CITY PAGE 3AIMIM’S BENGAL ACTING PRESIDENT JOINS TRINAMOOL

NATION PAGE 4EX-UNION MINISTER AND CONGRESS VETERAN MADHAVSINH SOLANKI DEAD

FILM PAGE 12SHINING LIGHT ON THE BEAUTY OF DIFFERENCE

millenniumpostmillenniumpost.in RNI NO.: WBENG/2015/65962

VOL. 7, ISSUE 10 | Sunday, 10 January, 2021 | Kolkata | Pages 12 | Rs 3.00PUBLISHED FROM DELHI & KOLKATA

Indonesian plane carrying 62 goes missing,

feared to have crashedJAKARTA: A Sriwijaya Air jet carrying 62 peo-ple lost contact with air traffic controllers min-utes after taking off from Indonesia’s capital and reportedly crashed into the sea on Saturday. Debris found by fishermen was being exam-ined to see if it was from the missing plane, offi-cials said.

Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi said Flight SJ182 was delayed for an hour before it took off at 2:36 pm (local time). The Boeing 737-500 disappeared from radar four minutes later, after the pilot contacted air traffic control to ascend to an altitude of 29,000 feet (8,839 metres), he said. The airline said in a statement that the plane was on an estimated 90-minute flight from Jakarta to Pontianak, the capital of West Kaliman-tan province on Indonesias Borneo island. The plane was carrying 50 passengers and 12 crew members, all Indonesian nationals, including six extra crew for another trip. Sumadi said a dozen vessels, including four warships, were deployed in a search-and-rescue operation centered between Lancang island and Laki island, part of the Thou-sand Islands chain just north of Jakarta.

Bambang Suryo Aji, the National Search and Rescue Agencys deputy head of operations and preparedness, said rescuers collected plane debris and clothes that were found by fishermen. They handed the items over to the National Transpor-tation Safety Committee for further investigation to determine whether they were from the miss-ing plane. The fishermen told us that they found them shortly after they heard an explosion like the sound of thunder, an official was quoted by TVOne as saying, adding that aviation fuel was found in the location where the fishermen found the debris.

Tracking service Flightradar24 said on its Twitter feed that Flight SJ182 lost more than 10,000 feet (3,048 meters) of altitude in less than a minute, about four minutes after takeoff. AGENCIES

NO HALF TRUTHS

3 CRORE HEALTHCARE, FRONTLINE WORKERS TO GET SHOTS FIRST

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: India will launch its COVID-19 vaccina-tion drive from January 16 in what Prime Minister Naren-dra Modi has called the world’s largest inoculation programme with priority to be given to nearly three crore healthcare and frontline workers.

The decision, the govern-ment said on Saturday, was taken at a high-level meeting where Modi reviewed the sta-tus of COVID-19 and vaccine preparedness across states and union territories.

“After the detailed review, it was decided that in view of the forthcoming festivals includ-ing Lohri, Makar Sankranti, Pongal, Magh Bihu etc, the COVID-19 vaccination will start from 16th January 2021,” it said.

After healthcare and front-line workers, priority will be given to those above 50 years of age and the under-50 pop-ulation groups with co-mor-

bidities, together numbering around 27 crore, a government statement said.

According to the Health Ministry guidelines on COVID-19 vaccination, the latest electoral roll for Lok Sabha and Legislative Assem-bly elections will be used to identify the population aged 50 years or more.

India had recently granted emergency use authorisation to two vaccines, Oxford’s Cov-ishield being manufactured by Serum Institute in India and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin. Both vaccines, the statement from the Health Ministry said, have established safety and immunogenicity.

At least seven other vac-cines are being developed in India, while some others can be imported from abroad, includ-ing the one developed by global pharma giant Pfizer which has already applied for import and sale in India of its vaccine for emergency use authorisation.

Many countries have

launched mass vaccination programmes to protect their people from the deadly virus, which was first detected in China in December 2019 and has killed nearly 20 lakh people globally and infected almost 9 crore people since then.

In the review meeting, Modi was also briefed about the Co-WIN vaccine delivery

management system, a unique digital platform that will pro-vide real-time information of vaccine stocks, their storage temperature and individualised tracking of beneficiaries of the COVID-19 vaccine.

This platform will assist the programme managers across all levels through automated session allocation for pre-reg-

istered beneficiaries, their ver-ification and for generating a digital certificate upon success-ful completion of the vaccine schedule.

More than 79 lakh benefi-ciaries have been already reg-istered on the platform, the statement said.

More than 61,000 pro-gramme managers, two lakh vaccinators and 3.7 lakh other vaccination team members have been trained so far as part of training at states, districts and block levels, it said.

Three phases of dry runs have been conducted across the country, with the third dry run conducted on Friday across 615 districts covering 4895 session sites in 33 states and UTs.

The Health Ministry said the entire vaccination exercise is underpinned by the prin-ciples of people’s participation (Jan Bhagidari); utilising the experience of elections (booth strategy) and universal immu-nization programme (UIP).

COVID-19 vaccination drive to begin on Jan 16Bengal gears up for vaccination, 69 centres selected across state

6.5L doses sought for front line health workers in first phaseOUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Bengal govern-ment is ready to start Covid vaccination programme once it receives vaccines from the Centre. The Centre on Saturday announced the nationwide launch of Covid vaccination from January 16.

The State Health depart-ment is yet to announce the date when the vaccination programme would be kick-started. The department has already put in place adequate infrastructure, deployed man-power and extended logistic support to smoothly run the vaccination programme.

More than 69 venues have

already been selected across the state where the vacci-nation drive would be con-ducted, a senior official of the Health department said. Nearly one crore people would be administered vac-cines in the first phase which include the doctors, nurses, health workers, police person-nel and all the front line work-ers. Initially, the doctors and nurses would receive the vac-cines. Lists are being prepared for the other government staff members from various departments. The State gov-ernment has already asked all the district administrations to submit the list of those who are fighting the Covid battle

from the front. The employ-ees of the civic bodies, PWD department, DM office staff will be included in the list.

Director of Health Ser-vices Dr Ajay Chakraborty said that the date of vaccina-tion programme could not be fixed as the State govern-ment is yet to receive the vac-cines. The mock drills were successfully carried out in all the districts to check the pre-paredness of administration in the district level. Micro planning is already in place. The Health department is ready to launch the vaccina-tion drive from next week, Dr Chakraborty added. Continued on P5

SOUMITRA NANDI

KOLKATA: The state Envi-ronment department is com-ing up with an action plan to gradually phase-out vehicles older than 15 years from 7 non-attainment cities (NAC) in the state to curb pollution. The department has planned to offer Rs 1 lakh subsidy to the first 1,000 vehicles for switch-ing over to new four-wheelers.

“A budget of Rs 10 crore has been earmarked for the pur-pose,” Member Secretary of West Bengal Pollution Con-trol Board (WBPCB) Rajesh Kumar said at a webinar on Environment Partnership Summit organised by ICC.

The banning order is being implemented only in Kolkata.

The National Green Tri-bunal has directed concerned governments to take adequate measures for curbing pollu-tion in 124 non-attainment

cities (NACs) across the coun-try, which are not complying with the National Ambient Air Quality Standards. Seven of these NACs are located in Bengal.

The non-attainment cities in Bengal are Kolkata, Howrah, Barrackpore, Haldia, Asansol, Durgapur and Raniganj. An official in the department said

they had already sought a list of such vehicles running in these non-attainment areas.

“We have to carry out the phasing out exercise of vehicles in phases as we need to have dumping grounds for such vehicles. Talks are also on to find out whether some parts of the phased-out vehicles can be recycled,” the officials added.

WBPCB has recently held a meeting with the urban local bodies and police administra-tion associated with these non-attainment cities on January 7.

The WBPCB has also started providing gas ovens and gas irons to the roadside eateries and iron shops in the NACs for replacing coal ‘chul-lahs’ and coal irons. “Rani-ganj, Durgapur and Asansol are located in the coal belt. So, it is difficult to convince the concerned persons to switch over to gas ovens or gas iron. So, in these three places we will be providing smokeless chul-has for checking pollution,” a senior WBPCB official said.

The Environment depart-ment is expected to submit its action plan to the green bench at a hearing in this matter scheduled on January 18. The plan has already been approved by the Central Pollution Con-trol Board.

State to draft plan for phasing out vehicles older than 15 years from 7 NACs

RS 1 LAKH SUBSIDY ON OFFER FOR FIRST 1,000 VEHICLES ON UPGRADATION

ICA-52(19)/2021

Ten babies perish in Maha hospital fireState government orders probe

OUR CORRESPONDENT

BHANDARA: In a horrific tragedy, ten babies died after a fire broke out at a neo-natal care ward of a state-run hospital at Bhandara in eastern Maharashtra in the early hours of Saturday. The staff managed to res-cue seven of the 17 babies in the ward.

While the cause was suspected to be a short circuit or malfunction-ing air-conditioning unit and the state government ordered a probe by fire experts, a BJP leader alleged that there were complaints about power fluctuations in the ward but no action was taken.

Those responsible shall not be spared, Chief Minister Uddhav Thac-keray said. A fire audit of all the hos-pitals in the state has been ordered, he informed.

Calling the incident “heart-wrenching and mind-numbing”, Thackeray announced aid of Rs 5 lakh for family members of deceased babies.

The deceased infants — eight girls and two boys — were aged between one month and three months, a doc-tor said.

State Health Minister Rajesh Tope told reporters that three of the ten infants died of burn injuries while seven others died of suffocation caused by smoke.

According to doctors, the blaze erupted in the Special Newborn Care Unit of the hospital around 1.30 am.

According to District civil sur-geon Pramod Khandate, a nurse noticed smoke coming out from the neonatal section — which needs con-tinuous oxygen supply — and alerted doctors and other staff who rushed there and tried to douse flames with fire extinguishers before fire brigade arrived.

“The government has ordered a high-level probe to find out if a short circuit or the air conditioner mal-functioning was the reason,” said state home minister Anil Deshmukh.

Experts of National Fire Ser-vice College and the Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT) will conduct an investiga-tion, he said.

The tragedy evoked condolences from President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and others.

“Heart-wrenching tragedy in Bhandara, Maharashtra, where we have lost precious young lives. My thoughts are with all the bereaved families. I hope the injured recover as early as possible,” Modi tweeted.

Highlights » After healthcare and frontline workers, priority will be given to those above 50 years of age and the under-50 population groups with co-morbidities, together num-bering around 27 crore

» The latest electoral roll for Lok Sabha and Legislative Assembly elections will be used to identify the population aged 50 years or more

» India had recently granted emer-gency use authorisation to two vaccines while at least seven other vaccines are being developed

Bird flu confirmed in 7 statesNEW DELHI: The Centre on Saturday said the outbreak of bird flu or avian influenza has been reported in Uttar Pradesh, taking the total number of affected states to seven.

However, the confirmation of bird flu in Delhi, Chhat-tisgarh and Maharashtra, is

awaited as the samples have been sent for testing, it said.

Besides Uttar Pradesh, the other six states where bird flu is confirmed are Kerala, Rajas-than, Madhya Pradesh, Him-achal Pradesh, Haryana and Gujarat. “So far, the disease has been confirmed from seven

states. ...The Department has issued advisory to the affected states so as to avoid further spread of the disease,” the Min-istry of Fisheries, Animal Hus-bandry and Dairying said in a statement.

The Delhi government on Saturday announced a ban on

import of live birds till further orders. It also announced the closure of the city’s biggest poul-try market at Ghazipur for the next 10days after more avian deaths were reported in the national capital where three rec-reational parks and the famous Sanjay Lake were shut. MPOST

REPRESENTATIONAL IMAGE

Businessmpmp

2| KOLKATA|SUNDAY, 10 JANUARY, 2021|millenniumpost

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: India’s fuel demand rose for the fourth straight month in December as the resumption of economic activity took consumption to 11-month high, but it was about 2 per cent lower than pre-COVID levels.

The total demand for petro-leum products in Decem-ber 2020 fell to 18.59 million tonnes from 18.94 million tonnes a year back, according to provisional data published by the oil ministry’s Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell.

Fuel consumption, how-ever, posted a month-on-month increase for the fourth straight month, helped by reviving transportation and business activity.

India had consumed 17.86 million tonnes in November.

The consumption in December was the highest since February 2020.

While petrol had reached pre-COVID levels in Sep-tember, diesel consumption returned to normal in Octo-ber. However, its demand fell again in November and now in December.

Diesel demand, which had soared 7.4 per cent year-on-year in October, dropped 6.9 per cent in November and by 2.7 per cent in December to 7.18 million tonnes. Month-on-month, the demand slightly improved from 7.04 million tonnes.

Fuel demand had snipped by 49 per cent in April after a nationwide lockdown, imposed to curb the spread of corona-virus, shut industries and took most vehicles off-road.

The 69-day nationwide lockdown was followed by local and state-level restrictions. The curbs have eased only slowly and in phases, while localised restrictions in containment zones remain.

The onset of the festive season has fuelled a rise in consumption, but the public

transport is not back to normal levels yet, as schools and edu-cational institutions continue to remain shut in most parts of the country.

Demand for naphtha, which is used as industrial fuel for generating electricity and producing petrochemicals, fell 2.67 per cent to 1.23 million tonnes in December.

But, bitumen, used in road construction, consump-tion jumped by 20 per cent to 7,61,000 tonnes.

LPG - the only fuel that showed growth even during the lockdown period on the back of the government giving free cooking gas to the poor - was up 7.4 per cent at 2.53 mil-lion tonnes.

Aviation turbine fuel or ATF sales fell 41 per cent to 4,28,000 tonnes as most airlines are yet to resume full opera-tions. On a month-on-month basis, it improved by 13.5 per cent.

India’s fuel demand at 11-month high in Dec

India had consumed 17.86 million tonnes in November. The consumption in December was the highest since February 2020

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: India is strength-ening the entire ecosystem to achieve Prime Minister Nar-endra Modi’s dream of becom-ing a $5 trillion economy by 2025 through rapid structural reforms, Union Minister Piyush Goyal said on Saturday.

Addressing the Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas conference, the Commerce and Industry Minister said: “We are working simultaneously to bring about a quantum leap in our quality, in our productivity, in our effi-ciency, so that Indian Industry can truly expand our export

basket, making it bigger, better and broader”.

The minister observed that new markets were being explored aggressively to enhance the reach of Indian products globally.

“The Indian diaspora living abroad have more familiarity with consumer markets. You have unique insights into con-sumer behaviour and can guide Indian Industry to develop cus-tomised products for foreign markets,” Goyal said.

The minister said the disrup-tions due to COVID-19 have made everyone realise that one needs to dare to do great things.

Otherwise we may lose our ability to be a global leader. This is the philosophy behind Aatmanirbhar Bharat. It is not about closing doors but to open the doors wider to build India’s capability and capacity and our resilience with speed, skill and scale,” Goyal said.

He highlighted that through rapid structural reforms, India is strengthening the entire eco-system to achieve the Prime Minister’s dream of a $5 trillion economy by 2025.

“Our holistic approach consists of improving the ease of starting a business, ease of doing a business, and ease

of growing our businesses,” Goyal added.

The minister pointed out that India is growing rapidly and offers a plethora of oppor-tunities for Indians both in India and across the world. “Our wish is that our brothers and sisters from across the world become the first to avail these opportunities.”

“Let us fulfill our duty to our motherland with determina-tion and devotion and develop India into a leader, a partici-pant in resilient global supply chains into a dominant player in international supply trade,” the minister said.

India ushering in rapid structural reforms to become $5 tn economy by 2025, says Goyal

GURUGRAM: Sembcorp Energy India Limited (SEIL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Sembcorp Industries, has won a bid for a new 400 MW solar power project. Through its renewables subsidiary, Semb-corp Green Infra, SEIL won this bid in a closely contested auction conducted by the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI).

SEIL has received the let-ter of award (LoA) from SECI to develop the project in Raj-asthan connected to the state’s transmission utility Rajast-han Rajya Vidyut Prasaran Nigam Limited (RVPN). The project’s entire output will be sold to SECI under a 25-year long-term power purchase agreement.

Vipul Tuli – CEO South Asia, Sembcorp Industries said: “As a long-term player com-mitted to India’s energy transi-tion, we are pleased to secure the 400 MW utility scale solar project in Rajasthan. Sembcorp has established a track record of delivering worldclass power projects within timelines. We are confident of delivering this project thanks to strong sup-port from central and state government agencies and our business partners. India is a key market for Sembcorp, where we will continue to contrib-ute to the nation’s clean energy mission. With this win, we have moved into our next phase of growth.” MPOST

Sembcorp Energy India wins 400

mw capacity solar power project

NEW DELHI: The Centre has procured 531.22 lakh tonnes of paddy so far during this kharif marketing season from over 70 lakh farmers at MSP, costing a little over Rs 1 lakh crore, amid the ongoing pro-test by farmers at Delhi borders seeking repeal of three new farm laws and legal guarantee of MSP.

The kharif marketing sea-son starts from October.

“In the ongoing kharif mar-keting season (KMS) 2020-21, the government continues to procure kharif 2020-21 crops at MSP from farmers as per exist-ing MSP schemes,” according to an official statement.

Paddy procurement has reached 531.22 lakh tonnes till January 8, up 26 per cent from the year-ago period.

“About 70.35 lakh farmers have already benefited from the ongoing KMS procurement operations with MSP value of

Rs 1,00,294.26 crore,” the state-ment said.

Out of the total purchase of 531.22 lakh tonnes of paddy, Punjab has contributed 202.77 lakh tonnes.

“Till January 8, a quantity of 82,19,567 cotton bales valuing Rs 24,063.30 crore have been procured benefitting 1,60,0518 farmers,” the statement said.

Thousands of farmers, mainly from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, have been protesting at several Delhi borders for more than

a month.The eighth round of talks

between protesting unions and the central government ended inconclusively on Fri-day as farmer groups stuck to their demand for the repeal of three laws.

The next meeting has been scheduled for January 15.

Food Corporation of India (FCI) is the nodal agency for the procurement and distribu-tion of foodgrains.

The Centre procures paddy and wheat at MSP to meet its requirements for the National Food Security Act (NFSA), under which 5 kg of grain is supplied per person per month through ration shops to over 80 crore people at a highly subsi-dised rate of Rs 2-3 per kg.

The difference between the acquisition cost of grains and the issue price is borne by the Centre in form of food subsidy. PTI

Govt buys 531 lakh tonnes paddy till Jan 8 at MSP for over ̀ 1 lakh cr

NEW DELHI: Vedanta, India’s largest producer of Alumin-ium and value-added products, bagged the ‘Most Innovative Best Practice’ award at the Digital Transformation (DX) Summit & Awards 2020. Orga-nized by CII – Centre for Digital Transformation (CDT), the DX Award provides a prestigious platform for the industry’s best to showcase superlative efforts and achievements in the realm of digital transformation, offer-ing unparalleled exposure and valuable recognition to the prac-titioners. Vedanta Aluminium has bagged this coveted award in the ‘Most Innovative Best Practice’ category, as India’s first – and the world’s third – smelter

to deploy the Digital Smelter Technology at its Jharsuguda plant, which is the world’s larg-est single-location aluminium smelter.

Themed on leveraging digi-tal infrastructure & technologi-cal innovation for a resurgent and Aatmanirbhar Bharat, the DX summit witnessed participa-tion from over 300 companies. Vedanta Aluminium outshone the competition by showcas-ing its Digital Smelter project which is being deployed at its Aluminium smelter in Jhar-suguda, Odisha. It uses digital twin technology with predic-tive & prescriptive analytics, which allows for remote mon-itoring and control of potline

operations, enhances energy efficiency, reduces raw material consumption and arrests wast-age of material through remote advisory system.

It processes historical infor-mation and real-time data using data analytics to generate alerts and insights which enable the operation and maintenance teams to execute their duties more effectively and efficiently. It also uses machine learning algorithms to provide multiple outcomes such as pot health-related alerts, virtual-sensor based dosing recommendations, anode-effect predictions, etc.

Speaking about the com-pany’s digital transformation endeavors, Ajay Kapur, CEO

– Aluminium & Power Busi-ness, Vedanta Ltd., said, “We strive to make our operations future-ready by integrating best-in-class digital solu-tions, building in efficiencies, and optimizing costs and raw material consumption in our quest to become the world’s leading producer of the ‘green metal’ or Aluminium. Vedan-ta’s Aluminum & Power busi-ness has implemented intelligent automation and digitaliza-tion at its the plants to pro-duce high-quality Aluminium and value-added products for critical industry sectors, fuel-ing India’s self-reliance and contributing to its socio-eco-nomic prosperity.” MPOST

Vedanta wins ‘Most Innovative Best Practice’ award

IndianOil celebrated January 9 as IndianOil Customers Day, thanking its valuable customers whose patronage has made the Corporation the Nation’s preferred energy partner. “The customer is the king, and IndianOil has always focused on building meaningful and lasting relationships with customers. Going beyond the quality and quantity of our products, it is our endeavor to add value at every step of the customer’s journey and cater to their fuel requirements. Celebrating Customers Day is our way of showing gratitude to our customers who grace our 50,000 plus customer touch points daily,” said Shrikant Madhav Vaidya, Chairman IndianOil, on the occasion.

CORPORATE KALEIDOSCOPE

Punjab State Power Corporation Limited has started installation of Smart Meters in Punjab,the first Smart Meter was installed to a consumer in Mohali , A.Venu Prasad Additional Chief Secretary Excise and Taxation and CMD PSPCL and Er.Parmjeet Singh Director Generation are also seen in the picture. Smart meters will also help to curb the malpractice of reading concealment/theft of electricity and improve the reading/billing efficiency and quality. Smart meters will enable consumers to view instantaneous/live data as well as the last bill data via PSPCL Consumer App, besides maintaining and regulating power consumption. Smart meters will have the option to change meter to prepaid or post-paid.

NEW DELHI: Dr Muktesh Chander, Former Special Com-missioner, Delhi Police on Fri-day said, “Actual occurrences of cases of counterfeiting and smuggling are much more than reported.”

He further added that the increasing surveillance, cre-ating public awareness and coordination amongst law enforcement agencies and stakeholders are vital to coun-ter the problem of counterfeit-ing and smuggling effectively.

Speaking at the ‘In Con-versation Series’ organized by FICCI CASCADE, Dr Chan-der discussed the scenario of counterfeiting and smuggling in India, need for greater cyber

security & cyber hygiene and strengthening enforcement & investigation mechanism.

Anil Rajput, Chairman, FICCI CASCADE said, “In India, since lockdown, our enforcement agencies have raided and seized smuggled, spurious and counterfeit sani-tizers, masks, PPE Kits, disinfec-tants, toiletries and cosmetics, electronic goods, cigarettes, packaged food, spices, alco-hol and several other items across various states. They not only put a spoke in illicit trad-er’s wheels but remained in an absolutely perfect state of alert-ness, thereby thwarting many attempts by them to spread their illegal, illicit, and sub-standard

products.” Deep Chand, Former Special

Commissioner, Delhi Police and Advisor, FICCI CASCADE said, “Counterfeiting and smuggling are serious crimes damaging the world economy while the common consumer faces health and safety issues and the genu-ine industry suffers a huge loss due to illicit products.” He fur-ther emphasised that COVID-19 has provided opportunity to criminals to exploit the current situation to find new ways to make money. They are increas-ing and diversifying their activi-ties through a wide range of crimes and scams which exploit the fear and uncertainty sur-rounding the virus. MPOST

Occurrences of counterfeiting, smuggling cases much more than reported: Ex-Special CP Delhi

KOLKATA: State-run Ship-ping Corporation of India (SCI) will collaborate with Inland Waterways Authority soon to commence coastal shipping ser-vices, a company official said on Saturday.

The coastal shipping activi-ties will be undertaken by its wholly-owned subsidiary - Inland & Coastal Shipping Ltd.

“We will announce a col-laboration with Inland Water-ways Authority of India (IWAI) very soon. We are commencing coastal shipping operations,” SCI chairman and managing director H K Joshi said at a vir-tual event organised by Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Inland & Coastal Ship-ping Ltd, a Kolkata-headquar-tered company, is likely to start its operation on national water-way-1, the stretch from Varanasi to Haldia on Ganga river, she said. PTI

LUCKNOW: The Uttar Pradesh government has given its approval to the Excise Policy 2021-22, expecting revenue to jump by Rs 6,000 crore during the fiscal.

The approval was granted by the state cabinet headed by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. The cabinet meeting took place on Saturday night.

“To provide good quality liquor at economic prices, UP Made Liquor (in Tetra-pack and of 42.8 per cent strength

only) made from Grain ENA, shall be sold at an MRP of Rs 85 through country liquor shops. Integrated Supply Chain Man-agement System (IESCMS) shall be implemented by computer-izing the various processes of the department.

The system of sale of liquor in retail shops using PoS machines shall be imple-mented in 2021-22,” the state government said in a statement on Saturday.

The Excise Policy got clear-

ance of the UP Cabinet hours after five people died and 16 others hospitalised after alleg-edly consuming spurious liquor in Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr district on Friday.

The authorities have sus-pended four policemen and removed three senior Meerut zone excise officials from their post for laxity. An excise inspec-tor and three other members of the department have also been suspended.

Police have also arrested the main accused, identified as Kuldeep.

As against expected revenue Rs 28,340 crore in 2020-21, the expected revenue for 2021-22 is Rs 34,500 crore, the statement said. PTI

Irani lauds textiles sector for production of masks, PPE kit

SCI to partner with IWAI for coastal

shipping services

NEW DELHI: Reliance Infra-structure on Saturday said it has completed the sale of its entire 74 per cent stake in PKTCL to India Grid Trust for Rs 900 crore. The proceeds will be uti-lised for debt reduction, and the company’s dues will come down by 6 per cent to Rs 13,100 crore from Rs 14,000 crore.

“Reliance Infrastructure Limited (RInfra) announces the successful completion of the sale of its entire 74 per cent equity stake in Parbati Koldam Transmission Company Lim-ited (PKTCL) to India Grid Trust (IndiGrid) for an enter-prise value of Rs 900 crore,” the company said in a statement.

RInfra owned 74 per cent stake in Parbati Koldam Trans-mission Company Limited located in Himachal Pradesh and Punjab in a joint venture with Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL).

The deal was announced in November 2020 with the signing of a definitive bind-ing agreement between RInfra and IndiGrid and has now been completed with the transfer of shares of PKTCL and receipt of sale consideration.

IndiGrid is India’s first power sector Infrastructure Investment Trust, owning AAA-rated power transmission assets in India. With this acquisition, IndiGrid owns 12 operating power transmission assets with a total AUM of over Rs 14,500 crore, the statement said. PTI

RInfra completes 74% stake sale in PKTCL to India Grid Trust for ̀ 900 cr

UP’s New Excise Policy aims `6,000 cr excess revenue in FY22

— Hero Enterprises Chairman Sunil Kant Munjal

India’s self-reliance goal must not be taken as move ‘towards isolating itself ’

SURAT: Union Minister Smriti Irani on Saturday lauded the textiles industry for its com-mendable work in upping pro-duction of PPE kits and masks multi-fold amid the coronavi-rus pandemic.

Irani, who also holds the tex-tiles portfolio in the Union Cab-inet, was here to inaugurate the three-day Surat International Textile Expo (SITEX 2021).

Speaking at the inaugural event of SITEX-2021, Irani commended the textiles indus-try for setting an example of “self-reliant India” by gearing up to produce PPE kits and masks

for the country to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.

“While before the pan-demic, there was not a single company in the country pro-ducing masks and PPE kits, after the pandemic, around 1,100 such companies became oper-

ational. From two, the number of companies manufacturing N-4 masks rose to 250,” she said.

In just three months, India has become the second larg-est manufacturer of masks and PPE kits in the world, she said.

In the production of masks and PPE kits, industries have adhered to WHO standards as well as the policy of non-compromise with quality, she added.

In SITEX-2021, 110 stalls of textile machinery and accesso-ries manufacturers have been set up to showcase world class technology, officials said. PTI

TENDER NOTICE The Chairperson of Cooch Behar Municipality invites following etenders under Paray Samadhan Programme1) Construction of C.C. Road from Shanti Kutir to Kali Mandir at Ward No.01 Tender Id - 2021_MAD_314365_1 Estimated Cost - Rs. 22,31,938.012) Construction of C.C. Road from Madhab Master house to Bablu Roy House at Ward No.01 Tender Id - 2021_MAD_314375_1 Estimated Cost - Rs. 16,49,347.51 Bid submission closing date (online)- 18-01-2021 Details information will be available from the website – www.coochbeharmunicipality.com Sd/-

ChairpersonCooch Behar Municipality

ABRIDGED NOTICE INVITING e-TENDER Executive Engineer(A-I), Midnapore(A-I) Division, WRDD invites e-tender for following Works MI Installation of 6 nos LDTWs with solar system in Salboni Block in the district Paschim Medinipur under Duare Sarkar programme, vide eNIT No- WBWRDD/EE(AI) /MID/eNIT 13 / 2020-21; Tender ID-2021_WRDD_314289_1 ,last date of submission is 16.01.2021 at 12.00 pm. Intending bidders are requested to visit the website http//wbtenders.gov.in for details. Sd/-

Executive Engineer (AI)Midnapore (AI) Division

Memo no. 10/(3) Midnapore

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OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Bengal has regis-tered 787 fresh Covid cases on Saturday lower than Friday’s figure of 926. Around 34,221 samples were tested across the state in the past 24 hours. The percentage of positive cases stood at 7.56 on Satur-day. Around 978 Covid patients were released from various health establishments in the past 24 hours after they recov-ered taking the total releases to 5,41,930 patients have so far been released in the state till date.

The total number of infected patients so far in the state has gone up to 5,59,886. Bengal has so far conducted 74,06,377 sample tests.

The recovery rate in the state has reached 96.79 per-cent on Saturday. Around 20 Covid infected patients died in the state in the past 24 hours taking the total toll to 9,922 so far. Kolkata.

Kolkata has registered 3,010 deaths so far and North 24-Par-ganas 2,392. Five people died in North 24-Parganas and Kol-kata each in the past 24 hours. Kolkata has seen 193 fresh cases in the past 24 hours tak-ing the total tally to 1,25,297. The number of total infected

patients in North 24-Parganas so far reached 1,18,788 out of which 224 were found posi-tive in the past 24 hours. South 24-Parganas has registered 36 new Covid cases in the past 24 hours.

The total number of Covid infected patients in South 24-parganas has gone up 36,439. Hooghly has witnessed 46 Covid cases in the past 24 hours while the total tally from the district reached 28,908.

The Health department has so far addressed 15,26,234 gen-eral queries through its dedi-cated Covid helpline number

till January 8 out of which around 1,097 queries were addressed in the last 24 hours. Around 5,59,568 people have received telemedicine consul-tations in the state till January 8 out of which 702 people have been given consultation in the past 24 hours.

As many as 102 dedicated Covid hospitals are operational in the state with 13,588 ear-marked beds. Around 2,523 CCU/HDU beds have been dedicated for Covid.

Around 1,279 ventilators have been installed in various hospitals for Covid treatment. The percentage occupancy in Covid beds dropped at 8.82 on Thursday.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: The country’s big-gest outreach drive launched by the Bengal government – Duare Sarkar – has touched a new milestone with 2 crore people visiting the camps till Saturday and 62 lakh of them got enrolled under Swasthya Sathi scheme.

Expressing her gratitude towards both “participants and the state government officials”, Chief Minister Mamata Baner-jee announced the success of the drive in a tweet on Satur-day evening.

She tweeted: “Happy to share that as of 4 pm today, the total number of visitors in #DuareSarkar camps has crossed 2 Crores! I once again congratulate & thank every sin-gle GoWB official for ensur-ing smooth door-step delivery

of Govt services and benefits. Thanking all participants too!”

Banerjee had launched the drive on December 1 to ensure delivery of benefits of a dozen state-run schemes at the door-steps of people.

“Almost 90 Lakh people across West Bengal received different kinds of services. This includes 62 lakh beneficiaries under Swasthya Sathi, 7 lakh beneficiaries who received SC/ST/OBC certificates and 4

lakh beneficiaries who received assistance under Krishak Bandhu,” Banerjee stated in her tweet.

She further maintained in the tweet that “Further, ben-efits of other GoWB schemes like Kanyashree, Rupashree, Khadya Sathi, Aikyas-hree, Shikshashree, Jai Johar, Taposhili Bandhu, Manabik etc were extended to lakhs of peo-ple. Everyone who applied for various services at the camps were also provided helping hands.” It was on December 18 when the state had witnessed footfall of 1 crore people at Duare Sarkar camps. The third phase of the initiative started on January 2 and the footfall has doubled only in nine days of this phase of the drive.

The state government has extended the Swasthya Sathi scheme for all 10 crore people

of the state ensuring RS 5 lakh health coverage per year per family. Maximum number of people at Duare Sarkar camps turned out have applied for the health scheme for which the state government is paying the entire premium on behalf of the beneficiaries.

Again, 4 lakh people have got enrolled for Krishak Bandhu scheme under which family members of deceased farmers aged between 18-60 years get compensation of Rs 2 lakh. Moreover, a farmer with one or more acre landholding gets financial assistance of Rs 5,000 per annum in Rabi and Kharif Season.

So far more than 54 lakh farmers have been brought under the scheme and now the state government has allowed enrollment in the scheme against self declaration.

— Firhad Hakim

Farmers’ future continues to be at stake as @narendramodi ji’s govt again REFUSED to address their demands on the anti-farmer bills!City

mp| 3millenniumpost|KOLKATA|SUNDAY, 10 JANUARY, 2021

COVID-19 STATS »Number of deaths in past 24 hours 20 » Total death toll so far 9,922 » Tested COVID positive in the past 24 hours 787 » Total COVID positive cases so far 5,59,886 » Patients recovered so far 5,41,930 » Discharged from hospitals in past 24 hours 978 » Total sample tested so far 74,06,377

ABOUT 62 LAKH PEOPLE ENROLLED UNDER THE SWASTHYA SATHI SCHEME

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Sk Abdul Kalam, the acting Bengal unit presi-dent of AIMIM, joined the Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Saturday along with sev-eral other members of the Asaduddin Owaisi-led party, months ahead of the Assem-bly elections.

Joining the TMC at its headquarters in Kolkata, Kalam said there has been an atmosphere of peace and tran-quillity in Bengal for several years and he switched sides to keep the ‘poisonous air’ at bay.

‘We have seen that Bengal used to be an oasis of peace. But of late, the air has become poisonous and this has to be set right. That is why I decided to join the Trinamool Congress,’ he said.

The AIMIM leader and his followers joined the TMC in presence of senior party leader and minister of state for health Chandrima Bhattacharya.

Kalam said AIMIM should have tried to foray into Bengal in the past and seeking a polit-ical entry at this point of time will not be proper.

“It will lead to unnecessary cutting into votes, which is not

desired at all,” he added.“I have travelled to districts

such as Bankura, Murshidabad, Coochbehar and Malda and spoke to the people there. They all said this poisonous air has to be kept at bay. There is a need to join the Trinamool Congress,” Kalam said.

The other AIMIM lead-ers who have joined TMC are Murshid Ahmed, Ali Bux, Ahmadullah Sardar, Jamshed Ahmed, Nazmul Hussain, Intekab Alam, Jawed Ahmed Khan, Abdul Kasem, Zahirud-din Ahmed Khan, Tariq Aziz among others.

In November, AIMIM’s key leader in the state Anwar Pasha along with some of his colleagues joined the TMC, claiming that the Hyderabad-based party was only acting as a polariser of votes to help the BJP. Owaisi visited the state last Sunday and met promi-nent Muslim leader Abbas Siddiqui, holding discussions on the political scenario and the assembly polls, which his party announced that it will fight, undeterred by the defections.

Elections to the 294-mem-ber West Bengal assembly are likely to be held in April-May.

AIMIM’s Bengal acting president joins TrinamoolCM thanks officials & participants as

over 2 cr visit Duare Sarkar campsPRITESH BASU

KOLKATA: In an unprecedented move of the Mamata Banerjee government, the state govern-ment employees who draw more than Rs 2.01 lakh pay per month will also get dearness allowance (DA) at 3 per cent of their revised basic pay.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had announced on December 3 about her govern-ment’s decision of increasing the DA by 3 despite the finan-cial crisis due to Covid situa-tion and the Centre still owes around Rs 85,000 crore to the state. Subsequently, the state finance department had issued a notification stating that “the respective administrative depart-ment may sanction the benefit of Dearness Allowance at 3 per-cent of revised basic pay from January 1 to the employees’ con-cerned drawing basic pay up to Rs. 2.01 lakh”.

With the decision of the state government to give the similar benefit to the employees those are drawing more than Rs 2.01 lakh, the Finance department has issued a fresh notification stat-ing that “the state government employees and the employees including of boards, corpora-tions, educational institutions drawing pay more than Rs 2.01 lakh will also get DA at 3 per-cent of the revised basic pay” from January itself.

According to a senior offi-cial, this is an unprecedented move as this is the first time when employees receiving pay above Rs 2.01 lakh are going to derive the benefit. Again, the pay of the state government employ-ees hike with recent revision on pay structure as per the recom-mendation of the 6 th Pay Com-mission. “So now there is a good number of employees who will be benefitted with the decision of allowing 3 percent DA for those who draw more than Rs 2.01 lakh,” the official said.

Manoj Chakraborty of Pas-chimbanga Rajya Sarkari Kar-machari Federation said: “It is something unprecedented as never before it has taken place in view of the welfare of the employees.”

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: At a time when BJP’s national president JP Nadda launched the party’s first poll campaign in the state aimed at farmers, ruling Tri-namool Congress (TMC) on Saturday attacked the saffron party citing that the latter’s concern for peasants in Ben-gal was a sham as it (BJP) didn’t bother about those protesting against the farm laws within the striking distance of Delhi.

Senior TMC leader and minister of state for health Chandrima Bhattacharya said BJP leaders have time to travel across the country and “shed crocodile tears” for farmers but not pay any heed to the protest-ing farmers.

Bhattacharya said 92 per cent of the farmers in Ben-gal are covered under Kisan Credit Card (KCC) scheme, besides getting Rs 5,000 per hectare. Also, the state gov-ernment provides a job to the family in case of the death of a farmer.

She claimed that Bengal is the only state where farm-ers don’t have to pay the pre-mium of the crop insurance, rather it is paid by the state government.

Slamming BJP for its attempts to malign Mamata Banerjee-led state govern-ment by spreading rumours, the TMC also claimed that the saffron party is a fake news factory. Trinamool Con-gress MP Dr Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar said the BJP was divided into three camps—the original BJP, the new BJP and the tourist BJP—in the state. “The tourists are coming to Bengal to spread lies,” she said, calling BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya a ‘dedicated liar’.

According to Ghosh Das-tidar, Malviya had misquoted Nobel Prize winner in Eco-nomics, Richard H Thaler, on banning of Rs 2000 currency notes in 2016.

Again, Malviya shared a clipped video, which suggested that the former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, had appre-ciated the good work of BJP-ruled state governments in Madhya Pradesh and Chhat-tisgarh. However, the exact words were “My relationships with the government of Mad-hya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh were very good. We never dis-criminated against BJP-ruled states.”

Dr Ghosh Dastidar said Malviya on February 24, 2019 had tweeted that Narendra Modi was the first head of the state to visit Kumbh in all these areas. But, it was Pan-dit Jawaharlal Nehru who had visited the Kumbh way back in 1954.

Malviya had tweeted before 2019 Lok Sabha elec-tions that TMC was responsible for demolishing the statue of Vidyasagar as told by a student. Later, investigation revealed that the allegations were widely inaccurate.

Dr Ghosh Dastidar alleged that BJP leaders had shown the scenes from a Bhojpuri film showing how a woman was abused in various social media to depict unrest at Basirhat in North 24-Parganas.

Now, DA at 3% for govt employees drawing salary of more than

Rs 2.01L a month

‘JOINED TMC TO KEEP POISONOUS AIR AT BAY’

News at a glance44

KOLKATA: The Special Task Force (STF), Kolkata Police arrested an UP based FICN racketeer from Amherst Street police station area and seized huge amount of high quality counterfeit Indian Currency Notes amounting to Rs 1 lakh. The fake notes are all of Rs 500 denominations.

The STF sleuths conducted the arrest acting upon a cred-ible source information on Friday evening. The arrested persons Zakir Hussain (49) hails from Ghaziabad, in Uttar Pradesh.

KOLKATA: Amarnath Chattopadhyay has been appointed as the Chairman of Board of Administrators of Asansol Municipal Corporation(AMC) . A notification in this regard has been issued by the state Municipal Affairs department on Saturday. Chattopadhyay who is the coordinator of ward 30 of the civic body will take charge as the chief of AMC from Monday.

Jitendra Tiwari had resigned from the Chairman of BOA and from the post of TMC president of West Burdwan dis-trict on December 16. However, within 24 hours of his res-ignation he asserted that he is with the TMC. Chattopadhyay was the member of the BOA of AMC that was formed on October 15 after the tenure of the civic board ended a day before on October 14.

UP-based racketeer held with fake currency worth Rs 1L

Amarnath Chattopadhyay becomes the chairman of Asansol civic body

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Days after All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi visited Furfura Sharif— a prominent religious shrine of Bengali Muslims in Hooghly dis-trict–Muslim clerics urged people of Bengal not to vote for BJP or other parties playing caste-based politics.

“People (not only Muslims, but also Hindus, Christians and others) should vote for party which is peace-loving and demo-cratic,” said Md Yahiya, Chairman of Bengal Imams Association on Saturday. Owaisi’s meeting with Pirzada Abbas Siddiqui—an influential Muslim cleric of Furfura Sharif—had fuelled specu-lation of a new political understanding ahead of the elections. Without naming the Hyderabad-based outfit, Yahiya condemned the politics played over Muslims in Bengal. “We do not subscribe to religious and caste-based politics and cannot tolerate religious fanaticism,” he said. On Wednesday, representatives of 20 to 25 Muslim organisations had conducted a meeting in the city, in which Qari Fazlur Rahman (Imam who leads the Red Road Namaz during Eid) was also present. The representatives presented their opinion and suggestions on the present political situation of Ben-gal and role of minority votes in the upcoming polls.

“We appeal to the Muslims of Bengal not to make it Uttar Pradesh by voting to any undemocratic party. This is only pos-sible when Bengal’s Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and Christians unite,” said Moulana Shafique Qasmi, Imam of Nakhoda Masjid popu-larly known as Badi Masjid of Kolkata.

BJP woos farmers in Bengal, ignores their protest in Delhi: TMC

KOLKATA: On a day when BJP national president JP Nadda was holding a road show in east Burdwan, state BJP leaders at Muralidhar Sen Lane here were busy finding out ways to address the infighting between the old guards and new entrants.

Meanwhile, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on Thursday said in Bengal BJP should be “very careful in its intake from other parties as the leaders and workers are not aware of the ideology of RSS which believes not in establishing a government in a state but to propagate party’s ideals across

the country.”Requesting anonymity, some BJP lead-

ers said the old guards had resisted join-ing of party workers and leaders from other parties, particularly Trinamool Congress.

On Saturday morning, infighting in BJP came out in the open in Nadia where a group alleged that the leaders of the other group were backing Trinamool Congress silently. On Friday, two groups of BJP workers clashed in front of Dilip Ghosh, Suvendu Adhikari and Kailash

Vijayvargiya in Nandigram. The situation turned so grim that the leaders had to leave the podium in haste and brickbats were thrown at them. “Though the leaders had blamed Trinamool Congress for it, it was our old guards who had resisted the new entrants,” said the BJP leaders.

“We are meeting all the groups and tell-ing them to put up a united fight against Trinamool but it is a difficult task as the old guards are not ready to take instructions from the new entrants and their leaders,” they added. MPOST

BJP struggles to resolve infighting between new entrants & old guards

Rawdon Square renovated at a cost of Rs 1.45 crore, unveiled

Muslim clerics urge people not to vote for BJP & ‘parties

playing caste politics’

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: A three-year-old girl, suffering from heart dis-ease, got a new lease of life after receiving Swasthya Sathi card in just 30 minutes time after applying for the same in a Duare Sarkar camp at Eng-lishbazar in Malda.

It was Chief Minis-ter Mamata Banerjee’s brain child to introduce the coun-try’s biggest outreach drive – Duare Sarkar – to help peo-ple get benefits of a dozen state-run schemes at their doorsteps.

The resident of Atgama Village of Milky Gram Pan-chayat under Englishbazar block found herself in a help-less situation when she was told about the need for an immediate treatment of her three-year-old daughter as she was suffering from heart disease.

The helpless parents then approached the state gov-ernment for a Swasthya Sathi card that would help their child undergo the treatment. Without losing any moment, the district authori-ties took necessary move. Fol-

lowing necessary coordination with the state Health depart-ment, the Swasthya Sathi card was issued for the family in just 30 minutes time. The state gov-ernment is providing the entire premium on behalf of benefi-ciaries and concerned insur-ance companies are bearing the cost of treatment.

It is helping the beneficia-ries to undertake treatment worth Rs 5 lakh per year for a family.

The district authorities have also taken up the task of con-structing 42 village roads at a cost of Rs 3.5 crore after receiv-ing requests through Paray Samadhan initiative.

Tender has been floated and the work to construct at least four to five roads at Ratua, Bamungola and Habibpurwill start in the next 10 days. Each road is of around 500 to 7000 metres.

Already 60 to 70 km road has constructed in the past 3 moths in Malda.

3-yr-old suffering from heart ailments gets Swasthya Sathi card in 30 minutes

About 74,06,377 Covid tests conducted so far

KOLKATA: Firhad Hakim, Chairman Board of Administrators (BOA), Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) unveiled the renovated Rawdon Square, spanning over 12000 square metres. It has been renovated at Rs 1.45 crore.

“The trees and the bushes inside the park haven’t been cut off in the process of beautification. The large water body has been rejuvenated,” Debasish Kumar, Member BOA and in-charge of Parks and Squares department said.

A walkway has been created for walkers, besides seating arrangements and an open air gym. The square, located between AJC Bose Road on its east and Rawdon Street on the west, had hogged limelight in the late 1980s when the erstwhile Left Front government had proposed its conversion into a cultural centre. The project was vehemently opposed by the then Opposition-led Mamata Banerjee, who was in Congress. She even sat on a dharna following a clash with the police, in which 50 Congress activists were injured. The square has been shut since then.

There were attempts to convert the square into a parking lot in 2018. But an NGO moved the green bench opposing the move. The tribunal ordered its restoration. MPOST

CM at a Duare Sarkar camp FILE/PIC

‘BJP divided into three camps—the original BJP, the new BJP and the tourist BJP—in the state’

mpmp4| KOLKATA|SUNDAY, 10 JANUARY, 2021|millenniumpost

NationCOVID-19 vaccine race:

Where they stand currentlyDays after participating in vaccine

trial, man dies in Bhopal

— Union Minister Jitendra Singh

Due to COVID-19 people went back to original Indian ethos, practices

Mala Bhargava, president, Inner Wheel Club, Delhi Main donated four wheel chairs to Northern Railway at New Delhi Railway Station to help the disabled passengers become mobile. Sushma Sharma and Sunita Mangla, Member of inner Wheel Club were also present on the occasion. Inner Wheel is one of the largest women’s service voluntary organizations in world and is active in more than 103 countries

FOR A GOOD CAUSE

ALLAHABAD: The Allahabad High Court has observed that the arrest of a person against whom an FIR has been lodged "should be the last option" and restricted to cases where such an action is "imperative" or cus-todial interrogation is required.

"Irrational and indiscrimi-nate arrests are a gross viola-tion of human rights," Justice Siddharth said while granting anticipatory bail to one Sachin Saini of Bulandshahr against whom an FIR was registered for voluntary causing hurt and threat to cause death apart from other sections of the IPC.

After the lodging of an FIR, the arrest can be made by the police at will, the court said, adding there is no definite period fixed for the police to arrest an accused against whom an FIR has been lodged.

"The courts have repeatedly held that arrest should be the last option for the police and it should be restricted to those

exceptional cases where arrest-ing the accused is imperative or his custodial interrogation is required. Irrational and indis-criminate arrests are a gross violation of human rights," the court held. In its order, the court has also referred to the case of one Joginder Kumar in which the apex court has referred to the third report of the National Police Commis-sion, which mentioned that making arrests in India is "one of the chief sources" of corrup-tion in the police.

The report suggested that, by and large, nearly 60 per-cent of the arrests were either unnecessary or unjustified and that such unjustified police action accounted for 43.2 percent of the expenditure of the jails.

Personal liberty is a very precious fundamental right and it should be curtailed only when it becomes imperative, it said. AGENCIES

Arrest should be last option for police: HC

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Almost a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, about 200 vaccine candidates are in the works and 10 have been either approved by several countries or are under limited emergency use. As India pre-pares to launch its vaccine drive on January 16, here is a look at the options:

COVAXINDeveloped by Bharat Bio-

tech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medi-cal Research and the National Institute of Virology, the indig-enous vaccine was granted emergency use authorisation in clinical trial mode' by the Indian government this week.

It is an inactivated vaccine developed by chemically treat-ing novel coronavirus sam-ples to make them incapable of reproduction. This pro-cess leaves the viral proteins, including the spike protein of the coronavirus which it uses to enter the human cells, intact.

Given as two doses, three weeks apart, the viral proteins in the vaccine activate the immune system and prepare people for future infections with the actual infectious virus. According to Bharat Biotech, the therapeutic can be stored at room temperature for at least a week.

A study on the Phase 1/2 trial published in the preprint server medRxiv in December showed the therapeutic doesn't cause any serious side effects.

"ICMR-Bharat Biotech vac-cine is a killed whole-virus vac-cine and there are absolutely no data available so far on its protective efficacy. I am criti-cal of its getting approval by the authorities," immunologist Vineeta Bal, affiliated with the

National Institute of Immunol-ogy in New Delhi, said.

COVISHIELDCo-developed by the Uni-

versity of Oxford and British-Swedish company AstraZeneca and known as Covishield in India, the vaccine was the first on which a scientific study was published based on Phase 3 clinical trials. It has so far been given emergency use authori-zation in the UK, Argentina, Mexico and India.

Scientists have engineered a version of adenoviruses that infect chimpanzees to carry the gene responsible for the spike protein of the novel corona-virus. It requires two doses, provided four weeks apart, to produce the desired effects.

Manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, Cov-ishield will be sold at Rs 1,000 per dose in the private market but cost the Indian government only Rs 200, said SII CEO Adar Poonawalla,

"Oxford-AstraZeneca-Serum Institute vaccine has shown protective efficacy in global trials to the tune of 60-70 per cent. While clear data from bridging trials in India are not available, the vaccine is cer-tainly proven safe," Bal said.

According to virologist Upasana Ray from the CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata, the Astra-Zeneca-Oxford vaccine is less restricted in terms of cold stor-age as it can be stored, trans-ported and handled at normal refrigerator temperatures (2-8 degrees Celsius) for at least six months.

MODERNAThe mRNA vaccine by US-

based company Moderna has so far been approved for use in Israel, the EU, Canada and the US.

A study of the efficacy of Moderna vaccine revealed it has 94.1 per cent efficacy in preventing the disease. In this type of vaccine, the messen-ger RNA –or mRNA –acts as a blueprint for the production of the coronavirus spike protein and is encapsulated by lipid molecules and delivered into human cells. The cells of the vaccine recipient then use this mRNA genetic code to pro-duce the viral protein to train the immune system for a future encounter with the infectious coronavirus.

Administered as two doses, four weeks apart, the Mod-erna vaccine can reportedly be stored in the refrigerator at 2-8 degrees Celsius for up to 30 days. At -20 degrees Celsius it can be stored for up to six months. This is still a challenge for many developing countries in the tropical regions that experience very high temper-atures in the summer months.

In November last year, Moderna Chief Executive Ste-phane Bancel told a German weekly that the company would charge governments between USD 25 and 37 per dose of its COVID-19 vaccine candi-date, depending on the amount ordered.

PFIZER-BIONTECH

The US-backed Pfizer-Biontech's COVID-19 preven-tive, like the Moderna vaccine, is based on the segments of the genetic material of the novel coronavirus. Preliminary data from the clinical trials showed that two doses of the vaccine, given three weeks apart, pro-vided an efficacy of over 90 per cent. Following the results, the UK, Canada, the EU and Saudi Arabia have approved the Pfizer vaccine for use. Sev-eral countries, including the US, Singapore, Argentina and Mexico, have given emergency use authorisation.

One limitation for the Pfizer vaccine has been its require-ment for ultracold storage –up to -70 degrees Celsius.

Each dose is reportedly priced at USD 37.

SPUTNIK VSputnik V from Russia's

Gamaleya Research Institute has been approved for emer-gency use by several countries but awaits more results from Phase 3 trials. An adenovirus vectored vaccine, Sputnik V is produced using a combination of two adenoviruses called Ad5 and Ad26. Preliminary evi-dence from Phase 3 trials indi-cates it is 90 per cent effective when given as two doses, three weeks apart.

In November, the Russian Direct Investment Fund said the cost of the vaccine would be less than USD 10 per dose starting from February 2021. It said the dry form of the vaccine can be stored at 2-8 degrees Celsius, and does not need freeze storage.

CONVIDECIAThe adenovirus vectored

vaccine developed by the Chi-nese company CanSino Biolog-ics is also under Phase 3 trials and has already been approved for limited use by the Chinese military.

CORONAVACAnother Chinese company,

Sinopharm, has also made progress with its inactivated vaccine dubbed CoronaVac. It has been given emergency approval for limited use in the country.

VECTOR INSTITUTERussia's Vector Institute has

developed a protein vaccine. It is currently under Phase 3 clin-ical trials. It uses modified ver-sions of the coronavirus spike protein to induce immunity. The vaccine reportedly can be stored at 2-8 degrees celsius for up to two years.

NOVAVAXAfter showing promising

results in Phase 1-2 trials, and in animal experiments, the vac-cine developed by US company Novavax is currently under Phase 3 clinical trials.

JOHNSON&JOHNSONThe adenovirus vectored

vaccine by the American company has shown protec-tion against the coronavirus in experiments in monkeys and is currently part of Phase 3 clini-cal trials. Unlike other vaccines, this vaccine is reportedly pro-vided as a single dose, but trials are currently underway to test its efficacy as two doses.

NEW DELHI: A total of 104 MoUs have been signed in the last two years under the lead-ership of Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel for setting up industries in the state with a proposed capital invest-ment of more than Rs 42,000 crore. These industries will generate more than 64,000 new employment opportunities for the youths of Chhattisgarh.

The new industrial policy of Chhattisgarh and the steps taken by the state government in the interest of industries dur-ing the Corona period have led to the creation of a better industrial environment in the state. During the Corona-cri-sis period, the entire country was affected by the economic slowdown, while industries in Chhattisgarh remained untouched by the recession.

During the lockdown, Chhattisgarh's industries were first in the country to have started functioning in the month of April 2020. Many concessions and facilities were given by the state government keeping in view the difficulties faced by the industries. Indus-tries in the core sector were given subsidies in electricity bills. All necessary arrange-ments were made to ensure supply of raw materials, and finished goods to reach the market. Guidelines were also issued to enable easy supply of raw materials from other states to Chhattisgarh.

To ensure running of steel and cement industries, activi-ties like road and building con-struction work were continued

with no change in electricity rates and in the terms and con-ditions. Rice mills were given five percent rebate in energy charges. Industries were also given exemption in due date of payment of electricity bills. During the lockdown period, Chhattisgarh produced 27 lakh tonnes of steel, which was the highest compared to other states. A new industrial policy was formulated, which opened new doors of possibilities for industries and also strength-ened agriculture sector in the state.

The new policy gave pri-ority to agriculture and forest produce based industries. All kinds of incentives are being given to mineral based indus-tries. Under the new indus-trial policy, special investment incentive package has now been arranged for investment in the mega ultra-mega project of sponge iron and steel sector.

Investment incentives up to a maximum of Rs 500 crores has been given in this pack-age for mega investors and investment incentive of Rs 1000 crores was being given for Bastar division. AGENCIES

104 MoUs in two years for setting up industries

in Chhattisgarh

OUR CORRESPONDENT

BHOPAL: A 42-year-old man who had taken part in the trial of Covaxin, the indigenous coronavirus vaccine devel-oped by Bharat Biotech, died nine days later in Bhopal, offi-cials said. While doctors sus-pect that poisoning could be the cause, Bharat Biotech said in a statement that "prelimi-nary reviews" indicate that the death was unrelated to the vac-cine trial.

Dr Rajesh Kapur, Vice Chancellor, People's Medical College and Hospital where the trial was conducted, said that Deepak Marawi, the deceased, had participated in the Covaxin tria on Decem-ber 12. He died nine days later.

Bharat Biotech said in a statement that Marawi had fulfilled "all the inclusion and exclusion criteria to be accepted as a participant in the Phase III trial".

He was reported to be healthy in follow-up calls post seven days of his dosing and no adverse reaction was observed or reported, the Hyderabad-based company said.

"The volunteer passed away nine days after the dosing and preliminary reviews by the site

indicate that the death is unre-lated to the study dosing. We cannot confirm if the volun-teer received the study vac-cine or a placebo as the study is blinded," it added.

Madhya Pradesh Medico Legal Institute Director Dr Ashok Sharma said the doctor who performed autopsy sus-pected that he died of poison-ing. However, the exact cause of the death would be known from his viscera test, he added.

"After Marawi's death on December 21, we informed the Drug Controller Gen-eral of India and Bharat Bio-tech, which is the producer and sponsor of the trial," Dr Kapur said.

He said Marawi, a tribal labourer, had volunteered for the trial and was examined.

"All protocols were fol-lowed and Marawi's consent was taken before allowing him to participate," he claimed.

Dr Kapur too said he can-

not confirm whether Marawi was administered the vaccine shot or was given a placebo.

"It (the vaccine vial) comes covered and coded. During the trial, 50 per cent people get the actual injection while the rest are given saline," he said.

Kapur said Marawi was kept under observation for 30 minutes after the trial as per guidelines before he was allowed to go. "We monitored his health for 7 to 8 days," he added.

Family members of Marawi claimed that when he returned home, he felt uneasy and expe-rienced some health problems.

"He complained of a shoul-der pain on December 17. Two days later, he frothed at mouth. He refused to see a doctor say-ing he would be alright in a day or two. When his condi-tion deteriorated, he was being rushed to hospital but he died midway (on December 21)," they added.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: An 85-member panel, headed by Prime Min-ister Narendra Modi, has been formed to commemorate the 125th birth anniversary of Net-aji Subhas Chandra Bose, the government said on Saturday.

The members include 10 Union ministers and seven chief ministers who will decide on the activities to be under-taken for the year-long com-memoration planned by the government. Union ministers Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh and Nirmala Sitharaman are among those who are part of the com-mittee. West Bengal Chief Min-ister Mamata Banerjee and her predecessor Buddhadeb Bhat-tacharjee both have found place in the panel.

With the Bengal Assembly polls around the corner, the

panel has a host of BJP lead-ers and central ministers from the state as members. Suvendu Adhikari, who quit as Trin-amool Congress (TMC) MLA and minister in December to join the BJP, has also been included in the high-level committee.

The members also include historians, authors, citizens, members of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's family, experts, as well as eminent people asso-ciated with the Azad Hind Fauj (INA), the Ministry of Culture said in a statement.

The list of members also include musician A R Rah-man, actors Kajol and Mithun Chakraborty, cricketer Sourav Ganguly, and Medanta chair-man Ravi Kasliwal. Secretary in the Ministry of Culture Ragh-vendra Singh is the convenor of the panel.

NEW DELHI: In a second such incident in nearly three months, a Chinese soldier was apprehended by the Indian Army at the southern bank of Pangong Tso in eastern Ladakh on Friday morning after he transgressed across the Indian side of the Line of Actual Con-trol (LAC), official sources said on Saturday.

The capture of the soldier comes amid a massive deploy-ment of troops by the Indian Army and the Chinese People's Liberation Army(PLA) in east-ern Ladakh in view of the tense border standoff that erupted following a clash between the two sides in the Pangong lake area in early May.

The PLA soldier had trans-gressed into the Indian side of the LAC and was taken into custody by Indian troops deployed in the area, the

sources said. The Chinese sol-dier is being dealt with as per laid down procedures and the circumstances under which he had crossed the LAC are being investigated, they added.

"The PLA soldier had trans-gressed across the LAC and was taken into custody by Indian troops deployed in this area. Troops from either side are deployed along the LAC since friction erupted last year due to unprecedented mobilisation and forward concentration by Chinese troops," said a source.

Indian troops had cap-tured Corporal Wang Ya Long of the PLA on October 19 last year after he "strayed" across the LAC in the Demchok sec-tor of Ladakh. The corporal was handed back to China at Chushul-Moldo border point in eastern Ladakh following laid down protocols.

Nearly 50,000 troops of the Indian Army are currently deployed in a high state of com-bat readiness in various moun-tainous locations in eastern Ladakh in sub-zero tempera-tures as multiple rounds of talks between the two sides have not yielded concrete outcome to resolve the standoff. China has also deployed an equal number of troops, according to officials.

Last month, India and China had held another round of diplomatic talks under the framework of Working Mech-anism for Consultation and Coordination (WMCC) on India-China border affairs.

The eighth and last round of military talks between the two sides had taken place on November 6 during which both sides broadly discussed disen-gagement of troops from spe-cific friction points. AGENCIES

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The CBI has booked Hyderabad-based Coastal Projects Ltd and its directors in connection with over Rs 4,736 crore bank fraud in a consortium of banks led by the State Bank of India, officials said on Saturday.

The complaint from the SBI, now a part of the FIR, has alleged that the accused con-struction company, during the five year period between 2013 and 2018, falsified account books and financial statements to show unrealisable bank guarantee amounts as realisable investments, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) spokesper-son R C Joshi said.

The company also alleg-edly gave wrong information on promoters' contribution, converted receivables from related parties to investments to siphon off bank funds, he said.

The loan account of the company became a Non-Per-formance Asset with retro-spective effect from October 28, 2013 and subsequently declared fraud on February 20 last year.

Besides the company and its Chairman and Managing Director Sabbineni Surendra, the agency has also named Managing Director Garapati Harihara Rao, Directors Srid-har Chandrasekharan Nivarthi, Sharad Kumar, Guarantor K Ramuli, K Anjamma, another company Ravi Kailas Builders Pvt Ltd, its directors Ramesh Pasupuletu and Govind Kumar Irani. AGENCIES

OUR CORRESPONDENT

AHMEDABAD: Former exter-nal affairs minister and Con-gress veteran Madhavsinh Solanki, who had also served as chief minister of Gujarat for four times, died in Gandhi-nagar on early Saturday morn-ing, Congress leaders said.

He was 93."The death of Madhavsinh

Solanki has brought extreme grief. May God give peace to his soul. He had made place in the hearts of people by his actions and deeds," Guja-rat Congress president Amit Chavda, who is also a relative of Solanki, tweeted.

He had served as Exter-nal Affairs Minister from June 1991 to March 1992. However, he had resigned in the wake of a controversy following his meet-ing with then Switzerland for-eign minister in Davos and his alleged remarks regarding the Bofors case probe.

Solanki had also served as

a two term MP of Rajya Sabha from Gujarat. He had floated an idea of an alliance of Kshitriya, Harijan, Adivasi (tribal) and Muslim (KHAM) casts and communities in Gujarat for Congress to win elections.

He had been the longest serving chief minister of the state before Narendra Modi became CM.

His son Bharatsinh Solanki is also a former Union minister.

Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani has declared a one-day mourning. The last rites of the departed leader will be held with full state honours,

the state government said in a release.

The CM cancelled all his engagements for a day and a special meeting of the Cabinet was convened to express con-dolences, where a two-minute silence was observed.

In his tweet, President Ram Nath Kovind said, "In the demise of Shri Madhavsinh Solanki, the nation has lost an unmatched leader. He will be long remembered as much for his role in shaping modern Gujarat as for his inimitable warmth, charm, and love for literature. My condolences to his family and well-wishers".

Prime Minister Narendra Modi described Solanki as a formidable leader who played a key role in the state's politics for decades.

Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi said Solanki will be remembered for his con-tribution in strengthening the Congress ideology and pro-moting social justice.

Ex-Union minister and Congress veteran Madhavsinh Solanki dead

Almost a year into the pandemic, about 200 vaccine candidates are in the works

PM to head panel to mark Netaji’s 125th birth anniv

Rs 4,736 cr bank fraud: CBI books Hyderabad-based

company

Indian Army apprehends Chinese soldier in eastern Ladakh

Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel

“The volunteer passed away nine days after the dosing and preliminary reviews by the site indicate that the death is unrelated to the study dosing,” Bharat Biotech said in a statement

Nationmp

| 5millenniumpost|KOLKATA|SUNDAY, 10 JANUARY, 2021

— Ram Nath Kovind

India’s Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan will make world order more just and fair

Cold conditions persist in N India; Kashmir receives fresh snowfallHeavy rain at isolated places in Karnataka, TN, Puducherry, Kerala and Kashmir

India’s IOEs can now set up campuses in foreign countries

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Indian universi-ties and colleges with the Insti-tutions of Eminence (IOEs) tag, which include several IITs, will now be able to set up campuses in foreign countries with the University Grants Commission (UGC) issuing fresh guidelines on the same.

The Education Ministry had launched the IoE scheme in 2018 as per which 20 insti-tutions were to be selected –10 public and 10 private ones –that would enjoy complete academic and administrative autonomy.

The new guidelines have been issued in line with the new National Education Pol-icy (NEP) as per which foreign universities will be allowed to set up campuses in India and top Indian institutes in for-eign countries. According to the norms, IoEs shall be per-mitted to start a maximum of three off-campus centres in five years, but not more than one in an academic year.

They will, however, require approval from as many as three ministries –education, home and external affairs –before they can venture out.

Institutions of Eminence...shall be permitted to set up new off-campus centres-maximum of three in five years and not more than one in one academic

year by following the proce-dures, according to the new guidelines.

An institution willing to establish an off-campus centre shall have to submit an appli-cation to the Ministry of Edu-cation containing its 10-year strategic vision plan' and a five-year rolling implementation plan' which would include the plans for academics, faculty recruitment, student admis-sions, research, infrastruc-ture development, finance and administration, etc, it added.

The IoEs shall be permitted to start an off-campus centre in an interim campus, subject to the condition that the per-manent campus shall be ready within a reasonable time period not exceeding five years .

The institutes shall be allowed to start new off cam-puses with the prior approval of the education ministry after receiving no objection cer-tificate from the ministry of external affairs and ministry of home affairs.

In the first lot, Indian Insti-tutes of Delhi, IIT Bombay and the Bengaluru-based Indian Institute of Science (IISc) were awarded the IoE status in the public sector, and Manipal Academy of Higher Education and BITS Pilani in the private sector, while the Jio Institute by Reliance Foundation was given the tag in Greenfield category.

MUMBAI: The Narcotics Con-trol Bureau (NCB) on Saturday arrested three persons, including a British national, for allegedly supplying imported strains of ganja in the metropolis, an offi-cial said. One of those arrested is a suspect in the drug case being probed after the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput in June last year, he added.

Over 200 kg of ganja, includ-ing imported strains like 'OG Kush' (a strain of cannabis indica), and curated marijuana, some of which had been sourced from the US as well as local areas, were recovered, he said.

"A team of NCB's Mum-bai unit led by zonal director Sameer Wankhede conducted a raid in Bandra West and seized ganja from a courier initially. It also conducted searches in Khar west and recovered a huge stash of imported strains of ganja from British national Karan Sajnani," he said. Saj-nani's questioning revealed the role of Rahila Furniturewala, a suspect in the drug probe fol-lowing Rajput's death.

"Contraband like ganja and bud (street slang for mari-juana and hashish) was recov-ered from Furniturewala, who was also providing financial aid to the network. Shaista, the sister of Rahila, was also arrested with ganja. The drugs were rolled into joints by Sajnani for supply to high-class clients in Mumbai and other states," the official said. AGENCIES

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: There was no let-up in cold weather condi-tions in north India on Sat-urday with fresh snowfall in parts of Kashmir affecting flight operations.

A thick layer of fog envel-oped parts of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Delhi and Madhya Pradesh, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

Heavy rainfall was observed at isolated places in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Ker-ala and Kashmir.

Some other parts of Kash-mir received four inches of snowfall in the morning, affecting flight operations at the airport in Srinagar, even as the minimum temperature dropped across the valley.

However, air traffic to and fro Kashmir was restored in the afternoon after several flights were cancelled in the morning due to fresh snowfall.

The valley had received snowfall for four consecutive days earlier in the week, drap-ing everything in white.

In south Kashmir, Kulgam recorded five inches of snow, Anantnag three, Shopian three and Pulwama four. Bandip-ora, in the north, received two

inches of snow and central Kashmir's Budgam and Gan-derbal districts recorded three inches each.

There were no reports of snowfall at the famous ski-resort of Gulmarg in north Kashmir, and Pahalgam tour-ist resort in the south.

Some other areas in the val-ley received rainfall.

In Himchal Pradesh, Key-long and Kalpa shivered at sub-zero temperature.

The tribal Lahaul and Spiti's administrative centre Keylong were the coldest place in the state at minus 9 degrees Cel-sius, Shimla MeT centre direc-tor Manmohan Singh said.

Kalpa in Kinnaur district recorded a low of minus 3.8 degrees Celsius, he added.

The minimum temperature in Manali, Dalhousie and Kufri were recorded at 1, 2.5 and 4.6 degrees Celsius, respectively.

Cold weather conditions

prevailed in Punjab and Hary-ana even as the minimum tem-peratures in the region hovered above normal levels.

Common capital Chandi-garh recorded a low of 10.8 degrees Celsius, five notches above normal.

Amritsar, Ludhiana and Patiala in Punjab recorded their respective minimums at 9.4 degrees Celsius, 10.7 degrees Celsius and 10.3 degrees Celsius, up to six

notches above normal for this part of the year.

The minimum tempera-tures of Pathankot, Adampur, Bathinda, Faridkot and Gur-daspur settled at 11.6 degrees Celsius, 8.7 degrees Celsius, 6.3 degrees Celsius, 7.5 degrees Celsius and 8.8 degrees Celsius respectively.

Rajasthan recorded a mini-mum temperature of 5 degrees Celsius.

Bikaner, Ganganagar and Jaislmer registerd night tem-peratures of 6.6, 7.2 and 7.3 degrees Celsius.

In Uttar Pradesh, light rains along with thundershowers occurred at isolated places over western parts of the state, while weather was dry over eastern parts.

State capital Lucknow recorded a minimum temper-ature of 12.4 degrees Celsius, while Allahabad registered a low of 15.4 degrees Celsius.

Gorakhpur recorded a low 12 degrees Celsius, Jhansi reg-istered 13.5 degrees Celsius.

The IMD has forecast min-imum temperature very likely to fall gradually by 3-5 degrees Celsius during the next 3-4 days, causing cold wave con-ditions over Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan from January 11 to 13.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: In a move aimed at putting pressure on the government over the three farm laws, the Congress on Sat-urday said that it has decided to organise ‘Kisan Adhikar Divas’ in the country and will gherao the Raj Bhavans across all states on January 15.

Addressing a press confer-ence here, Congress general secretary Randeep Singh Sur-jewala said, “Congress chief Sonia Gandhi has decided that in support of agitating farmers the party will organise Kisan Adhikar Divas in its party offices and will also gherao the Raj Bhavans in the state head-quarters on January 15.”

According to party leaders, the decision was taken at the

virtual meeting of the party’s general secretaries and state in-charges with Sonia Gandhi earlier in the day.

Surjewala said that the time has come that the cen-tral government needs to understand the warning of the farmers because they have now decided to fight till their last breath if the three laws are not repealed.

Surjewala said that the party will organise protests and agitations on January 15 that will include a march to the Raj Bhavans, to demand repealing of the three farm laws.

Slamming the govern-ment for asking the farmers to approach the Supreme Court, Surjewala said, “In the last 73 years it is for the first time that a government is asking farm-

ers to approach the Supreme Court. Those who are not ready to take their responsibil-ity are asking farmers to knock the doors of the Supreme Court. People of the country have elected the government then why does the government want to send farmers some-where else.”

However, he accused the Modi government of trying to tire out the farmers, who are sitting at several borders of the national capital since Novem-ber 26 last year.

“In the last 40 days, the gov-ernment has held eight meet-ings and they are only giving next dates of talks,” Surjew-ala said, adding that the gov-ernment is responsible for the death of over 60 farmers dur-ing the protest.

Congress to gherao Raj Bhavans across all states on January 15

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KATWA (WB): Amid ongo-ing protests over the new farm laws, BJP president J P Nadda on Saturday launched a new campaign to woo the farmers of West Bengal and said the BJP government at the Cen-tre has increased the agricul-tural budget six-fold and the Minimum Support Price by 1.5 times.

Nadda, who launched the 'Krishak Suraksha Abhiyan' and "Ek Mutti Chawal" (a fist-ful of rice) to woo farmers in the poll-bound state, said the Modi government has worked more for the farmers commu-nity than the previous govern-ments at the Centre.

He also mocked at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for agreeing to imple-ment the PM Kisan Yojna only after realising that her party is fast losing ground among the farmers in the state.

Nadda, said it is "too late" for the TMC government to agree to implement the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi.

"Since coming to power, the Modi govt has increased budget on agriculture by six times. In 2013-14, the bud-get on agriculture was only Rs 22,000 crore. Today, it stands at Rs 1,34,000 crore," Nadda said here.

Nadda said its Prime Min-ister Narendra Modi who implemented the Swami-nathan Committee report on Minimum Support Price (MSP) for crops.

"MSP according to Swami-nathan Committee has been implemented only by PM Modi, increasing it nearly by 1.5 times," he said.

Later in the afternoon Nadda launched "Ek Muthi Chawal" (a fistful of rice), a programme under which he would collect rice from farm-ers' homes and brief them about the benefits of the new agri legislations, as part of efforts to blunt the opposi-tion "anti-farmer" allegations against the BJP-led central government following farm-ers protests in Delhi.

Purba Burdwan is a major rice producing district and it is called the "rice bowl of West Bengal."

The district, around 100 km from Kolkata also holds special significance in the state politics as it comprises of 15 assem-bly constituencies. Out of this majority are with the TMC at

present and the saffron party wish to win them to form its government in the state.

Sunil Kumar Mondal, Lok Sabha member from Burdwan Purba constituency recently switched over to the BJP from the TMC.

Nadda's address at 'Krishok Surokkha Gram Sabha' in Jag-adanandpur marked the begin-ning of 40,000 such meetings to be held by the BJP across West Bengal before the assem-bly elections just months away from now. There are 71.23 lakh farmers' families in West Ben-gal, 96 per cent of them small and marginal.

Ridiculing Banerjee for agreeing to implement PM Kisan Yojna only after realis-ing that her party is fast los-ing ground among the farmers in the state, Nadda said once voted to power the BJP would deliver justice to the farmers of the state.

JAIPUR: Some supporters of former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje have formed an outfit, say-ing they want to see her again as the CM in 2023.

The development is being seen as an attempt by Raje supporters to affirm her authority in the state and hints towards the fric-tion in the party's state unit.

"We floated 'Vasund-hara Raje Samarthak Rajasthan (Manch)' on December 20 and have appointed office bear-ers in 25 districts with an objective to publicise the achievements and policies of the former governments led by Raje in the state," Vijay Bhardwaj, the state president of the manch, said.

"Satish Poonia is head-ing the party organisation. Our initiative will only strengthen the party. It is not a parallel organisa-tion but a way to express our loyalty for Raje. We will only publicise her achievements among peo-ple," Bhardwaj, who claims to be an active member of the BJP, said.

He said Raje support-ers want to see her become the chief minister of Rajas-than for a third time in the 2023 assembly elections in the state. Bhardwaj said various wings like the I-T cell, mahila morcha, and a youth wing will also be created. On the other hand, BJP state president Satish Poonia said it is not a seri-ous matter and party ide-ology is bigger than any individual.

"It is not a serious mat-ter because it is more on social media only. Those who are behind it are not recognised party lead-ers. This is already in the knowledge of the par-ty's central leadership," he said. AGENCIES

A man clicks photographs of migratory birds on snow covered Dal Lake after the fresh snowfall, in Srinagar

BJP launches campaign to woo farmers ahead of Bengal polls

Rajasthan: Vasundhara

Raje supporters form new outfit

Mumbai: British national, 2 others

arrested with high-grade drugs

BJP National President J.P. Nadda throws flowers on his supporters during a roadshow, in Bardhaman, on Saturday

Continued from P1“All the medical colleges

and hospitals will conduct the vaccination programme grad-ually. Various health centres run by the civic bodies and the primary health centres in the villages will also host the pro-gramme. The drive would be conducted in all the blocks of the state,” an official said.

According to sources, the Health department would send the vaccines to the far districts in refrigerated vans while the city adjoining districts have been asked to collect the vac-cines on their own from the central medical store. The Health department has already provided training to those who will be involved in the process of vaccinations in various hos-pitals and health centers.

It is expected that vaccine developed by the Serum Insti-tute will arrive in state any time now. The Centre has already given clearance to Bharat Bio-

tech’s Covaxin and to Oxford-AstraZeneca’s Covishield manufactured by Serum Insti-tute of India. The State Health department has sought around 6.5 lakh doses for the front line health workers in the first phase. The elderly people and those having comorbidities would be administered the vaccines dur-ing the next phase of vaccina-tion. The Health department already plugged the loopholes during the mock drills in the districts ahead of vaccination. The health workers who would take part in the programme have been trained about the Co-WIN app required for documentation of beneficiaries.

The Institute of Post Grad-uate Medical Education and Research (IPGMER), NRS Medical College and Hospital and Kolkata Municipal Cor-poration-run Urban Primary Health Centre (UPHC) and 69 vaccination sites had under-taken mock drills on Friday.

KOLKATA: The West Ben-gal Pollution Control Board (WBPCB) on Saturday asked housing societies to earmark 20 per cent of their total area for planting trees to increase green cover. WBPCB Member Secre-tary Rajesh Kumar during a pro-gramme of Indian Chamber of Commerce said that the hous-ing societies must also think about organic waste disposal in a proper way. "Housing societ-ies are requested to earmark 20 per cent area for green cover," Kumar said in an audio message.

He also advocated setting up of solar panels in each hous-ing society to find out if even one per cent of electricity can be saved at their places.

The WBPCB official pitched for having organic waste com-posters in every housing soci-ety, particularly large ones, to dispose of the organic waste

generated in every household.Kumar said that the

WBPCB would also request industrialists to keep one-third of their total land left for planting trees. Claiming that West Bengal was the pioneer in introducing auto-rickshaws run on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), a green fuel, Kumar said that the state is already oper-ating electric buses to check vehicular pollution.

"In recent times, 80 electric buses were given to the state transport undertaking by the WBPCB from its budget," he said, adding that more buses can be purchased.

Kumar said that as part of the move to phase out over 15-year-old commercial vehi-cles, the WBPCB has decided to provide around Rs 1 lakh each as a subsidy to 1,000 vehi-cle owners. MPOST

Bengal gears up for vaccination

WBPCB asks housing societies to earmark 20% of total area to plant trees

GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGAL

Notice Inviting E-Tender

E.E.- on behalf of JGM Z.P. invites (On line) vide JGM/ZP/N-26 /2020-21.ID No. 2021_ZPHD_314008_1 and Bid Submission date end :16/01/2021(Saturday), up to 14.00 hours. For details visit websit - www.jhargram.gov.in & other details may be seen during Office hours

Sd/-Executive Engineer

Jhargram Zilla Parishad

GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGALNIT of - Municipal

Engineering DirectorateThe EE of MED, Birbhum Division invited e- Tender for infrastructure development works under “Paray Samadhan” Programe of Govt. of W.B within different Municipal areas of Birbhum. Ref.NIT No- 02/20-21, dt. 7-1-21 & OM No-MED/BIR/393/P-15 / 2021, dt. 7.1.2021, vide Tender ID No-2021_MED_313983_1 to 17 dt- 8-1-21 & corrigendum Memo No-MED/BIR/399/P-15/2021, dt. 9-1-21. Details in web site- https://wbtenders.gov.in.

Sd/-EE, MED, Birbhum Division Memo No- 12/INF/BIR, Dated: 09-01-2021

GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGALWRI & DD e-NIT

sealed Tender (N.I.T-e105 of 2020-21) is being invited by the Executive Engineer (A-M), Malda-I (A-M) Division, Madhabnagar, Mokdumpur, Malda , 732103, on behalf of the Governor of West Bengal from the from the bonafide agency for construction of WTA on turnkey basis under Malda-I(A-M) Sub-Division under RIDF-XXVI Programme. Last date and time of bid submission is 30/01/2021 till 12.00 Hrs. Other details may also be seen from the office notice board/ website. Corrigendum if any will be published in website only. Sd/-Executive Engineer(A-M), Malda-I (A-M)Division,Malda.

ICA- T0480(7)/2021ICA- T0486(5)/2021

ICA- T0490(6)/2021

GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGALWRI & DD e-NIT

Executive Engineer, DPMU, Birbhum, WBADMIP, WRDD invites e-tender for following Works : Construction of 1 No. of Water Detention Structure and Drilling, Installation & Development of one No. of Solar energy operated Tube Well in different Blocks of Birbhum District, vide e-NIT no. 23/NSP/2020-21/WBADMIP/DPMU/BIR and 24/NSP/2020 21/WBADMIP/DPMU/BIR, Tender ID : 2020_WRDD_312179_1 & 2020_WRDD_313346_1 respectively, estimated value Rs. 52,57,171/- & 14,43,398/-, respectively, and last dropping date is 20th January, 2021 for both. Intending bidders are requested to visit the website http//wbtenders.gov.in for details..Sd/ Executive EngineerDPMU, Birbhum, WBADMIP

ICA- T0493(6)/2021

GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGALWRI & DD e-NIT

Executive Engineer (A-M) Chinsurah (A-M) Division, WRDD invited etender for Constuction of Pucca Field Channel at 19 Nos Mj RLI Schemes in Convergence with MGNREGA Prog. 2020-21 in Hooghly District, vide eNlT No- 35 of 2020-21, Tender ID – 2021_WRDD_313334_1 to 2 & 4 to 20 , Estimated value Rs 1,89,28,738 and last date of dropping 27.01.2021, Intending bidders are requested to visit the web site: http//wbtenders.gov.in

Sd/- Executive Engineer, Chinsurah (A-M) Division, Chinsurah, Hooghly

ICA- T0496(6)/2021

GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGALWRI & DD e-NIT

Executive Engineer(A-M) Suri(A-M)Division, WRDD invites e-tender for Construction/Renovation of River Lift Irrigation Schemes in the district of Birbhum vide eNIT No. 11/2020-21, Tender IDs-2021_WRDD_313396_1,2,3,4,5,7 & 8, estimated values Rs.58,88,494 (Highest) & Rs.40,81,222.00 (Lowest)and last dropping date 25.01.2021 upto 6.00 P.M. Intending bidders are requested to visit the website http://wbtenders.gov.in for details. Sd/-Executive Engineer(A-M)Suri(Agri-Mech) Division.

ICA- T0500(6)/2021

ICA- T0510(6)/2021

ICA- T0514(6)/2021

GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGAL

e-TenderN.I.T. no-WBMAD/e-Tender/07 of EE (N24)-2020-21, Date –09/01/2021. The Executive Engineer, M.E.Dte (Authorized Signatory) on behalf of the District Magistrate, North 24 Pgs. invites e-Tender for different development work under “Paray Samadhan” within BongaonMunicipality are from the eligible Contractors, having all relevant documents for TENDER (As per Govt. Norms) required [Collection (downloading) and Submission (uploading)] of Tender can be made online through https://wbtenders.gov.inBid submission end date:-18.01.2021. Sd/- Executive Engineer North 24 Pgs. Divn. M.E.Dte.

62(4)/DICO/N24Pgs, dt. 09.01.2021

GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGAL

Worldmpmp

6| KOLKATA|SUNDAY, 10 JANUARY, 2021|millenniumpost

— South and Central Asia Bureau of the US State Department

Pakistan should hold Lakhvi accountable for Mumbai attack

WASHINGTON: US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said the House would move ahead with the process to impeach President Donald Trump for encouraging a mob that stormed the Capitol if he did not resign “immediately”.

Trump, who lost the November 3 elections, would be succeeded by Joe Biden on January 20 as mandated by the Constitution. However, Pelosi and the Democrats believe that in the aftermath of the inci-dent of his supporters storming the Capitol on Wednesday, he should be removed from office immediately.

“It is the hope of members that the President will immedi-ately resign. But if he does not, I have instructed the Rules Com-mittee to be prepared to move forward with Congressman Jamie Raskin’s 25th Amend-ment legislation and a motion for impeachment,” Pelosi said in a statement on Friday.

“Accordingly, the House will preserve every option including the 25th Amendment, a motion to impeach or a privileged res-olution for impeachment, she said after the House Demo-

cratic Caucus had an hours-long discussion on the issue.

Indian-American Con-gresswoman Pramila Jayapal said the impeachment proceed-ings should begin immediately. “Let’s do it right now,” she said.

Congressman Kaiali’i Kahele said he fully support removing Trump from office, either by invoking the 25th Amendment or bringing forth articles of impeachment against him.

“We cannot have a sitting president in office who incites violence among the people, or who tries to upend the Ameri-can people’s democratic process and right to a just election...his remarks in front of an agi-tated mob of his supporters that

roused civil indignancy at the grounds of the US Capitol are unforgivable,” he said.

Every day Trump remains in the White House is another day America is unsafe, Kahele said.

Kahele is a co-sponsor of two resolutions of impeach-ment authored by fellow US members of Congress -- one sponsored by Representatives David Cicilline, Ted Lieu, and Jamie Raskin; and the other by Congresswoman Ilhan Omar.

The resolution by Cicil-line, Lieu and Raskin offers a single article of impeachment of abuse of power that covers both inciting violence against the US as well as Trump’s urg-ing of Georgia’s Secretary of State to find votes.

Omar’s resolution contains two articles of impeachment -- Trump’s abuse of power and unlawful attempts to overturn the November 2020 presiden-tial election; and his abuse of power to incite violence and orchestrate a coup against the country.

Congressman Gregory Meeks, Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, led Democratic members of the Committee in calling for the impeachment of Trump for instigating the attack on the Capitol.

In a letter to Speaker Pelosi, the lawmakers underscored that the president’s actions have already emboldened dema-gogues around the world and holding him accountable is crit-ical to help restore US global leadership on democracy and the rule of law.

“There is a foreign policy imperative to hold the Presi-dent accountable for his actions we must demonstrate to the world that no one in Amer-ica is above the law...the Con-stitution demands that we, as members of the House of Rep-resentatives, use every tool at

our disposal to safeguard our country and our democracy during this perilous time by holding to account those who would do them harm. That tool is impeachment,” the mem-bers wrote.

Congressman Adam Schiff alleged that by inciting the act of insurrection, Trump has com-mitted his worst offence against the country and Constitution to date.

“The danger of him con-tinuing to abuse his power will go up, not down, in the time remaining in his term. To protect the country from any further harm, he must leave office, immediately. The best course would be for him to resign...Failing that, the Vice President and Cabinet should invoke the 25th Amendment and remove him from any fur-ther performance of his duties, he said. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer also demanded that Trump be removed from office. “The Twenty-Fifth Amendment would be the quickest way to proceed, but Congress should consider impeachment if that Amendment is not invoked, he said. AGENCIES

‘House will impeach Trump if he doesn’t resign ‘immediately’

President Donald Trump, who lost the November 3 elections, would be succeeded by President-elect Joe Biden on January 20 as mandated by the Constitution

WASHINGTON: Outgoing US President Donald Trump has slammed Twitter for perma-nently suspending him, vow-ing that he and his support base would not be silenced.

The unprecedented move by the California-based micro-blogging site on Friday comes after Trump tweeted that he would not attend the inaugura-tion of his successor Joe Biden on January 20.

“After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDon-aldTrump account and the con-text around them - specifically how they are being received and interpreted on and off Twit-ter - we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence,” Twitter said in a statement.

At the time of permanent suspension, Trump had 88.7 million followers and followed 51 people. In a statement hours after he was banned, Trump said: “I predicted this would happen. We have been negotiat-ing with various other sites, and will have a big announcement soon, while we also look at the possibilities of building out our own platform in the near future. We will not be SILENCED!”

“Twitter is not about FREE SPEECH. They are all about promoting a Radical Left plat-form where some of the most vicious people in the world are allowed to speak freely. “STAY TUNED!”’ he said, indicating some announcements in this regard is forthcoming.

“As I have been saying for a long time, Twitter has gone further and further in banning free speech, and tonight, Twit-ter employees have coordinated with the Democrats and the Radical Left in removing my account from their platform,

to silence me and YOU, the 75,000,000 great patriots who voted for me,” he added. “Twit-ter may be a private company, but without the government’s gift of Section 230 they would not exist for long,” Trump said.

Meanwhile, Several Repub-lican leaders, including popu-lar Indian- American politician

Nikki Haley, have condemned Twitter for permanently deac-tivating outgoing President Donald Trump’s account, say-ing that the “US is not China”. “Silencing people, not to men-tion the President of the US, is what happens in China not our country, tweeted Haley on Fri-day. AGENCIES

Won’t be silenced, says Trump after Twitter ban

WASHINGTON: Denounc-ing Donald Trump’s com-ments stoking supporters to mount an attack on the US Capitol, popular Indian-American Republican poli-tician Nikki Haley has said the president has not always chosen the right words and his actions post-election will be “judged harshly by history”.

“We can and should talk about our major differences. But we must stop turning the American people against each other -- and this Republican Party must lead the way, Haley said during a closed-door meeting of the Republican National Committee (RNC) in Florida on Thursday.

Many US media outlets have published excerpts of her speech on Friday. Her remarks were first reported by Politico. “President Trump has not always chosen the right words. He was wrong with his words in Charlottesville, and I told him so at the time. He was badly wrong with his words yesterday,” said Haley, who is considered to be a potential presidential aspirant in 2024.

“And it wasn’t just his words. His actions since

Election Day will be judged harshly by history, she said.

The 48-year-old former US Ambassador to the UN acknowledged that Republi-cans faced a tough reality and said they had some decisions to make about the political predicament they find them-selves in.

We can whine about it. We can complain about it. We can blame each other for it.

Or we can do something about it. If you ask me, there’s no whining in politics, Haley was quoted as saying by mul-tiple media outlets.

“This Republican Party is a home for anyone, because we stand for the principles that matter to everyone. This is not the time to abandon those principles. It is the time to proclaim them, proudly, from the suburbs to the cit-ies to the farms all across the country, she said. AGENCIES

WASHINGTON: The US has charged three Sri Lankan nationals for allegedly being part of a group of ISIS support-ers responsible for the 2019 Eas-ter attacks in the island nation that killed 268 people.

Mohamed Naufar, Mohamed Anwar Mohamed Riskan and Ahamed Milhan Hayathu Moahmed are cur-rently in custody in Sri Lanka, according to a federal crimi-nal complaint unsealed Friday.

The criminal case was filed on December 11, in the US Dis-trict Court in Los Angeles.

Naufar, the “second emir” for the group of ISIS support-ers that called itself “ISIS in Sri Lanka” who allegedly led the group’s propaganda efforts, recruited others to join ISIS and led a series of multi-day mili-tary-type trainings.

Riskan allegedly helped manufacture the IEDs used in the Easter Attacks; and Moahmed allegedly executed a police officer in order to obtain the officer’s firearm, shot a sus-pected informant, and scouted a location for a separate terror-ist attack.

“ISIS’s Easter attacks in Sri Lanka killed 268 people, includ-ing five Americans, many while they worshipped,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C Demers.

“Today, we charge these defendants with bearing their share of the responsibility for these deaths.

According to these charges, the defendants were committed supporters of ISIS, recruited others to ISIS’s violent cause, purchased materials for and made IEDs, helped to prepare

‘Trump’s post-poll actions will be judged harshly by history’

and trained others who par-ticipated in the attacks, and murdered in the name of this deadly foreign terrorist organ-isation. They are in custody in Sri Lanka,” he said.

Demers said that the US fully supports the Sri Lankan investigation and prosecution of these terrorists and will con-tinue to work with the authori-ties there to pursue its shared goal of holding these defendants accountable for their crimes.

According to the complaint, the three charged defendants and others involved in the con-spiracy -- including eight ter-rorists who died in the suicide bombings -- conspired to pro-vide, provided, and attempted to provide material support, including services and per-sonnel, to ISIS through vari-ous actions. AGENCIES

Easter attacks: US charges 3 Lankans

LAHORE: An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan has asked the Counter Terrorism Depart-ment of Punjab Police to arrest banned Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chief Masood Azhar by January 18 in a terror financ-ing case, a court official said on Saturday.

The Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) Gujranwala issued an arrest warrant against Azhar in the terror financing case insti-tuted by the CTD in the previ-ous hearing on Thursday.

ATC Gujranwala judge Natasha Naseem Supra dur-ing the case hearing on Fri-day directed the CTD to arrest JeM chief Masood Azhar by January 18 and present him in the court. In case of failure (to arrest him), the court may

begin proceedings to declare him a proclaimed offender, a court official said on Saturday.

Azhar is facing charges of terror financing and selling jihadi literature.

Following the Palwama ter-ror attack in February 2019, Pakistan’s Punjab police had launched a crackdown on ter-rorism financing and arrested six militants of the JeM in Gujranwala, some 130 kms from Lahore. AGENCIES

Pak’s anti-terrorism court asks police to arrest Azhar by Jan 18

BEIJING: China is ready to receive a WHO expert team to probe the origin of COVID-19 and has reached a consensus with the UN’s top health agency, a senior Chinese official said on Saturday, but gave no specific timeline for the visit.

The exact time on when the WHO expert team will arrive in Wuhan, where the virus emerged in December last, and investigate into the coronavirus origin is still under negotiation, Zeng Yixin, deputy head of the National Health Commission, told a press conference.

China and the World Health Organisation have reached a consensus on specific arrange-ments of the investigation with four video conferences, Zeng

was quoted as saying by state-run Global Times. Chinese experts are waiting for their WHO counterparts, he said.

Once the WHO experts complete their procedures and finalise the schedule, Chinese experts will go to Wuhan with them to conduct the investiga-tion, Zeng was quoted as say-ing by the state-run Xinhua news agency.

Zeng stressed that China’s position on the WHO inves-tigation is positive, open and supportive, and the country hopes such joint efforts would help deepen the understanding of the virus and better prevent infectious diseases in the future.

In a rare instance of crit-icism from the global body,

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who is often accused of being pro-China, in a media conference in Geneva on Tuesday had expressed dis-appointment over China not finalising the necessary per-missions for the experts team’s arrival.

“I’m very disappointed with this news, given that two mem-bers had already begun their journeys and others were not able to travel at the last min-ute, but had been in contact with senior Chinese officials,” he said. Tedros said he made it clear that the mission was a priority for the UN health agency and it was “eager to get the mission underway as soon as possible. AGENCIES

BEIJING: Beijing has gone on an alert mode following a sudden spike in COVID-19 cases in the neighbouring Hebei province while China has administered nine million Coronavirus vaccines so far in a stepped-up nationwide drive to contain the virus.

The National Health Com-mission (NHC) on Saturday reported 33 newly confirmed COVID-19 cases, of whom 17 were locally transmitted and the rest arrived from outside the mainland.

Fourteen locally transmit-ted cases were reported in north China’s Hebei province, the NHC said.

The rise of cases in Hebei sent Beijing on alert as the

capital, besides housing the country’s top leaders, is get-ting ready for the annual Par-liament session from March 5 during which over 5,000 legislators and advisers would converge.

Beijing is already dealing with a spurt in cases in some of the communities in the suburbs.

Both the legislatures, the National People’s Congress (NPC) and the Chinese Peo-ple’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), are set to hold their two week-long meetings beginning March 5.

Beijing has already announced 21-day quaran-tine for people coming from abroad. AGENCIES

Beijing on alert after COVID-19 spike in neighbouring province

WASHINGTON: US Presi-dent-elect Joe Biden has said he will introduce an immigra-tion legislation “immediately” after taking office, reversing the Trump administration’s policies.

Biden will taken the oath of office on January 20.

“I will introduce an immi-gration bill immediately and have it sent to the appropri-ate committees to begin move-ment,” he told reporters in Wilmington, Delaware on Fri-day. Biden was responding to a question on what his adminis-tration would do first after his inauguration on January 20.

He had also previously promised an immigration over-haul within 100 days of tak-ing office.

Reversing the Trump administration’s “cruel” immi-gration policies was Biden’s one of the key election promises.

Restricting immigration has been a focus of the Trump administration since its first days when it issued the travel ban on seven Muslim-majority countries, and it has continued into Trump’s final year in office as the White House uses the coronavirus pandemic as cover.

The Trump government hardened the immigration rules on those allowed to seek asylum in the US and advo-cated a merit-based immi-gration system to protect US workers. His administration also tried ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arriv-als (DACA) in 2017, but the Supreme Court blocked its attempt in June 2019. AGENCIES

China ready to receive WHO experts to probe COVID-19 origin but still silent on timeline

Will introduce immigration bill

‘immediately’ after taking office: BidenSEOUL: North Korean leader

Kim Jong Un threatened to expand his nuclear arsenal as he disclosed a list of high-tech weapons systems under development, saying the fate of relations with the United States depends on whether it abandons its hostile pol-icy, state media reported on Saturday.

Kim’s comments during a key meeting of the ruling party this week were seen as apply-ing pressure on the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden, who has called Kim a thug and has criticised his summits with President Donald Trump.

The Korean Central News Agency quoted Kim as say-

ing the key to establishing new relations between (North Korea) and the United States is whether the United States with-draws its hostile policy.

Kim said he won’t use his nuclear arsenal unless hos-tile forces intend to use their nuclear weapons against North Korea first.

He also suggested he is open to dialogue if Washing-ton is too, but stressed North Korea must further strengthen its military and nuclear capa-bility to cope with intensifying US hostility. He again called the US his country’s main enemy. Whoever takes office in the US, its basic nature and hos-tile policy will never change, he said. AGENCIES

North Korea threatens to build more nukes, cites US hostility

PARIS: The few hours it took to give the first Coronavirus vaccine shots to 14 residents of the John XXIII nursing home named after a pope and not far from the birthplace in east-ern France of vaccine pioneer Louis Pasteur took weeks of preparation.

The home’s director, Samuel Robbe, first had to chew his way through a dense 61-page vacci-nation protocol, one of several hefty guides from the French government that exhaustively detail how to proceed, down to the number of times (10) that each flask of vaccine should be turned upside down to mix its contents.

Delicately, the booklet stipu-lates. Do not shake.” As France tries to figure out why its vac-

cination campaign launched so slowly, the answer lies partly in forests of red tape and the decision to prioritize vulnerable older people in nursing homes. They are perhaps the toughest group to start with, because of the need for informed consent and difficulties explaining the complex science of fast-tracked vaccines.

Claude Fouet, still full of vim and good humor at age 89 but with memory problems, was among the first in his Paris care home to agree to a vac-cination. But in conversation, it quickly becomes apparent that his understanding of the pandemic is spotty. Eve Guil-laume, the home’s director, had to remind Fouet that in April he survived his own brush with the

virus that has killed more than 66,000 people in France.

I was in hospital, Fouet slowly recalled, with a dead per-son next to me. Guillaume says that getting consent from her 64 residents or their guardians and families when they are not fit enough to agree themselves is proving to be the most labor-intensive part of her prepara-tions to start inoculations later this month. Some families have said no, and some want to wait a few months to see how vacci-nations unfold before deciding.

You can’t count on medical-ized care homes to go quickly, she says. It means, each time, starting a conversation with families, talking with guard-ians, taking collegial steps to reach the right decision. And

that takes time. At the John XXIII home, between the for-tified town of Besancon and Pas-teur’s birthplace in Dole, Robbe has had a similar experience.

After the European Union green-lighted use of the BioN-Tech-Pfizer vaccine in Decem-ber, Robbe says it took two weeks to put together all the pieces to this week vaccinate 14 residents, just a fraction of his total of more than 100.

Getting consent was the big-gest hurdle for a doctor and a psychologist who went from room to room to discuss vac-cinations, he says. The families of residents were given a week over the December holidays to approve or refuse, a decision that had to be unanimous from immediate family members.

When one woman’s daugh-ter said yes but her son said no, a shot wasn’t given because they can turn against us and say, ‘I never agreed to that,’ Robbe explained. No consensus, we don’t vaccinate. Only by cut-ting corners and perfunctorily getting residents to agree could the process go quicker, he says.

My friends are saying, ‘What is this circus? The Ger-mans have already vaccinated 80,000 people and we’ve vacci-nated no one,’” he says. “But we don’t share the same histories. When you propose a vaccine to Germans, they all want to get inoculated. In France, there is a lot of reticence about the history of vaccinations. People are more skeptical. They need to under-stand. They need explications

and to be reassured. France pri-oritized nursing homes because they have seen nearly one-third of its deaths. But its first vacci-nation on Dec. 27, of a 78-year-old woman in a long-term care facility, quickly proved to have been only the symbolic launch of a rollout that the government never intended to get properly underway before this week.

Only on Monday, as sched-uled, did authorities launch an online platform where health workers must log all vacci-nations and show that those inoculated got an obligatory consultation with a doctor, add-ing to the red tape. In some countries that are moving faster than France, the bureaucracy is leaner. In Britain, where nearly 1.5 million have been inoculated

and plans are to offer jabs to all nursing home residents by the end of January, those capable of consenting need only sign a one-page form that gives basic information about the benefits and possible side effects.

No doctor interviews are needed in Spain. It started vac-cinating the same day as France but administered 82,000 doses in the first nine days, whereas France managed just a couple of thousand. Germany, like France, also mandates a meeting with a doctor and is prioritizing shots for care home residents, but it is getting to them quicker, using mobile teams. At its current rate of nearly 30,000 vaccinations per day, Germany would need at least six years to inoculate its 69 million adults. AGENCIES

French vaccine rollout slowed by focus on elderly, red tape

MADRID: A persistent bliz-zard has blanketed large parts of Spain with 50-year record lev-els of snow, killing at least four people and leaving thousands trapped in cars or in train sta-tions and airports that had sus-pended all services as the snow kept falling on Saturday.

The bodies of a man and woman were recovered by the Andaluc a region emer-gency service after their car was washed away by a flooded river near the town of Fuengi-rola. The Interior Ministry said a

54-year-old man was also found dead in Madrid under a big pile of snow. A homeless man died of hypothermia in the northern city of Zaragoza, the local police department reported.

More than half of Spain’s provinces remained on alert Saturday afternoon, five of them on their highest level of warn-ing, for Storm Filomena.

In the capital, authorities activated the red alert for the first time since the system was adopted four decades ago and called in the military to

rescue people from vehicles trapped on everything from small roads to the city’s major thoroughfares.

More than 50 centimeters (20 inches) of snow fell in the capital. By 7 a.m. on Saturday, the AEMET national weather agency had recorded the high-est 24-hour snowfall seen since 1971 in Madrid.

The storm is expected to move northeast throughout Saturday but it is expected to be followed by a cold snap, the agency said. AGENCIES

Snow blizzard kills 4, brings Spain to a standstill

Sportsmp

| 7millenniumpost|KOLKATA|SUNDAY, 10 JANUARY, 2021

— P V Sindhu

We need to have good coaches who can understand mindset of players

SYDNEY: A relentless Patrick Cummins and a mean Josh Hazlewood dismissed India for 244 after Cheteshwar Puja-ra's slowest half-century helped Australia take complete com-mand at tea on the third day of the third Test here on Saturday.

Australia took a first-innings lead of 94 runs and it would be an uphill task for India to make a comeback in this match.

Pujara's (50 off 176 balls) ultra-defensive approach put tremendous pressure on his colleagues and India never quite got the momentum going as Cummins (4/29 in 21.4 overs), Hazlewood (2/43 in 21 overs) and Mitchell Starc (1/61 in 19 overs) continuously attacked the batsmen -- first with a leg-side field and short-ball strategy and then on the corridor of uncertainty.

Pujara doesn't play the pull or hook shot well and he wasn't allowed room to either cut or drive. While he never tried to rotate strike, the likes of Ajinkya Rahane (22 off 70 balls) and Rishabh Pant (36 off 67 balls) felt the urge to break the shackles in the absence of

any such intention from the other end.

It also resulted in three run-outs including the one off Hanuma Vihari (4 off 38 balls), who fell short while going for a quick but non-existent single.

It was then left to Ravindra

Jadeja (27), who had to throw his bat around to bring the lead down to less than 100 runs, but that would be of little comfort considering that India would now have to bat fourth to save the match.

A total of 84 runs from 34

overs in the first session, with lack of intent especially from Pujara, didn't help India'a cause and Rahane's dismissal was purely due to the scoreboard pressure.

The Indian captain failed to get a move-on initially on

a slow track where bounce became variable as the session session progressed.

He did hit a cover drive and then tried to take on Nathan Lyon by lofting him for a six over long on. However, Cum-mins bowled one where he got extra bounce in his off-cutter, cramping Rahane for room and he was played on. The duo added 32 runs in 22.3 overs and it didn't help the team in any way. Had KL Rahul been fit, there could have been a case of Vihari getting dropped as he didn't show in any way that he was in control during his half an hour stay at the crease.

Pant got into the groove quickly but a nasty blow on the forearm did affect his shot- making and the result was a caught behind off Hazlewood, after a 53-run stand in a little over 20 overs.

Pujara, at the other end, was bowled short initially with three men on the leg side and then on the off-side with his cover drive dried up. Even the drive wide off mid-on didn't fetch him boundaries. In the first 100 balls, he didn't have a single boundary. AGENCIES

SYDNEY: Cheteshwar Pujara was “scared to play shot” and just looked to survive rather than taking the fight to the Australians, former skipper Allan Border said on Saturday, slamming the Indian’s batting tactics on day three of the third Test.

Pujara’s slowest Test half-century, a painstaking 50 off 176 balls handed Australia con-trol of the match in which they now have overall lead of 197 runs. “He (Pujara) is almost scared to play a shot, isn’t he? He is playing to survive rather than looking to score,” Allan Border told foxsports.com.au.

“He’s not had quite the same impact this series in that he’s taken so long to score his runs.” AGENCIES

SYDNEY: Depleted India’s injury woes worsened on Sat-urday with senior all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja sustaining a left thumb dislocation and frac-ture which is likely to rule him out of the final Test in Brisbane, starting January 15.

However, there is some good news for India as wicket-keeper-batsman Rishabh Pant’s elbow injury is not serious and he will probably be available when India bat to save the Test match.

Both players underwent scans after being hit by short balls from Australian pacers on third day of the Test match.

“Ravindra Jadeja has suf-fered a dislocation and fracture on his left thumb. It will be very difficult for him to wear those gloves and bat,” a senior BCCI

source said on Saturday.“In any case, he will be out

of action for at least two to three weeks which rules him out of the final Test. Pant will be able to bat as his injury isn’t that serious.”

The visitors’ first jolt came when Pant sustained an elbow injury after being hit by a Pat Cummins delivery. Reserve wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha replaced Pant as per a recent amendment in the ICC playing conditions.

“Rishabh Pant was hit on the left elbow while batting in the second session on Saturday. He has been taken for scans,” the BCCI had earlier stated in a release.

Pant, who looked good dur-ing his 36 off 67 balls on the third day of the match, was hit

while trying to pull a short ball from Cummins.

He was in pain immediately and after on-field treatment that included strapping a ban-dage, he was back in action but lost the flow due to hindered movement as Josh Hazlewood had him caught behind.

If that was not enough, the Australian fast bowlers inflicted further pain on the Indians with Jadeja suffering a nasty blow to his left thumb. He is unlikely to bowl in the Australian second innings after being taken for scans to ascer-tain the damage to his bowl-ing hand.

Jadeja’s 28-run knock allowed India to limit Austra-lia’s first-innings lead to less than 100 but towards the end, a short ball from Mitchell Starc

hit him on the gloves and he needed immediate medical attention. “Ravindra Jadeja suf-fered a blow to his left thumb while batting. He has been taken for scans,” the visiting team’s board stated in another media release after the injury.

Jadeja was in pain and once the team was back on the field for the second innings, his left thumb looked pretty swollen and the physio applied taping on it. He threw a few balls but then it was decided that it won’t be possible for him to continue.

Coming into the Sydney Test, India had lost Ishant Sharma (before series started), Mohammed Shami (forearm), Umesh Yadav (calf muscle) and KL Rahul (wrist) to vari-ous injuries. Virat Kohli is on a paternity leave. AGENCIES

SYDNEY: The BCCI on Sat-urday lodged a formal com-plaint with ICC match referee David Boon after Indian team players, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj, were alleg-edly racially abused by a drunk spectator here during the third day of third Test against Australia.

According to BCCI sources, Siraj was allegedly referred to as a "monkey" by a drunk spectator in one of stands at the Sydney Cricket Ground, reliving the infamous Mon-keygate episode of the Indian team's tour of Australia in 2007-08.

"BCCI lodged a formal complaint with ICC match ref-eree David Boon about two of their players Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj being

abused by a drunk spectator," a Cricket Board source said.

Incidentally, the Monkey-gate episode also took place during the Sydney Test when Andrew Symonds claimed Harbhajan Singh called him a monkey multiple times. But the

Indian off-spinner was cleared after a hearing on the matter.

It is learnt that a long dis-cussion was held between the senior players of the visiting contingent, including captain Ajinkya Rahane, the umpires and security officers at the end of the day's play. The abuses were directed at the Indian duo while they were field-ing during the Australian second innings.

Australia tightened the noose around India with a substantial 197-run lead on a forgettable Saturday for the vis-itors in the third Test.

By the close of play, Steve Smith (29 batting) and Mar-nus Labuschagne (47 batting) gave an exhibition of how to bat on slow tracks with Australia reaching 103 for two. AGENCIES

SYDNEY: Australia entered the four-match Test series against India determined to make it "as hard as pos-sible" for Cheteshwar Pujara to score, the home team's pace spearhead Pat Cum-mins said after his terrific display in the third Test on Saturday.

Pujara has been criti-cised for his ultra-defensive approach in the series so far and instead of propping up his team's response to Austra-lia's first innings total of 338 all out, his painstakingly slow 50 off 176 balls on the third day of the third Test here derailed India's momentum.

"Today I got a bit of assis-tance from the pitch. But he (Pujara) is someone you know you are going to have to bowl a lot at," Cummins said dur-ing the virtual post-day press conference.

The world's number one bowler returned fine fig-ures of 4/29 and dismissed Pujara, who had been a thorn in Australia's flesh during the 2018-19 series, for the fourth time in the ongoing rubber.

"We got our head around that this series, for him to score runs, we are going to make it as hard as possible, and whether he bats for 200-300 balls, we would just try and bowl good ball after good ball, challenge both sides of his bat, and fortunately, so far it has worked."

Cummins was asked about Pujara's slow scoring rate and the pressure it puts on other batsmen. AGENCIES

MIAMI: Ivo Karlovic of Croa-tia became the oldest player to win an ATP Tour match in a quarter-century, hitting 27 aces night to beat No. 7-seeded Pablo Andujar of Spain 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 in the first round of the Delray Beach Open.

Karlovic, who turns 42 next month, is the oldest to win on the top men's tour since Jimmy Connors at age 42 in 1995. The victory was the veteran's first since last February. No. 8 seed Frances Tiafoe defeated fellow American Donald Young 6-3, 6-4. Qualifier Roberto Quiroz overcame a shaky stretch in the first set to beat American Noah Rubin 7-6 (1), 6-3.

Quiroz led 5-3, lost serve twice and then rallied, dominat-ing the tiebreaker. The victory

was the second career ATP Tour win for the 28-year-old Ecua-dorian, who played at the Uni-versity of Southern California.

Quiroz's uncle, 1990 French Open champion Andres Gomez, played his final ATP Tour match at the inaugural Delray Beach Open in 1993. In other first-round play, American Christian Harrison swept Tomas Mar-tin Etcheverry of Argentina, 6-4, 6-2. Harrison next plays No. 1-seeded Cristian Garin of Chile.

Bjorn Fratangelo beat fel-low American Kevin King 6-2, 6-2; Daniel Elahi Galan of Colombia eliminated Andrej Martin of Slovakia, 6-4, 6-4; and Cameron Norrie of Brit-ain drubbed J.C. Aragone of the United States. AGENCIES

Brilliant Cummins puts Oz on top as India dismissed for 244

Jadeja sustains thumb fracture, out of 4th Test; Pant likely to bat in 2nd innings

Bumrah and Siraj allegedly abused racially, BCCI lodges complaint with match referee

Pujara was scared to play shot, played to

survive than score runs: Border

We were going to make it as hard as possible for

Pujara: Cummins

At 41, Karlovic oldest ATP Tour match winner since Connors

BARCELONA: Gerard Moreno scored his competition-leading 10th goal to set Villarreal on its way to a commanding 4-0 vic-tory at Celta Vigo in the Spanish league. The Spain striker was set up by Dani Parejo after Parejo stole possession from Celta's Denis Su rez near the area and played Moreno clear to open the scoring in the fifth minute at Bala dos Stadium on Friday.

A poor pass by Celta Vigo goalkeeper Ruben Blanco led to the visitors doubling their advantage in the 14th. Manuel Trigueros intercepted the pass and crossed for Moi G mez to volley home.

Blanco was again at fault in the 19th when he let Parejo's cross from a free kick bounce off the turf and under him before

reaching the net. Fernando Nino added a

final goal just over the half-hour mark. Villarreal rose past Bar-celona into third place before Barcelona visits Granada on Saturday. AGENCIES

BERLIN: Bayern Munich's defensive frailties finally took their toll as Borussia M nchengladbach came from two goals down to beat the Bundes-liga leader 3-2.

Jonas Hofmann scored twice and Florian Neuhaus provided the bow as Gladbach dealt Bayern just its second defeat in 15 games on Friday.

Bayern conceded first in each of its previous eight league games but recovered to lose none.

Coach Hansi Flick was determined for his team to make a good start and Bayern was given an opening early on when Neuhaus was penalized through VAR for handball in the penalty area.

Robert Lewandowski duly

converted the penalty in the 20th minute, consequently also ending Bayern's habit of con-ceding the first goal.

Leon Goretzka then won the ball in midfield, played a one-two with Leroy San , and doubled Bayern's lead in the 26th.

But the defending champi-ons' issues hadn't gone away, as Hofmann showed when he

beat the visitors' offside trap to score after a brilliant through ball from Lars Stindl.

Stindl won the ball from Joshua Kimmich to set up Hof-mann just before halftime. The goal was initially flagged off-side, but a VAR review showed Hofmann was behind Niklas S le when Stindl played him through. Hofmann had plenty of time to pick his spot and he stayed cool before slotting the ball inside the left post.

S le was again at fault when Gladbach got its third goal in the 49th, when his wayward pass was intercepted by Hof-mann, who played a one-two with Breel Embolo before lay-ing the ball off for Neuhaus, who let fly inside the top-right corner. AGENCIES

Gerard Moreno leads Villarreal to 4-0 rout at Celta Vigo

Bayern Munich squander 2-goal lead to lose to Gladbach 3-2

Oz take a first-innings lead of 94 runs and it would be an uphill task for India to make a comeback

BCCI lodged a formal complaint with ICC match referee David Boon about two of their players Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj being abused by a drunk spectator," a Cricket Board source

Bayern conceded first in each of its previous eight league games but recovered to lose none

Australia's Patrick Cummins, centre, is congratulated by teammates after dismissing India's Shubman Gill for 50 runs during play on day two of the third cricket test between India and Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground in Sydney, Australia PIC/PTI

MARGAO: Matti Steinmann's first-half strike proved to be the difference as SC East Ben-gal beat Bengaluru FC 1-0 to record their second win of the Indian Super League here on Saturday.

The Kolkata team is now unbeaten in their last five games, while BFC's misery continued with their fourth consecutive defeat this season.

Erik Paartalu returned to the Bengaluru starting XI after serving his one-match suspen-sion as Naushad Moosa made four changes in his first game as interim coach. While Udanta Singh was also in the first XI, Moosa handed first start to the defenders Parag Srivas and Ajith Kumar.

SCEB made just one change with Jacques Maghoma replac-ing Aaron Amadi-Holloway. Skipper Daniel Fox made the line-up after his red card against FC Goa was earlier overturned.

Bengaluru had early chances in the game but strug-gled to get the goals. First, it was Sunil Chhetri, whose lob-shot over the rival defense was easily dealt with by Debjit Majumder.

Cleiton Silva soon had a chance to put his side ahead in the 15th minute. But the Brazilian failed to direct his header at the goal after Juan

Antonio Gonz lez had pushed Parag Shrivas' long throw-in in the box.

Steinmann put SCEB in the lead in the 20th minute with a fine outside-foot finish. Ankit Mukherjee's cross was not dealt with cleanly by Ajith and Juanan and it found Narayan Das on the left. Narayan then played a low cross to Stein-mann who scored his third of the season.

SCEB were in total con-trol of the game at this point and made Bengal-uru chase shadows. The Kol-kata side created a couple of

chances before the half-hour mark and nearly extended their lead.

Ankit sent in a perfect cross into the box, but Narayan's div-ing finish diverted it wide. Min-utes later, another chance went begging for SCEB, as Harman-preet Singh couldn't get to the end of Ankit's through pass.

Bengaluru put up a much-improved performance in the second half. Chhetri played a one-two with Kristian Ops-eth and on entering the box tried his luck with a powerful strike but his effort was saved by Debjit. AGENCIES

KALYANI: Former champi-ons Chennai City FC defeated Gokulam Kerala FC 2-1 in their opening match of the I-League here on Saturday.

Vijay Naggapan's 50th-minute strike proved to be the difference between the two sides after Gokulam Kerala's third-minute strike by Den-nis Antwi was cancelled out by Elvedin Skrijelj's 26th-minute penalty.

Gokulam Kerala FC wasted no time and took the lead in the third minute with Dennis Antwi firing home from close range following a quick corner.

Chennai City's Singapor-ean signing Iqubal came close to bagging an equaliser from

a freekick in the eighth min-ute. Shortly after, Philip Adjah could have found the net for Gokulam FC but shot wide of the target from outside of the box. In the 26th minute, Chen-nai City's Serbian import Vlad-imir Molerovic was brought

down inside the box. The other Serbian import for Chennai, Elvedin Skrijelj, scored from the spot to level the scores.

It took Chennai City five minutes into the second half to take the lead. Vijay Nagga-pan played a delightful one-two with Demir Avdic to find the back of the net.

Vincent Barreto could have levelled the scores once again in the 55th minute when a wayward ball landed at his feet inside the Chennai City box. Barreto, however, failed to find the net. Gokulam pressed hard to find the equaliser but Chennai City defended as a compact unit to hold on to the lead. AGENCIES

KALYANI: Pritam Ningth-oujam's spectacular long-range strike helped Punjab FC open their I-League cam-paign on a winning note as they beat Aizawl FC 1-0, here on Saturday.

Ningthoujam's 18th-minute goal gave Punjab FC three points in a high-inten-sity match. Aizawl FC created clear goal-scoring opportu-nities throughout the match but failed to convert any one of them.

In the 10th minute, Prince-well Emeka tried to backheel a pass to an onrushing Brandon inside the box, whose shot was blocked, as Aizawl FC wasted

a golden opportunity to go ahead.

Eight minutes later, Pritam Ningthoujam unleashed a pow-erful strike from outside of the box to hand the Punjab outfit a 1-0 lead, much against the run of play.

Chencho Gyeltshen could have doubled the lead had his touch inside the box been bet-ter after collecting a cross from the right flank.

With all the possession in the final third, Aizawl FC lacked creativity upfront and were easily diffused by Punjab's defensive line. Despite domi-nating possession and press-ing their opponents constantly,

Aizawl FC did not have any goals to show.

The Mizoram side earned a golden opportunity to grab an equaliser in the 62nd minute after Alfred Jaryan found him-self inside the box but his shot from a tight angle was blocked by the opponents.

Another opportunity came to Aizawl's Lalremsanga Fanai in the 73rd minute, when he was put right onto the goal by a defence-splitting through-ball by Laldinpuia. Fanai, with only the goalkeeper to beat, fired his shot right at Kiran Chemjong, who kept the ball out and maintained his clean sheet. AGENCIES

Resilient SC East Bengal pile further misery on Bengaluru FC

Former champions Chennai City beat Gokulam Kerala 2-1 in I-League

Gokulam Kerala FC wasted no time and took the lead in the third minute with Dennis Antwi firing home from close range following a quick corner

I-League: Punjab begin campaign with 1-0 win over Aizawl

Ville Matti Steinmann of SC East Bengal celebrates after scoring a goal during a match of the Hero Indian Super League against Bengaluru FC at Fatorda Stadium in Goa on Saturday PIC/PTI

KARACHI: Big-hitting West Indian batsman Chris Gayle, star Afghan spinner Rashid Khan and veteran South Afri-can fast bowler Dale Steyn are among some of the top inter-national players included in the Pakistan Super League Players' Draft which will take place in Lahore on Sunday.

Other prominent foreign players who figured in the Draft include Dawid Malan, Moeen Ali and Chris Jordan from England, other West Indi-ans Dwayne Bravo and Sheldon Cottrell, another Afghan player Muhammad Nabi, South Afri-can David Miller and Australian Chris Lynn. AGENCIES

Gayle, Rashid, Steyn among top foreigners for PSL

Players' Draft

KOLKATA|SUNDAY, 10 JANUARY, 2021|millenniumpost

8| mp

Every sunrise brings new hope. Such is also the case with the dark winter of Covid that we may now start emerging from

in the new year with the wait for a vac-cine finally coming to an end. The Subject Expert Committee (SEC) of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) recently approved the proposal of Serum Institute of India (SII) for grant-ing emergency use authorisation license for Oxford-AstraZeneca’s Indian version COVID-19 vaccine that will be sold under the name Covishield. It is expected that the vaccination drive using the existing stock of Covishield would be launched on January 14.

The second good news for the people of the country came on the second day of the new year as the SEC also approved the proposal of Bharat Biotech for granting per-mission to indigenously-devel-oped Covaxin for restricted use in an emergency situation in public interest as an abundant precaution in clinical trial mode, especially in the context of infec-tion by mutant strains.

The approval of two vaccines for use is certain to be a big leap forward for the country that has recorded over 1.5 lakh deaths and the second-highest case count after America. In addition to these two already approved vaccines, the SEC has also granted permission for conducting phase three clinical trial protocol to Cadila Healthcare.

As per experts, the pace of vaccine development for this pandemic is unprec-edented. Vaccine development is typically a time-taking process and it takes over five years (generally speaking) to com-plete all the process required for effective and error-free vaccine development. Drug regulators validate a vaccine/drug only after validating all the trial data of phase one, phase two and phase three with the final phase being conducted on humans.

But it is important to take note of the fact that this expedited pace of devel-opment has also created many doubts regarding the efficacy and safety of the vaccines. To assuage this hesitancy and control the harmful spread of misinfor-mation at this stage, it is essential to heed expert advice and get the right set of facts.

WEIGHING INWill the vaccine bring an end to

COVID-19 in India? No. This is what renowned epidemiologist Dr Raman Gan-gakhedkar said when asked about the post-vaccination outcome. “This is just the beginning of the vaccination campaign. How can we say that as at the initial stage when the plan now is to vaccinate only 30 crore people ?” he said.

As per Gangakhedkar, medical coun-

cil, those who are working in the govern-ment sectors would be auto-registered, while others would have to register them-selves through Co-WIN app by upload-ing a certificate from any general medical practitioner.

As per the ICMR’s Director-General Dr Balram Bhargava, if we are able to vac-cinate a ‘critical mass’ of people, and break that virus transmission, then we may not have to vaccinate the entire population. Until we reach this critical mass, social distancing and masking measures will remain just as relevant, even if certain people have been vaccinated.

Moving on to the pace of development becoming a cause for concern, it is impor-tant to acknowledge that India is not alone in this conundrum. Vaccine approval has been fast-tracked all over the world at this point, a move that has divided the experts.

In case Serum Institute of India’s Cov-ishield, the vaccine has been approved for emergency use on the basis of human trial data of UK as the SII has not con-ducted “enough” human clinical trials

in India. It is worth noting that the AstraZeneca vac-cine has already been used to innoculate over 40,000 people in Britain, further validating its safety.

The “successful” approval story of Covaxin is not different from Cov-ishield as the vaccine, which has been developed with the support of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), has not yet completed phase three trial on humans.

Commenting on the Govern-ment’s ‘rush’ for vaccine approval, noted community medicine expert Ritu Priya, who is a professor at the Centre of Social Medicine Commu-nity Health, Jawaharlal Nehru Uni-versity, raised her doubts over safety and efficacy of the two approved vac-cines. However, the JNU professor put Covishield above Covaxin as the Indian version of Oxford AstraZen-eca has been tested in Britain while Covaxin has not yet completed phase three trial.

“The concerns of safety and effi-cacy would remain the same. The plus point with the Covishield is that it has been tested in the UK, which is not the case with Covaxin as we

haven’t yet seen any data of the indig-enously developed vaccine in the public domain,” the JNU professor told Millen-nium Post.

Questioning the views of volunteers appearing as a subject for human trial of Covaxin, Priya said, “It’s very obvious that a volunteer becomes a part of the trial as the participant has faith in the vaccine, which does not mean that it’s the com-munity trend. The behavioural pattern of community is different from any particu-lar participant.”

Priya also raised an important issue of doctors and health workers not willing to get vaccinated due to the rush in vac-cine development. “We have seen reports saying that about 20 per cent doctors and nurses in the US not willing to get vacci-nated as the vaccine has been released in a rush without going through adequate study procedures,” she said.

The JNU Professor suggested that the Government should not rush the deli-cate procedure. “The Government must allow sufficient time for safety as the vac-cine would be administered to masses of healthy people which may have some side effects. So we have to follow the basic eth-ics of public health of being completely safe. Thus, it would be advisable for the Government to wait for such data prior to launching the full campaign.”

Rejecting the comments of the JNU professor, Dr Rajni Kant, a senior scientist at ICMR, said, “The Drug Controller has set the standard. It approves any vaccine only after analysing the safety and efficacy of the vaccine. There is no doubt about the safety of both the vaccines.”

“Both the vaccines have gone through small and large animal studies. The phase one and phase two studies are con-ducted for safety issues only,” said Kant, who is currently working as Director, ICMR-Regional Medical Research Cen-tre (RMRC), Gorakhpur with additional charge of head, Division of Research Man-agement, Policy, Planning and Coordina-tion (RMPPC) at ICMR headquarters.

“When noted people like member Niti Aayog VK Paul are ready to get vaccinated

publically that means there is no safety issue with the two vaccines. Sometimes it happens that persons having some medi-cal issues exhibit side effects after vaccina-tion, which is very common. Experts are working on to address this issue,” he said, adding that no serious adverse effects of the vaccine has been reported so far and there would be some normal post-vacci-nation effects such as mild fever, stiffness, headache etc., which are very common side-effects of any vaccination process.

On logistical aspects of the vaccina-tion drive such as delivery and cold-chain management, the ICMR official said, “The delivery management is in the domain of Union Health Minis-try and states and as far as cold-chain management is concerned, the country has the required infra-structure for vaccine storage and transportation as the approved two vaccines can be transported at fridge temperature (two to eight degrees) in comparison to the vaccines of Pfizer and Moderna as their storage requirement is upto -70 degrees.”

“As far as the cold-chain infra-structure is concerned, there is not going to be any challenge in the country for the vaccination drive of both the vaccines. There would be no change in the efficacy of vaccines even it transported to remotest areas of the coun-try,” he said.

Agreeing with the views of Dr Kant, AIIMS nursing officer Kanisk Yadav, who has volunteered himself as a participant for Covaxin, said that the ICMR-devel-oped vaccine is totally safe and effective in managing COVID-19.

Yadav, who is working a motivator, is working tirelessly to convince partici-pants by addressing their anxiety for the vaccine’s safety. “Till now, I have enrolled about 50 participants for the vaccine trial. I found the most of the participants, who came at AIIMS for vaccination, were not even aware of the factual findings. Their questions were all rumour-based,” he told Millennium Post.

“I got vaccinated first so that I should

have the authority to advocate about the vaccine. When I told participants that I have taken the vaccine and have not developed any side-effects as well as any COVID-19 symptoms, they took it positively and participated in the drive,” he said.

“During the counselling the ques-tions that I faced from participants, including highly educated individu-als, were based on the myths being in circulation on social media. Some of them asked that it may imbalance the gene structure, while others raised their apprehensions that it may acti-vate HIV-AIDS virus in the body,” he said.

“In response to all such rumour-based queries, I just countered their questions by asking evidence to val-idate their claims which they fail to produce. Creating awareness about the safety and efficacy of vaccine is a

challenging task and I’m on it with the sole objective of making our country a

Covid-free nation,” Yadav said.Highlighting yet another key chal-

lenge, a noted researcher Dr Anant Bhan said, “The COVID-19 vaccination drive is going to be very different from any other ongoing drive as this new vaccine has to be provided to several groups, including pregnant women and children. The drive would require human resources in abun-dance to reach all target populations.”

Aside from such concerns, there are many others as well which the scientific

community is itself not in a position to definitively answer. Take for instance the much-discussed concern of just how vac-cine immunity will last. The answer, for the most part, is that it is too early to make a precise comment on the same. No coun-try, India included, has prioritised such studies. A few preliminary studies have been carried out in regards to the Mod-erna and Pfizer vaccine that have sug-gested that vaccine immunity from two shots would give atleast three months of immunity. There are caveats to that, how-ever. Smaller studies have shown that anti-body counts do decrease in these three months as well. While no conclusive evi-dence has obtained, there are indications

that antibody counts may go down faster in advanced age groups. This is not to say that a reduced antibody count would significantly compromise the ability to protect against the virus. It is important to note that these observations are based on preliminary data from very limited test groups. As worldwide vaccina-tion campaigns kick-off, it is important for such data to be shared and analysed to give a better picture of the same. India’s vaccination drive will start from Janu-ary 16.

Another difficult question that can-not be answered at this point is just how long it would take for a global vaccination campaign to fully pushback the virus. It is important to note here that the WHO has expressed the opinion that COVID-19 will never fully go away. Even after we succeed in controlling it, COVID-19 is likely to become endemic in certain parts of the world, just as is the case with similar coronaviruses. It is also important to note that humanity does have some experience with mass vaccination campaigns as we, for the most part, successfully eradicated deadly diseases like smallpox and polio through combined global efforts. But it is precisely those efforts that tell us that vac-cination campaigns are long and compli-cated at this scale, often taking decades as new challenges rise up and are addressed. While we may have come together and pulled off the development of multiple vaccines in this short span of time, there simply exists little scope of the same for the actual process of getting vaccines into the arms of close to eight billion people world-wide. There are multiple problems to face with the disparity of related infrastructure and the wealthiest nations hogging initial

vaccination batches being just some of them. Then there is the problem of the virus mutating even as the vaccination campaign is carried out. For now, the major vaccine makers have all reported that their respective vaccines seem to be equally effective with the new

England strain of the virus. Experts have also additionally noted that it is very unlikely for RNA viruses

to actually get deadlier with muta-tion with most, in fact, getting weaker even if they become more infectious. That said, it is

not impossible for these ‘genetic mistakes’ to come together by some

freakish change and create a virus vari-ant that is more resistant to the current set of vaccines. This is why the scientific com-munity is already engaged in sequencing all the variants of the virus so that they may stay ahead of any particularly wor-rying trends.

All this serves to offer a glimpse at the truly significant task ahead of India and the rest of the world as it struggles to con-tain not only the pandemic but the wave of misinformation that accompanies it. Despite the many challenges, JNU pro-fessor Ritu Priya maintains that the entire endeavour is doable so long as there is political will. “When the Government can make a financial outlay for the Central-Vista project, the same urgency and pur-pose can also be brought to bear for the mammoth vaccination drive.”

Views expressed are personal

AUTHOR

DHIRENDRA KUMAR

THE COVID-19 VACCINE IS UNSAFE AS IT WAS DEVELOPED IN HURRY QUICKLY.

The vaccine is proven safe and effective. Even though it was devel-oped in record time, it has gone through the same rigorous process as every other vaccine, meeting all safety standards.

THE COVID-19 VACCINE WILL ALTER DNA.

The first vaccines granted emergency use authorization contain mes-senger RNA (mRNA), which instructs cells to make the “spike protein” found on the new coronavirus. When the immune system recognises this protein, it builds an immune response by creating antibodies and directs the body how to protect against future infection. The mRNA never enters the nucleus of the cell, which is where our DNA is kept.

THE COVID-19 VACCINE HAS SEVERE SIDE EFFECTS SUCH AS ALLERGIC REACTIONS.

Some participants in the vaccine clinical trials did report side effects similar to those experienced with other vaccines, including muscle pain, chills and headache.

THE COVID-19 VACCINE CAUSES INFERTILITY IN WOMEN.

It’s on social media that the vaccine trains the body to attack syncytin-1, a protein in the placenta, which could lead to infertil-ity in women. The truth is, there’s an amino acid sequence shared between the spike protein and a placental protein. So, it’s too short to trigger an immune response and therefore doesn’t affect fertility.

ONCE I RECEIVE THE COVID-19 VACCINE, I NO LONGER NEED TO WEAR A MASK.

Masking, handwashing and physical distancing remain necessary until a sufficient number of people are immune.

YOU CAN GET COVID-19 FROM THE VACCINE.

You cannot get COVID-19 from the vaccine because it doesn’t con-tain the live virus.

MYTH

MYTH

MYTH

MYTH

MYTH

MYTH

FACT

FACT

FACT

FACT

FACT

FACT

MYTHS VS FACTS

The Government has identified three high-risk groups for vaccina-tion on priority. The first group includes healthcare and frontline workers, the second group will be persons over 50 years and persons with co-morbid conditions and the third group will all those who would need it;

The COVID-19 vaccine is not mandatory. It’s voluntary;

COVID-19 recovered patients would also be vaccinated;

COVID-19 infected individuals would not be allowed to get vaccinated;

All eligible beneficiaries will be informed about health facility for vaccination and its scheduled time through their registered mobile number;

A photo identity card is must for vaccine registration and vaccination’;

Individuals without any photo identity card will not be registered for vaccination;

A beneficiary will receive SMS on their mobile number about due date, place and time of vaccination after registration;

After all doses of vaccine are administered, a QR code-based certificate will be issued to beneficiaries on their mobile number;

Beneficiary will have to rest at the vaccination centre for at least 30 minutes after COVID-19 vaccine;

Cancer, diabetes, hypertension, etc patients will have to get COVID-19 vaccination;

After first dose of vaccine, the second dose will be administered 28 days later and protective levels of antibodies would be developed two weeks after receiving the second dose.

WHO WILL GET COVID-19 VACCINE

As a growing number of vaccination options in India raise hope for an approaching end to the COVID-19

pandemic, doubts, queries and misinformation regarding the

upcoming vaccination campaign stand as potential impediments

that must be addressed

‘CAUTIOUS’

HOPE

As per experts,

the pace of vaccine development for this

pandemic is unprecedented. Vaccine development is typically a time-taking

process and it takes over five years to complete

the various steps

At present, there

is a total of 41 cold chain infrastructure in

India for vaccine storage and distribution. Out of the 41, four are government medical store depots and

37 of them are state depots

The COVID-19 vaccination campaign will be India`s largest-ever public health undertaking

The Nobel Prize in 1973 was awarded to Wassily Leontief for the development of the input-output method and its applica-

tion to economic problems. As the Nobel website mentions:

“Professor Leontief is the sole and unchallenged creator of the input-out-put technique. This important innova-tion has given to economic sciences an empirically-useful method to highlight the general interdependence in the pro-

duction system of a society. In particular, the method provides tools for a systematic analysis of the complicated interindustry

transactions in an economy.”In this article, we will review the works

of Wassily Leontief and see how they con-tinue to be relevant for various economic and public policy problems.

WORKS OF LEONTIEFLeontief first outlined the input-out-

put technique in the 1930s and his anal-ysis was published in his book in 1941, titled ‘The Structure of American Econ-omy, 1919-1929’. Before that, Leontief had published an article, ‘Quantitative input-output relations in the economic system of the United States’, in the ‘Review of Economics and Statistics’ in 1936, where he had first laid out the input-out-put model. As he himself said, this was basically a mathematical tool to under-stand the structure of the economy. Let us not forget that Keynes ‘General The-ory’ was also published in 1936 and took centre stage, as a result of which Leonti-ef ’s work did not attract attention at first.

Leontief ’s idea was quite straightfor-ward. He suggested that an economy is basically divided into sectors and each sector produces a product. Each sector requires input(s) which must come from possibly all of the sectors, including itself. Final demands of products for consump-tion, investment and exports in the model are treated as exogenous to the model. The purpose of the analysis is then to find out how much production has to be increased in the various sectors of the economy to satisfy a given desired or planned increase in final demand for consumption, invest-ment and exports. The increased produc-tion in each sector then has to cover not only the change in final demand but also the derived changes in demand for inter-mediary products in the various produc-

tion sectors. Each sector has technical coefficients which define the quantities of intermediary products required to pro-duce a unit of output of that sector. The website of the Nobel Prize has explained the input-output of Leontief, thus:

“One of the most characteristic fea-tures of an economic system is the mutual interrelations between the various parts of the system — what is usually called the interdependence within the eco-

nomic system. Such an interdependence is characteristic also for the conditions in the production sector of an economy.

For instance, in order to produce steel we need not only labour but also coal and thousands of other intermediary prod-ucts, or “inputs”, in the production pro-cess. But to produce the necessary coal

and other inputs we require, in turn, steel and other intermediary products in addi-

tion to labour.

This means that if we want to increase the production of steel we must at the same time increase production of coal, which in turn requires increased avail-ability of steel, etc. in an infinite series – and similarly for the thousands of other products which are directly or indirectly

involved in the production of steel and coal. This, in itself, rather trivial

example illustrates the previously mentioned interdependence within

the production system.”The above description of the econ-

omy can be reduced to an input-output table, which lists the value of the goods produced by each sector and how much of that output is used by each sector. For example, the following table is derived from the table Leontief created for the American economy in 1947. For ease of explaining, the data has been aggregated into four sectors: agriculture, manufac-turing, services and the external sector.

The table shows the inter-sectoral exchange of goods and services in the US for 1947. Thus, in 1947, the manufac-turing sector spent USD 163.43 billion for the inputs it needed. Out of this, USD 4.92 billion came from agriculture, USD 61.82 billion came from manufacturing and USD 25.95 billion came from services. In the above matrix, column entries, there-fore, represent inputs to a sector, while row entries represent outputs from a given sector. This format, therefore, shows how dependent each sector is on every other sector, both as a customer of outputs from other sectors and as a supplier of inputs.

From the table above, we can derive the consumption matrix of the economy by dividing each column entry by the gross output. This is also the matrix of technical coefficients. We, therefore, have the following table:

From the above table, the equilib-rium production levels for each sector can be calculated. These production lev-els will meet the intermediate demands of the sectors of the economy plus the final demands of each sector.

Later, in 1949, while he was at Har-vard, Leontief was one of the first to use a computer model to analyse the input-output method.

LEONTIEF’S PARADOXLeontief ’s work also found an applica-

tion in international trade. He tested the Heckscher-Ohlin theory of international trade using input-output analysis. We may recall that the latter theory argued that a country exports those commodi-ties which are produced by the country’s relatively abundant factor. In other words, if a country is capital (labour) abundant, it should export capital-intensive (labour-intensive) products. Leontief tested this theory for post-war US and found that even though the US is a capital abundant country, it still exported labour-intensive commodities.

The paradox was explained by many economists in different ways. Leontief

himself argued that American labour is three times more productive than world labour and other factors such as entrepreneurship and a market-friendly environment explain the paradox. Oth-ers pointed out that Leontief disregarded worker’s skill and this could be seen as a major explanation if we regard that human capital is the US’s relatively abun-dant factor.

LEONTIEF & PUBLIC POLICYThe input-output system has found

extensive use in understanding economic policy issues. The input-output matrix is still used around the world in economic planning. It is also popular in forecasting, both in the short and in the long run. It has also been used recently in including the by-products of the production pro-

cess such as air and water pollution, to understand the environmental impact of production processes.

The model can analyse three types of impact: direct, indirect, and induced, which are basically ways to measure the effect of changes in one sec-tor on other sectors of the economy. The Investopedia website explains this sim-ply as follows: vThe direct impact of an economic shock is an initial change in expenditures. For example, building a bridge would require spending on cement, steel, con-struction equipment, labour and other inputs.vThe indirect, or secondary, impact would be due to the suppliers of the inputs hiring workers to meet demand.vThe induced, or tertiary, impact would result from the workers of suppli-ers purchasing more goods and services for personal consumption. This analysis can also be run in reverse, seeing what effects on inputs were likely the cause of observed changes in outputs.

It is therefore clear that an input-out-put model is a tool that makes it simple to analyse inter-sectoral dependencies in the economy. This is particularly helpful in a more centralised economy, but can also be useful in a market economy. The Nobel website offers two examples of the policy application of Leontief ’s model. First, the input-output method was used to calcu-late how the disarmament of the US and rearmament of Korea around the time of the Korean War, would influence the pro-

duction volume and employment level in the various sectors of the American economy. The other example shows how the model can be used to study the spread effects of change in production costs from one sector to another. For instance, how does a wage hike in one sector impact other sectors?

Finally, an important application of the model is that it helps in forecasting demand and production levels without waiting for the market signals. In other words, the government or firms can use centrally performed input-output studies to anticipate future development with-out having to wait for the market signals which will appear due to changes in sup-ply and demand in the various markets for commodities and services.

CONCLUSIONThe input-output model was a path-

breaking innovation that certainly helped the centralised economies. But it also pro-vided a useful tool to market economies for forecasting demand, production and investment levels. It also gave us a tool to analyse the dispersal effects of changes in one sector on other sectors. Of course, the pre-requisite of using the model was the availability of basic statistical information. And the model gave a fillip to improved sector-wise data collection across the world. Input-output tables were gradually compiled for most large economies across the world by the 1970s. Applications of the model have been made in economic pro-jections of demand, output, employment, and investment for the individual sectors of entire countries and of smaller eco-nomic regions. The model has also been used for the study of technological change and its effect on productivity, development planning and even studying international and interregional economic relationships.

The writer is an IAS officer, working as Principal Resident

Commissioner, Government of West Bengal. Views expressed are personal

Views expressed are personal

Agriculture Manufacturing Services External sector

Agriculture 34.69 4.92 5.62 39.24

Manufacturing 5.28 61.82 22.99 60.02

Services 10.45 25.95 42.03 130.65

Gross Output 84.56 163.43 219.03

Agriculture Manufacturing Services

Agriculture 0.4102 0.0301 0.0257

Manufacturing 0.0624 0.3783 0.1050

Services 0.1236 0.1588 0.1919

Leontief's model was used to calculate how the disarmament of the US and rearmament

of Korea during the Korean War would influence the American economy

Leontief’s work also found an application in international trade. He tested the Heckscher-Ohlin theory of international trade using input-output analysis

The input-output matrix is still used around the world in economic planning. It is also popular in forecasting, both in the short and in the long run

millenniumpost|KOLKATA|SUNDAY, 10 JANUARY, 2021

mp |9

AUTHOR

KRISHNA GUPTA

Leontief & Input-Output modelTHE NOBEL SERIES

Wassily Leontief ’s input-output model was a pathbreaking tool for analysing inter-sectoral dependen-cies in the economy — an innovation that helped centralised economies

Leontief first outlined the input-output technique in the 1930s and his analysis was published in his 1941 book ‘The Structure of American Economy, 1919-1929’

The Mehrangarh Museum Trust at Jodhpur has pre-served the historic mon-uments and artefacts of

the Rathores of Jodhpur with great success and shared their collection with the world in a series of books on different aspects of Rajput life and culture. This book is a contin-uation of that effort, with a special focus on the weapons in the Jodh-pur collection.

Some of the best Indian match-locks in the subcontinent were owned by the erstwhile Jodhpur State and were admired by Eng-lish visitors at the Delhi Durbar in 1911. The collection which was established by the Maharajas of Jodhpur includes indigenously designed weapons as well as mod-ern British and American sport-ing guns, shotguns, revolvers and automatic pistols by many of the great makers of the twentieth cen-tury. The images on the front cover of the book (a gold plated Cased Colt .32 pistol, which looks like it could have been used in a James Bond movie) and the rear cover (a detail of the enamelled orna-mentation on a Holland & Holland 12 bore shotgun) offer tempting glimpses of the treasures that lie within.

This is the first book to be writ-ten specifically on historic Indian firearms. Robert Elgood, an expert on the historic arms of Hindu India and the Islamic world, has published several books including Arms and Armour at the Jaipur Court (2015) and Rajput Arms and Armour: The Rathores and their Armoury at Jodh-pur Fort (2017) by Niyogi Books. This addition to his oeuvre adds to the study of the collection of weapons at the Mehrangarh Fort Museum.

The book begins with initial chapters on the invention of gun-powder weapons and their arrival in medieval India, matchlock guns with revolving mechanisms in the Portuguese eastern empire, and the Indian matchlock. Chapter 4 in the volume is the solid core of the book, cataloguing the numer-ous lamchars, swivel guns or Shuturnāls, seventeenth to nine-

teenth-century banduks, Sindhi jezails, Baluchistan matchlocks, Indian blunderbusses, matchlock pistols and combination weapons, powder flasks, miniature cannon, British military guns, European civilian guns, nineteenth- and twentieth-century European and American pistols, and late nine-teenth- and twentieth-century air pistols.

The later chapters include an analysis of advances in sporting guns in India in the nineteenth century, a chapter on hunting with spear and gun in Rajasthan, a fas-cinating set of pages transcribed from the 1926 hunting diary of Maharaja Umaid Singhji, a cata-logue of Maharaja Umaid Sing-

hji’s sporting guns and a chapter on the experimen-tal guns made in Mehran-garh Fort under the direction of Maharaja Hanwant Sing-hji, who had a keen interest

in weapons. This large volume features

more than 350 unique images of guns and Rajput paintings from private collections showing their use. Apart from offering schol-ars and collectors the opportunity to see the superb Jodhpur collec-tion, it offers insights into Rajput traditions relating to hunting and war. For instance, a fine miniature painting depicts Maharaja Takat Singh going hunting along with his 30 wives!

The book is elegantly designed,

with each gun in the collection and its description laid out in a manner that is easy on the eye. The stun-ning landscapes that form the end-papers of the book – the opening view of the majestic Mehrangarh Fort and the closing view of the Jaswant Thada, the cenotaph of the former rulers of Jodhpur, also place the book in its context, conveying a sense of the rugged landscape from which the brave Rajput warriors emerged and where they waged war and indulged in sport. This is a book that a gun collector, history buff, or a sporting enthusiast will enjoy immensely. The sporting sto-ries in the book include anecdotes that describe both the danger and excitement of hunting, as well as humorous episodes.

Add it to your book collection and you’ll enjoy dipping into it time and time again to admire the fea-tures of a particular weapon, its inscriptions, minute detailing and unique history. As this collection illustrates, aspects of Indian his-tory when well-preserved, and ably catalogued and analysed, can pro-duce a work that holds its own with other notable catalogues of weap-ons from museums around the world. Apart from being a record of the significant Jodhpur collec-tion, this book is a testimony to the special place weapons occupy in the heart of a Rajput warrior and gives us an insight into the gallant ethos of an earlier time.

Raja Chakraborty’s creative repertoire includes verse collections in both English and Bengali. While his Bengali titles are four in number, he has published three books of English poetry,

thereby establishing himself as a modern bilingual poet of significant repute. His latest publication in English, ‘Broken Lines and Rainbows’ published by Hawakal in October 2020 is a continuation of the intense aesthetic journey he began with ‘The Soup Bowl and Other Poems’ in 2018 and sustained and matured with ‘Whispers in the Wind’ in 2019. As a poet, his works display a rare ability to crystallise a complex range of emotions and experi-ences in minimal lines. Chakraborty also likes to pack in a punch or churn out a surprising twist in his poetry that visibly jolts the reader into a space where he con-fronts a reality perhaps never imagined. This is axiomatic of a writer who is a poet and storyteller simultaneously. Chakraborty in fact excels as a storyteller-poet and this sets him apart from many poets.

A poem like ‘A Tea Stall Tale’ in ‘Bro-ken Lines and Rainbows’ bears testi-mony to this. A subtle tale of unfulfilled love artistically capturing the crisis of a tongue-tied admirer, through the sym-phony of teacups, kettles, buses and the unspoken love between the urban and the rustic protagonists.

“... He let go two homebound busesand ordered a third cup,desperately searching for words.She watched the bespectacled manwith a flutter in her stomach,as wolf-stories told by her grandmaClouded her throbbing heart…”At a time when the world is in

the throes of disease, death and cruel uncertainties, the book, true to its name offers the promise and glory of the rain-bow. Chakraborty has in fact given all the colours of the rainbow through his verses but never for a moment has he permitted the reader to forget that it is the ‘broken lines’ — the entrenched grief, the desolation or the unkind cuts of life that struggle their way out to discover the grandness or freedom associated with the rainbow. A poem like ‘Children of Destiny’ is a matchless pointer to this.

Stories of grit, battle against loneliness, the triumph of humanity, the stubborn determination to assert the uniqueness of the human soul and of course love are among the thematic concerns of ‘Broken Lines and Rain-bows’. Poems like ‘Of Body and Mind’, ‘Old Age Home Birthdays’, ‘Tree’ or ‘This Side of the Day’ are all odes to life and the hope to find a flicker of light in the darkness.

Raja Chakraborty is a keen observer of life, his responses are sensitive and he gives us a perceptive recreation of the diaphanous world we inhabit through hard-hit-ting images and often melting words. The rainbow is a recurrent metaphor in this collection and colour overrides Chakraborty’s poetic vision. Death, violence, loneliness, love and hope are represented by images of

colour that glide slickly through the verses. The image of the rainbow has perhaps been used most brilliantly in ‘Middle-Class Love’ where the speaker says

“... I never promised her therainbow and she never got any…”Though the connotation of the rain-

bow for a world of abundance or hap-piness may be a time tested one, its use in the poem to state the unsentimen-tal mind of the speaker is hard-hitting in its apparent simplicity. Luckily love remains a constant in ‘Middle-Class Love’ and the speaker says, ‘funnily/ Love remained unscathed’. In the poem titled ‘Rainbow’, the latter represents secret happy memories. Both usages

are appealing. This poem also gives the haunting lines

“Some roads never meet.Some journeys never begin.”Interestingly, the cover, an alluring design by the tal-

ented Bitan Chakraborty is an irresistible invitation to read the book.

As a city-bred poet, Chakraborty gives stark images of the city that go otherwise unnoticed. ‘Fragile balconies shelve potted miseries’ (Flowers in my City) or ‘Smiling balloons have become/Old faces like the cringed moon’ (Retrospect). Chakraborty’s imagery will remain a major draw of ‘Rainbows’.

His ease at handling different poetic forms is an added attraction. Raja Chakraborty has succeeded in accom-plishing what Robert Frost believed to be a purpose of poetry — ‘to reach the heart of the reader’.

Recently the news about Sushant Singh Rajput shook us all. It made me realise that men can be susceptible to depres-sion. As a woman who has four significant men in my life — my father, my brother, my husband and my son, I have long been encouraging them to take care of their mental health. I have received replies like - “Don’t worry us men are stronger than you women”, “You are too sen-sitive while we are practical” and the latest that “Men should be able to endure all stress”. Am I wrong to worry about their mental health? What can I do?

We live in a world full of prejudices. Sadly it is us humans who make these social con-structs and prejudices. Mental health & illness do not discrimi-nate. Anyone can be affected by a mental health disorder, irre-

spective of gender, caste, race, economic and educational sta-tus. However, the topic you have brought forward is by far the most overlooked, and notorious to be swept under the rug, the topic of men’s mental health.

Suicide rates from around the world show that as of 2015, almost two-thirds of worldwide suicides are committed by men. We have lost ”strong” men like Anthony Bourdain, Robin Wil-liam, Curt Cobain and not long ago, Sushant Singh Rajput.

The age-old idea that men need to endure all stress and not voice out their emotions has been ingrained in our minds as a society. A man crying attracts instant judgement, negative attention and scrutiny. Per-haps even a few guffaws. In the Indian context, some of the rea-sons why men commit suicide

range from relationship issues, financial concerns, matters of prestige, difficulty in domestic harmony and drug or substance addiction.

What can be done?

TALK It may not be simple but it is

worth the effort to start normal-ising mental health and illness. Talk more about depression, suicide, anxiety, stress and more.

GENDER EQUALITYFor long we have been fight-

ing for bridging the gap between the two genders. This should work in both directions. Nor-malise men feeling sad, display-ing affection, emotions and even feeling vulnerable. Our movie heroes can also try to depict more “real men” than pseudo macho men.

Days like International Men’s Day give an opportunity for more men to talk about various issues that cause them woes. We may be oblivious to their plight if we don’t encourage them to open up and talk.

And finally, the future is in the hand of our next generation. As a society, we should cajole children to talk openly about emotions from early on, irre-spective of their gender. Avoid-ing terms like “don’t behave like a girl” or “You are a boy, and boys don’t cry” can be the starting point. The start of this big wave can begin at home. The older generation may be slightly more resistant to this change of “Mard ko bhi dard hota hai” movement, but as a society, we need to slowly adopt this change.

Send your questions to help@dreradutta.com

Wellness

MINDOLOGYBy Dr Era Dutta

As a society, we overlook the vital issue of men’s mental health too many times as a result of our own biases, often leaving them to simply endure in silence

Dr Dutta is a Consultant NeuroPsychiatrist & Life Wellness coach (MD Psychiatry, DNB, MBBS) and expertises in depression, anxiety, OCD and stress

Reaching out

Chakraborty’s works display a rare ability to crystallise a complex range of emotions and experiences in minimal lines

and

KOLKATA|SUNDAY, 10 JANUARY, 2021|millenniumpost

10| mp

The sporting

stories in the book include anecdotes

that describe both the danger and excitement

of hunting, as well as humorous

episodes

Stories of steel gunpowder

Painting a picture

The book dis-cusses the worldwide medieval diffu-sion of firearms technology and Arab, Ottoman, European and Chinese influ-ences on the development of Indian firearms; elaborates Arif Mohammad

Through ‘Broken Lines and Rainbows’ Raja Chakraborty displays his talent as a poet that can masterfully incor-porate storytelling ele-ments and different po-etic forms in his poems; writes Annapurna Palit

Price: ` 4,500Publisher: Niyogi Books

Price: ` 350Publisher: Hawakal Publishers

millenniumpost|KOLKATA|SUNDAY, 10 JANUARY, 2021

MAPPING THE STATES OF INDIAAUTHOR

SANJEEV CHOPRA

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TalkingShop

RAJEEV NARAYAN

An improbable mergerRecounting the circumstances behind the 1956 proposal to merge Bihar and West Bengal as a way of set-tling interstate border disputes

Before we take up the discussion on the formation of Jharkhand, along with Chhattisgarh and Uttara-khand in 2000, it is important to

also reflect on a proposal in 1956 to merge Bihar and West Bengal, a move which came around the time of the SRC recommenda-tions. This was indeed a very novel attempt to settle inter-state border disputes by cre-ating a supra entity, but though it had the support of both the chief ministers’ BC Roy (West Bengal) and Shrikrishna Sinha (Bihar) as well as the Union Cabinet, it was opposed tooth and nail by the Communists as well as the Praja Socialist Party, and even though both the Bihar and West Bengal assemblies had resolved in favour of the merger, in view of the intense agitation in Kolkata, and the defeat of Congress in nine municipalities (including Barrackpore) and the resounding defeat of the pro merger Congress candidate Ashok Sen in the prestigious North-West Calcutta Parliamentary Constituency by the Left-supported West Bengal Linguistic States Redistribution Committee (LSRC) Mohit Moitra. The editorial comment on the Economic Weekly (precursor to EPW) said ‘Apart from yielding an ideological divi-dend in reversing the trend towards linguis-tic destruction of the nation, the proposal for the merger of Bengal and Bihar hailed so recently as constituting a new dawn of hope does not seem at first sight to have any particularly attractive features and has been so assessed by the general public, at least in Bengal’.

What led BC Roy (the more influential, better-known leader) to propose the merger which would have made Bengalis a minor-

ity in the new state? For Roy, one of the main considerations was the rehabilitation of the growing stream of refugees from East Bengal. Roy looked at the reallocation of frontiers of his state ‘mainly for solving the linguistic and administrative problems as well as to reallo-cate the refugees from East Pakistan’. He was most impressed by the manner in which the state of Punjab had been able to rehabili-tate Punjabis from across the border on the abundant lands in Kurukshetra, Faridbabdm

Sonepat, Panipat and Urgain, as well as the allocation of abundant land in the districts of Karnal and Kurukshetra. On the other hand, refugees from East Bengal were sent to places like Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and UP where they did not have a ’political voice’, and felt absolutely abandoned. It was also felt that major river basin development projects like DVC (for

irrigation, flood control and power) covered both the states, and it would make financial and administrative arrangements better. Cal-cutta had the capital and Bihar had the min-eral resources: and this too could have led to the rapid industrialisation of the new state!

Incidentally, the representations made to the SRC did not include the Roy Sinha pro-posal. The four memoranda put up before the SRC were based on different sets of fac-tors, each demanding some area from the neighbouring state. The State PCC memo-randum sought an additional area of 21,352 square miles and a population of 8.2 million

from the states of Bihar, Orissa and Assam. The state government proposition was far more realistic and sought the transfer of four districts of Bihar (Purnea, Santhal Par-ganas, Manbhum and Dalbhum) besides Goalpara from Assam. The third proposal came from the Left dominated LSRC, which claimed all of the territory contiguous to WB in which Bengali speaking people domi-nated — a position midway between the state government and the West Bengal PCC. The Jana Sangha came out with yet another formula: the states of Bihar, West Bengal, Orissa, Assam be combined with the cen-

trally administered states of Manipur and Tripura to form one state, to be called Pur-banchal Pradesh (Eastern Region).

It must be mentioned that while the edi-torial and the letters to the editor across few prominent English newspapers were sup-portive of organising India on administra-tive convenience, the Hindi and regional language papers were supportive of the reor-ganisation on linguistic lines.

The matter came up before the Calcutta High Court as well, in which West Bengal Legislator, Hem Chandra Sengupta, argued that as the legislative Assembly of Bengal had taken the decision of Western districts joining India and Eastern districts joining Pakistan, the territorial integrity of the state could not be compromised. He also described himself as a citizen of West Bengal. Dismiss-ing his appeal, the Court held that both the Constitution of India and the Indian Citizen-ship Act only recognised an Indian citizen, and though states were a constituent part of India, they had no independent, or sovereign existence. The High Court also held the view that there was no distinction between Part A and Part B states concerning the alteration of boundaries, and that the Union Parliament was competent to do so, and that while the President may consult the state governments, the views of the state government were not binding on him.

While the merger did not happen, territo-rial adjustments did take place, about which we shall discuss next Sunday.

The writer is the Director of LBSNAA and Honorary Curator, Valley of Words:

Literature and Arts Festival, DehradunViews expressed are personal

The lockdowns and slowdowns and gnawing safety concerns around stepping out of home have had a harrowing effect on me, turning

me into the nation’s most prolific couch potato. Thus it was that at around 5 am last mid-week, I watched a re-run of ‘The Grand Tour’ on Amazon Prime. I saw Jer-emy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May at their very best, taunting BBC’s revered and best-grossing ‘Top Gear’ pro-gram (which, by the way, they hosted and took it to where it was for well over a decade-and-a-half).

In this episode of ‘The Grand Tour’, this loveable and most successful troika in the history of global automobile journal-ism posted vivid pictures of people in the United Kingdom and the United States pos-ing with poignant visuals of their fathers’ cars from three to four decades back. The photographs were all from when these peo-ple were toddlers, petulantly perched pre-cariously on the sloping bonnets and flaring boots of these classic beauties, dressed in cute little knickers and shorts, sporting bibs and suckles. These were all cute little fellas posing when infants on pristinely main-tained cars, which are careening about on European and American roads and free-ways even today, lovingly maintained in their families’ memory.

But this shall not happen in my India anymore. Why? Well, we are phasing out our cars now. Anything 10 or 15 years old, depending on the fuel-type, is fodder and dust now.

WHY SHOULDN’T IT BE?We are, after all, a rich, affluent land

and we can afford to do so; as in, write off our cars as per the stipulated time-period mandated by the authorities, even if the said vehicles are in perfect working order. After all (sic), we are not a Third- or Fourth-

World Nation that needs to buy second- or third-hand cars, since we have all seemingly arrived. We should only buy new cars, and damn the lower-middle-class parents and their aspiration of one day owning at least one four-wheeler that shall take them and their kids on one long drive in their one lifetime.

Therefore, let’s follow this-less-than-popular diktat and, instead, buy only brand-new cars and then, a few years later, discard them as scrap the moment we are told to do so.

To cut to the chase, this contentious issue really bothers me. For we are being completely idiotic and myopic, failing to see the woods for the trees. I can be harsher, but that shall be unwise in today’s rather tremu-lous and sensitive times. So let me be garru-lous. What that means is that I shall speak through these words for a bit, give you facts and figures, and leave you to determine on your own what your deciphered conclu-sions and answers are.

33-YEAR-OLD MARUTI 800My neighbor’s Man Friday recently

bought a 33-year-old Maruti 800 (orig-inal shape) for Rs 12,000. Mind you, he paid this princely sum only because it had four brand-new tyres. Friday says he spent another month and a further Rs 20,000

on resurrecting the edifice and entrails of this classic vehicle (one that changed the way India drives). Voila, at half the price of a good second-hand bike, Friday now has a fully-functional, good-looking car. And he is about to embark with his mis-sus and eight-year-old on what he hopes is the first of many once-in-a-lifetime driv-ing expeditions.

I often drive to the hills, and knowing this, Friday approached me for some desti-nation advice. “Where do I go”, he asked me. Sadly, I was forced to give him some sober-ing vehicular warnings. “Friday, my man, we are phasing out old cars now because of increasing pollution. The authorities may soon ask you to scrap your car as it runs on petrol.”

My friendly advice left Man Friday pet-rified. And he is now desperately and fer-vently working with India’s many, many fixer quacks to see if he can spend another few thousands (or tens of thousands) and get his new four-wheeled steed to stop chomping on old-type fodder and start gal-loping on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) or other established and acceptable variants.

A BURNING QUESTIONIndeed, the huge lot of old vehicles

burning fossil fuels is seeing India letting

off a whole lot of heat and steam today. And a huge amount of smoke and verbal vapor… But we need to note that a majority of these old vehicles are commercial runners, out-standing service performers serving the people while they clock up more mileage in the first single year of their lifetime than most personal vehicles do in 15 years or more. Clearly, one yardstick or footwear cannot fit all feet, or the shoe shall start pinching, and the especially tiny feet shall bear the brunt.

It is also leading to a situation where automobile manufacturers are moving to different fuel options to lower their dis-tressed inventories, as people are running scared of buying even those vehicles that meet the emission norms of even the most stringent of nations, worldwide.

Get a load of this—the diesel versions

moving out (or moved out) include highly-popular ones like Maruti Suzuki’s Brezza mini-SUV, Swift and Dzire entry sedan, Renault’s best-seller Duster, Skoda’s Superb and Octavia, Volkswagen’s Polo and Audi’s Q3 and Q5 SUVs. And I am just scratching the surface here. The actual list is long and heart-breaking; the last because millions of Indians have bought these cars in recent years (new and pre-owned) and are now wondering when they will receive a call to consign their family pride to a scrap-heap, through policy-intervention.

POLICIES ARE EVOLVINGAdmittedly, policies related to older

vehicles have been evolving steadily in India and cleaner-air norms are leading to fixing the phase-out age of vehicles in our polluted cities. Delhi announced a ban on 10-year-

old diesel vehicles and 15-year-old petrol vehicles. Kolkata announced a phase-out of 15-year-old vehicles. Currently, Section 59 of the amended Central Motor Vehicle Act of 2019 provides for fixing of age and restrictions on the plying of unfit vehicles.

But this does not specify the criteria for defining ‘End-of-Life Vehicles’ (ELVs) yet. On the other hand, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has taken the step to frame the ‘Guidelines on Environmen-tally-Sound Facilities for Handling Process-ing and Recycling ELVs, 2019’ to minimize environmental hazards from the disposal of old vehicles.

Therefore, a lot more people than our very own Friday need to be worried, even mortified.

POLLUTION IS KEY?If the above be the case, then there are

various ways and means to combat the problem, other than destroying vehicles earned through a lifetime’s savings, all in the name of an all-encompassing order. A senior automobile analyst scoffed and told me that vehicular pollution norms are already in place, with extremely stiff fines for those that don’t have Pollution Under Control (PUC) certificates for their per-sonal or commercial vehicles.

I personally say have stricter, even Dra-conian pollution norms. Ensure adherence and penalize those that do not follow the diktat, for our national good and future. Let the vehicle-owner figure out his means and wherewithal to meet the set emission lim-its—even if it means upgrading the exhaust system, changing the engine and formally registering it, modifying or replacing the vehicle’s Electronic Control Unit / Module (ECU, sometimes ECM), and so on. The possibilities are all there, easily available.

The bottom-line should be that we all meet the norms whichever way we can or face the wrath—pay hefty penalties, levies, scrap the offending vehicle, even prison time.

LET DREAMS COME TRUELet’s not murder dreams that have been

nurtured and finally, finally secured over a lifetime. Like that of our very own Man Fri-day. All Friday wants is to take his doting wife and little kid on a drive. Let’s not cre-ate a one-for-all rule that prevents Friday from moving into first gear on a synchro-mesh gear train, while his clean-as-a-whis-tle 33-year-old-engine purrs, celebrating a new life-line.

Friday is special. All of us are. Let’s be allowed to live our dreams while following the rules, and let’s smile and applaud when millions of Fridays catch their first glimpse of a Himalayan vista, a sand dune, a pris-tine beach, or just hold the missus’ hand while gazing wistfully through their first windshield.

Dreams have to come true. We only have to find a way to make them so. That shall make for an inclusive us, and a stron-ger India.

The writer is a communicationsconsultant and a clinical analyst.narayanrajeev2006@gmail.com

Views expressed are personal

Friday needs a SundayTo kill off a car in 10 or 15 years is a joke, especially in a coun-try like India. And far more radically so in the times that we are going through now… But that seems to be a fate now predetermined, with the authorities firmly deciding that this is the favored course of action; our passion, frustration and help-lessness be damned

In our Utopian vision of tomorrow, as blurred as our marred vision of today, we are not a Third- or Fourth-World Nation that needs to buy second-hand cars. We have all arrived, we are told. We shall buy only new cars and damn the lower-middle-class’ dream of somehow owning at least one four-wheeler to take their kids on at least one long drive in their lifetime...

Policies related to older vehicles have been evolving steadily in India and cleaner-air norms are leading to fixing the phase-out age of vehicles in our polluted cities

It was felt that major river basin

development projects like DVC covered both the states,

and it would make financial and administrative arrangements

better. Calcutta had the capital and Bihar had the

mineral resources

12| mpKOLKATA|SUNDAY, 10 JANUARY, 2021|millenniumpost

‘AMERICAN GODS’

Celestial Connect

Yogajyotisha says, a great time for investing in securi-ties. Good time for

exporters, hoteliers and archi-tects. Stay safe from urinary tract/kidney/heart problems. Chant Kartikeya mantra and feed cats for success, health and peace.

Libra (Sept 24– Oct 23)

Yogajyotisha says, a great time for expanding hori-zons in learning.

Good time for metallurgists, nutritionists and builders. Stay safe from hernia/lower abdomen/arthritic problems. Use red, golden and orange to increase your vibe.

Scorpio (Oct 24–Nov 22)

Yogajyotisha says, a great time for personal wealth management.

Good time for bankers, teach-ers and doctors. Stay safe from throat/upper abdomen/knee problems. Chant Saraswati mantra and feed seniors for success, health and peace.

Sagittarius (Nov 23–Dec 21)

Yogajyotisha says, a great time for ca-reer development. Good time for mer-

chants, farmers and writers. Stay safe from skin problems. Chant Rudra mantra and feed poors for success, health and peace. Use blue, black and green to increase your vibe.

Capricorn ( Dec 22– Jan 20)

Yogajyotisha says, a great time for tours and travels. Good time for investors,

geographers and chemists. Stay safe from back problems. Chant Laksmi mantra and feed crows and dogs for success, health and peace. Use grey, black and silver to increase your vibe.

Aquarius (Jan 21–Feb 18)

Yogajyotisha says, a great time for growth and pros-perity. Good time

for scientists, journalists and actors. Chant Kubera mantra and feed fishes for success, health and peace. Use golden, yellow and silver to increase your vibe.

Pisces (Feb 19 –March 20)

Yogajyotisha says, a great time for earning and gain. Good time for

writers, manufacturers and teachers. Stay safe from water injury/ food poisoning/chronic piles problem. Chant Ganesha mantra for success, health and peace. Use red, yellow and white to increase your vibe.

Aries (Mar 21–April 20)

Yogajyotisha says, a great time for buying prop-erty. Good time

for agents. Stay safe from eye problems/decrease in internal vitality/gastritis. Chant An-napurna mantra and feed little girls for success, health and peace. Use white, silver and sky blue to increase your vibe.

Taurus (April 21–May 21)

Yogajyotisha says, a great time for fam-ily reunion. Good time for traders,

legal eagles and financiers. Stay safe from airborne particles and chronic lung problems. Chant Vishnu mantra and feed birds for success, health and peace. Use green, lemon and light blue to increase your vibe.

Gemini (May 22– June 21)

Yogajyotisha says, a great time for learning new things. Good time

for creative minds and specu-lators. Stay safe from cold air/abdominal colic/ dehydration. Chant Shiva mantra and feed cows for success, health and peace. Use white, silver and golden to increase your vibe.

Cancer (June 22–July 22)

Yogajyotisha says, a great time for spiritual work and meditation. Good

time for government employ-ees, sole proprietors and auc-tioneers. Stay safe from sprains. Chant Surya mantra and feed monks for success, health and peace. Use pink, saffron and golden to increase your vibe.

Leo (July 23–Aug 23)

Yogajyotisha says, a great time for new business develop-ment. Good time

for orators, authors. Stay safe from fatty liver/nerve/middle ear problems. Chant Durga mantra and feed little boys for success, health and peace. Use light green, yellow and silver to increase your vibe.

Virgo (Aug 24– Sept 23)

Sandip Chatterjee sandip.celestial@gmail.comYour week ahead

ASHOK CHATTERJEE

Song director-duo Radhika Rao-Vinay Sapru is set to be part of a musical film with Bhushan Kumar and T-Series, scheduled to go on

floors in May 2021, to be shot in London, and have a November 2021 release. The music legends are currently riding high on the success of their track ‘Besharam Bewafa’, starring Divya Khosla Kumar.

In their two decade long career, Rad-hika and Vinay have seen it all. They have worked with almost everyone in the field - from musical maestros like Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhonsle and Jagjit Singh to the current heartthrobs Arijit Singh, Neha Kakkar and many more.

‘Millennium Post’ interacted with them to know more about their journey, their lat-est hit and more.

Excerpts:How did ‘Besharam Bewafa’ happen?

When the song came to us we were very keen to tell a story about a tragic tale of romance. The lyrics have a lot of pathos. We have been telling a lot of collage romances, popcorn stories till now, so when this proj-ect came along, we were very excited.

What is the job of a song director?Our industry is more inclined towards

playback singing. Since the early days, there used to be a director, who had a story and the composers wrote the songs. For pop songs, there is no story. We get the lyrics written, tunes composed and then we tell if we need a mid-temp dance track or bal-lad. Then we get the ballads composed into it. Then comes visualisation.

Having worked for years, how is it working with today’s generation of actors?

We are not very old (laughs). We wanted to tell the story of the younger generation. The journey surely has been long and we are now senior directors. The stories are the same; just that Romeo and Juliet cannot be talking in the Shakespearian language anymore. We are very much exposed to the young generation, which we integrate into our story so that it does not get dated.

What are the youngsters thinking?I will tell you a story. I asked the sound

recordist in the studio, a young boy, whom is he dating. His answer was, ‘Dating is not a big issue. Sex is not a problem anymore. I’m in search of true love.’ I laughed aloud as during our young days, sex was such a big issue. But today’s generation thinks dif-ferently. ‘Vaaste’, ‘Nayan’, all our new songs are doing well because of that.

‘Vaaste’ crossed 1 billion hits. Is there a

mantra?There is no mantra. Most of my songs

have been blockbusters. When you hear a sound, you shut your eyes and listen. What you listen to and what visuals it throws up in your mind, is what you create. ‘Leja Re’ and ‘Yaad Piya Ki Aane Lagi’ are a few songs that I did some 15 years ago. And I again redirected them. For both, the visualisation is different. The sounds we hear now throw up other visuals from the earlier ones. We start with a blank slate.

Of the two partners, who is more dominant?

Ask Radhika (laughs). It is more com-plementing rather than dominating. Like in any partnership, you do not have any agenda, any egos. We are honest and blunt with each other. We both agree that she is better in certain aspects, I’m in others. And finally, we leave the veto

to one person. We also realised over the years how we think alike. Years of work-ing together also make your thought pro-cesses alike.

After working with legends of the indus-try, how about dealing with the younger singers?

After working with legends like Asha Bhonsle, Lata ji, Jagjit Singh and the likes, we had stopped directing for three years. We thought where are we going to find another Lata ji or Jagjit ji. But then we said we want to create new stars and new artistes. To our surprise, we found Neha Kakkar is fab. The expressions she brings in, energy levels are different. Arman too is superb. When we shot with Dar-shan Rawal for ‘Kheench Meri Photo’, he brought in something else. It is a revela-tion. We are always super excited to work with newcomers.

MUMBAI: ‘American Gods’ star Ricky Whittle says his fantasy-drama series makes a topical commentary on the power of unity at a time when the world, particularly the US, is struggling with issues of race and gender.

‘American Gods’ is based on author Neil Gaiman’s 2001 novel of the same name. The story primarily revolves around a war brew-ing between the Old Gods of ancient mythological roots and the New Gods of modern technology.

In an interview, Whittle said while the show’s third season ticks all the boxes of an “entertaining watch”, it doesn’t let go of the opportunity to deliver a timely message.

“We have got comedy, drama, action, fantasy, romance... But it also has a great platform to raise awareness. What we are able to do on the show is shine a light on the beauty of difference and variety.

“We have various races, cultures, gen-ders, sexual orientations. We don’t pick sides, say ones good or bad. We say every-one can coexist. If you believe in your God, it doesn’t mean my God doesn’t exist. They coexist,” Whittle said.

‘American Gods’, according to Whittle, is a reflection of the issues US is grappling with, from the hostility towards immi-grants to the lack of acceptance of people belonging to different sexual orientations.

The British born ‘Hollyoaks’ star, who moved to the US in 2012 following a suc-cessful career in the United Kingdom, said the makers are aware of the show’s reach and hence did not “shy away” from touch-ing these sensitive topics.

“In America, they do have prob-lems with immigrants, race, gender, sexual orientations. These problems are bubbling at the moment. But hopefully with shows like this we can raise that awareness.

“Fear comes through a lack of education and understanding. So the more it’s on TV, films and around us, the more we get used to it and under-stand it. That’s the key. Once you start to understand, you can start to appreciate.”

Whittle said it’s incredible how Gaiman had the foresight to see “all these problems” when he wrote the book two decades ago.

The actor made his debut in 2002 with “Dream Team” but got his major break-through with the soap opera ‘Hollyoaks’ in 2006. In the US, he bagged recurring roles on ‘Single Ladies’, ‘Mistresses’ and the post-apocalyptic drama ‘The 100’ before landing his biggest project in ‘American Gods’.

As an immigrant, Whittle said one “really gets to see America” for what it truly is and having lived in the country for the last ten years, he has realised “they’re in such a bubble.”

“They have no concepts of foreign affairs or the world’s perception of them. I live amongst them and I see everything going on and I also have the abil-ity to see from outside the box. I feel Neil was able to capture that on the show. To see both sides,” he added.

Whittle features on “American Gods” as the ex-con Shadow Moon, a man pulled into the service of the myste-rious Mr Wednesday, played by actor Ian McShane.

The show will start streaming on Amazon Prime Video from Janu-ary 11.

The actor said the latest season of “American

Gods”,

with Gaiman attached as writer and executive producer, is a “massive return to form.”

“We set the bar high in season one...Season two was a bit sporadic, crazy sometimes. But for this, Neil and Chic Eglee and had a lot longer to put this together, which shows in the writing. Because now you see this meticulous project, where every dip, spin and turn is planned.”

Whittle said the clarity of the series’ plot points has only made his job easier as he now even knows the story arc of his character for season four.

“I know my beginning, middle and end. They had time to plan the whole season out, with an epic season finale, which is the best so far.

“I already know my story for season four because they have planned it out for me. It’s exciting to be able to arc that

already. It was great to add more layers to Shadow,” he added. PTI

Ricky Whittle talks about how ‘American Gods’ is a reflection of the is-sues US is grappling with - from the hostility towards immigrants to the lack of acceptance of people belonging to different sexual orientations

— Edith Wharton

Beware of monotony; it’s the mother of all the deadly sins

Shining light on the beauty of difference

Riding high on success

In their two de-cade long career, music maestros Radhika Rao and Vinay Sap-ru have worked with legends like Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhonsle and Jagjit Singh