their weight with splendid half-centu-ries to keep Australia at bay and India bullish after an engross-ing third day's play in the series-deciding fourth Test here on Sunday.

Australia's openers -- David Warner (20) and Marcus Har-ris (1) -- saw out six overs, and extended the home team's lead to 54 by stumps after India's first innings ended at 336.

However, Australia's lead could have been much more had it not been for a delightful 123-run partnership for the sev-enth wicket between Washing-ton (62) and Shardul (67), who defied and then attacked the rival bowling attack with gusto.

"We knew their bowlers were tiring out a bit so it was a matter of hanging in there for one hour. We knew we probably would be on top if we hung in," said Shardul at the post-play press conference.

Pacer Josh Hazlewood fin-ished with a well-deserved 5/57 for Australia, a reward for con-sistently bowling with an impec-cable line and length at a brisk

pace.Symbolising the courage

shown by the visitors, now rendered almost second-string owing to a plethora of injures suffered by their top players through the four-match series, Washington and Shardul mixed caution with aggression to bail

their team out of a precarious 186 for six.

First, they turned unlikely saviours after three soft dismiss-als pushed India on the back foot, and in the final session, the two opened up and went after the world-class Austra-lian attack.

If his nine fours were not enough, Shardul bludgeoned off-spinner Nathan Lyon, holder of 397 wickets, for a maxi-mum over long-on to reach his maiden Test fifty in style in only his second match.

In fact, Shardul opened his account with a hooked six off

the world's number one bowler, Pat Cummins.

Playing in his first Test, Washington too soon got to his maiden fifty in the traditional format while finding the fence seven times and clearing it once.

He became the first visit-ing cricketer in Australia in 74 years to grab three wickets and smash a half-century on debut. The one before him was also an Indian, Dattu Phadkar, who made 51 while batting at No.8 and took three wickets during a 1947/48 tour.

Earlier, Washington and Shardul did not let Australia run away with the game after Hazlewood sliced through India's middle-order with the wickets of Mayank Agarwal (38) and Rishabh Pant (23) at the start of the second session.

At tea break, India trailed Australia's first-innings total of 369 by 116 runs at the Gabba.

This was largely due to the fight put up by Washington and Shardul who played their strokes without worrying about the end result, frustrating the high-qual-ity Australian attack with their carefree approach. AGENCIES

NorthEast United return to winning ways, beat Jamshedpur FC 2-1

VASCO: NorthEast United FC defeated Jamshedpur FC 2-1 to end their seven-game win-less streak in the Indian Super League here on Sunday.

The win propelled NEUFC to the fifth spot in the standings with 16 points.

Ashutosh Mehta (36th min-ute) put NEUFC ahead with his first ISL goal before substitute Deshorn Brown (61st) doubled the tally for the Highlanders on his debut.

Jamshedpur skipper Stephen Hartley (89th) pulled one back for his side late in the game but despite pressing the NEUFC defence hard in the second half, Owen Coyle's side slumped to a third straight defeat.

NEUFC were the better side

in the opening half, dominating possession and creating goal-scoring opportunities. They deservedly went into the break

with a one-goal cushion which could have been more, but for some fine saves by JFC goal-keeper TP Rehenesh.

It was Jamshedpur who cre-ated the first big chance of the game in the eighth minute but NEUFC custodian Subasish Roy Chowdhury denied them the opener. After Jamshedpur won a throw-in, Khassa Camara's poor clearance fell towards Nerijus Valskis, who found Jadhav just outside the box. The youngster, in turn, whipped a cross for Val-skis, who controlled the ball and struck on the volley but saw his shot blocked by Chowdhury.

The best chance for NEUFC came in the 32nd minute. Luis Machado, a constant livewire in the first half, came close to breaking the deadlock but Rehenesh did well to keep it out thanks to a brilliant acro-batic effort. AGENCIES

Mount delivers again for Lampard as Chelsea eke out big winLONDON: Four months into the season and Chelsea man-ager Frank Lampard appears no closer to knowing his best lineup following a 300 million offseason spending spree that delivered him a squad burst-ing with quality.

One player he knows he cannot do without is Mason Mount.

The England international looked to be the man with the most to lose coming out of a summer when Kai Havertz, Hakim Ziyech and Timo Wer-ner arrived at Stamford Bridge at great expense to add compe-tition to the attacking midfield and forward spots.

But there was Mount on Saturday, starting for Chelsea for the 12th straight English Premier League game he has played 90 minutes in all of them and grabbing a badly needed

winner for Lampard against Fulham at Craven Cottage.

Mount's 78th-minute goal in a 1-0 victory capped a man-of-the-match performance where Chelsea's more high-profile players again came up short against a team which played the entire second half with 10 men, following the 44th-minute sending-off of U.S. international Antonee Robinson.

Werner came off the bench in the 75th and squandered a glorious, one-on-one chance in stoppage time, summing up a striker short of confidence after one goal in two months for club and country.

Havertz, signed for 92 mil-lion and supposedly a direct threat to Mount, never got onto the field in a sign that he is still not fully trusted by Lampard.

Ziyech was substituted after

75 minutes, having offered little.Mount was there, of course,

until the end. He is a trusted lieutenant of Lampard, who had the young, hard-working Englishman with him when manager of Derby County in the second-tier Championship in the 2018-19 season.

"His quality and attitude is brilliant, Lampard said of Mount, who has started 16 of Chelsea's 18 games second only to N'Golo Kante.

Mount's goal came when he drilled home a loose ball from a central position inside the area after Fulham goalkeeper

Alphonse Areola scooped away a cross, and it brought Chelsea only its second win in its last seven league matches.

That poor recent run plunged Chelsea to ninth place and prompted scrutiny on Lampard, the club great who is in just his third year in senior soccer management and facing huge expectations this season.

I won't say I was blown away with the performance, he said.

Also under scrutiny this weekend are goal-scoring play-ers, with the British govern-ment having told teams to avoid close contact such as hugging and kissing during celebrations as the country battles the Coro-navirus pandemic and remains in lockdown.

One player who stuck to the protocols was James Mad-dison, who scored Leicester's first goal in its 2-0 win over

Southampton and responded by waving away his approach-ing teammates and applaud-ing himself repeatedly. Harvey Barnes netted the second goal in second-half stoppage time at King Power Stadium.

Leicester jumped into sec-ond place with a joint-best 11th victory of the campaign, split-ting leader Manchester United and champion Liverpool ahead of their much-anticipated match at Anfield on Sunday.

Sam Allardyce is known for his acts of escapology as a soc-cer manager, and it might be his greatest feat yet if he is able to keep West Bromwich Albion in the Premier League.

A month after taking charge of the relegation-threatened team, Big Sam as he is widely known got his first win at Wolverhampton 3-2 in a Mid-lands derby. AGENCIES

With plenty of draws in kitty, Chennaiyin FC seek win against SC East Bengal

MARGAO: Unable to sneak into the top-four so far with just two wins from 11 matches, former champions Chennaiyin FC would look for full three points when they take on SC East Bengal in an Indian Super League game, here on Monday.

Chennaiyin have lost just one of their last seven matches. That seems quite impressive, but they also have had five draws, on par with their oppo-nents SC East Bengal. Only NorthEast United have played more draws this season than the two teams.

Chennaiyin head coach Csaba Laszlo hoped his team would do better as the league moves towards the business end.

"We had a lot of draws

where we could have won games but I think we will get stronger in the second part of the season and I hope that the team will show, not just their fighting spirit, but also that we can score more goals and win games," he said.

Chennaiyin endured many injuries this season, but the coach sounded positive.

"We have players waiting to show their talent and the atmosphere and chemistry in the team is good," he said.

SCEB's new signing Bright Enobarkhare has made a huge impact for the Kolkata side, who have managed to crawl their way higher after spend-ing most of the first part of the league at the bottom.

SCEB are unbeaten in their

last six games, and coach Rob-bie Fowler's team is now just five points below the play-off position.

Fowler believes his side can make it through to the play-offs.

"There are plenty of pos-itives we can gather. There are a lot of points to play for and we'll continue to try and get those points. So until it's mathematically impossible, we will go on believing that we can do it.

"We are taking baby steps to get to where we believe we should and want to be. We got to keep going and keep doing what we got to do. Let's not lose games and that's what we are trying to do," added Fowler. AGENCIES

Bundesliga set to finish season

without fans amid pandemic

FRANKFURT: Fans are highly unlikely to return to German soccer stadiums before the end of the season, the chief execu-tive of the top two men's divi-sions has said.

Christian Seifert, CEO of the German Football League, said he presumes there will be no change to the policy before the end of the season, in com-ments published Sunday by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung newspaper.

In any case (of a fan return), not in a significant number. If we had ruled out games with-out fans from the start as some people demanded, the system would have collapsed, Seifert said.

And no one at (the league) or the clubs wants to have games without fans either. However, we still have them because they are the only per-mitted option for hosting games, and presumably we will have them until the end of the season.

Germany started the 2020-21 season with a six-week trial in September and Octo-ber of limited numbers of fans allowed at games, up to 20% of the stadium capacity depend-ing on the local Coronavirus case numbers.

The trial was part of a wide-ranging deal between German state and federal politicians and was not extended after the number of virus cases soared across the country.

The last major soccer nation to bring back fans was England, which allowed small numbers of supporters at some games last month in a scheme that was shut down weeks later as the country entered a renewed lockdown. AGENCIES

Australian Open arrivals hit by 3 COVID-19 positive testsMELBOURNE: Three Corona-virus cases have been detected among charter flights carrying tennis players, coaches and offi-cials to Melbourne for the Aus-tralian Open, forcing 47 players into strict hotel quarantine.

The players from the two affected flights arriving from Los Angeles and Abu Dhabi were in a strict 14-day quar-antine, unable to leave their hotel rooms or practice, health authorities and tournament organizers said Saturday. The Australian Open starts on Feb. 8.

Health authorities said two positive COVID-19 cases emerged from a charter flight from Los Angeles. The third positive test was from a flight from Abu Dhabi in the past 24 hours, Tennis Australia said.

The coach of Canadian star Bianca Andreescu said he has tested positive after arriving from Abu Dhabi.

Sylvain Bruneau said the rest of my team is negative."

Andreescu will quarantine at her hotel, her agent, Jona-than Dasnieres de Veigy, said in a text to The Canadian Press.

Authorities earlier said that all passengers from the Los Angeles flight would go into the 14-day hotel quarantine.

"All remaining 66 passen-gers on the flight have been determined to be close con-tacts," Victoria state's health department said in a statement about the Los Angeles flight.

"Any players and support people will not be able to leave quarantine to attend training. The remaining flight crew all tested negative and were per-mitted to fly out without pas-sengers directly to their home port."

Australian Open tour-nament director Craig Tiley issued a statement saying the 24 players who were on that flight will not be able to leave their hotels rooms for 14 days and until they are medically cleared. AGENCIES

Maddison celebrates alone as Leicester jump to 2nd in EPL

LEICESTER: Leicester climbed to second place in the English Premier League by beating Southampton 2-0, with James Maddison marking his opening goal with a humor-ous solo celebration to follow new pandemic protocols urg-ing players to stop hugging and kissing.

After running onto Youri Tielemans' pass and smash-ing home a rising shot into the roof of the net in the 37th min-ute, Maddison turned to face his approaching teammates and with a broad smile on his face waved them away before applauding himself repeatedly.

"If little things like that are what we need to keep football going, then so be it," Maddi-son said.

"We have been told to stop

gatherings of people and I tried to make it light-hearted.

"Footballers, we get a lot of stick and it's nice to put a lighter note on it."

Amid a surge in COVID-19 cases in England because of a new variant, the Premier League has warned clubs that punishments will be handed out for flouting the rules when it comes to celebrations.

Some have questioned whether football should con-tinue to be played in the circumstances.

Harvey Barnes netted the second goal in the fifth and final minute of second-half stoppage time at King Power Stadium, running in behind Southampton's defense to slot home a finish at the end of a counterattack.

Leicester's joint-best 11th victory of the campaign meant Brendan Rodgers' team split leader Manchester United and champion Liverpool ahead of their much-anticipated match at Anfield on Sunday.

Leicester again looks like challenging for the Champi-ons League qualification spots like last year when the team fell short in the final weeks after looking like a lock in the top four. "It's nice to be second in the table," Maddison said, "but last year we petered off in the new year so the next few months will be tough." South-ampton lacked a cutting edge without star striker Danny Ings, who missed the game after only recently returning to training after contracting the Coronavirus. AGENCIES

Serie A: Napoli beat Fiorentina 6-0MILAN: Lorenzo Insigne scored two and set up another as a stunning first-half perfor-mance saw Napoli blow Fio-rentina away, winning 6-0 to move into the top four in Serie A on Sunday.

Napoli moved third, three points below Inter Milan and six below league leader AC Milan.

The Milan teams still have to play this weekend but have played the same number of matches as Napoli. Inter wel-comes nine-time champion Juventus later in the headline match of the weekend.

If Antonio Conte beats his former team, Inter would move top on goal difference ahead of Milan's match at Cagliari on Monday. In Naples, Gennaro Gattuso's team got off to a bril-

liant start as Insigne scored in the fifth minute.

Fiorentina had chances and hit the crossbar but Napoli was clinical with its opportunities.

Diego Demme doubled Napoli's lead in the 36th fol-lowing a classic counterattack and Insigne set up Hirving Loz-ano for the third two minutes later.

The match was all but over when Piotr Zielinski added another on the stroke of halftime.

Insigne doubled his tally with a second-half penalty after Ti mou Bakayoko was tripped by Fiorentina mid-fielder Gaetano Castrovilli.

Substitute Matteo Politano capped a dominating Nap-oli performance in the final minute. AGENCIES

Australia's openers, David Warner (20) and Marcus Harris (1), play six overs to extend the home team's lead to 54 by stumps after India's first innings ended at 336

India's Washington Sundar bats during play on day three of the fourth cricket test between India and Australia at the Gabba, Brisbane, Australia, Sunday PTI

TP Rehenesh, goalkeeper of Jamshedpur FC saves a goal during the Indian Super League match between Jamshedpur FC and NorthEast United FC in Goa PTI

FC Goa score late goal to hold ATK Mohun Bagan to 1-1 draw

MARGAO: A late equaliser by youngster Ishan Pandita helped FC Goa play out a 1-1 draw against ATK Mohun Bagan in an Indian Super League match here on Sunday.

Substitute Pandita's goal came in the 85th minute after a 75th-minute free-kick strike from Edu Garcia had put ATKMB ahead.

Both the teams played an exciting and evenly fought match, trading missed opportunities.

The first half played itself out in predictable terms. FC Goa dominated possession -- they had 62 per cent of the ball in that period -- and sprayed passes around the pitch while ATKMB maintained their shape and ensured their oppo-nents did not get many clear chances.

Both the sides, however, managed to find the crossbar in the opening half.

ATKMB went close in the 27th minute off a corner by Gar-cia. His delivery was headed into the ground by Subasish Bose. The ball bounced and looped over FC Goa keeper Naveen Kumar's head.

Unfortunately for ATKMB, it struck the crossbar and bounced back into play.

FC Goa returned the favour just four minutes later when Seriton Fernandes and Alberto Noguera played a quick one-two, before sending the former free on the right flank.

Seriton looked to square the ball but was unable to find a teammate in the area. That moment of hesitation allowed Sandesh Jhingan to get a foot on the ball but the deflection took it over ATKMB keeper Arindam Bhattacharja and on to the crossbar.

FC Goa started looking more threatening after that. In the 36th minute, Bhattacharja was called into action, to stop a Saviour Gama shot.

FC Goa nearly scored soon after the restart. In the 50th min-ute, Seriton ran free down the right and looped a cross into the box, that eluded everyone.

The ball crashed into the inside of the upright but some-how did not find the net.

Six minutes later, Bhattacha-rja was alerted again to save a

deflected shot from Brandon Fernandes.

It was Juan Ferrando’s men who were running the show after half time, but then, against the run of play, ATKMB found a goal.

Roy Krishna was fouled by James Donachie just outside the box. ATKMB has always been threatening from set-pieces this season and this time was no different. Garcia stepped up and powered one into the right-hand corner of the net.

When ATKMB score a late goal, it’s usually the win-ner, but this time, there was a twist in the tale. With just minutes left on the clock, Pan-dita diverted it into the net from a corner to drag his team level. AGENCIES

Subhasish Bose of ATKMB during the Indian Super League match between FC Goa and ATK Mohun Bagan at Fatorda Stadium in Goa PTI

BLACKBUCK POACHING

KOLKATA|MONDAY, 18 JANUARY, 2021|millenniumpostmp entertainment12

Director Ali Abbas Zafar’s new web show ‘Tandav’ has landed into contro-

versy for allegedly offending Hindu religious sentiments, soon after it was released on Friday. A section of people has taken offence over the show’s one particular scene wherein actor Moham-med Zeeshan Ayyub plays a

stage performer appearing as Lord Shiva and is heard saying, “Azaadi, what the...?”

Many viewers believe that the makers were attempting to “mock”

and “target” the Hindu deity, even as people trended #BoycottTandav. Leaders, celebrities and other popular

stars have joined the chorus

to ban the web series.

While there are a sec-tion of other people who have stood in sup-

port of the web series.BJP leader Kapil Mishra alleged

that Tandav is ‘anti-Dalit’ and full of ‘communal hatred’ against Hindus. In a tweet, he requested people to write to Prakash Javadekar appealing for a ban on the web series.

Cricketer Harbhajan Singh praised Sunil Grovar’s acting calling it a bril-liant performance.

“Sunil Grovar paaji, what a brilliant performance in Tandav on prime video in. Some of your dialogues were like a googly, totally unexpected,” Harbhajan Singh wrote in a tweet. BJP state spokes-person Gaurav Goel said that some ele-ments of Bollywood have ‘nefarious plans’ against the Hindus. AGENCIES

Freida Pinto will be seen portray-ing the role of British spy Noor Inayat Khan in the upcoming

limited series ‘Spy Princess’. She will also executive-produce the limited series based on Shrabani Basu’s book ‘Spy Princess: The Life of Noor Inayat Khan’, reported ‘deadline.com’.

Anand Tucker will direct the proj-ect and Olivia Hetreed will pen the screen adaptation based on the book, with author Basu attached as a series consultant.

“She was a fierce and amazing woman, the most unlikely heroine of World War II. Sending women to the front line is controversial even now. Then it was unthinkable,” said Freida said about Noor.

She added, “Sending a Sufi mystic, who will not use a gun, daughter of a long-haired Indian Guru who preaches love and peace - ridiculous! But Noor thrives, not in spite of her differences, but because of them. Her struggle to reconcile her values with the desire to find her own path and with her complex sense of duty is something I am so excited to explore and to recreate.”

“Olivia has crafted Noor’s story into something very powerful, thrilling and extremely relevant. Noor is unlike all the other female superheroes who almost leave us mere mortals to believe that courage means being good at everything,” shared the actor.

The ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ star further said, “Noor has a quiet strength that she is not entirely aware of. Alone in Paris, she lives and loves more intensely in a few months than most of us do in a lifetime, helping establish the ‘Secret Armies’ of the Resistance who will rise up on D-Day, aston-ishing the men who said she should never have been sent to the front line.” AGENCIES

Swara Bhasker called out against the threats that were issued against ‘Fukrey’ star

Richa Chadha for her portrayal of a Dalit woman in her upcoming film ‘Madam Chief Minister’. The latter had recently apologised for a now-retracted poster, which featured her holding a broom in her hand.

“This is absolutely shameful and to be condemned in no uncertain terms. You can have ideological issues and problems with a film but this is criminal intimidation and incitement to violence. Ambed-karites, Dalit feminists and just sane people, so stand up and call this out,” wrote the ‘Veere Di Wed-ding’ star.

Richa is seen playing an aspir-ing politician, who works for the

backward castes and women in a largely patriarchal society. However, she received backlash over a poster and the mak-ers too were criticised for not choosing a Dalit actor for the role. AGENCIES

Bollywood star Salman Khan, who continues to deal with the blackbuck poaching case since

1998, was exempted again on January 16, as per the reports of a leading news channel revealed.

“Considering the pandemic situ-ation, we submitted an application seeking exemption from his appear-ance,” informed Nishant Bora, Khan’s counsel.

Sessions Judge Devendra Kachha-waha accepted the appeal and hence the next hearing will take place on Feb-ruary 6. This is the 17th time that the ‘Bharat’ star had skipped hearing in the case ever since it happened before the sessions’ court in April 2018.

The blackbuck incident happened during the shoot of ‘Hum Saath Saath Hain’ in October 1998 near Kank-ani village near Jodhpur. Along with Salman, other members of the film who were present with him were co-stars Saif Ali Khan, Tabu, Neelam and Sonali Bendre, who were also acquit-ted. AGENCIES

Poet-lyr-icist

Javed Akhtar, who turned

76 on Jan-uary 17, got

good wishes as his family mem-

bers and other indus-try friends wished him a

happy birthday.Wife and veteran actor Sha-

bana Azmi shared a picture of the 22nd edition of his book of poems

‘Tarkash’ on ‘Twitter’ and wrote, “Con-gratulations Javed Akhtar on the 22nd edition of ‘Tarkash’. That is a record for a book of poetry.”

“Happy birthday Pa. Love you,” wrote

Farhan Akhtar, who also shared a child-hood picture of himself with his father.

Alia Bhatt also shared a picture of Javed on her ‘Instagram Stories’ and wrote, “Happiest birthday Javed saab. I miss our meetings and long conversations about cinema and life. Here is to wish you the best, best year and I truly hope to see you very soon.”

“When I thought I could not do it, you told me that I could. For that, I can never repay you. Thank you! Happy birthday, Javed Akhtar,” wished Anil Kapoor.

Divya Dutta also shared a photo with him and wrote, “Jan-madin mubarak Javed Akhtar saab! Dher saara pyaar.” AGENCIES

Indian classical musician Ghulam Mustafa Khan passed away at the age of

89. He had received several awards in his lifetime, most notable being the Padma Shri and the Padma Bhushan. Born in Badayun, Uttar Pradesh, he came from a family of musicians.

Veteran singer Lata Mangeshkar shared the sad news on her ‘Twitter’ account and wrote: “Mujhe abhi abhi ye dukhad khabar mili hai ki mahan shastriya gayak Ustad Ghulam Mustafa Khan Saheb is duniya mein nahi rahe. Ye sunke mujhe bahut dukh hua. Wo gayak to acche the hi, par insaaan bhi bahut acche the.”

“Meri bhanji ne bhi Khan sahab se sangeet sikha hai,

maine bhi unse thoda sangeet sikha tha. Unke jaane se san-geet ki bahut haani hui hai. Main unko vinamra shrad-dhanjali arpan karti hun,” the tweet read further.

The late musician’s daughter-in-law said that he breathed his last at his Bandra home at 12.37 pm on January 17. Later, she shared a heart-felt note on ‘Instagram’: “With a very heavy heart, I inform you all that my father-in-law, the pillar of our family and a legend of our nation, Padma Vibhushan Ustad Ghulam Mustafa Khan sahab has left for his heavenly abode.”

“I’m very saddened to know about the passing away of Ustad Ghulam Mustafa Khan. He was one of the most respected and versatile Vocal-ists of our country. His musi-cal legacy lives on forever! My deepest condolences are with his family. May his soul Rest In Peace,” wrote Sarod maestro Amjad Ali Khan.

Music composer A R Rahman shared a song and expressed his sadness: “He was the sweetest teacher of all. May the Ghafoor-ur-Rahim give you a special place in the next world Ustad Ghulam Mustafa Khan.” AGENCIES

Bollywood superstar Akshay Kumar made the announcement that

he will contribute towards the construction of the Bhavya Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh.

Sharing a heartwarming video message, the Khiladi actor also appealed to the peo-ple to contribute as per their capabilities so that the com-ing generation continues to be inspired by Maryada Purush-ottam Shri Ram.

“I’m happy that the con-

struction of the Bhavya Ram Mandir has begun in Ayod-hya. Now is the time for us to make contributions. I have already started and I hope that everyone will come together to contribute their part for the temple,” said the actor in the video.

In the video message, Akshay Kumar narrated the story of the famous squirrel which etched itself across the memo-ries of the Hindu Civil-isation by contributing

towards the construction of the famous bridge Ram Setu.

‘Shri Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust’ had already announced that the temple will be built through voluntary donations by Hin-dus. A campaign was also launched to invite donations

for the construction of the Bhavya Ram Mandir. AGENCIES

Saif’s ‘Tandav’ lands into row for ‘offending

religious sentimentsNetizens took to ‘Twitter’ to express

their dismay over the series and flooded social media with #BanTandavNow

Salman exempted again, next hearing on February 6

The actor had been dealing with the case that happened in October 1998 near Kankani village

Freida to essay British spy in ‘Spy Princess’

The ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ star will star in and executive-produce the limited series based on Shrabani’s book ‘Spy Princess: The Life Of Noor Inayat Khan’

Ghulam Mustafa Khan dies at 89Veteran singer Lata Mangeshkar, music composer AR Rahman and Sarod maestro Amjad Ali Khan paid tributes to the late Indian classical musician

Actor Swara asked Ambedkarites and Dalit feminists to stand up against the violent remarks issued against Richa for ‘Madam Chief Minister’

B’wood wishes Javed Akhtar on his 76th birthday

Akshay to donate for Ram Mandir’s construction

Swara condemns threats against Richa