t INDORE t BHOPAL t UJJAIN t MUMBAI t PUNEr Regd. No. Indore MP/ICD 216/2018-2020

free-pressINdoRe | tuesday | july 21, 2020 www.freepressjournal.in

r RNI No. 38281/83

DUBAI: Saudi Arabia's King Salman has been admitted to ahospital in the capital, Riyadh, for medical tests due toinflammation of the gallbladder, the kingdom's Royal Courtsaid Monday in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press

Agency.The statement said the 84-year-old monarch is being testedat the King Faisal Specialist Hospital. The brief statement didnot provide further details.

Saudi King hospitalised due to inflamed gall bladderWORLDFREEPRESS

INDORE | TUESDAY | JULY 21, 2020

2

AGENCIES / Washington

President Donald Trump isrefusing to publicly committo accepting the results of theupcoming White House elec-tion, recalling a similarthreat he made weeks beforethe 2016 vote, as he scoffs atpolls showing him lagging be-hind Democrat Joe Biden.Trump says it's too early tomake such an ironclad guar-antee."I have to see. Look ... I haveto see," Trump told moderatorChris Wallace during a wide-ranging interview on "FoxNews Sunday." "No, I'm notgoing to just say yes. I'm notgoing to say no, and I didn'tlast time either." The Biden campaign re-sponded: "The American peo-ple will decide this election.And the United States gov-

ernment is perfectly capableof escorting trespassers outof the White House." Meanwhile, Trump againquestioned the competence ofJoe Biden.“Let Biden sit through aninterview like this, he’ll be onthe ground crying for mom-my,” Trump said in an oftencontentious interview withcorrespondent Chris Wallaceon “Fox News Sunday.” “He’ll say, ‘Mommy, mom-my, please take me home.’”Trump added: “He can’t do

an interview. He’s incompe-tent.”The president described thenation's top infectious dis-eases expert, Dr. AnthonyFauci, as a "a little bit of analarmist" about the coron-avirus pandemic, and Trumpstuck to what he had saidback in February - that thevirus is "going to disappear."On Fox, he said, "I'll be righteventually." It is remarkable that a sit-ting president would expressless than complete confidencein the American democracy'selectoral process. But forTrump, it comes from his in-surgent playbook of fouryears ago, when in the closingstages of his race againstHillary Clinton, he said hewould not commit to honour-ing the election results if theDemocrat won.

TRUMP REFUSES TO ACCEPT DEFEAT Pressed during an

October 2016 debateabout whether he wouldabide by the voters' will,Trump responded that he would "keep you

in suspense."

Biden is in the leadWASHINGTON: A new poll has revealed that USPresident Donald Trump was 15 points behind pre-sumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden in the run-up to November's election, it was reported.The ABC News/Washington Post poll released onSunday which revealed a close margin, 54 per centfor Biden and 44 per cent for Trump, was the fifthconsecutive high-quality national poll that showedthe former Vice President ahead of Trump by 10points or more, reports Politico news.Of the nine such polls conducted since the secondhalf of June, Biden has led Trump by double digitsin seven of them.Prior to the release of the ABC News/WashingtonPost poll on Sunday, Biden held a 9-point lead in theRealClearPolitics average.Meanwhile, a Quinnipiac University poll releasedlast week, 45 per cent of registered voters had a fa-vorable opinion of Biden, and 43 per cent viewedhim unfavorably.

CORONA CURE CORNER

UK secures 90m vaccine dosesADITI KHANNA

London

The UKgovernmenthas signeddeals foraccess toaround90 mil-

lion doses of promising coron-avirus vaccines under develop-ment, Business Secretary AlokSharma announced here on Mon-day.The senior Indian-origin Cabinetminister said the government hasagreed significant partnershipswith leading pharmaceutical and

vaccine companiesBioNTech/Pfizer and Valneva thatare developing vaccines to protectpeople against the deadly coron-avirus."The hunt to find a vaccine is atruly global endeavour and we aredoing everything we can to ensurethe British public get access to asafe and effective coronavirus vac-cine as soon as possible," Sharmasaid."This new partnership withsome of the world's foremost phar-maceutical and vaccine compa-nies will ensure the UK has thebest chance possible of securing avaccine that protects those most atrisk," he said.

HOPES FROM PROTEIN TREATMENT: A UK-based biotech company on Monday declared positive"breakthrough" results from a clinical trial of a protein-based treatment for COVID-19, which "greatly" reducedpatients requiring intensive care. Synairgen said its SNG001 formulation uses a protein called interferon beta,which the body produces when it gets a viral infection, and is inhaled directly into the lungs of patients withcoronavirus, using a nebuliser, in the hope that it will stimulate an immune response.

• Families step in at Kabul COVID-19 ward to

take care of patients

• Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam says coronavirus

situation ‘very severe’

• Cases continue to rise in Australia's Victoria

• UK warns public against being duped by

COVID-19 scams

• Saudi announces readiness for Haj season

DASHBOARD Federal judge’s sonshot dead in USA

AGENCIESNorth Brunswick

A gunman shot and killedthe 20-year-old son of a fed-eral judge in New Jerseyand shot and injured herhusband Sunday at the fam-ily home, the state's chiefdistrict judge said.The shootings occurred atthe North Brunswick homeof U.S. District Judge Es-ther Salas, and killed herson, Daniel, Chief DistrictJudge Freda Wolfson toldThe Associated Press. Herhusband, defense lawyerMark Anderl, was injured,Wolfson said.The gunman posed as adelivery driver, accordingto a judiciary official whowasn't authorized to com-ment and spoke anony-

mously to the AP. Theysaid Salas was in the base-ment at the time and was-n't injured and her hus-band is recovering fromsurgery.The perpetrator, believedto be a lone gunman, wasnot in custody, the officialsaid. The FBI tweeted Sun-day night that it's lookingfor one suspect in theshootings.

The judge's 20-yr-oldson Daniel Anderl was killed, and her defense attorney husband Mark Anderl, 63, was critically injured

Oxford vaccine is safeA coronavirus vaccine created by theUniversity of Oxford appears safeand induces a strong immuneresponse within the body, scientistsannounced on Monday after the firstphase of human trials.Doses of the vaccine were given to1,077 healthy adults aged between18 and 55 in five UK hospitals inApril and May as part of the phaseone clinical trial and results,published in the 'Lancet' medicaljournal. The results show theyinduced strong antibody and T-cellimmune responses for up to 56 daysafter they were given the vaccine.

Double digit +ve after 5-day ton stunners

ouR STaFF REPoRTER

Indore

There was respite on Mon-day as the number ofCOVID-19 patients droppedbelow the 100-mark afterfive days. As many as 70more patients were testedpositive out of 1,606 samplereports received. Rate ofpositive patients wasrecorded at 4.36 per centand total number of pa-tients touched the 6225-mark.Two•deaths were reportedon Monday but departmentofficials added two moredeaths of April whichwere not included then asthe victims’ reports ar-rived after their demise.Thus, the deaths toll read 1short of 300.According to the bulletinreleased by CMHO, reportsof total samples receivedtill Monday night was

1,21,930 and total numberof samples tested positivewere are 6,225. As many as1,506 samples were testednegative on Monday. “Wehave taken as many as 1,303more samples,” he added.As many as 1560 patientsare being treated at variouscity hospitals. Altogether,4,366 patients have beendischarged so far.

Lokayukta ordersprobe against

Adg Madhu kumar ouR STaFF REPoRTER

BHOPAL

Lokayukta NK Gupta hastaken cognisance of viralvideo of ADG V Madhu Ku-mar taking envelopes whenhe was ADG, Ujjain range.On July 19, a video of thethen transport commis-sioner V Madhu Kumarwent viral on social media.In the video, he was seencollecting ‘envelopes’ frompolice officials. It was as-sumed that the ‘envelopes’contained money.The ADG denied the alle-gations and demanded aprobe into the matter. Buton Monday, the Lokayuktaopened a front against theofficer and took the cogni-sance. The Lokayukta is-sued the orders to institutethe inquiry against Kumarand an SP-rank officer willconduct the investigations.The conflict between theADG and the Lokayukta isnot new. In March 2019, theNath government had ap-pointed the officer as anADG in Lokayukta. Thattime he was the directorgeneral of the EOW. The appointment wasprotested by the Lokayuktaand was claimed that ap-pointment was made with-out taking consent fromthe organisation.

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VIKAS DUBEY ENCOUNTER

SC rips UP bid tomanage probe

ouR BuREau

NEW DELHI

Supreme Court on Mondayripped into the UP Govern-ment's attempt to block itshand in the alleged VikasDubey fake encounter caseby setting up an inquirypanel on its own, with a re-tired Allahabad HC judgeas its chairman.Overriding UP's deci-sion, Chief Justice SABobde ruled that the in-quiry commission will beheaded by a retired judgeof the SC; also, a formerIPS officer of the rank ofDGP will be a member ofthe commission. The former HC, who hasbeen named by the UPgovt, will also be part ofthe commission. JusticesR Subhash Reddy and A SBopanna also asked theGovernment to institutethe commission as direct-ed, when Solicitor GeneralTushar Mehta tried to ap-prise it that the state gov-ernment had already insti-tuted an inquiry.The CJI also said the draftnotification reconstitutingthe inquiry commissionwould be placed before itfor approval.Expressing reservationover the terms of referenceof the inquiry committeeset up by the UP govt,which includes other crim-inal cases against Dubey,CJI Bobde said, “You arechanging the focus intosomething else.”

News Brief

ICC postpones2020 T20 WC

New DeLHi: Having dilly-dallied over the last coupleof months, the InternationalCricket Council (ICC) onMonday finally announcedthat the 2020 edition of theT20 World Cup to be heldin Australia has beenpostponed due to thecoronavirus pandemic. The ICC in a releaseconfirmed the ICC Men'sT20 World Cup in Australia2020 has been postponeddue to COVID-19pandemic.

US, India conductnaval exercise

New DeLHi: A US Navycarrier strike group, led byUSS Nimitz, is conductingbasic maritime drills withIndian warships while on itsway from South China Seato deployment in the M-E.Called “Passex” in navalparlance, the basicmanoeuvre comes at a timewhen India and China arelocked in a tense borderconfrontation, people familiarwith the developm-ents said.The drills also come amidstmounting tensions in SouthChina sea.

64 inmates, 3 guards of Barelisub-jail test +ve for corona

ouR STaFF REPoRTER

BHOPAL

Sixty four jail inmates andthree jail guards tested pos-itive in Bareli sub -jail ofRaisen district on Monday.In the past, the state gov-ernment had allowed twomonths parole to inmatesto prevent spread of coro-na infection. Recently,home minister NarottamMishra had announced twomonths extension in paroleto check spread of coronain jails of state.However, this sudden out-break has put Raisen dis-trict and jail administra-tions on its toes. Teams ofdoctors have been pressedinto services to check theseverity of the outbreak. Pa-tients would be shifted tohospital as per their severity.The jail administration hasdecided to conduct coronatest of other jail staff.SP (Raisen) Monika Shuk-la said, "Team of doctors has

arrived and according toseverity patients will beshifted to other hospitals as

per jail rules and regulationand medical protocol.

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ABUSES FLY THICK & FAST AS GEHLOT TRIES TO CLOSE PILOT’S OPTIONS

ouR BuREau

NEW DELHI

The political tussle be-tween Rajasthan ChiefMinister Ashok Gehlot and

rebelleaderSachin Pi-lot contin-ued for the10th daywith noend insight, evenas Gehlot

went to the extent of call-ing him "nikamma aurnakara" (useless and in-competent) and produced aCongress MLA to claim Pi-lot had tried to give him ahuge bribe to change sides.Pilot said he would replyto all of Gehlot's missivesonce the case filed by himand 18 Congress MLAs inthe Rajasthan High Courtagainst attempts to dis-qualify them is over, as hedoes not want to prejudicethe court in any way.

He also asserted that heand his group continues tobe in the Congress and hewon't be deterred from hiscampaign to remove

Gehlot as the chief minis-ter, irrespective of anynumber of abuses heapedon him.

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FINALLY, A JAB OF HOPEA vAccine that issafe & createsimmune response

LONDON:• Scientists atOxford University saytheir experimental coron-avirus vaccine has pro-voked a protective immuneresponse in hundreds ofpeople who got the shot inthe early trial. Crucially, nobody has hadany bad side effects from

the vaccine and it stimulat-ed the immune system asscientists hoped it would.Some people developedheadaches, tiredness andpain in their arm afterthey were given the jab, butnone of the side effectswere severe, scientistssaid.British researchers firstbegan testing the vaccinein April in about 1,000 peo-ple, half of whom got theexperimental vaccine.

Such early trials are usual-ly designed only to evalu-ate safety, but in this caseexperts were also lookingto see what kind of im-mune response was pro-voked. In research published onMonday in the journalLancet, scientists said thatthey found their experi-mental vaccine produced adual immune response inpeople aged 18 to 55.

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BYPoLLS To BE hELd BY SEPT-End: cEc

Some changes may bemade due to Covid-19

ouR STaFF REPoRTER

BHOPAL

The by-elections for 26 Assemblyseats will be held by September-end,said Chief Election Commissioner(CEC) Sunil Arora.Arora made the above statementduring a discussion with digital me-dia on Monday. There is provision inthe Constitution that a by-electionshould be held within six months of aseat falling vacant, he said, addingthat, in some special circumstances,

the Election Commission can extendthe date. Forty-five by-elections willbe held across the country along withthe ones in Madhya Pradesh by Sep-tember-end, so that full attention canbe paid to the Bihar Assembly elec-tions, Arora said. The commissionholds meetings on every Tuesday andFriday, and during one such parley, itwill be decided how the elections willbe held and votes cast because of thecorona pandemic, he said.Arora’s statement has caused a flut-ter of excitement among the parties.They have so far been uncertainabout the dates for by-elections. They thought that because of coro-na pandemic, the by-polls might be

put off till November. Arora’s statement has woken up thepolitical parties, and it seems, they areset to intensify preparations for thepolls. The virtual rallies were alsostopped because of the rising coronacases. Both the main political partiescould not decide how they should in-tensify campaign for by-polls.CEC has made it clear that the polldates will be decided next month.At present, the BJP has 107 seatsand the Congress 90 in the assembly.Others are holding seven seats. Out of26 seats for which the bypolls will beheld, the BJP will need to win onlynine seats to get majority in theHouse.

BaBri case

Advani to deposeon July 24;

Joshi on July 23Lucknow

A special CBI court onMonday set July 24 forrecording the statement offormer deputy prime min-ister LK Advani in the 1992Babri mosque demolitioncase. The 92-year-old BJPleader's statement undersection 313 of CrPC will berecorded through videoconferencing. In his order,Special Judge SK Yadavalso fixed July 23 for record-ing the statement of BJPleader Murli ManoharJoshi through video confer-encing. The court is record-ing the statements of the 32accused under Section 313of CrPC to enable them toplead their innocence, ifthey so want.The court, which is con-

ducting day-to-day hear-ings to complete the trial byAugust 31 as directed by theSupreme Court, set July 22for former Shiv Sena MPSatish Pradhan to deposebefore it through a videolink.

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Bid to malign me: Sachin Pilot Pilot said he was saddened but not surprised to be at thereceiving end of such "baseless and vexatious allegations"."This is done solely to malign me and to stifle the legitimateconcerns that I had raised against the party leadership of thestate, as a member and MLA of INC

Pilot's petition premature: SinghviDuring the hearing in the High Court on a petition filed byPilot and 18 other Congress MLAs against disqualificationnotices issued to them by the Speaker, Abhishek Manu Singhvi,appearing on behalf of the Speaker, argued that the petition ofthe Pilot faction is premature and hence should be dismissed.

Raj HC hearing resumes todayHigh Court will on Tuesday resume hearing the petition. Thehearing remained inconclusive on Monday and Chief JusticeIndrajit Mahanty said it will be concluded on Tuesday. Theorder is also likely to be pronounced on Tuesday.

Cong MLA's allegation 'concocted: PilotSachin Pilot dismissed as "baseless and vexatious" theallegations by a party MLA that the former deputy CM hadoffered him money to join the BJP, and claimed that it was anattempt to stifle the 'legitimate concerns' he raised against theparty leadership in the state.

cong LEAdEr TESTS coronA +vE

Congress leader Premchand Guddu has testedpositive. Another Congress leader and formerminister Lakhan Ghanghoria was airlifted toMedanta from Jabalpur following severe infectionof pneumonia. However, Ghanghoria has testednegative. CMHO (Jabalpur) Ratnesh Kuria said, “Ghanghoriadeveloped severe infection of pneumonia. He was hospitalized in aprivate hospital and then he was airlifted to Medanta. Al the fourtests of Ghanghoria for corona have been tested negative.”

Uddhav remindsBJP of politicaldistancing

Sanjay jog

Mumbai

The BJP and the Shiv Senaare former allies: Hindutvais the glue that held themtogether. But when it comesto construction of the RamMandir, the Shiv Sena feelsobliged to remind the BJPthat they have made sacri-

fices towards this cause.Shiv Sena MP SanjayRaut on Monday was hiscryptic self when he saidthat whether MaharashtraChief Minister UddhavThackeray would go to Ayo-dhya for the foundationceremony depended on thesocial distancing thatwould be maintained. "Itdepends upon what sort of

political social distancingis maintained. Many ShivSainiks have sacrificed forit," Raut said.Shiv Sena sources saidThackeray is among the 50VIPs expected to attend theground-breaking ceremonyon August 5. After becom-ing the CM, Thackeray hadvisited Ayodhya on March7 and donated Rs 1 crore

from the party trust for theconstruction of the temple.Despite heading an al-liance government withthe Nationalist CongressParty and the Congress,Thackeray has repeatedlysaid that though he is nolonger associated with theBJP, their commitment toHinduva remains. Howev-er, the BJP does not; its

Hindutva is different, hehas held.Raut argued: "UddhavThackeray always goes toAyodhya. He went (to Ayod-hya) when he was not thechief minister (of Maha-rashtra); he went there af-ter becoming the chief min-ister, too. The Shiv Sena'sties with Ayodhya are in-tact and all-enduring. It isnot a political relationship.We do not go to Ayodhya forpolitics and did not go therefor politics in the past, too."

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Sena's ties with Ayodhya go beyond politics'Devdoot' (doctors) can only fight corona with divine

blessings, says Sena MP Sanjay Raut, responding to Pawar'scryptic remark that temple can't cure the pandemic

2-dAY Lockdown in diSTS wiTh rEguLAr cASES

Chief Minister Shivraj SinghChouhan has announced two-day lockdown in districtsreporting spurt in corona cases.While Sunday would be one, thesecond day could be eitherMonday or Saturday dependingon decision of District CrisisManagement Group. He said this in a corona review meeting heldthrough video conferencing on Monday. Besides lockdown, nightcurfew will also be imposed from 8:00pm to 5:00am. He said all seniorofficers should attend office, while only 50% or 30% employeesshould be called in infected districts. Private institutes will be closed for7 days in case a positive case is detected, the CM added.

Baby-faced Pilot is‘nikkama & nakara’

Scindia’s buddy isnew transportcommissioner

BHOPAL: Madhya PradeshBhawan OSD Mukesh Jainwill be the new transportcommissioner. His name waschosen by Jyotiraditya Scindia.Besides, the government alsotransferred 10 IPS officers onMonday. ADG Madhu Kumarwas removed as transportcommissioner after a video ofhis accepting envelopes wentviral. Since then speculationswere rife on new transportcommissioner. In fact, theselection of transportcommissioner was lordedover by Scindia. ADG adminAjay Sharma will be the newMD of MP police housingcorpn. ADG SAF ArvindKumar has been appointedADG Rail. ADG crime againstwomen Anvesh Manglam willbe new ADG admin. ADGMD Sanjay V Mane of policehousing will be ADG crimeagainst women. ADG policetraining academy Bhori KThas been appointed ADGLokayukta, while ADGtechnical services G Akhete isnew ADG of SISF. ADG AnilKumar SISF has been appoin-ted ADG planning in place ofAnant Kumar, who is amdeLokayukta ADG. ADG RajaBabu Singh has been appoin-ted director of police academy.

WEATHER31.70C.24.20C.

sunrise: 05 : 54

sunset : 07 : 13

Thought for the dayLonging for worldlythings makes youinert, longing forinfinity fills y ou

with life.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Ji

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free-pressvol. XXXvII No. 43 | INdoRe | Tuesday | July 21, 2020 | Pages 12 | ` 3 www.freepressjournal.in

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14 more testpositive in UshaPhatak area

Fourteen more personswere tested positive. Infec-tions have spread to sever-al fresh areas, includingChoral, Kankadpura,Mhow, South Harsiddhi,Sunar Gali, Malipura,Boliya Sarkar ki Chhatri,Shanti Vihar Colony,Vidya Nagar and Dhan-vantri Nagar.

Positive cases: 23, 468

Total deaths: 738STATE TALLY

4 INDORE CITY Two absconding criminals nabbedINDORE: Crime Branch along with police staff of Nemawar police station on Mondaynabbed two accused who were absconding for the last one year. The accused MohammadFarooq and Babu Prajapat were planning a robbery at the time of their arrest. Sometime back,police had received information that 10 people were planning a robbery and they managed toarrest eight of them, but two had managed to escape, but they were finally caught.

FREEPRESSTUESDAY | JULY 21, 2020 | INDORE

OUR STAFF REPORTERIndore

Coronavirus has playedspoilsport to Congressplans at least in Sanwerconstituency. In a big jolt tothe party's campaign for by-polls in Sanwer, the possi-ble party candidate Premc-hand Borasi 'Guddu' hasbeen tested COVID-19 posi-tive and was admitted toBombay Hospital on Mon-day.

In-charge Chief Medicaland Health Officer DrPoornima Gadariya, saidGuddu tested positive onSunday evening. "He wasadmitted to hospital afterhe showed mild symptomslike cough and cold. Hiscondition is stable and wehave started contact trac-ing of him and his familymembers," she added.

Guddu's COVID-19 posi-tive status has sent ripplesamong the party leadersand also among the peopleof Sanwer as he was cam-paigning in the area forsome time and even meet-ing people door-to-door.

Meanwhile, his son AjitBorasi told media that his

dad Guddu is asympto-matic but was admitted tohospital as a precautionarymeasure. "He had gonethrough testing after a par-ty activist of Sanwer wasfound positive. Testing ofall family members wasdone and all are negative,"he said.

After Guddu tested posi-tive, Congress leaders haveasked those working withhim closely to remain inquarantine and to get test-ed if they reported anysymptoms.

Chaos prevailed in the ar-eas where Guddu had re-cently visited for campaign-ing. He also held a pressconference, a couple ofdays ago, to inform abouthis Sanwer campaign.

"We have informed allthose in close contact with

him about the same andasked them to remain quar-antine and to get tested ifhaving any symptoms," aparty leader said.

Guddu's report also in-creased wrinkles on theforeheads of administra-tive officials as contacttracing of his close con-tacts would become a chal-lenge as he had been meet-ing a large number of peo-ple during the campaign.

Congress' district president suspectedCongress' district presi-

dent Sadashiv Yadav is sus-pected of COVID-19 and haskept himself in quarantine.

He is having cough andcold after which he alsowent for testing and hissamples are awaited.

OUR STAFF REPORTERIndore

A senior officer of IndianInstitute of Technology(IIT) Indore has been test-ed Covid positive takingthe total number of casesto four so far at the insti-tute. The officer waschecked at the health cen-tre in IIT campus.

Samples of the seniorofficer were collected andsent for testing to a pri-vate lab which came backas positive sending rip-ples through the alreadyterrified staff and stu-dents of the institute whoreside on the campus.

The officer was admit-ted to the health centre ofthe instated just a day af-ter two hostel attendantsof IIT Indore tested posi-tive for COVID-19.

IIT Indore campus hasbecome a hotspot forCovid-19 as so far four

persons have been testedpositive and more thanthree dozen inmates re-port are awaited.

The first case of coron-avirus came into light onJuly 5, when a PhD stu-dent from Jammu andKashmir tested positive.The student had movedinto the campus, just acouple of days before test-ing positive, following in-structions of the institute.

Since the first infectionwas detected, the insti-tute along with the help oflocal health officials hadtested all occupants ofthe hostels and personnelassociated with it. Thispreventive measure hadled to detection of two at-tendants who were underquarantine in a hostel.

Later, the institute hadaround 100 students andstaffers tested forCOVID-19.

Of all the testing done,

36 results, including 2students, are awaited.Out of 62 students tested,the result of 60 studentshave been found to benegative.

The quarantine periodof these 60 students islikely to get over soonand they will be allowedto resume their researchwork with all due precau-tions as mandated by theinstitute protocol.

Institute is closely mon-itoring health status ofstaffers and has askedthem to work from homein case of any health con-cerns.

Hostel attendants wereasymptomatic andseemed to be in an earlystage of infection.

They are presently un-dergoing treatment at ahospital in the city evenas the student from J-Ktested negative forCOVID-19 on July 14.

Cong probable candidate from SanwerPremchand 'Guddu' tests positive

ADMITTED TO BOMBAYHOSPITAL, FAMILY CLAIMS

HE'S ASYMPTOMATICGUDDU WAS CAMPAIGNING IN

SANWER FOR BYPOLLS

IIT INDORE OFFICER TESTSPOSITIVE, TOTAL CASES REACH 4

FP NEWS SERVICEPITHAMPUR (Mhow)

Pithamnpur sector-3 policeclaimed to have solved the murderof a youth whose body was foundin Pithampur sector-3last Monday, with thearrest of his closefriend. Police said alove triangle led to themurder.

Police said they hadfound the body ofPawan son of Ramesh Patil, 26,resident of Umarkhali village inKhargone, with his head smashedin. During investigations, policefound that Pawan and his closefriend Ram Singh Patel of Chain-pura village near Manpur were ina relationship with the samewoman of Bagdun area.

Ram Singh was apprehended andquizzed about the case, and he con-fessed that he had killed Pawan.He told the police that he was hav-

ing an affair with a woman, butshe had become close to Pawanalso during the course of the pastfew months. Due to this, she start-ed ignoring him and even startedacting on the directions of Pawan.

This had upset him.On the day of the inci-dent, Pawan and RamSingh sat together andhad liquor. After bothwere drunk, Pawancalled the woman andtold her to stop talking

to Ram Singh, even as the latterwas sitting with him. This infuri-ated Ram Singh and he picked up abig stone and hit on Pawan's head,due to which he died. Followingthis, Ram Singh took Pawan's mo-bile phone and fled from the spot.It was the location of Pawan'sphone that helped police traceRam Singh.

A case under section 302 of IPChas been registered against RamSingh.

Youth murdered overlove triangle by friend

OUR STAFF REPORTERIndore

Vichaar PravahSahitya Manch hasunlocked its cre-ative activities dur-ing lockdown by or-ganising a live pro-gramme on itsFacebook page. Theevent was inaugu-rated by the city's senior lit-terateur Hareram Vajpay-ee. He discussed his autobi-ography from 5 to 75 and

also responded to the ques-tions of the members.Manch president Sushma

Dubeyconductedthe programme.General secretaryDevendra SinghSisodia informedthat in future, liveevents of writers ofcities other than In-dore would be or-

ganised through this plat-form. All the members ofthe manch appreciated theevent.

Vichar Pravah holds liveprog on Facebook

Otherwise cropyield will drop

OUR STAFF REPORTERIndore

After coronavirus, it ap-pears that the long dryspell is going to put thefarmers in greater trou-ble. Rains are required inthe next 5 to 7 days for thesoybean crop to grow, oth-erwise, due to lack ofmoisture in the soil, therewould be reduced output.

The initial round ofmonsoon rain was goodwhich motivated thefarmers to start sowing,but scanty rain in July inthe district and also in the

entire Malwa-Nimar areais now worrying the farm-ers.

Soyabean ProcessorsAssociation (SOPA) exec-utive direction DNPathak said they had un-dertaken a quick surveyof the crop in MadhyaPradesh, Maharashtraand Rajasthan. Based onthe survey, as on date, thecrop condition is normaleverywhere, but thismight change if there isno rainfall within a week.

The sowing done at55.07 lakh hectare, whichis done between secondweek of June to firstweek of July in the State.About 50% area is al-ready in flowering stage.The balance will be flow-

ering in the next 10 to 15days. Right now, the cropcondition is normal. But,if it fails to rain in thenext 5 to 7 days, then thecrop condition mayworse

and result in loss ofyield. The most popularvariety JS.95-60 which isearly maturing is sown inthe most of the areas.The crop is mostly free ofweeds and insects. Infes-tation of Gram pod borer,Tobacco caterpillar andGreen semi-looper hasbeen observed in someareas and is being effec-tively controlled byspraying of insecticides.Yellow mosaic virus hasbeen seen in some partsof the Nimar region.

Soybean crop needs rain within a week: SOPA survey9.808 lakh hectare

sowing in Rajasthan

In Rajasthan also, thesowing got completedby the second week ofJuly. The crop conditionis normal. There alsothe crops require rainsin next 5 to 7 days.

OUR STAFF REPORTERIndore

The doctoral entrance test (DET)conducted by Devi Ahilya Vish-wavidyalaya about eight monthsago remains under one or othercontroversy. Now, when the list ofguides along with vacancies hasbeen released for admissions inPhD and MPhil courses, new rowhas erupted.

The list revealed that there aresix subjects in which exams wereconducted but not a single seat isvacant. The claim of candidateswho have cleared DET in thesesubjects has already fallen flatmuch before the RAC (ResearchAdvisory Committee) is organ-ised.

As per the University GrantsCommission (UGC), admissiontest is to be conducted twice ayear for admission to PhD. But,DAVV could conduct DET once intwo years. DET-2019 consisted of

43 subjects including manage-ment, commerce. For the firsttime, the university did not giveinformation about vacant seatsof PhD ahead of examination. Itwas consistently claimed that theseat number and guide nameswould be revealed before the re-sults are declared.

But the claim fell flat as the uni-versity could not disclose vacan-cies and names of guides till sixmonths after the results. Twodays ago, the university uploadedon its website, the number ofguides and vacant seats. It has sixsubjects (English, Journalismand Mass Communication, Mu-sic, Philosophy, Social Work andYoga) in which there are no seatsfor PhD course.

As per the rules, 50 per centmarks in DET get a chance forPhD aspirants to undergo RACinterviews. But due to the non-vacancy in these subjects, thecandidates declared successful in

exams will not be able to do PhDdespite being eligible.

CAN ADD SEATS WHENEVER VACANCIES

The university can added seatsto the tally if there are vacan-cies. All subjects' guides are be-ing contacted by the varsity toupdate the number of vacantseats. It is expected that seatswill fall vacant in the abovemen-tioned subjects before RAC isheld along with the seats in oth-er subjects as well.

Sorry state

Former executive council mem-ber Ajay Chordia stated that thePhD course is in the sorry stateat the DAVV. Firstly, the DET isnot held on time. Secondly, thereis no record of vacancies at theuniversity till the RAC is held. "Iseek probe into the matter by RajBhavan as I see a nexus in PhDadmission," said Chordia.

Eligible but still candidatesout of PhD race in 6 subjects

TENNIS COURT PROPOSAL @ MGM

Sancoach? Promotergoes on back foot

OUR STAFF REPORTERIndore

It was a hard court of sortsat the MGM followingprotests "served". After stiffagitations against the de-velopment of tennis courtsby a private contractor atMahatma Gandhi Memori-al Medical College by theAlumni Association and byIndian Medical Associa-tion, the contractor hasgone on a back foot from the

project and has withdrawnhis acceptance of the offerletter.

Contractor and coachSajid Lodi, who had appliedfor developing and main-taining the tennis court,submitted a letter to Deanof MGM Medical Collegeinforming stating his in-ability to continue with theoffer due to unrest amongthe Alumni Associationand IMA-Indore.

PROMOTER WROTE

"Due to unavoidable rea-sons and unrest amongstthe alumni of MGM Med-ical College and IMA,which is appearing in asection of the print media

and is tarnishing yours aswell as my image, I do notwant to impart any tennistraining to the studentsand staff of the college.Hence, I withdraw my ac-ceptance letter to your of-fer letter," he mentioned inhis note.

DEAN STAND

Meanwhile, Dean Dr JyotiBindal told media that thedecision of developing ten-nis courts was taken by thecollege's executive commit-tee. "There was already atennis court which lay un-used due to lack of mainte-nance. As the contractorhas expressed his inabilityto impart his services, theprocess stands closed by it-self," she said.

EARLIER...

Advocate AbhijeetPandey had lodged a com-plaint against the samewith EOW, Lokayukta, andDivisional Commissioneralleging corruption in giv-ing the contract.

"Contract conditions weremade on the basis of theportfolio of a single person.The contractor would haverun the academy on threecourts and one court wasdedicated for the studentsand staff. Various otheranomalies were seen in thematter after which I lodgedthe complaint," he said.

The complainant also saidthat he has been called byLokayukta and would pres-ent his statements onWednesday.

OUR STAFF REPORTERIndore

Indore Municipal Corpo-ration (IMC), whichrestarted imposing spotfine for violation ofCovid-19 protocols recent-ly, has intensified itscrackdown.

The IMC teams slappedspot fine on as many as1336 people found to be vi-olating Covid-19 protocolswhile being outdoors.

"As many as 1125 peoplewere fined for not wearingmask and 179 for notmaintain social distanc-ing," said a press releaseissued by IMC.

The IMC teams pe-nalised shopkeepers whowere not keeping sanitiserin their shops.

On orders of IMC com-missioner Pratibha Pal,the IMC has intensifiedthe drive following the ris-ing coronavirus cases inthe city for the last oneweek.

With relaxing lockdownrestrictions from June 1,district collector ManishSingh made it mandatoryfor people to wear masksand maintain social dis-tancing when outdoors.He had fixed fines for vio-lators with making IMCaccountable for recover-ing the fine amount.

Till June 21, the IMC car-ried drives to penalisepeople but its strict crack-down led to protests byshopkeepers and politicalparties.

Giving in to the protests,IMC from June 22 stoppedimposing fine on peoplefound to be violatingCovid-19 protocols whilebeing outdoors.

The cases of Covid-19 in-

fections had also comedown in the city at thattime which helped IMC tostick to its decision.

But Covid-19 cases shotup with people taking theprotocols lightly, whichpromoted the IMC to re-

sume the drive against Co-vidiots.

The municipal commis-sioner stated that theywould press more employ-ees in penalisation drive ifpeople won't start stickingto Covid-19 protocols.

IMC intensifies crackdownon Covidiots, 1336 fined

OUR STAFF REPORTERIndore

Taking handcart pullersas carrier of coron-avirus, Indore MunicipalCorporation (IMC) onMonday banned sale ofgoods from handcarts in

commercial areas.However, they allowed

handcarts vendors to selltheir goods in residen-tial areas.

"If vendors were foundselling goods on hand-carts in commercial ar-eas their goods andhandcarts will beseized," said a press re-lease issued by IMC onMonday.

The release stated thatvendors selling goods onhandcarts can go to resi-

dential areas for sale butthey have to ensure thatthey remain mobile.

"Handcarts can't re-main steady at one placefor sale of goods. Theyhave to remain mobile sothat people can't gatheraround the carts," an of-ficial at IMC stated.

The move comes asIMC believes that hand-cart pullers are carrier

of coronavirus in thecity. Recently,

the IMCstated that

people gatheraround hand-

carts for purchas-ing vegetable and fruitswhich results in spreadof infection.

The corporation has di-rected the handcartpullers to remain mobileso that people don't gath-er around for purchaseof goods.

Now, the IMC hasbanned their entry intocommercial areas believ-ing that a ban on hand-carts will reduce possi-bility of people gather-ing at one place for pur-chase of goods.

IMC bans salefrom handcarts incommercial areas

38.175 lakh hectare sowing in MaharashtraThe sowing (between 2nd week of June to 2nd week of July) inMaharashtra has been done in 38.175 lakh hectare. The farmershad to re-sow in 20% to 25% area, due to poor germination offirst sowing. Crop condition is normal. Rains are needed in thenext 5 to 7 days in some parts of Latur, Osmanabad and Beeddistricts, failing which crop may be affected due to moisturestress. The most popular sowing variety is JS.335. There also thecrop is mostly free of weeds and insects. Infestation of Gram podborer, Tobacco caterpillar and Green semi-looper has beenobserved in some areas and is being effectively controlled byspraying of insecticides.

With onset of monsoon camels have started coming from Rajasthan to take advantage ofgreens. PHOTO PINTU NAMDEV

‘SHIPS’ ARE HERE BUT WHERE’S THE WATER

Indore: In the wake of sud-den spurt in the number ofCOVID-19 positive cases in

the district, separate isola-tion zones will be created inGreen Category hospitals,where COVID-19 positivepatients will be treated.

District Collector ManishSingh released the order onMonday evening. The ordersays in all the 28 Green cat-egory hospitals, 15% beds ofthe total capacity will beearmarked for isolationzones to treat COVID-19 pa-tients.

THE EQUATION

Of the total 2,371 beds ofthese 28 hospitals, 491 addi-tional beds, including 77ICU beds, 299 Oxygen bedsand 95 general beds, will beavailable for the treatment.Isolation zones will be madein the next three days.

VEGGIE MANDIS CLOSED FURTHER

The district administra-tion has decided to keep veg-etable mandies, includingChoithram, Niranjanpurclosed. It has been noticedthat buyers and sellers werenot adhering to social dis-tancing rules and most werealso not wearing the mask.

NO ARBITRARY SCHOOL FEES

Singh reiterated that theno schools will be allowed tocharge more fees beyondthe prescribed order of theState Government. He saidthe District Education Offi-cer (DEO) has been in-structed to keep a tab onsuch schools. It may be not-ed that some parents hadmet Singh and complainedabout certain schools.

Now, isolation zonesin green hosps

RPC

OUR STAFF REPORTERIndore

Online installation cere-mony of Rotary Club of In-dore Royal concluded re-cently. Newly appointedmembers were adminis-tered oath for the session2020-21 under the leader-ship of club presidentSeema Sayle, secretarySangeeta Chopra and otherBoard members. Newly ap-pointed Rotary District 3040governor Gajendra SinghNarang was the chief guestof the programme. PDGManohar Dev conductedthe ceremony as installa-tion officer. Club outgoingpresident Anil Saboo in-formed that more than 105Rotary members were pres-

ent online. Vote of thankswas proposed by club's sen-

ior member Dilip Mazum-dar and Rakesh Jain.

OUR STAFF REPORTERIndore

IDA board members alsoapproved the revised budg-et estimates for 2019-20 andthe budget estimate for2020-21. For 2020-21 finan-cial year, the total receiptshave been estimated at Rs

395.00 crores and the totalexpenditure at Rs 390.00crores.

IDA officials said that inan important decision bythe Board of Directors, itwas decided to increase thelease rent from the present15 times of lease amount to

20 times the lease amount.The decision was taken be-cause of the falling bank in-terest rates.

In another decision, the

board of directors ap-proved grant of Rs. 8.00lakh for organising theAhilya Utsav for the year2020.

INDORE CITY 5FREEPRESS

TUESDAY | JULY 21, 2020 | INDORE

OUR STAFF REPORTERIndore

The findings in corona cas-es have been strange andmind boggling. Everydaynew information is thrownup shattering the old onesand myths are being de-mystified like never before.

Following the recentspurt in cases, recenttrends show that youngerpeople are more pronethan older ones. When itcomes to percentage count,about 50 per cent of the to-tal infected patients belongto the age group of 20 to 40years.

Data collected till the pos-itive figure stood at 5,096 re-vealed that the total num-ber of infected patients inthe age bracket of 20 to 40stood at 2,192 including1,331 male and 861 female.

The data also showed that

men are more prone to in-fections than women andmore men are claimed bythe deadly virus.

Out of 5906 patients, 3,528

men were infected whilethe number of infectedwomen stood at 2,378. Simi-larly, 179 men succumbed tothe disease while the num-

ber of women who died ofCovid-19 read 89 even as thedeath toll was pegged at 268.

District contact tracingin-charge Dr Anil Dongreadmitted that "More menare getting infected in com-parison to women. It mayhave various reasons, in-cluding excessive outdoorexposure etc."

He also raised alarm andsaid number of cases are onthe rise mainly due to thecarelessness of people ashoardes of people havethrown the Covid protocolout of the window and werenot following social dis-tancing and not using sani-tizers and masks.

"We have intensified con-tact tracing of people andare containing areas aswell. The spread can be con-tained only if people weremore specific and cau-tious," he added.

YOUNGISTAN MORE PRONE TO INFECTON, SAYS STUDY

MORE MEN ARE GETTING INFECTED AND DYING THAN WOMEN COVID-19 DEATHSAGE MALE FEMALE20-40 yrs 11 1 40-60 yrs 69 3660-80 yrs 87 4580-100 yrs 11 5TOTAL 179 89

(TILL 268 DEATHS)

A doctor checking a young person for Covid-19 infection.REPRESENTATIVE PICTURE

OUR STAFF REPORTERIndore

Three robbers entered a house inPrime Park Colony, assaulted an eld-erly man, made him hostage and de-camped with valuables.

Owner of the house, Ankit Shar-ma, said the incident took place onthe intervening night of Saturdayand Sunday. He said three robbersbroke open a grill and entered thehouse, a duplex. They sneaked up tothe first floor and locked Ankit andhis wife in their room from the out-side. They went on the ground-floorand entered his father, Kailash'sroom and tried to open the almirahthere. The noise woke up Kailash,but he found one of the robbersstanding near his bed with an ironrod. When Kailash tried to shout forheld, the robber hit him on the head

with an iron rod which left himbleeding. Then they made Kailashtheir hostage and searched thehouse for valuables, and all the timethey kept threatening Kailash. Lat-er, they fled.

Kailash woke up Ankit, whorushed him to a hospital, where heis recovering. Ankit said the rob-bers removed the bulb placed out-side their house and the societyguard was patrolling another sec-tion of the colony when the robbersstruck.

Tejaji Nagar Police station in-charge, inspector RNS Bhadoriya,said that they are scanning CCTVfootage of the area. Bhadoriya saidthe robbers only stole a wristwatchand some silver coin. Ankit said ashe is busy looking after his injuredfather, he is not sure what all hasbeen stolen.

Robbers strike at PrimePark, assault elderly man

COVID-19 INFECTION INDIFFERENT AGE GROUP

AGE MALE FEMALE TOTAL1-12 years 212 186 397

12-20 years 284 214 499

20-40 years 1331 861 2192

40-60 years 1150 784 1934

60-80 year 518 309 825

Above 80 years 35 24 59

TOTAL 3528 2378 5906

OUR STAFF REPORTERIndore

There will be 24 hours power supplyto agriculture connections, and alsoa clear picture of the Photo MeterReading will be printed on the elec-tricity bill for better customer serv-ice and satisfaction.

These decisions, among others,were taken on Monday during avideo conference meeting of engi-neers of all 15 district under WestDiscom. The Discom MD Vikas Nar-wal chaired the meeting.

West Discom, MD, Narwal took avideo conference meeting of all theengineers of the 15 districts underWest Discom.

At the meeting Narwal ordered theofficer rank engineers to contact theconsumers with pending bills ofmore than Rs 25,000. He orderedthem to increase the bills recoveries.

He said in the meeting that thereare around 8,500 connections underthe Nal-Jal Scheme. He ordered offi-cials to install meters to the connec-tions which are under this scheme,where there are no meters, by July31. This will help in the generation ofproper bills.

Narwal also ordered officials tostop consumers from using domesticconnections for commercial purpos-es. He said that no shopkeepershould be allowed to use domesticconnection for his shop's purpose.

West Discom engineers' meetingdecides on several issues

OUR STAFF REPORTERIndore

In the Rs 4000 crore Ponzi cas-es in multiple states, the En-forcement Directorate has at-tached properties in the city onMonday.

ED attached the property ofthe promoter of Garvit Innov-ative Promoters, Ltd. Theagency attached a bank ac-count as well as an office andhouse in Deoguradia area ofthe city on Monday.

The company had raised cap-ital from residents of GautamBuddha Nagar of UP, Ghazi-abad, Kanpur and Indore.

Twenty-six immovable prop-erties worth Rs 101.45 crore,and bank balance totalling Rs

2.28 crore in 22 accounts havebeen attached provisionallyunder the Prevention of Mon-ey Laundering Act (PMLA) bythe Lucknow zonal office ofthe agency on Monday. Accord-ing to an official information,the accused in the case areSanjay Bhati, a resident of vil-lage Chiti of Gautam BuddhaNagar District of UP, RajeshBhardwaj, Khurja Buland-shahr, Karanpal Singh resi-dent of Defence ColonyMeerut, Lalit Vishal a residentof Meerut and BrijmohanAgent a resident of MawanaMeerut.

SCHEME GALORE

The Greater Noida-headquar-tered Bike Bot taxi service is

accused of duping about Rs3,000 to Rs 4,000 crore from 2.25lakh investors in multiplestates, including UttarPradesh, Indore (MadhyaPradesh), Rajasthan andHaryana.

The ED had booked the com-pany that ran the alleged ponzischeme -- Garvit innovativePromoters Ltd (GIPL) -- and itspromoter Sanjay Bhati andothers under the PMLA inJune last year after goingthrough multiple FIRs filedagainst them by the Noida po-lice.

MODUS OPERANDI

The company and its promot-ers had "floated highly lucra-tive investment plans in the

guise of a bike taxi service inthe name of ''bike bot'' where acustomer could invest in 1, 3, 5or 7 bikes which would bemaintained and operated bythe company and the in-vestor(s) would be paid month-ly rent, EMI and bonuses (incase of investment in multiplebikes) and further incentiveson adding additional investorsin a binary or multi-level mar-keting structure."

"The company allotted fran-chises in various cities but thebike taxi hardly operated inthese cities. The plans werefloated in August, 2017 and thecollection of money from in-vestors or customers and re-payments to them continuedtill early 2019."

PONZI CASES: ED attaches properties in cityTwo crucialmeetings

today,tomorrow

OUR STAFF REPORTERIndore

A meeting of the IndoreDistrict Development Co-ordination and

Monitoring Committeewill held on Tuesday at 11am at the collector office'shall.

The meeting, set to bechaired by the chairman ofthe committee and MPShankar Lalwani, willmainly discuss matters re-lated to Mahatma GandhiNational Rural Employ-ment Guarantee Scheme,Prime Minister MineralSector Welfare Scheme,Traditional AgricultureDevelopment Scheme,Prime Minister Employ-ment Generation Pro-gram, National Food Secu-rity Program and registra-tion of unorganized work-ers, migrant laborers andworking women.

REVIEW MEETING OF PONDS TOMORROW

A review meeting of dis-trict-level ancient pond re-juvenation program formedin Indore district will beheld on July 22 at noon atthe collector's office hall.

Project Scheme Approved Cost (in Rs Cr)Inter State Bus Terminal (ISBT) MR 10 Rs 25.75 CrArea development Sch No 166 Rs 21 CrArea development Sch No 169 A Rs 7 CrISBT - Nayta Mundla Rs 8 CrDevelopment Sch No 151 & 169 B Rs 30 CrRoad development Sch No 172 Rs 6 CrPipliyahana Flyover Rs 10 CrAmaltas Complex Sch No 136 Rs 12 CrHarsingar Complex Sch No 136 Rs 5.45 CrResidencial-cum-Commercial Complex Sch No 134 Rs 5 CrAnandwan Phase-2 Sch No 140 Rs 30 CrAnandwan Phase-3 Sch No 140 Rs 1 CrLalbagh Palace Renovation Rs 5 CrBiodiversity park ----------- Rs 0.60 cr (60 lakh)Corporate Responsibility (ISBT) ----------- Rs 1 CrShaheed Smarak Park ----------- Rs 0.15 Cr (15 lakh)International Swimming Pool ----------- Rs 6.45 Cr RTO office Phase -3 ----------- Rs 5 CrCOVID-19 protection ----------- Rs 0.59 Cr (Rs 59 lakh)Electricity sub-stations Sch No 139 - Rs 3.50 CrGreenery in city ----------- Rs 6.72 CrDigital IDA ----------- Rs 1 Cr

IDA board approves 2020-21 budget estimates

IDA budget estimate 2020-2021

Rotary Club installationceremony held online

KITCHEN-GARDENSTO BE DEVELOPED IN

27 SCHOOLSFP NEWS SERVICE

Bagh

Students of 27 schools areall set to nurture and growvegetables for mid-daymeals in the school premis-es. The unused areas of theschools will be put to use asa kitchen-garden.

Development block aca-demic coordinator Suren-dra Chauhan and mid-daymeals in-charge NaeemKhan said that each select-ed school shall receive Rs5,000 to develop a kitchen-garden.

Increasing usage of pesti-cides and chemicals is mak-ing the vegetables tasteless

and harmful. It will im-prove the nutritional valueof mid-day meals and alsoinstil in children, interestfor gardening. Spongegourd, eggplant, tomatoand green chillies will besowed in the first phase.

Block education officer

and development block re-source coordinator Veerb-han Singh Mandloi saidthat the kitchen gardenconcept is being developedunder School NutritionGarden Scheme.

Teachers Narsingh Ki-radiya and Shyamsundar

Mandhanya of Govern-ment School, Akhada vil-lage said that the childrenwill also gain knowledge ofseasonal vegetables and thenutritional value of eachvegetable. It will also helpin conserving the environ-ment.

SETTING AN EXAMPLE OF ATMANIRBHAR

Kids to grow veggies for mid-day meals

Paralysed man works in MGNREGA,

draws wages tooSHIV SHARMA

Bhikangaon

A scam in implementa-tion of much publicisedMahatma Gandhi NationalRural Employment Guar-antee Act (MGNREGA)has been unearthed in var-ious villages of Bhikan-gaon block of Khargonedistrict.

The scam gives a grim in-sight in the shady worldwhere officials carry outmurky deals to fill theircoffers at the expense oftax-payers money.

Bungling of funds worthlakhs has been found inthe block. Officials con-cerned have siphoned offmoney in the name of peo-ple who are either paral-ysed or are staying inSurat. Even students havenot been spared by corruptofficials.

The MGNREGA schemewas designed to ensure 100days of employment in ru-ral areas and ensure thatevery poor family reapsthe benefit.

However, contrary to it,work under the schemewas allotted to blue-eyedpeople of rural develop-ment department inBhikangaon tehsil.

Sources claimed thatsarpanchs and political ac-tivists pocketed lion’s shareof the fund by producingfake bills, while the poorand the needy were ignored.

The scam came to fore af-ter a few students studyingin cities returned homedue to coronavirus lock-down and registered them-selves for MGNREGA workin Nuriyakhedi Gram Pan-chayat. After detectinganomalies in the scheme,they lodged a complaintwith jandpad-level officer.

Students including Shiv-shankar Rawat, PunitChouhan and PushpendraSingh Panwar had gotthemselves registered forMGNREGA. Talking toFree Press, these studentssaid that they detected ir-regularities while surfingthe MGNREGA portal re-cently.

Congress torchesCM’s effigy

HATPIPLIYA: Congressworkers in Dewas torchedan effigy of CM to protestvandalism committed witha Dalit farmer in Guna dis-trict of Madhya Pradesh.The administration hadfiled a false case against theDistrict City Congress pres-ident Manoj Rajani and theyouth congress senior con-gressmen. In protest, in-structions were given to thetehsildar to burn the effigyat block level in the entiredistrict on the call of theDistrict Congress.

6 UJJAIN CITY Thieves strike at godownUjjain: Thieves barged into a godown of gazak trader Vivek Jain at Bhagsipura onSunday night and made away with Rs 10,000 cash and other goods worth Rs10,000. Jain has lodged a complaint. The police examined CCTV grabs in whichthree persons were seen committing the theft. The police have also released aposter carrying photographs of accused seen in CCTV footage.

FREEPRESSTUESDAY | JULY 21, 2020 | INDORE

UJJAIN WEATHERMAXIMUM: 29.0°C, MINIMUM: 21.5° C

HUMIDITYMORNING: 89per cent, EVENING: 70 per cent

SUNRISE: 6.10 am , SUNSET: 6.41 pm

Lord Mahakal sawari movesaround city, blesses devotees

FP NEWS SERVICEUjjain

On third Mondayof Shravan,sawari of LordMahakal in Man-mahesh andChandramoulesh-war forms wastaken out in accor-dance with Covid-19 protocols. Before the start of

procession, collectorAsheesh Singh and SPManoj Kumar Singh of-fered prayers to replicas.Mahant Vineet Giri andShri Mahakal TempleManagement Committeeadministrator SS Rawat

were also present.The procession reached

Ramghat via HarsiddhiTemple, Narsing Ghat andJhalariya Mutt.

FP NEWS SERVICEUjjain

Swinging into action afterabout 22 months of the in-cident, the Madhav Nagarpolice on Monday regis-tered a case under Section306 (abetment of suicide)of IPC against a woman forcompelling anotherwoman to end her life ather home. Both the accused and de-

ceased families are well-known family of the cityfor many years and thecase had generated a lot ofheat. According to Madhav Na-

gar police, there was a dis-pute of Rs 50 lakh and thedeceased was demanding itfrom the accused. “On thefateful day, the deceasedwent to accused residenceto seek that money andduring the quarrel the ac-cused poured petrol on herand set her on fire and shedied later,” said the FIR.

FLASHBACK A 52-year-old woman set

herself on fire at her rela-tive’s residence located inDurssehra Maidan on themorning of September 11,2018. According to detailsavailable Rosy wife of In-der Juneja Juneja reachedher relative PremChhabra’s residence at 20,Dussehra Maidan early inthe morning, where hiswife Seema Chhabra andher driver were also pres-ent. Rosy told Seema thatshe has come there to talkto her and then asked herfor drinking water. How-ever when Seema left toget water, Rosy swiftlypoured petrol from a bot-tle on herself and lightedherself.When Seema came back

with the water she wasshocked to find Rosy sur-rounded with flames. Shecalled her driver for helpand tried to douse off

flames with water and cot-ton clothes. On being in-formed Mahdhav Nagarpolice arrived at theChhabra’s residence andsent seriously burnt Rosyto the District Hospitalfrom there she was re-ferred to Indore.Police recovered the bot-

tle used for carrying

petrol and Rosy’s two-wheeler and her footwearfrom the spot. According to police,

some years ago Rosy’s sonVarun Juneja made viralsome photos of PremChhabra’s (now deceased)daughter. Varun wasawarded 3 year imprison-ment in that case

BONE OF CONTENTIONAccording to sources,

both the families in thepresence of religious headsin Freeganj Gurudwaramade compromise follow-ing which Chabbra familyfiled an application beforethe ADJ court at Bhopal togrant pardon to the ac-cused and the accused was

released by the court onAugust 20. Deceased Rozy’shusband Indra KumarJuneja on Monday nighttold Free Press that a com-promise was struck amonghis family and that ofChhabra family that theformer will tender apologyin Freeganj Gurudwarawhich they did. Secondly,he was asked to submit a

sum of Rs 50 lakh in cashas a security guaranteethat his son would not dis-turb Chhabra’s daughterfor six months and afterthat the money in questionwill be returned to them.“As the court date was fixedon August 16, 2018 atBhopal, social worker OmAmarnath Khatri startedmounting pressure on mefrom August to makearrangements of Rs 50lakh otherwise they wouldnot support in withdrawalof the court case. I bor-rowed Rs 50 lakh from themarket on high interestand deposited it at the resi-dence of Khatri on August15, 2018 in presence ofSurendra Singh Arora,who played a crucial role inthe compromise,” Junejasaid adding that her wifeRozy had even said that af-ter the return of their Rs 50lakh she would donate Rs 5lakh from it to the FreeganjGurudwara.

ROZY JUNEJA’S SUICIDE CASE COMES INTO LIME LIGHT AGAINOn being contacted,

SURENDRA SINGH ARORArefuted all the charges. Hesaid that no such dealing ofRs 50 lakh was madethough the Junejas pleadedapology before the Sikhcommunity at the FreeganjGurudwara in this case.“The case is basically adispute between twofamilies owing to their sonand daughter which wasabout 6-7 year old and theallegations levelled againstme do not match with thetruth,” Arora added. Healso clarified that Rs 5 lakhwas not donated to theFreeganj Gurudwara and ifthere was any substance inthe case against him,police mush have enquiredhim during the past time,which they did not do asyet. Despite repeatedefforts, Om AmarnathKhatri could not becontacted till 11 pm.

Rozy Juneja’ last moment at Chhabra’s residence on the fateful day

DELAY IN FIR

According to Indra Kumar Juneja, after the compromiseexecuted in the court and release of his son, he and her

wife approached Arora, Khatri and Chhabras many times andsought the money amounting to Rs 50 lakh back. But theycontinued to delay returning the money to them. Junejas thenapprised the community members and even complainedabout the bungling and cheating incident to the police stationsand senior police officials, but to no avail. “One day my wifewent to Chhabras to return the money as per compromiseand during that she was forced to commit suicide. She alsogave a dying declaration during her treatment against all thesaid persons,” he added. According to Juneja, after theincident also he met the then SP Sachin Atulkar and submittedthe CD’s related to case to Madhav Nagar police station, butthey did take any action against the culprits and took morethan 22 months to register case against Seema Chhabra.

FP NEWS SERVICE Ujjain

Hundreds of devoteesturned up at Shri Ma-hakaleshwar templeto seek blessings ofLord Mahakal onthird Monday of Hin-du month of Shravanand SomwatiAmavasya. Floutingthe ban, devotees alsotook a holy dip inKshipra.

No masks, no socialdistancing

In contrast to desert-ed look on Sunday, Ma-hakaleshwar templewas teeming withdevotees on Monday.Most of them werewithout masks. Socialdistancing too was dis-carded.

Hundreds of devotees throngMahakaleshwar Temple

Procession being taken out Special worshipand abhishekperformed

At Ramghat, priestsand public

representatives offeredprayers to LordMahakal. Mayor MeenaJonwal, MLA MaheshParmar, Murli Morwaland Zila Panchayatpresident KaranKumariya, collector,commissioner and otherofficials were also present.After worship andabhishek an ‘aarti’ wasperformed with police bandplaying the hymns. Theprocession returned to thetemple by the same route.

Abhishek being performed at Ramghat FP PHOTO

Devotees create ruckus at temple

Despite ban on entry of vehicles from other state,many devotees managed to enter the city from

Rajasthan, UP, Maharashtra and other states. Theycreated a ruckus after security guards stopped themfrom entering the temple. Following Shri Ma-hakaleshwar Temple Management Committee’s in-tervention, inter-state devotees were allowed to en-ter from VIP gate with a fee of Rs 251.

Ban on ‘snan’ fails,devotees take dips at river banks

Devotees flouted banon ‘snan’ at river

banks on SomwatiAmavasya. The ban wasimposed by district ad-ministration in view ofCovid crisis. Heavy policeforce too was deployedbut it failed to deter thedevotees who reachedRamghat, Dhobi Ghat,Sunhari Ghat, Siddhavat,Triveni and Gaughat ofKshipra from nearbytowns in their vehicles.Many devotees were alsoseen taking dips atSomtheerth Kund. Aftertaking holy dip in the riv-er, devotees headed toShri MahakaleshwarTemple to pay obeisance.

FP NEWS SERVICEUjjain

Ujjain Municipal Corpora-tion organized plantationprogrammes in all zones tomark Hariyali Amavasyaon Monday. Mayor Meena Jonwal

and corporator Binu Kush-wah planted saplings in‘Ashok Vatika’. On this oc-casion mayor said that4,000 sampling would beplanted across the city dur-ing rainy season tomaintain greenery.

FP NEWS SERVICEUjjain

Number of corona casesin district inched closerto 1,000-mark after 11more patients testedpositive on Monday. Thecorona tally now standsat 997 and toll 71 in Uj-jain.As per medical bulletin,

out of 253 sample reportsreceived on Mondayevening 11 were foundpositive. Nine of thesepatients belong to Ujjain

city. Overall 118 patients,51 of them symptomatic,are under treatment.Samples of 36, 019 per-sons have been takenacross the district so farand no report is pending.With five more patientsdischarged on Sunday,the number of dis-charged patients hasgone up to 808. Those who tested posi-

tive on the day include 26-year-old man from DaniGate, 40-year-old womanfrom Ksheer Sagar

Colony, 35-year-old manfrom Yogeshwar Tekri,Arya Samaj Marg, 41-year-old woman from Ma-hananda Nagar, 33-year-old man from Siddhi Vi-har Colony, 52-year-oldwoman and one-and-a-year-old boy from Bagpu-ra, 40-year-old man fromArya Samaj Marg and 28-year-old man from Jais-ingpura (all Ujjain city)and 53-year-old womanfrom Nagda and 82-year-old man from Amla Haat,Barnagar.

11 new cases, coronatally now stands at 997

COVID-19 UPDATE IN DISTRICT

FP NEWS SERVICEUjjain

Senior BJP leader UmaBharati on Monday ad-vised Nepal Prime Minis-ter KP Sharma Oli to get aRam temple constructed inhis country if he believesthat Lord Ram was aNepali.She was in Ujjain to pay

obeisance at Mahakalesh-war Temple for the thirdMonday in a row in the on-going Hindu month ofShravan. She also per-formed a special puja inthe temple premises forpublic welfare.On video of the then IG V

Madhukumar taking en-

velopes, she said that thesource of envelopes mustbe ascertained. She saidthat though the then IGwas seen accepting the en-velope, a probe must beconducted as to for whomwere those envelopes col-lected. Madhukumar hadspent five years of his ca-reer in Ujjain.On Rahul Gandhi’s state-

ments against the govern-ment and Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, she said,“Rahul’s statements arenot worthy of my com-ments.” She also expressedhappiness over the deci-sion to lay foundationstone of Ram temple in Ay-odhya on August 5, 2020.

If Ram was Nepali thenOli should build Ramtemple in Nepal: Uma

Uma Bharati talking to media persons

Villagewomen startmilk dairy

FP NEWS SERVICEUjjain

Kripa Social Welfare So-ciety launched MahilaMilk Samiti under Ut-than project in Nanakhe-di village with collabora-tion with Ujjain SahkariDugdh Sangh. It is runby members of SHG tomove towards self-re-liance.During the inaugura-

tion programme, partici-pants were made awareof the prevention ofCovid-19 epidemic suchas physical distancing,use of face mask and therules laid down by thegovernment. Members were encour-

aged for the new initia-tive by villagesarpanch’s representa-tive of Vikram SinghAnjana, Father SunilGeorge, director of Kri-pa Social Welfare Socie-ty and Manoj Sharma ofSanchi Dairy.Father Sebastian, Rad-

heshyam Vaghela, Di-nesh Kewat and Ram Kr-ishna Chaudhary werepresent in the pro-gramme. Project coordi-nator Gopal Gupata con-ducted the proceedingsand Sister Ancit deliv-ered vote of thanks.

FP NEWS SERVICE Ujjain

Various uses and applica-tions of Vedic Mathemat-ics were discussed duringa webinar organised byCentral India (MadhyaBharat) team of VedicMathematicians. On this occasion chief

guest Dr ShriramChouthaivale, national co-ordinator of Vedic Mathe-matics in Shiksha San-skriti Utthan Nyas and ad-visor member of VidhyaBharti mentioned variousactivities of Vedic Mathe-matics at national level.Dr Chouthaivale is an au-thor of various books onhistory of mathematicsand Vedic Mathematics.His lectures on Vedicmaths are being deliveredon UGC Gyan Ranjanchannel. He emphasised on re-

search in Vedic maths. Pro-gramme was presided overby Ashok Kadel, coordina-tor of Shiksha SanskritiUtthan Nyas, Central Indiaunit. He appealed to allVedic mathematicians toconduct the Vedic mathsprogrammes for schooland college students andinterested persons. Central India coordina-

tor of Vedic maths inShiksha Sanskriti UtthanNyas Dr VK Gupta, profes-sor of mathematics anddirector of Ramanujan Re-

search Centre of Mathe-matics, Government Post-Graduate Madhav ScienceCollege, described variousactivities of Vedic mathsin Central India. Dr Guptahas participated in vari-ous workshops of Vedicmaths. About 90 participants

from college, universityand schools of Central In-dia took part in the pro-gramme. Participants re-quested the Nyas to con-duct a two-day webinar onVedic maths for teachers ofschool, college and stu-dents during lockdown pe-riod at state-level.Dr Rakesh Dhand con-

gratulated team and par-ticipants. Programme wasconducted by division in-charge of Vedic maths inShiksha Sanskriti UtthanNyas Dr RP Gupt and DrDharmendra Yadav pro-posed a vote of thanks.

Uses & applicationsof Vedic Mathematics

discussed

RSS WEBINAR

FP NEWS SERVICEUjjain

‘Rashtriya ShikshakSanchetana’ (RSS) organ-ised a webinar on Monday tomark Hariyali Amavasya.Many international scholarsparticipating in the webinarshared their views on Con-servation of Environment.Addressing the webinar,

key orator Prof ShailendraKumar Sharma describedrelation with nature, Indi-an folk deities and Indianecological philosophy. Edu-cationist Brijkishore Shar-ma said that writers, teach-ers and artists must wakeup to conservation of envi-ronment. Dr Sureshchan-dra Shukla (Norway), Dr

Vinod Taneja, MohanlalVerma, Dr ShahabuddinNiyaz and other scholarsalso expressed their views.Dr Sudhanshu Shukla

(Poland) was the chiefguest while Rama Sharma(Japan) and Dr Kaplil Ku-

mar (Belgium) were spe-cial guests. Vikram Uni-versity proctor ShailendraKumar Sharma was thekey orator of the pro-gramme. The webinar waspresided over by RSS headBrijkishore Sharma.

Plantation drive on Hariyali Amavasya

Saplings being plantedExperts sharing their views onvarious uses and applicationsof Vedic Mathematics during awebinar FP PHOTO Experts lay stress on

conservation of environment

Scholars participating in webinar

FP NEWS SERVICEUjjain

National, state and divi-sion-level office-bearers ofAkhil Bharatiya BrahminSamaj (ABBS) organised avirtual meeting on Monday.The meeting was presidedover by ABBS presidentSurendra Chaturvedi.ABBS woman wing’s presi-dent Dhwani Sharma (In-dore) was the chief guestwhile Tarun Upadhyay wasspecial guest. During themeeting, members dis-cussed Bhagawan Parshu-ram Prasad Yojana, cele-bration of Raksha Band-han, Shravani-Upakarmand other organizationalsubjects. Chaturvedi saidthat the meeting was or-ganised in accordance withCovid-norms. During the meeting,

Nisha Tripathi, Dr PrernaManana, Archana Gyani,

Anjana Shukla, YaminiUpadhyay, Prabha Biragi,Ranjana Sharma, SavitriDevi Mahant, Varsha Joshi,Anuradha Dube, DrShakuntala Pandya, ManishVyas, Usha Mishra, Shailen-dra Vyas, JP Hardeniya, DrRK Nagar, Dr Nirbhay Nir-dosh Pathak, VirendraTrivedi, Pt ShailendraDwivedi, Pt Prabhakar Dix-it, Pt Ravindra Bhardwaj,Vijay Rawal, Shailesh Dube,

Abhishek Sharma, RajshSharma, Rudraksh Pandit,Sueep Vyas, Abeer Joshi,Hemendra Nath Tiwari,Ashok Dube, Arun Sharma,Umesh Shakargaye andAnkit Dube and other of-fice-bearers were present.Shailendra Dwivedi in-formed that the meetingwas conducted by PrernaManana and gratitudewas expressed by YaminiUpadhyay.

Brahmin samaj organises virtual meeting

ABBS virtual meeting

Wants to knowhis connectionsin Kashmir

OUR STAFF REPORTERBHOPAL

The Anti Terrorist Squad(ATS) questioned rape ac-cused Pyare Miyan hereon Monday. Miyan was ar-rested by the Jammu Po-lice on July 16 and laterwas brought to Bhopal. Po-lice of different police sta-tions are interrogatingMiyan on various issues.The arrest of Miyan hadalso alerted the Central in-vestigation agencies aswell state agencies. Sources said that the ATS

team questioned Miyan onvarious issues. It wanted toknow his arrival in Jammuand his local connections,particularly those whohelped him during his stay inJammu. It was also claimedthat the accused wanted togo to one of the neighbour-ing countries, through tres-passing. It is believed that toskip from arrest, he hadreached Jammu.

During investigation bythe Bhopal police, it camein light that he is the reg-ular visitor to Dubai andother countries. The ATSis focusing on his foreigntours and collecting histo-ry of his visit and also towhom he had met duringthe visit. The ATS wantedto know the motive of hisvisit to these countries. An incident occurred in

2016, when eight of theSIMI activists were killedin an encounter whenthey tried to abscond fromBhopal central jail killingone of the warder on thenight of October 31. TheATS has started freshscreening of his connec-tions with SIMI activists.The state had witnessedseveral anti-national activ-ities in the past.

List of legislatorswho may switchsides prepared

OUR STAFF REPORTERBHOPAL

Chief Election Commis-sioner Sunil Arora’s state-ment that by-polls will beheld by September-end haskeyed up Congress party. Itstwo MLAs quit the Housemembership and crossedover to BJP last week. There are reports that

more Congress MLAs mayjoin BJP. The Congress knows well

that BJP will try to woothem before by-elections.To keep its law-makers to-

gether, the Congress lead-ers are claiming they willreturn to power after by-polls. But from inside, theyare upset about the exodusof legislators from the par-ty. Senior Congress lead-ers have made a list of sus-picious MLAs who are un-der watch.The Congress leaders had

the hunch that Pradyum-nya Lodhi will join BJP butthey had no inkling thatNepanagar MLA SumitraDevi will also quit.The senior Congress lead-

ers are identifying legisla-tors who may join BJP andare interacting with them.

Besides, they are arrang-ing talks between MPCCpresident Kamal Nath andthose law makers.Most legislators who

have switched over to BJPare young. They have beenin touch with the rivalcamp for several months.But they were keen to leaveCongress after BJP’s re-turn to power. Apart from Nath, former

chief minister DigvijayaSingh has been talking tolegislators so that he mayunderstand the reasons fortheir anger.

Fire in slum, 1 shanty guttedBHOPAL: A fire broke out in Gandhi Nagar slum area on Monday afternoon, which damaged ashanty. Three fire tenders from Gandhi Nagar and from Bairagarh battled for half-an-hours tobring the flames under control. The reason of fire was said to be short circuit. The fire broke outin Abbas Nagar at 3.45 pm. The shanty was located in the middle of slum area. Over 150 shantiesaround were at risk of catching fire, said a fireman from Gandhi Nagar fire station.

MADHYA PRADESH 7FREEPRESS

TUESDAY | JULY 21, 2020 | INDORE

NITENDRA SHARMABHOPAL

The cases lodged againstformer vice chancellor ofMakhanlal Chaturvedi Uni-versity of Journalism, BKKuthiala, will be closed.The cases were lodged

with the Economic OffencesWing (EOW) during theCongress rule. It, however,could not hit upon enoughclues against Kuthiala. As aresult, the agency is plan-ning to close the cases.On April 13 last year, an

FIR was lodged with EOWagainst Kuthiala. After theFIR, Kuthiala was calledfour times to EOW office torecord his statements. The court has already or-

dered that Kuthiala will notbe arrested. The EOW offi-cials did not find evidenceof big scam against himduring the inquiry. Kuthiala was accused of

setting up a bar, paying fordrinks from university ac-counts, taking wife abroadduring official tour and ille-gally appointing faculty.

There were allegationsthat he had set up universi-ty’s study centres in differ-ent places and prepared awebsite. The EOW officers hur-

riedly registered an FIRagainst him. The report ofa three-member inquirycommittee headed by chiefsecretary M Gopal Reddywas the basis of filing anFIR against Kuthiala. Other members of the

committee were Congressspokesperson BhupendraGupta and a leader of theparty Sandeep Dixit. It wasmentioned in the report thatthere should be an immedi-ate inquiry into MCU affairs. The EOW registered an

FIR against Kuthiala with-out conducting an inquiry.

Nevertheless, during the in-quiry, the EOW did notcome across any majorscam involving former vicechancellor.Apart from FIR against

Kuthiala, the Congress gov-ernment had also registereda case in connection withSimhastha. Cases werelodged against certain offi-cials in that case. An FIRwas also registered in con-nection with e-tender butthe Congress government it-self swept it under the rug.The assistants of home min-ister Narottam Mishra weremade an accused in the case.The government did nothand over the sapling plan-tation case to EOW despiteforest minister’s recommen-dations for it.

EOW cases againstKuthiala to be closed

AGENCY FAILS TO GET PROOF

AGAINST EX-MCU VC

Flight of two MLAskeys up Congress,many under watch

Responsibilitygiven to ministersweighs on party

During Congress rule, theministers were told to takecare of the MLAs. Theparty, however, seems tohave been oblivious of theresponsibility given to theministers for legislatorsafter it lost power. SeniorCongress leaders are notpaying attention tolegislators who aredisillusioned with the party.

3 CEDMAP employees workingfor 20 years shown the door

OUR STAFF REPORTERBHOPAL

The corona pandemic hasthrown economic activi-ties haywire posing a ma-jor challenge not only to lo-cal economy but globally.Its impact is now apparenton semi-government bod-ies where downsizing hasstarted besides salary cuts. After Madhya Pradesh

Tourism Corporation, an-other autonomous body -Centre for Entrepreneur-ship Development of MP(CEDMAP) - has changedworking rules and condi-tions for its employees.

Three employees workingthere for more than 20years have been shownthe door. CEDMAP authorities

changed the contract con-ditions of about 80 em-ployees working for past20 years. Their contract isnow being reviewed everyfortnight and a month.These employees werewaiting to be regularisedin the department. “The governing body had

made provisions to regu-larise employees who hadcompleted 7 to 8 years inservice in its 51st meeting.Senior officials sat on files.

Now during adverse cir-cumstances, they’re firingemployees who have giventheir life for it,” semi-gov-ernment employees federa-tion president Anil Vajpay-ee said. About 200 employees

working at CEDMAP areworried about their future.“Ironically, they work in anorganisation that pro-motes others to establishbusiness but they are leftto fend for themselves,” headded. A large number of em-

ployees haven’t been paidfor more than six months.Works assigned to them is

being given to other agen-cies. Madhya PradeshTourism Corporation hadalso slashed salaries ofstaff members citing rev-enue losses due to coronapandemic. Most stafferswere from the hotels andresorts of tourism corpora-tion. The semi-government

employees federation hasappealed to chief ministerShivraj Singh Chouhan toformulate a policy so thatthese employees who havededicated golden period oftheir lives to the organisa-tion do not suffer at the endof their careers.

CORONA KILLS

Cong blamesgovt of softpaddling

OUR STAFF REPORTERBHOPAL

Issue related to providing27% reservation to candi-dates belonging to the Oth-er Backward Castes (OBC)seems to have snowballedinto a major issue that canimpact by elections instate. A case pertaining to it

was heard at Jabalpur HighCourt on Monday. Thebench of Justice Sanjay Ya-dav has fixed the next hear-ing on August 18. Activistssupporting the reservation

for OBCs and Congress al-lege that the government isnot presenting facts strong-ly in the court. “Additional advocate

general RK Verma anddeputy advocate generalAshish Bernad represent-ed government but couldnot present the facts onreservation in the court,”said advocate RameshwarSingh of OBC,SC,ST EktaManch. He intervened inthe case as he has alsobeen part of one of the pe-titions. The petition in OBC

reservation pertained onlyto announcement of re-sults of MPPSC in Febru-ary 2020. The court in facthad refused to grant stayon 27% reservation andhad asked government to

submit reply within 15days, Singh said.

Congress, on the otherhand, took the issue and

blamed BJP-led Shivrajgovernment of softpadalling it. MP PichhdaVarg Ayog chairman JPDhanopia shot a letter toOBC and minority welfareminister Ramkhilawan Pa-tel. Dhanopia, in his letter,urged minister to presentgovernment’s argumentproperly. Backward castes form

53% of total population ofMadhya Pradesh. The issuegains importance as KamalNath led Congress govern-ment had raised the reser-vation of OBCs to 27%reservation from 14% dur-ing its 15-month rule. TheOBCs also form a majorvote bank in assembly con-stituencies where by elec-tions are likely to be de-clared soon.

OBC reservation snowballing as major by-election issueBJP HAS NO CONCERN FOR OBC: CONGRESS

The new BJP govern-ment is cancelling

the decisions taken bythe Congress govern-ment. In fact, the govern-ment is trying to under-play the reservation ofOBC. A press conference was

organised on Monday, inwhich the state mediapresident Jitu Patwariand other OBC leader ofthe party participatedand blamed the state gov-ernment for not putting

the claim of the OBC inthe court. Patwari said three chief

ministers from OBC hadruled the state. From theBJP, none of them areconcerned about OBCs inthe state. The Congressparty is only part in thestate, which was worriedabout the OBC and hadincreased the reserva-tion from 14 percent to 27percent because theyform 54 per cent of state’spopulation.

OUR STAFF REPORTERBHOPAL

Amidst the corona pan-demic, a meeting of theoffice-bearers of RashtriyaSwayamsevak Sangh (RSS)will be held here fromTuesday. All meetings of RSS were

put off because of the dis-ease. Head of RSS MohanBhagwat has arrived in the

state capital to take part inthe discussion. SarkaryavahSuresh Bhaiyya Joshi,Dattatreya Hosbole and oth-ers will be present in themeeting where the coronapandemic and other issueswill be discussed Economicslowdown because of thepandemic and AtmanirbharBharat will figure in thetalks. Another importantissue to be discussed at the

meeting is the constructionof Ram temple. PrimeMinister Narendra Modiwill perform bhoomi puja ofthe temple on August 5, andthe construction work willbegin after that. Temple con-struction was part of theRSS agenda, so there will bea discussion on it. Apartfrom that, the Indo-Chinaconflict will come up in themeeting.

RSS meeting from today, Bhagwat arrives

Police presencecut down to50% in PHQOUR STAFF REPORTER

BHOPAL

The police headquartershas issued directives to callonly 50 per cent of its staffin office because of rise incorona cases in the city. The ADG (administra-

tion) Ajay Sharma issuedthe directives stating thatofficers having single roomor chamber alone can cometo the office on all days. Butpolice personnel sitting inone common area shouldregister only 50 per centpresence. The personnel have been

told to wear masks andfollow social distancingstrictly. They will also usesanitizers. A roster willbe formed so that all staffmembers can put in equalnumber of workinghours.

No criminal will be spared: CM

BHOPAL: There are clearinstructions to act againstcriminals and noon will begive shelter, said chief min-ister Shivraj SinghChouhan while assessinglaw and order situation inthe state through video con-ferencing on Monday. The CM warned the de-

partment that they shouldnot give shelter to any crim-inal and those who try togive the shelter will be pun-ished. He asked to make listof criminals. He warnedthat at the local level crimi-nals and police administra-tion enjoying this will notbe tolerated. He asked totake action against the drugpeddlers, who are destroy-ing future of youth. He alsoasked to take action againstchit-fund companies.

ATS interrogates rapeaccused Pyare Miyan

Letters should be limited to 150 words and must be sent via e-mail. Letters may be edited for clarity or space. E-mail: fpindore@gmail.com

8 EDITFREEPRESS

INDORE | TUESDAY | JULY 21, 2020

At first glance, there is nothing in commonbetween the two recent news items —an in-quiry committee’s finding that the lynching

this April of two Hindu priests in Palghar, some 100km north of Mumbai, was not a planned affair buta spontaneous incident fuelled by rumours ofchild-lifting and, that Surat cop Sunita Yadav (ofthe viral video fame) was not backedby senior officers despite her stand-ing up to the state health minister’sson caught violating the COVID cur-few.On closer examination, the underly-ing factor is the inability of the au-thorities to come to grips with thechallenges thrown up by social me-dia. The Palghar police ignored What-sApp rumours that men masquerad-ing as Hindu monks were goingaround kidnapping children duringthe countrywide lockdown. They hadsimply not learnt from the lynchingsacross the country because of fakenews about child-lifters, roving ban-dits, cow killers, organ harvestinggangs, etc.In the second incident, Gujarat’s IPS officers cuta sorry figure by opting not to react to social mediaeven if the viral video had turned their own con-stable into an overnight celebrity. Public health authorities in Mumbai showed thesame ostrich-like mentality during the ongoingpandemic when faced with viral videos showinguncomfortable truths such as overcrowding, lack ofcleanliness, shortage of staff and piling up ofcorpses.Likewise, authorities monitoring the lockdown inMumbai were unable to gauge the restlessness ofmigrant labour until they stormed Bandra RailwayTerminus expecting trains home based on a half-

baked TV news report. In the first place, they failedto spot the dodgy report on a sensitive topic. Thesame story played out at the national level when themigrant exodus was a trickle.It may come as a surprise to the Twitter genera-tion that once it was the ‘Letters to the editor’ thatalerted authorities to issues left unaddressed. Any-one from scholars to activists to the common mancould get his facts/argument, narrative/demand orcomplaint/compliment in print. An assistant edi-tor sifted through hundreds of letters a day, ofwhich a maximum of seven made it to the presti-gious editorial page, some in as many as 500 words.It used to be said that a hundred words in a reputednewspaper were more effective than a thousand-strong protest rally, much like a Tweet today.In the dumbing down process, the editorial pagein several newspapers has been downgraded andthe space for letters has shrunk. In any case, theprint medium’s credibility and circulation are de-

clining. With mainstream media shying away fromplaying a watchdog role and TV news channelsseen as lapdogs, people are willing to believe allkinds of rumours and conspiracy theories that arerife on social media. The authorities are in a quandary as they have nomechanism to verify the truth in an ecosystemwhere fake news factories abound. Even if they oc-casionally catch fake news or spot a viral videothat’s genuine, officials don’t know how to react toit in the absence of a laid-down policy. Most sit tightunless pushed.The inability of the authorities to counter fake oreven genuine news on social media in a systematic

manner works against them as people then tend todisbelieve every official version. It is not as if social media is full of negatives. Vi-ral videos rather than mainstream media reportshave forced change during the pandemic; patientsposting photos of COVID corpses lying in corri-dors, exposing black-marketing in vital drugs, over-billing by private hospitals, interns revealing thedire shortage of doctors in public hospitals, neti-zens recording police high-handedness, the postsshowing hordes flouting social distancing normsthe moment lockdown was eased.The reaction, or rather lack of it, of the publichealth system to the viral videos is a case study.With most print and TV journalists eating out oftheir hands, medical mandarins were able to hidethe shortcomings of the system. When the viralvideos shook the system, no one knew how to rebutthem. This undid even the good work done by pub-lic hospitals.

They should have rebutted such dam-aging viral videos by sincerely admit-ting to the shortcomings of the system,outlining their limitations, stating thecorrective action taken and highlight-ing their genuine success stories.There is no shame in conceding thatyou are overwhelmed but have not giv-en up the fight.To their credit the cops were able touse the social media to their advantagealthough in a limited way; the messagein a song, delivering birthday cakes,distributing food, donating plasma…However, this is no substitute for aproper policy. In the digital era whereyour image depends on the digital im-age, every wing of the governmentmust have its own cyber cell to monitornews pertaining to it. The cops do have

a cybercrime cell but it is more of a joke: lettingthose spreading hate messages go but arrestingthose who have ‘liked’ a message deemed derogato-ry just because some jingoists have taken offence atit. Not only must these cyber cells spot fake news,half-truths or absolute truths early but they mustalso formulate an immediate and effective responsethat will quell any misgivings, conspiracy theoriesand consequent panic. The ‘Letters to the editors’column must have a digital avatar.

The writer is an independent journalist based in Mumbai.

No end in sight fromcoronavirus disruption

India crossed the one-million mark of coronavirus cas-es in over three months, but it took it just three daysto log another one lakh cases. On Monday, a single-day

record high of 40,425 new cases was registered. With 681fatalities on Monday, the total death toll now stands at27,497. The trajectory of the virus is uneven and uncer-tain, with new hot spots emerging while old ones claimrelief. On Monday, the West Bengal Government decidedon a complete lockdown in the containment zones insome areas while State Health Minister Alapan Bandy-opadhyay claimed that community transmission was no-ticed in some parts. Both Mumbai and Delhi seemed tohave slowed down the spread of the virus but the situa-tion was still far from returning to normal. In Maha-rashtra’s Aurangabad district total coronavirus casesrose to nearly 11,000, with the number of deaths record-ed touching 400. There were nearly 4,500 active cases inAurangabad alone while over 6,000 had recovered. Punetoo was experiencing a fresh spurt. So was Bengaluruwhich has now been put under a stringent lockdown.Though the growth rate of infections was tapering in Del-hi but the capital is still not free from the virus.In Kerala, there is a renewed spurt in certain parts,with the State reporting 821 fresh cases on Sunday, thehighest single day rise so far. Fearing a second surge nextmonth, the State is making arrangements for treating50,000 cases. Notably, Kerala was feted in the national me-dia for having handled the pandemic the best of all otherStates, with its Health Minister K K Shailaja showeredfulsome praise. Even in the case of Bengaluru, the Stategovernment had claimed success until the virus againsurfaced to torment the city. On Monday, Delhi recorded954 fresh cases, taking the total to nearly 1.25 lakhs, withthe death toll over 3,600. After the alarming inadequacyof the Arvind Kejriwal Government to cope with the pan-demic, the central government steeped in to partner tofight the virus collectively. In recent days, the effort seemsto have borne fruit with the number of daily cases fallingfrom the high four figures to three figures in the last cou-ple of days. Delhi now felt emboldened to open up furtherbut the markets and eating places generally bear a de-serted look. Also, testing has improved in recent days, butoverall it is not enough. The number of actual casesmight be far in excess of the official figures since the lackof testing and non-availability of basic healthcare facili-ties in large parts of the country is a huge constraint.Meanwhile, given the continuing spread of the virus, andthe official measures taken to prevent it, economicgrowth is bound to suffer in the current financial. An in-dependent ratings agency estimates that the GDP losscould be over nine percent. Despite the staggered open-ing of the economy, the disruption caused by several lo-calised lockdowns impacts the supply chains. For in-stance, air and rail travel is either suspended or subjectto periodic shutdowns due to the coronavirus. The WestBengal Government, for instance, had stopped air travelearlier in the month. Ditto for a few other States.Meanwhile, the race for a sure-fire vaccine to kill thevirus continues apace. India has a special interest in thevaccine now being developed and tested by the OxfordUniversity since it will be mass-produced by a famousPune-based company. More than a hundred governmentlaboratories and pharmaceutical companies across theworld, including those in China, are engaged in develop-ing the vaccine. Whoever succeeds in hitting the marketfirst is bound to reap a windfall, though given the havoccaused by the virus to the human race it is moot whetherits commercial exploitation is morally appropriate. Theother alternative is for the WHO to intervene and under-take supply of the winner vaccine at affordable pricesglobally. Of course, we cannot expect China to bear thecosts for the global supply of such a vaccine even if thevirus had its origins in Wuhan. Humanitarianism doesnot concern the Communist czars.

Don’t let social media hijack the narrative

Bad businessThe COVID count hastouched an alarmingincrease of 40 K per day. Nobeds in govt hospitals andrising oxygen-starvedcasualties, even asconcerned authoritiesenthusiastically announcethe imminence of an"Indian" vaccine by August15, but not toiling onensuring what isrudimentary andparamount at this moment.With no centralassistance/guidance or thepolitical will for a seriousand systematic reopeningof economy, it is finally leftto MunicipalCommissioners to clamplockdowns, in cavalierabdication. As links to thechains of supply and ofdemand keep breaking,there is not a modicum ofcertainty or continuity formuch of anything to beopen to business. Yet, ourSensex is relentlessly seenadding to the market cap inproportion to the climbingCOVID count. Welcome tothe virtual world of COVID.

R Narayanan

Right initiativeRef: Grads can now sign upfor a disaster managementdiploma, July 20, 2020. Aone-year post-graduatediploma in Disastermanagement offered by theDirectorate of CivilDefence is a welcome stepand comes at anappropriate time. Thisgives a wider scope tograduates and is greatthinking by authorities.

Melville X. D'Souza

Back on trackEvery sphere of life needsto adapt to the shiftingdynamics. Field sports tookits baby steps when themuch awaited England-West Indies series.Elsewhere, beautifulcontact games of basketballand football make areappearance. All creditshould go to novel andenergetic sports bodies thatforesaw, planned andexecuted to perfection.Sports is an endless seriesof adjustments and playersshape their own destinies.The adrenaline rush to dominate will keep themgoing, despite no crowds.

Ganapathi Bhat

Pilot's flight of ambitiongrounded by Congress?

Wrap-upAnil Singh

LETTERSTO THEEDITOR

Come to grips with the challenges thrown up by digitalisation

The phase 1/2 Oxford COVID-19 vaccine trial is now published. The vaccine is safe, well-tolerated, and immunogenic. Congratulations toPedro Folegatti and colleagues. These results are extremely encouraging.

Richard Horton

Hearing preliminary findings that the Oxford Vaccine Trial Study is safe and trains the immune system is very promising Dizzy symbolCrossedfingers I'm so pleased to be a trial participant, contributing to this invaluable research!

Ben Annear, NGS Assist. Psychologist in High-risk Eating Disorders Service

Waiting for more updates...but I guess for now - 'cautiously optimistic' is one way to characterize this update? Note, this University of Oxfordvaccine will be distributed by Astra Zeneca, and one the primary global manufacturers is Pune-based Serum Instititute India.

Amit Paranjape

The #OxfordVaccine has shown some very promising results Microscope with scientists at University of Oxford along with Astra Zenecaleading the way. Good to hear from Matt Hancock that we have secured access to 90m vaccine doses should it succeed.

Christopher Pincher, Member of Parliament for Tamworth & Minister of State for Housing

ONE FLEW OVER THE NEST #oxfordvaccine

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: Some people see the glass half full. Others see ithalf empty. I see a glass that's twice as big as it needs to be.

— George Carlin

Aseasoned politician, Sachin Pilotis not a pilot by training. His at-tempt to fly with 19 MLAs was

clearly aimed at grounding the AshokGehlot government in Rajasthan. Buthe lost his way and was grounded by theCongress. It’s hard to say where he washeaded to or what his intended destina-tion was. But before he could reach hisdestination, Pilot ran out of fuel andhas landed, at least for now, in no-man’sland. While his flight of ambition crash-landed and two of his crew memberslost their jobs, the pilot himself wasejected from power, both as deputy chiefminister and Rajasthan Congress pres-ident. Though Pilot’s flight did succeedin triggering turbulence in Gehlot’sgovernment, his unreasonable de-mands for his return to the Congresscamp have forced him to take the legalcourse to save himself and his MLAsfrom being disqualified as members ofRajasthan legislative assembly. Ambition is not a bad word. There isnothing wrong in being ambitious, butambition has to be realistic. Pilot wasunreasonably ambitious and too de-manding. When he took off from Jaipurfor Delhi, he claimed to have had thesupport of 30 MLAs. That was enoughto bring down the Gehlot government.Hence, there was reason for the Con-gress and Chief Minister Gehlot to beworried and the BJP to feel elated. Itseemed that a repeat of what had hap-pened in Madhya Pradesh (MP) inMarch end was about to happen in Ra-jasthan. But when it became clear thatPilot didn’t have support of more than20 MLAs, things began to fall in placefor the Congress and the imminentthreat to the survival of Gehlot govern-

ment diminished. Pilot’s rebellion thusturned out to be less impressive than ex-pected. It is true that he had enoughgrievances against Gehlot. But did hehave to make a public spectacle of hisrevolt? Pilot’s rebellion has exposed hisunbridled hunger for power and imma-turity in handling his adversary. For quite some time, there were re-ports and widespread speculation in po-litical circles that Pilot was longing torebel. He was expected to follow in thefootsteps of his former colleague Jyoti-raditya Scindia. Unconfirmed reportshave it that he was in talks with the BJPfor some time. The story begins withthe Rajya Sabha election last monthwhen poaching of MLAs was expectedto happen for ‘enabling’ the BJP to winan extra seat to the Upper House of par-liament from Rajasthan. However, theCongress high command’s interventionis said to have salvaged the situation.Pilot postponed his revolt but the sim-mering rivalry between the chief min-ister and his deputy continued. It ex-ploded when Pilot received summonsfrom Rajasthan police’s Special Opera-tion Group to answer questions on thealleged conspiracy to destabilise thestate government. Pilot responded onexpected lines: he rebelled in an attemptto bring down the government, refusedto attend Congress legislature meetingsand moved to BJP-ruled Haryana withhis loyal MLAs. Then came the disqualification no-tices to rebels MLAs from Rajasthan as-sembly speaker C P Joshi. Sachin Pilotand his flock challenged the speaker’smove to disqualify them in the Ra-jasthan High Court, which has barredthe speaker from taking any action

against the rebels MLAs till Tuesday. Atthe time of writing this article, thecourt’s verdict on the disqualificationnotices was awaited. Pilot has said thathe was not joining the BJP and the ru-mours were ‘spread to malign him withthe Gandhis’. The Congress has saidthat its doors are open to the rebels andit is reported that Rahul Gandhi is also‘keen on keeping the doors open forSachin Pilot’. This means both sideshave kept their options open. WhetherPilot will return to the Congress or joinBJP, or else float his own regional outfitremains to be seen. But what’s certainfor now is that Pilot tried to punchabove his weight. Hence his gamble tocopy Scindia’s playbook seems to havefailed. Scindia had a well-negotiated dealwith the BJP which he executed with-out any ideological compunction. Hehad no issues joining the BJP and couldbring down the Kamal Nath govern-ment in MP because the gap betweenthe number of MLAs of Congress andBJP was too small. Pilot doesn’t havethat luxury: he has the support of only19 MLAs and the BJP is way behindCongress with 73 MLAs. This could beone of the reasons why Pilot seems dis-inclined to join the BJP and has notruled out his return to the Congress.His failed coup against Gehlot hasproved the Congress right in its beliefthat Gehlot would be able to command alarger group of MLAs during the crisis.It is why he was installed as chief min-ister and Pilot only his deputy. Like many politicians in the past andScindia very recently, Pilot has onceagain demonstrated that loyalty with-out reward can be fickle. His over-whelming desire to be the chief minis-ter without enjoying support of majori-ty of Congress MLAs does not help dif-ferentiate him from other dynastsacross political spectrum who feel enti-tlement to position of power is theirbirthright. It is true that he workedhard to bring the Congress back in pow-

er in Rajasthan after the party’s deci-mation in the 2013 assembly election.But he is not the only reason why theCongress won Rajasthan in 2018. Rajasthan is a bipolar state where vot-ers flip between Congress and the BJPevery five years. Anti-incumbency sen-timent against Vasundhara RajeScindia’s government was quite strongand Congress had a fair chance to defeatthe BJP. Opinion polls had predicted adecisive mandate for Congress. Howev-er, BJP fared better than expected andthe Congress under Sachin Pilot’s lead-ership struggled to get 99 of 200 seats.Still he wanted to be the chief minister.For all his good work, the Congress re-warded Pilot by making him deputychief minister with five key portfolios.This was in stark contrast to Scindiawho was sidelined by the Kamal Nath-Digvijay Singh duo and was even de-nied a Rajya Sabha seat. After the fall of Congress governmentin MP, whether Pilot took some inspira-tion from Scindia is a matter of conjec-ture, but Pilot knows he lacks numbersto execute a Madhya Pradesh-style re-volt. Therefore, joining BJP is not aneasy option for him because his MLAswould not want to face the risk of re-election. Besides, with barely 19 MLAs,Pilot is unlikely to get a better deal forhimself and his supporters from BJP. Inall this, the Congress seems to havedone a good job in trying to save theGehlot government from an expansion-ist BJP. This is not to absolve the ‘lead-erless’ Congress for the mess it is insince its emphatic defeat in 2019 gener-al election. The grand old party is adrifting ship without a captain. It needsa decisive leader to navigate the shipfrom BJP’s expansionist tide.

The writer is a former Senior AssociateEditor of Hindustan Times and Political

Editor of Deccan Herald, New Delhi

For all hisgood work,the CongressrewardedPilot by

making himdeputy chiefminister with

five keyportfolios.This was instark contrastto Scindiawho was

sidelined bythe Kamal

Nath-DigvijaySingh duoand was

even denieda Rajya

Sabha seat.

CommentA L I Chougule

TUESDAY’S SWIPE

TAILPIECE

HOME LEARNING AND REOPENING SCHOOLS ESPECIALLY HARD IN AFRICA

Lessons via radio or TV. Math problems in newspapers. Classes onZoom or WhatsApp. The options for African students to keep study-ing while schools remain closed because of the coronavirus pan-

demic seem varied, but the reality for many is that they will fall behindand possibly drop out of school forever — worsening inequality on analready unequal continent."I think education now is more of an emergency than the health

issue," said Dr Mary Goretti Nakabugo, a literacy expert who runs aUganda-based education non-profit called Uwezo, noting that therehave been no reported virus deaths and just over 1,000 cases in thisEast African country, though, as elsewhere, limited testing means thosefigures are likely undercounts.Although the pandemic has disrupted education across the globe, the

schooling crisis is more acute in Africa, where up to 80% of studentsdon't have access to the internet and even electricity can be unreliable,making distance learning difficult, if not impossible. Even newspapersinto which learning materials are inserted are not affordable for manyin the region. Sub-Saharan Africa already has the highest rates of children out of

school anywhere in the world, with nearly one-fifth of children betweenthe ages of 6 and 11 and over one-third of youth between 12 and 14not attending, according to the UN culture and education agency. Butgetting students back to school also comes with special challenges inAfrica, where children in some countries may cram into tiny classroomsby the dozens. The charity Save the Children identified 12 countries inwhich children "are at extremely high risk of dropping out forever." Nineof them are in sub-Saharan Africa.In Uganda, for instance, annual per capita income was less than $800

in 2019, according to World Bank data. Uganda's government haspledged to distribute 10 million radios and over 130,000 solar-poweredTV sets, but authorities have failed to honour past promises, includinggiving a free mask to everyone.In neighbouring Kenya, pupils will repeat an academic year, a phe-

nomenon commonly described as a "dead year." Schools also providehavens for children from work and exploitation. Girls may especiallysuffer, according to the literacy expert Nakabugo, who cited anecdotalreports of a growing number of teenage pregnancies — as theNorway-based institute's report noted happened during West Africa'sEbola epidemic.Some students in Senegal returned to classrooms in June. In

Zimbabwe, where in many schools up to 70 students may be crammedinto a small room, the government is postponing a phased reopeningthat had been scheduled to begin this month. Teachers unions hadwarned that such a plan is dangerous in schools lacking face masks,hand sanitiser, and even running water.Even in South Africa, the continent's most prosperous economy, the

government has faced criticism from teachers unions for its decision toreopen schools despite a growing number of cases. Since schools therereopened in June, at least 650 students and teachers have tested posi-tive in the province of Gauteng, the country's economic hub, forcing 71schools to close again.The prolonged shutdown could also mean many schools close for

good and many teachers quit, exacerbating what is already the world'sworst teacher shortage. "It is the poorest schools that will continue tosuffer and remain closed, while affluent schools reopen, only deepeninginequality in both access to and quality of education," said DipoleloMoime, spokesman for One SA Movement, a group of South Africanactivists."I can't even afford to buy bread. Where will I get the money for these

private lessons?" said Maud Chirwa, a mother in the Kuwadzana sub-urb of Zimbabwe's capital, Harare. "They are better off at school wherethere are some controls."

- AP

FREE PRESSFOR FREE FLOW OF TRUTH

NATION 9LeT's terror funding module busted in JammuJAMMU: Police on Monday claimed to have busted a terror funding module of Pakistan-based terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) tasked to activate its cadres in the Jammu region, with the arrest of one person, officials said. The police receivedinformation that LeT has activated a module of its members for carrying out terrorist activities in the Union Territory,particularly in the Jammu region, and in furtherance to this, a delivery of funds was to take place in Jammu, they said.According to the officials, Special Operation Group (SOG) Jammu and the Army have busted the terror funding module.

FREEPRESS

Tuesday | July 21, 2020 | Indore

News from South

PPE kits and other medical waste disposed atGhazipur landfill in New Delhi, on Monday pti

Puducherry CM presents Budgetwithout Guv's nod, addressCHENNAI: Puducherry Chief Minister VNarayanasamy on Monday presented the 2020-21Budget for the Union Territory without theapproval of Lt Governor Kiran Bedi and hercustomary address to the House. Presenting theRs 9,000-crore Budget, Narayanasamy -- who alsoholds the finance portfolio -- announced a freebreakfast scheme for poor students in governmentschools in the name of late Chief Minister andDMK President M Karunanidhi. He said thescheme will start in November. Narayanasamy alsoannounced 100 units of free electricity to thosebelow the poverty line. In a tweet, Bedi said:"Annual Budget file has still not been released fromthe office of the Chief Minister for administrativeapproval by the L-G, as per UT Act and BusinessRules. This will lead to a serious financial crisiscaused by the office of CM. Ppl (people) ofPuducherry pl (please) be informed."

Police arrest man whotrafficked 9 girls to DubaiBENGALURU: A 37-year-old man has beenarrested for cheating and trafficking nine womento Dubai on the promise of getting them jobs in adance bar, according to an official, here onMonday. "Basavaraj Kalasad sent nine girls toDubai before the Covid lockdown, promisingthem Rs 1 lakh per month income, but actuallytrafficked them," Central Crime Branch (CCB)Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) KuldeepJain said. All of them, it's suspected, would haveended up in some prostitution ring, though someof them would have gone there willingly, whichthe police are ascertaining. Incidentally, the girlsfrom several states, like Karnataka, AndhraPradesh and Tamil Nadu, returned safely fromDubai on a Vandebharat flight, recently.

Former head priest of Tirumalatemple dies of Covid-19TIRUPATI: Former chief priest of TirumalaTirupati Devasthanams (TTD), which manages theaffairs of the famous Tirumala temple, SrinivasaMurthy Deekshitulu, died due to coronavirus at SriVenkateswara Institute of Medical Sciences(SVIMS) here on Monday. The 75-year-old, whowas admitted to the hospital on Saturday aftertesting positive, succumbed early Monday.According to SVIMS Director Dr B Vengamma, hewas also diabetic and had kidney related ailments.Srinivasa Murthy belonged to Archakam Peddintifamily, one of the four families of hereditary priestsassociated with the Tirumala temple for centuries.He had served as the chief priest for two decades.

Second plasma bank in Keralaset up in WayanadWAYANAD: Kerala's second plasma bank hasbeen set up at the Wayanad district hospital atnearby Mananthavady, close on the heels of asimilar facility being launched at Manjeri inMalappuram. The District Medical Officer Dr RRenuka, who inaugurated the plasma bank onSunday, said the convalescent plasma therapy hasbeen found effective for treating the criticalCOVID-19 patients. Health authorities said thedonors of plasma should have tested negative forthe virus twice and the donation should be within14-120days of the final test result. The donorshould be between 14-50 years of age, and behealthy with a minimum weight of 55 kg.

Some are trying to paint DMKas Hindu enemy: StalinCHENNAI: The DMK President MK Stalin onMonday said some people are trying to paint theparty as the 'Hindu enemy' to prevent its growth.In a letter to the party members, Stalin said somepeople are trying to use a very old idea of trying topaint the DMK as the Hindu enemy through newtechnology to prevent the growth of the party.Stalin said while such acts divert the people'sattention, and work is on to prevent 27 per centreservation to OBC. According to Stalin, the partyis fighting against such actions in the court of law.

Animation Masters Summitopens, honours ChaudhuriTHIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Noted animationmaster Arnab Chaudhuri has been posthumouslyconferred with the Legend of Indian AnimationAward 2020. At the inauguration of the AnimationMasters Summit 2020 Digital Edition on Monday,CEO ofToonz Media Group P Jayakumar; head ofInfotainment and Kids, Star India, AnuradhaAggarwal; and country head, Technicolour, BirenGhose; and Sach Chandaria of the promotergroup, Toonz Media Group, addressed thegathering. Animation Masters Summit, the flagshipannual event of Toonz, was going virtual for thefirst time in the 21-year history of the event.

YouTube told to block offensivecontent against Lord MurugaCHENNAI: YouTube has been asked to block achannel that has offensive content including a postagainst popular Tamil, Hindu hymn "Kanda SashtiKavacham," police said here on Monday. Againstthe backdrop of arrest of two men of the channelfollowing complaints by the BJP's legal wing andHindu outfits, police said cyber crime wing haswritten to the social media platform. "We haveasked YouTube to block the Karuppar Kootamchannel in view of the offensive contents includingone against Kanda Sashti Kavacham," senior policeofficials said.

Hair apparent, PM’s new look has fascinated one and allrobin roy

Try to visualize PMNarendra Modi in allhis national TV ad-

dresses since March, 2020,when he first announced thenational lockdown/one-daycurfew and till the recentone.You will notice a “meta-morphosis”. PM Modi'sbeard has become longer(easily visible) over the lastcouple of months.Is there a hidden messagein this? Being a veteranpolitician and an astutestatesman, this change musthave a message. Is he givingan indication that we muststay safe from the unpre-dictable novel coronavirusand avoid unnecessary phys-

ical contact especiallywith the barber?In late March, whenModi appeared on na-tional television to an-nounce a one-day cur-few, he was at his usualbest trimmed (perfectly)self. Recently, when heonce again appeared fora public address to talkabout the pandemic, heshowcased a visibly longer,neatly groomed beard.Kindly note between thesenational addresses, therewas a gap of 70 days of na-tionwide lockdown to breakthe novel coronavirus chain.It’s been “hair apparent”that he practiced what hepreached… The beard lengthreveals that the Prime Min-ister has kept away from his

barber and he did so even af-ter the unlocking began tourge people to maintain re-straint.But that doesn’t mean thatthe PM did not leave his offi-cial residence at all… He,meanwhile, visited the“troubled” frontiers of thecountry and boosted themorale of the soldiers in anact of adulation.

Even twitter haserupted in his beard ap-preciation.So overall, his mes-sage was clear, loud andVISIBLE (of course).Hold off on that visit tothe salon. Work fromhome if you're able to.Don't go out to pick upgroceries at a time youknow the supermarket

will be filled with people.Don't throw a party; meetyour friends over a videocall instead. And, when youdo step out, wear a mask.He’s followed and practicedthe protocol to the ‘T‘ and seta precedent, unlike the hon-ourable Donald Trump, whowell… we all have seenTrump ‘gaffe” on themasked status.

Modiji’s act also speaks vol-umes of his spiritual bend ofmind and his asceticism.Notwithstanding the rigor-ous training he had duringhis RSS days… it may be re-called how he had spent timeat a cave in Kedarnath evenas the country waited withbaited breath after the 2019Lok Sabha… with palpabletension, but Captain Cool ofBJP and the country’s pre-mier had gone on a spiritualtrek.Does it also give a hint that the PM plans to trek on a spiritual path after givingup his active political life…whenever that happens… tillthen, let’s appreciate andhail the PM’s brand newlook which has fascinatedone and all.

shanKar raj

Bengaluru

In a horrendous case, a Dalitman was brutally beaten up,his sister stripped and par-ents kicked around in Vijaya-pura for allegedly touchingthe vehicle of people belong-ing to the Lingayat and Kuru-ba communities.Incidentally, while CM BSYediyurappa belongs to theLingayat community, theleader of the Opposition Sid-daramaiah is from the Kuru-ba community.The video of the 28-year-oldman being beaten by an angrymob went viral on social me-dia today.In the video, the Dalit man isseen lying on the road naked,

crying out in pain even as heis being beaten up with sticks.The crowd is seen baying forhis blood.The angry mob did not sparehis 26-year-old sister, whoseclothes were torn by the moband she was also allegedlysexually harassed in the mid-dle of the road. The man’s par-ents tried to intervene, butthey were kicked by the angry

mob. People in the crowd,however, alleged that theyoung man had sexually ha-rassed a woman on the road.The Talikoti Police have reg-istered an FIR against 13 peo-ple under sections 143 (unlaw-ful assembly), 147 (rioting),323 (voluntarily causinghurt), 354 (assault or criminalforce with intent to outragemodesty of a woman), 504 (in-tentional insult with intent tobreach peace), 506 (criminalintimidation)and 149 (unlaw-ful assembly with common in-tention) of the Indian PenalCode and relevant sections ofthe SC/ST Prevention ofAtrocities (Amendment) Act2015.The other accused are on therun. “We have offered protec-

tion for the victim’s familyand we expect to arrest theaccused persons soon,” theTalikoti police said.

230 kg gold smuggled throughdiplomatic channel

K raVeendran

thiruvananthapuram

Investigations by National Investigation Agency(NIA) have revealed that Swapna-Sarith-Faisal ganghad smuggled 230 kg of gold from Dubai through thediplomatic channel.Of this, only one consignment of 30kg was inter-cepted, while investigators are in pursuit of the rest.In fact, before the clandestine plan was put into op-eration, the gang had sent a dummy bag in the nameof the UAE consulate to see that everything workedsmoothly.The Dubai mastermind, Faisal Fareed, is already inthe custody of the Dubai Police and is expected to behanded over to India any timeThe investigators have inspected the flat of the at-tache at the UAE consulate, who had returned to hiscountry, in search of clues. They are trying to ascer-tain if suspects had visited the house and checked vis-itor’s register there.The investigators are also looking at the role ofground handling agencies at the airports in abettingthe crime. An ex-employee of Air India Sats, incharge of ground handling, claimed that all smug-glers, with assistance from higher authorities, hadplanted pliable people in sensitive departments in theairport so that they could smoothly manage the rack-et. Customs has decided to question a former vice-president of Air India Sats, who has reportedly beenin league with the operators.Meanwhile, the mystery about the gunman of theconsul general, who attempted to commit suicide, hasdeepened further with the revelation that he had ac-companied Sarith to collect the contraband. The NIAsleuths suspect his active involvement in the opera-tion. The man’s appointment as gunman itself is un-der a cloud, with the state Police DGP reportedly or-dering his extension in violation of the protocol,which required him to take approval of the externalaffairs ministry.More accusations are flying in all directions, withthe state BJP leaders alleging that the Dubai-basedFaisal had close connections with certain film direc-tors and producers, who allegedly used proceeds fromthe smuggled gold to produce movies, some of whicheulogised the Left and the government.

Vikas Dubey’s financier & weaponsupplier arrested

FP CorresPondent

Lucknow

After being detained for 15 days,gangster Vikas Dubey’s close aideJai Bajpai and his associatePrashant Shukla were arrested onMonday morning, UP police said.Bajpai and Shukla are accused ofcriminal conspiracy, providing cashand weapons to Dubey hours beforethe ambush in Kanpur village onJuly 2, in which eight police person-nel were killed and seven others se-riously injured.Dubey, the prime accused inkilling of eight policemen in Kan-pur’’s Bikru village on July 3, waskilled in a police encounter on July10. “Our probe revealed that Dubeyhad briefed Bajpai about his plan tolaunch an attack on the police partythat had gone to the village to arresthim on July 1. Next day, along withhis aide Prashant Shukla, went toBikru to hand over Rs 2 lakh in cashand 25 cartridges of .32 bore re-volvers to Dubey”, the Kanpur po-lice said in a statement.Dube allegedly also asked Bajpaito arrange for at least three sportsutility vehicles (SUVs) for him andhis gang members to escape aftercommitting the crime. Bajpai did sobut failed to ferry them due to in-tensive police patrolling, the state-ment said.On July 4, Bajpai went under-ground. The cops reportedly caughthim within hours and handed himover to the Special Task Force(STF). He was taken to STF head-quarters in Lucknow and allegedlykept in detention for 15 days.He was reportedly arrested offi-cially after frequent tweets andposts on social media platformsabout his “release”.

Prema rajaram

Kolkata

A day after a mob ran amok inUttar Dinajpur district ofWest Bengal protesting thesuspected rape and murder ofa teenage girl, an autopsy re-port and the discovery of aboy’s body gave a new twist tothe case on Monday.The post-mortem of the 16-year-old girl’s body revealedno sign of physical force orsexual assault as clamed bythe villagers of Chaitra Gach.The locals had set fire to policeand other vehicles during theprotest. In addition to this, the bodyof a boy was found in a pondin the same village.The boy

had gone absconding accord-ing to police records after thegirl went missing. Policesources said it could be a caseof lovers’ suicide pact. BJPtook advantage of the situa-tion and called for candlelightmarches in 1100 mandalsmaintaining that she was avictim of brutal crimes. “Police are trying to concealthe real incident of rape of aRajbanshi girl. We condemn

the incident and that is whywe are here. After the Lok Sab-ha elections (2019) there havebeen atrocities in North Ben-gal,” said BJP leader NischitPramanik.The BJP functionary sug-gested that after his party’svictory of North Bengal LokSabha constituencies, theirparty workers are being tar-geted. The saffron party alsobrought up the alleged suicideof BJP MLA DebendranathRoy, whose body was foundhanging in Uttar Dinajpur dis-trict last Monday.In the case of the teenagegirl, the ruling TMC said theBMP was trying to spread fakenews. “Post-mortem report re-veals truth.”

Dalit woman stripped, family assaultedin K’taka village for ‘touching’ bike

Lovers suicide pact? Newtwist in Bengal girl s death

representation pic

agencieS

Srinagar

Omar Abdullah on Mondayreacted angrily to Chhat-tisgarh Chief MinisterBhupesh Baghel’s com-ments apparently linkingthe former Jammu andKashmir CM’s releasefrom nearly nine months ofdetention to the revolt bySachin Pilot against theCongress government inRajasthan. Taking to Twitter to ex-press his anger, Abdullah,who is also the vice presi-dent of the National Con-ference, said that he wouldbe taking legal actionagainst the Chhattis-garh chief minister forhis comments madeduring an interview to aprominent Englishnewspaper. “I am fed up of thedownright maliciousand false allegation thatwhat Sachin Pilot is do-ing is somehow linkedto my or my father’s re-lease from detentionearlier this year.Enough is enough. Mr@bhupeshbaghel will be

hearing from my lawyers,”he said. He also tagged Congressleaders Rahul Gandhi andRandeep Singh Surjewalaand the Congress party inhis tweet. Minutes after Abdullah’stweet, Baghel made at-tempts to downplay hiscontroversial remarks andtweeted, “Please do not tryto turn this tragic demiseof democracy into an op-portune moment@OmarAbdullah ji. The‘allegation’ was only aquestion asked, and wewill keep asking it, as willthe country.”

Lokayukta orders ...On this the state government took the suggestions from thethen advocate general Rajendra Tiwari who replied that theDGP is having full authority to appoint any officer in theLokayukta. As the DGP works under the State Governmentwhich clarifies that the DGP is having the full authority tomade the appointment.Later the issue was subsided andKumar became the ADG in Lokayukta and later he wasappointed as Transport Commissioner.

Advani to...On Monday, it recorded the statement of accused SudhirKakkad who appeared in person, though earlier he wanted todepose through a video link. Like the other accused, Kakkadclaimed that he was innocent and was falsely implicated bythe then Congress-led central government for politicalreasons. The court will record the statement of accused RamChandra Khatri on Tuesday. BJP leader Uma Bharti hadearlier this month appeared in person before the court. Shehad also accused the then Congress-led central governmentof framing her due to political vendetta.The mosque inAyodhya was demolished on December 6, 1992 by 'karsevaks' who claimed that an ancient Ram temple had stoodon the same site. Advani and Joshi were leading the Ramtemple movement at that time.

Baby-faced...He further threatened to take legal action against the MLAwho had made the bribe allegation. Congress MLA GirirajSingh Malinga, who had switched over from the BSP, hasalleged that Pilot had offered him Rs 35 lakh to cross over tothe BJP with him, but he refused.Gehlot asserted that one should not go by the "baby face" ofPilot. He told the media in Jaipur that Pilot was conspiringwith the BJP for the last six months to bring down hisgovernment. "Nobody believed me when I talked of thisconspiracy... Nobody knew that a person with such aninnocent face will do such a thing," he said.Gehlot is planning to convene a one-day Assembly session fora floor test, to demonstrate that he has the numbers to runthe government. A whip will accordingly be issued to Pilotand his brigade, asking them to vote for the government;they will then be obliged to do so on the floor of the house;or else the Anti-Defection law will come into play and theywill stand disqualified as members of the House.

FINALLY, A...“We saw a good immune response in almost everybody,”

said Dr Adrian Hill, director of the Jenner Institute at OxfordUniversity. “What this vaccine does particularly well istrigger arms of the immune system,” he said. Hill explainedthat due to the vaccine neutralizing antibodies are produced— molecules which are key to blocking infection. In addition,the vaccine also causes a reaction in the body's T-cells whichhelp to fight off the coronavirus. He said that larger trialsevaluating the vaccine's effectiveness, involving about 10,000people in the UK as well as participants in South Africa andBrazil are still underway. Another big trial is slated to start inthe US soon, covering about 30,000 people.How quickly scientists are able to determine the vaccine'seffectiveness will depend largely on how much moretransmission there is, but Hill estimated they might havesufficient data by the end of the year to decide if the vaccineshould be adopted for mass campaigns.He said the vaccine seemed to produce a comparable level ofantibodies to those produced by people who recovered froma COVID-19 infection and hoped that the T-cell responsewould provide extra protection.“There is increasing evidence that having a T-cell response

as well as antibodies could be very important in controllingCOVID-19,” Hill said. He suggested the immune responsemight be boosted after a second dose; their trial tested twodoses administered about four weeks apart.Hill said Oxford's vaccine is designed to reduce disease andtransmission. It uses a harmless virus — a chimpanzee coldvirus, engineered so it can't spread — to carry thecoronavirus' spike protein into the body, which should triggeran immune system response. Hill said Oxford has partneredwith drug maker AstraZeneca to produce their vaccineglobally, and that the company has already committed tomaking 2 billion doses. “Even 2 billion doses may not beenough,” he said, underlining the importance of havingmultiple shots to combat the coronavirus. “There was a hopethat if we had a vaccine quickly enough, we could put out thepandemic,” Hill said, noting the continuing surge of infectionsglobally. “I think it is going to be very difficult to control thispandemic without a vaccine.”Numerous countries, including Germany, France, theNetherlands, Italy, US and the UK have all signed deals toreceive hundreds of millions of doses of the vaccine — whichhas not yet been licensed — with the first deliveriesscheduled for the fall. British politicians have promised that ifthe shot proves effective, Britons will be the first to get it.

64 inmates,...We will ensure testing of rest of staff. Sixty four jail inmatesand three guards have tested positive in sub jail of Bareli."The state's tally on Monday evening stood at 23,464 positivecases with 738 deaths. Seventeen deaths were reported inlast 24 hours. Indore accounts for 6,155 positive cases and292 deaths, followed by Bhopal 4556 cases and 138 deaths. Ujjain is at the third spot with 71 deaths and 986 positivecases. Burhanpur recorded 445 while Neemuch has 538positive cases. Khandwa accounts for 530 positive cases andKhargone's corona tally stands at 526. Jabalpur recorded805. Dhar has reported 291 positive cases.Morena recorded 1,332 cases and Mandsaur recorded 295while Dewas has reported 368 cases. Sagar recorded 540cases. Tikamgarh has 231 cases and Raisen has recorded 145while Bhind has till date account for 419cases. Sheopur has160 while Rajgarh has 174 and Barwani recorded 264 cases.Chhindwara has 95 and Rewa has 142 cases. Vidisha has 165cases. Shajapur has 232 cases while Damoh has 75 andAshok Nagar has 77 cases.Datia has 151 cases while Satna has 71 cases and Jhabua has84 cases. Panna has 68 cases and Balaghat has 66 cases.Sehore has 108 cases. Hoshangabad has 107 while Betul has161 cases and Shivpuri has 238 cases. Ratlam recorded 294cases. Chhattarpur has 119 cases.Katni, Sidhi and Singrauli have reported 51 cases each.Agarmalwa has reported 50 cases. Narsingpur has 98 cases.Dindori and Umaria have 32 cases each. Guna has 56 andAlirajpur has 59 cases. Shahdol has 48 cases and Anuppur has52 cases. Niwari has 24 and Seoni has 23 cases. Mandla hasreported 14 cases. As per health department, 864 positivecases were reported in state on Monday. During the day16222 samples were tested across the state.

Sena's ties..."It is the Shiv Sena which laid the road to the Ram temple.The Shiv Sena removed the main roadblocks in the run-up tothe construction of the temple at the place where Lord Ramwas born. That was not for politics. But the Shiv Sainiksmade sacrifices out of faith and Hindutva. And our relation isintact," he said. On the statement of NCP chief Sharad Pawaron Sunday that some people think building a temple wouldhelp eradicate the Covid-19 pandemic, Raut said, "I can onlysay that the fight against coronavirus is being fought by ourdoctors in white attire, whom we call devdoot (messengersof God)." However, he was quick to add that the party's faithin religion and God is intact. Thackeray has said PrimeMinister Modi will also accept that lakhs of doctors, police,nurses and ward boys across the world have made sacrifices,fighting Covid-19. "And only they will fight the disease andwith the blessings of God," he said.

Continued from page 1

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10 NATIONRamesh Kumar meets Andhra Guv, seeks reinstatement as SECAMARAVATI: Acting on the orders of Andhra Pradesh High Court, Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar onMonday called on Governor Biswabhusan Harichandan, requesting for his appointment as the StateElection Commissioner (SEC). The retired IAS officer called on the governor at Raj Bhavan and broughtto his notice the orders passed by the High Court reinstating him as the SEC. Ramesh Kumar later toldthe media that he represented his case for facilitating assumption of charge forthwith as the SEC.

FREEPRESSTuesday | July 21, 2020 | Indore

Omar to drag C’garhCM Baghel to court

new delhi

The Centre has written to allstates and union territorieswarning against the use ofN-95 masks with valved res-pirators by people, sayingthese do not prevent thevirus from spreading outand are “detrimental” to themeasures adopted for itscontainment. The Director General ofHealth Services (DGHS) inthe Ministry of Health, in aletter to the Principal Secre-taries of health and medicaleducation of states, said ithas been observed that thereis “inappropriate use” of N-95 masks, particularly thosewith valved respirators, bythe public other than desig-nated health workers. The DGHS referred to theadvisory on the use of home-made protective cover forface and mouth available onthe website of the Ministryof Health. “It is to bring to yourknowledge that the use ofvalved respirator N-95masks is detrimental to themeasures adopted for pre-venting the spread of coron-avirus as it does not preventthe virus from escaping outof the mask. In view of theabove, I request you to in-

struct all concerned to followthe use of face/mouth coverand prevent inappropriateuse of N-95 masks,” DGHSRajiv Garg said in the letter.The government had inApril issued an advisory onthe use of homemade protec-tive cover for face andmouth, asking people towear it, particularly whenthey step out of their resi-dences. The advisory stressed suchface covers must be washedand cleaned each day, as in-structed, and stated that anyused cotton cloth can be usedto make this face cover.The colour of the fabricdoes not matter but one mustensure that the fabric iswashed well in boiling waterfor five minutes and driedwell before making the facecover. Adding salt to this wa-ter is recommended, it said. It also listed the proceduresof making such homemademasks, asking to ensure itfits the face well and thereare no gaps on the sides. It urges people to washhands thoroughly beforewearing the face cover,switching to another freshone as the face cover be-comes damp or humid, andnever reusing it after singleuse without cleaning it.

Govt warns againstuse of N-95 masks

Modi’s fake strongmanimage India’s biggest

weakness: RahulOur Bureau

New Delhi

Even while remaining fo-cused on China in his sec-

ond videotoo on Mon-day, formerCongressPresidentRahul Gand-hi tweeted:PM fabricat-

ed a fake strongman imageto come to power. It was hisbiggest strength. It is nowIndia’s biggest weakness. Starting his video serieson Saturday on why theChinese aggression, heelaborated on Monday onwhat is China’s strategicand tactical game planand asserted China wantsto destroy PM Modi s im-age as a strongman. Herehe goes: It is simply not aborder issue. The worry Ihave is Chinese are sittingin our territory today. Chi-nese don t do anythingwithout thinking about itstrategically. In their mindthey have mapped out theworld and they are tryingto shape the world. That sthe scale of what they aredoing.

Bengal admitscommunity

transmissionagencieS

Kolkata

Admitting that commu-nity transmission ofCOVID-19 was recordedin a few areas, the WestBengal government onMonday announced acomplete lockdown inthe state twice a week ina bid to break the fast-spreading chain of thecontagion. The announcementcame as Bengal recordedthe highest 2,282 infec-tions, pushing the case-load to 44,769. The totalnumber of deaths, in-cluding comorbidities, is1,147. The opposition ac-cused the TMC govern-ment of failing to man-age the situation. The de-cision of imposing thelockdown was taken at ahigh-level meeting,chaired by Chief Minis-ter Mamata Banerjee. It was decided that thelockdown would beclamped on Thursday andSaturday this week, HomeSecretary Alapan Bandy-opadhyay said. “COVID-19is spreading fast, andthere are areas wherecommunity transmissionhas been detected.

Sangeeta Pranvendra

Jaipur

In a startling revelationGiriraj Malinga, the MLAfrom Bari seat in Dholpurdistrict has said Sachin Pilthad offered him Rs35 croreto topple the government.

This hesaid waswhen hevisited Pi-lot s homefor somework relat-ed to hisarea. Sub-stantiatinghis claim,

MLA Rajendra Gudha saidthe chief minister had men-tioned the incident in thelegislator s meet that anMLA had refused on adviceof his wife and informedhim. Also speaking to themedia, CM Ashok Gehlotsaid this was why the gov-ernment was safe.Speaking to the media out-side Hotel Fairmont onMonday, Malinga said, Ihad gone to his house twicefor some work in my area.Sachin Pilot spoke to meabout money. He said takeas much as you want. Itwent up to Rs35 crore. I had

gone once in December lastyear then once later. I in-formed the Chief Ministerabout it. I told the CM thereis a threat to his govern-ment as an effort is beingmade to topple your govern-ment. But, the CM told menot to worry and all will befine. Malinga had won on a BSPticket in 2008 but joined theCongress. He contested thepoll on a Congress ticketthis time in 2018. Rajendra Gudha, anotherMLA, verified the claimsaying the CM had men-tioned in the leislator smeet an MLA had refused

the money and told himabout the offer. He told thelegislators the MLA hadbeen advised by his wife todo so. The MLA who refusethe money on the advice ofhis wife and informed theCM is Giriraj Malinga. Reacting to Malinga s alle-gations, Sachin Pilot said,All allegations levelledagainst me are baseless,and it was done to malignmy image. Whether Malinga had toldhim about Pilot s offer formoney, Gehlot repliedbriefly in the affirmative hesaid, That is why the gov-ernment is safe today.

Pilot offered me Rs 35 cr, I refused, told CM: Malinga

SOG seeks to probeUnion MinisterGajendra Singh

The Special OperationsGroup (SOG) of Ra-jasthan has issued a sub-poena to Union MinisterGajendra Singh andasked him to give hisstatement in the phonetapping case. The noticeis addressed to his homein Jodhpur.The subpoena asks theminister to appear at hisconvenience to give astatement in case num-ber 48/2020 filed underSections 124A and 120BIPC. It asks him to tell theagency what would be aconvenient time, date andplace for the same.After rumours of SOGvisiting the minister, itinformed through a pressnote that it had deliveredthe subpoena to his PA,The subpoena under sec-tion 160 CrPC wasserved to Shri BurmanPA of Honourable min-ister on 18 July at 4.33pm via WhatsApp, 4.34pm via email and 4.36pm by a phone call.

rajasthan political crisis

Iam saddened but not surprised to be atthe receiving end of such baseless,

vexatious allegations levelled against me. Iwill be taking appropriate, strictest possiblelegal action against the MLA who was madeto make the accusations. I’m sure moresuch concocted allegations will be thrown atme to cause aspersions on my image but I llbe unfettered and remain firm in my beliefs and convictions.This is done solely to malign me and to stifle legitimateconcerns I raised against Rajasthan party leadership, asmember and MLA of Congress. This attempt further aims atdefaming me and attack my credibility. Narrative is beingredirected to avoid addressing the main issue.

n Sachin Pilot

Rajendra Gudha

BIZ BUZZ

Preference plan probe in top priority: TraiMUMBAI: The examination of telcos' premium planspromising 4G network preference is among the "top priority"for the regulator, and it hopes to finalise its views on theissue in about two weeks, a TRAI source said. On Friday,telecom tribunal TDSAT had stayed TRAI's recent order toVodafone Idea, that had asked the company to withhold itsoffering promising priority 4G network on RedX plan.6----------------------------------------------------------------------------PM Modi to IBM CEO: It’s a great time toinvest in IndiaNEW DELHI: In an apparent bid to attract more foreigninvestment into the technology sector, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi interacted with IBM's Chief Executive OfficerArvind Krishna and told him "this is a great time to invest inIndia", and the country is "welcoming and supporting"investments in the sector. Modi's interaction with Krishnacomes at a time when some of the biggest technologycompanies in the world have announced investments in India,the latest being Google, which announced the $10-blnGoogle for India Digitization Fund a few days ago. "He (Modi)noted that while the world is witnessing slowdown, FDIinflow in India is increasing. He said that the country ismoving forward with the vision of a self-sufficient India sothat a globally competent and disruption resilient local supplychain can be developed," the government said in a releaseafter the video conference between Modi and Krishna.6----------------------------------------------------------------------------Ant Group to go public in Shanghai, HKHONG KONG: Ant Group, the online payments arm of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, announced plans Monday foran initial public stock offering that could become the world'sbiggest since the coronavirus pandemic began. Ant, valued at$150 billion after a 2018 private fundraising round, gave noindication how much money it hopes to raise in the jointoffering in Hong Kong and Shanghai. But the offering wouldtest investor willingness to look beyond the pandemic andworsening global economy. 6----------------------------------------------------------------------------Apps wanted for Chief statistician postNEW DELHI - The government has invited applications forthe post of chief statistician of India by 1730 IST on Aug 17.The tenure of current chief statistician, Pravin Srivastava, willend on Aug 31. Srivastava, the third chief statistician of India,was appointed to the post in October 2018 until hissuperannuation on Aug 31. In an advertisement, thegovernment said the position would have a tenure of threeyears, extendable by a further years or until the personattains the age of superannuation, whichever is earlier6----------------------------------------------------------------------------Fitch affirms IOC rating at 'BBB-', outlooknegativeNEW DELHI: Fitch Ratings on Monday said it has affirmed a'BBB-' rating on state-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC) with anegative outlook on the expectation of gradual recovery inrefining volume and margins in the second quarter. The ratingassigned to IOC is equal to its largest shareholder, the state ofIndia, Fitch said in a statement.6----------------------------------------------------------------------------EPFO records 3.18 lakh new enrolmentsNEW DELHI: Net new enrolments with retirement fund bodyEPFO rose to 3.18 lakh in May from 1 lakh during April 2020,according to its latest payroll data, providing a perspective onemployment in the formal sector amid the COVID-19 crisis.Provisional payroll data released by the EPFO last month hadshowed that net new enrolments stood at 1.33 lakh in Aprilthis year. The figure has now been revised to 1,00,825.6----------------------------------------------------------------------------ICRA: Lockdown to hit power demandMUMBAI: The reimposition of lockdowns in much of thecountry is likely to drag down the already tepid powerdemand, which is now seen falling 5-6% in 2020-21 (Apr-Mar), ICRA Ltd said. The ratings agency had earlier estimatedthe demand to fall by a mere 1% in the year. The revisedestimate of energy demand de-growth assumes a decline of3.5-4.0% in Jul-Sep and Oct-Dec and a marginal recovery ofabout 1% in Jan-Mar, given the slower pace of recoveryexpected in industrial and commercial activity in the country.

MONEY FREEPRESS

INDORE | TUESDAY | JULY 21, 2020

11IndiGo to lay off 10% of its

workforce, says CEOAGENCIESSingapore

IndiGo has decided to lay off 10 per cent of itsworkforce due to the economic crisis caused bythe coronavirus pandemic, its CEO RonojoyDutta said on Monday."From where things stand currently, it is im-

possible for our company to fly through thiseconomic storm without making some sacri-fices in order to sustain our business opera-tions," Dutta said in a statement."Therefore, after carefully assessing and re-

viewing all possible scenarios, it is clear thatwe will need to bid a painful adieu to 10 percent of our workforce. It is for the first time inthe history of IndiGo that we have undertakensuch a painful measure," he added.As on March 31, 2019, the airline had 23,531

employees on its payroll.Dutta said on Monday the "impacted employ-

ees" will be given "notice pay", calculated onthe basis of gross salary, in lieu of serving no-tice applicable to them. In addition to the no-

tice pay, they will be paid a severance paywhich will be calculated as one month of CTC(cost to company) for every completed year ofservice, subject to a maximum of 12 months, hesaid in the statement.This means that if an employee has been

working with IndiGo for six years, he or shewill be getting an amount equivalent to sixmonths' gross salary (CTC) as a severance pay-ment. However, those who have worked for 12years or more with the company will get a fixedamount equivalent to one year's gross salary(CTC) as severance payment.

Unexpected rise in diesel prices despite slower de-mand has extended the gain for the transport fuelover petrol in Delhi. With a 12 paise hike in dieselprice in New Delhi while petrol prices remainingsteady, the gap between the two auto fuels has fur-ther widened in the Delhi. Diesel prices overtook

that of petrol in Delhi, in an unprecedented de-velopment. Diesel was priced at Rs 81.64 per litrein Delhi, higher than the previous level of Rs81.52 a litre. Petrol prices, however, remain un-changed at Rs 80.43 a litre, the same level as June29 when its pump price rose marginally by 5 paise.

Diesel prices surpass all records, petrol holds ground

AGENCIES New Delhi

E-commerce giant Amazon saidIndian micro, small and mediumenterprises (MSMEs) and brandsthat are part of its Global SellingProgramme (GSP) have crossed $2billion in cumulative exports.The company, which had started

GSP in 2015, allows Indian compa-nies to export to other countriesthrough 15 Amazon websites glob-ally. The programme had startedwith a few hundred sellers andnow has over 60,000 exporters.In January this year, Amazon had

pledged to enable USD 10 billion incumulative exports by 2025. Amit Agarwal, senior VP and

country head Amazon India, saidmicro, small and medium enter-prises (MSMEs) are the backboneof the Indian economy and bydigitising them, the company iscontributing towards boosting ex-ports and job creation that willempower inclusive economicgrowth of the country."The GSP helps take homegrown

businesses global and provides anavenue for MSMEs to build globalbrands. The programme is witness-ing momentous growth. It tookthree years for the programme tohit exports of USD 1 billion andnow it has grown 100% to hit thenext USD 1 billion in less than 18months," he added. Indian SMEs and brands using

Amazon global selling exportworldwide has now crossed USD 2billion i.e. Rs 30,000 crore in cu-mulative exports, he noted.

Agarwal said the programmehas helped MSMEs sustain theirexports business and in turn, sup-ported hundreds of families amidthe COVID-19 pandemic that hasled to lockdowns and disruptionsin supply chains globally."Exports will continue to play a

critical role in this revival. GSP ishelping local go global. This ismore important than ever for oursmall businesses, and for the na-tion, as it recovers from unprece-dented time. We will continue toempower Indian MSMEs to re-alise their potential and make ex-ports easy," he said.Agarwal added that Amazon re-

mains committed to its pledge todigitise 10 million MSMEs, enableone million incremental jobs anddrive USD 10 billion in e-com-merce exports by 2020.

IL&FS hopes to getback 57% of grp debt

SC reservesorder in plea

AGENCIESNew Delhi

Cash-strapped Infrastructure Leas-ing and Financial Services (IL&FS)Group on Monday said it expects toaddress over Rs 57,000 crore ofdebt, which is around 57 per cent ofits overall debt of Rs 99,000 crore.Of this, the group estimates to ad-

dress close to Rs 50,500 crore of itsdebt by March 2021, and an addi-tional debt of Rs 6,600 crore beyondFY21. However, it did not give anytimeline for addressing the addi-tional debt of Rs 6,600 crore.The group shared its estimates of

debt which would be addressedover the next three quarters. Thegroup's non-executive chairmanUday Kotak said, "We are putting

out transparently things that wesee today and our reasonable esti-mate of how things look as we goforward. We are committed to thisroadmap and we will go all out asIL&FS board and management tomake it happen." The board shared a quarterly

plan that estimates addressing ad-ditional debt of Rs 8,800 crore bysecond quarter of FY21, Rs 18,000crore by the third quarter of FY21and over Rs 6,000 crore by the end offourth quarter of FY21 -- aggregat-ing to Rs 50,500 crore by end-FY21.It further said efforts towards res-

olution of additional debt of Rs6,600 crore are likely to continue be-yond FY21 as the board expects theresolution of major holding com-panies to take a longer time.

NEW DELHI - The Supreme Courttoday reserved its order in the gov-ernment's application seekingmore time for telecommunicationcompanies to pay their dues aris-ing out of the adjusted gross rev-enue judgment. The government had suggested to

the court that the companies be giv-en 20 years to pay their dues, whichamount to over Rs 1 lakh crore. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta

today argued that the 20-year peri-od was suggested by the Cabinetand, therefore, the court shouldtreat it as a "reasonable" period oftime to pay the dues. When asked by the Supreme

Court what was a "reasonable" pe-riod of time to pay off the dues,telecommunication companiesgave different responses. While Bharti Airtel and Voda-

fone India sought 15 years, TataTeleservices said it could honourits dues in 7-10 years. The Supreme Court today also

said it wants to examine docu-ments related to telecommunica-tion companies that are under in-solvency. The court observed thattelecommunication companiessuch as Aircel, Reliance Communi-cations Ltd, and Sistema Shyam--which are facing insolvency pro-ceedings--also owed over Rs 39,000crore to the government. The apex court will examine the

issues related to telecommunica-tion companies facing proceedingsunder the Insolvency and Bank-ruptcy Code on August 10. A bench headed by Justice Arun

Mishra today again expressedstrong displeasure over telecomcompanies trying to "wriggle out"of paying the dues through variousmeans such as re-assessment andre-calculation of dues. The court ruled that the claims

raised by the Department ofTelecommunications would be con-sidered as final, and no attempt to"reopen" the issue would be allowed. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta

said the government had not al-lowed re-assessment by any compa-ny. He said Bharti Airtel's totaldues were more than of Rs 43,900crore, of which it had paid aboutRs 18,000 crore

BREATHER

JEFFERIES REPORT

AGENCIES/ New Delhi

Domestic auto companies, whichsaw a sharp decline in sales vol-ume in the June quarter owing toCOVID-19, are likely to report dis-mal financial performance in thefirst quarter of this fiscal, a re-search note.Auto makers such as Bajaj Auto

Ltd, Maruti Suzuki and TVS Motor,among others, are set to announcetheir June quarter earnings ?in the

coming days."Q1FY21 is expected to be one of

the worst quarters for the Indianauto industry due to a sharp de-cline in volumes amid COVID-19,"Jefferies said in a research note.Wholesales volumes declined 74-

78 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) forpassenger vehicles and two-wheel-ers, while truck wholesales volumeplunged 93 per cent during the firstquarter of the current financialyear, as per the note.

Tractors were relatively betterwith an estimated 18-20 per cent y-o-y decline during the quarter,while, two-wheeler export volumesdipped 62 per cent, the note stated.Given this big decline in volumes

amid COVID-19, the June quarterresults of auto companies are like-ly to be "dismal," it said, adding,"we expect aggregate revenues ofour covered auto original equip-ment manufacturers (OEMs) to fall71 per cent YoY in Q1FY21."

AGENCIESMumbai

Shares of HDFC Bank surged to anover four-month high on expecta-tion that the asset quality of thebank is unlikely to get affected oncethe moratorium on loans is lifted onAugust 31. In addition, indications that an in-

ternal candidate is likely to succeedManaging Director Aditya Puri,who is set to retire on October 26,also aided gains in shares of thelender. In early trade, shares ofHDFC Bank rose to an over four-month high of Rs 1,152.90. At 1409, shares were 3.7% higher

at Rs 1,139.60 on the National StockExchange."Substantial exposure to highly

rated corporates, adequate provi-sioning coupled with lower morato-rium at 9%, provides comfort on the

bank’s ability to face any delin-quency shock post moratorium,"ICICIdirect.com Research said. The brokerage has maintained

'buy' rating on the stock with a tar-get price of 1,320 rupees. Announcing its Apr-Jun earnings

on Saturday, the bank disclosed thatat the end of June just 9% of itsloans, as per value, were under theReserve Bank of India-permittedsix-month moratorium. However, despite the benefit of as-

set classification standstill, grossnon-performing assets ratio rose to1.36% as on Jun 30 from 1.26% aquarter ago. This is because the bank used an-

alytical models to identify slippagesand thus accelerated recognition ofsuch stressed loans, and also provi-sions for them. The bank now has nearly 55 bln

rupees of provisions, which includefloating as well as contingent. According to Haitong Securities

India, HDFC Bank is well placed tomanoeuvre efficiently during thesetough times. The brokerage has 'outperform'

rating on the stock with target priceof 1,200 rupees. Morgan Stanley,which raised the price target to1,425 rupees from 1,285 rupees, ex-pects continued market share gainshelped by the bank's strong balancesheet.

Cafe Coffee Dayshuts 280 moreoutlets in Q1

MUMBAI: Homegrown coffeechain Cafe Coffee Day (CCD)hasclosed down around 280 outlets inthe first quarter of the current fis-cal year, citing profitability issuesand likely future increase in ex-penses, a company statement said.With these closures, the total

count of its outlets stood at 1,480as on June 30, 2020.Cafe Coffee Day is a brand

owned by Coffee Day Global, astep-down company of Coffee DayEnterprises Ltd (CDEL).

The coffee chain also reporteda decline in average sales per day(ASPD) to 15,445 during the April-June quarter from 15,739 in thecorresponding period of the lastfiscal.

YES Bank boardsets FPO issueprice at Rs 12

COGENCISMumbai

The board of YES Bank Ltd has setthe issue price for its follow-on pub-lic offer of shares at 12 rupees ashare, the lower side of its offerprice band of 12-13 rupees. The follow-on public offer was

subscribed 95%, receiving 687,365bids for 11.89 bln shares against theoffered 12.52 bln. The issue was open for anchor in-

vestors on Jul 14, and closed for re-tail and other investors on Friday. The private sector lender would

raise 142.67 bln rupees from the is-sue, according to an exchange re-lease. This includes the 40.98 bln rupees

raised from 3.42 bln shares allottedto 14 anchor investors on Jul 14, at12 rupees apiece.

Indian MSMEs, brandson Amazon GSP cross$2 bn in total exports

SBI Cards profit grows 14%NEW DELHI: SBI Cardsand Payment Services Ltdon Monday reported a prof-it after tax of Rs 393 crorein the April to June quar-ter, up 14% from Rs 346crore in the correspondingperiod of previous fiscal.The return on average as-

sets came at 6.3% in Q1 FY21versus 6.5% while the returnon average equity was at28.3% versus 36.1% Q1 FY20.The capital adequacy ratio

was 24.4% (Q1 FY20: 18.9%).As per capital adequacynorms, the company's capi-tal to risk ratio consisting oftier one and tier two capitalshould not be less than 15%of its aggregate risk weight-ed assets on balance sheetand of risk adjusted value ofoff-balance sheet items.However, SBI Cards total

income fell to Rs 2,196crore from Rs 2,304 crore.Though interest income in-

creased by 34.6% to Rs1,412 crore for Q1 FY21from Rs 1,049 crore for Q1FY20, income from feesand services dipped to Rs668 crore from Rs 916 crore.Asset quality improved

marginally with gross non-performing assets at 1.35%of gross advances asagainst 2.68% and provi-sion coverage ratio at68.25% as of June 30 asagainst 72% last year.

June qtr results of auto cos may be "dismal"

HDFC Bank says NPAs maynot worsen post moratorium

AGENCIESNew Delhi

In what could mark the end of intra-day trading, which accounts for 90per cent turnover in the stock mar-kets, markets regulator SEBI has putout a circular on upfront collectionof margins from clients in the cashand derivatives segment.According to brokerage estimates,

intraday margins will go. Thiscould result in huge reduction in in-traday turnover which is almost 90per cent of all turnovers. This is be-cause an excess intraday marginprovided could result in marginpenalty.

SEBI has introduced the conceptof peak margin reporting. Theclearing corporations shall sendfour snapshots during the day foridentifying the margin require-ments for clients across the day.Margin penalty to be based on a

higher peak margin reported dur-ing the day based on snapshot filesor end of day margin as per currentpractice. "This practically means, no more

intraday leverage," said JimeetModi, Founder and CEO, SamcoGroup.This measure will be rolled out ef-

fective from December 1, 2020.There will be a phased adoption

over 3 phases of 3 months each andfull adoption by September 1, 2021.Nitin Kamath of Zerodha tweeted:

"Today's SEBI circular says that allbrokerage firms have to stop intra-day leverage products by August2021 in a phased manner".Modi of Samco Group said: "This

was expected since last year afterthe December 2019 circular. Nowthe industry and exchanges willneed to adjust to this new reality. This probably will also accelerate

the market share towards discountbrokers from full service brokers. Dif-ferentiated margins was a service of-fering by full service brokers whichhas now been arbitraged away.

New Sebi norms to hitintraday trading in mart

‘ANY CHANGE BY AI IN PILOTS'SALARIES CAN FLARE-UP TO ANUNPRECEDENTED MAGNITUDE’NEW DELHI: Any unilateral change byAir India in the salaries of pilots wouldbe illegal and has the potential to flare-upto a situation of "unprecedented magni-tude", said the Indian Commercial Pilots'Association (ICPA) on Monday.In a letter to Air India Chairman and

Managing Director Rajiv Bansal, theICPA said, "In the press conference by Ho-nourable Minister Shri Hardeep SinghPuri dated 16th July 2020, you had stated'we are in negotiation with the pilots',which is far from reality." "It was not a ne-gotiation, but the 'diktat' of the MoCA(Ministry of Civil Aviation) which wasconveyed to us. We would also like toplace on record that the so-called negoti-ation was 'not harmonious' in any as-pect," the ICPA noted.

8Union MSME MinisterNitin Gadkari urged

Amazon to list productsfrom small businessesseparately on its platform,help micro entrepreneursmarket their goods globally.

CITY BIZ BUZZSPL Sign Agreement for Supply ofSteel Structures for Omaxe Chowk

NEW DELHI: Reiterating its commitment to the earlycompletion of this prestigious project in Delhi, Omaxe signedan agreement with Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL). Omaxeis developing a multi-level parking-cum-commercial project atChandni Chowk under PPP model with North Delhi MunicipalCorporation (North DMC).Commenting on the development, Omaxe CEO Mohit Goelsaid: “Omaxe Chowk is the most prestigious project not justfor Omaxe but for the country as a whole. Due to theSupreme Court ban on construction because of pollution andthe COVID-19 lockdown, we have lost close to six months oftime. In order to cover up for the lost time, we are using theadvanced steel structure technology which will not only save40% time but also help expedite delivery of the project byJuly 2022.”Adding to this, Jindal Steel and Power Ltd Managing DirectorVR Sharma said, “The enquiries for readymade steelstructures have gone up late from developers as they areexpediting construction works of their projects. We are gladthat Omaxe has chosen us for the supply of steel structuresfor their ambitious project Omaxe Chowk at Chandni Chowk.”

day after she celebrated her 38thbirthday with her singer husbandNick Jonas, Priyanka ChopraJonas on Sunday reminisced over

the marriage proposal by the Suckersinger two years ago. The Baywatch actorshowered love on her husband by posting acute mirror selfie where Nick is seen kiss-ing Priyanka on the cheeks. She added ashort note reflecting on the day when themusician asked her tomarry him.

“To the greatest joy of my life. 2 years agoon this day you asked me to marry you! Imay have been speechless then but I say yesevery moment of every day since,” shewrote.“In the most unprecedented timeyou made this weekend so incredi-bly memorable. Thank you forthinking of me all the time. I amthe luckiest girl in the world! Ilove you @nickjonas,” she added.Responding to the post, the Jeal-ous singer dropped an adorablecomment and thanked his super-star wife for “saying yes” to themarriage proposal.

“Thank you for saying yes. Ilove you beautiful,” Nickcommented on thepost.Priyanka andNick got mar-ried in twoelaborateceremoniesat Jodhpur’sUmaidBhawanPalace – as perChristian tradi-tion on December1, 2018 and as per

Hindu rituals onDecember 2.

–ANI

atrina Kaif, IshaanKhatter and SiddhantChaturvedi haveteamed up for the first

time for a supernatural-comedy titled Phone Bhoot, themakers announced on Monday.The film, to be directed byGurmmeet Singh of Mirzapurfame, will be produced by actor-filmmaker Farhan Akhtar andRitesh Sidhwani’s Excel Entertainment.Farhan took to Twitter to an-

nounce the film with a photo ofthe three actors.“The one stop shop for allbhoot related problems,#PhoneBhoot ringing in yournearest cinema in 2021,” hewrote.Siddhant, who was the break-out star of last year’s GullyBoy,, alsosharedthe pic-ture onInsta-

gram. “Triple trouble in Bhootworld. You’re allowed to bescared, as long as you're laugh-ing along the way,” the actorwrote.Ishaan, said the picture featur-ing them was shot before thecoronavirus induced nation-wide lockdown was announced.“Though the lockdown doesn’tapply on ghosts, this image waslocked since March. We are fi-nally here,” the Dhadak starsaid.Phone Bhoot is written byRavi Shankaran and JasvinderSingh Bath.

The film would see Katri-na, who last featured

in Bharat, step intothe horror-come-dy genre for thefirst time in hercareer.

WhileIshaan isgearing upfor the pre-miere of

Mira Nair’s ASuitable Boy series,Siddhant will be nextseen in the sequel ofBunty Aur Babli.

–PTI

eeks after the grand announcement of her song Black is King, 24-time Grammy award winner Beyonce on Sunday dropped thetrailer of the song on online video streaming platform Disney Plus.The new album, which is based on the soundtrack of Disney’s The

Lion King: The Gift has been curated and executive produced byBeyonce. The trailer of the video song features the musician’s daughter BlueIvy Carter and several other celebrities like Jay-Z, Childish Gambino, PharrellWilliams, Kendrick Lamar, Tierra Whack, 070 Shake and Jessie Reyez.According to Variety, the visual album has been filmed in South Africa,LosAngeles, New York, London, West Africa and Belgium.

WFREEPRESS

Beyonce dropstrailer of

Black Is Kingvisual album12

K

HOLLYWOOD TALK

INDORE | TUESDAY | JULY 21 2020

Make way for desi Ghostbusters Katrina Kaif, Siddhant Chaturvedi and Ishaan Khatter team

up for a horror-comedy, Phone Bhoot

angana Ranaut recently took a jibe atAlia Bhatt in a sensational interview,where made some shocking revelationsabout the industry. On Sunday, Alia took

to her Instagram to post a cryptic messageabout ‘truth and lie.’Alia Bhatt has been keeping low on social me-dia, amid the on-going debate on nepotism in thewake of Sushant Singh Rajput’s untimely death.The Gully Boy actress was recently called out byKangana Ranaut for mocking the later actor onKaran Johar’s chat show. After the interviewmade headlines, Alia shared an Instagram storythat read, “The truth is the truth, even if no onebelieves it. A lie is a lie even if everyone believesit.”Kangana Ranaut, in her interview with a newschannel, had slammed Alia Bhatt for collectingthe Best Actress award for a ‘mediocre role’ asSafeena in Gully Boy Revisiting Koffee withKaran episode, where Alia had mocked SushantSingh Rajput in the rapid fire round, she al-leged, “When Alia is saying he should bekilled, he (Sushant) must be thinking, ‘no-body said anything’. People saw thatepisode and it had huge TRPs. Sushantnever made it to the list of (good) actors.Only time he made it to a list was whenone person had to be killed. If (Karan)puts Ranveer Singh or Ranbir Kapooror Varun, he can’t kill any of them be-cause all of them are his chamchas.So he will put Sushant Singh Rajput

because he doesn’t know chamchagiri.”

Among othersKangana also calledout Alia’s father,filmmaker MaheshBhatt for allegedlythrowing footwearat her and urgedthat he should besummoned in thesuicide case. Shesaid, “I am notsaying that any-one wantedSushant to die,but definitelydoomed. Thesepeople are emo-tional vultures.They want to see

people lynch them-selves. To date, Ma-

hesh Bhatt is sellingParveen Babi’s illness inso many versions throughhis films. Why is MumbaiPolice not summoning —

Aditya Chopra, Mahesh Bhatt,Karan Johar, Rajeev Masand?These four people. Why, becausethey are powerful?”

–FPJ Web Desk

Did Alia take a slydig at Kangana? K

alman Khan, who hasbeen at his Panvel farm-house ever since the im-position of the coron-

avirus induced lockdown,spent his Sundayploughing the land.The Sultan actor, dur-ing early hours on Mon-day, took to Instagramto post a video thatshows him driving atractor through a wa-ter-filled field at hisfarmhouse amidst adownpour.Keeping the caption of

the Instagram post short,Khan wrote, “Farminggg.”Later in the video, the actorcan be seen checking if thefield has been evenlyploughed. The Ek Tha Tigeractor keeps his fans wellposted as he shares picturesand videos from Panvel wherehe has been staying sinceMarch. –ANI

Salman Khanchannels hisinner farmer

SA

Priyanka cherishesmoment Nick proposed

ctress and former MissWorld Manushi Chhillar onInternational Chess Day onMonday shared that she is a

closet chess fanatic, adding thatthe game stretches the mind in termsof strategy and imagination.

Manushi and her father Mitra BasuChhillar love a close game of chessand the debutante is an extremelycompetitive chess fanatic.

“Chess stretches your mind interms of strategy and imagination, be-cause you really have to outwit youropponent at any cost. Playing chesswith my dad is something that I havealways loved doing because he’s themost unpredictable, intelligent andthe sharpest person I’ve ever playedwith,” Manushi said.

The actress thanks her father for in-fusing a sense of competitiveness in

her through chess, which has definite-ly helped her to focus on her goals.

She added, “I’m fiercely competitiveand my father fuelled this, encour-aged this thoroughly because he al-ways wanted me to beat him at thegame, which I did manage once! He isa very clever chess partner and I loveto play with him because he doesn’tgive me any room to make errors eventhough I’m his daughter!” Manushisays her father is also equally competitive.

“It’s exasperating and it’s equallythrilling! He is equally competitive!So, the games just become too muchfun. We have had several nailbitersand I can say that I’m still learningfrom him.” Manushi is all set to makeher Bollywood debut opposite superstar Akshay Kumar in the upcoming film Prithviraj. –IANS

Manushi Chhillaris a chess fanatic A

aani Kapoor is absolutely ecstatic that she has had theopportunity to work with Hrithik Roshan, RanbirKapoor, and Akshay Kumar. With Hrithik, Vaani waspaired in the blockbuster WAR, she will be seen with

Ranbir in Shamshera and she has been cast opposite Ak-shay Kumar in Bell-Bottom. The gorgeous actress definitely hasone of the strongest line up of movies and she is looking forwardto her forthcoming releases.

Vaani says, “I feel absolutely ecstatic and I couldn’t feel moreblessed that I get to work with such stalwarts in the industry. Ihave always idolised Hrithik, Ranbir, and Akshay Kumar. I haveloved their movies so it's like a dream come true for me!”

Talking about the different acting styles of these three actors,Vaani says, “Each of them is incredible and brings a differentstyle to the table. Hrithik is incredibly talented and passionateabout anything he's involved in and that passion inspires peoplearound him. Ranbir is effortless in his demeanour and his cool,and composed charisma is so evident on screen. Akshay, of

course, is a legendary idol who’s one of the best in the industrytoday and his contributions and star presence cannot be ignored.”

Vaani says she has interesting and different chemistry witheach of these screen icons. She says, “I have a different equationwith all of them and our chemistry is also so different because ofthe kind of roles, but they all make me want to do better and bebetter to try and match up with them.”

‘It’s like a dreamcome true’

Says Vaani Kapoor on sharingscreen with Hrithik Roshan, Ranbir

Kapoor and Akshay Kumar

V

Aftab launches production house

ctor Aftab Shivdasani and wife Nin Dusanj Shivdasanion Monday launched their production company MountZen Media which aims to create wide-ranging content,including films, online shows and documentaries

Aftab, who started out as a child actor with sci-fi film Mr In-dia, eventually made his debut as a lead with Ram Gopal Var-ma’s musical romance Mast in 1999, followed it up with VikramBhatt’s acclaimed suspense thriller Kasoor.

The actor went on to star in several multi-starrers, includingcomedies Awara Paagal Deewana, Masti, Hungama and turnedproducer with Aao Wish Karein in 2009. Aftab said both he andNin were looking forward to getting into full-fledged productionfor a quite some time. “Having produced before I am familiarwith the business of cinema. These are exciting times to developcontent that is cutting edge, contemporary and appealing.”

“Being in the industry for over 20 years has given me a greatdeal of experience in front of the camera and valuable insight infilmmaking,” the actor said in a statement. Aftab will be nextseen on the webseries Poison 2. –PTI

Aollywood stars Robert Downey Jrand Tom Holland have joined theirAvengers: Endgame co-star ChrisEvans in sending sweet messages

to a young boy who saved his sisterfrom a dog attack.Six-year-old Bridger saved his four-year-oldsister on July 9 by standing between her anda charging dog. According to Nicole NoelWalker, his aunt, the child received 90stitches after getting bitten by the canine.After Walker reached out to the Avengersteam through an Instagram post, Evans, in a

video message, promised to send Bridger, anavid Avengers fan, “an authentic CaptainAmerica shield”. Now the Iron-Man starpromised he will gift Bridger something“special” on his next birthday.“Bridger, you’re a rockstar. I hear (CaptainAmerica) sent a shield your way. I’m gonnado one better, you call me on your nextbirthday. I got something special for you. Bythe way, that’s a promise. A promise beats ashield,” Downey Jr said.Holland, meanwhile, spoke to Bridger on avideo call and invited him to come to the

sets of the next Spider-Man film. “If you ever want to come to set and hangout, and see the Spider-Man suit up close,and hang out with us, you’re alwayswelcome. I want to say you are so brave,mate. We are all so proud of you, and yourlittle sister is so lucky to have someone likeyou,” he added.Other Marvel stars Mark Ruffalo and BrieLarson, Hollywood star Anne Hathaway, TheFlash series stars Grant Gustin and RobbieAmell also praised Bridger’s bravery.

–PTI

Robert Downey Jr, Tom Holland praise little ‘superhero’H

FREEPRESS13 INDORE | TUESDAY | JULY 21, 2020FP MONEY

Two Union Ministers to address SRM-FICCI Industry-Academia conference

SRM Instituteof Science &Technology(SRMIST) andFederation ofIndianChambers ofCommerce &Industry(FICCI) areorganising an

Industry-Academia Global Virtual Conference, on "EmergingEconomic Scenario - Identify and Create Competencies, on July 23.The event will be held in two sessions. The first part - The newworld work order - will be inaugurated by Honorable Minister forCommerce & Industry and Minister for Railways, Piyush Goyal. Thesecond session - Collaborative framework for new-age learning - islikely have a keynote address by Minister for Human ResourceDevelopment, Ramesh Pokhriyal. Eminent personalities, such as AmitKhare, Secretary-Higher Education, Ministry of Human ResourceDevelopment, Gol; Dr. Tan EngChye, President-NUS, Singapore; Dr. T.R. Paarivendhar, Chancellor, SRMIST; Dr.Sangita Reddy, President,FICCI & Joint MD, Apollo Hospitals; Mohandas Pai, Chairman-Manipal Global Education, and Prof.Rishikesha T. Krishnan, Director,IIM Bangalore.

Central Railway carries out maintenanceworks during mega block

Central Railway MumbaiDivision corona warriorscarried out the maintenancework during mega block onmain line between Thane andKalyan fast lines and CSMT-Chunabhatti harbour lines onJuly 19, 2020. Alumino-thermic welding at 16 placeswas also carried out forjoining rails. 6 wagons ofmuck removed by JCBmachine and 2,000 muckbags loaded manually onharbour line by engineeringwarriors. OHE Works: Annualoverhauling of 1.3 km length

of OHE and 3 overlapping was carried out by three tower wagons.Besides, carrying out other electrical OHE maintenance works byelectrical warriors. Duomatic machine packing, replacement of tracklead wires and 2 sets of points and disconnection and reconnectionof axle counters on a length of 2.6 km track in tune withengineering works at Diva and Dativali chord line was carried out bySignal and Telecommunication warriors.

MOSR Suresh Angadi reviews Londa-Miraj and Gadag-Hotgi Doubling project

Suresh Angadi, Minister ofState of Railwaysconducted a reviewmeeting with GeneralManagers and otherofficials of South WesternRailway, Central Railwayand South Central Railwaythrough Video Conferenceon July 17, 2020. Duringthe meeting, Angadireviewed the progress of

Miraj-Londa and Gadag-Hotgi double line project. The 186 Km ofLonda-Miraj doubling project is being executed in 7 phases. InPhase-I, 16 Km of doubling between Ghataprabha and ChikkodiRoad has been completed and commissioned during December,2019. Suresh Angadi instructed the Officials to expedite this doubleline project along with electrification and to complete in two years.

WR transports more than 79000 tonnes ofessentials through 408 parcel special trains

Western Railway’s Parcel specialtrains as well as goods trainscontinued to transport essentialcommodities to various parts of thecountry. In the wake of COVID19,when other means of transport arerestricted, Western Railway is wellensuring the supply of milk,medicines and other necessaryproducts to different parts of thecountry through its various trains. Ithas also fulfilling the responsibilityof transporting essential items likemedical equipment, foodgrains etcin small parcel sizes across thenation, as it has always been fullycommitted to the needs of its

customers. Since 23rd March to 18th July, 2020, commoditiesweighing more than 79 thousand tonnes have been transported byWestern Rly through its 408 parcel special trains, said Sumit Thakur -Chief Public Relations Officer of Western Railway. The earningsgenerated through this transportation, has been approx. Rs 25.20crore.

SWR runs first long haul train betweenHosapete and Tinaighat

Running a1.25 km longtrain on 19thJuly 2020 onHubballiDivision willgo down asone of the firstin the historyof South

Western Railway. The running of long haul trains will help inreducing the congestion in busy sections thereby increasing thethroughput. On July 19, 2020 Hubballi division of SWR ran a longhaul train equivalent to 2 goods trains with total 117 wagons, 2brake-vans train with 4 Locomotive Engines (2 leading and 2 in themiddle) between Hosapete and Tinaighat. The Long haul train leftHosapete at 14.35 hrs and reached Tinaighat at 19.25 hrs. A. K.Singh, GM/SWR, informed that this was a major achievement whichwill boost line capacity and will help in faster train movement alsomaking wagons available at loading/unloading points quickly.

India’s first port based SEZ - JNPT SEZnow operational

JNPT is developing amulti-product SpecialEconomic Zone (SEZ) inits owned free hold landof 277 hectares at NaviMumbai. The multi-product port based SEZaims to boost exports byenabling port-ledindustrialization underSagarmala initiative ofMinistry of Shipping. The

foundation stone of the project was laid by the Prime Minister,Narendra Modi in August 2014. Commenting on the progress ofSEZ, Sanjay Sethi, IAS, Chairman, JNPT said, “For JNPT, this is truly agreat occasion as JNPT becomes the first port where Port-ledeconomic development is evolving successfully. JNPT is confident ofattracting leading global companies for making India amanufacturing hub as the infrastructure development underway inJNPT SEZ is as per the international benchmark. The potential unitsinvestment and the employment generation will give a boost to theentire entire eco-system around JNPT region. I thank DevelopmentCommissioner, SEEPZ, Ministry of Commerce, GoI for their timelysupport and guidance.”

CORPORATE GALLERYGAIL to invest in Start-Ups operating inthe area of Compressed Bio GasIn a bid to support Start-Ups operating in the area of CompressedBio Gas (CBG), GAIL (India) Limited has announced plans to investin such companies through its Start-Up initiative ‘Pankh’. GAIL hasopened a fresh Round for Solicitation of Investment Proposals fromStart-Ups operating specifically in the area of CBG. The Start-Upsthat are interested in equity investment from GAIL can apply onGAIL’s website. GAIL has launched the 5th round for Solicitation ofInvestment Proposals from Start-Ups operating in the Area ofCompressed Bio Gas (CBG ) viz. Start-Ups that provide Technologyor expanding their existing CBG plants or setting-up new CBGPlants. Start-Ups can submit their Investment Proposal on GAILStart-Up web portal https:ailebank.gail.co.in/GSUICBG/index.aspx.The Solicitation Round is open till July 24, 2020. GAIL hadlaunched its ambitious Start-Up initiative ‘Pankh’ in July 2017 toinvest in promising Start-Ups. So far, GAIL has made investmentsin 24 Start-Ups operating in various areas through four SolicitationRounds.

DVC issues an update on water management activities Throughout the year, water is released from DVC dams for variouspurposes such as irrigation (for 3 crops in West Bengal),municipalities and industries. All such releases are within the limitof 23,000 cusecs (cubic-feet per second) which are not floodreleases, but are made to fulfill the diverse, continuous andcritical requirements of the people in the DVC command area. Therelease of water from DVC dams is carried out only upon theinstruction of the ‘’Damodar Valley Reservoir RegulationCommittee’’ (DVRRC), headed by Member (R&M), Central WaterCommission (CWC), New Delhi, with Members in the rank of ChiefEngineers from Govt. of West Bengal, Govt. of Jharkhand & DVC.All release advises are issued by the Member Secretary of thisCommittee, who is an officer of the CWC, posted at Maithon. DVCis only an operator of the dams and not authorized to decide onits own on any release from Maithon & Panchet Dams. Releasesabove 23,000 cusecs are only considered as flood releases. Suchreleases are made by DVC on the advice of DVRRC, after theissuance of flood warning messages to all concerned officials ofthe Govt. of West Bengal well in advance. Flood warningmessages are also displayed in the DVC web site(www.dvc.gov.in)round the clock with all details of quantity & time of arrival offlood water in lower Damodar area.

Admissions to Dayananda SagarInstitutions now open through online modeBengaluru based DayanandaSagar Institutions, which adoptedthe online mode due to the Covid 19 pandemic has beensuccessful in holding of classes, conduct examinations, publishresults and hand over the mark sheets to its students within thetime lines of the campus academic calendar. This move alsomade it possible for the students in the final year to catch upwith the placement cycle as also helping students in sticking totheir plans adhering to time schedules of overseas’ universities.Having seen enormous success in embracing technology in itsacademic practices DSI has opened its admission process byadopting the online mode. This opportunity enablesstudents touse the Internet and the Whataspp mode to complete theadmission process; eliminating the need for parents andprospective students from physically visiting the campus offices. In addition parents and students can benefit from counseling ona one to one by specialist faculty and also opt for the virtualcampus tour to get a first hand feel of the infrastructure andother facilities. DSI colleges would deliver lessons in the newacademic year by using the online mode; which practice wouldbe in vogue until the Government announces new guidelines. The DSI management had to adopt these measures to ensuresafety of the life and health of its students and faculty whilemoving on with the academic delivery. Students &parents andcorporates that hire large number of students passing out of theDSI Colleges have expressed immense satisfaction with thesemoves of the DSI management as a timely response to thepandemic crisis.

CORPORATE CORNER

: Satendra Kumar Gomasta in race for CMD, WCLSatendra Kumar Gomasta, Director Technical,CMPDIL, is in the race for the post of Chairman-cum-Managing Director, Western Coalfields Limited.

: Amarendu Prakash yet to get orders; vacancy ofDirector (RM&L), SAIL arising on Aug 1Amarendu Prakash, GM, SAIL, is yet to getappointment orders for the post of Director (RawMaterials & Logistics), Steel Authority of IndiaLimited (SAIL) as a vacancy of this post is arising onAugust 1, with the retirement of incumbent VivekGupta this month.

: Focus of Adani is Chhattisgarh?It is said that at present focus of Gautam Adani ison Chhattisgarh. Any reason?

: Will there be a new Law Minister?In the corridors of power, it is said that country willhave a new Law Minister during the next Cabinetreshuffle –cum –expansion.

whispersinthecorridorsDr Suresh Mehrotra

— Correctness of this content is the responsibility of the author.

BSF CT/WC Vinod Singh dies whileundergoing physical fitness course,inquiry ordered

On 17th July 2020 at about 2015 hrs, CT/WC Vinod Singh of114 Bn BSF, SHQ Bikaner who was undergoing physicalfitness course at STC Jodhpur (arrival date 15 July 2020)expired at MDM Hospital Jodhpur. He felt giddiness in theevening hours near his barracks upon which he wasimmediately evacuated to BSF Hospital and further taken toMDM Hospital, Jodhpur where he was declared broughtdead. He was a Low Medical Category having weight of160kgs with BMI 52.98. However, it has been found that thedeceased Constable was declared fit for the above course.An inquiry has been ordered to ascertain the circumstancesunder which the individual was declared fit for the course.Sh Amit Lodha, IG BSF Rajasthan Ftr has been directed toinquire and submit a report. DG BSF and all ranks are griefstricken with the untimely demise of our comrade CT/WCVinod Singh. CT/WC Vinod Singh is survived by his mother,wife and two sons. Praharipariwar will always stand firmwith the family members of the deceased. Physical fitness isan integral & essential component of BSF to maintain a highlevel of professional standard and is given great importancein career progression also. Hence, the courses in STC&Training Institutions are being conducted to improve andenhance the fitness of personnel in all ranks.

Central Railway changes timings of special trainsCentral Railway has decided to revise the timings of someSpecial Trains to improve the punctuality within CentralRailway jurisdiction with immediate effect. The revisedarrival/ departure timings are almost preponed by 10 to 30minutes. Accordingly, the timings of other intermediatestations will also change. The abstract timings of some ofthe trains are Train No. 01015 will arrive / depart Kalyan at23.15/23.18 hrs and at Khandwa will arrive/depart at 08.45/ 08.50 hrs. Train No. 01016 will arrive /dept Khandwa at16.40/ 16.43 hrs and at Thane will arrive/depart at 03.02/03.05 hrs. Train No. 01019 will arrive / depart Kalyan at15.50/15.53 hrs and at Wadi Jn. will arrive/depart at 03.40 /03.50 hrs.

MUMBAI: India's debt to gross domesticproduct (GDP) ratio could climb to 87.6 percent this fiscal, up from 72.2 per cent lastyear, due to a collapsing GDP and conse-quently higher borrowings, according to aresearch note by SBI Ecowrap released onMonday.The country's gross debt is likely to be

around Rs 170 lakh crore in FY21 as com-pared to Rs 146.9 lakh crore in FY20, said theresearch publication of State Bank of India(SBI)."Interestingly, the GDP collapse is pushing

up the debt to GDP ratio by at least 4 percent, implying that growth rather than con-tinued fiscal conservatism is the onlymantra to get us back on track." The reportwarned that the higher debt amount willalso lead to shifting of the Fiscal Responsi-bility and Budget Management (FRBM) tar-get of combined debt (of the Centre andstates) to 60 per cent of GDP by FY23 by sev-en years. The target is now expected to beachievable only in FY30.Fiscal estimates have gone awry across the

globe amid higher pandemic-related expen-ditures. Together with declining GDPgrowth, the debt-to-GDP ratio has also beenadversely affected in all countries."We again reiterate that the current think-

ing of rating downgrade in policy circles isa false negative as India's rating is likely to

face a litmus test of a downgrade in FY21,depending on what we have done to bringgrowth back to track," said Soumya KantiGhosh, Group Chief Economic Adviser atSBI.The report said that the current level of

foreign exchange reserves is sufficient tomeet any external debt obligations. On theinternal debt, since most of the debt is do-mestically owned, the debt servicing of thesame is not an issue."In the current situation, our nominal

GDP growth is likely to contract significant-ly and based on this, our interest growth dif-ferential will turn positive in FY21, thusraising serious questions on debt sustain-ability." In the current situation in India,said the report, both the key interest rateand GDP are expected to fall further. Ournominal GDP growth is likely to contractand based on this, our interest-growth dif-ferential may turn positive also.

NEW DELHI: Traders'body CAIT on Mondayurged the governmentnot to decriminalisebouncing of cheques,saying the move will notonly nullify the sanctity ofcheques but alsocontradict Prime MinisterNarendra Modi's vision ofa fair and trustworthybusiness environment inthe country.

In a letter to FinanceMinister NirmalaSitharaman, theConfederation of All IndiaTraders (CAIT) said thecountry's businesscommunity has beenperturbed by the proposalto decriminalise Section138 of the NegotiableInstrument Act, 1881,(NI).

The Section makesbouncing of cheques acriminal offence.

"Decriminalisation ofthis provision needs aserious thought as this

would lead to a greatproblem in recoveringlegitimate business duesand private loans.Decriminalisation ofSection 138 of this Actwill prove as a deterrentto normal businessinstead of promoting it,"CAIT said in the letter.

It added that not onlytraders but people ingeneral will also find itdifficult to get any goodson equated-monthlyinstalments (EMI) as it isalways supported bypost-dated cheques, andno one will accept thecheques if its bouncing is

decriminalised.CAIT Secretary General

Praveen Khandelwal saidthat if the person issuingthe cheque knows thatthere is no criminalliability then it will giverise to the ease of beingdishonest rather thanpromoting ease of doingbusiness.

"The entirefundamentals of tradewill be destroyed andtraders will be left at themercy of civil litigationthat takes several yearsfor justice. Even after thecurrent stringent Section138, more than 20 per

cent of all pendency ofcases across the countryis only pertaining tocheque bounce. If it isdecriminalised, there willbe complete disarray anddisturbance in tradedynamics," he said.

The finance ministry hasproposed to decriminalisea host of minor offences,including those related tocheque bounce andrepayment of loans, in asmany as 19 legislationsto help businesses tideover the crisis caused bythe coronaviruspandemic.

The 19 legislationsinclude the NegotiableInstruments Act (chequebounce); SARFAESI Act,2002 (repayment of bankloans); Life InsuranceCorporation Act, 1956;PFRDA Act, 2013; RBI Act,1934; National HousingBank Act, 1987; BankingRegulation Act, 1949; andChit Funds Act, 1982.

Higher borrowings may raisedebt to GDP ratio to 88%: SBI

Britannia plansRs 700cr capex;bullish on rural

demand KOLKATA: FMCG majorBritannia Industries hasplanned a capitalexpenditure of around Rs700 crore over the next two-and-half years for its newfacilities and is bullish onthe rural demand duringthe COVID-19 crisis, acompany official said.The to set up newmanufacturing facilities inUP, Tamil Nadu, Bihar andOdisha, he said.In the first quarter of thecurrent fiscal, the company'snet profit increased by 118per cent to Rs 542 crore andthe turnover was Rs 3,420crore, up by 26.6% over thecorresponding period lastyear.Since the future isuncertain for the next sixto nine months, thecompany will give priorityon the core products, andless focus will be oninnovation, Berry said.

BIZ BUZZSecond tranche of Bharat Bond ETFgarners Rs 10,992 croreNEW DELHI: The second tranche of Bharat Bond ETF(exchange traded fund) was over-subscribed 3.7 times,collecting Rs 10,992 crore. Bharat Bond ETF was launched onJuly 14 and closed on July 17. The base issue size was Rs3,000 crore with a green-shoe option of Rs 12,000 crore,taking the total size to Rs 15,000 crore.

General insurance ind logs 8% growth MUMBAI: A tepid 1% growth in motor -- the first growth sinceApril -- coupled with a massive spike in health and fireinsurance sales, helped the general insurance industry to clocka full 8 per cent growth in June, says a report. Motor cover hasbeen the mainstay of the industry but has been down in thedumps for many a quarter due to the pains in the automobileindustry driven by a rash of issues, including regulatory aswell as shy customers. The pandemic driven lockdowns haveonly added more salt to the wounds of the industry.

Tata Power arm CGPL raises Rs 350 crNEW DELHI: Tata Power on Monday said its arm CGPL - whichruns Mundra power plant - has raised Rs 350 crore by issuingnon-convertible debentures (NCDs) on private placement basis."Coastal Gujarat Power Ltd (CGPL), a wholly-owned subsidiaryof the Company, has successfully issued and allottedUnsecured, Rated, Listed, Taxable, Guaranteed, Redeemable,Non-Convertible Debentures for an amount of Rs 350 crore onprivate placement basis issued for a tenor of 3 years," aregulatory filing said.

Majesco to sell US arm to Thoma BravoBENGALURU - Majesco Ltd today announced it would sell itsUS subsidiary Majesco to private equity firm Thoma Bravo LP,in a transaction valuing the company at $594 mln, thecompany said in a regulatory filing. The gross value to bereceived by the company for its stake in the US subsidiary is$420.66 mln, it said.

Anil Cheriyan is Cognizant’s tech EVP NEW DELHI: IT major Cognizant has roped in Anil Cheriyan asthe Executive Vice President of Strategy and Technology whowill oversee the company's global IT, security, strategy,alliances, and business development functions. In an e-mail toemployees, the company's CEO Brian Humphries said Cheriyanwill join Cognizant on August 3 in the new role.

ACC profit down 40.5%, sales too 37.2%NEW DELHI: Cement maker ACC Ltd on Monday reported a40.53 per cent decline in consolidated net profit to Rs 270.95crore for the quarter ended on June 30, 2020, adverselyimpacted by COVID-19-related disturbances in the market.The company, which follows January-December financial year,had posted a profit of Rs 455.68 crore in the same quarter ayear ago, ACC said in a BSE filing.

Best time to minimise externaldependencies: AM Naik NEW DELHI: L&T Group Chairman A M Naik has said this isthe opportune moment to minimise external dependencies asthe world is witnessing groundswell of opinion against Chinaand seeking viable alternative supply sources. In the annual report released on Monday, he urged thegovernment to introduce much-needed reforms in landacquisition, competency & skill building to achieve desiredoutcomes under 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat'.

—Agencies

Airline ind mosthit as demand

falls 80%: Moody’s

SINGAPORE: The global airline industryhas been disproportionately affected byCOVID-19 and is one of just a few industriesthat saw more than 90% of demand fall with-in weeks of the global spread of the pandem-ic in March, Moody's Investors Service said.The strain on the industry's previouslyflourishing fundamentals is (and will con-tinue to be) felt across a broad swath of theglobal economy well into 2022 and beyond."This is driven by our expectation of agradual and protracted return of passengertraffic which will be inextricably linked tocoronavirus-related health and safety con-cerns and the importance of passenger air-line industry as a critical cog in the broad-er global economy," said Moody's.

Some broad categories of activities forwhich airlines incur significant costs eitherdirectly (labour, jet fuel) or through out-sourcing (airport services, maintenanceand repair) along with a host of requiredservices (air traffic control, airportcharges) will be significantly affected for atleast the next three years.Anticipated declines in their respectiveactivity levels of 40 to 50 per cent or more in2020 will closely mirror those of the air-lines.

‘India among 10 worstnations for workers’

BRUSSELS: India is amongthe 10 worst countries forworking people, according tothe seventh edition of the In-ternational Trade UnionConfederation (ITUC) GlobalRights Index that ranks 144countries on the degree of re-spect for workers' rights.The others includeBangladesh, Brazil, Colom-bia, Egypt, Honduras, Kaza-khstan, the Philippines,Turkey and Zimbabwe.The Middle East andNorth Africa is the worstregion in the world forworking people for sevenyears running due to theongoing insecurity and con-flict in Palestine, Syria,Yemen and Libya coupledwith the most regressive re-gion for workers' represen-tation and union rights.The ITUC report con-cludes that 85 per cent ofcountries violated the rightto strike and 80 per cent of

countries violated the rightto collectively bargain.The number of countriesthat impeded the registra-tion of unions has in-creased. Three new coun-tries -- India, Egypt andHonduras -- have enteredthe list of ten worst coun-tries for workers.The number of countriesthat denied or constrainedfreedom of speech in-creased from 54 in 2019 to 56in 2020. Workers were ex-posed to violence in 51countries. Workers had noor restricted access to jus-tice in 72% of countries.

With strong pipeline ofdeals, BofA expects'busy' H2 this year

NEW DELHI: Global investment banking majorBank of America (BofA), which stood second in theIndia deal street ranking in the first half, is bullishon the remaining six months with a strong pipelineof deals, despite the COVID-19 pandemic hittingbusiness sentiment.

The Charlotte, North Carolina-headquarteredbank expects the deal street to be driven by bothconsolidation in the sectors impacted by thepandemic and financial institutions raising growthcapital.

Raj Balakrishnan, the head of India investmentbanking at BofA says, the pandemic is unlike anyother previous crises, which were business crises.

"A company that was being run perfectly well tillFebruary may not be viable now for no fault of themanagement, as its business may be hit due to thelockdowns. Further, the same company may beperfectly fine once lockdown is over and normalcyreturns as long as it has sufficient liquidity to sailthrough the crisis," Balakrishnan told PTI,expressing confidence in the broader businessrecovery.

That is why, he said, raising capital is now thekey to help emerge as a winner.

Thanks to Reliance Industries selling over aquarter of its stake in its subsidiary Jio Platforms,the deal street was vibrant clocking nearly USD 44billion in H1 of 2020, up 14.5% year-on-year.

Decriminalising payment dishonour tonullify cheques' sanctity: CAIT to FM

14SPORTSFREEPRESS

INDORE | TUESDAY | JULY 21, 2020

DORTMUND: Borussia Dortmund has signed promising17-year-old English midfielder Jude Bellingham fromsecond-division club Birmingham, the German club saidMonday. Dortmund finally confirmed the expected dealtwo days before Birmingham's final league game of theseason - a potential relegation decider against Derby.Dortmund said Bellingham signed a long-term deal andwill wear the No. 22 jersey. "I'm incredibly excited to havejoined one of Europe's biggest clubs," Bellingham toldBirmingham's website. "The direction they are heading inand how much they help to improve young players madeit an easy decision for myself and my family."

Rahm overcomes twists totake title, World No. 1

OHIO: Not even the strangest of twists, of which he knew nothing till itwas all over, could take away the beauty of the shot or the stunning winthat catapulted Jon Rahm to his fourth PGA Tour win and to the top ofthe official golf rankings at Dublin, Ohio. He shot a final round 75 for atotal of nine-under 279 and a three-shot win over Ryan Palmer, withwhom he had won the Zurich Classic team event in 2019. Tiger Woodsopened with a birdie, but then fourth, eighth and ninth and in betweendouble bogeyed seventh for a front nine 40. Another bogey on 11thmeant he was hurtling down faster, but saved himself with back-to-backbirdies on 16th and 17th, before ending the week with a bogey for a 76.He was Tied-40th.

Dortmund signs highly ratedEnglish teen Jude Bellingham

AIFF's finances were in a bigmess in 2010: Kushal Das

NEW DELHI: Former England cricketer KevinPietersen on Monday prayed for the people of Assamwho have been left devastated by the flood in theregion. While the overall situation in Assam improveda bit on Sunday, five more people died in as manydistricts. Pietersen took to social media to sympathisewith the people of Assam: "My thoughts are with allthe most beautiful people I met during my trip toAssam in March, where the horrible life-threateningflood is currently destroying lives.

LA PAZ: César Salinas, the president of theBolivian soccer federation, has died fromcomplications linked to COVID-19. He was 58. Thefederation announced the death on its social mediachannels on Sunday. Salinas had been admitted toa private clinic in La Paz this month for treatmentafter contracting the coronavirus. Salinas, theformer chairman Bolivian club The Strongest,became president of the national federation in 2018.That role gave him a seat on the executivecommittee of S American soccer body CONMEBOL.

NEW DELHI: Real Kashmir Football Club's (RKFC)founding member Shamim Meraj has parted wayswith the trailblazing outfit, ending the four-yearassociation due to "personal" reasons. Meraj,whose family owns the Kashmir Monitor newspaper,co-founded the club with Sandeep Chattoo in 2016."It's a personal decision. Four years is a long time. Ihave not spoken to anyone about differences withthe club," Meraj told PTI from Srinagar. Somereports have suggested that Meraj's decision wascaused by differences over the team's playing style.

NEW DELHI: All India Football Federation (AIFF)general secretary Kushal Das says the sports body'sfinances were "in a big mess" when he joined in2010 but is now "100 times better", thanks to itscommercial partners' timely intervention. Das saidFootball Sports Development Limited (FSDL) "playeda significant part in helping structure lot more youthdevelopment activities and and youth leagues"among others. "Honestly speaking, had FSDL notcome in I don't know what would have happened toIndian football. There were no takers left after(previous marketing partners) Zee (Sports). AIFFmay have had no option but to curtail activitiesdrastically," Das told the AIFF.

Pietersen prays for safetyof people in Assam

Head of Bolivian soccerdies of coronavirus

RKFC co-founder Merajparts ways with clubFrench club Monaco

appoints Kovac as coachMONACO: Struggling with consistency sinceupsetting Paris Saint-Germain to win the Frenchleague three years ago, Monaco has appointedNiko Kovac as coach. The eight-time Frenchchampions cited Kovac's success coaching BayernMunich, Frankfurt and the Croatian national team.The club announced the hiring Sunday after it firedRoberto Moreno. Kovac was scheduled to lead hisfirst training session on Monday.

WHAT’S ON

" I can't laugh, be happy,present myself at anyprize and also win onthe centre court."– Gabriela Sabatini

THIS DAY, THAT YEARALL-ROUNDER CHANDU BORDE IS BORN

Birth of Indian allrounder

Chandu Borde, a calm and collectedbatsman who played fast bowling with aneasy assurance. In 55 Tests he scored3061 runs at 35.59, and took 52 wicketswith his legspin, a skill that was underusedas time went by. Successful with bat andball against England in 1961-62, he top-scored with 68 and 61 and took 4 for 65 inthe win in Calcutta. The biggest of his fiveTest centuries was an unbeaten 177 againstPakistan in Madras in 1960-61.

1934:

05.30: WWE Raw (Live); Sony Ten 121.30: Premier League; PL Pre show; Star Sports / Select 122.30: Premier League; Watford v Man City; Star Sports / Select 123.00: Serie A; Atalanta vs Bologna; Sony Ten 201:15: Serie A; Sassuolo vs Milan; Sony Ten 2

Liveon TV

FPJ SPORTS DESKLondon

Chelsea produced a ruthless per-formance to see off ManchesterUnited and set up a London der-by in the final of the 2019-20 Emi-rates FA Cup.Having watched Arsenal se-cure their place in the final onSaturday evening, the Blues end-ed United's hopes of equallingthe Gunners' record of 13 FA Cupwins.Goals immediately either sideof the interval ultimately did thedamage, with Olivier Giroudopening the scoring at the end of13 minutes of first-half stoppagetime before Mason Mount struckwithin 60 seconds of the restart.Chelsea added a third whenUnited captain Harry Maguireturned into his own net, withBruno Fernandes's late penaltyproving to be nothing more thana consolation.No club teams have met atWembley more often than United

and Chelsea, with this being theninth match between the twosides at the national stadium.Ole Gunnar Solskjaer gavegoalkeeper David de Gea his firstappearance of the Emirates FACup campaign, with MarcusRashford also among those com-ing into the line-up having beenbenched for their quarter-finalwin at Norwich City.There was, however, no place inthe squad for Luke Shaw, mean-ing a start for 19-year-old Bran-don Williams at left-wing-back.Meanwhile Frank Lamparddrafted in Giroud, the scorer of amemorable goal the last timeChelsea contested an EmiratesFA Cup semi-final, a 2-0 win overSouthampton in 2018.Unlike his United counterpart,the Blues boss stuck with hisfavoured goalkeeper for Cupmatches, with Willy Caballeroretaining his place between thesticks. Ross Barkley, scorer ofthe only goal in Chelsea's last-eight victory over Leicester, was

missing from the squad of 20 en-tirely.The first quarter, punctuatedby the mid-half water break withwhich we all become fast-accus-tomed to – was dominated by theBlues. They went close twice inthe first 15 minutes, with ReeceJames stinging De Gea's palmsbefore Marcos Alonso headedCesar Azpilicueta's cross overthe bar.Having struggled to get out oftheir half pre-break, United be-gan to find their way into thegame as Fernandes, so often theirtalisman in recent weeks, saw afree kick tipped over by Caballero.But it was Chelsea who still hadthe better of the play, with Mounttesting De Gea before the Eng-land man's deflected cross foundKurt Zouma, whose head madecontact with Eric Bailly's as hepowered the ball over, leavingboth players needing treatment.Not long afterwards, Bailly'sgame was over after anotherclash of heads – this time with

team-mate Maguire – led to aworryingly-long pause in play,both before and after the Ivorianwas replaced by Anthony Mar-tial.Referee Mike Dean only al-lowed the game to resume onceBailly had been safelystretchered down the tunnel,meaning the first half would runbeyond the previously-awardedfive minutes of stoppage time.Martial's first involvementcould well have been to win hisside a penalty after seizing onsome indecision in the Chelseadefence before tumbling underpressure from Zouma, but Deandeclined United's appeals.The result means Chelsea willreturn to Wembley to face Ar-senal in the final, which is be-ing played in support of theheads up campaign, on Satur-day 1 August. The two sideshave met in the FA Cup Finaljust twice before, in 2002 and2017, with the Gunners win-ning both.

ALL-LONDON AFFAIR IN WEMBLEYAs Chelsea face off Arsenal, after seeing off Man U in second semifinal

Goal-scorers Olivier Giroud and Mason Mount celebrate with their team-mates after Chelsea's second

ASSOCIATED PRESSVitoria (Spain)

Lionel Messi won a recordseventh top scoring title inthe Spanish league after net-ting twice in Barcelona's 5-0rout of Alavés in the finalround.Messi ended with 25 goals,four more than Karim Ben-zema, who did not score inReal Madrid's 2-2 draw atLeganés.Messi is the first player tofinish as the league's topscorer in seven different sea-sons. He reached the mile-stone despite missing gamesbecause of an injury early inthe season. The Argentine's25 goals came in 33 matches.Messi was tied with TelmoZarra with six scoring titles.He has also now equaledHugo Sanchez's feat of fourstraight top-scorer trophies."Individual achievementsare always secondary," Messisaid on Sunday."I wished it could havecome along with the leaguetitle."This is also the third suc-cessive season that Messi fin-

ished with the most assists,21 in the league.Ansu Fati, Luis Suárez andNelson Semedo also scoredSunday for Barcelona, whichhad already secured secondplace behind Madrid.Fati opened the scoring inthe 24th minute, Messi addedto the lead 10 minutes laterand Suárez closed the first-half scoring in the 44th.Semedo got on the board in

the 57th and Messi in the 75thto help Barcelona reboundfrom a 2-1 home loss to Os-asuna."Today things were differ-ent," Messi said."The team showed better at-titude and commitment. Itwas an important step for-ward for us ahead of what'sleft in the season."Barcelona now turns its fo-cus to its Aug. 8 home game

against Napoli in the roundof 16 of the ChampionsLeague. The first leg, playedbefore the break, ended 1-1.Leicester's 3-0 loss at Tot-tenham in the PremierLeague on Sunday means the2016 champions risk drop-ping out of the top four afterbeing there since September.Fifth-place United remainsonly behind Leicester ongoal difference and has agame in hand against WestHam on Wednesday beforeplaying Brendan Rodgers'side on Sunday.Chelsea is a point ahead ofLeicester going into Wednes-day's game at newly crownedchampion Liverpool andSunday's finale againstWolverhampton.Bournemouth is in relega-tion trouble after being beat-en 2-0 by Southampton, re-maining in next-from-lastplace.Bournemouth is threepoints below 17th-place Wat-ford, with an inferior goaldifference and having playeda game more ahead of nextweekend's season finale atEverton.

Messi rules Spanish LeagueAs Barcelona sign off the La Liga on winning note; Real Madrid held

25 Messi ended with

25 goals, fourmore than

Karim Benzema,who did notscore in RealMadrid's 2-2

draw atLeganés.

ASSOCIATED PRESSParis

The prestigious Ballon d’Or will not be awarded this year because thecoronavirus pandemic has disrupted the soccer season.Awarded by France Football magazine, the Ballon d’Or has been givenout every year since Stanley Matthews won the first one in 1956.Lionel Messi has won it a record six times, one more than longtimerival Cristiano Ronaldo. The magazine started giving out a women'saward in 2018, but that has also been put on hold.“It’s such a strange year that we couldn’t treat it as an ordinary one.Let’s say that we started talking about (making the decision) at leasttwo months ago,” France Football editor Pascal Ferré told TheAssociated Press in a telephone interview. “It isn’t a decision we tooklightly but we had to accept it couldn’t be a normal or typical Ballond’Or winner, and what really worried us it that it wouldn’t be fairlyawarded.” Because the game’s rules have been modified during thepandemic, the award itself was impacted. “The season started withcertain rules and ended with other rules. In January and February,soccer was played in front of full stands. Then from May and June itwas with empty stands,” Ferré said. “Then we had the five substitutesrule and not three. Then other changes happened in terms of thecompetitions, notably the final eight (eight-team knockout format) forthe Champions League when it had started with home and away legs.”With the European Championship and the Copa America postponedthis year, the Champions League would have massively weighed onthe award’s outcome but with a format inadvertently providing ashortcut for an eventual victor. “The Ballon d’Or would have beendecided over just three games: quarterfinal, semifinal, final,” Ferré said.“There were loads of changes (to soccer’s rules) which are totallylegitimate and which we don’t contest given the worldwide health crisis,but we couldn’t consider this as a typical year.

2020 Ballon d’Orcancelled INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

New Delhi

With the Board of Control forCricket in India (BCCI) al-most finalising the Septem-ber 26 to November 8 windowfor the 13th edition of the In-dian Premier League (IPL),reports have come in that thehost broadcasters aren't toohappy to give the Diwali (No-vember 14) weekend a miss.But BCCI is willing to explainthe reason to Star India.Speaking to IANS, a BCCI

official said that the conceptof Diwali has changed overthe last few years and Broad-cast Audience ResearchCouncil (BARC) ratings havebeen not so productive inthose weekends and that isexactly why even the Indian

team has in the last few yearsbeen given Diwali breaks toenjoy with their families."We can always sit downand discuss the matter withStar India although we havediscussed BARC ratings withthem in the past as well sincethey not only broadcast IPL,but also have the rights tobroadcast Indian cricket. TheDiwali weekend actually seesa dip in BARC ratings andthat is why we have seen ournational team generally takea break at that point in time."Not only do the players geta well-deserved break, butalso spend quality time withnear and dear ones duringone of the biggest celebra-tions in the country. We canalways discuss this with thebroadcasters agai.”

Broadcasters not happywith the IPL dates

FPJ SPORTS DESKMumbai

The deck has been clearedfor the Indian Premierleague (IPL) to be held thisyear, as the InternationalCricket Council (ICC) post-poned of the T20 World Cup2020 due to the COVID-19pandemic, at its board meet-ing via video-conferencingon Monday.India have the hostingrights for the tournament in2021. The ICC has confirmedthat a T20 World Cup will beheld in 2022, a year before theCricket World Cup in Indiain 2023.Six editions of the T20World Cup have been playedso far with the last one beingheld in India in 2016 in whichWest Indies were crowned

T20 WC postponed; All clear for IPLchampions."At today's meeting of theIBC Board (the commercialsubsidiary of the ICC), win-dows for the next three ICCmen's events were alsoagreed to bring clarity to thecalendar and give the sportthe best possible opportuni-ty over the next three yearsto recover from the disrup-tion caused by Covid-19," theICC statement read.* ICC Men's T20 World Cup2021 will be held October -November 2021 with the finalon 14 November 2021* ICC Men's T20 World Cup2022 will be held October -November 2022 with the finalon 13 November 2022* ICC Men's Cricket WorldCup 2023 will be held in IndiaOctober - November 2023with the final on 26 Novem-ber 2023.

FPJ SPORTS DESKManchester

England beat WestIndies by 113 runs. A rivetingcontest came to an endwith England levelling theseries 1-1 after registering acommanding 113-run victoryover the West Indies in thesecond Test at Old Traffordin Manchester on Mon-day. West Indies, set a nomi-nal 312 to win on the final day,were bowled out for 198.Earlier, Stuart Broadclaimed three wickets. Atlunch Broad had removedJohn Campbell (4) and ShaiHope (7) either side of ChrisWoakes trapping KraiggBrathwaite (12) lbw in the fi-nal half-hour of an action-packed morning session thatwent completely England'sway.England has a minimum of74 overs to bowl under gray

skies in Manchester and sur-vival was the main aim forthe West Indies, whose victo-ry target of 312 looks unfea-sible.Ben Stokes went into limit-ed-overs mode after Englandresumed on 37-2 and pickedup quick runs before an ear-ly declaration 11 overs later.Stokes (78 not out off 57balls) smashed two sixes overlong-off as the big-hitting all-rounder and England cap-tain Joe Root put on 53 runsin the first 43 balls of themorning before Root was runout for 22 - effectively sacri-ficing his own wicket to getStokes back on strike.Alongside Ollie Pope (12not out), Stokes still had timeto slog Jason Holder downthe ground for another six,pushing the lead past 300, be-fore Root called them back infrom the pavilion with theteam on 129-3.

England beat Windies, level series