2020/12/27  · 30 in protest against the centre’s agri laws. we request people from delhi and...

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F armers’ Unions on Saturday wrote a letter to the Centre to resume their dialogue to find a solution to the ongoing dead- lock over the three contentious agri laws. The farmers union proposed to hold a meeting with the Government on December 29. The decision was taken at a meeting of Sanyukt Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of 40 farmers’ unions protesting at various Delhi border points against the new agriculture laws. The unions also said that farmers will hold tractor march on Kundli-Manesar-Palwal highway on December 30. Meanwhile, the protesting farmers on Saturday blocked the main Delhi-Mohan Nagar road at UP Gate (Delhi- Ghaziabad border). In a letter to Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Vivek Aggarwal, the Sanyukt Kisan Morcha said, “We propose that the next meeting between the farmers’ representatives and the Government of India be held on December 29, 2020 at 11 am.” “As the Government is will- ing to hold talks with us and asking us for date and our issues, we have proposed to hold dialogue on December 29. Now, the ball is in the court of Government when it calls us for talks,” Bhartiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait said. Addressing a press confer- ence at Singhu Border, the Morcha said that they are ready for talks with the Government but they have to repeal the three farm laws and guarantee for MSP — Minimum Support Price at which the Government procures crops from farmers. “The Government should make it a part of the agenda for resuming talks with the Government. We have pro- posed for talks on December 29. The farmers have also decided to hold tractor march on the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) highway on December 30 in protest against the Centre’s agri laws. We request people from Delhi and other parts of the country to come and celebrate New Year with protesting farmers,” said Darshan Pal Singh, farmers’ leader. “The farmers have decided to march from Singhu to Tikri to KMP. We also ask farmers of surrounding areas to join us and come in huge crowd on their tractors and trollies,” said Rajinder Singh, another farmer leader. “If the Government does- n’t want us to block the KMP highway, then they better announce the repeal of the three farm laws,” said Singh. Meanwhile, on Saturday morning around 9 am farmers at Ghazipur border blocked the National Highways 24 and 9 leading to a traffic jam between Delhi and Ghaziabad. Turn to Page 9 M ore than 150 Army jawans have tested posi- tive for coronavirus here. They were part of the contingent to take part in the upcoming Republic Day parade and the Army Day parade on January 15 here. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is the chief guest for the forthcoming Republic Day celebrations at the Rajpath. Giving details of the coro- na test, sources said, “The sol- diers who came in from outside to participate in various parades were tested before putting them into a safe bub- ble. Some of them tested pos- itive. Almost all except seven are asymptomatic.” These were among few thousand soldiers who have been tested, the source stated. Officials said the soldiers who tested positive were quaran- tined at the Delhi Cantonment where Covid-19 facilities have been set up since April. As regards the Republic Day parade preparations, they said protocols have been put in place for safe conduct of the parade. While unconfirmed reports suggested the upcom- ing Republic Day parade may be curtailed with minimal pub- lic participation, sources said plans to hold the parade on the Rajpath on January 26 this year are underway despite Covid-19 pandemic. It was also learnt that as of now there is no proposal to cut down the number of marching contingents. They also said the thrilling fly past by the fighter jets will also take place like every year. These contingents from the Army, IAF and the Navy besides the paramilitary forces and the Delhi Police march past the saluting base at the Rajpath and march for nearly ten kilo- metres to the Red Fort. The entire marching route is lined with spectators. However, in view of the raging pandemic, some restrictions may be enforced, it was learnt. Turn to Page 9 A s a preventive measure amid reports of UK-new Covid variants doing round in the country, the Government has decided to conduct genome sequencing of at least 5 per cent of the total Covid tests being conducted daily. This was decided at a meeting of National Task Force on Covid-19 on Saturday. The ICMR called the meeting to discuss evidence-based modi- fications in testing, treatment and surveillance strategies for SARS-CoV-2 in view of the recent reports of emergence of a new variant strain of the virus from the UK. The participants at the meet emphasised that since the UK strain was supposed to cause increased transmissibil- ity of the virus, it is critical to identify individuals infected with this strain and adequate- ly contain them to prevent its transmission in India. “At least, 5 per cent of the positive cases from all States/UTs will be tested for genome sequencing,” the com- mittee decided, as per an official from the Union Health Ministry. Turn to Page 9 A t least 32 more passengers from the United Kingdom who landed between November 25 and December 21 in India have been found positive for the coronavirus as concerns mounted over new virus strain. Of those who tested posi- tive, 14 have been reported in Karnataka, eight in Kerala, four in Tamil Nadu, three in Uttar Pradesh, two in Maharashtra, and one in Assam. Their samples have been sent to the National Institute of Virology, Pune for genomic analysis. In Rajasthan, over 800 British tourists entered the 28 districts of the State in the last one week. Tracking them will be a nightmare. The number of returnees from the United Kingdom, having tested posi- tive, are likely to increase fur- ther in the coming days. The Himachal Pradesh Government has issued an alert for 51 UK returnees to contact the local administra- tion and get themselves tested. Turn to Page 9 T he Shram Shakti Bhavan and Transport Bhavan in Lutyens’ Delhi will be the first two buildings to be razed to pave the way for the construc- tion of chambers of Members of Parliament there as part of Central Vista redevelopment project. An official from HCP Design, Planning and Management Pvt Ltd, which has prepared the masterplan of the ambitious project, said that offices for MPs will come up where Shram Shakti Bhavan and Transport Bhavan are cur- rently located on Rafi Marg and Sansad Marg respectively. The Government has iden- tified around four locations — in Gole Market, KG Marg, near Africa Avenue and near Talkatora Stadium — in Central Delhi for the tempo- rary shifting of offices of vari- ous ministries. The foundation stone for the New Parliament was laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 10. The new building will have 888 seats for members of the Lok Sabha, 384 for those of the Rajya Sabha. For joint meetings, the Lok Sabha Hall on the ground floor shall be able to house 1,272 members. The National Emblem will crown the new Parliament building. According to the plan, a tunnel would be constructed to connect the building with chambers of MPs in the Parliament complex. “The new Parliament will have six com- mittee rooms to conduct busi- ness,” the HCP official said. Sources said the demolition of buildings will be carried out in phases to ensure smooth func- tioning of ministry offices. To construct Common Central Secretariat for Ministry offices, several buildings like Shastri Bhawan, Udyog Bhawan, Nirman Bhawan and Krishi Bhawan among others are likely to be demolished. The project of Central Vista — the nation’s power cor- ridor — envisages a new tri- angular parliament building, a common central secretariat and revamping of the 3-km- long Rajpath, from Rashtrapati Bhavan to India Gate. A wary China is rushing a high-level delegation led by a vice minister of the Chinese Communist Party here to assess the ground situation and avert a vertical split in the ruling Nepal Communist Party, according to media reports on Saturday, nearly a week after embattled Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli got the House of Representatives dissolved. Nepal plunged into a polit- ical crisis last Sunday after Oli, known for his pro-Beijing lean- ings, in a surprise move, rec- ommended dissolving the 275- member House, amidst a tus- sle for power with former Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal “Prachanda”. Acting on Prime Minister Oli’s recommendation, President Bidya Devi Bhandari dissolved the House the same day and announced fresh elec- tions on April 30 and May 10, sparking protests from a large section of the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) led by Prachanda, also a co-chair of the ruling party. China is sending a high- level delegation led by Vice Minister of the International Department of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) Guo Yezhou to Kathmandu, The Kathmandu Post reported. “Leading a four-member team, Guo is scheduled to land in Kathmandu on Sunday morning on a regular China Southern Airlines flight,” the paper reported, citing sources in both factions of the NCP. Bishnu Rijal, Deputy Head of Department of Foreign Affairs of the NCP’s Prachanda-led faction, said that the Chinese side has com- municated about Gou’s visit to Kathmandu. “I don’t have much detail to share with you at this point of time,” Rijal was quoted as say- ing by the paper. The Chinese embassy here did not respond to its multiple calls and messages, it said. Although no specific details about the agenda of the visit are available, senior NCP leaders confirmed that Guo is scheduled to land in Kathmandu on Sunday morn- ing, leading a four-member delegation, My Republica newspaper reported. Observers here believe that the visit could be to assess the ground situation in Nepal fol- lowing the decision of Oli to dissolve the House of Representatives and the rival faction within the NCP taking to the streets, it said. Turn to Page 9 A fter quitting all Parliamentary forums as a protest against the new farm laws and slamming the Modi Government’s han- dling of the farmers agitation on the outskirts of Delhi, the BJP ally Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) on Saturday announced its exit from the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). RLP chief and the Jat leader from Rajasthan Hanuman Beniwal said, “I announce that I am leaving the NDA. I am breaking away.” The RLP is the second BJP ally after the Akali Dal to leave the NDA over the new farm laws. Turn to Page 9 New Delhi: India’s daily new Covid-19 fatality count was reported below 300 after over six months, taking the death toll to 1,47,343, while the infec- tion tally rose to 1,01,69,118, according to data updated by the Union Health Ministry on Saturday. A total of 251 more deaths and 22,273 new infec- tions were reported in a 24- hour period, the data updated at 8 am showed.

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Page 1: 2020/12/27  · 30 in protest against the Centre’s agri laws. We request people from Delhi and other parts of the country to come and celebrate New Year with protesting farmers,”

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Farmers’ Unions on Saturdaywrote a letter to the Centre

to resume their dialogue to finda solution to the ongoing dead-lock over the three contentiousagri laws. The farmers unionproposed to hold a meetingwith the Government onDecember 29.

The decision was taken ata meeting of Sanyukt KisanMorcha, an umbrella body of40 farmers’ unions protesting atvarious Delhi border pointsagainst the new agriculturelaws. The unions also said thatfarmers will hold tractor marchon Kundli-Manesar-Palwalhighway on December 30.

Meanwhile, the protestingfarmers on Saturday blockedthe main Delhi-Mohan Nagarroad at UP Gate (Delhi-Ghaziabad border).

In a letter to Joint Secretaryin the Ministry of Agricultureand Farmers’ Welfare VivekAggarwal, the Sanyukt KisanMorcha said, “We propose thatthe next meeting between thefarmers’ representatives andthe Government of India beheld on December 29, 2020 at11 am.”

“As the Government is will-ing to hold talks with us andasking us for date and ourissues, we have proposed tohold dialogue on December 29.

Now, the ball is in the court ofGovernment when it calls usfor talks,” Bhartiya Kisan Unionleader Rakesh Tikait said.

Addressing a press confer-ence at Singhu Border, theMorcha said that they are readyfor talks with the Governmentbut they have to repeal thethree farm laws and guarantee

for MSP — Minimum SupportPrice at which the Governmentprocures crops from farmers.

“The Government shouldmake it a part of the agenda forresuming talks with theGovernment. We have pro-posed for talks on December29. The farmers have alsodecided to hold tractor march

on the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal(KMP) highway on December30 in protest against theCentre’s agri laws. We requestpeople from Delhi and otherparts of the country to comeand celebrate New Year withprotesting farmers,” saidDarshan Pal Singh, farmers’leader.

“The farmers have decidedto march from Singhu to Tikrito KMP. We also ask farmers ofsurrounding areas to join usand come in huge crowd ontheir tractors and trollies,” saidRajinder Singh, another farmerleader.

“If the Government does-n’t want us to block the KMP

highway, then they betterannounce the repeal of thethree farm laws,” said Singh.

Meanwhile, on Saturdaymorning around 9 am farmersat Ghazipur border blocked theNational Highways 24 and 9leading to a traffic jam betweenDelhi and Ghaziabad.

Turn to Page 9

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More than 150 Armyjawans have tested posi-

tive for coronavirus here. Theywere part of the contingent totake part in the upcomingRepublic Day parade and theArmy Day parade on January15 here. British Prime MinisterBoris Johnson is the chief guestfor the forthcoming RepublicDay celebrations at the Rajpath.

Giving details of the coro-na test, sources said, “The sol-diers who came in from outsideto participate in variousparades were tested beforeputting them into a safe bub-ble. Some of them tested pos-itive. Almost all except sevenare asymptomatic.”

These were among fewthousand soldiers who havebeen tested, the source stated.Officials said the soldiers whotested positive were quaran-tined at the Delhi Cantonmentwhere Covid-19 facilities havebeen set up since April.

As regards the RepublicDay parade preparations, they

said protocols have been put inplace for safe conduct of theparade.

While unconfirmedreports suggested the upcom-ing Republic Day parade maybe curtailed with minimal pub-lic participation, sources saidplans to hold the parade on theRajpath on January 26 thisyear are underway despiteCovid-19 pandemic.

It was also learnt that as ofnow there is no proposal to cutdown the number of marchingcontingents. They also said thethrilling fly past by the fighterjets will also take place likeevery year.

These contingents fromthe Army, IAF and the Navybesides the paramilitary forcesand the Delhi Police march pastthe saluting base at the Rajpathand march for nearly ten kilo-metres to the Red Fort. Theentire marching route is linedwith spectators. However, inview of the raging pandemic,some restrictions may beenforced, it was learnt.

Turn to Page 9

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As a preventive measureamid reports of UK-new

Covid variants doing round inthe country, the Governmenthas decided to conduct genomesequencing of at least 5 per centof the total Covid tests beingconducted daily.

This was decided at ameeting of National Task Forceon Covid-19 on Saturday. TheICMR called the meeting todiscuss evidence-based modi-fications in testing, treatmentand surveillance strategies forSARS-CoV-2 in view of therecent reports of emergence ofa new variant strain of the virusfrom the UK.

The participants at themeet emphasised that sincethe UK strain was supposed tocause increased transmissibil-ity of the virus, it is critical toidentify individuals infectedwith this strain and adequate-ly contain them to prevent itstransmission in India.

“At least, 5 per cent of thepositive cases from all

States/UTs will be tested forgenome sequencing,” the com-mittee decided, as per an official from the Union Health Ministry.

Turn to Page 9

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At least 32 more passengersfrom the United Kingdom

who landed betweenNovember 25 and December21 in India have been foundpositive for the coronavirus asconcerns mounted over newvirus strain.

Of those who tested posi-tive, 14 have been reported inKarnataka, eight in Kerala,four in Tamil Nadu, three inUttar Pradesh, two inMaharashtra, and one inAssam. Their samples havebeen sent to the NationalInstitute of Virology, Pune forgenomic analysis.

In Rajasthan, over 800British tourists entered the 28districts of the State in the lastone week. Tracking them willbe a nightmare. The number ofreturnees from the UnitedKingdom, having tested posi-tive, are likely to increase fur-ther in the coming days.

The Himachal PradeshGovernment has issued analert for 51 UK returnees tocontact the local administra-tion and get themselves tested.

Turn to Page 9

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The Shram Shakti Bhavanand Transport Bhavan in

Lutyens’ Delhi will be the firsttwo buildings to be razed topave the way for the construc-tion of chambers of Membersof Parliament there as part ofCentral Vista redevelopmentproject.

An official from HCPDesign, Planning andManagement Pvt Ltd, whichhas prepared the masterplan ofthe ambitious project, said thatoffices for MPs will come upwhere Shram Shakti Bhavanand Transport Bhavan are cur-rently located on Rafi Marg andSansad Marg respectively.

The Government has iden-tified around four locations —

in Gole Market, KG Marg,near Africa Avenue and nearTalkatora Stadium — inCentral Delhi for the tempo-rary shifting of offices of vari-ous ministries.

The foundation stone forthe New Parliament was laid byPrime Minister Narendra Modion December 10. The newbuilding will have 888 seats formembers of the Lok Sabha, 384for those of the Rajya Sabha.For joint meetings, the LokSabha Hall on the ground floorshall be able to house 1,272members. The NationalEmblem will crown the newParliament building.

According to the plan, atunnel would be constructed toconnect the building withchambers of MPs in theParliament complex. “The newParliament will have six com-mittee rooms to conduct busi-ness,” the HCP official said.Sources said the demolition ofbuildings will be carried out inphases to ensure smooth func-tioning of ministry offices.

To construct CommonCentral Secretariat for Ministryoffices, several buildings likeShastri Bhawan, UdyogBhawan, Nirman Bhawan andKrishi Bhawan among othersare likely to be demolished.

The project of CentralVista — the nation’s power cor-ridor — envisages a new tri-angular parliament building, acommon central secretariatand revamping of the 3-km-long Rajpath, from RashtrapatiBhavan to India Gate.

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Awary China is rushing ahigh-level delegation led by

a vice minister of the ChineseCommunist Party here toassess the ground situationand avert a vertical split in theruling Nepal Communist Party,according to media reports onSaturday, nearly a week afterembattled Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli got the Houseof Representatives dissolved.

Nepal plunged into a polit-ical crisis last Sunday after Oli,known for his pro-Beijing lean-ings, in a surprise move, rec-ommended dissolving the 275-member House, amidst a tus-sle for power with formerPrime Minister Pushpa KamalDahal “Prachanda”.

Acting on Prime MinisterOli’s recommendation,President Bidya Devi Bhandaridissolved the House the same

day and announced fresh elec-tions on April 30 and May 10,sparking protests from a largesection of the NepalCommunist Party (NCP) ledby Prachanda, also a co-chairof the ruling party.

China is sending a high-level delegation led by ViceMinister of the InternationalDepartment of the rulingCommunist Party of China(CPC) Guo Yezhou toKathmandu, The KathmanduPost reported.

“Leading a four-memberteam, Guo is scheduled to landin Kathmandu on Sundaymorning on a regular ChinaSouthern Airlines flight,” thepaper reported, citing sourcesin both factions of the NCP.

Bishnu Rijal, Deputy Headof Department of ForeignAffairs of the NCP’sPrachanda-led faction, saidthat the Chinese side has com-

municated about Gou’s visit toKathmandu.

“I don’t have much detail toshare with you at this point oftime,” Rijal was quoted as say-ing by the paper.

The Chinese embassy heredid not respond to its multiplecalls and messages, it said.

Although no specificdetails about the agenda of thevisit are available, senior NCPleaders confirmed that Guo isscheduled to land inKathmandu on Sunday morn-ing, leading a four-memberdelegation, My Republicanewspaper reported.

Observers here believe thatthe visit could be to assess theground situation in Nepal fol-lowing the decision of Oli todissolve the House ofRepresentatives and the rivalfaction within the NCP takingto the streets, it said.

Turn to Page 9

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After quitting allParliamentary forums as

a protest against the newfarm laws and slamming theModi Government’s han-dling of the farmers agitationon the outskirts of Delhi, theBJP ally Rashtriya LoktantrikParty (RLP) on Saturdayannounced its exit from theNational DemocraticAlliance (NDA).

RLP chief and the Jatleader from RajasthanHanuman Beniwal said, “I announce that I am leaving the NDA. I ambreaking away.”

The RLP is the secondBJP ally after the Akali Dalto leave the NDA over thenew farm laws.

Turn to Page 9

New Delhi: India’s daily newCovid-19 fatality count wasreported below 300 after oversix months, taking the deathtoll to 1,47,343, while the infec-tion tally rose to 1,01,69,118,according to data updated bythe Union Health Ministry onSaturday. A total of 251 moredeaths and 22,273 new infec-tions were reported in a 24-hour period, the data updatedat 8 am showed.

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Page 2: 2020/12/27  · 30 in protest against the Centre’s agri laws. We request people from Delhi and other parts of the country to come and celebrate New Year with protesting farmers,”

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Kanpur (PNS): PrimeMinister Narendra Modi willinaugurate the railway track ofDedicated Freight CorridorCorporation of India Limited(DFCCIL) between Bhaupurand Khurja through a videoconference on December 29.

The programme was earli-er fixed for December 25 tocommemorate the birthanniversary of former PrimeMinister Atal Behari Vajpayee.Now, according to directivesissued by the Prime Minister’sOffice, the DFCCIL has fixedthe date of inauguration asDecember 29 and released anadvertisement to this effect.

DFCCIL Deputy ChiefManager Baldeo Singh Jaryalsaid, “He has informationabout the inauguration of therailway track by the primeminister on December 29through video conferencingbut has not received any offi-cial communication from thePMO so far.” However, officialswere hopeful to receive theprime minister’s official pro-gramme within a day or two.

The inauguration of thelargest section of the EasternDedicated Freight Corridoraims at launching the opera-tions of one of the largest railinfrastructure projects in India.The 351-km Khurja-Bhaupur(Kanpur) section of the EasternDedicated Freight Corridor isready and necessary trials andtesting have already been con-cluded. Modi will dedicate tothe nation the new rail freightcorridor along with UttarPradesh Chief Minister YogiAdityanath.

Along with the section,Modi will also unveil the state-of-the-art operation controlcentre of the Eastern DedicatedFreight Corridor, based inPrayagraj.

The Khurja-Bhaupur sec-tion, after the inauguration, willsee a substantial number offreight trains and containertraffic diverted to the freightcorridor, resulting in not justfaster movement of goods butalso decongestion of the exist-ing railway line carrying traf-fic to North India.

Some of the importantindustrial areas that straddlethis section are Aligarh, Khurja,Firozabad and Agra.

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On the occasion of the birthanniversary of former Prime

Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee onFriday, Chief Minister YogiAdityanath again created a record ofsorts when more than six lakh farm-ers joined him on social mediathrough Facebook, Twitter, andYouTube.

Not only this, 11,33,392 farmersparticipated in the virtual pro-gramme organised at 2,160 different

places in the state, creating a recordof such a large number of farmersparticipating in a programme.

Sources here on Saturdayclaimed that as soon as the UP chiefminister castigated the opposition formisleading the innocent farmers,within minutes people in huge num-bers joined the event and also fol-lowed Yogi Adityanath later.

After the live event was finished,lakhs of people watched the pro-gramme on YouTube.

“We cannot deny the fact about

the way CM Yogi delivers his charis-matic speeches, making people gocrazy for him. It is Yogiji’s captivat-ing personality that his followers ofthe micro-blogging site have crossedover 1.25 billion,” a senior BharatiyaJanata Party leader here claimed.

Notably, many dignitaries,including BJP MPs and MLAs, agri-cultural experts, and ministers tookpart in the event held on December25. They spoke about how farmers’laws brought by the Central govern-ment will improve agriculture and

bring a change in their lives.

�7����������7������%����To remember the martyrdom of

four Sahibzadas of Shri GuruGobind Singh Ji Maharaj, the tenthGuru of the Sikhs, and Mata Gujri,the Sahibzada Day will be observedat the official residence of ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath here onSunday.

To mark the occasion, for thefirst time at the chief minister’s res-idence, and reminisce the heroic

deeds of the Sahibzadas at a veryyoung age, Gurbani Kirtan will alsobe held at 11:30 am and it will beattended by a number of ministersof the state government along withthe chief minister. It may be men-tioned that Gurbani Kirtan and alangar was also organised at the chiefminister’s residence to mark the550th Prakashotsav of Guru NanakDev on November 12 and over 250people of the Sikh community hadparticipated in the langar andreceived prasad.

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Alocal court in Sant Kabir Nagar hasordered registering of a case against

ruling BJP MLA Rakesh Singh Baghelfor submitting a forged Covid testreport.

It has been reported that the MLAfrom Medhawal, in order to escape hispresence in the court in a case, submit-ted a forged coronavirus positive reportin October last.

Special MP/MLA Court JudgeDeepkant Mani ordered registering ofa case against the MLA and the ChiefMedical Officer Har Govind Singhunder Epidemic Diseases Act atKhalilabad Kotwali police station,sources said.

According to the reports con-firmed on Saturday the BJP MLA wasfacing a trial in an old case of 2010 fordamaging public property but he wasnot appearing in the court for the pastfour years.

Recently, to escape the court’sdirective, on October 9, 2020, theMLA submitted a Covid-19 test reportwhich showed that he had tested pos-itive for coronavirus infection and wasin home isolation. But later the courtfound that the Covid test report wasforged.

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On the initiative taken by ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath, the

holy city of Varanasi, known as areligious and spiritual heritage,will soon be a new city with world-class facilities to the tourists thatwill add to the grandeur of Kashi.

An official communiqué con-firmed here on Saturday that a newtourist destination will soon beadded to the tourist map of thecountry that will have all the mod-ern facilities.

One of the 84 ghats of the city,the Khirkiya Ghat, is being devel-oped using modern techniquesand once completed, it will have allthe facilities that the other existingghats do not have.

According to the officials, therenovated ghat will be eco-friend-ly and unlike other ghats, it willhave parking facilities for 120 four-wheelers and 250 two-wheelers.

“The structure of the ghat willbe based on gabion and retentionwalls structure and it will retain itsappearance and looks just like theother heritage ghats. Being built in11.5 acre of land, it will cost aboutRs 35.83 crore. It is expected toopen for the public by July 2021,”said Anil Yadav, the general man-ager of National Building

Construction Corporation.According to Varanasi

Divisional Commissioner DeepakAgarwal, the renovated ghat will belaced with facilities like wateradventure sports, jetty, food court,park, morning walk stretch, library,CNG station, etc.

The area and space of the ghatwill also increase, catering to crowdmanagement on events like DevDeeepawali.

“Ghats like Assi andDashaswamedh attract mosttourists but it is very difficult toreach there on your vehicles.Keeping this in mind, the renovat-ed ghat is being given a drive-in andparking facility. The construction isbeing done as per the Make in Indiavision and it will also be based onVocal for Local. The visitors willalso have the option to book tick-ets for offering prayers at the KashiVishwanath Temple. It will also behaving a multi-purpose platformwhere helicopters can also land,”Agarwal said.

In addition, the ghat will haveoutlets for local handicrafts, freshdrinking water RO units, a place forcultural programmes, etc.

“Boat rides, gallery for viewingthe famous Ganga aarti, etc. willadd to the tourists’ visit and infuture, we will also provide options

for combo-tickets (to other touristdestinations), railway ticket book-ing, and open space for culturalprogrammes,” he said.

Meanwhile, the entire worldraves about the works of artisans ofBaba Vishwanath’s Kashi, a placefamous for its heritage and spiritu-ality. Even the foreign touristsseem completely smitten by thedesigner clothes made in Varanasi.The special costumes of Varanasiattract all, irrespective of theirtaste in fashion. Silk dresses madein Varanasi are also the first choiceof famous dress designers.

To promote Vocal for Local andOne District One Product (ODOP)campaigns, Chief Minister YogiAdityanath has urged the state res-idents to buy these products andgift their friends and families onfestivals which they will relish foryears to come.

In this regard, on the occasionof Christmas, people from othercountries made a lot of purchasesand gifted desi products to theirloved ones.

It is to be mentioned that forthe last 15 years, priests fromRome, Greece and America, on theoccasion of Christmas, weardesigner gowns that have beenprepared in Varanasi.

In the Adampur area of

Varanasi, weaver Syed Hussain andother artisans have been preparingspecial gowns for the priests. Thesegowns are made from zardozi,brocades, lambda materials, andhats made from silk.

It is to be mentioned that in2005 when Syed Hussain went toGreece and Rome to organise aclothing exhibition, he showedsome unique designs to the design-ers after which they suggestedsome changes to the old costumesand ordered Hussain to prepare thecostumes. Since then, the clergieshave been wearing only garmentsmade from Kashi’s zardozi.

The gowns and hats are madeby the hands of artisans in Varanasi.The artisans start getting orders forthese costumes a year beforeChristmas from abroad. Thesedesigner costumes, prepared bycraftsmen are shipped to Rome,Greece, and America.

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Facing severe criticism over thecondition and death of cows in gov-ernment-run shelters, particularlyin the Bundelkhand region, ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath onSaturday directed officials of thedistrict to regularly monitor thesecow shelter homes like they do of

paddy and sugarcane purchasecentres. “The district officials willhave to regularly check and reportback to the government about thecondition of the cow shelters homeslike they do about the perfor-mance of paddy and sugarcane pur-chase centres,” the chief ministersaid while reviewing the function-ing of the departments here onSaturday.

Recently, a video was circulat-ed about the bad condition of a cowshelter home in Hamirpur inBundelkhand region and how thecows were left to die. In protestagainst this, the Congress hadtaken out a march in Bundelkhandon Saturday and its state presidentAjay Kumar Lallu was arrestedalong with other party leaders andworkers in Lalitpur after they start-ed the march. The slogan of themarch, banned by the govern-ment, was ‘ Gai Bachao, KisanBachao’.

During the meeting, the chiefminister also warned the officialsfollowing reports of bad treatmentto the farmers by the purchase cen-tre employees at several places.

“The senior officials of thedistricts should themselves go to thefields and check the purchase cen-tres along with the cow shelterhomes,” he said while asking them

to report back to the governmentwith regular reports.

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Water is life and water conser-vation is the need of the hour, henceto make sure that not a single dropof water is wasted, the UttarPradesh government has decided touse rainwater for large-scale farm-ing. The Yogi Adityanath govern-ment has decided to fulfil theshortage of water required forfarming in the drought-prone andovercrowded areas of the statewith rainwater. Also, YogiAdityanath is working to ensure theavailability of pure drinking waterin such areas.

The state government, in col-laboration with the Union Ministryfor Rural Development, is going tostart 85 water harvesting projects in4.50 lakh hectares of overcrowdedand drought-prone areas, including31 rain-fed districts, in 2021-22.With this project, people residingin drought-prone areas will havesufficient drinking water and farm-ers will also be able to get water eas-ily for farming.

The responsibility to preparethe primary project report hasbeen given to Greater Sharda assis-tant command project officer.

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NOTICE

I Declare that My Date of Birth27/04/2006 is Wrong in MyPersonal Document. Mycorrect Date of Birth is27/12/2006. Sachin Kumar S/oLate Kewal Ram Vill-BharopurCharoa, P.O.-Terhi Kaptanganj,Dist-Azamgarh (UP)

NOTICE

It is Notified for the Informationthat my Original QualifyingExamination Certificate of MainSecondary Examination of Year2011 and Roll No. 5263206Issued by CBSC has beenActually Lost. SHISTAGAUTAM R/O -House No. 90,Shaheed Nagar, Near AryavartCollege, Raebareli RoadLucknow, U.P 226025 Mob-7991784444

NOTICE

I, Vineeta Pandey W/o AjitKumar Pandey Army No-14922449 P, 227/5/4 GautamNagar, T.P. Nagar, Alld. havechange my name from VINEE-TA PANDEY to VINITAPANDEY for all future purpose.

NOTICE

I, Lal Bahadur father of No-7788189 W Rank Sep SanjeevResident of Vill-Kerwari, Po-Devapar, Teh-Mariyahu, Dist-Jaunpur (UP) have changedmy name from Lal Bahadur toLal Bahadur Yadav for allfuture purpose.

NOTICE

I, Smt Lalmani mother of No-7788189 W Rank Sep SanjeevResident of Vill-Kerwari, Po-Devapar, Teh-Mariyahu, Dist-Jaunpur (UP) have changedmy name from Smt Lalmani toSmt. Lalmani Yadav for allfuture purpose.

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REQUIRED

NOTICE

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Page 3: 2020/12/27  · 30 in protest against the Centre’s agri laws. We request people from Delhi and other parts of the country to come and celebrate New Year with protesting farmers,”

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Eight of the travellers fromthe UK to Uttar Pradesh

have tested positive for coron-avirus till Saturday. A seniorhealth official said the samplesof these people have been sentto Delhi for genome sequenc-ing, results of which will comein the next 2-3 days. However,he hastened to add that thereis no need for people to panic.

“Three of them have test-ed positive in Meerut, three inGautam Buddh Nagar and twoin Ghaziabad. The two admit-ted to a Ghaziabad hospital areresidents of Delhi,” he said. Allthose who have tested positiveare Indian nationals and admit-ted to private hospitals in sep-arate wards.

He said there have beencontacts also of these patientswho have tested positive. Theofficial said that the total num-ber of travellers who havearrived at Uttar Pradesh fromthe UK since November 23 is2,568. “We are still in theprocess of tracking them. There

is also duplication of namesand new lists are coming fromthe Central government, andhence we have to update them,”he said.

Asked about the threat inthe wake of the mutated strainof coronavirus from the UK toUP, he said they are waiting forthe results of genome sequenc-ing. “The only thing that thegeneral public should be care-ful about is that if they hadguests from the UK, theyshould confine themselves totheir homes and also ask theUK travellers to confine them-selves. That is the only thingthat needs to be done at thisstage,” he said.

However, reports of 81 outof the 134 UK travellers whohave arrived at Lucknow havecome out negative. AdditionalCMO MK Singh said morereports are awaited. “Some ofthe travellers have also comefrom other European countriesand if anyone tests positive, theprotocols will be followed,” hesaid. As many as 22 out of thesetravellers are outside Lucknow.

“They have been cross-notifiedabout the same. Testing hasbeen carried out on 112 peoplewho have come after December8,” he added.

It may be noted that 130UK travellers have come toLucknow from November 23 toDecember 8 and are under sur-veillance for 28 days while 134who arrived after December 9are being tested along withtheir contacts.

A refreshers course ontraining for Covid vaccinationwas carried out for districtofficials through video-con-ferencing. A senior health offi-cial said the training was organ-ised to answer the queries ofthose involved in the process.

Meanwhile, Prof DHimanshu from KGMU saidthat the number of deaths at theCovid hospital has decreased inthe recent past. “The numberof cases has decreased in thecity but being a Level-3 hospi-tal, we keep getting patients,including those from otherdistricts, but this number is alsocoming down,” he pointed out.

He said the trail of the BCGvaccine at KGMU has beencompleted and follow-up isunderway.

Meanwhile, 229 personstested positive for coronavirusin Lucknow on Saturday while231 patients recovered.Lucknow’s death toll stands at1,101 and there are 2,881 activecases in the district. The freshcases included 19 fromGomtinagar, 22 fromIndiranagar, 15 from Chinhat,14 from Rae Bareli road, 12from Jankipuram, 11 fromGudamba, and 10 each fromTalkatora, Chowk & Madiaon.Across the state, 1,102 personstested positive, including 36 inKanpur, 40 in Ghaziabad, 29in Gautam Buddh Nagar, 83 inVaranasi and 79 in Meerut,taking the UP tally to 5,81,080.There were 14 deaths in thestate, including three inKanpur, two each in Bareillyand Rae Bareli, and one each inLucknow, Ghaziabad, Ballia,Barabanki, Etawah, Rampur& Bhadohi, taking the toll to 8,293.

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ABPharma student was killedin a road mishap in

Thakurganj on Friday night. Hewas identified as ShubhamRawat aka Ashish of Kakori. Hewas going to Buddheswar cross-ing via Dubagga crossing on amotorcycle and was hit by anunidentified vehicle at Bhunwarculvert around 11:30 pm. Hewas rushed to KGMU TraumaCentre where he was declaredbrought dead.

In another incident, a 21-year-old boy, identified asKanhaiya of Sushant Golf Citypolice station area, was crushedunder a wheel of a tractor-trol-ley while working on Thursdayevening. Reports said Kanhaiya

was unloading the bricks inSemra village of Chinhat. All ofa sudden, a septic chambercaved in and one of the wheelsgot stuck in it. The victim suf-fered injuries as the trolley tilt-ed on him. He was rushed toRMLIMS where he wasdeclared brought dead.

Meanwhile, a youth endedhis life at the house of his auntin Gudamba on Friday after-noon. Identified as Ratin KumarMullick of Khurram Nagarlocality, he was staying with hisaunt Kavita in Mayapuri Colonyin Gudamba. Around 2:30 pmon Friday, he was found hang-

ing from the ceiling with a sareetied around his neck. He wasrushed to a hospital where hewas declared brought dead.

In another case, a 25-year-old man jumped into Gomtiriver from Pucca Pul underChowk police station area onSaturday. Reports said Lalit ofSaadatganj reached there on hise-rickshaw along with his wifeRenu and their son. Lalit askedRenu to drop a coin into theriver for their son and the cou-ple picked up a fight over theissue. All of a sudden, hejumped into the river. Policesaid Lalit was upset over somefamily issue and he jumped intothe river in the afternoon. Thepolice said they were searchingfor him.

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��������������-��������� ���������Lucknow (PNS): Two groups of students had a fierce clash atthe gate of their school in Vikas Nagar on Saturday afternoon.There were reports that the warring groups lobbed stones andeven bombs, leaving the local shop-owners scared. The clashwas said to be a fallout of the rivalry over ascertaining suprema-cy. The shop-owners assembled at the spot and nabbed two ofthem. The police said those involved in the clash were class Xstudents. “The students detained were minor and they were letoff after a warning on the request of their parents,” police said.

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Page 4: 2020/12/27  · 30 in protest against the Centre’s agri laws. We request people from Delhi and other parts of the country to come and celebrate New Year with protesting farmers,”

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����� 7�),'C6

With the end of the five-year term of the elected

gram pradhans on Friday, thestate government has appoint-ed administrators replacingthem in as many as 58,656 vil-lage panchayats.

The elections to the three-tier panchayat institutions areslated to be held next year andthe process is targeted to becompleted by the end ofMarch next year.

Official sources said here

on Saturday that assistantdevelopment officers in theblock development office hadbeen appointed as administra-tors in all the village panchay-ats while the government hadremoved the digital signa-tures of the pradhans from theportal of the e-Gram Swaraj toprevent any fraud.

Meanwhile, the UP StateElection Commission ispreparing for the panchayatpolls and there is a possibili-ty that the elections could beheld in four phases.

The elections of grampradhans, members of gramsabhas, and members ofkshetra panchayats and mem-bers district panchayats will beheld simultaneously.

Presently, the process ofrevision of electoral rolls isunderway and the final voterlist is expected to be publishednext month.

The process of delimita-tion and reservation of wardsfor the SCs and OBCs will becompleted by the third weekof February next year.

The State ElectionCommission is likely to issuethe election notification assoon as the reservation ofwards is completed.

The terms of gram pan-chayats ended on December25, while the terms of kshetrapanchayats and district pan-chayat members will end onJanuary 14 and March 18 nextyear respectively. The officialsources said the preparationsfor the panchayat electionswere underway on a war foot-ing Unlike the last election in2016, this t ime the election of gram pradhans,members of gram sabhas,kshetra panchayats and dis-trict panchayats will be heldsimultaneously.

B����" ���� ������ ���� �������������/�&�Lucknow (PNS): Lucknowmetro got the maximum rider-ship (38,471) on Christmassince the services resumedafter lockdown on September7. UPMRC managing directorKumar Keshav said the com-muters had a gala time at theChristmas celebrations organ-ised by them.

The Santa Claus in andaround stations and onboardtrains became very popularwith the riders as they weretreated with sweets. Santa wason the move starting fromMunshipulia station, around ITCollege station area andHazratganj clicking pictureswith excited commuters.

A special musical perfor-mance by ‘The TriologicalBlend Official’ band at theHazratganj station made theevening for people fun-filled.

Meanwhile, UPMRC, inassociation with an organisa-tion, will organise a warmclothes collection drive atMunshipulia and KrishnaNagar stations from December29 to 31.

����� 7�),'C6

The Lucknow police onSaturday released sketches

of the two accused who hadshot former gram pradhanSujeet Pandey inMohanlalganj. A cash rewardof Rs 50,000 was alsoannounced for anyone whogives the police a tip-off about

the accused. ADCP, South,Suresh Rawat said the policesucceeded in preparing thesketches of the suspects afterdetailed talks with eyewit-nesses. “This is a big steptowards unravelling of themurder mystery,” he said. Heappealed to people to sharedetails about the suspects, ifthey have any.

On Friday, Deputy ChiefMinister Dinesh Sharma metthe family members of Guptaand assured them speedyinvestigation into the case andarrest of the killers. He askedthe police to expedite theprobe.

On Saturday, PragatisheelSamajwadi Party (Lohia) chiefShivpal Yadav also met the

bereaved kin and assured themall help. He expressed concernover the deteriorating law andorder and spurt in crime cases.

Meanwhile, farmers tookout a protest march onSaturday demanding immedi-ate arrest of the killers. Theysaid crime incidents have been on the rise inMohanlalganj of late.

Lucknow (PNS): Uniforms shouldbe fixed for the drivers and conduc-tors of city buses and identity cardsbe provided to them. A workshopshould also be organised to teach them how to behave with passengers.

These were the directionsissued by Divisional CommissionerRanjan Kumar, who presided overLucknow City Transport ServicesLimited Board meeting onSaturday. A committee headed byADM (East) was also formed tomake the company more prof-itable. This panel consists of addi-tional municipal commissioner,

LDA chief engineer and chieffinance officer of City Transport.The divisional commissioner askedthe committee to submit a reportwithin 15 days after carrying out areview of how can income beenhanced and expenditures curbed,how to make provision of LEDscreens in buses and how to gener-ate revenue through publicity.

Kumar said that proper public-ity of the time schedule of the busesshould be made and the busesshould run on time. He said that theroutes should be charted on thebasis of the availability of passengers.

�����������%��The department of Linguistics,

Lucknow University, organised aspecial event online under theMission Shakti initiative of the UPgovernment. Violina Borah, assis-tant professor at the Department ofEnglish (Daulat Ram College),delivered a lecture titled ‘Hissedaari’and spoke of the interactionbetween gender and language. Shealso announced the results of theposter and poetry contests andappreciated the gender-equal par-ticipation. Shivansh Sharma,Saumya Tiwari and KrishnaNarayan won the prizes in poetrycompetition while Ayushi Sahu,Karishma Singh and PrashantAwasthi in poster making.

��������� Students of National Service

Scheme participated in the NationalIntegration Camp in March, whichwas organised in Kangra district ofHimachal Pradesh under the lead-ership of Dr Ramesh KumarChaturvedi and Dr Taruna, pro-gramme officer of National ServiceScheme (NSS) of BabasahebBhimrao Ambedkar CentralUniversity. The BBAU NSS teamwon many medals and awardsthere. Anshu Srivastava, a studentof the same group, got selected forthe Regional Republic Day ParadeCamp held in Agra from November26 to December 4. The central teampresent at that camp has nowselected Anshu Srivastava for theJanuary 26 Republic Day Camp tobe held in Delhi. Anshu will nowparticipate in the NSS Republic DayParade Camp to be held from

January 1 to 31. She will be trainedalong with other volunteers select-ed from across the country for themain parade to be held at the RedFort. Anshu is a student of BCom(Hons) at Rural Managementdepartment.

��������Akhil Bhartiya Kayasth

Mahasabha will organise a functionto commemorate its workers in thecity on Sunday. Media incharge(medical wing) Dr PratulBhatnagar said the function isbeing organised on the directionsof national president YogendraNath Srivastava. He said that newlyappointed state president (UP)Vimal Kishor Srivastava (retiredDSP) and other office-bearers willbe present on the occasion.

7��������Shardul Awasthi, a class IV stu-

dent of City Montessori School,Rajajipuram Campus I, broughtlaurels to the institution by winning

the gold medal atthe state-levelA b a c u sC omp e t i t i on ,which was organ-ised under theaegis of educa-tional instituteB r a i n o b r a i n .

Students of several noted schoolsparticipated in the contest to show-case their analytical skills. Shardulopted for various abacus tricks tosolve mathematical problems andemerged winner amidst a toughcompetition. He was awarded agold medal and certificate of merit.

����� 7�),'C6

In a tragic incident, a womanand her three children were

burnt alive when theirthatched house caught fire in Banda early Saturdaymorning.

Chief Minister YogiAdityanath condoled thedeaths and directed the offi-cials to extend all possible helpto the family. Police said thefire broke out from the firethat was burning inside theroom to keep them warm. Thevillagers tried to rescue thefamily but they failed to dousethe fire in time. The firebrigade also reached the spot

very late due to which all the belongings were reducedto ashes.

Police said that Sangita(35) used to stay in the housealong with her three childrenwhile her husband was away ashe worked as a labourer inRajasthan.

The children, who werekilled in the fire, were identi-fied as Angali (9), Ashish (6)and another 3 year-old-girl.

Additional Superintendentof Police Mahendra PratapChauhan said that though itappeared to be a mishap, thepolice were investigating thereason for the fire.

Meanwhile in Kasganj,

four members of a family werekilled and two others werecritically injured when theircar rammed into a pile ofbricks due to dense fog onearly Saturday morning.

The incident took place atKasganj-Bareilly highway, nearMamo village, when the occu-pants were returning from amarriage function, police said. Three of the car occupantsdied on the spot while anoth-er succumbed to his injuries.

The deceased were identi-fied as Aman, Asif and SajidThe injured Samir, Arshadand Yasir were shifted to hos-pital where one of them suc-cumbed to his injuries.

6��!������ �7�)��������� +*���������������) ���%������� *,��)���-Lucknow (PNS): UttarPradesh’s SugarcaneDevelopment Minister SureshRana on Friday alleged thatSamajwadi Party supremo andlocal MP Akhilesh Yadav usedAzamgarh for his political gainsfor years but did nothing for itsdevelopment.

Addressing an agriculturefair in Azamgarh on the occa-sion of former Prime MinisterAtal Bihari Vajpayee’s birthanniversary, Rana asserted thatthe Centre’s recent farm lawswere in the interest of farmersand accused the opposition of“misleading” farmers protestingagainst the legislations.

“If those protesting againstthe laws have any suggestions,they should tell it to the govern-ment whose doors are alwaysopen,” he said, and added,“The farmers should come forward with their suggestionsand talk.”

Targeting the SamajwadiParty president, Rana said,“Akhilesh used Azamgarh forpolitics for years but did noth-ing for its development.”“Akhilesh should say what hisgovernment had done forfarmers. He believed in layingfoundation stones only, where-as Chief Minister YogiAdityanath does inaugurationsafter completion of projects,” headded.

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Uttar Pradesh minister AnilRajbhar said that

Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party(SBSP) chief Om PrakashRajbhar was a “samaj ka dush-man” (enemy of society) forjoining hands with theAsaduddin Owaisi-ledAIMIM for the 2022 UPAssembly polls.

Buoyed by the All IndiaM a j l i s - e - I t t e h a d u lMuslimeen’’s (AIMIM) goodshowing in the recent BiharAssembly polls, Owaisi hadmet Om Prakash Rajbhar, a

former Bharatiya Janata Partyally, in Lucknow earlier thismonth. After the meeting,Om Prakash Rajbhar, referringto the Bhagidari SankalpMorcha, had said that theywould contest the 2022 UttarPradesh elections together.

The Bhagidari SankalpMorcha is a front of smallerparties in the state formedabout a year ago.

“Om Prakash Rajbhar is a‘’samaj ka dushman’’ and hasbetrayed Maharaja Suheldevafter whom he formed hisparty,” Anil Rajbhar said inBallia on Saturday.

“Om Prakash Rajbhar hasnothing to do with either thesociety or Maharaja Suheldev’’shonour and dignity. Earliertoo, he had joined hands withthe children of Syed SalarGhazi, Mukhtar Ansari andAfzal Ansari, for his politicsand now he has joined handswith Owaisi,” he said.

“He wants to mislead theRajbhar community but hestands fully exposed,” theDivyangjan Empowermentminister added.

Maharaja Suheldev, an11th century king, is said tohave defeated Syed Salar Ghazi

in a battle. Suheldev BhartiyaSamaj Party chief Om PrakashRajbhar was sacked from theYogi Adityanath cabinet inMay 2019 for his derogatorycomments against the chiefminister and the BJP.

On Delhi Deputy ChiefMinister Manish Sisodia com-paring the schools in Delhiand Uttar Pradesh in terms ofprogress made by the respec-tive governments in improvinginfrastructure, Anil Rajbharasked Sisodia, Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal and AamAadmi Party MP Sanjay Singhto visit schools in Varanasi.

C0�� � ����������%�$"�����$ � ���������& ���.&� � Lucknow (PNS): Resentment

against the working style ofAICC general secretaryPriyanka Gandhi Vadra andUP Congress president AjayKumar Lallu continued with onemore senior leader, VinodKumar Mishra, who was alsoconvenor of the BrahminMahasabha, resigning from theparty on Friday citing high-handedness of the top brass.

Mishra, a former generalsecretary of the UP Congress,was also incharge of Lucknowdistrict during Raj Babbar’stenure as UP Congress chief.

In his statement soon afterquitting the party, he blamedCongress general secretaryPriyanka Gandhi Vadra for hisresignation and alleged that theGandhi parivar was using theparty to save itself from theCentral Bureau of Investigationand the EnforcementDirectorate, hence it was insult-ing veteran leaders and forcingthem to leave the party.

“The UP Congress hasalready been handed over to left-ist leaders and now they aremanaging everything which isunfortunate for the century-old

party which was a symbol of thefreedom movement of the coun-try,” Mishra said in his state-ment. He, however, denied thathe would join any other politi-cal party and said that he wouldnow onwards devote his entiretime on strengthening theBrahmin Mahasabha. However,sources said that like otherCongressmen who joined AamAadmi Party soon after they leftthe Congress recently, Mishratoo would shake hands with hiscolleagues to start his new polit-ical innings under ArvindKejriwal’s leadership.

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Under the successfulMission Shakti initiative,

the Uttar Pradesh governmentis sparing no efforts to not onlymake women aware of theirrights but also make them self-reliant and self-independent.

Under this campaignlaunched by Yogi Adityanath,the Department of Womenand Child Development hasalready taken a few steps toensure women’s security andempowerment by organisingvarious awareness pro-grammes. The recent data

shows that till December 25,the Department of Womenand Child Development hassensitised over 5.5 crore peo-ple, including 1,98,74,468women and 1,37,16,793 girlsunder the Mission Shakti cam-paign. The department hadorganised many events includ-ing Shakti Samwad, pro-grammes on child labour, childmarriage, mental health,Betiyon ki Pehchan, etc, ManojRai, the director, Women andChild, UP said.

It is to be mentioned thatlast month, a virtual pro-gramme ‘Haq Ki Bat,

Zilaadhikari Ke Saath’ wasorganised in every districtacross the state, where womenand girls had a conversationwith the district magistrates onthe topics of sexual violence,gender inequality, domesticviolence, and dowry violencevia video conferencing.

It is worth mentioning thatChief Minister Yogi launchedthe Mission Shakti programmeon October 17, 2020 with anaim to reduce crime againstwomen and it was implement-ed for six months and willcome to an end on BasantNavratri in April 2021.

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Lucknow (PNS): The year2020 has been declared as theyear of biodiversity but it is amatter of concern that insteadof reducing, the crisis isincreasing and human activitiesare the main reason for this. Tosave the earth from goingtowards destruction, we have tolive in harmony with nature.

These views wereexpressed by chairperson ofNational Biodiversity AuthorityDr VB Mathur, who was thechief guest at the valedictory

function of the BiodiversityConclave under 6th IndiaInternational Science Festival(IISF-2020), organised at NBRI.

Principal coordinator DrKN Nair presented the con-clave report of various eventsand activities held during thetwo-day event while ProfAdarsh Pal Vig welcomed thechief guest. To generate aware-ness about biodiversity amongyoung minds of India, an e-poster session and nature-wildlife photography expo were

organised while a short filmwas also screened. A session on‘Indigenous Community – S&TExperts Meet’ was organisedand was addressed by experts.

The experts discussed theimportance of tradition knowl-edge in developing ayurvedicdrugs and emphasized the needof S&T intervention amongtribal communities for gener-ating better income opportuni-ties. They also emphasised onsustainable utilisation of forestand wild resources.

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Page 5: 2020/12/27  · 30 in protest against the Centre’s agri laws. We request people from Delhi and other parts of the country to come and celebrate New Year with protesting farmers,”

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VARANASI (PNS): The ChiefExecutive Officer (CEO) ofNITI (National Institution forTransforming India) AyogAmitabh Kant on Saturdaysaid, after the completion ofdevelopment and welfare pro-grammes in SewapuriDevelopment Block of the dis-trict, the development model ofthis block will be applied in theentire nation.

Chairing a meeting withthe officers of various depart-

ments, Kant reviewed theprogress of various develop-ment and welfare projectsbeing implemented here anddirected for materialising all theprojects within stipulated time.It is pointed out, the SewapuriBlock of the district has beenselected to develop as a modelblock by the NITI Ayog in viewof the COVID-19 and all the 87villages of this block are to besaturated with all the develop-ment and welfare projects

being run by the government atCentre and in the state as well.If the block is developed asmodel block successfully, itcould be applied in the entirenation.

The works related to devel-opment have been completedbut the works regarding thebehaviour changing are to becompleted, he said adding,after the completion of all theworks, the development modelof this block will be applied in

the entire nation. He lauded allthe departments engaged inimplementing the projects andsaid, the works of the block willbe handed over to the com-munity after it is declared as themodel block.

After this block is declaredas a model block, the officerswill start work making otherblocks as model blocks andthey will face no difficulty asthey will gain experience bythen, he added.

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Recalling the contributionsof Bharat Ratna Mahamana

Madan Mohan Malviya, vari-ous functions were organised inthe city on his birth anniversaryhere on Friday. A major func-tion was organised at Assiunder the joint auspices ofAshray Sewa Sansthan andSubeh-e-Banaras in associa-tion with the Cultural depart-ment, UP Government.Regional Achieves andMicrotek in which as many as56 dignitaries, all are alumni ofBanaras Hindu University(BHU), including over a dozenpast and present vice-chancel-lors of different universities,three Padmashree award recip-ients and others. In BHU,Malviya Deepawali was cele-brated at Malviya Bhawanwhich was inaugurated by theV-C Prof Rakesh Bhatnagar.Hundreds of lamps were litbetween LT Guest House andMahila Mahaviyalaya (MMV).

At Assi, apart from felic-itation of dignitaries, exhibi-tion and Kavi Sammelan‘Srijan Dhara’ were also organ-ised and the function beganwith offering flower tributes toMalviyaji. Dr Vijay Kapoorpresented Saraswati Vandanawhile girls of PaniniMahaviyalaya recited Vedic

Manglacharan, while MusicFaculty students ‘Kulgeet’ ofBHU. Some artistes also pre-sented Kathak dance.

Later, V-Cs Prof TN Singh(MGKV) and Prof NirmalMaurya (VBSPU, Jaunpur)apart from many past and pre-sent V-Cs includingPadmashree Prof SarojChooramani, Prof RK Mishra,Prof SS Kushwaha, Prof DurgSingh Chauhan, ProfChandrakala Padia, ProfHarikesh Singh, Prof KPSingh and many others.

Besides, the other digni-taries who were honouredwere Padmashree recipientsProf NN Khanna and DrRajnikant Dwivedi, Prof

Chandramauli Upadhyay, DrSatya Dev Singh, Prof ManglaKapoor, Prof SN Thakur, ProfKNS Yadav, Dr SubhashChandra Yadav, Prof OPSingh, Prof Koushal KishoreMishra, Prof AbhimanyuSingh, Prof RK Mall, ProfSachhidanand Tripathi, ProfJai Prasad Lal, Deena NathSingh, Prof HS Shukla, DrYogendra Kumar Singh, ProfSanjay Rai, Prof PC Upadhyay,Prof Awadesh Pradhan, ProfMaruti Nandan Tiwari, ProfMP Mishra, Prof Arvind Joshi,Prof Hridya Ranjan Sharma,Prof Devbrat Choubey, ProfBechan Lal, Prof R Prasad,Prof UK Chaudhary, Prof BNMishra, Dr Rajendra

Upadhyay, Prof NP Sinha,Ajay Srivastava, Prof AbhayKumar Singh, Dr PradeepRai, Dr Beena Singh, Dr RPSingh, Dr OP Tiwari,Yadvendra Kumar, PradeepKumar, Attri Bhardwaj,Ramesh Singh, Vijay Narain,Shiv Kumar Singh, BrijeshSingh, Ashok Pandey, SubedarSingh and Dr Ratnesh Verma.The function was jointly con-ducted by Pramod Mishraand Preetesh Acharya, whileguests were welcomed by DrSubhash Chandra Yadav, DrHarendra Narayan Singh andDr Ratnesh Verma. The voteof thanks was proposed byAshray secretary Dr VirendraPratap Singh.

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Haryana Divyang CricketTeam won the inaugural

match of Late Ajit Memorial T-20 Triangular Divyang CricketSeries by defeating MumbaiDivyang Cricket Team.

In the inaugural matchplayed at Smpurnanand SportsStadium in Sigra here, onSaturday the Mumbai DivyangCricket Team won the tossand chose to field first. Battingfirst, the Haryana DivyangCricket Team scored a total of161 runs losing seven wicketsin 20 overs. Chasing a target of162 runs, the Mumbai DivyangCricket Team could score only134 runs losing nine wickets.And thus, the Haryana Teamwon the inaugural match by 27runs. The cricket lovers weresurprised while watching thegame of players as they werehitting the ball for the bound-aries like the players of anynational and internationalcricket team. And at the same

time, their bowling, fieldingand catching the balls weresuperb. Nikki Tiwari andChandra Prakash were umpiresin the inaugural match.

Earlier, the regional presi-dent of the Bharatiya JanataParty (BJP) Mahesh ChandraSrivastava formally inaugurat-ed the tournament and said

that the tiournament willexplore the talent of thosephysically challenged playerswho have so far not got oppor-tunities to show their sportsskill. Extending his congratu-lation to the organisers, heemphasised on conductingsuch more tournaments toencourage divyang players. He

also unveiled the trophy to behanded over to the winningteam.

The Uttar Pradesh DivyangCricket Association is con-ducting the tournament and itspresident Dr Manoj KumarSrivastava informed that threeteams are participating in thetournament and the third teamis Uttar Pradesh DivyangCricket Team besides the teamsof Haryana and Mumbai. It isfor the first time that the T-20cricket series of divyang isbeing conducted in the stateand it has approval of theBoard of Control for Cricket inIndia (BCCI). The tournamentwill conclude on Sunday andthe chief guest will be ArjunaAwardee and Internationalpara-athlete Jagseer Singh, heinformed.

Prominent among thosewho were present on the inau-gural occasion included DrPankaj Kumar Singh, PrakashKumar Srivastava, Dr RituGarg, Rakesh Singh and DrNandlal Singh.

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History sheeter GaneshYadav of Havelia Jhusi

was the 37th target of thePrayagraj DevelopmentAuthority. His huge doublestoreyed building, constructedwithout an approved blue-print, was pulled down by fiveJCB machines on Saturday.The demolition squad wasbacked by a huge police forceto deal with any eventuality.

A history sheeter of Jhusi,Ganesh Yadav is a hardcorecriminal and several cases havebeen registered against him bythe different police stations ofthe district.

This unauthorised doublestoreyed building had beenraised on a huge plot of 1500 sqyards in Havelia Jhusi. Ganeshis the brother of mafia donAshok Yadav. People said thatthe above plot was also grabbedby Ganesh on muscle power.

The family member resid-ing there, however, said thatthey had not been served anyprior notice, so the PDA actioncannot be justified.

LOVE AFFAIR CAUSEOF AMAN’S MURDER: Loveaffair was found to be thecause behind the murder of a14 year-old boy in Pitambar kapura, under the Kaundhiyara

area of the district onWednesday night. The sisterand her lover had killed the boywho had perhaps seen them ina compromising position.

Father and mother of thedeceased had gone to attend afunction at night while Aman,14, and his sister were at home.The sister had earlier informedthat when she woke up in the

morning, she found the bodyof her brother in a pool ofblood in another room.

It was hard to digest theabove theory planted by the sis-ter of the deceased. The policewent through the call details ofthe girl, and detained a boyShiv Shankar who was a fre-quent caller. He broke downand accepted that he had killedAman with the help of the sis-ter of Aman.

According to the police,Aman and his sister were alone,and when Aman went to bed inthe other room, she called herlover. When Aman saw them ina compromising position, heobjected to it. In the heat of themoment Shiv Shankar and thesister of Aman attacked himwith an iron rod. Aman col-lapsed and died owing to headinjuries. The boy Shiv Shankarescaped from the scene, andAman’s sister planted a story tosave herself. Now both are inpolice custody.

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In a virtual function held onSaturday through video con-

ferencing, General Manager,North Central Railway, RajivChaudhry inaugurated auto-matic coach washing plantinstalled at coach maintenancedepot Agra Cant. and Plug andPlay type packaged SewageTreatment Plant (STP) installednear Jhansi railway station.

Automatic coach washingplant installed at washing lineAgra Cantt. is equipped with 12stages automatic exterior coachwashing units for superior anduniform cleaning.Combination of cylindricalbrushes, cleaning chemicalapplication and multiple clean-ing stages ensures superiorcoach washing without anymanual effort. Sensor installedat approach of ACWP ensuresthat machine is pressed intoaction at appropriate time andit also detects type of stock—coach and locomotives.

This intelligent feature

ensures that shunting locomo-tive used for placement ofcoaching rake is not sprayedwith water to avoid any dam-age to the locomotive. Thisautomatic coach washing plantreduces water consumptionsubstantially as only 300 litresof water is needed per coach forexterior cleaning againstapproximately 1000 litres con-sumption per coach in con-ventional cleaning process.This ACWP is equipped withinbuilt effluent treatment plantwhich recycles approximately80 per cent of water used in thismachine making it extremelyefficient w.r.t. water consump-tion.

Highlighting details of thisproject, DRM Agra SKSrivastava said that ACWP iscapable of cleaning the rakeupto 8 kmph placement speedand it takes only five minutesto clean a 24 coach length rakeutilising ACWP. GeneralManager Rajiv Chaudhry com-plemented Agra division forthis important achievementand advised that such ACWPs

should be installed at all wash-ing lines to ensure qualitycleaning in an environmentfriendly manner.

Later two Plug and Playtype packaged SewageTreatment Plants installed inRailway colony near Jhansirailway station were also inau-gurated by GM Chaudhry.With total installed capacity of1,00,000 litres, these units willbe used to recycle waste waterof and treated water to be usedin gardening, and cleaning.Design followed over NCR forpackaged STP is Plug and Playtype requiring minimal spaceand time for installation andrecycled water is potable gradeas all the parameter of treatedwater from this plant are with-in the specified limits for drink-ing water. DRM Jhansi SandeepMathur highlighted benefitsof this compact treatment plantand also shared efforts towardsoverall landscape developmentnear these plants. GeneralManager complemented Jhansidivision for their importantcontribution towards water

conservation. He said that it isour legal and moral duty toconserve water for future gen-erations and such packagedand easy to install STPs areimportant tool in this endeav-our. GM also announced groupawards for both Agra andJhansi division successful com-pletion of these importantworks. With keen interest ofGeneral Manager Chaudhryin water conservation, NorthCentral Railway has made pio-neering efforts in this directionthrough installation of STPsand ETPs, digging of ponds,rainwater harvesting, waterconsumption auditing andother conservation measures.Installed water recycling capac-ity over North Central Railwayis approximately 25 lakh litresper day and this railway couldrecycle more than 15 crore litrewater in last one year. NorthCentral Railway HQ officecomplex is a net zero dis-charge unit and recycles 100per cent waste water throughsimilar packaged plug and playtype STP.

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The corona infection con-tinued to fall in the district.

Throughout the day, 5,680people underwent a coronacheck of them a total of 67 newpositive cases were identified.77 people beat Corona at thesame time while no death fromcorona infection was reportedonce again.

According to Nodal Officerfor Corona Dr Rishi Sahai, thenumber of healthy people isincreasing more than theinfected. Out of the 77 peoplewho have become deinfected inthe district, 13 were dischargedfrom various Covid hospitals.At the same time 64 peopledefeated the infection by stay-ing in home isolation.

So far, 20,236 people havecompleted home isolation.According to nodal officer DrSahai, the infected also includ-ed pediatricians from BeliHospital. On the other hand,the Covid report of a seniorrailway technician including aloco pilot, three advocates, aconstable of GRP, a primaryschool teacher posted inBahadurpur, a teacher of SJCand a supervisor of NTPChave come positive.

Corona infection with nosymptoms will be admittedhere at Kalindipuram.According to CMO DrPrabhakar Rai, four patientshave been admitted to thiscentre on the first day. He toldthat if the infection is con-firmed in people coming fromoutside, then they will be

admitted to this centre.Meanwhile, people as well

as the Health departmentappear to be relieved by Coronainfection. On Thursday, ascreening test of 5,844 peoplewas conducted. There havebeen 60 new cases of infection.At the same time, 49 people gothealthy from Corona infec-tion.

Among the infected, alawyer, SDO of BSNL, employ-eeof AG office, a teacher ofArya Kanya Inter College,cashier of BOB are also in thelist of infected. According tonodal officer Corona Dr RishiSahai, the number of infectedremains constant even afterexpanding the scope of testing.On the same day 60 new Covidpositive have been identified.Of the 49 people who gotinfection-free, 17 Covid

patients were discharged fromhospitals. 32 people complet-ed home isolation.

So far, 20,172 people havebeen free from infection by get-ting treatment in their homes.CMO Dr Prabhakar Rai saidthat the number of seriouspatients in Covid hospitals isdecreasing. There are 62patients in SRN, 27 in BeliHospital and 17 in UnitedMedicity Medical College. Hesaid that work is being done tocheck those coming fromabroad or other states so thatthe spread of infection can bestopped.

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After getting the new formof Coronavirus, every person

coming from UK is being sub-jected to Covid testing. Withina month, 11 of the 49 peoplewho have come here are miss-ing. Health department teamscame into action on Friday,conducted a Covid testing of 20people who came from abroad.

All reports have comenegative. At the same time, 11people included in the list aremissing, it is learned that theaddress on their passport islocal, but they live in othercities of the country. Genomesequencing of people comingfrom Britain or other countrieswill also be made so that thestrain of the virus can bedetected.

According to NodalOfficer for Corona Dr RishiSahai, on the instructions of thegovernment, after November25, there are instructions toconduct a Covid test of thosewho travelled here from Britainor other countries. In thisregard, a list of 49 people trav-eling abroad has returned fromLucknow. On the basis of thelist, the QRT teams arecollecting the details byvisiting the respective people'shomes.

A Covid test has been con-ducted for 20 people who hadcome from abroad. All reportshave come negative. At thesame time, information wascollected about those 11 peo-ple who were not found at theaddress listed in the list. Ninepeople who returned from for-eign travel were informed overthe phone about their health.Along with them, Covid will beexamined on Sunday.

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Former head of Chestdepartment in Institute of

Medical Sciences (IMS),Banaras Hindu University(BHU) Prof JK Samaria saidthat air pollution is one of theimportant reasons for theincrease in asthma. ‘Pollution,smoking, dietary habits, nutri-tional deficiencies, genetic pre-disposition, lack of informationand increase in small air par-ticles (PM 2.5) are the main

causes behind the rise in asth-ma cases,” he said, while talk-ing to the presspersons here.

According to him, at thetime of lockdown, a significantdecrease in air pollution wasobserved in the first fewmonths but as now as thethings are being opened up, itis important that health shouldnot be ignored, especiallyasthma patients need to paymore attention on their health.‘Inhalation can play a crucialrole in reducing the impact of

asthma on people’s lives. Withinhalers, the drug reachesdirectly to the lungs instead offlowing through the blood-stream and other organs of thebody and the patients needlesser drug dosage. It is, in fact,the safest treatment option forasthmatics with fewer sideeffects,’ he said, adding thatexpanding one’s knowledge onthis condition is vital as patientsstop using inhalation therapymid-way which makes it diffi-cult to control the disease.

According to him, asthmais a chronic (long term) diseaseusually characterised by airwayinflammation and narrowing ofthe airways, which can varyover time. ‘India has 37.9 mil-lion cases of asthma, despite thenumber, the usage of inhalerswhich is the most effectivetreatment is abysmally low andit is estimated that in Varanasilocal doctors daily see an aver-age of around 30-35 patientssuffering from asthma/respi-ratory diseases.

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The district has inched clos-er to 21k-mark as 55 new

patients have been detected onSaturday, increasing the totalnumber to 20,950. The day alsosaw two more deaths, increas-ing the toll to 351. During theday, the follow-up negativereports included 46 and all ofthem have been recovered fromhome isolation, increasing thenumber to 17,265. As nopatient has been dischargedfrom any hospital, the numberhas remained at 2,903. The totalnumber of patients who havebeen recovered so far is 20,168,

leaving 431 active cases. Therecovery rate is 96.26 per cent,while the mortality rate is 1.67per cent.

Chief Medical Officer(CMO) Dr VB Singh hasinformed that in the firstreport of the day, 52 positivepatients were found out of1,849 reports received. Tillthen, the total test reportsreceived were 5,03,317 and theresults of 2,333 are awaited.Out of them, 4,82,370 werenegative, while 20,947 positive.The total number of samplescollected was 5,28,954. Earlier,

a male aged 69 from GilletBazar succumbed to COVID-19 at Apex Hospital. With theaddition of four new redzones, the total number ofhotspots has increased to 2,628including 200 red zones. Threegreen zones have been con-verted into red zones again.There are 2,428 green zoneswith 11 new ones.

Meanwhile, mass / groupcorona antigen tests continuedat the static booths and sta-tions of the district under thedirection of District Magistrate(DM) Kaushal Raj Sharma. Allthe 135 tests were found neg-ative at SSPG Hospital

Kabirchaura apart from 90 atDistrict Women's Hospital, 21at CHC Shivpur, 36 atVivekanand HospitalBhelupur, 108 at LBS HospitalRamnagar and 42 at SirSundarlal Hospital, BanarasHindu University (SSH BHU).Apart from this, all the 26 testsat Varanasi Junction (Cantt)railway station and 17 atManduadih were also foundnegative.

Along with this, samplesof 99 people were sent fromSSPG, 70 from Women'sHospital, 31 fromVivekananda and 99 from LBSfor RTPCR investigation.

01����%���������2����)��!-�������������������������������������ALLAHABAD (PNS): TheHealth department will traincold chain handlers to ensurethat the doses of Covid vaccinereach the beneficiaries proper-ly. Also, to speed up the workof vaccination, private doctorswill also be identified for train-ing.

In the first phase of coro-na vaccination, about 25,000health workers will be vacci-nated here. After training, thenames of about 23,000 peoplewere fed on the Covid portal tillFriday. The registration ofname on the portal will con-tinue with registration.According to the Nodal Officer

Corona Vaccination Dr RahulSingh, the dosage of the vaccineshould be safe, the govern-ment's instructions are beingimplemented for this purpose.Simultaneously, the work oftraining cold chain handlers isbeing started.

According to CMO DrPrabhakar Rai, the informationsought about the health work-ers is yet to be found in suffi-cient quantity.

With the release of the let-ter, testing campaign will alsobe started. The preparation ofthe block level training bythe task force has been com-pleted.

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$�' ��������&����3�)����������ALLAHABAD (PNS): TheChief Principal Manager ofRoadways PR Belvariyarreached Prayagraj on Friday totake stock of the preparationsfor the annual Magh Mela.Here he visited the temporarybus station being constructedfor the fair. During this, officersinformed him that buses will beoperated from different placesa day before and a day after the

main bath festival of MaghMela. During this period, ChiefPrincipal Manager held a videoconference from Prayagraj withthe regional managers ofJhansi, Kanpur, Lucknow,Faizabad, Varanasi, Chitrakoot,Gorakhpur for smooth run-ning of buses during MaghMela period. During this, PRBelvariyar said that all theregional managers should keep

their regional buses ready forthe Magh Mela. Passengersshould be seated in the busesonly after sanitising them.During this, the number of pas-sengers in the buses should beseated, as many seats are there.During the meeting, RegionalManager Prayagraj TKS Bisensaid that buses from Lucknow,Faizabad, Pratapgarh, Kanpurroute will be operated from

Civil Lines Bus Station duringthe main bathing festival of thefair. Buses of the Varanasi,Gorakhpur, Jaunpur, Azamgarhetc. routes will run from thetemporary bus station beingbuilt in Jhunsi, while the busesof Mirzapur, Banda,Chitrakoot, Rewa route willoperate from the temporarybus station located in LeprosiNaini.

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Page 6: 2020/12/27  · 30 in protest against the Centre’s agri laws. We request people from Delhi and other parts of the country to come and celebrate New Year with protesting farmers,”

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NTPC Rihand had establisheda new dimension in ash util-

ity in the country by sending fly ashto NTPC Dadri for the first timethrough BTAP wagon onDecember 9. In the same sequenceNTPC Rihand under the contractwith Birla Corporation by sendingthe second consignment of ash toBirla Corporation’s Maihar (MP)through 51 BTAP wagons recently has established

a new area to increase ash util-ity. GM (O&M) KN Reddy,who was the chief guest,flagged off the BTAP wagonfor Birla Group Maihar.Prominent among those pre-sent were GM of CorporateAsh Management, BB Chugh,GMs of Rihand station besidesheads of departments andother senior officers. In viewof Covid-19 social distancing

guidelines were followed on the occasion.

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General Manager of NorthEastern Railways (NER)

Vinay Kumar Tripathi on Fridayinspected the Gorakhpur-situat-ed staff rest house (Aami) andofficers’ rest house. On the occa-sion Principal Chief Engineer(PCE) Satish Kumar Pandey,Senior Deputy General ManagerAmitabh Ojha, Principal ChiefElectrical Engineer AK Shukla,secretary/ General Manager DKKhare, Chief Public RelationsOfficer (CPRO) Pankaj Kumar Singh, DeputyGeneral Manager/General Krishna ChandraSingh, Deputy Chief Engineer/ GorakhpurRavinder Mehra and Deputy Chief ElectricalEngineer/Colony AK Singh and other officersand employees were present. On seeing the solarwater heater installed on the roofs of Rapti resthouse, Tripathi said that solar energy should beused in other places also. Besides the the offi-cers concerned were instructed for ensuringcleanliness in the premises of the rest house andtaking proper upkeep of the lawn. He alsoinstructed for repair of the furniture at the Aamirest house where guest houses have been madefor Group-C and Group-D employees. Tripathisaid whatever work is done care should also betaken of the satisfaction of the user along withbetter quality.

SPECIAL TRAIN EXTENDED: The rail-way administration for the convenience of pas-sengers will extend the run of 04185 Gwalior-Barauni special train from January 1 to 31, 2021.This train will be run from Gwalior everyTuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday,CPRO PK Singh said. The run of 04186 Barauni-Gwalior special train will be extended from January2 to February 1, 2021. This train will be run fromBarauni every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday,Saturday and Sunday. The timing of this train has alsobeen changed. All coaches in this train will be ofreserved category and passengers will have to follow

the Covid-19. The 04185Gwalior-Barauni special willleave Gwalior at 12.00 hrs, Dabraat 12.38 hrs, Datia at 13.06 hrs,Jhansi at 14.00 hrs, Orai at 15.40hrs, Kalpi at 16.12 hrs, Pokhrayanat 16.32 hrs, Kanpur Central at18.50 hrs, Unnao at 19.30 hrs,Lucknow to 20.45 hrs, Barabankiat 21.30 hrs, Burhwal at 21.56hrs, Colonelganj at 22.26 hrs,Gonda at 23.10 hrs, Mankapurat 23.34 hrs, Maskanwan at 23.50hrs, second day Basti at 00.37 hrs,Khalilabad at 01.01 hrs,

Gorakhpur at 02.10 hrs, Deoria Sadar at 03.25 hrs,Bhatni at 03.55 hrs, Bankata at 04.22 hrs, Mairwa at04.33 hrs, Siwan at 05.00 hrs, Duraundha at 05.17 hrs,Chhapra at 06.30 hrs, Dighwara at 07.28 hrs,Sonpur at 08.05 hrs, Hajipur at 08.20 hrs,Bhagwanpur at 08.41 hrs, Muzaffarpur at 09.25 hrs,Dholi at 09.48 hrs, Khudiram Bose Pusa at 10.10hrs, Samastipur at 10.55 hrs, Dalsinghsarai at 11.19hrs and reach Barauni at 12:50 hrs. During the returnjourney, 04186 Barauni-Gwalior special will leaveBarauni at 18.45 hrs, Dalsinghsarai at 19.14 hrs,Samastipur at 19.45 hrs, Khudiram Bose Pusaat 20.00 hrs, Dholi at 20.14 hrs, Muzaffarpur at21.35 hrs, Bhagwanpur at 22:06 hrs, Hajipur at22:40 hrs, Sonpur at 22.52 hrs, Dighwara at 23.13hrs, Chhapra at 00.40 hrs, Siwan at 01.45 hrs,Mairwa at 02.03 hrs, Bhatni at 02.49 hrs, DeoriaSadar at 03.15 hrs, Gorakhpur at 04.45 hrs,Sahajanwa at 05.19 hrs, Khalilabad at 05.40 hrs, Bastiat 06.10 hrs, Babhnan at 06.37 hrs, Maskanwa at06.55 hrs, Mankapur at 07.10 hrs, Gonda at 08.07hrs, Colonelganj at 08.33 hrs, Burhwal at 09.04hrs, Barabanki at 09.45 hrs, Lucknow at 10.55 hrs,Unnao at 12.03 hrs, Kanpur Central at 12.50 hrs,Pokhrayan at 14.02 hrs, Kalpi at 14.40 hrs, Oraiat 15.30 hrs, Jhansi at 18.15 hrs, Datia at 18.39hrs, Dabra at 19.13 hrs and reach Gwalior at 20.35hrs. A total of 21 coaches, including two of SLRD,five of general second class, 10 of sleeper, threeof AC third class and one of AC second will beattached in this special train.

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On the occasion of Christmas atScout Den near Lahartara

auditorium of NER in a brief cer-emony chairperson of DivisionalWomen’s Welfare OrganisationManisha Panjiar presented gifts toNER Scouts and Guides. On theoccasion Scouts and Guides presented a beau-tiful cultural programme. Manisha Panjiartook details of the district rally to be held nextmonth and office-bearers of NER District

Scouts and Guides Associationpresented its outline before her.Panjiar assured full cooperation tothe district rally and announced togive a sound system courtesy theWomen’s Welfare Organisation.She called upon the Scout andGuide members to prepare for theupcoming district rally. The mem-

bers of Divisional Women’s Welfare OrganisationExecutive besides those of NER Bharat Scouts andGuides District Association were present on theoccasion, PRO, Varanasi, Ashok Kumar said.

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The Indian handmade carpet industry playsan important role in our economy and pro-

vides employment to a vast segment of craftper-sons in rural and semi-urban areas and generatessubstantial foreign exchange while preserving tra-ditional heritage of the country. The Council is com-mitted to ensuring the growth of Indian handmadecarpet industry. The industry is facing a problemdue to the closure of dying units by the PollutionControl Board. Carpet Export Promotion Council(CEPC) chairman Siddh Nath Singh led a delega-tion comprising AICMA president Onkar NathMishra, its secretary, Aslam Mehboob, prominentexporters Imtiyaz Ahmed, Pankaj Barnwal, Rupesh

Barnwal and Deepak Srivastava besides ExecutiveDirector, CEPC, Sanjay Kumar, which had meetingswith Principal Secretary, Animal Husbandry,Government of Uttar Pradesh, Bhuvnesh Kumar, andmember secretary, UP Central Pollution ControlBoard, Ashish Tiwari, regarding the closure of unitsin Bhadohi on the issue of pollution. Siddh NathSingh said most of the units are following all normsand had installed the required equipment whilethe remaining are in the process of upgrading theirunits and requested for sympathetic considerationto save the livelihood of poor artisans and othersassociated with the handmade carpet industry.Tiwari assured full support and cooperation to theindustry and said that within a week samples willbe rechecked and units will be opened for a month.

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AChristmas programme was held at Divine MercySchool, Orai, on Friday. The event started with the

candle lighting ceremony. Principal Father Kapil said dueto blessings of God and hardwork of teachers and staff theschool had gained fame invery short time. He said thatthey were providing onlineeducation which was helpingthe students of the ruralareas. The programme washeld keeping the safety of stu-

dents in mind and as per Covid-19 guidelines. Prominentamong those present on the occasion were Father SunnyJames, brother Johnson, sister Lisbith and Gopal.

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Katra Kotwali police arrested threeaccused along with 26 gms of

intoxicating powder on Friday. Onbeing tipped off by an informer the Katrapolice raided Ratanganj locality wherethey were found waiting for a customer,arrested them and recovered five gms ofpowder from Vakeel of Machhali Ka Pul,Ghantaghar, under City Kotwali policestation, besides 15 gms from SumitAgrahari, a resident of Makarikhoh andsix gms from Munna a resident of HathiaPhatak, both under Katra Kotwali policestation. The police booked the accusedunder NDPS Act and sent them to jail.

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Special Secretary (Home)Prakash Chandra Srivastava

reviewed the law and order sit-uation in the district on Friday.He visited the district late in theevening and reviewed the lawand order situation by holdinga meeting which was attendedby DM, SP and the other admin-istrative officers. Later he inspect-ed the Police Lines and build-ings which were under con-struction. During the inspectionof Police Lines he was accom-panied by SP Ajay Singh, ADM(F&R) UP Singh, SDM Sadar,Gaurav Srivastava, city magis-trate, Jagdamba Singh, ASPsalong with COs.

PROGRAMME ORGAN-ISED: Former minister Dr

Sarjeet Singh Dang whileaddressing a programmeorganised under the aegis ofAgriculture department atJamalpur block headquarters asKisan Samvad to mark thebirth anniversary of BharatRatna Atal Bihari Vajpayee onFriday said that new agricul-tural laws were a milestone inthe way of the uplift of farmers.He said Modi government wasthe first government after inde-pendence which paid attentiontowards farmers and providedthe facility of �500 per monthto small farmers. Apart fromintroducing neem-coated ureathe government allocated afund of �10 million crore tostrengthen agriculture sector invillages. He said that it was Yogigovernment which cleared the

dues of �1 lakh crore of canefarmers. Regarding the so-called protest of farmers onDelhi borders he claimed that itwas being done under the nefar-ious designs of the opposition.The meeting was presided overby Kishor Singh and vote ofthanks was proposed by anAgriculture department offi-cial. To mark the day pro-grammes were organised in thedistrict. In Chhanbey block UPForest Minister Dara SinghChauhan addressed farmers andenumerated the benefits of newagricultural laws. Prior to attend-ing the programme the ministergarlanded the statue of formerPM at Atal Chauraha. The pro-gramme was also attended byMP Anupriya Patel, MLA RahulKol and ADM (F&R) UP Singh.

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Kanpur Nagar reported 30more coronavirus positive

cases on Saturday evening.Chief Medical Officer Dr AnilK Mishra said that 30 morepeople had tested positive forcoronavirus infection betweenFriday evening and Saturdayevening taking the tally ofconfirmed cases to 32,115cases. He said that 8 patientswere discharged from hospi-tal. He said no COVID-19death in the city was report-ed till Saturday evening.The CMO said at present 597active cases were undergoingtreatment. Dr Mishra said3776 samples were sent fortesting in the city.

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Kanpur DevelopmentAuthority Vice Chairman

Rakesh Kumar Singh heardthe grievances of the allotteesand other people at the JanataDarshan programme organ-ised on Thursday.

As many as 35 applica-tions were received, most ofthem relating to property, ille-gal possession, freehold, reg-istry, mutation and refund.

The KDA vice chairmandirected the officials con-cerned for speedy and timelydisposal of the applications.

KDA allottee KuldeepKumar Bhatia said that despitecompleting the registry andfreehold process, he was notgiven possession on the plot.

Sangeeta Jaiswal urged theKDA to allot her an alterna-tive plot after the allotted onewas found to be disputed.

On Rajesh Chandra Jain’sapplication for removing theseal from his building, theexecutive engineer concernedinformed the vice chairmanthat compounding was possi-ble only after the cancellationof the Allahabad High Court’sstay order.

Raj Kumar and PremKumar asked about the reg-istry of plot in the Ispat NagarScheme while Anuj Mishra

urged the KDA vice chairmanto remove the seal from hisplot No. 45, 8-B/01 Block,West Scheme-26, Old Kanpur.

Ashish Shukla, SudhaShukla, Saroj Chauhan,Pramila Devi and RamjiTewari, general secretary ofMaurang Gitti Mandi VyaparAssociation, also submittedtheir applications. KDASecretary SP Singh, AdditionalSecretary Gudakesh Sharma,Finance Controller VK Lal,Chief Engineer Chakresh Jain,OSD Alok Kumar Verma,Executive Engineer Atul

Mishra, Ashu Mittal, ManojUpadhyaya, RRP Singh, CityPlanner Ajay Kumar, LawOfficer Shashi Bhushan Raiand other officers/employeeswere present in the JanataDarshan programme.

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Meanwhile, the last datefor taking benefit of the onetime settlement (OTS) schemehas been fixed as December31.

The scheme was launchedby the state government to

facilitate the defaulters ofdevelopment authorities andAvas Vikas Parishad. It is alsoapplicable on all the grouphousing projects, propertiesallotted to Central/stategovernment and governmentundertakings/organisations,plots allotted for schoolsand charitable organisationsetc.

The allotment of theseproperties would be cancelledif the defaulters fail to applyunder the OTS scheme byDecember 31, an official pressreleased said.

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India’s very own indigenous-ly developed COVID-19 vac-

cine, Covaxin, has completedanother trial phase in KanpurNagar.

The trial included admin-istering the vaccine to 1,000volunteers across the city fromdifferent walks of life.

This phase of the trail wascompleted on December 21 atPrakhar Hospital in AryaNagar. The first dose of theindigenously developedCovaxin was successfullyadministered to 1,000 volun-

teers as part of the phase-3 trialat Kanpur’s Prakhar Hospital.

Now, for the next phase ofthe Covaxin trial, the same1,000 volunteers will be admin-istered the vaccine beforeJanuary 3, 2021.

Dr JS Kushwaha, the prin-cipal investigator at PrakharHospital, said that the firstdose of Covaxin was adminis-tered successfully to all the vol-unteers and there was no reportof any reaction or health issuefaced by them. To successful-ly administer the vaccine to the1,000 volunteers, it took thehospital and the staff a total of

17 days. The volunteers wereobserved before and after thevaccine was administered tothem so as to properly gaugethe impact of the vaccine on thehuman body.

“Now, the next phase of thetrial is set to begin soon and thevolunteers have so far notshown any negative or sideeffects,” Dr Kushwaha added.

The Covaxin has beendeveloped by India’s very ownBharat Biotech in collaborationwith the Indian Council ofMedical Research (ICMR). Asof now, hospitals are awaitingemergency approval for the

usage of the vaccine from theDrug Controller General ofIndia.

According to research onprimates, Covaxin does not justfight off the COVID-19 virus,it makes immune systemsstronger, which can then fightoff many diseases, the prima-ry one being the SARS-CoV-2strain of the coronavirus.

Interestingly, the Covaxintrials are not the only vaccina-tion trials going on in Kanpur.Earlier this month, a total of 13volunteers were given theSputnik V, a Russian vaccine forthe COVID-19 virus.

KANPUR (PNS): Two per-sons, including a minor boy,were injured when someunidentified persons openedfire in a marriage ceremony inMoti Nagar locality of Jajmauunder Chakeri police stationlate Friday night. Police Havestarted investigations in thematter. According to reports,Arpit Ali, brother of Asif Raini,a friend of D-2 gang memberSablu who was recently arrest-ed by the Chamanganj police,had gone to attend the mar-riage ceremony of his friend inMoti Nagar. Arpit alleged thatsome of his enemies enteredthe ceremony venue andopened fire on him. In the fir-ing, Arpit and his relativeUbaid (13) sustained bulletinjuries on their limbs. Panicprevailed at the ceremonyvenue and taking its advantage,the assailants soon disappearedfrom the spot. The injuredwere admitted to LLR Hospital.Station House Officer RaviSrivastava said investigationswere on in the matter. Nobodyhas lodged any complaint sofar, he added. Sources saidthat during the revelry firing,after Ubaid (13) sustained bul-let injury, Arpit also shot athimself. They said the names ofthe assailants disclosed by Arpitwere found to be his enemies.

NABBED: The Chakeripolice arrested two personsselling fake pan masala andfake tobacco on Saturday whileone of their accomplices man-aged to escape. Police recoveredfake pan masala and tobacco ofmany branded companies fromthem. Station House OfficerRavi Srivastava said duringpatrolling, Shyam Nagar out-post incharge Pawan Kumarspotted three youths in suspi-cious condition near SinhaRoad Tiraha. When they triedto escape, the police chasedthem and caught hold of two ofthem. Apart from Rs 2,110cash, police recovered threecellphones and packets of fakepan masala and tobacco fromthem. They were identified asHarishit Gupta of Bindki andKuldeep Yadav of Salempur,Chaubepur. The abscondingaccused was identified asSanjay of Panki.

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Deputy Chief MinisterKeshav Prasad Maurya has

announced that the KanpurCircuit House Vishram Grih(rest house) would be namedafter Bharat Ratna Atal BihariVajpayee.

At a meeting organised atthe Circuit House here onThursday, the deputy chiefminister said a 10-ft high stat-ue of former Prime MinisterAtal Bihari Vajpayee would beinstalled there.

On the occasion of theformer prime minister’s birthanniversary, Maurya also

unveiled a portrait of AtalBihari Vajpayee at the CircuitHouse and laid the foundationfor his statue.

He directed PWD ChiefEngineer Diwakar Shukla tostart the work within a month.

Mayor Pramila Pandey,MLAs Surendra Maithani,Mahesh Trivedi, former MLARaghunandan SinghBhadauria, Sunil Bajaj, KiranNishad and Santosh Shuklawere present.

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KANPUR (PNS): FormerPrime Minister Bharat RatnaAtal Bihari Vajpayee was alwaysbenevolent for Kanpur’s millworkers. He always lent apatient hearing to the problemsof trade union leaders andmade all out efforts to resolvethem. This was stated by for-mer trade union leader andVishwa Hindu Parishad activistSatish Bajpai while recalling hisover half-a-dozen meetingswith Atalji on the former primeminister’s birth anniversary onFriday.

He as part of a delegationled by the then MP ShyamBehari Misra and MayorJagatvir Singh Drone, they metAtalji in New Delhi and he hadassured the revival of one of thetwo closed units of Elgin Millsin Kanpur.

“Besides, in every publicmeeting addressed by Atalji inKanpur, he always expressedhis concern for the closed tex-tile units of the city,” Bajpai saidand added, “Apart from hisefforts for reviving the Kanpurindustries, Atalji had alwayssupported the city leaders fortheir cause due to his long asso-ciation with them in the past.”

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An airway clinic has been setup at the Regency Hospital

Tower at Sarvodaya Nagar incollaboration with theDepartments of ENT,Paediatrics, PulmonaryMedicine, Anaesthesia andCritical care.

Addressing media per-sons, Director Dr RashmiKapoor said the need for amulti-disciplinary approachfor the treatment of airwayproblems was felt for a longtime and Regency Hospitalhad taken a lead in setting upsuch a unit which was for-mally inaugurated onSaturday.

She said due to improvedsurvival among patients ofroad traffic accidents andafter long term ICU manage-ment, there was a simultane-ous increase in airway diseaseslike tracheal stenosis.

As an initiative, a jointseminar was also organised onSaturday with guest lecture by

senior airway and ENT sur-geon Dr Rakesh Srivastavafrom Lucknow, followed by apanel discussion by consul-tants of all the departments.

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All the private hospitalsand diagnostic centresempanelled under CGHS willprovide treatment/investiga-tions to all CGHS beneficia-ries, especially COVID-19patient.

Pensioners’ Forum gener-al secretary Anand Awasthi, ina press statement issued onSaturday, said that it wasobserved that empanelledhospitals were refusing admis-sion to the CGHS beneficia-ries, especially COVID-19patients, with the excuse thatno bed was available in theentitled category.

He said AdditionalDirector, CGHS (HQ) Dr

Arvind Kumar, in his officememorandum of December22, had clarified that as per theterms and conditions ofempanelment under CGHS,treatment to beneficiaries,especially COVID-19 patient,would be provided on thebasis of their card in emer-gency and on the basis ofadvice from CGHS medicalofficer/government specialistin case of listed treatment pro-cedures/investigations andwith valid permission letter incase of unlisted treatmentprocedures/investigations, asthe case may be. He said incase of emergency when bedswere not available in thehospital then the hospitalshould provide necessarytreatment to stabilise thepatient and transport thepatient safely to the nearestempanelled hospital for fur-ther management.

He directed the privatehospitals and diagnostic cen-tres to follow the CGHSguidelines strictly. He said on

receipt of any complaint, strictaction would be taken againstthe private hospital/diagnos-tic centre concerned.

Awasthi said the govern-ment had also extended thetele consultation services toCGHS beneficiaries acrossIndia with effect from .December 7. He said theseservices were started in Delhifrom August 25 with theobjective of facilitating CGHSbeneficiaries.

The timings for tele-con-sultation are from 9 am to 12noon on all working days.

To begin with, tele con-sultation facility will be avail-able in specialities includingmedicine, orthopaedics, eye,ENT and psychiatry. The facil-ity may be considered forother specialities too subse-quently.

The beneficiaries can availof the facility by logging in toeSanjeevaniopd.in applicationof the Ministry of Health andFamily Welfare using theirmobile phone number.

Page 7: 2020/12/27  · 30 in protest against the Centre’s agri laws. We request people from Delhi and other parts of the country to come and celebrate New Year with protesting farmers,”

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Responding to a diatribelaunched against him by the

Congress party, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi Saturdayannounced the recently conclud-ed District Development councilpolls in Jammu and Kashmir havewritten a new chapter in theregion.

Referring to the people's par-ticipation and the efficient man-ner in which the same were con-ducted across the Union Territory,within one year after theAbrogation of Article 370, thePrime Minister emphatically saidit is a “moment of pride” for India.

Attacking the Congress with-out naming it, he said some peo-ple in Delhi offer him lessons indemocracy day in and day out,and use “abuses” for him, but theyhave not carried out panchayatpolls in Puducherry despite aSupreme Court order.

In a recent attack on the Modigovernment over the farmers’ agi-tation against the three new agri

laws, Congress leader RahulGandhi had claimed that there is“no democracy” in India. TheDistrict Development Council(DDC) polls in Jammu andKashmir have seen people win-ning due to their work and notnames, the prime minister said.

Launching a scheme viavideo-conference to extend thebenefits of Ayushman Bharat to allresidents of the union territory,Modi said the recent local bodyelection in Jammu and Kashmir"strengthened roots of democra-cy" and congratulated voters forexercising their franchise in theeight-phase election.

"I would like to congratulatethe people of Jammu and Kashmirfor strengthening democracy. Isaw how the young and the oldreached the voting booths in theDistrict Development Council(DDC) polls.

The people of Jammu andKashmir strengthened the roots ofdemocracy in the DDC polls," PMModi said The Centre has under-taken all-round development of

Jammu and Kashmir, he added.Modi said a big mistake of

those who were in power fordecades in the country was toignore the development of borderregions, including Jammu andKashmir and the northeasternstates, but his government has rec-tified this.

After launching the schemethe Prime Minister also interact-ed with the beneficiaries from theregion.

Talking about the Jammu andKashmir Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY SEHAT scheme, the PrimeMinister said that getting freetreatment up to Rs 5 lakh underthis scheme would improve theease of living.

Right now about 6 lakh fam-ilies are getting the benefit ofAyushman Bharat Scheme. All 21lakh families living in J&K will getthe same benefit after the SEHATscheme.

Another benefit of thisscheme would be that treatment isnot limited to government andprivate hospitals in Jammu and

Kashmir only. Rather, treatmentcan be availed from thousands ofhospitals empanelled under thisscheme in the country, he added.

The Prime Minister laudedthe UT administration for steps ofpeople’s welfare and accentuatingoverall development in the region.

The Prime Minister termedthe extension of the coverage to allthe residents as historic andexpressed happiness seeing Jammuand Kashmir take these steps forthe development of its people. Hesaid that development of the peo-ple of Jammu and Kashmir is oneof the biggest priorities of his gov-ernment.

During his address, theLieutenant Governor of Jammu &Kashmir, Manoj Sinha termedthe launch of SEHAT Scheme asa glorious chapter of J&K's histo-ry. One crore residents of J&K whowere not eligible under AyushmanBharat scheme would now bebenefitted making it a first of itskind scheme in India, he added.

Underscoring the key fea-tures of the Health scheme, the Lt

Governor observed that theSEHAT Scheme will providefinancial cover upto Rs 5 lakh perfamily on a floater basis to all res-idents of the UT of J&K with ben-efits portable across the country,without cap on family size. A ben-eficiary can avail free and cashlesstreatment in any public and pri-vate empanelled hospitals acrossthe country, he said.

On behalf of the 1.3 crore pop-ulation of the Union Territory, theLt Governor extended his grati-tude to the Prime Minister forextending the Universal HealthCoverage in J&K.

Speaking on successful con-duct of the recently held DDCelections, the Lt Governorobserved that for the first time inthe history of J&K, the 3-TierPanchayati Raj System in the UThas been established empoweringthe grass root democracy.

PM’s directions of holdingfree and fair elections wereensured and the DDC electionswere held smoothly and peaceful-ly in the UT, he maintained.

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Guwahati: The Prime MinisterNarendra Modi-led Centralgovernment has a strong com-mitment to all round develop-ment and lasting peace in thenortheastern region, UnionHome Minister and senior BJPleader Amit Shah said onSaturday.

While addressing a publicmeeting at Amingaon ParadeGround in Guwahati, Shah saidthat the entire eastern Indiacomprising Odisha, Bihar, WestBengal and the northeasternstates have turned into a growthengine for India. "If the north-east region is not developed,India's development wouldremain incomplete. PrimeMinister Narendra Modi hasvisited all the states of theregion 30 times so far andtaken the developmental mis-

sion to new heights -- be it rail,road or air connectivity or set-ting up various other infrastruc-ture," he added.

"There was a time whenterrorists used to give arms intothe hands of the youths inthese states (northeast). Almostall armed groups have joinedthe mainstream and the youthshave launched startups compet-ing with other startups global-ly." Laying the foundationstones of multiple develop-mental projects in the state, theHome Minister said that theNDA government headed byModi would make Assam atourism hub and has undertak-en a series of steps and projectsto provide "Rozgar" (employ-ment) to lakhs of Assamyouths.

In a significant step ahead

of next year's Assam assemblypolls, he gave financial grants tothe tune of Rs 2.50 lakh to eachof the 8,000 Namghars (tradi-tional Vaishnavite monasteriesof Assam) under the AssamDarshan Programme.

Referring to the contribu-tion and significance ofAssamese seer SrimantaSankardev, Shah said thatAssamese culture is Indianculture, the BJP governmentwould take the philosophy ofSrimanta Sankardev not onlyacross the country but alsoabroad. Srimanta Sankardev was a 15th-16thcentury Assamese saint, schol-ar, poet, playwright, social-reli-gious reformer and a figure ofimportance in the cultural andreligious history of the state. IANS

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Guwahati: Union Home Minister andsenior BJP leader Amit Shah onSaturday reiterated his appeal andurged the agitating farmers to holdtalks with the government to sort outtheir concerns.

While addressing a public meetingat the Amingaon Parade Ground here,Shah said: "I request the farmers tohold talks with the government toresolve their issues."

Farmers led by the leaders ofnearly 40 farmers' organisations havebeen camping on the Delhi borderssince November 26, demanding thatthree farm laws enacted in Septemberbe repealed.

The three farm laws are -- TheFarmers' Produce Trade andCommerce (Promotion andFacilitation) Act 2020; The Farmers(Empowerment and Protection)Agreement of Price Assurance AndFarm Services Act 2020; and the

Essential Commodities (Amendment)Act 2020. The Home Minister said that16 lakh farmers in Assam get financialbenefits under the Pradhan MantriKisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN)and the financial assistance directly getsdeposited to their bank accounts.

The PM-KISAN scheme waslaunched by Prime Minister NarendraModi in February last year to provideincome support to all landholderfarmer families across the country.

Under this scheme, Rs 6,000 peryear is released in three monthly instal-ments of Rs 2,000 each directly into thebank accounts of the beneficiaries.

Shah, who arrived in Guwahati ona three-day visit to Assam and Manipuron Friday night, told the gathering thatthe Assam government led by theBharatiya Janata Party has providedfinancial assistance directly into thebank accounts of 7.20 lakh tea gardenworkers. IANS

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Two months after he quit the BJPand joined the Nationalist

Congress Party (NCP), theEnforcement Directorate (ED) hassummoned senior NCP leaderEknath Khadse to appear before iton December 30 in connectionwith an alleged MIDC land scamin Pune.

Sixty-eight-year-old Khadse,who had – while joining the BJP —said that “if the BJP unleashes EDagainst me, then I will release CDsagainst the BJP leaders”, confirmedon Saturday evening that he hadreceived summons from the EDand he would appear before theinvestigating agency on December30. Talking to media persons at hisMuktainagar residence in Jalgaondistrict of north Maharashtra,Khadse said: “I have received thesummons from the ED to appearbefore it on December 30. I willappear before the agency on thatday. I have already four inquiries inthis land deal. I will cooperate withthe ED. As far as my releasing CDsagainst the BJP leaders, I will doit at a later stage,”

“The land in the MIDC dealhas been transferred in the name ofmy wife. I have absolutely nothingto do with this land deal. Earlier, theAnti-Corruption Bureau, Pune,the Anti Corruption Bureau,Nashik, Income Tax departmentand a judicial committee headed by

retired Bombay HC judge DinkarZoting, had looked into the allega-tions against me. Now the ED hassummoned me for questioning. Iwill appear before it,” Khadse said.

Interestingly enough, when hejoined the NCP on October 23,2020, Khadse had recalled a con-versation with State NCP presidentJayant Patil and said: “In a conver-sation with Jayant Patil some time,I had expressed my desire to jointhe NCP. Patil jocularly told me: ifyou join the NCP, then the BJP willunleash ED against me. Then I toldhim: if the BJP unleashes EDagainst me, then I will release CDsagainst the BJP leaders”.

Khadse, who was incidentallynumber two minister at one stagein the previous BJP-led DevendraFadnavis government, had gone tosay that he would expose themabout their alleged involvement inland scams.

“The BJP-led government hadharassed me by framing me in aland scam. Let some days pass, Iwill expose all such BJP whograbbed plots of land illegally... Iwill also demand action againstthose who slapped cases against meby violating the rules,” Khadse hadsaid. A judicial committee, headedby retired Bombay HC judgeDinkar Zoting, appointed by theMaharashtra government earlier toprobe the allegations of corruptionagainst Khadse, had earlier given aclean chit to the Pune land deal

case. It may be recalled that on June

4, 2016, Khadse had resigned fromhis post as the State RevenueMinister over irregularities in thepurchase of a plot of land at Bhosariin Pune district.

Acting on a directive by theBombay High court on March 8,2017, the State ACB had registereda case against Khadse for allegedmisuse of office and corruption sec-tions 23 (1), 1 (D), (2), (15) ofPrevention of Corruption Act andsection 109 (abetment) IPC and theACB had investigated the caseinvolving the purchase of a plot ofland at Bhosari at a cheaper rate.

The charge against Khadsewas that he, his wife Mandakini andson-in-law Girish Chaudhary hadhatched a conspiracy and pur-chased a 3-acre plot of land atBhosari near Pune ownedMaharashtra IndustrialDevelopment Corporation (MIDC)in the name of his kin for Rs 3.75crore as against the market price ofRs 40 crore. On his part, Khadsehad denied that he had indulged inany wrong doing in the Pune landdeal case.

Even the State ACB had goneon to give a clean chit to Khadse.The ACB had even filed a finalreport before a Pune court on April30, 2018, stating that it had notbeen able to prove the allegationsof corruption against Khadse in theland case.

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In shocking development, Maharashtra’sAnti Terrorism Squad (ATS) has arrest-

ed a policeman posted at the high-securi-ty Arthur Road Central Prison for alleged-ly helping two incarcerated drug accusedthreaten a prosecution witness.

The policeman, whose name was notimmediately known, was arrested onFriday and produced before a court whichremanded in ATS’ custody till December28. The policeman’s arrest came on theheels of the arrest of two gangsters HarishMandvi/kar and Sajid Electricwala, whowere taken into the custody by the ATSfrom Arthur Road jail after Mandvikarthreatened a witness to give false evidencein favour of Electricwala in another case.

The ATS arrested the policeman inconnection with the 2015 ATS (Charkop

Unit) case, in which it had busted an ille-gal drug manufacturing factory in Andheriwest and seized 155 kilograms of thebanned Mephedrone and arrested sevenpersons, including the factory owner SajidElectricwala.

The ATS subsequently arrested threeothers -- gangster Harish Mandvikar andhis henchmen, Sachin Kolekar and SujitPadwalkar. Electricwala, the prime accusedin the 2015 case, was lodged at ArthurRoad jail. The trial in the case got under-way on November 26, 2020. Mandvikar,who was arrested in March 2020, waslodged in a cell next to that of Electricwalaat Arthur Road jail. Both Electricwala andMandvikar became friends and in courtthey allegedly hatched an alleged conspir-acy to threaten a prime witness whosedeposition is currently underway beforethe Special Court.

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As many 16 returnees from theUnited Kingdom, where a new

variant of Coronavirus was detect-ed recently, tested positive in RTPCR tests conducted on theirarrival in Maharashtra from theUK, even as the number of infec-tions dipped to 2854 and deathsin Maharashtra came down to 60on Saturday.

The State health authorities,who have been subjecting the pas-sengers arriving from the UK toRTPCR tests ever since the detec-tion of a new strain of the SARS-CoV-2 there, have so far 1122 pas-sengers. Of those tested, 16 werediagnosed positive for Covid-19.Of those tested positive, four arefrom Nagpur, three each fromMumbai and Thane, two from

Pune and one each from Nanded,Ahmednagar, Raigad andAurangabad. “The samples of pos-itive patients will be sent to theNational Institute of Virology(NIV), Pune for genomic sequenc-ing,” a state health official said.“Close contacts of all positivepatients are being traced. Tilltoday, out of 72 close contactstraced, two have tested positive forCovid-19,” the official added.

Meanwhile, with 2854 freshinfections reported on Saturday, thetotal number of infections inMaharashtra climbed from19,13,382 to 19,16,236. Similarly,with 60 new deaths, the Covid-19toll in the state rose from 49,129 to49189. As 1926 patients were dis-charged from the hospitals acrossthe state after full recovery, the totalnumber of people discharged from

the hospitals since the secondweek of March this year went upto 18,07,824. The recovery rate inthe state dropped marginally from94.4 per cent to 94.34 per cent.With 12 new deaths, the total num-ber of deaths went up from 11,056to 11,068, while the infected casesrose by 534 to trigger a jump in thetotal infections from 289800 to290336.

Meanwhile, the number of“active cases” total cases in thestate rose from 56,823 to 58,091 .The fatality rate in the state stoodat 2.57 per cent. Pune district,which continued to be the worst-affected city-district inMaharashtra, saw the total num-ber of cases increase from 3,69,631to 3,70,049 while the total numberof deaths in Pune increased from7721 to 7725.

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Page 8: 2020/12/27  · 30 in protest against the Centre’s agri laws. We request people from Delhi and other parts of the country to come and celebrate New Year with protesting farmers,”

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For the first time after oversix months since June,

India’s daily Covid-19 fatalitycount was reported below 300,taking the overall death tally to1,47,343, while the infectiontally rose to 1,01,69,118,according to the Union HealthMinistry.

In the last 24 hours, 251more deaths and 22,273 infec-tions were reported, accordingto the latest data. The numberof people who have recoveredfrom the disease surged to97,40,108, pushing the nation-al recovery rate to 95.78 percent.

The exponential rise in

recoveries in tandem withlower daily new cases hasresulted in consistent decline inthe active cases and low mor-tality. India’s cumulative recov-eries are highest in the world.

The daily new recoveriesrecorded in the country havebeen more than the daily casesregistered since the last 29days.

India’s present active case-load of 2,81,667 consists of2.77 per cent of India’s total pos-itive cases.

According to the Ministry,73.56 per cent of the new recov-ered cases are observed to beconcentrated in 10 States/UTs.“Kerala has reported the max-imum number of single day

recoveries with 4,506 newlyrecovered cases. 1,954 peoplerecovered in West Bengal fol-lowed by 1,427 inMaharashtra,” said the Ministry.

On the other hand, 79.16per cent of the new cases arefrom ten States and UTs.

Kerala reported the high-est daily new cases at 5,397. Itis followed by Maharashtrawith 3,431 new cases. WestBengal recorded 1,541 newcases.

Ten States/UTs accountedfor 85.26 per cent of the newdeaths. Maharashtra saw themaximum casualties (71). WestBengal and Delhi follow with31 and 30 daily deaths, respec-tively.

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The Central Bureau ofInvestigation (CBI) has reg-

istered two separate cases ofbanking fraud to the tune ofabout �132 crore and conduct-ed searches at several locations.

The first case was registeredon a complaint from State Bankof India (SBI) against anAhmedabad-based private com-pany Krishna KnitwearTechnology Ltd., its directors,unknown public servants andothers on the allegations ofcheating the bank to the tune of�67.07 crore.

The accused company wasengaged in manufacturing ofcotton yarn, knitted grey fabricand finished garments.

“It was alleged that duringthe period 2011 to 2015, theaccused entered into a conspir-acy to cheat the SBI by way offorgery/falsification of accountsand diversion of funds,” theCBI said in a statement.

The company allegedlyavailed Fund Based WorkingCapital (FBWC) with SBI, MCB,Vapi Branch, Ahmedabad,Gujarat.

It was further alleged thatonly around 20 percent of its

receipts and payments from itsdebtors and creditors were rout-ed through banking channels,and the remaining amount wassiphoned off, it said.

Searches were conductedat 10 places including officialand the residential premises ofthe accused / private companyat Silvassa and Mumbai whichled to the recovery of incrimi-nating documents/articles.

The second case was regis-tered on a complaint fromPunjab & Sind Bank against aprivate company (borrowercompany) based at NewDelhi/Noida, Alpine RealtechPvt. Ltd. and others including itsdirectors, two other privatecompanies, unknown publicservants and others on the alle-gations that the said accused hadcheated the bank to the tune of�64.78 crore by way of diversion/ siphoning off bank funds,misappropriation and cheating.

Searches were conductedat nine locations in Delhi /NCR at the office and residen-tial premises of the accusedincluding the firm.

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The India MeteorologicalDepartment (IMD) has

said widespread rainfall orsnowfall is very likely overnorthern parts of India inJammu and Kashmir, HimachalPradesh and Uttarakhand dur-ing the next few days.

The IMD has also said thatcold wave to severe cold waveconditions would prevail oversome States due to the strength-ening of northwesterly/norther-ly lower-level winds fromDecember 29.

In a series of tweets, theIMD updated its forecasts fornorth Indian states till the endof December, saying the coldwave conditions are likely toextend to parts of western andcentral India towards the end ofthis month. “Under the influ-ence of the approaching WesternDisturbance Scattered to Fairlywidespread rainfall/snowfall isvery likely over Jammu,Kashmir, Ladakh, Gilgit,Baltistan & Muzaffarabad,” IMDsaid.

Similarly, Himachal Pradeshand Uttarakhand would alsoexperience rainfall or snowfalland thundershowers are expect-ed in Punjab and Haryana, onDecember 27 and 28, IMD said.Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh,Delhi, Rajasthan and West UttarPradesh are also set to experi-ence cold wave or severe coldwave conditions because of “thestrengthening of cold and dry

northwesterly/northerly lower-level winds,” IMD said.

Cold day conditions arepredicted for these states onDecember 28 and 29 and onDecember 29 and 30 for north-ern Rajasthan. Dense to verydense fog during morning hoursis also expected during themorning hours in these statesfrom December 28 till the yearend. “Ground Frost conditionsare likely in isolated pockets overUttarakhand, HimachalPradesh, Punjab, Haryana,Chandigarh & Delhi, Rajasthanand West Madhya Pradesh dur-ing 28th-29th December, 2020,”IMD tweeted.

Towards the end ofDecember, these cold wave con-ditions are also expected tospread towards western India.“Northern parts of Saurashtra &Kutch and West MadhyaPradesh also likely to experiencecold wave conditions on thesedays,” IMD said.

The weather across Kashmirhas remained dry and cold sincethe snowfall on December 12,with the night temperature stay-ing several degrees below thefreezing point, IMD said.Srinagar, the summer capital ofJammu and Kashmir, recordeda low of minus 3.7 degreesCelsius, slightly up from the pre-vious night’s minus 4.3 degreesCelsius. In the south Kashmirtourist resort of Pahalgam, themercury settled at minus 4.5degrees Celsius, up from minus5.9 degrees Celsius the previous

night. The famous ski resort ofGulmarg in north Kashmir wasthe coldest place in the valley atminus 6.5 degrees Celsius, downfrom minus 5.6 degrees Celsiusthe previous night, according tothe IMD.

Qazigund recorded a min-imum temperature of minus 4degrees Celsius, Kupwaraminus 3.6 degrees Celsius andKokernag minus 4.0 degreesCelsius, the IMDsaid. Kashmiris currently under the grip of‘Chillai Kalan’— a 40-day peri-od of harshest winter when acold wave grips the region andthe temperature drops consid-erably leading to the freezing ofwater bodies, as well as thewater supply lines in severalparts of the valley. The chancesof snowfall are the maximumduring this period and mostareas, especially in the higherreaches, receive heavy snowfall,the IMD said.

Biting cold conditions pre-vailed in Haryana and Punjabon Saturday, with Hisar reelingat a low of 2.2 degrees Celsius.Hisar in Haryana was the cold-est place in the state, whileNarnaul too experienced a coldnight at 3 degrees Celsius, IMDsaid.

Among other places in thestate, Karnal, Sirsa, Rohtak,Ambala and Bhiwani recordedtheir respective minimums at 4degrees Celsius, 4.1 degreesCelsius, 4 degrees Celsius, 5.3degrees Celsius and 5.6 degreesCelsius.

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A1000-year-old heritage art– the Monpa Handmade

Paper of Arunachal Pradesh –which was driven to extinction,has come to life once again,with the committed efforts ofKhadi and Village IndustriesCommission (KVIC ).

KVIC on Friday commis-sioned a Monpa handmadepaper making unit in Tawang,aiming to both reviving the artand engaging the local youthsprofessionally. The unit wasinaugurated by KVICChairman Shri Vinai Kumar

Saxena.The art of making Monpa

handmade paper originated inChina over 1,000 years ago.Gradually the art travelledacross to India and became anintegral part of local customand culture in Tawang, whichis just 30 km from China.Once produced in every house-hold in Tawang, this handmadepaper was a major source oflivelihood for the locals.However, the handmade paperindustry almost disappeared inthe last 100 years; promptingKVIC to plan revival of thisancient art.

The fine-textured hand-made paper, which is calledMon Shugu in the local dialect,is integral to the vibrant cultureof the local tribes in Tawang.The paper has great historicand religious significance as itis the paper used for writingBuddhist scriptures and hymnsin monasteries. The Monpahandmade paper, will be madefrom the bark of a local treecalled Shugu Sheng, which hasmedicinal values, too. Henceavailability of raw material willnot be a problem.

Back then, such was thescale of production that

Monpas used to sell thesepapers to countries like Tibet,Bhutan ,Thai Land and Japanas no paper making industryexisted in these countries atthat time. However, the localindustry gradually begandeclining and the indigenoushandmade paper was takenover by inferior Chinese paper.

An attempt for the revivalof the this handmade paperindustry was made in 1994 butfailed as it was a tough taskdue to various geographicalchallenges in Tawang.However, with the strongresolve of higher management

of KVIC, the unit was suc-cessfully established. On theinstruction of KVICChairman, a team of scientistsand officials of KumarappaNational Handmade PaperInstitute,(KNHPI) Jaipur, wasdeputed at Tawang to set upthe unit and training thelocals. Over six months of rig-orous efforts bore fruits and aunit has been commissioned atTawang.

Initially, the paper unit hasengaged 9 artisans who canproduce 500 to 600 sheets ofMonpa handmade paper perday. The artisans will be earn-

ing wages of per day Rs 400per day. To begin with, 12women and 2 men from localvillages have been trained tomake Monpa handmadepaper. KNHPI is a unit ofKVIC.

The most challenging taskfor KVIC officials was totransport the machines toTawang owing to its difficultmountainous terrains andinclement weather conditions.The Arunachal PradeshGovernment lent full supportto the project and offered abuilding on a nominal rent toset up the unit.

The KVIC Chairman saidreviving the Monpa hand-made paper industry andincreasing its commercial pro-duction was the key objectiveof KVIC. “Owing to its pecu-liarity, this handmade paperhas high commercial valuethat can be harnessed to cre-ate local employment inArunachal Pradesh. Byincreasing production ofMonpa handmade paper, itcan again be exported to othercountries and regain the spaceoccupied by China in the lastfew decades. This is a localproduct with great global

potential, which is alignedwith the Mantra of “Local toGlobal” given by the Hon’blePrime Minister,” Saxena said.

“The fatigue from the 15hours of road journey fromGuwahati to Tawang in thisdifficult terrain just vanishedon witnessing this paper unitcoming to life again. It is,indeed, a privilege to haveinaugurated the unit that willrevive this local art,” Saxenasaid while lauding the KVIC-KNHPI officials for their hardwork and Arunachal Pradeshgovernment for their supportto the project.

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Half of the air samples takenfrom several hospital hall-

ways, ICUs, and a fifth frombathrooms had high levels ofcoronavirus, a study publishedin the JAMA Open Networkhas suggested. In fact, the airsampled in the ICUs werefound to be more contaminat-ed than the non-ICUs, said thestudy.

The study titled‘Assessment of AirContamination by SARS-CoV-2 in Hospital Settings’ waspublished on December 23.

For the study, theresearchers had collected airsamples from close patientenvironments, clinical zonesaway from patients, staff areas,toilets/ bathrooms, and sixpublic places.

Researchers found 17 per-cent of air sampled from closepatient environments to bepositive for SARS-CoV-2 RNAand one-quarter of all ICUrooms with COVID-19patients were contaminated.In fact, the air sampled insideICUs were more contaminatedwith the novel coronavirusthan the air sampled in non-ICUs.

As per the study, 82 of the471 air samples (17.4 percent)collected from close patient

environments were positive forSARS-CoV-2 RNA. The posi-tivity rate was significantlyhigher in intensive care unitswith 27 of 107 found to be con-taminated as against 39 of 364contaminated non-intensivecare units.

The study stated: “Amongthe 2,284 records identified, thepositivity rate was five of 21 airsamples (23.8 percent) in toi-lets, 20 of 242 (8.3 percent) inclinical areas, 15 of 122 (12.3percent) in staff areas, and 14of 42 (33.3 percent) in publicareas came back as positive.”

It added: “The results of thepositivity rate in ICU and non-ICU patient environments werehighly heterogeneous andappeared superior in the ICUwhen pooling the results. In theICU, seven of 12 studies did notfind SARS-CoV-2 RNA,whereas the remaining did,with 37.5 percent to 100 per-cent positive samples.”

The study, however, clari-fied that the level of severity ofpatients’ infections did notincrease the air contamina-tion.

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Around 50 insurgentsbelonging to a breakaway

faction of the Naga militantoutfit NSCN(K) are likely tojoin the national mainstream asthe group is finding it difficultto survive following enhancedcooperation between theIndian Army and theMyanmarese armed forcesalong the border, sources in thesecurity establishment said onSaturday.

The faction led by NikiSumi has decided to surrenderas a result of combined effortsagainst it by the Army, statesecurity forces and militaryintelligence in the last fewmonths, they said, adding it willbe a boost for the Naga peaceprocess.

The overall coordinationand cooperation between theIndian and Myanmaresearmies on the management ofthe Indo-Myanmar border hasimproved following a recentvisit to the neighbouring coun-try by Chief of Army Staff GenMM Naravane, they said.

“The diplomatic efforts inthe military domain by theChief of Army Staff during hisrecent visit to Myanmar havepaid rich dividends,” said anofficial on the condition ofanonymity.

In October, Gen Naravane,accompanied by ForeignSecretary Harsh VardhanShringla, paid a crucial visit toMyanmar during which Indiadecided to supply an attacksubmarine to the MyanmarNavy besides agreeing to fur-ther deepen overall militaryand defence ties.

Myanmar is one of India’sstrategic neighbours andshares a 1,640-kilometre-longborder with a number ofnortheastern states includingmilitancy-hit Nagaland andManipur.

The NSCN (Khaplang)and several other Naga mili-

tant groups have beendemanding the establishmentof a ‘Greater Nagaland’ com-prising all the Naga-inhabitedareas of neighbouring Assam,Manipur and ArunachalPradesh.

The sources said StarsonLamkang, a key leader of thebreakaway faction, along with52 cadres are currently in theprocess of surrendering to thesecurity forces in Phek districtof Nagaland.

They said eight morecadres of the group are alsolikely to surrender taking thetotal to around 60.

The group led by NikiSumi had broken away fromthe NSCN (K-Yung Aung).The total strength of the Nikifaction appears to be 60-65militants and its cadres decid-ed to surrender as surviving inMyanmar became very diffi-cult for them, the sourcessaid.

Sumi is an insurgentleader from the Sema tribe andbelongs to Zunebhuto districtof Nagaland, the sources said,adding he was a prominent“commander” in NSCN (K)group.

He is also a key accused inthe attack on an Army convoyin Manipur’s Chandel districtin June 2015 by the NSCN(K)in which 18 army personnellost their lives. He carries areward of Rs 10 lakh.

Days after the attack, theIndian Army had carried outan operation in areas near theIndo-Myanmar against theNSCN (K) militants.

India has been concernedover some militant groupsfrom the Northeast regiontaking shelter in Myanmar.The country has been assuringIndia that it would not allowany insurgent group to use itsterritory against India.

Various Naga militantgroups are currently holdingtalks with the Centre to resolvethe decades-old Naga issue.

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The CBI has moved theSupreme Court seeking to

question senior IPS officerand former Kolkata policecommissioner Rajeev Kumarin connection with the multi-crore-rupee Saradha chit fundscam case.

The central probe agency,which has been entrusted withthe task of probing the Ponzischeme cases in West Bengalby the apex court, has movedthe fresh plea to quiz thesenior police officer again,alleging that he has not beencooperating with it in theongoing investigation, a sourcesaid.

The Central Bureau ofInvestigation (CBI) said

Kumar’s further questioning isnecessary in order to unearththe larger nexus in the scam.

The plea is likely to betaken up for hearing on thereopening of the apex courtafter the winter break.

The Saradha group ofcompanies allegedly dupedlakhs of people to the tune ofRs 2,500 crore, promisinghigher rates of return on theirinvestments.

The scam was unearthedin 2013 during Kumar’s tenureas the Bidhannagar policecommissioner.

Kumar was part of theSpecial Investigation Team(SIT) set up by the West Bengalgovernment for probing thescam, before the SupremeCourt handed over the case to

the CBI in 2014, along withother chit fund cases.

In November last year,the apex court had sought theresponse of the IPS officer onthe CBI’s appeal challengingthe anticipatory bail granted tohim in the chit fund scam bythe Calcutta The probe agencyhad filed an appeal in theapex court against the

October 1, 2019 order ofthe Calcutta High Court,which had granted

Kumar the relief saying itwas not an appropriate case forcustodial interrogation.

The high court had direct-ed Kumar to cooperate withthe investigating officers andmake himself available beforethem for questioning on a 48-hour notice by the CBI.

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The Supreme Court hasissued a show-cause notice

to a convict for misleading itby producing a wrong copy ofa trial court’s verdict to get afavourable order which hadallowed him to walk free onpayment of a fine only in agraft case.

The top court, while issu-ing the notice to convict SShankar, asked him why itshould not recall the ordersparing him the jail term andtake “further suitable” actionfor the act of misleading it.

The SC, had on July 23,2019, allowed Shankar to walkfree in the corruption case onpayment of �1,000 after hislawyer argued that the AndhraPradesh High Court “wrong-ly construed” the operativeportion of the judgement of atrial court delivered in theyear 2000.

It was argued the trialcourt had not awarded a jailterm of one year to Shankarbut had only imposed a fine of�1,000 for offences of crimi-nal breach of trust and con-spiracy under the IPC andsome other charges under thePrevention of Corruption Act.

“Since we find that thetrial court had merelyimposed a sentence of pay-ment of fine of �1,000 on theappellant, the judgment ofthe high court is clarifiedaccordingly. In view of theabove, the appeal stands dis-posed of, making it clear thatno sentence of imprisonmentwas imposed on Accused No.5 (Shankar) … by the trialcourt and the high court…,”the top court had ordered,granting the relief.

However, a subsequentinquiry and a report of thesecretary general of the apexcourt indicated that primafacie, the convict “misled” thebench to avoid a jail term.

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The Government’s move toseek comments for its draft

proposal aiming to set upUniversity of Disability Studiesand Rehabilitation Sciences inan inaccessible environmenthas drawn flak from the stake-holders particularly activists inthe sector.

With just ten days allottedby the Government to study theproposal, they termed it as yetanother “ill-conceived idea”which denied adequate time orspace for stakeholders torespond.

The University coveringdisability studies and rehabili-tation sciences in an accessibleenvironment has been pro-posed to be launched by theGovernment for which theDepartment of Empowermentof Persons with Disabilities(DEPwD), under the Ministryof Social Justice andEmpowerment, has invitedcomments from stakeholderson the draft bill.

In this regard, the DEPwDsaid, a draft bill namely theUniversity of Disability Studiesand Rehabilitation SciencesBill, 2021 for establishing theproposed university has beenprepared. The DEPwD said itintends to set up a Universityof Disability Studies andRehabilitation Sciences,Kamrup district, Assamthrough a separate act ofParliament.

“The proposed university,the first of its kind, will be aunique multidisciplinary aca-demic institution conductingresearch, programmes andcourses from bachelor’s levelonwards to cater to various dis-ciplines covering the entiregamut of disability studies andrehabilitation sciences in anaccessible environment,” theDEPwD said.

“The Department ofEmpowerment of Persons withDisabilities hereby invites com-ments from the public on thedraft University of Disability

Studies and RehabilitationSciences Bill, 2021 by January3, 2021.”

Prominent disabled rightsbody National Platform for theRights of the Disabled, how-ever, felt that time was too lessto study its proposed provi-sions.

“In this case, a mere ninedays have been given to elicitresponse to a 131-page docu-ment,” the NPRD said in astatement.

“All the more unacceptableis the fact that this universitywould be ‘self-sustaining’, intune with the thrust of the NewEducation Policy 2020. Withfinances being generated fromtuition fees, affiliation fees etc.students from the margin-alised sections will standdeprived,” it said.

“Rather than wasting hugeamounts of money on self-sus-taining segregated centres oflearning, it would do auger wellif the government adheres tothe guiding principles of theRights of Persons withDisabilities Act of equality andnon-discrimination and adoptsand promotes an inclusive,multidisciplinary approach,”the NPRD said.

Dr Satendra Singh too crit-icised the haste shown by thegovernment in such importantmoves which if implementedproperly can be game chang-er.

“But the Ministry keepsembarrassing itself. TheUniversity of Disability Studies& Rehabilitation Sciences Bill2021 confirms that none ofthem have any idea about whatDisability Studies means. Only10 days to submit comments,”Singh tweeted.

As per the proposal theUniversity will have eightdepartments such as disabili-ty studies, rehabilitation sci-ences, audiology and speech-language pathology, specialeducation, psychology, nurs-ing, orthotics, prosthetics andassistive technology; and inclu-sive and universal design.

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Page 9: 2020/12/27  · 30 in protest against the Centre’s agri laws. We request people from Delhi and other parts of the country to come and celebrate New Year with protesting farmers,”

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����&������������� ��$��!��!�)��@����������������B�)�����)������PALM BEACH: Millions ofAmericans saw their joblessbenefits expire on Saturdayafter US President DonaldTrump refused to sign into lawa $2.3 trillion pandemic aid andspending package, protestingthat it did not do enough tohelp everyday people.

Trump stunnedRepublicans and Democratsalike when he said this week hewas unhappy with the massivebill, which provides $892 bil-lion in badly needed coron-avirus relief, including extend-ing special unemployment ben-efits expiring on December26, and $1.4 trillion for normalgovernment spending.

Without Trump’s signature,about 14 million people couldlose those extra benefits, accord-ing to Labor Department data.A partial government shut-down will begin on Tuesdayunless Congress can agree a

stop-gap government fundingbill before then.

After months of wrangling,Republicans and Democratsagreed to the package lastweekend, with the support ofthe White House. Trump, whohands over power toDemocratic President-elect JoeBiden on January 20, did notobject to terms of the dealbefore Congress voted itthrough on Monday night.

But since then he has com-plained that the bill gives toomuch money to special interests,cultural projects and foreign aid,while its one-time $600 stimu-lus checks to millions of strug-gling Americans were too small.He has demanded that be raisedto $2,000.

“Why would politiciansnot want to give people $2,000,rather than only $600?...Giveour people the money!” the bil-lionaire president tweeted on

Christmas Day, much of whichhe spent golfing at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach,Florida.

Many economists agreethe bill’s aid is too low but saythe immediate support is stillwelcome and necessary. Asource familiar with the situa-tion said Trump’s objection tothe bill caught many WhiteHouse officials by surprise.While the outgoing president’sstrategy for the bill remainsunclear, he has not vetoed itand could still sign it in com-ing days.

On Saturday, he was sched-uled to remain in Mar-a-Lago,where the bill has been sent andawaits his decision. Biden,whose November 3 electoralvictory Trump refuses toacknowledge, is spending theholiday in his home state ofDelaware and had no publicevents scheduled for Saturday.

London: Britain on Saturdaypublished the text of its narrowtrade agreement with theEuropean Union just five daysbefore it exits one of the world’sbiggest trading blocs in itsmost momentous global shiftsince the loss of empire.

The text includes a 1,246-page trade document, as well asaccords on nuclear energy,exchanging classified informa-tion, civil nuclear energy and aseries of joint declarations.

The “Draft EU-UK Tradeand Cooperation Agreement”means that from 2300 GMT onDecember 31, when Britainfinally leaves the EuropeanUnion’s single market and cus-toms union, there will be notariffs or quotas on the move-ment of goods originating ineither place between the UnitedKingdom and the EU.

Prime Minister BorisJohnson cast the deal as thefinal implementation of the willof the British people who voted52-48% for Brexit in a 2016 ref-erendum, while Europe’s lead-ers said it was time to leaveBrexit behind.

Michael Gove, a seniorBritish minister who cam-paigned alongside Johnson toleave the EU, said the dealwould allow Britain to put

some of the divisions of thenearly five-year Brexit crisisbehind it.

“Friendships have beenstrained, families were dividedand our politics has been ran-corous and, at times, ugly,”Gove wrote in The Times. “Wecan develop a new pattern offriendly cooperation with theEU, a special relationship if youwill, between sovereign equals,”Gove said. The Brexit referen-dum exposed a UnitedKingdom divided about muchmore than the EuropeanUnion, and has fueled soul-searching about everythingfrom secession and immigra-tion to capitalism, empire andmodern Britishness.

Such musings amid thepolitical crisis over Brexit haveleft allies puzzled by a country,the world’s No. 6 economyand a pillar of the NATOalliance, that was for decadestouted as a confident pillar ofWestern economic and politi-cal stability.

BREXIT DEALThe two sides finally

clinched a trade deal onChristmas Eve that explicitlyrecognises that trade andinvestment require conditionsfor “a level playing field foropen and fair competition.”

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Millions more people acrossdifferent parts of the UK

entered tougher lockdownrestrictions from December26, the day after Christmasmarked annually as BoxingDay, as part of plansannounced earlier this week tocontain the rapid spread of ahighly transmissible variant ofcoronavirus.

Around six million peoplein east and south-east Englandhave joined many others intoTier 4, England’’s highest Covidlevel which includes a “stay athome” order.

Lockdowns have also start-ed in Scotland and NorthernIreland, and measures havebeen reimposed in Wales after

being eased for Christmas Day,when the UK crossed anothergrim milestone of 70,000 coro-navirus deaths.

Under the toughest Tier 4restrictions, all non-essentialshops, bars and restaurants areclosed and people are notallowed to meet other house-holds, except in a support bub-ble or in an outdoor publicspace with one other person.Large parts of England werealready in this tier pre-Christmas, including London,after the new mutation wasfound to be spreading fastest inthose regions.

With the devolved admin-istrations setting their ownstrategies, Northern Irelandgoes into a six-week lockdownfrom Saturday with non-essen-

tial shops shut and hospitality open only for take-away services.

In a move similar toEngland’’s Tier 4 restrictions,Wales will be moving back intoLevel 4 measures which alsomeans non-essential shops,gyms and beauty salons mustclose and bars and restaurantscan only open for takeaways.And, Scotland is also enteringthe toughest tier of restrictionsfor at least three weeks withvery similar measures in place.

Meanwhile, France con-firmed the first case in thecountry of the more contagiouscoronavirus variant in a personwho was a French citizen in thecentral town of Tours who hadarrived from London onDecember 19.

It was among over 40countries to suspend travelconnectivity with the UK,including India, as the newrapid-spreading coronavirusvariant in England last weektriggered global concern.

Meanwhile, a further 570deaths in the UK were report-ed, taking the total number ofpeople dying within 28 days of a positive COVID-19test to 70,195.

This places the UK sixthafter the US, Brazil, India,Mexico and Italy in terms ofrecorded coronavirus deaths,according to Johns HopkinsUniversity,

The number of people whotested positive for COVID-19in England and Scotlandincreased by 32,725 on Friday.

*����������������%�������0��������������������� � +"�)� ���$��!�������������������������������&���!�Paris: The European Unionbegan a vaccine rolloutSaturday, even as countries inthe bloc were forced back intolockdown by a new strain of thevirus, believed to be moreinfectious, that continues tospread from Britain.

The pandemic has claimedmore than 1.7 million lives andis still running rampant inmuch of the world, but therecent launching of innocula-tion campaigns has boostedhopes that 2021 could bring arespite.

Hours before the first vac-cine doses arrived in France,Paris’ health ministry con-firmed late Friday that it haddetected its first case of the newvariant in a citizen returnedfrom Britain.

Several countries havereported cases of the newstrain, which has sent jittersthrough already overstretchedhealth services.

There was little sign of theusual Boxing Day sale rush onthe streets of Sydney Saturday,as residents largely heeded thestate premier’s request theystay home faced with a newvirus cluster.

“Even when we enteredthe store there were less thanten people,” shopper LiaGunawan told The SydneyMorning Herald after queueingup for the sales.

Even as some Europeannations eye a post-Christmasreturn to harsh restrictions,China’s communist leadershipissued a statement hailing the“extremely extraordinary glory”of its handling of the virus thatemerged in the country’s Hubeiprovince last year, state newsagency Xinhua reported. AFP

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Hundreds of migrants onSaturday were stranded in

a burnt-out squalid tent campin Bosnia as heavy snow fell inthe country and temperaturessuddenly dropped amid a win-try spell of bad weather.

Migrants at the Lipa campin northwest Bosnia wrappedthemselves in blankets andsleeping bags to protect againstbiting winds in the region,which borders European Union

member Croatia. A fire earlierthis week destroyed much ofthe camp near the town ofBihac that already was harsh-ly criticized by internationalofficials and aid groups asinadequate for housingrefugees and migrants.

Authorities have failed tofind new accommodation forthe migrants at Lipa, leavingaround 1,000 people stuck inthe cold, with no facilities orheating and on meager foodparcels provided by aid groups.

“Snow has fallen, sub-zero

temperatures, no heating, noth-ing,” the InternationalOrganization for Migration’schief of mission in Bosnia,Peter Van Der Auweraert,tweeted. “This is not how any-one should live. We need polit-ical bravery and action now.”

Bosnia has become a bot-tleneck for thousands ofmigrants hoping to reachWestern Europe. Most are stuckin Bosnia’s northwesternKrajina region as other areas inthe ethnically divided nationhave refused to accept them.

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Britain’’s Queen Elizabeth IIchose a theme of diversity

and hope as she referenced allmajor festivals spent in lock-down this year as part of hertraditional Christmas Dayspeech.

The 94-year-old monarch,who spent her first Christmasin decades without a largerroyal family gathering, calledfor tolerance and mutualrespect and reminded people ofthe contribution made tonational life by people of manyfaiths and backgrounds.

“For Christians, Jesus is ‘thelight of the world’, but we can’tcelebrate his birth today inquite the usual way. People ofall faiths have been unable togather as they would wish fortheir festivals, such as Passover,Easter, Eid and Vaisakhi. Butwe need life to go on,” said theQueen in a pre-recorded mes-sage that is annually broadcastat 1500 GMT on December 25.

“Last month, fireworks litup the sky around Windsor, asHindus, Sikhs and Jains cele-brated Diwali, the festival oflights, providing joyousmoments of hope and unity, despite social distancing,”she said.

“Remarkably, a year thathas necessarily kept peopleapart has, in many ways,

brought us closer. Across theCommonwealth, my familyand I have been inspired by sto-ries of people volunteering intheir communities, helpingthose in need,” she noted.

In a nod to the success ofthe vaccine, she also high-lighted “the achievements ofmodern science” and paid par-ticular tribute to frontline nurs-es as she offered her condo-lences to all who had lost lovedones during a tragic year.

She also spoke of her pridein the way the UK has respond-ed to the coronavirus pan-demic with a “quiet,indomitable spirit” as she urgedpositivity and focused on thegood that has prevailed at theclose of a tumultuous yeardominated by the pandemicand lockdowns.

“We continue to beinspired by the kindness ofstrangers and draw comfortthat — even on the darkestnights — there is hope in thenew dawn,” she said.

The message was recordedin Windsor Castle’’s GreenDrawing Room where themonarch sat alongside a lonephotograph of her husband, 99-year-old Prince Philip – who isthe only other royal with themonarch at this year’s scaleddown festivities due to a strictlockdown across southernEngland.

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-%���������������������'�����������!��������� ����������London: Scientists in the UKhave begun trials of innovativeantibody drug treatments thatthey hope could provide instantprotection against COVID-19.

The University CollegeLondon Hospitals NHS Trust(UCLH) said that theresearchers in the Storm Chasestudy believe a Long ActingAntiBody (LAAB) known asAZD7442, developed byAstraZeneca, may offer imme-diate and long-term protectionto people who have beenrecently exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus and preventthem developing COVID-19.

PTI

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The Delhi Police took to Twitter toinform commutters about the traffic sit-uation at the borders.

“NH-9 & NH-24 closed from Delhi toGhaziabad due to farmers’ protests. Peopleare advised to take alternate route forGhaziabad via DND, ITO & Wazirabad,”Delhi Traffic Police tweeted.

“Singhu, Auchandi, Lampur, PiauManiyari, Saboli & Mangesh bordersclosed. Pl take alternate routes via Safiabad,Palla & Singhu school toll tax borders.Traffic has been diverted from Mukarba& GTK road. Pl avoid Outer Ring Rd, GTKroad & NH 44.

“The chilla & Gazipur borders areclosed for traffic coming from Noida &Ghaziabad to Delhi because of farmerprotests. People are advised to take alter-nate route for coming to Delhi via AnadVihar, DND, Apsara, bhopra & Loni bor-ders,” it tweeted.

There was no immediate responsefrom the Government to the agenda pro-posed by the farmer unions for talks. Anofficial said that the Government is readyfor amendments, but maintained thatthere is no question of repealing the threefarm laws.

On December 24, Aggarwal had writ-ten to the 40 protesting unions and invit-ed them for fresh talks, but made it clearthat it would

not be “logical” to include in the agen-da any new demand related to the MSP,which is out of the purview of the threenew farm laws.

In his letter, the officer had asked theunions to suggest a date and time for thenext round of talks.

In its letter to Aggarwal, the SankyuktKisan Morcha said, “Unfortunately, yourletter continues the Government’s attemptto mislead the public by suppressing truefacts about the deliberations in the previ-ous meetings. We have consistentlydemanded the repeal of the three CentralFarm Acts, whereas the Government hasdistorted our position as if we were ask-ing for amendments to these Acts.”

“If you are sincere about respectfullylistening to the farmers, as you say in yourletter, the Government must not indulgein misinformation about the previousmeetings. The campaign launched by the

entire State machinery to defame andmalign the farmers’ movement must stopforthwith,” it said.

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Announcing his decision to leave theNDA, Hanuman Beniwal alleged that hisCovid-19 test report was “fudged” tokeep him out of Parliament.

“The farm laws were brought in myabsence. If I was present in the Lok Sabhawhen the farm laws were brought, Iwould have torn them apart and thrownthem away,” Beniwal said.

Beniwal, the Lok Sabha member fromRajasthan’s Nagaur, had given a call for twolakh farmers to move towards Delhi in sup-port of the farmers’ agitation that has beenon for the past one month.

Earlier during the day, Beniwal ledfarmers’ movement from Jaipur, Nagaur,Barmer, Jodhpur and other parts ofRajasthan into Kotputli on the way toShahjahanpur after earlier announcing thathe will lead the agitation into Delhi inopposition to the three farm laws broughtby the Centre.

“Despite the farmers’ protests, theNarendra Modi Government is not with-drawing farm laws because it has 303 MPs.Farmers from 1,200 kilometres away inRajasthan are moving towards Delhi to bea part of the agitation,” he said.

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The NTF recommended that in addi-tion to the existing surveillance strategies,it is critical to conduct enhanced genom-ic surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 especial-ly in incoming passengers from the UK.Besides, it will also be critical to conductgenome sequencing in samples where thereis dropout of the S gene in lab diagnosis,proven cases of re-infections etc. Routinegenomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2from representative samples all across thesamples needs to be a continuous and wellplanned activity, said an official attendingthe meet.

However, the official said there wasno need to change the existing Treatment

Protocol in view of mutations emerging inthe strain. Further, since ICMR has alwaysadvocated use of two or more gene assaysfor testing SARS-CoV-2, it is unlikely tomiss infected cases using the currenttesting strategy.

It was decided that all passengers whohad arrived from UK between 21stDecember - 23rd December 2020 havebeen tested at the Airports, and only afterthe RT-PCR test result are available, thenegative passengers are permitted to exitthe airports

More than 50 samples of UK returneesare currently under sequencing at the des-ignated laboratories.

“It is proposed to continue enhancedgenomic surveillance for early detectionand containment of the UK variant SARS-CoV-2 strains. However, it is important tounderstand that like all other RNA virus-es, SARS-CoV-2 will continue to mutate.The mutated virus can also be containedby measures like social distancing, handhygiene, wearing masks and also by aneffective vaccine, as and when available,”an official said.

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Karnataka Health Minister KSudhakar on Saturday said 14 people whohave come to the State from the UnitedKingdom so far have tested positive forCOVID-19 and their samples have beensent for genetic sequencing to find whetherit is a new strain of virus that has infect-ed them. A total of 2,500 people have come(from the United Kingdom), of them 1,638have been tested.

According to Kerala Health MinisterK K Shailaja, eight people who recentlyreturned from the United Kingdom toKerala have tested positive for coronavirusand their samples have been sent to theNational Institute of Virology, Pune forgenomic analysis.

Four more people who returned toTamil Nadu from the United Kingdomhave tested positive for COVID-19. Theirsamples have been sent to the NationalInstitute of Virology, Pune for genomicanalysis.

In UP, three members of the same fam-ily in Meerut city who returned from the

United Kingdom have tested positive forCOVID-19. All these three membersreturned from London on December 14.Health Department officials also fear thatthe three foreign returnees may be infect-ed by the new variant of the virus that wasdetected in the United Kingdom.

In the ongoing door-to-door contactdrive being conducted by the Delhi gov-ernment to test UK-returned persons forprevalence of COVID-19, eight have so farbeen found infected with the coronavirus.A total of 19 passengers out of over 13,000who landed from the UK at the IGI air-port here between November 25 andDecember 21 have been found positive forthe virus.

In Maharashtra a woman, who hadreturned to Aurangabad in Maharashtrafrom the United Kingdom in the last fewweeks, has tested coronavirus positive. Thewoman is among the 44 persons whoarrived in Aurangabad from the UK afterNovember 25. In another case, One of theover 50 persons, who returned to theKalyan Dombivli region in Thane districtfrom the United Kingdom in the last onemonth, has tested COVID- 19 positive.

In the past two weeks, around 102 peo-ple have come to Assam from the UnitedKingdom and one of them was foundCovid-19 positive and his sample has beensent to the National Institute of Virology(NIV) in Pune to ascertain whether it isthe same new virus strain which hitEurope recently.

The new strain of the coronavirus wasfirst detected in the United Kingdom, lastweek. As per the experts, this strain is moretransmissible than other SARS-CoV-2variants.

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India has invited Boris Johnson aschief guest for the parade which has beenaccepted. The Ministry of External Affairshas already clarified that the British PrimeMinister will be visiting despite the scareof the new virus strain in the UnitedKingdom.

Incidentally, the latest incident of sol-diers testing positive comes days after aVice Admiral of the Navy succumbed tothe pandemic here. He was the senior most

personnel to fall victim to COVID-19 inthe three Services.

Vice Admiral Srikant died onDecember 15 due to Covid-19-relatedcomplications. The vice admiral, theNavy’s senior-most submariner, was dueto retire on December 31.

Expressing his condolences, DefenceMinister Rajnath Singh tweeted, “Deeplypained at the untimely and sudden demiseof Director General Seabird, Vice AdmiralSrikant.” The Ministry of Defence and theIndian Navy will always remember his stel-lar contributions and remarkable serviceto the nation, Singh noted.

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Citing sources in the ruling party, thepaper said during his four-day stay inKathmandu, the Chinese vice minister isscheduled to meet top leaders of both fac-tions of the party.

The development comes after Chineseambassador in Nepal Hou Yanqi held aseries of meetings with the president andtop leaders of the NCP, includingPrachanda and Madhav Nepal, who hasreplaced Oli as chairman of the Prachanda-led faction.

During her meeting with MadhavNepal on Friday, Ambassador Hou, whowas concerned about the split in the NCP,inquired about the future political courseof the ruling party among other things, thepaper quoted Rijal as saying.

Hou on Thursday met Prachanda, whoclaims control over the ruling party afterremoving Prime Minister Oli from theposts of the party’s parliamentary leaderand chair.

She had also met the StandingCommittee member and former energyminister Barsha Man Pun on Thursday, thepaper said. Hou’s meeting with Prachandacame two days after she called on PresidentBhandari at the latter’s office in SheetalNiwas on Tuesday.

The envoy was said to have discussedthe latest political development followingthe president’s move to dissolve the Houseof Representatives

and announce mid-term elections.This is not the first time that China hasintervened in Nepal’s internal affairs at a

time of crisis.In May, Hou held separate meetings

with President Bhandari, the prime min-ister and other senior NCP leaders, includ-ing Prachanda,

when Oli was facing mounting pres-sure to step down. In July, she again meta number of top leaders, including thepresident, prime minister, Prachanda,Madhav Kumar Nepal and Jhala NathKhanal and Bamdev Gautam to save Oli.

A number of political party leaders hadtermed the Chinese envoy’s series ofmeetings with the ruling party leaders asinterference

in Nepal’s internal political affairs.Dozens of student activists carrying plac-ards with anti-China slogans had stageda demonstration in front of the ChineseEmbassy here to protest against Hou’sinterference in Nepal’s internal affairs.

China’s political profile in Nepal hasbeen on the rise in the recent years withbillions of dollars of investments underBeijing’s multi-billion-dollar Belt andRoad Initiative (BRI), including the build-ing of the Trans-Himalayan Multi-Dimensional Connectivity Network.

Besides the investments, China’sambassador to Nepal Hou has made openefforts to garner support for Oli.

The Chinese Communist Party andNepal Communist Party were regularlyengaged in training programmes. InSeptember last year, the NCP had evenorganised a symposium, inviting someleaders from the Chinese CommunistParty to Kathmandu to impart training toNepali leaders on the Xi Jinping Thoughtahead of the visit of the Chinese president,his first to Nepal, the Post reported.

In a guarded reaction to the fast-pacedpolitical developments in Nepal, India onThursday said it was an “internal matter”of the neighbouring nation and it was forthe country to decide as per its democra-tic processes.

“We have noted the recent politicaldevelopments in Nepal. These are inter-nal matters for Nepal to decide as per itsdemocratic processes,” External AffairsMinistry Spokesperson Anurag Srivastavasaid in New Delhi.

“As a neighbour and well-wisher,India will continue to support Nepal andits people in moving forward on the pathof peace, prosperity and development,” hesaid.

Page 10: 2020/12/27  · 30 in protest against the Centre’s agri laws. We request people from Delhi and other parts of the country to come and celebrate New Year with protesting farmers,”

As vaccinations begin in one cornerof the world, marking the beginningof recovery from the pandemic, wecan’t forget that the majority is

fighting increasing hunger, poverty andexploitation. This blatant and brazeninequality of the world we live has beenexposed by the grossly unequal response ofthe world to the pandemic. Of the initial $8trillion that has been released as globalCOVID-19 relief, only 0.13 per cent has beenallocated to the poorest communities.

The rest has been used to bail out bigbusinesses that have multiplied their profitsin the midst of a global recession.The mostgrievous casualties of this injustice are ourchildren.

We witnessed that the Government, inpartnership with citizens, came forward tomitigate the immediate crisis of dry rations,medical aid and essential needs in the mostaffected communities at unprecedented scale,which is truly admirable.

I am proud of my children, the survivorsof child labour and trafficking living in BalAshram, came forth to make masks for lawenforcement, frontline workers andcommunities in Rajasthan. Several individualsand organisations stepped up at the time ofcrisis, risking their safety to provide life-savingrelief and care.

But with extremely limited access todigital education, overnight loss of householdincome, and no food on the plate for millionsof children, we have only barely touched thetip of the iceberg. While the pandemic did notcreate these inequalities, our response to it hasexposed and exacerbated them to the extentthat we risk losing an entire generation to childlabour, trafficking, child marriage and otherforms of exploitation. This will be an utter andcomplete breakdown of our moral, socio-economic, and democratic systems.

Now that we are looking towardsrecovery, it is important to understand thatcentral to finding the solution is theunderstanding that the children who areforced to work are the same children who aredenied education, and the same children whoare undernourished and starving. We cannot

leave our children to fend for themselves inthis time of crisis.

The need of the hour is that our childrenreceive their fair share — a fair share inpolicies, in budgets, and in protection. A fairshare for children is based on fundamentalprinciples of justice that our children deserve.In 2015, when the world came together andcommitted to the Sustainable DevelopmentGoals, they did so with the promise to ‘leaveno child behind’.

But we are failing at this. The samecommunities that have been discriminatedagainst for decades, including minorities,migrants, and farmers, are the samecommunities where children are deniededucation, nutrition and safety. They havehistorically and structurally been alienatedfrom global wealth and development, and wewill look back at this unprecedented periodas the time when the vulnerable were pushedover the edge into unending cycles ofdisenfranchisement.

To be able to break this chain ofintergenerational exploitation, Governmentsmust make a tangible and radical shift to aculture of fair share for the most marginalisedchildren and their families. That is the onlyway we can end child labour and exploitation,and build a world where our children learnand thrive.

The truest judge of how the world hasresponded to the pandemic, is the traffickedchild who collapsed dead on the road becauseof as she walked a 100 km to reach her home,the child who was dropped out of school andwas forcefully married because of lack ofaccess to digital education, and the childlabour who was trapped in factories as theiremployer deserted them during lockdown.Our children are the mirrors to the world weare building.

The year 2021 provides us with theopportunity to come together to commit a fairshare for children in the global wealthallocation for their development andwellbeing. 2021 has been declared as theUnited Nations Year for the Elimination ofChild Labour, with the objective to revitaliseand accelerate the global promise to end child

labour by 2025 under SustainableDevelopment Goal 8.7.

This was an ambitious target from thestart, but the devastating effects of thepandemic that have brought the world to itsknees and we are now facing the risk of thefirst ever increase in child labour in decades.We are at the precipice of losing the progressachieved over decades to reduce child labourand to ensure access to education for allchildren. This cannot be allowed to happen,and each one of us has a role to playincluding Governments, internationalagencies, businesses, faith leaders, media,schools and colleges and civil society.

Governments must realign their policies,politics, legislations and budgetary allocationsand accountability measures towards creatinga safety net for the most vulnerablecommunities through accessible and adequatesocial protection. International agencies mustuphold and enforce multilateral efforts tobridge the wealth gap between nations, andset global benchmarks for child protectionmeasures. Businesses must ensuretransparency, due diligence and complianceto create child labour-free supply chains. Faithleaders must unite to prioritise children withintheir communities as a moral responsibility.The media must highlight and question the

state of our children and hold all stakeholdersaccountable for the protection of our children’srights. Schools, colleges and civil society,especially the survivors and youth, must leadfrom the front in demanding change andaccountability, to give voice to the voicelessand forgotten children of the world.

This year has taught us many lessons thatwe have learnt, sometimes unwillingly.It hasplaced in front of our eyes the true and barestate of our world, to show us what we havelong ignored or forgotten. We have recognisedour inherent interconnectedness andinterdependence with each other.

But most importantly, the year 2020 hasproven that until each one of us is safe, nobodyis safe. If the people of the world are movingin diametrically opposite directions ofdevelopment, the world will be too stretchedto sustain itself.

We can only truly move forward if we doit together. Whenever the world was in peril,the inherent goodness of humanity ofindividuals has shone forth and we have comeour stronger. We have to reclaim ourhumanity and globalise compassion. And wemust begin with our children, because theyare all our children.

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Businesses started off theyear with regularexpectations of growth,with all their usual plans set

in place. However, going into Marchand the subsequent months, itbecame a different story acrossseveral sectors, with scores ofcompanies getting overturned dueto the impact of the lockdowns andrestrictions on movement.

Since March, people realisedthe effects of excessive screen time,and the toll it could take on them.Remaining indoors for longdurations, viewing phone andcomputer screens for hours at astretch, has led to exhaustion andill-health. In contrast with this,audio appealed to millions of users,as they were once again able tolisten to content passively whileperforming other chores. It isreminiscent of our experience withradio, but with a lot more optionsand quality content to pick from.

We observed the trends closelyand aligned our content as per thegrowth we were seeing in each ofthe categories. Since April, wewitnessed a significant spike acrossall growth metrics, as we were ableto adapt to user requirements byproviding the right content at theright time. We recorded a growthof 300% in terms of our user base,

while the number of creators onKhabri grew by five times usersession time grew by more than200%, as users were listening to agreater number of content pieces.

While each of these platformscater to different interests, we havesucceeded at creating a holisticecosystem for the next generationof creators and users. Some of thekey areas of interest in ourcategories since April have been inmotivational content, news, careerinformation, and knowledge-basedcontent. While it is a broaddefinition, they have been provideda plethora of content choices.

The pandemic has wreakedhavoc for students across thecountry and blind students havebeen impacted the most. Theiraccess to education had been cut offafter the lockdowns, which made usidentify the challenges. Welaunched the #VoiceofBlindscampaign, as we believe that every

student needs access to schoolingand entertainment. We facilitatedaudio-based learning for the blindstudents, connected with thecommunity, started a helpline, andincreased accessibility forthousands of blind students. Whenit came to product functions, weintroduced special contentexperiences, recommendations, andplaylist features, in a bid to assistusers with curated listening lists, sothat they listen to better content.Influencers too find our contentcreation tools easy to adopt.

The year 2020 has givenpodcasters and content creators aplatform that did not exist earlier,as they had relied on YouTube evenfor audio content. We expect morecreators to launch channels on ourplatform, as they can provethemselves and reach largeraudiences.

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Page 11: 2020/12/27  · 30 in protest against the Centre’s agri laws. We request people from Delhi and other parts of the country to come and celebrate New Year with protesting farmers,”

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The provision of advice of home-opathic or other AYUSH systemswas and still is, conveniently,being equated to promotion of

risk increasing behaviour. The ministriesof AYUSH and of health made it clear thatall public health advice regarding preven-tion of COVID-19 was to be followed.Middle ground seemed to emerge wherecomplementary and alternative medicine(CAM) advice could be dispensed whileenforcing other measures.

Some titans of industry also feltcomfortable lending their voice to encour-age the consumption of homeopathy. Wewere keen to understand the protectiveeffect of our prophylaxis protocol.

It is disappointing that while a vac-cine was developed from scratch follow-ing the sequencing of the genomic codeof a new virus discovered just over 11months ago and run through multi-national trials involving hundreds ofthousands of participants; trials involv-ing homeopathic drugs which have been

in use for two hundred years and whichhave an impeccable safety profile have stillnot been completed.

The difference in pace may be attrib-uted partly to the almost completeabsence of interest by homeopathic phar-maceutical companies in conductingpeer reviewed research. Running a seriesof expensive trials involving commonlyavailable homeopathic drugs does notprovide any return on investment to thesecompanies.

India is the torch bearer of CAM for

the world. We should not take thisresponsibility lightly. Ayurveda is theancient Indian system of healing, buthomeopathy’s home has also been Indiafor many decades. The sheer popularityof the system amongst Indians is unpar-alleled. Policy makers should ensure thatthe allocation of resources to AYUSH sys-tems is equitable and rise above a mis-placed sense of patriotism.

In the context of COVID-19 and inthe practice of evidence-based medicinein general, the absence of evidence is notevidence of absence. This adage is beingapplied to conventional medicine andignored for CAM. CAM should not bewithheld from patients who are notresponding to conventional medicine orthose who are unable to take convention-al medicines because of co-morbidities orconventional drug interactions which pre-clude its use. Most importantly, the val-ues and preferences of patients shouldalways direct our clinical decision-mak-ing, rather than our personal bias.

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Who could have thought that aninvisible virus could hold the worldto ransom? And that the trillions

of microbes inside us orchestrate our lives :literally determine who we are inside out!What we look like to how well we are!

Twenty five hundred years ago, whenHippocrates stated that: All disease beginsin the gut. He had an incredible intuition thatonly recently has been fully appreciatedbecause of new insights into the pathogen-esis of many chronic inflammatory diseases(CIDs) afflicting humankind. Until 30 yearsago, when the Human Genome Project wasstill in its planning stage, the general hypoth-esis was that genetic predisposition and expo-sure to an environmental trigger were bothnecessary and sufficient to develop CIDs,including infectious, allergic, neuroinflam-matory/neurodegenerative, autoimmunediseases, and cancer.

However, the epidemiological observa-tion showing a major surge of CIDs duringthe past four decades in the Western hemi-sphere coincident with the declining rate ofinfectious diseases was at odds with thegene/environment paradigm. This generat-ed the hygiene hypothesis supporting thenotion that we had made ourselves too cleanfor our own good and that people embrac-ing a Western lifestyle would slowly die ofCIDs instead of rapidly succumbing toinfectious diseases as still is happening indeveloping countries. (Alessio FasanoJanuary 2020)

It is now clear that the gut microbiota iscentral to the pathogenesis of immune sys-tem disorders .While multiple mechanismsare involved, the immune system clearly playsa special role. Indeed, the breakdown of thephysiological balance in gut microbial com-position leads to dysbiosis, which is then ableto enhance inflammation and to even influ-

ence gene expression. Many might be surprised to learn that

more than two-thirds of the immune systemis located in the gut. The function of this system is to try and eliminate an invader bycreating inflammation and activating anti-bodies to fight it. The immune system alsoeliminates the body’s own cells when theybecome diseased.

In order to perform these activities, thecells of the immune system need to be ableto tell friends from foes. Gut microbes againplay a central role in this: during digestion,they break down fibre into small moleculeswhich include short chain fatty acids(SCFAs). These SCFAs influence the immunefunction of the Gut and the activity of the

T cells, the informants whichhelp the body recognise friendfrom foe and decide whetheror not to attack a cell.

A disturbance in the gutmicrobiome directly affectsdiseases such as inflammato-ry bowel disease, diarrhoea andmany other digestive disor-ders. It can also be the startingpoint of several other chronicdegenerative diseases outside thegut including asthma, skin diseases,autoimmune diseases and metabolicdiseases.

Professor Sarkis Mazmanian, Professorof Microbiology at CalTech, who has stud-ied the effect of Gut microbes on health formore than a decade, points out that: The bal-ance of different bacterial species in the gutcan influence whether the immune systembecomes activated or not.

The connection between probiotics andimmunity, although well-established in thescientific circles, is not easily understood bythe common person. Decoding the role ofprobiotics in building immunity can lead togreater acceptance of these foods.

Probiotic organisms exert a directantagonist effect on harmful microbes bydecreasing their numbers, impairing theirmetabolism, and also by directly stimulat-ing our immune system. Seventy per cent ofour immune system is governed by our gut(intestines). Clearly, the gut is not just a diges-tive organ but is also the largest immuneorgan. The discourse around the health ofthe heart, liver and lungs has always beenprevalent, but thanks to the pandemic, wehave begun to take gut health more serious-ly.

The simplest way to maintain a healthygut is to ensure an adequate supply of

macronu-trients (carbs, proteins, fats) and micronu-trients (vitamins, minerals) that can supportthe cells and tissues of the immune system.Besides a wholesome balanced diet, regularconsumption of probiotics is linked to goodimmunity. The immune response reliesupon the balance of the microbes residingin the gut. Manipulating the population ofthese microbes through the consumption ofprobiotics is a sureshot way to betterimmune health. Several strains of bacteria,including the genera lactobacillus and bifi-dobacterium, have been recognised fortheir ability to suppress pathogens andbuild up resistance to infections. However,it is critical to choose a scientifically provenand established probiotic strain for this pur-pose.

The modus operandi of probiotics intheir immunity-providing avatar is variedand complex. Explained in simple terms, onreaching the intestines, the probiotic bacte-ria get into a competitive mode to oust anydisease-causing and aberrant microbes.Probiotic bacteria occupy the sites on the

intestinal cell wall wherever adhe-sion is possible such that the dis-ease-causing microbes do not getoutnumbered.

All in all, probiotics augmentour defense through antibodyproduction, increasing naturalkiller-cell activity and the process

of engulfing of foreign matter par-ticles.

Today we know that all diseasesbegin with inflammation in the gut and

that two-third of our immune systemresides here. The gut is the largest immune

organ called gut associated lymphoid tissueand produces more antibodies than anyother tissue in the body — B&T lympho-cytes . If what we eat is wrong for our gutit is wrong for immunity. And that strength-ening our gut means strengthening ourimmunity.

With 25 years of my clinical practice thisconcept has stood the test of time . The recog-nition of food sensitivities and gut health hasmade it possible for me to treat almost all dis-eases from the root including Diabetes,coronary artery disease, thyroid disorders,arthritis, asthma , psoriasis , depression toname a few.

While the pandemic has thrown upuncertainties, gloom & despair the good newsis that it has also brought with it a positiveimpact by way of being a leveller & a timewhen immunity & diet have assumedunprecedented importance.

It’s the perfect time to begin taking a deep-er dive into the gut and heal yourself to build

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We have all heard the saying,‘Sleep is the best medicine’ butdue to our ever increasing

deadlines, especially in the work fromhome era where work never seemsto stop and home has becomethe 24x7 office, we areincreasingly sacrificing oursleep. Getting 6-8 hours ofsleep every night can helpin restoring physical, men-tal and emotional health.

Along with good sleep,we also need to have a bal-anced, healthy diet andlifestyle. Ayurveda places greatemphasis on ahar (diet) andvihar (lifestyle). For example, youmust have heard from elders to havekadha once a day for protection againstCoronavirus and boost immunity. Yogais also known to be beneficial for all sortsof health problems.

What is important to understand isthat the use of alternative medicine can

make us live happier and healthier lives.And during the pandemic, if we practiceall these things, we can have improvedrespiratory efficiency, less anxiety andbetter immunity.

The reason why Ayurveda is soeffective is that it treats the actu-

al cause of the disease. Itgoes to the root of the

problem. While main-stream medicine focus-es more on treating thesymptom of the dis-ease, Ayurveda cor-rects the root cause of

the problem andimproves the overall

quality of life.So while you are regu-

larly wearing your masks andmaintaining social distancing along withwashing your hands, do not forget toinculcate the ageold practices ofAyurveda, which can help in leading abetter life.

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Page 12: 2020/12/27  · 30 in protest against the Centre’s agri laws. We request people from Delhi and other parts of the country to come and celebrate New Year with protesting farmers,”

Iwas in Australia covering the ICC women’s T20World Cup when we were beginning to realise analarming situation emerging globally. The rise inthe number of COVID-19 cases worldwide and

a discussion regarding the impact that it could cre-ate in India. As the numbers grew and the questionsof its emergence started gaining attention, it seemedmore a probable situation that the world may headtowards a lockdown mode. It was only a matter of timethat the day was nearing when we might not knowwhen we would even be able to step out of our house.

A day became a week and then months started get-ting counted as more and more postponement ofevents, daily activities stared happening. For mostsports people the reality of having to play the wait-ing game started the moment the first event got pushedforward to a later unidentified date. The Olympics wasthe biggest draw.

Here is a insight on how these delays, postpone-ments would have worked for different sports play-ers. An icon cricket player like MS Dhoni; who theworld could have seen in action playing for India atthe ICC T20 world cup decided to hang his India shirtand focus only on franchise cricket. He had alreadyretired from Test cricket and with no World Cupevents lined up after 2020 for men’s cricket, it mighthave been the last or second last opportunity to seehim in action in India blues.

Double Olympic Gold medallist and five-timeworld champion Lin Dan announced his retirementafter the decision of the Olympics getting pushed overto the next year came. It may be argued that Lin Danbeing of the sports greats was not getting younger anda call at the age of 36 was maybe the right one. But,would that announcement be made had the Olympicsbeen held on time. Possibly no! Maybe after the

Olympics.Momentum is important for sports people. You

train to be in the right rhythm, obtain the right fit-ness and skill level. And this training carries youthrough the tournament and provides youthe right momentum to peak towardsyour optimum performance. Nottoo early, never too late. It isnever easy to find the timingright and it depends on a lotof other factors as well,but as a sports personyou work towards find-ing that right balance.

It is often said thata sports person peakswhen he/she isaround their 30’s.Largely cause as aplayer; you tend tounderstand yourgame better. Oneunderstands thedemands of the profes-sional sport more andthe skill levels required todeal with high pressure situ-ations. Once you sail throughthe phase you are able to length-en your high-performance graph. Incricket — the ability to pick the ball early,judge its trajectory and speed helps in reducing theindividual’s reaction time. This requires constant train-ing of mind and skills along with regular competitionto be able to judge the performance. If there is anylag, an imbalance, there can be a dip in the perfor-

mance. In some cases, you might even struggle to findthe right balance altogether after a hiatus.

It can affect a young high-performance athlete too.A break in the momentum can have an adverse effect

in the overall performance. You might berunning well and peaking nicely

towards your upcoming race. Buta break like this where there

is no surety of the nextcompetitive tournament

can lead you to tread inunknown territory.The FIFA U-17Women’s WorldCup in India was tobe played inNovember, 2020. Itgot cancelled. Thiscancelation tookaway the opportu-nity of many play-ers who may not get

a chance to play at allin this tournament.

Either the tourna-ment might not be held

until next year or even iflater, a lot of players will not

remain eligible to play in the agegroup event. The inaugural ICC

U19 women’s cricket World Cup that isscheduled to be held in 2021 will also be pushed

to a later date. The fate of the young players hangs ina balance trying to remain eligible and probable forselections.

With the Indian cricket board — BCCI ensuring

the smooth conduct of Indian Premier League in theUAE, it has provided a fillip to sports to be conduct-ed with bio- bubbles and secure safety standards. Itis a tough standard but certainly a way forward. Yes,there were no crowds allowed into the stadiums dur-ing the IPL which is rare for a competitive sport butwith the Australian government allowing spectatorsduring the India cricket teams tour of Australia, it isa step towards restoring normalcy.

It is not an easy life inside a bio bubble. Livingwithin the parameters, interacting with the same setof people and not being allowed to step away fromthe same scenery for days can be mentally challeng-ing too. And especially if you are away from family.With the travel restrictions and regulations, one isalways away from home.

The one silver lining in having a long break withno sports activity happening is that you can take abreak from travel and spend time with yourself andwork on stuff that has been on the back burner. Nursea recurring injury, rest to recover well from ailments,build muscle strength and work on agility. There isalways scope for more in the sporting life of a sportsperson.

This year with all the restrictions and impacts hasbeen a mixed bag. It has been very challenging for thehuman race to survive yet given opportunities to fightthe scenario all together.

Maybe it was good too — to value our lives a bitmore. To value the things that we already have andwhat we aspire for. The impact has been felt by all.For some it might have been more than others. Forhow long it continues we are still unsure but as sportspeople we always look to start each day with the samezeal and enthusiasm.

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Page 13: 2020/12/27  · 30 in protest against the Centre’s agri laws. We request people from Delhi and other parts of the country to come and celebrate New Year with protesting farmers,”

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2020 is definitely the year that willgo down in contemporary histo-ry as the year where our modernway of life changed forever. Yet,

this is not a piece about the never-end-ing woes that the year has brought uponus. Far from that. It is more likely a pieceabout what this year has helped bringabout in all of us.

Never has one person’s misery beenanother person’s entertainment, like it hasbeen this year. And you know where thisis headed, don’t you?

The pandemic came upon us inMarch and the lockdown soon after. Theeffects on our country were catastroph-ic, to say the least. However, my mandatehere is to write on the entertainmentindustry and thus I shall desist fromgoing off about migrant labour, theeconomy, the death rate, the TabligiJammat or any such deeply felt but unfor-tunately unrelated topics.

It is the job of the entertainment

industry to entertain and perhaps that’swhat we did, but at a great cost to our-selves .

In early June one of our very own,Sushant Singh Rajput was found dead athis suburban Mumbai residence. Atragedy of epic proportions. And thebeginning of several more tragic eventsthat were to follow soon after.

An actress, we know only too well,claimed that it was the burden of beingan outsider in an industry that abhorredoutsiders, that took his life.Unsubstantiated in its claim, but dra-matic. Names of popular filmmakerscame up that were said to be blamed forthe tragedy. The filmmakers became thescorn of the media and the social media.They were shunned by one and all,thrown into the abyss of infamy.

More unsubstantiated claims sprangup. The dead actor’s girlfriend surelykilled him. She was having an affair withher mentor after all? The guns that were

trained on the filmmakers were nowtrained on these new suspects. Themedia trial was the obsession of everyhousehold that was going through thegrind of the lockdown.

The manager of the dead actor,who had committed suicide a week ear-lier, was dragged into the conspiracy the-ory, albeit posthumously. There was aconnection between the two deathsinsisted a Facebook post that became thebasis of major inquiry. I forget to men-tion, this was part of the more unsub-stantiated claims.

Like a circle in a spiral, the theorieswent berserk with the aid of a news hun-gry media. Was it just murder or doublemurder? Was it poison or drugs? Was shea gold-digger?

On and on and on, more claims,more victims, more investigations, moretelevision debates, till I disconnectedfrom the goings on and preferred tospend my time mastering the Monaco

circuit on Formula One.The pandemic still rages in our coun-

try unabated. We feared it when it wasnascent and don’t give a damn about itnow that it is rampant. And as I write thisnone of the unsubstantiated claims havebeen proved by any agency. But morethan that virus outside that killed somany people, we inadvertently managedto kill something that is usually held inhigh regard, and that something is calledthe “Truth”.

If the year-end theme of this publi-cation is death and destruction thennothing has met its death more thanTruth has this year. Truth has beenreplaced by the perception of the Truthand what is more, it’s okay to destroy liveswith that perception.

The events of this year have seen theentertainment industry turn upon itselfto provide fodder for never endingdrama on prime time television. Weaccused each other, blamed each other

and in the end, sentenced our own in thecourts of the evening news.

Who is going to apologise to thefilmmakers who had nothing provedagainst them? To the grieving girl-friend? To the maverick filmmaker of theyesteryears? To the family of the deadmanager? No one I guess. If you are notresponsible for the Truth why would yoube responsible to the lives that you haveruined in the name of conspiracy theo-ries?

2020, to my mind, will be remem-bered as the year when the need for theTruth died and in its place the enter-tainment value of the perceived truth waspreferred. We will find vaccines for thevirus and we will prevail against it, buthow will we find a vaccine against thevirus in our heart that has taught us tobend the truth to suit our purpose?

Even if we vanquish the virus, thevirus will look at the mangled body of theTruth and have the last laugh!

The pandemic has beendestructive for mostindustries includingthe media. What peo-

ple don’t quite realise about ourindustry is that is has beenquite bad for us. This is becauseour industry is very heavilydaily wage dependent. Peopledon’t realise that apart from themain actors, the directors andHoDs, everyone else is paid perday. This is true even for thesmallest of films; it will have aminimum of 100 people work-ing per day. The impact oflivelihood on people has beensevere. The six months whenthere was no shooting, it hasbeen terrible for people.

In the midst of this was thehate campaign by certain newschannels against Bollywoodwhich all came to complete not.There is no substance to any ofthe accusations. One saw thekind of destruction that wasreeked — whether it was interms of an innocent girl beingarrested, or the harassment ofother people, the slander of theindustry, against the industry—it was very unfortunate. Theyear has been bad for theindustry; it has taken a beatingboth financially and econom-ically including the exhibitors

because the industry is facinghardships. The theatre businesshas been impacted. The yearhas been emotionally drainingas well. One has to look at thenumber of suicides to gaugehow draining it has been. Andit is not just Sushant (SinghRajput) — he got the mostamount of attention, it hasbeen an unfortunate year.

For the actors, it has beenbad if they have not been ableto tide over the lockdowndays. For me, I have been ableto use this time to go home tomy parents and spend timewith them. But this has notbeen the case for everyone.This has been a time of stressfor everyone in the industry.Luckily, for actors, since theOTT has opened up, this hasbeen good for us. But otherthan that, the real stress is howthe theatres and exhibitorswill pan out. When will thefilms start releasing here? Willaudiences come back? That iswhat is uncertain. Our wholestar system is completely struc-tured around Box Office. If theBox Office is not going to bethere, then there is no star sys-tem will change which meansthat Bollywood is going tochange in a very fundamental

way. We don’t necessarilyrealise how, at this point intime. If I had to answer thishow, it would all be specula-tion.

There is some good aswell. See the way OTT hascome up. It is a space wherenewer stories are being toldand newer kinds of charactersare being written. For peoplewho have had the wherewith-al and the means to ride thebad, this break has been great.As long as one has the finan-cial wherewithal to tide bythese times, one can use thistime and take an off and thinkabout other things and soforth.

For example, the pandem-ic was sort of good. I spendmonths with my parents afterbeing away from home for 10years. I also adopted a dog twodays before the pandemic. Sothere has been an addition inthe family. This was nice. I hadthree shows that released. Idon’t remember a year whereI have had three pieces ofwork releasing — be it Flesh onEros Now, or Rasbhari onAmazon Prime and latest —Bhaag Beanie Bhaag.

But one can’t look awayfrom the fact, that this has

been a time of extreme hard-ship for others. It is thought tosay that this time has beenequal for all actors. Actors areof homogenous category.There are background actors,there are actors who get lesswork, there are actors who arepaid per day and there areactors in theatre who are paidaccording to show per day.Mumbai is an expensive metro.I am sure it has been hard foractors who don’t make thekind of money stars do, and itis not just the actors, there aredancers too.

This is what people don’tunderstand the nature andmake up of Bollywood. Youthink of Bollywood and youthink Shah Rukh Khan andSalman Khan and couple ofother A-list actors and actress-es. This is not Bollywood.Bollywood is actually made upof labour, it is made up of peo-ple who are actively daily wagelabourers on the sets. We don’tthink of them and we don’tthink of the extras. We don’tthink of the crew — the light-ing, the art crew and the cam-eramen. We must think of allthese people as well when wetalk about Bollywood.

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Page 14: 2020/12/27  · 30 in protest against the Centre’s agri laws. We request people from Delhi and other parts of the country to come and celebrate New Year with protesting farmers,”

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Jasprit Bumrah’s menace wasmatched by RavichandranAshwin’s guile as an inspired

India led by Ajinkya Rahaneshot out Australia for a sub-par195 to dominate the openingday of the second Test atMelbourne Cricket Ground onSaturday.

India then lost MayankAgarwal (0) to Mitchell Starcbut debutant Shubman Gill (28batting) survived a hostile spellto hit some delectable bound-aries in the day end score of 36for 1 in 11 overs.

Giving him company wasthe seasoned Cheteshwar Pujara(7 batting). The line-up wouldlook to exorcise the ghosts of theAdelaide game last week whenIndia were shot out for theirlowest ever Test score of 36.

As much as the daybelonged to the Indian bowlingunit for another fired-up show,new captain Rahane deservedequal credit for marshalling hisresources to perfection duringthe 72.3 overs that hosts batted.

Bumrah (4/56 in 16 overs)and Ashwin (3/35 in 24 overs)were the stars but debutantMohammed Siraj (2/40 in 15overs) also did his bit repayingthe faith shown in him withwickets of Marnus Labuschagne(48) and Cameron Green (12)with the old ball.

However, the Test series isincreasingly looking likeAshwin’s paradise as he onceagain made the opposition’sbest batsman Steve Smith (0)look ordinary, exploiting theturn and bounce that the firstday of the MCG track offered.

It was business as usual forBumrah as he beat the bat andgot those breakthroughs justwhen it mattered on a pitch thathad retained moisture. As itturned out, Rahane didn’t losea bad toss.

The Indian team lookedway more galvanised despitebeing without regular skipper

Virat Kohli, who is on paterni-ty leave. Some great catcheswere taken and the intent wasway more visible.

Rahane’s first punt wasintroducing Ashwin inside thefirst hour of play after Bumrahhad forced Joe Burns (0) to nickone to Rishabh Pant.

Ashwin, who varied thepace of his deliveries cleverly,got some turn and bouncestraightaway as he drewMatthew Wade into comingdown the track and skying onefor India’s best fielder Jadeja totake a well-judged catch run-ning backwards.

After bowling one thatjumped and turned beatingSmith and Pant, Ashwin keptthe next a tad straighter and theformer Australian skipper’s

glance was pouched byCheteshwar Pujara at leg gully.

All this while, Bumrahwas beating the bat at theother hand.

Interestingly, Rahane didn’tgive the debutant a single overbefore lunch break as he knewthat Siraj’s strength is generat-ing pace and movement withsemi-new and old ball.

Siraj initially bowled a bitshort at Labuschagne and TravisHead (38) as they added 86runs for the fourth wicket.

It was Bumrah, who pro-vided the post lunch break-through with a delivery thatheld its line and the left-han-der’s thick edge was taken byRahane at gully.

Siraj’s maiden wicket was alucky one as the ball was drift-

ing down the leg-side whichLabuschagne tried to whip butGill, stationed at backwardsquare leg, snapped it inches offthe ground.

The Hyderabad pacer’ssecond wicket was a muchfuller ball with a hint ofinward movement that caughtGreen plumb in-front.

Skipper Tim Paine (13)couldn’t script a rescue act likeAdelaide as a classical off-breaksaw him guide one straight intothe hands of Hanuma Vihari atbackward square leg.

Bumrah didn’t take muchtime after that as he andRavindra Jadeja (1/15) polishedoff the tail in a jiffy.

During the final hour of theday, Gill showed what the Indiancricket can expect of him in thenew decade. He displayed pos-itive intent and some dazzlingstrokes that would certainlyleave fans yearning for more inthe coming days.

An off-drive off PatCummins, a punch throughcovers and a flick off Starc wereexhilarating.

The cover drive offNathan Lyon had class writtenall over it.

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Indian batsmen would look tobe “confident without being

reckless” and take one sessionat a time, said pace spearheadJasprit Bumrah after a finebowling performance put thevisitors in command againstAustralia on the opening day ofthe second Test.

Asked what would be thevisitors’ batting approach hav-ing finished the day at 36 for 1and the memories of the firstTest’s 36 all out still fresh,Bumrah replied: “We are notlooking too far ahead. We arelooking at one session at a time.

“We don’t want to be con-servative in our mindset and bepositive. Control the control-lables. Not being reckless butplaying with confidence will bethe motive going forward,”added the bowler, well aware ofthe challenge ahead.

One of the striking movesby skipper Ajinkya Rahanewas introducing Ashwin in thefirst hour of play.

“When we were bowling inthe morning there was somemoisture on the wicket, so yousaw Ashwin and Jaddu (Jadeja)got some spin.

“...Because we wanted tomake the most of the moisture,we were trying to use them, he(Ashwin) was getting goodbounce,” Bumrah said after theend of the first day’s play.

Rahane’s field placementscame in for a lot of praise fromnone other than Shane Warneand Bumrah said that in thesecond session, the bowlersaltered the line knowing that

pitch was becoming easier tobat on.

“There was constant dis-cussions going on betweenbowlers and the captain. Thewicket changed after the firstsession. It got better to bat onin the second session and mois-ture went away.

“We were just trying tocommunicate what kind oflines we wanted to bowl so thatwe can set the field according-ly. When there was less help, wetried to change the line accord-ingly,” he said.

Bumrah, however, down-played any suggestions aboutthis being India’s best day 1bowling effort overseas Testssince he joined.

“We don’t think like thatand we just wanted to createpressure from both ends. Ash(Ashwin) bowled brilliantlyand so did Siraj. We were alltrying to help each other,” thespeedster said.

As a senior bowler,Bumrah was all praise for debu-tant Siraj, who was decent in hisfirst outing in the traditionalformat. “He has worked reallyhard and come up the ranks. Hewas eager to bowl in the firstsession itself. There wasn’t a lothappening after lunch and he(Siraj) bowled with a lot of con-trol,” he said.

“Suddenly he started get-ting some movement and want-ed to make the best of it.Playing his first Test match, hebowled really well and hadconfidence of using all hisskills. It’s a heartening sign forus and hopefully he will contin-ue doing that.”

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Melbourne: More than threemonths after his death, DeanJones was paid another tributeat his home ground here byIndian and Australian players,who were joined by his wife,daughters and the legendaryAllan Border in rememberingthe effervescent former playeron Saturday.

Jones’ family and formerAustralia captain Border partic-ipated in the farewell during thetea break of the ongoing secondTest here.

Border, Jones’ wife Jane,and daughters — Augusta andPhoebe — took a long walkfrom the boundary of the

Melbourne Cricket Ground tothe centre, carrying his BaggyGreen, sunglasses andKookaburra bat and laid theitems to rest on the stumps at theGreat Southern Stand end of theground.

Later, 12th men from bothsides — KL Rahul (India) andJames Pattinson (Australia) —collected the items and restedthem on a seat by the boundary.The gesture was applauded bythe 30,000 spectators present atthe MCG.

Jones died in September thisyear at the age of 59 in Mumbai,where he was commentating forthe IPL, after suffering a stroke.

Earlier after winning thetoss, Australia skipper Tim Paineled from the front with with anumber of players entering theMCG wearing zinc on their bot-tom lips, a look that Jones wasfamous for. PTI

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The British had placed a legislative stampon a process they had started moresubtly decades earlier: the assault onpastoral livelihoods and commonlyheld village land, and the replacement

of such land with individual, salable plots inter-spersed with government-controlled enclaves.

From Sacred Grove to Real Estate This process, which started on the Northern

Ridge, took a long time to spread southwards;indeed, the story is still unfolding at the far reach-es of the Southern Ridge and beyond. Here, onecan find traces of older ways of life, of the “reser-vation of wood-producing land... generally con-nected with religion”, which the British foundwhen they first entered the region. The mostremarkable example of this is the sacred grove ofMangarbani. The grove technically falls inHaryana, outside the bounds of the NationalCapital Territory of Delhi (a clear- cut boundarythat owes its contours to the British). Officially itis not part of the Delhi Ridge. But it is on theAravallis, so its underlying stones and soil areidentical to those of the Ridge.

What grows out of this stony soil has amazedobservers from Delhi. Mangarbani is denselyforested, and it is full of trees that have long disap-peared from the Delhi Ridge, most notably thegraceful, hardy dhau tree. The thriving forest ispart of common lands shared by the three villagesof Mangar, Bandhwari and Baliawas, which aredominated by the Gujjar community; these vil-lages maintain Mangarbani as a sacred grove inhonor of a holy man named Gudariya Baba whoused to roam these parts.

The very existence of such a remarkableecosystem in the midst of three Gujjar settlementsneatly refutes the argument originally put forwardby Maconachie and Beadon, and still echoedtoday by some government officials and environ-mentalists: that villagers, especially those withstrong pastoral traditions, like the Gujjars, do notcare about trees, and land must be taken awayfrom them and vested in the government if it is tobe protected.

Instead, Mangarbani suggests another lesson:that the ecological behavior of pastoralists ismolded by the larger systems in which they areensconced. For example, during Mughal times,the Gujjars living close to Shahjahanabad putexcessive pressure on their commons because ofurban demands for meat and milk; meanwhile,the Gujjars of Mangarbani, much further awayfrom city influences, left a more balanced ecologi-

cal footprint. This remained the case duringBritish rule as well, despite the compulsions ofBritish land settlement efforts and despite pocketsof quarrying. But, over the past several decades,Mangarbani has increasingly been drawn into theorbit of a rapidly expanding Delhi, a trend thathas threatened the survival of the grove.

Regular readers of Delhi newspapers may befamiliar with this story. On almost a weekly basis,one reads about a new threat to the old forest. Orabout threats to people in the forest. By far themost dramatic headline came on 31 March 2014:“Birdwatchers Thrashed at Mangar Forest”.

The events described in the article are a com-bination of the disturbing, the tragic, and theabsurd, a mix that characterizes much of theDelhi region in an era of runaway growth. Thebirdwatchers were from nearby Gurgaon-not toolong ago, a sleepy farming village and now anurban hub conjoined to Delhi and filled withautomobile factories, multi-national corporateoffices, small-scale garment industries, and aseemingly endless expanse of malls. (The city wasrenamed Gurugram in 2016, a Hindu nationalistnod to the Mahabharata sage Guru Dronacharya,who supposedly lived in this area thousands ofyears ago. However, for the sake of avoidinganachronisms, I will stick with “Gurgaon”, thename that was current when the following eventstook place.)

The birders had gone to Mangarbani to spotwinged wildlife in the native forests of the grove.When the first car reached the grove, they cameupon a man who said he was the priest at thelocal temple; he wanted to know what they weredoing there. Things got a bit heated, and the priesttook out his phone and made a call. Within min-utes, a group of young men sped onto the scene ina jeep. They jumped down, armed with sticks andiron rods, and attacked the birdwatchers, a groupwhich included an elderly woman and a youngchild. The attackers fled, though, when the rest ofthe birdwatchers, another four or five carloads,arrived on the scene.

The priest was later arrested, along with someof the assailants. Now, though, they are all out onbail, as the rusty machinery of the justice systemdoes its agonizingly slow work. Many of the newsreports after the attack asserted that the priest hasplayed a central role in real estate transactions inthe area. The British may have been the first tointroduce the idea of land as a commodity in theDelhi region, but now, centuries later, the idea hasbecome common sense. It is embraced with gustoby the wide range of players that make the real

estate industry tick, a group that, apparently,includes a temple priest and his hired muscle.

Real estate is now the shadow that hovers,unavoidably, over Mangarbani and the three vil-lages that surround it. This, though, is a relativelyrecent development, and it has gained tractiondue to the changing role of the Gujjar landownersin the villages. The fact that Gujjars are the domi-nant landowners suggests that, in this area at least,they long ago made the transition from nomadictribe to settled community. Pastoralism still playsa role here, but it has long been complemented byagriculture, and it has taken place around fixedvillage settlements. And Gujjars have integratedinto a caste-based village structure, finding them-selves in a powerful position within the local hier-archy.

The complexity of the caste system is in fullview with the Gujjar community. In most states inIndia, Gujjars come under the administrative cat-egory of Other Backwards Classes (OBC), whichputs them below the traditionally “high” castes,but above Dalits (administratively: ScheduledCastes or “SC”) and tribals (Scheduled Tribes or“ST”). It also makes them eligible for a range ofreservations made available by the state. But thiscut-and-dry state-imposed category hardly gets atthe nuances and the internal differences withinGujjar communities. In some parts of India, espe-cially in the Himalayan foothills, Gujjars still live amore tribal, nomadic existence, with little integra-tion into settled caste systems; however, in othercontexts, including Mangarbani, they are not onlyintegrated, they are also the most powerful com-munity in a given village.

While OBC may, then, be a wholly inadequateway to describe Gujjars, the designation is stillvitally important, given its link to reservations. Insome cases, Gujjars have demanded a lower sta-tus, so that they have access to more state benefits.These are the exigencies of modern-day caste pol-itics. While the impulse behind reservations is adeeply progressive one-to provide support andopportunities to groups that have historically beenexploited and marginalized-their application mustdeal with the messy terrain of competing commu-nities, internal discord, and intersecting layers ofprivilege and power.

Such complex dynamics often lead to explo-sive results. In 2007, in the state of Rajasthan, agroup of Gujjars began to agitate for the inclusionof Gujjars as a Scheduled Tribe (ST), in a sense astep “down” from OBC, but one which would pro-vide them with more state support. As theprotests gained momentum, they triggered state

repression. Within a span of four days in May2007, police opened fire on four different groupsof protesters, in conflicts which left 25 Gujjars andone policeman dead.

In early June, the protest turned national, asGujjar groups from around the country descend-ed on Delhi and other major cities, includingJaipur and Ahmedabad. In a remarkable show ofcommunity strength, the protesters successfullycut off all road access to Delhi, effectivelyblockading the national capital. While the agita-tion was largely non-violent, some protesters setfire to buses and trains. For the elite of Delhi, thisdestruction of property and interruption of theireveryday life could not be countenanced. All theslurs and all the urban disdain toward Gujjars,from Babur to the British, were dredged up. Amunicipal councilor in Delhi is on the record say-ing that, for Gujjars, “killing is in their blood”.Protests continued the next year, with 38 moreGujjars shot down by police. The agitation onlystopped when the government agreed to giveGujjars reservations, not as a Scheduled Tribe, butas a Denotified Tribe-the official post-colonialterm for groups that the British had dubbedCriminal Tribes.

At the height of the agitation, protesters fromRajasthan got strong support from leaders ofGujjar-dominated villages in the Delhi region, whoboth benefit and suffer from their proximity tostate power. Their strength at the village level givesthem significant pull in local elections, but despitethat they cannot compete with the real powerplayers of the capital. Economically, too, they havebenefited from the ever-expanding markets ofDelhi, but, except in rare cases, they have notfound a place at the table of the city's elite.

The traditional ruling classes in Delhi still seeGujjar-dominated areas as a backwards hinter-land, even though, with the expansion of the capi-tal, they are often right in the midst of the urbansprawl. If not physically, they are still metaphori-cally on the edge of an urban zone that houses afar more powerful set of elites. And it is increas-ingly not just an Indian elite housed in the Indiancapital, but an international elite housed in themultinational offices and luxury high-rises ofGurgaon. This is the larger context in which theMangarbani drama has played out, as the sacredgrove is being inexorably pulled into the capital'ssphere of influence.

Excerpted from Fractured Forest, QuartziteCity by Thomas Crowley, jointly published by

SAGE Publications and Yoda Press under the Yoda-SAGE Select imprint

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It is said that history is written byvictors. This is a refrain which someattribute to Winston Churchill.Though there are disagreementsover who the author of this dictum

is, it has been stated by many historians,archaeologists and philosophers that thepower and mighty decide and manufac-ture history to suit their convenience.Hence robbers and dacoits get elevated asfreedom fighters and great warriors.

India is a victim of manufactured his-tory. Our political masters decided whatthe countrymen should and shouldn’tlearn as history. Much has been writtenby S L Bhyrappa about the manufacturedhistory from his personal experience. TheKarnataka scholar has written a trueaccount of how late G Parthasarathi, theadvisor to former Prime Minister IndiraGandhi played a pivotal role in gettingthe Indian history re-written to suit thepolitical convenience of his master.

Sir Henri Miers Elliot, English civilservant and historian who authored TheHistory of India, As Told by Its OwnHistorians has stated frankly that hisobjective while writing history was to“make the native subjects of British Indiamore sensible of the immense advantagesaccruing to them under the mildness andequity of the present rule”. Hence, he hadquoted only those portions from Persianand Arabic works which make theIndians feel that they were better servedby their colonial masters.

This has been reproduced by Dr K MMunshi, former union minister andfounder of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, in hisforeword to The History And Culture ofthe Indian People, the 11-volume series ofthe sub-continent’s story edited by thelegendary R C Majumdar. The patternwas blindly followed by the brown sahibswho manipulated and mis-interpretedfacts and documentary evidences to writehistory as per their whims and fancies.The result? Many fighters who foughtfrom the frontline battles againstinvaders, colonial masters and thugs whorobbed India of its spiritual and material-istic wealth ended up as unsung heroesand non-entities.

History students feigned ignorancewhen asked about Shivji Maharaj, TatiaToppe and Chapekar Brothers of Punewhose names evoked respect, adorationand admiration throughout the sub-con-tinent. Damodarpant Chapekar of Poonadid not think twice before eliminatingWalter Charles Rand, the special plaguecommissioner in Poona on June 22, 1897when all pleas by the citizens to save

them from the pandemic fell on deaf ears.Thousands perished in this pandemicwhich could have been averted had theBritish administrators showed some con-cern for Indian lives. This was the periodbefore the advent of MohandasKaramchand Gandhi, Vallabhbhai Patel,Jawaharlal Nehru, Subash Chandra Boseetc into the arean of the freedom move-ment. This was the era when the EastIndia Company and the British colonialmasters swindled India bare.

The shining star who led India’s questfor freedom from British exploitation andcoined the term self-rule too died unsung— Dadabhai Naoroji (1825-1917). Otherthan unofficially honoring him with thetitle ‘The Grand Old Man of India’, themotherland is yet to give due recognitionto this great son of the sub-continent whoresembled a commander-in-chief of theIndian freedom movement while strate-gising and devising ways and means toliberate India from the shackles of slaverywithout shedding a drop of blood or sac-rificing the lives of innocent agitators.

The sub-continent was blessed with a

galaxy of stars like Dadabhai Naoroji,Gopal Krishna Gokhale (1866-1915) BalGangadhar Tilak (1856-1920), ChetturSankaran Nair (1857-1934) who stood forliberating the country from the colonialmasters using intellectual prowess andknowledge. There is a common threadwhich united these personalities whostruggled for their objective beforeGandhi and Nehru entered the scene.Their motto was to educate the masses,especially women, and take on the Britishfrom a position of bargaining powerwithout giving them an option to bossover the Indians.

While we have sufficient literatureabout Gokhale and Tilak, there wasn’tmuch known published works on the lifeand times of Dadabhai Naoroji, born in apoor Parsi family in Gujarat and went onto emerge as a unifying force of theIndian National Congress in its Calcuttasession in 1906. Had it not been Naoroji,the Congress would have split verticallyin that session and subsequent the partywould have disintegrated into factionsand fractions.

It was Naoroji who set the IndianIndependent Movement in motion bytelling the world about the unashamedrobbery committed by the British mas-ters. Angus Maddison, the British econo-mist who specialised in quantitativemacro economic history found that Indiaand China were the world leaders, con-tributing more than 40 per cent share tothe global GDP before the Mughals andBritishers annexed the country.Maddison’s finding was sometime in 2006as part of a project he undertook for theOECD and European Union.

But Naoroji had established throughhis research between 1867 and 1880 thatIndian poverty and pestilence were thefall outs of the drain of wealth from Indiaby the “European leeches”. He took thefighting straight to the lion’s den —Britain. The white men had no answer tothe claims by the Parsi gentleman fromBombay. The story of Naoroji’s life andtimes has been retold in an immaculatestyle by Dinyar Patel, an Indian-born his-torian working as an assistant professor atthe University of South Carolina.

Naoroji: Pioneer of IndianNationalism authored by Patel is the firstauthentic biography of the Grand OldMan of India and it hits the bookshelvesacross the country 112 years after thedemise of the protagonist. Dinyar Patelhas done an excellent job in presenting tothe new generation of Indians the periodin which Naoroji lived and the challengeshe had to face.

Between the late 1860s and the early1880s, he produced a prodigious amountof literature — containing extensive cal-culations, international comparisons,compilations of historical evidence andrefutations of government pronounce-ments and statistics — highlighting thestark impoverishment of Britain’s Indiansubjects. Significantly, he established adirect link between poverty and Britishrule. “So far as my inquiries go at present,the conclusion I draw is that wherever theEast India Company acquired territory,impoverishment followed their steps”,argued Naoroji.

Naoroji famously contended that thedrain of wealth, whereby as much as one-

fourth of the annual tax revenue raised inIndia, went into British coffers ratherthan being reinvested in the country.

This inference was not based onGovernment statistics. It was arrived at bythe young students of Bombay’sElphinstone College, the topmost of thembeing Dadabhai Naoroji, who occupiesthe numero uno place in the list of theCollege’s Distinguished Alumni. It wasthe education which he received fromElphinstone College which helped him tounderstand the truth that the provincesthat had employed Indian bureaucratswere buffered from drain of wealth andwere economically more robust thanBritish India.

For Naoroji, national educationmeant mass public education. He dreamtof an India that was developed, progres-sive and prosperous as France which hevisited in 1855 during his trip to the UK.

Patel’s book reads like the script of afilm and he creates right in front of us aperiod in India, uncorrupted by digitaltechnology and greed. It is an era of inno-cence and love the theme of which wasManav Seva Madhav Seva.

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As a mathematicalphysicist andresearcher in gen-eral relativity andcosmology, initial-

ly I was bit annoyed with thevery title of this book, and Ithought that Mitra was brag-ging, there could never beanything like a “fall” of theblack hole paradigm. But as Ifinished through the book, Irealised that even if we com-pletely ignore the peerreviewed research by Mitraand his few American col-leagues: The black hole para-digm has always been contro-versial as apart from AlbertEinstein, almost two dozengeneral relativists who haveargued that true mathemati-cal black holes should notoccur even within the contextof classical general relativity.

I was not aware that wayback in 1969, the noted Frenchrelativist Luis Bel had shownthat a true mathematical blackhole, assumed to be a sphere,should actually behave like apoint implying that its mass-energy is E=Mc2 =0. If this istrue, the black hole paradigmcertainly fell right in 1969 eventhough we mathematical physi-cists cannot accept such a trag-ic climb down. I was alsounaware of a 1988 researchpaper by two famed Indian rel-ativists Jayant Narlikar andThanu Padmanabhan in whichthey had argued that the“problems related to the source(black holes) could be avoidedif the event horizon did notform and that the universe

only contained quasi-blackholes.”

Mitra goes at great lengthsto explain what these “quasi-black holes” could be. For mostof the practical purposes, theypretend like true black holesand we certainly cannot ruleout the fact the Event HorizonTelescope detected the shadowof a black hole pretender andnot the same of a true blackhole possessing an event hori-zon.

I also learnt that post theresearch of Mitra, in the pasttwo decades, innumerable the-oretical physicists have arguedthat the formation of trueblack holes may be inhibitedby some quantum mechanical

or quantum gravity effects; andthe black hole mimickers couldresult from such unknownmysterious quantum gravityeffects. Mitra exerts that thereis not a single research paperwhich has ever shown howmassive stars composed of pro-tons , neutrons, electrons andradiation can turn into anExotic Compact Object com-prising negative pressure darkenergy bubble or seething ballof elementary strings.

On the other hand, Mitraemphasises that if formation oftrue black holes must be pre-vented, it must be due to somewell known generic effectwhich can be equally effectiveand inevitable for incipient

black hole mimickers havingeven billions of solar masses.And the only such knowngeneric effect is that, all kindsof light, heat and radiationmust get trapped by the rapidlyincreasing gravity of the col-lapsing star as it would beabout to become a true blackhole. Mitra then argues thatthe outward radiation pressureof the trapped radiation mustcounteract the inward pull ofgravity, and the massive starshoul turn into a quasi-staticball of fire supported entirelyby its radiation pressure.Though this ball of fire isalmost as compact as a mathe-matical black hole, it has noevent horizon and hence keeps

on leaking bit of radiation. Inthis sense, this ultra-hot ball ofradiation should keep on con-tracting eternally in order toachieve true black hole stateE=Mc2 =0 suggested by theBel’s 1969 paper. Mitra nick-named such an ever contract-ing ball of fire as EternallyCollapsing Object (ECO). As amathematical physicist, I donot understand all the finerpoints of this narrative but Irely on the fact the relevantpapers have been published inreputed journals like PhysicalReview (D), New Astronomy,Monthly Notices RoyalAstronomical Society ,andMonthly Notices RoyalAstronomical Society Letters.

Mitra and his Americancolleagues have argued thatECOs must be strongly magne-tized and should beMagnetospheric ECOs orMECOS. It is heartening to seethat, in 2006, Center forAstrophysics, Harvard, issued along Press Release on aresearch claiming that the so-called black hole at the heart ofa famous quasar should be aMECO. This press releaseadmitted that the concept ofMECO can be traced to theidea of ECO developed by theIndian astrophysicist AbhasMitra in 1998. While as anIndian, I feel proud to see thatan ivy league press release isrelated to an idea developed bya lone Indian battling innu-merable odds both within hisinstitution and outside world,my heart bled when I read thatCfA later removed its ownpress release later for reasonsbest known to them.

This book not only dis-cusses several critical issues onastrophysics and general rela-tivity in a layman’s language,but also reveals several anec-dotes on scientific intoleranceand herd mentality which tryto ostracise a minion non-influential researcher whorefuses to sing the mainstreamnarrative. A must read for notonly students of physics butalso for all professional astro-physicists and general rela-tivists.

The reviewer is a professorin the Department of

Mathematics, GauhatiUniversity, India

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Annie Besant with an aged Dadabhai Naoroji at his house in Versova in 1915

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Page 17: 2020/12/27  · 30 in protest against the Centre’s agri laws. We request people from Delhi and other parts of the country to come and celebrate New Year with protesting farmers,”

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��������� �����$%��(���&�����!�� ���Chinese President Xi Jinping

is known for his assertive-ness and aggression to installhis country at the top in theglobal pecking order. He hasstarted this long and arduousmission, with a usual clandes-tine Chinese vision, since hiscoming to power in 2012.

His gargantuan “ChinaDream” to rejuvenate thenation and the most ambitious“Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI)have together caused geopolit-ical concerns, particularly forAsian powers like India.

Undoubtedly, Xi couldrightly be called as the rein-carnation of late ChairmanMao Zedong. Xi has becomethe only Chinese leader whohas accumulated so muchpower and position, either inthe name of launching China asa global leader or curbing cor-ruption and misgovernanceboth within and outside theCommunist Party of China(CPC).

So today, what is fastunfolding in Pakistan’s GwadarPort, located in its westernprovince of disturbedBalochistan, is just the tip of aniceberg, which is uncovered infront of the international com-munity.

The very presence of Chinain this port city is absolutelydecried by the locals and espe-cially by the Baloch national-ists, who have already beenfighting a long war with thefederal Government ofPakistan, on various otherissues.

Gwadar Port is a warmwater deep seaport situated onthe Arabian Sea. It is strategi-cally located between SouthAsia, Central Asia and WestAsia at the mouth of thePersian Gulf, just outside theStrait of Hormuz. This criticalport has been leased to Chinaby the Pakistani Governmentfor a period of 43 years i.e. uptill 2059, starting from 2015.

As per Chinese mediareports, the port was upgrad-ed at a cost of $1.62 billion.Most importantly, Gwadar is at

the vortex of $50 billion (41 bil-lion Euro), much talked aboutand controversial China-Pakistan Economic Corridor(CPEC). Further, the CPEC isan integral part of Xi’s signatureinitiative of the BRI.

Gwadar Port came to lightway back in the year 1954.During the regime of formerPresident Pervez Musharraf, helaunched the construction ofthe port in 2007, at a cost of$248 million. However, in 2015,the port was made a part of theCPEC to connect westernChina and northern Pakistan.This port will also be a site fora floating liquefied natural gasas a part of the larger $2.5 bil-lion Iran-Pakistan gas pipelineproject, connecting Gwadarwith Nawabshah.

The CPEC is a 3,218 kilo-metre long route that is aimedto link Gwadar to XinxiangProvince in western China.And this corridor consists ofhighways, railways and gaspipelines that could trigger aneconomy of billion dollars onceit is completed.

The Gwadar SpecialEconomic Zone is built aroundan area of 2,292 acres near theGwadar Port. The project ofGwadar Sea Port became oper-ational on November 14, 2016during the time of formerPakistan Prime Minister NawazSharif. But it is worthwhile tosee how this port area couldserve China’s long term strate-gic interests.

In a China MaritimeReport on Gwadar, the port hasbeen described as a “StrategicStrong point” in the IndianOcean. The officials, militaryofficers and civilian analysts ofChina typically employ the“Strategic Strongpoint” con-cept to describe certain strate-gically valuable foreign portswith terminals and commercialzones owned and operated byChinese firms. The top Chinesepolicy-makers believe thatGwadar, an inchoate point infriendly Pakistan which maycertainly support as a majorplatform for their countries

economic, diplomatic and mil-itary interactions around thenorthern Indian region.

China’s strong presence inthe Gwadar Port area and inthe CPEC across the POK willboost Beijing’s security andbusiness interests in the longrun. In reality, China hasresponded to America’s grandIndo-Pacific strategy that hasbeen long there in place in thiszone, apart from its presence inGwadar Port, Beijing has takena number of crucial steps todevelop its own networkaround the Indo-Pacific andspecifically in the Indian OceanRim region. Further, the Indo-Pacific is a strategic areathrough which two-thirds ofthe global trade and 80 per centof the Chinese oil passes. Andthe most important element inthe Indo-Pacific is that all thecountries such as India, China,Australia, Japan and the USwhich are zealously guardingtheir interests here geographi-cally falls in the region only.

But now the fast-changinggeopolitical scenario has madeit so that India, Japan, Australiaand the US are coming togeth-

er under the banner of theQuad Group to counter Chinain the Indo-Pacific. USPresident Donald Trump haspushed the Sino-US rivalry toall time high. And in the midstof the Covid-19 global pan-demic and last American pres-idential poll, Trump has gotanother opportunity to brandChina as its grand enemy in theglobe. It is expected that evennow, under the President-electJo Biden, the Sino-US relationsmay not return to normalcy.However, the Team Biden mayeasily stitch up a working rela-tionship between Washingtonand Beijing for sure.

These all will have seriousimpact on Beijing’s futuregrand strategy towards expan-sionist game across the world,particularly along the BRInations. With a belligerent US,a constant border clash withneighbouring India and mas-sive disturbances constantlyemerging from Hong Kong,Xinjiang, South China Sea andfrom Taiwan, Xi will be cer-tainly bolstering his mission toreach out to countries such asSri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal

and of course Pakistan. Andherein, the developments inGwadar Port will be very crit-ical for China.

It is noted that Pakistan hasbeen gradually moving intoChinese arms. This has hap-pened both because of Trump’sdecision to cut all funding tothat country and an army-backed Imran KhanGovernment’s decision to playa junior partner role in China’sBRI. Regional experts say thatChina is soon replacingAmerica as its most importantsecurity partner and guarantor.What Beijing expects fromIslamabad is an unhinderedaccess to the Indian Ocean asthe former is trying to encircleIndia from all corners. It is esti-mated that Chinese invest-ment in Pakistan is going tocross $46 billion by 2030. It issimply a serious course changefor Pakistan as it is increasing-ly relying on China for its eco-nomic and military assistanceinstead of the US. This is agame-changing narrative inthe power positioning onIndia’s North-Western fron-tier.

The current GwadarFencing Project launched bythe Pakistani Governmentaround the CPEC corridor inthe city is sending strong neg-ative vibes to the locals. It isdone under the supervision ofthe federal and provincialauthorities. It is hoped that thefencing project, once complet-ed will completely change thesecurity dynamics of the portcity. The Balochistan ProvincialGovernment aims to fence offaround 24 square kilometrearea that is devoted to thebuilding of the CPEC project.It is learnt that there will beonly two entry points to thefenced parts of the city andnearly 500 surveillance cameraswill be installed to monitor themovements of people in andaround the project area. Thiswill turn the city into a fortress,ironically to secure Chinesebusiness and security interests,not to promote the welfare ofthe poor Baloch people.

The primary objective offencing is to safeguard theproject from the Baloch nation-alists who has been voicingconcerns against Chinese grand

strategy from the beginning.Again, this new design of secu-rity network might force manylocals to relocate from the portarea.

Now the raging argumentin Balochistan is that whyIslamabad is allowing Beijing tomake one of its provinces aChinese colony? Is that so thatthe Imran Government isintentionally pushing its bel-ligerent province of Balochistanto the debt-trap of China? It istrue that with strong Chinesepresence in the port city,Pakistan will be assured that forthe coming 43 years (leasetime period of the port), therewill some signs of developmentin the most neglected region ofthe country. Despite being themost resourceful province ofthe country, Islamabad hassimply ignored the concerns ofthe Baloch people for decadessince independence. Today,Balochistan is recorded as a lawand order problem in the lex-icon of Pakistan’s establish-ment. And it is the responsi-bility of the country’s “DeepState” i.e. the Army to oversee,manage and put down theflames of civil unrest in thispart of Pakistan. The successivecivilian administrations inIslamabad have directlyignored the local demands forwhich a constant rage againstthe federal Government hasgrown over the years.

Above all, when China haslanded up in Gwadar Port,one of crucial cities of theprovince, the locals see no endof their longstanding prob-lems. Rather, with increasingfortification of the city, will cer-tainly create an atmosphere offear and alienation among thepeople of the port city in par-ticular and the Baloch in gen-eral.

Truly speaking, it is a dis-turbing signal. Very soon,Pakistan will realise how it willturn out to be a new protec-torate zone of China.

(The writer is an expert oninternational affairs)

3����-�������� ���������������� ��������On this, even US President

Donald Trump’s mostfevered critics agree: he has lefta deep imprint on the federalcourts that will outlast his oneterm in office for decades tocome.

He used the promise ofconservative judicial appoint-ments to win over Republicanskeptics as a candidate. Then asPresident, he relied on outsideconservative legal organisa-tions and Senate MajorityLeader Mitch McConnell toemploy an assembly line-likeprecision to install more than230 judges on the federalbench, including the threenewest justices of the SupremeCourt. Trump never tired ofboasting about it.

Indeed, undeterred byDemocratic criticism, theSenate was still confirmingjudges more than a monthafter Trump lost his reelectionbid to Joe Biden.

“Trump has basically donemore than any President hasdone in a single term since(President Jimmy) Carter toput his stamp on the judiciary,”said Jonathan Adler, a law pro-fessor at Case Western ReserveUniversity School of Law inCleveland, Ohio, adding thatCongress created around 150new judgeships during Carter’spresidency.

The impact will be endur-ing. Among the Trump-appointed judges, who holdlifetime positions, several arestill in their 30s. The threeSupreme Court picks couldstill be on the court at the 21stcentury’s midpoint, 30 yearsfrom now.

Beyond the SupremeCourt, 30 per cent of the judgeson the nation’s court of appeals,where all but a handful ofcases reach their end, wereappointed by Trump.

However, numbers don’ttell the entire story. The real

measure of what Trump hasbeen able to do will be revealedin countless court decisions inthe years to come on abortion,guns, religious rights and a hostof other culture wars issues.

When it came to thePresident’s own legal chal-lenges of the election results,however, judges who have himto thank for their positionrebuffed his claims. But inmany other important ways, hissuccess with judicial appoint-ments already is paying divi-dends for conservatives.

When the Supreme Courtblocked New York from enforc-ing certain limits on attendanceat churches and synagogues inareas designated as hard hit byCovid-19, Justice Amy ConeyBarrett, the newest member ofthe court, cast the decisivefifth vote. Previously, the courthad allowed restrictions onreligious services over the dis-sent of four justices, includingthe other two Trump nomi-nees, Neil Gorsuch and BrettKavanaugh.

Five Trump appointeeswere in the majority of the 6-4 decision by the full 11th USCircuit Court of Appeals inSeptember that made it hard-er for felons in Florida toregain the right to vote. TheAtlanta-based court had amajority of Democratic-appointed judges when Trumptook office.

Last month, Judges BrittGrant and Barbara Lagoa, bothnamed by Trump, formed themajority on a three-judge 11thcircuit panel that struck downlocal Florida bans on therapythat seeks to change the sexu-al orientation of LGBTQminors. Other appeals courtsaround the country haveupheld the conversion therapybans.

In one early look atTrump’s appointees to federaltrial courts, political science

professors Kenneth Manning,Robert Carp and Lisa Holmescompared their decisions withmore than 1,17,000 opinionspublished dating back to 1932.

“Trump has appointedjudges who exhibit a distinctdecision-making pattern thatis, on the whole, significantlymore conservative than previ-ous Presidents,” the politicalscientists concluded in anOctober 2020 working paper.

The one constant of thepast four years — throughimpeachment, the coronaviruspandemic and Trump’s electionloss — has been his nomina-tion of and Senate confirma-tion of judges.

The President has had sev-eral partners in the judicialeffort, but none more impor-tant than McConnell, whotakes particular pride inreshaping the Supreme Court.

“I think it’s far and awaythe most consequential thingI’ve ever been involved in,’’ the78-year-old McConnell saidin an interview. “And it’s themost long-lasting accomplish-ment of the current adminis-

tration, by far.’’They might not have called

it a partnership at the time, buttheir mutually reinforcing workbegan even before Trump’selection in 2016.

Trump used the issue ofthe federal judiciary to wintrust with voters who mighthave questions about the con-servative credentials of a bil-lionaire real estate developerwho had once supported abor-tion rights and did not have atrack record in politics.

He put in writing a list ofpotential nominees, providedby the conservative FederalistSociety and HeritageFoundation, he would selectfrom in filling a Supreme Courtvacancy.

Kellyanne Conway, whoserved as his campaign man-ager in 2016, said it was a movethat people who had been inoffice for years and wanted toascend to the presidency “did-n’t have the courage to do,which is name names.”

As it happens, there was ahigh court opening at the time,following the death of Justice

Antonin Scalia in February.Enter McConnell. The

Republican blocked PresidentBarack Obama’s nomination ofMerrick Garland, refusing somuch as a hearing for therespected appeals court judgewhom Republicans had previ-ously identified as a high courtnominee they could support.

It was a gamble at a timewhen Trump’s electoralprospects seemed dim, but itpaid off with his stunning vic-tory over Hillary Clinton.

And the high court seatwasn’t the only one waiting tobe filled when Trump tookoffice in January 2017. Onehundred four judgeships wereopen after Republicans usedtheir Senate majority to grindthe nomination process to anear halt in Obama’s final twoyears in office. Only 28.6 percent of his nominees were con-firmed in that stretch.

The pace quickened almostimmediately. Republicansmoved with an urgency onconfirmations that hasn’t let up.In Trump’s first two years, theypushed through 30 appellatecourt judges and 53 districtcourt nominees. It was thehighest number of appellatecourt confirmations in a two-year period since RonaldReagan and nearly double thenumber that Obama secured inhis first two years.

McConnell and topRepublicans on the SenateJudiciary Committee elimi-nated rules that had allowedthe Opposition party to delayconfirmations, most notablyrequiring just a simple major-ity, instead of 60 votes, tomove Supreme Court nomi-nees. Democrats, bitter over thestalled Garland nomination,otherwise would have blockedGorsuch’s confirmation inApril 2017.

Senator SheldonWhitehouse, D-RI, a member

of the Senate JudiciaryCommittee and a sharp Trumpcritic, said Trump’s judiciallegacy “is a lot less about whathe’s done than what he’sallowed others to do in hisname.’’

Whitehouse said Trumpessentially “outsourced” judicialnominations to McConnelland the Federalist Society,specifically the group’s leaderLeonard Leo and former WhiteHouse counsel Don McGahn,a Federalist Society memberwho made judicial nomina-tions a top priority.

At the same time, theFederalist Society and otherconservative groups, includingthe Judicial Crisis Networkand Americans for Prosperity,have taken millions of dollarsin anonymous donations andwaged public and behind-the-scenes campaigns for right-wing judges, Whitehouse said.

Trump “opened the chan-nel for special-interest inter-ference in judicial selection.That I think is very novel andobviously lends itself to cor-ruption,’’ Whitehouse said.“Right-wing forces have fordecades sought the kind ofinfluence in judicial nomina-tions that the Trump adminis-tration outright gave them.’’

McConnell scoffed at thecriticism. “The reason a lot ofthem belong to the FederalistSociety is because that is sortof the core mission of theFederalist Society — to get thecourts back to doing whatthey’re supposed to do and notlegislate from the bench,” hesaid.

On the campaign trail andat White House events, Trumpwould often cite his record onjudicial appointments as anexample of accomplishment,while ignoring the obstructionsthat occurred during theObama years.

“You know, when I got in,

we had over 100 federal judgesthat weren’t appointed. Now, Idon’t know why Obama leftthat. It was like a big, beautifulpresent to all of us. Why thehell did he leave that? Maybe hegot complacent,” Trump boast-ed at one point, omitting theessential fact that McConnellhad blocked Obama’s nomi-nees.

The high court vacancy atthe start of Trump’s term was,in essence, a gift fromMcConnell. Justice AnthonyKennedy’s decision to retire in2018 allowed Trump to replacethe court’s swing justice withthe more conservativeKavanaugh, who survived hisown bruising confirmationhearings that included allega-tions he sexually assaulted awoman when they were both inhigh school decades ago.Kavanaugh denied the claims.

Less than two monthsbefore the 2020 election,Trump was handed anotheropening with the death ofJustice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.Trump and Senate Republicansdidn’t hesitate. He nominatedBarrett even before Ginsburgwas buried at ArlingtonNational Cemetery andMcConnell ensured the con-firmation was done before theelection.

The Senate has continuedconfirming Trump nomineeseven after his defeat for reelec-tion, breaking a norm that hasstood since 1900 with oneexception, said RussellWheeler, a visiting fellow at theBrookings Institution. Federalprosecutor Thomas Kirsch wasconfirmed as Barrett’s replace-ment on the federal appealscourt based in Chicago onDecember 15, on a mostlyparty-line vote.

The exception was theSenate’s bipartisan acceptancein 1980 of a former Senate staffmember as a federal appeals

court judge. That nominee wasStephen Breyer, now a SupremeCourt justice.

Along with the question oflegacy is whether Trump’srecord on judges spurs majorchanges to the judiciary.

Wheeler, at Brookings, saidone of the most striking fea-tures of the teamwork ofTrump and McConnell is thatthey acted as though they hadthe support of most Americans.They did not, he said.

“My main beef with thiscurrent group is that there’s justno mandate to turn the judi-ciary so far to the right,”Wheeler said. “Trump lost thepopular vote massively in 2016,but nevertheless has behaved asif he had a mandate to reshapethe federal judiciary at theSupreme Court and Court ofAppeals level and I think that’sjust unfounded.”

Liberal groups already havebeen pushing for changes at thehighest level, including expan-sion of the Supreme Courtand term limits for justices. Thepolitical prospects for bothideas are uncertain, at best. Butthere’s less doubt from anyvantage point about whatTrump has wrought.

The US “will be living withthe legacy of Donald Trump fordecades to come as a result ofhis judicial appointments,’’ saidBrian Fallon, executive direc-tor of Demand Justice, a liber-al advocacy group. People whoaccepted judicial appointmentsfrom Trump will “wear themoniker of ‘Trump judge’ forthe rest of their lives,’’ Fallonsaid.

Not so, in Conway’s view.“It will be one of the most last-ing pieces of his legacy, distin-guished and durable,” she said.

(Mark Sherman, KevinFreking and Matthew Daly con-tributed for the article for theAssociated Press)

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Picking up threads from the previ-ous issue, let us first have a lookinto the construct and chemistry of

mind. For, it defines and drives throughthe functional mandate of a being. Thereare three functional tools of mind —Buddhi, Ahamkara and Manasa. Theydon’t have separate identity by them-selves. They are rather interwoven intoan integrated mechanism, all working insupport of each other.

Coming to individual attributes ofthe three, Buddhi is the faculty of dis-criminate intelligence. It lets you dispas-sionately analyse the issues in hand, andarrive at the right judgment to pick upthe right lead. But Buddhi doesn’t playout involuntarily. It has to be consciouslyinvoked by Ahamkara. With its inbuiltsense of ‘I’ consciousness, Ahamkaramandates how to go about in life. AndManasa, acting from the front acts twoways. It translates the indwelling desiretrends into action. Also, it gathers outerfield data. In both cases, Ahamkara issupposed to engage Buddhi for due dili-gence before taking any call. The irony,however, is that often Ahamkara takesthe inputs on their face value, whenManasa would react and respond on

instinctive judgment ending, which car-ries equal probability of ending up eitherway — rewarding or frustrating.

Now, coming to the chemistry ofmind. Mind takes off on the thoughtfeeds in store — the Karmic carryoverfrom the past. Mind does also respondto external promptings and influences.In both cases, Ahamkara is supposed toengage Buddhi for due diligence beforeallowing them a field play. The paradox,however, is that for those living unmind-fully, often Ahamkara takes the thoughtfeeds on their face value, when it doesn’tfeel the necessity of due diligence. It,thus, comes out that we fail to use ourempowerment tools optimally, and whenwe fail, we try to find escape in our des-tiny.

It may be pertinent to add here thatin store thought feeds in mind, precon-dition our minds. They bind you to itsinherent tendencies one is born with —desire trends, virtues and attributes, likesand dislikes, prejudices and obsessions,habits and attitudes. That restricts ourscope of vision to a limited mind-spacehaving in store only the thought feedscarried over from the past. We, thus lookat issues in hand within the scope of a

limited window frame, usually not opento look beyond for a reality check orexplore a better option available. Suchminds are seldom receptive to fresheducative inputs.

Another aspect of mind is thatunmindfully it continuously keepsbreeding thoughts, a good majority ofthem inconsequential, some of themeven negative. And mind keeps random-ly flirting with them like a monkey inthe wild, playfully jumping from onebranch of tree to the other. That furtherclutters our minds so much that it does-n’t leave scope to process an issue inhand or any fresh thought objectively,and with obvious consequences.Consequently, mind becomes so com-plexed that it can’t see simple truthslying in front. It keeps moving roundand round, but truth eludes its attention.Remember, you cognise only such thingswhere you pay attention. That makes itincumbent upon us to first come out ofthe limitations of mind, if at all wish toimprove our lot. But habits die hard.Even if you become aware of your inher-ent tendencies either through self-reflec-tion, which we are capable of, or bywhatever means, it is ordinarily difficultto come out of their bind. They involun-

tarily keep playing out. Here comes the role of a Guru. He

doesn’t play a magic wand. Having him-self addressed his limitations, andexpanded his vision, he would knowhow to lead you through towards a bet-ter tomorrow. He first makes you awareof your latent potential, which thoughimmense, remains untapped. He, thus,first encourages you to get betterempowered. The way forward is to trainyour mind to access its full landscape,where after it knows no limits, as it looksat issues in hand with an open mind,without any limitations whatsoever topick up the right lead. To make it hap-pen, the Guru first puts you through aprocess to clear off the clutters of mind.Sufficient mind-space thus becomesavailable to absorb fresh educativeinputs. Second, he make aware of yourinherent limitations and the way toaddress them. He then offers lessons inrealities of life, which when absorbed inthe deep realms of mind, finds reflectionin your usual conduct. You are thusgeared up to rewrite your own destiny.

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