ATLANTA MASSAGE PARLOUR SHOOTINGS LEAVE 8 DEAD PG8

RAILWAYS WILL CONTINUE TO BE NATIONAL ASSET, NO ONE CAN PRIVATISE IT: GOYAL PG5

DEFEAT BJP TO SAVE BENGAL’S CULTURE & HERITAGE: ABHISHEK PG3

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VOL. 7, ISSUE 76 | Thursday, 18 March 2021 | Kolkata | Pages 12 | Rs 3.00PUBLISHED FROM DELHI & KOLKATA NO HALF TRUTHS

IN TMC MANIFESTO

No proposal to appoint regulator for social media: Prasad OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The gov-ernment on Wednesday informed Parliament that there is no proposal with the IT ministry to set up a regu-lator for social media.

Union IT and Communi-cations minister Ravi Shan-kar Prasad, however, said the government has released

Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, under the IT Act that specifies the due diligence to be followed by all the intermediaries, including the social media intermediaries.

“The social media plat-forms are enjoined to develop a robust grievance redressal

system. Presently, there is no proposal with the Ministry of Electronics and Informa-tion Technology to appoint a regulator for social media,” Prasad informed the Lok Sabha.

The government in Febru-ary had announced sweeping regulations for social media firms like Facebook and Twitter as well as OTT play-

ers such as Netflix, requiring them to remove any content flagged by authorities within 36 hours and setting up a complaint redressal mecha-nism with an officer being based in the country.

The guidelines also make it mandatory for platforms such as Twitter and What-sApp to identify the origi-nator of a message that

authorities consider to be anti-national and against security and sovereignty of the country.

The new rules related to social media platforms are to be handled by the IT min-istry while the Information and Broadcasting ministry will look after content related issues on entertainment apps and online news portals.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Trinamool Con-gress supremo Mamata Baner-jee on Wednesday unveiled a “development-oriented” manifesto for the upcoming Assembly polls in Bengal, promising an income scheme for all families, a student credit card and constitution of a task force to examine the inclusion of several communities under the OBC category.

Banerjee said all small and marginal farmers would get Rs 10,000 per acre annually against the present amount of Rs 6,000. The annual income of the farmers has gone up three times, she maintained.

To make students self-reli-ant, a new student credit card scheme will be introduced with a credit limit of Rs 10 lakh and an interest rate of only 4 per cent will be charged in which the state government will be the guarantor, she said.

“We want to see our stu-dents carry on with their stud-ies and become self-reliant. This will help them pursue their career without depend-ing on their parents,” she said.

Banerjee said in the past one decade the state Budget had gone up by three times to Rs 2.55 lakh crore while the average income of peo-

ple has more than doubled. In the next five years, Bengal will become the fifth-largest economy in the country with a GDP size of Rs 12.5 lakh crore and an annual per cap-ita income of more than Rs 2.5 lakh.

She said a minimum basic income scheme would be introduced under which a member of a general caste would get Rs 500 per month that is Rs 6,000 per annum and an SC/ST family would get Rs 1,000 per month, that is Rs

12,000 annually. The money will be transferred directly to the woman head of the family. Widows above 18 years will continue to get Rs 1,000 per month as pension irrespective of caste and religion.

The Trinamool chairper-son said under the Bengal Awas Yojana, 33.7 lakh houses had been built and another 25 lakh low-cost houses will be set up with tap water facil-ity and improved drainage system.

Under the Khadya Sathi

scheme, free monthly ration will be delivered to 1.5 crore families at their doorstep. Banerjee said Duare Sarkar, which has garnered so much success, will be held twice a year, August – September and November – December. The problems faced by people will be sorted out in these camps.

The newly-formed state government will also set up 10 lakh new MSMEs annually to ensure smooth and steady industrial development.

Continued on P6

Mamata promises minimum income, student credit card with Rs 10L limit

Among other promises was the setting up of 10 lakh new MSMEs & 2000 new big industrial units over the next 5 years

Need to stop emerging 2nd peak of Covid: PM tells CMs ‘If we don’t stop this

pandemic right now, then there

could be a nation-wide outbreak’ OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednes-day said it was critical to stop what he termed the “emerging second peak” of Covid with decisive steps, including micro-containment zones, increased testing and enforcement of restrictions like masks.

Modi called for “quick and decisive” steps to check the spike and stressed the need to seriously follow the “test, track and treat” approach.

In a virtual interaction with state chief ministers over the pandemic situation and the ongoing vaccination drive, Modi also asserted that vaccine is an effective weapon against the diseases and asked states to establish more vaccination cen-tres, be it government-run or private. In his first interaction with chief ministers after the vaccination drive started in Jan-uary, he said states like Maha-rashtra and Punjab have been seeing a rise in the COVID cases while the positivity rate has shot up in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.

India recorded its highest daily tally of Coronavirus cases this year with 28,903 new infec-tions, taking the total COVID-19 count to 1,14,38,734, according to the Union Health ministry data updated on Wednesday. The death toll increased to 1,59,044 with 188 new fatalities, the highest in around two months, the data updated at 8 am showed. As many as 30,254 new infections were recorded in a span of 24 hours on December 13.

Sixty per cent of the coun-try’s active cases and 45.4 per cent of the fresh deaths are concentrated in Maharashtra, the Health ministry said on Wednesday. The state, which found itself as a Covid hot spot since the outbreak started in the country last year, is back at the top slot again.

Amid protests, BJP announces names of 4 candidates for third phase

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: On the day when BJP announced the names of the four candidates for the third phase of the upcoming Assembly elections, the agita-tion of old-timers continued in different parts of the state demanding cancellation of the nominees announced earlier.

Earlier on Sunday, the saf-fron party had announced names of 27 candidates for the third phase elections. But the BJP leaders had failed to pub-lish the names of four candi-dates for the third phase.

The list announced on Wednesday included actor Papiya Adhikari who recently

joined BJP and will contest from Uluberia South constitu-ency against Trinamool Con-gress candidate Pulak Roy. In Jagatballavpur constituency, BJP’s candidate is Anupam Ghosh against TMC’s Sitanath Ghosh.

In South 24-Parganas, BJP’s candidate in Falta Assembly constituency is Bidhan Parui. He will contest against the TMC’s Sankar Kumar Naskar. In the Baruipur East constitu-ency, BJP has nominated Chan-dan Mondal against TMC’s Bidhan Sardar.

Meanwhile, Derek O’Brien, Trinamool Rajya Sabha MP, had tweeted earlier in the day: “Trinamool has announced

candidates for 291 seats. The ‘tourist gang’ have announced 121 candidates. 173 still not announced #BengalElec-tion2021 #KhelaHobe” Not everyone from Delhi-Noida ‘godi-media’ is in Mo-Shah’s back pocket. Ground report from ‘independent media’.”

BJP old-timers had put up a roadblock on Sonarpur-Harinavi Road demanding the replacement of party’s nomi-nee from Sonarpur South seat, actor Anjana Basu.

Calling her an ‘outsider’, the party supporters shouted slogans against the actor. They said there were better candi-dates in the area who have been ignored. Continued on P6

TMC demands cancellation of Suvendu Adhikari’s candidature from Nandigram

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Trinamool Con-gress (TMC) on Wednesday wrote to the Election Commis-sion (EC) to remove Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Suvendu Adhikari’s name from the electoral roll of Nan-digram claiming that the latter ‘had filed false particulars of his residence’.

TMC’s Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien in his letter to the EC also sought the initia-tion of criminal proceedings against Adhikari for “furnish-ing false particulars”. Adhikari, who recently quit the TMC and joined the saffron party, is con-testing the upcoming Assembly elections from Nandigram on a BJP ticket against TMC Chair-person Mamata Banerjee.

O’Brien, in his letter, pointed out that Adhikari had declared in the affidavit that his name was entered in the electoral roll for Nandi-gram Assembly Constituency (AC). However, his name also

appears on the electoral roll of Haldia AC, the TMC leader claimed.

“As per Section 17 of the Representation of The People Act 1951 (RP Act), no person shall be registered as a voter in more than one constitu-ency,” reads the letter. It further states that Adhikari had filed an application for migration of his name from the electoral rolls of Haldia AC to Nandigram AC with false particulars of his residence.

TMC has claimed that the BLO at the time of field visit for verification of the residen-tial address of Adhikari did not find him residing at the Nan-danayakbar village — declared

as his residential address — in the past six months.

“As per Section 19 of RP Act, only a person who is ‘ordinarily resident’ in a con-stituency may be registered as a voter in the electoral rolls of such constituency. Hence, he is not entitled to a migration,” the letter cites.

The TMC has also fur-nished relevant documents substantiating its complaint in this regard. Bengal goes to polls in eight phases from March 27 to April 29 while voting in Nan-digram will be held on April 1 during the second phase.

The Election Commission has sought a report from the District Magistrate regarding the matter.

Meanwhile, hundreds of women at Nandigram block II staged a demonstration in front of Suvendu Adhikari when he went there to attend a pro-gramme. The locals were found showing him shoes and shout-ing slogans “chor chor chor ta, ei Sisir babur chele ta”.

Param Bir Singh shunted out,

Hemant Nagrale takes over as

Mumbai Police CommissionerOUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Under fire over the handling of the bomb scare outside billionaire industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s house in Mumbai, the Maharashtra government on Wednesday swapped out Param Bir Singh for senior IPS officer Hemant Nagrale as the city’s Police Commissioner as the former was moved to the low-key Home Guard.

Nagrale, a 1987-batch IPS officer, has handled cases such as the Ketan Parekh scam and the Harshad Mehta controversy.

Singh’s transfer came even as the case of recovery of gelatin sticks near Ambani’s residence turned murkier with the National Investigation Agency (NIA) claiming there were “other players” who had been allegedly instructing arrested policeman Sachin Vaze. NIA sources said the case had virtually been cracked and soon the “entire conspiracy” behind it would be unravelled.

“Big decision of the government. Shri Hemant Nagrale will be the new Mumbai Police Commissioner. Shri Rajnish Seth will have the additional charge of the post of Director General of Police, Maharashtra,” tweeted state Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, who met Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray earlier in the day. Vaze is at the focus of NIA’s probe in the recovery of an SUV with explosives near Ambani’s house. Continued on P6

In today’s paper

...CITY

ABOUT 303 TEST POSITIVE IN A DAY 2

NATION

PUNJAB CM, NAVJOT SIDHU MEET 5

EDIT

MAJOR PIVOT 7

INTERNATIONAL

UK PM TO GET OXFORD/ASTRAZENECA JAB 8

BUSINESS

GOVT TO RETAIN RBI’S INFLATION BAND 10

SPORT

MAN CITY SWEEP ASIDE GLADBACH 11

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday termed the cancellation of around three crore ration cards by the Cen-tre due to non-linking with the Aadhaar card as too serious, and sought response from the Cen-tral government and all states on the issue.

A bench of Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian said this matter should not be treated as adversarial as it is too serious.

The bench said the matter will be put up for a final hearing.

At the outset, senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for petitioner Koili Devi, mother of an 11-year-old girl, who allegedly died of starvation on September 28, 2017, said the petition deals

with the larger issue.“We see the problem at hand

and I have dealt with this kind of matter in Bombay High Court and I think this matter should be filed before the high court con-cerned,” the CJI said.

The bench told Gonsalves that he has sought a very omni-bus kind of relief and widened the scope of the matter.

Gonsalves persisted with his arguments that it is an important issue as the Centre has cancelled around three crore ration cards.

The bench said it will hear the matter on some other day as it is persuaded by Gonsalves that the Central government has can-celled the ration cards.

Additional Solicitor General Aman Lekhi said it is a wrong statement made by Gonsalves that the Centre has cancelled the

ration cards.“We are asking you (Centre)

to respond because of Aadhaar issue. This is not an adversarial litigation. We will hear it finally. Issue notice returnable in four weeks,” the bench said.

Lekhi said notice has already

been issued in the matter and Centre’s response is there on record. Gonsalves said notice has not been issued on main plea but on alternative grievance redressal.

Principle issue is the cancel-lation of three crore ration cards and starvation death, Gonsalves

said. In December 9, 2019, the top court had sought responses from all the states over allegations of starvation deaths of people who were deprived of their ration sup-plies for not having valid Aad-haar cards.

Issue notice returnable in four weeks to the respondent States calling upon them to apprise steps they have taken for implementa-tion of the grievances redressal mechanism contained in Sec-tions 14, 15 and 16 of the National Food Security Act, 2013. Notice may be served on the standing counsel for the state, the bench had said.

The Centre had earlier said reports suggest that the deaths were not due to starvation. No one was denied food because of lack of a valid Aadhaar card, it had said.

SC terms cancellation of 3 cr ration cards as serious, seeks replies from Centre, states

Observation came on a plea filed by Koili Devi, mother of an 11-yr-old girl, who allegedly died of starvation on Sept 28, 2017

In December 9, 2019, the top court had sought responses from all the states over allegations of starvation deaths of people who were deprived of their ration supplies for not having valid Aadhaar cards

DEMI LOVATO RECALLS BEING SEXUALLY ASSAULTED PG12

OUR CORRESPONDENT

DEHRADUN: Uttarakhand Chief Minister Tirath Singh Rawat has debuted in his new role with controversial com-ments on women wearing ripped jeans and how they cannot — he feels — pro-vide the right environment at home for children. Rawat made the comments on Tues-day at a workshop organised by the Uttarakhand State Commission for Protection of Child Rights in Dehradun.

He said he was shocked to see a woman running an NGO in ripped jeans, and was concerned about the example she was setting for society.

“If this kind of woman goes out in society to meet people and solve their prob-lems, what kind of message are we giving out to society, to our kids? It all starts at home. What we do, our kids fol-low. A child who is taught the right culture at home, no mat-ter how modern he becomes, will never fail in life,” said the Chief Minister.

U’khand CM’s comments on ‘ripped jeans’ draws flak

Highlights » Rs 10,000 per acre to all small and marginal farmers annually

» A minimum basic income scheme will be introduced under which a member of a general caste will get Rs 500 per month and an SC/ST family will get Rs 1,000 per month

» Under the Bengal Awas Yojana, 33.7 lakh houses had been built and another 25 lakh low-cost houses will be set up with tap water facility

» New state government will set up 10 lakh new MSMEs annually

» Proposes OBC status to all com-munities who are not currently recognised as OBSc like Mahisyas, Tili, Tamul, Sahas Mamata Banerjee releases TMC manifesto on Wednesday MPOST

Govt penalising educated youth

RAHUL GANDHI

KOLKATA |THURSDAY, 18 MARCH, 2021|millenniumpostmp city 2

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: The State Health department has seen an over-whelming response among the elderly citizens to receive vaccine.

State has so far conducted

vaccinations on 28.53 lakh peo-ple till Wednesday out of which over 11.5 lakh were elderly people.

It is very significant since the vaccination for elderly citizens begun in the state two weeks ago whereas the vaccination drive

for the health workers started two months back.

According to senior health officials, some health workers and front line workers were found to be hesitant when it comes to vaccination.

But in case of elderly peo-

ple vaccination, the department has received unprecedented response. Senior citizens do not mind standing in the queue to get a jab, the official said.

On Monday around 2.70 lakh vaccinations were done across the state, the 56 percent

of which were elderly citizens. On Tuesday, around 1.88 lakh people received vaccine out of which more than 1.48 lakh were elderly people.

On Wednesday, the Health department conducted 1485 sessions across the State. Around

1,21,288 people were vaccinated, out of which 1,07,557 people took the first dose and 14,150 took the second dose. A total around 92,124 citizens were from the priority age group and cumulatively 28.53 lakh peo-ple received vaccination so far which include the health work-ers, front line workers and also the elderly citizens.“On Tues-day as expected, we reached the two lakh mark for 2nd suc-cessive day and could vaccinate 2,12,598 people. No adverse events following immunizations (AEFI) reported today,” said a senior health department offi-cial. People between 45-59 with comorbidity are also getting vaccine from various centers. They however need to produce a certificate from the doctors mentioning the ailments the patients suffering from.

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COVID recovery rate stands at 6.53%

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Single-day Covid infection has gone up to 303 on Wednesday, a little more than Tuesday’s figure of 255.

The total tally of infected people has reached 5,79,156 in Bengal so far till Wednesday. Around 5,65,670 patients have already been released from the hospitals so far out of which 272 patients have been dis-charged in the past 24 hours.

The state has so far car-ried out 88,75,277 Covid sam-ple tests till Wednesday out of which 17,891 were performed in the past 24 hours. The Covid recovery rate stood at 97.67 percent on Wednesday. The percentage of positive cases out of the sample tested stood at 6.53 on Wednesday.

One died in the state in the past 24 hours. It was reported from North 24-Parganas. No death was reported in Kolkata in the past 48 hours. Around

3,109 people died of Covid in Kolkata so far whereas North 24-Parganas has lost 2,522 people so far. Kolkata has seen 96 fresh cases in the past 24 hours taking the total tally to 1,30,783 while North 24-Par-ganas has so far seen a total 1,24,186 out of which 74 were found positive in the past 24 hours. South 24-Parganas has registered 21 new Covid cases in the past 24 hours. The total number of Covid infected patients in South 24-parganas has gone up 37,418. Hooghly has witnessed 9 Covid cases in the past 24 hours while the total tally from the district reached 29,788. Howrah has so far registered a total 36,177 Covid cases so far out of which 31 have been affected in the past 24 hours. Darjeeling has reported 18,515 cases so far out of which 6 reported in the past 24 hours. East Burdwan and West Burdwan have registered 1 and 20 fresh cases.

AT LEAST 2.70 LAKH GOT THE JAB ON WEDNESDAY

About 303 test positive in a day

About 28.53L inoculated in state so far

COVID-19 STATS » Number of deaths in past 24 hours 1 » Total death toll so far 10,298 » Tested COVID positive in the past 24 hours 303 » Total COVID positive cases so far 5,79,156 » Discharged from hospitals in past 24 hours 272 » Patients recovered so far 5,65,670 » Total sample tested so far 88,75,277

REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Controversy sparked off after Vice-Chan-cellor of Visva Bharati Profes-sor Bidyut Chakraborty said he would drive out ‘the bad elements’ from the university and might close it down. His controversial remark earned widespread criticism from the academic circle.

Chakraborty, while addressing a virtual meeting with the teachers of the uni-versity, said some of the faculty members were against him as he was trying to stop embezzle-ment of funds. He said he had a pleasant relation with most of the teachers.

Referring to Professor Abhijit Sen, he said: “I had to take action against Sen who was my batchmate as he was involved in misappropria-tion of funds. It is unfortu-nate that my predecessors had never tried to stop financial corruption.”

“He should clarify what he means by bad elements. He has suspended many teachers

and stopped salaries of senior teachers. There are more than a dozen cases against him and FIRs had been lodged against the Vice-Chancellor,” said a teacher, requesting anonymity.

It may be mentioned that Professor Aranai Chakraborty of the Physics department had lodged a complaint with the police demanding security. He had protested against the con-finement of his colleagues by

the V-C.Meanwhile, the Vasanta

Utsav was observed in Visva Bharati in a secret manner on March 16.

Many teachers and stu-dents were not allowed to enter and security guards had been posted at the gate. They were not allowed entry as they did not wear white kurta.

The students, who partici-pated in the festival, said they

had been informed just a day before the festival. They said they were not allowed to play holi with ‘aabir’, which has been a tradition at the university.

Subir Bandyopadhyay, a former student of the univer-sity, said: “The institution is being run in the most auto-cratic manner.”

Meanwhile, varsity authori-ties said the festival was organ-ised following the norms. Due to COVID pandemic, not many people could be allowed. The festival started with Bait-alik followed by a special prayer at 7am. The festival was held at Gouranga Prangan followed by Chitrangada in the evening.

Quick News44

Minor fire breaks out at hospKOLKATA: A minor fire broke out at a room inside the Covid ward of the Calcutta Medical College and Hospital on Wednesday, triggering panic among the patients and their family members. The fire was doused by the hospital staff within a few minutes.

According to sources, a staff of the Covid ward noticed a spark followed by smoke emanating from a machine. Immediately, he disconnected the electricity and started spraying the chemical from the fire extinguisher. Mean-while, three fire tenders were sent to the spot but none of them were used.

AIMIM state president joins INLKOLKATA: Syed Zameerul Hasan, after quitting as All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) West Bengal president, joined Indian National League (INL) on Wednes-day. “I left AIMIM two weeks ago. Today, I have officially joined INL,” said Hasan.

He reiterated that INL will not contest the Bengal Assembly elections but will support Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee to defeat BJP. “We want that BJP candidate Suvendu Adhkari should lose with huge margin of votes in Nandigram,” pointed out Hasan.

Will drive out bad elements, may shut varsity: Visva Bharati V-C

The Vasanta Utsav was observed in Visva Bharati in a secret manner on March 16. Many teachers and students were not allowed to enter

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: The examination report of the water samples col-lected from the supply pipeline at various places in and around Sashi Sekhar Bose Road in Bhowanipore ruled out contami-nation. Three persons, including a child, had died in the last few days with a section of the local residents alleging contamination of water supplied by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC).

“We had collected water samples from various points in and around the area from where complaints of vomiting, dehy-dration, etc have been received and sent those for examination in our laboratory under the state

Health department. The water samples have been found per-fectly all right,” said a senior official of the KMC. The Water Supply department of KMC is thoroughly checking the water supply pipeline at parts of ward 73 and ward 71 from where reports of persons falling sick had surfaced. No major fault in the pipeline has had been found till date. The pipeline used for

supply of water to the Alipore Women Correctional Home has also been replaced as part of a precautionary measure. The deaths of a resident of labour quarters of KMC, Bhubanesh-war Das, and another undertrial prisoner of Alipore Women Cor-rectional Home Rinki Tamang were reported on Monday.

Some four odd inmates had also fallen sick, including BJP youth leader Pamela Goswami who is presently in jail custody. Goswami was admitted to hos-pital for two days but has been released. The KMC team dur-ing its visit to the labour quarters has found that water had been stored in tanks by some residents in unhygienic manner.

Water contamination ruled out: Test report

The KMC team has found that water had been stored in tanks by some residents in unhygienic manner

KOLKATA: The Election Commission on Wednesday removed Soumya Roy from his post as Superintendent of Police Howrah (Rural) and appointed Shrihari Pandey, an IPS officer of 2011 batch in his place. The move comes with the IPS offcer’s wife Lovely Mai-tra who is an actor contesting the Assembly elections as Tri-namool Congress candidate from Sonarpur Dakshin seat in South 24-Parganas district.

Roy as per instructions of the Commission should be assigned a post that is not asso-ciated with the election duty till the poll process is completed.

“As per rules of the Com-mission, a person cannot be involved in election duty if his/

her family member is contest-ing the elections. Hence, the removal of Roy is a general principle,” an EC official said.

Anil Kumar Sharma former DGP Intelligence Punjab, who has been recently appointed as the second Special Police Observer for Bengal reached the city on Wednesday morn-ing to assess poll prepared-ness in the state. Special Police Observer, Vivek Dubey along with Special General Observer Ajay Nayek are already in the state for a fortnight. MPOST

EC removes SP Howrah (Rural) as wife is contesting polls

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Trinamool Con-gress spokesperson Kunal Ghosh has decided to return the money which he earned from Saradha as salary and advertisements.

Earlier a few days ago, Ghosh after coming out from the Enforcement Director-ate (ED) had his proposal to return the money leaving the amount of income tax had been accepted by the central agency.

On Wednesday, Ghosh posted about it on a social media platform and claimed that he was returning Rs 2.67 crore to the ED.

Ghosh also claimed that though he appealed before the ED officials to return the money in 2017, Ghosh faced tremendous difficulties to arrange money as a huge amount of money was spent for his legal battle and his mother’s illness.

Now, Ghosh has given his ancestral house on mortgage, taken loans from his friends and sold jewelry of his mother to tide over the financial crisis.

“I have set an example by returning the salary which I got along with money collected from the advertisement. Mit-hun Chakraborty had started to return the money only after ED and CBI increased the pres-sure, whereas I started way back in 2013,” Ghosh wrote.

“Mithun da also did not complete the works for which the contracts were made. He returned the money which he got without doing his job,” Ghosh’s post on social media read further.

Kunal to return salary earned from Saradha

KOLKATA: The Indian Secu-lar Front (ISF) is contesting the elections with a symbol that they have borrowed from the Rashtriya Secular Majlis Party (RSMP) of Bihar which has the ‘envelope’ symbol. The nomina-tion papers that ISF candidates have submitted to the Election Commission is also in the name of Rashtriya Secular Majlis Party as the Abbas Siddiqui-led ISF has not yet got its symbol from the

Commission.According to ISF leadership

after the formation of the party in January, they did not have enough time to register with the Election Commission and collect the symbol. So they are fighting the polls in the name and symbol of the RSMP.

RSMP happens to be one of the small group alliances of ISF. “All our candidates will fight the elections in the envelope symbol

of the RSMP,” said a senior leader of the party. He added that the Left Front and the Congress with whom they have forged an alli-ance to fight the Assembly elec-tions are also aware of this fact. The ISF has announced a list of 20 candidates for the Assembly elections and their candidates in seats like Chandrakona and Mahishadal have already submit-ted their nomination in the name and symbol of RSMP. MPOST

ISF to fight polls on borrowed symbol

Bachchu Hansda may rejoin TMCBALURGHAT: Sitting Trinamool Congress MLA of Tapan Bachchu Hansda, who joined the saffron brigade last week, is likely to return to his old party again. Hansda may join TMC within a day or two, claimed a party source.Bachchu

Hansda said: “I left the TMC and joined the BJP for not getting a party ticket from Tapan seat. I wished to work with the new friends in BJP but they were not interested. I decided to return to TMC again.” He felt embarrassed and humiliated in BJP, sources said.

Stir staged against BJP, RSSKOLKATA: Samvidhan Bachao Bangla Bachao Manch (SBBBM) protested against RSS and BJP’s caste-based poli-tics in the city on Wednesday. “We want to urge people not to vote for BJP to protect Constitution,” said Choton Das, convenor of SBBBM.

Ghosh claimed that he was returning Rs 2.67 crore to ED

Polls: Ham radio link for Sunderbans’ shadow zonesSOUMITRA NANDI

KOLKATA: To bridge the gap of connectivity, the South 24-Parganas district admin-istration is taking the help of ham radio in the shadow zones of Sunderbans.

There are nearly 60 polling booths spanning across Pathar-pratima, Sagar, Ghoramara, Kakdwip and Gosaba area where connectivity including internet is a major challenge

for the district administration.“There are 2 booths in

Ghoramara Islands that are located in extreme shadow zone where ham radio will provide us with 100 per cent support to ensure connectivity. In case of some other booths, the service providers includ-ing BSNL will be providing us support and wherever needed we will take the help of ham radio,” District Election Offi-cer (DEO), South 24-Parganas,

Antara Acharya said.The EC has instructed for

webcasting exercise in at least 50 per cent of the booths across the state. Moreover, elections are being held at a time when the COVID- 19 pandemic is still rearing its ugly head. “So we have given utmost priority to address connectivity issue ,” a senior official in the district administration said.

West Bengal Radio Club (WBRC)—an organisation of

ham radio enthusiasts in the state on Wednesday received the nod from the Department of Telecommunication under the Ministry of Communica-tion for the use of special call sign during March 29 to April 1, for providing communica-tion support in mobile shadow zone. “We have a permanent ham radio station at Sagar and another station will be set up at the district headquarters in Ali-pore. We are surveying a spot

midway from Alipore to Sagar for setting up another station. We are grateful to Onkar Nath Yadav, assistant wireless advi-sor of the ministry of Com-munications for giving us permission to use special call sign within a week,” Ambar-ish Nag Biswas, custodian and secretary of WBRC said. WBRC has been instrumental in providing connectivity in the shadow zones during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: A Trinamool Congress worker suffered splinter injury, after a few miscreants hurled bombs at the party workers on Manick-tala Main Road. It has been alleged that the miscreants

were backed by the BJP.According to sources, on

Tuesday night a few Trinamool Congress workers were stand-ing in front of a party office on Manicktala Main Road. All of a sudden, two bike-borne mis-creants hurled two bombs at the workers.

DGP (Intelligence) Punjab in city as Spl Police Observer

Trinamool man hurt

Highlights » State has so far conducted vaccinations on 28.53 lakh people till Wednesday out of which over 11.5 lakh were elderly people

» In case of elderly people vaccination, the department has received unprecedented response. Senior citizens do not mind standing in the queue to get a jab, a health depart-ment official said

» On Wednesday, the Health department conducted 1485 sessions across the State. Around 1,21,288 people were vaccinated, out of which 1,07,557 people took the first dose and 14,150 took the second dose.

FILE PHOTO

Coal scam: Bizman summonedKOLKATA: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has summoned a businessman who was close to the king-pin of the coal smuggling racket Anup Majhi alias Lala.

The businessman, Amit Agarwal owns a steel plant in Kulti. On Tuesday, CBI officials conducted raids at the office premises and house Amit and another business-man Sonu Agarwal.

From Amit’s office the investigating officials seized sev-eral documents and a few laptops. It is alleged that he used to keep the transaction details between his company and Majhi. Amit has been asked to appear before the investi-gating officers on Monday at Nizam Palace. CBI wants to know how Majhi used to deliver the stolen coal to Amit’s factory and what was the rate.

Elections hit blood donation camps

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: The blood dona-tion camps across the state have been adversely hit because of elections leading to a crisis in various blood banks.

The amount of blood col-lection normally dips during the summer but the ensued Assembly elections have further intensified the cri-sis as the number of camps has gone down. The camps which are being held in vari-ous parts of the state are now witnessing a very low turnout of donors. Over 45 per cent of overall collection of blood is contributed by the various political organisations. Dur-ing the election time almost all the political parties, their cadres and the entire machin-ery of the organisations are busy in election campaigns. Consequently, the blood donation camps are badly hit. Covid inoculation drive restricts a vaccine receiver from donating blood for two month. This has an adverse effect on the collection of blood as well.

Various clubs also orga-nise camps but during elec-tions most of the clubs fail to hold camps as they have

some political affiliation and therefore busy in elec-tion process. “During sum-mer time, a crisis in blood supply is witnessed every year. Election season further aggravates the situation. All the district health officials have been directed to spread awareness in this regard,” a senior health official said.

According to sources, there is a demand of 4,000 unit blood in the state per day. Now, around 1100-1200 units are collected per day. There is a requirement of around 15 lakh unit per year whereas around 13 lakh unit is collected. The figure fur-ther goes down during sum-mer. Around 6-7 years ago, 30,000 unit of blood had been collected at the Central blood bank. In the past 2-3 years, the number has dropped to 20,000-25,000.

“Around 10 percent of overall blood camps are now taking place in the state. The number of donors is very poor. On an average, each camp sees around 50 donors but the number has dropped 15-20 now during the elec-tion time. There is a com-plete crisis of negative blood groups,” said D. Ashish, Gen-eral Secretary, Medical Bank.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Trinamool Youth Congress president Abhishek Banerjee on Wednesday said the upcoming Assembly elec-tion in Bengal was not only about electing Trinamool Con-gress for the third time, but it was also a fight to save the tra-dition of Bengal.

“The BJP is considering Bengal to be the same as Guja-rat and Madhya Pradesh, where they can dictate their terms. But the people of Bengal will not surrender before the Delhi government. Bengal has its own culture and tradition and we will always fight for uphold-ing it,”Banerjee said, after hold-ing a roadshow at Saltora in Bankura.

Banerjee’s roadshow from Saltora College More to Chowrasta junction in favour of TMC candidate San-tosh Mondal was attended by lakhs of people. Saltora is going to polls on March 27 during the first phase of elections.

“They are using investi-gating agencies to fight the elections while we are taking our development report card door-to-door. If the polls are contested on the basis of devel-opment parameters comparing what the Narendra Modi-led government had in 7 years against the works done by Mamata Banerjee-led TMC government in the past 10 years, then we will score 10-0 (with BJP bagging zero seats). But, if this isn’t the outcome, I am ready to quit politics,” Banerjee said.

Calling the BJP leaders like Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, JP Nadda, Yogi Adityanath, Nitin Gadkari— who have been campaigning in Bengal— as ‘outsiders,’ Baner-jee challenged them to speak impromptu. “Let these ‘out-

siders’ speak for 2 minutes in Bengali without looking at any paper or teleprompter and I will speak for an hour in Hindi lan-guage without looking at any teleprompter or paper. If they can, I declare openly that TMC will not contest in the Assembly election,” he reiterated.

Banerjee came down heav-ily upon the Centre for the ris-ing price of petrol, diesel and LPG gas. “The more they chant ‘Jai Sri Ram’, the price of LPG

will also increase further,” he maintained.

He maintained that a sec-tion of people in the state who had voted for the saffron party during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in Bengal have real-ized their mistake. “They had fooled you making false prom-ises in 2019, now it is time for you to make amends and fool them by pressing the EVM button in favour of TMC,” he added.

millenniumpost|KOLKATA|THURSDAY, 18 MARCH, 2021mp city 3

TAKEAWAYS » Banerjee’s roadshow from Saltora College More to

Chowrasta junction in favour of TMC candidate Santosh Mondal was attended by lakhs of people

» He said the saffron party was using investigating agencies to fight the elections while TMC was taking its develop-ment report card door-to-door

» He challenged the ‘outsiders’ to speak impromptu in Bengali language for two minutes without looking at the teleprompters

» Under the Krishak Bandhu scheme, Rs 2, 642 crore was spent in 2019 to provide assistance to 46.92 lakh farmers

» Banerjee came down heavily upon the Centre for the ris-ing price of petrol, diesel and LPG gas

PRITESH BASU

GOPIBALLAVPUR (JHAR-GRAM): Reiterating that BJP had managed to win in Jangalmahal in 2019 general elections based on false pro-paganda, Trinamool Congress (TMC) chairperson Mamata Banerjee accused Prime Min-ister Narendra Modi of making false promise of Covid vaccine for all just to woo voters.

“Narendra Modi had said vaccine will be given to all before the elections in Bihar. But the promise is yet to be fulfilled. They (BJP) are a party of liars and they remain alive on false promises,” Banerjee said after stating that how the Centre is sitting on her gov-ernment’s proposal of pro-curing Covid vaccine to give free of cost to everyone in Bengal.

“It was much ahead of the polls when I had written to the Prime Minister saying we are ready to give money to procure Covid vaccine so that we can give it free-of-cost to our peo-ple. But they are not giving us the same,” the Trinamool Con-

gress supremo stated.Urging people to cast

their votes in favour of her party’s candidates—Dulal Murmu from Nayagram, Birbaha Hansda from Jhar-gram, Debnath Hansda and Dr Khagendranath Mahato

from Gopiballavpur, who was BMOH in the area —on March 27, she said: “Khela hobe and you all (people of Jhargram) have to play the first match on March 27 and kick the ball (BJP) straight out of the ground. We have to defeat BJP here as the entire country’s eye is on Bengal poll.”

Banerjee further said that BJP has brought 1000 minis-ters in Bengal for the ensuing Assembly elections.

“But keep one thing in mind that it is only our gov-ernment that brought changes in Jangalmahal by ensuring development. It is our govern-ment that created Jhargram as a separate district. Start-ing from bridges, colleges, roads and tourism have been developed by us. We have set up a university here,” she remarked.

She asked people whether BJP did anything for the devel-opment of Jangalmahal after winning here two years ago in the last Lok Sabha polls. In reply, the crowd gave a loud reply saying “no”.

Let Jangalmahal remain “sundari (beautiful)” as its “aranya (forest)”. “Do not allow BJP to gain space here as they will loot everything starting from house to property,” she said.

“BJP is in government in Delhi. They have given us nothing apart from hike in kerosene, petrol and diesel prices. Dalit women are being tortured in Uttar Pradesh. Peo-ple face atrocities instead of getting justice. All these do not happen in Bengal. BJP is syn-onymous to aotocracy, poor administration and a party of greedy people,” she said.

Defeat BJP to save Bengal’s culture & heritage: Abhishek

OUR CORRESPONDENT

GOPIBALLAVPUR (JHAR-GRAM): Giving a call to turn BJP “zero” politically in the upcom-ing Assembly polls, Trinamool Congress (TMC) chairperson Mamata Banerjee urged all not to cast a single vote in favour of the saffron party as they will not allow people of Bengal to follow their respective religion.

Addressing the mammoth rally here—sitting on a wheel-chair—despite pain in her injured leg that is still in a cast, Banerjee shared her grievances over being repeatedly attacked since the Left regime just for raising voice for people’s rights and said that now the BJP has taken over the batton from the Left to silence her by launching attacks on her.

“Earlier CPI(M) used to attack me. Now BJP manha-dles me. I have bruises all over my body. I had received inju-ries on my head. I need to put on a belt on my waist and also underwent eye surgery. Now they have targeted my leg. But I will continue my fight with this injured leg only as mothers and sisters are my actual strength,” she said, adding that her party will never give reply to all these attacks with violence. Instead, she will build a peaceful Bengal.

She also accused the BJP for conspiring to immobilise her. “They (BJP) wanted to keep me indoors so that I cannot go out during the elections. They have injured my leg,” Banerjee said.

In the same breath, she urged the “actual Left” supporters to cast votes in favour of Trin-amool Congress as exercising their rights in favour of CPI(M) would be a wastage to check the growth of BJP.

Recollecting the days of vio-lence in Jangalmahal due to Mao-ist insurgency and killing of innocent villagers at Netai, she said: “Now peace prevails here where once 300 people were killed. I am visiting the place since 2008 when a widow was attacked, three persons were killed and 15 left injured. Jan-galmahal is not new to me. I went to the village with Chha-tradhar Mahato. Again, I came here when nine people were killed at Netai. Harmads, who were involved in the incident,

have now joined BJP.”“We have carried out massive

development in Jangalmahal. But BJP had managed to win here in 2019 Parliamentary elec-tions based on false assurances. Do they have visited the places once after winning? Now they are coming to get votes by giv-ing cash to people ahead of the polls. So turn them politically zero. Despite carrying out so much of work they call us thief. BJP is the biggest “brastachari” (corrupted) party in the coun-try,” she said. Condemning the divisive politics of BJP, she said: “Gaddars have now joined BJP and trying to give money to people to buy votes. Please do not give a single vote to them as they will not allow to follow you all your own religion. You have to say Jai Sri Ram instead of Jai Sia Ram.”

Giving a boost to her party workers, Trinamool Congress supremo further said that if she can fight despite receiving inju-ries on one leg, then why the party workers cannot devour more time at the time of the elections.

She urged people to ensure exercising their rights to cast their own votes as BJP would bring in “goondas from outside” by train to loot votes in Bengal.

‘DO NOT ALLOW BJP TO GAIN SPACE HERE AS THEY WILL LOOT EVERYTHING’

Centre not providing enough vaccine to Bengal, says Mamata

‘Do not vote for BJP, they will not allow you to follow your religion’

‘If polls are contested on basis of development, TMC will score 10-0 in Bankura district’

Highlights » ‘Narendra Modi had said vaccine will be given to all before

the elections in Bihar but the promise is yet to be fulfilled’ » ‘Much ahead of polls I had written to the Prime Minister

saying we are ready to give money to procure Covid vaccine so that we can give it free-of-cost to our people. But they are not giving us the same’

» ‘Dalit women are being tortured in Uttar Pradesh. People face atrocities instead of getting justice. All these do not happen in Bengal’

» ‘BJPhave given us nothing apart from hike in kerosene, petrol and diesel prices’

» ‘Khela hobe and people of Jhargram have to play the first match on March 27’

BJP wanted to keep me indoors before polls, so plotted the attack, alleged Mamata

Mamata Banerjee at a rally in Jhargram on Wednesday

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Trinamool Con-gress (TMC) chairperson Mamata Banerjee urged Left-minded people not to waste their votes and cast them in favour of TMC to prevent BJP from coming to power in Bengal.

While releasing the mani-festo 2021 at her Kalighat resi-dence on Wednesday evening, she said: “I appeal to the Left-minded voters not to waste their votes as Left parties are not coming to power and sup-port TMC to stop BJP from coming to power in Bengal.” She also thanked the “No Vote to BJP” forum.

Calling the BJP a “high-loaded virus”— which is ‘play-ing dirty game’— she took a dig at the BJP leaders who had described her act of address-ing rallies on wheelchair ‘as a drama to earn sympathy of the voters.’

“CPI (M) goons had beaten me and I was hospitalised.

They hit my head with a rod. I was again hit on the foot and there is excruciating pain. But, despite that I have never given up the election battle and vis-ited the constituencies. Only bad people can make such nasty remarks,” Banerjee said.

Banerjee said BJP was an autocratic party and did not respect the feelings and sen-timents of others. “They will intervene in one’s religious faith and practices, food and dress habits. They will brand you as an anti-nationalist if you

ask questions. I am not going to take religious lessons from them. We have taken our reli-gious lessons from Swami Vive-kananda,” she said.

Banerjee said it was her firm belief that BJP would not be able to make any dent in the religious harmony of Ben-gal. “People from different reli-gions, culture and faith have been staying in Bengal for gen-erations. We believe in the phi-losophy of Sri Ramakrishna, which is based on religious pluralism (many views, many

ways). I feel that BJP cannot destroy the religious harmony, which is the backbone of Ben-gal despite their best efforts.”

Banerjee said the match would commence from March 27, which is the first day of the 8th phase elections and TMC would win it. Veteran party leaders Subrata Mukherjee, Subrata Bakshi, party’s state president and Abhishek Baner-jee, president of Trinamool Youth Congress were present during the press meet to release the election manifesto.

To stop BJP from winning, Mamata urges Left-minded voters to support TMC

Mamata Banerjee, TMC leaders during release of Manifesto

Mamata Banerjee greets supporters at a rally on Wednesday

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee to hold mega rallies on March 29 and 30.

Banerjee, who is contest-ing polls from Nandigram is scheduled to hold the mega rallies just ahead of the elec-tion in the constituency.

Elections in Nandigram is going to be held on April 1.

At present different senior leaders of the party are holding rallies at Nandi-gram. Banerjee will address public meetings at Amla-suli, Keshiari and Kalai-kunda in West Midnapore on Thursday.

The Trinamool supremo will also hold public meet-ings at Egra, Patashpur and Tamluk in East Midnapore.

DARJEELING: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (Binoy) will announce the names of its candidates for the Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong Assembly seats on March 21. They will also cam-paign in support of TMC candidates in the Gorkha pockets in Terai and Dooars.

“Welcoming Mamata Banerjee’s decision to not field candi-dates on the three hill seats and leave it open for allies, we have decided to uphold the alliance and contest on all three seats. We will announce the name of the candidates from Mongpu ground on March 21,” stated Binoy Tamang, president, GJM on Wednes-day. The GJM has earmarked 52 issues of the Hills that need to be addressed. immediately. “These issues will feature in our election manifesto for the Assembly elections. We will release the mani-festo on the same day,” added Tamang. The GJM president stated that the GJM (Binoy) candidates will be supported by the TMC in the Hills. “However, we will not have any joint programmes or campaigns in the Hills. In the plains, the GJM (Binoy) will sup-port and campaign for TMC candidates in Terai and Dooars,” stated Tamang.

A Dooars Coordination Committee has already been consti-tuted by the GJM (Binoy) to oversee political interests of Gork-has residing in areas from Ellenbarrie to Kumargram in Dooars. The Siliguri-Terai Coordination Committee headed by Miten Chettri does the same in the Terai region. “These two outfits will be pressed into service in support of and will campaign for the TMC candidates in these regions,” stated Tamang.

The GJM (Bimal) will announce names of candidates for Dar-jeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong on March 23. MPOST

GJM (Binoy) to announce candidates’ list on Mar 21

Thousands of BJP workers join TMC in Jhargram

KOLKATA: Prime Minister Narendra Modi to hold pub-lic meeting at Purulia Town on Thursday. This is going to be the first poll rally of Modi in district. He will also hold rallies on March 21 and 24 at Bankura and Contai in East Midnapore.

Modi is also scheduled to hold a public rally in the rural parts of Howrah on April 3. The polls in the rural and urban parts of Howrah district are going for the elections on April 6 and 10. According to the sources this would be the first meeting of Modi in the month of April in Bengal.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah is also likely to hold a public meeting on March 27. Uttar Pradesh Chief Min-ister Yogi Adityanath is also likely to hold rally at Tekhali on March 25. MPOST

PM Modi to hold rally in

Purulia todayOUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Thousands of BJP workers joined Trinamool Congress at Nayagram in Jhar-gram protesting against false assurances given by leaders of ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Members of around 35 fam-ilies and several other villagers of Damodarpur area in Naya-gram block joined Trinamool Congress by taking flag from the party's local leader Ujjal Dutta.

The villagers have joined Trinamool Congress as BJP had assured of connecting Jhargram with Baripada in Odisha. But they did not ful-fil the assurances. At the same time they have given a series of assurances for development of Jangalmahal before 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

But nothing has been done yet. Instead, various develop-

ment work have been carried out by the Mamata Banerjee government.

They have appreciated the Duare Sarkar programme—the biggest outreach drive in the country—of the state government.

Through Duare Sarkar a large section of people in Jangalmahal has got caste certificates and they were pro-vided with several benefits under the a dozen state run schemes.

Dulal Murmu, Trinamool Congress candidate from Nay-agram, said the people of Jan-galmahal have realised their mistake.

They have understood that BJP had given false promises just to get votes of innocent people of Jangalmahal before 2019 parliamentary polls. This time the result of Jangalmahal will be completely different.

‘BJP has taken over the batton from the Left to silence me by launching attacks’

Abhishek Banerjee held a roadshow at Saltora in Bankura on Wednesday PIC/MPOST

Mamata likely to hold rally

in Nandigram on Mar 29, 30

KOLKATA|THURSDAY, 18 MARCH, 2021|millenniumpostmp nation4

RAJYA SABHA CHAIRMAN ACCEPTS SWAPAN DASGUPTA'S RESIGNATIONNEW DELHI: Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu accepted the resignation of nominated mem-ber Swapan Dasgupta on Wednesday. Dasgupta tendered his resignation from the Upper House of Parliament on Tuesday after being named as a BJP candidate in the upcoming West Bengal Assembly polls. Deputy Chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh said the chairman has received Dasgupta's resignation let-ter dated March 16 and has accepted his resignation with effect from March 17.

MAHA: 30 CHILDREN FROM ASHRAM SCHOOL TEST COVID-19 POSITIVEPALGHAR: As many as 30 students and a teacher from an ashram school have tested positive for coro-navirus in Maharashtra's Palghar district, an official from the health department said on Wednesday.The cases came to light after a couple of students displayed symptoms of the viral infection earlier this week, the official from the taluka medical office said.

GUJ: 23 PATIENTS RESCUED AS FIRE ERUPTS IN VADODARA HOSPITALAHMEDABAD: At least 23 patients, including 17 COVID-19 patients, were evacuated to safety fol-lowing a minor fire at a private hospital in Gujarat's Vadodara city on Wednesday night, an official said. Nobody was injured in the fire, which engulfed a portion of Shree Vijay Vallabh Sarvajanik Hospital in Mandvi area of Vadodara city, said Vadodara Col-lector Shalini Agarwal.

BRIEFSNATION

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The aver-age COVID-19 vaccine wast-age in India is at 6.5 per cent, with Telangana and Andhra Pradesh being on the top with 17.6 and 11.6 per cent wastage respectively, the Centre said on Wednesday as it called for optimal utilisation of the doses.

At a press conference, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said that Monday, 8.34 million COVID-19 vac-cine doses were administered worldwide, of which India alone administered 36 per cent of the doses.

Bhushan said COVID-19 vaccine wastage in five states -- Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Jammu and Kashmir -- is higher than the national average of 6.5 per cent.

“The message we have shared with states is that vac-cines are invaluable commod-ities. They are public health goods and therefore vaccines have to be optimally utilised.

“Vaccine wastage has to be drastically reduced. Any reduc-tion in wastage means that you end up inoculating more people and therefore the chances of dis-rupting the chain of infection grow that much more,” he said.

About the increase in daily COVID-19 cases, Bhushan said from March 1-15, about 70 dis-tricts in 16 states have registered more than 150 per cent increase in active cases while 55 districts in 17 states have registered a 100-150 per cent rise in cases.

Most of these districts are in west and north India.

Elaborating on the rise in cases in states, he said, “If we look at Maharashtra, 60 per cent of all active cases and 45 per cent of new deaths are concen-trated there.”

“On March 1, 7,741 new

cases were being reported on an average. By March 15, it stood at 13,527. The positivity rate, which was 11 per cent on March 1 rose to 16 per cent by March 15,” he said.

Noting that the high positiv-ity rate is a matter of concern,

Bhushan said the number of tests is not increasing in tandem with the COVID-19 positivity rate. “So, our advice to the states, especially Maharashtra, is that there is a need to increase the testing rate, especially the RT-PCR ones,” he said.

In Punjab, on March 1 an average of 531 new cases were being reported. By March 15, the number increased to an average of 1,338. The positiv-ity rate has doubled and the share of RT-PCR total tests con-ducted was 89 per cent, he said.

“We would want a distinct increasing trend of tests in which RT-PCR share is sub-stantially higher,” Bhushan said.

In Chattisgarh, on March 1 an average of 239 new cases were being reported. By March 15, the number increased to average 430. The positivity rate increased from 1.4 per cent to 2.4 per cent and RT-PCR share in tests conducted is 34 per cent.

In Gujarat on March 1, an average of 398 new cases was being reported. By March 15, the number increased to 689. The positivity rate increased from 2.4 per cent to 4 per cent and RT-PCR’s share in COVID-19 tests was 50 per cent.

Karnataka had 443 cases on average on March 1. In a fort-night, the number increased to an average of 751. The positivity rate increased from 0.8 per cent to 1.3 per cent and RT-PCRs’ share in COVID-19 tests is 93 per cent.

In Madhya Pradesh, an aver-age of 334 new cases were being reported on March 1. By March 15, the number increased to 564. The positivity rate has increased from 3.1 per cent to 7.4 per cent and RT-PCR share in tests was 65 per cent.

As for Haryana, an average of 151 new cases were being reported on March 1. By the middle of the months, the num-ber increased to 374. The posi-tivity rate has increased from 1.2 per cent to 3.3 per cent and RT-PCR’s share in tests was 93 per cent. In Delhi, on March 1 an average of 198 new cases were being reported. By March 15, the number increased to 371.

NEW DELHI: Amid reports of possible side-effects of Oxford-AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vac-cine and its suspension in some European countries, the gov-ernment on Wednesday said there is "no signal of concern" regarding its use in the country as of now.

Asked about the suspension of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in some European countries, Dr VK Paul, NITI Aayog member (Health) told a weekly press conference here that it has only been done as a precautionary measure.

Concerns about AstraZen-eca's vaccine relationship with thrombotic events in people who received the vaccine have come to light and as a result, about 10 European countries have paused their AstraZen-eca vaccination programme, he said.

"The European medical agency says it is a precaution-ary measure and there is no data to believe, as of now, the causal relationship between the vaccine and the adverse events. The assessment is still being done," Paul added.

He said the World Health Organization (WHO) has said as a precaution, investigation should go on and has categori-cally said not to suspend the vaccination.

"India's own committee that looks at adverse effects is seized of this issue. For the last few days, it is tracking the infor-mation that is available to us in a very systematic manner and again I assure you that we have no signal of concern in this regard. Therefore, clearly our vaccination programme with Covishield will go on with full vigour.

"We are mindful of the fact to address this concern, based on the emerging situation. As of today, there is no concern at all with regard to Covishield," Paul said. MPOST

Covid vaccine wastage in India is 6.5%, says Centre‘70 districts registered over 150% increase in active cases from Mar 1-15’

COVID-19India

Snapshot

80,000

1,00,000

40,000

20,000

0

Jan Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Dec Jan Feb MarNov

30

Source: Ministry of Health and Family Welfare

60,000

KBK graphicsInfo

MarFeb

17

97,894

28,903

Daily new cases

7-day moving

average of

new cases

Situation up to Mar 17, 2021

Total cases

1,14,38,734

Active cases

2,34,406

Deaths

1,59,044

Tests

22,92,49,784

Cases

per million

8,288

Deaths

per million

115

Tests

per million

1,66,123

Fatality rate

1.39%

Case

positivity

4.99%

2020 2021

Govt says no signal of concern

regarding use of Covishield

vaccine in IndiaOUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Samyukt Kisan Morcha on Wednesday held a meeting with different kinds of progressive mass organisations and associations at Singhu Bor-der to discuss its “Bharat Bandh call” on March 26.

Trade unions from the organised and unorganised sec-tors, traders and other associa-tions, workers' unions including agricultural workers unions, transporter associations, teach-ers' associations, youth and stu-dents associations and others

took part in the meeting.“All participants pledged

their full support to the bandh and thanked the Samyukt Kisan Morcha for the histori-cal inspiring struggle being led by it. Several organisations also committed to mobilise thou-sands of people into the protest sites, at a time when the pro-testing farmers would have to attend to wheat harvesting oper-ations in a couple of weeks,” a statement from Samyukt Kisan Morcha said.

A member of leading stu-dent organisation AISA told

Millennium Post that the bandh will be intense this time where all kinds of unions will par-ticipate. “We have joined in to pledge our support as well,” he said.

Meanwhile, SKM has con-demned the Delhi Police put-ting barricading around the protest sites and called the act “illegal and irrational”.

“SKM demands that the police remove such barricad-ing including on internal roads so that the life of locals can be kept easier and their livelihoods protected,” it added.

Unions of traders, workers, teachers, students to join in solidarity: SKM

BHARAT BANDH ON MARCH 26

NIKITA JAIN

NEW DELHI: Balvinder Singh from Punjab’s Mahauli District is busy setting up his tent with straws and sticks to make it more “pakka”. Just outside his trolley, he has set up a room-like space where few other men are helping him set up the tent.

“With the approaching summer, we decided that it was time to make our living space a bit better. The tractor would not be enough for the approach-ing summer, which is why we are setting up the tent,” he said while cutting the sticks. All the material has been brought from the respective villages. To make the living conditions better, a net, which would help deal with the mosquitoes, has been used to surround the tent.

Farmers have started firm-ing up their tents with bricks and metal sticks as they get ready to stay for the long haul. Pawinder Singh from Gurdas-pur, who was sitting under his tent said that people are using different methods to set up the tent. Another reading for this change is that tractors and trol-leys are needed back in the vil-lages as the farming season has approached. “These huge trol-leys are used to transport mate-rials from one place to another. And tractors are obviously needed for all the movement. Most of the tractors will be sent back to the villages, which is why we are setting up the tents this way. We are here for a long time and work can also not stop back home,” Singh added.

In a more updated version of the tent, Rana Singh from Punjab’s Jalandhar has said that all the villagers have pitched in money to set up the tent. The tent is beautified with plants while a wooden fence has been used to measure the area. Inside the tent, one would be amazed to see a proper well built shel-ter. “All of this could easily be dismantled. That’s the best part. We have used two layers of bricks to set up the whole tent. We have set up the tent with the help of metal rods,” Rana Singh explained.

He said that most of the tractors are getting ready to go back, which is why such upgra-dation was needed. “All peo-ple from villages are going to change the living situation,” he added saying that summer saver pumps are also being set up for water facilities.

The setting up tents have started for most of the people, while others are still waiting

for the go-ahead. “Our village people will bring the material and then we are going to set up our tent properly,” Pawinder Singh added.

The tents are being con-structed in a way that it can manage rains and harsh sum-mers. “Nothing is going to move our tents till the time three laws are taken back,” Pawinder Singh smiled.

He also showed the setup where the fridge was kept. “We also have cool water here,” he laughed. Air con-ditioners were also being set up at the tents and inside the trolleys. “The electricity will be generated through a gen-erator or via the trolley as we have been using it since the time we came,” Balwinder said. Farmers have been sitting at various borders of Delhi since November 26. Their demands are the repeal of three laws, which they say is the death sen-tence for farmers.

Bracing long haul, farmers make pakka tents with rods and bricks

DHIRENDRA KUMAR

NEW DELHI: When the gov-ernment is making an extra push to the consumer-oriented services through digital mode, the 100 per cent availability of mobile connectivity is still a dis-tant dream in as many as 25,067 villages in the country.

At the time when India is aiming for faster and more reli-able communication through 5G networks and auctioning of spectrums has already tak-ing place, your mobile phone will become a ‘dead’ in these 25,067 villages.

According to Union Tele-com Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, it is estimated that out of 5,97,618 inhabited villages in the country, as per Census-2011, 5,72,551 villages have been pro-vided with mobile and internet connectivity.

In the 90 districts affected by Left Wing Extremism (LWE), 10,900 villages have no mobile and internet connectivity as out of the total number of 96,794 inhabited villages (as per Cen-sus2011), 85,894 villages are having mobile and internet services, Prasad informed the House in reply to a question

asked by Shiv Sena MPs Rahul Ramesh Shewale and Hemant Sriram Patil.

Among the 38 states/UTs, the highest 6,099 villages in Odi-sha has no mobile connectivity as out of total 47,677 villages in the state, villagers of 41,578 inhabited villages are having mobile and internet services.

As per experts, when the government is aiming to make consumer-centric services through digital means, then just imagine the problems being faced by the people living in these “no-mobile connectiv-ity” villages.

After Odisha, there are 2,612 villages in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh where there is no mobile connectivity as of the total 51,929 villages in the state, 49,317 inhabited villages have mobile and internet connec-tivity, while in Maharashtra, there are 2,328 villages where you won’t be able to use your mobile for either voice calling or internet access as in the Shiva Sena-ruled state, out of 40,959 inhabited villages, 38,631vil-lages have mobile connectivity.

As per the latest data pro-vided by the ministry, all the villages in the states/UTs like

Punjab, Kerala, Haryana, Puducherry, Chandigarh, Delhi, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu have 100 per cent mobile connectivity.

In Bihar, which is the home state of Telecom Minister, there are 245 villages where there is no mobile and internet service as out of total 39,073 villages, 38,828 villages have mobile con-nectivity, while Gujarat, which is the home state of PM Narendra Modi, 512 villages are still with-out mobile connectivity. Guja-rat has 17,843 villages and out of which 17,331 villages have mobile and internet services.

Mobile connectivity still a distant dream for 25,000 villages

FOR A SOCIAL CAUSE

Haryana Chief Secretary Vijai Vardhan presiding over a meeting of Administrative Secretaries and District Commissioners on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s water harvesting countrywide campaign “Catch the rain, where it falls, when it falls” on World Water Day starting from March 22 through video conferencing, at Chandigarh, on Wednesday

NOIDA (UP): The Uttar Pradesh cabinet has approved a proposal for acquisition of another 1,365 hectare land in Jewar for the second phase of the upcoming Noida Interna-tional Airport, according to an official statement.

The cabinet also approved an expenditure of Rs 2,890 crore for the land acquisition, besides resettlement and reha-bilitation of the people who will be affected by the expansion of the greenfield project, it stated.

The decision was taken by the cabinet at a meeting in Luc-know on Tuesday evening.

S P Goyal, the additional chief secretary to Chief Minis-ter Yogi Adityanath, tweeted on Tuesday, "The State Cabinet has today approved the proposal to acquire another 1,365 hectares of land for the future expansion of Noida International Airport at Jewar.

Currently work is underway for the first phase of develop-ment of the Noida International Airport in the Jewar area of Gautam Buddh Nagar district in western Uttar Pradesh, accord-ing to officials. The greenfield airport is being developed in four phases. MPOST

UP Cabinet's nod to acquire 1,365 hectare land for

Noida airport

NEW DELHI: The cumula-tive number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country has crossed 3.64 crore, the Union Health Ministry said on Wednesday.

A total of 3,64,67,744 vac-cine doses have been given, as per the provisional report till 7.00 pm.

These include 75,47,958 healthcare workers (HCWs), who have taken the first dose and 4608397 HCWs who have taken the second dose, 76,63,647 frontline workers

who have been administered the first dose, 17,86,812 FLWs who have taken the second dose.

Besides, 1,24,74,362 beneficiaries more than 60-years-old and 23,86,568 beneficiaries aged 45 to 60 with specific comorbidities have been given the first dose, according to health ministry.

Total 14,03,208 vaccine doses were given till 7 pm on Wednesday, the sixty first day of nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive. MPOST

NEW DELHI: The budgetary allocation to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) is inad-equate, considering the extent and magnitude of India's dip-lomatic outreach and foreign policy objectives, a parliamen-tary committee said in a report on Wednesday.

It said the budgetary resources will play a "deter-mining role" in the country's pursuit of a permanent seat at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) as it requires adequate global presence

and expansion of diplomatic outreach.

The report of the committee on external affairs was tabled in the Lok Sabha.

The panel noted that against the MEA's demand for Rs 22,888 crore for 2021-22, it has been given a budgetary alloca-tion of Rs 18,154 crore, which is merely 0.52 per cent of the government's overall budget.

"Keeping in view the extent and magnitude of India's dip-lomatic outreach and foreign policy objectives, the commit-

tee strongly feel that the allo-cation is incommensurate and inadequate," it said.

The 30-member committee, headed by BJP MP P P Chaud-hary, includes Meenakshi Lekhi, P Chidambaram, Kapil Sibal, Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Preneet Kaur, Abhishek Banerjee and Poonam Mahajan.

The panel said the provi-sioning of adequate finances is critical to ensure that India's global footprint and diplomatic outreach is "not circumscribed".

"The committee, therefore,

strongly recommend that the allocation to the Ministry of External Affairs, mandated with managing India's external rela-tions, should further be suitably and appropriately enhanced from what is being provisioned now," it added.

The committee said the MEA should also make a strong case for the same.

Referring to the outlay to the MEA for 2021-22, the panel, however, mentioned that the allocation is the highest ever to it and is 4.66 per cent more than

the budgetary estimate in 2020-21 and 21 per cent more than the revised estimate of alloca-tion in the year.

"Notwithstanding these fig-ures, the percentage of MEA's budget during 2021-22 as a per-centage of the government's budget is merely 0.52," it said.

"While the increased alloca-tion to MEA in absolute terms is a fine development, however, it is continuously slipping down as a percentage of the govern-ment's total expenditure," the panel observed. MPOST

It is estimated that out of 5,97,618 villages, 5,72,551 have mobile and Internet connectivity

Funds allocation to MEA inadequate: Parl panel

Cumulative number of vaccine doses given crosses 3.64 crore

NEW DELHI: The DGCA informed the Delhi High Court on Wednesday that action is being taken against passengers not wearing masks properly despite repeated warnings and they will be de-boarded from planes before departure and treated as unruly passengers .

The high court expressed satisfaction over the steps being taken by the Directorate Gen-eral of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and said it hoped that the action would continue in the same spirit considering the safety of passengers from COVID-19 infection. A bench of Justices Navin Chawla and C Hari Shan-kar observed that the court was initially planning to keep the suo motu case open to continue

monitoring the implementation of directions issued by the court earlier. However, after notic-ing the proactive action by the DGCA, the court decided to close the case and observed that initiation of punitive action against the violators is a wel-come step, the bench said.

Justice Shankar had on March 8 taken suo motu cog-nisance of the situation after witnessing passengers not wear-ing masks properly. Meanwhile, four passengers were handed over to the security agencies on Tuesday for not wearing masks properly onboard Alli-ance Air’s Jammu-Delhi flight despite repeated warnings by the cabin crew, said senior gov-ernment officials. MPOST

Passengers not wearing masks properly to be de-boarded and treated as unruly: DGCA to HC

NEW DELHI: The Election Commission on Wednesday ordered the transfer of Tamil Nadu's Inspector General, South Zone S Murugan to a non-elec-tion post with immediate effect.

It also asked the state gov-ernment to send a list of names of officers for appointment as IG, South Zone in place of Murugan, official sources said.

Also, based on the inputs of the special police observer, the commission has ordered the transfer of various ACPs and DSPs in the southern state with a direction to attach them with the DGP, Headquarters. It has also directed the Tamil Nadu government that these officers should not be assigned with any election-related duty. AGENCIES

Poll body orders transfer of TN's

IG, South Zone to non-election post

NEW DELHI: Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Wednesday underlined that India is not giving COVID-19 vaccine to the world at the expense of the need of local population.

Speaking in the Lok Sabha on demands for grants for the health ministry, he noted that the government has not reduced the expenditure on health as has been alleged by certain members.

On the criticism that India is providing coronavirus vac-cine to other countries when it is needed more at home, the minister asserted, “We are not giving (the vaccine) at the expense of our own people”.

He said the government

has discussed the matter with experts and has tried to strike a balance.

“The whole world is a fam-ily... the whole mankind should benefit from the vaccine,” he added.

Vardhan added that the government is treating the health sector in a holistic manner.

The government, he said, has taken many efforts to deal with the pandemic and is future ready to deal with any such eventuality.

Citing data about the work in the sector, the health min-ister said 157 medical col-leges are under various stages of implementation across the country. MPOST

India not giving vaccine to world at the expense of local population, asserts Vardhan

millenniumpost|KOLKATA|THURSDAY, 18 MARCH, 2021mp nation 5

GEARING UP FOR HOLI

Artists dressed as Lord Krishna and saints being showered with flower petals as part of Holi celebrations, at Raman Reti in Mathura district, Wednesday PIC/PTI

170 NON-PERFORMING GOVT OFFICERS PREMATURELY RETIRED IN LAST 2 YEARSNEW DELHI: As many as 170 non-performing government officers have been prematurely retired in the last two years, Lok Sabha was informed on Wednesday. "As per the information/data provided by different ministries/departments /cadre control-ling authorities (CCAs), provisions of FR 56(J)/similar provisions have been invoked against 90 Group-A officers and 80 Group-B officers in last two years," Union Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh said in written reply to a question.

‘RAIL EMPLOYEES ADVISED TO CONVERT DEBIT, ATM CARDS TO RUPAY CARDS’NEW DELHI: The railways has advised its over 12 lakh employees to convert their existing debit or ATM cards to RuPay-based cards, a move aimed at giving fillip to the 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat' campaign and the 'Digital India initiative', Parliament was informed on Wednesday. The railways was also facilitating promo-tion of this move, Union Minister Piyush Goyal said in a written reply in Lok Sabha.

OVER 10.75L HOUSES CONSTRUCTED UNDER PMAY-U DURING PANDEMICNEW DELHI: Over 10.75 lakh houses have been constructed under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) during the COVID-19 pandemic so far, and Uttar Pradesh tops the chart with more than 2.55 lakh such units, Parliament was informed on Wednesday. In a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha, Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said under PMAY-U, construction of 43,32,651 houses have been completed till date. In Uttar Pradesh, 2,55,227 houses have been constructed under the ambitious scheme since March last year, followed by 1,25,108 in Gujarat, 1,10,633 in Maha-rashtra and 58,427 in West Bengal, Puri said.

BRIEFSNATIONMPOST BUREAU

KOCHI/KOTTAYAM: Ahead of the April 6 Assembly polls, the Kerala Congress headed by former Union Minister C Thomas on Wednesday quit the BJP-led NDA and merged with another Kerala Congress faction headed by P J Joseph, which is a constituent of the Congress-led UDF.

Thomas, who helped the NDA register its first electoral victory in Kerala by winning

the 2004 Lok Sabha polls from then Muvattupuzha seat, quit the BJP-led alliance alleging that his party was neglected by the front when the seats were allocated for the April 6 polls.

The Kerala Congress leader, who was a minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA gov-ernment, said his party was given four seats in the 2016 Assembly polls but not a sin-gle seat was allocated this time.

Thomas said the BJP lead-ership had offered him Pala

assembly seat but he did not opt for it due to some personal reasons.

Later in the afternoon, the merger took place at an elec-tion convention of the UDF held at Kaduthuruthy in Kot-tayam district.

Senior Congress leader Oommen Chandy and senior leaders of the Kerala Congress Joseph faction attended the elec-tion convention of sitting MLA from Kaduthuruthy constitu-ency Mons Joseph.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: As many as 40,096 personnel of the Central Armed Police Force (CAPFs) and the Assam Rifles have sought voluntary retirement in the last five years, while another 6,529 resigned during the same period, Parliament was informed on Wednesday.

More than half of these vol-untary retirements (VR) have been sought by the personnel of the Border Security Force (BSF) alone, while the maxi-mum resignations have been witnessed in the Central Indus-trial Security Force (CISF), Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai stated.

Rai furnished the figures

from 2016 to 2020 in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha while responding to queries over res-ignations and VRs sought by personnel of the CAPFs and the Assam Rifles during the last five years.

The CAPFs comprise seven central security forces of the country under admin-istrative control of the Min-istry of Home Affairs. They are the Border Security Force (BSF), the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), the Cen-tral Industrial Security Force (CISF), the Indo-Tibetan Bor-der Police (ITBP), the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), besides the Assam Rifles (AR).

According to the data, 40,096 personnel of the

CAPFs and the Assam Rifles have sought voluntary retire-ment from 2016 till 2020 while another 6,529 tendered resig-nation during the five-year period.

Among the forces, a maxi-mum 20,249 VRs were sought by personnel of the BSF dur-ing the period followed by the CRPF (11,029), the CISF (2,858), the Assam Rifles (2,279), the ITBP (1,912) and the SSB (1,769), the data showed.

During the same period, 2,919 CISF personnel tendered resignation followed by the BSF (1,708), the CRPF (796), the ITBP (620), the SSB (412) and the Assam Rifles (74), accord-ing to the data.

Asked if any study has been conducted to find out the rea-sons behind such increasing cases of voluntary retirements and resignations, the minis-ter said "no specific study" for ascertaining the reasons for voluntary retirement or resig-nation by personnel of force has been conducted.

"However, an analysis car-ried out by the forces indicates that personal and domes-tic reasons including chil-dren or family issues, health issues of self or family mem-bers, social or family obliga-tions and commitments, better career opportunities are some of the major reasons for volun-tary retirement or resignation," he added.

MPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI: The Centre pro-poses to induct three joint sec-retaries, 27 directors and 13 deputy secretaries in the cen-tral government through lateral entry, Lok Sabha was informed on Wednesday. Lateral entry refers to the induction of pri-vate sector specialists in gov-ernment departments.

"At first, it was decided to make lateral recruitment to 10 posts of joint secretaries dur-ing 2018-19. Eight joint secre-taries were appointed, and out of these seven are in position at present. Accordingly, it is now proposed to fill three posts at joint secretary level," Minister

of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh said in a written reply.

In addition, it is proposed to fill 27 posts at the direc-tor level and 13 at the deputy secretary-level through lateral recruitment on contract/dep-utation (including short-term contract) basis, he said.

Through lateral recruit-ment, eight joint secretar-ies were appointed in 2019 in the ministries/departments of Civil Aviation, Commerce, Economic Affairs, New and Renewable Energy, Financial Services, Environment, For-est and Climate Change, Road Transport and Highways, and Ports, Shipping & Waterways, the minister said.

"NITI Aayog, in its three year Action Agenda, and the Sectoral Group of Secretaries (SGoS) on Governance, in its report submitted in February 2017, recommended for induc-tion of personnel in the middle and senior management level in the government with the twin objective of bringing in fresh talent and augment the availability of manpower," he said.

Accordingly, it was then decided to undertake lateral recruitment on contract/dep-utation basis of 10 joint secre-taries and 40 directors/deputy secretaries in the identified ministries/departments, Singh said.

NEW DELHI: A parliamentary committee has suggested the use of the term officials of the Union of India in place of central gov-ernment officials for those serv-ing in all the three organs of governance the executive, the legislative and the judiciary.

In its report, the panel observed that the executive, the legislature and the judi-ciary have well defined roles and they all function under the Constitution.

The Committee is of the considered opinion that these three organs of governance, by and large, constitute the Union

government, it said.The Committee feels that it

is inappropriate to use the term Central Government Officials' to those serving the executive wing alone, the Department-Related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice said in its 106th report on Demands for Grants (2021-22) of the Min-istry of Personnel, Public Griev-ances and Pensions, tabled in Parliament on Tuesday.

The Committee desires the term Central Government' to be substituted by Union of India', it said. MPOST

NEW DELHI: The Election Commission's proposal to link electoral roll with the Aadhaar ecosystem to root out multiple enrolments is under the con-sideration of the government, the Lok Sabha was informed on Wednesday.

In a written reply, Law Min-ister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the poll panel has proposed to link electoral roll with the "Aad-haar ecosystem" with a "view to curb the menace of multiple enrolment of the same person at different places".

He said this would require amendments to the electoral laws. "The matter is under the consideration of the govern-ment," he said. He was asked about the current status of the Election Commission's proposal to link Aadhaar with voter ID.

The minister said the poll panel has stated that it has taken multiple measures for the secu-rity and the safety of the elec-toral roll data platform.

"Electoral roll database sys-tem does not enter into the Aad-haar ecosystem and the system is used only for the authentica-tion purpose keeping a tight air-gap between the two sys-tems. These measures effectively prevent theft interception and hijacking of the voter system," Prasad said.

He was asked about the manner in which the govern-ment plans to protect the data linked with Aadhaar and voter ID from being misused. The poll panel has been pressing the gov-ernment to amend provisions of the Representation of the People Act. MPOST

CHANDIGARH: Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and Navjot Singh Sidhu on Wednes-day met over tea, discussing the possible reinduction of the cricketer-turned-politician’s in the state cabinet.

The 40-minute meeting at the chief minister’s farmhouse near here comes amid specula-tion over rehabilitation of the Congress MLA, who quit the state cabinet after being stripped of a key portfolio by the CM.

The chief minister’s media advisor shared on Twitter pho-tographs of the two leaders together, indicating a thaw in their strained relations.

The issue of the Amritsar East MLA’s return to the cabinet was discussed at the meeting, it is learnt. But there has been no official word on this.

Sidhu travelled with Punjab Sports minister Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi to the farmhouse at Siswan in Mohali.

He had resigned from the Punjab cabinet in 2019 after being stripped of the Local Bod-ies portfolio. The two leaders had not been on good terms for some time earlier.

This was the second meet-ing between the CM and Sidhu since then. The first meeting took place in November and was seen as a move by the CM to break the ice.

The Congress central leader-ship has been trying to rehabili-tate Sidhu since his resignation, party leaders say. MPOST

NEW DELHI: Cyber volun-teers, who will assist police and other law-enforcement agencies (LEAs) in the fight against cyber crime, will have no power and their identity will be fully ascer-tained, Parliament was informed on Wednesday.

In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Union Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy said the Cyber Crime Volunteer Framework has been rolled out as a part of cyber hygiene promotion to bring together citizens to contribute in the fight against cyber crime in the country and assist the law-enforcement agencies in the states and Union ter-ritories in their endeavour to curb cyber crime.

He said the volunteers will be registered and their services utilised by the respective state and Union Territory police, according to their requirement.

The cyber volunteers will be registered following the due process and will be required to furnish ID proof, address proof, photograph etc., Reddy said.

He said the cyber vol-unteers will assist the state and Union Territory LEAs for cyber hygiene promo-tion as technical experts and for the reporting of unlaw-ful content, and the content reported shall be verified and validated by the state and Union Territory LEAs for taking appropriate action in accordance with the exist-ing provisions of law.

"There is no discretion in the hands of a cyber volun-teer," the minister said. MPOST

Over 40,000 CAPF, Assam Rifles personnel sought VR, 6,529 resigned in 5 years: GovtMore than half of these VR have been sought by personnel of BSF alone

‘Linking electoral roll with the Aadhaar under consideration’

Cyber volunteers will have no

powers; to only assist police, MHA tells RS

Will induct 3 joint secretaries, 27 directors, 13 deputy secretaries through lateral entry: Govt

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Centre on Wednesday said it has not taken any decision on the nationwide roll-out of the National Regis-ter of Citizens (NRC).

Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai was replying to a question in the Rajya Sabha on whether the central government had any plans to implement the NRC throughout the country.

"Till now, the government has not taken any decision to prepare the National Reg-ister of Indian Citizens at the national level," Rai said in a written reply.

The NRC was updated in Assam under the supervision of the Supreme Court. When the final NRC was published on August 31, 2019, a total of 19.06 lakh people were excluded out of the total 3,30,27,661 appli-

cants, which created a ripple across India.

The NRC is an Assam-spe-cific data of bonafide Indian citizens living in the state.

Replying to another ques-tion, Rai said there is no provi-sion of detention centres under the Citizenship Act, 1955 and the National Register of Indian Citizens.

He said the Supreme Court on February 28, 2012 had directed that foreign nation-als who completed their sen-tence shall be released from jail immediately and be kept in an appropriate place with restricted movement pending their deportation or repatria-tion. Following that directive, Rai said, the Ministry of Home Affairs issued instructions on March 7, 2012 to state govern-ments and UT administrations to comply with the directions of the Supreme Court.

‘No decision yet on nationwide NRC’

Parl panel for use of ‘officials of the Union of India' in place

of Central government officials

NEW DELHI: Over 64 lakh migrant labourers reached home safely by Shramik trains during the COVID-19 pan-demic, Railway Minister Piy-ush Goyal told the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday in his reply over a discussion on the railways.

He said free meals and packaged drinking water were provided on the Shramik trains.

"More than 64 lakh migrant labourers reached home safely," Goyal said. He said 4,600 Shramik trains were run on 43 routes during the pandemic to ferry migrant labourers.

He said trains were con-verted into isolation wards on a suggestion from the prime minister. MPOST

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Opposition parties on Wednesday warned that privatisation of various railway infrastructure and ser-vices would only benefit corpo-rates and result in depletion of the PSU behemoth's financial resources which would eventu-ally make it sick like Air India and Indian Airlines.

They were also of the view that roping in private players would not help in improving quality of services for the com-mon man and rather would result in fare hike.

Participating in the dis-cussion on working of Indian Railways in Rajya Sabha, Con-gress leader Naranbhai J Rathwa claimed, "It (privatisation) was all out to benefit corporate houses at the expense of sell-ing the Railway's property."

He said there is no empha-sis on developing railway infra-structure and the focus is on "privatisation". After Tejas Express, Niti Aayog has sug-gested running private trains and developing railway stations which was not fair, he said.

Rathwa, a former Minister of State for Railways, said it pained him that instead of augmenting this excellent mode of transpor-tation, the government was hell bent to privatising it with so many jobs at stake.

"...As many as 3,000 posts are at stake at the South East-ern Zone while 11,000 posts are set to be abolished in 16 zones while talks are to give Jabalpur station on contract," he said.

DMK leader P Wilson said, "Although, the railway minister claims that railways will not

be privatised, when activities of railways are privatised, the income of railways will deplete, resulting in financial crisis for Indian Railways which eventu-ally will become like Air India and Indian Airlines."

Citing an example he said, "Catering services were priva-tised nearly two to three decades back yet there are complaints from passengers. So privatisa-tion does not mean improve-ment in services or efficiency."

He further said, "You are promoting few crony capital-ists in India and entire material

resources are left at the disposal including the railways. The centralisation of wealth in this nation and natural resources only with them (capitalists) is very dangerous and working against the citizens of this coun-try." He also said privatisation of trains on some routes would result in undue burden on the common man in the form of increased ticket fares.

Vishambhar Prasad Nishad (SP) also opposed privatisation of railways saying one the one hand, youths are jobless and on the other, few capitalists would

own railways.Ram Nath Thakur (JDU)

was of the view that the man-dated facilities are not being provided to passengers having reserved tickets.

Manoj Jha said the govern-ment should resist the tempta-tion to offer assets (public or railways) to capitalists through the monetization of these assets.

He said history will "judge you (the government) by the benefits provided by you to commoners and by benefits provided to corporates".

Jha also asked as to when

would railways operations return to pre-COVID stage and all other services are restored.

Anil Desai (Shiv Sena) said by allowing private players to participate in the functioning of the Railways under the PPP mode, the government is mov-ing towards privatisation of the public transporter.

He said that private players would use the infrastructure for their own benefit.

Desai also noted that there was no need for the bullet train from Mumbai-Ahmedabad and instead the government should focus on improving the existing railways infrastructure.

Rajmani Patel (Congress) said the government is pur-posely not making any effort to improve the financial health of the Railways and a case is being built for its privatisation.

Sanjay Singh (AAP) said the government is moving towards privatising railways and that it would lead to issues for the general public. He appealed to the government not to leave the Railway employees at the mercy of the private sector.

Jharna Das Baidya (CPI-M) said the Northeast has not been given any new project in the Budget. Countering the oppo-sition's charges, Dushyant Gau-tam (BJP) said Railways has worked for the benefit of the common people.

He noted that even dur-ing the coronavirus pandemic, Railways constantly worked for transporting people as well as essential commodities.

He said Railways has intro-duced various schemes even for the benefit of the women, blind and differently-abled people.

Privatisation of railway services, infra to benefit corporates: OppnThey were also of the view that roping in private players would not help in improving

quality of services for the common man and rather would result in fare hike

NEW DELHI: The Indian Rail-ways will not be privatised, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said on Wednesday as he reeled out the government’s measures, including a record budget allo-cation, to bring back the lost glory of the country’s largest employer.

Replying to a discussion in the Rajya Sabha on the working of the railway ministry, Goyal said efforts are being made to attract investments for the development of the rail infra-structure and improving pas-senger amenities.

“The railways is an asset of the nation and it will continue to be so. Nobody can privatise the Indian Railways,” he said.

The minister further said the country needs to attract private investments to provide better facilities to the passen-

gers and while the government has increased its spending, the requirement is much more.

Recalling the initiatives taken by the railways, he said the services have improved and one can see more cleanliness at stations, better toilets and enhanced passenger amenities. The focus is also on improving

the facilities for differently-abled persons. In the coming years, train travel will be “better than air travel” with good facili-ties, Goyal said. He further said under the National Rail Plan, three new dedicated freight corridors have been identi-fied, which will need massive investments. MPOST

Railways will continue to be national asset, no one can privatise it: Goyal

‘Over 64L migrant labourers reached

home safely by Shramik trains’

PC Thomas-led Kerala Cong quits NDA, merges with Joseph faction

DHIRENDRA KUMAR

NEW DELHI: Even though the Comptroller & Auditor General (CAG) of India, in its reports, had red-flagged the issues of poor quality of crucial equip-ment and supplies that person-nel deployed at high-altitude posts of Ladakh and Siachen require, the Ministry of Defence on Wednesday refused to answer a question seeking details about the challenges being faced by the government in modernising its ageing military hardware and other related issues.

The question related to chal-lenges faced by armed forces was asked by BJP MP Kha-gen Murmu, who represents

Maldaha Uttar constituency in West Bengal. The Lok Sabha MP wanted to know from the Defence Minister about the challenges being faced by the government in indigenising its military hardware to ensure self-sufficiency and harmonising its combat power to ensure that it can defend its borders against security threats.

However, in a written reply to the question, which was at

serial number 314 as a starred question, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh informed the House that the desired infor-mation is strategic/sensitive in nature and its “disclosure is not in the interest of national security”.

The BJP MP also sought to know from the Defence Min-ister about the details and the measures being taken by the government to meet these chal-lenges, if any and the steps taken by the government in regard to the country’s problems of pri-oritising spending and getting its armed forces to plan to fight together rather than coordinate their operations in integrated theatres.

LS: Centre refuses to share info on challenges faced by armed forces

Punjab CM, Navjot Sidhu meet over

tea; return to Cabinet discussed

mp nation6 KOLKATA|THURSDAY, 18 MARCH, 2021|millenniumpost

HOME GUARD ALLEGES COMMANDANT SOUGHT SEXUAL FAVOURS IN UP SHAHJAHANPUR (UP): A home guard posted here has accused the district commandant of trying to force him into having sex with him, a charge denied by the officer, who claimed that the home guard was level-ling “baseless allegations” as he was reprimanded for being absent from duty for days. Speaking to reporters, the home guard also alleged that the com-mandant takes Rs 1,000 from him every month.

CONG LEADER SHOT DEAD IN MP’S CHHATARPUR DISTRICT; SIX BOOKED CHHATARPUR (MP): A local Congress leader was allegedly shot dead by six men in Badamalhara town of Madhya Pradesh’s Chhatarpur district, police said on Wednesday. According to the police, a case of murder has been registered against six persons and a manhunt has been launched to nab them. Motorcycle-borne assailants fired at Indra Pratap Singh Parmar (45), the party president of Ghuvara block, near a hotel in Badamalhara town and fled the scene, Chat-tarpur’s city superintendent of police (CSP) Lokendra Singh said.

DEBT-RIDDEN LABOURER ENDS LIFE IN UP HAMIRPUR (UP): A 50-year-old labourer allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself from a tree here as he was unable to repay loans taken for his daughter’s wedding, police said on Wednesday. The deceased has been identified as Ramdas Savita, a resident of Kuchhechha village in Hamirpur district in Uttar Pradesh. He was found hanging from a tree in the village on Wednesday morning, police said, add-ing the body has been sent for postmortem.

‘16% CANDIDATES IN PHASE-1 OF ASSAM ASSEMBLY POLLS FACE CRIMINAL CASES’ NEW DELHI: Sixteen per cent of the candidates contesting in the first phase of Assam assembly elec-tions have declared criminal cases against themselves, according to a report by poll rights group Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR). The Assam Election Watch and ADR have analysed the sworn affidavits of 259 out of the 264 candidates in the first phase. Out of 259 candidates analysed, 41 (16 per cent) candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves and 34 (13 per cent) have declared seri-ous criminal cases against themselves, the ADR said.

BRIEFSNATION

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Noting that many infrastructure systems cover the entire world, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said the effect of a disaster in one part can quickly spread across the globe and cooperation is a must for ensur-ing the resilience of the global systems.

Addressing the opening cer-emony of the International Con-ference on Disaster Resilient Infrastructure via video con-ference, Modi said countries that are making large invest-ments in infrastructure, such as India, must ensure that this is an investment in resilience and not in risk.

He asserted the notion of "resilient infrastructure" must become a mass movement.

Many infrastructure systems such as digital infrastructure, shipping lines and aviation net-works cover the entire world and the effect of disaster in one part of the world can quickly spread across the world, Modi said, adding that cooperation is a must for ensuring the resilience of the global system.

Terming the COVID-19

pandemic situation unprece-dented, the prime minister said, We are witnessing an event that is being termed a once-in-a-hundred-year disaster."

The COVID-19 pandemic has taught that in an interdepen-dent and interconnected world, no country -- whether rich or poor, in the east or west, north or south -- is immune to the effect of global disasters, he said.

On the one hand the pan-demic has shown us how impacts can quickly spread across the world, and on the other, it has shown how the world can come together to fight

a common threat, Modi said.He said the pandemic has

shown us that innovation to address global challenges can come from anywhere.

He called for fostering a global ecosystem that supports innovation in all parts of the world, and its transfer to places that are most in need.

The year 2021 promises to be a year of swift recovery from the pandemic, he hoped.

Modi cautioned that the les-sons from the pandemic must not be forgotten, asserting that they apply to not only public health disasters but other disas-

ters as well.He said it will take sustained

and concerted efforts to mitigate climate change.

As a global cooperation mechanism anchored in the global south, Modi said the CDRI offers a suitable platform for advancing this agenda.

Infrastructure is developed for the long-term, the prime minister asserted.

Pointing out that 2021 is a particularly important year, Modi said the mid-point of the Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris climate agreement, and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction was approaching. The expectations from COP-26, to be hosted by the UK and Italy later this year, are high, he said.

This partnership on resil-ient infrastructure must play its important role in helping meet some of those expecta-tions, Modi added.

Underlining the key prior-ity areas going forward, Modi said the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) must embody the central prom-ise of the Sustainable Develop-ment Goals, that is, "leave no one behind".

"This means that we have to put the concerns of the most vulnerable nations and commu-nities first," he said.

Modi also called for tak-ing stock of the performance of some of the key infrastruc-ture sectors, particularly health and digital infrastructures, that played a central role during the pandemic.

"What are the lessons from these sectors? And how can we make them more resilient for the future?" he said.

"In our quest for resilience, no technological system should be considered too basic or too advanced. The CDRI must max-imize the demonstration effect of the application of technol-ogy," he said.

Finally, the notion of "resil-ient infrastructure" must become a mass movement gal-vanising the energies of not just the experts, and formal institu-tions, the prime minister said.

"Just as the fight against the pandemic mobilised the ener-gies of the world's seven billion people, our quest for resilience must build on the initiative and imagination of each and every individual on this planet," Modi said.

MPOST BUREAU

MUMBAI: The Narcot-ics Control Bureau (NCB) has approached the Bombay High Court seeking cancella-tion of bail granted to Showik Chakraborty, brother of actor Rhea Chakraborty, in a drugs case probed by the agency fol-lowing the death of Bollywood star Sushant Singh Rajput.

In its plea filed in the high court last month, the NCB said the special court hearing cases related to the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act had ignored pre-vious observations made by the HC and erred in granting bail to Showik and other accused in the case.

In October last year, the Bombay High Court had rejected Showik's bail, but granted bail to Rhea, accused in the same case.

The NCB said in its plea before the high court that the special court had failed to consider the HC's observation that Showik seemed to be con-nected with the other accused in the case, from whom com-mercial quantity of contraband had been recovered.

It said that it was likely that out on bail, Showik would indulge in similar activities.

NEW DELHI: Election to three Rajya Sabha seats from Kerala falling vacant next month will be held on April 12, the Election Commission said on Wednesday.

Abdul Wahab of the IUML, K K Ragesh of the CPI-M and Vayalar Ravi of the Congress are retiring on April 21, the Commission said.

The notification for the biennial elections will be issued on March 24.

As per practice, votes will counted in the evening of April 12 after conclusion of polling at 4 pm.

Members of legislative assembly elect Rajya Sabha members. The MLAs of the outgoing assembly, in which the ruling LDF has a majority, will elect the three new mem-bers. Kerala assembly elec-tions will be held on April 6 and counting will take place on May 2. AGENCIES

SRINAGAR: Lieutenant Gen-eral B S Raju who will take over as the new Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) handed over the charge of the strategic XV Corps of the Army, which guards the Line of Control in Kashmir Val-ley, to Lt Gen D P Pandey on Wednesday.

At a simple ceremony held at the headquarters of the Sri-nagar-based XV Corps, the baton was handed over to Lt Gen Pandey, who was earlier serving as the Director Gen-eral of Territorial Army. He has also served in Kashmir as the General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the counter-insur-gency Kilo Force.

In his farewell message to the XV Corps also known as 'Chinar Corps', Lt Gen Raju complimented all ranks for their dedication and hard

work and thanked police, cen-tral armed paramilitary forces, civil administration, and the people for their relentless sup-port in the joint efforts towards peace and prosperity in Jammu and Kashmir.

Having served as the Uri Brigade Commander, GOC of Victor Force (anti-militancy unit overlooking south and central Kashmir), and GOC Chinar Corps, Lt Gen Raju reinforced and institutionalised high professional standards and ethical conduct in combat operations, officials said. MPOST

NEW DELHI: India and Ban-gladesh have agreed to expand cooperation across the entire gamut of water resources issues, including framework for sharing of river waters, mitigation of pollution, river bank protection, flood man-agement, basin management, according to an official state-ment on Wednesday.

The India-Bangladesh Water Resources Secretary level meeting under the frame-work of the Joint Rivers Com-mission took place on March 16 here.

The Indian delegation was led by Pankaj Kumar, Secre-tary (Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Reju-venation). The Bangladesh del-egation was led by Kabir Bin Anwar, Senior Secretary, Min-istry of Water Resources.

Noting that India and Ban-gladesh share 54 common riv-ers which directly impact the livelihood of people in the two countries, both sides com-mended the close cooperation that exists between them in the matter.

"Both sides agreed to expand cooperation across entire gamut of water resources issues including framework for sharing of river waters, mitiga-tion of pollution, river bank protection, flood management,

basin management, etc.," the statement said.

A Joint Technical Working Group will provide inputs on the matter.

The discussions were sub-stantive and held in a cordial atmosphere, it added.

The meeting took place ahead of Prime Minister Nar-endra Modi's visit to Bangla-desh later this month.

On Tuesday, sources said, the two sides discussed sharing of waters of the Manu, Muhuri, Khowai, Gumti, Dudhkumar and Dharla rivers.

Discussions also took place to further cooperation in the area of flood forecasting, they added.

Both sides also agreed to schedule the next secretary-level meeting in Dhaka on mutually convenient dates.

NEW DELHI: The life of the orbiter of Chandrayaan-2 was initially envisaged for a year but the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) expects it to last for seven years, Union minister Jitendra Singh said on Wednesday.

In a written response to a question in the Lok Sabha on India’s second lunar mission, Jitendra Singh, the minister of state in the Prime Minister’s Office, said Chandrayaan-2 was a highly complex mission to develop and demonstrate the key technologies for end-to-end lunar mission capability, includ-

ing soft-landing and roving on the lunar surface.

The mission comprised an orbiter, lander and rover.

Planned to land on the South Pole of the Moon, Chandray-aan-2 was launched on July 22, 2019. However, the lander Vikram hard-landed on Sep-tember 7, 2019, crashing India’s dream to become the first nation to successfully land on the lunar surface in its maiden attempt.

“But for achieving soft land-ing at the intended spot, the other objectives of the mission have been significantly attained. So much so, that against an ini-

tially envisaged one-year life of orbiter, we expect it to be serv-ing for seven years,” Singh said.

The mission has accom-plished the objective of expand-ing lunar scientific knowledge through detailed study of topog-raphy, mineralogy, surface

chemical composition, thermo-physical characteristics and ten-uous lunar atmosphere leading to a better understanding of the origin and evolution of the moon, it added.

In August last year, Singh had announced that Chandray-aan-2 orbiter has captured the images of craters on the Moon. They were christened “Sarab-hai crater” after Vikram Sarab-hai, father of the Indian space programme.

The Sarabhai Crater cap-tured in 3D images shows that it has a depth of around 1.7 kilo-metres, taken from its raised

rim, and the slope of crater walls is in between 25 to 35 degree. These findings will help space scientists to understand further the process on the lunar region filled with lava, Singh had said.

ISRO’s missions are known to have an enhanced life than what is earlier envisaged.

The planned life span of Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM)/ Mangalyaan after its insertion into the Mars orbit on Septem-ber 24, 2014 was six months and it was to complete on March 24, 2015. However, the MOM is still functioning and sending pictures. AGENCIES

Drugs probe: NCB moves HC for cancellation of Showik's bail

Cooperation must for ensuring resilience of global systems: PM

India, Bangladesh to expand cooperation in river pollution

mitigation, flood management

Lt Gen Raju to be new DGMO, hands over command of XV

Corps to Lt Gen Pandey

Election to 3 RS seats from Kerala on April 12

Envisaged for a year, Chandrayaan-2 orbiter likely to last for 7 years

He asserted that notion of ‘resilient infrastructure’ must become a mass movement The India-Bangladesh Water Resources Secretary level meeting under the framework of the Joint Rivers Commission took place on March 16

AMITAVA BANERJEE

DARJEELING: The arrested Chinese duo were produced at the Additional Chief Judi-cial Magistrate Court, Siliguri on Wednesday. Two Chinese nationals 39 year old Zhang Jun and 42 year old Kailang (names and age as per Adhar card) had entered India from Nepal via Panitanki border by road on Monday. They were flying to Hyderabad from Bagdogra on Tuesday without valid travel documents.

Sudip Roy Basunia, Assis-tant Public Prosecutor (APP) stated “Police had prayed for 14 days of remand as detailed interrogation is required to find out the motive behind their visit to India. They had fake Adhar cards. Their bail prayer was rejected.” The duo dur-ing interrogation claimed that they were working in a hotel in Tirupati for the past one and a half year. From there they had recently visited Nepal and Paki-stan. As the owner of the hotel had asked them to join duty immediately they were on their way to Tirupati via Hyderabad.

Arrested Chinese duo remanded to 13 days of

police custody

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI/SHIMLA: BJP MP from Mandi in Himachal Pradesh Ram Swaroop Sharma was found hanging from the ceiling in his official residence in New Delhi on Wednesday, police said.

Delhi Police PRO Chinmoy Biswal said his body was found hanging from a ceiling fan. He was taken to a hospital where doctors pronounced him dead on arrival. Sixty-two-year-old Sharma had been suffering from various ailments.

Prima facie, it appears to be a case of suicide, the police said, adding that no suicide note was found from the spot.

An inquiry is underway and the exact cause of his death will be ascertained after a post-mortem examination, the police said.

Lok Sabha proceedings were adjourned till 1 pm

after an obituary reference to Sharma.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed grief at Shar-ma’s death.

“Shri Ram Swaroop Sharma was a dedicated leader, who was always committed to solving people’s problems. He worked tirelessly for the betterment of society. Pained by his untimely and unfortunate demise. My

thoughts are with his family and supporters in this sad hour. Om Shanti,” Modi tweeted.

The BJP cancelled its par-liamentary party meeting fol-lowing Sharma’s death and also called off the joining ceremony of an “eminent” person, who was not named.

Born at Jalpehar village in Mandi district on June 10, 1958, Sharma was a two-time MP.

He was elected to the 16th and 17th Lok Sabha from Mandi parliamentary con-stituency in 2014 and 2019 respectively.

According to the police, a call was made to the Police Control Room (PCR) around 7.45 am by his aide after the parliamentarian did not respond to knocks on his door.

A police team reached the spot and forced open the door and found Sharma hanging from a ceiling fan.

Amid protests, BJP announces names... From Page 1

The fight between the old party workers and new entrants continued in Singur with the old guards staging a demonstration in the area on the fourth consecutive day on Wednesday, demanding the replacement of candidate Rabindranath Bhattacharya, who had recently joined the party from Trinamool Con-gress. On Sunday, after the list was announced, the old-tim-

ers had locked up BJP leaders who were holding a meeting in a lodge.

On Wednesday, several BJP supporters refused to campaign along with the turncoats who had jumped the ship from TMC — alleging that the latter had stopped them from casting vote in the Panchayat elections once. Thus, it was not possible for them to work together.

Similar agitations were held at Magrahat, Kultuli, Uttarpara,

Champdani, Panchla, Udayna-rayanpur to demand replace-ment of candidates.

Meanwhile, the central leadership has made it very clear that the candidates can-not be changed due to time constraints. Political experts maintained that there would be more agitation when the names of the remaining candi-dates, particularly those con-testing from 11 Kolkata seats, are announced.

Param Bir Singh shunted out, Hemant Nagrale...From Page 1

An ‘encounter specialist’ of the 1990 batch of the state police cadre, Vaze was suspended in 2004 over his role in the custo-dial death of a 2002 Ghatkopar blast suspect Khwaja Yunus and was reinstated last year.

The NIA team recovered some “incriminating” docu-ments and electronic evidence such as laptop, iPad and mobile phones from Vaze’s office, an official of the agency said on Tuesday.

A black Mercedes car, being used by Vaze, was also seized from a parking lot near the CSMT station, and Rs 5 lakh in cash, a note-counting machine, two number plates and some clothes were recovered from it, the official added.

The former owner of the Mercedes car has said he will “fully cooperate” with the probe agency if it approaches him for any information related to the vehicle. The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government’s decision to

transfer Singh follows a series of meetings among the ruling Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress alli-ance leaders after Vaze’s associ-ation with the Shiv Sena came to the fore.

Furthermore, amid attacks from the BJP, Maharashtra min-ister Jayant Patil said the NIA should complete its probe into the recovery of the explosive-laden SUV then announce the conclusion, instead of disclos-ing the investigation details in-between.

Mamata promises minimum income...From Page 1

Another 2,000 big indus-trial units will be added to the existing 10,000 in the next five years. She said the number of factories in Bengal had gone up by 15 per cent through which the income of labourers had gone up by 77 per cent.

A special task force will be set up to examine and propose

OBC status to all the communi-ties who are not currently rec-ognised as OBSc like Mahisyas, Tili, Tamul, Sahas but were part of the recommended list of OBC communities in the Mandal Commission. A spe-cial development board for the people of Terai-Dooars region will be set up with proportional representation from all com-

munities of the area.She said the ongoing proj-

ects like Swasthya Sathi, Sabuj Sathi, Kanyasree, Rupasree, Sabujsree will continue and free tabs or smartphones will be given to students of state-run schools. Steps will be made to increase the Swasthya Sathi net so that more people can be benefitted.

BJP MP Ram Swaroop Sharma found dead at Delhi residence

NEW DELHI: The govern-ment has sought inputs from various quarters for criminal law reforms including sedition and has set up a committee for it, the government informed the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

Minister of State for Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy also stressed that the government has not lodged false cases against anyone despite remarks made against it during the CAA agita-tion and the farmers' stir.

Replying to supplementar-ies during the Question Hour, Reddy said only 96 arrests have been made under the sedition law (Section 124A IPC) in 2019 and two persons have been con-victed and 29 acquitted from 2015 to 2019 under the law while various other cases are in different stages.

As per data on sedition law in 2019, 23 arrests have been made in Assam, 16 in Jammu and Kashmir, 18 in Karnataka, 19 in Nagaland and 9 in Uttar

Pradesh, four each in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha and one each in Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu. Two convictions have taken place in Nagaland and 16 persons have been acquitted in Jharkhand, 12 in Assam and one in Uttar Pradesh.

The minister told the House that inputs have been sought from chief ministers and LGs of union territories, besides NGOs and other organisations and the government will consider amendments to the sedition law after getting inputs.

He said the law is not new but an old one and was first amended under the Congress rule in 1948, and then again in 1950, 1951 and 1955. Asked whether the government will consider amending the sedition law, he said, "We are going to take a big step. A new Commit-tee on criminal reforms under chairmanship of vice chancel-lor of national law university has been formed." AGENCIES

Inputs for criminal law reforms sought, panel set up: GovtJAIPUR: The Rajasthan govern-

ment informed the state assem-bly on Wednesday that it did not tap phones of any legislator during last year's political crisis.

Rejecting the BJP's allega-tions on phone tapping, Parlia-mentary Affairs Minister Shanti Dhariwal said the saffron party was making an issue in order to protect Union Minister Gajen-dra Singh Shekhawat.

He said the chief minister would offer his resignation if these allegations were proved right. "Not only the chief min-ister, all of us will resign," Dhariwal added. However, the BJP demanded a CBI inquiry into the matter and created a ruckus in the assembly which led to adjournment of the House twice. The controversy around phone tapping erupted in July last year during the political crisis that was caused due to the rebellion of former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot and 18 other Congress MLAs against Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot's leadership. AGENCIES

Rajasthan Min rejects phone tapping claims

That was 2019. I had superannuated in 2018 but continued to be associated with

several civil society organisa-tions with a view to encour-age them in the fabulous work they were doing. Hence, when an invitation came from one such organisation to address a few NGOs in Bangalore, I took the opportunity to travel to this ‘city of gardens’. The entire day was spent with four such organisations and then I had the occasion to visit the head-quarters of The/Nudge Foun-dation that was backing not only these NGOs but many more those who were part-nering with the state govern-ments to bring about a change in the true spirit of Nexus of Good. What I saw here was truly amazing. I interacted with its young and dynamic chair-man, Atul Satija and his ener-getic team. They had enormous potential, and the good news is that they are living up to their potential.

One year of the pandemic has not only made visible the cracks in the global develop-ment systems but also high-lighted suppressed needs across the world. It reinstated the emergency to address the needs of such people who are trapped in generations of injus-tice and poverty. However, it has also been a year where we witnessed unparalleled speed and scope of both global and local collaborations. Govern-ments, civil societies, busi-nesses, scientific communities and individuals the world over have come together to pool resources, expertise and capi-tal to battle the virus and its fallout on livelihood. We have begun to forge strong partner-ships, recognizing our shared humanity, interconnected-ness, and our strength to solve complex and large-scale prob-lems with a common purpose. With an expanding ecosystem of support, the non-profit start-ups and new social innova-tion models especially gained momentum to extend the ben-efits of economic stability to communities that are other-wise left behind.

The/Nudge Foundation has taken on poverty alleviation with a deep sense of urgency. It has grown to a 400-plus team across three centres and forged more than 45 partner-ships across corporate. While solving the complex prob-lem of poverty with a multi-pronged approach, one of the three impact streams — The/Nudge Centre for Social Inno-vation (CSI) — has taken on the mission to ‘nudge and nur-ture top talents to solve India’s biggest challenges, at scale.’ This is being achieved through pow-erful initiatives like:• Incubator for non-profit

start-ups (investment of up to 15 lakh plus funding and ecosystem support)

• Accelerator for non-profit start-ups (investment of up to 2 crore plus capac-ity building and ecosystem support)

• Project Pioneer (includ-ing research innovation grants for land and property inclusivity)

• Saamuhika Shakti (collective impact to improve the lives of waste workers)

• Cisco Agri Challenge (a two-crore grand challenge for farmer-centric innovations)

• Indian Administrative Fel-lowship (public-private part-nerships for nation-building)By kickstarting more than

80 non-profit start-ups, The/

Nudge Centre for Social Inno-vation has infused entre-preneurial energy into the development sector’s ecosys-tem and has built tremendous momentum to create impact-ful solutions for empowering the disadvantaged. The/Nudge incubator is shaping the per-ception around the non-profit sector by raising the bar for risk-taking and innovation in the development sector. The beneficiaries of various start-ups accelerated by The/Nudge extend over a wide range from specially-abled to farmers and from children to women entre-preneurs. For example, the Khushi Baby app focuses on maternal and neonatal health-care by using simple mobile phone technology for rural women that can even func-tion without full connectivity. Another programme called Shakti empowers women entrepreneurs with residen-tial workshops and mentor-ship. Scaled non-profits like Peepul, Madhi and Leader-ship for Equity work with pub-lic school systems to deliver high-quality education. Across thematic areas, these start-ups seek to deliver an orbit-chang-ing impact at scale.

Nudging private partici-pation in public systems

An exciting new initiative of The/Nudge CSI, born dur-ing the pandemic, is the Indian

Administrative Fellowship (IAF). IAF is nudging execu-tive talent from the private sec-tor to work with visionary civil servants on projects of state-wide strategic importance.

Evidence of public-private partnership has shown great results in the past few decades — from Nandan Nilekani building the India digital stack to Phanindra Sama delivering outsized results as the Chief Innovation Officer with the Govt of Telangana. Seeking inspiration from these exam-ples, IAF takes a step ahead in enabling systems to change by matching spirited talents with motivated administrators.

The IAF conjoins the capa-bilities of professionals from the corporate sector in strat-egy, scale, technology and infrastructure with the vision of senior civil servants to steer high impact initiatives. The 18-month fellowship invites senior executives with a track record of outstanding achieve-ment to lead transformational change, working with prin-cipal secretaries in state gov-ernments. Fellows will work to extend the reach of public systems to India’s underserved populations in areas such as rural development, educa-tion, e-governance, agricul-ture, women and child, skill development etc. by executing projects with the potential to

impact millions of lives. The/Nudge will invest deeply in the fellows to develop their skills and understanding of govern-ment systems through struc-tured leadership development programmes.

Nudging top talents to solve India’s most critical developmental challenges

In addition to enabling entrepreneurs to achieve a tra-jectory of meaningful impact at scale, and bringing top tal-ent into large-scale state-led transformations, The/Nudge is also drawing talent, capital and public attention to critical areas of the development sector that have remained unaddressed. Its Prize platform, in partnership with the Office of the Principal Scientific Advisor, Government of India, spotlights exceptional problem-solvers and enables them to achieve escape veloc-ity for their venture through the course of an 18-month long grand challenge. The first challenge — the Cisco Agri Challenge for farmer-centric innovations impacting 10 mil-lion lives has already attracted 844 contestants and a large ringside of purpose-aligned investors, researchers, experts and institutions who will enable promising ideas to go to market and scale with high confidence.

The/Nudge Centre for Social Innovation has consis-tently demonstrated the DNA for speed, scale and innova-tion that it seeks to nurture in India’s development sector. This infusion of energy towards India’s development and its rip-ple effects far and wide are truly exciting.

The/Nudge Foundation presents a wonderful exam-ple of identifying existing and potential performers in the social sector and assisting them in scaling these perfor-mances through public-private partnerships in the true spirit of Nexus of Good. To create a larger impact, the Founda-tion is now foraying into the development of such human resources that would assist in steering high impact initiatives of the government.

Views expressed are personal

mp editorial 7

M SHAKEEL AHMED

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DearEditor

The recently released UN Food Waste Index Report 2021 draws attention towards high wastage of food that happens everywhere in the world, even as millions of families go hungry every day. It has said that around 931 million tonnes of food were wasted in 2019, 61 per cent of which came from households and the rest from food services and retail. According to the report, about 17 per cent of the total global food goes to waste, the weight of which “equals that of 23 million fully loaded 40-tonne trucks!” In India, the household food waste is estimated to be 50 kg per capita per year, which is less than in countries like the US and China. But this may not be because of more efficient use of food, but rather due to less overall availability. It is estimated that food worth at least Rs one lakh crore is wasted in India, and this does not include wastage of cooked food. A part of that should be enough to feed the large number of hungry people in the country which is ranked 94th among 107 countries in the Global Hunger Index. In our country, food is wasted massively at weddings and on other occasions. The UN report says that reducing food waste would also cut greenhouse gas emissions and slow the destruction of nature through land conservation and pollution. Avoiding food wastage should therefore become a national mission. It will have very positive environmental, social and economic impacts.

This is in reference to “A growing front”. China has all the reasons to be edgy after the successful summit of Quad countries including India, USA, Australia and Japan. China’s growing aggression in the Indo- Pacific reason is not hidden from anyone. The credit here goes to Quad members for talking about Quad vaccine partnership, which is probably the biggest need of the hour to pool in the resources and help all those countries which are facing difficulties in getting their citizens vaccinated. China will stick to its character and not leave any stone unturned to create a rift among these nations, but here India needs to play smartly and strategically and keep its long term interests in mind. Since we cannot change our hostile neighbours, it will definitely test our diplomatic skills as how we create some sort of balance between China and other nations.

After the February 1 military coup in Myanmar, which sought to delegiti-

mize the landslide victory of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) in the November elections, the situation in the country is rap-idly deteriorating with growing popular resistance against the military regime.

Protests that began with the banging of pots and pans have intensified significantly into a major uprising with hundreds of thousands of people taking to the streets across the coun-try. The military seems to have been taken by surprise by the people’s reaction.

Caught off-guard by the extent and intensity of the pro-tests, the junta has responded with lethal force, by using not only tear gas and water cannon but also firing live bullets into dense crowds of protestors. It indicates that the military will stop at nothing to suppress the protests.

The protesters, mostly peaceful, are demanding a return to democracy. Strikes across several sectors, even by civil servants, have crip-pled the economy. There have been reports that at least 20 people, including some secu-rity personnel, have crossed to Mizoram from Myanmar and sought refuge.

Nearly 150 pro-democracy agitators have been killed and hundreds injured so far in the military action. There is no sign of the situation abating.

The media is also facing a crackdown and at least 10 journalists have been detained without charges.

According to reports, mar-tial law has been imposed in parts of Yangon and Mandalay, which have witnessed the most intense resistance to the coup, provoking the junta to crack

down further on the protests. With reports of night-time raids and custodial deaths, it is feared that martial law will cause many potential human rights violations.

Reports say that martial law allows military commanders to take over the administration, including the courts. The con-trol over courts will allow the junta to hand down death sen-tences, long prison terms and other punishments for offences such as treason and dissent.

Suu Kyi remains in deten-tion and has been accused, along with other leaders of the NLD, of corruption by the mili-tary regime. The overwhelm-ing majority garnered by Suu Kyi’s party in the November election reflected its popular-ity even though it did not have many notable achievements under its belt over the previ-ous five years in power.

The world’s military and economic superpowers have responded to the military action by imposing sanctions. The US, Britain and Canada have individually announced sanctions such as travel bans

and asset freezes on Myanmar’s top military general. South Korea has announced the sus-pension of defence exchanges with Myanmar. Russia and China, which have close ties with the junta, may take the edge off the action.

India, which has close ties with both the Myanmar military and NLD, has just expressed its concern over the developments. India has extremely close relations with the Myanmar military that has assisted in securing the North East frontiers from insurgent groups.

Because of its substantial economic and strategic interest in Myanmar, China is trying to tread very carefully. There was a predictable bland statement from China, merely urging all parties to settle their differ-ences peacefully.

China did back a watered-down UN Security Council statement, which, while failing to condemn the coup, did call for the release of Suu Kyi and a return to democratic rule. It shows that Beijing is not happy about the developments.

There is a widespread belief in Myanmar that China is backing the junta – so much so that Chinese officials were forced to break their custom-ary silence and come out to deny rumours that it is helping the military build an internet firewall, or deploying spe-cial forces to help crush the protests.

The imposed sanctions are more intended only to hit those directly involved in the coup and the military’s businesses, and unlikely to do anything that will change the mindset of the junta. The sanctions are ineffective to move the general much at this stage

These developments pose challenges for the 10-mem-ber Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) of which Myanmar is also a member. However, ASEAN faces particular challenges in addressing the crisis given the fact that it has customary con-sensus-based decision-making and non-interference in each other’s domestic affairs.

ASEAN is not speaking in one voice on the crisis. Thai-

land, Vietnam, Cambodia and initially the Philippines (once the most liberal member state on human rights and democ-racy) have all refused to criti-cize the coup, describing it as an internal matter.

Singapore, the biggest for-eign investor in Myanmar, has been strong in its reac-tion, expressing “grave con-cern” and describing the use of lethal force against protest-ers as “inexcusable”.

Indonesia, ASEAN’s largest country with a past history of taking the lead role in resolving issues like the Cambodian con-flict in the 1980s, tried to find a solution to the crisis proposing the idea of holding the junta to its promise of a new election within a year as also releasing Suu Kyi and other NLD lead-ers and allowing them to con-test the polls.

The idea enraged anti-mil-itary protestors who insist on honouring the November elec-tions outcome and say that a fresh election only amounts to reward the military for over-turning the overwhelming results of the election. This will only encourage the junta to carry out such activities in future.

The situation in Myanmar is precarious. Unless the mili-tary backs down and restores power to the civilian govern-ment and Suu Kyi, it does not appear that the protests would subside. For the military, it is a Catch-22 situation. If it backs down and restores power to Suu Kyi, it would mean its actions were illegal. Having said this, it is the military that can change the trajectory of the events in a deliberate and pur-poseful way.

The writer is a former Editor of PTI and served as the West

Asia correspondent for the same. Views expressed are

personal

ASEAN is not speaking in one voice on the crisis. Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and initially the Philippines, have all refused to criticize the coup, describing it as an internal matter of Myanmar

Myanmar protests are far from subsiding unless the junta backs down which seems improbable

No solution in sight

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EDITORIAL

Major pivot

In its first post-Brexit review of defence and foreign pol-icy, UK has indicated a major pivot in priority to the Indo-Pacific region. It was also announced that Boris Johnson himself will be visiting India next month to

solidify cooperation on a host of shared challenges like cli-mate change, clean energy and global health. Of note is also an increased push for defence cooperation between the two nations in bringing about a more secure Indian Ocean.

Coming just days after the leader level talks of the newly revitalised and expanded Quad grouping, UK’s pivot towards the Indo-Pacific is not only an indicator of the growing sig-nificance of the region but also Britain’s own drive to establish its global identity post-Brexit. Prominent European pow-ers, notably France, already have a presence in the region and have already made plans to expand it. Britain, fresh out of the secure trade environment of the EU, is now looking for another secure trade grouping. The strategy review also identified the Indo-Pacific as the “frontline of new security challenges” and has identified China and its authoritar-ian rule as a challenge to the UK and its allies. At the same time, the document also notes that China will likely con-tribute more to the global economy than any other country in the next decade and thus encourages economic ties with China. Needless to say, the idea of achieving a delicate bal-ance of pushing back against China’s authoritarian expan-sion while also keeping strong economic ties with it seems to be a rather optimistic one.

The document also details other strategic points. First, the document reassures that NATO and Europe will still remain vitally important to the UK’s security considerations. While a bulk of its forces will remain in the Atlantic, as a symbolic move, the Indo-Pacific will be the first operational deploy-ment of the UK’s HMS Queen Elizabeth.

Queen Elizabeth is one of the two new class of carriers that Boris Johnson has labelled as being central to the rise of a more global UK. With the backing of the UK’s improved carrier strike groups, the UK will take on a more activist role in international relations with a focus on the struggle to preserve democracy and fight against climate change. In a move to presumably supplement this new role, the UK also announced that it would be increasing the cap on its strategic nuclear war arsenal up to 260. Opposition leader Keir Starmer has been particularly critical of this aspect of the review, claiming that Johnson was needlessly revers-ing decades of the UK’s commitment to strategic disarma-ment and also breaking international law doing so. Many of Boris Johnson’s critics have also expressed concern over how ambiguous UK’s policy on China is given tragedies such as those in Hong Kong and Xinjiang. There are also those who advocate for an outright adversarial stance towards China from the UK.

But there are also those on the other side that are con-cerned with the new UK pivot towards a possible future of antagonistic relations with China. If the UK sides with the US on issues like Taiwan, etc. it could risk cutting itself off Chinese trade and economic relations. This could be worry-ing given the background of Brexit which is still yet to show its full economic effects.

On the whole, while significant, the new review still sticks clear of being outrightly provocative with China. The docu-ment does not speak of cooperation with Quad or indeed even mentions the grouping. Significantly, it also does not speak of India-UK cooperation at the UNSC where the UK is a permanent member like China. The expectations are clear, if somewhat difficult to achieve. The UK wants increased political, economic and strategic participation in the Indo-Pacific region and considers China an eventual threat. But the UK will not be the one to provoke any potential conflict.

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The military action in Myanmar has intensified in response to growing protests

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Atlanta massage parlour shootings leave 8 dead

ATLANTA (US): A series of shootings over nearly an hour at three Atlanta area massage par-lours left eight people dead and raised fears that the attack was yet another hate crime against people of Asian descent.

Police arrested a 21-year-old Georgia man and said the motive wasn't immediately known, though many of the victims were women of Asian descent.

The attacks began Tuesday evening, when five people were shot at Youngs Asian Massage Parlor in Acworth, about 30 miles (50 km) north of Atlanta, Cherokee County Sheriff 's Office spokesman Capt. Jay Baker said. Two people died at the scene, and three were taken to a hospital where two died, Baker said.

About an hour later, police responding to a call about a rob-bery found three women dead from apparent gunshot wounds at Gold Spa in Atlanta's Buck-head neighbourhood, which is home to many tattoo parlours and strip clubs.

While there, the officers learned of a call reporting shots fired at another spa across the street, Aromatherapy Spa, and found a woman who appeared to have been shot dead.

It appears that they may be

Asian, Atlanta Police Chief Rod-ney Bryant said.

White House press secre-tary Jen Psaki said President Joe Biden has been briefed on the horrific shootings and admin-istration officials have been in contact with the mayor's office and the FBI.

Surveillance video recorded a man pulling up to the Acworth business about 10 minutes before the attack there, author-ities said. The same car was spotted outside the Atlanta businesses. A manhunt was launched, and Robert Aaron Long, of Woodstock, was taken into custody in Crisp County, about 150 miles (240 km) south of Atlanta, Baker said.

Video evidence suggests it is extremely likely our suspect is the same as Cherokee County's, who is in custody, Atlanta police said in a statement. Authorities haven't specified charges.

South Korea's Foreign Min-istry said in statement Wednes-day that its diplomats in Atlanta have confirmed with police that four of the victims who died were women of Korean descent. The ministry said its Consulate General in Atlanta is trying to confirm the nationality of the women.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is in South Korea meeting with Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong, mentioned the killings during an opening

statement."We are horrified by this

violence which has no place in America or anywhere, he said, noting that four of the women were believed to be of Korean descent.

The killings came amid a recent wave of attacks against Asian Americans that coincided with the spread of the Corona-virus across the United States.

Our entire family is pray-ing for the victims of these hor-rific acts of violence, Gov. Brian Kemp said Tuesday evening on Twitter. FBI spokesman Kevin Rowson said the agency was assisting Atlanta and Chero-kee County authorities in the investigation. AGENCIES

Police held a 21-yr-old man and said the motive wasn’t immediately known; many of the victims were women of Asian descent

PM to get Oxford/AstraZeneca jab as UK expands vaccine drive to over-50s

LONDON: UK Prime Minis-ter Boris Johnson on Wednes-day indicated that the best safety endorsement he can think of for the Oxford/Astra-Zeneca vaccine is to confirm that he would be receiving the jab as he now qualifies under an expanded vaccination drive.

As the National Health Ser-vice (NHS) marked the 100th day of its vaccination pro-gramme by expanding it to all over-50s, the 56-year-old UK PM used the timing to reiterate the safety message after some countries suspended the use of the Oxford/AstraZeneca jabs amid some concerns.

It's Oxford/AstraZeneca I will be having, said Johnson, during his weekly Prime Minis-ter's Questions (PMQs) session in the House of Commons.

The UK PM has previously said the vaccines are safe and work extremely well .

Around 13 countries, including France, Germany, Italy and Spain, have sought clarifications around some reports of blood clotting and as a temporary measure sus-pended the use of the vaccine developed by Oxford Uni-versity and being produced by AstraZeneca and also the Serum Institute of India as part of a global tie-up.

The World Health Organ-isation (WHO) and the UK and European medicine regulators have said the jabs are safe and that there is no evidence of a causal link between the vaccine and blood clots.

Earlier, Health Secretary Matt Hancock had joined

a chorus of UK ministerial and expert voices to reiter-ate the safety of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines against COVID-19.

We keep the effects of these vaccines under review all the time and we know that the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is saving lives in the UK right now so if you get the call, get the jab," said Hancock.

Asked if there had been evi-dence of people declining the jab after the European suspen-sions, Hancock said there were still "huge numbers of people vaccinated every day".

He added: The UK's vac-cination rollout is a national success story. It's a tribute to everyone involved and shows what our country can achieve when we work together.

I'm determined that no one should miss out on the chance to protect themselves and the people they love or care for, and I urge everyone who's eli-gible for the vaccine to come forward.

Meanwhile, Wednesday marks 100 days since the NHS

gave Maggie Keenan her first dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccination on December 8, 2020 and made world history with the first-ever jab to protect against COVID-19.

The NHS said it was dou-bling down on its efforts to vac-cinate large numbers against the deadly virus with new invi-tations now going out to mil-lions of people aged 50 to 54 in the latest stage of the age-based programme.

Just 100 days since the NHS gave the world's first COVID jab outside of clinical trials, our vaccine programme passes another milestone as we now invite everyone aged 50 and over to book their vaccination, said NHS Chief Executive Sir Simon Stevens.

The NHS is currently administering Pfizer/BioN-Tech and Oxford/AstraZeneca jabs and has delivered a vaccine to more than 20 million people in England.

The latest batch of invites follows a significant boost to bookings last week as a result of a text message push along-side letters prompting slots to be booked.

This week and next we have larger supplies, so we want any-one in the top priority groups people aged 50 and older as well as those working in health and care and anyone with an underlying health condition to come forward soon to pro-tect themselves and their loved ones, said Dr Nikki Kanani, a general practitioner (GP) and NHS England's Primary Care Director. AGENCIES

Mars may be hiding most of its ‘missing’ water underground: NASA-funded study

WASHINGTON DC: Vast amounts of ancient water may have been trapped beneath the surface of Mars, according to a NASA-funded study which challenges the current theory that the Red Planet's water escaped into space.

Evidence found on the surface of Mars suggests that abundant water flowed across Mars billions of years ago, forming pools, lakes, and deep oceans, and where did all that water go has been a matter of investigation.

The new study, published in the journal Science, shows that a significant portion of Mars's water -- between 30 and 99 per-

cent -- is trapped within miner-als in the planet's crust.

The researchers from Cali-fornia Institute of Technology and NASA's Jet Propulsion

Laboratory (JPL) found that around four billion years ago, Mars was home to enough water to have covered the whole planet in an ocean about

100 to 1,500 metres deep.However, a billion years

later the planet was as dry as it is today.

Previously, scientists seek-ing to explain what happened to the flowing water on Mars had suggested that it escaped into space due to Mars's low gravity. Though some water did indeed leave Mars this way, it now appears that such an escape cannot account for most of the water loss, the research-ers said.

"Atmospheric escape doesn't fully explain the data that we have for how much water actually once existed on Mars," said Caltech PhD candi-

date Eva Scheller, lead author of a paper on the research.

The team studied the quan-tity of water on Mars over time in all its forms -- vapour, liq-uid and ice -- and the chemi-cal composition of the planet's current atmosphere and crust.

They did so through the analysis of meteorites as well as using data provided by Mars rovers and orbiters, looking in particular at the ratio of deu-terium to hydrogen. Water is made up of hydrogen and oxy-gen: H2O. Not all hydrogen atoms are created equal, how-ever. There are two stable iso-topes of hydrogen -- deuterium to hydrogen. AGENCIES

Nepal PM Oli calls for ruling CPN-UML's parliamentary meet

KATHMANDU: Nepal Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli has called for a parliamentary party meeting of the ruling CPN-UML on Thursday as the rift between the two warring fac-tions of the party widened with the rival group convening the national gathering of cadres despite warning of disciplinary action against those attending it, according to media reports.

The meeting will take place at Baluwatar, the official resi-dence of the Prime Minister, who is also the Chairperson of the party, Bishal Bhattarai, party's chief whip, was quoted as saying by myRepublica newspaper.

"All the party leaders who won elections with the symbol Sun' have been invited to the meeting," Bhattarai said.

The call for the meet-ing came as the Communist Party of Nepal-UML's rival faction led by Madhav Kumar Nepal and Jhala Nath Kha-nal went ahead with the two-day national gathering of the party's leaders and cadres that began on Wednesday.

Yogesh Bhattarai, a key leader belonging to the rival faction, said that at least 2,000 leaders and cadres of the party are expected to join in the national gathering being organised at the Sanepa-based Heritage Garden in Lalitpur, the report said.

Party's senior leader Mad-hav Nepal is expected to pres-ent a political report on the widening rift in the party and his faction's strategy for the coming days, it said.

The Oli-led faction had threatened to take disciplinary action against those who will attend the event organised by the Nepal-Khanal faction on Wednesday and Thursday.

CPN-UML General Secre-tary Ishwar Pokharel, in a state-ment, directed the party leaders and cadres not to attend the factional gathering, arguing that the UML had not organ-ised any such event.

He warned of disciplinary action against those attending the "unauthorised" gathering.

Accusing Nepal and Khanal of anti-party activities, Prime Minister Oli said, "I hear that they are going to organise a national cadres meeting tomor-row where they will also pass a report. I can no longer toler-ate anti-party activities," The Himalayan Times newspaper reported.

In response to Oli's warning to those attending the event, Bhattarai asked him to chair the event and remarked that everyone was welcome in the meet and there was no need for the Prime Minister to keep an eye on anyone, the report said.

Besides UML (Unified Marxist Leninist) leaders from across the country, the event also witnessed participation from party's senior leaders, the report said. According to a leader close to the group, the participants in the meeting will be divided into ten groups in which they will discuss relevant political issues concerning the party, conclusions from which will further be explored by the group tomorrow, it said. AGENCIES

EU sets out virus pass plan to allow free travel by summer

BRUSSELS: With summer looming and tourism-reliant countries anxiously waiting for the return of a steady influx of tourism income amid the Coro-navirus pandemic, the Euro-pean Union's executive body presented a proposal Wednes-day that would allow European citizens and residents vaccinated or not to travel freely across the 27-nation region by the summer.

The plan, which will be dis-cussed next week during a sum-mit of EU leaders, foresees the creation of vaccine certificates aimed at facilitating travel from one member state to the other.

The topic has been discussed for weeks and proved to be divi-sive. The travel industry and southern European countries dependent on tourism like Greece and Spain have been pushing for the quick intro-duction of the measure, which could help avoid quarantines and testing requirements.

But several member states, including France, argued that it would be premature and dis-

criminatory to introduce such passes since a large majority of EU citizens haven't had access to vaccines so far. According to data compiled by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, less than 5 per cent of European citizens have been fully vaccinated amid delays in deliveries and production of vaccines. The European Com-mission, however, remains con-fident it can achieve its goal that 70 per cent of the EU adult pop-ulation is vaccinated by the end

of the summer. To secure the adhesion of all member states, the commission proposed that its so-called Digital Green Cer-tificates, which should be free of charge, would be delivered to EU residents who can prove they have been vaccinated, but also to those who tested nega-tive for the virus or have proof they recovered from it.

Being vaccinated will not be a precondition to travel, the commission said. All EU citi-zens have a fundamental right to free movement in the EU and this applies regardless of whether they are vaccinated or not. The Digital Green Cer-tificate will make it easier to exercise that right, also through testing and recovery certificates.

The commission proposed that all vaccines rubberstamped by the European Medicines Agency should be automati-cally recognized, but also offered governments the possibility to include vaccines like Russia's Sputnik or China's Sinovac, which haven't received EU mar-ket authorization. AGENCIES

WHO reports 10% weekly rise in virus casesGENEVA: The World Health Organization reported there was a 10 per cent rise in new Coronavirus cases globally last week, driven by surges in the Americas and Europe.

WHO said in its weekly update on the status of the global outbreak published on Wednesday,the worldwide number of new COVID-19 cases peaked in early Janu-ary at nearly 5 million cases,

but then dropped to about 2.5 million cases per week in mid-February.

The U.N. health agency noted that last week was the third consecutive week there was a global rise in new cases, after weeks of declining infections.

WHO said COVID-19 numbers in the Americas and Europe accounted for more than 80 per cent of all new cases

and deaths in the last week.In Europe, WHO said new

confirmed cases rose by about 6 per cent while deaths have been consistently declining. It said the highest numbers were recorded in France, Italy and Poland.

The spike in cases comes as more than a dozen countries, mostly in Europe, have tem-porarily suspended their use of AstraZeneca's COVID-19

vaccine amid reports that it is linked to blood clots.

WHO and the European Medicines Agency have said there is no evidence to date the vaccine is linked to the blood clots and that its benefits con-tinue to outweigh the risks of side effects.

Meanwhile, a top World Health Organisation expert on vaccines says people should feel reassured that even if

health authorities turn up a link between blood clots and the AstraZeneca vaccine, such cases are very rare.

Dr Kate O’Brien, who heads WHO’s department of immun-isations and vaccines, said the UN health agency and the European Medicines Agency are trying to investigate the possibility of a link between blood clots and the AstraZen-eca shots. AGENCIES

Fire festival incidents

kill 10, injure hundreds in IranTEHRAN: Mishaps during an annual fire festival in Iran have left at least 10 people dead and hundreds more injured around the country, state TV reported Wednesday.

State TV reported the casu-alties Wednesday but news out-lets including the semiofficial ISNA said the deaths happened over a period of several weeks. Many of the deaths and injuries occurred during the produc-tion and preparation of fire-crackers, according to reports.

Officials said the casualties were the result of disregarding safety measures.

The annual festival begins on the Tuesday before Nowruz, the Iranian New Year, which will be celebrated on Saturday this year. The ritual dates to at least 1700 B.C. and is linked to Zoroastrianism, which was the predominant religion of the nation before Islam.

Traditionally, people light bonfires, set off fireworks and send wish lanterns floating into the night sky as part of festivi-ties. Many use powerful, sub-standard firecrackers.

More than 200 of the nearly 1,900 injured were hospital-ised, according to the reports. Several ambulances and res-cue cars were damaged Tues-day night and police arrested dozens for disregarding law and order, they said.

Almost half of the injured were under age 16 and the rest under 33, according to the reports. AGENCIES

Pak EC issues notice to PM Imran Khan's party in foreign funding caseISLAMABAD: Pakistan's election commission has sent notices to Prime Minis-ter Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party and its own scrutiny committee to appear before it on March 22 to explain their stance over keeping secret the party's for-eign funding documents, according to a media report on Wednesday.

The notices follow a com-plaint by Akbar S Babar, a dis-sident founding member of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) against the scrutiny commit-tee's decision to keep the party's documents secret.

A three-member Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) bench headed by Justice (retd) Irshad Qaiser heard the com-

plaint, Geo News reported.The notices were issued

before the ECP decided on the secrecy of scrutiny in the PTI's foreign funding case.

Babar's lawyer, Ahmad Hassan Shah, challenged the scrutiny committee's decision to keep PTI's accounts secret. He invoked the Right to Infor-mation Act to seek access to the documents, the report said.

The lawyer argued that access to PTI documents is a right of the petitioner under relevant laws.

By keeping the documents secret, the ECP scrutiny com-mittee is violating the terms of reference of the scrutiny that clearly demands scrutiny in the presence of both parties, the petitioner's lawyer said. AGENCIES

8 immigrants killed when

pickup crashes in Texas border city

AUSTIN: Eight people in a pickup truck loaded with immigrants were killed when the vehicle crashed into another truck during a police chase that began when the driver refused to pull over for a traffic violation near the Texas border city of Del Rio, authorities said.

The collision happened weeks after one of the deadli-est highway crashes involving migrants entering the U.S. with-out permission and amid rising crossings along the U.S.-Mexico border. The Texas Department of Public Safety says troop-ers were chasing a red Dodge pickup truck on U.S. Highway 277 on Monday afternoon when the truck collided head-on with a white Ford F-150 nearly 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Del Rio.

The driver and a child pas-senger of the Ford F-150 were hospitalised, as was one of the passengers from the Dodge pickup, according to the agen-cy's statement. All eight of the people killed and the surviving passenger of the Dodge pickup were immigrants in the U.S. without authorization, accord-ing to DPS. In a statement Tues-day, the agency did not specify what type of traffic violation occurred that prompted patrol troopers to pursue the Dodge pickup. AGENCIES

The new study, published in the journal Science, shows that a significant portion of Mars’ water -- between 30 and 99 percent -- is trapped within minerals in the planet's crust

Law enforcement officials confer outside a massage parlor following a shooting, in Atlanta PTI

This booking photo provided by the Crisp County Sheriff’s Office shows accused Robert Aaron Long PTI

4 killed, 1 hurt in shooting in

Phoenix home, say police

PHOENIX: A shooting Tues-day night in a Phoenix home left four adults dead and one man wounded, police said.

A man and a woman were found dead inside the home and two men found critically wounded there died at hos-pitals, while the wounded 19-year-old man was hospi-talised in stable condition and expected to survive, police said.

It wasn't immediately known what prompted the shooting but the five people involved knew each other and investigators concluded there was no threat to the com-munity, said Sgt. Ann Jus-tus, a Police Department spokeswoman.

Authorities did not dis-close information about a sus-pect or suspects but described the crime as contained. Police, including rifle-toting officers in tactical gear and some with dogs, earlier were seen search-ing neighboring homes. AGENCIES

‘Don't come over’: Joe Biden to migrants as criticism over

immigration policy growsWASHINGTON DC: US Presi-dent Joe Biden urged migrants not to come to the United States on Tuesday, as criticism mounted over a surge in people arriving at the southern bor-der with Mexico -- including thousands of unaccompanied children.

"Yes I can say quite clearly don't come over ... Don't leave your town or city or commu-nity," he said in an interview with ABC News, addressing the migrants. Speaking hours after his head of homeland security defended the administration's imigration policies, Biden also shrugged off claims that his dis-mantling of former president Donald Trump's tough stance had encouraged the surge, pointing out that there had been similar surges in 2019 and 2020, AFP reported.

"The idea that Joe Biden said 'come' - I heard the other day that they're coming because I'm a nice guy... Here's the deal, they're not," he said.

On January 20, his first day

in office, Biden scrapped several of Donald Trump's contentious immigration policies, includ-ing halting new construction of a border wall and proposing legislation to create a citizen-ship pathway for the nearly 11 million people living illegally in the US. Republican critics say Biden's policies caused a sharp increase in migrants seeking to cross into the US illegally.

The president spoke a day after top Republican congress-man Kevin McCarthy visited the border in Texas with fel-low Republican lawmakers and accused Biden of creating a "crisis."

Biden's chief of homeland security Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday also defended the administration's immigration policies. Mayorkas acknowl-edged the United States was "on pace" to encounter more migrants at the border than at any time in two decades, but said such spikes were "not new," having also occurred in 2019, 2014 and earlier. AGENCIES

ICA- T5133(3)/2021GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGAL

GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGALPublic Notice in connection with the General Elections to the

West Bengal Legislative Assembly 2021 Details of the Special Police Observer given below-

Name of Spe-cial Observer

Duty Assigned

Mobile Number

Whats App Number

Land Line No

Email Id Place of Public Meet

Time of Public Meet

Shri. Anil Kumar Sharma, IPS (Retd.)

Special Police Observer

8100107989

8100107989 033-22810011

splobsp2@gmail.com

BSF Guest House, 20/1 Gurusaday Dutta Road, Ballygunge, Kolkata- 700019

4 PM TO 5 PM from 18-03-2021 every day except Saturdays, Sun-days, Public Hol-idays and days when the Observer is outside Kolkata in connection with Elections

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mp business � 9

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Around 78.27 lakh domestic passengers travelled by air in February 2021 which is 36.71 per cent lower than the corresponding period last year, Indian avia-tion regulator DGCA said on Wednesday.

As per the Directorate Gen-eral of Civil Aviation (DGCA), 77.34 lakh people travelled by air within the country in January.

While IndiGo carried 42.38 lakh passengers in February, a 54.2 per cent share of the total domestic market, SpiceJet flew 9.62 lakh passengers which is 12.3 per cent share of the mar-ket, according to data shared by the DGCA.

Air India, GoAir, Vistara and AirAsia India carried 9.16 lakh, 5.81 lakh, 5.4 lakh and 5.21 lakh passengers respec-tively in February, it showed.

The occupancy rate or load factor of the six major Indian airlines was between 67.9 per cent and 78.9 per cent in Feb-ruary, it stated.

“The passenger load fac-tor in the month of Feb 2021 has shown increasing trend compared to previous month primarily due to beginning of

tourist season,” the DGCA said.The occupancy rate at

SpiceJet was 78.9 per cent in February, the regulator noted.

Meanwhile, the occupancy rates for IndiGo, Vistara, GoAir, Air India and AirAsia India were 74.4 per cent, 73.7 per cent, 76.5 per cent, 78.3 per cent and 67.9 per cent respec-tively, according to the DGCA.

India resumed domes-tic passenger flights on May 25 last year after a gap of two months due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Indian airlines are allowed to operate a maximum of 80 per cent of their pre-COVID-19 domestic flights.

The DGCA data mentioned that in February, IndiGo had

the best on-time performance of 94 per cent at four metro airports -- Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai.

AirAsia India and Vistara were at number two and three positions at these four airports in February with 85.2 per cent and 82.9 per cent on-time per-formance respectively, the reg-ulator said.

The aviation sector has been significantly impacted due to the travel restrictions imposed in India and other countries in view of the coronavirus pandemic.

All airlines in India have taken cost-cutting measures such as pay cuts, leaves without pay and lay offs in order to tide over the crisis.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: A parliamen-tary panel has suggested to the Department of Commerce to take appropriate measures to check further deterioration in exports and crucial imports for preventing more disruptions in the supply chains.

A report by the depart-ment-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Com-merce said the committee is perturbed to note the “precipi-tous” decline in both exports and imports in 2020 which is to the tune of around $50 bil-lion and around $150 billion, respectively.

The sluggish growth in exports before the occurrence of the COVID-19 pandemic has further witnessed a down-turn in the event of measures taken globally to combat the pandemic, it said.

“The committee recom-mends the department that any further deterioration in

exports and crucial imports may be checked by taking req-uisite measures for preventing further disruptions in supply chains in the trade,” it said.

On free trade agreements, it said in a globally competi-tive world wherein the inter-national trade equations play a significant role, India may sign considerably more agreements with like-minded, democratic and friendly countries like the US and Australia.

“The committee, there-fore, recommends that the

department should explore the opportunities of FTAs with such nations by having wider consultations with rele-vant stakeholders and, accord-ingly, persuade the government to ink more trade pacts and agreements with them that are mutually beneficial,” it added.

It has also recommended that a spur in the growth of both exports and imports is required by addressing the sup-ply side constraints and easing the trade procedures.

The committee suggested a

comprehensive study to iden-tify the major issues/challenges impacting the trade activities in India in the times of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The study would help in identifying the structural infir-mities existing in trade and exports that aggravated the deterioration of overall com-merce of the country in times of crisis,” it added.

It has also recommended that any sudden and abrupt changes in freight rates may be countered by interventions by the government to impose regulations against cartelisa-tion of rates and increasing the container production and ship-ping services.

“To tide over the paucity of the containers which was aggravated during Covid-19 pandemic, resulting in increased freight charges by shipping companies, the committee recommends that the prospect of manufactur-ing containers in the coun-

try may be explored with the infrastructure available in existing shipyards by provid-ing them facilities/incentives,” it added.

To regulate the shipping freight rates in a fair and trans-parent manner, a national ship-ping regulatory body may be constituted on the lines of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) and Telecom Regula-tory Authority of India (TRAI), it added.

On the scheme for Remis-sion of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products (RoDTEP), it said the determination of ceiling rates for refunds under the scheme by the G K Pillai committee should be expedited to avoid any delay.

The panel has also recom-mended to further extend the interest subsidy scheme for a year since the abrupt discontin-uation would adversely impact the MSME exporters in these difficult times.

millenniumpost|KOLKATA|THURSDAY, 18 MARCH, 2021

NEW DELHI: The Railways engaged two private compa-nies to supply rails during 2015-2017 and 2018-2020, the parliament was informed on Wednesday.

In a written reply in Lok Sabha, Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said the need to engage private companies arose because the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), the reg-ular supplier of rails to Indian Railways (IR), was unable to meet the full requirement of the national transporter from 2015-16 to 2019-20.

‘’Two developmental orders were placed on M/s Jindal Steel & Power Limited (JSPL). One for the supply of 1.26 Lakh Metric Tonne (MT) was placed by IR and another for the sup-ply of 0.89 Lakh MT was placed by Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL).

‘’Since SAIL was not manu-facturing Head Hardened rails, RVNL awarded an order for the supply of 6,700 MT to M/s East Metal AG and a developmental order for the supply of 3,000 MT to M/s JSPL,’’ he said.

Goyal also informed the House that 17.7 km tracks were laid down per day in 2017-2018 and 21.04 km tracks were laid down per day in 2020-2021 up to February.

He also said the govern-ment had no plans to float a global tender to procure rail tracks. PTI

NEW DELHI: The Lok Sabha on Wednesday passed the Appropriation Bill 2021-22, authorising the government to draw Rs 117.16 lakh crore from the Consolidated Fund of India for its working as well as imple-mentation of its programmes and schemes. This completes two-thirds of the exercise for approval of the Budget for 2021-22.

The Appropriation Bill authorising payment and appro-priation of specified sums from the Consolidated Fund of India for 2021-22 was introduced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. The bill was later approved by voice vote.

The Lok Sabha earlier dis-cussed demands for grants of different ministries, including

railways, education and health.Speaker Om Birla later

applied the guillotine, after which all the outstanding demands for grants, whether discussed or not, were put to vote at once and passed.

After that, the Appropriation Bill was taken into consideration and passed by the lower house of Parliament. The Lok Sabha will now discuss the Finance Bill, which essentially contains the government’s tax proposals.

Once the Finance Bill is passed, the budget exercise is complete. Both appropriation and finance bills are classified as money bills which do not require the explicit consent of the Rajya Sabha. The upper house only discusses them and returns the bills. PTI

NEW DELHI: State-owned Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Israeli battery developer Phinergy on Wednesday for-malised a joint venture to manufacture ultra-lightweight metal-air batteries for electric vehicles (EVs), a venture that got its first customers in Maruti Suzuki and Ashok Leyland.

The equal joint venture will replace lithium with alumi-num to make batteries that will charge faster and give a longer run. This will “help overcome most of the challenges facing EVs including range anxiety,” IOC Chairman S M Vaidya said.

“Al-Air technology will help us overcome most of the current challenges for e-Vehicles and address most of the potential customers’ pain-points, includ-ing range anxiety, higher cost of purchase, and safety issues.

“This technology will also boost India’s existing aluminum

industry and help the nation become self-reliant in the energy field and promote the ‘Make in India’ drive,” he said.

IOC had in February last year acquired a minority stake in Phinergy Ltd. Now they have formed a joint venture, IOC Phinergy Pvt Ltd which will manufacture aluminum-air systems using mostly recycled aluminum. At a virtual event marking the event, Maruti Suzuki and Ashok Leyland signed a letter of intent with the newly incorporated JV.

Founded in 2008, Phinergy develops an assortment of zero-emission batteries including aluminum-air and zinc-air bat-teries designed to offer power sources for electric cars. The IOC and Phinergy joint venture will set up a factory in India to manufacture aluminum-air bat-teries for electric vehicles and stationary applications. PTI

NEW DELHI: A parliamen-tary committee on Wednesday expressed anguish over the lack of uniformity in cancellation charges levied by airlines, and said there is a need to prescribe an upper limit.

“Time and again, the com-mittee’’s attention has been drawn towards the high can-cellation charges levied by the private airlines operating in the country,” the Parliamen-tary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Cul-ture said in a report.

“The committee underlines the need for rationalising the cancellation charges and pre-scribing an upper limit of can-cellation charges that can be collected from the passengers,” the report noted. The commit-tee reiterated its recommenda-tion in this regard in its 276th report, requiring the airlines to restrict the charge upto 50 per cent of the base fare. PTI

‘Take steps to contain further worsening of exports, imports’

Report by Parliamentary Standing Committee on Commerce said the committee is perturbed to note the ‘precipitous’ decline in both exports and imports in 2020

‘78.27L domestic air passengers in Feb, 36.71% lower than 2020’

NEW DELHI: Indian refin-ers plan to buy less oil from the Middle East in the com-ing months as OPEC+’s supply restrictions makes U.S. crude more attractive.

Strong gasoline demand due to people favoring private vehicles amid the COVID-19 pandemic and a slower recov-ery in diesel is also giving low-sulfur American grades an edge over heavier and more sour Middle Eastern variet-ies, officials at three state-run refineries in the the world’s third-biggest oil importer said.

Indian state-run refiners including Indian Oil Corp., the country’s biggest crude proces-sor, are planning to cut pur-chases from Saudi Arabia in May, and buy more from the U.S. and on the spot market, according to the officials who asked not to be named as the information isn’t public.

IOC has floated a spot ten-der seeking crude from West

Africa, the Middle East, the U.S. and Canada for April-May loading, Bloomberg reported.

Indian crude purchases from Saudi Arabia dropped 36 per cent in January from the previous month, while U.S. imports more than doubled, government data show.

Reuters reported earlier that Indian state-run refiners planned to cut purchases from the kingdom by a quarter to about 10.8 million barrels in

May.Around 86 per cent of

Indian oil imports last year were from OPEC+ members, with 19 per cent coming from Saudi Arabia, according to gov-ernment data.

New Delhi has repeatedly called for OPEC+ to pump more crude to stop prices from rising too high, but its pleas have fallen on deaf ears with Riyadh extending its sup-ply cuts and raising premiums for its crude. AGENCIES

India to cut Saudi Arabian oil imports, buy more from US

Indian Oil, Israeli company form JV to manufacture

metal-air batteries for EVs

SHIMLA: Agreement for Term Loan of Rs 8,448.46 Crore for 1,320 MW Buxar Ther-mal Power Project at Chausa, Bihar was signed between SJVN Thermal Pvt. Limited (STPL), a wholly owned subsidiary of SJVN, and the consortium of lending Banks & Financial Insti-tution (FI) in a glittering cere-mony at Patna on Wednesday.

The Loan agreement was inked between the par-ties in the presence Nand Lal Sharma, Chairman & Manag-ing Director, SJVN. The cer-emony was attended by Geeta Kapur, Director (Personnel), AK Singh, Director (Finance), Sushil Sharma, Director (Elec-trical) and Sanjeev Sood, CEO, STPL. SL Sharma, Chief

Finance Officer, signed the agreement on behalf of STPL with Consortium Banks/FIs, which included State Bank of India, Canara Bank and IIFCL. SBI Capital Markets Ltd. was the sole financial advisor and debt arranger to the company for this transaction. Signing of the Loan agreement paves way for funding of the construction activities in addition to equity

being infused by the promoter.Addressing the gathering on

this occasion Nand Lal Sharma, Chairman & Managing Direc-tor, SJVN highlighted the need of Power for overall develop-ment of the Nation and con-tribution of SJVN on this front. He said that with an installed capacity of 2016.5 MW and an ambitious plan to add 25,000 MW to its portfolio by 2040,

SJVN has emerged as a major power player in the country. He further told that with the com-missioning of 1,320 MW Buxar Thermal Power Project in June 2023, power deficit of Bihar will be met to a large extent and shall also bring about remarkable improvement in the socio-eco-nomic development of the peo-ple. Sharma expressed thanks for cooperation and support received from the State Gov-ernment in the execution of the Project and thanked Chief Minister of Bihar and State Gov-ernment officials for the same. Sharma also expressed his grati-tude towards the consortium banks for reposing their faith in SJVN and extending term loan for the Buxar Project. MPOST

Financial closure of SJVNs 1,320 MW thermal project term loan for ̀ 8448 cr term loan inked

NEW DELHI: A parliamen-tary panel has recommended the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) for taking necessary steps for disposal of 205 pend-ing FDI proposals by the respec-tive ministries.

A report by the department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Commerce said that since the abolition of FIPB (foreign investment promotion board), 471 out of 676 proposals (including 99 proposals trans-ferred from FIPB) have been disposed off as on February 15, 2021. “The committee is hope-ful that the 205 pending FDI proposals will also be disposed of by the respective ministries/ departments at the earliest and recommends that the depart-ment take necessary steps to this end,” it said.

It also suggested that the DPIIT should build up on the positive trend gained in the last five years and continue to make India an attractive destination

for investment. It recommended the department to take con-certed steps to address the criti-cal issues and concerns faced by potential foreign investors and provide a seamless process for investing in India. Regarding intellectual property, the report said the committee has sug-gested the department fill the vacancy at all levels in the pat-ent office at the earliest.

On the fund of fund scheme (FFS) for startups, the commit-tee expressed concerns over the low number of startups benefit-ting under FFS as lack of ade-quate funding may adversely impact the functioning and commercial viability of startups.

“The committee, therefore, recommends the department to look into the reasons as to why the majority of the registered startups have not benefited from the FFS,” it said suggesting the DPIIT to take necessary steps to ensure that startups receive the necessary funds and sup-port under the FFS. PTI

Parl panel for early disposal of pending 205 FDI proposals

Parl panel shows anguish over

high cancellation charges for flights

GURUGRAM: Aligning with the Prime Minister’s vision to develop the ancient holy town of Badrinath as a spiritual Smart Hill town, Maharatna CPSE, Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (POWERGRID) signed an MoU with Shri Kedar-nathUtthan Charitable Trust on 17th March, 2021.

The MoU was signed between K. Sreekant, CMD, POWERGRID and Dilip Jawalkar, Secretary, Tourism & CEO, Uttarakhand Tourism Development Board, Govt. of Uttarakhand for developmen-tal projects like construction of road and enhancement of public buildings façade on both sides of the road.

The developmental proj-ects worth about ₹19.3 crore

will include construction of 2.5 km long 10.5 m wide road. It will prevent traffic jams and help in efficient traffic manage-ment. High points of this project will be façade enhancement on Public and Devasthanam Board Buildings, Battery operated public transport, installation of property signages, wayfind-ingsignages, ambient lighting,

tap-off water supply service and drainage that will highlight the aesthetics of this Char Dham pilgrimage town and maintain its uniqueness. The pilgrimage town of Badrinath is located in a tough terrain, inaccessible by roads during October-March every year. Despite the problem, projects will be completed in three years. MPOST

POWERGRID inks MoU to develop Badrinath as spiritual smart hill town

Railways engaged two pvt firms from

2015-2020 to supply rails

LS passes Appropriation Bill, completing 2/3rd

of budget exercise

mp business10 KOLKATA|THURSDAY, 18 MARCH, 2021|millenniumpost

GOVT FORMS EXPERTS COMMITTEE FOR STARTUP INDIA SEED FUND SCHEMENEW DELHI: The government has constituted an experts advisory committee which will be responsible for the overall execution and monitoring of the Startup India Seed Fund Scheme. According to an office memorandum of the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), the committee will evaluate and select incubators for allotment of funds under the scheme, monitor progress and take all neces-sary measures for efficient utilisation of funds towards fulfilment of objectives of the scheme. The committee, it said, would be chaired by H K Mittal from the Depart-ment of Science and Technology.

‘BSNL EXPECTS 4G SERVICES ROLLOUT COMPLETION IN 18-24 MONTHS’ NEW DELHI: State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) expects the rollout of 4G services to be com-pleted in 18-24 months, Parliament was informed on Wednesday. The government has no plan to privatise BSNL, Minister of State for Communications, Sanjay Dhotre said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha. BSNL had invited an Expression of Interest (EoI) on January 1, 2021, for prior registration/Proof of Concept (PoC) from Indian companies interested in participating in its upcoming 4G tender, he said. “BSNL will follow the applicable Rules/guidelines/Public Procurement orders of the Government, including Rule 144(xi) of the General Financial Rules, 2017 in this regard,” he added.

NPS, APY SUBSCRIBERS RISE 2 2% TO 4.15 CRORE AT FEB-ENDNEW DELHI: The subscribers under the flagship NPS and APY pension schemes grew by nearly 22 per cent to 4.15 crore at February-end 2021, government data showed on Wednesday. “The number of subscribers in various schemes rose to 414.70 lakh by end-February 2021 from 340.34 lakh in February 2020, showing a year- on- year increase of 21.85 per cent,” PFRDA said in a release. The subscribers under National Pension System (NPS) and Atal Pension Yojana (APY) were over 3.43 crore a year ago. As of February 28, 2021, total pension assets under management stood at Rs 5,59,594 crore, showing a year-on-year growth of 33.09 per cent, PFRDA said. The NPS is for the govern-ment, autonomous bodies and corporate sector.

BRIEFSBUSINESS

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The gov-ernment has asked messag-ing firm Whatsapp to review its proposed privacy policy changes, Minister of State for IT and Communications San-jay Dhotre informed the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

WhatsApp has drawn mas-sive criticism from users glob-ally, including India, over concerns that data was being shared with its parent com-pany, Facebook. WhatsApp, on its part, has maintained that messages on the platform are end-to-end encrypted and that neither WhatsApp nor Face-book can see the private mes-sages on WhatsApp’s platform.

“Ministry of Electron-ics & Information Technol-ogy (MeitY) took cognizance of the WhatsApp announce-ment of its new Privacy Pol-icy stated to be applicable to Indian users. To safeguard the interest of Indian users, Meity has asked WhatsApp to review the proposed privacy policy changes and also to explain the rationale of the same,” MoS IT and Communications Sanjay Dhotre said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

Whatsapp has proposed its users to accept updated policy changes by March 15 if they want to continue using the app.

NEW DELHI: State-owned engineering firm BHEL on Wednesday said it has emerged as the lowest bidder for sup-ply of equipment for 6x700 MW nuclear power projects of Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd.

“In an open competitive bidding process, Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) has emerged as the lowest bid-der (Rs 10,800 crore) for the fleet mode tender floated by Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) for the 6x700 MW Turbine Island Package Projects,” the company said.

With this tender, BHEL has retained its market lead-ership position of being the sole Indian supplier of nuclear steam turbines.

The Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs) are the mainstay of the Indian Nuclear Power Programme

and 12 out of 18 operating PHWRs of the NPCIL are equipped with the BHEL-sup-plied Steam Turbine Genera-tor sets (10x220 MWe + 2x540 MWe) with the balance from Canada and Ukraine.

These sets have continu-ously been exhibiting excel-lent performance with Kaiga Unit-1 creating a world record of uninterrupted operation for 962 days.

Additionally, Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd has already sup-plied 2x700 MWe Steam Tur-bine Generator sets each for Kakrapar Atomic Power Plant (Unit 3 and 4) and Rawatbhata Atomic Power Plant (Unit 7 and 8).

BHEL has been a reliable supplier of critical equipment and services for India’s Nuclear Programme for many decades with specialised manufactur-ing facilities and capabilities already been set up. MPOST

NEW DELHI: Sugar mills have contracted to export 4.3 mil-lion tonne of sugar so far in the 2020-21 marketing year ending in September, industry body ISMA said on Wednesday.

The government has allowed export of 6 million tonne of sugar under Maxi-mum Admissible Export Quota (MAEQ) during the 2020-21 marketing year to liquidate sur-plus sugar in global markets.

“Around 4.3 million tonne of export have already been signed,” Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) said in a statement.

These contracts have been signed in just two-and-half

months since the date the export quotas were allocated by the government on Decem-ber 31, 2020, it said.

As per information col-lected from ports, 3,18,000 tonne of sugar was exported between October-December 2020 against the quota allo-cated during the last market-ing year.

ISMA said another around 2.2 million tonne of physical exports are expected between January and March this year against shipment quota allo-cated for the current year.

To support the export pro-gramme, the government has allowed swap between MAEQ

and domestic quota for the cur-rent 2020-21 marketing year, which has received positive response from the millers. So far, 4,70,000 tonne of reallo-cations have been done by the government.

Further, the government has recently issued a clarifica-tion that supply of raw/white sugar to Special Economic Zone refineries will be consid-ered as export under MAEQ for 2020-21 marketing year and is covered under the scheme of providing assistance to sugar mills.

However, the clarification on sugar export to Iran is still awaited from the government,

ISMA added.As per the latest data, sugar

production in the country has reached 25.86 million tonne till March 15 of the 2020-21 marketing year, as against 21.61 million tonne in the year-ago period.

Sugar production has reached 9.4 million tonne in Maharashtra, 8.42 million tonne in Uttar Pradesh and 4.13 million tonne in Karna-taka. These are three top sugar producing states in the country. ISMA has pegged the coun-try’s sugar production at 30.2 million tonne for the 2020-21 marketing year, as against 27.42 million tonne last year. PTI

OUR CORRESPONDENT

MUMBAI: Asset quality of banks, which saw some improvement in the second half of 2020, is likely to worsen dur-ing the first six months of 2021, according to a survey.

The findings are part of the 12th round of bankers’ sur-vey carried out by FICCI-IBA between July and December 2020. The survey was conducted on 20 banks, including public sector, private sector and foreign banks, representing about 59 per cent of the banking indus-try, as classified by asset size.

In the current round of the survey, half of the respondent banks reported a decline in NPAs during the second half of 2020. About 78 per cent of par-ticipating state-run banks have cited a reduction in NPA levels.

“However, in terms of out-look, nearly 68 per cent of respondent bankers expect the NPA levels to be above 10 per cent in the first half of 2021,” the survey showed.

Close to 37 per cent of respondents expect NPA lev-els to be upwards of 12 per cent.

The Reserve Bank of India’s Financial Stability Report, released in January this year, showed that gross non-per-forming assets (NPAs) of banks may rise to 13.5 per cent by Sep-tember 2021, under the baseline stress scenario.

Some of the high NPA risk sectors identified by majority of respondent bankers in the current round of survey include tourism and hospitality, MSME, aviation and restaurants, the survey showed.

Around 55 per cent of respondents believe NPAs to rise substantially in the tour-

ism and hospitality sector, while another 45 per cent reported that NPAs are likely to increase moderately in this sector.

Another high NPA risk sector reported in the current round of survey is the MSME sector, with 84 per cent respon-dents expecting an increase in NPAs in this sector.

Close to 89 per cent respon-dents also expect the restau-rant sector to see an increase in NPAs, though only 26 per cent expect NPAs to increase substantially in this segment, it showed.

The survey revealed that

there was a significant increase in the requests for one-time restructuring for MSMEs, announced by the RBI in August last year. “

An overwhelming 85 per cent of the respondent banks have cited an increase in requests for restructuring of advances as against 39 per cent in the last round, it said.

The long-term credit demand has been growing for sectors such as infrastructure, pharmaceuticals and food pro-cessing, the findings showed.

“Particularly for the pharma sector, 45 per cent of the respon-dents have indicated an increase in long term loans in the current round of survey as against 29 per cent in the previous round, it showed.

Over half of the respon-dents indicated that they did not avail funds under on-tap targeted long-term repo opera-tions (TLTRO) while about 33 per cent said that TLTRO funds were deployed completely in securities issued by NBFCs/ MFIs, the survey showed.

Highlights » Around 55 per cent of respondents believe NPAs to rise substantially in the tourism and hospitality sector, while another 45 per cent reported that NPAs are likely to increase moderately in this sector

» Another high NPA risk sector reported in the current round of survey is the MSME sector, with 84 per cent respondents expecting an increase in NPAs in this sector

» Close to 89 per cent respondents also expect the restaurant sector to see an increase in NPAs, though only 26 per cent expect NPAs to increase substantially in this segment, it showed

NPAs expected to increase in 1st half of 2021: FICCI-IBA survey

RBI’s Financial Stability Report, released in January this year, showed that gross non-performing assets (NPAs) of banks may rise to 13.5% by September 2021

WhatsApp asked to review proposed privacy policy changes, says Dhotre

NEW DELHI: There is no plan currently under consid-eration to bail out private tele-com operators that are under financial loss, Parliament was informed on Wednesday.

Also, no proposal is under consideration at pres-ent on the allocation of 5G spectrum to state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, Minister of State for Com-munications Sanjay Dhotre said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

“At present, there is no plan under consideration to bail out private Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) which are under financial loss,” Dhotre said replying to a question on whether the government has any plans for bailing out such telcos.

Dhotre said while the gov-ernment has not given any exemption to the operators on Adjusted Gross Reve-nue (AGR) related dues, the Telecom Department, fol-lowing a Cabinet nod, had filed an application seek-ing the permission of the

Supreme Court to allow tel-cos to make the payment of the Adjusted Gross Revenue dues in 20 years’ time (or less if they opt).

“...Supreme Court has par-tially allowed the Miscella-neous Application permitting Telecom Service Providers to make the payment in 10 annual equal instalments. The Hon’ble Supreme Court vide its order dated Septem-ber 1, 2020 has also given several directions towards the implementation of the judgment,” Sanjay Dhotre noted.

The Department of Tele-com as well as operators are bound by the orders and direction of the Supreme Court, he added. MPOST

‘No plan under consideration to bail out stressed pvt telcos’

MUMBAI: Equity indices wilted under selling pressure for the fourth straight session on Wednesday, weighed by sell-ing in RIL and banking stocks, amid lacklustre trade in global markets ahead of the US Fed-eral Reserve’s policy decision.

A flat rupee and rising COVID-19 cases in multiple states also sapped risk appetite, traders said.

Investors have lost over Rs 5.55 lakh crore in four days of declines in the domestic equity markets.

After a volatile session, the 30-share BSE Sensex ended 562.34 points or 1.12 per cent lower at 49,801.62.

Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty slumped 189.15 points or 1.27 per cent to finish at 14,721.30.

ONGC was the top loser in the Sensex pack, declining 4.95

per cent, followed by NTPC, Sun Pharma, SBI, IndusInd Bank, Reliance Industries, Bajaj Auto and Dr Reddy’s.

Only four index components finished with gains -- ITC, Info-sys, TCS and HDFC, climbing up to 1.20 per cent.

“Indian market remained in negative territory as inves-tors traded cautiously ahead of the US Fed meeting cou-pled with a resurgence in COVID cases. Adding to that,

the rise in international crude prices is also dragging the Indian market.

“Global markets also dis-played a weak opening as it awaits the final decision of the FOMC meeting today, which will decide the trend of the market in the short-term. On a consensus basis, an accom-modative policy is expected by Fed, which will help the global market to stabilise,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit

Financial Services.All BSE sectoral indices

closed in the red, with oil and gas, power, realty, energy, util-ities, industrials and capital goods indices shedding up to 3.22 per cent.

In the broader markets, the BSE midcap and smallcap indi-ces fell as much as 2.28 per cent.

Global investors awaited the Fed’s policy decision in the backdrop of surging US Trea-sury yields.

Meanwhile, the global oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 0.89 per cent lower at $67.78 per barrel.

The rupee closed flat 72.55 against the US dollar.

Foreign institutional inves-tors were net buyers in the capi-tal market as they purchased shares worth Rs 1,692.31 crore on Tuesday, according to exchange data. PTI

Markets crash for 4th day in row as Sensex tanks 562 points; Nifty slips below 14,800

KBK graphicsInfo

Intra-day on March 17, 2021

9am 10 11 12 1pm 2 3 4 9am 10 11 12 1pm 2 3 4

Previous

close:

14,910.45

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NSE NIFTY

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49,718.65Close:

14,721.30

-562.34

(-1.12%)

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Intra-day on March 17, 2021

BSE SENSEX

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14,946.55

:High:

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50,436.02

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NEW DELHI: India’s gov-ernment is likely to leave the inflation targeting band for its central bank unchanged, according to people familiar with the matter, while policy makers remain focused on ris-ing prices amid the rebound from the pandemic.

A consumer-price inflation band tracked by the Reserve Bank of India is likely to be retained at the current 2 per cent-6 per cent range, said the people, who asked not to be identified citing rules before the framework is finalized by March 31. The government is mulling small changes to the system, including safeguard options that offer leeway in cases of an excep-tional events, they said, without providing further details.

A spokesperson for the Finance Ministry declined to comment, while the RBI didn’t immediately respond to an

emailed request for comment.Volatile food costs and a

sustained rise in global oil led consumer prices to exceed the upper band several times last year, threatening to limit the central bank’s ability to keep monetary policy loose to help stimulate the economic recov-ery. The situation also posed political risks for Prime Min-ister Narendra Modi’s govern-ment in the run up to key state elections.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year bond has climbed about 30 basis points since early Feb-ruary amid growing wagers the central bank may reverse the course of its accommoda-tive policy to curb any surge in inflation. The current five-year mandate for flexible infla-tion targeting, known as FIT, requires the RBI to keep head-line inflation at the 4 per cent midpoint of its range. The 400

basis points within which the central bank has sanction to operate is the widest in Asia, and only matched by Turkey and surpassed by Argentina, Bloomberg reported.

India’s government is likely to leave the inflation target-ing band for its central bank unchanged, according to peo-ple familiar with the matter, while policy makers remain focused on rising prices amid the rebound from the pandemic.

A consumer-price inflation band tracked by the Reserve Bank of India is likely to be retained at the current 2 per cent-6 per cent range, said the people, who asked not to be identified citing rules before the framework is finalized by March 31. The government is mulling small changes to the system, including safeguard options that offer leeway in cases of an excep-tional events, they said. AGENCIES

Government favours retaining RBI’s 2%-6% inflation band

NEW DELHI: Around 16.5 lakh people have benefited from the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Rozgar Yojana (ABRY) which was launched in October to encourage hiring in the coun-try amid the COVID-19 pan-demic, Union minister Santosh Gangwar said on Wednesday.

“As on 9th March, 2021, 16.49 lakh employees were reg-istered for availing the benefits (under ABRY),” Labour Minis-ter Santosh Gangwar said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

The scheme has been intro-duced to incentivize creation of new employment along with social security benefits and res-toration of loss of employment during the pandemic.

This scheme being imple-mented through the EPFO, reduces the financial burden of the employers of various sec-tors/ industries and encourages them to hire more workers.

Under the ABRY, the Gov-ernment of India is crediting for a period of two years both the employees’ share (12% of wages) and employers’ share (12% of wages) of contribution payable.

In another reply on job cre-ation Gangwar stated, “Under the ABRY, approximately 16.5 lakhs beneficiaries have reg-istered themselves with the Scheme from October 1, 2020. Out of this, approximately 13.64 lakhs are new joinees with UAN (universal account number) generated on or after October 1, 2020 and approximately 2.86 lakhs are re-joinees who were rendered un-employed during the pandemic from March 1, 2020 to September 30, 2020 & rejoined from October 1, 2020 onwards.” Under Pradhan Man-tri Garib Kalyan Yojana, the Government has contributed both 12 per cent employer’s share and 12 per cent employee’s share under Employees Provi-dent Fund, totaling 24 per cent of the wage for the wage month from March to August, 2020, for the establishments having up to 100 employees with 90 per cent of such employees earning less than Rs 15,000. PTI

‘16.5L benefited under ABRY’

NEW DELHI: The govern-ment has received complaints against certain e-commerce companies alleging violation of foreign direct investment (FDI) policy and necessary actions have been taken for investigation by the Enforce-ment Directorate, Parliament was informed on Wednesday.

In a written reply to the Lok Sabha, Commerce and Indus-try Minister Piyush Goyal said no representation from All India Chamber of Commerce and Industry (AICCI) was received regarding banning of some big e-commerce compa-nies from operating in India.

“The government has received complaints against certain e-commerce compa-nies alleging violation of FDI policy and necessary actions under the provisions of For-eign Exchange Management Act, 1999 have been taken for investigation by the Enforce-

ment Directorate,” he said.Replying to a separate ques-

tion, Minister of State for Com-merce and Industry Hardeep Singh Puri said there are 1,569 tea gardens in the country covering total area of 4,20,671 hectares.

He said the Tea Board has provided financial assistance of Rs 217.77 crore to tea com-panies from 2017-18 till Febru-ary 1, 2021.

In another reply, Singh said

the top five countries from where India has imported goods during 2020 (January- December) include China, the US, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

India has imported goods worth USD 143.5 billion from these five nations during the period, which is about 39 per cent of India’s total inbound shipments.

“The major items of import from China are products such as telecom instruments, com-puter hardware and periph-erals, fertilizers, electronic components/instruments, project goods, organic chemi-cals, drug intermediates, con-sumer electronics, electrical machinery,” he added.

To a separate question, Singh said the government has received representations regarding under invoicing and smuggling of raw human hair. PTI

‘Govt has received complaints against some e-comm cos for FDI policy violation’

BHEL emerges lowest bidder for NPCIL’s ̀ 10,800 cr tender

Mills to export 4.3 mn tonne sugar in 2020-21Govt has allowed export of 6 mn tonne of sugar during 2020-21

BERLIN: The German econ-omy Europe’s biggest will grow by 3.1 per cent this year, the government’s panel of inde-pendent economic advisers forecast on Wednesday, cut-ting its previous prediction somewhat.

The panel’s new outlook compared with a forecast of 3.7 per cent in November, made at the beginning of a second round of Coronavirus-related closures that are largely still in place.

Last year, Germany’s gross domestic product shrank by 4.9 per cent. That ended a decade of growth and was the biggest decline since the financial cri-sis in 2009.

However, Germany’s economy did better than sev-eral others in the 19-country eurozone as it was supported by manufacturing, which has taken less of a hit than services during the pandemic.

For 2022, the economists predicted growth of 4 per cent.

Despite the second wave of infections and, at least here in Germany, an ongoing lock-down, we are far from the dif-ficult economic situation in Spring 2020, panel member Volker Wieland said.

World trade has picked up significantly, he said, with eco-nomic activity improving in China, Asia and the United States in particular. AGENCIES

German economist panel cuts 2021 growth outlook to 3.1%

Government of West bengal, Office of the District Magistrate, Darjeeling &

District Election Officer DarjeelingAbridged Tender Notice

1) NIQ-02/PB/NIQ/ELECTION/WBLA-20-21 DATE 15.03.2021 2) For all the above mentioned NIQ the last date of submission of bid online is 22.03.2021 upto 13.00 HRS. For details log in at www.darjeeling .gov.in and office of the District Magistrate & District Election Officer, Darjeeling

Sd/-For District Magistrate &

District Election Officer Darjeeling

mp sports 11millenniumpost|KOLKATA|THURSDAY, 18 MARCH, 2021

S Africa seal women’s ODI series 4-1, give India plenty to think about

AHEAD OF WORLD CUP

LUCKNOW: South Africa added salt to India's wounds by registering a five-wicket win over the hosts in the low-scor-ing fifth and final women's ODI to seal the series 4-1 here on Wednesday.

Mithali Raj played a cap-tain's knock by hitting a well-crafted 79 not out but it was only enough to take India to 188 all out.

South Africa then rode on Anneke Bosch (58) and Mignon du Preez's (57) half-centuries to chase down the target in 48.2 overs.

The series marked India's return to international cricket after 12 months. They were nat-urally rusty to start with and by the end of the series, it seemed that they have a lot of work to do if they want to be title con-tenders for the World Cup early next year.

The batting needs more firepower and bowling con-cerns too need to be addressed as spinners, traditionally India's strength, struggled against South Africa.

Coming back after a long

break, the India players had only a handful of training ses-sions ahead of the series as they also had to undergo a manda-tory one week quarantine.

"Clearly, we do need some camps before series. We were underprepared, coming from a gap. The batting unit tried to improve consistently match by match. Our spinners need to

improve," said Mithali at the post-match presentation.

"Other than the result, it's been a good series for us. Expo-sure for the young players, and opportunity to those players looking for rhythm. Congrat-ulations to South Africa for doing so well in our condi-tions," she added.

South Africa's chase got off

to a disastrous start as the visi-tors lost their top three batters including skipper Sune Luus (10) for just 27 runs.

Du Preez (57) and Bosch (58) the stabilised South Afri-ca's run chase with a 96-run partnership for the fourth wicket before Indian bowlers pulled things back, dismissing both the set batters in quick

succession.At that stage South Africa

were 131 for five, still needing 58 runs in 13 overs for a win.

While Bosch's knock was laced with eight fours and came off 70 balls, du Preez was a tad slower as she took 10 balls for her innings and struck just four boundaries in the process.

Marizanne Kapp (36 not out) and Nadine de Klerk (19 not out), however, ensured there was no further hiccups as the duo shared unbeaten 58 runs for the sixth wicket to guide South Africa home.

For India, left-arm spinner Rajeshwari Gayakwad picked up three wickets conceding just 13 runs off her 10 overs.

Earlier, Mithali steered India's innings after India lost three early wickets with the scoreboard reading 53 in the 13th over.

Together with Harman-preet Kaur (30), who retired hurt due to an injury, Mith-ali shared 71 runs for the fourth wicket before the for-mer left the ground in the 31st over. AGENCIES

Coming back after long break, the India players had only a handful of training sessions ahead of series as they also had to undergo mandatory one week quarantine

In must-win game, India aim to negate toss factor

AHMEDABAD: India would aim to take the toss out of equation and put up a much improved all-round show against a formidable England in their to bid to level the series in the fourth Twenty20, here on Thursday.

The template of win the toss and bowl has been set in the series with the chas-ing team getting home rather comfortably.

However, India skipper Virat Kohli has repeatedly stressed on the need to do well whether they are posting totals or chasing as part of their prep-aration for the T20 World Cup at home later this year.

In the two games they lost after batting first, India strug-gled in the powerplay, which impacted their final total despite one batsman (Shreyas Iyer and Virat Kohli respec-tively) going on to make a sig-nificant contribution.

A lot of it was down to K L Rahul not being amongst the runs but Kohli made it amply clear that the Karnataka batsman and Rohit Sharma remain their preferred open-ing combination.

"If you look at his stats in the last 2-3 years, they are prob-ably better than anyone in T20. He will continue to be one of our main batters along with Rohit at the top of the order. We don't have any concerns

there," said Kohli.The express pace of Mark

Wood and Jofra Archer has also made life tough for the Indi-ans in the first six overs. They have been able to extract dis-concerting bounce from the surface, putting the batsmen in two minds.

Going by Kohli's words post the third game, a third all-rounder alongside Har-dik Pandya and Washington Sundar can be drafted into the side with the choice between uncapped Rahul Tewatia and Axar Patel.

Unlike the first game, Kohli's sublime 77 ensure India did have some runs to defend but the bowlers hardly troubled the opposition batsman with Jos Buttler running away with the contest.

The team's number one

spinner Yuzvendra Chahal has leaked runs both times India have set a target.

Hardik Pandya's return as a bowling all-rounder has been promising but he is yet to take a wicket. Bhuvneshwar Kumar has kept things tidy in his comeback series but the team expects him to provide regular breakthroughs with the new ball.

Offie Washington Sundar has been the stand out bowler for India with four wickets at an impressive economy rate of 6.95.

Despite India being 1-2 down, no major changes are expected in the playing eleven.

England, like India, also want to win in all conditions and will be buoyed by their emphatic win in the previous game. AGENCIES

Man City sweep aside Gladbach, back in CL quarters

BUDAPEST: The quarterfi-nals have proved to be the ceil-ing for Manchester City in the Champions League under Pep Guardiola.

The team is back there again, for a fourth straight season, after sweeping aside Borussia Monchengladbach in the last 16.

And this time, things feel very different.

The ruthless nature of City's 4-0 aggregate win over Gladbach, sealed by another 2-0 victory over the German team in the second leg on Tuesday, smacked of a side in control of its destiny.

The celebrations at the full-time whistle were as business-like as the performance. For City, it felt the competition now starts for real.

"Since the first day I arrived here, five years ago, they told me you have to win the Cham-

pions League," Guardiola said."So it's always on our

shoulders."Yet the expectations have

proved too much for Guardiola and his team in successive quarterfinal exits, to Liverpool, Tottenham and then so pain-fully Lyon last season.

This looks to be City's best chance of becoming European champion for the first time, though.

Thanks to a blistering 12th-minute strike in off the cross-bar by Kevin De Bruyne and Ilkay Gundogan's goal six minutes later after a flowing team move, City racked up a 24th win in its last 25 games in all competitions and a sev-enth straight clean sheet in the Champions League.

The squad is injury-free. Guardiola has been able to rest and rotate his players. City leads the Premier League by

14 points, is into the final of the English League Cup, and now the quarterfinals of both the FA Cup and the Champi-ons League.

In an intense season like no other because of the pan-demic, City couldn't be in bet-ter shape. Not that Guardiola is getting carried away.

"Everything," he said, "can change immediately in one

day."Certainly Gladbach was

in no condition to bring City down, a seventh defeat in a row in all competitions on the cards from the moment De Bruyne met a short pass from Riyad Mahrez with a left-foot shot from the edge of the area that flew in off the underside of the crossbar.

It could have been a heavier

loss for Gladbach inside an empty Puskas Arena in Buda-pest, which again was hosting the match because Corona-virus travel restrictions pre-vented the team from traveling to Manchester for the return leg.

After Gundogan ran onto a reverse pass from Phil Foden and slipped in the second, City picked its moments to pick off Gladbach. Mahrez was twice denied by goalkeeper Yann Sommer in the second half and also curled wide when well-placed, while substitute Raheem Sterling stumbled after being played in by De Bruyne.

"We have to recognise the opponent was too strong for us tonight," said Gladbach coach Marco Rose, whose team has lost every match since it was announced on February 15 that he would be leaving at

the end of the season to join Borussia Dortmund.

Gladbach bade farewell to the Champions League and the team is unlikely to return to the competition for at least a year and a half, having dropped to 10th place in the Bundesliga on the back of its woeful recent run.

City, though, marches on and was joined in the last eight on Tuesday by Real Madrid, which beat Atalanta 3-1 to complete a 4-1 win on aggregate.

Liverpool, Porto, Dort-mund and Paris Saint-Ger-main reached the quarterfinals last week.

No team will want to face City next, even with the team's history of imploding at this stage.

"I'm not thinking to get to the semifinals," Guardiola said. AGENCIES

Ruthless nature of City's 4-0 aggregate win over Gladbach, sealed by another 2-0 victory over the German team

Avinash Sable, Neeraj Chopra, Tajinderpal Toor

give India reason to cheerPATIALA: Maharashtra's Avinash Sable paid the best possible tribute to late coach Nikolai Snesarev, posting a new national record time of 8 min-utes 20.20 seconds to win the 3000m steeplechase at the Fed-eration Cup Senior National Athletics Championships here on Wednesday.

Along with javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra and shot put-ter Tajinderpal Singh Toor, Sable gave India much reason for cheer.

Chopra broke his own meet record while Toor had a superb series of throws at the Netaji Subhas National Institute of Sports.

Sable, who set the earlier national mark at 8:21.37 in the World Championships in Doha on October 4, 2019, broke free of the pack after a lap and a half and raced the clock on the third day of the competition.

Having already secured Olympic qualification, the 26-year-old was a picture of determination and confidence as he chased his target time -- almost as if to honour the late Belarussian coach.

Javelin thrower Chopra sus-tained his fine run of form with a massive throw over 87.80m on his final attempt which secured him a new meet record.

Having raised the national record to 88.07m in the Indian Grand Prix III here on March

5, he showed a hunger for con-sistency and desire to embrace consistency rather than rest on his past feats.

Earlier, 26-year-old Toor (Punjab) uncorked a series of big throws as he sought to meet the Olympic qualifying mark of 21.10m.

Opening with a throw of 19.99m, the strapping left-hander went past the 20m mark on each of his four other legal throws, recording 20.20m, 20.17m, 20.58m and 20.47m with a foul on his fourth try.

The world No. 24 was look-ing to join 24 others who have achieved the Olympic entry standard. At the moment, he is third on the list of eight who can qualify on the basis of their world ranking.

The final two attempts on Wednesday evening showed that he is getting better out-comes for his sustained efforts.

Parul Chaudhary (Uttar Pradesh) played the waiting game to perfection, letting Komal Jagdale (Maharashtra) set the pace but staying on her heels through the women's 3000m steeplechase only to sprint away in the final 200m to a secure comfortable win in the end.

She was also superior at the water jumps where Jagdale lost some precious time. AGENCIES

Indian contingent cleared to take part in All England after 3 shuttlers test -ve in retestsBIRMINGHAM: The Indian badminton contingent has been cleared to participate in the All England Championships after the players, who had tested posi-tive for COVID-19, returned negative in retests conducted by the governing body (BWF) on Wednesday.

Three Indian shuttlers and a support staff had tested posi-tive on Tuesday while a few were awaiting confirmation on their inconclusive samples, leaving the players without much prac-tice ahead of the tournament.

"No positive tests in the team anyone. We are ready for All England," wrote India's Danish foreign coach Mathais Boe in a post in Instagram.

In an email to team manag-ers on Wednesday, the Badmin-ton World Federation (BWF) and Badminton England also informed that "following fur-ther investigations and testing,

all team members have been returned to the draw having successfully retested negative."

It also said that "following a higher-than-expected num-ber of inconclusive and positive tests, a full investigation into the testing and laboratory process was conducted in consultation with representatives from Public Health England and the testing companies involved.

"During the process of that investigation, sufficient doubt was raised over the accuracy of the batches of tests submitted by Badminton England, that it was deemed appropriate to retest.

"Following the retest and further investigations, it has been determined that the result of the retest will be one used."

Earlier, BWF and Badmin-ton England had delayed the start of the event by a couple of hours following a "signifi-cant number" of inconclusive

COVID-19 test results.The prestigious Super 1000

tournament was earlier sched-uled to start at 9 am GMT.

The Indian campaign was thrown into chaos on Tuesday after reports emerged that three players and a support staff had tested positive for COVID-19.

India's badminton couple Saina Nehwal and Parupalli Kashyap were also left confused less than 24 hours before the start of the tournament after the latter's tests for COVID-19 came "inconclusive".

Saina too is waiting for her results for her COVID-19 tests and the duo had taken to Twit-ter to express their displeasure.

Saina and HS Prannoy had to go through a similar expe-rience in Thailand in January when they had returned posi-tive in a COVID-19 test but was cleared to compete later after further investigation. AGENCIES

Ibrahimovic back to face former club when

Milan host ManUMILAN: Zlatan Ibrahimovic will be fit enough to face his former club when AC Milan host Manchester United in the Europa League on Thursday.

The Sweden forward, who played for United from 2016-18, has missed Milan's past four matches with a left thigh injury. That ruled him out of a return to Old Trafford, where Milan snatched a 1-1 draw in the first leg of the round of 16.

Milan coach Stefano Pioli said Wednesday that Ibrahi-movic has recovered suffi-ciently to play some part in Thursday's match but would not confirm whether the 39-year-old Ibrahimovic would be part of the starting lineup.

We'll see what choices I'll make tomorrow, Pioli said.

His return to the squad is important for us but clearly he won't be able to play for 90

minutes.Milan has won only one of

the four matches during Ibra-himovic's absence and has slipped nine points behind Serie A leader Inter Milan.

It was a fourth spell on the sidelines for Ibrahimovic this season after testing positive for the Coronavirus and two other injuries to his left leg.

Ibrahimovic has neverthe-less scored 14 goals in as many league matches. AGENCIES

WI Legends to face India in semis

of Road Safety World Series T20

RAIPUR: West Indies Legends defeated England Legends by five wickets to enter the semi-finals of the Road Safety World Series T20 here, where they will face India Legends.

Chasing 187 on Tues-day night, half centuries from Dwayne Smith and Narsingh Deonarine saw West Indies through to the knockout stage.

The West Indians, who were cruising throughout, got a scare when they needed one to win in two balls. Brian Lara stepped out to hit off-spinner James Tredwell, but missed the ball and got stumped.

West Indies needed one off the final ball and Tino Best took his side home.

Earlier, Phil Mustard and Owais Shah slammed half cen-turies to help England Legends post 186 for three.

Mustard made 57 runs off 41 balls with three sixes and five boundaries, while Shah hit an unbeaten 30-ball 53, which included three hits over the ropes and five boundaries.

Captain Kevin Pietersen chipped in with a crucial 38 and Jim Troughton score an important 22.

The opening half century partnership between Mustard and Pietersen build a strong foundation for England.

Shah played some big shots, in the end, to get his half cen-tury and eventually took Eng-land beyond the 180-run mark.

Brief scores: England Leg-ends 186/3 (Phil Mustard 57, Owais Shah 53 not out; Dwayne Smith 2/31) lost to West Indies Legends 187/5 (Dwayne Smith 58, Narsing Deonarine 53 not out; Chris Tremlett 2/37) by 5 wickets. AGENCIES

Kohli returns to top 5 in ICC T20I batsmen rankingsDUBAI: Following his stellar performance in the ongoing series against England, India skipper Virat Kohli on Wednes-day broke back into the top of the ICC T20 batsmen rankings.

Kohli, a formerly top-ranked batsman in the format and cur-rently number one in ODIs, gained one slot and a massive 47 rating points after unbeaten knocks of 73 and 77 in the sec-ond and third matches against England, to be placed fifth.

KL Rahul remains the top-ranked Indian batsmen at the fourth spot despite three fail-ures in the series so far.

Shreyas Iyer is up 32 places

to the 31st spot while Rishabh Pant gained 30 spots to be ranked 80th. Among bowlers, all-rounder Washington Sundar is up two places to 11th while seamers Shardul Thakur (up 14 places to 27th) and Bhuvnesh-war Kumar (up seven places to 45th) have also gained.

Jos Buttler has re-entered the top 20. His match-winning 83 not out in the third match has helped him advance five places to 19th position, just two shy of his career-best 17th position attained in October 2018.

There were also some other fine performances in the series, between the top two sides,

which England leads 2-1. Jonny Bairstow, who chipped in with 40 runs and was associated in an unbroken 77-run stand with Buttler in the eight-wicket win on Tuesday, has moved up two slots to 14th position in the list led by his compatriot Dawid Malan. Opener Jason Roy has advanced four slots to 24th with scores of 49 and 46 in the first two matches.

Fast bowlers Jofra Archer (up 43 places to 34th) and Mark Wood (up 59 places to 39th), as well as left-arm seam bowler Sam Curran (up 41 places to 74th) have gained in the weekly update for men. AGENCIES

Srikanth, Kashyap knocked out of

men's singles in All England

BIRMINGHAM: India's ace shuttlers Kidambi Srikanth and Parupalli Kashyap suf-fered early exits in the presti-gious All England Badminton Championships, losing their respective opening round men's singles matches here on Wednesday.

However, the Indian duo of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy got the better of Thailand's Benyapa Aimsaard and Nuntakarn Aimsaard in straight games, 21-14 21-12, in a women's doubles match that lasted 30 minutes. AGENCIES

Bopanna, Qureshi pair

loses first match after reunion

ACAPULCO: The 'Indo-Pak pair' of Rohan Bopanna and Aisam ul Haq Qureshi lost its first match after rejoining forces, bowing out of the ATP 500 event here on Wednesday.

Up against second seeds Bruno Soares and Jamie Mur-ray, the unseeded Indo-Pak team lost 7-6(4) 2-6 1-10 in the opening round of the USD 1204960 hard court tournament.

After trailing 0-7 in the Super Tie Breaker, it was an enormous task for them to pull back. AGENCIES

mp entertainment12 KOLKATA|THURSDAY, 18 MARCH, 2021|millenniumpost

Demi Lovato recalls being SEXUALLY ASSAULTED

American pop singer Demi Lovato opened up to about a shocking

experience that no one would have ever talk about in her recent interview.

According to ‘People’ mag-azine, the 28-year-old revealed

her past in the four-part series ‘Demi Lovato: Dancing with the Devil’. It is a ‘YouTube Originals’ which talks about her notorious 2018 Fentanyl overdose, which caused her brain damage and par-tial blindness. It also shows her ongoing battles with addiction and Lovato also revealed that she had gone through sexual harass-ment at the age of 15.

“I lost my virginity in rape. I called that person back a

month later and tried to make it right by being in control and all it did was just make me feel worse. Textbook trauma re-enactments and I beat myself up for years, which is also why I had a really hard time coming to terms with the fact that it was rape when it happened,” she shared.

She added, “I know what I’m about to say is going to shock peo-ple too. But when I was a teenager,

I was in a very similar situation – I lost my virginity in rape. We were hooking up but I said, ‘Hey, this is not going any further. I’m a virgin and I do not want to lose it this way’.”

“When they found me, I was naked and blue. I was left for dead after he took advantage of me. When I woke up in the hospital, they asked if we had had consen-sual sex. There was one flash that I

had of him on top of me. I saw that flash and I said yes. It was not until a month after the overdose that I realised, ‘You were not in any state of mind to make a consensual deci-sion’,” narrated the singer.

Demi did not reveal it back then under the image of clarity which later led to self-harm and bulimia.

“The Christian, southern girl in me did not see it that way because it was not normalised as a child or in the south. And I’m just gonna say it - my #MeToo story is me tell-ing somebody that someone did this to me, and they never got in trouble for it. They never got taken out of the movie they were in,” said the singer. AGENCIES

In ‘Demi Lovato: Dancing with the Devil’, she revealed that she had gone through sexual harassment at the age of 15 and lost her virginity in rape

The show is a ‘YouTube Originals’, which talks about her notorious 2018 Fentanyl overdose, which caused her brain damage and partial blindness. It also shows her ongoing battles with addiction

Veteran actor Yaphet Kotto, who was famous for essaying the vil-lain Dr Kanaga, aka Mr Big in the

1973 James Bond film ‘Live and Let Die’ passed away at the age of 81 on March 16. The film starred Roger Moore as Agent 007 and Jane Seymour as Soli-taire, Kananga’s psychic and Bond’s love interest.

The news of his demise was announced by Kotto’s wife, Sinahon Thessa.

“I’m saddened and still in shock of the passing of my husband Yaphet of 24 years. This is a very painful moment for me to inform you all

fans, friends and family of my husband. You still had

plans to release your book and build a reli-gious organisation based on Yoganan-da’s teachings. You played a villain in

some of your movies, but for me, you are a real

hero and to a lot of people also,” Thessa wrote on ‘Facebook’.

She added, “A good man, a good father, a good husband and a decent human being,

very rare to find. You were one of the best actors in Hollywood. Rest in Peace Honey, I’m going to miss you every day, my best friend and my rock. I love you and you will always be in my heart. Till we meet again.”

Kotto died in the Philip-pines but the cause of death is yet unknown. He was mar-ried thrice and is survived by six children.

Besides ‘Live and Let Die’, Kotto had also been part of films such as Ridley Scott’s 1979 cult hit ‘Alien’, ‘The Running Man’ and ‘Midnight Run’ in the 1980s.

The late actor received an ‘Emmy’ nom-ination for playing former Ugandan Presi-dent Idi Amin in the 1977 film ‘Raid on Entebbe’. AGENCIES

Bond villain Yaphet Kotto leaves the world at 81

Bollywood actor, who hails from Delhi, confessed his love for the capital city. He shared that while he is enamoured

with the ‘addictive’ vibe of Mumbai, nothing can replace the charm of the capital.

“I love Delhi winters and being lazy with mufli all around me. I love the food of Delhi, it is always on top of my list,” he said.

From ‘Chacha ke Chole’ in Kamla Nagar to Bharat Nagar’s ‘Dahi Bhalle’ to Old Delhi, there are several eating joints where he goes to satiate his foodie spirit when he is in the city, apart from gorging on ‘ghar ka khana’.

Look-ing back at his grow-ing up years in the city, he said,

“I used to roam around Greater Kailash M Block Market, Rajouri Garden Market, Cen-tral Market and Punjabi Bagh. The whole vibe is very interesting. I only feel sad about the air. I miss that fresh air.”

Samrat had spent his childhood years in Ashok Vihar and now he has an onscreen image of a ‘Delhi boy’, thanks to his role in the hit ‘Fukrey’ franchise.

“Even on screen, people connect with me as a Delhi boy much more than anything else. I feel blessed when I come back to Delhi because people here have given me so much love,” he said.

The 37-year-old stated, “That gives me a lot of happiness because now when I cross those places, people gather around and that shows me the amount of love that people are show-ering upon me.”

“Mumbai has its fun and charm. It is very addictive. But Delhi mein jo fursat milti hai na logon ko velle bethne ke liye, gediyan marne ke liye woh aur kahin nahi milti,” he shared.

The fact that Mumbai has paral-lel routes makes him miss Delhi even more. AGENCIES

Hollywood actor Elliot Page had made headlines in December 2020 across the globe when he came out as transgender to the world. In a heartwarming message

shared on ‘Instagram’, Elliot, who was formerly known as Ellen Page, revealed that he was a transgender and was lucky enough to pen down a message. Three months after the announcement, Elliot opened up about his journey for the first time since he came out.

In an interview with ‘Time’, ‘The Umbrella Academy’ revealed that it was the isolation during the pandemic in 2020 that forced him to take a deep look and confront his reality.

“I had a lot of time on my own to focus on things that I think, in so many ways, unconsciously, I was avoiding. I was finally able to embrace being transgender and letting myself fully become who I am,” he shared.

When asked about how his journey on transforming from a gay woman to transgender made him feel, Elliot said, “This feeling of true excitement and deep gratitude to have made it

to this point in my life is mixed with a lot of fear and anxiety.”“Top surgery has completely transformed my life,” spoke Page

about this life-changing experience since his surgery.He also added that he and ex-wife Emma Portner remain

‘close friends’ ever since their separation in 2020. AGENCIES

‘I was finally able to embrace BEING TRANSGENDER’

Pulkit is enamoured with Delhi’s charm

Rhea Chakraborty had recently come in the news after her picture and name

went missing from Amitabh Bach-chan and Emraan Hashmi-starrer ‘Chehre’ which also has Krystle D’Souza in the lead. The ‘Jalebi’ star’s name was also absent from the promotional campaign for the movie.

When producer Anand Pan-dit was quizzed about the same, he chose to dodge the question smartly and stated that they will talk about Rhea only at the right time.

“We did not react because we have decided not to talk about Rhea at this moment. We will answer questions regarding her at the right time. At this juncture,

there is nothing more I can say,” said the producer.

The makers are set to unveil the trailer of the Rumy Jafrey directorial on March 18 and the movie will be hitting the the-atres on April 9 this year. ‘Chehre’ marks Amitabh’s first collabora-tion with Emraan. Apart from Big B, Emraan and Krystle, Chehre also stars Annu Kapoor, Dhriti-man Chatterjee, Raghubir Yadav and Siddhanth Kapoor. AGENCIES

Will talk about Rhea at the right time: Anand Pandit

OUR CORRESPONDENT

After securing the number 1 position on international radio charts for his first release of 2021 - 'Dreamin' Out Loud', Vineet has released his topical single titled 'Jab The World'. The track is a thoughtful yet fun take on the world getting ready for vaccination; however it’s not just about the covid-19 vac-cine, instead 'Jab The World' hopes for a vac-cine that eradicates the growing disaffection worldwide…

"Sometimes optimism, in this case the world beating Coronavirus, is a catalyst for more optimism. The world beating hate," says Vineet, about this upbeat synth-based dance rock track. This audio single will be followed by a video release on March 19th, 2021.

While most of his music comfortably fits in under the category of pop, he is not lim-

ited by a genre and Vineet lets his love for the synth-pop era of the 80s and panache of classic rock, come up in his music every now and then. As is the case with his first release of 2021 'Dreamin’ Out Loud', which was recently launched in India. The upbeat synth-pop single hit the number 1 spot on the European Top 100 and World Radio Charts: Independent Top 20, earning Vineet the distinction of being one of the first Indian artists to hit the number 1 spot in 2021 few artists and probably the only Indian artist in his category to reach this coveted spot.

An electronics engineer by education and a Harvard alumnus, Vineet was also the for-mer MD and founder of India’s only Inter-national format radio station - Radio One.

Vineet releases his topical single 'Jab The World'

I called that person back and tried to make it

right and all it did was just make me

feel worse