RNI NO.: DELENG/2005/15351REGD. NO.: DL(S)-01/3420/2018-20

VOL.16, ISSUE 225 | Saturday, 14 August, 2021 | New Delhi | Pages 12 | Rs 3.00PUBLISHED FROM DELHI | KOLKATA

MILLENNIUMPOST.IN

No Half Truths

OUR CORRESPONDENT

PUNE: Serum Institute of India (SII) chairman Dr Cyrus Poonawalla on Friday said he was not in favour of administering two different Corona-virus vaccines for better efficacy.

Poonawalla, whose firm makes the Covishield vaccine, was speaking to reporters after receiving the Lok-manya Tilak National Award here.

“I am against the mixing of two different vaccines. There is no need to mix two different vaccines,” he said, when asked about a recent ICMR study that a cocktail of Covishield and Covaxin could generate better immunity.

“If cocktail vaccines are adminis-tered and if the result is not good, then SII may say that another vaccine was not good, vice versa, the other com-pany might say that since you mixed Serum’s vaccine, it did not give desired results,” Poonawalla said.

The efficacy of this approach has not been proven in field trials involv-ing thousands of participants, he added.

A study by the Indian Council of Medical Research involving 98 peo-ple, 18 of whom had inadvertently

received Covishield as first dose and Covaxin as the second in Uttar Pradesh, showed that combining vac-cines elicited better immunogenicity.

He also termed the ban on COVID-19 vaccine exports imposed by the Union government a very bad move, saying it put his company, the world’s largest vaccine-maker, in a dif-ficult situation.

He said that his son Adar Poon-awalla, the chief executive of the SII which makes the Covishield vaccine, had asked him not to speak about the issue.

SII chairman Cyrus Poonawalla against

mixing Covid vaccines

CityNO COVID DEATHS FOR 3 DAYS 3

NationASSAM OKAYS BILL    5

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INSENSITIVE APPROACH? 7

InternationalDELTA VARIANT SPREADS FAST IN LANKA 8

BusinessSENSEX SOARS TO 55K MARK 10

Sport2ND TEST EVENLY POISED 11

In today’s paper

...

Twitter interfering in India’s political process

Rahul Gandhi

OUR CORRESPONDENT

MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Friday said Maha-rashtra governor has the con-stitutional obligation to either accept or reject within a rea-sonable time the proposal sent by the chief minister along with his council of minis-ters nominating 12 persons as Members of the Legislative Council (MLCs).

A division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice G S Kulkarni held that it was the duty of the gover-nor to speak and let the chief

minister know about his views within reasonable time on the proposal.

The bench passed its order on a petition filed by a Nashik-resident Ratan Soli Luth seek-ing a direction to Governor B S Koshyari to decide on the nominations submitted by Chief Minister Uddhav

Thackeray and the council of ministers in November 2020 recommending 12 names for the posts.

The state government had expected the governor to take a decision on the proposal within 15 days.

In the present case, eight months have passed. This is a reasonable time according to us. It is important that the obligation of the governor in the present case is discharged without much delay, the court said.

While it is true that the governor is not answerable to

the court, we hope and trust that the constitutional obliga-tion is fulfilled, it said.

Koshyari has been under fire from the ruling MVA alli-ance over the delay in approv-ing the appointment of 12 MLCs.

While the term of legis-lators (from the Governor’s quota) in the Upper House of the State legislature had expired in June last year, the three Maha Vikas Aghadi partners Shiv Sena, NCP, and Congress had deferred send-ing its list of nominees until November.

Governor obligated to accept or reject proposal in reasonable time, says HC

What was the need to introduce new IT Rules? Bombay HC asks Centre

Unless there is liberty of thought, one can’t express oneself, says HCOUR CORRESPONDENT

MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Friday asked the Union government what was the need to introduce the recently notified Information Technology Rules, 2021 with-out superseding the existing IT Rules that came into effect in 2009.

A bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice GS Kulkarni reserved its order on two petitions pleas seeking an interim stay on the implemen-tation of the new Rules.

The pleas, filed by digital legal news portal Leaflet and journalist Nikhil Wagle, raised objections to several provi-sions in the new Rules and said these were likely to have a “chilling effect” on a citizen’s right to free speech as guaran-teed by the Constitution.

The petitioners also claimed the Rules went beyond the scope of the parent IT Act as well as the reason-able restrictions imposed on speech and expression by Arti-cle 19 (2) of the Constitution.

On Friday, the bench said

orally that it was inclined to grant limited relief to both petitioners over serial num-ber nine of the new Rules that related to adherence to a code of ethics.

Earlier during the day’s hearing, Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, appear-ing for the Centre, defended the prescription of such eth-ics saying that even the Press Council of India (PCI) pre-scribed a code of ethics to be followed by journalists.

The bench, however, pointed out that PCI guide-

lines were advisory norms on behaviour and did not carry any drastic punishment for their breach.

“How can you put such an exalted status on the PCI guidelines? That not follow-ing those guidelines will lead to penalty? Unless you have the liberty of thought, how can you express anything? How can you restrict one’s liberty of thought?” the bench said.

Singh, however, said the petitioners’ fear of adverse action on breach of the new Rules were premature.

He said a specially des-ignated committee that will be empowered to take action against those in breach of the new Rules, particularly regula-tion numbers 14 and 16, that the petitioners were objecting to besides number nine, was yet to be designated.

Serial numbers 14 and 16 of the new Rules pertain to powers of an inter-depart-mental committee and to blocking of information in case of emergency respec-tively The HC, however, said the above argument could not be accepted. “There is a catch here. You may say there is no urgency, or no committee. But the sword is hanging on their heads,” the HC said.

Advocate Khambata, who appeared for Leaflet, and advocate Abhay Nevagi, who appeared for Wagle, further argued that the Union gov-ernment had brought in the new Rules, with more drastic checks on publishing content online, by way of a delegated legislation. However, the Rules, in effect, would act like a substantive law.

City: Pg 3Delhi school Board approved for exams, certificates: Dy CM

Nation: Pg 6Himachal Pradesh landslide: Death toll climbs to 17

Film: Pg 12Bella recalls being ‘nervous’ at the 2016 Cannes

Highlights » The pleas raised objections to several provisions in the new Rules and said these were likely to have a “chill-ing effect” on a citizen’s right to free speech

» The bench said orally that it was inclined to grant limited relief to both petitioners over serial number nine of the new Rules that related to adher-ence to a code of ethics

KANPUR (UP): Six people, including one having affili-ation to the Vishva Hindu Parishad, were arrested for allegedly thrashing a Muslim e-rickshaw driver here and asking him to chant “Jai Shri Ram”, police said on Friday.

Three arrested on Thurs-day night were released on bail by police. The other three, who were held on Friday, are still in police custody.

The incident had taken place at the Kacchi Basti local-ity in the Barra area of Kanpur on Wednesday.

A one-minute video

of the incident surfaced on social media, in which 45-year-old Asrar Ahmad is seen being thrashed by some men, who ask him to chant “Jai Shri Ram”.

Ahmed’s daughter is seen trying to save her father, cry-ing and asking the attackers not to beat him up.

Kanpur Commissioner of Police Asim Kumar Arun said three arrested men were released on bail from police station as the offences had a maximum penalty of seven years or less.

Continued on P4

MPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI: Twitter has transferred to the US its India head Manish Maheshwari, against whom an FIR was registered in Uttar Pradesh in connection with a probe related to a video of an alleged hate crime.

While the company did not specify any rea-son for the change, it said Maheshwari will move to the US as Senior Direc-tor (Revenue Strategy and Operations) and focus on new markets in the latest role.

Twitter Vice President Japan and Asia Pacific Yu Sasamoto shared the devel-

opment in a tweet.“Thank you to @man-

ishm for your leadership of our Indian business over the past 2+ years. Congrats on your new US-based role in charge of revenue strategy and operations for new mar-

kets worldwide. Excited to see you lead this impor-tant growth opportu-nity for Twitter,” he said.

When contacted, Twitter confirmed the

development and said Maheshwari is “moving into a new role based in San Francisco as Senior Director, Revenue Strategy and Opera-tions focused on New Market Entry”. Continued on P4

Three of six accused, held for forcing man to chant

‘Jai Shri Ram’, get bail

Twitter transfers India head Manish Maheshwari to US

MPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI: The Centre has notified the Plastic Waste Man-agement Amendment Rules, 2021, prohibiting manufacture, import, stocking, distribution, sale and use of identified single-use plas-tic (SUP) items, including candy sticks, plates, cups and cutlery, from July 1, 2022.

The thickness of plastic carry bags will be increased from 50 microns to 75 microns from September 30, 2021, and to 120 microns from December 31, 2022, according to the notification dated August 12. This will also allow the plastic carry bags to be reused, it stated.

Non-woven plastic carry bags should not be less than 60 gram per square metre (GSM) with effect from September 30, 2021, the notification said.

“The manufacture, import, stocking, distribution, sale and

use of following single-use plas-tic, including polystyrene and expanded polystyrene, com-modities shall be prohibited with effect from July 1, 2022: ear buds with plastic sticks, plastic sticks for balloons, plastic flags, candy sticks, ice-cream sticks, polysty-rene (thermocol) for decoration; plates, cups, glasses, cutlery such as forks, spoons, knives, straw, trays; wrapping or packing films around sweet boxes, invitation cards, and cigarette packets, plas-tic or PVC banners less than 100 micron, stirrers,” it read.

The provisions will not apply to commodities made of composta-ble plastic, the notification said.

In June 2018, Prime Minister

Narendra Modi had announced that India will eliminate all single-use plastics in the country by 2022.

In a statement, the Environ-ment Ministry said plastic pack-aging waste not covered under the phase-out of identified single-use plastic items should be collected and managed in an environmen-tally sustainable way through the Extended Producer Responsibil-ity of the producer, importer and brand owner (PIBO) as per Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016.

For effective implementation of the Extended Producer Responsi-bility, the guidelines being brought out have been given a legal force through the amended rules, it said.

Continued on P4

Single-use plastic items like candy sticks, plates to be prohibited from July 1, 2022

Provisions will not apply to commodities made of compostable plasticOUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Domestic air travel is set to become costlier as the Civil Avia-tion Ministry has raised the lower as well as upper caps on fares by 9.83 to 12.82 per cent, according to an offi-cial order.

India had imposed lower and upper limits on air-fares based on flight dura-tion when services were resumed on May 25, 2020, after a two-month lockdown due to Coronavirus.

In an order dated August 12, 2021, the ministry increased the lower limit for flights under 40 minutes of duration from Rs 2,600 to Rs 2,900 — an increase of 11.53 per cent. The upper cap for flights under 40 minutes of

duration was increased by 12.82 per cent to Rs 8,800.

Similarly, flights with duration between 40-60 minutes have a lower limit of Rs 3,700 instead of Rs 3,300 now, the order said. The upper cap on these flights was increased by 12.24 per cent to Rs 11,000 on Thursday.

The flights with duration between 60-90 minutes have a lower limit of Rs 4,500 — an increase of 12.5 per cent.

Continued on P4

Air travel now costlier as govt raises caps on airfares

WASHINGTON: Twelve nations, including the US, India and China, along with representatives of the UN and EU have decided that they would not recognise any government in Afghanistan that seeks to take control through the barrel of a gun, the State Department has said, amid the continued Taliban offensive across the war-torn country.

Representatives from the United States and Qatar, the UN, China, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, the UK, the EU, Germany, India, Norway, Tajikistan, Turkey and Turkmenistan joined a regional con-clave on Thursday to discuss ways to contain the escalating security situation in Afghanistan.

The conclave was hosted by Qatar.The participants “agreed, first and fore-

most, that the peace process needs to be accel-erated. And they also agreed, importantly, that they will not recognise any government that is imposed through military force,” State Depart-ment Spokesperson Ned Price told reporters on Thursday.

His remarks came as the Taliban advanced across Afghanistan and took control over key provincial capitals. AGENCIES

12 nations decide not to recognise any Afghan govt imposed by force

MLCs NOMINATION ROW

India logs 40,120 fresh Covid infections, 585 new deaths

Recovery rate has risen to 97.46 per cent, the country’s highest since the start of the pandemic last year

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: India saw a sin-gle-day rise of 40,120 Coronavi-rus infections, taking the tally of cases to 3,21,17,826, while the recovery rate rose to 97.46 per cent, the highest recorded so far, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated Friday.

The number of people who have recuperated from the dis-ease surged to 3,13,02,345, while the case fatality rate stands at 1.34 per cent, the data stated.

The death toll, meanwhile, climbed to 4,30,254 with 585 new fatalities, the data updated at 8 am showed.

The ministry said the num-ber of active cases has declined to 3,85,227 or 1.20 per cent of the total cases, the lowest per-centage since March 2020.

A decline of 2,760 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours, the data showed.

The recovery rate has risen to 97.46 per cent, the country’s highest since the start of the pandemic, the ministry said.

Also, 19,70,495 tests were conducted Thursday, taking the cumulative tests carried out so far for the detection of COVID-19 in the country to 48,94,70,779.

The daily positivity rate was

recorded at 2.04 per cent. It has been below 3 per cent for the last 19 days. The weekly posi-tivity rate was recorded at 2.13 per cent, according to the health ministry. Cumulatively, 52.95

crore COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered till Tuesday morning.

Meanwhile, the Health Ministry on Friday approved another installment of Rs

14744.99 crore under the India COVID-19 Emergency Response and Health System Preparedness Package (ECRP-II package) to all states and UTs.

In view of the second wave, its spread into rural, peri-urban and tribal areas, and the evolving pandemic situation, the Union Cabinet approved a new scheme ‘India COVID-19 Emergency Response and Health System Preparedness Package: Phase-II (ECRP-II package)’ on July 8 amounting to Rs 23,123 crore. Continued on P4

A medical worker takes a swab sample for RT-PCR test at Chandni Chowk in New Delhi, on Friday PIC/NAVEEN SHARMA

Takeaways » The case fatality rate stands at 1.34 per cent » The daily positivity rate was recorded at 2.04 per cent » The number of active cases has declined to 3,85,227 or 1.20 per cent of the total cases » Rs 14744.99 cr ap-proved for states, UTs under Covid emergency response package

NEW DELHI: Drug maker Wockhardt on Friday said it has inked a pact with the Rus-sian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) to produce and sup-ply COVID-19 vaccines — Sputnik V and Sputnik Light.

The agreement has been inked under the aegis of Enso Healthcare (part of Enso Group), RDIF’s coordination

partner for sourcing Sputnik V vaccines in India.

In a regulatory filing, Wockhardt noted that sub-ject to requisite approvals and other conditions, the company would manufac-ture and supply up to 620 million doses of the Sputnik V and the Sputnik Light vac-cines to Enso. MPOST

Wockhardt to produce, supply Sputnik vaccine

Freedom to express oneself is indeed allowed to be enjoyed by the citizen to the fullest possible extent, yet with every right there is a corresponding duty attached, the order reads

KEEP IT UP

‘Remarks scathing & undemocratic’: Three denied bail

No proof to confirm Dalit girl’s rape: PoliceOUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Delhi Police has told a court here that no evi-dence could be collected so far to confirm whether the nine-year-old Dalit girl was raped before allegedly being killed near Delhi Cantonment in south-west Delhi earlier this month — although it added that disclosure statements revealed that the local priest, Radhey Shyam and employee Kuldeep Singh had raped and killed the victim.

The remaining accused persons — Salim Ahmad and Laxmi Narayan, both employ-ees at the crematorium — had helped them in trying to cre-

mate the deceased minor, the IO told the court.

The IO has further admit-ted that neither any statement of any eye witness nor any other evidence, including medical or scientific could be collected so

far to confirm as to whether the victim was raped or not.

He has further submitted that at this stage, he cannot conclusively say as to whether the victim child was raped or not, the court noted in the

order passed on August 12. Disclosure statements of the accused persons before police, unless supported by other evi-dence, is not admissible under law.

Special Judge Ashutosh Kumar, meanwhile, awarded Rs 2.5 lakh as interim relief to the mother of the child for the loss of her daughter’s life.

The court, however, did not grant further interim relief on the additional ground of the alleged rape of the victim, in view of the submissions of the IO and in view of the fact that the investigating agency itself is not sure as to whether the victim was raped or not, the interim compensation qua

the same is not allowed at this stage.

The judge granted the lib-erty to the parties concerned to move a fresh application regarding compensation for rape, in case the investigating agency collects further mate-rial or comes to the conclusion that the child was raped.

As per the government scheme, the maximum com-pensation awardable in case of loss of life is Rs 10 lakh. The court granted 25 per cent of the compensation amount as interim relief. The court, mean-while, sent the four accused, who were all known to the girl’s mother, to 14-day judi-cial custody.

ARNABJIT SUR

NEW DELHI: While noting that the accused persons made “scathing remarks” which were “undemocratic” and “uncalled for” from a citizen of this coun-try where principles of secu-larism hold the value of basic feature imbibed in the con-stitution, a Delhi court has denied bail to three persons who had been arrested for allegedly delivering inflam-matory speeches at Jantar Mantar on Sunday as part of a protest against “colonial-era laws” organised by Supreme Court advocate and former BJP spokesperson Ashwini Upadhyay.

In a largely similar order for all three accused, namely Preet Singh, Deepak Singh and Vinod Sharma, Link Metropol-itan Magistrate Udbhav Kumar Jain has observed that in one of the videos, the accused can be seen making “scathing remarks” which are “undemo-cratic” and “uncalled for” from a citizen of this country where principles like secularism hold the value of basic feature imbibed in the Constitution.

“Freedom to express oneself is indeed allowed to be enjoyed by the citizen to the fullest pos-sible extent, yet with every right there is a corresponding duty attached,” the order read, add-ing that the principle behind Section 153A IPC (Promot-ing enmity on grounds of caste

religion, etc.) is to preserve reli-gious/communal harmony and it is the duty of every citizen that while he enjoys his right to express himself, he pre-serves religious harmony. “This indeed is the positive aspect of Secularism,” the court further observed.

While noting thus, MM Jain also said that the court cannot check the veracity of these video clippings which was a matter of appreciation of evidence to be done at a later stage and that proper investi-gation needs to be done with regard to the videos.

Meanwhile, commenting on bail on grounds of parity raised by the defence counsel,

the court stated for all the three accused that their case stood on a different footing than Upadhyay, who has already been granted bail in the case, observing that Upadhyay was neither seen in any of the video footages nor was he seen prima facie raising any communal slogans at the event.

Senior Advocate Ashwini Dubey, representing all the three accused, had contended before the court that the appli-cants were not even present at the gathering at the time of the offence and that from the mere reading of the FIR, noth-ing inculpatory can be ascer-tained even prima facie against the accused.

JANTAR MANTAR HATE SPEECH CASE

Balaji Srivastava, Special CP (Vigilance) felicitated 13 children of police officials posted in Vigilance Unit and DE Cell in presence of their parents at a function organised at Vigilance Unit, Barakhamba Road. They are from different schools and secured good marks in Class 10th and 12th

2 millenniumpostCitympSATURDAY, 14 AUGUST, 2021 | NEW DELHI

Although every possible care and caution has been taken to avoid errors or omissions, this publication is being sold on the condition and understanding that information given in this publication is merely for reference and must not be taken as having authority of or binding in any way on the writers, editors, publishers, and printers and sellers who do not owe any responsibility for any damage or loss to any person, a purchaser of this publication or not for the result of any action taken on the basis of this work. All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of competent court and forums in Delhi/New Delhi only

Printed and Published by Jaiyendra Kumar Sharma on behalf of Front Row Media Pvt. Ltd. and printed at The Indian Express Pvt. Ltd., A-8, Sector-7, Noida-201 301 (U.P.) and published from First Floor, Pratap Bhawan, 5 Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi 110 002. Editor: Durbar Ganguly. Email: editor@millenniumpost.in, Tel. No. 011-47777500

Highlights » The survey was conducted in 30 children homes of south and southeast districts and 400 children in the age group of 6 to 18 were covered » A majority of those surveyed were in the 12-15 age group » The survey found that 37.5 per cent of the children could not read Hindi stories, while 18 per cent were unable to identify even Hindi letters » DCPCR chairman said this is a pilot project » To work towards enhancing foundational and numeracy skills, the child rights body has already initiated a reading campaign, he said

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Nearly 45 per cent of kids living in children homes in south and southeast Delhi were unable to identify two digit numbers, while 25 per cent of those surveyed could not even recognise numbers, according to a survey by the DCPCR. The Delhi Commission For Protec-tion of Child Rights (DCPCR) conducted a baseline assessment of children in childcare institu-tions in July.

The survey was conducted in 30 children homes of south and southeast districts and 400 children in the age group of 6 to 18 were covered. A majority of those surveyed were in the 12-15 age group. There are nearly 100 childcare institutions in the national capital and one-third of them are located in south and southeast Delhi.

The survey found that 37.5 per cent of the children could not read Hindi stories, while 18 per cent were unable to identify

even Hindi letters.It also stated that 25 per cent

were not even able to identify numbers, while 45 per cent could not recognise two-digit numbers.

DCPCR chairman Anurag Kundu said this is a pilot project initiated by the panel and in order to work towards enhancing foun-dational and numeracy skills, it has already initiated a reading campaign in the institutions.

The campaign aims to ensure that 100 per cent children are able to read Hindi fluently with comprehension and perform arithmetic operations such as addition, subtraction, multi-plication and division.

Child Care Institutions house children who are victims of traf-ficking, sexual violence, paren-tal incarceration, parental death, child labour, amongst others.

NARESH BISWANI

NEW DELHI: Ahead of India’s 75th Independence Day, in a major breakthrough, the Special Cell of Delhi Police on Friday busted interstate illegal arms supply rackets in three differ-ent operations — arresting four key persons. A total of 55 illegal pistols (including two automatic pistols) along with 50 live car-tridges, mobile phones and SIM cards were seized from arrested accused persons, an official con-firmed to Millennium Post.

The police launched the crackdown after receiving spe-cific information first about the

movement of two Uttar Pradesh-based arms suppliers who would be supplying a large consign-ment of illegal Arms at Outer Ring Road, Near Burari Flyover, Delhi on August 7, Sanjeev Yadav, DCP Special Cell said.

Later, two more such exer-cises were conducted by a team of Special Cell on August 9 near Mundhela Mor bus stop, on Najafgarh-Dhansa Road, Delhi and near the underpass, Bus Stand of Dwarka Sec. 23, on Friday.

Those arrested have been identified as Rajbeer, Dheeraj, Vinod and Dharmendra. Both Rajveer (33) and Dheeraj (26)

are residents of Hathras, UP, whereas Vinod alias Bhola is from Firozpur and Dharmender is also from UP.

16 illegal pistols were recov-ered from Rajveer Singh (33) and 9 illegal Pistols were recovered from Dheeraj Kumar (26), the police said. Ten high-quality illegal firearms (02 automatic pistols and 08 country-made firearms) and 20 live cartridges were seized from Vinod and Dharmendra was apprehended with a grey bag pack containing 20 pistols and 30 live cartridges, the DCP confirmed.

Both Rajveer and Dheeraj lost jobs during the lockdown

and later came in contact with one illegal arms supplier of his village and worked for him. They used to get Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000 per trip apart from his vehicle fuel charge.

Vinod is an illegal firearms peddler and Dharmender was a close aide of the Kaushal gang, the police said. “During surveil-lance, it was transpired that illegal weapons are mainly pumped in Delhi from the areas of Kharg-aon, Dhar, Sendhwa and Burhan-pur (Madhya Pradesh) besides other areas of the country by the members of interstate arms syndicate,” the official statement by the Special Cell also added.

45% kids in CCIs of south, southeast Delhi can’t identify 2 digit nos: Survey

Before I-Day, cops bust gunrunners, seize 55 pistols

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Two days after launching 33 “faceless services’’ of the transport department, the Delhi government has so far received over 8,000 appli-cations till Friday evening, with the highest 37 per cent apply-ing for learners’’ licence, data showed.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday had launched 33 “faceless services’’ of the transport department that can be availed online by Delhiites, and locked up the IP Estate motor licensing office (MLO) here to send across a message that people need not visit it.

Under the scheme, 33 major transport-related services such as driving licence, registration certificate, permits and termi-nation of hypothecation among others have become online and

people would not require to visit MLO offices.

Applicants now will only require to visit transport offices to undertake driving test for permanent driving licenses and for fitness test of vehicles.

According to the official data, a total of 8,370 applica-tions were received for different services of the transport depart-ment under “faceless services’’ scheme till 4 pm on Friday.

The maximum 3,086 peo-ple have applied for learner’’s licence followed by transfer of ownership for which 1,433 applications were received, data showed.

“The faceless services scheme has received a very encouraging response. The data shows that the scheme has become popular among masses as it provides many important services online,” an official of the transport department said.

NEW DELHI: AAP MLA Sau-rabh Bharadwaj alleged that the municipal corporation of the city has been selling out public properties worth fortunes at minimal rate as they are aware that they will not win the MCD elections. The MLA said that rampant corruption till date has continued in the corpora-tion with the Novelty Cinema — a land worth Rs 150 crore sold for Rs 34 crore — while it could have built a shopping complex and leased it out. Bha-radwaj on his party’s behalf has demanded that the decision be rolled back and if not then his party will protest against it in the assembly.

“MCD could have earned Rs 300 crore by just building a shopping complex on this 1,100

sqm land. How can a large plot be sold for Rs 34 crore in an area where a 100 yard shop costs Rs 30-35 crore?” he added.

The AAP leader alleged that it couldn’t have been sold at such low price without the involve-ment of BJP leaders. “It is shock-ing that the only two bids placed for the land by Asteroid Shelters Home and Style Enterprises had a mere difference of Rs 1 lakh. Investigations will definitely uncover their connivance with BJP leaders,” he said. MPOST

Transport dept receives over 8,000 applications for its ‘faceless services’

AAP MLA accuses BJP of corruption over Novelty

Cinema’s sale for Rs 34 cr

AMERICAN EMBASSY: TWO WORKERS DIE DURING CONSTRUCTION WORKNEW DELHI: The Delhi Police on Friday said that two construction workers died and another is recuperating in hospital after all the three allegedly got injured due to a crane falling over on them at a construction site inside the American Embassy here on Panchsheel Marg in New Delhi district. As per police, the deceased have been identified as one Kanchan (32), a resident of Rajasthan, Babulal (32), while the injured has been identified as Mukesh (33) who is being treated at Primus Hospital.

HC FORBIDS TELECAST OF DOCUMENTARY BASED ON RYAN INT’L SCHOOL MURDERNEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has restrained Netflix and Channel News Asia (CNA) from stream-ing, broadcasting and telecasting a documentary ‘A big Little Murder’, based on the alleged killing of a 7-year-old student in a Gurugram school in 2017, unless all references to the school are deleted. Justice Jayant Nath, who was hearing a plea by the school’s trust, said that the documentary, in its original form, violated a court order on the protection of privacy and the reputation of the parties involved in the case.

CONSTABLE CRUSHED TO DEATH BY GARBAGE TRUCK IN VASUNDHARAGHAZIABAD: A 31-year old constable with UP police was crushed to death by a Ghaziabad municipal gar-bage truck on Friday morning. The incident took place at Budh chowk in Vasundhara area, when the victim was going to his duty. The deceased has been identi-fied as Sunil Kumar, a constable at PRV with Ghazi-abad police. Kumar joined police force in 2011 and since past one year, he had been posted in Ghazi-abad. While an FIR has been registered into the case, police has sought details of the truck driver from GMC.

City Briefs

IN OTHER NEWS » The Congress on Friday questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s silence on the alleged rape and brutal murder of the 9-year-old Dalit girl and accused the Centre of suppressing the voice of those seeking justice for her. Targetting Twitter for blocking Rahul Gandhi’s account, the party said the platform was “playing with democracy in the country”

3millenniumpost City mpNEW DELHI | SATURDAY, 14 AUGUST, 2021

‘WILL HAVE UNIVERSAL RECOGNITION AND ACCEPTANCE’

TOTAL NUMBER OF CLINICS IN THE CITY NOW STANDS AT 505

FRESH BIDS INVITED BY PWD TO INSTALL 500 HIGH-MAST TRICOLOURS ACROSS CITYNEW DELHI: Delhi’s Public Works Department (PWD) will install 500 high-mast tricolours across the national Capital by the end of December this year, and it has invited fresh bids to execute the project, officials familiar with the matter said on Friday. According to PWD officials, earlier the height of high-mast flags was set at 35 metres but now there will be around 40 flags which will be higher than 35 metres.

GAMBHIR TO LAUNCH COMMUNITY KITCHEN IN PATPARGANJ ON AUG 20NEW DELHI: East Delhi MP Gautam Gambhir will launch his third “Jan Rasoi” (community kitchen) at his constituency’s Patparganj area here on August 20, according to a statement issued by his office. The com-munity kitchen has been developed by converting a vacant ‘Dhalav Ghar’ or a garbage storage unit into a modern state of-the-art kitchen, and will provide healthy meals to everyone for a rupee, it added.

HC SEEKS RESPONSE FROM CENTRE, DELHI GOVT ON PIL AGAINST CHILD BEGGINGNEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court Friday sought response from the AAP government and the Centre on a public interest litigation seeking eradication of begging by children here. A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Amit Bansal issued notice on a PIL by Ajay Gautam and also sought responses from Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights and Delhi Police. In his petition, Gautam has sought direc-tions to the authorities to rehabilitate children who are beggars and to identify and arrest the persons who are pushing women using toddlers, teenage girls and small children into begging and...crime and exploiting young girls.

City Briefs

Delhi school Board approved for exams, certificates: Dy CM

AAISHA SABIR

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Board of School Education has now been granted approval by the apex body of examina-tions and certifications — the Council of Boards of School Education (COBSE) — mak-ing it equivalence to all other Indian school boards, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia announced on Friday.

He added that the Asso-ciation of Indian Universi-ties (AIU) had also approved the equivalence of DBSE with CBSE and Indian Boards for higher education purposes.

Sisodia, who is also Delhi’s Education Minister, said that the Delhi government’s collab-oration with International Bac-calaureate (IB) is already going to open up opportunities for children and with the approv-als from the COBSE and AIU, learning assessment is set to be

transformed under this new school board.

Students passing out of schools affiliated to DBSE will have universal recognition and acceptance, he said. More than 7,500 applications received so far for admissions in 20

Schools of Specialised Excel-lence, which are among the first 30 schools int he city to be affil-iated to the board.

Following the approvals, the DBSE is all set to affiliate schools, conduct examinations and grant certificates which

will be treated as equivalent to the corresponding certificates issued by other recognised boards in the country. Students who pass out from DBSE or DBSE affiliated schools can take admission in other boards and Board exam certificates will be valid for admission in higher education institutions as well.

“On the grant of COBSE membership to Delhi Board of School Education, Secondary and Higher Secondary Exami-nations conducted and certifi-cates issued by it would have equivalence to the correspond-ing certificates of other mem-ber-boards of COBSE”, read the letter issued by the COBSE.

Earlier, the Governing Council of the AIU, an inter-university organisation which acts as a representative of uni-versities in India, “approved the proposal of DBSE and resolved to give equivalence to Delhi

Board of School Education, Delhi, with CBSE and other recognised Boards of India”.

As of now, 30 schools have been affiliated to DBSE. In next few years, all the government schools of Delhi will be affili-ated to the DBSE which has started functioning in partner-ship with International Bac-calaureate (IB), Sisodia said. Besides, the recognised private schools in the city too will have the option of affiliating them-selves with the DBSE.

The Delhi government has also started 20 Schools of Specialised Excellence (SoSE) which are aimed at providing specialised education to stu-dents in the domains of their deep interest and aptitude.

All SoSEs are also affiliated to DBSE thus students pass-ing out of these schools will be treated on equal footing along with students passing out from other recognised boards.

1.4% undertrials on interim bail re-arrested: Govt in HC

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Delhi gov-ernment Friday told the Delhi High Court that out of 3,200 undertrials who were out of jail due to extension of their interim bail orders on account of the second wave of COVID-19, 45 (1.4 per cent) have been re-arrested for different crimes, which is not a signifi-cant number.

A bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi, Rekha Palli and Tal-want Singh, which was hearing a suo motu case on the exten-sion of interim court orders, was informed by Delhi govern-ment counsel Santosh Kumar Tripthai that the authorities have been quantifying the data of arrested prisoners .

3,200 undertrial prison-ers (UTPs) were released this year i.e the second wave of COVID-19. Out of these 45 were arrested for different crimes. It is not a significant number, he said.

Last month, the court had taken note of rising crime rate in the national capital and asked the Delhi government

to file a status report on the impact of its orders extending interim bails granted to under-trials and convicts to decongest jails to contain the spread of COVID-19.

In its status report, the Delhi government said that the prison department has already requested police to file a sepa-rate report after analysing the law and order situation in the national Capital.

The government, in the status report, thus prayed that some more time be granted to put on record police’s status report with regards the impact of law and order.

The counsel also informed the court that petition before the Supreme Court pertaining to the decongestion of prisons on account of COVID-19 was

still pending.The court adjourned the

hearing in the plea till Sep-tember 4 while extending all interim orders which are sched-uled to expire in cases before it as also the district courts.

The court took up the mat-ter suo motu earlier this year as it had done in March last year when the lockdown was in place in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak.

In its order on April 20, the bench had made it clear that the interim orders were being extended till July 16 or further orders except where the Supreme Court may have passed any contrary orders in any such matter during this period. The interim orders were then given further exten-sions on July 16 and July 27.

50 new cases, no deaths in last 3 daysOUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: No death due to COVID-19 was recorded in Delhi on Friday, the third consecutive day when the daily fatality count was nil, while 50 fresh cases were reported with a positivity rate of 0.07 per cent, according to data shared by the city health department.

This is the ninth time, since the starting of the second wave of the pandemic in the national capital that zero fatality has been logged in a day. On July 18, July 24, July 29, August 2, August 4, August 8, August 11 and August 12 no death due to COVID-19 was recorded, according to official data.

Meanwhile, around 1.33 lakh people were vaccinated against coronavirus in Delhi on Thursday and around 83,000 of them got the first dose, accord-ing to official data.

The vaccination bulletin

released by the Delhi govern-ment said over 1.12 crore doses have been administered in the city since the inoculation exer-cise started on January 16.

As many as 31.51 lakh people have received both the

doses, it said.According to the Delhi

government’s data, the city had around 7.91 lakh vaccine doses 3.10 lakh Covaxin and 4.81 lakh Covishield — left on Friday morning.

The bulletin said the stock can last up to seven days.

Health Department offi-cials had recently told the Delhi Disaster Management Author-ity (DDMA) that it will take another year to fully vaccinate all eligible beneficiaries aged above 18 against coronavirus at “the present rate of vaccine sup-ply”. They said around 45 lakh doses are required every month to complete the vaccination by December 2021.

District-level panels to implement schemes for the differently-abled

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Delhi gov-ernment has set up 11 dis-trict-level committees to assist authorities in the implemen-tation of schemes and pro-grammes for empowerment of persons with disabilities in the city.

Each committee will be headed by the district magis-trate concerned. The district social welfare officer will be the member secretary.

The committees will have

the chief district medical offi-cer and the public prosecutor of the district as its members.

There will be one represen-tative each from the Depart-ment of Women and Child Development and Public Works Department in every panel.

According to an order issued by the East Delhi administra-tion, the district committee will advise district authorities on matters relating to rehabilitation and empowerment of persons with disabilities.

The panel will look into

the complaints relating to non-implementation of provisions of the Right of Per-sons with Disabilities Act, 2016 and the Delhi Rights of Persons with Disabilities Rules, 2018 and recommend suitable reme-dial measures to the authority concerned.

The committee will moni-tor the implementation of the Acts and the Rules and look into appeals made by employees of government establishments aggrieved with action taken by district-level authorities.

Now, Mohalla Clinic at Tis Hazari courtOUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Health Min-ister Satyendar Jain on Friday launched a new Aam Aadmi Mohalla Clinic at Tis Haz-ari court. Jain said that as the nation moves towards cele-brating its 75th year of Inde-pendence his government has pledged to provide more affordable and accessible healthcare.

The new launch is aimed at providing good health care services at free of cost to the lawyers. The Minister while launching the clinic said that his government has been dedi-cated in strengthening the city’s

primary health infrastructure. Delhi Bar Association will get the world’s largest bar associa-tion status, he said. He also said that the chambers of lawyers will also be rebuilt.

“The Arvind Kejriwal gov-ernment is a government that has done what it said. The Delhi government is also working for

lawyers and formulating poli-cies for them. The Delhi Bar Association will be given the status of the world’s largest bar association,” Jain said.

The Minister further elabo-rated that the AAP-led govern-ment has formulated a scheme for lawyers which will include various types of benefits for the lawyers “Whatever improve-ment needs to be done in it, we will do it,” he said.

“Today, a new Aam Aadmi Mohalla Clinic has been dedi-cated to the people of Delhi. The clinic has been set up at Tis Hazari Court in Delhi. We are working to strengthen Delhi’s primary health system and this

new mohalla clinic will give it a big boost,” Jain wrote on Twitter.

“The Delhi government will give the Delhi Bar Association the status of the world’s largest bar association and not just the country’s,” he added.

The total number of Mohalla Clinics in the city now stands at 505, a senior offi-cial said. A mohalla clinic is a neighbourhood facility for pro-viding free primary healthcare to residents. A typical mohalla clinic has a doctor and a mid-wife-cum-nurse. It provides an array of diagnostic services and essential medicines free of cost to patients.

Inauguration of first smog tower likely on August 23

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is expected to inaugurate the national Capi-tal’s first smog tower at Con-naught Place on August 23, Delhi government officials said on Friday.

The construction of the smog tower has been com-pleted and the inauguration will happen on August 23 instead of August 15, an offi-cial said requesting anonymity.

The over 20-metre-tall structure, being set up to improve air quality in a radius of around 1 km, was supposed to be ready by June 15.

Environment Minister Gopal Rai had earlier said the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the construction work of the smog tower. The Delhi cabinet had approved the pilot project in October last year. The smog tower will be able to purify 1,000 cubic metres of air per second, according to Rai.

A two-year pilot study will be undertaken to ascertain the effectiveness of the smog tower after it becomes operational, the official quoted above said.

Meanwhile, sultry weather conditions prevailed in the nationalCapital on Friday with the maximum temperature set-tling at 36.2 degrees Celsius, two notches above the season’s average. the India Meteorologi-cal Department said.

The minimum temperature was recorded at 27 degrees Cel-sius, normal for this time of the year.

Humidity levels oscillated between 78 per cent and 44 per cent.

Restart AIIMS trauma centre: RDA to DirectorNEW DELHI: The Resident Doctors’ Association (RDA) of AIIMS on Friday sought the commencement of trauma services at the Jai Prakash Narayan Apex Trauma Cen-tre (JPNATC) which has been functioning as a dedicated COVID-19 facility since March last year.

The RDA also suggested that a dedicated Covid centre may be set up where the ser-vices can be gradually extended according to patient burden.

In a letter to the AIIMS director, the RDA highlighted that due to the Covid pan-demic, all trauma services have been shifted to the main AIIMS campus since March 28 last year, and all the machin-ery and services at JPNATC were dedicated to combat the pandemic.

In view of the abrupt increase in case numbers, the urgent decision was welcomed by one and all, the RDA said in the letter.

According to the available records, currently, the trauma centre emergency depart-ment is rendering its ser-vices to about 70-80 per cent of the number of patients arriving during the pre-Covid period.

During the initial lock-down, the footfall was far less, and hence did not pose a major burden on smooth running of trauma facilities at the main AlIMS, the RDA said. PTI

PIC/NAVEEN SHARMA

4 millenniumpostNationmpSATURDAY, 14 AUGUST, 2021 | NEW DELHI

India logs 40,120 fresh Covid infections

This scheme is to be implemented from July 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022, the ministry said in a statement.

To fast track the implementation of the ECRP-II, on July 22, Rs 1827.80 crore have been released to the states and UTs as 15 per cent advance to undertake preparatory activities.

Further, 35 per cent funds are being released on Friday to the states and UTs, thus, making a total of 50 per cent release of funds so as to ensure implementation of critical activities at the state and district levels to prepare the public healthcare systems in response to the evolving pandemic, the statement said.

This scheme is a centrally sponsored scheme with some central sector components. It aims to accelerate health system preparedness for immedi-ate responsiveness for early prevention, detection and management, with a focus on health infra-structure development including for paediatric care and with measurable outcomes.

Single-use plastic items like candy sticks, plates to be prohibited

Extended Producer Responsibility is a policy approach in which producers take responsibility for management of the disposal of products they

produce once those products are designated as no longer useful by consumers.

The Centre had earlier asked states and union territories to constitute a special task force under the chief secretary or the administrator for elimi-nation of SUP and effective implementation of the Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016.

Fourteen states and UTs had constituted the special task force by July 23, according to a reply given by Minister of State for Environment Ash-wini Choubey in Parliament.

The Environment Ministry has also set up a national-level task force for making coordinated efforts in this direction. The state and the UT gov-ernments and the central ministries and depart-ments concerned have also been asked to develop a comprehensive action plan for elimination of SUP and effective implementation of the rules in a time-bound manner.

Air travel now costlier as govt raises caps on airfares

The upper cap on these flights was increased by 12.82 per cent to Rs 13,200 on Thursday.

Now, domestic flights of duration between 90-120, 120-150, 150-180 and 180-210 minutes have lower caps of Rs Rs 5,300, Rs 6,700, Rs 8,300 and Rs 9,800, respectively, as per the ministry’s order.

Till date, domestic flights of duration between 90-120, 120-150, 150-180 and 180-210 minutes had the lower limits of Rs 4,700, Rs 6,100, Rs 7,400 and Rs 8,700, respectively.

The lower cap on flights between 120-150 min-utes duration was increased by 9.83 per cent to Rs 6,700, as per the new order.

On Thursday, the upper caps on domestic flights of duration between 90-120, 120-150, 150-180 and 180-210 minutes were increased by 12.3 per cent, 12.42 per cent, 12.74 per cent and 12.39 per cent, respectively, as per the order.

The caps mentioned by the government in its order does not include the passenger security fee, user development fee for the airports and the GST.

These charges are added on top when the ticket is being booked by the passenger.

Three of six accused, held for forcing man to chant ‘Jai Shri...

They were booked under Sections 147 (riot-ing), 295 (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings), 323 (voluntary caus-ing hurt), 504 (intentional insult), and 506 (crimi-nal intimidation) of the IPC.

Those who got bail from police were iden-tified as Aman Gupta, having affiliation to the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP); Rajesh, alias Jay; and Rahul. The other three arrested on Friday are Ankit Verma, Kesu and Shivam, the police com-missioner said.

Asim Arun said the victim was saved by police, who brought him to the police station. AGENCIES

Twitter transfers India head Manish Maheshwari to US

The company did not disclose details around the succession plan after Maheshwari moves to the US.

Notably, in May, Twitter had expressed concern about employees in India and the potential threat to freedom of expression. The company had been sent a notice by Delhi Police’s Special Cell in con-nection with the probe into a complaint about an alleged ‘COVID toolkit’. Two police teams had also descended on the microblogging site’s offices in Lado Sarai in Delhi and in Gurugram.

Twitter has been drawing severe criticism over the past many months for various actions it has taken on tweets and accounts of high-profile users as well as delay in compliance with the IT rules that came into effect in May this year.

From Page 1

OUR CORRESPONDENT

MUMBAI: As many as 66 peo-ple have been found infected with the Delta plus variant of coronavirus in Maharashtra so far, some of them fully vacci-nated, and five of them have died, including one in Mum-bai, the state health department said on Friday.

Seven of these patients were aged under 18.

The variant, considered highly infectious, was detected during genome sequencing of swab samples sent from differ-ent parts of the state.

A 63-year-old fully vacci-nated woman from Mumbai succumbed to the infection in the last week of July, the first death due to the Delta Plus variant in the city, a civic offi-cial said. Following the wom-an’s death in Mumbai, at least two of her close contacts were also found infected with the variant, said the Brihanmum-bai Municipal Corporation (BMC) official.

A resident of suburban Ghatkopar, the woman died on July 27 in the ICU of a hos-pital. Only on August 11 the

state authorities learnt that she had Delta Plus variant infection after the genome sequencing report came, the official said.

The woman had taken both the doses of Covishield vaccine, but tested coronavirus positive on July 21, he said.

According to a health department statement, a 50-year-old woman from Thane was found coronavi-rus positive on July 22 and her report received on Friday revealed she was infected with the Delta plus variant.

The woman had mild symptoms and she has since recovered, the statement said.

Among the five deaths linked to the Delta plus variant, two patients were from Ratnag-iri district and one each from Raigad, Beed and Mumbai, the department said.

The maximum number of Delta plus patients - 13 - hailed from Jalgaon in north Maha-rashtra followed by Ratnagiri at 12 and Mumbai 11, it said.

Six patients each were from Thane and Pune districts, three

each from Palghar and district, two each from Nanded and Gondia, one each from Chan-drapur, Akola, Sindhudurg, Sangli, Nandurbar, Aurang-abad, Kolhapur and Beed, according to the department.

It said, “80 per cent of the samples sent for genome sequencing had tested positive for the Delta plus variant (of coronavirus).” Of the 66 Delta plus patients, 33 were in the 19 to 45 age group, 18 in the 46 to 60 age group, eight were aged over 60 age and seven were

under 18, it said. According to the statement, among the total patients 34 are females.

Among the 66 patients, 10 had taken both doses of vac-cines. Eight others had taken the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Two of these 18 people had taken Covaxin and 16 Cov-ishield, the statement said.

Of the total patients, 61 have already recovered and 31 of them showed mild or no symptoms of the infection, it said.

Earlier, an 80-year-old woman from Ratnagiri district who had been infected with the Delta Plus variant died on June 13. She was not vaccinated, offi-cials said.

The Delta plus death from Raigad district was reported from Nagothane, about 100km from Mumbai, in July.

Nidhi Chaudhari, Raigad collector, told PTI that a 69-year-old man who was suf-fering from co-morbidities tested positive on July 15 and died on July 22. The report about his Delta Plus infection was received later, she said.

“This person was fully vac-cinated,” the collector said.

66 Delta plus patients found in Maharashtra so far; 5 dead

The maximum number of Delta plus patients - 13 - hailed from Jalgaon in north Maharashtra followed by Ratnagiri at 12 and Mumbai 11

Beneficiaries wait in a queue to receive Covid-19 vaccine dose, at a vaccination centre in Mumbai

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Union Health Ministry on Friday approved another instalment of Rs 14744.99 crore under the India COVID-19 Emergency Response and Health System Preparedness Package (ECRP-II package) to all states and UTs.

In view of the second wave, its spread into rural, peri-urban and tribal areas, and the evolv-ing pandemic situation, the Union Cabinet approved a new scheme 'India COVID-19 Emergency Response and Health System Preparedness Package: Phase-II (ECRP-II package)' on July 8 amounting to Rs 23,123 crore. This scheme is to be implemented from July 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022, the ministry said in a statement.

To fast track the implemen-tation of the ECRP-II, on July 22, Rs 1827.80 crore have been released to the states and UTs as 15 per cent advance to under-take preparatory activities.

Further, 35 per cent funds are being released on Friday to the states and UTs, thus, mak-ing a total of 50 per cent release of funds so as to ensure imple-mentation of critical activities at the state and district levels to prepare the public health-care systems in response to the evolving pandemic, the state-

ment said.This scheme is a centrally

sponsored scheme with some central sector components. It aims to accelerate health sys-tem preparedness for imme-diate responsiveness for early prevention, detection and management, with a focus on health infrastructure develop-ment including for paediatric care and with measurable out-comes. Under the Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) components of the ECRP-II, states and UTs have been sup-ported by way of approvals for Emergency COVID Response Plans (ECRP) to the tune of Rs 14744.99 crore.

The proposals for the infra-structure to be created have been received from the states.

The CSS component of ECRP-II package will support states and UTs for the creation of 827 paediatric units in the districts which will result in additional creation of 19,030 oxygen supported beds and 10,440 ICU/HDU beds, and to augment 23,056 ICU beds in public healthcare system out of which 20 per cent will be pae-diatric ICU beds.

The package will help to establish 42 Paediatric Cen-tres of Excellence (Paediatric CoE), at least one in each state and UT, (either in medical col-leges, state government hospi-tals or central hospitals such as AIIMS, INIs, etc) for provid-ing tele-ICU services, mentor-ing and technical hand-holding to the district paediatric units.

Rs 14744.99 cr approved for states, Union Territories

COVID EMERGENCY RESPONSE PACKAGE

A health worker collects swab sample of a passenger for Covid-19 test, at a airport in Prayagraj, on Friday

5millenniumpost Nation mpNEW DELHI | SATURDAY, 14 AUGUST, 2021

Twitter interfering in India’s political process: Rahul Gandhi

HC grants 10 days to Centre to file counter-affidavit

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Days after the temporary suspension of his Twitter account, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Fri-day accused the microblog-ging giant of "interfering in the national political process" and said shutting down of his handle amounted to "attack on the country's democratic structure".

Intensifying the Congress offensive against Twitter, Gan-dhi, in a video statement on YouTube titled "Twitter's dan-gerous game", alleged that it was not a neutral and objective platform and was "beholden to the government."

Questioning Twitter's action, Gandhi said the com-pany was denying millions of his followers the right to an opinion, which was unfair. "It's obvious now that Twitter is actually not a neutral, objec-tive platform. It is a biased plat-form. It's something that listens to what the government of the day says," Gandhi alleged.

The Gandhi scion said Indi-ans need to ask the question of

whether companies "beholden to the government" could define their politics for them.

"By shutting down my Twit-ter they are interfering in our political process. A company is making its business define our politics. And as a politician I don't like that," Gandhi said.

Terming the temporary sus-pension as an "attack on the democratic structure of the country", he said," This is not an attack on Rahul Gandhi. This is not you know simply shutting Rahul Gandhi down. I have 19-20 million followers. You are denying them the right to an opinion. That's what you are doing."

Taking a swipe at Gan-dhi over the issue, the BJP said the Congress leader has been shown the door from the only place he was active and he should use the new social media rules enforced by the Modi government to restore the account. Addressing a press conference, BJP MP and the party's youth wing president Tejasvi Surya said the same Congress was crying hoarse and attacking the government

when it framed the new rules to "empower" social media plat-form users.

Gandhi's account was tem-porarily suspended by Twit-ter last week after the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) issued a notice to Twitter asking it to act against the Congress leader's handle for tweeting pictures of the family of a minor victim of alleged rape and murder in Delhi last week. The NCPCR had cited the juvenile justice law that mandates the privacy of minor victims.

Twitter later locked Gan-dhi's account and several other

handles belonging to party leaders including the official Congress handle for tweeting the same pictures as Gandhi.

Also on Friday, NCPCR wrote to Facebook and Insta-gram about violation of Indian laws on their platforms after Gandhi shared posts on these platforms "revealing identity of victims" of the family of the nine-year-old girl.

Gandhi has also shared an image saying "Digital Dadagiri nahi chalegi" on Instagram. He also shared his video message on Instagram.

Questioning Twitter's neu-trality, the Congress leader said,

"As Indians, we have to ask the question: are we going to allow companies just because they are beholden to the Govern-ment of India to define our pol-itics for us". He further queried, "Is that what this is going to come to? Or are we going to define our politics on our own? That's the real question here."

Twitter on Thursday said if a post is found to violate its rules and is not deleted by the account holder, the platform hides it behind a notice and the account remains locked until that tweet is removed or the appeal is successfully pro-cessed. A Twitter spokesper-son said the company's rules are enforced judiciously and impartially for everyone in its service.

However, the former Con-gress chief alleged that suspen-sion of his account is not only patently unfair, but it is also a breach of the idea that Twitter is a neutral platform. "For the investors, this is a very dan-gerous thing because taking sides in the political contest has repercussions for Twitter," he said.

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Friday granted 10 more days to the Centre to file its counter-affidavit in response to a batch of PIL pleas challeng-ing the new Information Tech-nology (IT) Rules.

The First Bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Jus-tice P D Audikesavalu which granted time to the central government to file its counter, posted the matter for hearing after 15 days.

The petitions filed by Carnatic music singer T M Krishna, Digital News Pub-lishers of India, former Edi-tor of The Hindu, N Ram and a senior journalist sought to declare the recently noti-fied Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, as ultra vires of the Con-stitution and the parent Infor-mation Technology Act, passed in 2000.

Among other things, the petitioners contended that Part III of the impugned Rules imposes illegitimate restric-tions on the right to freedom of expression, guaranteed under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution. As part of a set of general principles laid

down in the appendix to the Impugned Rules, the Code of Ethics directs publishers to take into consideration a slew of factors beyond those that are stipulated as grounds on which reasonable restrictions can be made on speech under Article 19(2).

For example, it directs pub-lishers to "take into consider-ation India's multi-racial and multi-religious context and exercise due caution and dis-cretion when featuring the activities, beliefs, practices and views of any racial or religious group."

These directions are bound to force the hand of publish-ers to act against the interests of preserving the marketplace of ideas and in the interests of their own businesses.

What more, these direc-tions will also lead directly to the restriction of speech on unconstitutional grounds.

For instance, the Inter Departmental Committee con-stituted under the Impugned Rules will be at liberty to rec-ommend to the central gov-ernment the speech which the committee finds offensive to a person's religious belief ought to be removed, although Arti-cle 19(2) permits no such restriction on such a speech. The new rules, thus, breached Article 19(1)(a) of the Consti-tution, petitioners said.

The new Rules are ultra vires the IT Act 2000 too, as no part of the Act confers power on the Union Minis-try of Information and Broad-casting to regulate digital news media or online content pro-ducers through an Inter-departmental committee or otherwise and as such the rules made under Part IIl are wholly ultra vires the purported par-ent Act, the petitioners further contended. MPOST

The First Bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice P D Audikesavalu which granted time to the central government, posted the matter for hearing after 15 days

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Farmers pro-testing against the three con-tentious agriculture laws will celebrate India's 75th Indepen-dence Day as ‘Kisan Mazdoor Azaadi Sangram Diwas'.

Following a national call by the Samyukt Kisan Morcha, farmers across the country will

mark the day with tiranga ral-lies at block and tehsil levels. However, the farmers stressed that they will not enter Delhi.

On August 15, Samyukt Kisan Morcha has given a call for all constituents to mark the day as Kisan Mazdoor Azaadi Sangram Diwas, with tiranga marches to be organised on that day, said Kavitha Kuru-

ganti of AIKSCC (All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordina-tion Committee).

On that day, tractors, motorcycles, cycles, and carts will be taken out in tiranga marches by farmers and work-ers to block, tehsil, district headquarters or to their near-est kisan morchas or dharnas. These marches will be taken

out with the national flag on the vehicles, he added.

The rallies will be taken out nationwide from 11 am to 1 pm, another farmer leader Abhimanyu Kohar said.

At the Delhi borders too, including Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur, tri-colour marches and programmes will be held throughout the day.

Farmers to celebrate I-Day as ‘Kisan Mazdoor Azaadi Sangram Diwas’ GUWAHATI: The Assam

Assembly on Friday passed a bill to regulate slaughter, con-sumption and transportation of cattle even as a walkout was staged by the opposition par-ties in protest against the gov-ernment's refusal to forward the legislation to a select com-mittee. The ruling BJP mem-bers shouted 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' and 'Jai Shree Ram' slogans and thumped desks as soon as Speaker Biswajit Daimary announced The Assam Cat-

tle Preservation Bill, 2021 as passed.

The lone Independent legis-lator, Akhil Gogoi, had walked out of the House when the bill was taken up for consideration.

The legislation seeks to ensure that permission for slaughter is not granted to areas that are predominantly inhab-ited by Hindu, Jain, Sikh and other non-beef eating commu-nities or places that fall within five-kilometre radius of a tem-ple, satra, and any other institu-

tion as maybe prescribed by the authorities. Exemptions might be granted for certain religious occasions, it stated. Transpor-tation of bovines through the state without valid documents has also been sought to be checked by the bill. All offences under this new legislation shall be cognizable and non-bailable.

The opposition Congress, AIUDF and CPI (M) had urged the government to refer the bill to an Assembly select commit-tee for vetting, but Chief Min-

ister Himanta Biswa Sarma, during his reply on a discus-sion on the legislation, rejected the proposal on behalf of the BJP-led ruling coalition.

Sarma, in his response, said the bill had no bad intention and claimed it will strengthen communal harmony.

The legislation doesn't intend to stop anyone from consuming beef, but the person who eats so must also respect the religious sentiments of oth-ers, the CM said. AGENCIES

Assam okays Bill to regulate cow slaughter

‘SHUTTING DOWN OF MY HANDLE ATTACK ON DEMOCRATIC STRUCTURE’ NEW IT RULES

PREPARATIONS FOR GLORY

Police personnel take part in rehearsal of the 75th Independence Day parade, at police stadium in Ahmedabad on Friday PIC/PTI

KHATTAR’S BROTHER PASSES AWAY CHANDIGARH: Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar’s younger brother Gulshan Khattar died of pneumonia at a private hospital in Gurugram on Friday morning. The 56-year-old is survived by wife and three children. The chief minister shared the information on his Twitter handle, and said, This is an irreparable loss for me. Manohar Lal Khattar is the eldest of seven siblings. Gulshan Khattar, who lived near Bhiwani Chungi area in Rohtak district, was earlier admitted to PGI Rohtak and was shifted to a private hospital in Gurugram on Wednesday. His cremation will take place at 3 pm in Rohtak.

GUJ: 3 MEN FOUND DEAD AT FARM DAHOD: Bodies of three men were found at a roadside farm in Devgadh Baria taluka of Gujarat’s Dahod district in the early hours of Friday, police said. Locals found Ishub Aiyub Kamaal (21), Akbar Sattar Patel (25) and Samir Yakub (21), all residents of Kapdi village, dead at a farm in neighbouring Dangaria, Dy SP Solanki said. While the police have sent the bodies for post-mortem to ascertain the cause of death, the families have alleged that the trio might have been killed and demanded that a case of murder be registered, the official said. Notably, the police have found the motorcycle of one of the deceased at the spot, it was stated. “We understand the feelings of family members. But, as of now, we have lodged a case of accidental death and sent the bodies for post-mortem. If the autopsy report indicates any internal or external injuries, Solanki said.

KULGAM ENCOUNTER

Nation Briefs

6 millenniumpostNationmpSATURDAY, 14 AUGUST, 2021 | NEW DELHI

SAHARANPUR/ NEW DELHI: The Uttar Police Police has arrested a 24-year-old man from the state’s Saharanpur dis-trict for allegedly hacking into the Election Commission of India (ECI) website and creat-ing over 10,000 fake voter IDs, officials said on Friday.

Reacting to the develop-ments, the poll panel said its database is “absolutely safe and secure”. The accused, Vipul Saini, who has a Bachelor of Computer Applications (BCA) degree, was arrested on Thurs-day from Nakur town’s Mac-charhedi village in Saharanpur, the police said.

During initial investiga-tion, police found that Saini worked at the behest of a per-son named Armaan Malik from Madhya Pradesh and created more than 10,000 fake voter IDs

in over three months. Saharan-pur Senior Superintendent of Police S Channappa told PTI that Saini was paid Rs 100-200 per ID. When his bank account was examined after his arrest, the police found Rs 60 lakh deposited in it. The account was immediately frozen, he said.

An ECI spokesperson said in Delhi that assistant elec-toral roll officers (AERO) are mandated to provide cit-izen-centric services, includ-ing printing of voter ID cards and timely distribution, in line with the theme of “No voter to be left behind”.

A data entry operator of one of the AERO offices had illegally shared his user ID and password with a private unauthorised ser-vice provider in Saharanpur’s Nakud town to print some voter ID cards. AGENCIES

OUR CORRESPONDENT

PATNA: The opposition RJD in Bihar on Friday accused the Centre of dragging its feet over the state's "unanimous" demand for a caste-based census.

The party's de facto leader Tejashwi Yadav, who addressed a press conference here, warned that if given a short shrift by the Narendra Modi government, political leaders in the state will "have no other option except to sit on a dharna at JantarMantar until their voices are heard".

Referring to a letter sent by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over a week ago, seeking an appointment to discuss the issue, Yadav said "it is appalling

that the PM has not deigned to give a reply".

"This is despite the fact that the people of Bihar voted for the NDA overwhelmingly in the Lok Sabha polls when the BJP-led coalition won all but one of the 40 seats in the state," said Yadav, whose own party drew a blank in 2019 but made an impressive comeback in assembly polls two years later.

By not even respond-

ing to the letter, the PM is in fact "insulting" our chief minister, said the 32 years' old leader of the opposi-tion, in a deft attempt to fish in troubled waters between the BJP and Nitish Kumar, who controls the JD(U) and has been his father Lalu Prasad's arch rival.

"The chief minister wrote to the PM after a meeting he held with all opposition lead-ers who suggested that the matter be taken up with the Centre since there is a una-nimity on the issue in Bihar where resolutions to the effect have been twice passed in the legislature," said Yadav who had led the opposition del-egation that met the CM during the Monsoon session of the assembly.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Defence Min-ister Rajnath Singh Friday vir-tually launched multiple major events to commemorate the 75th anniversary of India's inde-pendence. "Due to these pro-grams, not only there is a rise in national consciousness, but there is also an increase in the self-esteem the country has," he said during a speech.

One of the events launched was of the BRO whose 75 teams would be leaving Friday for 75 remote places in the border areas of the country to unfurl the national flag on August 15. The Indian Coast Guard will be unfurling the national flag at 100 islands pan-India as a part of the 'AzadikaAmritMahotsav'.

Singh said that in order to maintain unity, integrity and sovereignty of the country, it is important that the feeling of national self-esteem is present in the citizens, and that is the purpose of the programs being launched Friday.

If this feeling of national self-esteem was not present in Chandrashekhar Azad, SardarB-hagat Singh, Khudiram Bose,

Asfaqullah Khan, would the country have been able to cel-ebrate this 'AzadikaAmrit-Mahotsav', he asked. India is celebrating the 75th anniver-sary of the Independence Day as 'AzadikaAmritMahotsav'.

Singh Friday also flagged off 75 Army teams that will scale 75 mountain passes to mark the momentous occasion.

The passes include the Saserla Pass in Ladakh region, the Stakpochan Pass in Kargil region, Satopanth, Harshil, Utta-rakhand, PhimKarnla, Sikkim and Point 4493, Tawang region of Arunachal Pradesh.

Singh also launched an event of the NCC wherein its cadets will carry out cleaning and maintenance of 825 statues of freedom fighters and bravehe-arts that have been adopted by

825 NCC battalions.To commemorate India's

victory in the 1971 Indo-Pak war, a book 'Deeds of Gallantry' was launched by the Defence Minister. The book details 20

selected battles and highlights the gallantry of Indian soldiers.

Singh launched a 'Jan Sam-parkAbhiyan' wherein a repre-sentative each of the respective Zila Sainik Board along with a

representative of Indian Ex-Ser-vicemen League -- a recognised ex-servicemen (ESM) associa-tion -- will interact simultane-ously with the ESM fraternity in 75 districts across the country.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

SRINAGAR: Security forces achieved a major success as a Pakistani terrorist planning an attack along the national highway in Jammu and Kashmir was killed in an encounter in Kulgam district, officials said Friday.

They said the overnight encounter began after two terrorists, who had positioned themselves in a building, started firing "indiscriminately" on a BSF convoy on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway. Kashmir Inspector General of Police Vijay Kumar said the slain ultra, identified as Usman from Pakistan, was a "dreaded terrorist" active for the past six months.

"Around 3 pm (Thursday), terrorists fired upon the convoy of BSF on the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway near Malpora Mir Bazar area of Kulgam. The fire was retaliated by an ROP (road opening party) of police and security forces," a police spokesman said. There were no injuries in the initial attack.

Police and Army reinforcements reached there immediately and cordoned off the area, the spokesperson said.

"The force party ensured

not to give any chance to the terrorists to escape. The terrorists managed to took shelter in a nearby huge building. The holed-up terrorists fired indiscriminately upon the joint party of police/security forces which was retaliated, leading to an encounter," he said.

The IGP said there was a general input for the last one week that "terrorists were planning an attack on the national highway on Baramulla-Srinagar road or Qazigund-PanthaChowk".

"So, the police and security forces were ready. This shows how good the response of the security forces has been that there was retaliation and the militant was not allowed to flee," Kumar told reporters here. He said when the BSF convoy was coming, "two terrorists fired indiscriminately from a huge building, but there was no injury to us".

"Security forces cordoned off the area and the encounter ensued. GoC (general officer commanding of the Army's south Kashmir-based) Victor Force and I monitored the operation during the night. We used rocket launcher and a militant was neutralised during the night.

PORBANDAR: Three work-ers died after getting trapped inside the chimney of a cement factory near Ranavav town in Gujarat's Porbandar district, while three others were pulled out alive during an overnight rescue operation, officials said on Friday. The incident had taken place on Thursday eve-ning when a scaffolding struc-ture, erected for applying color on the inner surface of the chimney, had collapsed, leav-ing six workers trapped inside it, they said.

The Gujarat government had deployed two companies of the National Disaster Response

Force (NDRF) for the rescue operation. The mishap had occurred in the Ranavav-based cement production facility of Saurashtra Cement Limited, which markets cement under the brand name 'HATHI'.

"Three workers died in the incident, while as many others were rescued from inside the chimney," Porbandar Superin-tendent of Police Ravi Mohan Saini told reporters.

The metal scaffold-ing structure set up inside the chimney had collapsed when the six workers were nearly 40 feet above the ground, officials said. MPOST

SRINAGAR: Security has been beefed up in Kashmir ahead of the Independence Day celebra-tions as the forces are resort-ing to technical surveillance including the use of drones to monitor the situation, officials said on Friday.

Police and paramilitary forces have been deployed in strength at many places in the city and elsewhere in the Val-ley to thwart any attempts by militants to disrupt the celebra-tions, they said.

The officials said a random search of vehicles and check-ing and frisking of people is being carried out at several places across the valley, espe-cially around the venues of the August 15 functions.

They said the main function will be held at Sher-e-Kashmir Cricket Stadium here and Lieu-tenant Governor Manoj Sinha will preside over it.

Inspector General of Police, Kashmir, Vijay Kumar said all security arrangements have been put in place across the val-ley and the forces are on alert.

There is checking, frisking, and drone surveillance on the people. We are using technical surveillance. We will ensure an incident-free function in every district, including Srinagar, Kumar told reporters here.

He said people should not feel any fear and participate in the functions.

Pakistan is always instigat-ing militants to stop people, by carrying out terror incidents. Do not be afraid, your force is ready and we will provide secu-rity, The IGP said.

Kumar was speaking to reporters at the Sher-e-Kashmir Cricket Stadium where a full-dress rehearsal took place. The function was presided over by Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, Pan-durang K Pole. AGENCIES

JAMMU: A shutdown was observed in Jammu and Kash-mir’s Rajouri town on Friday to protest the attack on a BJP leader’s house last night that left a three-year-old boy dead and six other people injured.

Scores of people, some of them BJP workers, also took out a protest rally denouncing the attack. They raised anti-Pakistan slogans.

Seven members of BJP leader Jasbir Singh’s family were injured after suspected terrorists lobbed a grenade at his house in Rajouri district’s Khandli area on Thursday

night. The grenade exploded on the rooftop, police said.

The three-year-old boy, Veer, who was among the injured, died during treat-ment at the government medi-cal college hospital in Rajouri around midnight, sources said. All shops were shut and there was no traffic on roads on Fri-day in Rajouri town.

Agitators blocked a high-way on a call by the Sanatan Dharam Sabha, but police managed to prevent them from going too far ahead.

Protesters blamed chinks in the security apparatus for

the attack. They said terrorists are roaming freely and attack-ing BJP leaders with grenades.

Condemning the attack, the BJP and the Congress called for beefing up of the security net-work across Rajouri, a border district, in view of reports of infiltration attempts along the Line of Control (LoC). Speak-ing to reporters in Rajouri, Jammu and Kashmir BJP presi-dent Ravinder Raina blamed Pakistan for the attack. “Pak-istan and its terrorist forces attack soft targets and unarmed people and kill them. They are cowards,” he said. AGENCIES

Kashmir: Security

tightened ahead of I-Day celebrations

Pakistani terrorist planning attack on J&K highway killed

3 trapped inside chimney of cement factory die in Guj

Shutdown, protests in J&K after grenade hurled at BJP leader’s house

‘Centre dragging feet on Bihar's concern over caste census’

Man held from UP for hacking into ECI website

Rajnath launches multiple events to mark I-Day

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: To mark this Independence Day, the gov-ernment has lined up a series of “innovative programmes” on DD Network, All India Radio and other platforms from August 16. The ministry of information and broadcast-ing will launch the “Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav” programme with the spirit of public partici-pation and mass movement.

“The objective is to ensure the involvement of the people in recalling the spirit of sacrifice and patriotism in the journey towards a New India,” a gov-ernment communiqué men-tioned on Friday. India will be

celebrating its 75th Indepen-dence Day on August 15, 2021, with the usual pride as on this day India got its freedom from British rule.

“Azadi Ka Safar Akash-vani Ke Saath” – a five-minute daily capsule based on eminent freedom fighters and giving an account of major historical and political events of the day will be aired on AIR’s both national and its regional channels at 8:20 AM (Hindi) and 8:50 AM (Eng-lish). Also, AIR is launching a quiz programme from the same day twice a day (Hindi: 8 AM to 8:30 AM and English: 8:30 AM to 9 AM). Besides, every day the DD Network will also telecast a five-minute capsule, giving

an account of major historical and political events of that day at 8:55 AM by DD News and at 8:30 AM by DD India. More-over, the national broadcaster will dedicate a full-day spe-cial coverage on Independence Day with films like ‘Hindustan ki Kasam’ and ‘ Tiranga’, live telecasts from the Red Fort, along with special shows to mark the important occasion and a special series of sectoral programmes on themes such as start-ups, defence, space and landmark legislations, the I&B ministry confirmed.

The National Film Devel-opment Corporation of India (NFDC) will also be stream-ing iconic films like Gandhi,

Making of Mahatma, Ghare Baire, on its OTT platform www.cinemasofindia.com from August 15 to 17. During the same period, the Films Division will also celebrate the occasion with a three-day film festival showcasing films on freedom fighters and the Indian freedom struggle. “These film festivals will be organized in coordina-tion with institutions across the country to reach out to a wider audience,” the official statement added.

The I&B ministry has also planned for informative audio-visual content on its social media platforms to reach out to a wider audience, especially to engage the youth and children.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

SHIMLA: Three more bodies were recovered from the site of the landslide in Himachal Pradesh's Kinnaur, taking the death toll to 17, while two peo-ple were injured on Friday after stones falling down a moun-tainside hit their bus near the area, a senior official said.

Search and rescue opera-tion had to be suspended for several hours on Friday as boul-ders were falling in between at the landslide site near Chaura village in the district, Kinnaur Deputy Commissioner Abid Hussain Sadiq told.

State Disaster Manage-ment Director Sudesh Kumar Mokhta said that stones falling down a mountainside hit an HRTC bus, which was cross-ing the site around 4.40 pm on Friday, injuring a woman and

a boy. The bus was on its way to Reckong Peo from Mandi, he added.

A major landslide was

reported from Kinnaur dis-trict in Himachal Pradesh on Wednesday, in which several vehicles, including a Himachal

Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) bus carrying over 40 passengers, were buried under the debris. Mokhta said search and rescue operation, which were suspended on Thurs-day night, resumed on Friday around 5.30 am. A Bolero and its passengers feared buried under the rubble could not be traced so far, he said, adding that it might be possible that the vehicle rolled down with the debris.

The rescue operation is being carried out jointly by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and the members of local police and home guards.

On the day of the incident, 10 bodies were recovered and 13 people rescued. Earlier on Wednesday, eight bodies were found trapped in a Tata Sumo

taxi during the search and res-cue operation. Two cars had also been recovered in a dam-aged condition on Wednesday, but no one was found in them. Earlier on Thursday, four bod-ies were found from the land-slide site.

Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur had informed the state assembly after visiting the spot on Thursday that 16 people were still missing. An HRTC bus, which along with other vehicles, was buried under the debris, was found in a badly damaged condition on Thurs-day. On Friday, after recovery of three more bodies, at least 13 people are still missing, offi-cials said.

A truck was also found, which had rolled down towards a riverside due to stones falling down a mountainside and the driver's body was recovered.

Himachal Pradesh landslide: Death toll climbs to seventeenThe rescue operation is being carried out jointly by the NDRF,

ITBP and the members of local police and home guards

It is important that the feeling of national self-esteem is present in the citizens: Rajnath

Government to launch innovative programmes to mark 75th Independence Day

Rescue work in progress after a massive landslide 2 days ago at Nigulsari Reckong-Peo -Shimla National Highway in Kinnaur District on Friday PIC/PTI

Defence Minister Singh virtually launches the nationwide events related to 75th Independence Day, in New Delhi on Friday PIC/PTI

Tejashwi Yadav

Security forces personnel during an encounter with militants who opened fired at a BSF convoy, in Kulgam district on Friday PIC/PTI

7millenniumpost Editorial mpNEW DELHI | SATURDAY, 14 AUGUST, 2021

Prophet of Indian nationalism

Freedom from poverty

As Aurobindo Ghosh evolved from a revolutionary popularizing ‘boycott’ to a spiritual leader focusing on the unity of mankind, nationalism remained the core focus

In our 75th year of Independence, our goal remains to elevate our masses from poverty

While witness-ing the sev-enty-fifth anniversary of

our Independence, it is perti-nent to make an appraisal of our movement for freedom. Our minds should be enlight-ened with the glorious spirit and philosophy that inspired our freedom fighters as they sacrificed even their lives to liberate our motherland from the fetters of foreign bond-age. There were individuals who shaped the psychological dimension of this struggle and left a lasting impression on the socio-political disposition of our great country. Aurobindo Ghosh stands tall as one of those thinkers whose philoso-phy delineates the crystalliza-tion of the new and rising soul of India. Sri Aurobindo is a rare example of a multi-faceted genius. He was a combination of a poet, a profound thinker, a notable metaphysician and an ardent patriot. It is the burn-ing zeal of patriotism that made him a great nationalist. In a public meeting in Bom-bay in 1908, he said: “Nation-alism is not a mere political programme; Nationalism is a creed which you shall have to live.’’ He strongly believed that without political freedom, no real development is possible in India.

Sri Aurobindo’s rise into the political scene of India coincided with the outbreak of the swadeshi movement. Lord Curzon’s arrogant deci-sion of partition of Ben-gal surcharged the political atmosphere with revolt and resentment. After organizing the Lotus and Dagger Soci-ety in London, Aurobindo returned to India in 1898. He worked as the vice-principal in Baroda College. It is heard that here he came in con-tact with Thakur Saheb, who influenced him to be a practi-cal revolutionary. Aurobindo started writing inflammable articles in ‘Indu Prakash’ and ‘New Lamp for the Old’, thus ushering in a new age in rev-olutionary journalism. When Aurobindo came to Calcutta in 1906, he associated him-self with Journals and periodi-cals like the ‘Jugantar’, ‘Bande Mataram’ and the ‘Karmay-ogi’ through which he could make stern criticism of British imperialism by preaching the

gospel of militant nationalism. Aurobindo Ghosh also advo-cated the strategy of making special attempts to contact sympathetic army personnel in the native states to form secret cells with them. This anticipated the role of INA and the Naval Mutiny becom-ing important determinants in convincing the British to leave India.

The contribution of Sri Aurobindo to modern Indian political thought has diver-sified implications. He pro-pounded the idea of spiritual nationalism and divinity of the motherland. He was in favour of complete freedom. To Aurobindo, political free-dom must precede socio-eco-nomic and administrative reforms. He was keen to use the word ‘Independence’ rather than ‘Swaraj’. In his own words, “Political freedom is the life-breath of a nation; to attempt social reform, educa-tion reform, industrial expan-sion and moral improvement of the race without aiming first and foremost at political freedom is the very height of ignorance and futility’’. How eternal the words ring! Vin-dication of this observation is everlasting. No nation can prosper in a true sense with-out obtaining and distributing the fruits of freedom.

Aurobindo Ghosh popu-larized the theory of resistance

and boycott. He encouraged the aim of resistance as to make British administration impossible by an organized refusal to do anything which shall help the growth of British trade and commerce result-ing in the exploitation of the country. However, he did not ignore the idea of resistance turning violent in case of sup-pression. Here, he differs from Gandhiji’s technique. In fact, Aurobindo had previously rebuked Congress for taking a moderate stand. The split in Congress in the Surat ses-sion of 1907 saw Aurobindo inclining towards the extrem-ists as he opposed the political mendicancy of the moderates and was more in appreciation of the radical nationalism of leaders like Bal Gangad-har Tilak. Along with polit-ical resistance and boycott, Aurobindo proclaimed the necessity for national edu-cation. He was one of the early representatives of our nationalist movement who understood the cause of intel-lectual and moral awareness as a means of struggle for independence.

On August 18, 1910, Sis-ter Nivedita wrote a letter to her friend SK Ratcliff in England. In that letter, she said “Aurobindo is the only praiseworthy as he is the real protagonist of Indian nation-alism. Aurobindo Ghosh may

be said to be the one Indian mind that has really grasped nationality in a creative sense.’’ She also went on to call him ‘Bengal’s Mazzini’. Aurobindo Ghosh justifiably deserves this compliment.

The Alipore Bomb Case of 1908 saw Aurobindo being tried by law under the charge of ‘waging war against the Government’. He has been actively involved in so-called seditious activities against British rule. Following the Muzaffarpur bombings, large quantities of explosives, arms and literature were discovered in Muraripukur in Calcutta. This called for the arrest and trial of many revolutionaries. Aurobindo Ghosh was even-tually acquitted of the charges, largely due to the legal acumen of a young barrister known as Chittaranjan Das, later to become ‘Deshbandhu’. But it marked the evolution of a new Aurobindo, a man with a spiri-tual mission, a kind of emblem of Indian culture and civili-zation. Aurobindo always felt that India has a spiritual mes-sage to convey to the world. He had a vision of the instru-mental role that India was des-tined to play in world affairs in the ideal of human unity. His understanding of India’s inde-pendence envisaged the ulti-mate unity of mankind.

The transformation of Aurobindo Ghosh from a rad-

ical revolutionary to a spiri-tual conformist creates a sense of intellectual apprehension in assessing his political ideol-ogy. A lot of individuals fail to comprehend his ethical moor-ings. His philosophy of human benevolence is a manifestation of his urge for freedom. The central theme of his philoso-phy rests on a kind of evolution of human life into the divine life. This is based on a spiri-tual realization of the libera-tion of human nature. Hence, whether in political thought or in metaphysical indoctri-nation, Aurobindo enunciated the value of the deliverance of the human spirit.

Amidst the moral anae-mia, and the intellectual dilemma of our present con-ditions; amidst the brittle and fragile socio-political inde-pendence prevalent today, Aurobindo Ghosh shines as a ray of hope. His sense of nationalism is exemplary; his spirituality calls for a bet-ter civilization devoid of any moral embargo. He has influ-enced leading revolution-aries like Subhash Chandra Bose who considered him as a formidable patriotic influ-ence. In his ideas on educa-tion, Aurobindo relied on free thinking. His invoca-tion of India as his mother to be revered and set free from colonial stupor corresponds with his theory of a vast and entire freedom that was not merely national but individual and hence concerns everyone. It is this notion of liberated elevation of the mind that attracted admiration from leading thinkers like Romain Rolland, Rabindranath Tagore and Sarvepalli Radhakrish-nan. Aurobindo wanted India to rediscover itself and linked his nationalism with renais-sance. Today, it is time we rediscover our unique phi-losophy and culture to match it with Aurobindo’s belief that India must be free to live for the world. Here is Aurobindo Ghosh striking the chord of nationalism, not confined to any space or time. Chittaran-jan Das rightly regards that Aurobindo will be looked upon as “poet of patriotism, as the prophet of nationalism and lover of humanity’’.

The writer is an educator from Kolkata. Views

expressed are personal

SANDIP BANERJEE

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Millennium Post, Pratap Bhawan, 5 Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi 110 002

DearEditor

Earlier this week, in an unprecedented step, the Supreme Court has fined nine political parties for violating its February 2020 order. The Court also issued a set of instructions to counter the growing criminalisation of Indian politics, the reluctance of political regimes to take on this threat, the misuse of political power to brush away such cases, and the inordinate delay that makes justice not just elusive but often impossible to achieve. A bench headed by the Chief Justice of India has disallowed states from withdrawing criminal cases against Members of Parliament and Members of Legislative Assembly, without the approval of the corresponding high court. The relationship between politics and law is complicated in India. In theory, all are equal in the eye of law. But very often politicians with criminal records fight elections and often win. When in power, parties have a vested interest in blocking criminal cases from proceeding and offering protection to leaders in return for their continued loyalty. This makes a mockery of the rule of law; ensures impunity, and makes the electoral competition unfair. By pointing to the need for public and timely disclosure of criminal antecedents, quick disposal of cases, and instituting checks to ensure that political interference does not lead to erosion of law, the court is seeking to ensure a healthier democracy. The failure of the legislative and executive branches makes it incumbent upon the judiciary to intervene.

Turning 75 years of age is old by human standards. Hopefully your face wrinkles

with exhilarating experiences, your tresses turn silver with your time in the Sun, the years have been kind, and the knees still work! By 75, a senior cit-izen is a certified geriatric. But not when it comes to the age of a nation. The platinum year is still considered young for a country that’s still learn-ing and unlearning, building and erring. India is a coun-try of ancient wisdom but as a democracy, we are still in our salad days compared to the US and UK.

We awoke to our inde-pendence from colonial rule on August 15, 1947, and only from then did real nation-building begin. For at least two centuries, our wealth and resources were plun-dered, usurped, or traded to feed and fatten other nations. By the time, we had our inde-pendence from the shackles of British rule, we were an impoverished nation. Accord-ing to well-known economist Utsa Patnaik, Britain drained a staggering $45 trillion from India in 173 years!

Today, when Indepen-dence Day means discounts and sales, let’s not forget the price we paid, both human and monetary because our colonial scars haven’t left us. Sure, we occupy the world’s attention as one of the biggest markets of consumers on the planet. Now too we make oth-

ers rich though we get a fairer bargain now. We have, as a nation, grown from strength to strength. From scientific breakthroughs and technolog-ical innovations to our abil-ity to compete with the best in the world of art, cinema, and culture — India is a coun-try to reckon with. But no, we haven’t shed the ignominy of years of colonial rule. We haven’t discarded this humil-iation not because we hold a grudge against the colonial powers, who have in recent times apologised for the exi-gencies they thrust upon our people. The debate surround-

ing reparations (should the UK make amends by paying India for the loot and destruc-tion) will continue forever. But our primary reason for bearing the colonial cross even after 75 years of inde-pendence is because we are yet to free ourselves from poverty.

Yes, our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has grown and we have prospered but that wealth is still concen-trated in the hands of a few. The rich become richer, the middle class get taxed more, and the poor are just lucky to be alive. Between 2006 and 2016, India lifted 271 million

people out of the squalor of poverty. This was heartening news till the Covid-19 pan-demic pushed them back across the poverty line, per-haps so far back that it may take years for many to get out of it. According to reports, 230 million Indians have slipped back into poverty due to Covid-induced lockdowns and lack of income.

Our unemployment num-bers, which were in any case depressing, are even worse now. According to recently released data by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Econ-omy (CMIE) for the week

ended July 25, joblessness was on the rise in rural and urban centres. National joblessness upped to 7.14 per cent from the previous week’s 5.98 per cent. Alarmingly, rural unem-ployment is so widespread that the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA) is inef-fective in helping them; there are demands now for 150 days of work instead of the guaran-teed 100. Rural unemployment showed a sharp uptick from 5.1 per cent to 6.75 per cent. In urban India, joblessness grew slightly from 7.94 per cent to 8.01 per cent (week-on-week).

As we step into the 75th year of Independence, we have to be cognizant that mass poverty may well be back. Reports suggest that in just a year, the poorest in India with earnings of less than $2 a day, have doubled from 60 million to 134 million. The goal ahead couldn’t be clearer; we must create more jobs, employ-ment, and livelihood for the people. Central and state gov-ernments along with the pri-vate sector need to work on war-footing to create employ-ment. There is simply no other way out of this quagmire of misery. And remember, 75 years after Independence, we don’t have the colonial pow-ers to blame for mismanage-ment and poor governance anymore. Now we can only blame ourselves.

The writer is an author and media entrepreneur. Views

expressed are personal

— KHOKAN DAS, KOLKATA via email

As we step into the 75th year of Independence, we have to be cognizant that mass poverty may well be back

EDITORIALInsensitive approach?

I don’t know when I will return to the mat. Maybe I won’t. I feel I was better off with that broken leg. I had something to correct. Now my body is not broken, but I’m truly broken.” This comes contrary to the wide

applause our Olympic medal winners have received. These words from Vinesh Phogat — who was labelled one of India’s brightest hopes for the Tokyo Olympics — should break each Indian heart. It has to be admitted that India failed in providing a revered reception to its valiant contenders who went blood, sweat and tears for winning glory for themselves and the nation. The entire pomp and show to receive the winners is maligned with Phogat’s outpourings. The blame has to be shared by all when she said “they did not even let me regret my loss.” As Vinesh Phogat returned back India ‘empty-handed’ a temporary ban was waiting for her on the account of indiscipline. The allegation was that Vinesh Pho-gat did not train with the team and wore a different jersey. What followed was insensitive media coverage of the issue. But she had already cleared that she was not training with the team for the fear of catching the virus or infecting oth-ers with the virus. The wrestler has been twice infected with COVID-19 since August last year. Her expressed concerns were not around mental health which are still a less talked about issue, it was around something as lethal as the Coro-navirus. Compare the situation with Simone Biles opting out of the Olympics citing mental health issues. This was lauded by a majority of people, media houses and institutions. What makes the situation different in the case of Vinesh Phogat? Even if institutional bans are part of the due process, there must have been greater sensitivity in applying the same. If a sportsperson deviates from prescribed rules, the first step should be towards ascertaining the cause of her deviation. The extraordinary mental stress the sportspersons and ath-letes undergo during highly competitive games has to be considered while following the process. Grand reception of winners was only half work done, the remaining half should have been the caressing and counselling of our very own ath-letes who despite entirely investing themselves in the games could not touch the finishing line. It won’t be an exaggeration to say that it should rather have been a notch higher prior-ity. If a society or nation has the right to put somebody on a higher pedestal of expectations, it becomes its responsibil-ity to hold the person if they fail. India sent a contingent of 127 athletes and not everybody could have won. Somebody had to come empty-handed. It is unfortunate that the wres-tler had to come out publicly and give a justification of what happened to her on the mat and what she was going through. She had to enumerate her physical complications. Was it needed? She didn’t owe us such justifications. It is shame-ful that she had to come out to defend her coach. But still, Vinesh Phogat should be thanked that she spoke — because many sportspersons and athletes might be silently brac-ing the negative impacts of stigma arising out of defeat in competitive games. Her voice should be considered as rep-resenting those. As India looks to increase its footprints in the arena of competitive games including the Olympics, it should focus on certain key issues. Firstly, the mental health of athletes should be recognised and prioritised in view of ever-increasing competition and expectations in sporting events. It will not just help them boost their performance but, most importantly, allow the sportsperson hold their due dig-nity. The second thing that is most important is to make the involved agencies more tolerant, sensitive and transparent. And lastly, there is a need to urge media houses to behave more responsibly and sensitively while propagating judge-ments on the underperformance of athletes. Essentially, there is a need to recognise the trauma that a sportsperson might be going through after big defeats. They represent us on the global platform. Let us cherish their successes and failures together, standing by them in all circumstances.

Tweet of the day

MAHUA MOITRA @MahuaMoitra

Q: Definition of Irony?A: 8 Ministers holding press conf to abuse Opposition day after parliament adjourned abruptly while PM & HM did not attend either House for even ONE day of session.

To Aurobindo, political freedom must precede socio-economic and administrative reforms; he was keen to use the word ‘Independence’ than ‘Swaraj’

According to recently released data by the CMIE for the week ended July 25, joblessness was on the rise in rural and urban centres. National joblessness upped to 7.14 per cent from the previous week’s 5.98 per cent

millenniumpost.in

SHUTAPA PAUL

WELCOME STEP

Aurobindo proclaimed the necessity of national education for the struggle for independence

The Executive Engineer Jal Shakti Vibhag Division Nalagarh invites online tenders on behalf of Governor of Himachal Pradesh from approved eligible contractors for the following work (s) through e-tendering process:-

Sr. No.

Description of work Estimated Cost

Earnest Money

Cost of ten-der forms

Stipulated Time period

1 Providing CAD of LIS Kohoo from GambherKhad in Tehsil Ramshehar, Dis-trict Solan (HP) (SH:- Laying and jointing of HDPE pipe in Distribution sys-tem and Construction of 21 Nos. out lets).

20,46,106/- 38200/- 400/- One Year

2 Improvement / Remodeling of LIS Manlogkalan in Tehsil Ramshe-har District Solan (HP) (SH:- Construction of sumpwell 10000 litrs capacity, Providing laying Rising main 200 mm dia MSERW pipe, Providing laying HDPE pipe in Distribution system, construction of main delivery, construction of out lets, construction boundary wall, provision of electric wiring in the pump house, provision of magnetic flow meter and supply & erection of submersible and centrifugal pumping machinery alongwith allied accessories).

79,49,236/- 112000/- 800/- One Year

1 Last date of filing / uploading the tender through e-tendering: - 21-08-2021upto 11:00 AM. The tender forms and other detailed conditions can be obtained from the website www.hpiph.org

Executive Engineer JSVDivn.Nalagarh Distt.Solan (HP)

No 3321/2021-2022 HIM SUCHNA AVAM JAN SAMPARK

Government of Himachal PradeshJal Shakti Department

“Notice Inviting e-tender”

DELHI JAL BOARD GOVT OF NCT OF DELHI OFFICE OF THE EXECUTIVE ENGINEER (E&M) W&S C/N

KANHIYA NAGAR, DELHI-110035 E-mail: eecn2016@gmail.com

STOP CORONA-WEAR MASK, FOLLOW PHYSICAL DISTANCING, MAINTAIN HAND HYGIENE PRESS NIT NO. 06 /EE(E&M)W&S C/N (2021-22)

S.No

Name of work Estimated cost

Tender Processing fee

Earenst Money Tender ID No. & Date of Release of tender in E-Procurerient Solution

Last date/time of receipt of tender through e- procurement solution

1 S/l/T/C of HT panel at Sanjay Gandhi Transport Nagar BPS Re-invited

I/Rate 1000.00 Rs. 63000/-(EMD exempted vide order No: DJB/2020-21/Misc-II(PT)/971 Dated: 23.12.2020)

2021_DJB_206960_1 12-Aug-2021 05:00 PM

27-Aug-2111.30 AM

Further details in this regard can be seen at https://govtprocurement.delhi.gov.inISSUED BY P.R.O. (WATER) Sd/- Subeer Singh Advt. No. J.S.V./2021-22/277 Executive Engineer(E&M) W&S CN

8 millenniumpostWorldmpSATURDAY, 14 AUGUST, 2021 | NEW DELHI

Taliban sweeps across Southern AfghanistanKABUL: The Taliban have cap-tured another three provincial capitals in southern Afghani-stan, including in Helmand, the scene of some of the heaviest fighting in the past two decades, as the insurgents press a light-ning offensive that is gradually encircling the capital, Kabul.

The loss of Helmand's pro-vincial capital comes after years of toil and blood spilled by American, British and allied

NATO forces. Hundreds of for-eign troops were killed there over the course of the nearly two-decade war.

The insurgents have taken more than a dozen provincial capitals in recent days and now control more than two-thirds of the country just weeks before the U.S. plans to withdraw its last troops.

Attaullah Afghan, the head of the provincial council in Hel-mand, says that Taliban cap-tured the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah following heavy

fighting and raised their white flag over governmental installa-tions. He says that three national

army bases outside of Lashkar Gah remain under control of the government.

Atta Jan Haqbayan, the pro-vincial council chief in Zabul province, said the local capi-tal of Qalat fell to the Taliban and that officials are in a nearby army camp preparing to leave.

Two lawmakers from Afghanistan's southern Uruz-gan province said local officials have surrendered the provincial capital, Tirin Kot, to the rapidly advancing Taliban. Bismillah Jan Mohammad and Qudratul-lah Rahimi confirmed the sur-render Friday. Mohammad says the governor is en route to the

airport to depart for Kabul.The latest advances came

hours after the insurgents cap-tured the country's second and third largest cities in a lightning advance. The seizures of Kan-dahar and Herat mark the big-gest prizes yet for the Taliban.

While Kabul isn't directly under threat yet, the losses and the battles elsewhere further tighten the grip of a resurgent Taliban, who are estimated to now hold over two-thirds of the country and continue to press their offensive. AGENCIES

The insurgents have taken more than a dozen provincial capitals in the recent days

TAKES THREE MORE CITIES

China rejects WHO call for renewed probe into originBEIJING: China on Friday rejected the World Health Organization's calls for a renewed probe into the origins of COVID-19, saying it sup-ported "scientific" over "political" efforts to find out how the virus started.

Pressure is once more mounting on Beijing to consider a fresh probe into the origins of a pandemic which has killed more than four million people and paralysed economies worldwide since it first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, DW reported.

A delayed and heavily politi-cised visit by a WHO team of inter-national experts went to Wuhan in January 2021 to produce a first phase report, which was written in conjunction with their Chinese counterparts. It failed to conclude how the virus began.

On Thursday the WHO urged China to share raw data from the earliest COVID-19 cases to revive its probe into the origins of the disease.

China hit back, Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu saying it has never rejected cooperation on trac-ing the origins of COVID-19, but rejects the politicisation of such a search, state media reported.

“We oppose political tracing ... and abandoning the joint report” issued after the WHO team’s Wuhan visit, Ma told reporters. “We support scientific tracing.”

The joint report said the virus jumping from bats to humans via an intermediate animal was the most probable scenario, while a leak from Wuhan’s virology labs was “extremely unlikely”.

Ma rejected suggestions of new lines of investigation. AGENCIES

CORONAVIRUS

Delta variant of COVID-19

spreading fast in LankaCOLOMBO: The highly transmissible Delta variant of the Coronavirus is spreading rapidly across Sri Lanka and comprise around 75 per cent of the new cases reported in the Western province, experts said, warning that the island nation was facing its most decisive fortnight in its fight against the pandemic.

There has been a rise in the number of deaths and new COVID-19 infections driven in large part by the highly infectious Delta variant.

Dr Chandima Jeewan-dara of the University of Sri Jayewardenapura said by early this month, 75 per cent of the new infections detected in the Western province were car-rying the Delta variant and the island is bracing to face its most decisive fortnight.

Now we are reaching the sixth week of its effect. Unlike the other variants, this is different. We know that the number of deaths are ever increasing, yesterday it crossed 150," Jeewandara said.

On Wednesday, 156 deaths were recorded, the high-est single-day number with over 3,000 new infections also being reported.

Sri Lanka is fighting the third wave of Coronavirus. The first five cases of the Delta variant detected came from Colombo on June 17.

Jeewandara said the num-ber of asymptomatic cases are also on the rise.

The Sri Lankan govern-ment has resisted calls from medical professionals to go for a total lockdown. The gov-ernment's policy is to increase vaccination and keep the country open to allow eco-nomic activity.

The government said that around 95 per cent of the over 30 population have been given at least one jab. The under 30s are also to be vaccinated soon.

If the current spread was not contained the third wave may take around 20,000 lives by the year-end, some experts have warned.

They say the island's health facilities have been over-whelmed already with the ris-ing number of cases. AGENCIES

ICA- T9851(3)/2021

KMDA TENDER NOTICE e-NIT No:

KMDA/CIVIL/E&AM/Planning Circle/SE/01 OF 2021-22

online e-tender is invited by the Superintending Engineer, Planning Circle, E&AM Sector, KMDA, Unnayan Bhawan, 4th Floor, Block-A, Salt Lake City, Kolkata-700091, from reliable, resourceful, bonafied and experienced firms / companies / individual contractors / Joint Ventures / Consortium, for the work,, Name of Work, Estimated Amount, Earnest Money, Time of Completion, Construction of additional four (4) floors over the existing Nabadiganta Bhavan (B+G+4) of NDITA at GN-20 in Nabadiganta Industrial Township Sector-V, Bidhannagar, Kolkata-700091 (Phase-III)., Rs.7,33,61,247.57, Rs.10,00,000/-, 09 months, Last date and Time for Online Bid Submission: 11.09.2021 upto 13:30 hrs., For details contact the above office or visit both websites. (KMDA-284) www.kmdaonline.org www.wbtenders.gov.in

GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGAL e-Tender Cancellation Notice

Tender refrrence no - WBDOF/ADF/MID/NIT-01 (1st call)/21-22 and WBDOF/DDF/MID/NIT-01 (1ST call)/2021-2022 Due to the administrative reason the above noted e-tenders which were published earlier in this paper and Sanbad Pratidin (Bengali) are here-by cancelled. Bidders are requested to wait for next publication.

Sd/- Assistant Director of Fisheries, Paschim Medinipur

ICA- T9858(3)/2021

ICA- T9873(3)/2021

ICA- T9875(3)/2021

ICA- T9878(3)/2021

ICA- T9881(3)/2021

ICA- T9883(2)/2021

ICA- T9894(2)/2021

ICA- T9900(3)/2021

ICA- T9909(3)/2021

GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGALWRI & DD e-NIT

Executive Engineer (A-M), Berhampore II (A-M) Division invites e-tender for Revitalization of Major RLI under Berhampore II (A-M) Division under Paray Samadhan

Executive Engineer (A-M)Berhampore II (A-M) Division

Programme. e-NIT no: WRDD/EE(AM)/BER-II/CMO/eNIT-04/2021-22 & Tender ID: 2021_WRDD_340111_1. Amount put to tender is Rs. 44,77,842/- . Last dropping date is 15.09.2021 up to 6.00 PM.Intending bidders are requested to visit the website http//wbtenders.gov.in for details. Sd/-

GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGALWEST BENGAL HOUSING INFRASTRUCTURE

N.I.T No.12 of G.M. (Elect) of 2021-22 Sealed Single Part tenders on Percentage basis are invited for the work of “ Replace-ment of damaged Projector Nazrul Tirtha, Shifting and withdrawing accidental dam-aged single steel tubular pole, Providing different electrical appliances (Microwave Oven, Kettle, Water Heater), Providing new electrification of the Herbal Garden, Reconstruction of sub-merged foundation of Bollard Garden light, Providing new Air Conditioning machine at Food Court Hall, Providing LT cable in place of damage cable for restoration, Supply and Fixing of HT Rubber Mat, Sand Bucket, Restora-tion of power connection for the Signage, Providing essential electrical equipment etc.” from the agencies having ability in execution for similar nature of work. Last date of receiving application 23-08-2021 upto 3.00 P.M. Detailed may be seen in our website at www.wbhidcoltd.com

GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGAL

GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGAL SILIGURI MAHAKUMA PARISHAD Haren Mukherjee Road, Hakim

Para Siliguri 734001NIeT No.07-DE/SMP/2021-22

Tender Notice is invited for Maintenance of Road of schemes under Siliguri Maha-kuma Parishad. Bid submission start date (online): 14.08.2021 & Bid submission end date (online): 28.08.2021. Details may be seen on office notice board and SMP website http://smp.org.in. Sd/-

DE SMP

GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGAL

9millenniumpost Business mpNEW DELHI | SATURDAY, 14 AUGUST, 2021

NEW DELHI: Chairman, CITI, T Rajkumar welcomed the Centre’s decision to revoke Anti-Dumping Duty (ADD) on Viscose Staple Fibre (VSF), excluding Bamboo Fibre, fall-ing under tariff item 55041000 of the First Schedule to the said Customs Tariffs Act, originat-ing in or exported from the People’s Republic of China and Indonesia.

The Department of Rev-enue, Ministry of Finance has on friday issued a Notification No.44/2021-Customs (ADD) dated 12th August 2021, in this regard.

Chairman, CITI thanked the Prime Minister, Minister

of Finance, Minister of Com-merce, Industry & Textiles, and also the former Union Minister of Textiles for tak-ing another historic decision of removing anti-dumping duty on VSF.

This will make available VSF raw materials at interna-tionally competitive prices in India and facilitate the Indian Man Made Fiber (MMF) sector to become globally competitive.

This landmark decision will also promote ease of doing business in India and generate investment and employment in the VSF and MMF textile value chain. MPOST

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Bharat Petro-leum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) on Friday said no decision has yet been taken to sell its stake in Petronet LNG and Indrapr-astha Gas to help the company’s owner avoid making an open offer for the two gas companies.

V R K Gupta, Chief Finan-cial Officer (CFO), BPCL, said market regulator SEBI has not yet responded to an application made for exempting the new owner of BPCL from making an open offer to shareholders of Petronet and IGL. BPCL holds 12.5 per cent of the shareholding in India’s largest liquefied natu-ral gas importer, Petronet, and a 22.5 per cent stake in city gas retailer, Indraprastha Gas Ltd (IGL). It is a promoter of both the listed companies and holds board positions.

As per the legal position evaluated by the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) - the department running the process for the sale of the government’s entire 52.98 per cent stake in BPCL - the acquirer of BPCL will have to make open offers to the minority shareholders of Petronet and IGL for the acqui-sition of 26 per cent stake.

To bail out the new owner

of BPCL spending additional Rs 19,100 crore in open offers for firms where it will have no operation control, it was sug-gested that BPCL sell a part of its shareholding in the two firms and shed promoter status.

“There is no decision taken as on date but we are working with the Government of India to protect the interests of BPCL,” VRK Gupta said at an investor call. “No decision on this aspect as on date.” BPCL does not want to pare down its stake in either IGL or Petronet as it sees it as a value destruction proposition.

He said the company and the

government are working with SEBI to see that the requirement of the open offer is avoided. BPCL made a formal applica-tion seeking exemption from the open offer.

SEBI, he said, has so far not responded. “We are still working with the Government of India to protect the interest of BPCL.”

Since BPCL is a promoter of the two companies and because there is a change in ownership of the promoter firm, an open offer is triggered under SEBI (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) Regula-tions, 2011.

The thinking in the govern-ment is that the open offers for Petronet and IGL may deter bidders who are mostly eyeing BPCL’s oil refining assets and 22 per cent share of the fuel mar-keting business it commands, sources said.

The government’s 52.98 per cent stake in BPCL is valued at about Rs 52,000 crore at the cur-rent share price. The require-ment for making an open offer for an additional 26 per cent to minority shareholders of the company will cost an additional Rs 25,600 crore. On top of it, an open offer for a 26 per cent stake

in IGL would cost the acquirer an additional Rs 9,700 crore and a similar offer for Petronet would cost about Rs 9,400 crore.

To avoid an open offer, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is being pursued to give exemption as already done when ONGC acquired a government stake in HPCL.

But in the case of the ONGC-HPCL deal, the pro-moters of both the firms were the same i.e. the Government of India and there wasn’t a change of ownership per se.

Gupta said a virtual data room has been opened for the qualified bidders to do due dil-igence on the company. BPCL has answered some queries raised by the bidders and a few others are yet to be answered.

Mining-to-oil conglomerate Vedanta and private equity firms Apollo Global and I Squared Capital’s arm Think Gas are in the race to buy the govern-ment’s stake in BPCL. The stake sale in India’s second-largest fuel retailer is crucial to raise a record Rs 1.75 lakh crore from disinvestment proceeds in fis-cal year 2021-22 (April 2021 to March 2022). BPCL will give the buyer ownership of around 15.33 per cent of India’s oil refin-ing capacity and 22 per cent of the fuel marketing share.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Around 50.07 lakh domestic passengers trav-elled by air in July, 61 per cent higher than the 31.13 lakh who travelled in June, the coun-try’s aviation regulator said on Friday.

According to the Director-ate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), 21.15 lakh people and 57.25 lakh had travelled within the country by air in May and April, respectively.

The sudden drop in domes-tic air traffic in May was due to the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic that had badly hit the country and its aviation sector.

While IndiGo carried 29.32 lakh passengers in July, a 58.6 per cent share of the domestic market, SpiceJet flew 4.56 lakh passengers, accounting for a 9.1 per cent share of the market, according to the data shared by the DGCA.

Air India, Go First (previ-ously known as GoAir), Vistara and AirAsia India carried 6.7 lakh, 3.42 lakh, 4.07 lakh and 1.65 lakh passengers, respec-tively, in July, the data showed.

The occupancy rate or the load factor of the six major Indian airlines was between 53.6 per cent and 74.6 per cent in July, it stated.

The occupancy rate for

SpiceJet was 74.6 per cent in July, the DGCA noted. The occupancy rates for IndiGo, Vistara, Go First, Air India and AirAsia India were 66.2 per cent, 69.2 per cent, 67.1 per cent, 64.3 per cent and 53.6 per cent, respectively, it added.

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

India resumed domestic passenger flights on May 25 last year after a gap of two months due to coronavirus.

Indian airlines are allowed to operate a maximum of 72.5 per cent of their pre-pandemic

domestic flights.The DGCA data mentioned

that in July 2021, IndiGo had the best on-time performance of 97.3 per cent at four metro airports -- Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai.

AirAsia India and Vistara were at the second and third positions at these four airports in July with 96.8 per cent and 95.1 per cent on-time perfor-mance respectively, the DGCA said.

All airlines in India have opted for cost-reducing mea-sures such as pay cuts, leave without pay and layoffs in order to tide over the coronavirus-induced crisis.

No decision on stake sale in Petronet, IGL yet, says BPCLBPCL holds 12.5% share in India’s largest liquefied natural gas importer, Petronet, & 22.5% stake in city gas retailer, Indraprastha Gas Ltd (IGL)

Highlights » BPCL is a promoter of both the listed companies and holds board positions » BPCL does not want to pare down its stake in either IGL or Petronet as it sees it as a value destruction proposition » There is no decision taken as on date but we are working with the Govt of India to protect the interests of BPCL, Gupta said

V R K Gupta, Chief Financial Officer, BPCL said the company and the government are working with SEBI to see that the requirement of the open offer is avoided

‘50L domestic air travelers in July, 61% more than June’

The occupancy rate or the load factor of the six major Indian airlines was between 53.6 per cent and 74.6 per cent in July, it stated

NEW DELHI: The govern-ment on Friday extended the deadline by 9 days till August 26 for transaction advisors to bid for managing RINL pri-vatisation. This is the second extension given for transac-tion advisors. The first dead-line was July 28, which was later extended to August 17 and now till August 26.

The Department of Invest-ment and Public Asset Man-agement (DIPAM) had on July 7 floated the Request for Pro-posal (RFP) for appointing transaction advisors for RINL or Vizag Steel.

The government will

appoint one transaction advi-sor from reputed merchant bankers or consulting firm for providing advisory services to DIPAM and managing the strategic disinvestment of the government’s stake in RINL, along with RINL’s stake in its subsidiaries/joint ventures.

The Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs (CCEA) on January 27 gave ‘in-princi-ple approval for 100 per cent disinvestment of government stake in Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL), also called Visakhapatnam Steel Plant or Vizag Steel, along with RINL’s stake in its subsidiaries/joint

ventures through strategic dis-investment by way of privatisa-tion. The government has set a disinvestment target of Rs 1.75 lakh crore for the current fis-cal. So far, it has raised about Rs 8,368 crore by selling a stake in Axis Bank, NMDC Ltd and Housing and Urban Develop-ment Corp (HUDCO).

As part of the privatisation strategy, the government aims to complete the strategic sale of Bharat Petroleum Corpo-ration Ltd (BPCL), Shipping Corp, Container Corporation, Neelachal Ispat Nigam Ltd, Pawan Hans, Air India, among others, by March 2022. PTI

CITI welcomes removal of anti-dumping duty on VSF

Govt extends bidding deadline for RINL transaction advisors till Aug 26

NEW DELHI: NLC India Lim-ited (NLCIL) reported the total income for the quarter ended June 30, 2021 at Rs 2,504.45 crore as against Rs 2386.86 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year, registering a growth of 4.93 per cent.

Profit After Tax (PAT) for the quarter ended June 30, 2021 is Rs 267.22 crore as against Rs 292.54 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year.

Lignite Sales during the quarter ended 30-06-2021 is 10.17 LT as against 4.46 LT in the corresponding period of the previous year, registering a

growth of 128.03 per cent.Power Generation on 30th

June 2021 (91.62 MU) and Monthly Generation of June 2021 (2329.47 MU) are all time

high generation for the Com-pany since its inception.

Standalone and Consoli-dated Power Generation during the quarter ended 30-06-2021 is 6638.63 MU and 7965.55 MU as against 5698.60 MU and 7011.53 MU respectively in the corresponding period of the previous year, register-ing a growth of 16.50 per cent and 13.61 per cent respectively.

Renewable Energy Power Generation during the quarter ended 30-06-2021 is 572.53 MU as against 530.69 MU in the cor-responding period of the previ-ous year, registering a growth of 7.88 per cent. MPOST

NLCIL posts standalone net profit of `267.22 crore for June quarter

NLCIL CMD Rakesh Kumar

SEOUL: Samsung leader Lee Jae-yong walked out of prison Friday a year early in a parole decision demonstrating the conglomerate’s outsized influ-ence in South Korea as well as continuing leniency for bosses who commit corpo-rate corruption.

Wearing a gray suit and a mask, Lee stepped out of the gates at the prison near Seoul and bowed in apology over the anger he had caused over his case, which was related to the explosive corruption scandal that toppled South Korea’s pre-vious president in 2017.

Hundreds of demonstra-tors standing behind police lines simultaneously shouted slogans denouncing or wel-coming his release.

(I) caused too much con-cern to our people. I am very sorry, said Lee, who had spent the past months in prison relaying his business decisions through visiting employees.

He said he was keeping close attention to the concerns, criticism and huge expectations about him and then walked into a black sedan without answer-ing reporters’ questions.

Lee, 53, is the third-gen-eration heir of an immense business empire that runs everything from technology, construction, and financial services companies to hospi-tals, an amusement park and baseball and soccer clubs. His corporate crown jewel, Sam-sung Electronics, singlehand-edly represents about 20% of South Korea’s entire stock mar-ket value and one-fourth of its

total exports.Lee’s parole marked an

about-face for the government of President Moon Jae-in, who after winning the presidential by-election in 2017 pledged to curb the excesses of chaebol, or South Korea’s family-owned conglomerates, and end their cozy ties with the government.

Business leaders and key members of Moon’s govern-ment had endorsed Lee’s early release in recent months, citing Samsung’s vital role in South Korea’s export-driven economy and the increasing challenges it faces in the global semicon-ductor market.

Freeing Lee became polit-ically convenient for Moon after recent polls indicated that South Korea’s public years removed from the angry pro-tests that filled the streets with millions of demonstrators in 2016 and 2017 largely favored Lee’s release.

With the next presidential election coming in March 2022, the ruling liberals are hoping to win votes among the mil-lions of South Koreans who own Samsung shares, some experts say.

Samsung had no imme-diate comment to Lee’s

release. Lee served a total of 18 months of a 30-month sentence AGENCIES

Lee out on parole, showing Samsung’s might in S Korea Lee, 53, is 3rd-generation heir of Samsung business empire

Samsung leader Lee Jae-yong

ICA- T9848(4)/2021ICA- T9863(3)/2021ICA- T9890(3)/2021

10 millenniumpostBusinessmpSATURDAY, 14 AUGUST, 2021 | NEW DELHI

MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank may be hitting the end of its tolerance for high inflation and will most likely hike interest rates in the first half of 2022, analysts said on Friday.

The central bank will also start rolling back its accom-modative policies which have led to easy liquidity conditions, they said.

The view from ana-lysts came even as inflation cooled down to 5.6 per cent for July, after two months of breaching the upper end of the RBI’s tolerance band of 6 per cent.

The central bank has been keeping the status quo on pol-icy and continuing with the

accommodative stance to help revive GDP growth.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had on Thursday opined that the current con-ditions do not warrant with-drawal of the accommodative measures.

“The RBI has been toler-ant of inflation and has stayed accommodative to support growth given the deep hit suf-fered by the economy. But it appears to be reaching the end of tether as inflation remains elevated,” rating agency Cri-sil said.

“If this pressure (on infla-tion) continues and systemi-cally important central banks, especially the (US) Fed, begin

normalising, the RBI will start to roll back accommodation. We expect the RBI to make a more definitive statement by this fiscal end, and raise rates by 0.25 per cent,” it added.

Its peer Acuite said it expects policy normalisation to begin in a gradual fashion with comfort on vaccination, clarity on fiscal stance, and global rates setting and called the increase in the quantum of variable reverse repo auctions as the first small step towards the same objective.

Next, the central bank can look at increasing the reverse repo rate by 0.40 per cent to narrow the difference between repo and reverse repo rate

to 0.25 per cent by Febru-ary 2022, it said, adding that the repo will be unchanged at 4 per cent.

In parallel, the vaccination drive is expected to lead to herd immunity and thereafter, the RBI will follow up with a 0.25 per cent rate hike in April 2022, it said.

Analysts at Japanese bro-kerage Nomura said last week’s review had signs of RBI policy pivoting towards normaliza-tion, pointing out to one of the members of the monetary pol-icy committee also dissented against the “accommodative stance” and the increase in FY22 headline inflation target to 5.7 per cent. PTI

NEW DELHI: The Swadeshi drive in paramilitary forces has got a big boost with Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) receiving a huge supply order of 1.91 lakh Khadi Cot-ton durries worth Rs 10 crore.

The order has been received from Indo-Tibetan Bor-der Police (ITBP) which is the nodal agency for procur-ing provisions on behalf of all paramilitary forces in the coun-try. The fresh order comes fol-lowing an agreement signed between KVIC and ITBP for supplying durrieson January 6, this year.

The development comes in wake of the Swadeshi push in Central Armed Police Forces by Home Minister Shri Amit Shah

who ordered the use of Swadeshi products only in the forces.

As per the specifications, KVIC will provide blue-colour durries of 1.98 meter length and 1.07 meter width. The cot-ton durries will be produced by Khadi institutions of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan and Punjab. An estimated 1.75 lakh man days of additional work for the Khadi artisans will be created by this purchase order alone. This is for the first time KVIC is supplying durries to the paramilitary forces.

KVIC Chairman Vinai Kumar Saxena said this order from ITBP is a testimony of Khadi’s popularity among the forces owing to its high qual-ity standards. “KVIC has been

receiving successive orders from the forces which indicates the increasing use of Swadeshi products by our jawans. At the same time, it also creates addi-tional employment for Khadi artisans,” Saxena said.

Out of the 1.91 lakh durries, 51,000 will be supplied to ITBP; 59,500 to BSF; 42,700 to CISF and 37,700 to SSB. The order will be supplied by November this year. KVIC developed the cotton durries as per the sam-ples provided by ITBP and the same has been approved by the agency. The cotton durries pre-pared by KVIC have also been certified by Northern India Textile Research Association (NITRA), a unit of the Minis-try of Textile. MPOST

NEW DELHI: India and Russia on Friday discussed expanding cooperation in the energy sec-tor as New Delhi looks at newer sources of oil and natural gas to diversify its import basket.

Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri held a video interaction with Russian Energy Minister Nikolay Shulginov on further-ing energy cooperation between the two nations, the Indian min-ister tweeted.

India’s cumulative invest-ment in oil and gas projects in Russia exceeds $15 billion. It is the single largest destination of Indian overseas investment in

the oil and gas sector.Russian oil giant Rosneft and

its partner in 2017 bought Essar Oil, renamed Nayara Energy, for $12.9 billion.

“Had an engaging video interaction with HE Mr Niko-lay Shulginov, Minister of Energy of the Russian Feder-ation @MinenergoGov. Dis-cussed ways to further expand bilateral energy cooperation, a key pillar of bilateral Special & Privileged Strategic partner-ship,” Puri tweeted.

Russia, he said, is the largest investor in India’s energy sector and India has made significant

investments in the Russian oil and gas sector.

“Reviewed the ongoing investments by Indian oil & gas companies in the upstream sec-tor in Russia, supply of LNG & crude oil from Russia,” he

said. “We also reviewed Russian investments in India’s down-stream sector.”

Last year, state-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC) signed a deal with Rosneft for the annual purchase of 2 million tonne of crude oil. This is the first-ever annual oil purchase deal between the two countries.

India is also looking to import liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Russia and is looking for opportunities for involvement of Indian compa-nies in infrastructure develop-ment projects in the Siberian and Arctic regions, the Indian

oil ministry had said at the time of signing of the deal with Ros-neft in February last year.

India traditionally relies on the Middle East for the bulk of its oil and gas needs and is now exploring sources from Russia to the US to diversify that basket.

Puri said he thanked Minis-ter Shulginov for the invitation to participate in the 6th Eastern Economic Forum from Septem-ber 2-4, 2021 in Vladivostok.

India is looking to bolster its economic presence in the Rus-sian Far East.

During a 2019 visit to the Far Eastern port city of Vladi-

vostok, Prime Minister Nar-endra Modi announced that New Delhi would provide a $1 billion loan to aid the region’s economic development. He also signed a memorandum to establish a direct maritime corridor between Chennai and Vladivostok.

The new sea route is expected to cut the shipping time for goods between India and Russia to 24 days, versus 40 days via an European route.

The Fast East has huge oil and gas reserves and New Delhi is interested in securing a pie of that. PTI

OUR CORRESPONDENT

GANDHINAGAR: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday launched the national vehicle scrappage policy, add-ing it will help phase out unfit and polluting vehicles.

The vehicle scrappage pol-icy will bring in investments of around Rs 10,000 crore, he said.

Modi made the remarks in a video address to the Investor Summit in Gujarat. The summit is aimed at getting investment relating to setting up vehicle scrapping infrastructure.

Vehicle scrapping will help phase out unfit and polluting vehicles in an environment-friendly manner, Modi said.

Vehicles will not just be scrapped by their age, but also if they are found to be unfit in automated testing, he said.

“This policy will deeply benefit our middle class,” he said. A certificate will be issued on the scrappage of old cars. It will ensure that these people get discount on buying new cars and benefit on taxes, he added.

We are promoting a circular economy. The aim is to develop a sustainable and environment-friendly economy, Modi said.

Modernity in mobility not only reduces the burden of travel and transportation, but

also proves helpful for eco-nomic development, he said.

Moreover, Union Road Transport and Highways Min-ister Nitin Gadkari said the National Automobile Scrap-page Policy unveiled on Friday will benefit all stakeholders as it will boost manufacturing, cre-ate jobs and help both the Cen-tre as well as state governments in earning up to Rs 40,000 crore each in GST.

Cheap raw material acquired from scrapped vehi-cles would bring down the price of vehicles and boost their sales, thereby raising GST col-lection, he said.

Gadkari said both the

Kandla port in Kutch and Alang ship-breaking yard in Bhavnagar can play a crucial role in realising India’s dream of becoming the scrap recycling hub of entire South-East Asia.

He was speaking at the “Investor Summit” ahead of the launch of the National Automobile Scrappage Policy at Mahatma Mandir here in Gandhingar.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who attended the event virtually, launched the policy, aimed at recycling old and unfit vehicles.

“This policy of scrapping unfit vehicles is beneficial for all the stakeholders. It will

boost manufacturing, create employment and increase our savings. Cost of new vehicles will also come down as the scrap would provide copper, aluminium, steel, plastic and rubber to the industry,” said Gadkari in his address.

“If we recycle on a continu-ous basis, we can recover 99 per cent of the materials. As per an estimate, this will lead to a reduction of 40 per cent in the raw material cost, which will lead to reduction in prices and higher sales,” said the minister.

As per an estimate, states as well as the Centre’s GST income would increase by Rs 30,000 to Rs 40,000 crore each

once the sale of vehicles picks up, he added.

Gadkari informed the invitees that his ministry has requested automobile com-panies to give a 5 per cent discount to those who had deposited their old vehicles for scrapping.

“There is no scrapping infrastructure in our neigh-bouring countries. We can think of bringing old vehicles from those countries to the Kandla port. I urge (Gujarat CM) Vijay Rupani to see if the state government can develop an industrial cluster in Kandla. If that happens, scrap material from all over the world would come here for recycling,” he said.

“The PM has requested us to create an integrated scrap-ping hub in Alang, where ships are being recycled. Now, we will try to make it a scrapping hub. Our dream is to make India the scrapping hub of South-East Asia by bringing old vehicles of neighbouring countries for recycling,” he added.

As the primary criteria for scrapping a vehicle is fitness, and not its age, Gadkari said the government also wants investors to start fitness centres in each district under the Pub-lic Private Partnership model.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

MUMBAI: The BSE Sensex vaulted above the 55,000-mark for the first time on Friday as investors remained in risk-on mode amid favourable mac-roeconomic data and growth optimism.

Investors’ wealth jumped Rs 3,48,431.23 crore as the market rally continued for the second straight session on Friday.

Index heavyweights TCS, RIL, Infosys and HDFC twins saw robust buying, while pharma stocks slipped.

Rallying for the second straight session, the 30-share Sensex jumped 593.31 points or 1.08 per cent to its new all-time high of 55,437.29. It touched an intra-day record of 55,487.79.

Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty breached the 16,500 level, advancing 164.70 points or 1.01 per cent to its fresh clos-ing peak of 16,529.10. It surged to a record of 16,543.60 during the day.

TCS was the top performer among the Sensex compo-nents, spurting 3.22 per cent, followed by L&T, Bharti Air-tel, HCL Tech, Tata Steel, Bajaj Auto, Reliance Industries and HDFC Bank.

On the other hand, Pow-

erGrid, IndusInd Bank, Dr Reddy’s, IndusInd Bank, Bajaj Finance, NTPC and Tech Mahindra were among the laggards, skidding up to 1.28 per cent.

During the week, the Sensex rallied 1,159.57 points or 2.13 per cent, while the Nifty soared 290.90 points or 1.79 per cent.

Sectorally, BSE telecom, teck, capital goods, IT, energy and consumer durables indices rose up to 1.80 per cent, while realty, healthcare and utilities ended in the red.

Broader BSE midcap and smallcap indices underper-formed the benchmark to end up to 0.06 per cent lower.

Asian markets remained under pressure amid China’s regulatory crackdown on com-panies and rising COVID-19 cases in the country. Bourses in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Seoul ended in the red.

Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude fell 0.10 per cent to $71.24 per barrel.

The Indian rupee reversed all its intra-day losses rising just one paise to close at 74.24 against the US dollar on Friday.

Foreign institutional inves-tors were net sellers in the cap-ital market on Thursday as they offloaded shares worth Rs 212.11 crore, as per exchange data.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi

‘Scrappage policy will phase out unfit, polluting vehicles’

Road Transport & Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari says the National Automobile Scrappage Policy will boost manufacturing and create jobs

Highlights » Vehicles will not just be scrapped by their age, but also if they are found to be unfit in automated testing, Prime Minister said » Scrappage Policy will help both the Centre as well as state governments in earning up to Rs 40,000 crore each in GST, Nitin Gadkari said

Sensex soars to 55K mark as markets continue record run

KBK graphicsInfo

Intra-day on August 13, 2021

9am 10 11 12 1pm 2 3 4 9am 10 11 12 1pm 2 3 4

Previous close:

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NSE NIFTYIntra-day on August 13, 2021

BSE SENSEX

High:

16,543.60

High:

55,487.79

Close:

55,437.29Close:

16,529.10

164.70

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Investors’ wealth jumped Rs 3,48,431.23 crore as the market rally continued for the second straight session on Friday

NEW DELHI: Bharti Airtel on Friday announced the closure of its agreement with Reliance Jio Infocomm to transfer the ‘Right to Use’ of Airtel’s 800 MHz spec-trum in three circles to Jio.

Airtel said in a statement it has received Rs 1,004.8 crore (net of tax) from Jio for the pro-posed transfer. Besides this, Jio will assume future liabilities of Rs 469.3 crore relating to the spectrum, the statement added.

Bharti Airtel’s deal with Reli-ance Jio Infocomm involves the transfer of the ‘Right to Use’ of Airtel’s 800 MHz spectrum in Andhra Pradesh (3.75 MHz), Delhi (1.25 MHz) and Mum-bai (2.50 MHz) circles to Jio, the company had earlier said.

Jio’s pact with Airtel to buy the spectrum in 800 MHz band was announced in April this year and marked the first such deal between the two telecom giants. Airwaves come in differ-ent bands which support differ-ent propagation characteristics

for the transmission of voice and data. For instance, lower bands like 800 MHz and 900 MHz sup-port good indoor coverage while higher bands like 2300 MHz have a good carrying capacity.

The airwaves are also sold in quantities measured as MHz. Spectrum auctions, held earlier this year, had raked in winning bids of over Rs 77,800 crore for 855.6 MHz of spectrum.

Billionaire Mukesh Amba-ni’s Reliance Jio spent the most in the auction, picking up 488.35 MHz spectrum in bands such as 800 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2300 MHz for over Rs 57,100 crore.

In the auction, Bharti Airtel won the right to use spectrum, the total value of which is about Rs 18,700 crore. MPOST

MUMBAI: The country’s foreign exchange reserves increased by $889 million to a lifetime high of $621.464 bil-lion in the week ended August 6, 2021, RBI data showed on Friday. In the previous week ended July 30, 2021, the reserves had surged by $9.427 billion to reach $620.576 billion.

In the reporting week, the increase in the forex kitty was due to a rise in foreign currency assets (FCAs), a major compo-nent of the overall reserves, as per weekly data by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). FCAs rose by $1.508 billion to $577.732 billion in the reporting week.

Expressed in dollar terms, the foreign currency assets include the effect of apprecia-tion or depreciation of non-US units like the euro, pound and yen held in the foreign exchange reserves.

Gold reserves were down by $588 million to $37.057 billion in the reporting week, the data showed. PTI

Airtel, Reliance Jio conclude spectrum trading agreement

Forex reserves up by $889 mn to lifetime high of $621.464 bn

RBI to hike rates starting early 2022, take more steps towards policy normalisation: Analysts

MUMBAI: The Central Board of RBI on Friday reviewed the current economic situation and the recent policy measures taken by the Reserve Bank to mitigate the adverse impact of COVID-19. The 590th meeting of the Central Board of Direc-tors of RBI was held under the chairmanship of RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das through video conferencing.

“The Board...reviewed the current economic situation, global and domestic challenges and various areas of operations of the bank and the recent policy measures taken by Reserve Bank to mitigate the adverse impact of COVID-19 on the economy. The Board also reviewed the functioning of Local Boards,” RBI said in a statement.

Deputy Governors Mahesh Kumar Jain, Michael Debabrata Patra, M Rajeshwar Rao, and T Rabi Sankar and other direc-tors of the Central Board attended the meeting. Direc-tors who attended the meet-ing include, Satish K Marathe, S Gurumurthy, Revathy Iyer and Sachin Chaturvedi. RBI said the meeting was also attended by Debasish Panda, Secretary, Department of Financial Services and Ajay Seth, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs. PTI

RBI Central Board reviews

economic situation

KVIC gets order for 1.91 lakh Khadi durries for paramilitary forces

NEW DELHI: National Hydroelectric Power Corpo-ration (NHPC) Limited has reported a standalone net profit at Rs 912 Crore during first quarter of the current fis-cal against Rs 723 Crore dur-ing the corresponding previous period.

The NHPC Board approved the Q-1 FY21-22 result in their meeting held on 13th August 2021.

NHPC Limited is India’s premier Hydropower Com-pany. NHPC’s total installed capacity is 7071 MW of renew-able power (including Wind & Solar) through its 24 power stations including 1520 MW through subsidiary. MPOST

NHPC posts Q1 net profit of ̀ 912 crore

NEW DELHI: The govern-ment on Friday notified the RoSCTL scheme for textiles exporters and said the duty credit scrips under this sup-port measure would be issued without insisting on realisation of the export proceeds.

On July 14, the Cabinet approved the continuation of the Rebate of State and Central Taxes and Levies (RoSCTL) scheme under which garment exporters will continue to get a rebate on central and state taxes on their outward ship-ments till March 2024.

The notification said the adequate safeguard mecha-nism would be put in place for effective monitoring of realisa-

tion of the export proceeds.“While the proposed

scheme will be implemented on a revenue foregone basis, a budgetary control would be exercised through appropriate entries in the annual finan-cial statement. “To ensure that expenditure under the scheme does not exceed the allocation amount in a particular finan-cial year, the expenditure and liability shall be reviewed on a

quarterly basis,” it added.It said that for the purpose

of audit and verification, the exporter would be required to keep records to substanti-ate their claims made under the scheme. And, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) would put a monitoring and audit mech-anism, with an information technology-based risk man-agement system (RMS), in place. The textiles ministry will conduct an annual impact analysis of the scheme. Rebate of state taxes and levies would include VAT on fuel used in transportation, mandi tax, duty of electricity, and stamp duty on export documents. PTI

Govt notifies extension of RoSCTL scheme for textiles exporters

India, Russia discuss expanding energy cooperationIndia’s cumulative investment in oil and gas projects in Russia exceeds $15 billion

Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri

MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank has cancelled the licence of Karnala Nagari Sahakari Bank, Panvel in Maharashtra for not having adequate capital and being unable to pay its pres-ent depositors in full. The bank ceased to carry on banking busi-ness with effect from the close of business on Friday.

“As per the data submit-ted by the bank, 95 per cent of the depositors will receive full amounts of their deposits from Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC),” the central bank said while announcing cancellation of the bank’s licence. On liquida-tion, every depositor would be entitled to receive deposit insur-ance claim amount of his/her

deposits up to a monetary ceil-ing of Rs 5 lakh from DICGC.

RBI said the licence of Kar-nala Nagari Sahakari Bank was cancelled through an order dated August 9, 2021.

The licence of the bank is cancelled as it does not have adequate capital and earning prospects, RBI said, adding that the lender has failed to comply with the requirements of various sections of the Banking Regula-tion Act, 1949. Also, “the bank with its present financial posi-tion would be unable to pay its present depositors in full”, it said. While announcing can-cellation of the licence, RBI said public interest would be affected if the bank is allowed to carry on its business any further. PTI

RBI cancels Karnala Nagari Sahakari Bank’s licence

11millenniumpost Sport mpNEW DELHI | SATURDAY, 14 AUGUST, 2021

Haryana organises facilitation ceremony for Olympic medal winnersSONIKA BHATIA

PANCHKULA: Haryana is developing as a sports hub as 32 players from various parts of the state reached in Tokyo Olympics 2020 this time and brought back laurels with them.

To facilitate and motivate the players, more than Rs 23 crores were distributed at a state level function held here on Friday.

Along with the amount play-ers had been offered job letters as well as plot on half the price in any part of the state.

Addressing the gathering at the function as the Chief Guest, Haryana Governor, Bandaru Dattatreya said that the excel-lent performance showcased by the players of Haryana in the

Tokyo Olympics 2020 has not only given the state and coun-try many reasons to smile with heads held high in pride but has also once again proved Hary-ana’s mettle on the global map.

"Despite having only two percent of the country's popu-lation, about 25 percent par-ticipation is from Haryana in the Olympic Games, which is a matter of pride. Not only this, among the seven medal win-ners from different states this time, Haryana accounts for four that is three individual medals and two in hockey. I urge the youth of the State to opt for any sports along with their studies,” he mentioned.

"I am proud that Haryana is the first state in the country to

give maximum cash prizes to the medal winners. The Sports Policy of Haryana is not only praised in the country but also across the world. Haryana has set an example for other states and for this I congratulate Chief Minister, Manohar Lal,” Gov-

ernor affirmed.He said that participating

in these world-class competi-tions is a great achievement in itself. Entire Haryana is proud that this time in the Olympics out of 127 players, 30 were from Haryana.

"I feel really proud that these sons and daughters of Hary-ana who have lived up to the expectations of the people of the country and state have won 4 out of a total 7 medals as the eyes of the entire country were on these 32 players as the entire

nation and state had already seen their calibre and excellent performance in Asian Games, Commonwealth Games and other international sports com-petitions,” he added.

Praising Neeraj Chopra, who gave India its National Anthem moment by winning India’s first gold medal in track and field games, Governor said that he has created golden history by winning gold medal. His success story would keep on inspiring young and budding players for years. "Similarly, wrestlers Ravi Dahiya and Bajrang Punia have raised India's flag by winning silver and bronze, respectively. Two Haryana players Suren-der Kumar and Sumit Kumar have also made the state and

the country proud by winning bronze in hockey. It is because of the hard work of these play-ers only India has been ranked 48th in the world by winning seven medals this time. This is our splendid performance of 121 years,” the Governor said.

Bandaru Dattatreya said that ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ campaign launched by Prime Minister Narender Modi from Haryana has certainly left a pos-itive impact in the State as this time out of the 11 players in Indian Hockey team that repre-sented India in Olympics, nine belonged to Haryana.

Lauding the efforts of the Women’s Hockey Team, he said, “The skill and stamina with which you fought in the semi-

final match has been appreci-ated not only in India but also in other countries of the world.”

The Governor stated that it is because of the hard work and dedication of these players because of which Haryana has once again made a mark on the sports map of the world. Hary-ana is of course a small state in terms of population and area, but our achievements in the field of sports are unmatched, he added. “A provision has been made to give cash prizes at par with normal sportspersons to Paralympics medal winners and Para sportspersons who have participated in Olympic, Asian, Commonwealth and National sports competitions,” he asserted.

India’s late strike leaves second Test evenly

poised against EnglandLONDON: India evened things up with a massive breakthrough in added time but skipper Joe Root continued to bat gamely and keep England in the hunt in the second Test here on Friday.

At Stumps after an engross-ing second day’s play, England were 119 for three after batting for 45 overs, having bowled India out for 364 in their first innings. Root was batting on 48 and giving him company was Jonny Bairstow on 6.

The canny Mohammed Shami made the breakthrough when he had Rory Burns (49) trapped in front of the wicket with a delivery that jagged in after landing.

The visitors threatened with Mohammed Siraj’s two wick-ets in two balls before Burns and Joe Root nearly navigated through a tricky final session with a partnership of 85 runs.

With Virat Kohli deciding to continue with Siraj after the tea break instead of handing the red cherry to the more experi-enced Shami or Jasprit Bumrah, the very impressive pacer lived up to his captain’s expectations with his twin strikes with his first two deliveries.

First he had Dominic Sib-ley playing a loose shot to be caught at short midwicket by K L Rahul -- it was a replay of his dismissal at Nottingham -- and then the pacer crashed through the defence of comeback man Haseeb Hameed, giving him a golden duck on his return. That was followed by Siraj giving the batsman a silent send-off.

However, the duo of Root and Burns did the repair work admirably as they frustrated the visiting team bowlers with their mix of caution and aggression.

On the day, Root also went past Graham Gooch to become Eng-land’s second highest scorer in Test cricket, with only Alastair Cook now ahead of him.

Burns smashed Siraj for three boundaries in an over, before scoring fours against Ishant Sharma and Bumrah.

Root too found the fence occasionally after the evergreen James Anderson exhibited com-plete mastery over his craft on way to a 31st five-wicket haul to wrap up India’s first innings much earlier than expected.

Thanks to Anderson’s (5/62) exploits and a fine support-ing act by Mark Wood (2/91) on day two, England got an opportunity to bat in the sec-ond session and reached tea at 23 for no loss.

This was the 39-year-old Anderson’s seventh five-for at the hallowed Lord’s, four of them coming against the Indians. It was cloudy but there was no rain around, and the conditions looked much better for batting than it was at Trent Bridge in the series opener last week. Resuming at 276 for three with overnight centurion KL Rahul (129) and vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane (1) at the crease, India, however, ended up losing seven wickets for 88 runs while squandering the solid platform. AGENCIES

Sports Min launches Fit

India Freedom Run 2.0

NEW DELHI: Sports Minis-ter Anurag Thakur on Friday launched the nationwide pro-gramme of "Fit India Freedom Run 2.0" to celebrate 75 years of India's Independence.

The run will start on August 15 and will go on till October 2.

Thakur flagged off the event at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium here.

"The run is being organized at 75 iconic locations across the country, who will further take it to 75 villages in nearly 750 districts of the nation. With this, we aim to reach more than 7.50 crore youth and citizens across the coun-try," said Thakur in a release. The event was also held at 75 locations across the country, including iconic ones like the Cellular Jail in Port Blair; Kaza Post in Lahaul Spiti; Mum-bai's Gateway of India and the Attari Border in Punjab among many others. AGENCIES

Anurag Thakur PTI

India’s Mdohammed Sira celebrates with teammates PTI

DELHI JAL BOARD GOVT OF NCT OF DELHI OFFICE OF THE EXECUTIVE ENGINEER (SW) -I

OVER HEAD TANK: OPP. BHARTI COLLEGE JANAKPURFT NEW DELHI-58. E-mail: eesw1janakpuri@gmail.com

STOP CORONA-WEAR MASK, FOLLOW PHYSICAL DISTANCING, MAINTAIN HAND HYGIENE PRESS NIT NO. 18 SW-I/2021-22

S.No

Name of work Estimated cost

Date of release of tender in e- procurement solution

Last date/time of receipt of tender through e- procurement solution

1 Improvement of water supply by replacement and Providing Laying 100 mm dia water line in Dashrath Puri C-Block (Gali No. 4,5,6 and 6A) and main connecting lanes in Dwarka Assembly Constituency AC-33 under EE(SW)-I

47,64,621/-12.08.2021

2021 _ DJB _ 206943 _1

27.08.2021up to 3.00 pm

2 Improvement of water supply by replacement and Providing Laying 100 mm dia water line in Dashrath Puri B-Block (Gali No. 11) and D-Block(Gali No. 12 to 19) in Dwarka Assembly Constituency AC-33 under EE(SW)-I

48,22,374/-12.08.2021

2021 _ DJB _ 206943 _2

27.08.2021up to 3.00 pm

3 Improvement of Water Supply by Replacement and Providing Laying 100 mm dia water line in Dashrath Puri C-Block (Gali No. 6B) and D-Block (Gali No. 7,8 and 9) in Dwarka Assembly Constituency AC-33 under EE(SW)-I

47,74,359/-12.08.2021

2021 _ DJB _ 206943 _3

27.08.2021up to 3.00 pm

Further details in this regard can be seen at https://govtprocurement.delhi.gov.inISSUED BY P.R.O. (WATER) Sd/- Munish Kumar Advt. No. J.S.V./2021-22/276 Executive Engineer(SW) -I

HONOURING THE FREEDOM FIGHTERS

National School of Drama has organised a 3-day theatre festival to celebrate 75 years of independence as a part of ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’. It began on August 12 and will go on till August 14. A play is being staged and live-streamed every day to honour and celebrate the contribution of India’s freedom fighters. The dignitaries who graced the opening ceremony with their presence included Arjun Ram Meghwal, MoS for culture and parliamentary affairs, Lily Pandeya I.R.P.S, joint secretary, ministry of culture, Dr Arjun Deo Charan, vice chairman, NSD society, Himani Shivpuri, actor and NSD alumni, Dinesh Khanna, actor and director

12 millenniumpostLeisure

Entertainmentmp

SATURDAY, 14 AUGUST, 2021 | NEW DELHI

NEW DELHI: As someone who started her acting career with the miniseries format, Hollywood star Nicole Kidman says she is amazed to see her career do a full-circle thanks to the popular-ity of her recent lim-ited shows such as ‘Big

Little Lies’, ‘The Undo-ing’ and now ‘Nine Perfect

Strangers’.The ‘Oscar’ winner says it

has been exciting to work on the small screen, which has allowed her more screen time to explore her characters.

“I’m amazed because, strangely enough, I started in Australia, doing a cou-ple of films but then I did a

thing, which was very well known at the time as minise-ries. One of them was called

‘Vietnam’ and the other one was called ‘The Bangkok Hil-ton’. So I have come full cir-cle and now we are doing an enormous amount of work in limited series. This is fas-cinating to me. It is a fasci-nating medium to work as an actor because you get so much more screen time to explore a character,” Kid-man said.

One of the most well-known faces in Hollywood

movies, Kidman has been a part of some of the most popular as well as criti-cally-acclaimed films. But in recent years, the 54-year-old Australian actor has wowed her fans with her turns as Celeste Wright. She followed it up with an equally impressive turn in ‘The Undoing’. Kidman said the success of the format has been a ‘door opener’ for her.

“Right now as we know, there just is not the voracious appetite for films as there is for television. So to have that opportunity to work on TV even though it is the smaller screen still brings that cinematic language and storytelling to the smaller screen, which is exciting. Working on TV has been a door opener for me,” she said. PTI

MUMBAI: On August 13, Bollywood actor Jan-hvi Kapoor remembered

mother Sridevi on her 58th birth anniversary

with an emotional post.Sridevi, who was

hailed as Indian cinema’s first woman superstar, passed away at the age of 54 on February 24, 2018.

Extending birthday wishes to her late mother, Kapoor in an ‘Instagram’ post said, “Happy birth-day Mumma. I miss you. Everything is for you,

always, every day. I love you.”

She wrote the caption along with a throwback photo with Sridevi.

The vet-eran actor was married to pro-ducer Boney Kapoor and shared daugh-ters Janhvi Kapoor and Khushi Kapoor with him.

Janhvi Kapoor, who made her debut with /Dhadak’ in 2018 soon after her moth-er’s death, will next be seen in Aanand L Rai-produced ‘Good Luck Jerry’ and ‘Dostana 2’, which is backed by producer Karan Johar. PTI

Supermodel Bella Hadid recently got candid about not feeling herself all the

time even though she looks fantastic. While chatting with ‘Vogue’, the 24-year-old model opened up about her insecuri-ties when she started in 2015. She also recalled how ‘nervous’ she was to make her debut with heavy makeup.

Bella recalled an instance from the 2016 ‘Cannes Film Festival’, where she wore a now-iconic Alexandre Vauth-ier red dress with dangerously

high slits. While she noted that the design was ‘a very iconic red dress moment’, the model revealed that she was extremely nervous in the dress.

“I look very sexy and all of these things. I was still ner-vous by cameras and nervous about having a lot of makeup on and nervous about this slit,” shared Bella.

Despite the media atten-

tion, the model admitted that she was ‘embarrassed by this moment’ and that she felt the dress did not match her style. Bella recalled the red car-pet appearance as ‘the start of the Bella per-sona that everyone sees in me.’

It was in Cannes that Bella’s ‘alter ego’, whom she named Belinda, emerged. According to Bella, she and Belinda are complete opposites, describing how the alter ego is ‘very va-va-voom’.

Bella went on to explain why she ‘never smiled’ on runways or in photos, saying that she was ‘in a really bad place, physically and mentally’.

“So I look very sad in this picture, but I was very happy,” Bella remembered as she looked at a photo of her clos-ing the Fendi show for the late Karl Lagerfeld.

She added, “I remember looking around at everybody while I was walking. I think I cried after actually. It was the most beautiful moment.” AGENCIES

On the evening of August 8 in Hartford, Connect-icut, local teenage rap-

per YNT Juan was tragically murdered. The rapper, whose real name is Juan Bautista Garcia, was just 17 year old and was found shot dead in a parked car. Hartford Police Major Crime and Crime Scene divisions are currently investigating the shooting.

Interestingly, Juan shared his recently released remix of Kanye West’s ‘Power’ to his 26,000 ‘Insta-gram’ followers shortly before his death. On August 3, he released a video for the remix on ‘YouTube’, where he had over 4,000 follow-ers. It has subsequently received over 18,000 views. Shortly after the news of his demise came out, fans and friends showered his

most recent Instagram post with comments in tribute to the late rapper.

“I actually believed in you from the moment we first met and made a video and I’m

grateful we did,” one comment read. Another comment read, “Sleep easy legend.”

According to ‘People’, his childhood friend Janine told the Hartford Courant, “He never went live on his ‘Instagram’ to speak about drama. He always went on there to encourage his friends or promote his music.

He did not even get to gradu-ate school yet.” AGENCIES

The Crown’ star Emma Corrin, who shot to fame after essaying the role of

Princess Diana on the ‘Netflix’ show, recently addressed her coming out the journey for the first time in an interview with ‘ITV’. Corrin initially came out as queer in April of this year and in July, announced her new pro-nouns as she/they. In her recent interview though, the actor spoke about her decision to come out and the support she received from the LGBTQ+ community.

While talking about deciding to come out after first finding it ‘scary’, Corrin stated how vis-ibility matters and said, “I think visibility is key with these things. My journey has been a long one and has still got a long way to go.”

Adding further about labels and how society pressures us into defining our identities, Emma

further added that she is still somewhere in between and said, “It is taken me a long time to realise that I exist somewhere in between and I’m still not sure where that is yet.”

Corrin ahead of her interview, Emma had also shared an ‘Insta-gram’ post where she wrote how scary it was to address her queer identity for the first time on TV but mentioned that visibility is key.

After coming out, Emma celebrated her first Pride Month and also shared a post on buy-ing her first binder as she advised her fans saying, “It is all a jour-ney right. Lots of twists and turns and change and that is ok! Embrace it. Bind safely, find what works for you.” AGENCIES

EMMA CORRIN ON COMING OUT AS QUEER JANHVI ON SRIDEVI’S BIRTH ANNIVERSARY

‘Everything is for you, always, every day’

Teen rapper YNT Juan shot dead in Connecticut Juan Bautista Garcia was just 17 year old and was found shot dead in a parked car

Shortly after the news of his demise came out, fans and friends showered his most recent Instagram post with comments

Raj Kundra’s company director detained by Mumbai Crime BranchIn the latest development

on the alleged pornog-raphy-related case on

businessman Raj Kundra, Abhijit Bhomble got arrested by the property cell of Mum-bai Crime Branch. Abhijit Bhomble is a director in Raj Kundra’s company. Accord-ing to a leading news organ-isation, an actor had filed a case against four people of Raj Kundra’s company.

According to a news report, the actor had earlier filed an FIR in the Malvani

police station against two directors and two producers of Raj’s company.

In a tweet posted by the leading news organisation about the alleged case on Raj Kundra, it said, “Pornogra-

phy matter: Abhijit Bhom-ble, director in businessman Raj Kundra’s company got arrested by Mumbai Crime Branch Property Cell. An actor had filed a case against four people from Kundra’s company. Besides Bhomble, Gehana Vashisth, Ajay Sri-mant and Prince Kashyap are accused in this.”

Gehana Vasisth recently mentioned that she did not speak against anyone and has been fighting for what is right.

Gehana spoke about Mumbai Police and alleged, “They have filed cases against me using the same women whose contacts I had shared with the cops as part of my cooperation in their investigation. But now, the same women have filed cases against me. I have supported the crime branch but now they are manipulating the women to turn them into victims and are filing cases against

us”. AGENCIES

Abhijit Bhomble got arrested by the property cell of Mumbai Crime Branch

She said, ‘I remember looking around at everybody while I was walking. I think I cried after actually’

Bella adds that she was ‘in a really bad place, physically and mentally’

‘Working on TV has been a door opener for me’

Bella recalls being ‘nervous’ at the 2016 Cannes

Nicole on life coming ‘full circle’ with the show

The Crown star came out as queer in April 2021

Janhvi’s mother & superstar Sridevi passed away on February 24, 2018

‘It is a journey with lots of twists and turns’