ats names vaze as hiran™s murderer...mar 23, 2021 · maharashtra’s anti-corruption bureau...

MP: 12 WOMEN AMONG 13DEAD IN AUTO-BUS CRASHGwalior: Twelve women and aman were killed after the auto-rickshaw in which they weretraveling collided with aspeeding bus in Old Chawniarea of Gwalior in MadhyaPradesh on Tuesday morning.

MARATHA QUOTA BY STATEVALID: CENTRE TO SCNew Delhi: Maharashtra has thelegislative competence forgranting reservation quota toMarathas and its decision isConstitutional as the 102ndamendment does not denude aState of the power to declare itslist of Socially and EducationallyBackward Classes (SEBC), theCentre told the Supreme Courton Tuesday.

RETIRED ARMY MAN SHOTDEAD IN WEST DELHINew Delhi: A 43-year-oldretired Army man was shotdead allegedly by twounidentified men in west Delhi�sJaffarpur Kalan area, police saidon Tuesday. The deceased hasbeen identified as Mukesh.

OVER 200 TEST POSITIVEFOR COVID IN LUCKNOWLucknow:The surge continuedas Covid cases breached the200-mark on Tuesday with 232testing positive in the statecapital. Across the state, a totalof 638 people tested positive asthe active cases climbed to 954.In Lucknow, the fresh casesincluded 24 from Indiranagar,14 from Gomtinagar, 12 eachfrom Aliganj & Mahanagar, 11from Vikasnagar, and nine eachfrom Hazratganj & Jankipuram.

CAPSULE

PNS n NEW DELHI

Aiming to speed up the paceof the vaccination in the

face of an alarming surge inCovid-19 cases, the UnionCabinet on Tuesday allowedthe administration of coron-avirus vaccine to people above45 years of age from April 1,irrespective of comorbidities.

Talking to reporters soonafter the Cabinet meeting,Union Minister PrakashJavadekar announced there willbe no need for medical certifi-cates supporting co-morbidityconditions, as the Governmenthad stipulated earlier for thesecond phase of vaccination.

So far since the launch ofthe national vaccination pro-gramme, over 4.8 crore peoplehave been inoculated withmore than 32.53 lakh Covid-19vaccine doses administered onMonday itself. These includehealth workers like doctorsand nurses, frontline workerslike police and municipal work-ers followed by those above 60years and 45 years but with co-morbidities. However, now“everyone above 45 years of agewith or without comorbiditieswill be able to get the Covid-19vaccine from April 1,”Javadekar said.

While announcing theGovernment’s decision,Javadekar appealed to all eligi-ble citizens to get themselvesregistered to get inoculated

with the coronavirus vaccines.The Union Minister assuredthe nation that there is noshortage of Covid vaccinedoses in the country.

“We have enough vaccines.All eligible people should getregistered as it is a shieldagainst Covid-19. We appeal allabove 45+ should get vacci-nated,” Javadekar said.

The decision to widen thevaccine ambit comes amid theconcern that the doubling timeof Covid-19 cases in India hasdecreased from 504.4 days onMarch 1 to 202.3 days onMarch 23, with six States —Maharashtra, Punjab,Karnataka, Gujarat,Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu

— reporting a surge in dailynew cases and togetheraccounting for 80.90 per centof the new infections reportedin a day.

When asked to commenton the UK coronavirus variant

cases found in Punjab,Javadekar said he was not ahealth expert, but can say thatthe virus erupts in several vari-ants. “More cases are expected.States which are noticing morecase, we are in constant touch

with them,” he added.As per the advice by sci-

entists and world scientist bod-ies, the second dose can beadministered between the sixthand eight week, particularly forCovishield. India has approvedCovaxin developed by BharatBiotech and Covishield fromthe Oxford-AstraZeneca andSerum Institute of India (SII).

Of 4.8 crore (4,84,94,594)vaccine doses administeredthrough 7,84,612 sessions,78,59,579 healthcare workers(HCWs) have taken the firstdose, 49,59,964 HCWs sec-ond dose, 82,42,127 frontlineworkers (FLWs) have receivedthe first dose and 29,03,477FLWs have taken the seconddose.

Besides, 42,98,310 benefi-ciaries aged more than 45 to 60with specific co-morbiditiesand more than 2 crore(2,02,31,137) beneficiaries agedmore than 60 years have beenadministered the first dose.

According to theGovernment, fourteen Statesand UTs have not reported anyCovid-19 deaths in the last 24hours.

These are Jammu &Kashmir, Goa, Uttarakhand,Odisha, Lakshadweep, Sikkim,Daman and Diu and Dadraand Nagar Haveli, Ladakh,Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram,Andaman and Nicobar Islands,Arunachal Pradesh andNagaland.

All 45+ can take Covid jab from Apr 1PNS n CHANDIGARH

Eighty-one per cent of thelatest 401 samples sent by

Punjab for genome sequenc-ing have been tested positivefor the new UK Covid-19variant. Alarmed, the ChiefMinister Capt AmarinderSingh on Tuesday urged thePrime Minister NarendraModi to widen the vaccina-tion ambit to cover thoseyounger than 60 as “themutant has been found to beinfecting young people more”.

At the same time, theChief Minister has alsoappealed to the people to getthemselves vaccinated andstrictly adhere to the Covidsafety protocols.

Expressing concern overthe emerging situation, theChief Minister stressed theneed for the CentralGovernment to urgently openup the vaccination for a big-ger section of the populace.“The process needs to beexpedited,” he said, pointingto the fact that experts hadfound the existing Covishieldvaccine to be equally effectiveagainst the UK variant -B.1.1.7.

“It is essential to vaccinatemore and more people tobreak the chain of transmis-sion,” he added.

The CM also urged thepeople to strictly adhere to allCovid safety protocols,including wearing of masksand maintaining social dis-tancing. The StateGovernment, which hasalready announced freshrestrictions, would be forcedto impose more curbs if thepeople do not follow theCovid appropriate behaviour,he warned.

The appeal from theChief Minister came afterthe State’s Covid expertcommittee head, Dr KKTalwar, apprised him of thedevelopments on the newvariant in the State, whichhas been witnessing a surgein the number of Covid-19positive cases during the lastfew weeks.

The State HealthDepartment had sent a totalof 478 Covid positive samplesto National Institute ofBiologicals (NIB), Institute ofGenomics and IntegrativeBiology (IGIB), and NationalCentre for Disease Control(NCDC) for genomesequencing, of which resultsof 90 samples were receivedand those showed only twosamples for N440K variant.

Subsequently, a teamfrom the Union Ministry of

Continued on 1

81% of Punjab samplesshow UK variant

Bhubaneswar: Odisha mighthave to stop its coronavirusimmunisation drive for fourdays starting at the end ofMarch because of a shortage ofvaccine doses. The State doeshave vaccines for 4 days.

Nagpur: Nagpur’s Covid-19tally rose by 3,095 on Tuesdayto touch 1,99,771, while thedeath toll increased by 33 andthe recovery count by 2,136,an official said.

ODISHA WARNS OFVACCINE SHORTAGE,IMMUNISATION HALT

NAGPUR SEES 3,095CORONAVIRUSCASES, 33 DEATHS,2,136 RECOVERIES

No shortage of Covid vaccine, says Union Minister

TN RAGHUNATHA n MUMBAI

In a significant breakthroughin the alleged Mansukh

Hiran murder case,Maharashtra’s Anti-CorruptionBureau (ACB) on Tuesdaynamed arrested police officerSachin Vaze as one of the sus-pected accused in the sensa-tional case and said that itwould seek his custody in thecoming days.

Talking to media personshere, ATS Additional Director-General of Police Jai Jeet Singhsaid, “In our investigations,we have found evidence tosuggest that Vaze was involvedin the alleged murder ofMansukh Hiran. There areseveral suspects in the case.Vaze has denied his role in themurder. His statement does nothold water.”

“As part of our ongoingtechnical investigations intothe case, we have come toknow that one of the arrestedaccused Naresh Gore hadobtained a SIM card for anoth-er arrested accused VinayakShinde, a convicted police con-

stable, from a person known tohim from Gujarat. Vaze’s linkto the case has been establishedon the basis of this SIM card.After we established this, wearrested Shinde and Gore,”ATS Additional DGP said.

Meanwhile, the ATS hasrecorded the statements of sev-eral witnesses in the case.

Singh said that the ATSwould soon file a petition in thecourt seeking the custody ofVaze from the NIA.

Vaze, who is an accused inthe case involving the plantingof an explosive laden SUVnear industrialist MukeshAmbani’s residence in southMumbai on February 25, willremain in the custody of NIAtill March 25.

The ATS’ confirmationabout Vaze’s alleged involve-

ment came two days after theATS arrested Shinde and Gore.

It may be recalled thatHiran’s body was recoveredfrom the marshy Reti-Bundercreek Mumbra in the neigh-bouring Thane district onMarch 5.

Shinde is a dismissedpoliceman, who has been con-victed in the case involving thefake encounter of RamnarayanGupta alias Lakhan Bhaiya.Bhaiya was killed in a fakeencounter on November 11,2006. In 2013, a Mumbai ses-sions court had awarded lifesentences to 21 people, includ-ing 13 Mumbai Police person-nel, convicted in the case.

Shinde has been on parole.The investigations by the ATShave revealed that Shinde wasin regular touch with Vazeand helped the latter in hisactivities.

Among other things, theATS Additional DGP admittedthat the accused had eithertried to destroy evidence or dis-pose off mobile phones, SIMcards and CCTV footages relat-ing to the case.

ATS names Vaze asHiran�s murderer

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Supreme Court will onWednesday hear the plea by

Mumbai’s former PoliceCommissioner Param BirSingh seeking direction forimmediate “impartial and fair”CBI probe into alleged corruptmalpractices of MaharashtraHome Minister AnilDeshmukh.

As per the Wednesday’scause list uploaded on the apexcourt website, the petitionwould come up for hearingbefore a bench comprisingJustices SK Kaul and RS Reddy.

Singh, a 1988 batch IPSofficer, has also sought quash-ing of the Government ordertransferring him from the postof Mumbai Commissioner ofPolice alleging it to be “arbi-trary” and “illegal”.

As an interim relief, he hassought stay of the operation ofhis transfer order and directionto State Government, theCentre and CBI to immediate-ly take in its custody the CCTVfootage from the residence ofDeshmukh.

Continued on Page 11

SC to hear todayParam Bir�s pleafor probe againstMaharashtra HM

PTI n NEW DELHI

In a major relief to borrowers,the Supreme Court on

Tuesday directed that no com-pound or penal interest becharged for the six-monthmoratorium announced lastyear amid the Covid-19 pan-demic and the amount alreadyrecovered is to be refunded oradjusted in the next instalmentof loan account.

While refusing to extendthe period of moratorium, theapex court said there is “no jus-tification” to charge interest oninterest or compound interestfor the period during the mora-torium once the payment ofinstalment is deferred by lastyear’s March 27 notification.

The Reserve Bank of India(RBI) had on March 27, 2020issued the circular allowinglending institutions to grant amoratorium on payment ofinstalments of term loans

falling due between March 1and May 31 of last year due tothe pandemic. The moratoriumwas extended by three monthstill August 31.

The top court delivered theverdict on a batch of petitionsseeking reliefs, including exten-sion of loan moratorium, com-plete waiver of interest or inter-est on interest during the mora-torium period and sector wiserelief packages.

“However, it is directedthat there shall not be anycharge of interest on inter-est/compound interest/penalinterest for the period duringthe moratorium and anyamount already recoveredunder the same head, namely,interest on interest/penal inter-est/compound interest shall berefunded to the concernedborrowers and to be givencredit/adjusted in the nextinstalment of the loan account,”a bench headed by Justice

Ashok Bhushan said in its 148-page judgment.

The apex court bench, alsocomprising Justices RS Reddyand MR Shah, noted that by anotification dated March 27 lastyear, the Government has pro-vided deferment of instalmentsdue and payable during themoratorium period.

“Once the payment ofinstalment is deferred as percircular dated March 27, 2020,nonpayment of the instal-ment during the moratoriumperiod cannot be said to bewillful and therefore there is nojustification to charge the inter-est on interest/compoundinterest/penal interest for theperiod during the moratorium,”the bench said.

“Interim relief granted ear-lier not to declare the accountsof respective borrowers as NPAstands vacated,” the apex courtsaid.


No penal interest can be chargedfor 6-month moratorium, says SC

STAFF REPORTER nNARAYANPUR

Five police personnel werekilled and 13 others injured

as Maoists blew up a bus inwhich they were travelling inChhattisgarh’s Narayanpur dis-trict on Tuesday, police officialssaid.

The landmine explosiontook place betweenKanhargaon and Kadenar vil-lages in the Dhaudai police sta-tion limits.

Personnel from the DistrictReserve Guard (DRG) werereturning in the bus toNarayanpur town, 300 km awayfrom Raipur, after a counter-insurgency operation, InspectorGeneral of Police (Bastar range)Sundarraj P said.

“Five DRG personnel,including the driver, werekilled,” he said.

On Monday, a joint team ofsecurity forces fromNarayanpur and neighbour-ing Dantewada district hadlaunched the anti-Maoist oper-ation along the inter-districtborder.

Around 3 pm on Tuesday,forces belonging to Narayanpurreturned to Kademeta camp inthe district following which

those belonging to DRG fromthe district headquarters left inthe bus, Sundarraj said.

Around 4.15 pm, theMaoists triggered three IED(improvised explosive device)blasts targeting the bus, whichhad around 25 personnel, neara culvert. In the impact, the busfell into the culvert, he said.


5 cops martyred as Maoistsblow up bus in Chhattisgarh

View of the site of a bombing allegedly by Maoist rebels, killing at least fivepolicemen, in Narayanpur district of Chhattisgarh on Tuesday PTI

PNSn NEW DELHI

Owing to the prevailingCovid-19 situation, the

Directorate General of CivilAviation (DGCA) has extend-ed suspension of scheduledinternational commercial pas-senger flights till April 30.

“However, internationalscheduled flights may beallowed onselected routesby the compe-tent authorityon a case-to-case basis,” theDGCA added.

Scheduledinternationalpassenger ser-vices have beensuspended inIndia since March 23, 2020, dueto the Covid-19 pandemic. Butspecial international flightshave been operating under the

Vande Bharat Mission sinceMay and under bilateral “airbubble” arrangements withselected countries since July.

India has formed air bub-ble pacts with 27 countries,including the US, the UK, theUAE, Kenya, Bhutan andFrance. Under an air bubblepact between two countries,special international flights can

be operat-ed by theira i r l i n e sb e t w e e ntheir terri-tories.

T h eD G C Ac i r c u l a ralso saidthat thes u s p e n -

sion does not affect the oper-ation of international all-cargooperations and flights specifi-cally approved by it.

A medic administers first dose of Covid-19 vaccine to an elderly woman as other senior citizens wait at Mayors Health Clinicin Kolkata on Tuesday PTI

Int�l flight suspensionextended till April 30

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Late City Vol. 157 Issue 81*Air Surcharge Extra if Applicable

Published From DELHI LUCKNOW BHOPAL BHUBANESWAR

RANCHI RAIPUR CHANDIGARH DEHRADUN HYDERABAD VIJAYWADA

Established 1864RNI No. 2016/1957, REGD No. SSP/LW/NP-34/2019-21

LUCKNOW, WEDNESDAY MARCH 24, 2021; PAGES 14 `3

OPINION 8 PM�S BANGLADESH VISIT

WILL REINVIGORATE BOND

AVENUES 12EMERGING TRENDS IN

FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT

}}WORLD 11

CHINA SUMMONS FOREIGN DIPLOMATSIN PROTEST OVER SANCTIONS

SHAFALI VERMAREGAINS NO 1SPOT IN T20s14 SPORT

Yogi cracks the whip again, three IPSofficers given compulsory retirementPNS n LUCKNOW

In a crackdown on officerswith corruption charges or

those found unfit to work in theinterest of society, Chief MinisterYogi Adityanath removed threeofficers of the elite Indian PoliceServices (IPS) cadre.

The order for compulsoryretirement of the three IPS offi-cers, including the controversialAmitabh Thakur, was issued bythe Ministry of Home Affairs(MHA), confirmed AdditionalChief Secretary (Home) AwanishKumar Awasthi here on Tuesday.

According to reports, a writ-ten order issued by the MHA saidthat Amitabh Thakur, an IPS offi-cer of 1992 batch, had been givenretirement even before the com-pletion of his service with imme-diate effect in the public interest.The order said that Thakur wasnot found fit to be retained for theremaining tenure of his service.He still had about seven years ofservice left and was to retire inJune, 2028.

Interestingly, Thakur,presently posted as IG CivilDefense himself took to Twitterto inform that he has been givena compulsory retirement by the

Home Ministry. He furthershared that he had just receivedthe VRS order, stating that thegovernment no longer needs hisservices and hence has beengiven a premature retirement. Heclaimed that he would gothrough the entire order and if hefound any injustice, he wouldtake necessary action to challengeit. He also added that he will con-tinue to work as an activist justlike he did all through his service.

Thakur had in 2017 urgedthe Centre to dispose of hisrequest for change of cadre, say-ing the ‘bias’ against him does notexist anymore following theSamajwadi Party’s rout in thepolls. Thakur had earlier sent anapplication to the Union HomeMinistry for a change of cadrefrom Uttar Pradesh to any otherstate, citing threat to his life.

Thakur was suspended onJuly 13, 2015, days after he had

accused Samajwadi Party supre-mo Mulayam Singh Yadav ofthreatening him. The state gov-ernment had then initiated a vig-ilance inquiry against him.However, the Lucknow Bench ofthe Central AdministrativeTribunal stayed the suspension ofThakur in April and ordered hisreinstatement with full salarywith effect from October 11,2015.

Reports said that besidesThakur, two more IPS officers,Rajesh Krishna, 2005 batch IPSofficer posted as Commandant of10th Battalion PAC in Barabanki,and Rakesh Shankar, 2002 batchIPS officer posted as DIG(Establishment) in Lucknow,were also served compulsoryretirement order by the govern-ment. Krishna’s retirement isdue for May 2024 while Shankaris to retire in June 2023.

Krishna was facing chargesof corruption when duringrecruitment of constables duringthe Mulayam Singh Yadavregime, raids were conducted andheavy cash was recovered fromhis room. Similarly, RakeshShankar was facing charges ofimproper supervision in theDeoria Shelter Home case.

CBI gets nod to prosecute executive engineerLucknow (PTI): The Uttar Pradesh government has given themandatory sanction to the CBI to prosecute an executive engi-neer of the Irrigation Department for allegedly resorting tocorrupt practices in the execution of Lucknow’s Gomti RiverFront Development Project. In an official statement, the stategovernment on Tuesday said the CBI was given the sanctionto prosecute erstwhile Executive Engineer Roop Singh Yadavof Lucknow division’s Sharda Canal.

Following its probe into the corruption case lodged againstYadav, the CBI had indicted him for various malpractices andirregularities in the execution of the project.

The Uttar Pradesh government had recommended a CBIprobe on November 30, 2017 into the execution of the GomtiRiver Front project during the previous Samajwadi Party gov-ernment.

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Six people were killed and two critically injured whena UP State Road Transport Corporation bus was

hit by a container truck from behind in the RudauliKotwali police area in Ayodhya on Tuesday.

Circle Officer Dharmendra Kumar Yadav said thata DCM rammed into two UPSRTC buses en route toGorakhpur from Kanpur in an attempt to overtake.Subsequently, the bus driver stopped the vehicle andwas inspecting the damage.

The passengers were alighting from the bus whena speeding container truck headed to Faizabadrammed into the bus from behind. The people pre-sent on the road were crushed under the bus and weredragged till some distance, resulting in the on the spotdeath of two persons while four others succumbed toinjuries later.

Four among the deceased were identified asAbhishek Kumar Shukla (21), Om Prakash Shukla(48), Dhananjay Vishwakarma (28), Vinod Kumar(40). Two others are yet to be identified. Both theinjured people were referred to the KGMU TraumaCentre.

Among the deceased, five people hailed from theBasti district while one was from Deoria. Earlier inthe day, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath expressed griefat the death of the six people in the accident. Prayingfor the peace of the departed souls, he expressed hiscondolences to the bereaved families. He directed offi-cials that the kin of the deceased be provided a finan-cial assistance of Rs 5 lakh each. The chief ministeralso directed the officials to make proper arrangementsfor the treatment of the injured in the mishap.

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Asample survey conducted bythe government has given

encouraging results, showing thatover 1.50 crore people have gotemployment in over 55 lakhMSME units and majority of themare migrant workers who standbenefitted by this scheme.

The survey shows that in thelast four years, banks have givenloans to 55.45 lakh micro, smalland medium enterprises (MSMEs)in coordination with the stategovernment. The survey covered3,80,331 units out of which9,51,800 were found to have givenemployment.

“On the basis of this survey inwhich employment generation hasbeen physically confirmed, wearrived at the conclusion thatmore than 1.5 crore peoplehave got employment in 55,45,147units,” Additional ChiefSecretary (MSME) Navneet Sehgalsaid.

He said under the YogiAdityanath government’s cam-paign to provide jobs in the privatesector there is an impression that

around two crore jobs have beencreated.

He said to confirm whether theunits in which the people had beenemployed had actually providedemployment or the employmentwas on paper, the government wentfor third party physical verificationof the units.

Sehgal said that third partyphysical verification of each unitwas done by taking inventoryfrom bank branches.

“Out of 55,45,147 MSMEs,3,80,331units have been physical-ly verified and the employment of9.51 lakh people has been physical-ly confirmed while physical veri-fication of 46,20,154 MSMEs is yetto be done,” he said.

World Hindu Economic

Forum’s UP and Uttarakhand con-vener Ajay Gupta says that typical-ly four to five people in a unit getdirect and indirect employment. Insuch a situation, if an average ofthree people are considered to beemployed in one unit, then 1.66crore people have got employment,in UP, he says.

Lucknow has got the maxi-mum employment in the last fouryears in the state.

As per record, over 5.58 lakhpeople have got employment in1.23 lakh industries in Lucknowwhile 49,913 have got jobs in10,838 industries in Ghaziabad. Itis followed by Gautam BuddhaNagar, Meerut Firozabad,Gorakhpur, Budaun, Hathras, RaeBareli and Sitapur.

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Lucknow (PNS): Considering the success of the MissionShakti Abhiyan for safety, dignity and self-reliance ofwomen, the Yogi Adityanath government has decided tolaunch the second phase of this campaign from April forwhich the district magistrates of the state have been direct-ed to prepare a road map for the next one year and submitit to the Women Welfare Department by March 31.

“Separate action plans will be prepared for the issues relat-ed to women and children,” a government spokesman said.

He said after the launch of Mission Shakti, women andthe girls were becoming aware of their legal rights and gov-ernment schemes.

“Women and children still face discrimination and gen-der inequality related issues in many areas. In such a situa-tion, effective communication has an important role in help-ing them overcome those situations. Keeping this in mind,a special social and behaviour change communication mod-ule has been prepared,” said Manoj Kumar Rai, Director,Women Welfare Department and Nodal Officer of MissionShakti.

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The elections to the three tier panchayat bodies, alreadydelayed by over three months, are set to be a semifinal

before the crucial UP assembly polls in March 2022. The pan-chayat elections are crucial for both the ruling Bharatiya JanataParty and the Samajwadi Party as the elected members of pan-chayat bodies constitute the electoral college for 35 seats fromlocal body constituency in the UP Legislative council. TheSP enjoys a majority in the Upper House of UP legislaturewhile the ruling BJP is desperate to gain majority in theLegislative Council.

The results of panchayat elections, which are invariablyscheduled close to assembly polls, are regarded as a measureof the strengths and weaknesses of political parties. These elec-tions, barring those to elect zila panchayat representatives,are not fought on party symbols. Expectedly, the major play-ers hotly contest the results as the outcome loosely definespolitical allegiances in the villages.

Among UP's major parties, the BJP alone has plungedinto the coming panchayat polls with diligence. The BJPregards it as a ‘curtain raiser’ to the 2022 assembly polls, whilethe SP, which is claiming to come to power in the 2022 UPassembly elections, is hesitant to admit it, while the BahujanSamaj Party, the third angle of the UP triangle, has kept typ-ically mum.

The SP contends that rather than investing time and ener-gy on panchayat elections, it would conserve them for thebig battle. But party insiders concede that the SP is tardy intaking on the BJP for the past four years. They say the pan-chayat elections might expose more inadequacies than theparty can cope with and demoralise the cadre.

For the SP, the ongoing farmers' protest is a silver liningas it hopes that the discontent in rural areas over the threefarm laws will help it. The farmers’ agitation has spilled overto most of western Uttar Pradesh and SP and its ally RashtriyaLok Dal have organised kisan panchayats in eastern and cen-tral UP districts.

Leaving little to chance, the BJP has embarked on a ‘ruralconnect’ programme which Radha Mohan Singh, a formerUnion minister and Bihar MP who is the designated UP in-charge, is monitoring along with the state functionaries. TheBJP’s fears the SP, which prides itself as the authentic ruralentity and the rest as “pretenders”, might propagate the per-ception again. The SP plans to flag Chief Minister YogiAdityanath's seat de-reservation move as an issue that mil-itate against the rights of the Other Backward Classes (OBCs)and Dalits.

The BJP’s ‘over-investment’ of time and energy in the pan-chayat elections, likely in March, is being seen as the party’srehearsal for the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly polls.Observers say the BJP is preparing the ground for 2022 byusing the rural polls as a ‘test’ match.

“The BJP is only trying to keep the organisationmachinery oiled and activated for the 2022 battle by keep-ing party workers engaged in the panchayat elections that willbe followed by the indirect polls for the post of zila panchay-at and kshetra panchayat chairpersons,” a BJP leader point-ed out. The BJP, even before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections,has been working hard to make a foray into rural areas bybuilding the party organisation up to the booth level.

BJP’s panchayat election incharge Vijay Bahadur Pathaksaid, “The number of villagers who participated in every vil-lage chaupal has been increasing the enthusiasm of the BJP.The public is excited about the achievements of the Centraland state governments. They have faith in both the govern-ments and hope that only qualified candidates can do wel-fare of the public.”

Lucknow (PNS):Samajwadi Party on Tuesdayskipped the birth anniversarycelebration of veteran socialistleader Ram Manohar Lohia.

It has been a tradition inthe Samajwadi Party since itsinception in October 1992 tocelebrate the birth anniver-sary of Ram Manohar Lohia byorganising a meeting at thestate party office and also toobserve the death anniversaryof the socialist leader onOctober 12.

Sources in the SP saidparty president Akhilesh Yadavwas busy in touring the state inview of the coming panchayatelections and the ongoingfarmers’ unrest.

The SP feels that the farm-ers’ agitation would be a bigopportunity for it during the

panchayat election. AkhileshYadav was in Meerut onTuesday and he has already vis-ited over a dozen districts inconnection with the farmers’unrest, addressing kisan pan-chayats.

In Meerut, Akhilesh Yadavsaid that those who wanted toend the farmers' agitation werethe biggest traitors.

Addressing a publicmeeting after unveiling thestatue of martyr Dhan SinghKotwal at Navjivan KisanDegree College Grounds inMawana tehsil of the district,Yadav said that the farmers feed the nation and the BJPwas calling those farmers as ter-rorists.

He said that the farmershad not got the paddy MSPeven when the BJP was ruling

%��7��/�� Uttar Pradesh for four years. Hesaid the same was the case withthe sugarcane farmers as theirdues had not been cleared bythe sugar mills.

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THE GOODS OFLate Jokhu Ram (Verma) son of Gopi

Ram, Resident of : 205 E.W.S. JhunsiKohna, District : Allahabad.......Deceased

Smt. Indrawati........Petitioner WHEREAS an application has been

made by Smt. Indrawati wife of JokhuRam(Verma), Resident of : 205 E.W.S. JhunsiKohna, District : Allahabad, for the probateof the wili ( or Letters of Administration tothe estate) of Late Jokhu Ram(Verma)deceased, who died at 205, E.W.S,Jhunsi, Allahabad, on 15.08.2017 AND-WHEREAS, the 28" day of April, 2021has been fixed for hearing of the said appli-cation. THIS CITATION is issued callingupon all persons claiming to have anyin-terest to come and see the proceedingsif they think fit before the grant of probate(or Letters of Administration).

Given under my hand ahd the seal ofthe Court this 20" day of March, 2021.

Shri Vikas Srivastava,Advocate Counsel for

the Petitioner. DEPUTY REGISTRARHIGH COURT, ALLAHABAD

Through this notice, Applicant Chandra Prakash authorized signa-tory of M/s Rohit Soaps and Detergents Pvt. Ltd. present RSPL Limitedhaving its Regd. Office119-121, Block P & T, Fazalganj, Kalpi Road KanpurNagar is to inform to all persons that, the company is owner of GataNo. 97 area 0.435 Hect. , Gata No. 12 area 0.389 Hect. and Gata No.301 area 0.061 Hect. all gata nos. situated at Village-Bahermapur, Tehsil-Bilhaur, Kanpur Nagar and the related original sale deed dt. 20.10.1992,22.12.1995 and 22.02.1996 were in the applicant's bag, when the appli-cant was going to bank from office to bank on 02.03.2021. In the waythe bag was lost anywhere. The applicant do hereby inform to all per-sons through this news paper.

PUBLIC INFORMATION

InformantChandra Prakash

RSPL Ltd.

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In the wake of the rising number of novel coron-avirus infections in Uttar Pradesh and other parts

of the country, the Yogi Adityanath government hasissued fresh guidelines for compliance of the Covidprotocol during the Holi festival and panchayat elec-tions. Covid test has been made mandatory for thepersons coming to UP from the states where the inci-dence of novel coronavirus infection is high. All theschools up to class 8 will be closed from March 24to March 31. Other educational institutions, barringmedical and nursing colleges, will be closed for theHoli festival from March 25 to 31, while examina-tions will be allowed, if being held.

UP Chief Secretary Rajendra Kumar Tiwariissued orders on Tuesday that no procession wouldbe taken out without the prior permission of the dis-trict administration. He said the organisers of theprocession would be responsible for the complianceof the Covid protocol like social distancing, use ofmasks, and would ensure the availability of sanitis-er. The order restricts persons above the age of 60years and children below 10 years from participat-ing in procession. The government has issued newguidelines keeping in mind the spike in novel coro-navirus infections in the state. In view of Holi, liquorparties and rain dance parties have been banned inthe entire state. The district magistrates and districtpolice chiefs have been directed to prevent liquorparties and rain dance parties. The order alsorestricts the number of visitors in police trainingschools and other training centres. According to theorder, contract tracing will be further intensified.The Yogi government has ordered that the Covidhelp desk be activated again and Covid dedicatedhospitals are being revived.

Earlier on Monday, Chief Minister YogiAdityanath had decided in a high-level meeting toannounce Holi holidays in all government and pri-vate schools from classes one to eight from March24 to 31 and in other educational institutions whereexaminations were not being held from March 25 to 31.

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The surge continued asCovid cases breached the

200-mark on Tuesday with 232testing positive in the statecapital. Across the state, a totalof 638 people tested positive.Besides, 38 patients recoveredeven as the active cases climbedto 954. In Lucknow, the freshcases included 24 fromIndiranagar, 14 fromGomtinagar, 12 each fromAliganj & Mahanagar, 11 fromVikasnagar, and nine eachfrom Hazratganj & Jankipuram.

In the state, the casesincluded 26 from Kanpur, 25from Varanasi, 24 each fromfrom Ghaziabad & Meerut,and 15 from Gautam BuddhNagar, pushing the case tallyto 6,08,709. Four death due toCovid-19 were reported; oneeach from Agra, Mathura,Sitapur and Farrukhabad.

Besides, 181 patientsdefeated Covid-19, taking therecovery figures to 5,96,101while there are 3,844 activecases in the state.

Three private hospitals inthe state capital have been re-notified as Covid facilities inview of the resurgent coron-avirus. According to incharge

of Integrated Control andCommand Centre and chiefdevelopment officer PrabhasKumar, these are Chandan,Mayo and Medanta hospitals.

He said that maximumcases are being detected inAlambagh, Aliganj, Chinhat,Indiranagar and Sarojininagar.“These are our focus areas andmaximum rapid responseteams are present there for sur-veillance and containmentactivities. We already haveRML, KGMU and SGPGI asCovid facilities. As and whenwe see the requirement, we willnotify more hospitals,” headded. Kumar said they held ameeting of all the bankers andbusinessmen to make themaware of the coronavirus spread

and preventive measures. “Lastyear, the Covid cases hadtouches the 100-mark in amonth but this year, the num-bers have breached that markwithin a week. We are trying tomotivate as many people aspossible to follow Covid proto-cols. They will be givenIvermectin tablets for distrib-ution among their staffers,” hesaid, adding that it would willhelp them build immunity.

“We have observed that thesource of infection is travellerscoming from states likeMaharashtra and Delhi, andhence sufficient number ofteams have been deployed totest these people. We are tryingto take as many samples as pos-sible. We have also restarted

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The Covid vaccination of jail inmates across thestate was carried out on Tuesday. A senior offi-

cial from National Health Mission said the vacci-nation drive for the jail inmates would continueon Wednesday. “We hope to vaccinate the jailinmates aged 45-60 years in two days,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Central government’s nod tothe vaccination of people aged above 45 years fromApril 1 has spelt relief for those waiting to get them-selves vaccinated.

A senior health official said they are now wait-ing for the Central government directives in thisregard. “We have been in favour of this becausemaximum number of professionals moving out inthe field belong to this age group and they havebeen exposed to the risk of contracting infection,”he said. He added that it would help in curbing thespread of coronavirus.

The state government had recently made sug-gestions to the Centre for vaccination of peopleaged above 50 years irrespective of whether or notthey have co-morbidities.

President of People’s Health Organisation DrIshwar Gilada also welcomed the Central govern-ment’s decision. “With the current guidelines of pri-oritising people with co-morbidities in the 45-60age bracket, there were a lot of issues. There is alsoa glitch in the CoWIN app at the time of enteringdata at the vaccination centres. This new guidelinehas come as a saviour for the medical communi-ty,” he added.

District immunisation officer Dr MK Singhsaid that a total of 6,508 people were vaccinatedin the district, including 3,245 senior citizens and1,241 those aged above 45 years with co-morbidi-ties. Besides, 576 frontline workers were given thefirst vaccine dose while 551 the second. As forhealth workers, 660 received the first dose while233 the second.

Lucknow (PNS): A 3-year-oldboy was injured after a wall ofa dilapidated house came crash-ing down on him in Indiranagaron Tuesday. Police registered acase against the contractor andlabourers.

As per reports, YashKashyap (3) of Indiranagar,along with his uncle Lalit, wasreturning home after purchas-ing some items from a shop. Onthe way, a contractor was getting

the walls of a dilapidated housedemolished for reconstructionwithout putting any sign boardsor cordoning off the area.

Lalit said when he and Yashwere passing from near thehouse, a wall caved in on them.“I suffered injuries in the mishapwhile my nephew got stuckunder the debris. Locals rushedto our rescue and pulled outYash from under the debris. Wetook Yash to RMLIMS where he

is under treatment,” Lalit said.He alleged that the incident tookplace due to the negligence ofthe contactor and labourerswho were pulling down the oldhouse.

The police registered a caseunder Section 338 of IPC forcausing grievous hurt to anyperson by doing any act so rash-ly or negligently as to endangerhuman life, or the personalsafety of others.

calling patients in home isola-tion twice and recording theirsymptoms and then advisingthem at the right time if theyneed hospitalisation. We havealso reactivated our ambulancesystem. Earlier, there werearound 30-35 ambulances butas the cases decreased, thenumber of ambulances camedown to 15. Now, we areincreasing the number ofambulances again. Besides, wehave also reactivated our

Grievance Cell that willrespond to general queriesregarding coronavirus,” he elaborated.

District MagistrateAbhishek Prakash went in thefield on Tuesday for a realitycheck in terms of the contain-ment activities being carriedout. He issued directions forproper sanitisation activities atAliganj CHC. He also inspect-ed the containment zone inNiralanagar.,��%��

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Udarbond/ Silchar/ Borkhola: Senior BJP leader YogiAdityanath Tuesday accusedthe opposition Congress ofindulging in “divisive politics”that led to the Partition of thecountry in 1947 and “having thesame mindset” now as evidentfrom its alliance with theAIUDF to fight the coming statepolls in Assam.

Addressing a series of elec-tion rallies in Barak valley ofpoll-bound Assam, Adityanath,also the Uttar Pradesh ChiefMinister asserted, the countrywas “forced” to be divided in1947 because of the Congress’pursuit of power.

“I can see a lot of Bengali-speaking people here in the rally.In their pursuit of power, theCongress, due to its divisive pol-icy, made your ancestors expe-rience Partition in 1947 when(present-day) Bangladesh andPakistan were a part of India,”claimed Adityanath.

Noting that leaders likeNetaji Subhash Chandra Bosehad warned the Congress of thedangers of such a divisive pol-icy before 1945, Adityanathsaid, “Congress is not a party tocorrect itself and so resolved tolet India be partitioned.”

“What the British couldnot achieve through thePartition of Bengal in 1905,Congress did in 1947 by joininghands with the English (British).How your ancestors suffereddue to this divisive policy, youcan see even today in

Bangladesh, the way Hindus arepersecuted, their homes setablaze and their templesdestroyed,” he alleged.

Slamming the grand oldparty, the saffron party leadersaid, “The Congress still has thesame mindset that divided thecountry in 1947, imposed arti-cle 370 in 1952, instigatedBodoland movement in Assam.With that mindset it made pollalliance with AIUDF to onceagain create instability in thestate through illegal migration”.

Adityanath also took aswipe at Congress leader RahulGandhi accusing him ofremembering Assam only dur-ing elections to seek votes.

“Did Rahul Gandhi or anyCongress leader rememberAssam during floods or the pan-demic? Such leaders should beforgotten. Congress has nodevelopment agenda,” he said.

The BJP leader further tar-geted the Congress for alleged-ly failing to solve the problemsof recurring floods, illegalmigrants and the condition oftea garden workers during itsgovernance in Assam.

Highlighting that the saf-fron party will permanentlysolve the problems of illegalmigrants and flood menace if itis re-elected in Assam,Adityanath said, his party willalso undertake a scheme for giv-ing a new identity to tea gardensand its workers in the state.

“Five years ago when theCongress was in power, there

was no discussion on the devel-opment of Assam and divisionswere created among people onthe basis of areas for politicalgains.

“Differences were createdbetween upper and lowerAssam and there were problemsof Bodoland, illegal migrants,insurgency,” Adityanath said.

Alleging that duringCongress rule in the state, therewere bomb blasts, bandhs calledin protest against various issues,besides law and order problems,he claimed that in the last fiveyears after the BJP formed agovernment here, “there is peacein Assam ...and the state isreaching new heights of devel-opment”.

“Change came under PrimeMinister Narendra Modi whoconverted the ‘Look East’ poli-cy to ‘Act East’ policy changingthe image of the northeastregion”, the UP chief ministersaid. In the last five years,Assam has reached new heightsof development due to theprime minister's vision for thestate and the country to solveproblems, and the efforts of theSarbananda Sonowal-led gov-ernment here for restoringpeace, unity and bring develop-ment to the state without anydiscrimination, he said.

Pointing out that duringCongress rule in Assam, thestate government had notundertaken welfare measuresfor tea garden workers,Adityanath said. It was Chief

Minister Sarbananda Sonowalof the BJP-led dispensation whoraised wages of tea gardenworkers to Rs 217 which will befurther raised to over Rs 300 perday, if voted to power, the BJPleader said.

Coming down heavily onthe Congress, Adityanath said,unlike the BJP which onlyworks for infrastructure devel-opment, people’s welfare andimproving connectivity, “theOpposition party during itsrule had resorted to divisive pol-itics, lawlessness and still con-tinues to do so today.”

Continuing his attack onthe grand old party, Adityanathsaid that the Congress in 1952had introduced Article 370granting special status to Jammuand Kashmir which allegedly“paved the way for militancythere”.

“Congress had put restric-tions on buying land there. Butnow with revocation of Article370, anybody from any part ofthe country, even from Assam,can buy property there”, hesaid. Adityanath pointed outthat Jan Sangh founder SyamaPrasad Mookerjee had strong-ly opposed Article 370, sayingit was a threat to national unityas in a country there cannot betwo Constitutions, two flagsand two prime ministers.

It was PM Modi who ful-filled Mookerjee’s dream byrevoking Article 370, therebyending militancy in Kashmir, hesaid. PTI

Lucknow (PNS): A Jal Nigamassistant engineer ended his lifeallegedly due to harassment atthe hands of his boss inIndiranagar on Tuesday. OnTuesday morning, RamaPrakash (54) of Rajeev Nagarlocality in the area was rushedto RMLIMS where he wasdeclared brought dead around10 am.

Police said Rama Prakashwas found hanging from theceiling with a rope tied aroundhis neck around 9 am Tuesdayand his daughter ShaliniSahani took him to the hospi-tal.

Later, Shalini lodged a caseagainst Kamlesh Singh, anexecutive engineer of JalNigam (Sitapur), for abetmentto suicide. In her complaint,she said her father ended hislife around 9 am on Tuesday.“A suicide note written by myfather was found in the room.My father held executive engi-neer Kamlesh Singh responsi-ble for the extreme step that hetook. He wrote that he wasbeing harassed by KamleshSingh and that he was respon-sible for the incident,” she toldthe police.

She further said Singh wasforcing her father to sign onsome documents for some

official work. On her com-plaint, the police registered acase for abetment to suicideagainst Kamlesh Singh.

Elsewhere in Hussainganj,a grocer, Saurabh of Chitwapurlocality, was found hanging inhis house. Father Shanker LalSahu said he went to wake upSaurabh but he did notrespond to calls even as thedoor was bolted from inside.“We broke open the doors,only to find Saurabh hangingfrom the ceiling,” he toldpolice.

In PGI police station area,a teenager, identified asJitendra (18) aka Ani of BarauliKhalilabad locality, hangedhimself in his house on theintervening night of Mondayand Tuesday. According to hisbrother, Jitendra was foundhanging from the ceiling witha scarf tied around his neck.

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A21-year-old Assamese wasmurdered during a brawl

over gambling in Indiranagarsome time on Monday night.His body was recovered froma secluded place in the area onTuesday morning. Citingautopsy report, police said theyouth was strangled to death.The bereaved family alsoclaimed that there were injurymarks on the body.

The victim was identifiedas Jahangeer, who lived in aslum area in Suggamau villageand was a native of Barpeta inAssam. His father Jamaluddinlodged a case in this connec-tion. As per reports, Jahangeerleft his house on Mondayevening after getting a callfrom a friend, identified asRafiquddin. However, he didnot come back and wasuntraceable. Late in the night,Jahangeer’s father got a callfrom Rafiquddin, who toldhim that Jahangeer lost moneyin gambling and his mobile hadbeen mortgaged. Jamaluddinsaid he and other family mem-bers went out in search ofJahangeer, but to no avail.

“This morning, we weretold about recovery of a bodyfrom a secluded place inChandan village, and we wentthere. We were shocked tofind Jahangeer lying dead.There were injuries marks onhis mouth and limbs. He mayhave been attacked brutally byhis rivals,” he said.

Jamaluddin suspected therole of Rafiquddin in the mur-der. “It was Rafiquiddin whocalled and informed us aboutthe gambling session thatJahangeer had with him andothers,” he told the police.

The police said they recov-ered bricks and other itemsfrom the crime scene. “Teamshave been formed to nab theaccused. We know the name ofonly one suspect as of now andhe has been detained for inter-rogation,” the police said,adding that teams were alsosearching for the mobile phoneof the victim and had alsosought call detail records.

Meanwhile, a labourer waskilled while his friend and col-league injured in a road mishapin Para police station area onTuesday morning. The victimwas identified as Vinod Kumarof Nagram while his friend asSujeet Verma of Pratapgarh.

As per reports, Vinod andSujeet were going to theirworkplace. When they reachedHanskheda locality near Parapolice outpost, a speeding truckhit their bike. Both sufferedserious injuries and wererushed to Lok Bandhu hospi-tal where Vinod was declaredbrought dead.

In another incident, a 30-year-old labourer, who wasworking at an under-construc-tion house in Indiranagar, diedafter he fell off the terrace onMonday. The deceased wasidentified as Vijay Kumar ofLakhimpur Kheri.

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The Lucknow Nagar Nigampassed a budget of Rs

1946.82-crore budget onTuesday that focuses ondevelopmental.

Giving highlights of thebudget, Mayor SanyuktaBhatia said Rs 1 crore hadbeen earmarked for a 151-foot tal l statue of LordLaxman who founded andestabl ished the city ofLucknow while no new taxwas imposed on the citizens.

The budget has ear-marked Rs 5 crore for Covidcrisis, and has made provi-sion for installation of statuesof freedom fighters BhagatSingh, Rajguru and Sukhdevtogether in one of city’s parks,construction of urinals andbaby feeding centres in nagarnigam parks and establish-ment of a Mahila Bazaar asproposed by Mahila Sadan.

Taking inspiration fromthe ‘Catch the Water’ cam-paign of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, the mayor

announced that a 5 per centrebate will be given in housetax where arrangements aremade for rain water harvest-ing. Rs 50 lakh has been ear-marked for the establishmentof Valmiki CommunityCentre, Rs 5 crore for clean-ing bigger drains to clearwater-logging during rains,Rs 4 crore for pumping sta-tions, Rs 176 crore for devel-opment of roads and drains,Rs 2 crore for new garbagehouses and Rs 1 crore for toilets.

For improving the rank-ing in Swachhata Ranking, Rs36 crore has been earmarkedfor solid waste management,Rs 11 crore for stray animals,Rs 140 crore for keeping thecity clean, Rs 30 crore formaintenance of the parks, Rs2 crore for construction ofcompost pits in parks, Rs 2crore for making a vendingzone for poor people and Rs8 crore for new parking lots.The mayor said Rs 16.35crore would be spent onneedy students, Rs 4 crore onthe construction of schoolsand Rs 5 lakh on libraries.

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Mystery shrouds the deathof two teenage sisters

who were missing sinceMonday evening and theirbodies were recovered in theJasauli village adjoining theShahjahanpur highway inBisalpur Kotwali area ofPilibhit on Tuesday morning.One body was found hangingwhile another was recoveredfrom an agricultural field nearby.

The family membersclaimed it to be a murder caseand also suspected that bothmight have been sexuallyassaulted before being killed.

Superintendent of PoliceJai Prakash rushed to the spotsoon after learning about theincident. He said that the sis-ters were aged 19 years and 17years and their father works asa labourer in a brick kiln.

Meanwhile, on the ordersof the Chief Minister's Office,Inspector General of Police,Bareilly Range, Rajesh KumarPandey, also rushed to Bisalpurto supervise the investigationand bring the culprits to book.

The SP said that accordingto the information given by thefamily, both the sisters had lefthome to relieve themselveslate Monday evening. Whenthey did not return till late, thefamily started searching forthem and recovered one of thebodies some distance awayfrom the brick kiln in the weehours of Tuesday.

Subsequently, they startedsearching for the other siblingalong with the locals. Her bodywas also found hanging from atree on Tuesday morning. Thebodies have been sent for post-mortem. Police have taken ayouth into custody and areinterrogating him.

In another sensationalkilling, the naked body of atemple priest was recovered inMihona locality of Ujhani inBudaun. The victim was bru-tally battered to death with astone and the killers had alsoburnt his private parts, point-ing that the motive behind thekilling could be illicit relations.The police sent the body forpost-mortem and were makingan investigation.

Reports said that Ram

Chandra Kashyap, a resident ofSohra hamlet of Islamnagarwas a priest in a temple atUjhani area of Budaun. OnTuesday morning, the localresidents found a naked bodyof an unknown man with hisprivate parts burnt, lying inMihona locality. The victimwas identified as Ram Chandraby his maternal nephew, RoomSingh. Room Singh said thathis uncle had left his familyseveral years back and hadstarted working as a priestand they had no knowledgewhy he was murdered.However, circumstantial evi-dence suggested that the victimwas involved in some illicitrelations following which hewas brutally murdered.

Meanwhile, a college stu-dent, who was found withsevere burns along a nationalhighway in Shahjahanpur dis-trict last month, succumbed toinjuries at a hospital duringtreatment, police said onTuesday. The BA second-yearstudent was studying at a col-lege run by MumukshuAshram of former Union min-ister Swami Chinmayanand.

She died at the hospital inLucknow at around 2 am onTuesday, Superintendent ofPolice S Anand said.

According to police, thegirl was found along thenational highway on February22 without clothes and in aseverely burnt state. She wasadmitted to ShahjahanpurMedical College hospital andlater shifted to the SPMHospital in Lucknow.

A sub-inspector, womanconstable and another consta-ble were deployed at the hos-pital for security purposes,the SP said. The body wastaken to Shahjahanpur afterthe post-mortem examination,he said.

Four people were arrestedon February 26 on the basis ofthe victim's statement before amagistrate in which she hadalleged that three people triedto rape her in a field onFebruary 22 and when they didnot succeed, they pouredkerosene and set her on fire.

The fourth accused in thecase is a female friend of thegirl who had allegedly sent herto the fields.

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�!��$!��%��$�,�+"��%!��"��"�-��!��.�!%"�/+!�Lucknow (PNS): The UttarPradesh government has noti-fied new rules for retail sale andstorage of potable liquor. Nowno person can possess liquor inquantities more than the limitprescribed by the rules andliquor up to the prescribedlimit can only be sold to a per-son above the age of 21 years.

Under the new rules, noperson can possess more thanfive bottles of 200 ml each ofcountry liquor (plain) and fivebottles of 200 ml each of coun-try liquor (spiced).

The prescribed limit forIndia Made Foreign Liquor(IMFL) is 1.5 litres and twolitres each of Indian made andimported wine and six litreseach of Indian made andimported beer, 1.5 litres ofother kind of Indian/importedliquor and six litres of low alco-holic beverages.

In case of any violation ofthe notification dated 05-03-2021, legal action underSection 60 of the UnitedProvinces Excise Act, 1910 willbe taken against the personconcerned. Section 60 pro-vides for imprisonment up tothree years and fine of 10times the amount of consider-ation fee involved in the liquoror Rs 2,000, whichever isgreater.

.3�� '�� '�� Lucknow (PNS): Alarmed overthe sale of goods on boardtrains and to prevent the spreadof coronavirus infection, theLucknow division of NorthernRailway carried out a driveagainst illegal vendors onTuesday.

NR is taking preventivemeasures to prevent the spreadof coronavirus even as the rushat railway stations is likely to wit-ness a spurt in view of Holi.Besides scanning passengersde-boarding at Charbagh andother railway stations under thedivision, senior officials are alsokeeping a close watch on theactivities of railway employees.

An official spokesman ofNR, Lucknow, said a drive wascarried out in different trains onthe directives of DRM SanjayTripathi. “A team of the com-mercial branch conducted achecking in trains and an illegalvendor was nabbed in a train(No. 03307). The vendor wasselling water bottles illegally forRs 20 apiece. We recovered twocartons filled with bottled waterand he was handed over to thesecurity personnel for furtheraction,” he said. He added thatwater bottles are available for Rs15 each at railway stations.

The DRM said they arecommitted to providing high-quality edible items and otherservices to the passengers.

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��"�&""��Sumit Kumar Tripathi, a meritorious

student of City Montessori School,Gomti Nagar Campus I and nationaltopper of ISC examinations-2020, hasbeen selected for admission to the pres-tigious Miami University of the USA for

higher education as a‘Presidential Fellow’.Only 15 were selectedfrom among 3,500students from all overthe world for the fel-lowship after several

rounds of interviews and written examsand Sumit is one of these. He will beawarded 100% scholarship during hishigher education period of four years.He will also be provided with anAcademic Enrichment Fund of US$ 5,000.

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NOTICE

To be inform that I RajeshwarPrashad Yadav S/o Bansh RajYadav R/o-21 milni parkLucknow University. I have lostMy origional Allotment Letter ofproperties C2/0105.its used isillegal.Rajeshwar Prasad YadavS/o bansh Raj Yadav.

NOTICE

Army No.-JC-703737M Rank-Nb Sub Rajendra Kumar Yadavunit COMMAND MILITARYDENTAL (CC). Lko Cantt-226002 declare that my daugh-ter name is mentioned as“RIYA” instead of her correctname “RIYA YADAV” in myAMC Record Office which benoted as “RIYA YADAV” for allfuture purpose.

NOTICE

All members are informed thatmy name will be ShabanaBano instead of ShabanaParveen so that I will be knowand recognize as ShabanaBano. Applicant - ShabanaBano, wife of Moneesulhasan,village Anwak, post Sirsal, dis-trict Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh.

NOTICE

I have changed my name fromKaramjit Singh to BawaKaramjit Singh. Bawa KaramjitSingh, S/o Satpal Singh, R/o111A/414, Ashok Nagar,Kanpur.

NOTICE

I have changed my name fromPremjeet Kaur Sandhu toPrabhleen Virdi. PrabhleenVirdi, W/o Ravinder Pal Singh,R/o 120/434, Lajpat Nagar,Kanpur.

NOTICE

I, SANJOY KUMAR BASU, S/oLate ASHIT KUMAR BOSE,R/o Flat No. 1001, E.T. Block,Eldeco Garden Estate, 86/245,Raipurwa, Kanpur, havechanged my name to SANJAYKUMAR BASU for all future pur-poses.

NOTICE

Notify that I have changed thename of my son from Mohd.Shayan Khan to Mohd. AshazAhmad Khan (D.O.B01.03.2007) for all purposes.Mohd. Naseem Khan, Opp.Baldar Masjid, Musaheb Ganj,Thakurganj, Lucknow.

NOTICE

Due to mistake the name of myson written in his school recordsas Aayush Rawat, whereas hiscorrect name is Ayush Rawat.Arvind Rawat, D-2108, IndiraNagar, Lucknow.

NOTICE

Notify that in registration of mydaughter, Yashfeen Shahran,(Date of Birth 24.04.2004) inICSE ClassX, my name SahranAhmad is misspelt as ShahranAhmad. My correct name isSahran Ahmad. Proposes.Sahran Ahmad R/o Khundanpur,Ahirauli, Azamgarh, UttarPradesh-276202

NOTICE

I have changed my name fromMohammad QAUSER Siddiquito Mohammad KAUSARSiddiqui for all future purpose.Mohammad KAUSAR Siddiqui,S/o Maqsood Hasan R/O ChillaShahbazi Charwa ChayalKaushambi.

NOTICE

Army No.-15134633 F RankRHM AMAN SHAIKH, R/O-Charak Pota, PO- Bharuipara,Nadiya, West Bengal-741156.Office Address- 201 Sata BTY926201, C/o 56 APO. Mydaughter ’s name RITIMAKHATAN is registered in my ser-vice record which is wrong. Hercorrect name is RITIMAKHATUN for read & write infuture.

NOTICE

I have changed my name fromMOHAMAD Shafiq Siddiqui toMOHAMMAD Shafiq for allfuture purpose. MohammadShafiq, S/o Nazar MohammadR/O 105/323 A Plot No - 4Chamanganj Kanpur.

NOTICE

I have changed my nameWASILA Shafiq to WASILABANO for all future purpose.Wasila Bano, W/o MohammadShafiq R/O 105/323A Plot No -4 Chamanganj Kanpur.

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District Magistrate (DM)Kaushal Raj Sharma, while

imposing prohibitory ordersunder Section 144 on all theghats of river Ganga from 12noon to midnight hours onMarch 29, said that Holi wouldbe celebrated traditionally onthe day in the district. He saidthat after the completion of

Holi, the people go to bathe inthe river Ganga so that nountoward incident can be ruledout. Keeping in view of the cir-cumstances, he said that inview to control the effortsmade by the trouble makers toinfluence the law and order dueto their activities, the districtadministration has imposedprohibitory orders underSection 144 of the CrPC to

maintain security on all theGanga ghats.

During this period, themovement of all types of boatsin the river Ganga would becompletely prohibited. Neitherany person would be allowed tobathe in the river using soapsnor anyone would be permit-ted to wash one’s clothes withchemical substances like deter-gents.

Besides, neither anyonewould also be allowed to con-duct antisocial acts or illegalactivity by moving boats noranyone would be permitted toorganise gatherings of any typeof antisocial activity at one’shome.

According to him, the vio-lation of the orders would be apunishable under Section 188of the IPC.

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To mark the 111th birthanniversary of Dr Ram

Manohar Lohia, the SamajwadiParty (SP) on Tuesday organ-ised a programme at the partyoffice in Orderly Bazar, here.

Recalling the contributionof this great socialist, the SPleaders threw light on his per-sonality and works and saidthat he was a great freedomfighter, thinker and socialistleader. Dr Lohia was born onMarch 23, 1910 and there wasan effect of the life of MahatmaGandhi on him and that waswhy he had joined the freedomstruggle and laid down hisentire effort to uplift the down-trodden and weaker section ofsociety, they added.

Dr Lohia had always advo-cated of purity and honesty inthe politics and he was of theopinion that the nation cannotachieve the overall develop-ment until and unless the gapbetween the rich and the poor

is bridged, the SP leaders saidadding, Dr Lohia had alsofavoured the common educa-tion system in the country. Theconcept of socialism could bematerialised by his ideologiesand principles; they said andpledged to follow the pathshown by him. The SP leadersand workers paid their respectto Dr Lohia by offering flow-ers and petals before his por-

trait.The SP leaders and work-

ers also remembered BhagatSingh, Sukhdeo Thapar andShivaram Rajguru who laiddown their lives for the causeof the nation and said, thesegreat revolutionaries werehanged to death by the BritishEmpire on March 23, 1931. Thefreedom we are enjoying isbecause of the great sacrifice

given by these great freedomfighters; they said and took apledge to follow the way shownby them. Bahadur Singh Yadav,Mahendra Singh Patel, VishnuSharma, Dr Jitendra Yadav, DrUma Shankar Yadav, AkhileshMishra, Rajkumar Jaiswal, OPSingh, VIkash Yadav, AnandMaurya and Sandeep Sharmawere mainly present on theoccasion.

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In the light of rising cases ofCOVID-19 students in hos-

tels and the increase in thenumber of such patients in SirSundarlal Hospital (SSH),Banaras Hindu University(BHU) has decided to sus-pend all the offline classes tillfurther notice, commencingthe Holi holidays for studentsright from Tuesday. The deci-sion was taken after a high-levelmeeting chaired by the Vice-Chancellor (V-C) Prof RakeshBhatnagar a day ago to reviewthe status of academic activities.The meeting was attended bythe Rector Prof VK Shukla,Registrar Dr Neeraj Tripathi,Dean of Students Welfare ProfMK Singh, Chief Proctor ProfAnand Chaudhary, directors ofvarious institutes, deans of fac-

ulties, hostel coordinators andother university officials.

Addressing the meeting,the V-C said that the safety ofthe students and their interestsare paramount in the prioritiesof the university and it cannotbe compromised in any way. Inthe meeting, the directors,deans and hostel administra-tors also expressed their viewson the situation arising due tothe spike in COVID-19 cases.The meeting also decided thatall classes would be run inonline mode only as per sched-ule till further notice irrespec-tive or preponment of the Holiholidays.

Besides, there would not beany ‘Milan’ Samaroh’ or gath-ering on the campus includingin the hostels. The universityofficials are of the view that thecases of COVID-19 are rising

every day and if the presenttrend continues it is likely thatcases may rise even more in thecoming days. Hence, in theinterest of safety of the studentsthey are encouraged to go totheir homes and leave the hos-tels by taking their books andstudy materials with them sothat in the event or worseningof the situation they may con-tinue their studies throughonline classes to be conductedby the concerned teachers andtake the examination whichmay be conducted in the onlinemode, if the situation sodemands.

The meeting also decidedthat the situation would bereviewed once again in the firstweek of April this year and thedecision taken in this regardwould be communicated tothe students and their parents

/ guardians through the univer-sity website and the press andmedia so that the studentsmay make their plans accord-ingly. However, the universityoffices, teachers and facultymembers will continue to workas usual. The V-C has appealedto all the students and mem-bers of the university family notto take any kind of negligencein view of the danger ofCOVID-19 and all safety stan-dards such as use of masks andsanitisers, frequent hand wash-ing with soaps, follow the rulesof physical distance, avoidgoing to crowded places etcwith all seriousness. ‘The threatof COVID-19 still remains andwe can protect ourselves andthe people around us includingour family by behaving respon-sibly and using methods to pre-vent it,’ Prof Bhatnagar added.

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Two persons died and sever-al others sustained injuries

when a boiler of IFFCOPhulpur Amonia plant burstwith an ear deafening sound onTuesday. The injured have beenrushed to the SRN Hospital ofMLN Medical College.Condition of one worker is stat-ed to be critical in the hospital,sources said.

IFFCO Phulpur officialsand the officers of the districtadministration and the policereached the spot, but no offi-cial communiqué has so farbeen released.

According to reports itwas around 1.15 pm onTuesday when the above boil-er exploded killing one work-er on the spot. The injuredwere taken to SRN Hospitalwhere the condition of twowas critical. After a couple ofhours one of the seriouslyinjured workers breathed hislast, while the other is strug-gling for life. Others are stat-ed to be out of danger. It islearnt that when the boilerexploded about a dozen work-ers were taking their lunch

near that spot, and they fellvictim of the accident.

Workers who died in thisboiler accident were Ajay, sonof Devraj, and Pradeep Yadavson of Srinath Yadav.

The blast was so severethat its sound shocked the

whole factory area and theIFFCO Township. Officialsreached the spot and arrangedfor the rescue of the workers.To avoid further trouble theentry gate of IFFCO wasclosed for the outsiders, so thefamily members and well-

wishers of the workersthronged the gate and tried toforce their entry to knowabout the accident in detail,and also the well-being oftheir relatives and friends.Police force has been deployedthere to control the crowd.

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The 90th martyrdom day ofSardar Bhagat Singh,

Sukhdeo, and Rajguru, whohad been hanged in Lahore Jail,was observed here at AzadPark under the statue ofChandra Shekhar Azad onTuesday morning. JusticeShekhar Yadav was the chiefguest on the occasion besidesMLA Harsh Vardhan Bajpai,Divisional CommissionerSanjay Goel, IG KP Singh,District Magistrate BhanuChandra Goswami, DIG/SSPSarvashreshtha Tripathi andseveral other officials of the dis-trict administration and thepolice were present.

Armed police Jawans gavea 21 gunshot salute to themartyrs amidst patriotic tunesplayed by the Police Band con-

tingent. Brief cultural pro-grammes were also organisedon the occasion.

Several other functionswere also organised to markmartyrdom day of the three

heroes on the same spot and atother places.

ELECTROCUTED: A 65-year-old woman and her sonwere electrocuted, while twoothers sustained injuries whena high-tension wire fell onsome houses at a village here,police said on Saturday.

Superintendent of PoliceShivhari Meena said the inci-dent took place on Saturdaynight at Dandi KhasThakurdeen ka Purva.

Lakhpati Devi died on thespot, while her son JagatBahadur Yadav (40) suc-cumbed to his injuries at thedistrict hospital.

Yadav's wife and anotherperson, identified as RajeshTiwari (20), were seriouslyinjured. The bodies have beensent for a post-mortem exam-ination, police said.

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Vice-Chancellor of BanarasHindu University (BHU)

Prof Rakesh Bhatnagar wasamong thousands of peopleabove 60 and 45-59 with co-morbidities, got their first dosesof COVID-19 vaccine in thedistrict on Tuesday. The BHUV-C received the vaccine shotat Sir Sunderlal Hospital (SSH).On this occasion, the Directorof the Institute of MedicalSciences (IMS) Prof BR Mittal,Medical Superintendent of SSHProf SK Mathur, DeputyMedical Superintendent ProfSaurabh Singh and others werepresent. After getting the vac-cine, Prof Bhatnagar appealedto everyone to get COVID-19vaccine doses according totheir turn and cooperate inconquering this pandemic. Healso said that the threat ofCOVID-19 is not yet over andno one should take any kind ofcarelessness and everyoneshould use masks and sanitis-ers, washing hands with soapfrequently, following physicaldistance rules and safety stan-dards with seriousness.

Meanwhile, for the last fewweeks, an alarming rise inCOVID-19 cases has been seenin the city. In just 15 days, thenumber of active cases hasstarted rising sharply, onceagain, alerting both the districtadministration and Healthdepartment as the nation isinching close to observe thefirst anniversary of nationwide

lockdown imposed on March25 last year. In recent times, dueto continuous laxities, boththe central and state govern-ment have been forced to takesome strict steps, imposingrestrictions on some activitiesincluding conducting of nopublic function without priorpermission to the administra-tion. Railway authorities havealso started taking strict stepsnot to allow any person to enterstation premises without wear-ing masks. Due to recent laxi-ties, the number of active caseshad jumped to 173 on Mondaywhereas it was just 50 about 15days ago. During this period,the total number of positivecases has increased from 22,041to 22,221.

Meanwhile, the vaccinationprocess has picked up speedsince the vaccine doses havestarted being given to the per-sons aged above 60 and 45-59age group with co-morbidities.Thousands of such personswere vaccinated at dozens ofhospitals and health centresduring the day. A day ago, 8,541persons (85 per cent) werevaccinated and out of them3222 got their second doses,while 3514 were above 60 yearsand 614 beneficiaries 45-59 agegroup with co-morbidities.After the vaccination, the ChiefMedical Officer (CMO) DrVB Singh held a meeting withthe nodal officers at the CovidCommand Centre and gavenecessary guidelines to all the

nodal officers. He also motivat-ed the health officers to makevaccination 100 per cent suc-cessful.

27 MORE TEST POSI-TIVE: As many as 27 have test-ed COVID-19, increasing thetally of confirmed cases to22,248 by Tuesday evening.With no Covid death beingreported in the last 24 hours,the death toll remains at 377.With seven Covid patients hav-ing been cured in home isola-tion and two in Covid hospital,the number of Covid patientsrecovered in the district so faris 21,680 including 18,687 inhome isolation and 2,993 inCovid hospitals. As present191 active cases are undertreatment in the district.

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The rising number ofCOVID-19 cases has set

alarm bells ringing for theofficials of the Health depart-ment who have taken up sam-pling and contact trackingexercise extensively. In the pastcouple of days, as many as 26new cases surfaced, forcingofficials of the Health depart-ment to intensify the collectionof sampling and further takingcorrective measures.

On Monday night, a totalof 3,509 samples were collect-ed for testing including 2,089for antigen, 1,314 for RTPCRand 106 Truenat and 16 ofthem tested positive. Similarly,a total of 4,640 samples werecollected on Friday and 10 ofthem tested positive for theCOVID-19 infection.

Records claimed that asmany as 54 people tested pos-itive in the city in the past week

including March 14 (2patients), March 15 (7 patients),March 16 (3 patients), March17 ( 7 patients), March 18 (9patients), March 19 (10patients) and March 20 ( 16patients).

Statistics also revealed thatthere has been a surge in thecases after March 18 when the

number of patients went intodouble-digits. A senior healthofficial said that there are 60active cases in the city includ-ing 12 of them being hospi-talised for treatment while theremaining 48 have been per-mitted for home isolation. Thisalong with 56 locations markedas containment zones.

He further added that thedepartment has intensified theexercise of sample collectionand testing at three static loca-tions including Bamrauli air-port, Cheoki junction andPrayagraj junction wherenatives are returning to theirhomes in the city ahead of theHoli festival. ‘We have set a tar-get to collect 3,500-4,000 sam-ples every day to check thespread of the infection in thecity,’ said the official, addinghealth teams, apart from thesethree static spots, have beentold to collect samples fromseveral other residential andcommercial testing,’ he added.

Officials claimed that theyare stressing target sampling,and around a dozen teamshave been engaged for thesame. Sincere efforts are beingmade to get passenger detailsfrom railways and airlines fortimely contact tracing if anytraveller tested positive.

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The police administrationand the Excise department

have stepped up the action inview of the Chief Minister'sstrict instruction following thedeaths occured due to con-sumption of spurious liquor inPrayagraj, Pratapgarh and thenChitrakoot. In view of theheavy consumption of illicitliquor, especially on Holi andPanchayat elections, raids arebeing continuously conductedin Prayagraj and neighbouringdistricts at the bases whereliquor is illegally manufac-tured and sold. Everyday manypeople are arrested and illicitliquor and material are beingseized.Raids and seizures con-tinued on here on Tuesday. Thepolice of Kada Dham policestation in Kaushambi districtraided Kamlapur village aftergetting accurate informationfrom the informer in the morn-ing. There the police caught

Dharmapal Saroj, NileshRaidas and Phoolkali whilebrewing liquor. The policeteam recovered 45 litres ofillicit liquor and equipment tomake it. At the same time thecops also broke many furnacesand also destroyed two quintalof Mahua Lahn. In Kaushambi,police from Puramufti, SaraiAkil, Maheva, Pipri, Kokhrajand other police stations alsoraided several brewing bases.During this, a team of Excisedepartment was also presentalong with the police. After sev-eral deaths in Pratapgarh too,apanic stirred in liquor mafia.From Monday night to Tuesdayafternoon, raids were conduct-ed at many places. Led by COCity, the liquor mafia has beenattacked. Authorities have rep-rimanded the Antu police afterthe Amethi police raidedDandupur Daulat in Anturegion and recovered illicitliquor worth lakhs of rupees.

The Antu region is consid-

ered a stronghold of illicitliquor business. The illegalliquor business is carried outhere in nexus with the policeand the Excise department.On Monday, the police teamshowed strictness when newSSP and excise officers arrivedin the district. The liquor mafiawho were absconding for eightmonths could not be caught bythe police. On Sunday night,police of Sangrampur policestation in Amethi districtarrested two people with liquorin Dandupur Daulat in Anturegion.. Here, in Prayagraj,raids were conducted on illegalliquor-making and selling basesin Gangapar and Yamunaparareas as well as in Cachari areasof the city. Police is leaving nostone unturned in curbing theselling of illegal liquor on Holi.

DREADED CRIMINALHELD: The Prayagraj STFarrested a dreaded criminalVishal on Tuesday who hadbeen absconding for the past

two years after snatching awaythe service pistol of a policeofficer in Pratapgarh. The saidpistol has also been recoveredfrom his possession. Vishalhad deprived a police inspec-tor in 2019 of his pistol with thehelp of another criminalMustafa.

NOBODY WILL BEALLOWED TO DISTURBPOLL PROCESS: Persons withsuspicious background arebeing bound down keeping inview the forthcomingPanchayat elections, said theSSP/DIG SarvashreshthaTripathi and added that con-ducting free and fair electionwas the duty of the administra-tion and the police and nobodywould be allowed to disturb theelection process at any step.The officers of the districtadministration and the policeare meeting almost on a regu-lar basis to chalk out foolproofprogramme for Panchayat elec-tions.

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DM Priyanka Niranjantook the initiative to

revive Noon river on WorldWater Day on Monday. Theriver orginates fromPahadganv village and flowsfrom Jalaun and finally joinsYamuna. During pre-inde-pendence phase it was the onlysource of water for Orai town but as the timepassed situation changed. The project to reviveNoon river started from Kukargaon village underDakor block of Jalaun. Five rivers are flowingfrom the district and we are still facing the prob-lem of drought, DM said and added mass par-ticipation is necessary to revive Noon river. DM

Priyanka Niranjan, MLAsGauri Shankar Verma,Narendra Jadaun andMoolchand Niranjan, BJPdistrict president RamendraSingh ‘Banna’ along withothers took a pledge toconserve water. Thereafterthat they reached the bankof Noon and offered‘shramdaan’ (voluntary

work) in order to revive the river. CDO AbhayKumar Srivastava and ADM Prameel KumarSingh were also present on the occasion. DMPriyanka Niranjan, who has earlier worked asMirzapur CDO, had successfully completedRevive Karnavati River Project which is nowflowing through Mirzapur benefitting 19 villages.

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Athree-year-old boy drowned in a pond inDeoria village under Jamalpur police station.

Reports said that Sagar, son of Rameshwar Patel,had gone missing on Sunday evening while play-ing outside his house. His family informed thepolice. Fearing that child could have drownedin the pond the police launched a search byputting a net there. The family members wereshell-shocked when they saw the boy’s body inthe net. After the recovery of the missing boy’sbody police completed the legal formalities.

MISSING SHAKTI: Under Mission Shakticampaign a programme was held at Police Lineson Monday. MLA Ratnakar Mishra, who wasthe chief guest, said the government hadlaunched the drive to create a spirit of self-reliance among ‘Matri Shakti’. He said at presentevery woman could feel proud that the entiremachinery was behind them and they couldwork without any fear. Divisional CommissionerYogeshwar Ram Mishra underlined the provi-sions which were made to safeguard the rightsof women. Member NPP board Nirmala Rai also

spoke on the occasion. SHO Mahila ThanaSeema Singh conducted the programme. A‘nukkad natak’ (street play) was staged by girlsof Kamla Memorial School and trainee nursesof Popular Hospital. The vote of thanks was pro-posed by ASP (City) Sanjay Kumar.

CONCLUDES: The three-day rural ‘haatmela’ organised by NABARD with the supportof Prabodhini Foundation at Sagara concludedwith a cultural function on Sunday evening.Director GD Binani Management School DrZeeshan Amir, who was chief guest said it wasa good indication for rural economy as well asnation that rural women were coming forwardto exhibit their talent in the right way. EE PWDKanhaiya Jha said traditional rural items of olddays were available at different stalls. Chairingthe function NABARD DDM Anupriya appre-ciated the effort of Prabodhini Foundation whichwas active to realise the dream of the govern-

ment in making the women power self-depen-dent. She said that though the programme wassponsored by NABARD but the implementationof the scheme for empowerment of women byPrabodhini Foundation was commendable.Throwing light over the three-day event she saidit was a matter of contentment that during inter-action participants narrated how they manu-factured items kept on stalls which not onlyattracted customers but were found up to themark too. Welcoming the guests Director ofPrabodhini Foundation Vibhuti Mishra said itwas a matter of satisfaction for him that sale dur-ing the ‘haat’ was beyond expectations. The voteof thanks was proposed by Nandini Mishra,chairperson of the organisation. Prominentamong those who graced the event were DrNeeraj Tripathi, Dr Rajesh Mishra, NitinAwasthi, Rajesh Mishra and Kamla Pal.

THREE ARRESTED: Chunar police arrest-ed three accused along with as many stolenmotorcycles on Sunday. Incharge Sakteshgarhpolice outpost Santosh Singh during routinepatrolling was tipped off by an informer thatthree persons were standing on Dubaraveerhillock and trying to sell stolen motorcycles. Onthe information the police raided the place andfound three suspects standing with motorcyclesat Kuba turn. When the police interrogatedthem, they confessed their involvement in thetheft of motorcycles. The police arrested themand seized the stolen motorcycles after regis-tering a case in this connection. The accusedwere later identified as Sahil and Aslam, resi-dents of Rajatalab under Rohaniya police sta-tion, Varanasi, and Ashutosh Singh, a residentof Kachnar Rajatalab under Rohaniya police sta-tion in Varanasi. Meanwhile the Lalganj policearrested two accused in connection with a casein which a minor girl was raped. As per thereports, a man had lodged an FIR on December31 last year at Lalganj police station alleging thatunidentified accused had enticed his minordaughter away. After registering the case thepolice started investigation in the recovered andrecovered the girl on March 17. On the groundof evidence the police added the section of rapein the case. On Sunday incharge Lahangpurpolice outpost Manoj Kumar Pandey the arrest-ed the two accused identified as Rajan Yadav, aresident of Kuhunki village under Lalganjpolice station and Kailash Gora, a resident ofIndiranagar under Ichkalandarji in Kolhapur ofMaharashtra. After completing the legal for-malities the police sent the accused to jail.

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In the final of women’s handball of the 49thSenior National Handball Championship

organised in Bareilly from March 17 to 21Himachal Pradesh defeated Indian Railways (IR)27-24 in a thrilling match to win the Women’sChampionship. Indian Railways was adjudgedthe runner-up. Earlier in the semi-final match,Indian Railways defeated Uttar Pradesh by 31-20 to secure their place in the final. On behalfof Indian Railways 10 women handball playersof North Eastern Railway (NER) participated inthe Senior National Handball Championship inwhich Pavittar, Kusum, Sushma, ManjulaPathak, Srishti Agarwal, Meenasheel, Ujjwala,Mamta, Monika and Jyoti gave a splendid per-formance, CPRO PK Singh said. Arvind Kumar

Yadav of NER as the IR team coach kept encour-aging women handball players constantly.

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Keeping the rush of passengers in mind onthe occasion of Holi the railway adminis-

tration will run 07003/07004 Secunderabad-Gorakhpur-Secunderabad special train fromSecunderabad on March 25 and fromGorakhpur on March 30. All coaches in this trainwill be of reserved category and passengers trav-eling in them will have to follow the Covid-19guidelines, Chief Public Relations Officer(CPRO) Pankaj Kumar Singh said. As a result,the 07003 Secunderabad-Gorakhpur specialtrain will on March 25 depart fromSecunderabad at 21.25 hrs, from Kazipet at 23.20hrs, from Balharshah on the second day at 03.20hrs, from Nagpur at 06.30 hrs, from Itarsi at11.55 hrs, from Bhopal at 15.30 hrs, from Jhansiat 18.35 hrs, from Orai at 20.12 hrs, from KanpurCentral at 23.10 hrs, from Lucknow on the thirdday at 01.10 hrs, from Barabanki at 02.05 hrs,from Gonda at 03.30 hrs, Basti at 04.43 hrs andreach Gorakhpur at 06.25 hrs.

In the return journey, the 07004 Gorakhpur-Secunderabad special train will on March 30depart from Gorakhpur at 17.25 hrs, from Bastiat 18.34 hrs, from Gonda at 20.00 hrs, fromBarabanki at 21.32 hrs, from Lucknow at 22.50hrs, from Kanpur Central on the second day at00.40 hrs, from Orai at 02.08 hrs, from Jhansiat 04.35 hrs, from Bhopal at 09.30 hrs, from Itarsiat 12.20 hrs, from Nagpur at 17.40 hrs, fromBalharshah at 21.40 hrs, from Kazipet at 01.35hrs on the third day and reach Secundrabad at04.10 hrs. A total of 22 coaches, including twoof SLR, four of general second class, 12 of sleep-er, three of air-conditioned (AC) third class andone of AC first-cum-second class will beattached in this special train.

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railway administration, the period of the fol-lowing special trains is being extended for theconvenience of passengers.

PRAYAGRAJ-BASTI SPL: The 04231Prayagraj-Basti special train running five daysa week is being extended from March 24 to April21. The 04232 Basti-Prayagraj special train run-ning five days a week is being extended fromMarch 24 to April 21.

PRAYAGRAJ-MANKAPUR DAILY: The04233 Prayagraj-Mankapur daily special trainis being extended from March 23 to April 20. The04234 Mankapur-Prayagraj daily special train isbeing extended from March 24 to April 21.

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The 05211 Darbhanga-Amritsar specialtrain to run from Darbhanga from March 22 to31 has been cancelled by the railway adminis-tration due to unavoidable reasons. As a result,the 05212 Amritsar-Darbhanga special train torun from Amritsar from March 24 to April 2 willalso remain cancelled due to non-availability ofrakes, CPRO PK Singh said.

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North Eastern Railway (NER) Varanasidivision’s Nandganj-Ghazipur City section’sdoubling and electrification and of Indara-Phephna section’s electrification has been com-pleted. Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS),North Eastern (NE) Circle will on Wednesdayinspect Nandganj-Ghazipur City rail section’snewly doubled and electrified section and onMarch 25 electrification work on Indara-Phephna section. Besides, speed trial will bedone. Therefore, the public is requested not togo on these railway tracks during the inspectionand speed trial nor to allow their animals to goon them, CPRO said.

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Uttar Pradesh GovernorAnandiben Patel, while

inaugurating the ‘Apni Roti’programme launched by a non-governmental organisation(NGO) to provide healthy,nutritious food for just � 5 tothe poor at Aleeg Tannery inJajmau on Tuesday, said it wasthe responsibility of every indi-vidual to ensure that the hun-gry got food. She said offeringfood did not require one to beaffluent but a thought of shar-ing. She appealed to the ‘haves’to donate within their meansfor the poor and hungry ‘havenots’.

The Governor said theworld was fighting against thenovel coronavirus and to effec-tively combat this pandemic,different sections of societywould have to be aware andvigilant. She said the govern-ment alone would not be ableto effectively control this pan-demic until society too becameaware of this deadly virus andadopted preventions and pre-cautions. She praised the peo-ple who had moved across thestate to provide food and med-icine and lauded medical andpolice personnel for their con-tribution in containing thenovel coronavirus.

Patel appealed to the peo-

ple to keep their houses andsurroundings clean and saidthe Uttar Pradesh governmenthad been very successful incontrolling COVID-19 withthe support of the masses. Shesaid due the efforts of the UPgovernment, the Covid deathtoll was minimal in the stateand the cases reduced rapidly.She advised caution, sayingthe pandemic was raising itsfangs dangerously again. Shesaid the elders had to be takencare of on priority and appealedto the people to always wearmasks on maintain social dis-tancing.

Apni Roti founder DrSoheb Ahsan said their organ-

isation was making all effortsto provide nutritious and cleanfood to the poor at just � 5 andensure it reached the hungrypeople.

He said it was the moralduty of each one to help suchpeople and this alone couldlead to the development of thecountry and the masses. Hesaid their slogan was ‘HarHaath Me Roti.

Prominent among thosewho took part in the pro-gramme were KanpurDivisional Commissioner RajShekhar, District MagistrateAlok Tiwari, DIG PreetinderSingh ADM (City) Atul Kumarand Dr OU Siddiqui.

KANPUR (PNS): KanpurDivisional Commissioner RajShekhar, while making a sur-prise visit to Dubka Nala atDubka Ghat in Cantonmentarea on Tuesday, said the UttarPradesh government was mak-ing every effort to make theGanga clean and holy.

He said under the NationalMission for Clean Ganga(NMCG), several projects hadbeen taken up and completedto ensure that sewage andindustrial waste was not dis-charged into the Ganga unlessfully treated and its quality test-ed. He said several other pro-jects were still in progress anda few of them were to be sanc-tioned to complete 100 per centtapping, connecting and treat-ing of the waste water andsewage. He said the DubkaNala was one which had notbeen fully tapped as of nowbecause the project was underconsideration at NMCG, HQin Delhi. He said this drain wasdischarging 0.5 MLD of wastewater in the Ganga.

He said the CantonmentBoard looked after the sewageand pipeline in this area. Hesaid the Jal Nigam did notinclude the project of tappingand pumping or laying of sewerline in these areas as it was theprimary responsibility of theCantonment Board to ensurethat the sewer pipelines in thearea were laid and the sewagewas pumped to nearest STP fortreatment. When he enquiredabout the reason for not hav-ing a sewer line in these iden-tified areas, Cantonment BoardCEO said that because of lackof funds, these sewage pipelineswere not being laid. He alsosaid that they were trying totake up these projects with theGovernment of India for sanc-tion and funding.

The divisional commis-sioner then directed the munic-ipal commissioner and JalNigam general manager toimmediately take steps to stopthe flow of Dubka Nala intoGanga by taking up bioreme-diation of the waste water on

site of discharge. Shekhar askedboth the officials to depute twoofficials each to carry out fieldstudy and to prepare a draftproposal estimate to lay thesewer lines in these areas inCantonment. He said once theproposal was ready, it would bepresented in the CantonmentBoard meeting for sanctionand approval. He then direct-ed the Cantonment Board CEOto follow it up with theirrespective departments so asget necessary funds for layingsewer lines so that no sewageflowed into the Ganga withouttreatment. The divisional com-missioner also issued show-cause notice to the Jal NigamGM for not taking up theDubka Nala proposal (for lay-ing sewer lines and for tapping)in these areas under theNamami Gange project whenthe original project DPR wasprepared. He was accompaniedby Cantonment Board CEOArvind Dwivedi, Jal NigamGM (Namami Gange) BKGarg, regional pollution control

officer and other officials.EXHIBITION: Mahila

Mahavidyalaya organised anexhibition of handiworks of dif-ferently abled children andstudents of the art departmentin the college hall on TuesdayThe exhibition was jointlyorganised by the college’sdivyang and deprived help celland the art department.Children of Divyang Societyand students of the art depart-ment displayed their hand-made items in the exhibitionwhich was inaugurated byMMV Principal Dr BRAgarwal. In her address, DrAgarwal said such exhibitionswere organised in the collegefrom time to time to hone thetalents and skills of childrenand make them self-reliant.Efforts of Divyang Cellincharge Dr Saba Yunus, headof art department Dr VandanaSharma, Dr Seema Verma,Manisha Shukla, Dr MamtaDixit, Dr Namrata Tewari werepraised for the grand success ofthe event.

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Entrepreneur and soil testingexpert Dr Arvind Garg,

while addressing the awardfunction and alumni meet ofManprasth ITI, on Tuesday,gave the mantra of success inthe initiation ceremony, sayingtoday there was a vast scope forstudents if they pursued tech-nical education.

He said Prime MinisterNarendra Modi had dreamt ofAtmanirbhar Bharat, and thusthis was an effort to ensure eco-nomic progress in the countryby imparting technical skillsand promoting Skill India.

Discussing future of tech-nical education, he said inIndia, technical education wasgrowing at a rapid pace andtoday over nine lakh studentshad enrolled in around 2,297technical colleges. He saidvocational education or skill-

based education enabled youthto acquire skills in a specificoccupation or business. Hesaid technical education andvocational education preparedindividuals for jobs that wererelated to practical activities.

He said vocational courseswould be helpful in increasingthe number of skilled work-force in the country whichwould lead to fast developmentof the economy. He said but forthis proper training must to beprovided to them with properequipment and in a countrylike India there was a shortageof skilled workforce and thiswas the main reason for unem-ployment in the country. Hesaid skill-based educationwould be helpful in removingunemployment from economy.

He said the governmenthad introduced ‘Udaan,Polytechnics, Parvaaz’ whichwould develop vocational

courses and added that therewas a need to create awarenessin the direction. He said therewas no doubt that vocationaleducation was the future of thecountry as it would remove thebiggest hurdle in the develop-ment of the country which wasunemployment.

Addressing the students,noted entrepreneur (ScrapUtilisation) Anju Garg saidscrap management could alsobe termed as waste preventionprogramme and it helpedreduce the demands on finitenatural resources and the asso-ciated environmental impactsof the extraction, harvestingand processing of thoseresources. She said it alsohelped minimise greenhousegas emissions associated withwaste collection, transportationand treatment and also reducedlocal authority waste manage-ment budget due to decreased

quantities of waste.She advised students that

today the future was in voca-tional studies and the rationaluse of resources will be the dri-ving factor. She said this willhelp encourage social inclusionand economic developmentthrough creating jobs, volun-teer schemes and trainingopportunities as well asimproving access to reducedprice goods for lower incomefamilies.

Chairman of the institute,Prof TN Agarwal, discussed theterm ‘diksha’ and appealed tothe students to develop digni-ty of labour and identify theirtalents and pick up skills for abetter future.

Those present includedShalini, Ritu, Prasoon and sev-eral others.

Later certificates in differ-ent trades were distributed tothe successful students.

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Under the direct control ofChief Minister Yogi

Adityanath, training in profes-sional courses under the SkillDevelopment Mission has suc-cessfully provided to 9.48 lakhyouth out of the total registra-tion of 13 lakh. The farsight-edness of the chief minister hasbrought to fore a substantialrise in the skilled force inUttar Pradesh. The skill forceis being accommodated in var-ious organisations in varioustrades.

This was stated by PCSGMspokesperson Dr RakeshTrivedi while speaking aboutthe mission and its goals. Hesaid the Yogi Adityanath gov-ernment till date had beensuccessfully in bringing inqualitative improvement inprofessional courses and skilldevelopment areas. He saidthousands of youth had beencovered under this missionand more would be trained toensure that the youth of thestate were able to eke out liveli-hood.

He said the mission wasalso running short and longterm courses. He said trainingof the long term courses wereimparted in association withthe industrial training institutes(it is). He it included courses ofone and two years in engi-neering and non-engineeringfields. He said the basic prob-lem was of dropouts and withthis the dropout rate wouldsuccessfully be harnessed. Hesaid the dropouts would beimparted short term specialtechnical training free of cost.He said youth in the age groupof 14-35 years, includingwomen, minorities, SC, ST,tribals, physically challengedand economically weaker sec-tions would be selected andthen imparted training.

Trivedi said the UPPCSGM was running 709courses of 32 sectors of employ-ability. He said the short termcourses ranged between threedays and six months and thentraining for one year. He saidapart from this experience,RPL was also being certifiedand thus with the help of thisthe government would be ableto identify such skilled work-force which was trained inone or two skills and then theywere provided with certifi-cates. He said even training ofseven and 10 days was certified

He said under the appren-ticeship training, youths werebeing trained and during thetraining they were also givenallowances as permissible. Hesaid today lakhs of youth hadbeen benefited and over 3.50lakh youth had been providedwith employment. He said spe-cial placement agencies hadbeen set up to act as a bridgeto ensure the trained youthwere selected for proper jobs.He said 50,000 youths hadbeen linked to online learningplatform Coursers, which wason global standards and wasprovided free of cost.

��'��"��KANPUR (PNS): The bodyof a 35-year-old woman, whowas missing for the past twodays, was recovered from herown house in Jarauli Phase-2under Barra police station onTuesday. The victim was iden-tified as Madhu, wife of SatishSrivastava.

On Monday, the victim’sson, Ayush, had filed a com-plaint to the police that hismother was missing sinceSunday. The woman’s husbandtold the police that on Sundaythat when his wife was alone inthe house, she had received aphone call and immediatelywent out to meet the caller. Hesaid she did not return hometill late night and her phonewas also found switched off.

Thereafter, the police start-ed searching the woman. OnTuesday morning, some neigh-bours of the couple informedthe police about a foul smellcoming from the adjacenthouse. The police immediate-ly rushed to the spot and recov-ered the body of the womanfrom her house.

Suspecting the role of thehusband in the killing of hiswife, police took him into cus-tody. Station House OfficerHarmit Singh said they wereinvestigating the case.

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The total number ofCoronavirus cases of the

UK, South Africa and Brazilvariants in India has doubled inmerely five days from 400cases on March 18 to 795 tilldate. These three strains areconsidered to be more lethaland spread easily, even takingthe young people in its grip.

Ringing the alarm bell atthe fast spread of the mutat-ed strains, Punjab ChiefMinister Amarinder Singhsaid that 81 per cent of the 401samples sent by the State forgenome sequencing testedpositive for the UK Covidvariant. Presently, as per theCentre’s directions, just fivepercent of all positive Covid-19 samples from each State,five per cent are being testedfor genome sequencing inorder to identify potentialoutbreaks and related strainsas part of continuous surveil-lance.

Expressing concern overthe surging cases, the PunjabChief Minister stressed theneed for the CentralGovernment to urgently openup the vaccination for a big-ger section of the populace.The Union Cabinet has nowdecided to allow vaccinationof those over 45 and above,without any co-morbid con-ditions.

A genomic consortium of10 regional laboratories withthe National Centre forDisease Control (NCDC) asthe apex laboratory has beenestablished to perform genom-ic sequencing of the samplesfrom positive travellers and 5per cent of the positive testsamples from the community.

This comes against thebackdrop of Maharashtra,Punjab and Gujarat reportingan upsurge in Covid-19 cases.Maharashtra accounts for over60 per cent of the daily cases.

In fact, Minister of Statefor Health Ashwini Choubeyhad recently told the RajyaSabha that these three mutat-

ed variants also have thepotential to re-infect peoplewho have been previouslyinfected with SARS-CoV-2.

As of March 10, 2021, atotal of 19,092 RT-PCR posi-tive samples for SARS CoV-2have been received from var-ious states/UTs, in which 4,869samples have been processed.

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President Ram Nath Kovindon Tuesday said the Covid-

19 pandemic underlined theimportance of a quality health-care system accessible to everyindividual.

He said the year 2020 wasa watershed moment for health-care in India as well as aroundthe world.

In his message on the eve ofWorld Tuberculosis Day, whichis observed every year on March24, Kovind said that the entireNational TB EliminationProgram was at the forefront infight against COVID-19.

"Their commitmenttowards tackling the COVIDpandemic while continuingwith TB elimination efforts is

commendable. TheGovernment of India is com-mitted to achieving the goal ofUniversal Health Coverage asper the United NationsSustainable DevelopmentGoals," he said.

This is being implementedunder the aegis of AyushmanBharat Pradhan Mantri JanArogya Yojana, which is thelargest national health insurancescheme in the world, the pres-ident said.

"The year 2020 was a water-shed moment for healthcare inIndia as well as around theworld. The COVID-19 pan-demic underlined the impor-tance of a quality healthcare sys-tem accessible to every indi-vidual," Kovind said.

The president said he is

happy to learn that WorldTuberculosis Day is beingobserved on March 24 to raisepublic awareness about TB.

"On this day in the year1882, Dr.Robert Kochannounced the discovery ofthe bacteria that causes TB. Itpaved the way for diagnosis andcure of this deadly disease,"Kovind was quoted as saying ina statement issued by theRashtrapati Bhavan.

"I would like to complimentthe National TB EliminationProgram on their commendableachievements despite the diffi-cult circumstances. On thisoccasion, we should reinvigorateour efforts to achieve 'Health

for All', and create a brighterand healthier future for gener-ations to come," he said.

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Adetermined Opposition,including the Congress

and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)raised a din in the Rajya Sabhaon Tuesday protesting againsta Bill that proposes to givemore power to the LieutenantGovernor (L-G) of Delhi.

For its part, the BJPdemanded the dismissal ofMaharashtra Home MinisterAnil Deshmukh and sought toraise alleged charges of cor-ruption against him. However,their demand was turned downby Chairman M VenkaiahNaidu.

The House witnessedrepeated adjournments as theCongress and AAP membersprotested against the‘Government of NationalCapital Territory ofDelhi(Amendment) Bill 2021’.

The uproar started whenDeputy Chairman Harivanshasked Minister of State forHome Affairs G Kishan Reddyto move a motion for the con-sideration of the Governmentof National Capital Territory ofDelhi (Amendment) Bill 2021.

Sanjay Singh (AAP)protested against allowing themotion, saying his notice hasbeen pending in the House.The Deputy Chairman assuredthe AAP member that hisnotice would be consideredafter the motion is moved, butSingh called it “unconstitu-tional.”

Leader of OppositionMallikarjun Kharge said theBill is dangerous and it willgrab rights of the electedGovernment of Delhi anddestroy democracy. He allegedthat the Government wantsthe L-G as government and theelected dispensation as his ser-vant.

The deputy chairmanadjourned the House till 5.24PM. As the House reassembled,the protest by oppositionmembers continued, prompt-ing the chair to adjourn theHouse for a second time till5.40 PM.

The Government ofNational Capital Territory ofDelhi (Amendment)

Bill, 2021, which waspassed in the Lok Sabha onMonday, seeks to make it clearthat the “government” in Delhimeans the “LieutenantGovernor.” The Bill also makesit mandatory for the Delhigovernment to take the opin-ion of the L-G before any exec-utive action. The AAP is inpower in Delhi.

Earlier, the AAPapproached all opposition par-ties requesting them to opposethe Bill in the Rajya Sabha.Party sources said most of theopposition parties support the

AAP’s stand against the bill andwill be raising their voiceagainst it.

As for the BJP demandingthe dismissal of Deshmukh itlead to an uproar in the Housefor a while.

Trouble started towardsthe end of the morning Sessionwhen BJP MP Sushil KumarModi said he had given a ZeroHour mention seekingDeshmukh’s dismissal. Thisled to noisy scenes in theHouse with members from theopposition benches objectingto it.

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The Government onTuesday informed Lok

Sabha that deposit thresholdlimit raised to �5 lakh perannum in provident fund forwhich interest would continueto be tax exempt.

This would be applicableto those cases where no con-tribution is made by employ-ers to the retirement fund. Inher Budget presented toParliament on February 1,Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman had provided thatinterest on employee contri-butions to provident fund over�2.5 lakh per annum would betaxed from April 1, 2021.

Replying to the debate onthe Finance Bill 2021 in theLok Sabha, Sitharaman madethe announcement regardingraising the limit to �5 lakh incases where employers do notmake contributions to theprovident fund. The FinanceBill, which gives effect to taxproposals for 2021-22, wasapproved by voice vote. TheBill was passed after acceptanceof 127 amendments to theproposed legislation.

Finance Minister alsostressed that tax on interest onprovident fund contributionaffects only 1 per cent of thecontributors, and the remain-ing are not impacted as their

contribution is less than �2.5lakh per annum. Referring tothe issues raised by variousmembers on higher taxes onmotor fuel, Sitharaman saidshe would love to discuss theissue of bringing petrol anddiesel under GST in the nextGST Council meeting. Shealso sought to remind mem-bers that it was not just theCentre which taxes motor fueland States too impose levies.

The Finance Minister alsosaid rationalisation of customsduty structure will be under-taken to help domestic busi-nesses, especially the MSMEsegment. On taxes, she empha-sised on the need for wideningthe tax base. With regards tothe equalisation levy, she saidthis is meant to provide a levelplaying field to domestic busi-nesses which pay taxes inIndia.

In the debate, entire oppo-sition MPs said high prices ofdiesel, petrol and LPG arehurting the common manacross the country and askedthe Government to reducethem. Supriya Sule (NCP) saidexcise component in the pricesof petrol is close to �38 per litrewhile state value-added tax

(VAT) is about �19 per litre inDelhi. The Government shouldconsider slashing this highexcise duty, she said.

She urged the Government tobring down prices of petrol,

diesel and LPG cylinder. Sulealso raised concern over thepace of disinvestment and pri-vatisation of profit-makingpublic sector entities (PSEs).

Ritesh Pandey (BSP) tooraised the issue of high prices

of petrol and diesel “burning ahole in pocket of the poor”.“The government is imposing48 per cent as excise... And therising prices of petrol anddiesel are hurting the poor verybadly,” he said.

“Selling of PSUs and their pri-vatisation will impact reser-

vation policy for Dalits as pri-vate companies will not followreservation policy. Privatisationis going to have a long termimpact on poor and Dalits ofthe country,” he added.Equalisation tax is going tomake digital payment costlyand the government shouldrethink about this, Pandeysaid.

Nama Nageswara Rao (TRS)too demanded that petrol

and diesel prices be reduced.Rao also urged the governmentto consider lowering theimport duty on cotton. Thegovernment raised the importduty on cotton from 10 percent to 15 per cent in theBudget 2021-22.

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As the farmers continue theirprotests and a resumption

of talks with them seems uncer-tain in near future, theGovernment on Tuesday onceagain defended the three farmlaws saying that new farm lawsare intended to facilitate directbuying from farmers in tradearea by traders, processors,exporters, Farmer ProducerOrganizations (FPOs), agricul-ture co-operative Societies so as

to facilitate farmers to get bet-ter price. The government saidthat the new farm laws also pro-vide farmers with cost effective,easy time bound dispute reso-lution system at local level withprovision of penalty againsttraders for contravention ofany provision to protect thefarmers including small andmarginal farmers.

“The farm laws will accel-erate more investment in mar-keting and value addition infra-structure including that in stor-

age facilities near to farm gatecreating more employmentopportunities for rural youth,”Union Agriculture MinisterNarendra Singh Tomar said ina reply to the Lok Sabha onTuesday.

The minister said that farmlaws provide additional mar-keting opportunities to farmersfor selling their produce outsidethe Agricultural ProduceMarket Committee (APMC)market yards such as at farm-gates, cold storages, warehouse,

silos, etc. to help farmers to selltheir produce to direct buyerswithout depending on middle-men thus reducing cost of mar-keting and improving theirgain.

The new farm laws alsoprovide farmers with a cost-effective, easy time bound dis-pute resolution system at locallevel with provision of penaltyagainst traders for contraventionof any provision to protect thefarmers including small andmarginal farmers.

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Despite facing odds like ten-sion at the borders,

cyclones and earthquakes dur-ing the coronavirus pandemic,India emerged stronger and theentire world realised its poten-tial, Prime Minister NarendraModi told BJP MPs onTuesday.

Addressing the BJP parlia-mentary party meeting, Modisaid he relished all these chal-lenges during the pandemicand the country also over-came them.

“Sharing his experiences ofthe pandemic, Modi told MPsthat during the period, thecountry was not only facing thechallenge of the virus, but onothers fronts as well. Therewere tensions on the LAC,cyclones, earthquakes and thenthere was locust swarm attackbut despite all these odds, Indiaemerged stronger and theentire world realised its poten-tial,” said Union minister Arjun

Ram Meghwal briefing aboutthe meeting.

Meghwal said the primeminister also mentioned that hehas been holding public officefor more than two decades, firstas the chief minister of a stateand now as the prime minister,and he has never taken a dayoff.

Besides Modi, FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharamanand External Affairs Minister SJaishankar also addressed theBJP parliamentary party meet-ing.

Jaishankar asserted thatIndia’s stature rose in the worldduring the pandemic becauseof its medical diplomacy ofproviding antibiotics and test-ing kits to other nations earli-er and for its vaccine diploma-cy later, Meghwal said.

The external affairs minis-ter also shared details of theCentre’s Vande Bharat missionof bringing back strandedIndians from abroad, Meghwalsaid.

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The Government is plan-ning to launch ‘Poshan

Abhiyan’ to provide nutrition-al support to the indigent elder-ly population not staying in oldage homes and are victims ofsevere malnutrition, theMinistry of Social Justice andEmpowerment said on Tuesday.

Minister of State for SocialJustice and EmpowermentRattan Lal Kataria in a writtenreply said in the Lok Sabha thatthe scheme will focus onprocuring locally availablehealthy food material and serv-ing mid-day meals to the elder-ly.

“The gram panchayats and

urban municipalities are theimplementing agencies of thescheme. The funding for thescheme is from the SeniorCitizens Welfare Fund,” headded. Malnutrition is a con-dition where a person is defi-cient in nutrients, such as pro-tein, vitamins and minerals, ornot getting enough calories.This has many effects on healthand body function, includingincreased frailty, delayed woundhealing, and higher mortality.

Experts, however, say thatimproving nutrition alonemight not be the only answer tomalnutrition. “Old people mayneed better fitting dentures tohelp them eat and drink or foodshould be easy to chew andswallow.

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In a determined push to attainself-reliance in defence man-

ufacturing, the DefenceResearch and DevelopmentOrganisation(DRDO) in thelast three years has undertak-en 79 projects worth over �8,201 crores. These weaponsystems include cruise mis-siles, anti-ship missile, ammu-nition, radars and torpedoesbesides others.

These indigenouslydesigned and developed state-of-the art systems will beinducted into the three armedforces in the next three years,the Government informedParliament.

Giving details, minister ofstate for defence Sripad Naiksaid in a written reply in theRajya Sabha on Monday, dur-ing the past three years, 79 pro-jects amounting to �8,201crores directly pertaining todevelopment of new defenceequipments were undertaken.

These systems includedCruise Missile, Anti-ShipMissile, Surface-to-Air Missile,Air-to-Air Missile, ExtendedRange Anti-Submarine Rocket,Mounted Gun System,Ammunitions, ElectronicWarfare System, Radars,Torpedoes and HighEndurance AutonomousUnderwater Vehicle.

Some of the DRDO devel-oped systems which are like-ly to be available to defenceforces during 2021-23 areAstra missile, anti-drone sys-tem, SATCOM devices, sur-face to air missile, guidedbombs and NAG anti-tankmissile,

Many DRDO developedtechnologies such as BattleField Surveillance Rader(BFSR), Joint VentureProtective Carbine (JVPC)Jammers, 5.56 mm Rifle, 40mm Under Barrel GrenadeLauncher (UBRL)and OleoResin (OR) Grenade are beingutilized by the state police.

Moreover, the DRDO car-ried out upgrades including

Arjun Mk-1A main battletanks, Akash missile, LightCombat Aircraft(LCA) Mk-1A

Medium Power Radar-Extended Range PINAKA-Extended Range, GuidedElectronics &Communication System,Unified Mission Computerfor SU-30 MKI aircraft,Internal Electronic WarfareSystem for MIG-29 UpgradeAircraft and electronic warfaresystems for warships.

This comes at a time,when India’s imports in thelast nine to ten years droppedby more than 33 per cent.Moreover, Russia, the mainsupplier of arms to India, suf-fered in the process besidesthe US which had emerged asa big supplier of arms to Indiain the last one decade.

Noting these points in itsreport recently, the reputedinternational organizationStockholm InternationalPeace ResearchInstitute(SIPRI) also said thedecline took place due to anattempt by to reduce itsdependence on Russian armsand complex procurementprocesses.

Its arms imports reducedby 33 % between 2011-15 and2016-20, the report said. At pre-sent, more than 70 per cent ofinventory in the Indian armedforces is of erstwhile USSR andRussian origin. Moreover, theUS in the last one decade hadsupplied arms and ammunitionworth over 15 billion dollars.

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Maharashtra has the leg-islative competence for

granting reservation quota toMarathas and its decision isConstitutional as the 102ndamendment does not denude aState of the power to declare itslist of Socially andEducationally BackwardClasses (SEBC), the Centretold the Supreme Court onTuesday.

The 102nd Constitutionamendment Act of 2018 insert-ed Articles 338B, which dealswith the structure, duties andpowers of the NationalCommission for BackwardClass (NCBC), and 342A deal-ing with power of the Presidentto notify a particular caste asSEBC as also of Parliament tochange the list.

A five-judge Constitutionbench headed by JusticeAshok Bhushan was told bySolicitor General TusharMehta, appearing for theCentre, that in its view theSEBC Act, 2018, ofMaharashtra granting reser-vation to people of theMaratha community in thestate in jobs and admissions isConstitutional.

“The Centre is of the viewthat the Maharashtra SEBCAct is constitutional. We con-strue Article 342A givesenabling role to Central gov-ernment to determine theSEBC,” Mehta said, addingthat the Centre adopts thesubmissions of AttorneyGeneral K K Venugopal and it

should be considered as theview of the UnionGovernment.

On March 18, the AGhad told the top court that the102nd amendment to theConstitution does not deprivestate legislatures to enact lawdetermining the SEBC andconferring benefits on them.

Mehta said that the Article342A inserted by the amend-ment is an enabling provisionand does not denudes theStates of power to declareSEBC.

The bench however askedMehta as to why no notifica-tion of SEBCs has been issuedtill date by the Centre underArticle 342A as the Presidentin consultation with the gov-ernor has to issue the list.

“Will you not make it adead letter by not issuing thenotification for all times tocome? Doesn’t it means thatthere is a blank slate as ofnow?” the bench asked Mehta,to which he replied that theexisting list of SEBC contin-ues.

In that case, the existinglist of SEBC has to be a part ofthe Constitution AmendmentAct itself, the bench said,adding that it is not clear as ofnow as to what will be the cor-rect interpretation of Article342A, and what will be theeffect of not having a list.

Mehta said that all thesequestions will be answeredwhen the top court will con-sider the petition challengingthe validity of 102ndConstitution Amendment.

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Controversial former judge,Justice C S Karnan, arrest-

ed in December last year forallegedly making vulgar com-ments against women andremarks against judges, wasgranted bail by the MadrasHigh Court on Tuesday.

As many as 10 cases werepending against the formerjudge of the Madras andCalcutta High Courts.

Accepting the undertakinggiven by Justice Karnan to theeffect that he would not indulgein any such activities, Justice VBharathidasan granted him therelief, that too a conditionalone.

He should furnish twosureties for Rs 50,000 eachand stay in the city, not tamperwith the witnesses and appearbefore the InvestigatingOfficers as and when required.

Any violation of the con-ditions would render the bailorder cancelled, the judge said.

Earlier, the abusive con-tents released in the form ofvideos uploaded in the socialmedia platforms had prompt-ed the Bar Council of TamilNadu and Puducherry, a statu-tory body, to lodge series ofcomplaints against JusticeKarnan

Upon taking cognizance ofthe same, 10 cases had beenregistered so far for offencesunder the IPC and theInformation Technology Act.

His earlier bail petitionswere dismissed by the HighCourt on February 16 thisyear. PTI

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shown how neighbours cancohabit and thrive despite theups and downs. The upwardtrajectory commenced withSheikh Hasina’s return to powerin 2009. The focus has been onconnectivity in power grid,digital, road, railway, inlandwaterways and port facilities.The use of Chittagong Port,which Dhaka had earlierblocked, is now open connect-ing Agartala, 80 km away inTripura, over the Maitri Setubridge across Feni river mak-ing it the gateway to the North-East. A new railway servicefrom Dhaka to New Jalpaiguriwill augment the existing con-nectivity network. The aim is torestore and extend the pre-Partition rail-road-river systems.

Bangladesh’s economy isbooming. The World Bank inits latest report has noted thatenvironment-friendly projectswill enhance GDP — inBangladesh by 17 per cent andin India by eight per cent. Boththe countries have defused fric-tion points except the sharingof Teesta waters, vital for irri-gation in north-east Bangladeshduring the dry season. AChinese-funded project isassisting in the management ofTeesta. India and Bangladeshshare waters of 54 rivers, oper-ating under the Joint RiverCommission network. But it is

the people-to-people connectthat is at the heart of bilateralrelations. Sheikh Hasina callsIndia a “true friend”. Morethan 1.6 million visas are issuedto Bangladeshis annually, thehighest to any country. Both thecountries have evolved effective“differences-resolving” mecha-nism by high-level visits andconversations. The CAA andNRC are prickly issues thatwere smoothened out. TheRohingya issue has becomecomplex after the junta’s coup.India has donated two milliondoses of COVID-19 vaccine inaddition to five million doses tobe supplied commercially.

Commemoration of theLiberation War annually inNew Delhi, Dhaka and Kolkatahas been institutionalised. As anIndian soldier who helped theMukti Jodhas in theirLiberation War, I was a privi-leged invitee to Dhaka to cele-brate freedom and recall themarch to victory withBangladeshi colleagues, whichis a bonding in blood.

The father of Bangladesh,Sheikh Mujibur Rehman, cel-ebrates his centenary as BangaBandhu with Modi and Hasinajointly inaugurating the Mujib-Bapu digital exhibition andMujib being conferred theGandhi award. PresidentMohamad Abdul Hameed will

release the Sheikh’s memoirs torelive his political struggle cutshort by his assassination in1975 which led to an era of mil-itary rule. It was in this periodthat the seeds of anti-Indianismwere sown. As late as in 2013-14, on a visit to Dhaka, I discov-ered that the Bangladesh Armywas treating India as Red Landand China the high benefactor.

In his book, Zulfi Bhutto ofPakistan, Stanley Wolpert says:“If only Bhutto had abided byelection results, there wouldhave been no Bangladesh andany reason for India to inter-vene. India and the FederalRepublic of Germany facilitat-ed the return of 195 PoWscharged with war crimes bypersuading Mujib to be lenient.In 1973, German ChancellorWilly Brandt, through pro-tracted negotiations with emis-saries of Zulfiqar Bhutto andMujibur Rahman, succeeded inconvincing Mujib that heshould forego the trials. SheikhMujib displayed extraordinarycourage and wisdom towardsreconciliation with Pakistan.But that, alas, was shortlived.”

(The writer, a retired MajorGeneral, was Commander,IPKF South, Sri Lanka, andfounder member of the DefencePlanning Staff, currently theIntegrated Defence Staff. Theviews expressed are personal.)

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Indisputably, Bangladesh hasturned out to be the sheetanchor of India’s“Neighbourhood First” pol-

icy, launchpad for “Act East” andIndo-Pacific strategy. Barringsome issues over the CAA andNRC, both the countries enjoymost stable and trusted relationsin South Asia. Prime MinisterSheikh Hasina has, in paybackmode, delivered on security —counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism since 2009 — besidesconnectivity, trade and otherbilateral issues. Insurgency in theNorth-East, down 80 per cent, isin its residual stage courtesy thecleansing of sanctuaries inBangladesh. The land and mar-itime boundaries have been set-tled, including the enclaves. Theonly problem remaining is shar-ing the Teesta waters whichmight be settled with a BJPGovernment in West Bengal.

Prime Minister NarendraModi is the chief guest in Dhakaon Friday for the historic triplecommemoration: 50 years of theLiberation War of 1971, 50 yearsof India-Bangladesh bonding andthe centenary of the founder ofBangladesh, Sheikh MujiburRehman. The joint Indo-MuktiBahini victory in 14 days with thesurrender of 90,000 POWs, includ-ing 195 Pakistani soldiers implicat-ed in war crimes, is a rare politi-co-military feat. It was the first warIndia was prepared to fight withdeft political and diplomaticmanoeuvres. Strategic thinkerand author Jaswant Singh woulddescribe Bangladesh as geogra-phy’s revenge over history andlament that Pakistan’s military sur-render in East Pakistan could notresolve the Kashmir dispute. NowPakistan-Bangladesh relations areat their lowest following diplomat-ic excesses, including Islamabad’sspying and trial in Dhaka of theJamaat-e-Islami members alignedwith the Opposition BangladeshNationalist Party (BNP) whowere not only involved in warcrimes but also opposed to inde-pendence and secession fromPakistan. A gentle apology fromPrime Minister Imran Khan anytime now would make a grandgesture of reconciliation.

New Delhi and Dhaka have

�� Sir — India’s COVID vaccination drive haspicked up pace but it is not where it shouldbe — considering how the new variants ofthe virus can ramp up cases as they haveworldwide. The cases are rising and we aregoing back to square one. People haveabsolutely no regard for others; they are notwearing masks, social distancing has goneout the window and, moreover, hygiene hastaken a backseat. We cannot afford to goback to square one but it looks like we areheading towards it.

The new variants — that were discov-ered in the UK, South Africa and Brazil —pose a big challenge. But with the kind ofcapacity we have, the hope is there that manyin the coming months would get vaccinat-ed and the country could move towards nor-malcy. We need to vaccinate faster, or else,face another lockdown. However, a day afterwhen India detected around 40,000 newCOVID-19 infections, the Ministry ofHome Affairs on Tuesday issued an orderwith guidelines for controlling COVID-19which will be effective from April 1 andremain in force up to April 30. The guide-lines mandate the State and UTGovernments to strictly enforce the ‘Test-Track-Treat’ protocol in all parts of the coun-try. From April 1, all people above 45 yearsof age are entitled to get the COVID-19 vac-cine. Even people without comorbidity andabove the age of 45 years can get vaccinat-ed. But still we must not drop our guard asthere is no substitute to taking precaution.

Sean Colin Young | Delhi

��Sir — Many people gave their lives in orderto win Independence from the Britishrule. In order to pay homage to these heroes,India celebrates Shaheed Diwas. On March23, three freedom fighters — Bhagat Singh,Rajguru and Sukhdev — were hanged todeath by the Britishers. They fought for ourindependence and sacrificed their lives forthe cause. For many young Indians, they area source of inspiration.

Unfortunately, most of our political

leaders are corrupt and they don’t think ofthe nation and welfare of its people. For theseself-centred and greedy politicians, theirvested interests come first. During the Britishrule, the sacrifice of freedom fightersinspired many people to come forth andfight for their freedom. Therefore, in orderto pay real homage to the three of these rev-olutionaries, our leaders must take a pledgeto maintain probity and integrity in publiclife. India has progressed but still a lot moreis required to be done. There is still hunger,poverty, unemployment and malnutrition.These issues must be addressed, then onlythe dream of our freedom fighters would berealised.

Bhagwan Thadani | Mumbai

�� Sir — People must realise the importanceof water conservation. It is seen that peo-

ple are ignorant towards the issue of sav-ing water and tend to waste it. We shouldturn off the tap while washing our face,hands or brushing the teeth. This saves alot of water. In fact, the freshwater problemhas led experts to predict that some of themost densely populated Indian cities willbe uninhabitable in a couple of decade’stime. The only way we can prevent this cat-astrophe from befalling us is by mendingour ways.

We need to conserve fresh waterresources like rivers and ponds. We mustalso ensure that underground water does-n’t gets contaminated and spoiled. TheCentre is putting in efforts through its var-ious initiatives and programmes but wemust do our bit.

Amit Singh Kushwaha | Satna7�� ?

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Sabir Ahmad was sitting outside a tea shop inAttara market in Banda, Bundelkhand, whenthis reporter met him by chance on February

10. He lives in a nearby village and had come withhis friend Vinod Chaudhry to the market to pur-chase some goods. During the conversation, he casu-ally mentioned that he had got a house under thePradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY). “I mustthank Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for giving usa pucca house,” he said as his friend, who is also abeneficiary of PMAY, nodded in agreement. “I amhappy that Yogi, as the Chief Minister of UttarPradesh, is ensuring that Government benefits reachHindus and Muslims alike,” Ahmad said.

Yogi’s political image (constructed by hisrivals) is that of a Muslim-hater. When the BJPnamed him as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh(UP) in 2017, questions were raised whether a monkof a mutt would be able to control the politically-sensitive State. The Muslims reacted sharply. Theyfeared that Yogi had been selected to strengthen theparty’s Hindutva raj. The internal balance within theBJP, too, was tilted against him because Yogi wasbranded as a rabble-rouser and had revolted againstthe party leadership many a time. It was believedthat he would never be able to complete full termin office because of his domineering nature. Somepolitical pundits even believed that Keshav PrasadMaurya would replace him.

However, in the last four years, Yogi provedeveryone wrong. Yogi gradually gained stature inthe party and his hard work paid dividends. AfterNarendra Modi and Amit Shah, Yogi emerged asa top-ranking leader in the BJP. At the national level,people started talking about him having prime min-isterial calibre. At the administrative level, Yogi notonly controlled Hindu hardliners but also instilledconfidence among the Muslims. The cow vigilantegroups or the rowdy Bajrang Dal activists who wereusually active during Valentine’s Day have all butvanished. The police were given a free hand and evenRight-wing leaders were sent to jail once they wentto the other side of the law.

“The mantra of this Government is ‘sabka saath,sabka vikas’ and we are sticking to it. There is nodifference between Hindus and Muslims. TheGovernment is working for the welfare of all sec-tions of society,” the Chief Minister told this reporterrecently.

Yogi said that when the Government assumedoffice, the State’s coffers were empty, law and orderwas in a shambles. In many areas of UP, the situa-tion had become so bad that people were forced tosell their houses and settle in other places. The cur-rent Government has established the rule of law andgood governance. As a result, all the festivals are heldin an atmosphere of peace and harmony.

Yogi was sworn in as the 21st Chief Ministerof UP on March 19, 2017, and is the fourth fromthe BJP to occupy the top post. Before him KalyanSingh, Ram Prakash Gupta and Rajnath Singhserved as the Chief Ministers of UP. Yogi is thelongest-serving BJP CM and is likely to completehis full term even as none of the other BJP CMscompleted three years in office. In the last four years,he has been able to win the hearts of the people. Theperception of people has changed because of theimprovement in law and order and infrastructurefacilities. As a result, UP has become number onein programme implementation and is now a

sought-after destination for investors.MoUs worth �4.68 lakh crore weresigned at the Investor Summit heldin Lucknow in 2018. Out of these,projects worth overs �3 lakh crorehave been started. An investment of�50,000 crore was made in thedefence corridor set up inBundelkhand which will also createfive lakh employment opportunities.As many as 13 new MoUs worth�4,500 crore have also been signedat the Aero India show held inBengaluru recently.

The Yogi Government has ded-icated the last four years in tacklinginfinite challenges, exploring endlesspossibilities and realising the dreamsof the public. The mantra of “reform,perform, transform” adopted by theGovernment helped in restoringUP’s image as a State with infinitepotential and possibilities.

This has resulted in the creationof an atmosphere of development,trust and good governance in UP.The Government has set new stan-dards of development in every field.This has helped the Chief Ministerto change the perception of peopletowards UP and investors are com-ing to the State because theGovernment has introduced trans-parency in its working. That’s whyUP is second in the Ease of DoingBusiness index in the country. Policereforms, too, were pending for years.These were implemented to improvethe law and order machinery.

Perception has become the buzz-word now and Yogi talks aboutchange in perception in all hisspeeches. Addressing a series of ral-lies in Bengal and Assam, he talkedabout the change in perception and

how people of all castes, creed andreligion are marching forwardtogether because they have a beliefthat the BJP Government will pro-tect them. This change in perceptionhas helped big multi-national com-panies to set up their units in UP.Sugar mills, which were closed fordecades, have started operations andthe ambitious ‘One District, OneProduct (ODOP)’ scheme has givenwings to local artisans and they aregetting work in their villages only.

The Government’s dossiers claimthat the State has helped over 49 lakhMicro, Small and MediumEnterprises (MSME) units in UP toget a finance of over �1,84,000 crorefrom various banks in the last fouryears. This year alone, bankers havefinanced over seven lakh new MSMEunits. In the last four years, the econ-omy of the State has increased to�21,73,000 crore from �10,90,000crore taking UP to the second posi-tion in the country. UP is movingtowards becoming the biggest econ-omy in the country and its per capi-ta income has also almost doubled.According to the latest report by theCenter for Monitoring IndianEconomy (CMIE), the unemploy-ment rate in the State came down to4.1 per cent in February from 17.5per cent in 2017. This proves thatdespite the Coronavirus pandemicthat has delayed many projects,employment opportunities have beencreated in UP.

What has gone in favour ofYogi is his transparent style of work-ing. The Government has givenappointments to over four lakh peo-ple in the Government sector, with-out any complaints coming to the

fore. During Akhilesh Yadav andMayawati’s time, the Governmentappointments were mired in contro-versies and accusations offavouritism.

However, all these achievementscome with challenges. The biggestchallenge Yogi is facing now is to leadthe party in the Assembly electionsslated for early next year amid theOpposition’s charges that the suffer-ing of the people is being ignored byGovernment officials and politicalleaders. Recently, a video of LabourMinister Swami Prasad Maurya wentviral where he can be seen rebukinga woman who had come to him forhelp.

Ram Iqbal Singh, a lawmakerfrom Ballia, said recently in a BJPState working committee meetingthat tehsils and police stations havebecome centres of corruption.Surendra Singh, another lawmakerseconded it. Last week, Yogi’s officeissued notices to 25 DMs and SSPsfor not picking up calls from theCMO despite a clear directive fromthe Chief Minister that district offi-cials should attend all calls or callback if they missed any call.

Such ugly incidents could harmthe party in the next election. In theabsence of an effective Opposition,the BJP is almost ruling the roost.There could be a sense of complacen-cy that people will vote for the BJPin the absence of an alternative. Yogineeds to shrug it off and ensure thatinfrastructure projects actually takeshape before the end of this year. Heneeds to shepherd his resources andmanpower to a legitimate end. Thisis a big challenge and how Yogi meetsit, only the time will tell.

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Lloyd Austin, the DefenceSecretary under the BidenAdministration, decided

to make an unscheduled stop atAfghanistan after concludinghis first foreign visit to meetclose allies in Asia. After meet-ing with his Japanese counter-part, Austin met key officials inKorea and in India where healso met Prime MinisterNarendra Modi. Post thisscheduled trip which aimed tobolster the US’ alliance network,the Pentagon chief took anunexpected detour to Kabul.Austin — a former four-starGeneral in the US Army whoplayed a key role in the exit ofUS forces from Iraq — went toAfghanistan ostensibly to “lis-ten to soldiers.” The visitassumes significance since by allindications the May 1 deadlineset for the withdrawal of USforces (and with it the NATOforces) is likely to be missed.During the intervening period

of the present flux and the newdeadline, there will be a lot ofbehind-the-scenes geopoliticaldevelopments where India canmake itself relevant by playinga more central role in decidingthe future of the troubled coun-try. Though there is little doubtthat the US forces will withdrawsoon since there is little politi-cal appetite for continuing theUS’ longest battle, the BidenAdministration is still in theprocess of fine-tuning its finalstrategy. This may delay thewithdrawal by anywherebetween a few weeks to a fewmonths (the US media report-ed a six-month extension)adding to the flux the war-torncountry is in.

Irrespective of the actualdate of the withdrawal of forces,it’s clear that the future ofKabul does not look too bright.The Taliban is stronger thanever before with a 80,000-1,00,000 strong force. It’s in con-

trol of most highways and hasalready given threats of a “reac-tion” if the May 1 withdrawal isdelayed. In all probability, theTaliban hints at a bloody springeven as it continues to havedeep links with the Al-Qaeda.Taliban’s benefactor Pakistan —which is a key part of decision-making for the future of thecountry — will not be able toresist the urge to use the groupagainst India. New Delhi andIslamabad announced a cease-fire after wholesale violations byPakistan. But after the Talibantakes control of the interimGovernment in Kabul and con-tinues to enjoy patronage ofother radical Islamist organisa-tions, will this agreement be ofany consequence?

India’s security challengesare likely to intensify after theTaliban takes control of theGovernment. Since the possibil-ity of holding elections soonlooks remote given the simul-

taneous challenges such anexercise would entail, theTaliban will become part of theinterim Government. So whileAfghan President Ashraf Ghaniis clear that he will make wayonly for a democratically-elect-ed Government, this clause isunlikely to be a deal breaker forworld powers. So, a strongerTaliban, which continues toenjoy patronage from otherradical outfits and becomespart of the Government, willmean a possible opportunity forIslamabad to identify ways to

hurt Indian interests.New Delhi has managed to

get a chair on the high tableafter successful backroomdiplomacy. But India needs toutilise this opportunity tobecome more vital to the entirepeace process. India has beenhistorically disadvantaged by itsstance of “no talks” with theTaliban and no boots on theground.

So, despite being one of thelargest donors ($3 billion ofaid), it does not commandmuch geo-strategic weight.While it cannot build inroadsin the organisation overnight,New Delhi needs to be realis-tic about how to address thechallenges. Not engaging at allhas brought diminishingreturns so far. But if the Talibanforms the next Government inKabul, New Delhi stands to loseby continuing its policy.

Austin’s surprise decision tostop at Kabul and the message

he gave to the soldiers posted inthe country seems to suggestthe possibility of the troopsbeing asked to hold fort forlonger. This means during theflux, India can build its bridgeswith other powers to play amore meaningful role. ComeApril, Turkey will play host toa crucial round of talks with allstakeholders to finalise thewithdrawal strategy. But mostof them would like to squeezeNew Delhi’s role, given theexisting tensions between Indiaand its hostile neighbours.

So, while Ankara will utilisethis opportunity to tide over adifficult diplomatic phase withWashington, it will also like tofurther marginalise India’s roleto come good on its stridentposturing. If there is no break-through in the proposed talks,for a number of reasons includ-ing the Taliban’s refusal to ful-fil the terms of the deal, NewDelhi should up the ante.

Afghanistan is fast becoming abattleground where geo-strate-gic priorities of Russia, Chinaand Pakistan are being aligned,one of which is to completelymarginalise India’s role.

New Delhi’s best bet is toalign its priorities and engage-ment with the US. The BidenAdministration is not in a sim-ilar hurry as the TrumpAdministration and the May 1deadline is not cast in stone. Butas the US leaves behind a veryvolatile Afghanistan, it will bea tinderbox for New Delhi tooand requires active engage-ment.

In a post-pandemic worldorder India envisions itself as aregional heavyweight againstChina. This vision cannot belimited only to the IndianOcean Region, but shouldextend to its regional neigh-bourhood, includingAfghanistan. Neither should itwait to “eventually play a role.”

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Script Open High Low LTPSecurity Name Open High Low LTPEMAMILTD 487.80 488.00 476.30 477.00ADANIENT 999.80 1086.35 993.20 1058.15ICICIBANK 577.90 589.25 574.65 586.30SBIN 368.70 377.70 367.10 372.50RELIANCE 2064.00 2109.90 2057.25 2089.05JSWSTEEL 443.35 447.30 439.50 441.40TATAMOTORS 305.00 312.10 304.10 307.30ADANIPORTS 731.45 755.35 727.70 738.20HDFCBANK 1475.00 1507.00 1469.35 1500.35AXISBANK 718.25 739.00 714.15 730.75TATASTEEL 745.50 749.55 733.50 740.95RVNL 30.60 31.00 30.05 30.40IDEA 10.05 10.18 9.91 10.10BAJFINANCE 5410.00 5445.65 5350.00 5377.25ATGL 834.00 915.00 832.90 897.00HDFC 2524.00 2541.00 2493.00 2509.30ITC 225.60 228.10 221.40 222.15IBULHSGFIN 215.45 216.00 211.40 212.70TATAPOWER 105.00 106.00 104.00 104.35TATACHEM 768.90 774.00 756.05 766.30GSPL 261.00 261.20 257.50 259.65TATACONSUM 621.10 640.00 620.95 633.95INDUSINDBK 978.25 994.05 971.40 990.00MARUTI 7130.00 7223.00 7130.00 7185.25PNB 37.80 39.20 37.80 38.75MINDAIND 558.30 568.85 551.60 551.75BANKBARODA 73.05 75.85 72.85 74.25TECHM 1008.55 1021.30 1000.65 1013.85AMBUJACEM 297.00 306.25 293.50 304.35ULTRACEMCO 6729.85 6959.15 6729.10 6934.15ADANIPOWER 101.65 101.65 100.10 101.65DEEPAKNI 1530.60 1603.00 1530.60 1580.25TCS 3139.75 3168.50 3124.00 3142.05ADANIGREEN 1306.00 1313.60 1279.45 1312.20HCLTECH 980.10 993.00 971.80 980.75BEL 128.00 129.70 126.15 126.65INFY 1371.00 1383.30 1359.70 1371.20DLF 293.05 302.65 293.00 297.00BHARTIARTL 530.80 532.40 522.25 529.20ASIANPAINT 2428.00 2428.00 2398.90 2410.50MOTHERSUMI 207.60 213.55 204.00 211.40IOLCP 573.00 579.45 566.15 567.95BANDHANBNK 354.50 366.20 353.30 364.45EICHERMOT 2680.00 2715.00 2668.00 2701.70BHEL 52.50 52.70 51.50 51.75KOTAKBANK 1827.00 1840.00 1799.15 1813.15UPL 626.50 643.90 622.00 633.05ADANITRANS 799.90 859.20 788.65 848.60LT 1407.00 1416.00 1397.70 1404.75M&M 860.00 864.55 841.30 844.65LUPIN 1014.70 1018.65 1002.45 1008.15ONGC 109.65 110.30 106.55 107.15NESTLEIND 16599.00 16747.70 16498.9016685.75ACC 1862.90 1924.50 1840.20 1910.55TITAN 1462.00 1514.45 1454.70 1489.90RECLTD 139.80 141.00 138.40 139.80JINDALSTEL 324.50 325.55 313.80 315.25BPCL 442.40 442.55 435.15 436.80ALKYLAMINE 5335.00 5990.00 5335.00 5836.85WIPRO 419.00 423.30 412.85 415.65BAJAJ-AUTO 3650.00 3708.25 3642.05 3665.25CANBK 151.20 156.35 149.00 153.40SRTRANSFIN 1400.00 1433.60 1394.05 1406.00DRREDDY 4351.00 4403.50 4322.80 4371.95IRCTC 1845.25 1861.60 1831.05 1840.95SWSOLAR 266.25 317.60 266.25 315.20DIVISLAB 3405.35 3510.00 3405.35 3489.95DIXON 4054.80 4116.65 3846.85 3869.90CONCOR 561.00 575.90 561.00 568.60HINDUNILVR 2360.00 2372.35 2332.55 2337.40GAIL 137.70 138.45 133.70 134.35INDIGO 1711.00 1780.75 1705.55 1771.75IOC 97.90 97.90 96.40 96.75GRANULES 316.40 319.70 310.05 319.05HINDPETRO* 236.45 239.55 234.15 239.00NAUKRI 4670.00 4831.60 4670.00 4766.70FEDERALBNK 77.20 79.55 77.20 78.20RBLBANK 227.00 231.00 224.15 226.75SHREECEM 27199.95 28459.05 26892.7528408.80SBICARD 977.00 983.00 951.50 956.70ASHOKLEY 113.70 116.80 113.70 114.75HAL 1030.05 1054.10 1012.00 1020.70IDBI 37.70 40.25 37.50 39.40BAJAJFINSV 9415.00 9506.55 9382.10 9399.90IDFCFIRSTB 59.55 61.70 59.50 61.35GODREJPROP 1425.00 1448.65 1402.00 1440.40PIDILITIND 1769.00 1807.95 1752.80 1785.00VEDL 223.95 224.70 222.50 223.70STAR 799.00 819.00 794.70 806.70M&MFIN 212.00 213.80 208.40 210.05HINDALCO 342.00 342.55 330.30 331.55CIPLA 779.00 779.00 768.40 775.60SUNPHARMA 593.95 594.55 582.95 587.90NAVINFLUOR 2562.45 2576.00 2542.75 2551.40TATACOFFEE 117.80 128.60 116.65 126.15PFC 121.10 122.55 118.05 120.50MRF 84000.00 84978.10 83605.8084618.85DELTACORP 176.95 178.40 171.00 172.70CHOLAFIN 570.00 574.50 554.20 558.35

DMART 2904.30 3004.80 2904.30 2932.40NATIONALUM 54.55 55.95 54.00 54.90PEL 1909.95 1936.75 1888.35 1911.70BIOCON 403.60 405.60 398.40 399.50AUBANK 1238.00 1270.95 1220.70 1242.60JUSTDIAL 913.95 921.95 886.55 891.00HDFCLIFE 682.50 689.35 680.75 683.70SAIL 74.40 74.40 72.00 72.25GRASIM 1417.85 1421.95 1394.10 1407.00NCC 83.10 85.00 80.75 80.95APOLLOTYRE 225.50 231.15 224.10 229.45LICHSGFIN 415.00 424.90 415.00 418.00L&TFH 100.00 101.65 97.45 100.60POWERGRID 223.85 223.85 218.40 219.15NTPC 109.95 110.05 108.10 108.75PVR 1328.45 1336.05 1311.65 1316.30RCF 80.05 84.45 80.05 81.75LTTS 2648.95 2658.85 2560.50 2579.95NMDC 129.70 133.00 128.00 132.00BEML 1408.00 1414.00 1341.90 1361.35IGL 517.00 524.00 516.55 519.00APLLTD 923.00 938.50 915.50 936.00IOB 15.50 16.55 15.40 16.55FSL 113.45 118.80 112.55 114.45APOLLOHOSP 2911.00 2967.00 2897.20 2943.30BRITANNIA 3557.30 3578.40 3526.00 3552.80HAVELLS 1049.70 1056.95 1029.95 1040.00GARFIBRES 2410.00 2433.40 2346.50 2421.95HEG 1575.00 1653.00 1568.35 1598.70GMRINFRA 25.80 25.80 25.00 25.50ZEEL 216.00 216.50 210.60 212.75AARTIDRUGS 735.95 748.00 716.95 725.90GODREJCP 698.50 703.90 688.70 691.00CGCL 362.75 365.95 355.85 361.25TORNTPOWER 428.65 428.65 417.40 419.60GRAPHITE 505.40 518.00 501.05 504.10COROMANDEL 762.75 763.00 750.30 755.45SUZLON 5.67 5.70 5.42 5.53PAGEIND 29945.00 30898.95 29579.2530795.00VOLTAS 1014.50 1014.50 993.00 1001.05RADICO 537.00 576.00 530.75 564.55BANKINDIA 69.85 75.20 69.15 75.20FORTIS 204.15 212.45 200.00 208.95WOCKPHARMA 453.80 453.80 440.35 443.05SBILIFE 909.95 910.75 896.00 898.20COALINDIA 135.65 136.65 134.70 135.25HINDCOPPER 123.50 130.45 123.00 130.05TANLA 900.00 900.00 845.00 867.10CENTRALBK 16.20 16.65 16.20 16.65ABCAPITAL 120.85 123.90 120.85 122.55ICICIPRULI 438.55 443.30 434.00 437.00ASHOKA 103.90 104.70 101.50 102.20UNIONBANK 34.65 36.30 34.50 36.00GNFC 305.00 307.45 297.15 298.90UJJIVAN 222.85 226.60 220.55 222.70IEX 361.50 370.00 358.30 361.45MINDTREE 2015.00 2034.05 1999.65 2013.60NBCC 47.00 48.40 46.40 47.85SCI 118.35 121.00 116.50 116.65IBREALEST 89.25 93.50 89.25 90.05SRF 5310.95 5364.80 5270.45 5320.00TATAELXSI 2747.90 2762.00 2721.00 2741.00AUROPHARMA 835.00 848.00 830.70 846.00PERSISTENT 1985.00 1990.00 1889.90 1941.75HEROMOTOCO 3101.30 3131.95 3061.85 3064.60MGL 1134.95 1164.00 1130.80 1159.70SIEMENS 1852.80 1876.00 1833.30 1857.65BERGEPAINT 738.00 751.70 737.55 744.30ASTRAL 1720.00 1720.00 1661.45 1672.00TATACOMM 1145.00 1150.15 1109.00 1112.70CUMMINSIND 899.50 899.50 873.10 891.90MAHABANK 19.65 20.90 19.20 20.90VAIBHAVGBL 4148.00 4248.00 4090.00 4137.45KPITTECH 164.50 168.50 162.80 167.70BALKRISIND 1620.00 1634.00 1612.45 1620.25SPICEJET 77.30 77.70 74.50 74.75JUBLFOOD 2895.00 2945.90 2872.00 2933.00SWANENERGY 141.55 142.50 139.50 141.90INDIANB 121.00 126.10 120.25 123.05FRETAIL 60.70 60.80 57.50 57.75CROMPTON 397.00 397.00 381.00 382.75RAMCOCEM 986.05 988.15 968.70 980.30UCOBANK 12.88 12.96 12.38 12.46MANAPPURAM 159.30 159.30 154.90 157.45PETRONET 231.00 232.10 228.20 229.45MFSL 830.15 873.75 830.15 867.90TATAMETALI 741.50 742.75 729.40 733.20ALOKTEXT 21.25 21.25 20.65 21.05LTI 4100.15 4136.10 4018.05 4047.00MMTC 42.75 45.75 42.75 45.30CANFINHOME 605.00 619.00 593.00 600.20PTC 80.65 85.20 80.50 82.90MUTHOOTFIN 1245.40 1249.00 1225.30 1240.00TRIDENT 14.68 14.84 14.40 14.53CENTURYTEX 487.20 490.00 482.50 488.15ESCORTS 1375.00 1380.75 1353.60 1360.00HINDZINC 279.00 283.20 269.15 270.50BHARATFORG 602.55 602.55 589.00 595.00IFCI 13.40 13.57 13.14 13.57SYNGENE 501.25 522.75 497.30 517.00ABFRL 206.00 207.00 201.10 202.40

MEGH 119.70 122.80 116.05 116.95CHAMBLFERT 223.40 231.10 221.00 223.75GMM 4285.00 4338.30 4135.00 4304.40IRCON 83.65 85.25 82.95 84.75BOSCHLTD 14449.70 14449.70 14250.0014330.00QUESS 698.00 704.45 678.70 685.00KEI 550.00 563.45 527.00 533.10LALPATHLAB 2593.80 2618.85 2542.35 2556.15EDELWEISS 83.20 85.25 81.15 81.85UBL 1265.00 1278.00 1244.20 1272.10TORNTPHARM 2404.00 2486.80 2395.00 2480.30MCX 1600.00 1615.00 1548.90 1555.30INDIAMART 8090.00 8090.00 7833.00 7920.00VGUARD 236.10 237.35 232.85 235.20NOCIL 169.00 176.40 166.60 175.35TVSMOTOR 580.75 586.00 575.85 579.50MOIL 145.35 146.40 141.75 143.40JSWENERGY 87.35 87.65 85.65 86.05TRENT 812.00 836.95 810.00 815.65INDUSTOWER 257.40 262.90 254.25 255.10HONAUT 44666.00 45200.00 43200.0044489.00RAJESHEXPO 476.95 479.95 471.50 472.70ENDURANCE 1480.00 1499.30 1425.00 1449.00DBL 569.30 616.25 569.30 592.25COFORGE 2932.00 2967.00 2856.75 2866.30METROPOLIS 1981.10 2065.00 1943.00 2057.60GODREJAGRO 498.00 498.00 490.90 490.95COLPAL 1586.50 1588.25 1566.10 1570.10INDIACEM 167.00 171.05 163.45 167.95DABUR 533.75 536.80 531.85 533.55AAVAS 2380.00 2672.05 2295.15 2414.90POWERINDIA 1414.00 1435.50 1400.00 1404.00TATAMTRDVR 132.70 137.35 132.25 134.05JAICORPLTD 88.60 91.00 88.35 89.85ZENSARTECH 293.00 317.65 293.00 294.70INDHOTEL 116.00 116.90 112.15 113.00GODFRYPHLP 875.65 928.20 875.65 897.20HDFCAMC 2894.00 2933.00 2880.00 2885.00IRB 114.15 114.15 109.55 110.05JKPAPER 147.90 155.75 147.45 154.30AMBER 3358.00 3398.20 3255.00 3294.55GLENMARK 467.00 469.90 460.90 467.00LAURUSLABS 363.80 363.80 357.90 361.10BALRAMCHIN 205.35 214.50 205.00 210.20BATAINDIA 1482.50 1501.35 1477.30 1489.45EXIDEIND 189.95 190.95 188.70 189.50BOMDYEING 75.90 76.40 74.30 75.15AFFLE 5360.00 5563.95 5226.20 5563.95CASTROLIND 120.00 122.45 119.35 121.05DCBBANK 106.75 109.65 104.50 105.65CADILAHC 432.00 435.25 428.90 430.10APLAPOLLO 1275.00 1346.80 1275.00 1316.10SYMPHONY 1277.95 1333.00 1268.90 1292.45SEQUENT 227.50 246.00 227.50 242.25RAIN 148.15 150.45 147.30 147.90SONATSOFTW 472.05 491.75 472.05 480.50DISHTV 9.85 9.96 9.75 9.84GICRE 221.00 221.00 214.25 215.45SOUTHBANK 8.93 9.06 8.81 8.90CYIENT 677.05 686.65 657.55 666.95IDFC 50.45 53.45 50.30 52.80PNBHOUSING 393.00 408.15 386.90 400.50IPCALAB 1840.55 1842.55 1816.60 1833.15ABBOTINDIA 14710.00 14837.80 14586.6514770.70SANOFI 7680.00 7880.00 7680.00 7835.00GUJGAS 511.25 521.00 508.35 509.90EQUITAS 87.70 89.85 85.60 89.05ISEC 410.00 419.50 410.00 411.55ORIENTELEC 328.10 332.25 313.00 317.20KRBL 194.00 195.80 190.50 193.45WELCORP 136.60 137.45 134.85 135.25MAHINDCIE 169.50 175.00 163.70 174.40DEEPAKFERT 239.00 241.10 234.05 236.70RAYMOND 342.00 352.50 342.00 350.30KEC 469.00 469.00 445.05 448.35SUNTV 484.70 486.90 479.00 480.80UFLEX 398.25 399.85 390.30 394.10AMARAJABAT 880.15 885.50 875.00 875.00ASTRAZEN 3348.00 3363.50 3299.00 3323.10VAKRANGEE 51.45 52.25 50.90 51.25GREAVESCOT 137.30 138.05 133.00 133.75BSOFT 252.80 253.60 247.50 249.85ICICIGI 1443.00 1458.95 1425.35 1437.70CESC 597.80 609.25 597.80 605.20HFCL 26.45 27.80 26.45 27.40IIFL 295.40 309.80 295.40 299.00BIRLACORPN 834.70 856.00 833.55 847.95ENGINERSIN 76.00 77.50 75.80 76.95NIACL 169.80 170.50 163.00 165.35AVANTI 456.00 459.45 445.50 449.30STLTECH 208.70 211.80 201.00 208.30BAJAJCON 272.90 272.90 262.50 264.20PIIND 2296.35 2325.00 2284.35 2296.65FCONSUMER 7.15 7.56 7.15 7.28CARERATING 438.10 443.75 435.50 438.00TIMETECHNO 56.30 59.95 56.20 58.50PRESTIGE 297.05 305.45 291.65 303.05POLYCAB 1370.00 1376.00 1349.00 1373.40HUDCO 48.00 48.85 47.75 48.10PHILIPCARB 194.00 202.00 194.00 200.00SUNDRMFAST 736.20 775.35 726.00 733.75

RALLIS 261.80 266.35 260.10 264.50JKTYRE 119.60 119.60 115.70 117.30PNCINFRA 243.00 252.50 242.00 250.75VBL 1023.00 1023.00 984.45 997.05REDINGTON 158.50 164.90 156.60 157.55PFIZER 4480.00 4538.80 4407.20 4511.00HSCL 43.15 43.65 42.85 43.25MPHASIS 1685.00 1705.40 1668.05 1678.40LEMONTREE 38.55 40.30 38.55 39.15SUMICHEM 282.55 283.05 278.45 278.50ALKEM 2621.15 2638.10 2585.40 2593.75AEGISLOG 297.00 297.15 284.45 286.60JBCHEPHARM 1200.00 1230.00 1191.30 1214.60BBTC 1165.00 1184.90 1155.20 1168.45PRSMJOHNSN 118.10 121.55 117.45 120.25WHIRLPOOL 2312.90 2316.15 2281.65 2288.20TATAINVEST 1020.00 1108.00 1019.30 1031.45HEIDELBERG 223.30 232.25 223.30 230.85KSCL 499.50 499.50 488.15 499.00ITI 119.95 121.90 119.25 119.25LAXMIMACH 6981.10 7020.00 6875.00 6916.00INOXLEISUR 314.95 314.95 306.05 308.00CEATLTD 1551.65 1564.30 1527.00 1540.00EPL 213.55 221.80 212.65 219.30SHOPERSTOP 223.00 226.75 218.55 218.55ATUL 6949.00 7120.00 6835.05 7050.00AARTIIND 1285.00 1295.95 1267.00 1287.80POLYMED 819.95 836.00 804.95 817.00MIDHANI 187.00 190.25 183.00 186.60BDL 359.00 359.00 351.05 354.00GSFC 87.60 88.65 86.25 86.25SUNTECK 318.00 318.00 310.00 311.00TIINDIA 1132.00 1150.00 1099.90 1112.00MARICO 401.60 402.70 398.85 398.85NHPC 24.45 24.45 24.05 24.15RITES 246.20 251.95 244.40 248.40SUDARSCHEM 530.85 553.45 527.65 542.00ABB 1391.00 1416.25 1385.80 1396.45GESHIP 306.15 324.60 306.15 319.30CUB 169.15 171.85 168.10 168.90JAGRAN* 59.80 61.95 59.10 60.10OFSS 3230.60 3290.15 3193.85 3210.40VARROC 407.85 409.50 391.00 392.25JINDALSAW 75.60 76.20 73.85 74.35DCMSHRIRAM 532.95 533.05 521.65 522.00FINEORG 2250.00 2304.90 2224.15 2242.45DALBHARAT 1599.50 1605.00 1544.45 1576.40VSTIND 3441.40 3476.00 3353.00 3409.90WELSPUNIND 82.90 83.70 80.40 80.75MRPL 40.85 40.85 39.05 39.40DCAL 117.40 117.40 112.10 112.55UJJIVANSFB 32.00 33.05 32.00 32.80BALMLAWRIE 136.30 139.35 134.50 135.40KAJARIACER 895.00 924.45 895.00 910.00KSB 799.20 866.00 799.00 841.70SPARC 158.40 158.40 153.00 153.45TV18BRDCST 31.15 31.85 30.75 31.50SHILPAMED 338.00 342.55 336.00 339.90RATNAMANI 1959.90 1959.90 1845.60 1875.00NAM-INDIA 338.00 341.25 334.65 338.10SUPREMEIND 2044.00 2044.00 1967.05 1982.60OBEROIRLTY 606.00 606.75 583.85 587.50J&KBANK 26.85 27.70 26.80 27.15FINOLEXIND 616.15 620.95 610.00 614.20OIL 118.85 119.45 117.70 118.00SCHNEIDER 98.20 102.70 97.50 101.40ITDC 389.00 400.95 384.75 385.80JMFINANCIL 93.30 94.90 90.50 90.90TRITURBINE 103.55 104.80 102.50 103.35CSBBANK 249.80 253.75 246.90 248.60COCHINSHIP 363.10 368.00 356.70 362.40JAMNAAUTO 70.90 70.90 69.40 70.10GODREJIND 520.00 522.40 516.70 520.55TCIEXP 900.00 909.05 870.00 874.75JTEKTINDIA 89.85 89.85 87.65 88.45GRSE 192.05 201.00 192.05 198.45BLISSGVS 103.00 106.00 101.70 103.00NILKAMAL 2000.00 2020.75 1961.70 1981.00CRISIL 1969.90 2026.75 1935.00 1948.60KTKBANK 64.20 65.50 64.00 64.80THYROCARE 840.15 872.00 840.15 872.00VIPIND 372.00 381.90 371.70 371.85BAJAJELEC 954.00 975.45 940.30 955.90ASTERDM 144.35 144.70 136.00 136.85ADVENZYMES 359.25 359.25 346.45 350.80JSLHISAR 115.80 120.70 114.35 118.553MINDIA 27430.80 28167.25 27430.8027946.00GLAXO 1415.00 1442.95 1401.85 1419.75JKLAKSHMI 407.00 414.00 403.10 407.45GMDCLTD 58.05 58.70 57.20 58.20JKCEMENT 2814.10 2878.05 2785.00 2858.00GILLETTE 5530.00 5542.20 5440.00 5520.10ZYDUSWELL 1887.80 1974.70 1877.10 1900.00BLUEDART 5240.00 5293.35 5160.10 5209.00LUXIND 1735.15 1765.05 1717.35 1728.50ORIENTCEM 98.90 104.40 98.30 103.75AIAENG 1902.90 1917.00 1878.70 1894.15VINATIORGA 1432.00 1439.00 1404.05 1432.75FINCABLES 374.00 374.35 368.70 372.95PGHH 13078.65 13125.00 12877.0012997.85LINDEINDIA 1805.25 1806.70 1766.40 1775.55

NLCINDIA 50.50 51.00 50.30 50.55INDOCO 282.40 295.00 282.40 290.85KANSAINER 549.00 554.00 543.85 553.25BLUESTARCO 905.00 905.95 884.80 898.50ORIENTREF 245.00 249.75 235.15 235.85SHK 115.65 116.90 112.85 114.30GPPL 101.00 103.50 99.85 101.40RELAXO 873.00 879.45 867.50 868.00NATCOPHARM 815.00 818.30 808.55 810.00CENTURYPLY 306.00 306.00 295.00 300.00SUVENPHAR 477.20 479.50 468.50 478.50KNRCON 206.95 211.00 205.70 207.00JCHAC 2598.15 2680.95 2591.05 2651.45CHENNPETRO 104.25 105.70 102.00 103.65OMAXE 75.50 75.50 67.40 69.70KPRMILL 1090.00 1090.00 1059.65 1063.05NBVENTURES* 70.55 71.00 69.85 70.05GRINDWELL 897.95 918.30 890.00 916.10GHCL 232.75 233.15 224.75 226.05BAYERCROP 5090.00 5108.00 5040.00 5072.15BASF 2093.85 2121.00 2075.00 2093.85CAPPL 426.55 434.30 426.55 429.70PGHL 6391.95 6413.65 6290.00 6290.00KALPATPOWR 382.65 389.00 382.65 389.00AJANTPHARM 1781.00 1812.50 1759.85 1802.00RESPONIND 172.00 175.85 165.85 169.95SJVN 26.15 26.20 25.65 25.65STARCEMENT 98.25 98.25 96.05 97.30SCHAEFFLER 5272.25 5325.85 5160.75 5275.00SPANDANA 589.70 611.50 588.65 598.40SUPRAJIT 299.90 299.90 282.85 285.35CCL 242.90 242.90 231.70 232.60JYOTHYLAB 143.05 144.10 142.30 142.95FORCEMOT 1241.05 1255.00 1231.60 1236.00GALAXYSURF 2403.00 2430.80 2366.20 2410.05TTKPRESTIG 7254.25 7308.30 7173.00 7189.00EIHOTEL 98.85 100.05 97.00 99.65BAJAJHLDNG 3413.45 3478.30 3413.45 3451.35IFBIND 1010.10 1053.60 1000.00 1037.00NETWORK18 41.60 42.40 41.20 41.40TIMKEN 1272.30 1281.75 1245.50 1268.65TCNSBRANDS 520.10 529.35 520.00 522.40EIDPARRY 338.60 339.90 334.20 336.45JSL 67.00 67.00 64.85 65.00VENKYS 1589.00 1595.35 1573.85 1573.85SOBHA 453.10 454.15 442.40 445.90DHANUKA 705.25 709.15 700.45 703.00CERA 3899.00 3914.40 3719.60 3752.05VRLLOG 233.05 235.20 230.30 232.20HERITGFOOD 295.85 315.65 295.85 309.70GEPIL 277.60 279.95 270.00 279.00MAHLIFE 535.65 536.60 525.00 525.00AKZOINDIA 2235.40 2253.90 2176.00 2184.10CARBORUNIV 478.00 478.00 462.80 467.05NAVNETEDUL 83.85 85.00 83.20 83.75MINDACORP 98.25 99.00 95.35 98.10NESCO 539.00 544.60 530.60 533.90MOTILALOFS 665.55 673.45 665.55 669.50HAWKINCOOK 5540.00 5579.00 5485.00 5548.70MAHSCOOTER 3681.45 3710.00 3671.95 3673.00FDC 275.40 277.80 273.00 273.60GUJALKALI 352.90 355.00 347.00 347.00PHOENIXLTD 767.75 784.50 765.90 772.00SOLARA 1255.00 1255.00 1217.75 1240.05FLUOROCHEM 593.00 601.00 580.00 586.55NH 394.00 405.00 386.45 403.00ECLERX 972.40 985.90 966.05 971.40ERIS 576.70 579.55 568.05 574.80TVSSRICHAK 1817.30 1846.00 1800.40 1824.00WESTLIFE 465.00 465.00 455.05 458.05SOLARINDS 1289.00 1308.30 1260.00 1292.00VTL 1251.70 1270.00 1217.30 1239.05SFL 2045.00 2049.00 1943.65 2022.85BRIGADE 250.60 254.00 250.05 251.00THERMAX 1335.85 1399.00 1335.85 1385.00HATHWAY 28.60 30.30 28.60 29.70TASTYBIT 13852.35 14052.35 13740.1013839.60SKFINDIA 2195.00 2221.85 2192.60 2194.75CHOLAHLDNG 605.90 605.90 586.95 598.90WABCOINDIA 6398.00 6399.95 6125.05 6152.80GULFOILLUB 747.30 765.20 746.40 762.10MHRIL 210.30 218.00 210.30 215.70TEAMLEASE 3533.45 3566.75 3505.00 3511.00SIS 411.70 412.30 403.40 404.25GDL 174.70 179.75 174.45 176.70CREDITACC 700.35 700.35 688.00 689.65MAHLOG 536.90 547.00 535.45 547.00VMART 2813.15 2813.20 2766.30 2792.15CHALET 157.00 161.25 157.00 158.50IIFLWAM 1187.00 1219.30 1169.85 1173.20SHRIRAMCIT 1446.00 1449.10 1415.00 1429.35DBCORP 93.35 94.00 92.70 92.70TVTODAY 270.80 273.05 266.90 267.25MASFIN 884.25 889.80 868.00 884.95ALLCARGO 131.00 132.15 130.10 130.15MAHSEAMLES 283.80 284.30 278.80 279.75INDOSTAR 332.95 332.95 326.75 327.40LAOPALA 219.35 219.55 212.60 213.30ESABINDIA 1868.35 1875.70 1848.00 1870.45

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SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY 50 14768.55 14878.60 14707.00 14814.75 78.35SHREECEM 26951.00 28500.00 26951.00 28215.25 1260.75ULTRACEMCO 6734.10 6958.75 6728.05 6909.95 181.95DIVISLAB 3418.00 3509.90 3403.05 3493.55 87.60HDFCBANK 1470.00 1507.45 1469.10 1504.00 34.85INDUSINDBK 977.00 994.40 970.00 990.65 22.50ICICIBANK 576.00 589.25 574.30 586.05 12.60TITAN 1460.30 1514.80 1454.00 1491.90 31.60ADANIPORTS 730.25 755.00 727.10 737.00 15.10AXISBANK 718.00 739.50 714.10 731.00 14.80SBIN 368.70 377.95 367.05 372.05 5.05TATAMOTORS 305.00 312.25 304.00 307.00 3.95MARUTI 7138.00 7225.00 7130.00 7175.00 73.75EICHERMOT 2679.00 2716.00 2666.00 2704.00 27.15RELIANCE 2061.95 2109.70 2056.00 2078.80 16.40UPL 622.50 643.95 621.00 633.10 4.95IOC 97.20 97.50 96.40 96.70 0.55NESTLEIND 16575.00 16750.00 16506.40 16679.75 91.70HDFCLIFE 683.85 689.45 680.65 683.45 3.60CIPLA 775.00 779.40 768.40 776.50 3.65TCS 3140.00 3169.00 3122.85 3142.00 12.35LT 1401.90 1416.50 1398.10 1404.70 4.65HCLTECH 983.65 992.90 971.80 982.00 3.25DRREDDY 4350.00 4403.00 4322.10 4366.05 12.10BAJAJFINSV 9424.00 9506.60 9382.30 9425.00 19.15WIPRO 417.70 423.40 412.70 415.20 0.75BHARTIARTL 529.70 532.45 522.15 528.80 0.80BAJAJ-AUTO 3665.55 3709.95 3641.25 3668.30 3.55TECHM 1013.55 1021.50 1000.55 1013.00 -0.55BRITANNIA 3570.00 3578.00 3525.00 3562.45 -1.95INFY 1372.45 1383.25 1359.60 1369.90 -0.90BAJFINANCE 5410.00 5445.00 5350.00 5371.80 -17.55SBILIFE 904.80 910.85 895.00 896.65 -3.55COALINDIA 135.60 136.65 134.10 135.10 -0.55TATASTEEL 746.00 749.45 733.30 740.40 -3.10KOTAKBANK 1844.00 1844.00 1798.85 1814.30 -8.35GRASIM 1413.90 1422.50 1393.85 1406.95 -6.95ASIANPAINT 2430.00 2433.95 2398.20 2410.00 -15.70BPCL 441.90 442.20 435.10 436.00 -3.35HINDUNILVR 2363.00 2372.95 2333.40 2335.25 -17.95JSWSTEEL 445.00 447.25 439.50 441.55 -3.75HDFC 2531.00 2541.35 2492.10 2510.45 -21.40HEROMOTOCO 3107.90 3132.00 3060.55 3069.50 -26.35SUNPHARMA 591.20 594.70 583.00 585.70 -5.30NTPC 110.00 110.20 108.10 108.55 -1.30M&M 859.95 865.00 841.50 842.90 -10.15ITC 225.00 228.10 221.30 222.00 -4.00GAIL 137.00 138.30 133.75 134.25 -2.55POWERGRID 223.55 224.00 218.50 218.95 -4.60ONGC 109.60 110.30 106.60 107.25 -2.35HINDALCO 341.90 342.45 330.30 331.50 -8.25

SE 500B

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SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY NEXT 50 34597.50 34923.40 34569.25 34832.20 419.35ADANITRANS 799.30 860.00 790.00 854.35 62.20ADANIGREEN 1309.00 1314.80 1282.00 1312.00 59.80BANDHANBNK 354.20 366.00 352.95 365.55 12.95AMBUJACEM 297.20 306.40 293.55 304.80 9.20INDIGO 1700.00 1782.00 1700.00 1767.10 53.25NMDC 128.80 133.00 128.00 132.10 3.90ACC 1859.95 1925.00 1839.60 1910.15 50.15BANKBARODA 72.90 75.85 72.80 74.40 1.95PNB 37.85 39.20 37.80 38.80 0.85MOTHERSUMI 207.10 213.60 204.00 210.40 4.40MCDOWELL-N 547.00 557.95 542.25 554.00 11.25TATACONSUM 621.00 640.00 620.55 632.70 12.15BERGEPAINT 733.90 751.95 733.90 746.25 14.20DLF 293.90 302.70 292.65 297.35 5.05UBL 1258.00 1278.65 1243.05 1273.05 21.30DMART 2908.00 3000.80 2905.00 2925.95 45.85NAUKRI 4660.10 4834.45 4660.10 4752.90 74.60PIDILITIND 1761.00 1808.95 1754.60 1787.55 25.65AUROPHARMA 838.00 848.50 830.50 845.80 10.55TORNTPHARM 2449.00 2489.10 2424.30 2478.50 29.40ABBOTINDIA 14699.00 14848.00 14600.05 14813.00 166.50CONCOR 558.00 576.00 558.00 566.70 5.95HINDPETRO 236.80 239.65 234.20 239.00 2.45BAJAJHLDNG 3439.95 3484.00 3402.30 3462.95 34.65SIEMENS 1841.45 1877.00 1831.55 1850.10 11.30IGL 517.65 524.00 516.25 518.05 2.90PEL 1902.00 1937.00 1889.00 1906.70 10.45PETRONET 230.25 233.50 228.20 229.40 0.65HAVELLS 1036.90 1057.00 1030.10 1039.75 2.55ICICIGI 1444.00 1459.90 1432.25 1437.80 3.20MUTHOOTFIN 1247.10 1249.35 1225.00 1239.20 0.90HDFCAMC 2909.00 2940.00 2880.00 2882.10 -0.45LUPIN 1015.00 1019.05 1002.00 1014.60 -1.10DABUR 533.80 536.95 531.25 532.90 -0.60CADILAHC 433.40 435.50 428.55 431.00 -0.65ICICIPRULI 439.75 443.50 434.25 437.00 -0.75BOSCHLTD 14365.00 14440.00 14242.60 14321.05 -28.75MARICO 401.45 402.75 399.05 400.50 -1.20PGHH 13100.00 13152.10 12888.00 12973.30 -45.65GODREJCP 699.30 704.15 689.70 690.05 -4.30COLPAL 1585.00 1588.90 1566.20 1568.00 -10.10OFSS 3223.00 3296.50 3192.15 3201.55 -21.00BIOCON 403.00 405.70 398.05 399.55 -2.70ALKEM 2642.00 2650.00 2585.00 2598.00 -22.55PFC 121.50 122.70 118.00 120.30 -1.15LTI 4120.00 4136.10 4020.50 4048.05 -45.05INDUSTOWER 259.10 262.90 254.35 254.70 -3.15SBICARD 975.50 983.10 951.80 957.70 -15.40GICRE 220.00 221.00 214.10 214.75 -4.90HINDZINC 280.95 283.70 269.00 270.00 -8.25

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Mumbai:Providing serviceslike broadband connectivity,cable TV, enterprise solutions,and payment wallets is theneed of the hour for telcos, anda second wave of consolidationis upon the industry, a ratingagency said on Tuesday.

India Ratings and Researchsaid the sector, which was bat-tered following the aggressiveentry of Reliance Jio, will con-tinue showing signs of recoveryamid conducive regulatoryenvironment and maintained a“stable” outlook for the indus-try in FY22. The second roundof consolidation (Consolidation2.0) is kicking-in in the indus-try, which will bring a trans-formation in the business mod-els of telecom companies, lead-ing to the evolution of incum-bents from the providers of tra-ditional voice-only services tocomplete digital solutions forhouseholds, it said. PTI

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Equity indices regained theirfooting on Tuesday, pro-

pelled by banking stocks whichsurged after the Supreme Courtdeclined to extend the the loanmoratorium period and saidcomplete waiver of interest isnot possible. Reversing lastsession’s losses, the 30-shareBSE Sensex ended 280.15points or 0.56 per cent higherat 50,051.44.

Similarly, the broader NSENifty advanced 78.35 points or0.53 per cent to close at14,814.75.UltraTech Cementwas the top gainer in the Sensexpack, rising 3.06%, followed byIndusInd Bank, ICICI Bank,HDFC Bank, Titan, Axis Bank,SBI and Reliance Industries. Onthe other hand, ONGC,PowerGrid, ITC, NTPC, M&Mand HDFC were among the lag-gards, shedding up to 2.28 %.

The apex court on Tuesday

refused to interfere with theCentre’s and the RBI’s decisionto not extend the loan mora-torium beyond August 31 lastyear, saying it is a policy deci-sion. A bench headed by JusticeAshok Bhushan said that thetop court cannot do judicialreview of the Centre’s financialpolicy decision unless it ismalafide and arbitrary.

It also directed that nocompound or penal interest becharged during the six-monthmoratorium period, but addedthat complete waiver of inter-est is not possible as it will havehuge financial implications.

Domestic market endedthe day on a strong footing sup-ported by a rally in bankingstocks amidst weak cues fromglobal markets. Sentiments inthe banking stocks were liftedpost Supreme Court’s orderagainst granting interest waiv-er and extension of moratori-um period.

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Non-performing assets ofbanks declined to �5.70

lakh crore in December 2020and the recovered amountstood at �2.74 lakh crore fol-lowing a slew of measurestaken by the Government,Union Minister Anurag SinghThakur told Rajya Sabha onTuesday.

During Question Hour,the Minister of State forFinance also said theInsolvency and BankruptcyCode (IBC) has helped in therecovery of NPA (Non-Performing Assets).

“There has been a reduc-tion in gross NPAs. The NPAs- which stood at �8.96 lakhcrore in 2018 - have reduced to�5.70 lakh crore in December2020. Recovery of �2.74 lakhcrore was also made,” Thakursaid while replying to a sup-plementary question in the

Upper House.According to him, the

occurrence of frauds, whichresulted in high NPAs, hasalso witnessed a sharp declineas a result of steps taken by thegovernment.

The incidents of fraudsreduced to 0.23 per cent from1.01 per cent in 2013-14, theminister added.

Further, Thakur said IBCbrought by the governmenthas resulted in major reformsand improving the debtor-creditor relation and betterrecovery rate.

Under the present regime,banking has vastly improved,from phone banking to digitalbanking, which has resulted intransparency and accountabil-ity, he noted.

In reply to a supplementaryquestion, Thakur said 7 out of12 public sector banks havetaken up on priority efforts tointroduce digital banking and

added that this will result incompetition with the privatesector banks and benefit con-sumers with better products.

The minister praised ini-tiatives like the SBI Yono ser-vice.

UPI Bhim was beingpraised by big companies likeGoogle and Facebook, headded.

In reply to another sup-plementary by Anil Desai (ShivSena) who wanted to knowwhether the platform for pro-viding and processing loans in59-minutes has miserablyfailed, Thakur said that themember came from the eco-nomic capital of the countrywhich resulted in an uproar.

Deputy ChairmanHarivansh said nothing will goon record except the answer.

Thakur said banks havealready sanctioned Rs 60,000crore on the 59-minutes plat-form.

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Increased economic activi-ties have resulted in high-

er GST collection whichstood above �1 lakh crore forfive months in a row sinceOctober 2020, Minister ofState for Finance andCorporate Affairs AnuragThakur said in the Rajya

Sabha on Tuesday.Thakur, during Question

Hour, said this could be pos-sible on the back of the mea-sures taken by theGovernment to boost eco-nomic activities over the lastyear to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic.

“GST col lect ion hasincreased. If you see e-way

bill data, numbers... Activitieshave increased,” the ministersaid. “GST collection has wit-nessed above �1 lakh crorefor a stretch of five monthssince October 2020... TheGST collection during theperiod has been higher thanthe collection in the sameperiod last

year,” he said. On the

economy, Thakur said V-shaped recovery is being seenas the third quarter GDPnumbers are positive andtrade is getting better.

The Indian economy hadseen a contraction of 24.4 percent in the June quarter ofFY21, impacted by COVID-19.

After two consecutive

quarters of contraction, thecountry’s GDP entered into apositive territory with agrowth of 0.4 per cent in theOctober-December quarterof the current fiscal.

“When COVID-19 pan-demic erupted... -24.4 growthrate was recorded in April-June.... Modi government hasinitiated several good steps

with a positive result and 0.4per cent growth was in thethird quarter,” Thakur said.

He also listed varioussteps taken by the govern-ment during the pandemic toboost the economy, includingstimulus packages underAatmanirbhar Bharat pro-gramme, emergency creditline and loan moratorium.

New Delhi (PTI): The Govt has exited Tata Communications Ltd(TCL) by selling about 26 per cent stake in the company for about�8,846 crore as part of the disinvestment plan. Public sector com-pany VSNL was privatised in 2002 by disinvesting 25% sharehold-ing along with transfer of management control to Panatone FinvestLtd, the strategic partner. Subsequent to the strategic disinvestment,the name of the company was changed to TCL. “Disinvestment ofgovernment holding completed of 16.12% in TCL through OFS at�5,457 crore and 10% to strategic partner at OFS discovered pricefor �3,389 crore. With this, govt exits from TCL with total proceedsof about �8,846 crore,” DIPAM Secretary said.

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Dhaka: Fourteen Islamist mil-itants were on Tuesday givendeath sentence by aBangladeshi court here forattempting to kill PrimeMinister Sheikh Hasina in2000.

Judge Abu Zafar MdKamruzzaman of Dhaka’sSpeedy Trial tribunal-1 pro-nounced the verdict as nine ofthem were brought to the courtfrom jail to face the trial in per-son.

The rest five convicts areon the run. They were tried inabsentia and defended by state-appointed lawyers.

“The verdict will be exe-cuted by a firing squad to set anexample, unless the law barredit,” the judge said.

Otherwise, the convictscould be hanged in line withthe prevailing practice, follow-ing mandatory review of thedeath sentences by the High

Court Division of the SupremeCourt under the Bangladeshlaw, the judge said.

Under the Bangladesh law,the death sentences wouldrequire to be endorsed by theHigh Court following an auto-matic death reference hear-ing. The convicts are allowed tofile an appeal as well.

For the five convicts whoare at large, the judge orderedthe verdict to be executed aftertheir arrest or surrender.

All the convicts are opera-tives of outlawed HarkatulJihad Bangladesh (HuJI-B).

HuJI-B’s chief Mufti AbdulHannan, who was found to bethe mastermind of the plot, toowas indicted in the case but hisname was dropped from thetrial as he was executed in 2017in another case involvingattempted assassination of thethen Bangladeshi-origin BritishHigh Commissioner. PTI

Boulder (Colorado): A shoot-ing at a crowded Coloradosupermarket that killed 10 peo-ple, including the first policeofficer to arrive, sent terrorizedshoppers and workers scram-bling for safety and stunned astate that has grieved severalmass killings. A lone suspect wasin custody, authorities said.

Hundreds of police officersfrom throughout the Denvermetropolitan area respondedto the Monday afternoon attack,converging on a King Sooperssupermarket in a busy shopping

plaza in southern Boulder.SWAT officers carrying bal-

listic shields slowly approachedthe store as others quicklyescorted frightened people awayfrom the building, some of itswindows shattered. Customersand employees fled through aback loading dock to safety.Others took refuge in nearbyshops.

One suspect was in custody,a tearful Boulder Police ChiefMaris Herold said late Monday.Authorities didn’t identify thesuspect. AP

Moscow: Russian oppositionleader Alexei Navalny’s allies onTuesday called for a new mas-sive protest across the country todemand his release from prison.

In a statement posted onNavalny’s website, they urgedRussians to sign up for a proteston an interactive map and saidthey will set a date for it whenthe number of people willing totake part reaches at least 5,00,000nationwide.

The organisers promisedin a statement that the rallywould the biggest that Russia hasseen.

The 44-year-old Navalny,who is President Vladimir

Putin’s most outspoken foe, wasarrested on Jan. 17 upon hisreturn from Germany, where hespent five months recoveringfrom a nerve-agent poisoningthat he blames on the Kremlin.Russian authorities have reject-ed the accusation.

Last month, Navalny wassentenced to 2 1/2 years inprison for violating the terms ofhis probation while convalesc-ing in Germany. The sentencestems from a 2014 embezzle-ment conviction that Navalnyhas rejected as fabricated — andwhich the European court ofHuman Rights has ruled to beunlawful. AP

Beijing: China on Tuesdaysaid it summoned foreigndiplomats in protest after theUnited States, the EuropeanUnion, Canada and Britainjointly imposed sanctions onsenior Chinese officials overalleged human rights abuses inChina’s far western Xinjiangregion.

Chinese Foreign Ministryspokesperson Hua Chunyingon Tuesday called the newsanctions a “slander and anaffront to the reputation anddignity of the Chinese people.”

“I admonish them thatthey should not underestimatethe firm determination of theChinese people to defend theirnational interests and dignity,and they will pay the price fortheir folly and arrogance,” Huatold reporters at a daily brief-ing.

That came hours after theChinese and Russian foreignministers denounced new wavecriticism and sanctions againstboth countries over humanrights.

At a news conference inthe southern Chinese city ofNanning, China’s Wang Yi andRussia’s Sergei Lavrov rejectedoutside critiques of theirauthoritarian political systemsand said they were working tofurther global progress onissues from climate change to

the coronavirus pandemic.“Countries should stand

together to oppose all forms ofunilateral sanctions,” Wangsaid. “These measures will notbe embraced by the interna-tional community.”

Russia is also underWestern sanctions over humanrights abuses and militaryaggression against Ukraine.Lavrov said Russia’s ties withChina grew stronger asMoscow’s relations with theEU suffered damage, whileaccusing the West of “impos-ing their own rules on every-one else, which they believeshould underpin the worldorder.”

“If Europe broke theserelations, simply destroyingall the mechanisms that havebeen created for many years ...Then, probably, objectively,this leads to the fact that ourrelations with China are devel-oping faster than what’s left ofrelations with European coun-tries,” Lavrov said.

In a joint statement issuedafter the meeting, the twoministers said no countryshould seek to impose its formof democracy on others.

“Interference in a sover-eign nation’s internal affairsunder the excuse of advancingdemocracy’ is unacceptable,”the statement said. AP

Yangon: Myanmar’s militaryjunta on Tuesday took theoffensive to justify last month’scoup and subsequent actionsagainst those opposed to it,even as street demonstrationscontinued against the takeover.

At a news conference in thecapital Naypyitaw, the militarypresented a video of a formerpolitical colleague of oustednational leader Aung San SuuKyi claiming he had handedover large amounts of cash andgold to her personally, in whatthe military has characterizedas corruption. Such allegationswere previously denied by herlawyer.

Many of the protestsTuesday were staged in a waythat avoided confrontationswith authorities, who have nothesitated to use lethal force tobreak up demonstrations. Somemarches were held before dawnin Yangon, the country’s biggestcity, and elsewhere and wentunmolested. Other protestsadopted the tactic of havingsignboards or other inanimateobjects lined up in the street toserve as proxies for humandemonstrators.

The independentAssistance Association forPolitical Prisoners has veri-fied 261 protesters’ deathsnationwide but says the actualtotal, including cases where

verification has been difficult,is probably much higher. It said2,682 people have also beenarrested or charged since thecoup, with 2,302 still detainedor sought for arrest.

In its news conference, themilitary presented displays ofseized homemade weaponsand videos of street battles toargue that the demonstratorsare violent and that its effortsto stop them are justified.However, in the weeks since theFeb. 1 coup, protesters onlybegan using organized vio-lence after more than 100demonstrators had been shotdead by police and soldiers.

The allegations against SuuKyi made by former Yangon

Chief Minister Phyo Min Theinwere first mentioned by themilitary several weeks ago.Last week the military-con-trolled Myawaddy TV stationaired a similar video with aconstruction magnate who alsoclaimed to have made largepayoffs to Suu Kyi. That videowas replayed at Tuesday’s newsconference.

No supporting evidencefor the allegations has beenoffered, and they are general-ly dismissed as an effort by themilitary to frame Suu Kyi soshe can be discredited andtried on a serious criminalcharge. She is already beingheld on several more minorcharges. AP

Jerusalem: Israelis returned topolling stations on Tuesday foran unprecedented fourth timein two years in what is beinglargely seen as a referendum onPrime Minister BenjaminNetanyahu’s continuance at thehelm of affairs amid his ongo-ing trial on corruption chargesas well as his handling of thepandemic. The elections werecalled barely seven monthsafter the last government wasformed after the Likud and Blueand White party failed to agreeon a budget by a December 23deadline. PTI

Manila (Philippines): TheUnited States said on Tuesdayit’s backing the Philippines ina new standoff with Beijing inthe disputed South China Sea,where Manila has asked aChinese fishing flotilla to leavea reef. China ignored the call,insisting it owns the offshoreterritory.

The US Embassy said itshared the concerns of thePhilippines and accused Chinaof using “maritime militia tointimidate, provoke, andthreaten other nations, whichundermines peace and securi-ty in the region.”

“We stand with thePhilippines, our oldest treatyally in Asia,” the US Embassyin Manila said in a statement.

Philippine DefenseSecretary Delfin Lorenzanaon Sunday demanded about200 Chinese vessels he saidwere militia boats leave theWhitsun Reef, a shallow coralregion about 175 nautical miles

(324 kilometers) west ofBataraza town in the westernPhilippine province ofPalawan.

Philippine officials saidthe reef, which they call JulianFelipe, is well within the coun-try’s internationally recognisedexclusive economic zone, overwhich the Philippines “enjoysthe exclusive right to exploit orconserve any resources.”

The Philippine coast guardspotted about 220 Chinesevessels moored at the reef,which Beijing and Vietnamalso claim, on March 7.

On Monday, a surveillanceaircraft spotted 183 Chinesevessels still at the reef, saidPhilippine military chief Lt.Gen. Cirilito Sobejana, whoreleased aerial pictures of theChinese vessels in one of themost hotly contested regions inthe strategic waterway.

The Philippines has filed adiplomatic protest over theChinese presence, Foreign

Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr.Said.

China insisted it owns thereef, which it calls Niué Jiao,and said the Chinese vesselsconverged in the area to avoidrough waters.

Beijing denied the vesselswere maritime militias.

“Any speculation in suchhelps nothing but causesunnecessary irritation,” theChinese Embassy said in astatement on Monday.

“It is hoped that the situa-tion could be handled in anobjective and rational manner.”

The US Embassy, howev-er, said “Chinese boats havebeen mooring in this area formany months in ever increas-ing numbers, regardless of theweather.” China, thePhilippines, Vietnam,Malaysia, Taiwan and Bruneihave been locked in a tense ter-ritorial standoff over theresource-rich and busy water-way for decades. AP

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London: UK-based pharma-ceutical giant AstraZenecasaid Tuesday it will release fur-ther data “within 48 hours” onUS trials of its Covid-19 vac-cine, after health officialsraised concerns about the ini-tial information disclosed.

The company pushed backagainst a statement from theUS National Institute ofAllergy and InfectiousDiseases (NIAID) which saidthat “outdated information”may have been used to con-clude that its vaccine washighly effective against Covid.

“We have reviewed thepreliminary assessment of theprimary analysis and theresults were consistent withthe interim analysis,”AstraZeneca said in a state-ment.

The US health agency’sevaluation comes afterAstraZeneca said on Mondaythat stage three US trials of thevaccine had shown it was 79percent effective. AFP

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Health and Family Welfare visited theState to review the increase in positivity.The team was informed about the pend-ing results of genome sequencing.Thereafter, 401 more samples, collectedbetween January 1, 2021, and March 10,2021, were sent to NCDC for genomesequencing.

The result of these samples was wor-rying as it showed presence of B.1.1.7variant in 326 Covid samples, Dr Talwarsaid.

The Chief Minister said he had beeninformed by Dr Talwar that though thisUK variant B.1.1.7 is more infectious yetnot more virulent. Further, the Oxford(Covishield) vaccine is equally effectiveagainst this new UK variant.

It is noteworthy that the B.1.1.7variant is now spreading rapidly in manyparts of the world, representing 98 percent of the new cases in UK and 90 percent in Spain. UK authorities have sug-gested it is up to 70 per cent more trans-missible than the original virus.

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“The petitioner has invoked writjurisdiction of this court to seek unbiased,uninfluenced, impartial and fair investi-gation in the corrupt malpractices ofDeshmukh, the Home Minister ofGovernment of Maharashtra, before theevidences are destroyed,” he has said inhis plea.

“Deshmukh had been holding meet-ings in February, 2021 at his residencewith police officers including Sachin Vazeof Crime Intelligence Unit, Mumbai andSanjay Patil, ACP Social Service Branch,Mumbai, bypassing their seniors and hadinstructed them that he had a target toaccumulate Rs 100 crore every month andhad directed to collect money from var-ious establishments and other sources,”Singh has alleged.

He has claimed it is reliably learnt thaton or about August 24-25, 2020, oneRashmi Shukla, CommissionerIntelligence, State IntelligenceDepartment, had brought to the noticeof the Director General of Police, who inturn brought it to the knowledge of theState’s Additional Chief Secretary HomeDepartment, about corrupt malprac-tices in postings/transfers by Deshmukh

based on telephonic interception. “She was shunted out rather than tak-

ing any firm action against saidDeshmukh”, he has said.Deshmukh had been interfering in var-ious investigations and was instructingthe police officers to conduct the same ina particular manner as desired by him,Singh has alleged.

“Such act of Deshmukh in abuse ofthe official position of the Home Minister,whether in calling and directly instruct-ing the police officers of lower rank suchas Vaze or Patil for his malicious intentof extorting money from establishmentsacross Mumbai and from other sourcesor whether in interfering in the investi-gations & directing the same to be con-ducted in a particular manner, or whetherindulging in corrupt malpractices inposting /transfers of officers, cannot becountenanced or justified in any demo-cratic State”, he has claimed.

Singh has said fair CBI investigationis thus warranted in each of such acts ofDeshmukh in alleged abuse of the offi-cial position of the Home Minister andadded that he has brought the corruptpractices in the knowledge of the seniorleaders and the Chief Minister of the Stateimmediately.

He said thereafter, on March 17, bya notification of the MaharashtraGovernment he was transferred from thepost of the Police Commissioner ofMumbai to the Home Guard departmentin an “arbitrary and illegal manner with-out the completion of the minimum fixedtenure of two years”.

Referring to the February 25 incidentoutside Antilia, residence of businessmanMukesh Ambani, where a car with explo-sives was found leading to a bomb scare,Singh said he believes that the reason forthe transfer noted by the StateGovernment in its file is to ensure a freeand fair investigation in the case.

He said the said case is being nowinvestigated by the NIA, and Vaze, offi-cer of Crime Intelligence Unit, Mumbaihas been arrested for custodial interro-gation by the NIA.

“All necessary assistance had beenrendered by petitioner’s office and hisofficers for the conduct of a free and fairinvestigation by the ATS and the NIA intothe Antilia incident. It is not even case ofNIA that the petitioner had in any man-ner obstructed in free and fair investi-gation by NIA,” he said.

He further said having made suchstartling revelations, he apprehends fur-ther malicious and coercive actions at theinstance of “disgruntled Home Ministerin abuse of his powers”.

He said Deshmukh while mechani-cally denying the contents of the letter

dated March 20, submitted to the ChiefMinister Uddhav Thackeray, has issueda Press release threatening to initiatedefamation proceedings against him.

He has also sought directions to safe-guard him from any further coercive stepsapprehended in the retaliation for layingbare the alleged corrupt malpractices ofDeshmukh.

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Reinforcements rushed to the spotand evacuated the dead and injured fromthe dense forest. The injured were flownto Raipur in an Indian Air Force chop-per for treatment.

The bus was passing along the underconstruction Barsoor-Palli road which issurrounded by the thick forests ofAbhujmad region.

The dead were identified as HeadConstables Pavan Mandavi and JailalUikey, Constables Karah Dehari and SevalSalaam, and Assistant Constable VijayPatel, said the officer.

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister BhupeshBaghel has strongly condemned thekillings and vowed to intensify the anti-Naxalite operations.

“Maoists are frustrated as they are los-ing ground due to continuous operationsby security forces. This act is the outcomeof their desperation. Operations againstthem will be intensified,”, he said in astatement.

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The bench, which referred to previ-ous verdicts delivered by the top court,noted that what is best in national econ-omy and in what manner and to whatextent the financial reliefs or packages beformulated, offered and implemented isultimately to be decided by the govern-ment and the RBI on the aid and adviseof the experts.

“The same is a matter for decisionexclusively within the province of the cen-tral government. Such matters do notordinarily attract the power of judicialreview,” it said.

“Merely because some class/sectormay not be agreeable and/or satisfiedwith such packages/policy decisions, thecourts, in exercise of the power of judi-cial review, do not ordinarily interferewith the policy decisions, unless such pol-

icy could be faulted on the ground ofmala fide, arbitrariness, unfairness etc,”the bench said.

The bench also noted in its verdictthat the Centre had come out with a pol-icy decision subsequently by which it wasdecided not to charge interest on inter-est on loans up to Rs 2 crores and thisrelief was restricted to following cate-gories — MSME (Micro, Small &Medium Enterprises), Education,Housing, Consumer durable, Creditcard, Automobile, Personal andConsumption.

“There is no justification shown torestrict the relief of not charging inter-est on interest with respect to the loansup to Rs 2 crores only and that toorestricted to the aforesaid categories.What are the basis to restrict it to Rs 2crores are not forthcoming,” it said.

The bench said as such, there is norational to restrict such relief with respectto loans up to Rs 2 crores only.

“Therefore, if a borrower, for exam-ple, MSME category has availed and hasoutstanding of business loan of Rs 1.99crores and also has dues of its credit cardof Rs 1.10 lakhs, thereby making theaggregate to Rs 2.10 crores, it stands inel-igible. Therefore, the aforesaid conditionswould be arbitrary and discriminatory,”it noted.

The top court said that correctness ofreasons which prompted the governmentin decision taking one course of actioninstead of another is not a matter of con-cern in judicial review and the court isnot the appropriate forum for suchinvestigation.

“The policy decision must be left tothe government as it alone can adoptwhich policy should be adopted after con-sidering of the points from differentangles. In assessing the propriety of thedecision of the government the court can-not interfere even if a second view is pos-sible from that of the government,” it said.

“Even the government also suffereddue to lockdown, due to unprecedentedCOVID19 pandemic and also even lostthe revenue in the form of GST. Still, thegovernment seems to have come out withvarious reliefs/packages. Governmenthas its own financial constraints,” thebench noted.

“Economic and fiscal regulatorymeasures are a field where judges shouldencroach upon very warily as judges arenot experts in these matters,” the benchsaid.

It did not accept the submissions ofone of the petitioners that there is nonational plan drawn up for disastermanagement due to COVID19 pan-demic and that the NDMA has failed toperform its duty. PTI

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ADelhi court on Tuesday upheld an ordersentencing AAP MLA Somnath Bharti

to two years in jail for assaulting the AIIMSsecurity staff after which he was taken intocustody and sent to the prison, his lawyersaid.

A magistrate court had in January sen-tenced him to two years in prison. SpecialJudge Vikas Dhull partly dismissed Bharti’sappeal and convicted him for the offencesunder sections 147 (rioting) read with 149(unlawful assembly) of IPC and under sec-tion 3 (mischief causing damage to publicproperty) of the Prevention of Damage toPublic Property Act.

The court, however, set aside his con-viction under sections 323 (voluntarilycausing hurt), 353 (assault or use of crimi-nal force to deter public servant from dis-charge of his duty) read with section 149 ofIPC.

According to the prosecution, onSeptember 9, 2016, Bharti, along with near-ly 300 others, brought down the fence of aboundary wall at the All India Institute ofMedical Sciences (AIIMS) here with a JCBoperator. According to Bharti, AIIMS had noauthorisation to cover the “nallah” (drain)between Gautam Nagar and Ring Road as itwas a public property and had to be openedfor general use.

During the course of investigation, itcame on record that the drain was given onlease to the AIIMS for covering and main-tenance.

The sessions court said in its order thatthe evidence of eyewitnesses to the incidentwas consistent to the effect that a gatheringof around 200-300 people along with Bhartiwere present near the boundary wall ofAIIMS and they were trying to break the walland the fence by the use of JCB machine.

It added that when some of the eyewit-nesses resisted the bringing down of thefence, they were abused and injured due tostone pelting by the mob. “The evidencewhich has come on record of the eye wit-nesses shows that unlawful Assembly wascomprising of 200-300 persons of whichappellant (Bharti) was the member.

“It is true that only five accused personswere charged for the offence under Section147 IPC read with Section 149 IPC and outof which four accused persons have beenacquitted but still I do not find any illegal-ity in the conviction of appellant for theoffence under section 147 IPC read withSection 149 IPC as the evidence which hascome on record shows that unlawfulAssembly was comprising of 200-300 persons

and the remaining persons could not beidentified or apprehended,” the judge said inhis order.

The judge said, however, that the mag-istrate court had committed “grave illegali-ty” in convicting the AAP leader for theoffence of voluntarily causing hurt as the evi-dence of the injured persons were not reli-able and trustworthy.

It said no explanation has been given bythe prosecution as to why the injured per-sons were not medically examined on thedate of the offence and on what basis, opin-ion was sought, when no injuries wereobserved by the doctor or reported byinjured.

“The opinion regarding injuries has beentaken by the IO (investigating officer) onMay 5, 2018, i.e. almost after two years of theincident,” it said. It further said the man-ner in which the persons had sufferedinjuries was not corroborative and wascontradictory to each other which made theirtestimony doubtful and unreliable.

The court said the prosecution has notbrought any such medical record whichmade this court raise an adverse inferenceagainst prosecution that no such injurieswere suffered by the injured.

“In the light of the evidence which hascome on record, the evidence of injured per-sons namely...Was not at all reliable and trust-worthy and the MLCs could not have beenrelied upon. “Therefore, the trial court hadcommitted a grave illegality in convicting theappellant for the offence under section 323IPC read with Section 149 IPC when the evi-dence which has come on record, was notreliable and trustworthy. Accordingly, theappellant is acquitted for the offence underSection323 IPC read with Section 149 IPC,”it said.

In his appeal filed through advocateMohd Irshad, Bharti had claimed the mag-istrate court’s order was based upon a total-ly false and fabricated story of the prosecu-tion which failed miserably to provide evenan iota of evidence to prove his guilt.

The public prosecutor, appearing for thepolice, said there was no illegality or infir-mity in the judgment for conviction and sen-tencing order of the magistrate court and thejudgment has been delivered based upon thereliable evidence which has come on record.

In January, Bharti was granted bail toenable him to file an appeal before the highcourt against his conviction in the case andjail term. The magistrate court had acquit-ted Bharti’s associates and co-accused -- JagatSaini, Dileep Jha, Sandeep Sonu and RakeshPandey -- citing a lack of evidence againstthem.

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Great Learning, one ofIndia’s leading edtech

companies for professionaland higher education hasannounced that it will behosting a webinar on how tobecome a full stack develop-er in 2021 on March 26, 2021.

The one-hour long livesession is free of cost and canbe attended by anyone who iswilling to understand thebasic concepts of full stackdevelopment and looking tokickstart a career as a fullstack developer.

The live session on “Howto become a full stack devel-oper” by Ritwik Raj, Trainerof Full Stack Developmentand expert in HTML, CSS, JS,Java, Python will shine aspotlight on the impact ofpandemic on the currenttrending technologies in2021. The instructor willintroduce the participants tothe concepts of full-stackdevelopment. Interested stu-dents can log in on :https://www.greatlearning.in/academy/learn-for-free/cours-es/how-to-become-a-full-stack-developer-in-20211.

One functional area that issought after by several MBAstudents is Financial

Management. In the recent past tech-nology has made sweeping changes inall aspects related to managing moneyand financial management. Here are afew emerging trends in FinancialManagement, which can’t be ignored-and B School must focus and impartknowledge in these areas in order tocreate an efficient workforce which isfuture ready.

Fintech: Today the influence ofdigital technologies on finance ispalpable and digital banks, wallets,blockchain tech, and more are becom-ing a reality. Digital finance is the termused to describe the impact of newtechnologies on the financial servicesindustry. It includes a variety of prod-ucts, applications, processes and busi-ness models that have transformed thetraditional way of providing bankingand financial services. To remain rel-evant in the future understanding allaspects of fintech and knowing howit is altering the landscape of financialservices can help in creating an effi-

cient workforce.Financial Analytics: Financial

analytics helps in shaping up businessgoals. Any organisation can improvethe decision-making strategies ofbusiness by getting deeper insightabout the financial status of its busi-ness and improve the profitability, cashflow and value of its business. DataScience and Financial analytics isbeing used in many financial institu-tions including insurance compa-nies, banks to understand the con-sumer to reduce losses by eliminatingbelow zero customers, to increasecross-sale and to measure the lifetimevalue of a customer. Financial analyticsis an important area which must bestudied by tomorrow’s force which candeal with financial management.

Artificial Intelligence in Finance:Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a pow-erful tool that is already widelydeployed in financial services. It hasgreat potential for positive impact ifcompanies deploy it with sufficientdiligence and care. AI is being imple-mented by banks to assess risks,detect and prevent payments fraud,

improve processes for anti-moneylaundering (AML) and performknow-your-customer (KYC) regula-tory checks. Artificial intelligence isleading the front of the digital trans-formation strategy in finance todayand its role is going to grow bigger inthe future. Adept proficiency in AI ismandatory for an efficient workforceof tomorrow.

Financial Fraud Detection:

Modern financial institutions facethe growing threat of fraud in its dif-ferent and ever-changing ways. Frauddetection is a set of activities under-taken to prevent money or propertyfrom being obtained through falsepretences. Fraud detection is appliedto many industries such as banking orinsurance. Data mining is used to clas-sify, cluster, and segment the data andit helps in automatically finding asso-ciations and rules in the data that maysignify interesting patterns, includingthose related to fraud. Experts usesuch intelligence systems to encodeexpertise for detecting fraud in theform of rules. This area is gainingimportance and is an emerging trendin the study of finance managementfor creating an efficient workforce.

Machine Learning in FinancialManagement: Today machine learn-ing algorithms are used to automatetrading activities and provide finan-cial advisory services to investors.Machine learning can analyse millionsof data sets within a short time toimprove the outcomes without beingexplicitly programmed. Supervised

learning, un-supervised learning,semi-supervised learning, andReinforcement learning is an emerg-ing trend in the study of finance man-agement and the future workforce canbe efficient if they develop expertisein this domain.

Blockchain-based modes oftransactions and financial services:A financial system underpinned byblockchain offers many opportunitiesfor the accountancy profession in thenear future. Blockchain technology isa decentralised, distributed, and pub-lic ledger that is used to record trans-actions across many computers with-in a network. In the finance industry,this underlying technology allowsthe transfer of currency with confi-dence that the transaction is secureand reliable. Block chain is for sure anemerging trend in the study of finan-cial management and will have a tan-gible impact across several financialservices. The future workforce mustcertainly be proficient and developexpertise in this domain.

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With the rise of technology andthe world adapting to online

avenues in the new normal, skilldevelopment is not a static process,it is rather extremely important tocontinue undertaking these pro-grammes at all levels. You need tofit into more than just one role tokeep up with the competition. Thesurvival of many businesses isdependent on the aspect wherethey require their employees toupskill and/or re-skill themselves,and leverage the cutting-edge tech-nologies to convert their offices intoaugmented environments for learn-ing.

For a change to take place,organisations must take the rightdecisions and invest in continuouslytraining and upskilling theiremployees through various cours-es and training programmes.Employees can also take up cours-es on their own to up their gameand be a step ahead in this com-petitive world.

We have curated a list of vari-ous programmes that will help var-ious professionals to upskill them-selves in this highly progressivelandscape.

Post Graduate Diploma inGlobal Education

Aditya Birla EducationAcademy’s Post Graduate Diplomain Global Education helps educatorsdevelop their teaching skills andknowledge in accordance with bestglobal practices and become more

effective teachers. This online pro-gram also provides an opportunityfor working professionals to transi-tion into the education space andmake a smooth career switch. As thecourse is developed and delivered byglobally renowned academicians, itpromises academic excellence. Thesalient features of PGDGE arepracticum based teaching and learn-ing, internship opportunities inreputed Indian schools, and campusplacement assistance.

IIM Skills — Content WritingMaster Course

IIM SKILLS tops the list of insti-tutes that provide training for con-tent writing. The Content WritingMaster Course at IIM SKILLS showsyou how to excel in the art of con-tent writing. They offer the mostcomprehensive course that is a per-fect mix of content writing and con-tent marketing, which is the need ofthe hour for a lucrative job. Thecourse is entirely online, obliterat-ing the need for a commute to theinstitute. Also, they take in only alimited number of students facili-tating personal attention to everyparticipant, irrespective of yourprofession. The design is such thatanyone can learn and benefit fromit. The mentor/trainer ensures everycandidate understands all aspects ofthe training.

Great learning mastering BigAnalytics course

Big Data helps organisations tocreate new growth opportunities

and entirely new categories of com-panies that can combine and analyseindustry data. How is this hugeamount of data handled andthrough what medium or tools thedata is processed or stored? This iswhere Big Data comes into the pic-ture. Big Data Analytics coursecovers two important frameworksHadoop and Spark, which providesome of the most important tools tocarry out enormous big data tasks.The first module of the course willstart with the introduction to Bigdata and soon will advance into bigdata ecosystem tools and technolo-gies like HDFS, YARN, MapReduce,Hive, etc. In the second module, thecourse will take you through anintroduction to spark and thendive into Scala and Spark conceptslike RDD, transformations, actions,persistence and deploying Sparkapplications.

Data Science for BusinessDecision Making

Upgrad in collaboration withIIM Kozhikode has launched theprogramme Data Science forBusiness Decision Making for pro-fessionals from all backgrounds.Every business requires to use datain order to solve complex issues, sothere is a purpose why Data Sciencehas progressed as a lucrative andhigh-growth career option.Professionals can choose to upskilltheir career by exploring this alter-native, by undertaking a course inData Science.

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In order to provide world-class educationand promote high academic achieve-

ment for the students at all levels, largesteducational assemblage Tritya EducationalTrust has expanded their reach and start-ed an abroad-education wing TrityaOverseas Education. It provides compre-hensive training to those students withdreams of studying abroad and makesthem well-equipped with all material andextensive information regarding theirdream course.

Tritya Overseas Education offers com-prehensive classroom training for testssuch as MAT, GRE, SAT, TOEFL, IELTSand PTE. They provide a wide bouquet of

services including career counseling, over-seas study, immigration and funding,visa and admission in countries such asCanada, New Zealand, UK, Ukraine,USA and Australia.

“We feel education is the backbone ofany nation and our mission is to build thenation through education and beyond. Wemake the cumbersome admission processof overseas education smooth with TrityaOverseas Education. Our immigrationcounselors continuously guide the studentsto the right path keeping in mind theirpreferences and countries. Our workdoesn’t end here. We also provide post-admission care to the students,” saidCaptain Amardeep, Founder and Director,Tritya Group of Institutions.

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An online learning plat-form for Government

jobs, ixamBee, has raisedfunding for an undisclosedamount led by MumbaiAngles.

Dr NarendraShyamsukha from JITOAngel Network and exist-ing investor Keyur Joshi(co-founder MakeMyTrip)and few noted alumni ofISB, Hyderabad also par-ticipated in the currentround.

More than five millionstudents have been bene-fited by ixamBee. The plat-form is gaining populari-ty due to its high-qualitycontent that has con-tributed to the success ofthousands of students ingetting placed in variousgovernment jobs.

More than five crorestudents are preparing forgovernment job exams andmost of them come fromsmall towns and villages.Popularity of Governmentjobs has immensely

increased due to job loss-es and uncertainty in theprivate sector post Covid-19. Recruitment examshave started again after apause.

Chandraprakash Joshi,Co-Founder, ixamBeesaid: “Working fromhome, we recorded 100 percent plus revenue growthin the last two quarters.Also 99.7 per cent of ourwebsite traffic is organicthat reflects the populari-ty of ixamBee among stu-dents. Funding at this stage

will help us in creatingsuperior ixamBee’s learn-ing experience (iLX) andaccelerating our growth.”

Co-founded byChandraprakash Joshi(Ex-RBI and alumni ofISB, Hyderabad), ArunimaSinha (Ex-SIDBI) andSandeep Singh (Ex-MakeMyTrip) the plat-form has been focussingon providing completeonline learning experienceto the students to whomcoaching classes are notaccessible.

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Universally, education formsthe backbone of a consciousand progressive society. The

values inculcated at an early age tendto stick with adults that much eas-ier. So when it comes to the biggestthreat to our generation — the cli-mate crisis — the world is instinc-tively turning towards the youngergeneration for a grassroots move-ment.

Today, if the climate strikes by,the likes of Greta Thunberg are get-ting noticed, it’s because the messageresonates with everyone. But theirgeneration did not just come to beclimate and nature conscious on dayone. It’s taken years of conscioussteps by policymakers, which has inturn been accepted and enforced bysociety, to create an environmen-tally-conscious nation.

Environmental consciousness— what’s exceptional’ to some, is thenorm in Sweden.

Consider Sweden, which is wayahead of the curve when it comes tounderstanding the natural world.Environmental education for themgoes much beyond theoreticalknowledge about nature. It aids inan evolved and action-orientedapproach to solving issues like cli-mate change, plastic pollution, etc.

The seeds of a green revolutionwere sown in 1969 when the gov-ernment introduced environmentaleducational policies into the cur-riculums. The teachings aren’t com-partmentalised or limited to aware-ness campaigns like bringing downour consumption of single-use plas-tics. It's holistic and everyone therecontributes equally.

Like Sweden, India also took an

initiative from the StockholmSummit in 1972 to integrate envi-ronmental policies with its estab-lishment of the Ministry ofEnvironment and Forests and othermeasures to move towards a green-er world. For instance, we have beensuccessful in educating a wholegeneration about the ill effects offirecrackers. The firecrackers indus-try has witnessed a steady declineover the years — 2019 saw a dropin 25 per cent to 30 per cent in sales.

India’s culture, lifestyle, and

philosophy are firmly rooted in theconcept of our coexistence withnature. Be it rivers, mountains,lakes, animals, flora, the mineralworld, or the stars and planets —India has an intrinsic relationshipwith nature, to the point that mil-lions worship it in various formssince time immemorial. This factwas echoed in a conversation I hadwith a leading conservationist fromthe USA. He remarked how road-kills are much less common inIndia and a large reason for it is

embedded in our cultural values.Across geographies, several big

and small steps have been taken toprotect the environment. A citizeninitiative like iamgurgaon, which isfocused on restoring Gurgaon’sgreen habitat has been a massive stepin the right direction towards pro-tecting the environment. It consist-ed of a group of concerned residentsstriving to make a difference.

We must laud every effort andcheer for every step that we taketowards an environmentally con-scious society. In a large country likeIndia, the impact of such actions aremassive. Yet much remains to bedesired. It’s limited to a minusculepopulation of hyper-aware individ-uals and organisations. What stepscan we take to address this gap ofawareness creation at the grassroots?

Environmental educationmust be holistic

It’s our collective responsibilityto do something about the naturecrisis. It’s not up to anyone individ-ual or entity. Taking a holistic lookinto creating transformations fromthe ground up will help India reachits 2050 Paris Agreement goals andturn into a truly sustainable society.

Environmental education isoffering us the audacity to hope fora brighter future. It’s time to join therevolution.

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The IIHMR Universityinvites applications for MBAin Digital Health.

It is an interdisciplinarymaster’s programme in digitalhealth, aimed to develop high-ly qualified experts in areasrequiring interface betweencomputer science, IT and med-icine.

The programme enables instaying at the cutting-edge ofemerging health technology,including digital health, tele-health and health automation.

Duration: Two yearsHow to apply: Log on to

www.iihmr.edu.in.Last date to apply: March

25, 2021.

��"�� The School of Design and

Visual Arts (SDVA) at ApeejayStya University (ASU) invitesapplications for admissions to itsBachelor in Design programmefor the year 2021-22 with spe-cialisations in Fashion Design,Interior Design, Animation &Multimedia, and GraphicDesign.

After completion of thecourse, a student may work as aFashion Designer, FashionStylist, Costume Designer,

Interior Designer,Graphic Designer,

A n i m a t i o nFilmmaker, VFX Artist,or Creative Head in

reputed fashion & apparelbrands, design houses, mediahouses, or corporatehouses/institutions accordingto their specialisations.

Some students with anentrepreneurial bent of mindmay opt for setting up venturesin their respective fields.

Eligibility: Students need tosecure at least 50% aggregatemarks in Class XII in any streamfrom a recognised Board. Thosestudents who are going to attendtheir final exams this year mayalso apply; however, the finaladmissions will be held onlyafter they submit their boardcertificates with the minimumaggregate marks as mentioned.

All eligible applicants shallbe shortlisted based on theiroverall academic performancesand aptitude in the onlineentrance test followed by amock test.

How to apply: The appli-cation forms can be down-loaded from the University web-site: www.university.apeejay.edu.

Last date to apply: June 8,2021.

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A workshop was conductedon the theme of

‘Atmanirbhar Bharat throughExperiential Learning,Vocational Education,Internship, Apprenticeship andEntrepreneurship’ at theUniversity School of Education,GGSIP University in collabo-ration with MGNCRE,Department of HigherEducation, Ministry ofEducation on the March 23,2021.

The workshop was wellreceived by the target audiencewhich comprised of the prin-cipals and faculty of BEd col-leges affiliated to GGSIP

University. The welcomeaddress was delivered by ProfDhananjay Joshi Dean, USEand was steered by DrShatrughan Bhardwaj coveringall the aspects of pedagogicalinputs required to establish asynergy between experientiallearning, vocational education,internship, apprenticeship andentrepreneurship for makingBharat Atmanirbhar in the realsense.

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The Indian furniture industry hasstarted witnessing a boom in anunprecedented way. According to

a report, the revenue forecast in theIndian furniture market stands at$216,293 million in the year 2021.People are willing to buy new furniture,replace the existing ones keeping inmind their lifestyle and living standarddue to the rise in their income.Therefore, it is crystal clear fact that thefurniture industry is growing. Here welist out five critical skills needed for jobsin the industry.

Drawing skills: If you want to landa really good job in the Indian furni-ture industry then drawing skills aresomething one can never ignore nomatter what. Drawing skills basicallydevelop sketching ability in youthrough which you can always visualisethe final product even before any con-ceptualisation on the product. Like afilmmaker visualises the entire movieeven before when shots are captured bythe camera, in the same manner, a per-son abled with drawing skills can seethe final furniture product even beforethe commencement of production.

Understanding layout plans:There is no dearth of jobs for a personwho has a great understanding offloor and space structure and furniturelayout plans. Furniture layout plans arebasically meant for creating a structurewherein optimum benefit of space canbe availed keeping in mind the furni-ture it occupies.

Knowledge of 3D design software:A person who is pro in 3D designingsoftware for preparing primary blue-prints of final furniture products takesan edge over others when it comes tolanding a job in the Indian furnitureindustry. If you hold a great commandover 3D designing software of a com-puter, then even in primary level talksyou can convince clients about howgood your final product is going to be.

Good hold on industrial pro-duction systems and processes:If youare working for a big brand and reput-ed name of furniture industry thenknowledge of industrial production sys-tems and processes is a prerequisite tograb a job. This basically means that aperson willing to land a job in the

Indian furniture industry must beaware of all the important aspects ofindustrial production systems andprocesses of furniture production.

Knowledge of materials: Materialis like the backbone or foundation ofany furniture product. If a person hasa solid knowledge about the types ofwoods available in the market for fur-niture products or material finishesthen the job becomes quite easy andquality too does not get compromised.People who have great identificationunderstand of woods like Maple, Oak,Cherry, Pine, Cedar and material fin-ishes like particle board, MDF, etcalways automatically gain an edge overthose who lack knowledge. And, that'swhy it is advised that if you want tomake a career in the Indian furnitureindustry, then knowledge of materialfinishes is very important.

By keeping all the above-men-tioned skillsets in mind, landing a jobin the Indian furniture industry is nota big task. Always remember, if youhave good knowledge about the furni-ture market and can work with dedi-cation with a clear goal in mind, no tar-get is too big to achieve.

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The University ofS t r a t h c l y d e ,Glasgow invites

applications for its schol-arships for joining itsundergraduate, postgradu-ate taught and postgradu-ate research programmes.All self-funded, interna-tional (non-EU) fee-payingoffer holders with strongacademic qualifications areencouraged to apply.

The university also hasa limited number of Dean’sInternational ExcellenceAwards for its postgradu-ate taught applicants.

Eligibility: For UG:Applicants with strong aca-demic performance in highschool are encouraged toapply. Scholarship deci-sions will be made on thebasis of information con-tained in your undergrad-uate admissions and schol-arship applications.

Postgraduate Taught:To be considered for theFaculty of EngineeringInternational Scholarshipapplicants should normal-ly have a 2:1 (or equivalent)in their UG degree.

To know more visit:https://www.strath.ac.uk/studywithus/scholarships/engineeringscholarships/engi-neeringinternationalschol-arships/ or contact: eng-

[email protected] deadline:

It is August 26, 2021.

The NewcastleUniversity invites applica-tions for the Masters inInternational BusinessManagement scholar-ships. This programme isopen for the academic ses-sion 2021-2022.

Eligibility: Must holdan offer of admission toInternational BusinessManagement MSc

Must hold a UK 1stClass or internationalequivalent Degree

Must have previouslystudied at a university witha high academic ranking orreputation. Submit a 1,500-word essay in response tothe issue, all submissionsmust be written in English.

Supporting docu-ments: Certified copies oftheir academic transcripts,CV, and other supportingdocumentation.

Language require-ment: If English is notfirst language, have anIELTS 6.5 or equivalentEnglish language qualifica-tion with no sub-skillbelow 6.0.

How to apply:Applicants have to takeadmission in the master’sdegree programme at theuniversity.

Application deadline:It is June 1, 2021.

The 2020 was one of thebiggest years of transforma-tions the education industry

is witnessing currently. The coro-navirus pandemic rapidly forcedour classroom learning process tocompletely adhere to digital medi-ums and at times blended educa-tion (partially online and class-room) in order to have an unin-terrupted learning.

The COVID 19 pandemicimpacted the education sectorheavily. With 1.26 billion childrenworldwide having gone educationless as estimated by the UNESCO,out of which 300 million childrenare just from India. The initial hic-cups of the lockdown had com-pellednot only students but alsoeducators to come out of theircomfort zone and learnt new skillsto master online teaching plat-forms among others.

The complete education sys-tem has gone through an unprece-dented growth in digital transfor-mation, moreover, the educationexperts suggest that this is just thebeginning.

As we move towards a newbeginning, we should be readywith novel challenges includingstudent retention, student engage-ment, collaborative learningrequirements as well as competi-tive models from internationalinstitutions. Edtech is going to playa pivotal role in solving these chal-lenges for higher education insti-tutes. The key trends are:

!��One should not be surprised

to learn that the usage of videos foronline training (or video-basedlearning) will get a new momen-tum this year to make the educa-tion process interesting andincrease student engagement.

No doubt videos are a high-impact medium, and it creates anengaging learning experience withhigh recall and retention. It alsoencourages microlearning, cre-ativity and interactivity among thestudents.

There is a myth that video-based learning was created toreplace teachers and trainers, but

actually it was created to enhancethe learning experience andincrease the accessibility of qual-ity education even in the far-flungareas, where there is a dismal stu-dent and teacher ratio.

�� The Internet of Things,

Artificial Intelligence, MachineLearning, Virtual Reality andAugmented Reality are going toplay a pivotal role in education inorder to enhance studentl earningand engagement.

It will reinvent the onlinelearning space in the years tocome. Through AI, student learn-ing abilities will be estimated,which in turn will help us to bringmodifications in the learningprocess.

But the biggest challenge inimplementing these evolved tech-nologies in the education is theinternet penetration especially intier II and tier III cities. Thesetechnologies have to be affordableso that underprivileged studentscan also have an access to them.

�"��"�� With the onset of new strain

of muted coronavirus, looks likethe first few months of 2021would follow the new normal. Insuch a scenario, blended learningwill play a significant role for edu-cation sector.

For the past few years, blend-ed learning has been a part of pre-mier higher education institutessuch as IIMs and IITs. This formof learning combines online edu-cational materials and opportuni-ties for online interaction with tra-ditional place-based classroommethods. Since some coursesinvolve practical classes, blendedlearning is effective for such stud-ies. It helps in enhancing theaccess to education and maximis-es flexibility to both students andteachers. This kind of learningprocess initiates student interest,interaction and satisfaction in thelearning environment. Blendedlearning is no doubt the future ofglobal learning.

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New Zealand secured aseries-clinching five-

wicket win in the second ODIagainst Bangladesh onTuesday after a string of field-ing errors dashed the tourists’hopes of victory.

Black Caps skipper TomLatham scored an unbeaten110 after being dropped twicewith New Zealand chasing272 at Hagley Oval.

New Zealand batsmanJimmy Neesham was alsogiven a life, with the errorsundoing Bangladesh’s goodwork in making 271 for sixafter losing the toss and beingput into bat.

Bangladesh captainTamim Iqbal was left frustrat-ed after seeing his side comeclose to a maiden victory onNew Zealand soil.

“We should have won thisgame. We created chances butwe just couldn’t hold on tothose dropped catches,” hesaid.

“We hardly ever wingames but in this kind of sit-uation we have to make sure

that we do everything 100 per-cent. I’m disappointed.”

Tamim top-scored for thetourists with 78 andMohammad Mithun con-tributed an unbeaten 73 off 57balls.

Latham’s 110 came off 108balls and was his fifth ODIcentur y, while DevonConway’s 72 helped anchorthe innings.

The Black Caps reachedthe target after 48.2 overs, fin-ishing on 275 for five to take

an unassailable 2-0 lead in thethree-match ODI series.

“It was obviously nice tohave that match-winning con-tribution,” Latham said.

“I thought at the halfwaypoint we did a really good jobwith the ball but we knewBangladesh were going tocome out fighting.

“For us it was just abouttrying to build those partner-ships through the middle.”

The third match will beplayed on Friday.

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Gareth Bale on Tuesdaysaid that he plans to

resume his Real Madrid careeronce his loan at Tottenhamexpires at the end of this sea-son.

Wales forward Balereturned fora secondspell withTottenhami nS e p t e m b e rafter beingfrozen out byReal managerZinedine Zidane.

He hasendured a difficulttime back in thePremier League,plagued by fitnessissues, inconsistentform and a disputewith Tottenhammanager JoseMourinho over his

readiness for an FA Cup tie atEverton.

The 31-year-old’s Madridcontract runs until the end ofthe 2021-22 season and herevealed he will head back toSpain after the delayed Euro2020 this summer.

“There’s no distractionfor me,” Bale told a press

confer-ence. “It h i n k

the mainreason I

came toSpurs this year

was to play foot-ball first and fore-most.

“Going into theEuros I wanted tobe match-fit. Theoriginal plan was todo a season at Spursand after the Eurosstill have a year leftat Real Madrid.

“My plan is to

go back, that’s as far I haveplanned.”

Mourinho said earlier thismonth that Bale’s futurebeyond the end of the seasonwas a matter for Real.

Finally showing signs ofhis best form, Bale — a four-time Champions League win-ner with Real — recentlyscored six goals in six games.

But Bale found himselfback on the bench forTottenham’s shock EuropaLeague exit at Dinamo Zagreblast Thursday and theirPremier League win againstAston Villa on Sunday.

His spell among the sub-stitutes has at least kept Balefit for Wales’ forthcomingmatches.

Wales head to Belgium fortheir opening World Cupqualifier on Wednesday, hostMexico in a friendly onSaturday and take on theCzech Republic in their sec-ond qualifier next Tuesday.

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Pakistan opener SharjeelKhan on Tuesday dismissed

concerns over his fitness levelahead of the tour of SouthAfrica and Zimbabwe, sayingthat his recent good formwould not have been possibleif he was unfit.

Sharjeel’s selection in thePakistan T20 squad for the fourgames in South Africa andanother three in Zimbabwehas been questioned by someformer players and critics whobelieve his fitness is not up tothe level required to play inter-national cricket. He had per-formed well in six matches inthe recent Pakistan SuperLeague.

“I have been playing toplevel cricket for the last six toseven months in domestic sea-son. I have played around eightfirst class matches and other listA and T20 matches domestical-ly and in Pakistan SuperLeague,” Sharjeel said during amedia interaction.

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Only the best players shouldrepresent the country in the

Olympics, feels Indian tennisstalwart Leander Paes who hasbegun preparations with theTokyo Games in mind.

Talking on the sidelines ofthe Tennis Premier League auc-tion on Tuesday, Paes said he hasstarted hard training focussingon the French Open,Wimbledon and the TokyoOlympics to be held in July-August.

“I am aware of the FrenchOpen, the Wimbledon and alsothe Olympics. The three big onesin the near future and that’s whatI will be focusing on,” he said.

“I have always been a patri-ot and believe that the only bestplayers should represent thecountry,” the 47-year-old saidwhile referring to the Olympics.

In December 2019, Paeshad said that 2020 would be hisfinal year in professional circuitbut Covid-19 pandemic struckthe world.

Paes said he took a completebreak from tennis during theCovid-19 pandemic and hasbegun training since the lastthree weeks.

“By the end of 2019, I wasjaded and tired from all the trav-elling and playing at the highestlevel. The enforced lockdownhelped me spend quality timewith my dad, my mom, mydaughter and I was rejuvenated,”said Paes.

“I have begun training hard,back to my diet and have lost 6kgs in three weeks. I am gettingback into my rhythm,” he added.

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World number one T20Ibatswoman Shafali Verma

blasted 60 runs off 30 balls afterleft-arm spinner RajeshwariGayakwad’s fine bowling displayto power India to a consolationnine-wicket win over SouthAfrica in the third and finalmatch here on Tuesday.

Gayakwad picked up threewickets for just nine runs tohelp India restrict SouthAfrica Women to 112 for 7and then Verma and captainSmriti Mandhana (48 not outoff 28 balls) shared 96 runs forthe opening wicket to canterto an easy win with nine oversto spare.

Shafali hit seven fours andfive sixes during her blisteringknock while Mandhana hadnine boundaries in her unbeat-en innings.

SA Women clinched thethree-match T20I series 2-1,having won the first twomatches.

Chasing 113 for victory,the 17-year old Shafali went ona rampage from the word go bypicking up 18 runs (3 fours anda six) off the first over bowledby Shabnim Ismail.

She kept attacking the

opposition bowlers andsmashed three more sixes inthe next three overs, includingtwo off Nadine de Klerk’s sec-ond over.

The South Africa bowlerscame in for severe punishmentfrom Shafali as she produced awide array of shots during heraudacious hitting show.

Nondumiso Shangaseended the young Indian open-er’s knock by having her caughtby Ismail in the deep in theninth over. But by then, thematch was as good as over inIndia’s favour.

Mandhana, who was like aspectator when Shafali wenton the rampage, showed herclass by producing the finalflourish, taking India to 114 for1 in 11 overs.

Earlier, Gayakwad (3/9) wasthe star performer as she bowledwith great control and guile toflummox the South Africanbatters while fellow slowbowlers Radha Yadav (1/24) andDeepti Sharma (1/22) chippedin with impressive displays.

Skipper Sune Luus was thetop-scorer for South Africawith 28 while Lara Goodallfinished with 25 not out from17 balls after they were askedto bat.

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The Gold rush continuedfor Indian shooters at the

ISSF World Cup on Tuesdayas Ganemat Sekhon andAngad Vir Singh Bajwaclaimed the skeet mixed teamtop honours here.

The 20-year-old Ganematand 25-year-old Angad, whohad topped the qualificationwith a score of 141, producedanother good show to beat theKazakh pair of Olga Panarinaand Alexandr Yechshenko 33-

29 in the Gold medal show-down. It was the only finallined up for the day.

With this, table-topperIndia’s Gold haul at the ongo-ing event went up to seven.The hosts have also won fourSilvers and as many Bronzemedals for a total of 15 medalsso far in the tournament.

Another Indian pair ofParinaaz Dhaliwal and MairajAhmad Khan, however,missed the Bronze medal by awhisker at the Dr Karni SinghShooting Range on Tuesday.

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Big-hitting teenage Indianbatter Shafali Verma rose

a rung to reclaim the topspot in the ICC women’s T20rankings, riding on her fineperformances in the ongoingseries against South Africa athome.

The 17-year-old, whograbbed the top position forthe first time after helping herside reach the knockout phaseof the T20 World Cup last yearin Australia, has leapfroggedAustralia’s Beth Mooney withscores of 23 and 47.

The Indian team, despitewinning the final T20 onTuesday, lose 1-2 to the visi-tors in the three-match series.

South Africa openerLizelle Lee is another one togain in the rankings eventhough the big-hitting open-er lost her top spot in the ODIrankings within a week ofreplacing England’s TammyBeaumont, the ICC said in a

statement.Lee has gained three slots

to reach 11th position amongT20I batters after a match-winning 70 helped SouthAfrica to a winning 2-0 leadon Sunday.

Laura Wolvaardt has risenfive places to 24th after guid-ing her team to victory withan unbeaten 53 in the secondmatch, while captain SuneLuus (up five places to 38th)and Nadine de Klerk (upthree places to 74th) are theother South Africans toadvance in the batting list.

For India,D e e p t iS h a r m ahas moved upfour places to40th and teenag-er Richa Ghoshhas rocketed 59places to 85th amongbatters while young all-rounder HarleenDeol has progressedin both lists, up 262

places to 99th among battersand up 76 places to 146thamong bowlers.

Left-arm spinnerRajeshwari Gayakwad hasadvanced from 34th to 25th.

There have also been somenotable changes in the ODIrankings.

In the update to thelonger format, India captainMithali Raj, a formerly top-ranked batter, has moved up

one place to eighth afteran unbeaten 79 while

Pr iya Punia hasmoved up to five

places to 53rd.Gayakwad is up

eight placesto 38tha m o n g

bowlers.The 4-1

series win saw SouthAfr ica over takeEngland to secondposition in the ODIteam rankings while

India remain fourth.

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India batsman Krunal Pandyasmashed the fastest fifty by an

ODI debutant during the firstmatch against England here onTuesday and broke downremembering his father whodied in January this year aftersuffering a heart attack.

The 30-year-old Krunalwas handed the India cap by hisyounger brother and star all-rounder Hardik.

He reached the half centu-ry mark in just 26 balls, overtak-

ing John Morris (35 balls) ofNew Zealand.

Krunal broke down whilebeing interviewed by the hostbroadcaster after his blisteringunbeaten knock of 58 (31 balls),which was studded with sevenfours and two sixes.

“This one is for my father,”was all that Krunal could tellcommentator Murali Kartikwhen asked about his unbeat-en knock before being over-whelmed by emotions.

He was enveloped byHardik in a tight hug soon after.

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India batsman Shreyas Iyerdislocated his left shoulder

while fielding in the first ODIagainst England here onTuesday, raising serious doubtsover his participation in the IPLbeginning April 9.

The incident happened inthe eighth over of the Englandinnings when Shreyas dived ona drive hit by Jonny Bairstowoff pacer Shardul Thakur. The26-year-old is unlikely to takepart in the remaining twoODIs.

“Shreyas Iyer subluxated(partially dislocated) his leftshoulder in the 8th over whilefielding. He has been taken forfurther scans and won’t takeany further part in the game,”said the BCCI in a medicalupdate.

“Rohit Sharma was hit onthe right elbow while battingand felt some pain later. Hewon’t take the field,” it added.

Shreyas looked in pain andwalked off the field while hold-ing his shoulder, raising con-cerns over his fitness ahead ofthe IPL in which he captainsDelhi Capitals.

The Mumbaikar had per-ished for just 6 while batting.

It could take as much as sixweeks to recover from shoulderdislocation and much longer incase a surgery is required.

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Debutants KrunalPandya and PrasidhKrishna made the big

stage their own to give an all-round India a convincing 66-run victory over world cham-pions England in the first ODIof the three-match series hereon Tuesday.

After under-fire openerShikhar Dhawan deliveredwith a solid 98, Krunal (58 notout off 31) smashed the fastestfifty by a debutant to fire Indiato 317 for five followingEngland’s decision to field.

At 135 for no loss in the15th over, with Jason Roy (46off 35) and Jonny Bairstow (94

off 55) going strong, Englandseemed to be running awaywith the chase before Krishna(4/54) and Shardul Thakur(3/37) shared seven wicketsbetween them to script a win-ning comeback.

The 25-year-old Krishna’sfigures were the best by anIndian debutant as England’sinnings ended at 251 in 42.1overs.

“It didn’t start off well, andthey came hard at us becausewe bowled poorly, but we hadbelief,” said the Karnatakabowler, who had drawn highpraise from skipper Virat Kohlilong before making the squad.

Considering the nature ofthe surface, it was a com-

mendable effort from theIndian bowlers, who carried onfrom the T20 series to defendgettable targets with remark-able ease.

Krishna, who leaked 37runs in his first three overs,came back strongly and trou-bled the batsmen with his abil-ity to generate extra bounce.

Thakur once again provid-ed the breakthroughs when theteam needed and senior proBhuvneshwar Kumar toochipped in with a couple ofwickets towards the end.

England had the game inthe bag but were guilty ofthrowing it away, failing tobuild on the flier of a startgiven Bairstow and Roy.

Earlier, Dhawan and ViratKohli (56 off 60) shared 105runs for the second wicketbefore Krunal (58 not out off31) and K L Rahul (62 not outoff 43) sent England on aleather hunt with theirunbeaten 112-run stand off 57balls to take the team past 300.

Dhawan hammered 11fours and two sixes in his 106-ball knock while Krunal plun-dered seven fours and twomaximums in his entertaininginnings.

Rahul also got welcomeruns after a lean run in theT20 series.

Put into bat here, RohitSharma (28 off 42) andDhawan shared 64 runs forthe opening wicket.

After Rohit’s dismissal,skipper Kohli joined Dhawanand the two rall ied theinnings.

Dhawan brought up hisfifty with a maximum, a slog-sweep, off 68 balls, in the 24thover, and then changed gears.

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��!��&��"Top seed Pranav Mishra defeated Anuj Kumar 9-4 to enter

the boy’s singles final in the 20th Eldeco Cup Tennis Tournamentat SDS Academy on Tuesday. He will now face MadhavPrakash, who beat Sandhya Dwivedi 9-3. In the girl’s category,Pranajali Prajapati and Arundhati Dagaur set up a title clash, beat-ing Aahana Agarwal and Vaishnavi Lodhi respectively.

��&��'��"��&��Akhil Infra Cricket Club crushed Kooh Sports Club by 111

runs in a league match of the 16th Timber Trophy at AkhileshDas Stadium on Tuesday. Electing to bat, Akhil Club scored 223runs for the loss of five wickets with Shiv Dhimani and SufiyanKhan scoring 55 runs each. Ajeet made the contribution of 39runs. In reply, Kooh Club were bundled out for 112 runs in 26.5overs. BRIEF SCORES:AI: 223 (Shiv 55, Sufiyan 55, Ajeet 39, Amit 30; Surendra 29/2,Rudra 57/2)Kooh: 112 (Vishal 31, Aditya 14; Chandresh 22/3, Navneet 8/2,Ajeet 17/2)

&"��Uttar Pradesh Cricket

Association on Tuesdayfelicitated BCCI panelscorer SP Singh on com-pleting 25 years of scoringcareer. He officiated ininternational matches, IPLand over 200 List Amatches. ICC match refer-ee GS Laxmi presented amemento to SP Singh atEkana Stadium.

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ats names vaze as hiran™s murderer...mar 23, 2021 · maharashtra’s anti-corruption bureau...

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