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In a major climb down, theCentre has proposed thatthe three controversial farmlaws will be kept in abeyancefor a minimum of 18 monthsand it will form a joint com-mittee to look into other pend-ing demands of the agitatingfarmers, including repeal andlegal guarantee to minimumsupport price (MSP).

The Government proposedthese initiatives in the 10thmeeting between theGovernment and agitatingfarmers. But farmer leadersdid not immediately acceptthe proposal and said they willrevert after their internal con-sultation on Thursday.

The farmers wanted a com-plete withdrawal of the laws asa mere suspension of the lawsfor some period of time will notbring about any change, farmerleaders said on Wednesdayafter the 10th round of talksconcluded. The next round ofmeetings will be held onJanuary 22.

After the meeting whichlasted for five hours, includingtwo breaks, Union AgricultureMinister Narendra SinghTomar said the Governmenthas proposed to suspend theimplementation of the threelaws for 1.5 years, during whichperiod a joint committee ofrepresentatives from theGovernment and farmers’ sides

can discuss all issues related tothe farmers’ agitation so that anappropriate solution can bearrived at and those protestingon Delhi borders in extremelycold weather return to theirhomes.

During the talks the farm-ers’ unions said they will dis-cuss the Government’s proposalin detail and will come for dia-logue on January 22.

The Minister said the talkswere held in a cordial atmos-phere despite some “naram-garam” moments (softeningand hardening of the stand)and farmers remained adamanton their demand for the repealof the laws. “I feel that talks areprogressing in the right direc-tion and there is a possibility offinding a resolution on January22,” Tomar said.

After the meeting,Bharatiya Kisan Union(Ugrahan) president JoginderSingh Ugrahan said, “TheGovernment proposed to sus-pend the farm laws for one anda half years. We rejected theproposal but since it has comefrom the Government, we willmeet tomorrow and deliberateover it.”

Continued on Page 2

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The Supreme Court onWednesday expressedstrong displeasure over theaspersions cast by some farm-ers’ unions on members of thecourt-appointed committee toresolve the impasse over newfarm laws, saying no adjudi-cating authority has been givento the panel of experts who are“brilliant minds in the field ofagriculture”.

The top court said that ithas serious reservations thatcommittee members werecalled names and branded,which has “become a cultural

thing now”.A bench headed by Chief

Justice SA Bobde said, “Youmalign people according topublic opinion. I am very dis-appointed and sorry to see thekind opinion which has beenappearing in this press” andquestioned, “How can youmalign them just because theyhave expressed some views inthe past?”

The bench also comprisingJustices AS Bopanna and VRamasubramanian issued

notice and sought responsefrom Centre in two weeks ona separate plea of “KisanMahapanchayat”, a farmers’body from Rajasthan, seekingremoval of three remainingmembers of the apex-courtappointed panel and thereplacement of BhupinderSingh Mann, who had recusedhimself from the panel.

Taking note of submis-sions of a lawyer that opinionson the panel members havebeen formed on the basis of

media reports about their pro-farm laws views, the benchsaid, “You people unnecessar-ily cast aspersions. Can thepeople expressing their views insome other context, bedebarred from the committee?”

Continued on Page 2

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The Delhi Police has sug-gested farmers’ unions tohold their proposed “Tractorrally” on January 26 on theKu n d l i - Ma n e s a r- Pa l w a lExpressway, instead of Delhi’s

busy Outer Ring Road. However, farmers did not

agree to the suggestion. Sourcessaid a meeting will be heldagain on Thursday with farm-ers regarding the routes fortheir tractor rally.

On Wednesday, seniorpolice officials of the DelhiPolice and its counterpartsHaryana and Uttar Pradeshpolice officials met at VigyanBhawan to discuss the routeand arrangements of the pro-posed rally on Republic Day.

According to sources, SS

Yadav, the Joint Commissionerof Police, Northern Rangecoordinated the meeting fromthe Delhi Police with DependerPathak, Special CP, Intelligenceand Sanjay Singh, Special CP,Law and order.

“The farmers unions weresuggested by the police officersto take out their rally on theKundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP)Expressway, but they did notagree. A meeting will be heldon Thursday again to dig out asolution,” said the sources.

Continued on Page 2

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Just when the newly-devel-oped vaccines against Covid-19 had given some hopes to theworld battling the pandemic, anew study pointed out that cur-rent vaccines may not workagainst future strain of thevirus.

It also said that some coro-naviruses — the family ofviruses which includes the onecausing Covid-19 — can evolveto escape recognition by thehost immune system.

The study, published inthe journal eLife, noted that ifthe novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 which causes Covid-19evolves in the same way asother pathogens, current vac-cines against the virus maybecome outdated, requiringnew ones to be made to matchfuture strains.

“Some coronaviruses areknown to reinfect humans, butit is not clear to what extent,this is due to our immunememory fading or antigenic

drift,” said first author of thestudy Kathryn Kistler fromthe Fred Hutchinson CancerResearch Center in the US.

Currently, at least 8 coun-tries, including India, havebegun or granted approval forvaccinating their people againstthe virus.

“We wanted to investigatewhether there is any evidenceof coronaviruses related toSARS-CoV-2 evolving to evadeour immune responses,” Kistlersaid.

When a person is infectedby a virus, or vaccinated againstit, cells part of their body’simmune system produce anti-bodies that can recognise andbind to unique proteins on thevirus’ surface known as anti-gens.

In order to provide immu-nity against the virus, theimmune system relies on beingable to “remember” the anti-gens that relate to a specificvirus, the scientists explained.

However, they said in someviruses, such as the seasonal flu,the antigens are likely to changeand evolve in a process calledantigenic drift, and theimmune system may no longerrespond to reinfection.

In the current study, thescientists looked at the four sea-

sonal human coronaviruses(HCoVs) which are related toSARS-CoV-2 but typicallycause milder symptoms, suchas the common cold.

HCoVs, the scientists said,have been circulating in thehuman population for 20-60years, meaning their antigensmay have faced pressure toevolve against the humanimmune system.

Continued on Page 2

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The anti-Covid-19 vaccina-tion drive has failed to pickup the expected pace evenafter the fifth day when just1,12,007 healthcare workers

received the jab on Wednesday.A total 7.86 lakh healthcare

workers have been vaccinatedsince January 16 when theanti-Covid jab programme waslaunched with much fanfare inthe country. The Governmentfears that with such a pace, itwill take years to inoculate anestimated 3 crore healthcareand frontline workers that itplans to cover in the firstphase.

“On Wednesday, 1,12,007beneficiaries were vaccinatedtill 6 pm across 20 States andUnion Territories,” saidAdditional Secretary ManoharAgnani at a press conferencehere. He, however, said that thefinal report for the day will becomplied by late in the night.

Ten cases of adverse eventsfollowing immunisation(AEFI) — four in Delhi, two inKarnataka, and one each inUttarakhand, Chhattisgarh,Rajasthan and West Bengal —have required hospitalisation sofar, Agnani said.

“Three people were hospi-talised after vaccination inUttarakhand, Chhattisgarh andRajasthan. All of them havebeen discharged. Four benefi-ciaries in Delhi were hospi-talised after vaccination.Among them, one is underobservation at Rajiv GandhiHospital, while three have beendischarged. In Karnataka, onewas discharged and one isunder observation and in WestBengal, one is under observa-tion,” said the official.

“There has been no case ofserious/severe adverse eventattributable to Covid-19 vacci-nation till date,” the officialadded.

Continued on Page 2

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China’s highest-profile entre-preneur, Jack Ma, appearedon Wednesday in an onlinevideo, ending a 2 1/2-monthabsence from public view thatprompted speculation aboutthe future of the e-commercebillionaire and his AlibabaGroup.

In the 50-second video,Ma congratulated teachers sup-ported by his foundation andmade no mention of his dis-appearance or official efforts totighten control over Alibabaand other internet companiesover the past six months. Thevideo appeared on Chinesebusiness news and other web-sites.

The normally voluble Madisappeared from public viewafter he irked regulators by crit-icising them in an October 24speech at a Shanghai confer-ence. Days later, regulatorssuspended the planned multi-

billion-dollar stock marketdebut of Ant Group, a financialplatform that grew out ofAlibaba’s payments service,Alipay.

That prompted specula-tion online about whether the56-year-old Ma, China’s biggestglobal business celebrity and asymbol of its tech boom, hadbeen detained or might facelegal trouble. Alibaba and thegovernment haven’t respondedto questions about him.

The Jack Ma Foundationsaid in a statement onWednesday: “Jack Ma partici-pated in the online ceremonyof the annual Rural TeacherInitiative event on January 20.”The foundation and Alibabadidn’t respond to questionsabout Ma’s status and when hisnext public event might be.

Continued on Page 2

New Delhi: A farmer whoallegedly consumed a poiso-nous substance at the Tikri bor-der died during treatment at ahospital here on Wednesday,police said.

The deceased has beenidentified as Jai Bhagwan Rana(42), a resident of Pakasma vil-lage in Rohtak district ofHaryana. He had consumedSulphas tablets at the farmers’protest site at Tikri on Tuesday,they said. In a purported sui-cide note, Rana said he was asmall farmer and many peas-ants have taken to the streets toprotest against the farm laws.

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Democracy has prevailed,”newly inaugurated USPresident Joe Biden said onWednesday in his maidenspeech as he called onAmericans “to defend the truthand defeat the lies”.

Speaking shortly after tak-ing oath as the 46th Presidentof the United States, 78-year-old Biden also pledged to repairAmerica’s global alliances,which suffered during his pre-decessor Donald Trump’s four-year regime.

“This is America’s day...Democracy has prevailed,”Biden said, apparently referringto Trump’s efforts to deny him

victory in the November 3election won by him.

“With unity we can do great things,” he said refer-ring to the challenges ahead ofhim from fighting the coron-avirus to addressing racialinjustice.

“Unity is the path for-ward,” he asserted, laying outhis vision to defeat the pan-demic, build back better, andunify and heal the nation.

Hours after being sworn inas the 46th US president, Bidenwould sign 15 executive orders— including rejoining the Parisclimate agreement, a 100-daymask mandate and reversingthe Muslim ban — undoingsome of the major policies ofhis predecessor Donald Trump.

Biden’s first presidentialactions would also includesending a comprehensive billon immigration to theCongress, incoming WhiteHouse officials said. The immi-gration bill proposes a eight-

year pathway to illegal immi-grants and removing the percountry cap for employment-based green cards, a move thatwould benefit hundreds andthousands of Indian IT profes-sionals in the US, whose cur-rent wait period for legal per-manent residency runs intoseveral decades.

Biden asserted that he willbe the president for allAmericans, all those who votedfor him and those who did notvote for him.

In his speech that lasted for21 minutes, Biden praisedAmericans for rising to thechallenge and reclaimingdemocracy. He mentioned the attempt to undo it at thatexact location two weeks ago,and renewed his campaigngoals of overcoming the pandemic, bringing racial jus-tice and fighting climatechange.

Biden also criticised thosewho have stoked anger and

division, and asked those whoopposed him to “hear me out.”

He called out those who liefor political power and profit.“There is truth, and there arelies,” he added.

In a message to the inter-national community, Bidensaid that he would rebuild thealliances frayed over the pastfour years. “We can makeAmerica once again the lead-ing force of good in the world.”

Washington: Donald Trumpon Wednesday skipped hissuccessor Joe Biden’s inaugu-ration and exited the WhiteHouse for the last time as theUS President to board a flightto his Mar-a-Lago estate inFlorida, which will be his per-manent home after he failed towin his re-election bid.

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The district police claimed tohave arrested three keyaccused persons, including aprime accused in connectionwith the murder case of aliquor contractor which tookplace on September 2, 2020.

The accused had allegedlygunned down the contractorover an old rivalry at JatauliMandi village in Pataudi onSeptember 2.

The arrested accused havebeen identified as Abhishek,Satender alias Lala and Harishall are residents of Jatauli villagein Pataudi.

A country-made pistol and4 live-cartridges have beenrecovered from their posses-sion.

The Haryana police hadannounced a bounty of Rs50,000 on Abhishek and Rs5,000 each on Satender andHarish on their arrest.

In connection with theincident the police have arrest-ed 13 criminals till now.

A team of crime branchFarrukhnagar led by InspectorIndravir nabbed the trio crim-inals from Pataudi area after atip-off.

During the interrogation,the accused revealed thatAbhishek along with his fellowgang members had planned themurder Indrajeet on August 30.

“According to the plan, onSeptember 2, Abhishek alongwith Ujjawal and Jeevan hadshot dead Inderjeet whileanother youth identified asVikram suffered bullet injuries.Abhishek and Inderjeet had anold rivalry.

In 2019 Abhishek had alsoattacked Inderjeet but he wassaved. A case in this regard had

been filed at Pataudi police sta-tion,” said Preet Pal Sangwan,ACP (crime) of the Gurugrampolice.

In this case Abhishek hadbeen proclaimed offender(PO). A reward of Rs 50,000 /- had also been declared by theHaryana Police on the arrest ofaccused Abhishek and Rs 5,000each on Satender and Harish,”Sangwan said.

On September 2, a case wasfiled by the deceased’s brotherJaibhagwan. In his police com-plaint he alleged that Abhishek,Ujjawal, Harender, Setender,Harish, Rohit, Tarachand, Raju,Sagar, Akhil, Krishan aliasGugan, Govind, Pawan andShakti were behind the inci-dent.

The complainant had toldthe police that Abhishek andhis aides have criminal back-grounds.

An FIR had been registeredagainst the culprits under rel-evant section of the IndianPenal Code (IPC) including theArms Act at the Pataudi policestation on September 3.

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The Delhi Commission forProtection of Child Rights(DCPCR) conducted a ‘RapidResponse Survey’ (RRS) toassess the success of distribu-tion of dry ration from angan-wadis to the entitled benefi-ciaries i.e.pregnant women,lactating mothers and chil-dren below six years of age.

The survey was organisedin collaboration with not-for-profit organisation ‘IndusAction’. The survey was done toensure that beneficiaries regis-tered in anganwadis are receiv-ing the Take Home Ration(THR) besides other benefitsunder the ‘Integrated ChildDevelopment Services’ (ICDS)and ‘Pradhan Mantri MatruVandana Yojana’ (PMMVY)schemes, the department saidin a statement.

With random sample of1267 beneficiaries, the surveywas conducted in 12 areas ofDelhi, namely: Aman Vihar,Chandini Chowk, Rohini,Shakurpur, Okhla andPatparganj, Bhati Mines,

Babarpur, Nazafgarh, Burari,Shiv Vihar and Seemapuri.

DCPCR recorded thedetails of the beneficiaries con-tacted to understand the exact details and concerns ofthe people.

In case a beneficiary ishaving any issues with theTHR distribution such as notreceiving the ration or badquality of the ration or anyrelated to ICDS and PMMVY,they can use the helpline toreport grievances.

The helpline number (011-41193903) is operational 24x7and is being maintained byDCPCR itself and the com-plaints are escalated to theconcerned officers.

Rajendra Pal Gautam,Minister for Social Welfare, SC& ST said, “the Department isdetermined to achieve theobjective of eradicating mal-nutrition from Delhi and it isthe collective responsibility ofall the stakeholders, whoseefforts are indispensable inrealising the DelhiGovernment’s goal of malnu-trition-free Delhi.”

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The Aam Aadmi Party onWednesday organised 74Mohalla Sabhas in 44 Assembly con-stituencies of Delhi under the party’scampaign to “expose” the corruptionof the BJP-ruled municipalCorporation.

The party in a statement saidthat around 7500 people includingAAP MLAs, MCD councilors, orga-nization members, volunteers, andlocal people participated in thesabhas.

“The AAP has been successful

in exposing the real and corrupt faceof the BJP in front of the people ofDelhi. We aim to reach out toevery household and every personin Delhi to make them aware of thecorruption done by the BJP in theMCD. They can show the real faceof the BJP,” he said.

"There has been a huge crowdof people who want to know aboutBJP's corruption in the mohalla sab-has organized by the party. Today,more than 7500 local people par-ticipated in the sabhas held at about74 locations in 45 assembly con-stituencies,” it said.

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Deputy Chief MinisterManish Sisodia onWednesday inaugurated thefirst ever National KaviSammelan (Poet’s conference)organised by Garhwali,Kumaoni and JaunsariAcademy, under the Art,Culture and Languagesdepartment of Government.

Sisodia praised the poetsand artists of Uttarakhand andsaid that they are the flag-bear-ers of the rich culture and lan-guage of ‘Dev Bhoomi’.

He said, “This KaviSammelan is an expression of

unheard voices from the ‘DevBhoomi’ Uttarakhand. Eventhough the state ofUttarakhand came into being,many dreams of the new stateare still unfulfilled.””The KaviSammelan by the Garhwali,Kumaoni and JaunsariAcademy in these difficulttimes is an iconic event. It is asymbol of thriving democracyof our country.”

He said that it was the taskof Uttarakhand governmentto recognise the artists from‘Dev Bhoomi’. Unfortunately,the Uttarakhand governmentcouldn’t create any academy ofthe language of ‘Dev Bhoomi’.

Delhi government recognisesthe efforts of artists fromUttarakhand and hence it hasestablished the Garhwali,Kumaoni and JaunsariAcademy.”

He said, “Delhi govern-ment is utilising the electrici-ty produced in the state ofUttarakhand to provide 24hours electricity in Delhi. It’sunfortunate that people fromUttarakhand are not getting theelectricity which they deserve.”He emphasised, “Collectivevoices of the poets fromUttarakhand were instrumen-tal in the formation of the state.Hence, it’s important to high-

light the voices fromUttarakhand through thisSammelan in order to bringforth the development issues inthe state. It’s important toexpress the voices of women

dying due to poor health facil-ities in your poems. The poetsfrom ‘Dev Bhoomi’ shouldexpress the voices of women,youth and farmers from ‘DevBhoomi’.”

Deputy Chief Minister saidthat by encouraging all region-al languages from various statesin the country, DelhiGovernment has sent out amessage of unity in diversity.

This is a major contribution ofDelhi towards strengtheningthe Republic of India. He saidthat we are hopeful that thenext Kavi Sammelan will beorganised at the iconic Red Fortand the poets of ‘Dev Bhoomi’will express the voices fromUttarakhand in front of entirenation.

On the account of RepublicDay, this event was organizedat Hindi Bhavan under thechairpersonship of M.S. Rawat– Deputy Chairperson of theGarhwali, Kumaoni andJaunsari Academy. Dr JeetramBhat, Secretary of the Academymoderated the event and

thanked Delhi government forstarting the Garhwali, Kumaoniand Jaunsari Academy.

The Sammelan witnessedthe works of Kumaoni poets –Pooran Chandra Kandpal,Ramesh Hitaishi and Dr.Damayanti Sharma. ForGarhwali, Madan Duklan,Prithvi Singh Kedarkhandi andDinesh Dhyani recited theirpoems. Jaunsari language wasrepresented by the poems ofKhazandutt Sharma. On thisoccasion, Delhi MLA DineshMohaniya, MCD CouncillorGita Rawat were also presentalong with the other digni-taries.

���**���������� -.'�/.01)

Delhi Building and OtherConstruction workersWelfare Board’ granted Covidrelief disbursement of �10,000each to 407 construction work-ers. The decision to grant therelief was taken after the direc-tions of Deputy Chief Ministerof Delhi Manish Sisodia

Delhi Government was oneof the first state governments togrant relief disbursement to allthe 39,600 workers who wereregistered with the board in themonth of March after lock-down was imposed due to thepandemic.

In compliance of orders of

High Court in Sunil KumarAledia V/s GNCTD Delhi,Construction Board decided todisburse the relief amount tothose construction workerswho were registered with Boardas on 30th September, 2018, onthe idea that if they renew theirmembership they are eligiblefor relief benefits.

Deputy Chief MinisterSisodia urged all constructionworkers who were members ofthe Board before 30thSeptember, 2018 to renew theirmembership with theConstruction Board so thatthey are able to receive dis-bursement benefits.

After taking charge of the

Labour Department inNovember, 2020, Sisodia hadcarried out various inspectionsin labour offices. On the basisof these inspections, a series ofreforms have been carried outin the Labour Department.Some of these reforms initiatedby the department such as reg-istration of construction work-ers through doorstep deliveryprogramme, reforming processof claim disbursement andgranting of claims to construc-tion workers within 72 hours ofapplication submission.

“More than 2000 con-struction workers will alsoreceive the relief amount in thecoming weeks. These con-

struction workers belong to thepoorest of the poor section ofthe society and were one of thehardest hit during Covid-19pandemic. This relief dis-

bursement for constructionworkers comes as a much need-ed support during these diffi-cult times,” the departmentsaid in a stateme

���**���������� -.'�/.01)

Delhi Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal chaired a reviewmeeting with the officials of thePublic Works Department(PWD) on the status of theongoing projects of redesigningand streetscaping of seven roadstretches and 540 km of iden-tified roads of Delhi along thelines of European cities.

In the meeting, Kejriwaldirected the officials to removeall obstacles under the projectto redesign the seven roadstretches and 540 km of iden-tified roads of Delhi.

The Chief Minister saidthat the process of designingthe roads should be done in aswift manner and the projectshould be completed within thestipulated deadline i.e. by 2023.

“The PWD should ensurethe removal of all obstacles tocomplete it in two years. Thedeadline for redesigning theentire 540 km stretch is early2023. The agency entrustedwith the task of constructionwill also be responsible for themaintenance of the roads for aperiod of 15 years. PWDMinister Satyendar Jain,Secretary PWD, PWD engi-neer-in-chief, and PWD offi-cials were also present in themeeting.

The Delhi government isworking to redesign the 100feet wide and 540 km longroads of the national capital onthe lines of European cities.Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwalhas envisaged the project todevelop the roads of the nation-al capital, Delhi, similar to anydeveloped country in theworld.

Kejriwal approved the pro-ject of redesigning some of theroads falling under the juris-diction of PWD in November2019. Under the pilot project,

the Delhi government hasdecided to redesign 100 feetwide and 500 kilometers on thelines of European cities. Thedevelopment of these roadswill be on the lines of the Built-Operate-Transfer (BOT) modeland the construction companywill take care of the mainte-nance for 15 years.

The main objectives of theproject will be removing bot-tlenecks from roads for asmooth flow of traffic anddecongestion, encouraging theuse of non-motorized vehi-cles, constructing disabled-friendly infrastructure, andensuring efficient use of spacealongside the road stretches, asenior government official said.

People face issues becausethere are bottleneck roads,which create the problem oftraffic congestion at variouslocations in the city, he said,adding that the wide roads inmany parts of Delhi different-ly turn into a narrow road, andthen back into a wide road aftera few km which creates a bot-tleneck situation and heavytraffic at particular locations.

“The priority will beremoving those bottlenecksfirst, for a smooth flow of traf-fic and an organized lane sys-

tem. The second goal would beto increase the efficiency of theexisting space of the roads inthe city so that spaces are bestutilized as per their abilities.There will be measured andplanned spaces for vehicles,non-motorized vehicles, foot-paths, and side-lanes,’ he said.

The footpaths will be wide-ly mapped to an average of 10feet for the convenience of thepedestrians. These footpathswill be redesigned and recon-structed as per a standardheight for the convenience ofthe physically handicapped, headded.

There will be separatespaces for the planting of treeson the sides of the footpathsalong with separate parkingspaces for the electric vehiclesand auto-rickshaws alongsidethe footpaths. The slope of theroads, as well as the drains, willbe redesigned to tackle theproblem of waterlogging on theroads. Rainwater harvestingstructures will be built insidethe drainage systems to storerainwater as groundwater.

Adequate grasses andshrubs will be planted on allsurfaces in order to ensurethat there is no dust on theroads, he added.

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Following the Covid-19 vac-cination drive in UttarPradesh (UP), the Ghaziabadranked second in the Meerutdivision and fourth in theState. On the first day, itrecorded 95 per cent vaccina-tion to health workers andothers while Baghpat, with 96per cent vaccination, toppedthe list in the division.

In the first phase, 21,000health workers are scheduled totake the vaccination in thefirst phase, and 27,000 doses ofvaccine have been received forthis already.

Speaking at a media work-shop on ``StrengtheningHealth Communication—Corona Appropriate Behaviourand Vaccination’’ organized bythe District Health Society(Ghaziabad) with the supportof Centre for Advocacy andResearch (CFAR), Dr N KGupta, Chief Medical Officer(CMO) said on the first day 400health workers were sched-uled to be vaccinated against

which 379 took the vaccination.The CMO said the role

played by media in creatingawareness during Coronaviruspandemic was highly appre-ciable and no less than otherwarriors such as health work-ers, frontline workers andpolice.

Dr Gupta said body willstart developing immunity tofight Coronavirus 42 days aftertaking the jab. “Hence, we arerepeating the importance of fol-lowing protocols even aftervaccination. These includewearing masks, maintainingsocial distance and frequenthand washing with soap andwater. These precautions willalso help in preventing otherinfectious diseases,” he said.

The next rounds of vacci-nation in Ghaziabad will takeplace on January 22, 28 and 29at 30 centres across the city,covering about 11,800 healthworkers.

In the second round asmany as 42,000 frontline work-ers would be vaccinated. TheCMO said that in the first

phase health workers, frontlineworkers, those above 50 yearsand those with co-morbiditiesbut below 50 years were vacci-nated.

Dr Singh expressed thehope that by then the vaccina-tion would be available in themarket also. He said the pos-itivity rate now was less than 1

per cent and with vaccine avail-able, India would be able toovercome the pandemic.

Dr Sunil Kumar Tyagi,ACMO, asked the people, par-ticularly journalists to verify allinformation available in thesocial media. He said all sortsof disinformation and misin-formation was being floated in

the social media that some-times resulted in vaccine hes-itancy.

“We had limited resourcesand lots of doubts and fears ini-tially. But now that we have thevaccine, and we are nearing toend the pandemic, it is themedia that can play a role inremoving vaccine hesitancy,”

said Dr Rakesh Gupta, NodalOfficer for COVID-19 vac-cine.

Dr Gupta said the govern-ment was ready to face thechallenges that were likely to beencountered by them in thenear future and appealed to themedia to follow the guidelinesand talk to the experts beforewriting anything unconfirmedin their respective media out-lets.

Dr Avinash Aggarwal, dis-trict president of IndianMedical Association (IMA)said the vaccine was safe and allIMA members are promotingvaccines.

Dr Aggarwal said the newmutant was highly infectiousand affected the children butthe mortality was not high.“The vaccines are effective onthis variant as well. Fever, rash-es, and stiffness were normalreactions to vaccines as wereseen during the vaccination ofchildren. It only meant that thevaccines were active in makingantibodies in the individual,” headded.

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Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) leaders and workersstaged a protest demanding Rs13,000 crore "dues" from theKejriwal Government for theparty-ruled municipal corpo-rations.

Delhi BJP vice presidentVirender Sachdeva claimed thecampaign aims to make peopleaware about how the Kejriwalgovernment is "depriving" theparty-ruled MCDs of their"dues" of �13,000 crore becauseof political reasons.

The BJP leaders displayedbanners and posters at fly-overs and foot overbridges in aprotest across the city. DelhiBJP media cell head NavinKumar said they were display-ing large banners and postersdemanding that the city gov-ernment pay the "dues".

The AAP leadership has

been attacking the BJP alleging"corruption and mismanage-ment" in the three municipalcorporations ruled by the party.

Recently, Deputy ChiefMinister Manish Sisodiaannounced that the Delhi gov-ernment will provide Rs 938crore to the municipal corpo-rations to pay salaries to itsemployees.

"Doctors, nurses, sanitationworkers and other employees ofmunicipal corporations havenot been paid salaries due tothe funds held back by theKejriwal government. Nomoney has been released so fardespite Sisodia's announce-ment," said party spokespersonVirender Babbar.

The BJP which has ruledthe municipal corporations fornearly 15 years and the AAPhave been indulging in a blamegame with the civic body pollsapproaching in the early 2022.

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Senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)leader and chief spokespersonSaurabh Bhardwaj on Wednesdaysaid that the BJP is trying to com-pletely “loot” the municipal corpo-rations before going to the upcom-ing election as it has announced ahike in councillor fund from �50lakhs to one Crores;

Bhardwaj said that the AAPwants to know how can the BJPruled Corporations increase thecouncillor fund from �50 lakhs to

one Crores at a time when theyclaim that they do not have moneyto pay the salaries of their ownemployees.

“The Delhi High Court has alsoobserved that the municipal cor-porations of Delhi should look intocurtailing the expenses and thebenefits given to the senior officialsof the corporations. There are var-ious posts in the BJP ruled munic-ipal corporation like the deputymayor or the chairman of thestanding counsel who gets a lot ofbenefits like transportation expens-

es, cars and others. So at one side,the corporation claims that they donot have money to pay the salariesof their employees and on the otherside yesterday they have increasedthe funds for the councillors. Earlierthey increased this fund from Rs.25lakhs to Rs.50 lakhs and now it hasbecome Rs.1 crores," he furtheradded.

"The audit report has noted verycarefully that there are a number ofexamples of projects where it isdoubtful the way the BJP ruledMCD has executed those projects.

The audit report has also noted thatin the name of execution of thesedoubtful projects the BJP ruledMCD has spent lakhs and lakhs ofmoney,” he said.

All these examples are fromengineering department where thereport has observed that in the sim-ilar projects of Rs 55 lakh, Rs 39lakh, Rs 25 lakh, Rs 25.85 lakh, Ra16.93 lakh, Ra 16 lakh and Rs 13.21lakh have been done.

The audit report has alsoobserved that in most of the casesthe BJP ruled MCD has bought the

material which is used to build theupper layer of the road before thematerial which is used to build thebase of the roads, he added.

In reality, this is impossiblebecause nobody can build a roadlike this.

First, the base of the roadshould be built and then the upperlayer should come but according tothe report in most of the cases theBJP ruled municipal corporation ofDelhi has done absolutely oppositeof this. It clearly shows that theseprojects have never taken place?"

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The Supreme Court onWednesday said it woulddecide on February 5 theschedule of hearing on thepleas pertaining to the 2018Maharashtra law grantingreservation to Marathas ineducation and jobs after thestate government said a caseof this nature be heard oncephysical hearing commences.

The apex court is present-ly hearing matters throughvideo-conferencing sinceMarch last year amid theCOVID-19 pandemic.

A five-judge constitutionbench headed by JusticeAshok Bhushan was told bysenior advocate MukulRohatgi, who was appearingfor Maharashtra, that the stateis requesting for an adjourn-ment and the matter be heardin March.

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The Congress on Wednesdayupped the ante on Centreand journalist Arnab Goswamifor his explosive WhatsAppchats saying the leakage ofsecret military operations wastreason and those who wereparty to the act deserved nomercy and must be punished.

Led by former DefenceMinister AK Antony, theCongress demanded an enquiryto determine the source of theleak and whether the leak com-promised the Balakot opera-tions. Antony was joined by for-mer home minister SushilKumar Shinde, former externalaffairs minister SalmanKhurshid and Leader ofOpposition in Rajya SabhaGhulam Nabi Azad

The attack on Centre andGoswami comes a day after for-mer party chief Rahul Gandhitermed the leakage a criminalact and action to be taken withutmost importance. Rahul’s sib-ling and party general secretaryPriyanka Gandhi too took tosocial media to express her dis-appointment the wayGoverment is handling the cur-rent defence related leakageand said how can the Modi gov-ernment remain a mute spec-tator in this criminal act whenlives of nation’s brave soldierswere lost in the Pulwama attack.

Expressing his shock onGoswami’s remarks to ex-BARCchief Partho Dasgupta threedays before the IAF strike inBalakot that “something big isgoing to happen”, Antony said

leaking official secret is a crimebut leaking information on mil-itary operations was an antinational act and those involvedmust be punished.

Antony also said only fourto five civilians in the top ech-elons of the government had theBalakot strike information and“someone from among themhas leaked it.”

“Having worked with themilitary people I am sure no onefrom the military could everleak such information,” the for-mer defence minister said.

“One of the top five civiliansin the government is suspect. Ithas to be enquired immediate-ly on war footing as to who thatperson is. Whoever is respon-sible for the leakage must bepunished for treason and thisjournalist who was in possessionof sensitive military operationshe has to be punished. TheGovernment must order a prop-er enquiry. Whoever is respon-sible, whoever is party to theleakage of this sensitive militaryoperation deserves no mercy.He has to be punished,” saidAntony.

Shinde said that “leaking ofofficial secret is a criminal actbut leaking of official secretabout military operation, anational security matter, that toosensitive military operationsespecially a military strike istreason, anti national.”

It is not just criminal actionit is anti national activity, saidAntony. He said only three orfour or five ministers and offi-cials could have known of theoperation.

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Stressing that ownershiprights were being given towomen, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on Wednesdayreleased a financial assistanceof around �2,691 crore to 6.1lakh beneficiaries in UttarPradesh under the PradhanMantri Awaas Yojana-Gramin(PMAY-G).

“Owning a house givesconfidence,” the Prime Ministersaid and pointed out that underthe scheme two crore houseshave been built in the ruralareas.

Referring to the progress ofhousing scheme in UP, he said“this shows UP Government isactive” and under BJPGovernment “UP ko nayipehchaan aur nayi udaan milihai”.

Assembly polls are due inUP, electorally the most impor-tant State in the country, nextyear with the political scenealready heating up. BJPPresident JP Nadda is on a two-day tour of the state fromThursday.

Modi said expressways inthe state would be speeded upand completed soon.

The Modi-Governmenthas promised ‘housing for all’by 2022 under PMAY scheme.

Union Rural DevelopmentMinister Narendra Tomar and

Uttar Pradesh Chief MinisterAdityanath were also present atthe launch, which was held viavideo conference.

The assistance wouldinclude the release of a firstinstallment to 5.30 lakh bene-ficiaries, and a second install-ment to 80,000 beneficiarieswho have already availed thefirst installment under PMAY-G.

“In the past few years,around 2 crore houses havebeen built in rural areas alone,”Modi said during the launch.

“Under Pradhan MantriAwas Yojana, keys of 1.25 crorehouses have been handed overto people. Around �1.50 lakhcrore has been given by theCentral Government alone, tobuild these houses,” he said.

The Prime Minister com-pared these figures with that ofthe Opposition’s, and said thatpeople of Uttar Pradesh willnever forgive the previousGovernments for their wrongpolicies.

“I am talking aboutUttarakhand Pradesh especial-ly, the poor didn’t believe thatthe Government can help them

in constructing a house,” headded. “The previous Awaasschemes, the kind of housesbuilt under them were nothidden from anyone.”

The Prime Minister saidunder the housing scheme hisgovernment has made specialemphasis on giving ownershipof houses to women.

PMAY-G is an extension ofthe Indira Awas, which waslaunched by the CongressGovernment in the 1980s. Itgave �70,000 as cash incentivesto rural families in need ofpucca homes.

Modi’s PMAY hasincreased the amount to Rs 1.2lakh per house in plain areasand �1.3 lakh in hilly or remoteareas. Each house needs to beat least 270 sqft in size.

Popularly known as the“housing for all” mission,through the scheme, the gov-ernment aims to subsidise theconstruction of 2.95 crore ruralhouses and 1.2 urban houses by2022. So far, 1.26 crore houseshave been built across thecountry under the scheme,according to a release by thePrime Minister’s Office.

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The EnforcementDirectorate (ED) onWednesday said it has arrestedSrinivas Raju Mantena, founderand chairman of MantenaConstructions and his associ-ate Aditya Tripathi of ArniInfra who is a resident ofBhopal under Prevention ofMoney Laundering Act(PMLA).

They are accused in themoney laundering investiga-tion into the e-Tender Scam inMadhya Pradesh where a largenumber of infrastructure com-panies, mostly based inHyderabad, have conspiredwith few senior Governmentofficials and IT serviceproviders of MPSEDC to tam-per the eTenders and to illegallyobtain large value contracts.

The accused were pro-duced before the PMLACourt, Bhopal and have beenremanded to judicial custodytill February 3, officials said.

The ED had initiatedinvestigation based on theEOW, Bhopal FIR No 12/2019dated April 10, 2019, where inMax Mantena Micro JVHyderabad and GVPREngineers Ltd., Hyderabadare named as the main bene-ficiaries of this scam.

As per the FIR, the MP e-Procurement Portal is man-aged by MPSEDC and AntaresSystems Limited, Bangalore

and Tata Consultancy Services(TCS). They are given a con-tract for 5 years for the main-tenance and operation of thesaid portal.

EOW, Bhopal has alreadyfi led a preliminar ychargesheet and it has beenestablished from the IP accesslogs that Osmo IT SolutionsPvt Limited of VinayChoudhar y and VarunChathurvedi had misused thelogin credentials provided byAntares and had illegallyaccessed and tampered the e-tenders and changed the bidvalues of certain companies tomake them L1, the ED said ina statement.

“In return they had takenillegal gratification from thebidding companies. MaxMantena JV Hyderabad hadillegally won the tender No.10030 worth �1,030 crore inthis fashion. There arelargenumber of other tenderswhich are also under scrutinyand are suspected to have

been won by using the samemodus operandi,” it said.

During the investigationunder PMLA, search opera-tions were conducted inHyderabad, Bhopal andBangalore at more than 20locations at the residence andoffice premises connected withMantena Constructions, MaxInfra, GVPR Engineers, ArniInfra, Osmo IT Solutions andAntares and large amount ofincriminating documents anddigital devices were seized.

Mantena group has seen abig spurt in successful bids inthe last few years either direct-ly or in association with otherHyderabad-based companies,it said.

Investigation conductedso far revealed that SrinivasRaju Mantena, has played acrucial role in the entire scam.With the assistance of hisfriend Aditya Tripathi he setup a front entity Arni Infra inBhopal and used it to routefunds for hawala activities.

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Almost a year after directingoil companies to ensurefuel stations are at least 50metres away from schools, hos-pitals and residential areas, theCentral Pollution Control Board(CPCB) has now asked them tomaintain similar distance fromwater bodies too. The move isaimed at protecting the waterbodies from getting any possi-ble contamination due to seep-age of diesel or petrol, if any.

The draft guidelines comein the backdrop of opposition byresidents and environmentalistsin Haryana over theGovernment’s plan to allot15,000 square metres of forestland in Chakkarpur village toIndian Oil Corporation to set upa fuel station, which they allegedwould contaminate a nearbywater channel in the fragile area.

The CPCB draft guidelinessaid that all the surface waterbodies irrespective of utilityshall be protected from any pos-sible contamination. “Theseinclude lakes, ponds, streams,rivers, wetland, sea and anyother. Retail outlets shall not belocated within a distance of 50metres from the nearest point ofwater bodies. In case of streamsand rivers, the distance shall beconsidered from flood plain.”

As a preventive measure,retail outlets coming within 50meter to 100 metre from thenearest point of surface water

body shall have secondary con-tainment by way of doublewalled tanks or concrete pro-tection walls so as to minimisegroundwater soil contamina-tion, said the guidelines whichhave been posted on the CPCBwebsite for comments and sug-gestions by February 2, 2021.

It further said that groundwater quality monitoring ofretail outlets within 100 meterfrom the nearest point of surfacewater bodies shall be conduct-ed by the OMCs once in everyquarter.

Last year, an expert com-mittee comprising membersfrom IIT Kanpur, NationalEnvironmental EngineeringResearch Institute (NEERI),The Energy and ResourcesInstitute (TERI), Ministry ofPetroleum and Natural Gasand CPCB had framed theguidelines for setting up of newpetrol pumps in the country. Ithad prohibited setting uppetrol pumps close to theschools, hospitals and resi-

dences citing health hazards.The expert committee was

set up on the directions of theNGT which is seized of a pleaseeking a cap on the numberof petrol pumps so as to avoidtheir adverse effects on theenvironment.

As per the guidelines,“Retail outlets shall not belocated within a radial distanceof 50 meters from schools, hos-pitals (10 beds and above) andresidential areas designated asper local laws. In case of con-straints in providing 50 metersdistance, the retail outlet shallimplement additional safetymeasures as prescribed byPESO(Petroleum andExplosives SafetyOrganisation).

“In no case, the distancebetween new retail outletsfrom schools, hospitals andresidential areas shall be lessthan 30 meters. No high ten-sion line shall pass over theretail outlet,” the CPCB guide-lines said.

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Avian influenza continues tospread among poultry insix of the 12 afflicted States,where culling and contain-ment measures are on.According to the Ministry ofAnimal Husbandry, avianinfluenza for poultry birds hasbeen confirmed in six States -Kerala, Haryana, MadhyaPradesh, Maharashtra,Chhattisgarh and Punjab. Thedisease has been confirmed incrow, migratory and wild birdsin 10 states which includeMadhya Pradesh, Maharashtra,Chhattisgarh, HimachalPradesh, Gujarat, UttarPradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi,Rajasthan and Punjab.

In a statement, the min-istry said that samples takenfrom two poultry farms and adead crow in Punjab’s Mohalidistrict, which reported thestate’s first bird flu case, testedpositive for the influenza onWednesday. Reports of the

samples from the farms andthe crow were received onWednesday, while for the firstcase, the report of samplestaken from a dead bar-headedgoose was received on Tuesday.Samples were taken from twopoultry farms at Behra villagein Mohali district’s Dera Bassiand were sent to NIHSAD forconfirmation on January 15after the NRDDL stated themas suspected to be bird flu pos-itive.

According to the ministry,the disease has been con-firmed in Crow in SAS Nagar and Pinjore andPanchkula in Punjab.

“Control andContainment Operations aregoing on in the affected epi-centres of Maharashtra,

Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarhand Haryana. The central teamformed for monitoring thesituation in the affected areasof the country has visitedSatara, Latur, Parbhani andBeed districts of Maharashtrato monitor the epicenters of AIoutbreak and conducting epi-demiological studies,” the min-istry said.

Avian flu has significanteconomic impact. Whenchicken prices crash, they tendto bring down maize pricestoo, hurting farmincomes.Maize is a major feedused for poultry.

The poultry industry con-sumes about 14 million tonneof corn annually.

All the States are reportingto the Department on dailybasis regarding the controlmeasures adopted by theStates/UTs based on theRevised Action Plan forPreparedness, Control andContainment of AvianInfluenza 2021.

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In the backdrop of some vet-erans attending the ongoingfarmers agitation in Army uni-form, the Army has issued anadvisory asking them not puton uniform or medals in polit-ical rallies. The advisory alsosaid donning the uniform ormedals in against the rules.

The advisory was issuedrecently to the Kendriya SainikBoard wherein various sec-tions of the Army Act wereenumerated to urge the veter-ans to refrain from attendingthe political functions in uni-form. The caution was sent outafter some veterans attendedthe agitation at the Singhu andTikri borders of the nationalcapital, sources said here onWednesday.

Meanwhile, the local com-manders were also sensitisingthe serving troops especiallyfrom Punjab about the ongoingagitation and instructed thatthey cannot be part of anyprotest while in service.

This step was taken aftersome video clips surfacedshowing some serving jawansraising banners and protestingin the farmers’ rallies someparts of north India. Officialsalso said the erring soldiers willbe dealt with as per rules.These incidents took placewhen the soldiers had gone

home on leave.As regards veterans, they

said the Army uniform canonly be worn during officialfunctions and not while attend-ing a public gathering orprotests.

The Army said there needsto be awareness among the fra-ternity of ex-servicemen withregard to provisions of wearingof uniforms by non-effectivepersonnel.

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The Skiing resort of Gulmargin Kashmir valley has beenturned into a big canvas by thebudding artists assembled thereto create “ice sculptures” andother art forms. Braving subzero temperature conditionsthese artists have already start-ed working on different themesto give shape to their imagina-tion.

To facilitate these artists theDepartment of Tourism hascome forward to ensure theyget a stimulating environmentduring the four day long com-petition. The department has

also kept ready large ice blocksfor the participants to ensurethey are able to carve out theshape as per their chosenthemes.

In the competition over 30participants drawn from vari-ous districts of the Kashmir val-ley, both amateur and profes-sional sculptures, are partici-pating. On WednesdayDirector Tourism, KashmirNisar Wani flagged off theparticipants from TRC,Srinagar. The special campwas organised to attract touristsand promote the rich cultural heritage of Jammu &Kashmir.

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The frightening “Goli maroslogan…” (shoot them) hastraveled out of Delhi and con-tinues to ride the poll bound airof Bengal with both theTrinamool Congress and theBJP mimicking the haterhetoric coined by a UnionMinister an year ago.

A Suvendu Adhikari-ledsaffron rally in Hooghly districtpicked up on Wednesday fromwhere the TMC workers left inSouth Kolkata a day before call-ing upon the listeners to shootdown the traitors.

Even as the BJP supportersthat walked the triumphantroad show that ended at CircusGround at Chandannagarshouted “Desh ke Gaddaron koGoli Maaro Salon ko (shoot thetraitors)” Suresh Sahoo thelocal BJP leader who led the

slogan said “there is nothingwrong in the slogan as it wasintended at persuading thearmy to shoot down the peo-ple who conspires against ourmotherland.”

His superior leader andState BJP spokesperson SamikBhattacharya however politelydissociated the party from suchslogans saying “the BJP neversupports such things,” only toquickly tell between the “GoliMaro...” of TMC and BJP.

“Though the BJP does notpromote such kind of sloganswhich might have been givenin the heat of the moment …

but this slogan cannot be equat-ed with the one raised by theTMC leaders as our supporterswere shouting the slogan con-demning the people who areinvolved in anti-national activ-ities whereas there slogan wasaimed at the people who haveleft the Trinamool to join theBJP … this indicates provoca-tion of violence.”

On Tuesday another rallyof the Bengal ruling party ledby senior leaders like ArupBiswas and SobhandebChattppadhyay both Ministersshouted “Bangal ke gaddaronko Goli maro salon ko (shoot

the traitors of Bengal).”Much like Bhattacharya

his TMC counterpart too dis-tanced his party from such“avoidable coinages” but added“the BJP is doing the samething today after teaching theTMC the moral conduct yes-terday,” asking “who are theyasking the so-called army toshoot … aren’t they asking theIndian citizens to be shot down… is this the kind of politicalchange they are planning tobring in Bengal.”

Meanwhile, Adhikari wholed his fourth consecutive“house-full” road show onWednesday once again chal-lenged Chief Minister MamataBanerjee to compete fromNandigram as she earlierpromised saying “let me tellyou madam (Banerjee)! I per-sonally undertake to ensureyour defeat at Nandigram irre-spective of whosoever con-

tests from BJP against you.”Hailing Prime Minister

Narendra Modi as the“strongest Prime Minister witha definite vision … who hastaken bold steps which manyGovernments would not takefor years,” Adhikari said “on theother hand TMC has beenreduced to a private limitedcompany with the ChiefMinister as its Chairperson, hernephew (Abhishek Banerjee) asits Managing Director and anoutsourced company (read theone of Prashant Kishore) as itselectoral advisor.”

Saying that he could nottake decisions despite holdingthree ministerial posts in theTrinamool Government theformer Bengal minister saidthat “in that party there is onlyone post and rest are lampposts and I too was one ofthem.”

Attacking the junior

Banerjee he said “the Tolabaz(extortionist) nephew has toexplain why he appointedVinay Mishra as the vice pres-ident of TMC Yuva (partyyouth wing)” adding howMishra — currently at large —is being frantically looked forby the CBI in cow, coal andsand smuggling cases.

“There is one step for theCBI before it reaches the doorsteps of the ‘nephew’ … it hasonly to arrest Vinay Mishra,” hesaid.

Attacking the ChiefMinister for mimicking theCentral schemes and imple-menting them in Bengal bychanging their names, Adhikarisaid “this Government talks ofproviding jobs whereas it hasgobbled up three Departmentsending more than 5.5 lakhjobs… in lieu of which she hascreated 25,000 contractualworkers only.”

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As 2021 began, theSupreme Court (SC)appears to have got ataste for drama as itpitched a “biased committee”against the revolutionary, butpeaceful, farmers camping onDelhi’s borders. Why biased?Because all the four originalmembers had unequivocally sup-ported the farm “reforms”. Butthe apex court believes that theywill remain neutral; and ChiefJustice of India SA Bobde orallyobserving that if a person on apanel has expressed views on thematter, it should not becomeground for his disqualificationfrom a committee and that “com-mittee members are not judges;they can change their views”.Meanwhile, Bhupinder SinghMann rejected the SC’s offer to bepart of the committee and said hestands with Punjab. The threeremaining members, who pledgeto be “non-partisan”, have onlyadded to the mistrust of farmersbecause the media may see themas honourable but, to farmers,they are simply a neo-con econ-omist, a known seed terrorist anda policy sahib.

Let us go back to the start ofthis mess. After repeated failureof talks between the NDAGovernment and the farmers,petitions were filed in the SCwhich gave them a patient earand even admonished the Centrefor its “handling of the issue”.There was some jubilation whenfarmers were teased by namessuch as “P Sainath” to be includ-ed in the committee. But the cel-ebration was short-lived; it was asif the SC was testing the watersbefore delivering the master-stroke: Four pro-Big Ag nameswere invited to the committee.They being men of the law, wecan’t expect the judges to under-stand much about agriculture butwhosoever advised them, hasput the integrity of India’s topcourt in quagmire. Mann’s politerefusal provides grist for this fact.Recently, committee memberAnil Ghanwat has expressed fearsthat the farmers may not evenparticipate in the proceedings.

How unbiased are the threeremaining members — AshokGulati, Anil Ghanwat and PramodKumar Joshi? With a demonstrat-ed history of promoting andadvocating for Big Ag and US-style liberalisation, the apple does-n’t fall far from the tree. AshokGulati, our neo-con economist,despite having worked in theGovernment for decades, is noto-

rious as the poster child for BigAg in India. His policy recom-mendations are hailed by theindustry and vehementlyopposed by farmers, whetheron GM crops or farm-gate lib-eralisation. His economic mod-els, to many farmers, are alliedto the US industry interests andnot to the welfare of Indianfarmers and consumers. Gulati’smodels are a disservice toGandhi’s bread labour. Somewould go so far as to say that hiseconomic schizophrenia is soadvanced for what he called the“1991 moment” for Indian agri-culture, has turned out to be thebiggest farmers’ revolution inthe history of our world.

Next we move to ‘policysahib’ — Pramod K Joshi, whois the director for South Asia,International Food PolicyResearch Institute. Withoutgoing too much into detailsabout his personal views, theorganisation he represents isheavily funded by the Big Agcorporations and allies. TheSyngenta Foundation(Switzerland), The RockefellerFoundation (United States),CropLife International(Belgium), Bill & Melinda GatesFoundation (United States),Cornell University (UnitedStates), the US Department ofAgriculture (United States),KPMG East Africa and Alliancefor a Green Revolution inAfrica (AGRA) are some of thebiggies to generously donate tohis kitty and push a global agen-da through this organisation incountries like India. Farmers are

curious as to why did the SC’sadvisors think of this interna-tional body? Does India have adearth of swadeshi agricultur-ists or agrarian policy experts?Why the swerve fromAatmanirbhar Bharat on poli-cy matters? This name in thecommittee exposes the invisiblehand behind the farm “reforms”.

Finally, we move to alleged‘seed terrorist’ Anil Ghanwat,who is the president of ShetkariSangathana (SS). It didn’t takeillegal seeds from China toreach the US or India in May2020 for any member of thecotton seed industry to under-stand the term “seed terrorism”.India has been an area of oper-ation for many such illegalseed schemes which want todestroy India’s native seeds,public health and seed indus-try by using criminal means.‘Seed terrorists’ smuggle andpeddle unapproved foreignseeds on India’s soils and fields.They claim that it’s good for thefarmers but actually, as the pastyear has shown, sound thedeath-knell for Indian biodiver-sity and public health as theseseeds can be a gateway for get-ting new pests or plant diseasesinto the country. In a bid toprotect our biodiversity, theRashtriya SwayamsewakSangh’s (RSS) own BharatiyaKisan Sangh has led a cam-paign in Maharashtra againstthis hazardous contaminationand to curb the illegal spread ofHT Bt Cotton. Keep in mindthat COVID entered the coun-try using humans as a gateway;

similarly, the American pinkbollworm and fall armywormhave mysteriously enteredIndia. We don’t know what newdisease could be in store next?

A note on the history of the organisation: SS founderSharad Joshi, a farmer leader forfew, was a pariah in the nation-al farmers’ resistance move-ment. His stance on the WorldTrade Organisation (WTO),inclusion of agriculture into the General Agreement onTariffs and Trade (GATT) andthe Dunkel Draft alienatedhim from the farmers whoresisted this takeover in the late90s. His obsession for “technol-ogy” and “progress” was onlymeretricious. His Frankensteinstill lives eating into the profits and health of maize to oilseed farmers.

Following the same tradi-tion, the SS has openly violat-ed the Environment ProtectionAct, National Biodiversity Actand various other criminallypunishable legislations by ille-gally planting and peddling anunapproved genetically modi-fied organism (GMO) HT BtCotton in Maharashtra. ThisHT Bt cotton is a herbicide tol-erant (HT) cotton variety thatis unapproved by the GeneticEngineering AppraisalCommittee (GEAC). The SC’stechnical committee on GMcrops had also a few years agoput a moratorium on HT cropsdue to bio-safety issues. Despitethis, Ghanwat’s organisationhas been unabashedly part of acriminal conspiracy to contam-

inate our native cotton seedsand biodiversity. Last yearalone, he caused a damage ofover �400 crore to the legal seedbusinesses, from Maharashtrato Telangana. Due to such fly-by-night operators, the legalcotton businesses are findingtheir seed lots contaminated bythis unapproved variety and, infact, many seed companieshave been taken to court andtheir licenses suspended, yetGhanwat’s SS proliferates. Theycontinue to do irreversibledamage to our environmentand health. The seed officialshave booked various membersfor some of these offences, yetthe ring leader — instead ofbeing reprimanded — has beenelevated to a power position.

The judiciary is an inde-pendent pillar of Indian democ-racy, and in no way should it beunder pressure to echo the willof the Government of the day.For, if they acquiesce, Indiandemocracy will be dented. Byappointing a committee with-out consultation, the SC mayalso have committed the samemistake as the Government.The CJI, if he wants the farm-ers and people to restore theirfaith in the judiciary, should dis-band the committee for nowand evaluate the members’ pro-file. People like Ghanwat andhis organisation who openlydefy the rule of law, should bepunished, not honoured.

(The writer is the Director –Policy and Outreach, NationalSeed Association of India. Theviews expressed are personal.)

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Vaccines go a long way in managing, control-ling, eliminating deadly, sometimes debil-itating infectious diseases. Smallpox was thefirst example of a dreaded disease, with a mortal-ity rate as high as 30 per cent, being eradicated bya vaccine. But it was a long journey from the devel-opment of the vaccine to the elimination of thedisease. Edward Jenner, an English physician, wasthe first to demonstrate the effect of a vaccine in1796.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) ini-tiated a campaign to eradicate smallpox in 1959,but despite their best efforts, smallpox was stillwidespread in 1966, causing regular outbreaks inmultiple countries. Then in 1967 efforts were inten-sified and scientists came up with a higher qual-ity freeze-dried vaccine, bifurcated needle and astringent surveillance system. India achieved thetarget of eradication of smallpox in 1975 after avery intense vaccination and containment cam-paign. So, it took almost 200 years, when on May8, 1980, the 33rd World Health Assembly official-ly declared the world free of the disease.

Smallpox is not the only example. Over theyears, vaccines emerged as a powerful tool to pro-tect populations against various disease-causingorganisms. Our scientists have developed vaccinesthat provide complete or partial protection againstdiseases such as plague, cholera, rabies, polio,measles, rotavirus and influenza among others.

When COVID-19 hit the world last year, sci-entists across the globe came together to developan effective vaccine against it. Interestingly, with-in 10 months of decoding the virus' genomesequence, many vaccines were not only developedbut tested for their safety and efficacy. With vac-cines we have achieved an important milestone inour fight against COVID. It is a matter of pridethat two vaccines have become available in India.One has been fully made in India and the otherhas been developed in partnership and manufac-tured in the country. Till now, India had been try-ing to slow the spread of the infection and con-trol the number of Coronavirus cases without avaccine through conventional and knownapproaches like using masks, social distancing,hand hygiene, detection of cases, isolation, con-tact tracing and testing. Progress in medical man-agement through modern as well as traditionalmedicine systems has also contributed to preven-tion and improved treatment outcomes in thecountry.

While all these methods will remain relevanttill the virus is defeated, building the immunecapacity of individuals and the population throughvaccination can prove to be another highly effec-tive shield against COVID. We are at an impor-tant juncture in our fight against the Coronavirus.On January 16, the Government rolled out the vac-cines across the country. Its plan to inoculate 30crore people in the first phase of the vaccinationdrive is an ambitious one, especially when the vac-cine has to be given in two doses, at an intervalof four-six weeks.

To execute this drive effectively, theGovernment has recruited an army of vaccinators,on-ground staff, experts to keep a watch on theadverse events that have been reported from manyplaces, specialists to address these adverse eventsin the shortest possible time and data specialiststo analyse the large amount of data the nationwide

vaccine drive would generate. It has alsocreated the physical infrastructure for thestorage and transportation of the vaccine.

This sounds like the Governmenthad to do too much in too short a time.But times have changed and viruses arebecoming smarter. With humans trav-elling across the world, viruses too aretravelling to all nooks and corners of theglobe. As a result, an endemic turns intoan epidemic and an epidemic turns intoa pandemic in a blink of an eye. As weall know, this is what happened with theCoronavirus too. So, the fight in thesetimes is not only against viruses, but alsoagainst time. Especially where theCOVID-19 is concerned.

A new strain with the potential tospread faster has appeared in the UK,and several other countries, includingIndia. There are many pockets in thecountry which are still not exposed to thevirus. We don't know how the virus isgoing to behave in the coming months.It can come back in small waves, thenspread to newer areas and we may alsosee another severe wave. Hence, we needto put in practice all the lessons we havelearnt during past vaccination drives.From redesigning a vaccine campaign,to recalibrating it to address variousissues that arise after its launch, to theredevelopment of a vaccine itself toaddress the mutation in the virus, thevaccination process may need to bechanged according to the demands oftime. For example, the first polio vaccinethe Salk, which was developed in theearly 1950s, was an injectable one. Itbrought a significant drop in the num-ber of polio cases. Later, in the 1960s theoral poliovirus vaccine was developed.It had a live attenuated virus.

Apart from aspects related to sci-ence, for a vaccine campaign to achieveits target, it may have to overcome var-ious social and political challenges aswell. Every time, we introduce a new vac-cine there is vaccine hesitancy. Peoplehave a lot of concerns — some of themare genuine while some arise out ofrumours and misconceptions abouthow the vaccine can affect their health.There are many historical examples ofsuch lack of communication or miscom-munication becoming barriers in Indiawhich could be overcome by establish-ing good connection with people andtheir leaders. Hence, peoples' concernsshould be identified, addressed as fastas possible by sharing scientific facts withthem and in the language, they canunderstand. Providing complete infor-mation in an effective way, maintainingthe confidence of people in informationfrom authorised Government sources aswell as the mainstream media is asimportant as the logistics of providingvaccines with highest standards of qual-ity. This was done effectively in the pastand hopefully it will be done so now too,especially as there is already a lot of reluc-tance across the country to take the shotsafter a few adverse incidents. However,the fact remains that only nine adverseevents following immunisation thatrequired hospitalisation have beenrecorded so far in India.

Second, adverse event surveillanceafter the vaccination has been strong sofar. It will continue to remain so as thedrive goes forward. Besides, real-timeanalysis of the reports as well as data gen-erated from the various vaccine sitesacross the country will be important tofurther ensure the safety and efficacy of

the vaccine as we go into the mass vac-cination phase.

Whether it is smallpox or polio, wewere able to eradicate the disease witha targeted approach. First, implement itat a wider scale. Slowly, identify the prob-lematic areas. There could be placeswhere the disease prevalence could behigher than the rest of the country, tar-get that area. Then there could be pock-ets where people would be more hesitantto vaccines, target that area with clearcommunication strategies.Communicate with the community, thelocal leaders, address their concern. Aftersome time, the country could face yetanother wave of COVID, or issues ofmutant variant(s) may emerge. We needa robust disease surveillance mechanismto handle any such situation and containthe outbreak before it spreads.

Pandemics can be contained onlywhen people become resistant to the dis-ease-causing pathogen. There are twoways to acquire herd immunity-one, onexposure to the pathogen people devel-op antibodies and immune response inthe body and second, the body developsantibodies when we give the vaccine.Allowing the natural spread of diseaseto generate herd immunity is not desir-able as this comes at the cost of avoid-able morbidity and mortality. Withmass vaccination against COVID-19, theGovernment is determined to protect thepeople. We must help it in every way bygetting rid of our vaccine hesitancy.

(The writer is former Director-General, Indian Council of Medi