Actor Kirti Kulhari says she is currentlyenjoying yoga sessions amid the loftyhills of Uttarakhand

IN NATURE’S LAP

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Thai authorities declared a state of emergencyin Bangkok, a day after student-ledprotests erupted

EMERGENCY IN BANGKOK

INTERNATIONAL | P10

VOLUME 10, ISSUE 196 | www.orissapost.com

LEISURE | P2

Many colonies in Hyderabad remain under waterwhile Army and the NDRF personnelcontinue rescue ops TWO STATES | P7

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IRREGULAR by MANJUL

Meet the bravest couple working hard torevive the economy. They just had lunch at arestaurant and now are on way to cinema!

BHUBANESWAR | FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16 | 2020

SHORT TAKES

Three siblings dieof food poisoningMalkangiri: Three minorsiblings died due to foodpoisoning at Kacheli village inMalkangiri district Thursday.Their elder sister and motherare also in a critical conditionand undergoing treatment atMalkangiri DistrictHeadquarters Hospital. Thedeceased have beenidentified as Sukanti Madi(12), Sitaram Madi (7) andAnjali Madi (3). Sources said,the four children and theirmother complained ofuneasiness, vomiting andloose motions Wednesdaynight after having dinner attheir home in the village. P5

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, Oct 15: Afresh low pressure area islikely to be formed over cen-tral Bay of Bengal aroundOctober 19 which will triggerheavy rainfall several partsof the state, BhubaneswarMeteorological Centre di-rector HR Biswas said.

The low pressure likely tobring heavy rain in someplaces of south and coastalOdisha districts betweenOctober 19 and 20, he said,adding, “We are now mon-itoring the system. The exactimpact of the low pressurein the state will be knownonce it will take shape.”

As per preliminary pre-diction, Koraput, Rayagada,Gajapati, Ganjam, Puri andKhurda would experienceheavy downpour, October 19.

The Met centre said thun-

derstorm with lightningvery likely to occur at one ortwo places over the districtsof Puri, Khurda, Nayagarh,Ganjam, Gajapati ,Malkangiri, Koraput,Rayagada and Kandhamalduring the next 24 hours.

Southwest monsoon isactive over Odisha. Lightto moderate rain or thun-dershower is very likely tooccur at most places overthe districts of south coastalOdisha and at many placesover the rest districts ofOdisha in the next 24 hours.Heavy rainfall in past threedays has created havoc insouth Odisha.

Between 8.30 am and 5.30 pmThursday, highest rainfall wasrecorded at Boudh (43 mm), fol-lowed by Angul (19 mm),Chandbali (15), Nayagarh(14), Talcher (10), Puri (9),Paradip (8) and Cuttack (7) .

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Washington, Oct 15: The world isexperiencing one of the deepestrecessions since the GreatDepression in the 1930s owing to thenovel coronavirus, World BankPresident David Malpass has said,terming the COVID-19 pandemica "catastrophic event" for many de-veloping and the poorest countries.

He told reporters that given theextent of the economic contrac-tion, there was a rising risk of dis-ruptive debt crises in countries.

So that has got a lot of focus hereat the meetings, Malpass told themedia Wednesday at the start ofthe annual meetings of theInternational Monetary Fund andthe World Bank.

"The recession has been deep,one of the deepest since the GreatDepression. And for many devel-oping countries, and for the peoplein the poorest countries, it is trulya depression, a catastrophic event.It is continuing to add to the ranksof those in extreme poverty," hesaid. That is the focus of this meet-ing and the focus of their actions,

he said, adding that the World Bankwas building as big a growth pro-gramme for countries as they canin this fiscal year.

A day earlier, the Board approvedthe extension of the health emer-gency programmes to up to $12 billionfor vaccines and therapeutics anddistribution of those in countriesthat do not otherwise have access.

Responding to a question,Malpass said that the world wascurrently experiencing a K-shapedrecovery. That means that the ad-vanced economies have been ableto provide support, especially for

their financial markets and for peo-ple that have jobs that can be doneby working from home. But peo-ple that are in the informal economyhave lost their jobs, and are de-pending on social protection pro-grammes, he said.

For the developing countries,and especially the poorest devel-oping countries, that downwardleg in the K is an increasingly des-perate recession or depression thatis facing people in the poorest coun-tries because of the loss of jobs,the loss of income, and also theloss of remittances coming fromworkers, working outside the coun-try, Malpass said.

"What we're trying to do at theWorld Bank is recognise that prob-lem and provide extra support forsocial protection for the poorest incountries, also recognising the agri-cultural challenges," he said.

The president welcomes coun-tries that are keeping open their ex-port markets, and also countriesthat are able to change their subsidysystems in order to allow more foodavailability within their economiesduring this very challenging time.

US appoints splofficer for Tibet AGENCIES

New Delhi/Washington, Oct 15: A day afterPresident Xi Jinping called on Chinese troopsto prepare for war, the United States appointeda senior official as its special coordinator forTibetan issues.

Tibet, which has been under Chinese occu-pation since 1950, remains a sensitive issue forBeijing diplomatically. The Chinese CommunistParty regime has persistently refused to engagewith the US coordinator on the Tibet issue.

The Tibetan government in exile, establishedin India, is headed bythe Dalai Lama.

Since the beginningof President DonaldTrump's term in 2017,the position for the USspecial coordinator forTibetan issues was va-cant.

On Wednesday, USSecretary of State MikePompeo announced thatRobert Destro, assistantsecretary of state for democracy, human rightsand labour, would assume the additional charge.

“Destro will lead US efforts to promote dialoguebetween the People”s Republic of China and theDalai Lama or his representatives; protect theunique religious, cultural, and linguistic iden-tity of Tibetans; and press for their human rightsto be respected,” Pompeo said in a statement.

He added that the US remains concerned withthe PRC's “repression of the Tibetan community.”

The Trump administration in the past hasthreatened to restrict visas for the Chinese offi-cials responsible for human rights abuses in Tibetand blocking diplomatic access to the region.

‘Prevailing recession dueto Covid among the worst’

Another low pressurelikely to form October 19

ROBERT DESTRO

World Bank President David Malpass said that given the extent of the economiccontraction, there was a rising risk of disruptive debt crises in countries

Actress Kirti Kulhari is cur-rently enjoying yoga ses-sions in the lap of nature.

Kirti is in Uttarakhand thesedays, and she recently shared anInstagram image that captures heryoga session amid the lofty hills.

“Doing anything in the middleof nature feels soliberating andbeautiful...Hope Ican al-waysfindthe

time and space for practising.. Yogais a way of life... Make it yours andit will never betray you,” Kriti cap-tioned the image, explaining herlove for yoga.

Kirti has been seen urging herfollowers to adopt a healthy lifestyle.A few days ago, she posted a video

of her doing push-ups.The actress will be nextseen sharing screen space

with Parineeti Choprain The Girl On

The Train ,which is an

official Hindiremake oftheHollywoodpsychologi-

cal thrillerThe Girl On

The Train ,which is basedon PaulaHawkins’ 2015bestseller ofthe same name.

IANS

Mumbai: Actor Sanjay Dutt has addressed his bat-tle with cancer for the first time, in a video postedby his friend, celebrity hairstylist Aalim Hakim.

In the video, the 61-year-old actor showed hisscar mark, saying: “Good to be back in the salon. Gota haircut. If you see this, this is a recent scar in mylife, but I will beat it. I will beat it, I will be out ofthis cancer soon.”

He sported a beard, which he said he was grow-ing for the sequel of the 2018 Kannada blockbusterKGF: Chapter 1. Dutt plays the antagonist inthe film starring Kannada superstar Yash.“I need the look for the film as we arestarting in November. I am happy to beon the sets again. There’s dubbing forShamshera too, so that will be fun. It’sgood to be back,” he said. IANS

P2 I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMERSERIES IN WORKS AT AMAZON

leisure Amazon has greenlit a series adaptation of 1997slasher I Know What You Did Last Summer. Themovie was about four young friends who are stalkedby a hook-wielding killer one year after covering upa car accident in which they killed a man.

On the 26th anniversary of ShawshankRedemption, veteran Hollywood star MorganFreeman has expressed his gratitude to fans formaking the film, which had flopped at the boxoffice when it released in 1994, one of the ‘mostbeloved movies of all time’ and a cult classic.

FRIDAY | OCTOBER 16 | 2020 | BHUBANESWAR

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AQUARIUSYou may rave and rant,but all you'll get fromcolleagues or juniors arewishy-washy excuses fora job not done. Ganesha advises thatyou take care to finish your own workbefore you help others. The stars saythat your beloved will smoothen yourcreased brow.

PISCESOf late, the harder you try,the more it seems youhave to do. You are likelyto put your foot down today and spendsome time taking care of yourself andplaying truant with your responsibilities.Recharge your batteries fully while youare at it, says Ganesha.

SAGITTARIUSToday shall be a ratherdecisive day, speculatesGanesha. Situations thathave pushed you into acorner will force you to make rash deci-sions. But take stock of the situationand assess the long-term conse-quences of your actions beforehand,advises Ganesha.

LIBRAThe Bhagavad Gita says,“Do your duty withoutexpecting the fruit.”Remember this impor-tant lesson and strive hard to put in extraefforts to finish off whatever you under-take to do. Worrying about results willonly hamper your progress. Go with theflow and let results come to you.

SCORPIOAdd a pinch of innovationand inventiveness to yourdaily working style. Thereshall be order in thechaotic way you perform your tasks –though not apparent to others. Revitaliseyourself and plunge into work with new-found zest and vigour, advises Ganesha.

LEOBeing good to oneself isnot vanity. To Ganesha,it seems as if you takethis statement to heart,since it looks quite possible that youmake your personal care number onepriority today.

VIRGOYou better identifyyour worth in therealms of emotions,feelings and senti-ments. You shall warm up to and abouteverything – from play to colleagues tofamily. Simultaneously, you may realisewhere your limitations are. Ganesha pre-dicts that the artist in you will flourishbeginning today.

GEMINIYou will long for some pri-vacy today, says Ganesha.You may end up earning alarge amount of money, mostly throughsome private venture. The day will be agreatly profitable one for cashiers, moneylenders and those in retail business. Keepworking hard to achieve success.

CANCERToday, there is a strongpossibility that you mayface unexpected jobchanges. You are likelyto spend lavishly to please family andfriends. You may feel we make money tospend on loved ones. Still it would prob-ably be a good idea to count everypenny before using it, says Ganesha.

ARIESGood news may bringcheer to you today! Ajob, a wedding, someprofit... it could be personal or profes-sional. Giving your best is almost ahabit with you, says Ganesha, and itwill pay off today.

FORTUNE FORECAST

TAURUSGanesha predicts thattoday, you will be suc-cessful in money matters.There is, at best, only an outside chancethat any stimulating event or thrillingescapade will occur today. In short, theday may be boring. Fret not as the drearyday may change into an exhilaratingevening, feels Ganesha.

CAPRICORNThe day will be of para-mount significance asyou are likely to meetsomeone who will beassociated with you for life, saysGanesha. Also, relationships and rela-tives will keep you busy for major part ofthe day. You may not find it interesting,but you will not have any options either.

BREVITY

CALVIN AND HOBBES

PEANUTS CROSSWORDSUDOKU

SOLUTIONS

CRO

SSW

ORD

SUD

OKU

CHECK FOR SOLUTIONS OF THE PUZZLES TOMORROW

post To solve the Sudoku puzzle, each row, column and box must contain the numbers 0 to 9 and the letters A to E.

FREEMAN THANKS FANS FOR MAKING HIS FILM A CLASSIC

Vidya’s Natkhat toopen Melbourne fest

Yoga is a wayof life: Kirti

Mumbai: Costume designer BhanuAthaiya, India’s first Oscar winner,died at her home Thursday after pro-longed illness, her daughter said. Shewas 91.

Athaiya, who won an Oscar forher work in the 1983 film Gandhi,passed away peacefully in her sleep,her daughter Radhika Gupta said.The last rites took place at theChandanwadi crematorium in SouthMumbai

“She passed away early this morn-ing. Eight years ago, she was diagnosedwith a tumour in her brain. For thelast three years, she was bedridden be-cause one side (of her body) wasparalysed,” her daughter said.

Athaiya, who was born in Kolhapur,began her career as a costume de-signer in Hindi cinema with GuruDutt’s 1956 superhit C.I.D.

She won the Academy Award forBest Costume Design in RichardAttenborough’s Gandhi along withJohn Mollo. In 2012, Athaiya re-turned her Oscar to the Academy ofMotion Picture Arts and Sciences forsafe-keeping.

In a career spanning five decadesand over 100 films, she won twoNational Awards -- for Gulzar's mys-tery drama Lekin (1990) and the periodfilm Lagaan directed by AshutoshGowariker.

IANS

Sanjay sayshe will beatcancer soon

IN A CAREER SPANNING FIVE DECADES AND OVER 100 FILMS,ATHAIYA WON TWO NATIONAL AWARDS -- FOR GULZAR'SMYSTERY DRAMA LEKIN (1990) AND THE PERIOD FILM

LAGAAN DIRECTED BY ASHUTOSH GOWARIKER

India’s first Oscar winnerBhanu Athaiya no more

New Delhi: The Vidya Balan co-pro-duced film Natkhat and the Marathifilm Habaddi will kickstart theIndian Film Festival ofMelbourne October 23.

Owing to the threat ofthe pandemic, the festi-val will be hosted vir-tually between October23 and 30. Opening thevirtual festival is Natkhat,which is a story of a motherteaching her young sonabout gender equality andcalls out toxic misogyny.

It will bescreened in adouble bo-nanzapackagealongwith

Nachiket Samant’s Habbadi, whichtraces the story of a young boy with

a speech impediment.Like every year, the fes-

tival will offer over 60films in 17 languages.

The films at the fes-tival will stream for freeon the festival’s officialwebsite. The festival’ssections - - Hur rahBollywood, Beyond

Bollywood, Film IndiaWorld, Documentaries

and Shorts -- are ex-pected to be

on sched-ule. IANS

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FRIDAY | OCTOBER 16 | 2020 | BHUBANESWARRAIN PAIN

Commuters negotiating awater-logged Bomikhalroad in Bhubaneswar asheavy rain lashed theCapital city, Thursday

INFECTED RECOVERED DEAD

World 3,89,37,260 2,92,32,056 10,99,514

India 73,07,097 63,83,441 1,11,266

Odisha 2,62,011 2,38,535 1,089

COVID-19 TRACKER

POLITICKLE by MANJUL

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, Oct 15: In a bid toattract more investments, ChiefSecretary Asit Tripathy Thursdaydirected the State Pollution ControlBoard (SPCB) to set national levelbenchmarks in delivery of its serv-ices to the industries.

Presiding over the board meetingheld in digital mode, Tripathy askedthe Board to come up with definiteaction plan for setting nationalbenchmark in hassle-free compli-ance through simplification of theprocesses and office automation.

Since Odisha is rich in mineralresources, the state also needs to beproportionately industrialised.Process reengineering will helpcreation of more employment op-portunities through facilitation ofbusiness environment, he said.

He set transformational goalsfor SPCB to reduce the timeline fordelivery of public services and re-verse the increasing trend of air pol-lution by guiding the industries toadopt latest production technologyand containment measures.

The Chief Secretary directed thepollution board officials to simplifyand shorten the application forms

for availing no objection certificates(NOC) under various norms. He in-structed the board to reduce the fileprocessing and disposal times byadopting office automation system.

Tripathy further asked the offi-cials to reduce the time period spec-ified for delivery of different pub-lic services under SPCB. The boardwould adopt self attestation modeby eliminating physical contactwith the application.

SPCB Member Secretary KMurugesan said that the automa-tion system should be linked with

regional offices and central labo-ratory to reduce the time of re-ceiving reports from field officers.

The member secretary was askedto have weekly monitoring of theprocess simplification, reengineeringand office automation. He directedthe staffers to accomplish majorpart of the task within a month.

It was decided to establish con-tinuous ambient air quality mon-itoring stations (CAAQMS) in airpollution-prone cities. Such sys-tems will be set up at Cuttack,Balasore, Keonjhar, Sundargarh,

Mayurbhanj, Angul andBhubaneswar. At present, twoCAAQMS are operating at Talcherand Brajrajnagar.

The proposal regarding devel-opment of geo-database for envi-ronmental mapping was approvedin the meeting. It would be a web-based application for all pollution-prone areas of Odisha.

The meeting also decided to de-velop a web portal containing up-dated data about air and water qual-ity in different areas of the state forpublic information and use.

SPCB told to go extra mile to woo investorsCONTINUOUS AMBIENT AIR QUALITY MONITORING STATIONS TO BE ESTABLISHED IN 7 MORE PLACES

TASKS FOR BOARD

The pollution watchdog wasdirected to simplify compliance

conditions through processreengineering and officeautomation

Process reengineering will helpcreation of more employment

opportunities through facilitation ofbusiness environment

Aproposal regardingdevelopment of geo-database

for environmental mapping wasapproved in the meeting

UNITED NEWS OF INDIA

Bhubaneswar, Oct 15: Police havearrested two persons, including themain accused, in connection withthe alleged gangrape of a minorgirl from Tirtol in Cuttack for 22days, and seized three mobile phonesfrom their possession.

Cuttack DCP Prateek Singh iden-tified the accused as Tiki aliasSantosh Behera alias Dipu, 22, themastermind behind the crime andRakesh Rout alias Raka, 25.

Singh said the accused were ar-rested under Sections 366, 376, (2xn)506, IPC and 6/12 of Protection ofChildren from Sexual Offences(POCSO) Act and were forwardedto court after their medical exam-ination.

The mobile phones of the ac-cused will be sent to State ForensicScience Laboratory (SFSL),Bhubaneswar for cyber analysis.

While Raka was arrested Wednesday,Tiki was arrested Thursday.

Singh said the statement of thevictim girl was recorded U/S 161 ofCr PC. Her statement was alsorecorded by the court U/S 164 Cr PC.

The DCP said a request has beenmade to the District Legal ServiceAuthority Cuttack for providingimmediate compensation and re-lief to the victim.

He said the Chauliaganja PoliceOctober 12 rescued the girl, whowas sitting near a Hanuman statuein Gatiroutpatna area of the city andaccommodated her in Basundhara,

a shelter home.In her statement to police, she

said that she had left her house a

month back following a family dis-pute and came to her sister's houseat Professorpada.

Again due to some dispute, shehad to leave her sister's house, andwhile waiting for a bus at OMPsquare Tiki persuaded her withfalse promise of marriage to comewith him to Raka's poultry shop atGatiroutpatna.

Both Tiki and Raka sexually as-saulted her repeatedly.

Police registered a case afterChildline coordinator NarayanShukla lodged a complaint.

The incident has created an up-roar in the state with both Congressand the BJP alleging that the law andorder situation in the state has col-lapsed and the women were not se-cured in the state.

While the Congress demandeda compensation of `20 lakh and re-habilitation for the victim, the BJPdemanded stern action against theguilty and blamed the state gov-ernment for rising incidents ofcrime against women.

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, Oct 15: Longingfor precious ornaments as giftscost an octogenarian widow dearlywho lost around `20 lakh to un-known cyber criminals recently.The 80-year-old housewife, a residentof Old Sadar Thana Lane of Puri,has lodged a complaint in this re-gard with the Crime Branch.

According to sources, the vic-tim lady received a message fromone Aron Jackson requesting friend-ship on her phone August 2 whichshe accepted. Later, Aron used to reg-ularly send her various SMSes andmessages on WhatsApp. Theirfriendship continued for severalmonths till October 6.

Meanwhile, the crook told thelady that he had sent a gift packetcontaining gold, diamond orna-ments and various luxurious beauty

products from outside India inSeptember.

A few days later, Aron againcalled her that the customs offi-cials at Bombay Airport had seizedthe gift packet. Subsequently, the vic-tim received an SMS allegedly fromthe Customs department at Mumbaiairport asking her to release the giftby paying various dues like cus-toms duty, GST charges.

The gullible lady deposited`19.97lakh in various bank accounts pro-

vided by the conman pretendingas customs official. She depositedthe amount in various installmentsbetween October 11 and 28. However,she did not receive any gift despitethe payment of such a huge amount.

On the other hand, when shequestioned Aron over non-receiptof the gift, he suddenly stoppedtalking to her and sending mes-sages too.

Finding no other way, the vic-tim finally sought the help of CB.

TWO NABBED FOR TIRTOL GIRL’S GANGRAPE

The accused duo in police custody in Cuttack OP PHOTO

Woman loses `20L to cyber crook

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Bhubaneswar, Oct 15: ChiefMinister Naveen Patnaik has de-cided not to celebrate his birthdayFriday in view of the prevailingCovid-19 situation in the state, astatement from the ChiefMinister’s Office (CMO) said.

Odisha has reported 2,62,011coronavirus cases, while 1,089 pa-tients have succumbed to the in-fection so far.

Patnaik urged his supporters,well-wishers and BJD activistsnot to visit his residence, NaveenNiwas, and instead help the needyand donate blood and plasma onthe occasion.

He said the people are passingthrough a difficult situation for thelast eight months due to the pan-demic.

“I am always indebted to thelove and good wishes of the peo-ple of Odisha,” he said.

Naveen not tocelebrateb’day for Covid

The gullible ladydeposited `19.97 lakhin various bank accounts provided by the conman pretending ascustoms official

WEATHERBHUB

29.1° 30.2°CTK

23.4°MAX

MINTE

MP

Humidity 97% 94%Rainfall 4.2mm 7mm

Forecast

Generallycloudy sky

24.9°

INDEX VARIATION

SENSEX 39728.41 1066.33

NIFTY 11680.40 290.60

DOLLAR 73.70 `0.10

EURO 86.11 `0.02

GOLD `50,630 `88

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MARKET WATCH

POST NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi, Oct 15: Union Petroleum,Natural Gas and Steel MinisterDharmendra Pradhan Thursdaysaid that Odisha would play a key rolein realising Mission Purvodaya, en-visioned by Prime Minister NarendraModi which calls for balanced de-velopment of the country with east-ern India leading the way.

Pradhan said this while ad-dressing the ICC National E-Conference on ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat:Focus: Downstream Industries inSteel, Chemical and Petro-Chemicalsector organised by Indian Chamberof Commerce & Industry (ICC) inassociation with Ministry of Steeland Ministry of Petroleum andNatural Gas here.

He said Odisha's natural ad-

vantage in mineral resources andhaving large ports offer unique op-portunities for industrial growth.He said both steel and petrochem-ical sectors and their ancillary in-dustries are uniquely poised toleverage the opportunities and fur-ther expand their footprints.

The Union minister emphasisedthat port-led economy can be agame changer for Odisha.

“The Centre is doing massivework in inland waterways in thestate. Paradip port has emergedas the numero uno port of India.Dhamra and Gopalpur ports areplaying important roles,” saidPradhan. Pradhan said that en-suring minimum government andmaximum governance will be keyto enable our industries to createwealth for society.

Odisha to play key role inMission Purvodaya: Pradhan

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, Oct 15: Familymembers of Simanchal Parida,who has been missing since anexplosion at the petrol pump atRaj Bhawan October 7, Thursdayreached the Capital Hospital forDNA test.

Earlier, Commissionerate Policehad requested the parents of Paridato come to Bhubaneswar for theDNA test. Parida, a diploma en-gineer, an employee of a Faridabad-based firm, was engaged at the re-filling of the LPG tank on thefateful day.

Meanwhile, the team investi-gating the petrol pump blast casehad also received the autopsy reportsof victims too. Out of the 21 piecesof flesh, 15 have been identified tobe that of humans while the re-maining belonged to animals.

“Fifteen flesh samples testedprobably belong to the same person.However, we can establish that onlyafter matching the DNA sample.

The recovered body parts weresent to the state forensic sciencelaboratory at Rasulgarh for DNAtest after conducting autopsy,” aninvestigating officer said.

The recovered animal bodyparts are of stray dogs, the au-topsy report suggested. It is sus-pected that many stray dogs werekilled due to the blast, as therewere two Omfed stalls and a fastfood vending counter in the closevicinity of the petrol pump.

Sources at CommissioneratePolice claimed that theCommissioner of Police SudhanshuSarangi is likely to reveal someimportant facts in connection withthe petrol pump blast, Friday.

Police receive autopsy reports of blast victims

Within two decades, the writer-turned politician has not only gained popularity, but effectively crushed potential threats within the party and

nearly obliterated the opposition, first the Congress and now the BJP

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, Oct 15: The longestserving Chief Minister of Odisha,Naveen Patnaik, turns 75 Friday.With the passing of a year, he isreaching a new height, both inpolitics and administration.

He was roped into politics bythe heavyweights of then JanataDal in 1997 to take over the man-tle of his father Biju Patnaik andto carry forward his legacy. Afterbeing elected to Lok Sabha, he be-came a Union Minister in ABVajpayee government and in 2000,he became Chief Minister ofOdisha. Since then he had beenunstoppable in Odisha politics.

Within two decades, the writer-turned politician not only gainedpopularity, but effectively crushedpotential threats within the partyand nearly obliterated the oppo-sition, first the Congress and nowthe BJP.

Fairly young in politics withonly a little over two decades, hehas achieved success and popu-larity that few leaders in the coun-try can match. His popularity has

grown along with his age. Inthe political landscape ofthe nation, Patnaik isknown as a man with aclean image.

The Chief Minister isknown for his welfare-basedmodel of governance. Herolled out schemes startingfrom Mamata for birth of achild to Harischandra for con-ducting the last rites of thepoor. He introduced Kalia schemefor providing assistanceto more than 50 lakhfarmers which isstated to havepushed theCentre to un-veil thePM-

KisanYojana.

After as-sumingpower forthe fifthtime in arow,Naveennow fo-cuses onimproving public service deliverysystem by adopting a 5T model ofgovernance. The 5Ts are--tech-nology, transparency, teamwork,transformation and time-laid. Theentire state administration is work-ing on this model to improve theservices provided to public.

Naveen has became a masterin disaster management. Aftersuccessfully managing many cy-clones and floods, he won praisefrom the World Health Organisation(WHO) for management of Covid-19 pandemic. All kinds of treat-

ment, food and medicine are beingprovided free of cost to Covid pa-tients in the state. He has made vis-ible improvement in health, edu-cation, sports, industrial andinfrastructure development in thestate.

At 75, he is fit enough to servethe people for a long time. As avideo had showed a few monthsback, Naveen goes through hismorning workout regime - jog-ging, lifting weights, doing lift-upsand sit-ups, pedaling on a sta-tionary bicycle and so on.

AT 75, NAVEEN BATSON THE FRONT FOOT

A young Naveen with his father andformer Chief Minister Biju Patnaik

New Delhi: Congress MP fromKoraput Saptagiri Ulaka Thursdaymet Union Information andBroadcasting Minister PrakashJavadekar and raised the issue ofOdia movie ‘Khyanikaa’ beingpulled down unceremoniouslyfrom Amazon Prime video. He said‘Khyanikaa–The Lost Idea’ was theonly Odia movie at IFFI Goa 2017and has represented Odisha andthe country in 30 international filmfestivals across 14 countries.Ulaka said the film was releasedon Amazon Prime video June 6 andwas pulled down June 8 withoutany communication. He urgedJavadekar to ensure that suchlinguistic discrimination doesn’tdestroy possibility of such anacclaimed Odia film.

Ulaka plea to Centre

A request has been madeto District Legal ServiceAuthority for providingimmediate compensationto the victim

POST NEWS NETWORK

Cuttack, Oct 15: The Orissa HighCourt (HC) Thursday sought thestate government’s response in connection with the alleged sale of Bagala Dharmashala landin Puri.

A division bench comprisingChief Justice Mohammad Rafiqand Justice Bidyut Ranjan Sarangiserved a notice on the state gov-ernment seeking its response on the alleged sale of land be-longing to the Dharmashala whilehearing a plea filed by BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP) nationalspokesperson Sambit Patra.

A similar petition was also filedby Jagannath Bastia, who laterfiled a misc case with the state’sapex court on the issue. The HC de-cided to hear the cases simulta-neously and posted the hearing toNovember 2.

Patra had filed a petition in theHC demanding the Dharmashalaland to be brought back to LordJagannath’s ownership.

downtownFRIDAY | OCTOBER 16 | 2020 | BHUBANESWARP4

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PNN & AGENCIES

Bhubaneswar, Oct 15: State’snovel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) tally rose to 2,62,011 Thursdayas 2,470 more people tested posi-tive for the infection, while 17 freshfatalities pushed Odisha’s coron-avirus death toll to 1,089, an officialof the Health and Family Welfare(H&FW) department said.

As many as 1,462 new cases werereported in quarantine centres,while 1,008 people tested positive forthe infection during contact tracing,said the official.

Khurda district, under whichBhubaneswar falls, registered thehighest number of fresh cases at 368,followed by Cuttack (186) and Angul(170), the official pointed out.

Four fresh fatalities were re-ported in Khurda, three each inCuttack and Sundargarh, two inGanjam, and one each in Balasore,Boudh, Jajpur, Kalahandi andNayagarh, said the H&FW depart-ment offical.

Ganjam has so far reported thehighest number of coronavirus fa-talities at 225, followed by Khurda(189) and Cuttack (94).

As many as 53 coronavirus pa-

tients have succumbed to other ail-ments so far, the official said.

The state has so far tested over

39.21 lakh samples for Covid-19, in-cluding 42,148 Wednesday, addedthe official.

Capital city registers 253 new casesWith 253 persons testing posi-

tive for Covid-19 in the Capital cityin the last 24 hours, the total num-ber of infected persons in the TempleCity surged to 26,536, theBhubaneswar Municipal

Corporation (BMC) said Thursday.Meanwhile, the state capital also

reported 299 Covid-19 recoveriesin the past 24 hours.Silver City sees 112 fresh infections

Cuttack: Of the 186 new Covid-19cases reported Thursday in Cuttackdistrict, 112 belong to CuttackMunicipal Corporation (CMC) area,the civic body said. The latest surgehas taken the virus tally in theSilver City to 13,863.3rd round of sero-survey from today

In a bid to identify prevalenceof novel COVID-19 in the state cap-ital, the BMC Thursday, said that itwill begin the third round of sero-surveillance from 16th to 18th Oct.Briefing the media, BMCComissioner Prem ChandraChaudhary said that the BMC alongwith technical support from RMRCwill be conducting the survey indifferent parts of the city for threedays. “Five teams will be carryingout sample and data collection from1500 people of Bhubaneswar city se-lected randomly from 25 wardsacross the city. We urge the gen-eral public to support the endeav-our and participate in good num-bers," the Commissioner said.

State’s virus caseload at 2,62,011WITH 17 MORE FATALITIES, ODISHA’S CORONAVIRUS DEATH TOLL STANDS AT 1,089

Khurda district, under whichBhubaneswar falls,

registered the highest number offresh cases at 368, followed byCuttack (186) and Angul (170)

Four fresh fatalities werereported in Khurda, three

each in Cuttack and Sundargarh,two in Ganjam, and one each inBalasore, Boudh, Jajpur,Kalahandi and Nayagarh

Ganjam has so far reportedthe highest number of

coronavirus fatalities at 225,followed by Khurda (189) andCuttack (94)

The state has so far testedover 39.21 lakh samples for

Covid-19, including 42,148Wednesday

IN 24 HOURS

FOR A CAUSE

Members of Odisha Parents’ Federation sit on a hunger strike near the heads of departments building in Bhubaneswar,Thursday, demanding an ordinance on Fee Regulation Committee report for unaided private schools OP PHOTO

PNN & AGENCIES

Sambalpur/Bhubaneswar, Oct15: In a first, Mahanadi CoalfieldsLimited (MCL) has introduced ro-botic intervention in mining op-erations to control the dust pollu-tion and combat fire.

MCL has successfully tested theremotely-controlled mechanisedswivel nozzle, popularly known as‘Robotic Nozzle’, with variable conemist and straight throw capacity todeal with fire and dust suppres-sion in effective way.

MCL sources said that the in-troduction of ‘Robotic Nozzle’ willbe of great help to fire-fighting op-erations in coal mines besides ef-fective dust suppression using con-ical mist function.

Being a remotely-controlled sys-tem to operate from a safe distance,the ‘Robotic Nozzle’ throws mistwith variable cone envelope with asolid angle from 0 to 120 degrees withadditionally covering 360 degrees

horizontal pan and 180 degrees ver-tical pitch. The system has beenretrofitted in 28 KL water tanker atLakhanpur OCP designed and in-tegrated by YK Singha, Manager(E&M/Innovation Cell).

Two more such systems will beretrofitted in 28 KL tankers atBasundhara OCP in Sundargarh

district and Lingaraj OCP, Talcherin Angul district.

In the past one year, the com-pany has introduced hired mobilefog canons, and hired mechanicalsweepers for better and effectivedust control.

The company has also useddrones for mine monitoring, plan-

ning and critical decision making,introduced horticulture and agri-culture in mining areas andIntroduced Aahar Mandal for nu-trition sustenance of tribal families.

The fog canons of MCL have alsobeen extensively used for sanitizationoperation to assist district admin-istration in fight against Covid-19.

Robotic intervention to control dust in mines

The introduction of ‘Robotic Nozzle’ will be ofgreat help to fire-fighting operations in coal

mines besides effective dust suppression usingconical mist function

Being a remotely-controlled system, ‘RoboticNozzle’ throws mist with variable cone envelope

with a solid angle from 0 to 120 degrees withadditionally covering 360 degrees horizontal panand 180 degrees vertical pitch

In the past one year, the company has introducedhired mobile fog canons, and hired mechanical

sweepers for better and effective dust control

MAKING THE MOST OF TECHNOLOGY

Academicians favour reopening of Srimandir

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, Oct 15: The StateHealth and Family WelfareThursday said that it took specialcare and initiatives to ensure EarlyChildhood Development of chil-dren from the state during theCOVID 19 outbreak.

Bijay Panigrahy, Director of StateFamily Welfare said that the stateroped in the frontline workers dur-ing the period to ensure the im-portant phase of the children is notcompromised during the pandemic.

“We took several steps to ensurethat the Early ChildhoodDevelopment (ECD) of kids is takencare of. We took the help of an-ganwadi workers, ASHA workersand others for the same. An Odiabooklet especially crafted for themwas also distributed,” he said.

The statement from the statehealth department came into lime-light in a discussion on the issueorganized by the All India Instituteof Medical Sciences (AIIMS),Bhubaneswar and UNCIEF-Odisha.

Dr Mridula Phadke, Advisor tothe National Health Mission (NHM)said that nutrition plays a key rolein the early stages of development

of a kid. “Adequate nutrition is ofparamount importance during theECD days which consists of theconception period (270 days) and thefirst 2 years of life (730 days). COVIDis also having an effect in the over-all development process,”

Dr Bhagirathi Dwibedi, pedia-trician from AIIMS Bhubaneswarsaid that the ECD encompassesphysical, socio, emotional, cogni-tive development between zero – six-year age and development starts inthe womb itself and thus it neededspecial care from the people in-volved in upbringing of children.

Monika Nielsen, Chief of FieldStaff, UNICEF Odisha talked aboutthe capacity building of frontlineworkers, increasing awarenessamong care givers, promoting poli-cies and other areas which can actas strong base for the early devel-opment of children in Odisha.

Special care taken for kids, says govt

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, Oct 15: The stategovernment’s project of constructing4-lane roads in different stretchesof the state have now hit bottle-necks at various regions due todelay in land acquisition in the af-fected areas.

A recent meeting of the StateWorks Department during theirreview of the Biju Expresswaysfound that several areas had beenfacing land acquisition issues lead-ing to delay in the project. The local

Executive Engineers of the areashave now been asked to expedite theprocess.

It is reported that 82.7 km of theSohela-Mondosil, a 4-lane roadunder the Bargarh Division is com-plete and a 18.4 km-stretch is still2-lane. It is said that there was noland acquisition on 38 spots on thestretch.

In the Nuapada Division, 11.56kms of road in the Ghatipada Chhakto Kalahandi border out of the104.9kms are said to be facing landacquisition issues. Few households

are said to be residing on govern-ment lands.

On similar lines, works in 4 kmsof the Kalahandi border to Amapaniin Bhawanipatana division is halteddue to land acquisition issues.Moreover, out of the total 70.9 kmroad, 60.37 kms are only two-lane.The delay in works is also cited toconstriction of three major bridgesenroute.

“It was pointed out that the landacquisition is being taken up for 4-lane. Therefore, it was decided thatnecessary steps must be taken for

construction of 4-lane road for en-tire stretch. Chief Engineer (Roads)was requested to take necessaryaction for preparation of DetailedProject Report (DPR) for thesestretches. The DPR should includeconstruction of major bridges andany other left out work,” the min-utes of the meeting said.

It also added, “lt was further dis-cussed that Biju Expressway shouldbe developed as a model road for thestate. All other ancillary and road-side infrastructure also needs tobe provided.”

POST NEWS NETWORK

Khurda, Oct 15: The district ad-ministration Thursday started de-molishing the boundary wall of awomen society’s building set upby the OTV authorities at Saruaunder Begunia tehsil here in con-nection with a land grab case.

The boundary wall demolitionwas started in the presence ofKhurda Sub-Collector AshokBehuria and Begunia TehsildarPrithwiraj Mandal. Khurda Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO)Sushil Mihsra, Baghamari policein-charge Pranita Patnaik and aplatoon of armed police personnelalso present at the spot to main-tain law and order, sources said.

The administration deployedtwo earthmovers to demolish theboundary wall.

On the other hand, the Revenueand Disaster Management hasasked the state Crime Branch (CB)to launch a probe into a land grab-

bing case against the OTV Group.The department ordered for a CBprobe after receiving a report inthis regard from Khurda Collector,sources added.

The villagers of Sarua had ear-lier alleged that the boundary wallwas blocking them to access a pub-lic pond and their agriculturallands. Accepting the villagers’ com-plaint, the administration hadlaunched a probe into the incident.

According to sources, OTV au-thorities had set up a building atSarua in the name of Sarua Mahila

Bikash Samiti, a women society. Themedia house authorities had thenclaimed that they would promotewomen empowerment and self-em-ployment through the society.

Subsequently, the media house au-thorities erected a boundary wallaround the building. However, thebuilding has been lying idle sinceits inauguration.

Locals had alleged that the bound-ary wall constructed by the mediagroup was preventing them from ac-cessing a public pond and theiragricultural lands at Sarua. As a re-sult, the villagers were facing prob-lems to carry out agricultural work,said the complaint.

“We have started demolishingthe boundary wall to allow free ac-cess to the village pond and facili-tate the drainage of rainwater,”said the Sub-Collector. BeguniaTehsildar Prthwiraj Mandal saidthey will take every possible stepto allow villagers free access to thepond and their farm lands.

BIJU EXPRESSWAY WORKS PAUSED

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, Oct 15: Cybercrooks continue to target top bu-reaucrats of the state by hackingtheir social media and email ac-counts.

In the latest development, onesenior IAS officer has fallen preyto the cyber criminals after seniorIPS officers, Commissioner ofPolice, Sudhanshu Sarangi andDIG (Intelligence) Anup Sahoo.

As per the sources, cyber fraud-sters have created a fake email id,managingdirectorimail@ gmail.co,in the name of R Vineel Krishna,top lAS officer and the OMC MD.

The fraudsters also sent emailmessages to various top officialsof OMC seeking favour.

Subsequently, the officers en-quired with the OMC MD who de-nied writing the email. The OMCofficials have lodged a complaintat the Capital police station seek-ing stringent action in this regard.

HC seeks responseon Bagala land sale

Cyber crooks createfake id of official

Admin starts demolishing boundary wall OTV LAND GRAB CASE

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, Oct 15: The StateTransport Authority (STA)Thursday said that it has seen animprovement in the revenue col-lection from motor vehicles in themonth of September this year.

The department said that it re-ported a total collection of `89.5crore in the month of August.However, the total collections inSeptember this year touched 117crore, showing a 31 percent increase.

However, compared to September2019, the collections for Septemberthis year were a bit lower. While thegovernment saw collection of`126crore in September last year, theamount was `117 crore for themonth this year.

The department claims that ithas seen rise of revenue collec-tions every month from motor ve-hicles since June 2020

The department in a statementsaid, “The collection has pickedup due to growing sale of newmotor vehicles and collection oftaxes due to increased economicactivity particularly in the min-ing sector.”

BHUBANESWAR: Odisha PoliceThursday stopped the padyatramarch of the Bhartiya Janata Party(BJP) delegation at the outskirts ofthe state capital before they en-tered the city.

A number of BJP leaders begantheir padyatra from Puri and wereexpected to march towardsBhubaneswar towards NaveenNivas to meet the Chief Minister.The delegation was miffed withthe decision of the government toallegedly sell the age-old propertyof Bagala Dharmasala to privateplayers.

The cops intercepted them atUttara Square in the city outskitsand barred their movement ahead,making their plan to meet the CMfutile. The delegation wanted tomeet the CM and express their op-position to government plans onthe matter.

Police stops BJPdelegation

PNN & AGENCIES

Puri, Oct 15: Most of the acade-micians, NGOs and senior citi-zens Thursday expressed theirviews in favour of reopeningSrimandir for devotees.

During a virtual conferencewith Shree Jagannath TempleAdministration (SJTA) chief ad-ministrator Krishan Kumar

Thursday, they said that the tem-ple had remained closed for morethan seven months and it shouldbe reopened for devotees underthe Covid-19 guidelines.

Kumar had interacted withoffice bearers of Daitapati,Chunara, Paniapat, AkhandMekap, Sudhasuar and Mudulithe eight Niyogs of the templeWednesday. He too sought opin-

ions of the Muktimandap. He is likely to seek opinion of

G a j ap at i M a h a r a j a n dSankaracharya Friday before plac-ing his report in the temple man-aging body and Chhatisha Niyog.

T h e t e m p l e b o dy wo u l d del iberate over the matter and send the outcome of meet-ing to the state government forits final approval.

Revenue from MVs shoots up

stateFRIDAY | OCTOBER 16 | 2020 | BHUBANESWARP5

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Rly dvn, route plans in cold store

As Ajaygad ghat road near Namangad panchayat in Gajapati lies blocked with debris, communication to three panchayats was disrupted, Thursday. The administration is on its toes to remove the debris to facilitate communica-tion as soon as possible OP PHOTO

POST NEWS NETWORK

Paralakhemudi, Oct 15: The fam-ilies displaced by Harbhangi irri-gation project under Mohana blockin Gajapati district have decriedtheir yet-to-be-unresolved problemsand promises. They said they haveallegedly been suffering for over 23years after being displaced by theproject.

The affected family membersunder the aegis of HarabhangaBisthapita Mahasangha protestedthe government apathy toward theirplight and submitted a memoran-dum to the district administration atParalakhemundi Wednesday.

They pointed out that they have losteverything after being displaced bythe project 23 years ago, but thepromises they were given by the ad-ministration have remained unful-filled till date.

They alleged that some people inthe area had made a bid to grab theirland they are cultivating for 23 years.

False cases have been filed againstthem as part of a conspiracy to grabthe land. As a result, they are unableto harvest maize from the land, theylamented. They also said that theywere exhausted from frequenting tothe tehsil office to sort out the case,but the tehsildar instead of resolvingthe issues is making them run.“Though we had sought details aboutthe land status through RTI queriesfrom the tehsildar, no information isbeing provided to them,” they said.Besides, the irrigation project is not

beneficial to the Gajapati district,but more beneficial for the neigh-bouring district, they rued.

Notably, Harbhangi irrigationproject was started in 1980 and wascompleted in 1998.

The government had promised ajob to a member of each displacedfamily, 10 acres of land to each fam-ily, compensation for the trees, cat-tle, wells and financial assistancefor five years. Housing units werepromised to them, but it is yet to befulfilled. “Due to a dishonest officer

of the irrigation department, fi-nancial assistance was thrown tothe winds,” they said. As per the re-settlement and rehabilitation pol-icy, youths over 18 years of age shouldbe considered oustees and they shouldbe paid compensation accordingly. 44displaced people have not got com-pensation till date. Over 56 displacedfamilies in six villages have not beenprovided any assistance. Many ofthem have died after years of suf-fering, the association said.

“The government has forgottenpromises such as jobs for one mem-ber of the displaced families, freevocational training provision for theunemployed youth, special schoolsfor the displaced people, provision ofsafe drinking water,” they added.

They demanded revised compen-sation as per the new R&R policy,jobs for the families, providing 10acres of agriculture land, permissionfor harvest and sale of maize ontheir land. “The government shouldkeep their promises,” they added.

Displaced people fume over unkept promises DEMAND MORE COMPENSATION, AGRICULTURE LAND AS PER NEW R&R NORMS

HARABHANGI PROJECT

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bargarh, Oct 15: Police busted acough syrup smuggling racket andarrested five accused Wednesday.A total of 13,200 cough syrups worthRs25lakh were also seized fromtheir possession. Bargarh super-intendent of police Padmini Sahuinformed this at a press meet atthe district police headquartersThursday.

The police identified the accusedas Shukru Mirdda of Talapadarvillage under Sasan police limits inSambalpur district , AkashKumbhar of Sasan area, AlokMoharana of Beherapali underAinthapali police limits in

Sambalpur district and Shankardebalias Deepak Seth and SangramSahu of Sodhapadar village inBolangir district.

A racket has been actively work-ing in western Odisha, it was al-leged.

SP Sahu said, “Acting on a tip-off,Sohela police in Bargarh district con-ducted a raid in Haladipali Chowkarea and found out a pick up vanladen with cough syrup bottlespacked in 110 cartoons.

The vehicle and the bottles havebeen seized.” Registering a case(No-161/20) against the accused,the police have launched a probeto trace if others are involved inthe racket.

Cough syrup racket busted,13,200 cough syrups seized POST NEWS NETWORK

Gudvela, Oct 15: Two girls, bothsisters, went missing Thursdayafter they jumped into the Telriver under Tushura police limitsin Bolangir district.

The siblings were identified asAnmol Agarwal, 22 and andAanchal Agarwal, 19, daughters ofMahakumar Ramawatar Agarwal

Sources said the sister duo, res-idents of Gudvela area, jumpedinto the river by holding eachother’s hands leaving behind theirscooter and two pairs of slippers.

Tushura police found a scooterand missing sisters’ shoes on thebridge. The fire personnel launcheda search operation in the river torescue the two sisters.

2 sisters jump intoTel river, go missing

Crorepati Hindi teacher arrested by Vig

ROAD BLOCKED

POST NEWS NETWORK

Malkangiri, Oct 15: Three minorsiblings of a family died due to al-leged food poisoning at Kachelivillage under Sadar block inMalkangiri district Thursday. Theiryounger sister and mother werealso in critical condition and ad-mitted to the district headquar-ters hospital for treatment.

The deceased have been identifiedas Sukanti Madi, 12, Sitaram Madi,7, and Anjali Madi, 5, daughtersand son of Bhime and Pandu Madiin the village. The incident hasspread shockwaves in the area as apall of gloom descended on the vil-lage after the tragic incident. Sourcessaid the four children and theirmother complained of uneasiness,vomiting and loose motion afterhaving dinner in their home in thevillage Wednesday night. The ailingfamily members had reportedlyconsumed food preparations made

from wild roots and greens lastnight. They consulted a quack be-fore medical treatment, locals said.

When their health conditionstarted deteriorating, they con-sulted the ANM of the village. A teamof doctors reached the village for thetreatment of the family members fol-lowing a phone call from the ANM.Seeing the condition of the familymembers, they immediately shiftedthe affected family members to thedistrict headquarters hospital whereSukanti, Sitaram and Anjali suc-cumbed to their illness while un-dergoing treatment.

Pandu’s wife Bhime and youngestdaughter Malati, 3, were adminis-tered treatment while the formerwas discharged after she showedsigns of improvement. Malati isstill undergoing treatment. A teamof police officials led by IIC RamPrasad Nag of Malkangiri Modelpolice station sent the bodies forpost-mortem.

Three minor siblingsdie of 'food poisoning'

POST NEWS NETWORK

Berhampur, Oct 15: The proposedestablishment of a separate rail-way division in Silk City is lying incold storage due to alleged apathyby the Centre and the state gov-ernment, a report said.

Also, the construction of a railroute to Sambalpur from the city isalso hanging fire for the above rea-son. As a result, the dream of res-idents in having a separate rail-way division in Berhampur and arail route to Sambalpur lies unful-filled.

Reports said both the Centre andthe state government are imple-menting various plans for the ben-efit of people. However, many ofthe plans are never implemented orabandoned in the middle due tolack of willpower on part of boththe governments.

Similar is the case of Berhampurwhere establishment of a railway di-vision and a rail route to Sambalpuris hanging fire for long despite thecity fulfilling necessary criteria forthe projects. The government isshowing no willpower for estab-lishment of a railway division inthe city and is backtracking on theissue, various outfits have alleged.

Sources said Berhampur is thesecond largest town in the state buthas remained neglected on vari-ous fronts due to government apa-thy. The railway station in the citywitnesses heavy traffic as people

from Ganjam, Gajapati, Kandhamalas well as from neighbouringAndhra Pradesh depend on the sta-tion to travel to their destinations.

The revenue collection fromBerhampur railway station is high-est in comparison to all other rail-way stations under the jurisdic-tion of east coast railway zone.

However, the dilly-dallying atti-tude of the government in estab-lishment of the railway divisionand rail route has raised questionsamong people.

The state government has for-warded a proposal to the UnionRailway Ministry for establish-ment of two railway divisions at

Rayagada and Jajpur. However,Berhampur is better suited for a rail-way division in comparison toRayagada, Abani Kumar Gaya, con-vener of Manav Adhikar SurakshyaManch (MASM), a human rightsoutfit, said.

He said Berhampur is betterplaced socially, geographically, fi-nancially, transport and healthcarefacilities as well as in trade andcommerce for establishment of rail-way division.

He said the step-motherly atti-tude of both the Centre and thestate government is responsible forthe delay. He alleged that parties rul-ing at both the Centre and state

have betrayed the trust of the res-idents by not implementing theseprojects. He said, a case has been filedin the high court and if the projectsare not implemented soon then ajoint agitation and railroko will belaunched.

He said the plan for construc-tion of Berhampur-Sambalpur railroute is also lying in cold storage de-spite sanction of funds. The Centreapproved the project having a planoutlay of Rs 2957 crore and con-ducted a survey in 2004. However,since then the project has failed tomove ahead and is stuck in red-tapism.

Recently, the Centre has given

its approval to Berhampur-Talcherrail route project. The route to beconstructed under a public-pri-vate partnership mode will passthrough five tunnels, 40 long bridge,154 small bridges and 20 stationslike Jagannathpur, Kukudakhandi,Hinjilicut, Aska, Khandrabali,B a s u d ev p u r, B h a n j a n a g a r,Mujagad, Phulbani, Lakrapaju,Sunamundi, Mundapada, Boudh,Kadaligarh, Redhakhole and fi-nally Talcher.

He said travelling of the resi-dents between Ganjam, Gajapatiand Kandhamal districts would beeasier and reduce time if these railroutes are constructed.

BERHAMPUR IS BETTER SUITEDFOR A RAILWAY DIVISION IN

COMPARISON TO RAYAGADA,ABANI KUMAR GAYA, CONVENEROF MANAV ADHIKAR SURAKSHYA

MANCH (MASM), A HUMANRIGHTS OUTFIT, SAID

A PLAN FOR CONSTRUCTION OFBERHAMPUR-SAMBALPUR RAILROUTE IS ALSO LYING IN COLD

STORAGE DESPITE SANCTION OFFUNDS. THE CENTRE APPROVEDTHE PROJECT HAVING A PLAN

OUTLAY OF RS 2957 CRORE ANDCONDUCTED A SURVEY IN 2004

THE AMBITIOUS PROJECT HAS BEEN A VICTIM OF RED-TAPISM. TRAVELLING OF THE RESIDENTS BETWEEN GANJAM, GAJAPATI AND KANDHAMALDISTRICTS WOULD BE EASIER AND REDUCE TIME IF THESE RAIL ROUTES ARE CONSTRUCTED, OBSERVED MASM CONVENOR ABANI KUMAR GAYA

POST NEWS NETWORK

Berhampur, Oct 15: Bada Bazaarpolice busted a gambling den atLakshmi Vihar in Haridakhandihere in Ganjam district and ar-rested 15 persons, including fourwomen and the owner of a houselate Wednesday night.

Police also seized Rs 2.15 lakh, 12mobile phones, a bike from thegamblers. They are yet to revealthe identities of the gamblers.

The accused were arrested dur-ing a raid at a house in the area, IICBhabnananda Pradhan said Theaccused were found engaged in

gambling defying Covid restric-tions. Suspecting some wrongdo-ing in the house, the neighbours hadtipped off the police. The policeimmediately swung into action anda team was formed which con-

ducted raids at the house.Gambling is considered a part of

puja celebrations in the district.People of all ages in the districtindulge in gambling and it gener-ally starts from Ganesh Puja andcontinues till Kumar Purnima.Even parents ask their children togamble during the festival and pro-vide money to them to play thegame.

Berhampur superintendent ofpolice Pinak Mishra October 13had stated that the police had ar-rested 216 gamblers, seized Rs15lakh and registered 32 cases in thisregard in the past 15 days.

Gambling den busted in Ganjam,14 including 4 women arrested

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bantala, Oct 15: A woman farmerof Poktunga village under Bantalapolice limits in Angul district hadhigh hopes of making a handsomeprofit from her banana planta-tion. However, the COVID-19 pan-demic has shattered her hopes.Ashalata Pradhan, a widow, ishoping for some assistance fromthe government. She said if shedoesn’t get any financial assis-tance it will be impossible for herto continue farming.

Ashalata lost her husband, Amar,two-and-a-half years ago. She had

grown banana and other vegeta-bles on five acres. Just at the timeof harvest, COVID-19-induced re-strictions were imposed, spellingdoom for her. More than one thou-sand banana bunches perished andshe suffered losses of more thanRs 1,00,000.

According to Ashalata, her hus-band used to grow banana andsell it in the market to run thefamily. After his demise, the re-sponsibility of running the fam-ily fell on her shoulders. She couldnot think out a way as to how shecould educate her three children– one son and two daughters.

Eventually, Ashalata decided totake up banana cultivation like herhusband. She started growing cropson five acres at Jammutaila nearBada School. Two acres belonged tothe family and she hired three acresfrom a neighbour. She had grown

banana on three acres and vegeta-bles like egg plants, pointed gourdson the rest two acres. Last year,from the banana plantations shehad earned a profit of Rs 70,000.

Eyeing better profits this year, sheinvested Rs2,00,000 in her farm-land. She also engaged eight to 10labourers on a daily wage basis togrow bananas. She had expectedto sell over 1,000 banana buncheswith the price of each varying be-tween Rs 250 and Rs 300.

Due to the lockdown restrictions,traders could not visit her planta-tion and the fruits were left to roton trees, she lamented.

Woman farmer bears lockdown brunt, seeks aid

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhadrak, Oct 15: The SpecialTask Force (STF) arrested an aideof gangster Tito and dreaded crim-inal Sk Raja. The STF also seizeda country-made pistol, live bul-lets, including a motorcycle andother incriminating material fromhis possession Wednesday evening.

According to police sources,acting on a tip-off the STF alongwith Bhadrak rural police raidedCharampa bazaar area at 2 pm andarrested the aide of Tito.

Sk Raja, a native of Kendraparawas staying in Purunabazaar areaand was actively involved in crimes.Several cases are pending againsthim, the police sources said.

Tito aide nabbed inBhadrak; gun seized

POST NEWS NETWORK

Berhampur, Oct 15: Vigilance of-ficials Thursday arrested a Hinditeacher whose houses in Berhampur,Bhubaneswar and Cuttack wereraided Wednesday and properties

worth nearly Rs 5 crore were seized.Berhampur Vigilance SP Anil

Patra said the vigilance officialsof Berhampur division had con-ducted simultaneous raids at hishouses at ten different locationsin Berhampur, Bhubaneswar and

Puri Wednesday. During the raids,the officials detected the proper-ties accumulated beyond his knownsources of income. The Hinditeacher is identified asBhubanananda Sahu of JashodaHigh School at Jhadankuli.

EVs, power outage

Sir, Thecentral government has set the ambitiousgoal of the nation manufacturing and releasingonly Electric Vehicles (EV) by 2030, decreasingthe reliance on crude oil and pushing the causeof clean energy and fuel. On the one hand, we haveskyrocketing aspirations of turning the nation100 percent EV by 2030 and on the other, we wit-ness abrupt power outage in the whole of Mumbaiand adjacent areas by more than two hours. Thelatter contradicts the former. We need to createan atmosphere like Vietnam and Taiwan for ac-complishing the status of India being a major globalmanufacturing hub. At a time when our home-grown start-ups are making others bite the dustand attracting enormous investments fromabroad, why go after foreign companies? Ournation has the potential to become "Vishwaguru"again on its own.

Rahul Chouhan, UJJAIN

Twitterpated

This lovely term appeared, slightly differently, in the article Sex in Space inWired magazine on 18 May 2007: “How do you handle love, sex, romance,

heart-break, jealousy, hurt, unrequited longing, crushes, loneliness andtwitterpation when you’re 18 months away from Earth and perhaps unsurewhether you’ll make it back?”It refers to the feelings of besottedness you getwhen you think about your current object of desire. A contributor to the UrbanDictionary defined it as “An enjoyable disorder characterized by feelings ofexcitement, anticipation, high hopes, and recent memories of interludes,giddiness, and physical overstimulation which occur simultaneously whenexperiencing a new love.” One stimulus for its current popularity is that itappears in the film Bambi II, following on its invention in the original Bambi of1942, in which Friend Owl says, “Nearly everybody gets twitterpated in thespringtime.” When the film first came out, the Oakland Tribune remarked that“‘Twitterpated’ is perhaps the best adjective coined by Hollywood since thepixilated sisters were invented for ‘Mr. Deeds Goes to Town.’”It also showssigns of becoming accepted, at least in the short term, as a mildly derogatoryterm for those obsessive communicators who use the online medium Twitterto tell their friends every small thing they’re doing with their day.

Twixter

The cover story in Time Magazine of 24 January 2005 argued that a shifthas taken place in the culture of young people between the ages of about

20 and 28, usually college graduates who are often unmarried and living athome, often with no settled employment. The article wasn’t kind to them,calling them “permanent adolescents” and “twenty-something Peter Pans”,stuck between childhood and the adult world; it also coined twixters forthem because they were “betwixt and between”, perhaps modelled on theestablished terms tweens and tweenies for those a little younger thanteenagers. As the article implied, there’s nothing particularly new inidentifying this age group as one with special problems: psychologists havein the past coined terms such as kidult, youthhood, adultescent, emergingadulthood, and boomerang kid when writing about it, none of which havebeen especially successful in linguistic terms. The piece got a lot ofattention, including criticism from members of the group, who argued that itwas economics, not arrested development, which has led to their situation.It’s too early to say whether twixter stands any greater chance of catchingthe public imagination than previous creations.

Two hoots

Ahoot in this slangy sense is the tiniest little bit of something, a whit or jot.To care not even that much shows just how little you really do care about

some matter. The original form — which started to appear in the 1870s — hadjust the one hoot, but it got doubled up later for dramatic effect, around thetime that it started to be elaborated into phrases like I don’t care a hoot in hell!It might refer specifically to the hoot of an owl but some examples suggest it’smore general than that, most likely harking back to two senses known in theseventeenth century: either a loud cry or a shout of disapproval (as in hoots ofderision). The owl hoot was taken from the human cry and doesn’t appearuntil near the end of the eighteenth century; the slang sense of an amusingsituation or person (“your mother’s a real hoot!”) is of the early 1920s.

WORDSWORTH

power post P6

T he role of real estate sector in turning around the ongoing economicslump cannot be overestimated. Besides, the sector is a dynamo of em-ployment. Because of its inter-linkages with other sectors and in-

dustries, a revival of the real estate sector in the country will open oppor-tunities for other sectors leading to their revival. The Covid-19 inducedlockdown in the country put paid to housing sector, throwing millions of peo-ple jobless. A major portion of the migrants, who headed back home post Covid-19 induced lockdown, had been employed in real estate businesses in metros and tier-II cities. These people constituted a major portion of the mi-grants who were mobilized between April and July this year. In light of this,the Reserve Bank of India has done well by rationalising the risk weightsand loan-to-value (LTV) ratios of new housing loans to be sanctioned till March31, 2022. This will free up more capital in banks which could be passed on tocustomers. This measure will address the urgency of funds required toboost the real estate sector in the country. Home loans will become accessi-ble and cheaper for customers. Earlier, lenders looked at multiple factors be-fore fixing the loan size to be disbursed to a customer. They included his creditprofile. Lenders were also hamstrung by various regulatory caps. For example,if a bank underwrites a loan of `75 lakhs, the customer is asked to arrange`15 lakhs after which the lender chips in with `60 lakhs. The LTV would be`60 lakhs (value of the loan) divided by`75 lakhs (cost of the home purchased).The LTV will be 0.8 per cent. If the LTV increases the banks' risk weightsfor advances will also go up. Therefore, the risk size is linked to size of theloan as well as the loan to value (LTV) ratio. The rise in the LTC thereforewill decrease the risk weight of a loan making it easy for banks to extendloans to prospective borrowers.

Having said this, it will be too simplistic to assume that banks will loosentheir purse strings for home buyers. Policies are at one level but when it comesto practice, banks are free to decide. Earlier, the central bank had increasedthe loan to value (LTV) ratio for gold loans to 90 per cent from the earlier 75per cent. This had been done to redress the economic sufferings of peoplein the wake of the pandemic. However, few banks followed the order. Ergo,the latest directive by the RBI with regard to home loans may face the samefate. Keeping the existing borrowers out of the new scheme is also not com-prehensible. Existing borrowers may want more money against their punnedproperties which are in any case undervalued because of the lower LTV. Thelenders should include the existing borrowers and pass on the benefits of thebigger LTV to them. Keeping such a large chunk of borrowers out of the ben-efits of the bigger LTV will not serve the full purpose of the measure. Raisingthe LTV of home loans will of course lower the risk weight of loans freeingbanks of the obligations of larger provisioning, but it all depends on the riskappetite of banks. They are free to decide what they want to do with the idlecapital. To assume that banks will lower the interest rates to encourageprospective home buyers to take loans as they will be left with more idle moneywill be too simplistic. Chances are that a rise in home LTV will face the sim-ilar fate of the rise in gold LTV. Policies can only make a difference for thebeneficiaries if they are executed in letter and spirit. In case of banks, bothPSBs and private ones, there is a huge wall between policies and practices.

T he United States is nudgingIndia into a closer bilateralsecurity alliance as the lat-

ter continues to stand-off againstChina at the border. Also, the USfaces Presidential election November4. Obviously supporting India, thestatements emanating from US of-ficials disapprove of India’s cau-tious approach to China.

The US National Security AdviserRobert O’Brien said, “Dialoguesand negotiations will not work withChina which amassed 60,000 troopson the Northern border”. The deputysecretary of state Stephen Beigunvisiting India from 12-14 prior to the2+2 meeting on 26-27 this monthsaid, “As we build the strategic part-nership between US and India,there is an elephant in the room,China”. Whereas the US seeks toconfront China in alliance withIndia, is New Delhi ready for it?

The US Secretary of State MikePompeo said in a radio interview thattensions have spiked between Chinaand India after the hand-to-handcombat where 20 Indian troops diedand China suffered casualties sofar not disclosed. Pompeo asserted:“They (India) absolutely need the USto be their ally and partner in thisfight”. The world has awakened

and the tide has begun to turn.President Trump has built up acoalition that will counter the threatfrom China, maintain the rule of lawand the basic civic decency thatcome from democracies runningthe world, not authoritarian regimes.

Characterising the growingIndia-US partnership, Beigun said,in his speech to a think tank inDelhi, “US’ benefits from forgingclose links with countries likeIndia that seeks to provide for theirown defence. US own interests in-tersect with those of India. Wehave seen the conditions emergedfor an organic and deeper part-nership, fundamental alignmentalong shared security, shared in-terests, shared values and geo-po-litical goals”. He elaborated on thepartnership and said that post-World War II alliance format re-quiring in-country US troops’ pres-ence may be no longer necessary.

This is a hint at accommodatingIndia’s foreign policy tradition ofstrategic autonomy, or giving Indialeeway to maintain its neutral pos-ture. Beigun added, “The US bene-fits from an India that is strong andprosperous”. He promised that theUS was prepared to do more tostrengthen India’s ability to defend

itself by promoting inter-operabil-ity among the militaries of bothcountries through regular exer-cises and exchange, common de-fence platform and co-development.Cooperation can be achieved inmultiple ways in view of advancetechnology shifts in global economicscenario and changing geo-politics.

The US strategy vis-à-vis China,is two-fold. One, to improve the re-silience of US institutions, of al-liances and partners to counterthe challenges China presents.Second, it seeks to impose tangiblecosts in order to compel Beijing tostop actions harmful to America’snational interests and those of itsallies and partner-nations. In thiscontext, one important partner-ship which will be one of the mostkey partnerships for the US in the21st century is that with India.

It is time New Delhi looks atpooling of sovereignty for a com-mon cause like it is in the EuropeanUnion. A good many scholars andobservers have suggested coun-tries accepting limitations on theirautonomy in a mutually benefi-cial alliance system for a greatergoal. New Delhi can no longer bea ‘lone ranger’in international pol-itics. In the Cold War time in 1970s

and 80s, New Delhi could play therole of mediator on many occa-sions. New Delhi should focus onbuilding its economy up to the sizeof China before beginning to con-front it by herself.

The US is talking of deepeningand expanding the quadrilateralsecurity dialogue called Quad, aninformal group of India, Australia,Japan and US. The perspective onQuad articulated by Beigun suggeststhat any country wanting a freeand open Indo-Pacific and is will-ing to contribute to it, is welcometo join the Quad.

New Delhi is maintainingfriendly relations with all the otherthree Quad participants. But it isfighting shy of developing Quadinto a security framework. NewDelhi is bugged by this continu-ing dilemma of choosing betweenautonomy and alliance. It is some-what treating ‘autonomy’ as aHobson’s choice. This is causing con-tinued vulnerability and heavycosts on our security. The hang-over of non-alignment affects theforeign policy establishment of ourcountry. INFA

The writer is professor ofInternational Relations, JMI.

US-India ties and ‘elephant in the room’

MARATHAS IN ODISHAO

disha, as it is knowntoday, came into beingas a unified province in1948 following the uni-

fication 27 princely states, carry-ing with it the scars of invasions,famines and natural calamitiesin iterations. The famine of 1866,for instance, killed a million peo-ple. Invasions ravaged the land-mass and its people. The region,also known in history sheets asUtkala, still carries the woundsof these, principally the invasionsby marauding armies from withinand by the British through the in-strument of the Bengal presidency.

The Marathas added a prominentchapter in the history of these in-vasions and engaged in outrightloot. Yet, this remains a less-fo-cused part of history books. It iswell-documented as to how theMarathas led by the Bhonsle chiefof Nagpur plundered and despoiledthis landmass during their half acentury’s rule here – from 1751 to1803 AD – turning the life of the in-habitants upside down through amix of strong-arm tactics and plun-der. It was the Nawab of Bengal,Alivardi Khan, who ceded the landto the Marathas. The Maratha rulein Odisha was essentially militaryin nature and a replica of theMughal administration.

Odisha had in those days beendivided into two political divisions– the Garajat or Gadjat states con-sisting of 24 tributary chieftains(puppets as leaders) andMughalbandi, the coastal tract ex-tending from Suvarnarekha inthe north to the Chilika Lake in thesouth. Gadjat means where localsruled from their Gadas (Ga a isfort). Among the 24 feudatories (asystem of holding land by pay-ment of feudal fee) or princelystates, the most powerful was theking of Khurda. The Rajas ofKanika, Dhenkanal, Ranapur,Badamba, Athagarh, Kujang, Auland Mayurbhanj had also retainedtheir relative importance duringthe regime of the Marathas.

Significantly, the Maratha gov-ernors did not poke their nose in theinternal administration of thesechiefs. The feudatories were payingtributes – a substantial gift of wealth,such as gold, farm produces, orslaves – to the Raja of Nagpur.

The Mughalbandi, an area under

direct Mughal rule, was dividedinto 150 Paraganas or a group ofvillages or a subdivision of a dis-trict, which were left under themanagement of 32 Amils or localDiwans. Each Paragana was sub-divided into two, three, four, ormore Mahalas or allotments. TheAmil or Revenue Commissionerwas responsible for the assess-ment of revenue and entrustingcharges to different officers forthe revenue collection.

During the Maratha rule, thenormal practice was to grant var-ious allowances by way of moneyor land to the revenue officer to-gether with other expenses forthese collections and also authorisedeductions in the expenses. Recordsshow there was a surplus of about`4 lakh to be annually dispatchedto the court of Nagpur.

In those times, people were pay-ing rent based on the amount ofland under cultivation. TheMaratha government imposedheavy customs duties and dis-couraged cotton cultivation inOdisha. Its aim was to procuremore rice from here to be sent toNagpur. Paddy was cultivated inhuge quantities here and was amain item of export to Bengal.The export of commodities fromOdisha like sugar, textiles, muslin,

earthen pots and other handicraftswas a net addition to the econ-omy of this province.

Under the Marathas, Odisha wasproducing salt in plenty due to theexistence of a large saliferous tractalong the coastal belt. A flourishingsalt trade brought huge income tothe Maratha government by way ofannual revenue. This exceeded theamount of land revenue derivedby them from this province. Towardsthe close of the 18th Century, aneconomic dispute unfolded on theissue of salt trade between theMaratha government in Odishaand the East India Company inBengal. Irritated over this, theBritish decided to conquer Odisha.

During the Maratha rule, Odishawas well-connected by roads withBengal, Madras, and Nagpur. Roadswere made not for the benefit of thepeople but with the motive of con-trolling the administration inOdisha and Bengal from Nagpur.Roads were a source of income tothe state. Taxes were collected attoll gates on the way from peoplecoming from outside to Odisha.A Customs duty was also collected.For instance, a bullock load of silkwas taxed at six rupees.

Notably, the Marathas were notpro-people but pro-Brahmin. Theywere often portrayed as agents of

Hindu nationalism. They gave pri-ority to aspects like maintenanceof the Lord Jagannath Temple inPuri, maybe to woo majoritarianHindus and camouflage their re-pressive, nefarious and exploit-ing nature. Puri used to receive pil-grims from all over India. A pilgrimtax was imposed on them by theMarathas. Some `9 lakh – a hugeamount in those times -- came inas pilgrim tax from those visitingthe Jagannath temple.

The Marathas were tyranni-cal. The one and single aim of theBhonsle of Nagpur was to treat thisland as a milching cow and ex-tort maximum as rent from thelocal inhabitants. This infuriatedthe masses. The frequent changeof governors made the adminis-tration of this land wobbly, shaky,and risky.

Allowing frequent march of theBritish troops through Odishasparked a sense of trepidationand consternation in the local in-habitants’ minds. Lawlessnessprevailed and that was perhapsone reason why there began amass upsurge ag ainst theMarathas. This helped the Britishto conquer Odisha in 1803.

(Part-II of this article to follow)The writer is an

Odisha-based columnist.

LOL

FOCUS

SPECTRUM

It is well-documented as to how the Marathas led by the Bhonsle chief ofNagpur plundered and despoiled this landmass during their half-a-century rule here – from 1751 to 1803 AD – turning the life of the inhabitants upside down through a mix of strong-arm tactics and plunder

Dud policy

ROMANCE

At night, as the lady lied downfor sleep, there was a humming

in her right ear.“Can we do some romance tonight?For, I’m in a good mood …

Just a little bitof kissing and

biting!!Hmmm.. I can’t wait…

Reply to me soon…”“Who you?”“Yours Loving Mosquito.”

FRIDAY | OCTOBER 16 | 2020 | BHUBANESWAR

All problems of existence areessentially problems of Harmony.

SRI AUROBINDO

ASIA

THE ONE ANDONLY AIM OF

THE BHONSLEOF NAGPUR WAS

TO TREAT THISLAND AS A

MILCHING COWAND EXTORT

THE MAXIMUMRENT FROM THE

INHABITANTS.THIS ATTITUDE

INFURIATED THEMASSES

Dr. Santosh KumarMohapatra

WISDOM CORNERIt is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness.

LEO TOLSTOY

Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and thelife of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreasesby being shared. LORD BUDDHA

Ignorance is the curse of God; knowledge is the wing wherewith wefly to heaven. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

HISTORY

Readers of Orissa POSTare most welcome to contribute letters(200 words), articles andcolumns (between 750-1250words). Contributors arerequested to send theircontact numbers and fullpostal address/email ID. They may alsosend in their valuable comments, opinionand suggestions, preferably by email, to: edit@orissapost.com

B-15, Rasulgarh Industrial Estate,Bhubaneswar-751010

LettersTO THE EDITOR

ONE IMPORTANTPARTNERSHIP

WHICH WILL BE ONE OF THE

MOST KEY PARTNERSHIPS

FOR THE US IN THE21ST CENTURY ISTHAT WITH INDIA

Dr. DK Giri

Corona spread in south

Sir, India's coronavirus active caseshave decreased by 20 per cent sincethe peak of September 17. This is amatter of great relief. However, whilecases in worst-hit Maharashtra de-creased by 90,000; it is offset by Kerala’sincrease of 60,000 cases. Active casesnow are in the range of 8.27 lakhs.Southern states are having 29 per centof India's population but they accountfor 64 per cent of the active cases.Morbidity is also high in these states;some 64 per cent of India's Covid-linkeddeaths. If the health care parametersin these states are better as is often re-ported, it is surprising how the rate ofdeaths there are more.

Gopal Prasad Mittal,BHUBANESWAR

Ayushman Bharat, diseases

Sir, A total of 21 diseases are coveredunder the Disability Act 2016 and out ofthese, two are covered under the AyushmanBharat rare diseases group, where, on aone-time basis, reimbursement of `15lakh is allowed. Two other diseases aresickle cell anemia and spinal dystrophy.The government has passed this schemeof reimbursement after a detailed studywhich found that treatment for these dis-eases would involve too much of expen-diture not within the reach of thecommonman. Out of these diseases, two are mul-tiple sclerosis and Parkinson' which haveno treatment. A review of the scheme isessential to ensure that all the needy getbenefits from such central endeavours.

Yash Pal Rattan,JALANDHAR

cmyk

cmyk

cmyk

cmyk

KERALA

FRIDAY | OCTOBER 16 | 2020 | BHUBANESWARP7 TEL

ANGANA

AGENCIES

Hyderabad, Oct 15: Many coloniesin Hyderabad and suburbs remainedunder water Thursday while Armyand the National Disaster ResponseForce (NDRF) personnel contin-ued rescue and relief work in theflood-hit areas.

Clear skies provided respite to thecity battered by heavy rains in theintervening night of October 13-14but the areas abutting overflowinglakes and nullas remained inun-dated while traffic on damagedhighways was to be restored.

Personnel of Army, NDRF andDisaster Response Force (DRF) ofGreater Hyderabad MunicipalCorporation continued rescue and

relief works in the worst-affectedareas. People trapped in maroonedhouses were being shifted to safeplaces through boats.

One of the worst floods in thecity’s history has so far claimed 19lives while five others are missing.

Colonies in Chandrayangutta inthe old city of Hyderabad,Chaderghat and Moosarambaghon the banks of Musi river, Uppaland Vanasthalipuram on the cityoutskirts were still under the floodwaters. Following release of surpluswater from Himayat Sagar up-stream, Musi river was flowingdangerously at Moosarambagh,flooding adjacent areas.

Officials were working to savePalle Cheru lake from breach at

Mailardevpally. Sand bags werearranged to strengthen the em-bankment. Ranga Reddy districtcollector Amoy Kumar andCyberabad Police CommissionerVC Sajjanar were supervising the efforts.

People living in areas sur-rounding the lake were alerted tomove to safe places. A part of thebund had breached following heavyrains Tuesday night, inundatingAli Nagar area.

Eight members of a family werewashed away while trying to wadethrough flood water in Ali NagarWednesday. Bodies of three peoplewere found while the search was onfor others.

Some colonies in Manikondaarea were also inundated due to anoverflowing Firangi nala. With cel-lars of the buildings completelysubmerged, residents of the apart-ments were waiting for help.

Several colonies in Uppal,Boduppal, Ramanthapur,Peerzadiguda and Ghatkesar also

remained inundated.Road connectivity to many areas

in the city remained disrupted dueto inundation. Traffic is also yet tobe restored on the highways.Authorities were trying to repairHyderabad-Bangalore highwaywhich was badly damaged atGaganpahad.

The state government has al-ready declared two-day holidayWednesday and Thursday to all pri-vate institutions, offices, non es-sential services within Outer RingRoad (ORR) with work from homeadvisory. Chief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao will reviewthe flood situation in Hyderabadand other parts of the state at ahigh-level meeting to be held laterin the day.

The Chief Minister asked all theofficials concerned to come pre-pared for the meeting, as the stategovernment has to submit a reportto the Centre on the loss causeddue to heavy rains and flash floodsin the state.

Hyd yet to get back on its feet MANY COLONIES IN THE RAIN BATTERED CITY REMAIN UNDERWATER

FLOODS COST T’GANA `5KCRHYDERABAD: Telangana ChiefMinister K Chandrasekhar RaoThursday said that due to heavyrains and flash floods, the statesuffered losses to the tune of Rs5,000 crore.

In a letter to Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, he urged theCentre to release Rs 1,350 croreimmediately for rehabilitationand relief works.

Heavy rains and floods duringlast three days have wreckedhavoc in various parts of thestate, especially Hyderabad. TheChief Minister Thursday held anemergency high-level meetingto review heavy rains and floodsituation in the state.

KCR, as the Chief Ministeris popularly called, had askedall the officials concerned tocome prepared for the meeting,as the state government has tosubmit a report to the Centreon the loss caused due to heavyrains and flash floods.

Municipal Administrationand IT Minister KT Rama Rao,Power Minister Jagdeesh Reddy,Agriculture Minister S. NiranjanReddy, R&B Minister VemulaPrashanth Reddy, Ministers fromHyderabad T. Srinivas Yadava n d M e h m o o d A l i , C h i e fSecretary Somesh Kumar andother officials attended the re-view meeting.

9 people diedin a wallcollapse lateTuesday inBandlaguda

10 peoplewere killed inotherincidents likedrowning andelectrocution

WHEN ITRAINED WOES

AGENCIES

Hyderabad, Oct 15: Telanganahas slashed the number of dailyCovid-19 tests in the last few dayswhich have resulted in fewer casesbeing reported, a report said.

During the last 24 hours ending8 pm Wednesday, the authorities con-ducted 38,895 tests against dailyaverage of 55,000 to 60,000 samplestested over the last couple ofmonths. There was no official wordfor conducting fewer tests.

As a result of the drop in thenumber of tests, the state is con-sistently reporting a daily count ofless than 2,000 cases. Thursday, thestate reported 1,432 positive cases.

The previous day, 40,056 testswere conducted. Only 30,000 testswere conducted Saturday-Sunday.

The latest infections rose the cu-mulative tally to 2,17,670. Of this23,203 are active including 19,084 whoare in home isolation.

The state continues to see morerecoveries from Covid-19 than thenew infections.

As many as 1,949 people recov-ered from the virus during the last24 hours, taking the total numberof recoveries to 1,93,218.

The state’s recovery rate climbedfurther to 88.76 per cent againstthe national average of 87.3 percent.

Eight more people succumbed tothe virus during the period, push-ing the death toll to 1,249.

The fatality rate remains at 0.57per cent against the national averageof 1.5 per cent.

Officials said the percentage ofdeaths due to Covid-19 was 44.96while the remaining 55.04 had co-morbidities.

Of 38,895 samples tested, 17,113were primary and 4,667 secondary.According to a media bulletin from

the office of the director of publichealth and family welfare, 36,362tests were conducted in govern-ment-run laboratories and 2,533 inprivate.

Seventeen government-run lab-oratories, 44 private laboratories and1,076 Rapid Antigen test centresare conducting the tests.

Samples tested per million pop-ulation ratio rose further to 99,490.The daily testing target for thestate is 5,600 per day as per theWorld Health Organisation (WHO)benchmark of 140 per million perday.

Out of 2,17,670 total positivecases so far, 70 per cent (1,52,369)were asymptomatic while the re-maining 30 per cent (65,301) weresymptomatic. Of the new casesregistered during the last 24 hours,Greater Hyderabad accounted for244 cases. Medchal Malkajgiri dis-trict recorded second highest num-ber of cases at 115 followed byBhadradri Kothagudem (99),Khammam (91), Rangareddy (88),Karimnagar (74), Nalgonda (74),Khammam (52) and Suryapet (53).

The data shows that 63.9 per centof those tested positive so far arein the age group of 21-50 yearswhile 22.91 are above 51 years of age.Those below 20 years are 13.18 percent.

Officials said 64.64 per cent ofthose tested positive were malewhile the remaining 38.37 per centwere female.

The data also shows most of thebeds in government and privatehospitals treating Covid patients arevacant.

Out of total 8,792 beds in 62 gov-ernment-run Covid hospitals, 7,095are vacant.

A total 228 private hospitals treat-ing Covid patients have 9,037 beds,of which 6,615 are vacant.

Telangana has beenreporting less nCoVinfections, but how

AGENCIES

Kochi, Oct 15: In a major devel-opment in the Kerala gold smugglingcase, the NIA has found links be-tween one of the accused and India’smost wanted underworld donDawood Ibrahim Kaskar and hisgang, a report said.

The National InvestigationAgency probe has revealed that asone of the accused visited Tanzania,where the 1993 Mumbai accusedhas vast networks, to launch hisdiamond business and to smugglefirearms.

The submissions were made bythe anti-terror probe agency in aSpecial NIA court here Wednesday.

“KT Ramees and M Sharafuddinvisited Tanzania on several occa-sions and met one of Dawood’sclose aide Feroze ‘Oasis’ and dis-cussed ways to smuggle firearmsinto the country,” an NIA official re-lated to the probe told IANS.

The official said that Rameesvisited Tanzania first in 2016 tostart a diamond business there. Hethen also smuggled one kilo goldfrom Tanzania to the UAE in 2017.

Ramees was caught with 13 smug-gled revolvers at the Kozhikode air-port in November 2019 while re-turning from Dubai, he added.Ramees had brought the guns forthe Palakkad rifle club, it was al-leged, however, the charge was de-nied by the rifle club.

Another NIA official said thatthey are checking all the details ofRamees, as he has been linked to

gold smuggling as well as firearmssmuggling. The gold smugglingcase first surfaced when PS Sarith,a former employee of the UAEConsulate here, was arrested bythe Customs Department July 5when he was allegedly facilitatingthe smuggling of 30 kg gold in adiplomatic baggage from Dubai toThiruvananthapuram.

The case became murkier whenSwapna Suresh, a former employeeof the UAE Consulate and lateremployed with the Kerala ITDepartment, came to light. Herlinks stretched to the Chief Ministeras she had links to M Sivasankar,Kerala’s senior IAS official andsecretary to Pinarayi Vijayan. She

later revealed that Sivasankar washer mentor.

After his links with Swapna sur-faced, Vijayan first removedSivasankar from the post of hissecretary and also the State IT sec-retary and later suspended himfrom service.

While Suresh and her accom-plice Sandip Nair, were arrestedfrom their hideout in Bangalorefive days later. A multi-agency teamstarted probing the case and 30 peo-ple have been arrested so far. Besidesthe NIA, ED, DRI, Customs andIncome Tax are also part of the in-vestigation. The ED has questionedKerala Higher Education MinisterKT Jaleel in connection with this.

The D-gang ‘connection’in Kerala gold smuggling

AGENCIES

Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 15:In Kerala, politics comes first andthen comes everything else. Thiswas again evident Thursday whena planned online inaugura-tion of a school build-ing by WayanadL o k S abh amemberRahulGandhif a i led t otake place.

Speakingt o IANS ,Wayanad dis-trict Congresscommittee presi-dent IC Balakrishnansaid the inauguration of a newschool building at the state-run

Munderi Schoolbuilt at a costof Rs1.20 crore,scheduled for10 .15 am byGandhi did not

happen as thedistrict admin-

istration did notgive it clearance.“70 per cent of the

funds for this new school buildingcame under the Central alloca-

tion and the rest came from thestate government. The local bodyat the location is ruled by the Leftand its chairperson wrote toGandhi and asked for his time.Gandhi said he will be able to doit October 15 and it was fixed,”said Balakrishnan.

“But the district administra-tion called him up and said thatsince protocols have to be fol-lowed and the State EducationMinister and others have to beinformed, it has to be cancelled.We had no other option but tocall off all the arrangements madeby the school Parents TeachersAssociation,” added Balakrishnan,who is also a Congress legislatorfrom the district. The localCongress party expressed their ireafter the earlier planned inau-guration was called off.

WAYANAD ADMIN SAYS ‘NO’ TORAHUL’S INAUGURATION EVENT

AGENCIES

Hyderabad, Oct 15: A large por-tion of the historic Shahpur fort inTelangana’s Jangaon district col-lapsed Thursday.

Three houses were damagedunder the debris of the fort.However, no one was injured asthe residents had vacated the houseafter cracks in the fort widenedfollowing heavy rains during the lastfew days.

A video of the fort’s collapsewent viral on social media. Localscan be heard screaming as the di-lapidated structure caved in.

Popular as Qila Shahpur, the

hill for t was located inRaghunathapalli mandal ofJangaon district.

It was built in 1690s by SardarSarvai Papanna Goud, who alongwith nearly 4,000 men had attackedWarangal in 1708 after the death ofMughal emperor Aurangzeb.

It is said that the fort was blownup by the forces led by Dil Khan,then deputy governor Hyderabad.Papanna Goud later rebuilt thefort.

According to historians, PapannaGoud and his men were besiegedfour times while occupying thefort. He was captured and executedin 1710.

AGENCIES

Thrissur, Oct 15: RenownedMalayalam poet and Jnanpithaward winner Akkitham AchuthanNamboothiri, who is said to haveheralded modernism in Malayalampoetry, died at a private hospital hereThursday.

He was 94.A widower, the Mahakavi (great

poet), as he was known, leaves twosons and four daughters.

Hospital sources said he was ad-mitted for age-related ailments acouple of days ago and the endcame at 8.10 am.

Popularly known as Akkitham,his ‘Irupatham NoottandinteIthihasam’ (Epic of the 20thCentury) is considered as one of thefirst truly modernist poems inMalayalam literature.

A popular verse—“Velichamdukhamanunni, thamasallosukhapradam,” which is roughlytranslated as “light brings sorrow,my child, darkness is bliss” is likea proverb for Keralites. It is also in-terpreted as “worldly knowledge ispain my child, ignorance is bliss.”

He penned around 45 books, com-prising poetry anthologies, playsand short stories including‘Balidarsanam’ (The Vision of Bali),‘Arangettam’, ‘Nimisha Kshetram’,‘Idinju Polinja Lokam’, ‘AmritaGhatika’, and ‘Kalikkottilil’ andmany more.

Akkitham had bagged theJnanpith award, the highest liter-ary award, in 2019 and is the sixth

writer to bring the honour forMalayalam literature.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, theaward was presented to him lastmonth at a function at his home inKumaranalloor in Palakkad dis-trict. Among the numerous awardswhich came his way are PadmaShri, Ezhuthachan Award, KendraSahitya Akademi Award, KeralaSahitya Akademi Award for Poetry,Odakkuzhal Award, VallatholAward and Vayalar Award.

Born March 18, 1926 in a tradi-t ional Namboothiri family,Akkitham, was a true Gandhian,social reformer and journalist, andhad worked as an editor in variousmagazines before joining the AllIndia Radio (AIR) in 1956 atKozhikode.

Akkitham’s wife, SreedeviAntharjanam, had passed awaylast year, aged 85.

Kerala Gover nor ArifMohammed Khan and ChiefMinister Pinarayi Vijayan ex-

pressed grief over the death.Condoling the death, Khan said

the poet’s demise was a loss for Indialiterature and Malayalam poetry.

“...With roots firm on Indianthought, he played a role in bring-ing moder n sensibil i ty toMalayalam poetry....He representedthe loftiest ideals of poetic tradition,with utmost respect for Indian val-ues & tradition deeply reflecting inhis poems (sic),” Khan tweeted.

Vijayan said Akkitham was agreat poet who stood for sublimehuman love.

“He was a poet who wished forunconditional love to be the foun-dation for the universe and trans-lated that wish into his poetry.”

Considered synonymous withan era in Malayalam literary his-tory, Akkitham ushered in moder-nity into Malayalam poetry throughhis works, ‘Irupatham NoottandinteIthihasam’ and ‘Idinju PolinjaLokam’,” Vijayan said in his con-dolence message.

AGENCIES

Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 15:Kerala Chief Minister PinarayiVijayan said the state should trans-form itself into a carbon-neutral re-gion by setting up greenhouses.

Inaugurating through video con-ference the 1,261st greenhouse setup here by the Haritha KeralaMission, he said though the tar-get was to construct 1,000 green-houses, it was an achievement that1,261 had been set up in an area ofover 454 acres.

“Greenhouses are our great con-tribution to future generations.Every year, more greenhousesshould be set up in this mannerand it will be possible with the co-operation of local bodies and thepeople,” he said.

Thousand more greenhousesare to be established. If there isno public space, interested personsshould be encouraged to put upgreenhouses in their place, addedVijayan. Each greenhouse was set

up by selecting plants suitable for each area.

The first greenhouse contain-ing rare herbaceous plants was es-tablished at Vengode, Pothencode,in Thiruvananthapuram with thehelp of the botanical garden atPalode.

In some places, there were onlybamboo shoots and in the back-waters and beaches, mangrovesand allied trees were planted inthe greenhouses.

The stalks have expanded andgreen stems have come creating avisible change in the habitat in thelast one year.

The greenhouses of the man-groves in Kumarakom have madea positive difference to the fishingecosystem there.

The plants are maintained forthree years as part of the project,he said. CPI leader and MLA CDivakaran planted a tree-saplingat the 1,261st greenhouse atNedumang ad block inThiruvananthapuram district.

NIA OFFICIAL SAYSKT Ramees and MSharafuddin visited Tanzaniaon several occasions andmet one ofDawood’s closeaide Feroze ‘Oasis’

Ramees visited Tanzania first in2016 to start a diamond businessthere

He smuggled one kilo gold fromTanzania to the UAE in 2017

Ramees andSharafuddin discussed ways to smuggle firearms into India

During the last 24 hours ending 8pm Wednesday, the authorities

conducted 38,895 tests

This was against the daily averageof 55,000 to 60,000 samples testedover the last couple of months

There was no official word for conducting fewer tests

Heavy rains cause collapse of T’gana’s historic Shahpur fort

No one was injured as the residents had vacated thehouse after cracks in the fort widened

…thedistrict

administration called him(Rahul Gandhi) up and said

that since protocols have to befollowed and the State Education

Minister and others have to beinformed, it has to be cancelled

IC BALAKRISHNAN | WAYANAD DISTRICTCONGRESS COMMITTEE PRESIDENT

CM asks Keralites to makethe state carbon-neutral by setting up greenhouses

Answer: The state is conducting fewer tests

3 weeks after receiving Jnanpith,Mahakavi Akkitham passes awayAkkitham’s literary works began to gain wide attention in the early 1950s

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nationalFRIDAY | OCTOBER 16 | 2020 | BHUBANESWAR

Moves tofinish off thefilm industry

or shift it elsewherewill never betolerated

UDDHAV THACKERAY |MAHARASHTRA CHIEF MINISTER

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The ChiefMinister ofMaharashtra

who says he doesnot need anyone’scertificate to provehis Hindutvacredentials should take a courageous step to shut down the state-funded Madrasas that propagate radical religious teachings

ATUL BHATKHALKAR | BJP MLA

Focus must beon to instil asense of

security among thepeople and thereshould be healthycoordination amongthe armed forces and state(Arunachal Pradesh)police for effective results

BRIG (RETD) DR B D MISHRA |ARUNACHAL PRADESH GOVERNOR

Greenhouses are ourgreat contribution to futuregenerations. Every year, moregreenhouses should be set upin this manner and it will bepossible with the cooperationof local bodies and the peoplePINARAYI VIJAYAN | KERALA CHIEF MINISTER

Less than 24 hours after the talks between theCentre and representatives of farmer unions ended on a stormy note, farmers belong to 29organisations Thursday declared they wouldintensify their non-violent stir and announcedstate-wide protests in Punjab October 17 againstthe three farm laws passed by Parliament

PB FARMERS TO HOLD STATE-WIDE PROTESTS

3 Bangladeshiwomen rescuedThane: A 42-year-old manwas arrested for allegedlyholding three Bangladeshiwomen captive for fleshtrade in Maharashtra’s Thanecity, police said Thursday.Acting on a specificinformation, the Thane policeraided a flat in DharamveerNagar locality last week andrescued three Bangladeshiwomen aged between 20 and30 years, an official said.

Varavara Rao’swife moves SCNew Delhi: The wife of Telugupoet and writer Varavara Rao,arrested in connection withthe Elgar Parishad-KoregaonBhima case, moved the SupremeCourt Thursday seeking bailfor him, claiming that hiscontinued custody amountedto cruel and inhuman treatment.The petition, filed by PendyalaHemalatha, urged the court thatduring the pendency of thepetition, the 81-year-old accusedbe released on temporarymedical bail and be allowed totravel to Hyderabad to be withhis family and loved ones.

Dalit womanfound dead Barabanki (UP): An 18-year-old Dalit woman was founddead in an agricultural field inUttar Pradesh's Barabanki,police said Thursday. Policesaid the incident took place ata village under the Satrikhpolice station area and itseemed the victim wasstrangled. More details willbe known only after gettingthe post-mortem examinationreport, police said.

India joins handswith NetherlandsNew Delhi: India and theNetherlands Thursdayunveiled plans for a jointthrust in the e-health sector,with the aim of providingdigital health facilities andsecurity to every Indian. Thiscooperative initiative will seethe two countries work closelyto create capacities and putin place the requisite technologybackbone to enable thisrevolutionary initiative.

Prisoner killedAhmedabad: A 30-year-oldprisoner was allegedly killedby a fellow inmate during ascuffle over a petty issue inGujarat's Vadodara CentralJail, an official said Thursday. Azaharuddin aliasAjju Kaniya was killed bySunil Parmar following aheated altercation over apetty issue Wednesday,deputy superintendent of jailVishnu Patel said.

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AGENCIES

New Delhi, Oct 15:Ten months intothe pandemic, handwashing withsoap remains one of our best de-fences against the virus, along withother public health measures suchas maintaining physical distance,avoiding crowded places, practisingcough etiquette and wearing a maskwherever recommended.

Global Handwashing Day ob-served annually October 15 to raiseawareness and highlight the im-portance of handwashing as an ef-fective means of disease prevention-- this year marks a critical reminder

for the world that this simple, costeffective practice can save lives.“Handwashing has always beenone of the most effective ways ofkeeping diseases at bay. It is a sim-ple act that pays in dividends when

it comes to keeping ourselves healthyand safe. Handwashing is also oneof the key cornerstones of Covid-19 prevention,” said Dr PoonamKhetrapal Singh, Regional Director,WHO South-East Asia Region. Sheadded, “Now more than ever as weembrace the new normal and livewith COVID-19, hand hygiene needsto become an integral part of ourdaily routine and our lives, as we livethrough this pandemic, and be-yond, to protect us from diseases.”

With COVID-19 transmissionmainly spreading between peoplethrough direct, indirect or closecontact with infected people via

mouth and nose secretions, wash-ing hands with soap and runningwater is of critical importance.

To stop the spread of COVID-19,along with other COVID appropri-ate behaviours, the practice of hand-washing at regular intervals is amust, after coughing or sneezing,when caring for the sick, after usingthe toilet, before eating, while prepar-ing food and after handling ani-mals or animal waste. Handwashingafter touching common surfacessuch as doorknobs or handles, orafter one comes back home fromvisiting a public place will keepourselves and others around us

safe. This year's Global HandwashingDay theme is ‘Hand Hygiene forAll’ and calls for all of society toachieve universal hand hygiene.

To beat the virus today and ensure bet-ter health outcomes beyond the pan-demic, handwashing with soap mustbe a priority now and in the future.

Handwashing an effective tool to prevent COVID: WHOTo beat the virus today and ensure better health outcomes beyond the pandemic, handwashing with soap must be a priority now and in the future

Millions of urban Indians at risk: UNICEFAround 91 million urban Indians lack basic handwashing facilities athome, UNICEF has said while noting that washing of hands with soapis critical in the fight against infectious diseases like COVID-19. In astatement released on the occasion on Global Handwashing Day,UNICEF said lack of handwashing with soap puts millions at increasedrisk to COVID-19 and other infectious diseases. “In Central and SouthAsia, 22 per cent of people in urban areas, or 153 million people, lackaccess to handwashing. Nearly 50 per cent of urban Bangladeshis, or29 million people; and 20 per cent of urban Indians or 91 million, lackbasic handwashing facilities at home,” it said.

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, Oct 15: As it preparesto induct a second batch of Rafalejets, the Indian Air Force has senta team of officials to France tooversee the logistical issues andreview the training of a hand-picked group of pilots at theSaint-Dizier air base there, offi-cials said Thursday.

The second batch of four Rafalejets is expected to arrive in Indiain the next four weeks. The firstbatch of five Rafale jets arrived inIndia July 29, nearly four yearsafter India signed an inter-gov-ernmental agreement with Franceto procure 36 of these aircraft at acost of Rs 59,000 crore.

Several teams from the IAF havevisited France since January tooversee the progress of the Rafaleproject including integration ofIndia-specific enhancements andweapons systems, the officialssaid. The IAF's Rafale project man-agement team has an office inParis headed by a Group Captain-rank officer. The team is taskedwith overseeing the productiontimelines as well as coordinatingtraining of the crew.

A team of experts headed by as-sistant chief of air staff (projects)reached France earlier this weekto coordinate logistical issues as well

as training of pilots and techni-cians, said the officials. The firstbatch of Rafale jets was finally in-ducted into the IAF September 10.Chief of Air Staff Air ChiefMarshal RKS Bhadauria on October5 said the induction of all 36 Rafalejets will be completed by 2023.

Ten Rafale jets have been de-livered to India so far and five ofthem stayed back in France forimparting training to IAF pilots.Known for their air-superiority andprecision strikes, the Rafale jetsare India's first major acquisitionof fighter planes in 23 year afterthe Sukhoi jets were importedfrom Russia.

The newly inducted fleet hasbeen carrying out sorties in east-ern Ladakh where Indian andChinese troops are engaged in abitter border row for over fivemonths. A group of IAF pilots iscurrently undergoing training onRafale jets at the Saint-Dizier air-base in eastern France.

IAF team in France toreview Rafale project

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

New Delhi, Oct 15: Amid somemedia reports that the CentralBureau of Investigation (CBI) islikely to file a closure report inBollywood actor Sushant SinghRajput's death case, the federalagency Thursday refuted the claimsand said that such reports are "erroneous" and the investigationis still continuing.

CBI spokesperson RK Gaur saidin a statement, “CBI continues toinvestigate the death of Sushant.There are certain speculative reportsin the media that the CBI hasreached a conclusion. It may be re-iterated that these reports are spec-ulative and erroneous.” The re-marks came amid media speculationthat the agency will be filing a clo-sure report soon.

Earlier, the forensic team of theAll India Institute of Medical

Sciences (AIIMS) led by SudhirGupta had ruled out the murderangle in the actor's death case.The CBI had registered a caseoAugust 6 after a notification fromthe Centre on the request of theBihar government based on a com-plaint filed by Sushant's fatherKK Singh in Patna.

The CBI sleuths, alongn withthe AIIMS forensic team, visited

Mumbai August 20, a day after theSupreme Court gave its nod for a fed-eral agency probe. The CBI teamrecorded the statements of Sushant'sgirlfriend Rhea Chakraborty, herbrother Showik, the late actor'shouse manager Samuel Miranda,flatmate Siddharth Pithani, per-sonal staff Neeraj Singh, KeshavBachane and Dipesh Sawant,Sushant's former manager ShrutiModi, talent manager Jaya Sahaand several others. Sushant wasfound dead in his Bandra's apart-ment June 14. Besides the CBI, theEnforcement Directorate and theNarcotics Control Bureau are alsoprobing the money laundering anddrugs angle in connection with theactor's death, respectively. Rheawas arrested by the NCB in a drugsrelated case. She was granted bailafter spening 28 days in Bycullajail, while her brother Showik is stilllodged in the jail.

CBI refutes closure of SSR case

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, Oct 15: The CultureMinistry released a new set ofSOPs Thursday for organisingcultural programmes with ade-quate safety measures, making itmandatory for artistes and crewto furnish a valid Covid-negativetest certificate, barring entry of vis-itors and patrons without masksand allowing seating on only 50 percent seats for the audience.

The Standard OperatingProcedures are to be followed bythe management of theatres andhost institutions as well as the en-tertainment or creative agencies,artistes, crew or any other per-son who hire an auditorium orany other open/closed space for cul-tural events, the ministry said. Itsaid digital no-contact transac-tions should be preferred to issue,verify, or pay for tickets, and con-tact details of all customers shouldbe taken at the time of booking oftickets to facilitate contact-trac-ing. For viewers, the guidelinessaid, wearing masks is manda-tory and physical distancing ofat least 6 feet is to be followed atall times. For the organisers, theSOP included sanitisation of venuebefore and after the event, avail-ability of hand sanitisers, prefer-ably in the touch-free mode, atentry and exit points as well as com-mon areas within the premises.

Fresh SOPs for cultural events

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Pune, Oct 15: At least27 peoplehave died in rain-related incidentsin Solapur, Sangli and Pune dis-tricts of Western Maharashtra,officials said Thursday.

Over 20,000 people were evacu-ated to safer places in these threedistricts. State capital Mumbaitoo witnessed water-logging inmany areas after overnight rainsThursday. The districts in WesternMaharashtra -- Pune, Solapur,Sangli, Satara and Kolhapur -- arewitnessing heavy showers in thelast two days.

“Total 27 people have died dueto rain-related incidents in Solapur,Sangli and Pune districts sinceWednesday. 14 casualties are fromSolapur district, nine from Sangliand four from Pune district," saidan official from the Pune divi-sional commissioner's office.

In Solapur district, six personsdied in wall collapse in the templetown of Pandharpur on Wednesday,while remaining deaths too oc-cured in rain-and flood-related in-cidents, he said.

In Pune, four people died aftergetting swept away in a swollenstream at Khanota in Daund tehsil,while one person was still missing.Rain-related accidents claimednine lives in Sangli district, theofficial added.

In Pandharpur town, some1,650 people were shif ted.Additional teams of the NationalDisaster Response Force (NDRF)have been sought for the tehsil,Dhole informed. Several low-lying areas in Pune experiencedwater- logging Wednesday nightafter heavy showers.

According to the IndiaMeteorological Department (IMD),Pune city received 96 mm rain-fall Wednesday. Mumbai experi-enced heavy rains overnight alongwith thunderstorm and lightning,causing water-logging in somelow-lying areas, officials said.

RAINS CLAIM 27 LIVESIN THREE WESTERNMAHA DISTRICTS

Lokpal has no powerto review its order PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, Oct 15: Anti-cor-ruption ombudsman Lokpal hasheld that review petitions re-garding an order passed by itsbench cannot be entertained dueto the absence of related provi-sions in the law governing it, ac-cording to an official order.

The move comes after theLokpal witnessed an increasingnumber of complainants desirousof a "reconsideration" or "review"of the orders passed by it. A com-mittee comprising three Lokpalmembers -- Justices AbhilashaKumari, D K Jain and I P Gautam-- was constituted to look into theaspect of recommending a policyregarding requests for a reviewof an order passed by the bench.

The committee, which wasformed by Lokpal chairpersonPinaki Chandra Ghose, submit-ted its reports October 6, 2020."The committee has opined thatin the absence of any expressand substantive power of reviewin the Lokpal and LokayuktasAct, 2013, a request for review ofan order passed by a bench ofthe Lokpal of India cannot be en-tertained,” said the order issuedMonday.

Hence, it is notified that re-view petitions regarding an orderpassed by the bench of Lokpalof India will not be entertained,

it said. The committee, in its re-port, said that the central gov-ernment may be requested to con-sider the inclusion of power ofreview in the Lokpal andLokayuktas Act.In view of thefact that a large number of com-plainants are filing applicationsfor review of an order, the lack ofan express power of review inthe Act may act as a deterrent tothe dispensation of justice, itsaid. "Therefore, in order to ensurethat no injustice has occurred tothe complainant and in the in-terest of justice, it may be in thefitness of things to request the gov-ernment of India, at an appro-priate stage, to consider the in-clusion of the power of review onappropriate grounds, in the Lokpaland Lokayuktas Act 2013," thereport said.

The institution of Lokpal andLokayuktas has been establishedunder the Lokpal and LokayuktasAct, 2013 to enquire into allega-tions of corruption against cer-tain public functionaries. The ju-risdiction of review can only bederived from the statute and thus,if any order of review is passed,in the absence of any statutoryprovision empowering the same,it would be a nullity, being with-out jurisdiction, said the panel,which had held its meetingSeptember 29, citing a SupremeCourt order.

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, Oct 15: India Thursdayasserted that the union territoriesof Jammu and Kashmir andLadakh “have been, are, and would”remain an integral part of thecountry, insisting that China hasno locus standi to comment on itsinternal matters.

The comments by ExternalAffairs Ministry SpokespersonAnurag Srivastava came in response to China's contentionthat it does not recognise the unionterritory of Ladakh as well as the state of Arunachal Pradesh."Our position on this has alwaysbeen clear and consistent.

“The union territories of Jammuand Kashmir and Ladakh havebeen, are, and would remain an in-tegral part of India. China has nolocus standi to comment on India'sinternal matters,” Srivastava saidat a media briefing. “We hope thatcountries will not comment onIndia's internal matters, as muchas they expect the same of others,”he added. Srivastava also said thatArunachal Pradesh is an “integraland inalienable” part of India.“Our position on Arunachal Pradeshhas also been made clear several

times. Arunachal Pradesh is an in-tegral and inalienable part of India.This fact has also been clearly con-veyed to the Chinese side on severaloccasions, including at the high-est level,” he added. After DefenceMinister Rajnath Singh inaugu-rated a number of new bridges incertain border areas Monday, aChinese foreign ministry spokesperson said China does notrecognise the Ladakh union territory ‘illegally set up’ by Indiaas well as Arunachal Pradesh.

The Chinese spokesperson hadalso claimed that development ofborder infrastructure by India wasthe ‘root cause’ of tensions betweenthe two countries. On the borderstandoff in eastern Ladakh andthe outcome of the bilateral mili-tary talks, Srivastava referred to a

joint press statement issued bythe two armies after their dialogueOctober 12, calling the meeting“positive and constructive”.“Disengagement is a complexprocess that requires redeploy-ment of troops by each side to-wards their regular posts on theirrespective sides of the LAC,”Srivastava said. “To achieve this,the two sides will maintain thecurrent momentum of communi-cations based on the guidance ofour leadership to not to turn dif-ferences into disputes and worktowards a mutually acceptable so-lution for complete disengagementin all the friction areas along theLine of Actual Control(LAC) andrestoration of peace and tran-quility in the India-China borderareas,” he added.

China has no locus standi tocomment on Ladakh, J&K: MEA

HEALTH IS WEALTH

A man does exercises at Yamuna ghat amid hazy weather conditions, in New Delhi PTI PHOTO

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nationalFRIDAY | OCTOBER 16 | 2020 | BHUBANESWAR

Young and healthypeople may have towait till 2022 to getthe Covid-19 vaccineSOUMYA SWAMINATHAN | WHO CHIEF SCIENTIST

The Corps of Electronics andMechanical Engineers (EME) ofthe Indian Army commemoratedits 78th year of raising at theWestern Commandheadquarters at Chandimandirnear here Thursday

78TH EME CORPS DAY

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India isprominentlybecoming a

global educationhub and the NationalEducation Policy2020 is making surethe academicians will study in Indiaand stay in India. Soon, the worldwill come to India to learn

RAMESH POKHRIYAL |UNION EDUCATION MINISTER

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STEP TOWARDS HEALTHY LIFE

Delhi University students and Sulabh volunteers demostrate hand-washing techniques during a campaign to mark the Global Handwashing Day, in the backdrop of historic Taj Mahal, in Agra PTI PHOTO

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Srinagar, Oct 15: Mainstream po-litical parties in Jammu andKashmir Thursday held a meet-ing and formed an alliance forrestoration of the special status ofthe erstwhile state as it existed be-fore August 5 last year and also toinitiate a dialogue between allstakeholders in the issue.

The meeting was held at theresidence of National Conferencepresident Farooq Abdullah and at-tended by PDP president MehboobaMufti, Peoples Conference chairmanSajad Lone, Peoples Movementleader Javaid Mir and CPIM leaderMohammad Yousuf Tarigami.

Briefing reporters after the nearlytwo-hour meeting, Abdullah saidthe leaders decided to formalisethe alliance, that has been named'Peoples' Alliance for GupkarDeclaration'.

The National Conference pres-ident said the alliance will strive forrestoration of the constitutionalposition in respect of Jammu andKashmir as it existed before August5 last year.

"We shall struggle for restora-tion of what was snatched fromJammu Kashmir and Ladakh. Oursis a constitutional battle ... wewould strive for restoration of theconstitution (with regard to Jammuand Kashmir) as it existed on August5, 2019," he said. Abdullah said thealliance also seeks a dialogue be-tween all stakeholders for resolu-tion of the issue pertaining to

Jammu and Kashmir."We will be informing you about

the future course of action in duecourse," he added. NationalConference vice president OmarAbdullah and other senior lead-ers of the party were also presentat the meeting. JKPCC chiefGhulam Ahmad Mir could not at-tend the meeting "due to medicalreasons" A spokesperson of theparty said Mir had conveyed his in-ability to attend the meeting toFarooq Abdullah as the Congressleader was advised by doctors to gethimself medically examined in-cluding a COVID screening.

Abdullah said the meeting con-gratulated the PDP president onher release from 14 months of de-tention which they said was "com-pletely illegal and unjustified".

On August 4 last year, all majorpolitical parties in Kashmir, ex-cept BJP, had met at the residenceof Farooq Abdullah amidst un-certainty and tension in the erst-while state as the Centre had rushedadditional paramilitary forces therewhile asking all tourists includ-ing Amarnath pilgrims to leavethe Valley as soon as possible.

The joint statement issued bythe political parties, expressingconcern over the situation, came tobe known as the GupkarDeclaration.

The Centre revoked the specialconstitutional status of the state andalso bifurcated it into two union ter-ritories -- Jammu and Kashmir,and Ladakh.

PM CALLS FOR SCALING UP OF COVID TESTING AGENCIES

New Delhi, Oct 15: Calling for con-tinued vigilance and a high stateof preparedness against the coro-navirus pandemic, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on Thursday di-rected health authorities to scaleup COVID-19 testing and sero-sur-veys and said the facility to gettested regularly and speedily at alow cost must be available to all atthe earliest.

Chairing a review meeting ofthe research and vaccine deploy-ment ecosystem against theCOVID-19 pandemic, the primeminister also underscored theneed for continuous and rigorousscientific testing and validation oftraditional medicine treatments.He appreciated the efforts ofMinistry of AYUSH for conduct-ing evidence-based research andproviding reliable solutions inthis difficult time, an official state-ment said.

"The prime minister reiteratedthe the country's resolve to providecost-effective, easily available andscalable solutions for testing, vac-cine and medication, not only forIndia but for the entire world," itsaid. At the meeting, also attendedby Union Health Minister HarshVardhan, NITI Aayog Member(Health), Principal ScientificAdvisor, senior scientists and otherofficials, Modi called for continuedvigilance and a high state of pre-paredness against the pandemic.Modi also appreciated efforts made

by Indian vaccine developers andmanufacturers to rise to theCOVID-19 challenge and commit-ted to continue government fa-cilitation and support for all suchefforts.

No messagesent to Pakfor talks: MEA

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, Oct 15: India Thursdayrubbished the claim by PakistanPrime Minister Imran Khan's ad-viser on national security thatNew Delhi has sent a message toIslamabad indicating a desire fortalks between the two countries.

"As regards the purported mes-sage, let me make it clear that nosuch message was sent from ourside," Spokesperson in the Ministryof External Affairs AnuragSrivastava said. He was replyingto questions at a media briefing onremarks by Pakistan PM's advisoron national security Moeed Yusuf

during aninterview tonews web-site TheWire thatIndia hassent a mes-sage toPakistanwith a desirefor conver-sation.

In the interview, Yusuf com-mented on a variety of issues in-cluding on Kashmir. "We haveseen reports on the interview bya senior Pakistani official to anIndian media outlet. He has com-mented on India's internal matters,"Srivastava said.

"As always, this is Pakistan's ef-fort to divert attention from do-mestic failures of the present gov-ernment and mislead its domesticconstituents by pulling India intoheadlines on a daily basis," headded. Srivastava said the offi-cial is well advised to restrict hiscounsel to his establishment andnot to comment on India's do-mestic policy.

Srivastava saidthe official is

well advised torestrict his

counsel to hisestablishment &not to comment

on India'sdomestic policy

Flood situation grim in K’taka PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Bangalore, Oct 15: The flood sit-uation in Karnataka worsened fur-ther Thursday with several areasin the northern parts of the stateinundated due to torrential rains andrelease of water from major dams.

According to the Karnataka StateNatural Disaster ManagementCentre, the floodgates of all themajor dams have been opened re-sulting in water gushing into villagesand formation of islands at differ-ent places. Dams which were filledto the brim were Linganamakki,Supa, Varahi, Harangi, Hemavathi,Krishna Raja Sagar, Kabini, Bhadra,Tungabhadra, Ghataprabha,Malaprabha, Almatti andNarayanapura.

An overflowing river Bhima haswreaked havoc in Kalaburagi andYadgir districts whereas waterlevel in Krishna river at Devasugurin Raichur district is rising at analarming level. The Central Water

Commission too warned that RiverBhima at Deongaon Bridge inAfzalpur Taluk of Kalaburagi wasrising and "is expected to cross dan-ger level by this evening".

The river in Yadgir districtwas expected to go very nearhigh flood level by Thursday af-ternoon. The Commission hasalso stated that though the waterlevel of River Kagna at Malkhedin Kalaburagi District was re-ceding, it continued to flow at analarming level.

According to sources in theKarnataka Disaster ManagementAuthority, as many as 515 animals losttheir lives while 4,782 people havebeen shifted to 36 relief camps openedby the district administration.

The NDRF team rescued peoplestranded at Harag adde,Karakalagadde in Raichur in thetemporary island due to the suddenrelease of water from the damacross Krishna river due to the ris-ing level.

Theatres open after seven months in nCoV shadowPRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, Oct 15: Cinemas inseveral parts of the country openedafter almost seven months onThursday, ushering in a new eraof ‘contactless' movie watching inthe shadow of a pandemic with al-ternate seating, 50 per cent capac-ity and packaged snacks.

While theatres and multiplexeswill remain closed in states likeMaharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Keralaand Chhattisgarh, they will open inseveral places, including Delhi andparts of Madhya Pradesh andGujarat, with stringent dos anddon'ts in keeping with the newCOVID-19 normal.

While PVR will resume com-mercial screenings on Friday,Cinepolis and INOX started show-ing films from Thursday with an em-

phasis on safety measures, includ-ing stringent sanitising and socialdistancing. “Yes, you heard thatright! We are open now! See you atthe big screen! Cinemas will not

be functional in a few states untilfurther notice,” Cinepolis Indiasaid in a tweet.

“Sanitisation and deep clean-ing with WHO recommended chem-

icals is done at regular intervalsto keep your surroundings safe,” thetweet further read. PVR Cinemas,India's largest film exhibitor with845 screens in 176 properties across71 cities, on Wednesday said 10states and four union territorieshave given their go-ahead for the re-opening of cinemas.

Accordingly, PVR started oper-ations in 487 screens. The hope isis that other states will soon givetheir green signal too. The Ministryof Home Affairs allowed theatres toreopen from Thursday with up to50 per cent of their seating capac-ity. They have to strictly follow thecentral government's Standard op-erating procedures (SOPs).

The SOPs mandated by the Uniongovernment include one seat dis-tance in halls, 50 per cent capacity,masks at all time, proper ventilation

and air conditioner temperaturesettings at above 23 degrees Celsius.Besides mandatory temperaturechecks, masks, pedal-operated touch-free hand sanitisers, multiplexeshave gone digital with e-tickets in-stead of traditional paper tickets,self-check in with QR codes, shar-ing of the auditorium's seat chartand location of the seat and onlineordering of food and beverages.

Though the MHA has given itsgo-ahead to resuming cinema andtheatre activities under Unlock5.0, it has left it to individualstates to take a final call. Withproducers reluctant to releasenew films, cinemas have to dealwith the double whammy ofCOVID fears and old content andhave their fingers crossed as theyrolled out a different kind of moviegoing experience.

Shatrughan’s son, Sharad’sdaughter figure in Cong’s 2nd listPRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, Oct 15: The CongressThursday released its second list of49 candidates for the BiharAssembly elections, fieldingShatrughan Sinha's son Luv Sinhafrom Bankipur and Sharad Yadav'sdaughter Subhashini Yadav fromBihariganj seats.

The party also nominated for-m e r M P K a l i Pa n d e y f ro mKuchaikote assembly constituency.Both Subhashini and Kali Pandeyhad joined the Congress onlyWednesday. Pandey has switchedover to the Congress from theLok Janshakti Party (LJP).

The list of candidates releasedon Thursday pertains to the sec-ond and third phase of polls to be

held November 3 and 7. It alsonominated Pravesh Kumar Mishrafor the ensuing bye-election tothe Valmiki Nagar Parliamentaryconstituency. The Congress had re-leased its first list of 21 candi-dates for the Bihar polls startingOctober 28. The party is contest-ing a total of 70 seats as part of the'Mahagathbandhan' in Bihar, withRJD leading the coalition.

DELHI-NCR SHROUDED BY HAZE

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, Oct 15: The nationalcapital's air quality hit an eight-month low on Thursday with stub-ble burning accounting for only sixper cent of the city's PM2.5 con-centration, according to govern-ment agencies. NASA's satelliteimagery showed a large cluster

of farm fires near Amritsar, Patiala,Tarn Taran, and Firozpur inPunjab, and Ambala and Rajpurain Haryana. Union EnvironmentMinister Prakash Javadekar hasurged the Punjab government tocurb stubble burning.

The Ministry of Earth Sciences'air quality monitor, SAFAR, saidthe wind direction was partly

favourable for the transport ofsmoke from farm fires and "hence,an increase in contribution inDelhi's PM 2.5 (concentration) isexpected". Delhi recorded a 24-hour average air quality index(AQI) of 312. The last time the airquality hit such a poor level wasin February with an AQI 320. The24-hour average AQI was 276 onWednesday, which falls in the 'poor'category. It was 300 Tuesday, 261on Monday, 216 Sunday and 221on Saturday. Javadekar flaggedoff 50 inspection teams of theCentral Pollution Control Board(CPCB) for field visits in Delhi-NCR to keep a watch on pollutionhot spots during the winter seasoneven as a layer of smoky haze lin-gered over the region with the airquality hitting 'very poor' levelsThursday.

‘nCoV doublingtime improves’The doubling time of the coron-avirus infection has sharplyimproved from 25.5 days in mid-August to nearly 73 days now, theHealth ministry said on Thursday.Doubling time for COVID-19 is thenumber of days it takes for thecount of cases to double. In a state-ment, the Health ministry said81,514 new recoveries were added inthe last 24 hour. With this, the totalnumber of recoveries are nearly 64Lakh (63,83,441). "India has come along way from registering a dou-bling rate of 25.5 days in mid Augustto now registering a doubling rate ofnearly 73 days (72.8 days)," it said.

SMOG RETURNS

J&K partiescome together for special status

It must bekept in mindthat the LJP

has never been a fanof Nitish Kumar’sstyle of politics. Hehas harmed theDalits by creating a sub-group ofMahadalits for his own politicalgains

CHIRAG PASWAN | LJP PRESIDENT

The Congressgot restless asthe Modi

government in thelast parliamentsession gavefarmers the freedomto sell their crop in any city orvillage, to any person ororaganisation

SMRITI IRANI | UNION MINISTER

Vivek’s housesearched by copsBangalore: The Bangalorepolice Thursday raided Hindifilm actor Vivek Oberoi'sresidence in Mumbai insearch of his brother-in-lawAditya Alva, who is wanted in a drug case, police sources here said.Aditya Alva was abscondingin a drug case registered atCottonpet police station, atop police officer said. "Vivek oberoi is his relativeand we got some informationthat Alva is there...So a courtwarrant was obtained and theCentral Crime Branch team has gone to his house in Mumbai," theofficer told PTI. Aditya Alva isthe son of former ministerlate Jeevaraj Alva.

‘Ayurveda forCOVID-19’New Delhi: The potentialrole of Ayurveda in themanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic will be thefocus of this year's'Ayurveda Day', the AyushMinistry announcedThursday. The AyurvedaDay is observed every yearon the day of DhanwantriJayanti since 2016. Thisyear it falls November 13.

Man set on fire Panaji: The North Districtpolice in Goa Thursdayfiled a case of murder, aftera middle-aged man whowas set ablaze by unknownpersons near Porviorim, aPanaji suburb, succumbedto burn injuries at agovernment hospital. TheOpposition has nowdemanded the promptarrest of the culprits, evenas Chief Minister PramodSawant has urged thepolice to swiftly investigatethe crime.

BIHAR POLLSThe Congress

Thursday released itssecond list of 49

candidates for the BiharAssembly elections

P10FRIDAY | OCTOBER 16 | 2020 | BHUBANESWAR

internationalThe global economy isexperiencing a

K-shaped recovery, as advancedeconomies have been able toprovide support while the poorest countries are facing an increasingly desperate recessionDAVID MALPASS | GROUP PRESIDENT, WORLD BANK

World Health Organisation (WHO)DG Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesushas urged the leaders across theworld to maintain peace and focuson combatting against coronavirus.In a tweet, he wrote, "Shanti"which means peace in Hindi

WHO CHIEF TWEETS IN ‘HINDI’

cmyk

cmyk

Most of theCOVID-19spread is

happening inhomes, indoorspaces and incommunities notcomplying with protectionmeasures. These measures aremeant to keep us all ahead of thecurve and to flatten its course

HANS KLUGE | BELGIAN PHYSICIAN

of theday uote

We believeTibet’s futurewill be better.

The US should stopinterfering inChina’s internalaffairs under thepretext of Tibet or destabilising it.China will take all necessarymeasures to uphold our interests

ZHAO LIJIAN | FOREIGN MINISTRY

SPOKESMAN, CHINA

We have aCommonwealthdefinition in

terms of hotspots,and that's a rollingaverage of less than10 cases. Victoria isbelow that rolling average

GREG HUNT | HEALTH MINISTER, AUSTRALIA

5,600 Afghan families displacedLashkar Gah: Renewedfighting in southernAfghanistan's Helmandprovince between Talibaninsurgents and governmentforces has forced more than5,600 families to flee theirhomes, local officials saidThursday. Omar Zwak, theprovincial governor'sspokesman, said Afghansecurity forces were fightingto regain areas lost to theTaliban over the weekend,while the local governmentwas scrambling to providefood and shelter to thegrowing number of civilianscoming from nearby districtsto the provincial capital,Lashkar Gah.

Oli sparks speculationKathmandu: Nepal's PrimeMinister KP Sharma Oli hasreshuffled his Cabinet,keeping the key defenceportfolio with himself, in abid to strengthen his gripwithin the fractious rulingparty and to allow smoothfunctioning of hisgovernment. Oli has inductedthree new ministers,including Finance MinisterBishnu Poudel, and changedthe portfolio of Deputy PrimeMinister and DefenceMinister Ishwor Pokharel.

Cops raid mediatycoon's officeHong Kong: Hong Kong policeraided the private offices ofmedia tycoon and pro-democracy activist Jimmy LaiThursday, according to Lai'saide. Lai's aide Mark Simonwrote in a post on Twitterthat 14 police officers visitedLai's office and confiscateddocuments. Lai, 71, is anoutspoken pro-democracyfigure who regularlycriticises China'sauthoritarian rule and HongKong's government.

S’pore, HK agreeon travel bubbleSingapore: Singapore andHong Kong have agreed on abilateral air travel bubble,which will exempt travellersfrom the mandatoryquarantine upon arrival, asthe rate of coronavirusinfection declines in bothregional aviation hubs. Toavail the flights, travellerswill have to test negative inthe polymerase chainreaction (PCR) test forCOVID-19, Singapore'sMinistry of Transport (MOT)Thursday. Travellers underthe bubble will not besubject to mandatoryquarantining, the MOTrelease said.

SHORT TAKES

DOGS’ DAY OUT

A man takes a morning walk with his dogs in Tokyo, Japan REUTERS

REUTERS

Washington D.C.: The 2020 USpresidential election could be themost closely contested in recentmemory due to a deeply dividedelectorate and the possibility thatPresident Donald Trump will chal-lenge widely used mail-in ballots,claiming without evidence they arefraudulent.

Some election law experts areconcerned the combination of fac-tors could lead to a crisis in whichboth political parties claim to havewon the same state, a phenomenonknown as “dueling electors.”

Below are details of how thatmight play out.

What are electors?The US president is selected by

538 electors, known as the ElectoralCollege, rather than the popularvote. Electors are apportioned amongthe states based on population andthe popular vote in each state typ-ically determines which candidatereceives that state’s electors.

The Constitution and the 1887Electoral Count Act govern thecounting of electoral votes and anyrelated disputes. The electors willmeet on Dec. 14 to cast their voteswhich are then counted by Congresson Jan. 6 in a process overseen byVice President Mike Pence in his roleas president of the Senate.What are dueling electors?

States with close contests be-tween Republican Trump and hisDemocratic rival Joe Biden couldproduce competing slates of electors,one certified by the governors andthe other by the legislature.

The risk of this happening isheightened in the battlegroundstates of Michigan, North Carolina,Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, whichhave Democratic governors andRepublican-controlled legislatures.

Some election law experts areconcerned that an unprecedentedvolume of mailed-in votes and legalchallenges will delay the outcomeof the election for weeks, creatingan extended period of uncertainty.

Trump has repeatedly said theelection is rigged and made un-founded attacks on mail-in voting,which tends to favor Democrats.

If early returns show a Trumplead, experts say the president couldpress Republican-controlled legis-

latures to appoint electors favor-able to him, claiming the initialvote count reflects the true out-come.

Governors in those same statescould end up backing a separateslate of electors pledged to Biden ifthe f inal count showed theDemocratic candidate had won.

Both sets of electors would meetand vote on Dec. 14 and the com-peting results would be sent toCongress.Set o f e lectors who would prevail

Both chambers could agree toaccept one slate of electors, whichwould almost certainly put the mat-ter to rest.

The chambers could also split,which is more l ikely i f theRepublicans retain control of theSenate and Democrats hold ontotheir House majority.

If lawmakers cannot agree on aset of electors, the country will finditself in unchartered territory.

The Electoral Count Act, often de-scribed by academics as “unintel-ligible,” seems to favor the slate ofelectors certified by the state’s gov-ernor, according to Ned Foley, aprofessor at Ohio State UniversityMoritz College of Law.

But Foley notes that some schol-ars and an analysis by theCongressional Research Servicehave rejected that conclusion.

‘DUELING ELECTORS’ POSE RISK OF US VOTE DEADLOCKIf early returns show a Trump lead, experts say he could press Republican-controlled legislatures to

appoint electors favorable to him, claiming the initial vote count reflects the true outcome

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Ankara, Oct 15: More than 40,000healthcare professionals havetested positive for the novel coro-navirus in Turkey since the pan-demic hit the country, HealthMinister Fahrettin Koca said.Addressing a press briefingWednesday, Koca also said that sofar 107 medical staff have suc-cumbed to the disease, reportsXinhua news agency.

"The number of deaths (amonghealthcare professionals) has alsoincreased recently," Koca said ata press conference.

Also on Wednesday, Turkey re-ported 1,671 new COVID-19 casesand 57 fatalities, raising the totaloverall caseload to 340,450 and thedeath toll to 9,014, the HealthMinistry announced.

Turkish health professionalsconducted 115,328 tests in the past24 hours, bringing the overallnumber of tests to 11,961,670.

A total of 1,396 patients recov-ered in the last 24 hours, raisingthe tally of recoveries to 298,368 inTurkey since the outbreak.

The rate of pneumonia in in-fected patients is 5.9 per cent andthe number of seriously ill pa-tients is 1,418. Turkey reportedthe first Covid-19 case March 11.

Over 40,000 Turkishhealth professionalstest COVID positive

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Bangkok, Oct 15: Thai authoritiesdeclared a strict new state of emer-gency for the capital Thursday, a dayafter a student-led protest againstthe country’s traditional estab-lishment saw an extraordinary mo-ment in which demonstrators heck-led a royal motorcade.

After the pre-dawn declaration,riot police moved in to clear outdemonstrators who after a day of ral-lies and confrontation had gath-ered outside Prime Minister PrayuthChan-ocha's office to push their de-mands, which include the formergeneral's stepping down, constitu-tional changes and reform of themonarchy.

Several top leaders of the protestmovement were taken into custody,

with one later declaring on hisFacebook page that he had beendenied access to a lawyer andwas being forced onto a heli-copter and taken to a city in thecountry's north.

Police said they had made 22 ar-rests. The text of the emergency dec-laration said it was needed because“certain groups of perpetrators in-tended to instigate an untowardincident and movement in theBangkok area by way of variousmethods and via different chan-nels, including causing obstruc-tion to the royal motorcade.”

The protest Wednesday inBangkok's historic district, not farfrom glittering temples and royalpalaces, was the third major gath-ering by student-led activists whohave been pushing the boundaries

of what is considered acceptable —and legal — language by publiclyquestioning the role of Thailand'smonarchy in the nation's powerstructure.

Thailand's royal family has longbeen considered sacrosanct and apillar of Thai identity. King MahaVajiralongkorn and other key mem-ber of the royal family are pro-tected by a lese majeste law thathas regularly been used to silencecritics who risk up to 15 years inprison if deemed to have insultedthe institution.

The protest — held on the an-niversary of a 1973 student-led up-rising against a military dictator-ship — was complicated by thepresence of royalist counter pro-testers who had gathered both toshow support for the governmentand to greet the royal family asthey travelled to and from a religiousceremony in the area.

That led to a moment capturedin photos and video that circulatedwidely on social media in whichwhat appeared to be protesters ges-tured and shouted just meters (feet)from the royal motorcade. Such ac-tions are unprecedented in Thailand,where those waiting for a royalmotorcade regularly sit on theground or prostrate themselves.

Some experts say a line may havebeen crossed.

Thailand declares emergencyin Bangkok amid protests

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Bishkek, Oct 15: Following weeksof unrest that resulted from a dis-puted election, Kyrgyz PresidentSooronbai Jeenbekov Thursdayresigned, saying that he made thedecision in order to restore stabil-ity in the country. In a statement,the Jeenbekov said: "I do not wantto go down in Kyrgyzstan's historyas a President who shed blood andshot at his own citizens.

"The military and security forceswill be obliged to use their weaponsto protect the state residence. "Bloodwill be inevitably shed. I urge bothsides not to fall for provocations."

The President also called onnewly-appointed Prime MinisterSadyr Japarov and other oppositionpoliticians to "take their support-ers away" from the capital Bishkek

in order to restore peace in thecity, the BBC reported.

Jeenbekov is the fifth Presidentof the Central Asian country, whichgained independence from theSoviet Union in 1991. He came topower November 24, 2017.

Kyrgyzstan has been gripped byunrest sparked by allegations ofvote buying and impropriety inthe October 4 parliamentary elec-tions, in which 16 political partiesparticipated, Xinhua news agency.

Preliminary results showed thatfour parties crossed the 7% thresh-old to enter Parliament.

Some parties which failed tomeet the threshold organized na-tionwide protests the next day, de-manding the annulment of theelections and claiming gross vio-lations. The protests led to clashesbetween the police and protesters.

REUTERS

Paris, Oct 15: The French gov-ernment Wednesday declared apublic health state of emergency, giv-ing officials greater powers to im-pose new measures to contain thespread of COVID-19. “The COVID-19 epidemic constitutes a publichealth disaster which, by its char-acter and its severity, puts at riskthe health of the population,” thegovernment said in a statementannouncing the state of emergency.

“It justifies the declaration of astate of emergency so that measurescan be adopted ... which are strictlyproportionate to the public healthrisks.” The statement did not saywhat action the government wouldtake, but the adoption of a state ofemergency gives the authoritiesstatutory powers to impose toughmeasures.

President Emmanuel Macron isexpected to detail the measuresbeing planned when he gives an

interview on national television ataround 8 pm (1800 GMT) Wednesday.

French media reported that anight curfew between 9 pm and 6am was one of the measuresMacron would unveil. The Frenchgovernment previously declared apublic health state of emergencyin March this year, when hospi-talisations caused by the epidemicwere near their peak. At the time,the authorities used their extrapowers to order people to stay athome except for essential work,buying food or taking one hour ofdaily exercise.

CURFEW IMPOSEDFrance will deploy 12,000 police

officers to enforce a curfew thatstarts Friday night and plans tospend another 1 billion euros help-ing businesses hit by the new re-strictions. French PM Jean Castexand other government ministerslaid out new rules Thursday aimedat what he called a “sudden ac-celeration” of infections.

Interior Minister GeraldDarmanin says 12,000 police officerswould be deployed between 9 pm and6 am to enforce the new curfew, im-posed in Paris and eight other cities.

REUTERS

London, Oct 15: London, theworld’s international financialcapital, will enter a tighter COVID-19 lockdown from midnight Fridayas Prime Minister Boris Johnsonseeks to tackle a swiftly acceler-ating second coronavirus wave.

The respiratory pandemic,which emerged in China last yearand has killed over a million peo-ple worldwide, is spreading inmost parts of Britain, whose of-ficial death toll of 43,155 is thehighest in Europe.

Anger, though, is rising over theeconomic, social and health costsof the biggest curtailment of free-doms since wartime. One formergovernment adviser warned somepeople would have trouble clothingtheir children soon.

Health Secretary Matt Hancocksaid London, which has a popu-lation of 9 million, as well as theadjacent, heavily populated countyof Essex, would be put on “high”alert level, up from “medium”, at

one minute past midnight (23:01GMT Friday).

The main impact of the moveto “high” is that people cannotmeet other households sociallyindoors in any setting, for exam-ple at home or in a restaurant.Travel should be reduced wherepossible, Hancock said.

“Things will get worse beforethey get better,” Hancock said.“But I know that there are brighterskies and calmer seas ahead - thatthe ingenuity of science will finda way through and until then wemust come together.”

Britain’s move to halt socialis-ing in its capital means thatLondon and Paris - Europe’s tworichest cities - are shortly to be liv-ing under the shadow of state-imposed restrictions as the secondwave of the outbreak spreadsthrough Europe.

President Emmanuel Macronannounced night curfews for fourweeks from Saturday in Paris andother major cities.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

San Francisco, Oct 15: Morethan 50,000 California utility cus-tomers were without power andothers around the state were urgedto conserve electricity Thursdayamid a fall heat wave that broughtanother round of extreme wildfire danger.

The National Weather Serviceissued heat advisories throughFriday for temperatures in the90s and even triple digits in manyparts of the state.

Red-flag warnings for extremefire danger were in place for muchof the San Francisco Bay Areawhere winds bringing hot, drygusts of up to 55 mph (88.5 kph)were expected to pose a threat ofsparking new blazes in a region thatalready has seen some of the worstwildfires in state history.

A brush fire erupted earlyThursday near the inland SouthernCalifornia city of Redlands, trig-gering a small evacuation as itgrew to about 100 acres (40hectares), but was about 30% con-tained before dawn. The Pacific Gas& Electric utility began shuttingoff power Wednesday evening tocustomers in portions of 24 coun-ties, mainly in the Sierra Nevadaand the San Francisco Bay Area.

London goes intostricter lockdown

DIFFICULT WINTER AHEAD

California heat wave promptspower shutdowns

France declares health emergency

Kyrghyz Prez steps down after unrest

Things will get worse beforethey get better. But I knowthat there are brighter skiesand calmer seas ahead…thatthe ingenuity of science willfind a way through and untilthen we must come togetherMATT HANCOCK | HEALTH SECRETARY, UK

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Washington, Oct 15: Facing thetwin task of fighting the coron-avirus pandemic today and build-ing a better tomorrow, the world isexperiencing a new Bretton Woodsmoment, IMF Managing DirectorKristalina Georgieva said Thursday.

Addressing the annual meetingof the International MonetaryFund's Board of Governors, shesaid that what was true at BrettonWoods, when allies at the end ofWorld War II gathered for a con-ference to create the institutionsthat would use economic coopera-tion to prevent future conflicts, re-mains true today.

"Today we face a new BrettonWoods moment. A pandemic that hasalready cost more than a millionlives. An economic calamity that willmake the world economy 4.4%

smaller this year and strip an esti-mated $11 trillion of output by nextyear. And untold human desperationin the face of huge disruption andrising poverty for the first time indecades,” she said.

"Once again, we face two mas-sive tasks: to fight the crisistoday and build a better tomor-row,” she said.

Prudent macroeconomic poli-cies and strong institutions are crit-ical for growth, jobs and improvedliving standards, she said.

Strong medium-term frameworksfor monetary, fiscal and financial poli-cies, as well as reforms to boosttrade, competitiveness and pro-ductivity can help create confidencefor policy action now while build-ing much-needed resilience for thefuture, she added.

"We know what action must betaken right now. A durable eco-

nomic recovery is only possible ifwe beat the pandemic.

Health measuresmust remain a

priority. I urgeyou to supportproductionand distribu-

tion of effectivetherapies and

vaccines to ensurethat all countries

have access,"

Georgieva said.She urged countries to continue

support for workers and busi-nesses until a durable exit from thehealth crisis.

"We have seen global fiscal ac-tions of $12 trillion. Major centralbanks have expanded balance sheetsby $7.5 trillion. These synchronisedmeasures have prevented the de-structive macro financial feedbackwe saw in previous crises," she said.

"But almost all countries are stillhurting, especially emerging mar-ket and developing economies. Andwhile the global banking systementered the crisis with high capitaland liquidity buffers, there is aweak tail of banks in many inemerging markets. We must takemeasures to prevent the build-up offinancial risks over the mediumterm,” she said.

The IMF expects 2021 debt lev-

els to go up significantly – to around125% of GDP in advancedeconomies, 65% of GDP in emerg-ing markets; and 50% of GDP inlow-income countries, Georgievafurther said.

The fund is providing debt re-lief to its poorest members and,with the World Bank, they supportextension by the G20 of the DebtService Suspension Initiative.

"Beyond this, where debt is un-sustainable, it should be restruc-tured without delay. We shouldmove towards greater debt trans-parency and enhanced creditorcoordination. I am encouraged byG-20 discussions on a Commonframework for Sovereign DebtResolution as well as on our callfor improving the architecturefor sovereign debt resolution, in-cluding private sector participa-tion,” she said.

P11

businessFRIDAY | OCTOBER 16 | 2020 | BHUBANESWAR

Indian bankingsector needs to use

emerging technologies suchas Artificial Intelligence andmachine learning forcorporate loans for qualitylendingKRISHNAMURTHY SUBRAMANIAN | CHIEF ECONOMIC ADVISOR

The farm sector has been a starperformer in India's pandemic-hit economy, with 3.4% growthin April-June quarter of 2020-21fiscal, MoS for AgricultureParshottam Rupala has said

‘FARM SECTOR STAR PERFORMERDURING PANDEMIC’

cmyk

cmyk

PM Modi gaveus a clarioncall when he

talked about theAatmanirbharBharat, or self-reliant India.Becoming more self reliant does notmean going back to the Nehruvianera of closing our economy andimport substitution

ANURAG SINGH THAKUR | MOS FOR FINANCE

of theday uote

By leveragingtechnology tobring in

efficient andintelligent tools todrive demand-driven and future-relevant skilling programs, theassessment app will ensureseamless convergence andcoordination across variousschemes and programs as a singlepoint interface

MN PANDEY | SKILL DEVELOPMENT AND

ENTREPRENEURSHIP MINISTER

We have tomake surethat we

aggressively testand aggressivelycontain. I think wehave shown that thisis possible in at least the corporateworld, in many of our campuses, butwe need to scale it up

KIRAN MAZUMDAR-SHAW |EXECUTIVE CHAIRPERSON, BIOCON

Import of ACs bannedNew Delhi: The governmentThursday banned imports ofair conditioners withrefrigerants with a view topromote domesticmanufacturing and cutimports of non essentialitems. "Import policy of airconditioners with refrigerants...is amended from free toprohibited," directorategeneral of foreign trade said ina notification. The governmentis taking steps to promotedomestic manufacturing andreduce import bill of non-essential goods.

Lendingkart’sincome doubles New Delhi: Fintech companyLendingkart Thursday said ithas disbursed funds worthover `2,500 crore to microand small enterprises, and itsgross income increased by113 per cent to `465 crore inFY20 over the previous fiscal.Lendingkart Finance Ltd(Lendingkart group's NBFCarm) disbursed about 53,000loans in FY20, about 85 percent increase over the lastyear, it said.

Multiplexes roll out offersNew Delhi: Multiplexes andtheir partners are rolling outa number of offers to woofilm goers and rev up theirbusiness that fell silent forseven months on coronaviruspandemic woes. Movie hallshave reopened or arereopening in several places,including the national capitaland parts of MadhyaPradesh, this week, withstringent dos and don'ts inkeeping with COVID-19-triggered new normal ways.

Toyota rolls outspecial offersNew Delhi: Toyota KirloskarMotor (TKM) Thursday said ithas launched special offersfor salaried people from bothgovernment and privateorganisations, ahead offestive season. As part of theinitiative, the company isproviding flexible financeoptions, including a three-month EMI (equated monthlyinstalment) holiday, toprospective customers. "AtToyota, we always look forways to enable that bigpurchase decision withattractive offers for differentsegments of buyers," TKMSenior Vice-President (Salesand Service) Naveen Sonisaid in a statement.

SHORT TAKES

World facing new Bretton Woods moment: IMF MDWe have seenglobal fiscalactions of $12

trillion. Major centralbanks haveexpanded balancesheets by $7.5 trillion.These synchronisedmeasures haveprevented thedestructive macrofinancial feedback wesaw inpreviouscrisesKRISTALINAGEORGIEVAI MD, IMF

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, Oct 15: The Central gov-ernment will borrow up to ̀ 1.1 lakhcrore on behalf of the states tobridge the shortfall in GST collec-tions, the Finance Ministry saidThursday. A slowdown in the econ-omy since last fiscal has resulted ina drop in the Goods and Services Tax(GST) collections, upsetting thebudgets of states which had givenup their right to levy local taxessuch as sales tax or VAT when GSTwas introduced in July 2017.

To make up for the shortfall, bor-rowing from the market was pro-posed.

In a statement, the Union FinanceMinistry said states were offered aspecial window to borrow ̀ 1.1 lakhcrore over and above their exist-ing limits, to bridge the shortfall.

"Under the Special Window, theestimated shortfall of `1.1 lakhcrore (assuming all States join) willbe borrowed by Government ofIndia in appropriate tranches," thestatement said. "The amount soborrowed will be passed on to theStates as a back-to-back loan in lieuof GST Compensation Cess re-leases."

The release, however, did not say

who will service the interest andprincipal payments.

The Centre borrowing on behalfof states is likely to ensure that asingle rate of borrowing is chargedand this would also be easy to ad-minister.

The borrowing, the statementsaid, "will not have any impact onthe fiscal deficit of the Governmentof India."

"The amounts will be reflected asthe capital receipts of the StateGovernments and as part of the fi-nancing of its respective fiscaldeficits," it said.

Borrowing of the shortfall bythe Centre will avoid differentialrates of interest that individualstates may be charged and will bean administratively easier arrange-ment, it added.

"It may also be clarified that theGeneral Government (States +Centre) borrowings will not in-crease by this step," it said. "TheStates that get the benefit from theSpecial Window are likely to borrowa considerably lesser amount fromthe additional borrowing facility of2% of GSDP (from 3% to 5%) underthe Aatma Nirbhar Package."

When the GST was introduced inJuly 2017, states were promised a14% incremental revenue over theirlast tax receipts in the first fiveyears of the GST rollout. This wasto be done through a levy of a cessor surcharge on luxury and singoods, but the collections on thiscount have fallen short with theslowdown in the economy sincelast fiscal.

To make up for this, the Centresuggested that the states can borrowagainst future compensation re-ceipts.

The Finance Ministry had earlierthis week stated that 21 states haveaccepted one of the two borrow-ing options suggested by the Centre.

GSTSHORTFALL Centre to borrow `1.1L cr

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi , Oct 15 : TheDepartment of Telecom (DoT) hasurged the space department and de-fence ministry to vacate airwavesin the medium and high rangespectrum bands for rolling out 5Gservices, according to sources. Theissue was discussed in a meetingof a committee formed under thechairmanship of Cabinet SecretaryRajiv Gauba to resolve spectrum re-lated issues, they added.

Differences among the DoT,Department of Space (DoS) andthe defence ministry have led todelay in rollout of 5G services inthe country.

The government had set a targetto launch 5G services by 2020 butsources said the auction of spec-trum can be held only in early 2021if the issues are resolved in time.

The DoT has requested the de-fence ministry to vacate 100 mega-hertz (Mhz) of spectrum in the fre-quency band of 3300-3400 Mhz anduse frequencies in the 3000-3100Mhz band.

It has urged the DoS to vacatespectrum in the frequency bandof 3600-3700 Mhz, the sources said.

"The DoT is now looking for 400Mhz of contiguous spectrum inthe medium band which can be ef-ficiently utilised by telecom oper-ators to meet standard broadbandspeed for 5G services," a governmentsource told PTI.

E-mailed queries sent to the DoT,DoS and the defence ministry in thisregard did not elicit an immedi-ate response.

The Telecom Re gulatoryAuthority of India (Trai) has givenprice recommendation only onspectrum in the 3300-3600 Mhz bandfor the next round of auction basedon reference sought by the DoT.

Trai has recommended aprice of `492 crore per mega-hertz for spectrum in the 3300-3600 Mhz band.

Telecom operators interested inbuying radiowaves for 5G serviceswill have to shell out a minimumof `9,840 crore on pan-India basisto buy spectrum in the 3,300-3,600Mhz band as Trai has suggested thatit "should be put to auction in theblock size of 20 MHz".

According to technical experts,a telecom operator will need atleast 80-100 Mhz of spectrum inthe 3300-3600 Mhz band to achieve5G standard.

Bharti Airtel has said it will notbid for this spectrum at the Trai-recommended price as companieswill need to shell out about ̀ 50,000crore to acquire decent quantity offrequencies in this band.

"The scope of the committeeunder the cabinet secretary hasnow been expanded to discuss allspectrum bands including V-bandthat can be used for mobile serv-ices and their prices," anothersource said.

5G SERVICES

DoT urges spacedepartment, defenceto vacate spectrum

A slowdown in the economy since last fiscal has resulted in adrop in the Goods andServices Tax (GST) collections, upsettingthe budgets of stateswhich had given up theirright to levy local taxes

AGENCIES

New Delhi, Oct 15: After con-tracting for six straight months,India's exports rose 5.99% to $27.58billion in September on account ofgrowth in shipments of drugs andpharmaceuticals and readymadegarments, as per the government datareleased Thursday. Exports stoodat $26.02 billion in September 2019.

The country’s imports contracted19.6% to $30.31 billion in September.It was $37.69 billion in the samemonth last year. The trade deficitnarrowed to $2.72 billion, comparedto a shortfall of $11.67 billion inthe year ago-month.

Gold imports declined by nearly53% to $601.43 million in September.

"Exports in September 2020 were$27.58 billion, as compared to $26.02billion in September 2019, exhibit-ing a positive growth of 5.99%,"the government said in a state-ment.

During the April-September 2020period, exports declined by 16.66%to $221.86 billion, while importsfell 35.43% to $204.12 billion over thesame period last year.

Major export commodities thathave recorded positive growth dur-ing September include iron ore(109.65 per cent at $303.42 million),readymade garments (10.22% at$1.19 billion), rice (93.86% at $725.14million), and drugs and pharma-ceuticals (24.38% at $2.24 billion).

However, outbound shipmentsof gems and jewellery declined24.67% and Mica, Coal and otherores, minerals including processedminerals slipped 6.71%.

The data further revealed thatnon-petroleum and non-gems andjewellery exports in Septemberstood at $21.27 billion, as comparedto $19 billion in the same periodprevious fiscal, registering a growthof 11.94%.

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, Oct 15: The tele-com service providers RelianceJio and state-owned BSNL areonly operators who added newsubscribers during the month ofJuly in Odisha.

As per latest mobile subscriberdata released by TelecomRegulatory Authority of India(TRAI), Jio added over 2.15 lakhnew subscribers in July whileBSNL added 41005 new subscribersin same month in the state.

On the other hand, VodafoneIdea lost over 90,000 subscribers inthe state followed by Bharti Airtelwhich lost over 41,000 subscribersduring the same period. TRAI’s re-port said.

With continual addition,Reliance Jio further consolidatedits top position as the most pre-ferred digital service provider inOdisha. Also, Jio now holds nearly40% customer market share inOdisha and is the market leaderwith highest customer and rev-enue market share in the state.

Nationally, Jio continued addingmillions of new subscribers andbecame the first digital serviceprovider in the country to sur-pass 40 crores, as per the data re-leased by TRAI for July 2020.

Also, as per the latest 4G speedchart published by TRAI on itsMySpeed portal, Jio has againtopped in 4G download speed chartwith 19.3 Mbps download speedin September, which is more than2.5 times than Bharti Airtel whichhas 7.5 Mbps download speed inSeptember.

Jio, BSNL add newusers in July: TRAI Exports turn positive in

Sept, up 6% at $27.58 bn

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, Oct 15: PrincipalSecretary of State MSME depart-ment Satyabrata Sahu Thursdaystated that the Government ofOdisha has approved for the es-tablishment of a technology centreat Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP).

Sahu said, “State Governmenthas been pleased to approve es-tablishment of one technology cen-tre at RSP where around ̀ 200 crorewill be invested. The coming up ofthe centre will benefit both MSMEs(in Sundargarh) and RSP.”

He informed during a virtualmeeting that was conducted for theplant level advisory committee ofRSP. RSP CEO was also present atthe meeting.

The purpose of the meeting was

to have a better coordination andsort out the issues of the localMSMEs with the RSP which is apublic-sector undertaking. IndustryAssociation like OYEA, OASME

and RCC also attended the meeting.Among others they put forth theirgrievances under that GCM pro-curement done by RSP concessionto be given to the local MSMEs asper their requirement, purchasesitems from local MSMEs, and entrypass into RSP.

RSP authorities assured theircooperation on the grievances ofMSMEs. Principal Secretary re-quested RSP to facilitate the localMSMEs so that their economic con-ditions may improve amid the pan-demic.

Director of industry depart-ment was requested to list outthe grievances of the MSMEsand circulates it to RSP to sort outwithin a time frame and reviewthe same after three months inmid January, 2021.

STATE GOVT TO ESTABLISH TECHNOLOGY CENTRE AT RSP

Printed and published by Tathagata Satpathy on behalf of Navajat Printers and Media Pvt. Ltd. and printed at Navajat Printers, B-15 Industrial Estate, Rasulgarh, Bhubaneswar -751010, Odisha;Phone:7894447142(Marketing). Editor: Tathagata Satpathy, RNI No. ORIENG/2011/371591

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MI favourites against KKRPRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Abu Dhabi, Oct 15: An explosivebatting line-up and a lethal-at-deathbowling attack will give defendingchampions Mumbai Indians (MI) adefinitive edge over Kolkata KnightRiders (KKR) when the two teamsclash in an IPL game here Friday.

The defending champions areon a roll having won their last fourgames, while there are problemsaplenty for KKR, who were deci-mated by the Royal ChallengersBangalore by 82 runs in their lastgame.

Mumbai Indians are thus un-likely to tinker with their playingXI. For KKR, questions remain asto whether their key spinner SunilNarine, who has been once reportedfor suspect bowling action, willplay or not. He had missed the gameagainst RCB even as KKR hoped foran ‘early resolution’ to the issues sur-rounding his controversial action.

In the event of Narine missingout again, Mumbai will fancy theirchances even more at the SheikhZayed stadium, where skipper RohitSharma has scored both his half cen-turies this season.

Sharma (216 runs), on his day,can pummel any attack to sub-mission and particularly enjoysplaying against Kolkata. Whenthe two teams met last, Mumbairode on his belligerent 80 to reg-ister a 49-run win.

Apart from Sharma, the Mumbaitop and middle-order is in goodform – be it Quinton De Kock (191runs) or Suryakumar Yadav (233runs), who would like to continuein the same vein.

Ishan Kishan (186 runs) un-derlined his potential with ablistering 99 against RCB, butthe Jharkhand player needs toconvert his starts into big scores

to make his presence felt.Mumbai Indians coach Mahela

Jayawardene would be pleased withthe likes of Hardik Pandya andswashbuckling Kieron Pollard, whohave been launching into the op-position attack with their big-hit-ting prowess along with KrunalPandya. Given the trio’s abilities,they can rip apart the KKR attack,especially one sans Narine.

On the bowling front too, Mumbailooks a settled unit with Trent Boultand Jasprit Bumrah providing earlybreakthroughs. They are comple-mented by Australian JamesPattinson and the trio has accountedfor 31 wickets. Spinners RahulChahar and Krunal will be againlooking to contain the KKR bat-ters.

Meanwhile, the biggest draw-back for KKR is the inconsistent per-formance of their batsmen, par-ticularly Andre Russell, who has justmanaged a meagre 71 runs from

seven games.There was talk of Russell being

promoted up the order, but he con-tinues to bat down and hasn’t donejustice to his abilities.

Kolkata also possess a number ofbatsmen who can take any attack tocleaners. It comprises the youngand elegant Shubman Gill, England’sWorld Cup-winning captain EoinMorgan, Nitish Rana and skipperDinesh Karthik, but they have notgot going barring the odd game.

The management would be hop-ing that come Friday, they fire in uni-son to reduce pressure on youngguns Rahul Tripathi and TomBanton.

KKR bowlers did well to fash-ion narrow victories against KingsXI Punjab and Chennai Super Kings,but were profligate against RCBwhen Pat Cummins and PrasidhKrishan leaked 38 and 42 runs re-spectively.

They would want to forget thehammering and regain form. KKRmay also look to play Kuldeep Yadav,who was dropped after playing justthree games, in place of a third pacer.

He can come in handy along withmystery spinner VarunChakravarthy, who was economicalin the game against RCB.

TODAY’S

MATCH

MI KKRAT 7:30 PM

TELECAST: STAR SPORTS

Coutinho makes good on 2nd chance with Barca

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Barcelona, Oct 15: Two monthsafter helping Bayern Munich handBarcelona their most humblingloss in decades, Philippe Coutinhois helping the Spanish club rebuild.

Coutinho has been through plenty

since joining Barcelona fromLiverpool in January 2018, bur-dened by the responsibility thatwent with his club-record clubtransfer. Besides his price tag of160 million euros, he had also beentasked to replace the irreplaceableAndres Iniesta.

After a season-and-a-half of fail-ing to meet the huge expectationsplaced upon him, his relationshipwith Barcelona hit a low point whenhe seemed to taunt the team’s fansby plugging his fingers in his earsafter scoring his finest goal withthe team in a 3-0 win over ManchesterUnited. Many were offended by hisgesture, which they took to mean hewas fed up with criticism.

Hoping that a temporary movewould be good for the player, and pos-sibly the club’s chances to eventu-ally sell him, Barcelona loanedCoutinho to Bayern in 2019.

At that point, it would have beendifficult to imagine that in the lastgame of Barcelona’s season it wouldbe Coutinho who scored two goalsagainst the club that owned hisrights.

Those goals capped Bayern’seight-goal rout of Barcelona in theChampions League quarterfinals,assuring the club finished the sea-son without a title for the first timein 12 seasons. While Barcelona wenthome broken, Bayern went on to win

the European Cup.His goals for Bayern, ironically,

may have helped him regain hispost in Barcelona. Incoming coachRonald Koeman wanted Coutinhoto come back and play, unlike a longlist of players that the club sold orpractically gave away to make wayfor new faces and reduce a heavysalary burden.

“Like any player, he needs thesupport and confidence of his coach,but this all starts with the player. Hehas demonstrated that he is a greatplayer, and I am happy to have himwith us,” Koeman said about

Coutinho after he scored in a 1-1draw with Sevilla two weeks ago.

Coutinho has proven to be a keypiece in Koeman’s new-lookBarcelona. The Dutch coach hasmoved on from the classic 4-3-3 ofBarcelona and shifted to a 4-2-3-1 withCoutinho acting as the central play-maker behind Lionel Messi asstriker.

With Ansu Fati on his left,Antoine Griezmann on his right, andFrenkie de Jong and Sergio Busquetsdefending his back, Coutinho hasa full range of passing options andorders to go forward.

Perhaps, too, it helped that withthe COVID-19 crisis there are nofans in the stadiums to judge hisevery pass and dribble.

Gone was the player who lookeduncertain and appeared to shrinkfrom the action during long stretchesof his first stint with Barcelona.Coutinho now seems to be in hisideal position, as the assists andgoals have shown so far. He set upFati to score two goals in a 4-0 winover Villarreal to open the seasonand in a 3-0 win at Celta Vigo.

Coutinho then scored his firstgoal since returning to the teamagainst Sevilla before a break for in-ternational matches, where heplayed well for Brazil in two WorldCup qualifying wins.

Back from the national team,Coutinho will again likely be backin the heart of Barcelona’s attackwhen they visit Getafe Saturday.Known for their physical defending,Getafe are undefeated in two homegames and has kept clean sheetsin three of the four games theyhave played.

When asked about his transfor-mation, Coutinho focused on whathe considered the basics. “I ammotivated to work hard and dothings well, to achieve importantthings for this club,” Coutinho saidafter his goal against Sevilla. “Thatis what counts.”

Coutinho has been linking up well with Ansu Fati (C) and Lionel Messi

Philippe Coutinho speaks to coachRonald Koeman during a match

Mbappe strike helpsFrance down CroatiaPRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, Oct 15: Defender DeepGrace Ekka Thursday said theIndian women’s hockey team’s backline has a good balance of experi-ence and youth which will comein handy at the Tokyo Olympics.

The team has enjoyed good resultsin top tournaments recently, in-cluding winning a silver medal atthe 2018 Asian Games and qualifyingfor back-to-back Olympics, andEkka said the experienced playersare working with the young ones tofurther strengthen the team’s de-fence.

“It’s great to have a great bal-ance of youth and experiencedplayers in our defence line. We areguiding the youngsters to get evenbetter at their game and I am sureafter a few months we will get evenbetter as a defense unit,” Ekka wasquoted as saying in a media re-lease.

“Having a great defense line al-ways helps any team and if we arerock solid then it will be a hugebenefit for the Indian team, espe-cially in big tournaments like theOlympics,” the senior defenderadded.

It has been a difficult time for theentire world in the last few monthsbecause of the COVID-19 pandemic.Sports activities across the globewere brought to a complete halt

due to the deadly virus, leading toconcerns over the mental healthof athletes.

Ekka said that it has been her re-sponsibility to ensure that theyoungsters in the team remainedmotivated during this tough pe-riod.

“As a senior player in the team,I had to make sure that the young-sters are not too impacted and re-main positive during this period. It’seasy for negativity to set in dur-ing this time, but our group hasdone well to take each day as itcomes,” she said.

“It’s my duty to ensure that the

youngsters remain motivated andthey have done a great job. All of usfocused on our fitness while wewere away from the pitch and now,we are relishing our sports activi-ties on the pitch,” Ekka added.

The 26-year-old defender fromOdisha said that the national sidehas been able to cope with this pe-riod by concentrating on fitness.

“We had enough facilities atour disposal for our fitness train-ing during the lockdown and now,we are able to practice for theOlympics only because of the ef-forts put in by Hockey India andSAI,” Ekka said.

Srikanth in last eightafter beating Ho-Shue

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Zagreb, Oct 15: Star striker KylianMbappe scored late as France frus-trated Croatia again, winning aclosely-contested UEFA NationsLeague match 2-1 to stay level onpoints with group leader Portugal.

Croatia have never beaten France,losing the last Nations League en-counter and the 2018 World Cupfinal by the same score of 2-4. Theywere also beaten 1-2 in the 1998World Cup semifinals.

After forward AntoineGriezmann put France ahead early,midfielder Nikola Vlasic equalisedmidway through the second half.

Croatia were starting to get ontop when France substitute PaulPogba floated over a superb passfrom the halfway line to Lucas

Digne sprinting down the left. TheEverton left-back’s volleyed pass fellto Mbappe, who met the ball onthe bounce from close range forhis 16th international goal.

Griezmann netted in the eightminute after Croatia’s defensefailed to properly clear FerlandMendy’s cross from the right.Lurking to the right of the penaltyspot, Griezmann smacked a quickshot which hit the underside ofthe crossbar for his 33rd inter-national goal.

Croatia improved after the breakbut did not threaten until Vlasic’sexcellent finish from the edge of thepenalty area in the 64th. He con-trolled Josip Brekalo’s pass with hisleft foot and stabbed the ball pastLloris and into the bottom cornerwith the outside of his right.

DEADLY COMBO:Kylian Mbappe celebrates with other scorer Antoine Griezmannafter France’s winner, Wednesday

NATIONS LEAGUE ROUND-UP

Lukaku scores twice in Belgium’s victoryReykjavik (Iceland): Striker Romelu Lukaku scored both goals to giveBelgium a 2-1 win at Iceland, taking his international tally to 55 goals andmoving his team back atop their Nations League group. Iceland scored inbetween Lukaku’s goals as midfielder Runar Mar Sigurjonsson’s astutepass sent veteran right-back Birker Saevarsson through and he beat goalieSimon Mignolet with a low shot.

Netherlands hold Italy in a thrillerBergamo: Italy were held to a 1-1 draw by the Netherlands in a game thatpaid tribute to Bergamo’s many victims of the coronavirus pandemic.Dutch midfielder Donny van de Beek cancelled out Lorenzo Pellegrini’sopener in the first half Wednesday. It was the first time in 14 years thatItaly played a match here. Italy took the lead in the 16th minute. NicoloBarella played a perfect through ball for Pellegrini to run onto and drill pastDutch goalie Jasper Cillessen. The Dutch levelled nine minutes later as VanDe Beek fired into the roof of the net from close range.

Jota shinesLisbon: Diogo Jota scoredtwo goals and set up anotheras Portugal defeated Sweden3-0 in the Nations League intheir first game sinceCristiano Ronaldo had to bedropped from the squad aftertesting positive for thecoronavirus. Jota set upBernardo Silva’s opening goalin the 21st minute and scoredhimself in the 44th. TheLiverpool forward finished offthe scoring in the 72nd.

Denmark stun EnglandLondon: Christian Eriksen marked his100th Denmark appearance by scoringthe penalty that clinched a 1-0 victoryover England in the UEFA NationsLeague. England had already beenreduced to 10 men Wednesday afterHarry Maguire was sent off by the time adisputed penalty was awarded for KyleWalker’s challenge on Thomas Delaney.Eriksen converted the penalty for his34th international goal in the 35thminute at Wembley. Reece James’ firstEngland start ended with him being sentoff after the final whistle.

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Odense, Oct 15: Ace Indian shut-tler Kidambi Srikanth stormedinto the Denmark Open quarter-finals with a straight-game winover Canada’s Jason Anthony Ho-Shue here Thursday.

The fifth seeded Indian took 33minutes to get the better of hisCanadian opponent 21-15, 21-14 inthe men’s singles second round ofthe USD 750,000 Super 750 tourna-ment, the only world tour eventhappening this year in a calendarthrown haywire by the COVID-19pandemic.

The BWF was forced to cancelmultiple tournaments and post-

pone the Asia leg and the WorldTour Final to January next year dueto the pandemic.

The 27-year-old is likely to faceWorld No.2 Chou Tien Chen ofChinese Taipei, who meets Ireland’sNhat Nguyen later in the day.

Talking about Chou Tien Chen,Srikanth said: “He’s been playingwell the last few years. It’s defi-nitely a match where I can under-stand where I’m at. That’s the wholeidea of playing this tournament.

“He hits hard, he’s someone whohas an overall game, he has a hardsmash, he knows when to attack andwhen to defend. He has matured.It’s always good when you play a top4 player.”

Ekka lauds Indian back line

KXIP WIN LAST-BALL THRILLER

AGENCIES

Sharjah, Oct 15: The ‘UniverseBoss’ Chris Gayle (53, 45b, 1x4, 5x6)sent warning to the oppositionteams with his trademark inningsas Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) securedan eight wicket victory over RoyalChallengers Bangalore (RCB) intheir IPL encounter here, Thursday.

KXIP almost made a mess ofwhat could have been an easy task.In spite of having nine wickets inhand and needing only two off thefinal over, bowled by YuzvendraChahal (1/35), it all came down toone off the final ball after Gaylewas un out off the penultimate de-livery while searching for a quicksingle. However, Nicolas Poorancompleted the task with a six, whichjust cleared the long-on boundary.

Chasing 172, KXIP stated witha bang as skipper KL Rahul (61 no, 49b, 1x4, 5x6) and MayankAgarwal (45, 25b, 4x4, 3x6) added78 runs inside 7.5 overs before thelatter’s departure in the final ballof the eighth over. Chahal brokethe stand castling Mayank.

Then it was all Gayle and Rahul.Gayle started his innings cautiouslybefore unlashing his power, whatthe KXIP fans were waiting for.Both Rahul and Gayle were at theirbest playing shots all around theground. The duo added 93 runs forthe second wicket.

Earlier, KXIP put up a disciplinedeffort with the bowl to restrict RCBto 171/6 in their must-win IPLmatch. Skipper Virat Kohli top-scored with 48 off 39 balls in his 200thgame for RCB but it was Chris

Morris’ 25 off 8 balls in the deathovers that took the team to a com-petitive score.

The final over bowled byMohammad Shami (2/45) went for24 runs. Notwithstanding Shami’swayward 20th over, it was a much im-proved bowling effort from a teamwho have been leaking runs in thedeath overs game after game. KXIPconceded only 25 runs from over 16-19 before Morris and Isuru Udanahammered Shami for three sixes.

After Kohli chose to bat, KXIP ex-perimented by opening the bowlingwith Glenn Maxwell (0/28). Boththe openers – Devdutt Padikkal (18)and Aaron Finch (20) – could notbuild on their starts.

Padikkal was foxed by a slower onefrom left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh,while Finch missed a fast leg-break

from Murugan Ashwin (2/23), leav-ing RCB at 62/2 in the seventh over.

With Kohli looking good at theother end, AB de Villiers was ex-pected to come in at his usual num-ber four spot but with two leg-spin-ners in operation, left-handedbatsman Washington Sundar andShivam Dube were sent ahead of theSouth African.

Following Dube’s dismissal in the15th over, De Villiers finally joinedKohli for the late assault, which waseventually provided by Morris.

BRIEF SCORESRCB 171/6 (Virat Kohli 48, ChrisMorris 25 n o; Murugan Ashwin

2/23, Mohammed Shami 2/45)lost to KXIP 177/2 (KL Rahul 61

n o, Chris Gayle 53, MayankAgarwal 45) by eight wickets.