RNI NO.: WBENG/2015/65962

VOL. 7, ISSUE 260 | Wednesday, 22 September 2021 | Kolkata | Pages 12 | Rs 3.00PUBLISHED FROM DELHI | KOLKATA

MILLENNIUMPOST.IN

OUR CORRESPONDENT

AHMEDABAD: Days after the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) intercepted two containers shipped from Iran at the Mundra port in Bhuj, suspecting that they contained heroin originally sourced from Afghanistan, the agency on Monday said it has completed its operation of forensic testing and claimed to have seized 2,988.219 kg of the narcotic, valued at Rs 21,000 crore in the world market.

According to DRI (Ahmedabad zone) offi-cials, a consignment had been imported by Aashi Trading Company, a Vijaywada-based company, from Iran’s Bandar Abbas Port to Mundra Port. The company had declared the imported consignment as “semi-processed talc stones” which had originated from Afghanistan.

“Specific intelligence was developed by the DRI that a consignment imported by Aashi Trading Company from Bandar Abbas Port is suspected to contain narcotics. Accordingly, officers of DRI detained the consignment of two containers with the weight of 40 tonnes in total, for examination under the provisions of Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. Continued on P4

3,000 kg heroin worth Rs 21,000 cr seized in Gujarat’s Mundra port

No Half Truths

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: The Regional Meteorological Centre (MeT) in Alipore predicted more downpour — in the city and in various South Bengal dis-tricts till next week as three more low-pressure troughs are likely to form over the Bay of Bengal — even as sev-eral low-lying localities in and around Kolkata lay sub-merged on account of Mon-day’s record rainfall.

The weatherman stated that thunderstorms with lightning, along with heavy rain, may lash all districts of South Bengal till Wednesday morning, with coastal South 24-Parganas, Purba Medi-nipur and its neighbouring Paschim Medinipur likely to receive heavier downpour.

The low-pressure area that has formed over the south-ern parts of Gangetic Bengal and adjoining Odisha with the associated cyclonic circu-lation extending up to 5.8 km above mean sea level still per-sists, tilting south-westwards, the MeT stated.

It started raining from Sunday night and overnight showers disrupted normal life on Monday. The situ-ation improved but some streets remained under water even on Tuesday with the sky mostly remaining cloudy in several parts of South Ben-gal. Some pockets in North 24-Parganas, South 24-Par-ganas, Howrah, Hooghly,

East Burdwan and Kolk-ata received light rainfall on Tuesday as well. The local administrations in the coastal districts have already alerted people and fishermen have been asked not to venture into the sea.

Five persons were killed after getting electrocuted in the state on Tuesday.

The Kolkata Municipal Corporation’s efforts in over-hauling the drainage infra-structure in Kolkata has helped in draining out accu-mulated water from the roads, lanes and bylanes in the city by Tuesday late afternoon, a day after the city experi-enced a record 150 mm rain-fall on Monday — the highest in 13 years. Over 400 pumps worked in tandem to drain out the logged water.

Meanwhile, the situation at Ghatal has also turned criti-cal with various places in the area getting inundated. The district administration started providing shelter to the res-idents of the area in camps and distributed relief materi-als among the affected people.

In Khardah, a tragedy took place at Patulia Government Residential Quarter where the area gets inundated every year during the monsoon. Water entering houses and situations turning worse with waist-deep water is a regular affair.

However, what has become a concern for the weather experts is incidents of frequent lightning.

No respite in sight for S Bengal as MeT predicts

more downpour

Five dead after electrocution in state on Tue

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: In a written state-ment submitted before the Supreme Court, the Bengal government maintained that out of 2,877 complaints related to post-poll violence, as many as 1,356 have been found false.

The state government also claimed that as many as 1,429 cases had been initiated by the West Bengal Police. A total of 8,852 persons had been named as accused, the state claimed. According to the state gov-ernment, the number of arrests/persons surrendered or enlarged on bail is 5,154. Notices were served under Sec-tion 41A CrPC to 2,989.

The state added that the National Human Rights Com-

mission (NHRC) acted with bias in alleging that only a handful of arrests were made. It further claimed that the per-centages of arrests/persons sur-rendered or enlarged on bail comes to approximately 58 per cent and not less than 3 per cent as alleged by the NHRC panel.

The Bengal government submitted the note to the Apex Court in its appeal against the previous order of a five-judge

Bench of the Calcutta High Court. On August 19, the High Court had transferred the probe into alleged cases of post-poll violence to the Central Bureau of Information (CBI).

On Monday, the Supreme Court had adjourned the hear-ing in the matter to September 28. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing the Bengal gov-ernment, had submitted before a Bench, comprising Justices Vineet Saran and Aniruddha

Bose, that in one of the alleged murder cases, the man who is said to be a victim was still alive.

Earlier, the Calcutta High Court had also directed the constitution of SIT compris-ing IPS officers of the Bengal cadre — Suman Bala Sahoo, Soumen Mitra and Ranveer Kumar — to probe into vari-ous criminal cases other than those related to murder, rape and crimes against women. Both the CBI and SIT will sub-mit status reports to the court within six weeks.

On September 3, the Cal-cutta High Court appointed retired Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court Manjula Chellur to head the Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the Ben-gal post-poll violence.

Out of 2,877 post-poll violence plaints, 1,356 are fake: State tells Supreme Court

State claims that as many as 1,429 cases have been initiated by the West Bengal Police

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: India added 26,115 new cases of Coronavirus infection in a single day taking the total tally to 3,35,04,534, while the active cases declined to 3,09,575, the lowest in 184 days, according to the Union Health ministry data updated on Tuesday.

The death toll climbed to 4,45,385 with 252 fresh fatalities, according to the data updated at 8 am.

The active cases comprise 0.92 per cent of the total infections, the lowest since March 2020, the ministry said, adding the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 97.75 per cent.

A reduction of 8,606 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.

The cumulative number of vac-cine doses administered in the coun-try crossed 82 crore on Tuesday, the ministry said.

More than 68 lakh (68,26,132) vaccine doses were administered till 7 pm, it said.

The daily vaccination tally is expected to increase with the com-pilation of the final reports for the day by late night.

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 1.85 per cent. It has been less than three per cent for last 22 days. The weekly positivity rate was recorded at 2.08 per cent. It has been below three per cent for the last 88 days, it said.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 3,27,49,574, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.33 per cent.

With the daily new Covid infec-tions in India receding slowly, researchers have found that the R-value or the reproductive num-

ber for the virus in the country has dropped below 1 in September. The value denotes how many people an infected person impacts on average and is an indicator of how efficiently a virus spreads.

The R-value, which was 1.17 in August end, has reduced to 0.92 in mid-September indicating the slowing down of the transmission of the disease, a national news agency reported citing researchers from the Institute of Mathematical Sciences in Chennai.

However, the data also showed that the R-value remained above 1 in some cities namely, Mumbai, Chen-nai, Kolkata and Bengaluru while in Delhi and in Pune it remained below 1. Also, in Kerala and Maharashtra, two of the worst affected states in the country, the R-value was below 1.

Active Covid cases lowest in 184 days

R-value drops below 1 in Sept, remains above 1 in some major cities

Takeaways » The death toll climbed to 4,45,385 with 252 fresh fatalities, according to the data updated at 8 am

»More than 68 lakh (68,26,132) vaccine doses were administered till 7 pm, it said

PHASE 2 TRIALS OF THE COMPANY’S INTRANASAL VACCINE AGAINST COVID IS EXPECTED TO BE OVER BY NEXT MONTH

OUR CORRESPONDENT

HYDERABAD: Bharat Biotech has completed the Phase 2/3 trials of COVID-19 vaccine, Covaxin, for use in children under 18 years of age and is expected to sub-mit the data by next week to the DCGI, Chairman and Managing Director of Bharat Biotech Inter-national Ltd, Krishna Ella said on Tuesday here.

Speaking to reporters, he said Covaxin production would touch 55 million doses in October as against 35 million in September.

He also said the Phase 2 tri-als of the firm’s intranasal vaccine against COVID-19 is expected to

be over by next month.Paediatric Covaxin just com-

pleted phase 2/3 trials. The data analysis is going on. We will be submitting the data ( to the regu-lator) by next week. The number of subjects ( volunteers) is touch-ing 1000, Ella said.

Intranasal immunization can create an immune response in the nose, which is the point of entry for the virus thereby protecting against the disease, infection, and transmission also, he noted.

According to Ella, the intra-nasal vaccine trials are conducted on three cohorts in which one group is administered Covaxin as the first dose and intranasal as

the second. Similarly intranasal-intranasal for the second group and Intranasal-Covaxin for the

third cohort, 28 days apart.He said the trials will be con-

ducted on about 650 volunteers.

On the production levels of Covaxin, Ella said 100 million doses per month can be possi-ble if the other manufacturing partners are fully geared up with safety and other parameters are in place.

Other than its own facilities, Bharat Biotech has tied up with Indian Immunologiclas and Hes-ter Biosciences, to manufacture Covaxin.

“We are supplying 35 million this month. Next month we will be definitely supplying 55 million doses. Production at Bangalore is catching up very fast,” he said replying to a query.

On exports of Covaxin to

other countries, Ella said if the Centre permits, the firm is ready to export the jab, though the firm is not in a hurry to look for over-seas markets.

According to him, the gov-ernment’s focus is to fulfil domes-tic requirements.

India will resume export of surplus Covid-19 vaccines in the fourth quarter of 2021 under the ‘Vaccine Maitri’ programme and to meet its commitment to the COVAX global pool, but vacci-nating its own citizens remains the topmost priority of the gov-ernment, Union Health minis-ter Mansukh Mandaviya said on Monday.

Covaxin Phase 2/3 clinical trials for children completed

On Monday, the Supreme Court had adjourned the hearing in the matter to September 28

On UK controversy over Covishield, govt warns of ‘reciprocal measures’

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The UK govern-ment’s decision to not recog-nise Covishield as a legitimate anti-Covid vaccine is “discrim-inatory” and it is within the country’s “right to take recip-rocal measures” if the matter was not resolved, India said on Tuesday. Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said this move impacts Indian citi-zens travelling to that country.

“The non-recognition of Covishield is a discriminating policy and impacts our citi-zens travelling to the UK. The External Affairs minister has raised the issue strongly with the new UK Foreign Secretary. I am told that certain assurances have been given that this issue will be resolved,” Shringla said at a press conference in New Delhi.

His comments came on a day when Union Foreign min-ister S Jaishankar tweeted about discussing the matter with Brit-ish Foreign Secretary Liz Truss on the sidelines of the high-level 76th session of the UN General Assembly.

The meeting in New York took place on the same day when the UK announced its new Covid-related travel restrictions that sparked sharp criticism and concerns in India.

According to these new rules, Indian travellers who have received both doses of the Cov-ishield vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII) will be considered unvacci-nated and will have to undergo self-isolation for 10 days.

Covishield was developed by researchers at the Univer-sity of Oxford and pharma giant AstraZeneca. It was one of the two vaccines deployed by India — Covaxin being the other — in its nationwide Covid vaccina-tion drive launched this Janu-ary by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Covaxin was developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Bio-tech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research.

The expanded list of coun-tries whose vaccines are recog-nised in the UK does not include India. It means Indians vacci-

COVISHIELD ONLY INDIA-MADE VACCINE CLEARED FOR TRAVEL TO US FOR NOW

Highlights » Amid criticism of the new British travel rules, the UK has said it is engaging with India to explore how it could expand the recognition of the COVID-19 vaccine certification issued by Indian authorities, a national news agency reported

» United States will reopen in November to all air passengers who are fully vaccinated against Covid. India is among the 33 countries from where fully vaccinated travellers will be allowed to enter

City: Pg 3State creates record 84% mandays for fiscal 2021-22 in 6 mnths

Nation: Pg 6‘Notification allowing women in NDA to be released by May’

Film: Pg 12‘We are finger-pointing a lot less at women’

A health worker administers a vaccine dose to a student FILE PIC/NAVEEN SHARMA

nated with Covishield would be required to undergo compul-sory polymerase chain reaction tests as well as self-isolation.

The new rules will come into effect next month.

Amid criticism of the new British travel rules, the UK has said it is engaging with India to explore how it could expand the recognition of the COVID-19 vaccine certifica-tion issued by Indian author-ities, a national news agency reported.

Asked about the concerns

in India, a British High Com-mission spokesperson in New Delhi said: “We are engag-ing with the Government of India to explore how we could expand the UK recognition of vaccine certification to people vaccinated by a relevant public health body in India.”

Meanwhile, the United States will reopen in Novem-ber to all air passengers who are fully vaccinated against Covid. India is among the 33 coun-tries from where fully vacci-nated travellers will be allowed

to enter. Effectively, Covishield is the only India-made vaccine that is on the list of approved vaccines as of now.

From November, the US will admit fully vaccinated air travellers from the 26 so-called Schengen countries in Europe, including France, Ger-many, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and Greece, as well as Britain, Ireland, China, India, South Africa, Iran and Brazil.

Soon after announcing the move, the White House clarified that the final decision on what

vaccines would be accepted is up to the US Centers for Dis-ease Control and Prevention (CDC). The top medical body of the country has said it consid-ers a person “fully vaccinated” against Coronavirus if they have received any FDA-authorised jab or any vaccine that has been authorised by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Foreign nationals will need to present proof of vaccina-tion before travel and will not be required to quarantine on arrival.

NEW DELHI: Thirteen high courts in the country will get new Chief Justices (CJs) as the Supreme Court Collegium headed by CJI N V Ramana has recommended to the Cen-tre eight names, including acting Calcutta High Court CJ, Justice Rajesh Bindal, for elevation and transfer of five sitting CJs to other high courts.

The Collegium’s decisions were uploaded on the Apex Court’s website on Tuesday.

The SC Collegium also decided to recommend to the Centre the transfer of six more judges in different high courts of the country.

The Collegium, also com-prising justices U U Lalit and A M Khanwilkar, again met on Tuesday to recommend more transfer of high court judges.

The Collegium headed by CJI Ramana has been

taking steps by recom-mending names to fill up a large number of vacan-cies in higher judiciary

in the country.After assuming charge

as the CJI in April this year, Justice Ramana has recom-mended nearly 100 names for appointment to different high courts, besides filling up nine vacancies of judges in the Supreme Court in one go. MPOST

SC Collegium recommends names to Centre

FILE PHOTO

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Centre has amended over a 50-year-old rule to allow IAS, IPS and IFoS officers to retain gifts received from foreign dig-nitaries while being members of the Indian del-egation, according to an official order.

Existing rules allowed these officers to accept gifts from their near relatives or from personal friends having no official dealings with them, on occasions such as weddings, anniversaries, funerals and religious functions when the mak-ing of gifts is in conformity with the prevailing religious and social practice. Continued on P4

NEW DELHI: Air Marshal Vivek Ram Chaudhari will take over as Chief of Air Staff after the retirement of Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria on September 30.

Chaudhari is currently the Vice Chief of Air Staff in the Indian Air Force.

Air Marshal Chaudhari was commissioned into the fighter stream of the Indian Air Force on December 29, 1982 and has held various com-mand, staff and instructional appointments at various levels, the government said in a state-ment. During his service, he has been decorated with the Param Vishisht Seva Medal, the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal and the Vayu Sena Medal.

Air Chief Marshal Bhadauria will retire exactly two years after his appointment to the top post on September 30, 2019.

Air Marshal Chaudhari has a flying experi-ence of more than 3,800 hours and has been an expert in MiG-29 aircraft. He has also served as chief of the Western Air Command. MPOST

CENTRE ALLOWS IAS, IPS OFFICERS TO RETAIN GIFTS FROM FOREIGN DIGNITARIES

AIR MARSHAL VR CHAUDHARI TO BE NEW CHIEF OF AIR STAFF

Quick News

PROUD MOMENT

West Bengal Power Development Corporation Limited has won 6 prestigious PRCI Excellence Awards. Ashim Raychowdhury, deputy general manager (Corp.Comm.),West Bengal Power Development Corporation Limited has been honoured with the“Hall of Fame” award PIC/MPOST

About 4K paediatric, over 2K SNCU beds added to 77 hospitals

State logs 537 cases; about 592 patients cured in a day

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Minister of state for Health & Family Welfare Chandrima Bhattacharya inau-gurated a high-end technology of Quantum Magnetic Reso-nance Therapy (QMRT), for the first time in Eastern India for providing non-invasive and painless therapeutic solutions for Cancer and Osteoarthritis, at a private healthcare facility.

“Our Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is always open to anything that is pro –people. So, there is every pos-sibility that in near future, the state government may intro-duce similar high-end technol-ogy for managing osteoarthritis and containing the spread of cancer in the human body, with no adverse side-effects,” Bhat-tacharjee said.

Debasish Kumar, MLA of Rashbehari constituency was also present at the inaugural programme.

The Cytotron is intended

to be used to cause degenera-tion of uncontrolled growth of tissues. It is indicated for treat-ing protein-linked, abnormally regenerating disorders such as Neoplastic Disease (Cancer), and allowing extended pro-gression free survival, with pain relief, palliation, improved quality and dignity of life. It is indicated for the treatment of solid tumors of breast, liver and

pancreas. Kolkata is the second city in

India after Bengaluru to have this state-of-the-art therapeu-tic device.

An oncologist and an orthopaedic, specially trained with the knowhow of operat-ing the QMRT device, will be present for providing medical support to the patients at the facility.

Hi-tech therapeutic device unveiled for cancer patientsIt will also help in managing Osteoarthiritis

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Bengal has seen 537 fresh Covid cases on Tues-day. State has seen a little dip in the past three days. On Mon-day, the number dropped to 524 from what stood at 635 on Sunday.

The number of active Covid cases in Bengal dropped at 7,741 on Tuesday. Around 592 patients have been dis-charged from various hospi-tals after they recovered from Covid. The number of fatal-ities on Tuesday stood at 14 while the Covid recovery rate remained at 98.31 per cent. The total number of infected people has reached 15,62,710 so far. Out of this, around 15,36,291 people have so far recovered and released from the hospitals. Around 18,678 people have so far died of Covid in the state.

The percentage of occu-pancy of Covid beds in the State stood at 3.47 on Tuesday while the positivity rate stood at 1.62 percent. The fatality rate in Bengal went up to 1.20 per cent after it stood at 1.19 per

cent for over a month.Around 98 fresh Covid

cases were detected in North 24-Parganas while in Kolkata the number was registered at 108. Darjeeling has seen 25 new cases, South 24-Parganas 36 and Hooghly 36 and How-rah 31. Bengal has so far carried out 1,77,97,142 Covid sam-ple tests out of which around 33,117 tests were done in the past 24 hours. Kolkata has seen 3 deaths on Tuesday and South 24 Parganas has seen 2 Covid deaths. North 24 Parganas has seen 4 deaths, Hooghly 1, How-rah 1, East Burdwan 1, West Midnapore 1 and Nadia 1.

Bengal on Tuesday admin-

istered 10,77,096 doses taking the total number of doses being administered in the state so far to 5,28,95,939. State on Mon-day conducted 9 lakh doses. Bengal on Saturday crossed the milestone of administering 13 lakh doses. Health depart-ment has so far addressed 21,90,093 general queries so far out of which 2,400 queries were addressed in the past 24 hours. State has so far given telemedicine consultations to 8,92,193 people so far out of which 1,227 were given con-sultation in the past 24 hours. Around 535 people have been given tele-psychological coun-selling in the past 24 hours.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

BALURGHAT: Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader and former minister Shankar Chakraborty escaped unhurt while the car he was travelling in collided with a pick-up-van coming from the opposite direction on Monday evening.

The incident took place at Kurmile-Kamarpara intersection.

According to a police source, the front light of Chakraborty’s car was damaged following the mishap. Police later seized the pick-up-van and started an investigation.

“The pick-up-van was coming at extreme high speed and lost control at Kurmile-Kamarpara intersection and hit the TMC leader’s car,” said the police source. A TMC party source informed that Chakraborty was returning to his Balurghat residence after attending a party meeting. After receiving the news of the accident, many TMC leaders contacted him to know about his physical condition.

RLY STAFF UNION STAGE 12-HR HUNGER STRIKE AGAINST CENTRE’S POLICIESKOLKATA: All India Loco Running Staff Association (AILRSA) went for a 12-hour hunger strike to protest against Modi Government’s privatisation policies at Sealdah station on Tuesday. The protesters raised slogans against the Central government’s moves to privatise the Indian Railways. They also demanded to stop downsizing of Railway employees, no irregularity in night duty allowance and revival of the old pension scheme. “71 Loco Running Staff started the peaceful hunger strike at 10 am at Sealdah station premises. There is no disruption of train,” said Tanmay Roy, divi-sion secretary of AILRSA.

TWO ARRESTED FOR ROBBERY ATTEMPT KOLKATA: Two miscreants were arrested and a few managed to flee, while robbing a gold loan ser-vice provider’s office in Chandannagar on Tuesday afternoon. According to the employees of the gold loan service provider office in Lakshmigunge mar-ket, around 2:30 pm, a few miscreants armed with guns went inside the office. When an employee tried to raise an alarm, miscreants hit him. The miscre-ants fired a few rounds in the air. Hearing gunshots, people in the area informed police. Police chased the cars and motorcycles used by the robbers and were able to nab two of them near Khadi more.

1ST LUNG TRANSPLANT CONDUCTED IN CITY KOLKATA: The state on Tuesday witnessed the first ever lung transplant at a private hospital in the city. A team of expert doctors carried out the transplant on a 46-year-old patient who had been on ECMO support for two months. The lung was harvested from a brain dead patient in Gujarat on Monday and then it was flown in through an air ambulance. The patient has been put under observation for 72 hours.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: A fast-track court in Puruliya has awarded death sentence to two, including the mother of a three-year-old girl child, for killing the baby by piercing several needles into her body.

According to sources, Man-gala Goswami, who was the mother of the child, had an affair with a man identified as Sanatan Thakur after her hus-band left.

As her child was obstruct-ing the woman to continue with the affair, she along with Thakur planned to kill the girl by sexual and physical torture. The duo was held guilty on Friday.

The concerned magistrate mentioned that even as moth-er’s lap is considered to be the safest place for a child, Gos-wami had tortured her own daughter and even allowed her lover to do the same in order to kill the child.

The incident took place during July 2017 after Gos-wami took her daughter to Deben Mahato hospital for cough and cold related issues.

While examining the doctor found bruise marks and injury marks on the child’s body.

After doing an x-ray, medi-cal practitioners found seven needles were pierced inside the girl’s body.

Police and child line were informed by the hospi-tal authority following which a case was registered against Thakur for sexual assault, attempt to murder, rape and other aallegations.

Later Goswami was found involved also. Thakur and Gos-wami were arrested. Mean-while, the child was shifted to SSKM hospital where she underwent a major surgery but failed to survive.

Mother of 3-yr-old and her lover get death penalty for killing baby

TMC leader unhurt in

road mishap

State sanctions pension for kin of former CM

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: The Bengal gov-ernment has taken steps to expedite the process of con-structing a six-lane elevated corridor over Kona Expressway that will connect Vidyasagar Setu with National Highway 6.

Chief Secretary HK Dwivedi held a high-level meeting with senior officers of all stakeholders including the Public Works Department (PWD), Railways, Finance, and Howrah Municipal Corpora-tion (HMC) on Tuesday.

The utility services, mainly near the Santragachi Railway Station, that need to be shifted

have also been identified, sources said. Immediate steps needed for removal of under-ground pipelines and cables was also discussed in detail in the meeting.

Directions have been given to respective departments to chalk out a detailed plan of action to shift the utility ser-vices at the earliest.

It may be mentioned that a project has been taken up to build a six-lane elevated corri-dor over Kona Expressway that will connect National Highway 6 with Vidyasagar Setu.

The decision to construct the elevated corridor was taken up to ensure that traffic con-

gestion on Kona expressway becomes a matter of the past. Kona Expressway serves as the entry point to the city and the number of vehicles that operate on the expressway has gone up manifold in the past few years.

At the same time one wants to reach the state Secretariat, Nabanna, from the National Highway and also needs to take the Kona Expressway.

Moreover, the Santraga-chi Station is also off Kona Expressway.

The elevated corridor will also give a permanent solution to the problem of traffic con-gestion near the station, ending woes of the commuters.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: In a major boost to the paediatric health infra-structure in the state, around 77 government hospitals have increased their beds including the critical set-up to handle any unforeseen situation. The step has been taken in view of a recent rise in fever cases among the children.

As many as 3,816 pediat-ric beds have been added to the existing capacity of health infrastructure across Bengal. Around 2,438 SNCU beds, 229 PICU beds and 164 NICU beds have also been included in dif-ferent levels of hospital.

The health department had earlier directed the district hos-pitals to enhance their exist-ing infrastructure so that many more patients can be accom-modated in case of an emer-gency. The Covid curve has

however been on decline for the two consecutive days on Sunday and Monday.

Many medical colleges in the city have also increased paediatric beds. SSKM has arranged 129 pediatric beds, 84 SNCU beds, 16 NICU and 16 PICU beds. Calcutta Med-

ical College and Hospital on the other hand increased 120 paediatric beds, 110 SNCU, 22 NICU and 25 PICU. NRS Med-ical College got 120 paediat-ric beds, 69 SNCU, 10 NICU and 12 PICU whereas Dr BC Roy PGIPS has managed to have 250 pediatric beds, 154

SNCU, 20 NICU and 24 PICU. RG Kar Medical College has received a total 120 paediatric beds, 80 SNCU beds, 25 NICU and 12 PICU beds. Calcutta National Medical College has 120 paediatric beds, 46 SNCU, 10 NICU and 12 PICU. Chitta-ranjan Seva Sadan has received

a total of 60 paediatric beds, 39 SNCU, 10 NICU and 24 PICU.

All the district hospitals and many sub-divisional hos-pitals have also come up with adequate facilities to treat pae-diatric patients. The state health department has taken all pos-sible measures to strengthen paediatric infrastructure as the experts had warned that during the third wave of Covid, more children can be affected com-pared to the figure during the first two waves.

More than 244 PICU beds, 161 NICU beds were already operational. All the beds have been made ready in CCU, PICU and NICU as a part of enhancing paediatric beds at critical care, a health official said. Training among doctors including paediatrician, gen-eral duty medical officers, nurs-ing and other staff has been arranged.

MANY MED COLLEGES IN CITY ALSO INCREASED BEDS FOR KIDS

Steps taken to expedite building corridor over Kona Expressway

News at a Glance

Highlights » SSKM has arranged 129 pediatric beds, 84 SNCU beds, 16 NICU and 16 PICU beds » Calcutta Medical College and Hospital on the other hand increased 120 pae-diatric beds, 110 SNCU, 22 NICU and 25 PICU » NRS Medical College got 120 paediatric beds, 69 SNCU, 10 NICU and 12 PICU

2 millenniumpostCitympWEDNESDAY, 22 SEPTEMBER, 2021 | KOLKATA

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

“MILLENNIUM POST”, Printed & Published by Jaiyendra Kumar Sharma on behalf of Front Row Media Pvt. Ltd. and printed at Saraswati Printfactory Pvt. Ltd., 789, West Choubhaga Kolkata - 7000105 and published from Tivoli Court 1A, Ballygunge Circular Road, Block–A, Flat–94, 1st Floor, Kolkata–700 019. Editor: Durbar Ganguly. Email: editor@millenniumpost.in, mpostcal@gmail.com. For marketing, contact: 9836292306, 9830532306. For editorial, call: 9836072100

Key Points » The effective weekdays on which the programme will take place are Octo-ber 1, 4, 5, 7 and 8 » The District Inspector (DI) of Schools have been asked to upload the database of the students who are already having Aaadhaar enrolled in the Banglar Siksha portal immediately » “The main programme of Aadhaar enrollment will be held after the Puja holidays,” an official in the School Education department said

Covid-19 Stats » Number of deaths in past 24 hours 14 » Total death toll so far 18,678 » Tested COVID positive in the past 24 hours 537 » Total COVID positive cases so far 15,62,710 » Total patients recovered from COVID so far 15,36,291 » Discharged from hospitals in a day 592 » Total sample tested so far 1,77,97,142

Aadhaar enrollment of students: Edu dept to launch pilot project

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: The School Edu-cation Department is all set to launch a pilot project of Aad-haar enrollment programme for students of Class IX to XII in each of the educational dis-tricts of the state from Octo-ber 1 to 8.

The effective weekdays on which the programme will take place are October 1, 4, 5, 7 and 8 .

The District Inspector (DI) of Schools have been asked to upload the database of the stu-dents who are already having Aaadhaar enrolled in the Ban-glar Siksha portal immediately.

This will provide an idea about the number of students who have not yet enrolled for the same.

“The main programme of Aadhaar enrollment will be held after the Puja holidays,” an official in the School Edu-cation department said.

The DIs have been asked to circulate the application form of Aadhaar to the heads of institutions earmarked for the pilot project.

The heads of schools will get the forms filled up on the basis of valid documents.

Every target student and guardian must know before-hand when they have to come to the school (with proper doc-uments) for filling up the Aad-haar enrollment form.

The forms should be veri-fied with school records by the

headmaster. On the day of the form fill

up students / guardians should know specific date / time when they have to go to the Aadhaar enrollment centre.

The date wise programme should be displayed through banners in the enrollment cen-tres for benefit of the students.

“Presently, schools are closed in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic situation and so it will be difficult for headmas-ters to arrange for data entry operators for uploading data in the Banglar Siksha portal,” Chandan Maity, secretary of Advanced Society for Head-masters and Headmistresses said.

More than 200 ‘special persons’ get jabs in Hili

OUR CORRESPONDENT

BALURGHAT: A special COVID-19 vaccination drive was conducted for persons with disabilities at Hili block on Tuesday. About 200 such peo-ple were vaccinated through 14 sub-centres, informed Block Medical Officer of Health (BMOH), Dr Rudrangshu Majumdar.

‘The names of persons with disabilities were collected from Balurghat Red Cross Society and Hili block office and on the basis of which the list was prepared to provide them the vaccine dose. Special arrange-ments were made so that they need not wait at the centres,” he said.

According to him, six peo-ple with extreme disabilities were vaccinated at their resi-dences by the health workers.

“We had handed over the certificates to them from the coWIN portal. On Tuesday, they received the first dose of Covishield vaccine. Earlier we had targeted to provide the first dose of jabs to them before the upcoming Durga Puja festival,”

he said.“Despite the special camp,

normal vaccination for com-mon people was also conducted on the same day. As many as 2,000 people received their jabs on Tuesday,” he added.

A 56-year-old Ramani Malo of Dumrun village said it was not possible for him to stand in the queue to receive the jabs as others.

“Maintaining physical dis-tance was also a problem for me but thanks to the health officials to conduct a special camp for the shots. I didn’t face any such hassles here in the camp,” he said.

Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya inaugurates the facility on Tuesday

As her child was obstructing the woman to continue with the affair, she along with Thakur planned to kill the girl by sexual and physical torture

KOLKATA: The Bengal gov-ernment has sanctioned the pension of Ira Basu, sister-in-law of former Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.

The state Finance depart-ment has issued an order in this connection.

Sources said former chief minister’s daughter Suchet-ana Bhattacharjee is Basu's nominee.

This comes following inter-vention of the national gen-eral secretary of Trinamool Congress Abhishek Banerjee. She would be getting the pen-sion along with the arrear from May1 in 2009 when she had retired as a school teacher. MPOST

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: The West Bengal Board of Primary Education will conduct the scrutiny and verification of the testimoni-als of the candidates who have qualified for Primary Teacher Eligibility Test of 2014 at Kol-kata Primary School Council Office at Bose Pukur Road in Kasba on Wednesday.

These candidates were

awarded six marks as per order of Calcutta High Court. In the exam, six questions were found to be incorrect. The court had directed the board to award marks to the candidates who attempted the questions.

The 97 odd candidates who have been asked to appear if found eligible, will be asked to appear before the interview board on the same day at the same venue.

TET 2014: Board to

scrutinise candidates’ testimonials

The 97 odd candidates, who have been asked to appear, if found eligible, will be asked to appear before the interview board on the same day

Representative Image

3millenniumpost City mpKOLKATA | WEDNESDAY, 22 SEPTEMBER, 2021

MGNREGA: State creates record 84% mandays for fiscal 2021-22 in 6 mnths

Former Cong MLA quits party, likely to join TMC

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: The Kolkata Munic-ipal Corporation’s (KMC) con-stant efforts in overhauling the drainage infrastructure in the city is paying dividends with most of the accumulated water being drained out from the roads, lanes and bylanes in the city by Tues-day late afternoon, a day after the city experienced a record 150 mm rainfall on Monday—the highest in the past 13 years.

“The Drainage department in the last two three years have developed the infrastructure to drain out water upto 15 mm rain

in an hour up from 6 mm. We undertake desiliting work regu-larly and have procured mod-ern machineries also. Presently we have 144 manhole desilt-ing machines,” Member Board of Administrators, in-charge of Drainage department Tarak Singh said.

The rain water is channel-ized through a special drainage line that flows westwards and is dumped in the river through lockgates by running pumps. If there is heavy rain during high tide, the lcokgates remain closed, water accumulates and after nearly four hours when they

are opened the water drains out.There were several places in

the city that recorded an aver-age of 150 mm rainfall through out Monday. However, before the lockgates were closed at 11.30 am, water was drained out from major parts of the city. All the 76 pumping stations and over 400 pumps worked in tandem.

The few thoroughfares that had waterlogging till Tuesday afternoon were Muktaram Babu Street, Mukundapur Main Road, parts of Behala, New Alipore, Lake Gardens, Kidderpore, Paharpur Road and a part of Taratala. “This water will also get drained out as the lockgates have been opened at 4 pm,” a senior official of the Drainage department said.

Singh said that situations will further improve with the state government taking up dredging of 27 canals in Kolkata and its adjacent areas. “Our Chairman Board of Administrators Firhad Hakim has taken up this issue at the Chief Secretary level and all decks have been cleared,” he added.

Revamped infra helps KMC rid city from waterlogging speedily

‘Over 400 pumps worked in tandem to drain out water’

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA/DARJEELING: Ahead of the bypolls in the state, former MLA from Fara-kka and all India general sec-retary of Congress, Mainul Haque, resigned from the party on Tuesday. He sent his res-ignation to Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday afternoon.

According to sources, Haque—who was a close aide of PCC president Adhir Chow-dhury, is likely to join TMC in presence of Abhishek Banerjee, party’s national general secre-tary, on September 23.

Banerjee will visit Murshid-abad to campaign in favour of TMC candidates at Shamsher-gunj and Jangipur. Political experts said Haque’s resigna-tion from Congress would affect the party badly. It has been learnt that many Con-gress workers will join TMC with Haque.

According to Haque, he couldn’t work in the Congress as there was lack of coordina-tion between the state leader-ship and the Central leadership. Haque was also the secretary of All India Congress Com-mittee (AICC) and a Congress observer for Jharkhand and a former party observer for Jammu & Kashmir.

“It’s Haque’s personal deci-sion. We cannot say anything in this regard,” said Chowdhury. In 2018, during a public meet-ing at Farakka Nurul Hasan College, Haque had expressed his willingness to join TMC and leave Congress.

Meanwhile, the CPI(M) in Siliguri suffered yet another blow with two former Sili-guri Municipal Corporation councilors joining the TMC

camp. Sharmila Das and Tapas Chatterjee switched sides on Tuesday. The SMC elections are scheduled to be held in the near future. While Sharmila Das is the former councilor of ward 28, Tapas Chatterjee has been the face of the youth in the party.

“People have rejected the CPI(M). The largest threat now

is communal disharmony. The only person who can check this is Mamata Banerjee,” stated Chatterjee.

Dipika Shah from BJP; Arpita Das from Congress along with their supporters also joined TMC on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, 7 Gram Pan-chayat members of Cham-paguri GP, Nagrakata in Jalpaiguri district, crossed over to TMC from the BJP on Tues-day. The BJP are in control of the GP. Out of the 25 seats, BJP won 16 and TMC 9. However, with 7 joining TMC from BJP, the state’s ruling party has 16 members and the BJP has 9. Soon, the TMC may claim the chair of the GP.

In another development, Mahendra Chettri, spokes-person, GNLF, resigned from the party. Chettri alleged that the GNLF president had com-pletely surrendered the entire organisation to the BJP.

KOLKATA: Delhi High Court on Tuesday fixed the date of hearing in connection with the multi-crore coal scam allegedly involving Abhishek Banerjee, Trinamool Congress national general secretary and his wife on September 27.

Abhishek Banerjee and his wife Rujira had moved the Delhi High Court with a prayer to stay the order of the Enforce-ment Directorate asking them to appear before it in Delhi even as the alleged offences had taken place in Bengal.

The ED officials had grilled Abhishek Banerjee in New Delhi for nine hours in con-nection with the coal scam on September 6.

On reaching Kolkata on September 7 night, Abhishek found that the ED had sent another summon asking him to see its officials on Septem-ber 8. Banerjee expressed his inability to go to New Delhi on such a short notice and sent all the documents the ED officials had asked for. The ED again sent him a summon asking him to see the officials on Septem-ber 22. MPOST

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: The Cooch Behar court issued summons against six CISF jawans in connection with the incident of firing that killed four people on the day of election in Sitalkuchi.

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) had taken up the case and directed the CISF jawans to turn up for question-ing. Court has issued summons, as they did not turn up before the investigation agency, and directed them to appear before the Court on November 16.

It needs mention that the CID had summoned six jawans of the Central Force. On one occasion, CID had sent a notice urging them to appear at its headquarters at Bhabani Bha-van in the first week of August.

The incident at Sitalkuchi took place on April 10 when CISF personnel fired several rounds near booth 126 of Jor-patki in Sitalkuchi of Cooch Behar killing four people. The CID set up a Special Investiga-tion Team (SIT) and interro-gated the then Superintendent of Police (SP) of Cooch Behar Debasish Dhar in this connec-tion. He was interrogated twice in this connection.

The Central Forces, after the incident, had claimed open firing in self-defence when a mob had attacked them and attempted to take away their arms.

KOLKATA: The state gov-ernment has issued a memo-randum declaring the day of by-poll (September 30) at Sam-serganj, Jangipur and Bhow-anipore as a public holiday for the government offices, organisations, undertakings, corporation, boards, statutory and local bodies and educa-tional institutions within the jurisdiction of the Assembly segments.

The Labour department will issue instructions to shops, commercial and industrial establishments to declare the said date of poll as paid holi-day in the constituencies and in case an employee works outside his or her concerned Assembly segment, where there is no election, he or she should get leave to cast a vote. MPOST

Deluge: In separate incidents, 5 electrocuted

in state on Tuesday

Coal scam hearing on

Sept 27

Sitalkuchi: Court

summons 6 CISF jawans

PRITESH BASU

KOLKATA: In another success in providing employments to people during the second wave of Covid pandemic, the Bengal government has created 18.67 crore mandays under MGN-REGA scheme which is 84 per cent of the total 22 crore man-days allotted by the Centre so far for 2021-22 financial year.

Following the direction of Chief Minister Mamata Baner-jee, the state Panchayats and Rural Development depart-ment took up a series of steps to ensure proper implementation of the scheme to help the rural populace get jobs. Even conver-gence of the scheme has been done with many other projects to ensure better infrastructure development in the rural parts of the state.

The Centre so far allocated 22 crore mandays for Ben-gal. Out of the 22 crore man-days, the state government has already provided jobs to 18.67 crore people residing in the rural parts of the state with an

average wage rate of Rs 199.42 per day per person.

The success came despite April to July being usually considered as a lean period in terms of creation of man-days under MGNREGA with most of it usually takes place every year in the month of January, February and March. But this time there was cre-ation of 18.67 crore mandays at this lean period only as the people in the rural parts of the state was in need of job during

the second wave of the Covid pandemic. Moreover, the state government gave all efforts to help them get jobs under the scheme.

Most interestingly, women’s days out of the total stand at 45.87 per cent so far. Around 26.25 per cent and 8.19 per-cent man days were created by providing jobs to people from SC and ST communities respectively.

In the 2020-21 financial year, 1.1 crore people were

provided with jobs under the scheme and it led to creation of 36 crore mandays. At the same time, the state govern-ment’s necessary steps helped 3.80 lakh migrant workers get new job cards and around 6.46 lakh migrant labourers were provided with jobs. In Ben-gal, “total individuals worked” were 79.69 lakh, 74.42 lakh and 81.01 lakh in 2019-20, 2018-

19 and 2017-18 fiscals respec-tively. In the first five months of the current year, 82.31 lakh individuals were provided with jobs so far.

In the last fiscal year too the initial allocation was around 22 crore persondays and it was later increased. According to the sources, the Centre would increase the same this time as well.

18.67 CR MANDAYS, OUT OF TOTAL 22 CRORE ALLOTED BY CENTRE, CREATED SO FAR

Highlights » Following the direction of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the state Panchayats and Rural Development department took up a series of steps to ensure proper implementation of the scheme » Most interestingly, women’s days out of the total stand at 45.87 per cent so far. Around 26.25 per cent and 8.19 percent man days were created by providing jobs to people from SC and ST communities respectively » In the 2020-21 financial year, 1.1 crore people were provided with jobs under the scheme and it led to creation of 36 crore mandays » In Bengal, “total individuals worked” were 79.69 lakh, 74.42 lakh and 81.01 lakh in 2019-20, 2018-19 and 2017-18 fiscals respectively

Bypoll: TMC leaders campaign door-to-door even after Mamata’s meet gets cancelled

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: As September 30—the date of by-election in Bhowanipore Assembly con-stituency—is drawing near both the Trinamool Con-gress (TMC) and BJP have intensified their door-to-door campaign.

On Tuesday meeting of Mamata Banerjee in Kidder-pore had to be scrapped as the areas surrounding the venue were still waterlogged, how-ever, TMC leaders continued to campaign door-to-door.

Veteran TMC leaders, including Subrata Mukher-jee, Saugata Roy, Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, Firhad Hakim, Aroop Biswas, Madan Mitra, among others have been tak-ing part in the door-to-door campaigning.

Trinamool Congress ward

coordinators also carried on with their door-to-door cam-paign and urged people to vote for Banerjee to carry on with the development work in Bengal.

The ward coordinators held

meetings with the workers par-ticularly those who would be deployed at the booths.

There are 288 booths under Bhowanipore Assembly seat while there are 2.31 lakh voters.

Priyanka Tibrewal, BJP can-

didate is concentrating more in wards 70 and 74 where the party did well in 2021 Assem-bly election. The concentration of non-Bengali voters is more in these two wards.

However, majority of the people who had voted for BJP in 2021 Assembly elections have gone against the party due to the Centre’s failure to con-trol the prices of essential com-modities, cooking gas and fuel.

In absence of local youths, BJP have deployed workers from outside.

CPI(M) candidate Srijib Biswas is yet to gear up because of lack of party workers. Most of the CPI(M) old-timers have either left the party or left politics.

Of the eight wards that fall under Bhowanipore Assem-bly seat, seven are under Trin-amool Congress.

Bypoll: State announces holiday on

Sept 30 OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: In a tragic inci-dent, three members of a family including an 11-year-old boy were killed after getting elec-trocuted at Khardah in North 24-Parganas where the areas are still under knee-deep water after incessant rainfall for more than 24 hours till Tuesday early morning.

Total five persons were killed after getting electro-cuted in the state on Tuesday. In another incident, a 15-year-old boy was killed getting electrocuted when he acciden-tally touched a bare overhead live wire that was lying on a waterlogged road after getting snapped from the light post at Titagarh in North 24-Parganas. The victim, Hiralal Roy, was a resident of Siuli Gosaipara and a class VIII student of Shantin-agar High School.

Again a middle aged man died after getting electrocuted, one drowned and three left injured while returning on a boat after collecting relief mate-rials at Bhagabanpur in East Midnapore. The situation at Ghatal has also turned criti-cal with different places in the areas getting inundated. The district administration initi-ated providing shelter to the residents of the area at camps and distributed relief materi-als among the affected people.

In Khardah, the tragic inci-dent has taken place at Patu-lia Government Residential Quarter where the area gets inundated every year during monsoon. Even water enters houses and sometimes the sit-uation turns worse with waist deep water.

The situation was quite similar on Tuesday with heavy rainfall for the past 24 hours. In

the evening, local people found Raja Das (35), his wife Poulami Das (30) and their 11-year-old son Subho Das lying uncon-scious inside the room. They were declared brought dead when taken to Barrackpore BN Bose Hospital where all three of them were declared brought dead. Preliminary investigation revealed that Raja got electro-cuted when he was putting the mobile phone charge into the socket. His wife and son also got electrocuted in an attempt to save them. Their four year old son remained unhurt.

Meanwhile, the water started receding from differ-ent areas in Howrah, North and South 24-Parganas, East and West Midnapore. Major parts of around 47 blocks and eight municipalities were heav-ily inundated on Monday leav-ing 14 lakh people affected. According to the sources in the Disaster Management department, the situation in many areas have improved with no fresh spells of rainfall. The water started receding, but it is taking some time due to high tide.

However, certain parts in Amta and Udaynarayanpur are still under water. The areas including Matla, Ayupnagar and Mithakhaiyan are still under water. People in Bhaga-banpur, Patashpur and Kesh-pur are still found at the camps.

Water drained out from major parts of Salt

Lake, pockets in New Town still inundated

KOLKATA: Water has been drained out from Bengal’s IT hub —Sector V and various roads in Salt Lake, however, a major part of New Town and VIP Road is still inundated and the New Town Kolkata Development Author-ity (NKDA) officials are taking steps to clear the waterlogging quickly. The VIP Road in Hal-dirams and the stretch between Chinar Park and Haldirams are still under water. Also the VIP Road has been damaged badly affecting the traffic movement.

On Tuesday a major traffic snarl continued till night causing inconvenience to the commut-ers specially those are moving

towards the city from the air-port area. Meanwhile, several blocks of New Town including areas around Eco Park are still under water due to chocked drainage system. The stretch between Pyachar More and Teen Kanya More, areas adjacent to New Town bus stand, AE block, BE Block and a few other places are still under water.

However, NKDA officials claimed that steps have been taken to drain out the accumu-lated water as early as possible.

Meanwhile, the accumulated water was drained out from Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Interna-tional (NSCBI) airport. MPOST

Centre to withdraw security of 1 BJP MP, 2 other leadersOUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: The Ministry of Home Affairs has decided to withdraw Central security provided to one BJP MP, one MLA and one former MLA. Sources said the Centre has written to the state government about withdrawal of security of Burdwan Purba MP Sunil Mondal, Moyna’s MLA Ashok Dinda and former MLA from Shantipur Arindam Bhattacharya.

It has been left on the prerogative of the state government to provide them secu-rity coverage.

Both Mondal and Bhattacharya are

turncoat BJP leaders. Mondal had got elected as a Trinamool Congress MP in 2019 and later joined BJP before the 2021 Assembly elections. Bhattacharya was elected in 2016 on the Congress ticket.

He had joined Trinamool Congress within a year. Again, ahead of the 2021

Assembly elections in the state he joined BJP in January.

The decision to withdraw the security coverage of MLAs and MPS has been taken after assessing the security arrangement. Discussions with the concerned central agencies have also been held.

It needs a mention that the Union Ministry of Home Affairs had also earlier communicated to the state government its decision of withdrawing Central security of 61 BJP MLAs and leaders, including MP Arjun Singh, actor Mithun Chakraborty, MP Saumitra Khan, MP Jyortirmay Mahato and BJP leader Bharati Ghosh.

About 100 BJP workers, including Souvik Banerjee and actress Parijat Chakraborty, joined Trinomul, in Kolkata, on Tuesday

Representative pic

The stretch between Pyanchar More and Teen Kanya More in New Town

In another incident, a 15-year-old boy was killed getting electrocuted when he accidentally touched a bare overhead live wire

Two former CPI(M) councillors join TMC in Siliguri

Mahendra Chettri spokesperson, GNLF, resigned from the party. Chettri alleged that the GNLF president had completely surrendered the entire organisation to the BJP

Mamata Banerjee’s meet had to be scrapped as the areas surrounding the venue were still waterlogged

It has been left on the prerogative of the state government to provide them security

Modi, Macron review bilateral cooperation in Indo-Pacific

Maharashtra adds 3,131 Covid cases, 70 deaths,

AMID AUKUS ROW

4 millenniumpostNationmpWEDNESDAY, 22 SEPTEMBER, 2021 | KOLKATA

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: India and France have agreed to "act jointly" in the Indo-Pacific to keep the region stable, rules-based and free of any hege-mony, the French president's office said on Tuesday after Emmanuel Macron held a tel-ephonic conversation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi amidst Paris' strong criticism of AUKUS (Australia-UK-US) partnership.

According to a statement released by the Prime Min-ister's Office here, Modi and Macron reviewed the increas-ing bilateral collaboration in the Indo-Pacific region and the important role that the India-France partnership plays in promoting stability and secu-rity in the region.

After his conversation with Macron, Modi tweeted, "Spoke with my friend President @EmmanuelMacron on the sit-uation in Afghanistan. We also discussed closer collaboration between India and France in the Indo-Pacific."

"We place great value on our strategic partnership with France, including in the

UNSC," Modi said.The French president's

office also issued a statement over the Modi-Macron talks which was tweeted by France's Ambassador to India Emman-uel Lenain. "They reaffirmed their shared commitment to act jointly in an open and inclusive Indo-Pacific, including in the framework of the Europe-India relationship and European ini-tiatives in the Indo-Pacific. This approach aims to promote regional stability and the rule of law while precluding any form of hegemony," the French presi-dent's office said.

Meanwhile, replying to a query, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said the AUKUS is neither relevant to the Quad nor will have any impact on its functioning, and they are not groupings of a sim-ilar nature, in the first reaction from India on the contentious alliance. Shringla said while the AUKUS is a security alliance among the three countries, the Quad is a plurilateral group-ing with a vision for a free, open, transparent and inclu-sive Indo-Pacific.

"AUKUS is a security alli-ance between three countries.

We are not a party to this alli-ance. From our perspective, this is neither relevant to the Quad nor will it have any impact on its functioning," Shringla said at a media briefing.

The telephonic conver-sation between Modi and Macron comes days after the launch of a historic security partnership called 'AUKUS' that aims to provide for deeper cooperation in the Indo-Pacific and ensure greater sharing of defence capabilities within the trilateral alliance.

France has recalled its ambassadors to the United States and Australia in protest against the trilateral security alliance.

The alliance resulted in France effectively losing a multi-billion dollar deal to build 12 conventional subma-rines for Australia. France is also upset over its exclusion from the alliance. The PMO statement said Modi and Macron also discussed regional issues, including recent devel-opments in Afghanistan.

"In this context, they shared their concerns about the possi-ble spread of terrorism, narcot-ics, illicit weapons and human trafficking, as well as the need to ensure human rights, rights of women and minorities," the PMO said. The leaders agreed to maintain close and regular consultations, in the spirit of

the India-France Strategic Part-nership, which both countries cherish deeply, it said.

The French statement said Macron and Modi expressed their grave concerns about the situation in Afghanistan.

"The authorities in power must cut their ties with interna-tional terrorism, allow humani-tarian organisations to operate throughout the country and respect the fundamental rights of Afghan women and men. Evacuation operations should continue unhindered," it said.

It said Macron reiter-ated France's commitment to contributing to strength-ening India's strategic auton-omy, including its industrial and technological base, as part of a close relationship based on mutual trust and respect between two strategic partners.

Bilateral cooperation in all areas, particularly in the eco-nomic sphere, will be boosted, it said. The two leaders vowed to maintain regular discus-sions to coordinate ahead of upcoming events, in particu-lar the G20 and the COP26 on climate change, and continue their joint actions against the pandemic.

France says leaders vow to ‘act jointly’ to keep the region stable

NEW DELHI: India is fac-ing a new war paradigm on its borders and ignoring it won't work, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Tues-day, citing a media report on China ramping up its border infrastructure.

The former Congress chief 's remarks came over a media report which quoted sources in the security establishment as saying that China appears to have built at least 10 new air bases along the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh, Uttara-

khand and Arunachal Pradesh besides ramping up infrastruc-ture close to the Indian frontier.

"We are facing a new war paradigm on our borders. Ignoring it won't work," Gan-dhi tweeted with a screenshot of the media report.

Gandhi has also repeat-edly criticised the govern-ment for its handling of the border standoff between the Indian and Chinese militar-ies that erupted on May 5 last year following a violent clash in the Pangong lake area. Both

sides gradually enhanced their deployment by rushing in tens of thousands of soldiers as well

as heavy weaponry.As a result of a series of

military and diplomatic talks, the two sides completed the disengagement process in the Gogra area last month. In Feb-ruary, the two sides completed the withdrawal of troops and weapons from the north and south banks of the Pangong lake in line with an agreement on disengagement.

Each side currently has around 50,000 to 60,000 troops along the LAC in the sensitive sector. MPOST

NEW DELHI: The Centre's National Telemedicine Service, eSanjeevani, has clocked over 1.2 crore consultations so far, with Andhra Pradesh and Kar-nataka among the 10 states that have made maximum use of the service, the Union Health Ministry said on Tuesday.

The service is catering daily to around 90,000 patients across the country signalling a wide adoption by patients as well as doctors, and specialists across the country.

The leading 10 states in terms of adoption of eSan-jeevani are Andhra Pradesh (37,04,258), Karnataka (22,57,994), Tamil Nadu (15,62,156), Uttar Pradesh (13,28,889), Gujarat (4,60,326), Madhya Pradesh (4,28,544), Bihar (4,04,345), Maharash-tra (3,78,912), West Bengal (2,74,344), Kerala (2,60,654), the ministry stated.

The service is operational through two modes -- eSan-jeevani AB-HWC (doctor-to-doctor telemedicine platform) that is based on hub and spoke model and eSanjeevani OPD (patient to doctor telemedicine platform) which provides out-patient services to citizens in the confines of their homes.

The eSanjeevani AB-HWC has completed around 67,00,000 consultations. It is being implemented at Health and Wellness Centres under the Ayushman Bharat Scheme, the ministry said in a statement. It was rolled out in November 2019.

Andhra Pradesh was the first state to roll out eSanjeeva-niAB-HWC services. Since its roll out, over 2000 hubs and around 28,000 spokes have been set up in various states, the statement said. AGENCIES

MUMBAI: Maharashtra on Tuesday reported 3,131 new COVID-19 cases and 70 fresh fatalities, while 4,021 patients recovered from the infection in the state, a health department official said.

With these additions, the tally of COVID-19 cases in the state rose to 65,27,629, while the death toll increased to 1,38,616 and the number of recoveries shot up to 63,44,744, he said.

Maharashtra now has 40,712 active cases, the offi-cial said.

The number of daily cases and fatalities witnessed a rise as compared to Monday, when the state had reported 2,583 new COVID-19 cases and 28 fatalities.

The state has 2,72,098 peo-ple in home quarantine and another 1,704 in institutional quarantine, according to the official.

Maharashtra's coronavirus recovery rate stands at 97.2 per cent, while the fatality rate is 2.12 per cent.

The cumulative number of tests conducted in the state climbed to 5,73,07,825 after 1,43,424 swab samples were examined in the last 24 hours for detection of the infection, the official said.

In Maharashtra, as many as eight districts - Dhule, Hin-goli, Nanded, Akola, Amra-vati, Yavatmal, Bhandara and Chandrapur - did not report any fresh COVID-19 cases (in

rural areas), he said.Similarly, Bhiwandi-

Nizampur, Malegaon, Dhule, Jalgaon, Parbhani and Akola municipal corporations (urban areas) also did not report any new cases in the last 24 hours.

The official said Ahmed-nagar district reported the highest 588 new infections and also the most deaths in the state at 21. Mumbai district regis-tered 376 new infections.

Among the eight regions of Maharashtra, the Pune region reported the highest 1,135 new COVID-19 cases, followed by 796 in the Mumbai region. Among others, the Nashik region reported 670 new cases, Kolhapur 361, Latur 111, Aurangabad 24, Nagpur 20 and the Akola region 14. Accord-ing to the official, among the 70 fresh fatalities, the high-est 29 were reported from the Nashik region, followed by 11 each from Pune and Kolhapur

regions.Mumbai and Latur regions

logged eight fatalities each, Akola two and the Aurangabad region one.

The Nagpur region did not report any fresh COVID-19 death.

The official said Mumbai witnessed 357 new COVID-19 cases and one death, while Pune city reported 166 infec-tions and single fatality. Among the 40,712 active cases in the state, Pune district has the highest at 10,875, he said.

Out of the 63,44,744 recov-ered patients across the state, the highest - 11,05,883 - were from Pune district, the official added.

Coronavirus figures for Maharashtra are as fol-lows: Total cases 65,27,629; new cases 3,131; death toll 1,38,616; recoveries 63,44,744; active cases 40,712; total tests 5,73,07,825. AGENCIES

Healthcare workers inoculate Covid-19 vaccine to beneficiaries during a vaccination camp organised by Aditi Puri Charitable Trust at Valia College in Mumbai, on Tuesday

India facing new war paradigm on borders: Rahul Gandhi on China’s infra ramp up

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The develop-ments in Afghanistan, ways to stem radicalism, extrem-ism and cross-border terror-ism and further expansion of India-US global partnership will figure prominently in bilateral talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden in Washington on September 24, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vard-han Shringla said on Tuesday.

In their first in-person talks after Biden became the US President, the two lead-ers are expected to focus on bolstering bilateral trade and investment ties, strengthen-ing defence and security col-laboration and boosting the strategic clean energy part-nership, Shringla said sharing details of Modi’s “official work-ing visit” to the US from Sep-tember 22-25.

At a media briefing, the For-eign Secretary said Modi will leave for the US on Wednesday morning and return to India on September 26.

Besides holding bilateral

talks with President Biden, Modi will attend a summit of the Quad leaders on Sep-tember 24 in Washington and address the 76th session of the UN General Assembly in New York the next day.

The Prime Minister will also hold talks with US Vice-President Kamala Harris as well as with his Australian and Japanese counterparts, Shringla said.

“The bilateral meeting (between Modi and Biden) will also feature the current regional security situation fol-lowing recent developments in Afghanistan, our stakes as a neighbour and a longstand-ing and a preferred develop-ment partner of Afghanistan,” Shringla said.

“In this context, we would undoubtedly discuss the need to stem radicalism, extremism, cross-border terrorism and the dismantling of global terrorist networks.

“They will also discuss the reform of the multilateral sys-tem, including the UN Security Council,” he said.

Shringla said Modi and

Biden will also discuss how the comprehensive strategic global partnership between India and the US can be enriched further.

He said the Prime Minis-ter will be accompanied by a high-level delegation consist-ing of External Affairs minis-ter S Jaishankar, the National Security Adviser and senior officials, including the Foreign Secretary.

During his visit, Modi will have interactions with a num-ber of business leaders also with an aim to strengthen two-way trade and investment.

Referring to the Quad summit, Shringla described the coalition as a partner-ship among four like-minded countries in pursuit of com-mon interests in striving for a free, open and inclusive Indo-pacific region.

The summit will be attended by Modi, Biden and the Prime Ministers of Japan and Australia.

“The four leaders will share perspective on the regional sit-uation, emerging challenges including in South Asia and Indo-Pacific region and how

to work together to contain COVID-19,” he said.

The Foreign Secretary said the leaders will take stock of progress made since the vir-tual summit of Quad in March, especially in the COVID-19 vaccine partnership.

“They will identify new areas of cooperation that will reinforce the positive and con-structive agenda of the Quad including contemporary areas that will benefit the Indo-Pacific region,” Shringla said.

In March, President Biden hosted the first-ever summit of the Quad leaders in the virtual format that vowed to strive for an Indo-Pacific region that is free, open, inclusive, anchored by democratic values and unconstrained by coercion, sending an apparent message to China.

At the UN General Assem-bly, the Foreign Secretary said the Prime Minister will speak on several important issues including the regional situation, cross-border ter-rorism, global efforts to com-bat COVID-19 and climate change.

Afghan crisis, ways to contain terrorism to figure in Modi-Biden talks

PM to leave for the US today & return to India on Sept 26

Centre allows IAS, IPS officers to...

But they shall make a report to the gov-ernment if the value of such gift exceeds Rs 25,000, the rules say.

Gifts include free transport, free board-ing, free lodging or any other service or pecuniary advantage when provided by a person other than a near relative or personal friend having no official dealings with the officer but does not include a casual meal, casual lift or other social hospitality.

“No member of the service shall accept any gift without the sanction of the govern-ment if the value of a gift exceeds Rs 5,000,” says the All India Services (Conduct) Rules, 1968, applicable to the officers of Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS) and Indian Forest Service (IFoS).

Member of the service shall avoid accepting lavish hospitality or frequent hos-pitality from persons having official dealings with them or from industrial or commercial firms or other organisations, these rules say.

The Personnel Ministry has now amended these rules and inserted a new sub-rule under Section 11 of the All India Services (Conduct) Rules, 1968.

“a member of the service, being a mem-ber of the Indian delegation or otherwise, may receive and retain gifts from foreign dignitaries in accordance with the provi-sions of the Foreign Contribution (Accep-tance or Retention of Gifts or Presentations) Rules, 2012, as amended from time-to-time,” read the recently amended rule.

The Personnel Ministry had in March last year sought comments from state gov-ernments on the proposed rules.

“presently there are no provisions under the AIS (Conduct) Rules, 1968, with regard to receipt/retention of gifts from foreign dignitaries by members of the AIS being a member of Indian delegation or other-wise. Therefore, it has been decided with the approval of a competent authority to insert a new sub-rule,” it had said in a communiqué dated March 3 last year.

They were asked to send responses by March 31, 2020, positively failing which would be “presumed that the state gov-ernment has no objection to the proposed amendments”.

Gifts received from foreign dignitaries,

from known or unknown sources, are usu-ally deposited with the ‘toshakhana’ — a repository of such articles — in the Ministry of External Affairs.

3,000 kg heroin ...

The examination was conducted in the presence of experts from the Forensic Sci-ences Laboratory, Gandhinagar. During the examination, suspected narcotics were recovered from both the containers and after testing, it was confirmed to be heroin. Accordingly, 1999.579 kg was recovered from the first container and 988.64 kg was recovered from the second container,” said a DRI official.

According to the agency, two suspects have been arrested in the drug bust case.

“Searches have been conducted in Ahmedabad, Gandhidham and Mandvi as well as in Delhi and Chennai. Two persons have been arrested and a number of per-sons and entities are under investigation. The probe has also revealed the involve-ment of Afghan nationals. A Bhuj court has granted 10-day custody of the two accused,” said the official. Two days after the Guja-rat Anti Terrorist Squad and Indian Coast Guard in a joint operation detained seven Iranian nationals from a fishing boat in Indian waters for allegedly smuggling her-oin, the suspects were brought to Porbandar coast on Monday and over 30 kg heroin was seized under sections of the NDPS Act.

According to ATS officials, the Iranian fishing boat named Jumma was caught in Indian waters, 185 nautical miles from Por-bandar coast on Saturday night in a joint operation by the ATS and Coast Guard. “The accused were supposed to hand over drugs to their handlers in the Gujarat coast to be smuggled to Punjab… The boat has been brought to Porbandar coast and all accused arrested,” said a senior ATS official.

Meanwhile, the Opposition on Tuesday hit out at the Modi government over the large consignments of narcotics being seized at the Adani-owned port.

Hitting out at the government on the narcotics catch, Karnataka Congress mem-ber, Srivatsa YB tweeted: “In Modi’s India, 59 grams of Weed > 3000 kgs of Heroin. Govt used ED/CBI/NCB & leaked What-sApp chats of Bolly Actresses. But even after World’s Biggest Heroin Seizure at Adani’s Mundra Port, there is pin-drop silence. Modi went after Rhea when Pablo Escobars are booming in India.”

Congress national spokesperson Pawan Khera too held a press meet on the drug haul. WITH AGENCY INPUTS

From Page 1

OUR CORRESPONDENT

MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court refused to discharge a 32-year-old man from a rape and cheating case noting that he had used astrological incompatibility of horoscopes as an excuse to resile from his promise to marry the com-plainant woman with whom he was in a relationship.

A single bench of Justice S K Shinde on Monday rejected an application filed by Avishek Mitra seeking to be discharged from the cheating and rape case registered against him by the suburban Borivali police on a complaint lodged by the woman.

The order was made avail-able on Tuesday.

Mitra's advocate Raja Tha-kare had argued that the rela-tions between the accused and the complainant could not be taken further due to "astrologi-cal incompatibility". He argued that this was not a case of cheat-ing and rape under the false pretext of marriage but a case of breach of promise.

Justice Shinde, however, refused to accept this conten-tion and noted that there was material to suggest that since the beginning the accused had no intention of uphold-ing his promise to marry the complainant.

It is apparent that the appli-cant (Mitra) in the guise of astrological incompatibility of horoscopes, avoided the prom-ise (of marriage). Thus, I am convinced that it is a case of false promise to marry which apparently vitiates the com-plainant's consent, the bench

said.Justice Shinde further noted

that prima facie the court was of the view that Mitra assured the complainant that he would marry her when she approached the police just to avoid a case against him.

As per the case details, the accused and complainant knew each other since 2012 when they were working in a five-star hotel and were in a rela-tionship. The complainant had alleged that on several occa-sions the accused had indulged in physical relations with her by

promising marriage.The complainant also

claimed that when she had conceived and asked Mitra to marry her he refused saying they were still young and forced her to abort the pregnancy.

In December 2012, when the accused started avoiding her, she lodged a police com-plaint. The police then called the accused and counselled the duo following which Mitra told the police in January 2013 that he would marry her.

However, within a few days the accused backtracked fol-lowing which the police reg-istered a case of rape and cheating, according to the prosecution.

Thakare had argued that there was absolutely no intent on Mitra's part not to marry the complainant or that his prom-ise to marry her was false.

Had his intentions been bonafide and true, the appli-cant would not have resiled from his promise to marry the complainant later, the bench said while rejecting his plea for discharge from the case.

‘Astrological incompatibility can’t be an excuse to go back on marriage promise’

Bombay HC refuses to discharge man from a rape, cheating case

The Bombay High Court

Over 1.2 cr consultations facilitated via telemedicine

service

5millenniumpost Nation mpKOLKATA | WEDNESDAY, 22 SEPTEMBER, 2021

Kejriwal: 80% jobs for locals if AAP voted to power in Goa

Cong urges govt to ensure Indians

do not face inconvenience

ALL WOMEN-DRIVEN E-RICKSHAWS FOR TOURISTS OF STATUE OF UNITYNEW DELHI: In a boost to women empowerment, the Gujarat government has allowed the deployment of all women-driven electric three-wheelers in Kevadia for easy mobility of the tourists visiting the Statue of Unity. The move in this regard has been taken after the Prime Minister had on World Environment Day declared Kevadia as the first true electric vehicle (EV) zone in the country. The PM is scheduled to inaugurate the electronic buses, cars, and rickshaws of ETO Motors on October 31. Around 100 local young unemployed women have been trained to drive the e-rickshaws.

‘MY PARTY WILL BRING AN END TO NEPOTISM IN GOVT JOBS’

Nation Briefs

DHIRENDRA KUMAR

NEW DELHI: Prasar Bharati, which is India’s largest pub-lic broadcasting agency, has notified a recruitment regula-tion for 5,202 different posts of administrative level. As per the Gazette notification, the public broadcaster has created a recruitment board. However, the timeline and procedure for filling the notified vacancies have not yet been declared by the public broadcaster.

According to the Gazette notification dated September 14, 2021, the public broadcaster has notified vacancies for the

posts of Deputy Director (DD) (administration-headquar-ters), Deputy Director (DD) (administration-field offices), inspector of accounts or senior administrative officer, admin-istrative officer, accounts offi-cer, head clerk/assistant, upper division clerk (UDC) and lower division clerk (LDC).

Though there is no offi-cial document in the public domain about the financial health of Prasar Bharati, the sources privy to information have informed that the public broadcaster is facing an oper-ational loss of nearly Rs 1,500 crore annually, including a rev-

enue loss of about Rs 600 crore per annum.

As per the notification, 15 posts for DD (adminis-tration HQ) and 16 posts of DD (administration-field) that would be equivalent to Group A have been created. Besides, 45 posts for inspector of accounts or senior adminis-trative officer, 102 administra-tive officers, and four accounts officers have also been notified.

The highest number of posts have been notified for LDC followed by UDC and head clerk as the public broad-caster has notified 2,286 vacan-cies for LDCs, 2,173 vacancies

for UDCs and 561 posts for the head clerk or assistant.

Out of 2,286 LDC vacan-cies, 1,943 would be filled through direct recruitment, which is 85 per cent of the total notified posts, while 5 per cent, which is 114 posts,

would be filled by promoting staff on seniority basis and the remaining 10 per cent, which is 229 seats, to be filled through departmental examinations, it said.

In contrary to LDC vacan-cies, out of the total 2,173 UDC posts, 80 per cent, which is 1,738, would be filled by pro-moting seniors and the remain-ing 20 per cent (435) would be selected through departmen-tal examination. Not even a single UDC would be selected through direct recruitment.

All those who are aged between 18 years to 27 years may be eligible to apply for the

LDC post, while there is no age limit for the UDC post as it is a non-selection post. In the case of head clerk, candidates must not be above 30 years and there will be five-year relaxation for Prasar Bharati employees.

Prasar Bharati has total 36 satellite channels, including DD National, DD News, DD Sports, DD Kisan, etc. Of the 36 channels, seven are all-India channels, 21 are regional and seven are non-24x7 regional channels and one international channel (DD India). Opera-tions of All India Radio sta-tions is also under the aegis of Prasar Bharati.

Prasar Bharati notifies 5,202 jobs for administrative level

The Central Waqf Council Member & Chairperson Planning & Finance at Ministry of Minority Affairs Rais Khan Pathan called on the National Commission of Minorities (NCM) Chairman Iqbal Singh Lal Pura, ex-IAS. During the meeting, both leaders discussed various issues related to minorities under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi

OUR CORRESPONDENT

SHIMLA: With Prime Min-ister Narendra Modi slated to leave for his upcoming US visit, Union Minister for Con-sumer Affair and Food Piyush Goyal will substitute him for proposed interaction with ben-eficiaries of PM Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana–central govern-ment’s flagship programme to help ‘poorest of poors” during Covid time.

On September 25, the Prime Minister was scheduled to hold an interaction session with beneficiaries in Himachal Pradesh through virtual mode as had already been done for Madhya Pradesh a few months back.

There are a record 29 lakh beneficiaries in Himachal Pradesh.

Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, who on Tuesday held virtual meetings with the MLAs and Deputy Commis-sioners to take stock of the preparations for launch of the third and fourth phases of the PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, said Goyal will be reaching Shimla for the programme to be held at hotel Peterhoff.

“Since Prime Minister has some other important engage-ments, we will like to rope in him for some other pro-grammes and schemes like Himcare or Garhnini Suvidha Yojana (to provide free LPG connections) to women in the rural areas for reducing pres-sures on the forests/fuel wood and help women in smokefree

cooking,” he said.The Chief Minister said the

function would be organised at Shimla and all district head-quarters, sub-division, block, panchayat and fair price shop level would be connected vir-tually. Few beneficiaries would also be provided ration bags.

“The MLAs will also partic-ipate in the function from one of the places in their respec-tive Assembly constituency. As many as 140 LED screens will be set up at prominent loca-tions across the state to enable people to participate and see the live telecast of the State level function,” he said.

Thakur said the PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana was a major initiative of Prime Min-ister Narendra Modi in the challenging Covid-19 times to provide food security to the poor, migrant labourers and unemployed. He said Him-achal Pradesh has more than 7.18 lakh ration card holders being covered under National Food Security Act (NFSA) cov-ering a population of above 29 lakh, who would be provided free ration bag by the end of October, 2021.

The Chief Minister, in his interaction with the media, said schools will be opened from September 25 onwards and a cabinet meeting has been called on September 24 to take a deci-sion. “We can’t keep the stu-dents from sitting back at home for a long time. The Covid sit-uation has improved a bit. The parents are also asking for the opening of schools,” he said.

HP: Goyal to substitute Modi for Garib Kalyan

Yojana interaction

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has promised the people of Goa employment to every youth and that 80 per-cent of jobs will be reserved for the youth if the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government is formed.

Kejriwal visited Goa in his resolve to woo the voters there reiterating that he is not a ‘neta’ but an ‘Aam Aadmi’ who understands the problems faced by the common man. He announced his guarantee of providing employment to every youth if the Aam Aadmi Party government is formed in the state.

The CM while addressing the people said that Rs 3,000 per month will be given to one youth of the family till they get employed and Rs 5,000 per month to families left unem-ployed because of the shut-down of tourism and mining.

If an AAP Government is formed in Goa it will estab-lish a Skill University in Goa to empower the youth and aim to make the youth job-provid-ers and not job seekers as the government has done in the

Capital with the DSEU. The CM further said that

his party will bring an end to nepotism in government jobs which will be made available to the common man if his party comes to power.

“Goa needs the intent and honesty of the Aam Aadmi Party. This is Kejriwal’s com-

mitment –if I guarantee some-thing, I make sure that I deliver it. I am no ‘neta’, I don’t know how to do politics. I am an ‘Aam Aadmi’. I understand the pains of the public,” he said.

The AAP Convenor had earlier announced free elec-tricity up to 300 units to every family and free electricity to

farmers, waiver of old bills and 24 hours electricity supply under the party’s first guaran-tee with the second guarantee being made on Tuesday.

“Goan youth can easily get employment, but they need AAP’s honest government with a will to reform the state to make it happen,” Kejriwal said.

He stated that Goa has exquisite landscapes, but polit-ical parties have completely destroyed the state and further added that he is happy that the BJP is copying the Delhi Model in Goa to give free water and doorstep delivery of services as the elections come near and the people should only elect the original and not faulty duplicates.

“Not a gigantic task to allot funds to public welfare if you have the intent and will to be honest,” Kejriwal said. “Goans told us that you need ties with MLAs and ministers if you want a government job in Goa. We will bring an end to this regime,” he added.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal offers prayers at Rudreshwar temple in Goa

NEW DELHI: The Congress on Tuesday expressed concern over the latest Covid-related travel restrictions announced by the UK and urged the gov-ernment to ensure that there is no inconvenience faced by any Indian travelling to that country.

According to new rules announced by the United King-dom, Indian travellers who have received both doses of the Covishield vaccine manu-factured by the Serum Institute of India (SII) will be considered unvaccinated and will have to undergo self-isolation for 10 days. Reacting to the develop-ment, Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said, "We are very concerned about the kind of inconvenience our people will have to face while travelling to the UK."

Taking a dig at the Modi government, he said this raises pertinent questions on the way the government has handled international relations.

"So much for the diplo-matic heft that Mr. (Narendra) Modi claims he has. It does not come to the rescue of ordinary Indians unfortunately. It does not come to the rescue of the interests of India. When push comes to shove, we pay a heavy price," Khera said at a Congress media briefing at the party's headquarters here.

"We would request the gov-ernment to immediately inter-vene and ensure that there is no inconvenience faced by any Indian travelling to the UK," he said.

His remarks come a day after former Union ministers and Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh, Anand Sharma and Shashi Tharoor slammed the UK's COVID-19-related travel rules, with Ramesh saying it "smacks of racism".

While Tharoor had said

that because of the restric-tions he had even pulled out of a debate at The Cambridge Union debating society and from the launch events for the UK edition of his latest book, Sharma urged the Prime Min-ister's Office to take a stand against the UK's double stan-dards and cancel the proposed India-UK trade talks.

From October 4, the "traf-fic light system" of red, amber, green countries based on lev-els of COVID-19 risk will be replaced in the UK by one red list of countries.

The scrapping of the amber list, which is what India is cur-rently on, means a reduced PCR test cost burden only for some travellers.

However, the expanded list of countries whose vac-cines are recognised in the UK does not include India. It means Indians vaccinated with Covishield, the SII-produced Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, would be required to undergo compulsory PCR tests as well as self-isolation.

External Affairs Minis-ter S Jaishankar has urged for an "early resolution" of the COVID-19 quarantine issue during his meeting with the newly appointed British For-eign Secretary Elizabeth Truss in the US. MPOST

UK TRAVEL CURBS

CHANDIGARH: Thailand Ambassador to India Pat-tarat Hongtong on Tuesday met Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar at his office to discuss possibilities to strengthen business, sports, academic, agriculture and cul-tural ties between Thailand and Haryana. Hongtong held extensive discussions with the CM identifying various development avenues between Haryana and Thailand. She especially sought cooperation from the Haryana Government in exploring investment pos-sibilities in the food process-ing sector.

“As Haryana has one of the highest economic poten-

tials including automobiles and agriculture sector various exchange programmes can be organized between Thai-

land and Haryana, asserted Hongtong.

She also showed keen inter-est in exporting the products

produced by Thailand. While expressing investment interest in Haryana, Hongtong said that possibilities should be explored to strengthen economic growth and investment ties with Hary-ana for progress with Thailand.

Hongtong also showed interest in getting the details about various flagship pro-grammes and initiatives taken by Khattar led state government, after which she was apprised about Parivar Pehchan Patra, first of its kind ambitious scheme of the Hary-ana Government which had been implemented in the State for bringing the benefits of all government welfare schemes under one umbrella. MPOST

Thailand Ambassador meets CM Khattar

Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar presenting a bouquet to Ambassador of Thailand to India Pattarat Hongtong in Chandigarh on Tuesday

MPOST BUREAU

CHANDIGARH: Taking notice of the word 'Dalit' being used for newly appointed Chief Minister Punjab Charanjit Singh Channi in social media pages, print and electronic media, Tejinder Kaur, Chair-person Punjab State Sched-uled Castes Commission, on Tuesday issued instructions to not use nomenclature 'Dalit' to mark identity of any person belonging to Schedule Castes.

Kaur said that the nomen-clature 'Dalit' does not find mention in the Constitution of India or any statute and more-over, Ministry of Social Justice and empowerment Govern-ment of India has already directed all Chief Secretaries of the State Governments and Union Territory Administra-tions regarding the same.

She said that the Hon'ble High Court of Madhya Pradesh, Gwalior Bench passed an order dated 15.01.2018 W.P.

No. 20420 of 2017 (PIL)-Dr. Mohan Lal Mahor Vs Union of India & Ors. has directed as under:

"... that the Central Govern-ment/State Government and its functionaries would refrain from using the nomenclature 'Dalit' for the members belong-ing to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes as the same does not find mention in the Constitution of India or any statute.

She further said that follow-ing the direction of the Hon'ble High Court, the Ministry of Social Justice and empower-

ment of India directed all the State Governments/Union Ter-ritory Administrations to use the word "Scheduled Caste" instead of "Dalit" for the per-sons belonging to Schedule Castes.

Acting on the reports of violations being made by the various media groups, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry also issued a notice to private satellite TV chan-nels by asking them to comply with an order passed earlier by the Bombay High Court to not use the word ‘Dalit’ in reports, she said.

Earlier, Punjab State Com-mission for Scheduled Castes Chairperson Tejinder Kaur in a letter on dated September 13, 2021 addressed to Chief Secre-tary Vini Mahajan also recom-mended to rename the villages, towns and other places which are presently named after castes and not use derogatory names such as Chamarheri etc besides refraining from using the word Harijan and Girijan in official functioning by ensur-ing the strict compliance of the instructions issued earlier by the state government in the year 2017.

Punjab panel restrains media from using ‘Dalit’ for Channi or others

MPOST BUREAU

CHANDIGARH: Follow-ing the directions of Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, the Punjab Police has arrested a person who had tried to cause damage to the statue of Bharat Ratna Baba Sahib Dr BR Ambedkar in Phillaur town of Jalandhar district on Monday midnight.

The accused has been iden-tified as Bhiku Meena (25) a resident of Jawania village in district Husan Nijra of Madhya Pradesh. Bhiku Meena had tried to damage the statue by throw-

ing a stone and a flower pot.Upon being appraised of

the event, the Chief Minister described it as a very unfortu-nate and tragic incident which has bruised the psyche of peo-ple who respect Baba Sahib Ambedkar, the Chief Architect of Indian constitution. Urging the people to exercise restraint, he said that exemplary action will be ensured against the mis-creants indulging in these types of dastardly acts.

Channi unequivocally said that no one will be allowed to disturb the hard earned peace in the state.

Punjab CM gets miscreant arrested

The public broadcaster is facing an operational loss of nearly Rs 1,500 crore annually

GUWAHATI: Assam gov-ernment on Tuesday ordered an inquiry into the killing of two alleged United Libera-tion of Bodoland (ULB) mili-tants by policemen, a day after a 12-hour bandh to protest the death brought life in the four districts of the Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) to a standstill.

An order issued by Assam government said Divisional Commissioner of Lower Assam Jayant Narlikar has been directed to inquire into the circumstances leading to the death of two suspected ULB militants in an encounter with the police at Ultapani in Kokra-jhar district on September 18.

Narlikar was tasked to sub-mit the report within 15 days.

The killing of the two sus-pected militants evoked wide-spread protests in the BTR with a 12-hour bandh called by All Bodo Peoples (ABP) shutting down normal life in the region on Monday. Several political and non-political organizations and leaders have strongly con-demned the killings, claim-ing the encounter was 'staged' and the youths killed were innocent. AGENCIES

Assam govt orders

inquiry into Bodoland encounter

‘Dalit’ does not find mention in Constitution of India or any statute, says Chairperson of Punjab State Scheduled Castes Commission

Kejriwal visited Goa in his resolve to woo the voters there reiterating that he is not a ‘neta’ but an ‘Aam Aadmi’ who understands the problems faced by the common man

Pawan Khera, Congress spokesperson

Following the direction of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, the Ministry of Social Justice and empowerment of India directed all the State Governments/Union Territory Administrations to use the word ‘Scheduled Caste’ instead of ‘Dalit’ for the persons belonging to Schedule Castes

MAHA: MAN CAUGHT WITH 11 BULLETS AT PUNE AIRPORT PUNE: A passenger was caught by the Central Indus-trial Security Force (CISF) personnel with 11 bullets in his baggage at the Pune airport in Maharashtra on Tuesday, police said. The passenger, who was travel-ling from Pune to Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh, owned a licensed pistol, which he left at home, but had mis-takenly taken the bullets along in his bag, an official from the Airport police station said. “The passenger runs a security agency in Bhosari and was travelling to Prayagraj. He has a valid arms licence and had mistakenly carried the bullets in the bag,” the senior official said. While scanning the bags, CISF personnel found 11 bullets the passenger’s bag and handed him over to the police, he said, adding that the police al-lowed the man to leave after giving him a notice.

MP: TWO GOVT OFFICIALS CAUGHT TAKING RS 1 LAKH BRIBE IN DAMOH DAMOH/SAGAR (MP): The Lokayukta police on Tuesday caught a chief municipal officer (CMO) and an accountant while allegedly taking a bribe of Rs 1 lakh from a contractor for clearing a bill for some construction work in Damoh district of Madhya Pradesh. Prakash Chand Pathak, the CMO of the Tendukheda Municipal Council, and accountant Jiten-dra Shrivastava had allegedly demanded Rs 1 lakh from the complainant for clearing his bills for road and drain construction, superintendent of police (SP), Lokayukta, Sagar Rameshwar Singh Yadav said.

DEFENCE MINISTRY TO TOP COURT

Nation Briefs

6 millenniumpostNationmpWEDNESDAY, 22 SEPTEMBER, 2021 | KOLKATA

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Defence Ministry has informed the Supreme Court that a notifi-cation allowing women candi-dates to appear for the entrance exam to the National Defence Academy (NDA) will be out by May next year.

Keeping the timeline in mind, deliberate planning and meticulous preparation is needed to ensure smooth induction and seamless training of women candidates, it said. "The Government, in line with its commitment, hereby place on record its clear and categori-cal stand that the women can-didates shall be considered for entry in the three defence ser-vices, in the existing streams, through NDA," the ministry said in an affidavit filed before the top court.

The NDA entrance exams are held twice a year and the government proposes to have necessary mechanisms in place by May 2022, the time by which UPSC is required to publish the

first notification next year, for the exam, it said.

A Study Group has been constituted by the Defence ser-vices, comprising of experts to expeditiously formulate the curriculum for women cadets at NDA, it said, adding that a Board of Officers has been convened to give a holistic and futuristic proposal for training them. In order to appear for the exam, candidates are required to meet the eligibility criteria which includes physical stan-dards like height and weight, it said. While medical standards for male cadets are in place, they are being formulated for women, it said, adding that it needs to be finalised before they join the Academy.

Directorate General Armed Forces Medical Services and the body of experts will undertake that for the three Defence ser-vices, the ministry said.

Various aspects like young age, nature of training to be undergone by women candi-dates as also functional/ oper-ational requirements of the

Army, Navy and Air Force has to be taken into account, it said.

"There being no parallel standards for the Women Can-didates at the age of entry to NDA. Besides imparting edu-cation, Training includes Physi-cal Training, Military Training, Games and Sports and related activities to shape the officer cadets into competent officers and proficient soldiers. While the education curriculum is well set, all the rest of aspects of the training are required to be formulated separately for the women candidates," the affida-vit stated.

The ministry said that cur-riculum and parameters like

outdoor training -- drill, equita-tion, swimming, games, sports -- need to be formulated.

"Any dilution of physi-cal training and service sub-ject like parameters of firing, endurance training, field craft and living off the land kind of aspects, for the Defence ser-vices' women cadets/ officers, would invariably impact the Battle worthiness of the Armed Forces adversely. "That on the aspect of requirement of infra-structure, it is most respectfully submitted that based on the inputs and experience at other Pre-Commissioning Training Academies with reference to the training of women cadets, one of the key facets of accommo-dation of women cadets has to be a robust physical separation between the male and female residential areas," it said.

It said it will have to be examined that given the present infrastructural status in NDA, assuming that the process of UPSC Notification towards induction of women cadets at NDA is to commence at the ear-

liest in the next year and that too in the first half of the year, various preparatory actions are needed.

The ministry said that all cadets in the NDA are accom-modated in Cabins which are housed in Squadron Buildings.

The number of cabins for women cadets, catering to an increase in numbers of women cadets each term, will have to be expanded over subsequent terms till the permanent plan fructifies, it said.

The existing sanitation/bathroom cubicles for women cadets will fall short of the requirements and shall require reconstruction/modification to maintain privacy, it added.

"With respect to the Train-ing Capacity and other Arrange-ments, various aspects are being put to place, inter-alia, Secu-rity and Privacy arrangements, Physical segregation of Living Quarters and associated physi-cal and electronic surveillance measures, i.e. Women Order-lies, Woman Duty Officers and Women Instructors etc.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

JAMMU: Two pilots were killed when an Army helicop-ter crash-landed in a dense for-est near Patnitop in Jammu and Kashmir's Udhampur district on Tuesday, officials said.

"Today, during a training sortie in Patnitop area, Indian Army's Cheetah helicopter crash-landed in Shiv GarhDhar area in the district," a Jammu-based defence spokesman said.

He said that two pilots -- Major Rohit Kumar and Major Anuj Rajput -- were injured in the incident and evacuated to

the nearest medical facility but they succumbed later.

Army Commander, North-ern Command, Lt Gen Y K Joshi paid rich tributes to the slain officers.

"Army Commander, Northern Command, and all other ranks salute the brave-hearts who made the supreme sacrifice in the line of duty on 21 September 2021 at Patnitop and offer deepest condolences to their families," the Army's Northern Command said in a tweet.

Officials said the incident reportedly occurred between

10.30 am to 10.45 am when the chopper was caught in bad weather, officials said, adding the helicopter belonged to the Army Aviation Corps.

There was a thick fog over Patnitop when the incident occurred, they said.

Local residents were the first to reach the site and they pulled out the pilots from the severely damaged helicopter, they added.

Police, along with the Army, rushed to the scene to join the rescue operation and evacuated the injured pilots to a hospital, the officials said.

GUWAHATI: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday said 453 people have been arrested for allegedly being involved in illegal land broking activities.

The state police will con-tinue to take action against those who are harass-ing people in land revenue offices, he said.

Taking to Twitter, Sarma said, "453 land brokers picked up so far in continuing raids by @assampolice in our concerted pledge to end Assam Fights DalalRaj. This notorious prac-tice of brokers/dalals in revenue offices harassing commoners must end. Our fight against nefarious activities will go on relentlessly."

These people were appre-hended on Monday night for their alleged involvement in unlawful activities related to land purchase, a senior police officer said.

"We have a list of about 700 names and will try to arrest all the suspects by this evening. If we dig deeper, more names could emerge," Sarma told reporters later in the day. He asked offi-cials not to allow such land brokers to function in their offices. MPOST

OUR CORRESPONDENT

LUCKNOW: The state gov-ernment will bring a law for population control "at the right time", Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said on Tuesday.

The government had in July unveiled a policy aimed at stabilising the population in Uttar Pradesh and reduc-ing maternal and infant deaths in a time-bound manner, with Adityanath terming rising pop-ulation a "hurdle in develop-ment". "Everything is done at an appropriate time. The media earlier used to question the BJP on when it would announce a date for the Ram temple's con-struction, but the prime min-ister (Narendra Modi), despite the COVID-19 pandemic, laid the foundation stone of the temple in Ayodhya on August 5 last year, and all need to be happy now," Adityanath said at a conclave.

"Similarly, Article 370 was also scrapped by the prime minister and Union Home Minister Amit Shah," he said.

On August 5, 2019, the Centre had abrogated Article 370, which gave special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, and bifurcated it into union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.

At the 'News 24' conclave, when asked about his recent 'abbajaan' remark, the chief minister said,"They (opposi-

tion) want the vote of Muslims but are getting irritated with 'abbajaan'."

In Kushinagar, Adityanath, in an apparent attack against the Samajwadi Party had said people who say "abbajaan" used to digest all the ration earlier.

On the population law for Uttar Pradesh, the chief min-ister said, "Everything has a right time and has to be done at the right place." "When the population law is brought, it will be done with fanfare, in the knowledge of the media as we do not believe in doing any-thing silently," Adityanath said.

In July, a draft bill on popu-lation control was put up on the website of the Uttar Pradesh Law Commission, inviting sug-gestions from the public till the 19th of the month.

It states that people hav-ing more than two children in Uttar Pradesh will be debarred from contesting local bodies polls, applying for government jobs or receiving any kind of subsidy.

MUMBAI: Maharashtra min-ister Anil Parab on Tuesday filed a defamation suit in the Bombay High Court against BJP leader Kirit Somaiya for allegedly making malicious, malafide and defamatory statements and demanded monetary damages of Rs 100 crore.

Parab, a Shiv Sena leader, also requested a direction to Somaiya to tendering uncon-ditional apology saying his reputation has been damaged by Somaiya, who is only seek-ing cheap publicity.

The state Transport Minister has also sought a permanent injunction against Somaiya from mak-ing or publishing any such statement against him in future.

The suit, which will come up for hearing in due course, said Somaiya has been making false state-ments alleging that Parab is embroiled in criminal and corrupt activities.

Parab had last week sent a legal notice through his advocate Sushma Singh to Somaiya, the former MP of BJP. The minister in the suit said he was constrained to approach the high court as Somaiya had not responded to the notice. AGENCIES

MORADABAD (UP): A spe-cial SC/ST court on Monday awarded life imprisonment to seven people for setting two sisters belonging to the Dalit community on fire in Uttar Pradesh's Moradabad in 2010.

The sisters were burnt alive in Kothiwal Nagar on Decem-ber 18 by a mob protesting a double murder for which their brother was accused.

In a 26-page order, special SC/ST court judge Sandhya Choudhury found the seven accused guilty on the basis of evidences produced by Addi-tional District Government Counsel (ADGC) Anand Pal Singh and charged them under the SC/ST (prevention of atroc-ities) Act. MPOST

‘Notification allowing women in NDA to be released by May’

453 held in Assam for illegal land

broking activities

J&K: 2 pilots die as Army helicopter crash-lands Law on population control will be brought 'at right time': UP CM

Maha min Parab files defamation suit against BJP leader

UP: 7 get life for burning alive Dalit sisters

PAKISTAN

INDIAPak-

occupiedKashmir

Jammu &

Kashmir

Baramulla

KBK

Srinagar

Anantnag

Pulwama

Kupwara

Ramban

Detail

Jammu

Indian Army helicoptercrash-lands in Shiv GarhDhar area, both pilotssuccumb to injuries

Udhampur

Line ofControl

Patnitop

Nagrota

UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The nurse to doctor ratio in India is esti-mated to be 1.7:1 on the basis of NSSO data, while the ratio of allied health workers to doctors is estimated to be 1:1, according to a report by the WHO and the Public Health Foundation of India.

Although there was no standard skill-mix ratio of dif-ferent health workers, most OECD countries reported approximately 3-4 nurses per physician, the report stated.

The Indian High Level Expert Group (HLEG) recom-mendation for the nurse-doc-tor ratio in India stood at 3:1, it said. Moreover, there was also a need to strike a balance (right skill-mix) between doctors and allied health workers, it added.

The nurse to doctor ratio is estimated to be 1.7:1 in India on the basis of NSSO data, with Punjab (6.4:1) and Delhi (4.5:1) on the higher side even as the states of Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir and Madhya Pradesh have less than one nurse per doctor, the report stated.

It recommended that India needs to invest in human

resource for health (HRH) for increasing the number of active health workers and also to improve the skill-mix ratio which requires investment in professional colleges and tech-nical education.

India needs to encourage qualified health profession-als to join labour markets and ensure additional trainings and skill building for those who are already working but are inade-quately qualified health work-ers, the report stated.

In addition to increased availability of and accessibil-ity to quality health workers by the population in general, enhanced investment in HRH will lead to strengthening of the health system for dealing with pandemic situations like COVID-19 and any other epi-demic, it added.

It will lead to economic growth, increased women par-ticipation in the labour mar-ket, formalisation of the labour market and overall economic wellbeing, the study said.

The study presents an updated estimate on the size and composition of stock of health professionals and active health workforce in the

country.Using the information avail-

able from the National Health Workforce Account (NHWA) on the stock of health profes-sionals and Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) con-ducted by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO 2017 18) on active health workforce, the study estimated a total stock of 5.7 million health workers which included allopathic doc-tors (1.1 million), dentists (0.27 million), nurses (2.3 million), pharmacists (1.2 million) and traditional medical practitio-ners (AYUSH 0.79 million).

However, the active health

workforce size is estimated (from NSSO 2017-18) to be much lower (3.04 million), with allopathic doctors and nurses estimated as 0.78 million and 1.36 million respectively.

"The right balance in the skill-mix ratio for health work-ers provides optimum health-care conditions. Contrasting the skill-mix ratio with the den-sity of doctors at state levels, an inefficient skill-mix is found to exist between doctor and nurse and doctor and allied health professional in most states in India," the report stated.

The public sector is chal-lenged by a high rate of vacancy

of sanctioned positions. The Rural Health Statistics high-lights this issue, the study said.

While the shortage is most pronounced for specialists posted at Community Health Centres (CHC), India faces shortages across states for var-ious positions. A review of the serially published reports of the Rural Health Statistics shows a slow but definite growth in the number of health providers at the overall country level.

The vacancies are attributed to diverse reasons that range from barriers in recruitment, litigations against recruitment processes and premature exits from the system, especially in contractual positions, the

report stated.Increase in the number of

health workforce and the right balance in the skill mix requires a supply of health professionals at an increased rate. The sup-ply side of health professionals is an important parameter in reaching the goals for minimal optimum density of the health workforce, it added.

An analysis of the health workforce projections provides the estimated density of skilled health professionals (doctors, nurses and midwives) per 10 000 population.

"Considering the cur-rent rates of growth are sus-tained, the required density of health workforce will still not be met as the rise in the num-ber of health professionals will be balanced by a rise in the country's population. At the present level of growth on the supply side, the skill-mix ratio of doctor:nurse is unlikely to alter by 2030.

"A near 200 per cent growth on the supply side for nurses will improve the doctor:nurse ratio to 1:1.5 by 2030. This will require a further rapid scale-up of nursing programmes," the report said.

Nurse to doctor ratio estimated to be 1.7:1 in India: ReportThe states of Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir and MP have less than one nurse per doctor

The study presents an updated estimate on the size and composition of stock of health professionals and active health workforce in the country

MAHANTGIRI DEATH

LUCKNOW: All aspects related to the death of top seer Mah-ant Narendra Giri are being probed and the guilty will be punished, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said on Tuesday.

The influential Hindu seer was found dead on Monday at BaghambariMuth in Alla-habad. He was the president of AkhilBharatiyaAkhadaPar-ishad, the largest organisation of sadhus in India. The police under ADG (Allahabad zone) and commissioner, Allahabad are working as a team, the chief minister who rushed to Alla-habad to pay respects to the seer told newspersons there.

Asserting that evidence has been collected in connection with the seer's death, Aditya-nath said the case will be solved soon. Every single aspect con-nected with the case will be exposed and the guilty will be punished, he added. Accord-ing to the wishes of the seer's followers, the body will be kept for darshan (public viewing) on Tuesday so that people can pay their last respects, Aditya-nath said, adding that a five-member team will conduct a post-mortem examination on Wednesday.

After that, he will be laid to rest in a samadhi' as per reli-gious rites and beliefs, the chief

minister said. According to the police, the seer's body was found hanging from the ceiling by his disciples on Monday. A pur-ported suicide note of seven-eight pages was also found at the site in which the seer had written that he was mentally disturbed and was ending his life. The seer had written he was upset with one of his disciples, they said.

Meanwhile, targeting the BJP over the death of Mahant Narendra Giri, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Tuesday said Hindutva has been strangulated in Uttar Pradesh and sought a CBI probe into the mysterious death of the top seer. MPOST

All aspects being probed, guilty will be punished: Yogi

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Tripura govern-ment imposed a blanket ban on political rallies, meetings and gatherings till November 4 in view of the ongoing pandemic and the forthcoming Durga Puja. Thus, the rally to be organised by Trinamool Con-gress on September 22 stands cancelled. Abhishek Banerjee, party’s national general secre-tary, was supposed to lead the procession.

Trinamool Congress had moved the Tripura High Court after the administration refused the party to hold a rally on one pretext or the other. The Court had directed the state govern-ment to give its view by Tues-day noon.

The state government in its affidavit submitted before the Court stated that in view of the ongoing pandemic and the forthcoming Durga Puja no political rally, gathering or meeting could be allowed. Tripura government has also imposed prohibitory orders under Section 144 CrPC across the state.

Earlier, Trinamool Con-

gress had urged the police administration to allow it to hold a rally on September 15. The police administration turned down the appeal on the grounds that another political party would hold a rally on the same day.

TMC then moved the police administration with a request to allow a rally on September 16. The police administration once again turned down the request on the ground that September 17 being Viswakarma puja, hold-ing a rally might affect the law and order situation. TMC then decided to hold the rally on September 22 and, failing to get clearance from the police,

it moved the High Court in Tripura.

Tapas Roy, veteran Trin-amool Congress leader said the attitude of the state government clearly indicates that the BJP-led government had become mortally scared of Abhishek Banerjee.

“As the people are rallying behind TMC, BJP is trying to stop this by hook or by crook. But this tactic will fail and there will be a change of guards in the 2023 Assembly election,” he said.

Meanwhile, Kunal Ghosh, TMC general secretary, Bengal unit fell ill during an interroga-tion and was admitted to a pri-vate hospital in Tripura.

Ghosh had gone to NCC police station in connection with a case filed by the police of Khoai police station two months ago.

The police alleged that Ghosh had intervened in their work. The police interrogated Ghosh for more than two hours when he fell sick. Doc-tors found that his blood sugar level fell suddenly. The doctors are constantly monitoring his health.

Tripura bans pol meets till Nov 4; TMC rally on Sept 22 stands cancelled

TMC's Kunal Ghosh falls ill during interrogation by Tripura police, admitted to hospital

Trinamool Congress had moved the Tripura High Court after the administration refused the party to hold a rally on one pretext or the other

7millenniumpost Editorial mpKOLKATA | WEDNESDAY, 22 SEPTEMBER, 2021

Worrying reverberations

Backdoor entry

US’ withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, followed by pull-out of missile defence systems from Saudi, has sent ripples in the Middle East regarding similar abandonment

As trade imbalances between China and other RCEP members are indirectly affecting India’s trade balance with those entities, bilateral FTAs require revisiting

The strategic ties between the United States and Saudi Ara-bia appear to be wit-

nessing a downturn. This is evident from the unexpected changes in President Joe Biden’s approach towards the Kingdom and its rulers.

The US has withdrawn its most advanced missile defence system and Patriot batteries from Saudi Arabia in recent weeks, even as the oil-rich Kingdom is facing contin-ued air attacks from Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

The removal of the defence systems was done despite repeated requests by Saudi Arabia and the royals to keep them in place to counter con-tinued airstrikes by Houthi rebels, who are officially des-ignated as terrorists and widely known to be supported by Iran.

The redeployment of the defences from Prince Sultan Airbase outside of Riyadh came as US’ Gulf Arab allies nervously watched the chaotic withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, including their last-minute evacuations from Kabul’s besieged interna-tional airport.

Redeployment of the mis-siles had been rumoured for months, partly due to a desire to face what American officials see as the looming “great pow-ers conflict” with China and Russia.

The Afghanistan develop-ment has shocked the regimes of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and even Qatar which hosted the US-Taliban talks.

Arab leaders are wor-ried over the US debacle in Afghanistan, despite repeated assertions by the Biden admin-istration that the Afghanistan move is not linked to broader US military and economic involvement in the Middle East.

Taliban forces have been pictured with a range of US-made weaponry and vehicles seized from the Afghan mil-itary, sparking fear in Saudi

Arabia about the enduring threat of Al-Qaeda and ISIS with whom the equipment will end up.

“You know Al-Qaeda tar-geted the kingdom first before anyone else,” said Prince Turki Al Faisal who served as head of the Saudi intelligence services between 1979 and 2001, help-ing to coordinate anti-Com-munist activity in Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion. He later tried but failed to nego-tiate the return of Osama bin Laden to Saudi Arabia in the years before 9/11.

“It is very worrisome, that aspect of it, and now with this weaponry, the ally of the Tali-ban, Al-Qaeda, may get their hands on, it’s going to be even more worrisome,” he told CNBC in Paris recently.

Prince Sultan Air Base, some 115 km southeast of Riyadh, has hosted several thousand US troops since a 2019 missile and drone attack on the kingdom’s oil pro-duction. The attack, though claimed by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, Saudis believe was car-

ried out by Iran.The US’ unilateral deci-

sion to redeploy the anti-mis-sile systems and Patriots from the Saudi base is a matter of concern, especially taking into account that most Gulf allies are worried about the fallout of the Afghan development.

While tens of thousands of American forces remain across the Arabian Peninsula as a counterweight to Iran, Gulf Arab nations worry about the US plan as its military per-ceives a growing threat in Asia that requires those missile defences.

Tensions remained high as negotiations appeared to be stalled in Vienna over Iran’s collapsed nuclear deal with world powers — raising the danger of future confronta-tions in the region.

Since Biden assumed office, the US-Saudi relationship has soured considerably. Biden’s pressure on OPEC to open up the valves as gasoline prices in the US went up, combined with his continuation of talks with Iran on the nuclear deal,

have not been taken positively by Saudi Arabia. The US Pres-ident’s push to open up the 9/11 files (the first batch have already been published) has only added to Saudi discon-tent. Also, the US obsession with Saudi Crown Prince and de-facto ruler Mohammad bin Salman (MBS as he is called) for being behind the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi has pushed the kingdom’s rul-ers into a corner.

The US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, on a tour of the Middle East in recent days, was also slated to go to Saudi Arabia but cancelled the trip because of what American offi-cials referred to as scheduling problems.

The fact that Austin trav-elled to Qatar, Kuwait and Bah-rain, but not Riyadh is a clear affront.

For most Gulf Arabs, as also for Egypt, Biden’s moves are a clear continuation of the Obama-Trump strategies, which show a possible end to the US military and security involvement.

“Perceptions matter whether or not they are rooted in cold, cold reality. And the perception is very clear that the US is not as committed to the Gulf as it used to be in the view of many people in deci-sion-making authority in the region,” Kristian Ulrichsen, a research fellow at the James A Baker-III Institute for public policy at Rice University, was quoted as saying.

“From the Saudi point of view, they now see Obama, Trump and Biden — three successive presidents — taking decisions that signify to some extent an abandonment,” he said.

However, on the face of it, the Saudi defence ministry has described the kingdom’s rela-tionship with the US as “strong, longstanding and historic” and asserted that the Saudi mili-tary “is capable of defending its lands, seas and airspace, and protecting its people.”

According to reports, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain are also worried about the pos-sible US plans to even remove large parts of the tens of thou-sands of American troops in the region, as a defensive wall against Iran and possible insurgency.

If Afghanistan turns out to be a one-off event, there will be a limited negative impact on Saudi Arabia, the UAE and even Egypt, but some analysts believe it is the start of some-thing larger. All eyes are now focused on the US position in Iraq and its active involvement in Syria and Libya.

Some analysts are expect-ing that in the coming months, a major geopolitical and eco-nomic shift will emerge in the Gulf region. Saudi Arabia, the UAE and others will be look-ing for new power players with Russia and China already knocking at the door.

The writer is a former Editor of PTI and served

as the West Asia correspon-dent for the same. Views

expressed are personal

M SHAKEEL AHMED

SUBRATA MAJUMDER

Log on to write letters to the editor or send them to letter2editor.mp@gmail.com. You can also send your comments to The Editor,

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

DearEditorTo date, the spurt in incidents of violence against children has raised serious concerns about their safety. As many as 1.28 lakh cases against children were registered in 2020 according to the CRIME INDIA report, 2020 published by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). This is alarming as harassment, child labour and abduction have become the order of the day. Kidnapping and abduction still stand at the top of all crimes against children as per the reports available. According to recent crime figures, every fourth rape victim in India is a child. Amid covid-19, a number of cyberbullying cases also came into the limelight. We all need to come together to end violence against children. Children should be informed about crimes against women and children. There is a need to make children and their parents aware of the safe use of the internet. We have to make them aware of ‘good touch as well as bad touch’ as they are so innocent that they don’t understand the bad intentions of the people around them. Every home and school should teach children about safety and protection measures. There is a need to increase financial investment in child protection with a focus on the prevention of crimes against children.

The eventual goal behind India quitting RCEP was to pre-vent Chinese preda-

tion. Still, paranoia looms large on the ramifications of RCEP and China-ASEAN FTA. India took several measures to reduce imports from China. Unfortunately, those failed. China reemerged as the big-gest trading partner of India in 2020-21 — after a gap of two years — outsmarting the USA. The Chinese behemoth contin-ues with the dumping of goods in Indian markets.

China and ASEAN are the two major stakehold-ers in RCEP. They are the future wings for global trade. This is because RCEP would be the biggest trade block in the world. It accounts for 27 per cent of world merchan-dise trade and 30 per cent of global GDP.

RCEP is likely to be the potential gateway for the acceleration of China’s back-door entry despite India leaving it. There are two argu-ments in favour of it. First, with full implementation of RCEP, China can use duty-free imports from 15 nations, against ASEAN 10 nations, owing to China-ASEAN FTA. Second, MFN (Most Favoured Nation) tariff rates vary from 0.3 per cent in Brunei to 13.1 per cent in South Korea, with an average of 5.6 per cent for all RCEP countries. At the end of the tariff phasing down period, most of these tariffs will come down to zero within the RCEP region. ROO (Rules of Origin) in RCEP are more business-friendly than China-ASEAN FTA. Previous studies show that there were several attempts to simplify ASEAN ROO. But they are yet to materialize.

An uptick in closer ties

and overdependence between China and ASEAN in RCEP do not, however, manifest bal-anced growth in trade power for both. Observers appre-hend an imbalance in trade power between the two. RCEP will pave the way for Chinese deeper entry into ASEAN, resulting in ASEAN gradu-ally losing trade power, and escalating its vulnerability to the Chinese trade trap. This can be exemplified by the out-come of the China-ASEAN FTA. Both entered FTA in 2010. Since then, ASEAN has become an important export market for China. Its export to ASEAN leapfrogged 148 per cent. Conversely, ASEAN exports to China increased by 80 per cent — nearly half of the growth of China’s exports. In other words, owing to China-

ASEAN FTA, China made a deeper penetration in the ASEAN market.

Eventually, this sent ripples on the India-ASEAN trade. India witnessed a downturn in export and an increase in imports from ASEAN. India’s exports declined by 4.4 per cent and imports surged by 29.2 per cent during 2012-13 to 2019-20. FTA provided more scope to ASEAN to export to India than India could export to ASEAN. ASEAN exports accounted for 12 per cent of India’s global imports in 2020-21, as compared to 8.7 per cent in 2012-13. Consequently, it raises questions about China’s backdoor entry in India.

One of the indicators for China’s backdoor entry into India is the product dyna-mism in the import basket of

India from ASEAN. Import of electronic and electrical items leapfrogged double from ASEAN during 2012-2021 — post the ASEAN-China FTA. It increased by over 105 per cent from ASEAN during the period. But India failed to reap the benefits conversely.

The surge in imports of electrical and electronic items from ASEAN follows the corresponding growth in imports by ASEAN from China. ASEAN imports of electrical and electronic items from China spurred by over 92 per cent from 2012 to 2020. It accounted for 35 per cent of total imports of ASEAN from China in 2020, as compared to 30 per cent in 2012. This raises apprehension over Chinese exports sneaking into India through China-ASEAN FTA

vis-à-vis India- ASEAN FTA.Vietnam, a member of

ASEAN, is the gamechanger for the backdoor entry of China in India. Factors attrib-uting to this eventuality are a surge in imports and dynamic changes in the import bas-ket from Vietnam. During 2012-13 to 2020-21, under the umbrella of India-ASEAN FTA, India witnessed a three-fold increase in imports of electronic and telecommuni-cation items from Vietnam. Vietnam became the second biggest source of imports of electronic and telecommunica-tion items after China. Corre-spondingly, during 2010-2020, under the China-ASEAN FTA umbrella, Vietnam’s imports of electronic and telecommu-nication items from China increased ten times. Given these trade dynamics between Vietnam and India vis-à-vis Vietnam and China, it decodes enough evidence for Chinese backdoor entry in India in post-FTAs.

Given the assumption that RCEP will escalate ASE-AN’s probability of succumb-ing to the Chinese trade trap, observers advocated revisiting of India-ASEAN FTA and Act East policy. It will give oppor-tunities to India to engage in new economic partnerships with emerging Asian nations separately, depending upon the special characteristics of each member of ASEAN. For example, Vietnam can be an alternative GVC partner with FTA engagement separately, invoking stricter regulations under ROO, preventing Chi-na’s backdoor entry.

The writer is a Former Adviser, Japan External

Trade Organisation (JETRO), New Delhi. Views

expressed are personal

The US pulled out Patriot batteries from Saudi Arabia even as the kingdom is facing continued air attacks

— KRISHNA KUMAR VEPAKOMMA, HYDERABAD via email

RCEP will pave the way for China’s deeper entry into ASEAN

EDITORIALFinding a sustainable solution

In what could be called a rare happening, Naga-land is set to see an all-party government — United Democratic Alliance (UDA) — in a bid to con-clude the revived peace talk, set in process in 2015.

The approval for the all-party government is a symbolic gesture to resolve the ‘longest running’ insurgency in India’s history. The leading opposition party — Naga People’s Front (NPF) — had initiated the formation of an all-party government on July 19. The ruling coali-tion, People’s Democratic Alliance (PDA) — consisting of the National Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP), the BJP and two Independents — after its initial reserva-tion around losing political ground in the state, yielded to the request. Two months later, it came up with a five-point resolution for facilitating Naga Peace Talks. The Peace Talk process is known to be backed by the Central leadership. In fact, the Centre has been proac-tive in resolving the issue. Just a short while after the NDA’s coming to power, in August 2014 itself, the Cen-tre appointed the IB officer — RN Ravi — as the inter-locutor for the peace talks with Nagas. A year later, the Prime Minister restarted the negotiations with one of the largest political outfits of the Naga community — NSCN-IM. This was followed by the inclusion of seven other Naga outfits. The 2015 Naga Peace Talk came after 18 years of the 1997 ceasefire between the government and NSCN-IM wherein the government had decided to halt counter-insurgency attacks and NSCN prom-ised to cease its armed rebels. The history of insurgency of the clusters of Naga tribes dates back to British rule in India. The sentiment of resistance and struggle for independence started among the Naga tribes only after around a hundred years of suppression at the hand of Britishers since the annexation of the region in the late 1820s. Their quest for ‘independence’ continues today even after 74 years of Indian independence. The Nagas earnestly tried to give momentum to the idea of an independent Naga state under the umbrella of the Naga National Council (NNC) in 1947 itself; though unsuc-cessfully. Peace Talks with the government first started in 1975 wherein Naga National Council agreed to aban-don armed insurgency. This however did not sound well with certain factions of the Council. Isak Chishi Swu, Thuingaleng Muivah and S S Khaplang floated the new organisation — NSCN which would further undergo a split into NSCN-IM (under Isak Chishi Swu and Thu-ingaleng Muivah) and NSCN-K (under SS Khaplang). It can be said that a strong government at the Centre could be instrumental in resolving the deep-rooted con-tention. The core point of contention between NSCN-IM and the government is on the insurgents’ demand for an independent Naga state — Greater Nagalim. Nagas are a scattered tribe and NSCN-IM had claimed around 1,20,000 sq km of territorial space expanding across the Northeast and Myanmar. Conceding to this demand could be highly unrealistic as the claimed terri-tory is much larger than the actual expanse of the state. The government, however, is not willing to alter the boundaries of the state. It is rather known to have pro-posed the establishment of some sort of institutionalised bodies representing Nagas in the Northeast, and the removal of AFSPA. Another major area of contention is the NSCN-IM demand for a separate flag and Consti-tution. The outfit is adamant upon this demand but it seems highly unlikely that the government will concede to it. The coming together of Opposition and ruling parties in the state may have some positive outcomes in resolving the longstanding issue, but a government without opposition may prove contrary to the interests of people as the most crucial check on the functioning of the government will be removed. It would have been a more viable and balanced move if the opposition and proposition would have formed a consensus on the issue of Naga Peace Talks, rather than forming a coalition. Moreover, it is not certain that the formation of UDA will resolve the issue. It would be interesting to see if a consensus between the NSCN-IM and the govern-ment on contentious issues is reached in the near future or not. The government also has an option to go ahead for the conclusion of peace talks with other Naga outfits if the largest outfit — NSCN-IM — doesn’t budge from its excessive demands. This option would, however, further aggravate the problem rather than resolving it. Though the armed rebellion of the violent outfits should be strongly condemned, their sentiment for indepen-dence should be respected, rather than being side-lined, in any circumstance. Let the solution come late but sound.

Arab leaders are worried despite repeated assurances by the Biden administration that Afghanistan move is not linked to the broader US military and economic involvement in the Middle East

Chinese exports to ASEAN leapfrogged 148 per cent. Conversely, ASEAN exports to China increased by 80 per cent — nearly half of the growth of China’s exports

millenniumpost.in

A CONCERNING ISSUE

8 millenniumpostWorldmpWEDNESDAY, 22 SEPTEMBER, 2021 | KOLKATA

Trudeau’s party wins Canada vote but fails to get majority

TORONTO: Prime Minis-ter Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party secured victory in par-liamentary elections but failed to get the majority he wanted in a vote that focused on the Coronavirus pandemic but that many Canadians saw as unnecessary.

Trudeau entered Mon-day’s election leading a sta-ble minority government that wasn’t under threat of being toppled but he was hoping Canadians would reward him with a majority for navigating the pandemic better than many other leaders. Still, Trudeau struggled to justify why he called the election early given the virus, and the opposition was relentless in accusing him of holding the vote two years before the deadline for his own personal ambition.

In the end, the gamble did not pay off, and the results nearly mirrored those of two years ago. The Liberal Party was leading or elected in 158 seats, one more than they won in 2019, and 12 short of the 170 needed for a majority in the House of Commons.

The Conservatives were leading or elected in 119 seats, two less than they won in 2019. The leftist New Democrats were leading or elected in 25,

while the Bloc Qu b cois were leading or elected in 34 and the Greens were down to two.

You are sending us back to work with a clear mandate to

get Canada through this pan-demic, Trudeau said. I hear you when you say you just want to get back to the things you love and not worry about this pan-

demic or an election.”Hours after the results came

in, Trudeau greeted commut-ers and posed for pictures at a subway stop in his district in Montreal on Tuesday morning a post-election tradition for the prime minister.

But experts noted that it was not the victory Trudeau had hoped for.

Trudeau lost his gamble to get a majority so I would say this is a bittersweet victory for him, said Daniel B land, a polit-ical science professor at McGill University in Montreal.

Basically we are back to square one, as the new minor-ity parliament will look like the previous one. Trudeau and the Liberals saved their skin and will stay in power, but many Canadians who didn’t want this late summer, pandemic elec-tion are probably not amused about the whole situation, he said. Trudeau bet Canadians didn’t want a Conservative gov-ernment during a pandemic, playing up his own party’s suc-cesses. Canada has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world, and Trudeau’s govern-ment spent hundreds of bil-lions of dollars to prop up the economy amid lockdowns. Trudeau argued that the Con-servatives’ approach, which has

been skeptical of lockdowns and vaccine mandates, would be dangerous.

Trudeau supports making vaccines mandatory for Cana-dians to travel by air or rail, something the Conservatives oppose.

And he has pointed out that Alberta, run by a Conservative provincial government, is in crisis. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said the province might run out of beds and staff for intensive care units within days. Kenney apologized for the dire situation and is now reluctantly introducing a vac-cine passport and imposing a mandatory work-from-home order two months after lifting nearly all restrictions.

Conservative leader Erin O’Toole, meanwhile, didn’t require his party’s candidates to be vaccinated and would not say how many were not. O’Toole described vaccination as a personal health decision, but a growing number of vac-cinated Canadians are increas-ingly upset with those who refuse to get the shot.

The debate on vaccination and Trudeau taking on the anti-vaccination crowd helped the Liberals to salvage a campaign that didn’t start well for the party, B land said. AGENCIES

The Liberal Party was leading or elected in 156 seats, one less than they won in 2019, and 14 short of 170 needed for a majority in the House of Commons

France rallies EU as trust in US, UK and Australia wanesBRUSSELS: France on Tues-day urged its European Union partners to consider whether to delay negotiations on the bloc's future trade agreement with Australia over what Paris says is a lack of trust sparked by a major defense deal between the U.S., Australia and Britain.

French European Affairs Minister Clement Beaune said he would raise the trade pact and the security implications of the deal, known as AUKUS, at a meeting with his counterparts in Brussels, and that France would ensure that it is discussed at EU summits and ministerial meet-ings next month.

The Indo-Pacific security pact will see Australia cancel a multi-billion-dollar contract to buy diesel-electric French submarines and acquire U.S. nuclear-powered vessels instead. The French government is sug-gesting it was betrayed by the deal, which comes in the run-up to elections in France in April.

It's a matter of trust, Beaune told reporters. When you have your word, it has some value between allies, between democ-racies, between partners and in this case this word was not respected... so of course it cre-

ates a breach of trust.We have to be firm, not

as French but as Europeans, because it's a matter of the way we work together as allies, he said.

Asked whether France would call a halt to the trade talks with Australia, which have been underway since 2018, Beaune said that is among the points that we must discuss together.

The EU's executive branch, the European Commission, conducts trade talks based on a mandate it receives from the 27 member countries. The com-

mission routinely informs the countries about progress, but they are not directly involved even though they can delay progress.

However, any trade pact must be endorsed unanimously, so individual countries have a veto. The Europeans see the previously unannounced secu-rity deal as the second time in weeks that President Joe Biden has focused on an America First policy, similar in substance if not in tone to his predecessor Donald Trump, following the chaotic U.S. exit from Afghani-stan late last month. AGENCIES

Taliban names deputy ministers, doubles

down on all-male teamKABUL: The Taliban expanded their interim Cabi-net by naming more ministers and deputies on Tuesday, but failed to appoint any women, doubling down on a hard-line course despite the international outcry that followed their ini-tial presentation of an all-male government lineup earlier this month.

The international commu-nity has said that it will judge the Taliban by their actions, and that recognition of a Tal-iban-led government would be linked to the treatment of women and minorities.

In their previous rule of Afghanistan in the late 1990s, the Taliban, who adhere to a harsh interpretation of Islam, had barred girls and women from schools, work and pub-lic life.

At a news conference Tuesday, Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Muja-hid held out the possibility of adding women to the Cabinet at a later time, but gave no spe-cifics. He also said the Taliban are preparing rules for allow-ing teen-age girls and women to return to schools and jobs in line with Islamic law, but did not say when that might happen.

Mujahid defended the lat-est additions to the Cabinet, saying they included members of ethnic minorities, such as the Hazaras.

He said the deputies were chosen for their technical skills.

He bristled at international conditions for recognition, saying there was no reason for withholding it.

It is the responsibility of the United Nations to recognize our government (and) for other countries, including European,

Asian and Islamic countries, to have diplomatic relations with us, he said.

The Taliban seek interna-tional support as they grapple with the daunting challenges of governing a nation shred-ded by four decades of conflict. The U.S.-backed government deposed by the Taliban in a rapid military campaign last month had depended heav-ily on foreign aid. Even before the Taliban takeover, the econ-omy was in deep trouble. Now Afghanistan's new rulers face an economic meltdown and growing poverty.

Mujahid played down the financial problems, saying that much of the foreign aid to the previous government widely seen as corrupt was spent on funding America's 20-year war against the Taliban.

He suggested Afghanistan could manage without that aid, saying the country had suffi-cient resources. According to our inspection, Afghanistan is not a failed country, finan-cially, he said.

We have revenue, and if it is controlled and collected prop-erly, it can solve our current problems. AGENCIES

Covid has killed about as many Americans as the 1918-19 flu

WASHINGTON DC: COVID-19 has now killed about as many Americans as the 1918-19 Span-ish flu pandemic did approxi-mately 675,000.

The US population a cen-tury ago was just one-third of what it is today, meaning the flu cut a much bigger, more lethal swath through the country. But the COVID-19 crisis is by any measure a colossal tragedy in its own right, especially given the incredible advances in sci-entific knowledge since then

and the failure to take maxi-mum advantage of the vaccines available this time.

"Big pockets of American society and, worse, their leaders have thrown this away," medical historian Dr. Howard Markel of the University of Michigan said of the opportunity to vaccinate everyone eligible by now.

Like the Spanish flu, the Coronavirus may never entirely disappear from our midst. Instead, scientists hope it becomes a mild seasonal bug

as human immunity strength-ens through vaccination and

repeated infection. That could take time.

"We hope it will be like get-ting a cold, but there's no guar-antee," said Emory University biologist Rustom Antia, who suggests an optimistic scenario in which this could happen over a few years.

For now, the pandemic still has the United States and other parts of the world firmly in its jaws.

While the delta-fuelled surge in infections may have peaked, U.S. deaths are run-ning at over 1,900 a day on aver-

age, the highest level since early March, and the country's over-all toll topped 675,000 Mon-day, according to the count kept by Johns Hopkins Uni-versity, though the real number is believed to be higher.

Winter may bring a new surge, with the University of Washington's influential model projecting an additional 100,000 or so Americans will die of COVID-19 by Jan. 1, which would bring the overall US toll to 776,000. AGENCIES

Like the Spanish flu, the Coronavirus may never entirely disappear from our midst. Instead, scientists hope it becomes a mild seasonal bug as human immunity strengthens through vaccination and repeated infection

9 killed, 6 hurt after clash in jirga meeting in Pakistan

PESHAWAR: At least nine people have died, including two local council members, and six others injured after two groups opened fire and clashed during a jirga meeting in northwest Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, offi-cials said on Tuesday.

The jirga meeting -- a tradi-tional assembly of village elders which settles disputes based on teachings of Pashtunwali -- was being held in Veraval Bandagai village of upper Dir district on Monday evening, officials said.

The dispute was over land and construction of a feeder road. The groups were led by families of Ameer Bacha and Bakht Alam when harsh words were exchanged leading to a gun fight, officials said.

Seven persons from one group and two jirga members were killed. Six others were injured of whom the condition of two is stated to be critical.

The accused escaped. The deceased and injured were shifted to the district headquar-ters hospital in Dir Khas.

The incident infuriated the local people. AGENCIES

US Democrats' bid to bring immigration

reforms blocked in SenateWASHINGTON DC: In a major setback for the ruling Democrats, the US Senate Parliamentarian has ruled that immigration reforms proposed by them to grant legal status to millions of undocumented immigrants cannot be attached to a USD 3.5 trillion social and environmental bill.

The Democrats hoped the immigration changes would cover Dreamers brought to the US as children, people affected by conflicts or natural disas-ters in their home countries, farmworkers and other essen-tial workers. "I am deeply disappointed by the Senate Par-liamentarian's ruling to block immigration reform in the budget reconciliation process, said Congresswoman Deborah Ross after Senate Parliamentar-ian Elizabeth MacDonough on Monday shot down efforts to include a path to legal status for certain immigrants in the bill.

While this attempt to extend a path to citizenship to Dream-ers, Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) recipients, and essential workers were not successful, we have many other

avenues to achieve this goal, she said.

Ross is Vice-Chair of the House Judiciary Subcommit-tee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties.

Senate parliamentarian MacDonough ruled against Democrats' plan to provide 8 million green cards as part of their USD 3.5 trillion spending bill, dealing a significant blow to Democrats' immigration reform chances, The Hill reported. Con-gressional parliamentarians are nonpartisan, unelected staff who serve as referees on procedures. MacDonough's guidance, a copy of which was obtained by The Hill, all but closes the door to Democrats using the spend-ing bill to provide a pathway to citizenship for millions of immigrants. AGENCIES

Biden declares world at ‘inflection point’ amid crises

UNITED NATIONS: Presi-dent Joe Biden used his first address before the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday to declare that the world stands and at an inflection point in history and must move quickly and coop-eratively to address the fester-ing issues of the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and human rights abuse.

Amid growing China ten-sions Biden also declared the U.S. is not seeking a new Cold War. Without mentioning China directly, Biden acknowledged increasing concerns about ris-ing tensions between the two nations. But he said, We are not seeking a new Cold War or a world divided into rigid blocks.

The president noted his deci-sion to end America's longest war last month, in Afghanistan, and set the table for his admin-istration to shift U.S. attention to intensive diplomacy with no shortage of crises facing the globe. He said he is driven by a belief that to deliver for our own people, we must also engage deeply with the rest of the world.

We've ended 20 years of con-flict in Afghanistan, Biden said. And as we close this period of relentless war, we're opening a new era of relentless diplo-macy of using the power of our development aid to invest in new ways of lifting people up around the world.

Biden, who arrived in New

York on Monday evening to meet with Secretary-General Antonio Guterres ahead of Tuesday's address, offered a full-throated endorsement of the body's relevance and ambition at a difficult moment in history.

The president, in brief remarks at the start of his meet-ing with Guterres, returned to his mantra that America is back" a phrase that's become pres-idential shorthand meant to encapsulate his promise to take a dramatically different tack with allies than predecessor Don-ald Trump. In his remarks, he declared the United States was back at the table.

We will lead not just with the example of our power but God willing with the power of our example, Biden said Monday night. But the president was fac-ing a healthy measure of skepti-cism from allies during his week

of high-level diplomacy. The opening months of his presi-dency have included a series of difficult moments with friendly nations that were expect-ing greater cooperation from Biden following four years of Trump's America first approach to foreign policy. Eight months into his presidency, Biden has been out of sync with allies on the chaotic ending to the U.S. war in Afghanistan. He has faced differences over how to go about sharing Coronavirus vaccines with the developing world and over pandemic travel restrictions.

The world is seeing an explo-sion in seizures of power by force and military coups are back, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres told world leaders on Tuesday, lamenting that geopo-litical divisions are undermin-ing international cooperation as he called for strengthening global governance and re-ignit-ing multilateralism.

Guterres, in his address to the opening of the General Debate of the 76th Session of the General Assembly, called on world leaders to restore trust and inspire hope, saying there is a need for cooperation, dialogue and understanding.

We are also seeing an explo-sion in seizures of power by force. Military coups are back. The lack of unity among the international community does not help, he said. AGENCIES

World seeing explosion in power seizures by force; military coups are back, says UN chief

Nerves on edge on Spanish island of La PalmaAS QUAKES, LAVA THREATEN

EL PASO: Several small earth-quakes shook the Spanish island of La Palma off north-west Africa, keeping nerves on edge as rivers of lava continued to flow toward the sea Tuesday and a new vent blew open on the mountainside.

After moving downhill across the island's countryside since Sunday's eruption, the

lava is gradually closing in on the more densely populated coastline.

Officials said a river of lava was bearing down on the neigh-bourhood of Todoque, where more than 1,000 people live and where emergency services were preparing evacuations.

About 6,000 people on La Palma have been evacuated so

far and 183 houses damaged, government spokeswoman Isa-bel Rodr guez said after a Cabi-net meeting in Madrid.

The new vent is 900 meters (3,000 feet) north of the Cum-bre Vieja ridge, where the vol-cano first erupted after a week of thousands of small earthquakes.

That so-called earthquake swarm gave authorities warn-

ing that an eruption was likely and allowed many people to be evacuated, avoiding casualties.

The new fissure opened after what the Canary Islands Vol-canology Institute said was a 3.8-magnitude quake late Mon-day. La Palma, with a popu-lation of some 85,000 people, is part of the volcanic Canary Islands. AGENCIES

US President Joe Biden speaks during the 76th Session of UNGA at UN headquarters, Tuesday PTI

France's European Affairs Minister Clement Beune, right, speaks with the media as he arrives for a meeting of EU General Affairs ministers at the European Council building in Brussels, Tuesday PTI

Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid gives a press conference in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday PTI

Results are

preliminary

Trudeau wins third termFederal

election

results

2021

Liberal Party

158 ConservativeParty

119

BlocQuébécois

34

NewDemocraticParty

25

Green Party

2

Majority:

170 seats

KBK graphicsInfo

Seats in the House of Commons: 338

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

won a third term in office, but his

Liberal Party fell short of the majority mark

9millenniumpost Business mpKOLKATA | WEDNESDAY, 22 SEPTEMBER, 2021

NEW DELHI: Union minis-ter Nitin Gadkari has said that Chinese companies have not made investments in high-way projects in India in recent times.

Amid the border standoff with China, Gadkari, in July 2020, had said that India will not allow Chinese companies to participate in highway proj-ects, including those through joint ventures.

To a query on whether Chi-nese companies have invested in India's highway projects in the recent times, Gadkari replied in the negative.

However, he did not elabo-rate on the issue.

In a recent interview, Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Gadkari also said that India will have to increase its exports and reduce imports.

To another question on US-based electric car major Tesla's demand of reduction in import

duties on electric vehicles (EVs) in India, Gadkari said, "The decision on giving any tax concession to Tesla will be taken by the finance ministry."

In a letter to the road min-istry, the US firm had stated that the effective import tariff of 110 per cent on vehicles with customs value above $40,000 is "prohibitive" to zero-emission vehicles. It has requested the government to standardise the

tariff on electric cars to 40 per cent irrespective of the customs value, and withdraw the social welfare surcharge of 10 per cent on electric cars.

Gadkari said that the gov-ernment is looking for pros-pects about green hydrogen as a potential transport fuel.

"To make 'India of the future', we will have to increase our exports and reduce imports," he asserted. PTI

‘Chinese cos haven’t invested in highway projects recently’

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: In a move aimed at reducing road acci-dents, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday pitched for fixed driving hours for commercial truck drivers similar to that of pilots, as well as on-board sleep detec-tion sensors in commercial vehicles.

In a National Road Safety Council (NRSC) meeting with the non-official co-opted individual members, the minister directed offi-cers to work on a policy to include on-board sleep detec-tion sensors in commercial vehicles, at par with European standards. The minister also

directed the council to meet every two months and share their updates. However, Gad-kari stressed that he would write letters to chief ministers and collectors to ensure that district road committee meet-ings happen regularly.

The minister has also advised all the members to work in diversified areas of road safety so that more lives can be saved on road and the members have also been requested to share their expe-riences with each other.

The ministry officials have also been directed to work in close coordination with the NRSC members and imple-ment their suggestions on priority.

Nitin Gadkari pitches for fixed driving hours for

commercial truck drivers

Gadkari, in July 2020, had said that India will not allow Chinese companies to participate in highway projects

Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari

NEW DELHI: US private equity fund CA Rover Holdings, part of the Carlyle Group, on Tuesday sold 3.4 per cent stake in SBI Cards and Payment Services Ltd for Rs 3,267 crore through open market transactions.

According to bulk deal data available with the NSE, the pri-vate equity firm sold a total of 3.2 crore shares, amounting to 3.4 per cent stake. The shares were sold at an average price of Rs 1,021.05, valuing the transac-

tion at Rs 3,267 crore, the data showed. CA Rover Holdings is a subsidiary of the Carlyle Group.

Meanwhile, Societe Generale purchased 85.06 lakh shares of the credit card issuer.

As per the company's share-holding pattern, CA Rover Holdings held 6.5 per cent stake in SBI Cards as a public share-holder at the end of June 2021.

Earlier in June, the private equity firm had offloaded shares of SBI Cards worth about Rs

4,811 crore. Prior to that, it had divested 4.25 per cent stake in SBI Cards for Rs 3,943 crore.

In March 2020, SBI Cards came out with a Rs 9,000-crore initial public offer. SBI Cards is the leading credit card issuer in India with an 18 per cent mar-ket share. Shares of SBI Cards on Tuesday closed 0.77 per cent lower at Rs 1,064 apiece on the NSE. During the session, it touched a low of Rs 1,012 and a high of Rs 1,079.90. PTI

Carlyle arm sells 3.4% stake in SBI Cards for `3,267 crore

MPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI: The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on Tuesday issued an order that enables customers to apply for a new mobile connection online and get the SIM delivered at their doorsteps after verifying themselves by using Aadhaar or any other eligible document stored in Digilocker.

The move from the DoT is part of the telecom reforms approved by the Cabinet on September 15. Customers will have to pay Re 1 for the pro-cess of authentication through Aadhaar-based e-KYC ser-vices of UIDAI for getting new mobile connections, accord-ing to the new rules. The gov-ernment already amended the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, in July 2019, for the re-introduc-tion of Aadhaar-based e-KYC process for issuing new mobile connections.

"The telecom service provid-ers shall implement a process...for issuing of new mobile con-nections using Aadhaar-based e-KYC," the DoT said. The Aadhaar-based e-KYC process will be an alternative process in addition to the existing process

of issuance of mobile connec-tions and shall be applicable to local, outstation and bulk cus-tomers. The process of online application will be limited to only one mobile connection per day issued to an individual or outstation customer.

Customers opting for a self-verification process for seeking a new mobile phone connection will need to register with an app or website using the mobile number of family member, rela-tive or person known to them. The phone number will be veri-fied with the help of an OTP.

The government has issued an order allowing conversion of prepaid to postpaid and vice-

versa using a one-time password (OTP)-based process.

"The issuing of mobile con-nection to the customers is done through an app/portal-based online process wherein a cus-tomer can apply for mobile con-nection sitting at home/office and gets the SIM delivered at his doorstep using documents electronically verified by UIDAI (Aadhaar) or Digilocker," The DoT's order said. The customer may face disruption in service during the conversion but the same should not exceed 30 min-utes. The new process allows customers to switch back to pre-paid or postpaid after 90 days of the previous conversion.

However, mobile connec-tions conversion from prepaid to postpaid and vice-versa using OTP method will not be appli-cable in the Jammu and Kash-mir service area, according to the order. Currently, to obtain a new mobile connection or conversion of mobile connec-tion from prepaid to postpaid or vice-versa, a subscriber has to undergo the KYC process that entails a visit to the retail shop along with the original docu-ments of identity and address proof.

People to get mobile SIM at doorsteps, DoT issues order

Tata Motors to increase commercial

vehicle prices

Govt amends ammonium nitrate rules to curb pilferage; introduces fire-fighting provisions

NEW DELHI: Tata Motors on Tuesday said it will increase prices of its commercial vehi-cle range by around 2 per cent with effect from October 1, in order to offset the impact of ris-ing input costs.

The effective price hike, in the range of 2 per cent, will be implemented based on the model and the variant of the vehicle, the auto major said in a statement.

The continued rise in the cost of commodities, such as steel and precious metals, neces-sitates the company to pass on a part of it through increase in price of the products, it stated.

Tata Motors is the country's largest manufacturer of com-mercial vehicles which includes trucks, buses and light commer-cial vehicles.

The company noted that it has strived to minimise the increase in the price by absorbing a certain portion of the cost at various levels of manufacturing.

In the last one year, there has been a gradual increase in the prices of various essential com-modities like steel and precious metals. It has led to increased input costs for the automakers.

Earlier this month, the country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) had increased prices of its entire product range, except Celerio, by up to 1.9 per cent.

The company had noted that it has taken the decision to hike prices due to an increase in vari-ous input costs.

It was MSI's third price hike this year.

In the two-wheeler space, Hero MotoCorp has raised prices three times already this year.

The company has made an upward revision in the ex-show-room prices of its motorcycles and scooters by Rs 3,000 with effect from September 20. PTI

CORPORATE KALEIDOSCOPE

HPCL juggernaut rolls on at PRCI Excellence Awards Ceremony, with 11 distinguished awards for excellence in Public Relations & Corporate Communications. In a dazzling function held at Goa on the occasion of PRCI’s 15th Global Communication Conclave, these awards were conferred by Minister of Arts & Culture, Goa, Govind Gaude in the distinguished presence of popular singer, Hema Sardesai and was received by Head Public Relations & Corporate Communication, Rajeev Goel with his team

NEW DELHI: The govern-ment has amended the rules for ammonium nitrate to curb its pilferage, introduce fire-fight-ing provisions as well as improve ways to handle and store the chemical in the light of lessons learnt from the deadly Beirut explosion that killed about 140 people. Nearly 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrate was stored at Beirut's port for six years that detonated in August 2020, wreaking death and destruction.

Additional Secretary in the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) Sumita Dawra said that rules pertaining to five major areas — static and mobile pres-sure vehicles, calcium carbide, ammonium nitrate, gas cylin-ders, and petroleum and explo-sives — were examined in the light of lessons learnt from ammonium nitrate explosion in Beirut.

There was a need to look at the rules to enhance safety, so that such incidents do not hap-pen in India, she said.

She said that to curb pilfer-age of ammonium nitrate, provi-sions have been made to import the chemical in bagged form only, as this will help in reduc-ing the handling of loose chemi-cals at ports and enhance safety.

"Provisions have been made for adequate fire-fighting facili-ties and shelters for security guards," she told reporters here.

Ammonium nitrate received at the ports is now required to be removed/transferred to the nearby storage houses situated 500 meter beyond the port area, she added. The capacity for stor-age of the hazardous chemical in small store houses has been enhanced by rationalizing the space and quantity requirement.

Besides, the rule has been amended to allow auction of the seized lots of ammonium nitrate, in a bid to ensure safe and speedy disposal.

Dawra also said that the amendments include provi-sion for adequate fire-fighting facilities in storage and handling areas, improvement of flooring in storage and handling area, provision for auction of service-able seized ammonium nitrate and disposal in case it is not fit for use, and specification of safety distance from port area has also been prescribed.

"In order to promote ease of doing business, the trans-fer of ammonium nitrate from one location to another of the same licensee has been permit-ted now. The rules have been amended to exclude regulation

of stevedores (agency handling loading / unloading on ships)," she said. The time for disposal (including enquiry, decision to grant or refuse) of the appli-cation for seeking 'No Objec-tion Certificate' from District Authority or Director General of Mine Safety has also been reduced from six months to three months.

Regarding Calcium Carbide (Amendment) Rules, 2021, the additional secretary informed that to reduce compliance

burden, PESO (Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation) has increased the validity of license for storage of the chemi-cal from three to ten years.

Also, provision for online fees payment facility has been provided in the rules.

To monitor premises for storage of Calcium Carbide, provision of geo-mapping of the premises has been incorporated in the Rules and will be made available to the concerned state and central authorities.

Further talking about Static and Mobile Pressure Vessels (unfired) (Amendment) Rules, 2021, she said that the changes have been made to introduce the concept of a third-party inspect-ing agency to carry out the work related to certification, testing, inspection and safety audit of the licensed premises.

To increase the number of competent persons to conduct testing and certification, the guidelines on minimum experi-ence required has been reduced from ten to five years.

"Provisions have now been incorporated in the rules to allow transportation of cryo-genic compressed gases such as Oxygen, Argon, Nitrogen, LNG through ISO containers in domestic areas," she said. PTI

NEW DELHI: India has added 521 MW of rooftop solar capac-ity in April-June this year, which is the highest capacity installed in a quarter, according to Mer-com India report.

India added 521 megawatts (MW) of rooftop solar capacity in the second quarter (Q2) of the calendar year (CY) 2021, a 53 per cent increase quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) compared to 341 MW installed in Q1 2021 (January-March), said Mercom India Research's newly released Mercom India Rooftop Solar Market Report Q2 2021.

Rooftop solar installations were up 517 per cent year-over-year (YoY) compared to the 85 MW installed in Q2 2020 (April-June 2020).

Rooftop solar capacity

additions in India in Q2 2021 (April-June) were the highest in a quarter.

As per the report, installa-tions were significantly higher than the previous quarter despite the second wave of the COVID-19 and related state lockdowns.

The lockdowns were very targeted, and the industry was well prepared this time around, which minimised the effect on installation activity.

This quarter's installation numbers were skewed due to a large amount of residential roof-top solar capacity commissioned in Gujarat, it stated.

In 1H 2021 (January to June), 862 MW of rooftop solar capacity was added, a 210 per cent increase compared to the

same period of last year, the report stated. Installations in 1H have already surpassed the total rooftop solar capacity installed in all of 2020 (719 MW) when the market was severely affected by COVID-19 lockdowns.

If the market has no other adverse COVID-related events for the rest of the year, 2021 could be the second-largest year for rooftop solar after 2018, it added.

The rooftop solar segment had a strong quarter, and demand is up. Finalising the net metering cap at 500 KW has removed uncertainty for installers and paved the way for future growth.

However, haphazard rooftop solar policies across states and a lack of support from distribu-

tion companies are holding back the sector from realising its true potential to bring in new invest-ment, create jobs and drive the clean energy economy forward, said Raj Prabhu, CEO of Mer-com Capital Group.

Considering the industry fared much better during the second wave of COVID-19, Mercom is raising its forecast significantly this year.

According to the report, at the end of Q2 2021, cumula-tive rooftop solar installations reached 6.1 GW.

In Q2 2021, more than 130 MW of rooftop solar projects were tendered, a 69 per cent QoQ decrease, but a 46 per cent YoY increase, it stated.

Major rooftop solar ten-ders issued this quarter came

India adds record high rooftop solar capacityIndia added 521 MW of rooftop solar capacity in the Q2 of CY21

from Madhya Pradesh Urja Vikas Nigam, Jharkhand Bijli Vitran Nigam, Haryana Renewable Energy Develop-ment Agency, and West Bengal Renewable Energy Develop-ment Agency, it added. PTI

MUMBAI: Retail depositors are earning negative returns on their bank deposits and hence, there is a need for reviewing taxes on interest earned, econ-omists at the country's largest lender SBI have said.

If not for all the depositors, the taxation review should be carried out for at least the deposits made by senior citi-zens who depend on the inter-est for their daily needs, the economists led by Soumya Kanti Ghosh said in a note,

which pegged the overall retail deposits in the system at Rs 102 lakh crore.

At present, banks deduct tax at source at the time of crediting interest income of over Rs 40,000 for all the depositors, while for senior citizens the taxes set-in if the income exceeds Rs 50,000 per year. As the policy focus has shifted to growth, the interest rates are going down in the sys-tem which pinches a depositor. "Clearly, real rate of return on

bank deposits has been neg-ative for a sizeable period of time and with RBI making it abundantly clear that sup-porting growth is the primary goal, the low banking rate of interest is unlikely to make a north bound movement any-time soon as liquidity contin-ues to be plentiful," the note said.

It said, the current bull run in financial markets is possibly a break from the past as house-holds may have got into the

bandwagon of self-fulfilling prophecy of a decent return on their investment.

"We thus believe, it is now the opportune time to revisit the taxation of inter-est on bank deposits, or at least increasing the thresh-old of exemption for senior citizens," the note said.

The RBI can also relook at the regulation that does not allow interest rates of banks to be determined as per age-wise demographics, it said. PTI

Retail depositors earning negative returns; relook taxation on interest: SBI economists

Ammonium nitrate received at the ports is now required to be removed/transferred to the nearby storage houses situated 500 meter beyond the port area

The move from the DoT is part of the telecom reforms approved by the Cabinet

ICA- T11988(2)/2021

ICA- T11997(3)/2021

ICA- T12009(3)/2021ICA- T12016(3)/2021

ICA- T12022(3)/2021

GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGALWEST BENGAL HOUSING INFRASTRUCTURE e-N.I.T No.16 of G.M. (Elect) of 2021-22

Sealed Single Part tenders on Rate Quoted basis are invited for the work of “ Temporary decorative lighting arrangement on the MAR - 1111 during Durga Puja festival, New Town Kolkata under WBHIDCO for the period from 09-10-2021 to 10-11-2021 from the agencies having ability in execution for similar nature of work. Last date of receiving application 29-09-2021 upto 2.00 P.M. Detailed may be seen in our website at www.wbhidcoltd.com

GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGALWEST BENGAL HOUSING INFRASTRUCTURE

e-Tender notice No. 20 (2nd Call) of 2021-2022 e- tender is invited for “Daily maintenance of Finance Cen-tre at New Town, Kolkata. (For 12 months).” in the manner as described in the detailed e-tender notice available on WBHIDCO website-www.wbhidcoltd.com in e-tender por-tal. Last date of Bid submission closing (on line)- 29.09.2021 upto 2.00 P.M. Detailed may be seen in our website at www.wbhidcoltd.com.

Additional General Manager (Engg)-IV

GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGAL SILIGURI MAHAKUMA PARISHAD

Haren Mukherjee Road, Hakim Para Siliguri 734001

NIeT No.09-DE/SMP/2021-22 & NIeT No.10-DE/SMP/2021-22

Tender Notice is invited for Con-struction of Road & Drain under Siliguri Mahakuma Parishad.NIeT No.09-DE/SMP/2021-22Bid Submission start date (Online): 22.09.2021 & Bid Submission end Date (onlilne) : 28.09.2021.

NIeT No.10-DE/SMP/2021-22Bid Submission start date (Online): 22.09.2021 & Bid Submission end Date (onlilne) : 05.10.2021.Details may be seen on office Notice Board. and SMP Websited www.smp.org.in.

Sd/- DE SMP

GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGAL E-Tender Notice

E-Tender are invited by the undersigned vide eNIT. No:- 03/ BDN-II/21-22 and 04/BDN-I1/21-22 Last date of Bid submission is 27.09.2021 upto 4.00 pm, For details see www.wbtenders.gov.in or office notice board.

Sd/- Custodian & BDO/OC

Ghoshpukur GP

GOOGLE TO SPEND $2.1 BILLION ON MANHATTAN CAMPUS ACQUISITION WASHINGTON: Google to spend $2.1 billion on Manhattan campus acquisition Google is planning to buy St. John's Terminal in New York City for $2.1 billion, making it the anchor of its Hudson Square campus. The announcement Tuesday arrives with the city buffeted by the pandemic and most offices still largely unpopulated. While CEO Sundar Pichai said in a blog post late last month that Google is delaying its global return to offices until January 10, the com-mitment by the company to further invest in New York City real estate was trumpeted both by Mayor Bill De Blasio, and New York Gov. Governor Kathy Hochul.

TWITTER TO PAY $809.5 MILLION TO SETTLE SHAREHOLDER LAWSUITSAN FRANCISCO: Twitter said it will pay $809.5 million to settle a consolidated class action lawsuit alleging that the company misled investors about how much its user base was growing and how much users interacted with its platform. The company said the proposed settlement, which must still be signed off by a judge, resolves all claims against it without Twitter admitting any wrongdoing. The original lawsuit filed in 2016 by Twitter investor Doris Shenwick claimed that Twitter executives knowingly made inaccurate public statements regarding these metrics, and failed to disclose internal information about them, result-ing in an inflated share price that fell when the truth about user engagement became known."

DEFENDS INDIA'S COVID HANDLING

Business Briefs

10 millenniumpostBusinessmpWEDNESDAY, 22 SEPTEMBER, 2021 | KOLKATA

India has a population base of over 130 crores and yet the penetration, as well as

density of insurance, is dread-fully low. India's insurance pen-etration was pegged at 3.76 per cent in FY20, with life insur-ance penetration at 2.82 per cent and non-life insurance penetration at 0.94 per cent. In this scenario, insurance agents have put forward several propositions to the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) to enhance the insurance business across the country.

Under the existing norms, IRDAI accords approval to any new Insurance product along with the cost structure, com-mission, overhead expenses, etc to be payable for such product to the Insurance Intermediar-ies. However, insurance agents propose that the detailed com-mission and/or other expenses, etc payable to Insurance Inter-mediaries should be left abso-lutely at the discretion of the companies without any further intervention by IRDAI.

They also suggest that the network of insurance inter-mediaries has to be reinforced by pursuing the “Sub-Broker” under Insurance Brokers and “Sub-Agents” under the Corpo-rate Agents model. This will in turn generate Lacs of employ-ment opportunities for people in India. Sub-Broking and Sub Agency model would enable Brokers and Corporate Agents to spread insurance to those areas that haven't been repre-sented so far. Insurance Brokers and Corporate Agents normally operate in the Tier-I and Tier-II cities, whereas “Sub-Brokers” and “Sub Agents” can work in rural areas. The primary object of this segment is to offer sim-ple, pre-underwritten, vanilla-type products from multiple insurance companies. They can expand the insurance penetra-tion more into smaller towns and villages so that insurance needs for both life and gen-eral for retail customers can be served better. This can definitely increase the Insurance penetra-tion particularly in retail lines

of business.Under existing norms of

IRDAI, tie-ups are allowed with a maximum of three insurance companies (in each Life/Gen-eral /Health) for Composite Corporate Agents (CCA) hav-ing net worth of Rs. 50 lacs & above. Agents suggest that a CCA having a net worth of Rs 5 crores and above, should be allowed complete free hand in having tie-ups or to work with at least nine Life Insurers and nine General Insurers and all Health Insurers. A strong rea-son for allowing the increase of net worth is giving an opportu-nity to a worthy CCA to acceler-ate its growth and to weed out ineffective distributors from the market, simultaneously pro-viding scope to the perform-ing CCA to work for different

insurance companies to make a huge impact in the Insur-ance market, instead of sell-ing insurance business through Bancassurance.

They have also questioned the practice of allowing banks to sell insurance products. According to them, this has led to maximum customer complaints regarding mis-sell-ing. They ask when insurance companies are not allowed to sell bank products, then why banks should be allowed to sell insurance products? Globally in many jurisdictions, banks are not allowed to sell insurance products.

Agents argue that allowing banks to sell insurance products have put on additional pres-sure on employees as a result of which they are focusing on their non-core activities like selling insurance product which is easy to sell over the counter with a little bit of pressure on the cus-tomers, instead of concentrating on their main product of reduc-ing NPA’s and giving loans. They should rather concentrate on

the recovery of their bad loans and increasing profitability of their banking business. They should take a high target of increasing their “CASA” and ensuring a high percentage of the population is provided with a bank account so that the Gov-ernments funds can be directly passed on to them.

Even before banks started to sell insurance, insurance prod-ucts were being sold by agents. In fact, it is the foot soldier agents who have increased the insurance business in India. By not allowing banks to sell insur-ance products the insurance companies can provide huge employment earning opportu-nities for young and old peo-ple to sell insurance products. At present all the top private insurance companies sell 80 to 85 per cent of their insur-ance products through their in-house banks. So the govern-ment should immediately stop bank insurance in India, even our neighboring country like Bangladesh does not allow bank insurance. MPOST

To enhance insurance business in India, agents suggest several reforms to IRDAI‘Allow sub-broking and sub-agents model, ban banks from selling insurance among others’

JAMMU: Amid ongoing pro-test over the opening of Reli-ance retail stores, the company on Tuesday said the talk of 100 stores being opened by us is completely untrue .

We have not opened any stores in Jammu. We have a few delivery points in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kash-mir and these are set up by our delivery partners to support the small traders, a spokesperson of Reliance Retail said.

She said Reliance has a long track record of supporting small traders and we remain steadfast in our commitment of partner-ing with small merchants .

The spokesperson was responding to a question about the protest by traders and sev-eral other groups in Jammu over the past couple of days against setting up a chain of Reliance retail stores. Jammu Chamber of Commerce and Industries (JCCI) has also called for a strike in the Jammu region against what it called directionless policies of the administration aimed at destroying the local business. PTI

GST panel to consider giving waiver on 1 day interest and late fee

NEW DELHI: As some taxpayers faced difficulties in filing GST return on Monday, the tax department on Tuesday said the IT grievance redressal committee would consider giving interest and late fee waiver. The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) in a tweet said a few taxpayers have report-edly faced difficulty in updation of Electronic Cash Ledger on September 20. September 20 was the last day for filing GST return and paying taxes via GSTR-3B for August. "To mitigate their difficulties, GSTN has been directed to take up the issue of waiver of late fee and interest for one day for such taxpayers, before the IT Grievance Redressal Com-mittee," the tweet said. PTI

MUMBAI: Equity indices clawed back lost ground on Tuesday, buoyed by a recov-ery in overseas markets as fears eased about the debt crisis at China's Evergrande group seeping into the global economy.

Investors scooped up IT, finance and metal stocks after the steep correction in the pre-vious session, while a strength-ening rupee also bolstered sentiment.

After a choppy start, the 30-share BSE Sensex gained momentum in late-afternoon trade to close 514.34 points or 0.88 per cent higher at 59,005.27. On similar lines, the broader NSE Nifty surged 165.10 points or 0.95 per cent to 17,562. Bajaj Finance topped the Sensex gainers' list with a jump of 4.94 per cent, followed by IndusInd Bank, ITC, Bajaj Finserv, Tata Steel, HCL Tech, Tech Mahindra and Infosys.

On the other hand, Maruti, Bajaj Auto, Nestle India, HDFC Bank, PowerGrid and Axis

Bank closed with losses of up to 2.54 per cent. Sectorally, BSE realty, metal, teck, IT and basic material indices rallied as much as 2.93 per cent, while utilities, power, auto and bankex were in the red. Broader BSE mid-cap and smallcap indices rose up to 0.79 per cent.

Elsewhere in Asia, Hang Seng ended on a positive note, while Nikkei was in the red. Bourses in China and South

Korea were closed for holidays.Stock exchanges in Europe

rallied over 1 per cent in after-noon trade.

Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude rose 0.96 per cent to $74.63 per bar-rel. Foreign institutional inves-tors were net buyers in the capital market on Monday as they purchased shares worth Rs 92.54 crore, as per exchange data. PTI

NEW DELHI: Walmart-owned Flipkart on Tuesday said it will host the eighth edition of its flagship event, The Big Billion Days (TBBD), from October 7-12 this year. The six-day event will see millions of consum-ers, sellers, small businesses, artisans, Kiranas, brands and e-commerce ecosystem partners participating, a statement said.

This year, The Big Billion Days will bring forth several new opportunities for home-grown brands and sellers to cel-ebrate with consumers across the country, from metros to tier II cities and beyond, it added.

"Over the past year and a half, Flipkart's focus has largely been to build and aid a collab-orative and democratic retail ecosystem for MSMEs to revive and revitalise their businesses. This year will see a host of new launches, games, interactive vid-eos, live streams and rewards throughout TBBD," it said.

E-commerce companies see a large chunk of their business coming in during the festive sales and they make significant investments ahead of time to ramp up their capacity and add features to be able to handle the spike in orders, while ensuring a smooth experience for shop-pers and sellers.

Flipkart Group CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy said over the past year, in collaboration with ecosystem partners, the com-pany has worked towards creat-ing opportunities that revitalise consumer sentiment in these challenging times and revive India's economic growth.

Flipkart said it continues to strengthen its seller base and is on track to have 4.2 lakh sell-ers on its platform by Decem-ber 2021 from 3.75 lakh sellers currently. MPOST

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Centre has set a target of 307.33 million tonne of foodgrains produc-tion for the current 2021-22 crop year ending June.

This target is slightly lower than the estimated output for the 2020-21 crop year at record 308.65 million tonne. This is a rise of 3.74 per cent from the previous year's production.

The target for the current crop year was fixed during the National Conference on Agriculture for rabi campaign 2021-22 held through video conferencing.

Inaugurating the event, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said the Centre will fully support states to increase production and productivity.

It is also fully committed to helping states in tackling the challenges posed by climate change and rainfed agricul-ture, he said.

Tomar urged states to use water, electricity and fertilizers judiciously and to use nano-urea which is less costly and benefi-cial for land fertility.

The minister said KVKs (Krishi Vigyan Kendras) should reach out to small farmers so that they can benefit from vari-ous schemes of the government.

States should also ensure that PM Kisan and KCC (kisan credit card) reach every farmer.

More than 2.25 crore KCCs have been distributed, through which farmers have been given loans of more than Rs 2.25 lakh crore.

He also informed that PM Fasal Bima Yojana has provided protective cover for farmers.

The objective of this confer-ence was to review and assess the crop performance during the preceding crop season and also fix crop-wise targets for rabi season in consultation with state governments.

The conference also aimed at ensuring supply of critical inputs and facilitate adoption of innovative technologies with a view to enhancing production and productivity of crops.

The priority of government is to increase production of oil-seeds and pulses.

Agriculture Commissioner S K Malhotra said the country has recorded an all-time high

foodgrain and oilseeds produc-tion due to timely interventions of the government.

He also explained the crop production targets for 2021-22.

The Centre has set a target of foodgrains production at 307.33 million tonne.

The targets for rice, wheat, coarse cereals and pulses have been set at 121.10 million tonne, 110 million tonne, 51.21 million tonne and 25 million tonne. For oilseeds, the target is 38.4 million tonne in the current crop year.

As per the fourth advance estimates for the previous 2020-21 crop year, rice production stood at record 122.27 million tonne.

Wheat production stood at record 109.52 million tonne in 2020-21, while the output of coarse cereals was 51.15 mil-lion tonne. Pulses output stood at record 25.72 million tonne.

Govt targets 307.33 mt foodgrain production for 2021-22 crop year

Target is slightly lower than estimated output for the 2020-21 crop year at record 308.65 mt

Sensex rebounds 514 points on firm global cues

KBK graphicsInfo

Intra-day on September 21, 2021

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

Previous

close:

17,396.90

NSE NIFTYIntra-day on September 21, 2021

BSE SENSEX

High:

17,578.35

Previous

close:

58,490.93

Close:

59,005.27

Close:

17,562.00

Low:

17,326.10Low:

58,232.54

165.10

(0.95%)

High:

59,084.51

Open:

58,630.06

Open:

17,450.50

514.34

(0.88%) MUMBAI: The rupee on Tues-day rebounded by 13 paise to close at 73.61 against the US dollar on the back of strong gains in domestic equities and a weak dollar ahead of the out-come of the US Fed meeting.

Gains in emerging mar-kets and Asian currencies also bolstered the rupee sentiment, analysts said.

At the interbank forex mar-ket, the local unit opened flat at 73.74 against the greenback. During the session, the domes-tic unit witnessed an intra-day high of 73.58 before closing at 73.61.

On Monday, the rupee had dropped by 26 paise to settle at a nearly four-week low of 73.74 against the US dollar.

The US Fed will begin its two-day policy meeting later in the day. Policymakers will

debate the taper timeline and will put out new projections on interest rates. Additionally, the local unit also took support from strengthening emerging market and Asian currencies which recovered after a selloff on Monday. PTI

Rupee recovers 13P on stocks rally, weak dollar

`

KBK graphicsInfo(Inverted scale)

Rupee Dollarvs

14 15 16 17 20 21

September 2021

` per

US $73.50

+18p

73.48

+4p

73.61

+13p73.52

-2p

73.68

073.74

-26p

NEW DELHI: US e-commerce giant Amazon, which is said to be investigating alleged bribes paid by its legal representatives in India, spent Rs 8,546 crore or $1.2 billion in legal and profes-sional expenses during 2018-20 in the country, sources said.

Sources aware of the firm's public account filings said entities of Amazon includ-ing Amazon Retail India Pvt Ltd, Amazon Seller Services Pvt Ltd, Amazon Transporta-tion Services Pvt Ltd, Amazon Wholesale (India) Pvt Ltd, and Amazon Internet Services Pvt Ltd (AWS) paid Rs 3,420 crore in India during 2018-19 and Rs 5,126 crore during 2019-20 towards legal fees. While ini-tially Amazon had declined to comment on PTI's query on the matter, later in the evening, an Amazon spokesperson said a line item from its statutory fil-ings on legal fees has been mis-represented. The line item is "actually termed legal and pro-fessional expenses that includes

not just the legal costs but also the costs related to other profes-sional services such as outsourc-ing, tax consultants, customer research, logistic support ser-vices, merchant onboarding ser-vices, customer service cost, etc", the spokesperson said.

"For instance, for the year ended March 31, 2020, the legal fee was Rs 52 crore, from the total legal and professional expenses of Rs 1,967 crore," the spokesperson added. On Mon-day, a report by Morning Con-text stated that Amazon has initiated an investigation against some of its legal representatives for allegedly bribing Indian gov-ernment officials. Its senior cor-porate counsel has reportedly been sent on leave in this matter.

The company had stated that it takes allegations of improper actions seriously and investi-gates them fully to take appro-priate action. While it did not confirm or deny the allegations, Amazon had said it has "zero tolerance for corruption". PTI

Amazon spends ̀ 8,546 cr in legal expenses during

2018-20 in India: Sources

Flipkart to host Big

Billion Days from Oct 7-12

NEW DELHI: Amid talk of his infrastructure conglomer-ate venturing into the media space, billionaire Gautam Adani on Tuesday said media cover-age cannot be biased under the garb of press freedom and criti-cism should not be at the cost of national dignity. Addressing the JP Morgan India Investor Summit, the head of the port-to-energy Adani Group defended India's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, saying in a rush to lay blame and find fault, it was ignored how well a nation with people more than Europe, North America and Oceania handled the crisis. "Perhaps we could have done some things better and, of course, every life lost is a tragedy. But the sheer size of our population arguably makes the challenge posed by COVID in India greater than in any other major nation," he said.

Stating he wasn't implying that there cannot be any crit-icism, he said in democracy accountability has to be fixed.

"But in the rush to lay blame and find fault, it is possible that we failed to acknowledge another, more positive side to the story of how we handled and continue to handle the COVID crisis," he said, adding "criticism cannot be at the cost of national dignity. It cannot be at the cost of degrading a nation."

Adani, who a couple of days back hired a senior journalist to head his group's media ven-ture, said media coverage can-not be biased under the garb of press freedom. "There is always another side of the story which unfortunately was not told," he said.

At the JP Morgan Summit, Adani said India has more peo-ple than Europe, North Amer-

ica, and Oceania put together, which also means that India's vaccination effort is larger than the combined efforts of 87 other countries. "For com-parison, while the daily vaccina-tion count in the US is currently around 800,000, India is vac-cinating 12 times that number or around 10 million people every day.

"Even if the United States and other countries have com-pletely vaccinated a greater per-centage of the population, the pace at which India has accel-erated its vaccination pro-gramme, despite all the hurdles, is unmatched," he said.

Unveiling his infrastructure conglomerate’s green vision, Adani said his group will invest $20 billion over the next 10 years in renewable energy generation and component manufacturing and will produce the world’s cheapest green electron.

The port-to-energy con-glomerate plans to triple its renewable power generation capacity over the next four years, foray into green hydrogen pro-duction, power all data centres with renewable energy, turn its ports into net carbon zero by 2025, and plans to spend over 75 per cent of capital expendi-ture until 2025 in green tech-nologies, he said. MPOST

‘Talks of 100 stores

in Jammu is not true’

Adani says criticism should not be at cost of national dignity

NEW DELHI: The production capacity for liquid medical oxy-gen, which was in huge demand during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country, has increased to over 8,000 tonnes per day now, from 6,000 tonnes per day last year, a senior government official said on Tuesday.

Additional Secretary in the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) Sumita Dawra said the supply of oxygen for medical purposes was enhanced almost 10 times from 1,000 tonnes per day in December 2019 to 9,600 tonnes per day in May this year.

"Our production capacity today has increased from 6,000 tonnes last year to over 8,000 tonnes today," she told report-ers here.

Due to an unprecedented surge in demand of medi-cal oxygen across the coun-try during the second wave of COVID-19, the demand peaked to nearly 9,000 MT (metric tonnes) as compared to

the peak requirement of 3,095 MT during the first wave.

Dawra also said draft amendments in Gas Cylinder Rules were notified on June 25 and the DPIIT is now work-ing on amendments in Explo-sives Rules in consultation with stakeholders.

In the draft amendments in Gas Cylinder Rules, it was pro-posed that all the high pressure

cylinders and cryogenic con-tainer used for filling non-toxic non-flammable gases and liq-uids shall have permanent and tamper-proof marking in the form of QR code at a conspicu-ous place on cylinders.

On amendments in Explo-sives Rules, she said it would take about another two months for the draft to be finalised and notified. MPOST

‘Medical O2 output capacity up to over 8,000 tonnes per day’

Supply of oxygen for medical purposes was enhanced almost 10 times from 1,000 tonnes per day in December 2019 to 9,600 tonnes per day in May this year

Gautam Adani

11mpmillenniumpostKOLKATA | WEDNESDAY, 22 SEPTEMBER, 2021

Format C-7for political parties to publish in the newspapers,

social media platforms & website of the party)

Information regarding individuals with pending criminal cases, who have been selected as candidates, along with the reasons for such selection, as also as to why other individuals without criminal antecedents could not be selected as candidates (As per the Commission’s directions issued in pursuance of the Order dated 13.02.2020 of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in contempt petition (C) no. 2192 of 2018 in WP (C) no. 536 of 2011) Name of Political Party: ALL INDIA TRINAMOOL CONGRESS* Name of the Election: BYE ELECTIONS TO THE COUNCIL OF STATES Name of State/UT: WEST BENGAL (1) Name of the Constituency — WEST BENGAL, BYE ELECTIONS TO THE COUNCIL OF STATES Name of the candidate — MISS SUSHMITA DEV

Sl. No.

1. Criminal antecedents

1). a. Nature of the offences Section 15 of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 & Municipal Solid Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2000

b. Case No. C.R. No. 303/2010

c. Name of the Court Court of Judicial Magistrate (1st Class), Silchar

d. Whether charges have been framed or not (Yes/No)

No

e. Date of conviction, if any N/A

f. Details of punishment undergone, if any

N/A

g. Any other information required to be given

One Sri Haridas Dutta filed a complaint case vide C.R. No. 303/2010 for non-compliance of Provision of Municipal Solid Waste (Management & Handling) Rules, 2000 against the Silchar Municipal Board and the deponent, along with others, was impeded in the said case in the capacity of the then Chairperson of Silchar Municipal Board

2. The reasons for the selection of the candidate. Selection shall be with reference to the qualifications, achievements and merit of the candidate, and not mere “winnability” at the polls (not more than 100 words)

She is a dedicated, hardworking individual who has been actively working towards helping the people of this country. Her work during her tenure as MP had reached all members of the constituency. Moreover, her wisdom and farsightedness has immensely reaped benefits for the public at large.

3 Reasons as to why other individuals without criminal antecedents could not be selected as candidates (not more than 100 words)

Given her dedication to help and support the people, it appears that no other individual can do justice to this position.

(2) Name of the Constituency - WEST BENGAL, BYE ELECTIONS TO THE COUNCIL OF STATES

Name of the candidate: MISS SUSHMITA DEV

*In the case of election to Council of States or States or election to Legislative Council by MLAs, mention the election concerned in place of name of constituency.

12 millenniumpostLeisure

Entertainmentmp

WEDNESDAY, 22 SEPTEMBER, 2021 | KOLKATA

Bollywood actor Rani Mukerji has completed the month-long first

schedule of her next feature film ‘Mrs Chatterjee Vs Nor-way’ that was being filmed in Estonia.

Directed by Ashima Chib-ber, ‘Mrs Chatterjee Vs Nor-way’ is produced by Monisha Advani, Madhu Bhojwani and Nikkhil Advani’s ‘Emmay Entertainment’ and ‘Zee Studios’.

The film follows the journey of a mother who wages a battle against an entire country.

The news of the schedule wrap was shared by ‘Emmay Entertainment’ on ‘Instagram’ recently.

“It is a wrap in Estonia for ‘Mrs Chatterjee Vs Norway’! Mapping this dynamic journey and a big thank you to every-one,” the post read.

According to the makers, keeping in mind the COVID-19 safety protocols, the entire cast and crew shot in a bio bub-ble with all necessary precautions.

The final schedule of the film is expected to begin shooting in India soon.

Mukherji’s last big screen outing was 2019’s ‘Mardaani 2’. She will be seen next in Yash Raj Films’ ‘Bunty aur Babli 2’. PTI

Popular music group ‘BTS’ recently addressed the United Nations General Assembly

(UNGA) as the special presiden-tial envoy for future generations from their native South Korea and expressed their faith in young peo-ple’s ability to imagine a better world despite the pandemic.

The Grammy-nominated band - comprising RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V and Jungkook - attended the 76th UNGA as part of their duties as envoys and performed their latest English single ‘Permission to Dance’ at the UN headquarters.

In their speech, the band expressed hope for a better future with group leader RM saying, “We thought the world has stopped but it continues to move forward. I believe that every choice we make is the beginning of change, not the end.”

The band attended the second meeting of the ‘Sustainable Develop-ment Goals Moment’ (SDG Moment) of the ‘Decade of Action’ with South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in, who called the K-Pop band ‘probably the artists most loved by people around

the world’ as he invited them to the podium.

While it was the third time the globally popular septet made a speech at the UNGA, it was their second appearance in person. They made their first in-person appearance in 2018 and their second address was made through a pre-recorded video message in the 2020 pandemic.

This was, however, their first appearance in their diplomatic roles and more than a million tuned in to hear them speak and flood the social media with messages of support for their favourite band.

RM was the first to address the gathering, even-tually inviting other mem-bers to join in to deliver a message of hope and positivity.

“It is an honor to be

here today. We are ‘BTS’ appointed a special presidential envoy of the Republic of Korea. We are here today to share the stories of our future gen-eration,” the group leader, known for his English-speaking skills, said in Korean along with his group mem-bers as translated by the interpreter.

The band ended their long speech with the music performance of ‘Per-mission to Dance’ that first saw the band singing in the General Assembly Hall and then moving to the lobby. PTI

Kate Winslet, who won the award for ‘Lead Actress in a Limited

Series’ at the 73rd Emmy Award for her role in ‘Mare of East-town’, believes actresses are now under less scrutiny for their bodies.

She feels that the praise for her role as a junk food-loving detective in the HBO series means a ‘huge amount’ because she was body-shamed so much in her career earlier.

Winslet hopes the example Holly-

wood is start-ing to set will have a wider impact on society.

Speaking to reporters in

the virtual press room backstage at

the ceremony, she said: “It means a huge amount

because it makes me feel that our industry is changing. I’m honestly starting to feel that the shifts are happening.”

“I think we are finger-point-ing a lot less at women in terms of how they look with their shape. We stopped scrutinising them. In turn, what happens

then, is that younger genera-tions of women, who are not in our industry, start to feel okay within themselves too,” she added.

Winslet further said, “And that is more important than anything else. Because it is up to us to be being real and representing ourselves with integrity and authenticity and celebrating each other and

not judging one another. If we are not doing that in our indus-try, then nobody else has a hope in hell.”

“So, I feel like with playing Mare, maybe we are shifting the dynamics of how leading ladies are seen on screen and that just warms my heart,” admit-ted Kate.

The actor also confirmed ‘there have been conversations’ about a second season of the miniseries but there is nothing definite in place yet, reported ‘femalefirst.co.uk’.

“Conversations are happen-ing, but I think until scripts are in place that we can respond to and know what a full story of a season two might be

and where Mare goes,” she added. AGENCIES

Kate Winslet believes actresses are now under less scrutiny for their bodies Payal Ghosh, who made

headlines after accus-ing filmmaker Anurag

Kashyap of sexual harassment, claimed that she was attacked with acid by some masked men when she was returning home after purchasing medicines in Mumbai.

The actor said that when she was getting into her car, some men attacked her with a rod and that they had a bottle in their hand which she suspected was acid. She also claimed that she escaped the attack but with a minor injury in her left hand.

Ghosh said she will file an FIR on this matter.

In an ‘Instagram’ clip, Payal could be heard saying: “Hi, I am Payal Ghosh and yesterday I went out to buy some medicines. As I was trying to sit in my driv-er’s seat, some people came and tried to attack me.”

“There was a bottle in their hand. I do not know what it was. I suspect maybe acid or some-

thing. They also tried to hit me with a rod and I tried to escape and shouted, so the rod fell on my left hand and I got injured,” she added.

She concluded by saying, “As I shouted, they ran away. Prob-ably today I will go to the police station to do the FIR. This kind of thing never happened in my life. This is the first time in Bom-bay I had to face this.”

She also posted a picture on her ‘Instagram’ stories, in which she showed her injured hand.

“I could not sleep the whole night, out of pain,” she captioned the image.

Payal further said, “Obvi-ously, he is not a well-wisher, but it is all planned. I’m planning to take strict action on this.” AGENCIES

Payal Ghosh claims being attacked

Some masked men attacked the actor with a rod, leaving her with a minor

injury in her left hand

After more than a month, business-man Raj Kundra

was granted bail recently in the adult film racket case. A Mumbai granted him bail on the surety of Rs 50,000.

As per the news report of a leading agency, Mumbai Crime Branch revealed that Raj Kundra was planning to sell as many as 119 adult films.

“During the investiga-tion in a pornography case, police found 119 porn vid-eos from businessman Raj Kundra’s mobile, laptop, and a hard drive disk. He

was planning to sell these videos for Rs 9 crores,” the

news agency quoted Mumbai Crime Branch’s statement.

Apart from Raj Kundra, his tech associate Ryan Thorpe was also granted bail on Monday. How-

ever, the investigating team is on the lookout for two persons now.

“Mumbai Police Crime Branch has issued ‘Look Out Circular’ against absconding accused in a pornography case Yash Thakur alias Arvind Srivastava and Pradeep Bakshi, an aide of businessman Raj Kundra,” the agency quoted the offi-cials’ statement.

Meanwhile, in a plea filed by Shilpa Shetty Kundra after the arrest of her husband and businessman Raj Kundra against the media, the Bombay High Court showed con-cern towards content about her chil-

dren in a recent hearing.As per a report, Justice Gau-

tam Patel was hearing the suit filed by the actor against reports and videos published against her and her family post-Kundra’s arrest in an alleged adult films racket case.

Amid the hearing, the Bombay High Court urged Shilpa’s coun-sel to bifurcate the media outlets into two categories - private vlog-gers and bloggers and traditional media outlets.

Justice Gautam Patel also went on to question Shilpa’s law-yer about the rush in which his plaintiff was for her plea to be heard.

Justice Patel told Shilpa’s lawyer Abhinav Chandra-chud: “You (Shetty) are not going to be able to get a per-manent injunction (against media reports), then why are you in a rush? This matter on Raj Kundra is going to go on for some more time.” AGENCIES

PORNOGRAPHY CASE

Raj planned to sell 119 adult films for Rs 9 crore

Mumbai Crime Branch had found the adult films’ con-tent from Kundra’s mobile, laptop and a hard drive disk

The crime branch is on the lookout for two persons now: Yash Thakur alias Arvind Srivastava and Pradeep Bakshi, an aide of Kundra

The Grammy-nominated band also performed their latest English single ‘Permission to Dance’ at the UN headquarters

I think I had offered it up: Nicole Kidman

Nicole Kidman does not talk about her divorce from Tom Cruise very much, but she

is not upset by the constant curios-ity. The ‘Big Little Lies’ star revealed in Harper’s Bazaar’s October 2021 cover story that she is not bothered by the continued fascination with her first marriage, which ended in 2001.

On being asked if it was annoy-ing that the press focused so heavily

on the marriage and split, the 54-year-old actor said, “I was young. I think I had offered it up?”

“Maybe I have gotten a bit more trepidatious, but I’m always trying to be as open as possible. I just prefer to live in the world that way,” Kidman said

as per ‘US Weekly’.The ‘Nine Perfect Strangers’

star pondered on her battle to keep her personal life private from the public glare.

“I’m wary at times and I have been hurt, but at the same time, I much prefer a warm approach rather than a prickly shutdown approach. My husband, Keith Urban, says that

when he met me, he said, ‘How is your heart?’ And I responded, ‘Open’,” she added.

Kidman met Cruise in 1989 before beginning production on ‘Days of Thunder’, which was released the fol-lowing year. They married on Christ-mas Eve in 1990 and went on to adopt two children, Isabella (28) and Con-nor (26). They subsequently appeared together in the 1999 film ‘Eyes Wide Shut’. In February 2001, Cruise filed for divorce, claiming ‘irreconcilable differences’ as the basis for their sep-aration. Six months later, they were legally divorced.

Following her divorce from Cruise, the two-time Emmy winner was briefly engaged to Lenny Kravitz in 2003. In June 2006, she married Keith Urban. AGENCIES

In their speech, the K-Pop band expressed hope for a better future

‘BTS’ attends 76th UNGA as special presidential envoy

Rani finishes Estonia schedule of ‘Mrs Chatterjee Vs Norway’

The film follows the journey of a mother who wages a battle against an entire country

The ‘Nine Perfect Strangers’ star talked about her battle to keep her personal life private from the public glare

Ghosh also posted a picture on ‘Instagram’, in which she showed her injured hand

‘We are finger-pointing a lot less at women’

Winslet hopes the example Hollywood is starting to set will have a wider impact on society

The actor is not upset by media’s interest with her first marriage