press conference along with€¦ · press conference along withdoubt that “everything that union...

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U nion Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday said there has been progress in talks with farmers and the next round of discussion with farmers’ unions is likely to be held on Monday or day after. Addressing a press confer- ence at Bolpur, West Bengal, Shah said, “I am not exactly aware of the timing but Tomar is likely to meet the represen- tatives of farmers on Monday or the day after to discuss their demands”. The agitating farmers have announced a day long relay hunger strike on Monday at all protest sites and halt toll col- lections on highways in Haryana from December 25 to 27 against the farm laws. It is not clear whether the Government will offer a fresh proposal for further talks. The Centre has held several rounds of talks with the unions so far, all of which have ended incon- clusively. Farmer unions lost no time in rejecting the amend- ments proposed by the Government to the current farm laws and in a written reply to the Centre, and have reiter- ated their demand for total repeal of the laws. “Farmers will begin a day- long relay hunger strike on Monday at all sites of protest against the new agri laws. It will be started by a team of 11 members at protests sites here,” Swaraj India Chief Yogendra Yadav said at a press conference at the Singhu Border. He also urged people demonstrating against the laws across the country to observe a day-long hunger strike at their respective protest sites. Announcing the next move, farmer leader Jagjeet Singh Dalewala said farmers will halt toll collection on high- ways in Haryana from December 25 to 27. “On December 27, during Prime Minister Modi’s Mann Ki Baat, we would appeal to everyone to beat ‘thali’ at their homes till the time he speaks during the programme,” he said. Farmers’ leader Rakesh Tikait, who was also part of the press conference along with Yadav and Dalewala, said that farmers protesting the new agri laws will celebrate Kisan Diwas on December 23 and “we request people to not cook lunch for a day”. On Sunday, the agitating farmers paid tribute to the farmers who lost their lives during this agitation, and con- dolence meets were organised at different places. Punjab farmer leader Gurvinder Singh, associated with the BKU, said tribute is being paid to the farmers who lost their lives during the agitation while fighting for their basic rights. As many as at least 30 farmers have died since the protest started. Protesting farmers’ unions had earlier responded to PM Modi and Agriculture Minister Tomar in an open letter saying their statements were “fact- less” and that the Centre has zero sympathy with farmers. In a letter addressed to PM Modi and Agriculture Minister Tomar, the All-India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee said there is no doubt that “everything that has been said by you is factless.” AIKSCC also slammed the Centre over attacks on the nature of protest saying, “In the garb of trying to solve farmers’ issues, the attack that you have launched on farmers’ demands and their protest in the past two days, shows that you do not have any empathy with farmers.” You have changed your intention of resolving their grievances, the letter read. New Delhi: As BJP has inten- sified its “awareness campaign” around the three new contro- versial farm laws, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to have a virtual meeting with the farmers of Uttar Pradesh on the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on December 25. Detailed report on P4 N epal’s embattled Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Sunday sprang a surprise on his rivals and got the President to dissolve Parliament, a con- troversial move amidst a pro- longed tussle for power between him and former pre- mier Pushpa Kamal Dahal “Prachanda” within the ruling dispensation. President Bidya Devi Bhandari dissolved Parliament’s House of Representatives at Oli’s recommendation and announced mid-term general election in April-May, a deci- sion termed “unconstitutional, impulsive and autocratic” by the Opposition and dissidents in the Nepal Communist Party (NCP). Expressing dissatisfaction over Oli’s move to dissolve the House, seven ministers, belong- ing to the Prachanda faction, announced their resignation in a joint statement issued during a press conference here. M en are not only highly vulnerable to catching coronavirus disease compared to women, the hospitalised male Covid-19 patients have a 30 per cent greater risk of dying compared to women of the same age and health status, a study has found. The study is published in the Clinical Infectious Diseases. Hospitalised patients who were obese, had hypertension or poorly managed diabetes also had a higher risk of dying compared to those who did not have these conditions, said the study. Those aged 20 to 39 with these conditions had the biggest difference in their risk of dying compared to their healthier peers. For the study, the researchers evaluated nearly 67,000 hospitalised Covid-19 patients in 613 hospitals across the United States to determine the link between certain com- mon patient characteristics and the risk of dying from Covid-19. “Predicting which hospi- talised Covid-19 patients have the highest risk of dying has taken on urgent importance as cases and hospitalisations in the US continue to surge to record high numbers during the month of December,” said the study authored among others by Anthony Harris, Professor at University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) in the US. “Knowledge is power in many ways, so I think under- standing which hospitalised Covid-19 patients are at high- est risk of mortality can help guide difficult treatment deci- sions,.” Harris said. T he Pakistan-sponsored the Resistance Front (TRF), a ter- ror group floated by the Jaish-e- Mohammad (JeM), has said the police is its prime target in Jammu & Kashmir and next on the radar is the Government. TRF commander Irfan said, “The war we have waged is in par- ticular against the State police because they are our real enemies and then the occupying India.” Urging his family not to trace him, he exhorted the youth of Kashmir to be ready for jehad. Detailed report on Page 4 T he Indore district adminis- tration on Sunday suspend- ed the license of six pubs and bars till December 31 and also imposed permanent restriction on the smoking zone of the pubs and bars. On the instructions of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to curb the menace of drugs in Madhya Pradesh, Indore Collector Manish Singh on Sunday suspended the licenses of 6 pubs and bars. During the inspection of these bar, it was found that the youths below 21 years were consuming the intox- icants. Collector Manish Singh said that Indore administration will not tolerate that youths fall in clutches of intoxicants. The pubs and bars were engaged in act of destroying the young generation. The pubs whose license are can- celled are Vidorra in palasia, Pitchers opposite of C 21 mall, Drinx Exchange opposite C 21 mall, TDS in Malhar mega mall, Kyro in Bhanvarkuan and Shosha in bhamori Vijaynagar. Singh on Sunday reviewed the working of excise depart- ment Indore and instructed them to seal the bars. According to the notice issued by Indore collector Singh the suspension of the bars is due to the irregular- ities that comes under MP excise act 1915 section 31 (1) (k) for the pubs and bars functional for the year 2020-21. The pubs and bars owners will not get any type of benefit for the suspended duration regarding the fees paid or in any other case. And if in near future again any irregular- ities are found in these pubs and bar the permission issued to them will be permanently can- celled. The Collector also issued order to immediately close the smoking zone in the bars as the administration received the com- plaint that the drugs are con- sumed in form of smoking in these pubs. Indore collector Manish Singh has given strict orders that any type of effort by anybody to initiate the habit of consumption of drugs in the youths will be severely punished. Collector Manish Singh also warned the youths for their unlawful presence in pubs and bar and they will be punished for this. Assistant commissioner excise Indore Raj Narayan Soni told The Pioneer that there are around 85 bars in Indore district and on the instruction of Indore collector Manish Singh the inspections of the bars will con- tinue and also if any irregulari- ties including any type of dance floors is found in any bars in near future, with the pubs and bars the action will also be taken against the concerned excise circle offi- cer of that area. The objective of state government and Indore col- lector Manish Singh is to dis- courage the youths for consum- ing intoxicants. Bhopal: Reeling under intense cold conditions temperature in state dipped to 3 degree Celsius on Saturday, which was coldest of the season. The northerly winds have made weather chilling cold and with the change in direction of wind, little relief will be wit- nessed. Severe cold conditions prevailed in the state as several parts recorded below 5 degree Celsius. The lowest night temperature was recorded at 3 degree Celsius in Umaria. State capital record- ed lowest of the season at 6.8 degree Celsius while day tem- perature was recorded at 24.5 degree Celsius. Met department issued warning of Shahdol divi- sion and Rewa, Panna and Chattarpur districts would wit- ness cold wave conditions and would cold day conditions Sidhi and Narsinghpur districts. Continued on Page 3 RNI Regn. No. MPENG/2004/13703, Regd. No. L-2/BPLON/41/2006-2008

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Page 1: press conference along with€¦ · press conference along withdoubt that “everything that Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday said there has been progress in talks with farmers

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Union Home Minister AmitShah on Sunday said there

has been progress in talks withfarmers and the next round ofdiscussion with farmers’ unionsis likely to be held on Mondayor day after.

Addressing a press confer-ence at Bolpur, West Bengal,Shah said, “I am not exactlyaware of the timing but Tomaris likely to meet the represen-tatives of farmers on Mondayor the day after to discusstheir demands”.

The agitating farmers haveannounced a day long relayhunger strike on Monday at allprotest sites and halt toll col-lections on highways inHaryana from December 25 to27 against the farm laws.

It is not clear whether theGovernment will offer a freshproposal for further talks. TheCentre has held several roundsof talks with the unions so far,all of which have ended incon-clusively. Farmer unions lost notime in rejecting the amend-ments proposed by theGovernment to the current

farm laws and in a written replyto the Centre, and have reiter-ated their demand for totalrepeal of the laws.

“Farmers will begin a day-long relay hunger strike onMonday at all sites of protestagainst the new agri laws. It willbe started by a team of 11members at protests sites here,”Swaraj India Chief Yogendra

Yadav said at a press conferenceat the Singhu Border. He alsourged people demonstratingagainst the laws across thecountry to observe a day-longhunger strike at their respectiveprotest sites.

Announcing the nextmove, farmer leader JagjeetSingh Dalewala said farmerswill halt toll collection on high-

ways in Haryana fromDecember 25 to 27.

“On December 27, duringPrime Minister Modi’s MannKi Baat, we would appeal toeveryone to beat ‘thali’ at theirhomes till the time he speaksduring the programme,” hesaid.

Farmers’ leader RakeshTikait, who was also part of the

press conference along withYadav and Dalewala, said thatfarmers protesting the newagri laws will celebrate KisanDiwas on December 23 and“we request people to not cooklunch for a day”.

On Sunday, the agitatingfarmers paid tribute to thefarmers who lost their livesduring this agitation, and con-dolence meets were organisedat different places. Punjabfarmer leader Gurvinder Singh,associated with the BKU, saidtribute is being paid to thefarmers who lost their livesduring the agitation whilefighting for their basic rights.As many as at least 30 farmershave died since the proteststarted.

Protesting farmers’ unionshad earlier responded to PMModi and Agriculture MinisterTomar in an open letter sayingtheir statements were “fact-less” and that the Centre haszero sympathy with farmers. Ina letter addressed to PM Modiand Agriculture MinisterTomar, the All-India KisanSangharsh CoordinationCommittee said there is no

doubt that “everything thathas been said by you is factless.”

AIKSCC also slammed theCentre over attacks on thenature of protest saying, “In thegarb of trying to solve farmers’issues, the attack that you havelaunched on farmers’ demandsand their protest in the past twodays, shows that you do not have any empathy withfarmers.”

You have changed yourintention of resolving theirgrievances, the letter read.

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New Delhi: As BJP has inten-sified its “awareness campaign”around the three new contro-versial farm laws, PrimeMinister Narendra Modi isscheduled to have a virtualmeeting with the farmers ofUttar Pradesh on the birthanniversary of former PrimeMinister Atal Bihari Vajpayeeon December 25.

Detailed report on P4

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Nepal’s embattled PrimeMinister KP Sharma Oli

on Sunday sprang a surprise onhis rivals and got the Presidentto dissolve Parliament, a con-troversial move amidst a pro-longed tussle for powerbetween him and former pre-mier Pushpa Kamal Dahal“Prachanda” within the rulingdispensation.

President Bidya DeviBhandari dissolved Parliament’s

House of Representatives atOli’s recommendation andannounced mid-term generalelection in April-May, a deci-sion termed “unconstitutional,impulsive and autocratic” bythe Opposition and dissidentsin the Nepal Communist Party(NCP).

Expressing dissatisfactionover Oli’s move to dissolve theHouse, seven ministers, belong-ing to the Prachanda faction,announced their resignation ina joint statement issued duringa press conference here.

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Men are not only highlyvulnerable to catching

coronavirus disease comparedto women, the hospitalisedmale Covid-19 patients have a

30 per cent greater risk ofdying compared to women ofthe same age and health status,a study has found. The study ispublished in the ClinicalInfectious Diseases.

Hospitalised patients whowere obese, had hypertension

or poorly managed diabetesalso had a higher risk of dyingcompared to those who did nothave these conditions, said thestudy.

Those aged 20 to 39 withthese conditions had thebiggest difference in their risk

of dying compared to theirhealthier peers.

For the study, theresearchers evaluated nearly67,000 hospitalised Covid-19patients in 613 hospitals acrossthe United States to determinethe link between certain com-mon patient characteristics andthe risk of dying from Covid-19.

“Predicting which hospi-talised Covid-19 patients havethe highest risk of dying hastaken on urgent importance ascases and hospitalisations in theUS continue to surge to recordhigh numbers during themonth of December,” said thestudy authored among othersby Anthony Harris, Professor atUniversity of Maryland Schoolof Medicine (UMSOM) in the US.

“Knowledge is power inmany ways, so I think under-standing which hospitalisedCovid-19 patients are at high-est risk of mortality can helpguide difficult treatment deci-sions,.” Harris said.

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The Pakistan-sponsored theResistance Front (TRF), a ter-

ror group floated by the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), has said thepolice is its prime target in Jammu& Kashmir and next on the radaris the Government.

TRF commander Irfan said,“The war we have waged is in par-ticular against the State policebecause they are our real enemiesand then the occupying India.”

Urging his family not to tracehim, he exhorted the youth ofKashmir to be ready for jehad.

Detailed report on Page 4

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The Indore district adminis-tration on Sunday suspend-

ed the license of six pubs andbars till December 31 and alsoimposed permanent restrictionon the smoking zone of the pubsand bars.

On the instructions of ChiefMinister Shivraj Singh Chouhanto curb the menace of drugs inMadhya Pradesh, IndoreCollector Manish Singh onSunday suspended the licenses of6 pubs and bars. During theinspection of these bar, it wasfound that the youths below 21years were consuming the intox-icants.

Collector Manish Singh saidthat Indore administration willnot tolerate that youths fall inclutches of intoxicants. The pubsand bars were engaged in act ofdestroying the young generation.The pubs whose license are can-celled are Vidorra in palasia,Pitchers opposite of C 21 mall,

Drinx Exchange opposite C 21mall, TDS in Malhar mega mall,Kyro in Bhanvarkuan andShosha in bhamori Vijaynagar.

Singh on Sunday reviewedthe working of excise depart-ment Indore and instructedthem to seal the bars. Accordingto the notice issued by Indorecollector Singh the suspension ofthe bars is due to the irregular-ities that comes under MP exciseact 1915 section 31 (1) (k) for thepubs and bars functional for theyear 2020-21. The pubs andbars owners will not get any typeof benefit for the suspendedduration regarding the fees paidor in any other case. And if innear future again any irregular-ities are found in these pubs andbar the permission issued tothem will be permanently can-celled. The Collector also issuedorder to immediately close thesmoking zone in the bars as theadministration received the com-plaint that the drugs are con-sumed in form of smoking in

these pubs. Indore collectorManish Singh has given strictorders that any type of effort byanybody to initiate the habit ofconsumption of drugs in theyouths will be severely punished.Collector Manish Singh alsowarned the youths for theirunlawful presence in pubs andbar and they will be punished forthis.

Assistant commissionerexcise Indore Raj Narayan Sonitold The Pioneer that there arearound 85 bars in Indore districtand on the instruction of Indorecollector Manish Singh theinspections of the bars will con-tinue and also if any irregulari-ties including any type of dancefloors is found in any bars in nearfuture, with the pubs and bars theaction will also be taken againstthe concerned excise circle offi-cer of that area. The objective ofstate government and Indore col-lector Manish Singh is to dis-courage the youths for consum-ing intoxicants.

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Bhopal: Reeling under intensecold conditions temperature instate dipped to 3 degree Celsiuson Saturday, which was coldestof the season.

The northerly winds havemade weather chilling cold andwith the change in direction ofwind, little relief will be wit-nessed. Severe cold conditionsprevailed in the state as severalparts recorded below 5 degreeCelsius.The lowest night temperature

was recorded at 3 degree Celsiusin Umaria. State capital record-ed lowest of the season at 6.8degree Celsius while day tem-perature was recorded at 24.5degree Celsius. Met departmentissued warning of Shahdol divi-sion and Rewa, Panna andChattarpur districts would wit-ness cold wave conditions andwould cold day conditions Sidhiand Narsinghpur districts.

Continued on Page 3

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Page 2: press conference along with€¦ · press conference along withdoubt that “everything that Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday said there has been progress in talks with farmers

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Military film ‘Angels inUniform’ based on the

doctors and saviours of soldierswas screened here on Sundayat Shaurya Smarak.

The film was screenedunder the regular film screen-ings held at Shaurya Smarakevery day. The movies screenedhere are based on Indian Army,Navy and other armed forces.

A film on the sevices ren-dered by the personnel of theArmed Forces Medical Services.

The film also deals with therecruitment andtraining of doc-tors and nurses and the medicalassistants joining the ArmedForces Medical Services.

Armed Forces MedicalServices is the first tri-service(Army, Navy and Air Force)organization and one of thelargest organized medical ser-

vices in the country. It has stateof the art tertiary care hospitalsand speciality centres of excel-lence.

It provides medical supportto the Armed Forces duringwar as well as comprehensivehealth care to all service per-sonnel, ex-servicemen andtheir dependents during peace.Army Medical Corps providesmedical aid during naturalcalamities both at national andinternational levels.

Army Medical Corpspromises both professional andpersonal growth at every stageof the career.

In addition to the profes-sional growth and develop-ment, the adventure and extra-curricular activities in the ser-vice ensure an all round devel-opment essential for today'sworld.

The film is produced byFilms Division of India and isdirected by Ramesh Gupta.

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The festive season of temptingchocolates, cakes, pastries, won-

derful costumes, ‘Christmas’ is fewdays away and the State capital isgripped with the festive fever. TheBhopal markets are flooded with theshopaholics as they shop the best stufffrom the city market for the festival.

Due to Covid-19, the plannings andparties in city have been called off andsmall gatherings are encouraged. But, tocelebrate Christmas the market is deckedup with decoratives and chocolates.Bhopalites are visitng Malls and ChowkMarket to buy stuff for home this year.

A buyer Sanjana at chowk said,"Though 2020 was a tough year due toCovid-19, I hope Christmas will gosmooth." Another buyer said, "No mat-ter what the festival will be celebrat-ed with same enthusiasm."

Christmas is the time to bring outtree decors and hanging mistletoes.

Apart from giving people every reasonjust to start shopping again, this festiveseason also just got stylish and trendi-er. Like every festival, Bhopalites areset to make this Christmas even morememorable. Stores in the city give themperhaps more reasons to have a glitteryChristmas. With sales on the rise andalso the number of people celebratingChristmas in the city, store managersare definitely having a gala time.

With Christmas just few days away,families are shopping up a storm inpreparation for the big day. The storesof the State capital have over thousandsof varieties of decorative stuff for buy-ers to choose from. From Christmastrees to snowman stuffed toys, angels,decorative glittery balls, bead chains,lights, the Christmas star, crib set, reets,bells, gifts and many more. Christmastrees being sold at the store starting offwith affordable price range startinglowest from Rs 500 and highest from Rs3000.

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The Gandhi Nagar police have nabbed six mis-creants including two minor and a woman for sex-

ually assaulting a minor girl in the past two years;accused were nabbed on Saturday after girl revealedordeal in November.

Elder sister of girl sold her to Sameer at Rs 1500two years ago by sedating her and to fulfil her needs.The ordeal started two years ago, Sunil raped her andlater handed over her to Gaurav Tyagi alias Goldi whokept her at Ashray Homes lodged in shanti Nagar andsexually exploited her. Taking advantage of the situ-ation the owner of the lodge Gulab Singh and his twosons Shubham and Ankit also raped her. Gulabnephew who is minor also raped the accused.

The victim’s mother came to know about theatrocity and with the help of counselling victimrevealed the atrocity she faced. On Saturday complaintwas lodged with the police.Police registered case undersection 376(2)n, 376(3),190, 366A and 370(4) and sec-tion 5 of POCSO Act. The nabbed accused are GauravTyagi(25) of Tagore Ward, Gulab Mandloi(55) ofKurana, Shubham Mewada(23), Ankit Mewada(26)and one minor accused and victim’s elder sister.Absconding accused are searched by the police. Thecomplaint was lodged by victim’s parents who werenot aware of the act by their elder daughter.

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Chief Minister Shivraj SinghChouhan has said that pro-

viding employment to maxi-mum number of peoplethrough industrial develop-ment in the State is the StateGovernment highest priority.Prime Minister Modi turnedthe challenge of corona intoopportunity and pledged forAtmanirbhar Bharat. MadhyaPradesh will make maximumparticipation in fulfilling thisresolve.

All facilities will be madeavailable to the industries sothat the goal of AtmanirbharMadhya Pradesh can beachieved fast. Chief MinisterChouhan was addressing thegathering at the inauguration ofPipe and Plates and Coil man-ufacturing unit set up by theWelspun Group at JamuniaKhejda village near Diwanganjin Raisen district at a cost of Rs300 crores, 25 kms from Bhopalon Sunday. About 1500 peoplewill get direct and indirectemployment from this unit.

Chouhan said that employ-

ment of women in industrieswill be increased. For this, apolicy will be prepared afterholding a discussion withindustrialists. Our women arefully capable to work in suchplants. The state governmentwill seriously consider increas-ing the percentage of women’sparticipation in industries after

consultation with industrialists.Welcoming the move ofWelspun Group to employabout 50 percent women, hesaid that the group’s new plantwould become a good exampleof women’s participation.

The Chief Minister said thatJamunia region is the secondmost important industrial area of

??Raisen district. Earlierall industries were setup in Mandideep. Butwith industrial devel-opment of this areaparallel to Mandideep,other units will comeup in this new indus-trial estate. Some unitshave already been setup. There will be posi-tive changes in theeconomy of this entireregion. He said thatafter the invitation forinvestment given in theyear 2018, the WelspunGroup worked fast andtoday the plant is ready.Chief Minister ShriChouhan said that bet-ter arrangements forhealth, education and

employment will be made pos-sible for the people of this region.

He further said thatMadhya Pradesh will play anactive role in Prime MinisterShri Modi’s concept of makingIndia a destination for indus-trial establishment. TheGovernment of MadhyaPradesh is making Welspun

Group and similar industrialinstitutions partners in devel-opment. Chief MinisterChouhan said that during theCorona period, the road mapof Atmanirbhar MadhyaPradesh has been preparedand preparation has been madefor overall developmentthrough infrastructure, goodgovernance, health, educationand employment. The newunit of the Welspun Group isan important step towards ful-filling the resolve of atmanirb-har Madhya Pradesh. For this,this group deserves to be con-gratulated because this plantwas built in Jamunia in arecord time of two years.

Chouhan said that todayskill development is the mostimportant. One must be skill-ful which will help youth in get-ting employment. The decisionof this group to set up a sepa-rate unit in this village for skilldevelopment is commendable.Madhya Pradesh government isalso focusing on skill develop-ment. For this, an initiative hasbeen taken to start Global SkillPark in Bhopal.

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Chief Minister Shivraj SinghChouhan will virtually dis-

tribute interest-free loans of Rs10-thousand each under theChief Minister Rural PathVendor Scheme to about 20thousand street vendors onDecember 21. The programmewill be held at Minto Hallfrom 3 pm. Chief MinisterChouhan will also interactwith beneficiaries of some dis-tricts through video confer-encing in the programme.

The programme can beviewed through Facebook at /CMmadhyapradesh, /jansam-park.madhyapradesh, / pan-chayatandrural and via Twitter

at @cmmadhyapradesh,@jansamparkMP, @minprdd.Apart from this, one can reg-ister easily by entering mobilenumber on the websitewww.mp.mygov.in in order todirectly connect with the pro-gramme.

Interest-free loan of Rs10,000 each is made availableto small street vendors of fruits,vegetables, ice cream, bread,biscuits, eggs, shoes, sandals,brooms, bicycle repairing, car-penters, potters, weavers, wash-ermen, tailors etc under theChief Minister’s Rural PathVendors Scheme. Credit guar-antee is given by the state gov-ernment. There is no stamp

duty. Any rural path vendor inthe age group of 18 to 55 canavail this scheme.

'Kamgar Setu Portal' isbeing run by the MadhyaPradesh government to providebenefits easily to the benefi-ciaries under the scheme, onwhich more than 8.52 lakhbeneficiaries have been regis-tered so far. Out of these, loancases of more than 80,000 ben-eficiaries have already beenapproved and the loan amounthas been distributed to morethan 40,000 beneficiaries byChief Minister Chouhanthrough virtual programmeson September 24 andNovember 12.

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The Bhopal Crime Branchand Habibganj police nabbed

three members Sandalwoodstealing gang who were engagedin selling Sandalwood illegallyand recovered 50 kg of sandal-wood from their possession onSaturday.

Acting on a tip off regardingmiscreants police team nabbedthree miscreants and recoveredstolen Sandalwood from theirpossession.

The nabbed accused werediscussing to sell the Sandalwoodand were in search of customerwhen they were caught. Theythree were identified as AleemKhan (26) of Eitkhedi, SattarKhan (32) of Anand Nagar andAnees Khan (23) of Barrai. Twoof the gang members are still atlarge and search has been con-tinued to nab the miscreants.

After the preliminary inves-tigation the police have registereda case under section 379 of theIPC. Sattar has been booked byHabibganj and TT Nagar policefor theft and other crimes.Police

would check crime record detailsof the two, the three were work-ing as part of nexus still othermembers who are part of thenexus are absconding. Duringthe investigation, police haverecovered tools used to cut treesof Sandalwood.

Meanwhile, Bairagarh policehas nabbed a 27-year old youthand recovered a country-madepistol and one live cartridgefrom his possession late in theevening on Suatruday nearBorvan village. According tothe police, acting on a tip off , ayouth was nabbed and a coun-try made pistol and cartridgeswere recovered from him.

The miscreant was not ableto provide any details of keepingthe country made pistol legallyand was charged of keepingarm illegally. The accused wasidentified as Nitin Pawar ofRahul Nagar Bairagarh.Afterthe preliminary investigation,the police have registered a caseunder sections 25 and 27 of theArms Act and have started inves-tigation to unearth the networkof supply and demand.

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Govindpura police havebooked a 25-year-old man

for sexually assaulting his stepmother in the evening onSaturday; accused son escapedspot and is still at large.

Police said that the accusedwas came heavily drunk andraped his step mother andescaped the spot.

The victim marriedaccused’s father and has two chil-dren from the marriage and usedto live with the family. Threeyears ago her second husbanddied and accused who was fromthe first marriage started to liveat another house but continuedto visit home. The accused wasinvolved in wrong doings andheavily addicted to liquor. OnSaturday accused came heavilydrunk and raped the victim.

The accused was sexuallyassaulted and when victim alert-ed the locals accused escaped thespot. In her complaint the victimtold the police that the accusedused to molest her and onSaturday she was sexuallyassaulted. After the preliminaryinvestigation the police haveregistered a case under section376 and have started furtherinvestigation.

Police said that the victimused to work as domestic help tomeet her ends.

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ACyclothan was organizedby the Department of

Sports and Youth Welfare in thecapital Bhopal on Sunday.

It was held under the FitIndia campaign, in which largenumber of boys and girls,sports coaches, officers,employees, police and securi-ty guards participated enthusi-astically.The Director Generalof Police, Vivek Johri, flaggedoff the Cyclothan at 7:30 am onthe Red Parade Ground.

About 15 km from LalParade to TT Nagar Stadium,this cyclothan started from LalParade Ground, which isthrough the Kali Mandir, MotiMasjid, Royal Market, Hamidia

Hospital, Old Secretariat,Lalghati intersection, V.I.PRoad, Kamla Park, PolytechnicSquare, Banganga Square,Hotel Palash, RangmahalSquare reached the stadiumwhere it ended.

Addressing the inauguralprogramme, Director General ofPolice Vivek Johri said that fit-ness is essential for every person.Expressing happiness over theCyclothan event, he appreciatedthe Cyclothan program orga-nized by the Sports Departmentunder the Fit India programme.DGP Johri extended his bestwishes to all the participants par-ticipating in Cyclothan.

In the programme,Director Sports and YouthWelfare, Pawan Kumar Jain

said that Covid 19 period hastaught us how to improve ourhealth and keep ourselves fit.He said that the world is grap-

pling with the problem of coro-na and contaminated environ-ment today, which can besolved through cycles. While

running a cycle increasesimmunity, it is very helpful inkeeping the environment clean.

Additional Chief SecretaryMr. ICP Kesari, CommissionerUrban Administration Mr.Nikunj Srivastava, ADG VijayKataria, ADG DC Sagar,Commandant Mr. TarunNayak, CEO Smart City Mr.Aditya Singh, DIG Irshad Valiand other officials, sportscoaches and sportspersonswere present on the occasion.

Senior officials along withsportspersons, sports coachesand citizens also participated inthe Fit India campaign bycycling. These includedAdditional Chief Secretary ICPKesari, Commissioner UrbanAdministration Nikunj

Shrivastava, ADG VijayKataria, ADG DC Sagar,Commandant Tarun NaikDirector Sports and YouthWelfare Pawan Kumar Jainand other officials.

Arjuna Awardee andOlympian Jaspal Rana, MansherSingh, Rajinder Singh, GLYadav and other sports coach-es, members of Green PlanetBicycle Rider Association andGolf Club, SSB, Home Guardsand Police personnel cycled inthis campaign.

On this occasion, planta-tion drive was also held. Theplayer of the TriathlonAcademy, who completed the15 km Cyclothan in the short-est time, was awarded with amemento.

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A32-year-old man was found dead under suspicious circumstancesat BHEL children park gate in the morning on Sunday, police

suspect that the deceased was poisoned.The deceased, identified asSandeep Agrekar was rushed to the hospital where he was declareddead. Police were informed regarding the death and whether he tookpoison or he was killed, is a matter of investigation, said police.Afterthe investigation body was sent for the post mortem and a case undersection 174 of the CrPC was registered.The deceased was a residentof Ambedkar Nagar and further investigations are under investi-gation.The area remained deserted and in the morning no one wit-nessed the deceased. He was found dead near gate no. 6 of BHELchildren park.

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Chief Minister Shivraj SinghChouhan has said that for-

est rights pattas will be given totribal families occupying forestland before 2006. No one’sland will be submerged in theSeep river irrigation project,and water will reach the fieldsthrough pipes from the project.By next year, 20,000 acres ofland of 24 villages will get irri-gation facility through the Rs175 crore Seep river irrigationproject.

Chouhan was distributingforest rights pattas to tribalfamilies in Bhilai village ofNasrullaganj tehsil in Sehoredistrict today. Forest rightspattas were distributed to 1216beneficiaries in the pro-gramme. Forest rights weregiven to the forest dwellers of

Ichawar, Ashta, Nasrullaganjand Budhni.

Animal HusbandryMinister Prem Singh Patel,MP Ramakant Bhargav, RajyaSabha Member Sumer SinghSolanki etc. were present in theprogramme.

Chief Minister ShivrajSingh Chouhan said that SaiPrasad Company will not bespared as it has not given com-pensated the farmers for theirland. The assets of the compa-ny have been confiscated andthis property will be sold toprovide compensation to thefarmers. He instructed the col-lector to take immediate action.

Chief Minister Chouhanassured the tribal families thatall of them will be providedconcrete houses under thePradhan Mantri and MukhyaMantri Awas Yojana and thatthey need not worry. KisanSamman Nidhi will also begiven to all the families gettingforest rights pattas along withall government schemes. Nopoor person will go hungry.

Chouhan announced that

a magnificent Dharamshala ofBarla Samaj will be built inNasrullaganj tehsil headquar-ters in honour of tribals. Hecalled upon all families to edu-cate their children. All thearrangements from fees to edu-cation will be made by theirShivraj Mama.

Chief Minister Chouhansaid that the honor of forestdwellers will be protected at allcosts. “The previous govern-ments exploited you, but I andmy government will provideevery possible facility, includ-ing roads, forest pattas, schools,irrigation in every village.” Hetalked about forming maxi-mum number of self-helpgroups for empowerment oftribal women and providingthem financial assistance frombanks by training them accord-ing to their interest.

People who violate therights of tribals, force them intoreligious conversion, and harassthe tribal women will not bespared. There is no place formafia and miscreants in thestate.

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Writer’s Unplugged theworld's first live reality

show for writers held. It wasorganised by Kalaa Kebab aurKisse.

It started as a competitionamong writing communitiesand then evolved as a realityshow. This show is divided intotwo chapters - Hindi and Englishrespectively. This show has var-ious rounds in which variouschallenges will be given to thewriters and they will be marked

on what they have written. TheEnglish chapter was online fromthe Facebook page and Youtubechannel of Kalaa Kebab aurKisse on Saturday and was alsoaired on Sunday. Notably, this isthe third round of the competi-tion in which participants haveto rewrite an already existingstory from the perspective of animportant non living objectfrom the story.

In the previous rounds ,more than 200 writers partic-ipated , and only TOP16 couldmake it up to round 3 of the

competition. These partici-pants were divided into 4 tribesin both the chapters.

In Hindi chapter the tribeswere Gulzar, Rahat, Faraz andNirala and in English chapter, the tribes are Skyhawks, hus-tlers, titans and slayers.

The next round of theHindi Chapter is scheduled togo live on December 8 and 92020.Kalaa Kebeb aur Kisse isa customized platform forartists , where we empathizewith the artist and empower theart that the artist creates.

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Mobile phone accessoriesworth lakhs of rupees

and cash were stolen from amobile shop at Bus standsquare Hamidia road onSaturday, CCTV footages ofnearby shops are investigatedby police.

Police said the victimOmprakash Devnani lodged acomplaint regarding of bur-glary of mobile phones acces-sories and cash from his mobileshop. In his complaint the vic-tim stated that he operatedmobile store shop and in themorning when he went toopen the shop the lock wasfound broken and on enteringthe mobile phones accessorieswere found burgled.

After the victim found bur-glary of mobile phones acces-sories the victim approachedpolice to lodge a complaint.

The shop was not havingany CCTV camera and nearbyshops installed CCTV cameras

which would be investigated inthe further investigation.

Based on the complaint thepolice have registered a caseunder sections 457 and 380 ofthe IPC and have started fur-ther investigation. The nearbyshopkeepers and habitualoffenders of the area would bequizzed in the investigation.Meanwhile, jewellery worthRs 50000 were burgled fromHousing Board Colony underNishatpura police station areaon Saturday. Police said that thevictim Barqat Ali had gone forsome work and when hereturned valuables were foundburgled.

A complaint was lodged bythe victim with the Nishatpurapolice and in his complaint, hestated that he had gone forsome work during which thehouse was targeted by miscre-ants and escaped with valu-ables. After he returned housesilver and gold jewelry werefound burgled. The total loss inthe burglary was claimed to bearound Rs 50000.

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From Page 1Rewa, Umaria and

Jabalpur districts witnessed

cold wave condition onSunday. The day temperaturewould be recorded at 24 andnight temperature at 8 degreeCelsius.

A Western Disturbanceexists as a cyclonic transmis-sion over Jammu andKashmir Ladakh and sur-rounding areas. Weather islikely to remain dry in

Madhya Pradesh till nextweek end.

There is a possibility of agradual increase of mini-mum and maximum tem-perature of 2-3 degreesCelsius in Madhya Pradeshduring the next 48 hours.

Cold day is not likely toprevail in north-western

Madhya Pradesh during thenext 3 days.

The prevailing cold waveand severe cold wave situationin Northwest MadhyaPradesh is expected to fadeaway by Monday. Strong windis likely to prevail 10-20 kmphin parts of North MadhyaPradesh during the next 24hours.

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In a shocking incident, a pick-up vehicle driver tried to

crush people with his vehicleinside a hospital near BasaiChowk late on Friday nightafter a domestic fuel betweenthe two groups.

The entire incident wascaptured on CCTV camerasinstalled at the incident spot.The video of the incident laterwent viral on social media.

The pickup driver alsodamaged an ambulance andfive bikes which were stationedoutside the hospital premisesincluding the hospital's medicalstore. An FIR in this regard wasfiled on Saturday.

The accused vehicle driverhas been identified as VikasJoon of Dhankot village inGurugram.

According to the police,Balwan Singh, the director ofShri Balaji Hospital located atBasai Chowk, told the policethat on Friday late night, twowomen and two men came tohis hospital due to someinjuries and he assumed that acause behind the injuries werefighting between two groups.

"When the injured peoplewere undergoing treatmentinside the hospital two of theirfamily members were talking tosomeone standing outside thehospital. Shortly thereafter, aspeeding pick-up vehicle drivercame and tried to crush thefamily members of the injuredstanding outside the hospital

but they luckily escaped unhurtand ran inside the hospital tosave themselves," Singh told thepolice.

At this, the pickup driverturned the vehicle back andrammed the vehicle of thehospital and a medical storeand attempted to take the pick-up truck into the hospitalpremises.

The vehicle driver report-edly attempted to take thevehicle inside the hospitalpremises about 8 times.

The pickup driver severe-ly damaged an ambulanceparked outside the hospital, themedical store outside the hos-pital, and damaged 5 bikes.Para medical staff was presentin the medical store during theincident which escaped unhurt.

Later the hospital staffinformed the owner of thehospital about the incident,who reached the spot andinformed the police about theentire incident.

"The entire incident wascaptured in a CCTV camerainstalled at the incident spot.The actual reason behind theincident will be cleared oncethe accused driver will bearrested but it seems like somedomestic issues between thetwo groups behind the inci-dent. A case of negligence dri-ving and other various sectionsof the IPC was registeredagainst the vehicle driver atSector-9A police station," saidBijender Singh, station houseofficer (SHO) of the police sta-tion.

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Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) seniorleader and national spokesper-

son Raghav Chadha on Sundayhas been assigned additionalresponsibility of the Party's PunjabUnit’s Co-Incharge. The announce-ment was made Sunday by partyconvener Arvind Kejriwal.

On being appointed the Co-Incharge of the AAP’s Punjab unit,Chadha thanked Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal, “I would like tothank party national convenerArvind Kejriwal for instilling suchconfidence in me. As Co-incharge ofthe Party’s Punjab Unit, I will givemy blood and sweat to this positionand hope to do my bit in furtheringthe party’s position in Punjab. Indiais an agrarian country and whenev-er it comes to agriculture Punjabstands at the forefront. Our focus willbe to make Punjab a truly prosper-ous and golden state,” he said.

Asserting the party's position tomake Punjab a state to reckon with,

Chadha said, “Punjab is goingthrough challenging times. Ourfocus in the State will be on educa-tion and prosperity. It pains me tosee how the youth of Punjab is spoil-ing its future by getting sucked intothe vicious cycle of drugs andunemployment. Farmers have beenfacing severe problems as well. I takeit as my personal responsibility tochange these circumstances, and amcertain the AAP in Punjab will suc-ceed in making the State green,happy and prosperous.”

“The ordinary citizen in Punjabis tired and angry with the BJP,Congress and Akali Dal. Each ofthese parties has cheated innocentfarmers. In such a precarious situ-ation, the presence of Chadha isexpected to increase the confidenceof AAP Punjab Unit manifold,” theparty said in a statement.

As Vice Chairman of Delhi JalBoard, Chadha has also played animportant role in realising Kejriwal’sdream of delivering clean water toeach house in Delhi.

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Religious conversion by forceor fraud in Himachal

would invite more stringentpunishment of upto seven yearsin jail with Himachal PradeshFreedom of Religion Act, 2019coming into force in the state.

The Himachal PradeshFreedom of Religion Act, 2019which was passed by the StateAssembly last year has beennotified by the state HomeDepartment. It replaces a 2006law that has been repealed bythe assembly.

“In exercise of powers con-ferred by sub-section (2)Section I of Himachal PradeshFreedom of Religious Act 2019,the Governor HimachalPradesh is pleased to appointthe 18th day of December2020, the date from which theprovisions of the aforesaid Actshall come into force, the noti-fication stated.

The law comes into force atthe time when many BJP ruledstates are mulling to introducesuch laws to prevent cases of‘love jihad’ , a term coined byright wing for Hindu girlsbeing allegedly forced to con-vert to Islam in the guise ofmarriage.

The BJP ruled states ofHaryana and Uttar Pradeshhave expressed their intentionto bring a law against ‘lovejihad’.

The Himachal PradeshFreedom of Religion Act, 2019prohibits conversion by mis-representation, force, undueinfluence, coercion, induce-ment, marriage or any fraudu-lent means.

Any marriage for the solepurpose of conversion will alsobe declared null and void underSection 5 of the Act.

All offences under the Actare cognizable and non-bail-able. The violator can be pun-ished with a prison term rang-ing from one to five years,along with a fine. In case thevictim is a minor, woman ormember of a Scheduled Casteor Tribe, the imprisonmentmay extend upto seven years.Failure to declare the conver-sion in advance can also resultin an imprisonment of upto

two years.According to the Act, “no

person shall convert or attemptto convert, either directly orotherwise, any other personfrom one religion to another byuse of misrepresentation, force,undue influence, coercion,inducement or by any fraudu-lent means or by marriage; norshall any person abet or con-spire such conversion”. TheAct does not cover a person re-converting to his “parent reli-gion”.

As per the Act, anyone whowishes to convert to any otherreligion will give a declarationto the district authorities atleast one month in advance,specifying that one is doing soas per his/her “own volition orfree consent”. In fact, even thepriest who performs the con-version ceremony has toinform the authorities at leastone month in advance.

The district magistrate willthen conduct an inquiryregarding the “intention, pur-pose and cause of proposedconversion”. The conversionwill be rendered illegal if theauthorities are not informed inadvance, as per the Act.

Notably, the oppositionhad supported the HimachalPradesh Freedom of ReligionBill, 2019, in the StateAssembly and the legislationwas passed unanimously witha voice vote in August last year.

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Thirty-eight “martyr” farmers, who losttheir lives during the ongoing agitation

against the Centre’s three farm acts, werepaid rich tributes at nearly 400 places inPunjab on Sunday, with the farmers’unions pledging not to draw back till thetime three “black” laws were repealed.

Even as the farmers’ leaders, holdingthe fort in the national capital, declared tofurther intensify their agitation against thestruggle at an all India level, the farmersprotesting back home in Punjab maintainedthat every effort would be made to ensurethat the agitation, which has turned into amass movement, would not shrivel.

The farmers unions are planning tosend more jathas (groups) to the protest-ing site at Delhi borders, having morestrength of the womenfolk and children, tofurther pressurize the Centre.

“We would be sending the convoysof farmers from across Punjab…Farmerswill to travel to Delhi. Farmers, across theState, are outraged over the apathetic atti-tude adopted by the Union Government.We will also ensure to enhance the par-ticipation of women from Punjab in thecoming days at Delhi borders,” saidBhartiya Kisan Union, Ekta-Dakonda’sgeneral secretary Jagmohan Singh Patiala.

He said that a large convoy of BKU(Dakonda) would leave for Delhi onDecember 22 from Sultanpur-Lodhi(Kapurthala), with many more to follow.

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The Pakistan-sponsored TheResistance Front (TRF), a

terror group floated by theJaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), hassaid police is its prime target inJammu & Kashmir and next onthe radar is the Government.

The TRF self-styled com-mander Irfan in a statementsaid, “The war we have wagedis in particular against theState Police because they areour real enemies and then theoccupying India.”

While urging his familymembers not to trace him, heexhorted the youth of Kashmir,especially those from Srinagar tobe ready for the so-called jehad.

The TRF statement furtherextended assurance that thosewho had recently met Irfanshould also be ready for actionas part of the self styledLiberation army of TRF.

TRF’s Irfan also sought toexpress solidarity with hisneighbour Peoples DemocraticParty (PDP) leader HajiParveez who had recently cir-culated a video in which he

claimed that Kashmiri armedfighters came to target him.

“But that is not the fact. Wehave nothing to do withParveez. If we had to targethim, it was quite easy. I saw himearly in the morning and Iwished him, so there was noquestion of him as our target.But, yes, the guards of state

police which accompaniedParveez were our target.Unfortunately there was only(policeman) one present at thespot when we targeted him,”the outfit said.

The JeM had late last yearfloated the TRF in order to pro-ject the Pakistan-sponsoredterrorism as a home grown

jehad and help Islamabad indenying its role for terrorism inIndia, sources said.

Post the Balakot strikesand Indian agencies’ bid toeliminate the JeM bossMaulana Masood Azharthrough poisonous injection bya set of compromised doctorsof the Pak military medicalcorps, the outfit has been dis-tancing itself from being seenas the key terror player in theregion, they added.

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Refusing to give up, theIndian Medical Association

(IMA) has moved the SupremeCourt against a CentralCouncil of Indian Medicine(CCIM) order to authorisepostgraduate practitioners inspecified streams of Ayurvedasystem of medicine to betrained to perform general sur-gical procedures.

“The petition was filed onSaturday to urge the court to setaside or quash the amend-ment to regulations to thePostgraduate Ayurveda Surgeryby CCIM and declare that thecouncil does not have the pow-ers to include modern medi-cine in syllabus,” IMA presidentDr Rajan Sharma said.

The move has drawn a lot ofcriticism from doctors of mod-ern medicine, leading to a seriesof protests by IMA membersacross the country this month.

Lakhs of doctors, including

those employed in governmenthospitals, wore black armbandsat work and hit the streets insmall groups to agitate againstthe CCIM`s notification.

The Central Governmenthad allowed PG students ofAyurveda to perform variouskinds of general surgery andmedical procedures, includingorthopaedic, ophthalmology,

ENT and dental, by notifyingan amendment in a gazettenotification the CCIM issued inNovember.

The latest amendmentallows PG Ayurveda studentsto receive formal training forsuch procedures. The trainingmodules for surgical proce-dures will be added to the cur-riculum of Ayurvedic studies.

The CCIM amended theIndian Medicine CentralCouncil (PostgraduateAyurveda Education)Regulations, 2016, to includethe aforementioned regulationto allow the PG students ofAyurveda system to practicegeneral surgery.

The IMA has been openlyopposing such policy moves bythe Centre, especially the plan tomix modern medicine with thetraditional systems of Ayurveda,Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani,Siddha, and Homoeopathy(AYUSH) in coming years.

Sharma had earlier saidthat an integrative system ofmedicine would create a“khichdi medical system” andproduce hybrid doctors.

The apex body of privatepractitioners of modern med-icine had also condemned theCentre’s ambitious “one nationone system” policy in medicaleducation and called it a cock-tail of disaster.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi madea surprise visit to Gurdwara Rakab

Ganj on Sunday and paid tributes toGuru Teg Bahadur, the ninth Sikhguru, for his supreme sacrifice.

Guru Teg Bahadur, whose deathanniversary was observed on Saturday,was cremated at Gurudwara RakabGanj. Modi offered prayers during hisvisit to the gurudwara for which nopolice bandobast or traffic barriers were put in place to restrictmovement of the common man, officialsources said.

The Prime Minister tweeted afterhis visit, “This morning, I prayed at thehistoric Gurdwara Rakab Ganj Sahib,where the pious body of Sri Guru TegBahadur Ji was cremated. I felt extreme-ly blessed. I, like millions around theworld, am deeply inspired by the kind-nesses of Sri Guru Teg Bahadur Ji.”

He also tweeted in Punjabi andnoted that the Guru gave the supremesacrifice while defending Hindu religion

and spread the message of universalbrotherhood.

Hailed in religious traditions as adefender of Hindus and Sikhs, Guru TegBahadur was executed by the Mughalsfor defying them.

In another tweet, Modi said, “It isthe special Kripa of the Guru Sahibs thatwe will mark the special occasion of the400th Parkash Parv of Sri Guru TegBahadur Ji during our Government’stenure. Let us mark this blessed occa-sion in a historic way and celebrate theideals of Sri Guru Teg Bahadur Ji.”

The PM’s visit to one of the mostpopular gurdwaras among the devoteesin the national capital assumes signif-icance as it comes amid intense protestsby farmers, especially from Punjab,against the three farm laws enacted byhis Government.

Modi has been at pains to explainthe benefits of farm reforms and oftenassured farmers that the existing gov-ernment mechanism to support them,including minimum support price andagriculture mandis, will continue.

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The Union Health Ministryhas called an urgent meet-

ing of its Joint MonitoringGroup on Monday to discussthe emergence of a mutatedvariant of the coronavirus in theUK, which has led to a surge inthe infection rate there.

A number of Europeancountries have banned flightsfrom the UK as the BritishGovernment warned that thepotent new strain of the viruswas “out of control” andimposed a stringent new stay-at-home lockdown from Sunday.

“The Joint MonitoringGroup (JMG) chaired by theDirector General of HealthServices (DGHS) will hold ameeting on Monday morningto discuss the issue of themutated variant of the coron-avirus reported from the UK.WHO’s India representativeDr Roderico H Ofrin, who isalso a member of the JMG, islikely to participate in themeeting,” a source told PTI.

A surge in the infectionrate caused by the new variantof the coronavirus has led tomillions entering a stringent

new stay-at-home lockdown inthe UK from Sunday, withnon-essential shops and busi-nesses now closed.

UK Prime Minister BorisJohnson announced the newrules at a briefing from 10Downing Street on Saturdayevening, which means a plannedfive-day “Christmas bubble” ofrelaxed rules has been cancelledin favour of a new Tier 4 levelto the current three-tier lock-down system to try and controlthe surge in infections beingcaused by the new mutation ofthe deadly virus.

“It seems that the spread isnow being driven by the newvariant of the virus,” Johnsonsaid. “We have alerted theWorld Health Organisationand are continuing to analysethe available data to improveour understanding,” saidProfessor Chris Whitty, theChief Medical Officer forEngland.

“There is no current evi-dence to suggest the new straincauses a higher mortality rateor that it affects vaccines andtreatments although urgentwork is underway to confirmthis,” he said.

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The current spell of cold waveconditions over Northwest

and Central India is likely toabate from December 22.

However, it is expected tocontinue over Uttar Pradesh,Bihar, western parts ofGangetic West Bengal and inte-rior Odisha till December 23.

The India MeteorologicalDepartment (IMD) on Sundaypredicted that there will be agradual rise by 2-3 degree celsiusin minimum and maximum

temperature by two to three-degree Celsius over plains ofnorthwest and adjoining centralIndia during the next 48 hours.

While the current spell ofcold wave conditions overnorthwest and adjoining cen-tral India will abate fromMonday, the condition alongwith dense to very dense fogwill continue over a few placesover east Uttar Pradesh and iso-lated places till December 23.

Ground frost is very likelyat isolated places over Jammuand Kashmir, Ladakh, Gilgit-Baltistan, Muzaffarabad,Himachal Pradesh,Uttarakhand, Punjab,

Haryana, Chandigarh andDelhi, Uttar Pradesh and northRajasthan along with strongsurface wind (speed reaching10-20 kmph) over parts ofNorthwest and adjoining Indo-Gangetic plains during next 24hours, the IMD said. The IMD

said that Cold Day to SevereCold Day Conditions areobserved at a few places overnorth Uttar Pradesh and at iso-lated places over Bihar.

Punjab, Haryana,Chandigarh & Delhi and

Rajasthan are showing eitherno change or rise by 1-2 inmaximum temperatures duringpast 24 hours thereby causingfurther relief from ongoingSevere Cold Day Conditionsover these regions.

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As BJP has intensified it’s‘awareness campaign’

around the three new contro-versial farm laws, PrimeMinister Narendra Modi is tohave a virtual meet with thefarmers of Uttar Pradesh on thebirth anniversary of formerPrime Minister Atal BihariVajpayee on December 25.

Farmers agitation on theoutskirts of Delhi for scrappingfarm laws has entered 21stday. The NDA allies inRajasthan — RashtriyaLoktantrik Party (RLP) — indi-cated its plan to exit the allianceover the Central Laws after itschief and MP from Nagaur,Hanuman Beniwal announcedhis resignation from three dif-ferent committees ofParliament.

In his outreach to farmers,Modi has been accusing theOpposition of “misleading”farmers on the farm laws, the“mandi-system” and MinimumSupport Price. The PM hasasserted these will continuedespite the new contract farm-ing which has come into effectin last six months.

In the continuation of his“virtual dialogue” with thefarmers, Modi will have inter-action with the farmers of UPon December 25.

The BJP is currently under-

taking its “awareness” cam-paign over 700 districts in thecountry around village “chau-pals”, according to the party.

Central Ministers are partof the programme which main-ly includes dispelling doubtsabout three farm laws, contractfarming and assuring farmersthat the “mandi-system” and theMSP will not be discontinued.

The BJP will hold “kisansamvad” at over 2,500 places inUttar Pradesh.

UP BJP presidentSwatantra Dev Singh and partyleader Radha Mohan Singh,

who is also State-in-charge,held a virtual meeting in thisregard with party office-bear-ers from parts of the UP. RadhaMohan Singh charged theOpposition parties withspreading lies regarding thenew farm laws.

Thousands of farmers,especially Sikhs from Punjaband from Haryana, have beenprotesting at Delhi bordersagainst the Farmers(Empowerment andProtection) Agreement of PriceAssurance and Farm ServicesAct, 2020; the Farmers Produce

Trade and Commerce(Promotion and Facilitation)Act, 2020; and the EssentialCommodities (Amendment)Act 2020.

The stand-off between theagitating farmers and theCentre is refusing to end withthe farmers demanding com-plete roll-back of farm laws andthe Government seeking themto walk mid-way and be satis-fied with key amendmentswhich Central Ministers arereportedly agreeing to in asmany as five-rounds of talksbetween the two sides.

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The body of a Central Reserved PoliceForce (CRPF) personnel was found

hanging from a tree in Shamli district ofUttar Pradesh in a suspected case of sui-cide, police said on Sunday.

Rajeev, a CRPF jawan, was on leavefrom work and had come to his nativeplace in Kandhla area of the district five

days ago, according to officials.“He hanged himself from a tree on

Saturday evening. The cause behind himtaking the extreme step is yet to be ascer-tained,” the local police said in a statement.

The police said prima facie it is a caseof suicide and an investigation has beenlaunched into the matter.

The body has been sent for post-mortem, the police added.

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The chargesheet filed by theSpecial Investigation

Team(SIT) probing the allegedforgery of documents to defameCardinal George Alencherry,head of Catholic Church in theState against three priests and amember of the laity before aKochi Court on Friday hasgiven rise to more suspicionsamong the believers.

Various wings of the Churchare of the view that extremistorganizations have managed toinfiltrate into the Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese headedby the Cardinal and are influ-encing the decision makingprocess.

The allegations against the75-year-old Cardinal includeillegal dealings in the sale of landbelonging to the Archdiocese.

The probe by the SIT of theKerala Police found that the doc-uments submitted by a group ofthree priests that include AntonyKallookkaran, Paul Thelekkat,Benny John Maramparambiland Adithya Z Valavi fromKochi (a post graduate in engi-neering who reportedly fabri-cated the documents at theinstance of the above men-tioned priests) were fake.

While the priests had man-aged to escape arrest by availinganticipatory bail, Adithya wasarrested by the police and thisled to some members of the laitycoming out in the open ques-tioning the stance of the Churchin the episode.

The SIT probe was based ona complaint by the Archdiocesethat some of the senior priestshad forged documents to tarnishthe image of the Cardinal. The

four accused have been slappedwith charges of criminal con-spiracy, forgery, forgery for thepurpose of cheating, fraudu-lently use as genuine a forgeddocument, forgery for the pur-pose of harming reputation,cheating and causing disap-pearance of evidence of theIPC.

“There are enough evi-dences to suggest that thesethree priests and some others aresupporting the jihadi elements.We have seen these three priestswith Jihadi links staging demon-strations over non-issues,” saidJaison Mazhuvancherry, a laityleader from Pulluvazhi.

A spokesperson of theChristian Action for SocialAction (CASA), an umbrellaorganisation fighting for therights of the community, saidthey were worried over the

presence of Islamic extremistactivists and leaders in some ofthe rallies and demonstrationsstaged by the laity. “TheseJehadis took part in these ralliesin large numbers. There areenough reasons for us to worryover their motives. Besides thethree priests mentioned in thecharge-sheet, there are morepersons behind the conspiracy,”he said.

He also pointed out thatwhen some nuns staged a sit-inin front of the Kerala HighCourt demanding the immedi-ate arrest of Bishop FrancoMulakkal, head of the JalandharDiocese, on charges of molesta-tion of a nun, various Islamicextremist organisations hadtaken part in the demonstration.“The allegations against BishopFranco Mulakkal are yet to beproved. But the enthusiasm of

these outsiders remains a mys-tery,” said Kevin Peter, president,CASA. He said there wasenough documentary evidencesuggesting that the allegationsagainst the Cardinal and theBishop were fake.

The priests named in theSIT charge-sheet were in theforefront against the agitationdemanding the arrest of theBishop, pointed out Jaison. “Aperson should be treated as likeany other human being till it isproved that he has committed acrime. We should not play withsomebody’s life,” he said.

The sale of Deepika, aMalayalam newspaper ownedby the Church to an Islamicextremist had caused majorresentment among the laity andthe management had to make ahasty retreat and buy back thesame.

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ACentral Reserve Police Force (CRPF)trooper was injured in a militant

attack in J&K's Anantnag district onSunday, police said. Militants hurled agrenade at a party of the security forces inAchabal area of Anantnag in the evening.

“One CRPF jawan sustained splinterinjuries in this attack. He has been shiftedto hospital for treatment. “The area hasbeen surrounded for searches,” a police offi-cer said.

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The daily Covid-19 deathtally jumped to 98 and the

infections dropped to 3811 onSunday, even a relatively low2064 patients weredischarged from various hos-

pitals after full recovery fromthe pandemic.

A day after the infectedcases went down to 3,940 anddeaths slid to 74 inMaharashtra on Saturday, thedeaths went up by 24, whileinfections came down by 129 inthe state.

With 98 new deaths, thetotal deaths in the state rosefrom 48,648 to 48746.

Similarly, with 2811 freshinfections, total infectionsclimbed from 18,92,707 to18,96,518.

As 2064 patients were dis-charged from the hospitalsacross the state after full recov-ery, the total number of peopledischarged from the hospitals since the second weekof March this year rose to17,65,905.

The recovery rate in thestate dropped marginally fromcent to 94.14 per cent to 94.06per cent/.

With 16 new deaths, theCovid-19 toll in Mumbai rosefrom 10980 to 10,960, while theinfected cases went up by 586to trigger a jump in the infec-tions from 2,86,264 to 2,86,850.

Meanwhile, the number of“active cases” total cases in thestate rose from 61095 to 62743..The fatality rate in the statestood at 2.57 per cent

Pune district, which con-tinued to be the worst-affectedcity-district in Maharashtra,saw the total number of casesincrease from 3,66,319 to366,957 while the total numberof deaths in Pune increasedfrom 7675 to 7682.

Thane district remainedin the third spot --after Puneand Mumbai – after the totalnumber of infections rose from2,49,883 to 2,50,285 while thetotal deaths climbed from 5481to 5495.

Of the 1,21, 19,196, sam-ples sent to laboratories,18,95,518 have tested positive(15.65 per cent) for COVID-19until Sunday.

Currently, 5,02, 362 peopleare in home quarantine while3730 people are in institution-al quarantine.

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The victim’s family is expect-ing justice very soon after

the filing of the chargesheet.The victim's brother said thatjustice has begun. When theaccused will be punished, onthat day they will get completejustice, only then they willimmerse the remains of his sis-ter.

Before this, they demand-ed a DNA test of the bones tofind out whose bones are those.The victim's brother said thathe did not demand the CBIinquiry, but the relatives of theaccused demanded. Truth haswon today. CBI has filed acharge sheet based on what

happened. He said that what-ever had happened, from thefirst day, he has told the policeand CBI the same. The CBIstrictly interrogated him andhis relatives and even accusedhim of killing his sister buttoday truth came in front ofeverybody. The victim's broth-er said that there will be noimmersion of the bones untilthey will get justice.

Brother of the victimdemands that the governmentshould hear this case in thecourt of Delhi. He told thatadvocate Seema Kushwaha ishelping them, and he is confi-dent that he will get justice. Hefurther demanded from thegovernment for the transfer of

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We all welcome theHonourable Prime

Minister of India, ShriNarendra Modi Ji to be a partof Aligarh Muslim University(AMU) centenary celebrations,and sincerely hope that hispresence will help in the quan-tum jump in the overall auton-omy and development of theinstitution,” stated a AMUTeachers' Association(AMUTA) resolution, pleas-antly welcoming the accep-tance of the Prime Minister tobe the Chief Guest in a cente-nary celebration programmevia video link.

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After the successful conductof the eight phase long dis-

trict development council polls,which recorded over 50 percentvoter turnout in Jammu andKashmir, all eyes are now set onthe performance of the candi-dates belonging to theBharatiya Janta Party and thePeople's Alliance for GupkarDeclaration (PAGD).

Ahead of the counting ofvotes on December 22,Lieutenant Governor, ManojSinha Sunday congratulatedthe people of Jammu andKashmir and the electionmachinery for the successfulconduct of DistrictDevelopment Council (DDC)and Panchayat Elections in theUnion Territory.

“ Despite harsh weatherconditions, the polling stationsacross the UT witnessed longqueues of enthusiastic votersand people came out to vote inlarge numbers, with the voterturnout percentage even in the

traditionally low percentageareas registering manifoldincrease as compared to earli-er held Parliamentary elec-tions, which itself manifeststhat faith of the people ofJammu and Kashmir in thedemocratic process has deep-ened”, he added.

He further said that withthe culmination of DDC elec-tions, the people of J&K will,for the first time in history, seea truly empowered grass rootdemocracy entailing directfunding and decentralizeddecision making in the plan-ning and development of ruralareas.

Compared to the Kashmirregion, where voter turnoutbetween 35 to 40 percent wasrecorded, the Jammu regionrecorded 65 to 70 percentpolling.

Among all other politicalparties in the fray the BharatiyaJanta Party ran a high voltagecampaign centered around theperformance of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi. The entire

poll campaign was micro man-aged by the core group of theparty to ensure victory fortheir party candidates.

BJP is also hoping to wina majority of seats in Jammuregion as West Pakistanirefugees, members of theValmiki community andGorkha community partici-pated in the polls for the firsttime. In Kashmir valley, partyis expected to improve its tallyby making inroads in severalpockets of central and NorthKashmir. Inside reportsclaimed, BJP may end up win-ning around 10-14 seats across10 districts of Kashmir valleywhile it is expected to winmajority seats across six dis-tricts of Jammu region.

On the other hand, PAGDis expected to garner majorityvotes in Kashmir valley.Congress and Jammu andKashmir Apni Party ran a rel-atively lacklustre campaign andmay end up securing thirdand fourth place in the finallytally.

During the month longcampaign, BJP parachuted starcampaigners and union min-isters to woo the electorate andon the other hand centralCongress leaders stayed awayfrom the campaign.

Barring J&K Unit inchargeRajni Patil no other centralleader visited Jammu andKashmir to address poll meet-ings. JKPCC Chief GA Mir andJammu based congress leaderswere left to fend for them-selves.Even the top brass of theNational Conference includingthe father son duo of Dr FarooqAbdullh, Omar Abdullahstayed away from the campaignmeetings while former partyMLA's ,ex-ministers ran theparty campaign in theirabsence. Omar was relativelymore active on the social mediawhile Dr Farooq Abdullah onlyposted video messages urgingvoters to elect PAGD candi-dates to defeat divisive agendaof the BJP.

Political observers trackingthe DDC polls told The

Pioneer, “Impressive voterturnout of over 50 percent inthese polls has silenced allthose critics who were raisingquestion marks over the timingof the polls amid growingunrest among the Kashmiripopulation in the aftermath ofreorganisation of the erstwhilestate of Jammu and Kashmirand creation of two UnionTerritories on August 5, 2019”.

In their election campaignmeetings BJP leaders main-tained, “The fight is betweenwho will carry the Tiranga inJammu Kashmir and who willnot protect it”. BJP leaders alsotargeted PDP leaders claimingthey are openly saying thatthey will not hoist the nation-al flag until Article 370 isrestored”.

“They are seeking Chineseand Pakistani support forrestoration of Article 370,” .“The fight is between nation-alist forces and forces whowant disturbance in J&K andalso between those who wantnormalcy and those who don’t

want it. This is a very specialelection where on one hand, theBJP is fighting for the nationalflag while the others areChinese and Pakistan lovers.”

BJP leaders also tried toexpose the agenda of the PAGDleaders and accused them ofdiverting development fundsmeant for the welfare of thepeople of Jammu and Kashmir.The party also sought votes onthe development plank andperformance of the Modi gov-ernment at the centre.

BJP leaders also wooedthe women electorate in a bigway across Jammu region toconsolidate its hold over its votebank. They roped in SmritiIrani and other local womenleaders who campaignedaggressively and exposed thePAGD alliance which collec-tively deprived women of theirproperty rights during theirterm in office. On the otherhand, PAGD leaders focusedon restoring statehood andspecial status of Jammu andKashmir.

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Ujire Janya, an organicmanure produced from

wet waste collected from near-ly 6,000 houses in Ujire grampanchayat, which has a popu-lation of 18,000 in Karnataka,is likely to hit the market soon,said Ujire gram panchayat (GP)Panchayat DevelopmentOfficer (PDO) Prakash Shetty.

Besides this, the GP is alsoplanning to set up a plasticrecycle plant which would pro-duce foot mats and interlocktiles which could be used atgarages, Shetty told IANS fromUjire.

Aizawl:Mizoram Governor P.S.Sreedharan Pillai has urged PrimeMinister Narendra Modi to set up anAll India Institute of Medical Sciences(AIIMS) in the state which is battlingseveral dreaded diseases includingHIV/AIDS, cancer, and malaria, anofficial statement said on Sunday.

According to the statement, theGovernor met Modi at the latter's res-idence in the national capital onSaturday and submitted a memoran-dum for setting up of an AIIMS or atleast an AIIMS-like super specialityfacility in Mizoram.

The Prime Minister was enlight-ened on key issues in the health sec-tors within Mizoram with special

highlights on HIV/AIDS, cancer,malaria, heart diseases, and neuro-logical problems among others, it said.

In the health sector, the Governorsuggested to the Prime Minister thatthe health sector in Mizoram leavesa lot to be desired and is still under-developed, with even the districtheadquarters falling behind in basicamenities.

Modi was also informed that evenin the state capital, the hospitals do nothave adequate medical infrastructuresfor treatment of some critically-illpatients and that the serious patients,most of the time, are needed to beshipped out of the state incurring hugeexpenditures. IANS

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In a horrific incident, a 24-year-old physically challenged

woman's burnt body was foundin Andhra Pradesh's Prakasamdistrict.

Even 36 hours afterUmmaneni Bhuvaneswari's bodywas found lying near a pond onthe Dasarajupalli Road on Ongoletown outskirts on Friday night,police has not been able to reacha conclusion whether she hadcommitted suicide or was mur-dered.

After the charred body waslying on a tricycle the womanmoved about on, police identifiedher with the help of a few docu-ments found in a handbag lyingbesides it.

A resident of Kammapalemarea of Ongole, Ummaneni was

pursuing her MBA fromNarayana University while work-ing as a village volunteer.

Police initially suspected itwas a case of suicide, on the basisof a WhatsApp message sentfrom her mobile phone to all hercontacts, allegedly saying herapp won't work anymore andrequested them not to try to con-tact her.

However, police did not findany kerosene or petrol can nearthe body.

Police has since registered acase of death under suspiciouscircumstances and probingaccordingly.

The investigators have notruled out murder and setting thebody afire on her tricycle asthere were no signs of any move-ment of limbs prior to her death.

Ummaneni's family suspect-

ed foul play. Her mother Janakitold the police that she had lastspoken to her daughter at 6.49pm.

But when she didn't returnby 7.30 pm, Janaki franticallysearched for her but her phonewas found switched off.

Ummaneni was reportedly inher ward office till Friday after-noon but there was no clarity asto where she went to from there.

Police investigations revealedthat she was last seen around 6.30pm when a person helped hercross a bridge on her tricycle.

Circle InspectorSivaramakrishna Reddy said theautopsy was conducted at a hos-pital in Ongole and thatUmmaneni's phone call data wasgetting analysed.

State Women's Commission

member Ramadevi spoke to thefamily members of the youngwoman.

Leaders of an organisationworking for the rights of physi-cally challenged claimed that itwas a murder and demandedimmediate steps to arrest theaccused.

Meanwhile, former ChiefMinister and Telugu Desam PartyPresident N Chandrababu Naiduexpressed shock over the deathand demanded a thorough probe.“The state has so far witnessedattacks on Dalits, tribals, Muslimsand backward classes and thisincident show that even physicalchallenged have no protection.”

He said that the facts of thecase would come out only if thepolice made her call list public.Naidu also questioned the delayin the conduct of the autopsy.

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Four cases of rape or gangrape have been recorded

daily in Bihar from January2020 till September, with policestations in 43 police districts ofthe state registering a total of1,106 such cases, sources in thePolice Department said.

As per the data accessed byIANS, June witnessed a maxi-mum of 152 cases, July 149cases and August 139 cases. Asper the data, 88 cases were reg-istered in January, 105 inFebruary, 129 in March, 82 inApril, 120 in May, and 142 inSeptember.

Besides rape and gang-rape incidents, 6 to 7 cases ofeve-teasing and molestationor blackmailing are also regis-tered in different police stations

of Bihar.A senior police officer in

Patna opined that rape or gangrape was also a social issues,apart from criminal aspect.“Hence, we have directed theSPs of all districts to initiatesocial campaigns, especially inrural areas, to educate theyouth about the crime,” hesaid.

According to officials,nearly 1,800 online complaintshave been registered with thepolice control room. The offi-cer said that 90 per cent of thecomplaints are not convertedinto FIRs, which is the harshreality in Bihar.

“During police investiga-tions, victims hesitate to comeforward to register the FIR andpursue the cases due to socialissues. Also, known persons or

relatives are the accused inmajority of such cases. Despitesuch situations, we do coun-selling of each victim of eve-teasing, molestation, or rape.It's up to the victims whetherto pursue the case or not,” saidPramila Kumari,” ProjectManager, women helpline.

Among the rape and gang-rape cases reported in recenttimes was the one in which a15-year-old Dalit girl of Peerovillage in Bhojpur district wasallegedly violated by our youthson December 15 after she wentto a river bank.

Her family alleged that theaccused not only brutalised herbut their kin also physicallyassaulted them and made caste-related remarks. Moreover,local police delayed medicalexamination of the victim.

On December 9, a 16-year-old girl was kidnappedand gang-raped in Banka dis-trict. On October 19, three mengang-raped a 19-year-oldwoman in Bihar's Kishanganjdistrict.

“We have put police onhigh alert in cases of crimesagainst women. We havedirected police officers to reg-ister FIRs as soon as possibleand provide all possible sup-port and counselling to the vic-tims, apart from cracking thecases,” Banka SP Arvind Gupta.

“In case of the gang rape of16-year-old girl, we immedi-ately constituted a team toconduct raids at different hide-out of the accused and crackedthe case within a few days,”Gupta said.

Hamirpur (UP): A 16-year-old boy has been detainedby police for allegedly raping his five-year-old niecein the Kotwali police station area of Hamirpur district.

Superintendent of Police, Narendra Kumar Singh,said, “On Saturday afternoon, the five-year-old girl wasplaying at the door of her house, when her 16-year-old uncle, on the pretext of giving her a biscuit, tookher to his house and allegedly raped her. After the inci-dent, the girl came out crying from the house of theaccused, and narrated the entire incident to her moth-er.”

Based on the complaint lodged by the family ofthe girl, a case has been registered against the minoraccused under various sections of the IPC and theProtection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO)Act.

The girl has been sent for medical examinationand further investigations are on. IANS

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Lucknow: The Yogi AdityanathGovernment in Uttar Pradeshhas launched a two-month-long special “Virasat” (naturalsuccession) drive in the State toend the land disputes over thesuccession rights in villages,and curb the property lawsuitsthat form a bulk of cases at thetehsil and district level.

The novel drive will endthe long-pending disputes overthe land and property, andprevent exploitation of vil-lagers by the land mafia whotarget disputed properties.

This a first of its kindcampaign in the state.

According to the govern-ment spokesman, the new ini-tiative is expected to settlecases pending for years in the1,08,000 revenue villages inthe state.

Under the campaign, allthe information related to the'Virasat' will also be uploadedon the website of the revenueboard based on which theprogress of the scheme will bereviewed.

At the end of this two-month scheme, the districtmagistrate, at the district andthe Tehsil level, will randomlyidentify ten per cent of the rev-enue village randomly andcheck the facts given in thereport of the Lekhpal throughthe sub divisional magistrates,additional district magistratesand other district level officers.

The governmentspokesperson said villagers willbe provided the facility to reg-ister their names in the landrecords through both onlineand offline methods.

For those who own land intheir native villages but are liv-ing somewhere else, a specialcounter will be opened at tehsilfor submitting applications.

“This initiative is expected

to settle long-pending cases in1.08 lakh revenue villages in thestate. This will also curb theirresponsible behaviour oflekhpals who, it has beennoticed, generally do not takean interest in these matters andare responsible for piling upland disputes,” the spokesper-son said.

Under the scheme, thelekhpal will also have to visitvillages to verify successorsand assist them in filing onlineapplications.

The option of filing appli-cations from community facil-ity centres will also be provid-ed to people while a helpline isalso being launched to assistpeople if they face difficulty infiling applications.

All information related to'virasat' will be uploaded on therevenue board website wherethe progress of the schemecan be reviewed.

The villagers also feel thatthe campaign will not only helpin ending the land disputes butwill also put a check on the irre-sponsible behaviour of the'lekhpal' (revenue officials) whogenerally do not take interest inthese matters.

This is also the main rea-son behind the disputes with-in families and relatives and amajority of villagers also facelawsuits, that sometimes trailfor generations.

With this system, the vil-lagers will not be exploited atany level and can get theirnames registered in the landrecords ('Khatauni'). IAN S

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Hyderabad: Telangana's Covid-19 recovery rate hascrossed 97 per cent with 643 people recovering fromthe virus during the last 24 hours, officials said onSunday. The state continues to see more recoveries thandaily count of new infections. With the latest recover-ies, the cumulative number rose to 2,73,013.

Telangana's recovery rate of 97.01 per cent is high-er than the national average of 95.5 per cent.

The state reported 592 new positive cases duringthe last 24 hours, taking the tally to 2,81,414.

Three more persons succumbed to the virus dur-ing the same period, pushing the toll to 1,513.

The state's Covid fatality rate remains at 0.53 percent against the national average of 1.5 per cent.

According to the Director of Public Health andFamily Welfare, 44.96 per cent of the deaths were dueto Covid while the remaining 55.04 per cent were onaccount of comorbidities.

The state now has 6,888 active cases and of them4,719 are in home or institutional isolation.

Over 90 per cent of beds in government-run andprivate hospitals treating Covid-19 in the stateremained vacant. IANS

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Page 6: press conference along with€¦ · press conference along withdoubt that “everything that Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday said there has been progress in talks with farmers

What’s commonamong the GreatIndian Hornbill,Indian LaburnumCassia that

blooms on the Golden ShowerTree, Coconut Tree, Elephant andPearlspot? These are all designat-ed as the State bird, State flower,State tree, State animal and Statefish, respectively, of Kerala.Another important common fac-tor is that all of them are facing thethreat of extinction due to wide-spread environmental destructionand massive deforestation.

Also, there has been no majorindustrialisation drive in the Stateas entrepreneurs think many a timebefore investing in the State. Keralamay be the only State in the coun-try where industrialists and entre-preneurs commit suicide becauseof the indifferent attitude of thebabus and their political masters.The State which claimed that it haseradicated the pandemic on the100th day of the reporting of thefirst incident is all set to face thethird wave, with Health MinisterKK Shailaja asking the people to getready for self-lockdown. This is thesituation in the State a day after theresults of the local body electionswere announced.

One is reminded of a cartoondrawn by the legendary RKLaxman in the early 1980s when KKarunakaran was the ChiefMinister. In a wordy duel betweentwo Cabinet Ministers, one is seenshouting at the other: “I am morehonest than you are. There areeight corruption charges againstyou and only six against me!”

The situation is no different in2020 as the Ministers in theCPI(M)-led Government facecharges of corruption, improprietyand scams. Legislative AssemblySpeaker P Sreeramakrishnan hadto convene a Press meet andthreaten the Opposition that hewould initiate legal action againstall who linked his name to SwapnaSuresh, the gold smuggling king-pin. Tourism MinisterKadakampally Surendran, whovisited the UAE ConsulateGeneral’s office inThiruvananthapuram, claims thathe had called on the ConsulGeneral to discuss the traffic con-gestion problem in front of theconsulate! Much has already beenwritten about KT Jaleel, the HigherEducation Minister and a formerleader of the banned StudentsIslamic Movement of India (SIMI).

As I write this article, newschannels flash the news that CMRaveendran, the additional private

secretary to Chief MinisterPinarayi Vijayan, is being inter-rogated by the EnforcementDirectorate officials about thedisproportionate assets amassedby him and his wife during thepast 20 years.

M Sivasankar, former prin-cipal secretary to the ChiefMinister, has been sent to jailand he is yet to secure bail.Sivasankar, described as the‘conscience keeper of the ChiefMinister’, was arrested by theCustoms and ED for his allegedlinks with Swapna Suresh, Saritand Sandeep Nair, the kingpinsof the gold smuggling racketthrough diplomatic channels. Ifthe pattern of investigation bythe Central agencies continueslike this, Pinarayi too is likely tobe grilled.

The Chief Minister hasalleged that the Centre is misus-ing agencies like the ED and DRIto tarnish his Government’s“good image” by spreading false-hoods. Besides gold smuggling,the agencies are investigatinghawala and reverse hawalatransactions, the LIFE Missionkickbacks (one of the flagshipprogrammes of the CPI(M)-ledLDF Government) and K-Fone(Kerala Fibre Optic Network)project. Sadly, all the develop-ment schemes declared by theGovernment are enmeshed inscams and graft.

Kodiyeri Balakrishnan hadto step down as the party’s sec-retary in-charge of Kerala fol-lowing the arrest of his youngerson Binish Kodiyeri by the EDand NCB on the charges of drugtrafficking, hawala transactionsand money laundering.

It is in this background thatthe local body polls were held inthree phases. The CPI(M) wasliterally fighting with its back to

the wall because at no point inits history, the party has faced somany corruption charges. TheChief Minister himself askedNew Delhi to depute Centralagencies to probe the allegations.He would not have expected theintensity of the probe and noweverything associated with theCPI(M) is being seen as illegalby the State’s people. Sadly, theUralunkal Labour CreditCooperative Society (ULCCS)— an NGO launched in 1925with the blessings of Malabar’sgreat social reformerVaghbhatananda to uplift thelives of the suppressed andoppressed classes — washijacked by the CPI(M) anddegenerated as a money laun-dering centre for the party. TheED is grilling Raveendran, pop-ularly known as Kerala’s superChief Minister, for his allegedrole in the illegal dealings ofULCCS.

A close scrutiny of the localbody election results throws upsome interesting facts. Thoughthe CPI(M)-led LDF won five ofthe six municipal corporations,it would be able to wrest controlin two only through horse trad-ing or with the support of theCongress. The Grand Old Party,which had more than 30 seats inthe ThiruvananthapuramMunicipal Corporation, hasbeen decimated and had to becontent with just 10 seats.

In most of the seats won bythe CPI(M), the BJP-led NDA isthe runner-up. The BJP hasfailed to win any district pan-chayat as the LDF walked awaywith 10, leaving four for theUDF. The Congress and itsallies won 45 of the 86 munici-pal councils while the LDFended up with 35. The NDAretained the Palakkadu

Municipal Council while itwrested the Pandhalam munic-ipality from the CPI(M). Of the941 village panchayats, the LDFwon 514, the UDF 375 and theNDA 23. Twenty 20, a politicalentity promoted by entrepreneurSabu M Jacob in 2015, not onlyretained its home turf ofKizhakkambalam but won threemore village panchayats, shock-ing the established political par-ties.

But the talking point is thedebacle suffered by theCongress-led UDF. The frontwhich literally swept the LokSabha election in May 2019 bywinning 19 of the 20 seats fromthe State has lost heavily in thiselection. “It is a reflection of theCongress high command’sweakness. It is true thatCongress is at the crossroads.The UDF won the 2019 electionbecause of the consolidation ofthe minority vote. You maywant to remember the Assemblypoll results in Rajasthan,Madhya Pradesh andChhattisgarh in November2018, which were all won by theCongress. The minorities inKerala were under the impres-sion that this would be replicat-ed in the 2019 Lok Sabha elec-tions but that turned out to beincorrect. So the minorities,especially the Christians, havestarted moving away from theCongress,” said P Rajan, arenowned political commenta-tor and author. He said theChurch, especially the bishops,doubt the soft approach of theCongress towards Islamic ter-rorism and Love Jihad.

Sreejith Panickar, a cybersecurity specialist who is a keenfollower of the voting pattern inKerala, says that the UDF’sbase has been eroded over the

past year. “In most places, theBJP has finished the runner-up.This is a change which signalsthe beginning of a politicalprocess that would result in theformation of a Third Alternativein Kerala. What has happenedis that traditional UDF voteshave gone to the NDA. TheCongress should have a rethinkon its approach towards Islamicextremist parties like theWelfare Party of India andSDPI. The secularism propagat-ed by the Congress and theUDF should be thoroughly dis-cussed as the Christian minori-ties in the State have starteddoubting their intentions. It’s forthe national leadership of theCongress to initiate this discus-sion,” said Panickar. He also saidthat the Kerala Congress is fac-ing a leadership crisis. “There isnot a face other than OommenChandy’s who is acceptable to allsections but Chandy is plaguedby ill health,” he added.

Though the BJP hasreached a position from whereit could play a crucial role in theState’s politics but Kerala’s waitfor a Third alternative would notend soon. “It may materialiseafter the 2021 Assembly elec-tions, provided the BJP plays itscards smartly,” said Rajan. Tillthen, Keralites may have towait like the Great IndianHornbill for the occasional rainwith which it quenches its thirst.

PS: The BJP too is not freefrom factionalism andgroupism. The truth is thatthere are no capable leaders inthe party to guide it at this cru-cial hour. Moreover, the partyhas its own share of SarithaNairs and Swapna Sureshs.

(The writer is a seniorjournalist. The views expressed

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�������������� ���Sir — Most of the people in ourcountry are poor and earn theirliving from farming; and byreforming agriculture, we canovercome poverty. Will Rogers,an American actor andhumourist, once said: “Thefarmer has to be an optimist orhe wouldn’t be a farmer.” Let’s notsnatch that optimism from him.

The ongoing farmer crisis isin no way either new orunique:11.2 per cent of all sui-cides in India are by farmers.Anti-farmer laws, high debt bur-dens, poor Government policies,corruption in subsidies, cropfailure and mental health, all takea toll on them.

The Government introducedthe farm laws to improve the lotof farmers and has assured themthat the Minimum Support Price(MSP) will stay. This reformwas overdue as it could have beenimplemented in 1991 when thenew economic reforms wereintroduced. As most people inrural India earn their livelihoodfrom farming, any improvementin the conditions of this sectorwill directly help alleviate thepoor condition of the farmers.

Yash Pal RalhanJalandhar

�����������������������Sir — Across north India, thechilly weather intensifies inDecember-January. The coldestday in Delhi in a century wasrecorded last winter. This year,November is said to be one of thecoldest Novembers in theCapital’s history.

Amid such harsh weather

conditions, the plight of theimpoverished homeless and thedestitutes is unimaginable. Eventhose with roofs over their headsuffer since Indian houses, unlikethose in the western countries,are not constructed to enduresevere cold conditions.

Arranging food, shelter andwarm clothes for the lakhs ofhomeless is a demanding, but

inevitable, task for anyGovernment. Philanthropists arealready on their toes; food andblankets will be the need of thehour for the homeless and thestray animals exposed to the chill.Temporary shelters require to beput up to protect the shelterlessagainst the dangerous cold.

Ganapathi BhatAkola

��������������� ��Sir — It’s heartening to know thatthe Central Bureau ofInvestigation (CBI) has filed acharge sheet against four accusedin the alleged gang rape-murderin Hathras in September. Underpressure following a nationwideoutcry, the UP Government hadrecommended a CBI probe intothe case on October 2.

The victim’s dying declara-tion on September 22, in whichshe had claimed that she was gan-graped by four youth of the vil-lage, was the basis of the CBIcharge sheet. This after the Statepolice had said that “no rape organg rape took place”. All theyouth named were arrested by thelocal police by September 26. Thecase hit the headlines after thevictim’s family alleged that herbody was hastily cremated by thelocal administration after mid-night without their consent.

Now the courts must awarddeath to the four accused andthey must hang as early as possi-ble to provide a semblance of jus-tice to the victim and her family.

Bhagwan ThadaniMumbai

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There is a tempest in India’s farmlands even astheir tillers wage an extraordinary crusade foralleviating age-old distresses. Away from the

bustle of the raging storm in the Delhi-NationalCapital Region is a small semi-literate group ofwomen farmers in a remote hinterland who areassiduously managing a farmer producer compa-ny (FPC) to help alleviate the woes of other womengrowers in Satara.

The Mann Deshi Farmer Producer Company(MDFPC) plans to organise 12,000 small and mar-ginal growers (70 per cent of whom are women) tosecure better prices for their agricultural produce.The MDFPC was founded by Chetna Gala Sinha,the well-known social entrepreneur who is shep-herding a rural revolution in western Maharashtra.The epicenter of this movement is Mhaswad, a largevillage that nestles in Satara district, on the placidbanks of the Manganga River, some 300 km south-east of Mumbai. A 45-year-old woman farmerVanita Pise is the co-founder of the MDFPC.However, she does not let the fact that she is semi-literate stop her from trying to better the lot of grow-ers like her.

On account of adversities at home, Vanita could-n’t study beyond class IX. She married a farmer inMhaswad when she was 17. Within a week she wasrequired to take charge of the family poultry. Shehad never entered a poultry shed before. With per-sistence and tenacity, she was able to grasp the entireoperations. When the poultry business had to bewound up after an outbreak of bird flu, she becamea daily wage labourer. The failed business left thefamily with a debt of �55,000. It was at this time thatVanita came to know of Mann Deshi Bank and itswork with rural women. She approached them andsecured a loan for a buffalo. Luckily for Vanita, with-in a week the buffalo delivered a calf. The enterpris-ing woman started selling the milk. With her earn-ings, she repaid the loan in six months. Vanita tookanother loan and bought a machine for manufac-turing paper cups. Six months later 10 women ofher village, impressed by Vanita’s success,approached her to help them set up similar units.

Sadly, their ventures could not succeed and shehad to face a backlash from them. Undeterred bythis setback, Vanita went back to the Mann Deshi,and took a course in financial management fromtheir business school. Her experience in business,farming and grassroots community mobilisationcame in handy when the group decided to set upthe MDFPC. It was clear to Vanita that the futureof small farmers lay in collectivising themselves. Inthis model, scattered small farms are systematical-ly aggregated and provided centralised production,post-harvest and marketing services. This helpsreduce the transaction costs of the farms for access-ing the value chains and makes it easier for smallfarmers to access inputs, technology and the mar-ket.

The task was not easy. Vanita and her team facedseveral challenges, most of them related to the con-tentious issue of categorisation of women as farm-ers. In the registration process, they were told bythe officials concerned that since women did notown farms they could not be classified as farmers.Similar hiccups continued but now that they havebeen able to make this venture a success. Vanita nowwants to spread the word so that other women farm-ers like her can replicate her success. “Women havecome a long way in several fields. They are also themainstay of farming, doing much of the primary

work in the fields. Ironically they cannotclaim themselves to be farmers becausethey don’t own the land they till. It is inthe name of their husbands. This makesa huge difference to their economic andsocial status and disqualifies them fromseveral official development benefits,”avers Vanita.

The FPC was finally registered whenthe husbands certified that their wiveswere coparceners in their land parcels.Since then the MDFPC has been tryingto make women farmers coparceners intheir husband’s property and registeringthese women as members in the FPC.Vanita’s work as the team leader is verychallenging. She has to oversee all majoroperations at the company. She has tosupervise aggregation of the farm produceand the entire intermediate operationsleading to despatch of consignments to themarket. This includes sorting and grad-ing and organising the logistics in the sup-ply chain. Vanita explains her businessmodel: “Our model of procurement is dif-ferent and is done through weekly farmbazaars. Women farmers are contactedand we send vehicles to their homes toprocure the agricultural produce. Inaddition to vegetables and grains we alsodeal in processing and manufacturingproducts including hard toffee, syrups,flaxseed chutneys, amla candy, picklesamong other products.”

Though the FPC was formed twoyears ago, it has been operating informal-ly for the last couple of years. The com-pany deals in both perishables and non-perishables. About four truckloads of veg-etables are sent to Mumbai daily and theseare supplied to 5-star hotels and local retailoutfits. The MDFPC’s formal journeybegan in September 2018 with onions, ahighly uncertain and volatile crop. Thereason for severe and frequent price

shocks for onions is the production fluc-tuations and changes in the nature ofdemand. The FPC helped the farmersgrow high quality onions so that theycould get a better price. “We struggled agreat deal but succeeded in our effortsalbeit partially. Getting a market was dif-ficult because Mhaswad is geographical-ly not well-connected and we face sever-al logistical impediments”, admits Vanita.

“Bringing women farmers on a com-mon platform, designing appropriatecrop patterns, aggregating and marketingthe produce requires rigorous planningand execution. Some enterprising womenhave been able to sell their produce inMumbai markets and got good value forit, too. But it is important to get morewomen farmers enrolled in the collectiveand make them align their crop patternwith the market”, says Vanita.

Meanwhile, the FPC inked an agree-ment with a leading company that want-ed to export okra. The members wereexcited with the opportunity and 16women joined the project. Unfortunately,things didn’t work as per the plans. Theagreement, which was worded in techni-cal English, stipulated that agronomistswould visit the farmers and guide themon quality control, which actually didn’thappen. The FPC had to compensate thecounter party because they couldn’t ful-fil the contractual commitments.However, the women learnt an importantlesson: When you want to survive andprosper despite the competition, you haveto maintain quality and honour everyterm of the contract. In addition, timelydelivery is important.

This learning came handy in a recentcontract. The FPC received an order for11,000 kg of pulses. The grain was to besupplied in 22,000 packets of 500 gramseach. The FPC approached the women

farmers in Latur, who grabbed the oppor-tunity. In just eight days, the women coor-dinated the entire chain consisting of har-vesting, aggregating, packaging and otherlogistics. At the last moment, the teamfound a bug in one of the cartons. Theydecided to recheck the entire consign-ment. It took the women an entire day butit made them understand the importanceof quality and the credibility of the sell-er that hinges on the consignment.

“During this project, I found thatmany women farmers store pulses athome and not in warehouses because ofthe logistical and transport issues. Thesewomen would prefer warehouses if theycould be assured of a loan against thepledge of warehouse receipts”, addsVanita.

She believes that the best gift for farm-ers would be to initiate practical solutionsfor their basic problems. The Governmenthas introduced three new farm laws. Andthere has been a mixed reaction to them.Vanita feels this can work only if properinfrastructure is created through ware-houses, cold storages and other supportsystems. Farmers are capable of produc-ing good quality crops if they get therequired extension services, such as soil-testing, advisory in agro-economics andso on. Instead of grandiose reforms, thefarmers need solutions to their fundamen-tal problems. This cannot be done byNGOs alone. The Government will haveto actively invest in it. It is also importantto build the capacity of FPCs. In theBudget last year the Finance Minister hadannounced a plan to form 10,000 FarmerProducer Organisations (FPOs) over aperiod of five years. This will requireextensive Government support.

(The writer is a well-known develop-ment professional of international repute.The views expressed are personal)

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Asingle theme runs across themovies of the British docu-mentary film-maker, Adam

Curtis. He has scripted and direct-ed over a dozen documentaries forthe BBC. They are mostly sardoniclaments on how, ever since the late1970s, governments have allowedtheir roles to recede in addressingvarious issues.

Curtis often tries to demonstratethat, in the wake of increasing eco-nomic, social and political complex-ities, governments that were once atthe forefront of providing leadershipand solutions, began to shrink fromthis responsibility. This happenedparticularly once the paradigm thatthey had established in this context

began to shift, especially after the1973 international oil crisis.

According to Curtis, govern-ments began to outsource theirresponsibilities to large private oper-ators such as banks and big busi-nesses, which had furnished loansand services to them when they hadbeen badly impacted by a series ofeconomic downturns triggered bythe crisis.

The role of the State continuedto shrink. To Curtis, politiciansand civil servants who were onceexpected to lead and plan theircountries’ progress and well-being,simply became nothing more thanprops. However, from the mid-2000s, all eyes and expectations fellupon the Government again whenmajor financial scandals and eco-nomic recessions exposed the dan-gers of overtly banking on the pri-vate sector to provide services whichwere once the domain and purposeof State institutions.

In the July 24, 2012 issue of TheGuardian, the British philosopherJulian Baggini writes that govern-ments struggled to come to termswith the economic and social fall-

out of the new recessions. What’smore, by then, the public had alsolost their trust in the private sector.According to Baggini, unable or feel-ing helpless to address and resolvethe problems, politicians began tolook to present themselves asguardians of other things. If theywere unable to prevent economicdeclines, they posed that they werenow there to halt moral declines.

Baggini writes that the mostfundamental problem with moral-ity is that society still lacks a senseof where it comes from and who isqualified to make claims for it. Thereis great irony in politicians, a natu-rally amoral lot, speaking of moral-ity. Baggini is right to observe thatmost people are highly sceptical ofpoliticians in this regard. And it isalso a fact that those whose domainit was to define and judge morality— i.e. priests, clerics, pandits and soon — lost their credibility after therapid emergence of modernity.

Therefore, according to Baggini,“the danger is that we will either fallback on the old authorities or allownew moral leaders to emerge, whomay well base their pronouncements

on little more than populist senti-ment.” This is exactly what has beenhappening in various countriessince Baggini wrote his essay eightyears ago. Unable to control eco-nomic declines, various heads ofgovernments in Europe, South andNorth America and in South andEast Asia, have increased their talkabout morality, in an attempt to dis-tract the attention of the polity fromlarger and less-abstract issues.

India’s Prime Minister NarendraModi promised economic miraclesbut, after being in power for almostsix years, there has been more talkof temples, mosques, cows and theHindutva identity than about thecountry’s faltering economy. USPresident Donald Trump, before hisdefeat in this year’s presidentialelection, continued to surroundhimself with animated evangelists,while completely failing to controlthe spread of COVID-19 and thedevastating impact it has had on thecountry’s economy.

Governments in Brazil, thePhilippines, Turkey, Pakistan,Hungary and Poland are adoptingsimilar tactics. For example, in the

face of the rising criticism on hisregime’s chaotic style of governanceand its mishandling of the economy,Pakistan’s Prime Minister ImranKhan constantly reminds everyonehow he overcame the dangers ofWesternisation and colonialism tobecome a man of impeccablemorals. He says this after milkingeverything there was to about such‘immoral’ Westernisation when hewas a popular lifestyle liberal, beforehe turned 40 and “rediscovered hisfaith.” As Pakistan’s economy con-tinues to nosedive and Oppositionparties prepare to oust him afteraccusing him of incompetence,Khan can often be seen lecturingyoung people on what Islam is, whatthe poet-philosopher Iqbal meant,and how to understand Sufismthough Turkish soap operas! Tomost sociologists, the idea of moral-ity largely derives from and attractsthe urban middle-classes. It is thisclass that is most receptive to Khan’smoral posturing. In a 1993 essay forthe Wilson Quarterly, the Americanpolitical scientist and sociologistAllan Wolfe writes that the “old mid-dle class” that experienced some

form of economic prosperity in the1960s because of the developmen-tal economics that was all the rageat the time, was less concerned withmorality as an issue. After the 1973oil crisis, when global economiesbegan to cave in, a new middle classemerged. But this one had to strug-gle more than the previous one.

According to Wolfe, there are,therefore, two competing ideas ofmiddle-class morality. Coming ofage in uncertain times, the middleclass that appeared from the turmoilof the 1970s tries to save moral cap-ital rather than economic capital.Wolfe writes that it is a lot more con-servative than the older middleclass and wants morality to take cen-tre stage in political and social dis-courses. But he also writes that thismay include those who would ratherexhibit morality in public whilelargely ignoring it in private, creat-ing cognitive dissonance.

A report published in the April2, 1977 issue of the now-defunctPakistani eveninger Leader, quotesa young shopkeeper in Karachiwho was taking part in the move-ment against the Zulfikar Ali Bhutto

regime. He tells the reporter that“Bhutto (with his socialist policies)had usurped the dignity of thecountry’s middle classes.”

He also adds that the regimewas doing this by spreadingimmorality and obscenity, eventhough he was interviewed whilecoming out from a cinema afterenjoying a Hollywood film. Post-1970s generations of the urbanmiddle classes in Pakistan, too, areexamples of cognitive dissonance inthis context.

But this is how they address it.Khan tries to rationalise this disso-nance by suggesting that it is actu-ally a mandate of the country’smajority faith that morality be high-lighted in public and episodes ofimmorality be kept private and notspoken about.

This idea of middle-class moral-ity thus absolves him of hypocrisy,comforting him to go on lecturingwithout having to bother about theirony attached to it and, withoutaddressing more tangible issues,such as a depressed economy andpolitical polarisation.

(Courtesy: Dawn)

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Harley Davidson bikersdressed in Santa Claus

costumes rode through thestreets of central Tokyo onSunday for their annual paradeagainst child abuse, sayingmore children were vulnerablein 2020 due to the coronaviruspandemic.

The parade, followed by atoy run to donate toys to kids,is a global tradition aroundChristmas time. In Tokyo, theevent is held by members of the“Harley Santa Club”, founded in2008.

At the parade, bikers saidthis year’s event meant more,because more children werevulnerable to domestic violenceduring the coronavirus year.

“Especially because of thecoronavirus pandemic thisyear, I think there are manychild abuse cases out of sight,”said Takashi Mine, director ofthe event.

“It is very likely now that

parents will take the stress outon their children after losingtheir jobs, so I think particu-larly during the pandemic wehave to do the parade,” hesaid.

The number of child abusecases in Japan per month roseup to 20% between January andMarch versus the same periodlast year, as more families spenttime at home because of thepandemic, the daily AsahiShimbun reported.

The number of reportedchild abuse cases was a recordhigh last year, according to thehealth ministry.

Normally hundreds ofmotorcyclists take part in theparade, but because of coron-avirus only about 100 rode thisyear.

Still, riders proudly roaredtheir engines to bringChristmas joy to kids living inchildren’s homes. Riders plan tovisit four homes in Tokyo thisyear to donate toys and candyto about 400 children.

Kabul: A car bomb blast thatrocked Afghanistan’s capitalSunday morning killed at leastnine people, according to theAfghan Interior Ministry.

Interior Minister MasoudAndarabi told reporters at thesite of the attack that the attackwounded around 20 others,including a member of parlia-ment, Khan MohammadWardak. Andarabi said thelawmaker was in “good condi-tion.”

The interior ministeradded that the casualty tollcould rise further.

The attack happened while

the lawmaker’s convey waspassing through an intersectionin Kabul’s Khoshal Khan neigh-borhood. The blast set afiresurrounding civilian vehicles,as well as damaging nearbybuildings and shops.

No one immediatelyclaimed responsibility for theattack.

In a statement condemningthe attack, Afghan PresidentAshraf Ghani said that theTaliban should stop violenceagainst civilians and accept aceasefire, to facilitate the cur-rent peace process.

PTI

Maiduguri (Nigeria): Gunmenin Nigeria abducted more than80 Islamic school students innorthwestern Katsina state onSaturday night, but the pupilswere quickly rescued by securityforces after a fierce gun battle,police announced on Sunday.

The foiled abductioncomes less than two days afterthe release of 344 schoolboyswho were kidnapped in thesame area on Dec. 11. The inci-dents have highlighted theinsecurity in northern Nigeria.

Saturday night’s attemptedkidnapping took place inDandume, about 64 kilometers(40 miles) from Kankara, thetown where the earlier kid-napping of schoolboysoccurred.

The bandits had alreadyabducted four people andstolen a dozen cows when theyran into the schoolchildrenwho were on their way homefrom a celebration, Katsinastate police spokesman, GamboIsa, said early on Sunday morn-ing. Police and a local com-munity self-defense group res-cued the children from the

bandits after a gunfight, he said.“The teams succeeded in

dislodging the bandits and res-cued all the 84 kidnapped vic-tims and recovered all the 12rustled cows.” said Isa in a state-

ment.“Search parties are still

combing the area with a viewof arresting the injured banditsand/or the recovery of theirdead bodies.”

Dandume, an area bor-dering the northern part ofKaduna state, is one of theregion’s hotspots for banditryand kidnapping, according toresidents.

“Dandume is a no-go-areafor many of us because of thehigh level of crimes and inse-curity being perpetrated byarmed bandits,” said SaiduLawal, an official of a local civicgroup in Katsina, told TheAssociated Press.

“Despite Governmentefforts to open up the area byconstructing roads leadingfrom the metropolitan loca-tions to the hinterlands ofDandume ... The banditry stillpersists,” said Lawal.

“On many occasions, thebandits block the Dandume-Sabuwa highways to attack trav-elers. It was based on that rea-son that many people haveabandoned the new route.” AP

Samut Sakhon: Thousands ofpeople lined up for coron-avirus tests in a province nearBangkok on Sunday, as Thaiauthorities scrambled to con-tain an outbreak of the virusthat has infected nearly 700people.

Triple lines of mainlymigrant workers stretched foraround 100 metres in one loca-tion alone, at Mahachai inSamut Sakhon province, ashealth officials in mobile unitsmethodically took nasal swabs.There were three locations intotal in the area.

Nearby, razor wire andpolice guards blocked access tothe Klang Koong, or CentralShrimp, seafood market -- oneof Thailand’s largest -- and itsassociated housing, the epi-centre of the new cluster.

Thailand’s Disease ControlDepartment said on Sundaythat they found 141 more caseslinked to the market outbreak.

On Saturday, the depart-ment reported 548 cases,

Thailand’s biggest daily spike,sending shockwaves through acountry that has seen only asmall number of infectionsover the past several monthsdue to strict border and quar-antine controls.

The new outbreak has beentraced to a 67-year-old shrimpvendor at the seafood market.

Health officials say most ofthose who have been infectedare migrant workers fromMyanmar.

The workers live close tothe market in crowded accom-modations, raising fears thatthe virus could spread expo-nentially.

Samut Sakhon is 34 kilo-metres (21 miles) southwest ofBangkok, the capital. SamutSakhon’s governor has imposeda night curfew and other trav-el restrictions until January 3.

Many public places in theprovince, including shoppingmalls, schools, cinemas, spasand sports stadiums, have beenordered closed. AP

Islamabad: A lawyer repre-senting the parents of slain USjournalist Daniel Pearl hasproduced a handwritten letterin Pakistan’s Supreme Court inwhich the key accused in thecase claimed that he was a“scapegoat” arrested under“US pressure” and the realmastermind was a Karachi-based terrorist.

Pearl, the 38-year-oldSouth Asia bureau chief forThe Wall Street Journal, wasabducted and beheaded whilehe was in Pakistan investigat-ing a story in 2002 on the linksbetween the country’s power-ful spy agency ISI and al-Qaeda.

British-born al-Qaedaleader Ahmed Omar SaeedSheikh and his three aideswere convicted and sentencedin the abduction and murdercase of Pearl. In April, theywere exonerated by the SindhHigh Court and an appealagainst their acquittal is beingheard in the Supreme Court.

According to a ExpressTribune report on Sunday,Faisal Siddiqui, counsel forPearl’s parents, has produced

the handwritten letter in theSupreme Court in whichSheikh claimed that the realculprit was a militant, AttaurRehman, from Karachi.

Siddiqui told the apexcourt that the letter was sub-mitted to the Sindh HighCourt on July 19, 2019.

In the letter, Sheikhclaimed that he was “a scape-goat” arrested on the “US pres-sure” and that the real culpritwas Rehman.

The letter was producedduring a hearing of the appealsagainst the acquittal of the fouraccused in the Pearl murdercase. A three-judge specialbench led by Justice MushirAlam heard the appeals of theSindh government and Pearl’s

parents, Ruth and Judie Pearl,against the high court ruling.

Siddiqui contended thatthe bench must consider it.However, the apex court willdecide on it on the next date ofhearing on January 4, thereport said.

Sheikh further said in hisletter that he had been inprison under the death sen-tence since 2002, charged andconvicted for the abductionand murder of Pearl. However,it was on public record thatneither did he abduct Pearl nordid he murder him and it hadbeen acknowledged by the USgovernment and by Pakistan’sformer president PervezMusharraf in his book.

Sheikh said his role in thiscase was a relatively minor one,which did not warrant thedeath sentence, adding that hehad already served in prison —most of which has been in ille-gal solitary confinement.

According to the letter,the pressure on the Pakistangovernment at the time (in2002) by the US was so intensethat Sheikh was used as a“scapegoat” to lessen that pres-

sure. “Therefore, evidence was

fabricated against me to con-vict me of the abduction andmurder of Daniel Pearl,”Sheikh claimed.

“Later, when the person(Rehman alias NaeemBukhari) who actually abduct-ed Daniel was arrested, hewas not charged with the casebecause to do so would haveexposed the lies and perjuredevidence that the Musharrafgovernment used to convictme,” he added.

The letter claimed thatdespite Rs 1 million rewardmoney on Rehman — becauseof his role in the case — he wasnot produced in court but waskept in secret illegal custody ofthe Rangers for five years,then in Sukkur jail for twoyears and charged only with afabricated case of possession ofdrugs.

After Rehman’s release, heis alleged to have organisedsome of the most devastatingattacks Karachi has ever seen,including blowing up of theRangers Headquarters inNazimabad, where he was pre-

viously secretly held, Sheikhclaimed.

The letter also claimedthat if Ata was executed thenthe evidence, which wouldprove the truth about Pearl’scase, would be lost forever.Therefore, Sheikh requestedthe court to pass a stay orderthat would ensure thatRehman was not executeduntil testified in the Pearl case.

“The court is also request-ed to arrange for the hearing ofthis appeal without furtherdelay on a day to day basis andto summon both me andRehman to the court for hear-ing so that I may be exonerat-ed of the fabricated chargesagainst me and given an oppor-tunity to clarify my actual rolein this matter so that my sen-tence may be reduced, accord-ingly to one which is consistentwith the requirements of jus-tice,” the letter stated.

Two days after the SindhHigh Court overturnedSheikh’s conviction in April,the Sindh government invokedthe Maintenance of PublicOrder to keep the four convictsin jail. PTI

Mexico City : MexicanPresident Andrés ManuelLópez Obrador said he spokewith US President-elect JoeBiden by phone on Saturday,five days after he sent a tardyand somewhat chilly letter ofcongratulations to Biden.

“We reaffirmed our com-mitment to work together forthe good of our peoples andour countries,” López Obradorwrote in his social mediaaccounts.

López Obrador and Brazil’spresident, Jair Bolsonaro, final-ly congratulated Biden onlyafter the Electoral College voteconfirmed his victory.

The two were the lastmajor Latin American leadersto send congratulations. BothLópez Obrador and Bolsonarowere seen as friendly toPresident Donald Trump.

The Mexican president hasstressed that maintaining goodrelations with the United States— Mexico’s northern neigh-bour and by far its top tradingpartner — is one of his top pri-orities. AP

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Passengers bound for Nepal'sJanakpur were in for a sur-

prise after they ended up inPokhara, 255 kilometres awayfrom the actual destination,after a rare flight mix-up by aleading private carrier, accord-ing to a media report onSunday.

The incident happened onFriday to 69 passengers travel-ling on Buddha Air, TheKathmandu Post reported.

The weather was not quitefavourable for the flights onFriday so carriers were makinguse of every available weatherwindow to take the passengerson board as quickly as possibleand take off, the report said.

Buddha Air's flight U4505was cleared to take off forJanakpur airport in the plains.Passengers were taken in andthe plane took off, with its esti-mated arrival time at Janakpurby 3:15 pm.

Washington: President DonaldTrump floated naming lawyerSidney Powell, who was boot-ed from his campaign’s legalteam after pushing unfoundedconspiracy theories, as a specialcounsel investigating allega-tions of voter fraud.

During a Friday meeting atthe White House, Trump wentas far as discussing gettingPowell security clearance,according to two people famil-iar with the meeting, who spokeon condition of anonymity todiscuss private conversations.

It is unclear whetherTrump intends to move for-ward with the effort. Underfederal law, the US attorneygeneral, not the President, isresponsible for appointing spe-cial counsels. And numerousRepublicans, from outgoingAttorney General William Barrto Governors and state electionofficials, have said again andagain that there is no evidenceof the kind of mass voter fraudTrump has been alleging sincehe lost the November 3 electionto Democrat Joe Biden.

That Trump is even enter-

taining the idea of installingPowell underscores the increas-ingly desperate steps he hasbeen weighing as he tries toreverse the results of the elec-tion and remain in power.

Trump has increasinglyentertained conspiracy theoriesand outlandish ways to stay inoffice, egged on by allies likeformer national security advis-er Michael Flynn and formerNew York Mayor RudyGiuliani, the president’s per-sonal attorney.

Indeed, at the meeting,Giuliani pushed Trump to seizevoting machines, which theDepartment of Homeland

Security made clear it had noauthority to do. It is alsounclear what that wouldaccomplish, given that theDepartments of Justice andHomeland Security have bothlooked into the issue. Paper bal-lots are also retained under fed-eral law.

Flynn, whom Trumprecently pardoned for lying tothe FBI, went even further, dis-cussing the idea of imposingmartial law and using the mil-itary to re-run the election.Trump’s chief of staff, MarkMeadows, and White Housecounsel Pat Cipollone voicedtheir objections. AP

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Kathmandu: VeteranCommunist leader K P SharmaOli kindled hopes for much-needed political stability inNepal when he assumed powerfor the second time in 2018after the Left alliance swept thehistoric parliamentary polls.

However, his surprise moveto recommend the dissolutionof Parliament after weeks ofpower tussle within the rulingNepal Communist Partydashed all hopes, once againcreated political instability andpaved the way for a possiblesplit in the largest communistparty of the country.

Oli, who joined politics asa student activist in his teenageand spent 14 years in jail foropposing the now-abolishedmonarchy, became Nepal’sPrime Minister for a secondtime in 2018 as a joint candi-date of the Left alliance.

The alliance between theCPN (UnifiedMarxist–Leninist) and Pushpa

Kamal Dahal-led CPN (MaoistCentre) won a majority in theHouse of Representatives andin six of the seven provincialassemblies in the 2017 elec-tions. After their victory, thetwo parties formally merged inMay 2018.

Known for his pro-Chinastance, 68-year-old Oli hadearlier served as the country’sprime minister from October11, 2015 to August 3, 2016 dur-ing which Kathmandu’s tieswith New Delhi had strained.

During his first term, Olihad publicly criticised India forinterfering in Nepal’s internalmatters and accused it of top-pling his government. He, how-ever, promised to forge a part-nership with India to move for-ward the country towards thepath of economic prosperityahead of assuming office for thesecond term.

In 2015, when Nepaladopted a new Constitutionthat split it into seven states, the

ethnic Madhesi group, mostlyof Indian-origin, protested formonths, saying they were notgetting enough territory in oneof the provinces and were alsofacing discrimination. Theissue had strained Indo-Nepalties.

During his second term,Oli claimed that efforts werebeing made to oust him afterhis government redrew Nepal’spolitical map by incorporatingthree strategically key Indianterritories, a move that strainedties between the two countries.

India had termed as“untenable” the “artificialenlargement” of the territorialclaims by Nepal after itsParliament unanimouslyapproved the new politicalmap of the country featuringLipulekh, Kalapani, andLimpiyadhura areas whichIndia maintains belong to it.

Oli accused his rivals with-in the party of making effortsto topple his government. PTI

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����������������������������������������C���+���������Dubai: Kuwait’s Sheikh NasserSabah Al Sabah, the eldest sonof the late emir, who emergedas an influential reformer in theoil-rich Gulf sheikhdom, diedon Sunday, the country’s state-run news agency reported. Hewas 72.

Sheikh Nasser, who heldvarious government posts overthe years including minister ofdefense and deputy prime min-ister, had been considered a topcontender for crown prince fol-lowing the death in Septemberof his father, the 91-year-oldSheikh Sabah Al Ahmad AlSabah.

Although he drew popularsupport for his ambitiousmega-projects and anti-cor-ruption efforts, he was passedover for his uncle, SheikhMeshal Al Ahmed Al Jaber AlSabah, a more cautious choiceof heir apparent at a turbulenttime for Kuwait’s politics andthe wider region. The KUNAstate-run news agency did notspecify how Sheikh Nasser

died, but he was known to bein fragile health after having alung tumor removed two yearsago.

In a country that dependson oil for some 90% of its rev-enues, Sheikh Nasser champi-oned bold plans to diversifyKuwait’s economy by buildingup a business hub with a freezone and deep sea port in thecountry’s north. But with manyin Kuwait’s parliament com-mitted to the status quo, hisideas repeatedly ran agroundeven as fears mounted that thecountry was falling behind itsmore powerful and better-developed neighbors, SaudiArabia and the United ArabEmirates.

Last year, Sheikh Nasser’spublic allegations of govern-ment corruption vaulted himinto the national politicalscene, as he pressed for inves-tigations into the suspectedembezzlement of hundreds ofmillions of dollars from a mil-itary fund. AP

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E-commerce major AmazonIndia on Sunday said 1.5

lakh new sellers joined its plat-form this year, and over 70,000Indian exporters in its globalselling programme havecrossed USD 2 billion in cumu-lative exports.

Amazon India, in its SMBImpact Report 2020, notedthat it works with more than 10lakh small and mid-size busi-ness (SMBs) including sellers,delivery and logistics partners,neighbourhood stores, enter-prises, developers, content cre-ators and authors work with thecompany in the country.

“This year has beenunprecedented and has impact-ed the way we work and live.Yet, we remain inspired by theundying entrepreneurial spir-it, creativity, resolve and trustin us of businesses, creators andauthors to overcome challengesand grow,” Amazon IndiaSenior VP and Country HeadAmit Agarwal said.

He added that technologyadoption and digitisation willcontinue to play a crucial rolein offering expanded accessand opportunities to SMBs, andthat the company remainscommitted to invest and part-ner in success of SMBs inIndia.

Earlier this year, Amazonhad pledged to invest USD 1billion to digitise 10 millionSMBs, enable e-commerceexports worth USD 10 billionand create 1 million incre-mental jobs by 2025.

The SMB Impact Report2020 said 1.5 lakh new sellersjoined Amazon.In in 2020 withover 50,000 registering in Hindiand Tamil.

“(A total of) 4,152 Indiansellers surpassed Rs 1 crore insales in 2020 and the numberof crorepati sellers grew 29 percent year-on-year,” it added.

Amazon has over sevenlakh sellers on its platform.

Amazon.In has unveiledthe top 10 states and union ter-ritories with most number ofsellers. With more than1,10,000 sellers, Delhi has thelargest number of Amazon.Insellers in the country, followedby Maharashtra (87,000) andGujarat (79,000).

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Reliance Industries and itspartner BP will get only

USD 4.06 a unit for the new gasthey have started to producefrom the eastern offshore KG-D6 field even though theyhave discovered a higher rate inan open market auction,sources said.

Reliance-BP in November2019 auctioned initial gas fromthe R-Series field at a biddablepercentage of Brent crude oilprice.

If Brent crude oil stays inthe current range of USD 50 to51 a barrel, the price comes toUSD 4.2 to 4.4 per millionBritish thermal unit, twosources at the buyers of R-Series gas said.

Even though operatorshave pricing freedom, theycan’t sell gas at a rate higherthan the cap the governmentnotifies every six months. Thecap for six months to March 31,2021, is USD 4.06 per mmBtuand so Reliance-BP would getonly that amount for theremainder of the current fiscal,they said.

Essar Steel, Adani Groupand state-owned GAIL inNovember 2019 bought the

majority of the initial 5 millionstandard cubic meters per dayof gas planned to be producedfrom R-Series in the KG-D6block by bidding between 8.5and 8.6 per cent of dated Brentprice.

Emails sent to Relianceand BP for commentsremained unanswered.

The rate discovered in theNovember 2019 auction at thelower end of the Brent priceband is the same as the one thatReliance got in the first fiveyears of production fromDhirubhai-1 and 3 and MAfields in the KG-D6 block.These fields ceased to pro-duce a few months back.

Reliance got USD 4.205per mmBtu for gas from D1and D3 and MA fields duringApril 2019 and March 2014. Itwould have got double of thatrate if a new formula pro-posed by the Rangarajan com-mittee was approved but thenew BJP government scrappedit and brought a new formulaon pricing gas at rates prevalentin export surplus nations suchas the US and Russia.

The rates came to USD5.05 in 2014 and are currentlyat USD 1.79 per mmBtu.

Sources said the govern-

ment in 2016 allowed a high-er price for any new gas to beproduced from a difficult pro-ject such as the deep sea field.R-Cluster field fell in that def-inition and gas from it was freeto be sold but subject to theprice cap.

The price cap for October2020 to March 2021 period isUSD 4.06 per mmBtu, downfrom USD 5.61 in the previoussix month.

Reliance and BP had onNovember 18 stated that theyhave the commencement ofnatural gas production fromAsia’s deepest gas project, R-Cluster or R-Series. The twofirms are investing USD 5 bil-lion in bringing to productionthree deepwater gas projects inblock KG D6 – R-Cluster,Satellites Cluster, and MJ –which together are expected tomeet about 15 per cent ofIndia’s gas demand by 2023. R-Cluster will have a peak outputof 12.9 mmscmd while satel-lites, which are supposed tobegin output from the thirdquarter of 2021 calendar year,would produce a maximum of7 mmscmd. MJ field will startproduction in the third quar-ter of 2022 and will have a peakoutput of 12 mmscmd.

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Even when faced with chal-lenges of connectivity and

bandwidth, companies acrosssectors embraced digital train-ing or learning and develop-ment (L&D) for blue collar staff, which witnessedfrom nearly nothing to doublefold growth, as the pandemicfast tracked adoption of tech-nology by two decades, saysexperts.

“Specific to blue collaredstaff, the thinking was alwaysthat they will not be able tolearn effectively using tech-nology.

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Saudi Arabia, the world’slargest oil exporter, on

Sunday said its investmentplans in India are on track, not-ing that the Indian economyhas the strength to recoverfrom the adverse impact of thecoronavirus crisis.

In February last year, SaudiCrown Prince Mohammed binSalman announced that SaudiArabia would invest over USD100 billion in India in petro-chemicals, refining, infra-structure, mining and manu-facturing, agriculture and sev-eral other sectors.

“Our plans to invest inIndia are on track and we arein discussion to prioritiseinvestment opportunities inseveral sectors in both coun-

tries,” Saudi Ambassador DrSaud bin Mohammed Al Satitold PTI in an interview.

Stating that Saudi Arabiavalues India as a strategic part-ner and a close friend, Al Satiidentified ongoing coopera-tion in areas of training, knowl-edge sharing and combatingterrorism as key elements of thepartnership in defence andsecurity sphere.

Al Sati complimentedIndia’s measures to revive itseconomy in view of the impactof the pandemic and said theeconomic recovery of bothcountries will help elevate othereconomies in the region as well.

“The economic relief pack-age provided by India for itsmost prominent sectors is com-mendable. As the fifth-largestglobal economy and the largesteconomy in South Asia, theIndian economy has the impe-tus to recover from the impactof the ongoing pandemic,” hesaid.

Without commenting onArmy Chief Gen MMNaravane’s visit to Saudi Arabia

last week, the Ambassador saidthe setting up of the StrategicPartnership Council by thetwo countries opened newavenues of cooperation in sev-eral sectors including defenceand security and counter-ter-rorism.”The Strategic(Partnership) Council set up bythe two countries in 2019 hasopened new avenues on part-nership in strategic areas likedefence, security counter-ter-rorism, energy security andrenewable energy,” he said.

Gen Naravane on Sundayheld extensive talks withCommander of Royal Saudiland forces Gen Fahd BinAbdullah Mohammed Al-Mutir as he began a two-dayrare visit to the Gulf country tolay the ground for deeper mil-itary ties.

In the first-ever visit by ahead of the Indian Army, GenNaravane travelled to Saudicapital city Riyadh last weekwhere he held talks with topmilitary brass.

The two sides set up theStrategic Partnership Council

during Prime MinisterNarendra Modi’s visit to Riyadhin October last year. The coun-cil is mandated to monitor theprogress of strategic relation-ships in a whole range of keyareas.

“The current decade haswitnessed a remarkable stridein the relations between SaudiArabia and India. What wasonce viewed as ties between

two friendly countries isnow a strong strategic part-nership between two formida-ble economies,” Al Sati said.

“From energy cooperation,security and defense, bur-geoning trade relations tohealth cooperation, the natureof this relationship has diver-sified immensely allowing forexpanded growth. The leader-ship on both sides have her-alded this transformation forSaudi – India ties,” he said.On trade partnership, theenvoy referred to the decisionby Saudi Public InvestmentFund (PIF) to invest approxi-mately USD 1.3 billion inReliance Retail and USD 1.5

billion in Reliance’s Jio plat-forms”Saudi Aramco is com-mitted to investing in India’senergy sector. Aramco’s deci-sion to buy a stake in RelianceIndustries Oil to Chemicalbusiness and Aramco’s com-mitment to invest in the WestCoast refinery petrochemicalproject signifies the interestSaudi Arabia places in thedevelopment of India’s energysector,” he said.

Apart from this, Al Satisaid Saudi Arabia is continuingto explore new investmentopportunities in India. Theenvoy also highlighted SaudiArabia’s recent Labor ReformInitiative (LRI), saying they willfurther help Saudi Arabia andIndia to cement their econom-ic relationship.

“It will enhance the con-tractual relationship betweenworkers and employers, andwill support the Kingdom’svision of establishing an attrac-tive job market, empoweringand developing labour compe-tencies and developing thework environment,” he said.

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Due to its close proximitywith five countries, unique

culture and traditions besidespicturesque beauty of its moun-tains and lush green land-scapes, northeast India couldbe an ideal tourist destinationpost-Covid, experts andadministrators said on the finalday of the North East Festival(NEF) here on Sunday.

The two-day 8th edition ofNEF concluded after setting theNE growth agenda as its pri-ority with businessmen,administrators and expertsexpressing their strong confi-dence on the travel and tourismindustry’s revival in post Covidsituation, by showcasing poten-tials of the region.

Assam Tourism SecretaryRazvee Hussain said thatCovid-19 can be a blessing indisguise.

“All northeastern states canbe a great tourism destination.Focus on tea tourism where oldbungalows can get converted toboutique hotels. Experiencingthe life of a tea planter here canbe a tourist attraction. Chopper

service availability fromGuwahati to Kaziranga, Majulietc will also help the tourismindustry here,” he said.

Assam TourismDepartment Director DebaKumar Mishra said that focuson local tourism, more fromdomestic tourists, creativelyplanned projects for establish-ments of good tourism wouldattract and appeal more people.

Mishra said: “Northeastregion shares borders of dif-ferent countries and it is anincredible boon.

Assam has ‘Chicken-Neck’with West Bengal and fiveinternational frontiers alongthe eight northeastern states arebest for tourism.

Stress on eco-culturaltourism, flourishing more localcommodities, local lifestyleand food could boost thetourism industry.””One moremajor focus is in ‘MedicalTourism’. Need to welcomehigh level and leading toursfrom Mumbai, Telangana,Delhi and other big states. Weare blessed with resources, wehave to think with regional per-spective,” the Director added.

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India’s gold imports declinedby 40 per cent to nearly

$12.3 billion during the April-November period as demandweakened amid the pandemic,as per Commerce Ministry’sdata.

During the same period ofthe last financial year, goldimports stood at nearly $20.6billion.

However, imports of theyellow metal witnessed a 2.65per cent growth last month, atover $3 billion, compared to$2.94 billion in November2019.

Silver imports during

April-November this fiscalplunged 65.68 per cent to$751.92 million, from nearly$2.2 billion during the year agoperiod.

In November 2020, silverworth only $9.30 million wasimported, compared to $90.39million in November 2019.

This decline in gold and sil-ver imports has led to the nar-rowing of India’s trade deficit.

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The Confederation of IndianIndustry (CII) has urged

the government to considercreation of multiple bad banksto address the adverse impactof non-performing assets accu-mulated by public sector banksin the recent past, and whichhave got further accentuatedduring the pandemic.

In its pre-budget memo-randum submitted to the gov-ernment, the industry body hasrecommended the governmentto consider enabling ForeignPortfolio Investors (FPIs) andAlternative Investment Funds(AIFs) to purchase NPAs.

CII President Uday Kotaksaid: “In the aftermath ofCovid, it is important to find aresolution mechanism througha market determined price dis-covery. With huge liquidity,

both globally and domestical-ly multiple bad banks canaddress this issue in a trans-parent manner and get thecredit cycle back in action.”

As per the industry body,a robust market-based mecha-nism will encourage publicsector banks to sell their badloans, without fear of questionsbeing raised later. With clean-er balance sheets, PSBs shouldbe able to raise capital from themarket, obviating the need forre-capitalisation by govern-ment, a bill which the govern-ment can ill-afford to foot atthis point of time, it said.

The government has put inRs 80,000 crore in bank re-cap-italisation in FY18, Rs 1.08 lakhcrore in FY19 and Rs 70,000crore in FY20. In September thisyear, the parliament approvedanother Rs 20,000 crore of cap-ital infusion into PSBs.

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Oil and Natural GasCorporation Ltd (ONGC)

has commenced oil productionfrom the Asokenagar-1 well,Bengal Basin in West Bengal’s24 Paragana districts.In astatement, the public sectorenergy major said that UnionPetroleum & Natural GasMinister, DharmendraPradhan on Sunday dedicatedthe Bengal Basin, the eight pro-ducing basin of India to thenation.With the development,the Bengal Basin has joined theranks of Krishna-Godavari(KG), Mumbai Offshore,Assam Shelf, Rajasthan,Cauvery, Assam-Arakan FoldBelt and Cambay.Pradhan,while dedicating theAsokenagar discovery to thenation, said that the discoverywould play a role for India’senergy security.

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Centre has granted permis-sion for additional mobilise

additional financial resourcesto the tune of �16,728 crorethrough open market borrow-ings to five States.

The permission has beengranted as the state have so farcompleted the stipulatedreforms in the ease of doingbusiness. These states areAndhra Pradesh, Karnataka,Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Naduand Telangana, said a FinanceMinistry statement.

In view of the resourcerequirement to meet the chal-

lenges posed by the pandemic,the government had on May17, 2020 enhanced the bor-rowing limit of the states by 2per cent of their GSDP. Half ofthis special dispensation waslinked to undertaking citizencentric reforms by the states.

The four citizen centricareas for reforms identifiedwere implementation of ‘OneNation One Ration Card’ sys-tem, ease of doing businessreform, urban local body orutility reforms and power sec-tor reforms.

So far 10 states have imple-mented the One Nation OneRation Card system, five Stateshave done ‘ease of doing busi-ness’ reforms, and two stateshave done local body reforms.

Besides additional bor-rowing permissions, the states

completing three out of thefour reforms are entitled to getadditional financial assistanceunder the “Scheme forFinancial Assistance to Statesfor Capital Expenditure”.

Under the scheme, anamount of Rs 2,000 crore is ear-marked for this purpose.

To facilitate more states toundertake the reforms andavail additional borrowings,theDepartment of Expenditure,Ministry of Finance had recent-ly extended the deadline for thestates to complete citizen cen-tric reforms in various sectors.Now, if the recommendationfrom the nodal ministry con-cerned regarding implementa-tion of the reform is received byFebruary 15, 2020, the state willbe eligible for reform linkedbenefits, said the statement.

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As economic activities gath-er pace and hopes of vac-

cines to counter the coron-avirus pandemic rise, confi-dence among Indian con-sumers have also improved.

The monthly Refinitiv-Ipsos Primary ConsumerSentiment Index (PCSI) forIndia, has inched up by 2.1 per-centage points in December2020, said an Ipsos statement

The monthly PCSI, whichis driven by the aggregation ofthe four weighted sub-indices,has shown improvement acrossthe four indices, in December.

The PCSI EmploymentConfidence Sub-Index is up by0.6 percentage points, theEconomic Expectations SubIndex, is up by 1.1 percentagepoints.The Current PersonalFinancial Conditions Sub-Index and the InvestmentClimate Sub-Index haveincreased by 4.2 percentagepoints and 3.3 percentagepoints respectively.”The con-sumer sentiment has furtherimproved in December, whichshows there is confidence injobs, ability to spend and saveand there is confidence in theeconomy,” said Amit Adarkar,CEO, Ipsos India.

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South Central Railway haswon three national energy

conservation awardsannounced by the Bureau ofEnergy Efficiency, Ministry ofPower, Government of India.

These awards weredeclared for the year 2020 aspart of the National EnergyConservation week being cel-ebrated from December 14 toDecember 21 throughout theyear.

The awards are announcedevery year to recognize theefforts of various industrialunits/establishments/organi-zations who have shownexemplary performance inconservation of energy andeffective utilization of availableenergy.

Diesel Loco Shed,Vijayawada got the first prize in

the industry/railway workshopscategory.

Lekha Bhavan (SCRAccounts Office building) gotthe second prize in the build-ing/government offices cate-gory. South Central Railway(SCR) zone also got theCertificate of Merit in trans-port/zonal railways category.

SCR being at the forefrontin energy conservation hasbeen winning these awardsfrom the union ministry ofpower for the last nine yearsconsistently.

The zone has been able tobag these awards throughrelentless efforts in the area ofenergy efficiency and green ini-tiatives by all the divisions,workshops, field units of all thedepartments, even with thestiff competition from variousministries, PSUs and corporatesectors, SCR said.

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As India’s smartphone mar-ket registered a massive

year-over-year (YoY) growth of42 per cent in October shipping21 million units, 25 per cent ofthe market sat in top tier cities-- New Delhi, Mumbai,Bengaluru, Chennai, andKolkata -- registering morethan 50 per cent YoY growth inOctober.According to the IDC,the next set of emerging mar-kets, namely Jaipur, Gurgaon,Chandigarh, Lucknow, Bhopaland Coimbatore, also grew bynearly 50 per cent YoY.

However, the rest of thestates (up-country markets)registered slower growth (aver-

age 25 per cent), primarilyowing to looming economicconcerns and consumer spend-ing narrowing to essentialsonly, according to theInternational Data Corporation(IDC) India MonthlySmartphone Tracker.The lead-ing 50 cities accounted for 55per cent demand national-ly.”Despite delayed deliveriesdue to restrictions in severalzones, consumers went foronline purchases, especially onthird party e-Tailer platforms,registering 23 per cent YoYgrowth with 50 per cent share,”the report showed.

Bigger cities leaned heavi-ly towards online channels,with 57 per cent online share in

the top 5 metros.”But supplyconstraints remained, impact-ing offline channel sales as aresult of fewer retail walk-ins”.While Xiaomi led in 34 ofthe major 50 cities within theonline channel, Vivo led in 44of the major 50 cities within theoffline channel.Half a million5G devices were sold, withalmost 80 per cent from the top10 cities of India.”Though 5Gis a driver from a technologi-cal advancement standpoint,uncertainties on spectrumavailability, clear use cases andhigh prices might restrict itsuptake to few bigger cities ini-tially,” said Sachin Mehta,Market Analyst, Client Devices,IDC India.

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The Government hasdeferred implementation

of the strict disclosure require-ments for auditor reports ofcompanies by one year, a movethat comes amid the disrup-tions caused by the coron-avirus pandemic.

Now, the Companies(Auditor’s Report) Order, 2020would come into effect fromfinancial years commencingon or after April 1, 2021,according to a notificationissued by the corporate affairsministry.

The ministry is imple-menting the companies law.

Sanjeev Singhal, Partner atS R Batliboi and Co LLP, saidthe coronavirus pandemic hascaused significant disruptionsforcing the companies to focuson ensuring business continu-ity.

“Deferral of CARO 2020by one year will give the much-needed relief to companiesand they will be able to use theadditional time to prioritiseallocation of resources andbetter prepare for the enhanced

requirements.It will be equally helpful

for the auditors as well,” Singhalsaid.

Earlier, CARO 2020 was tocome into force from financialyear starting on or after April1, 2020.

The CARO requires com-panies to comply with stricterdisclosure requirements onvarious issues, including whis-tle blower complaints anddefault in repayment of bor-rowings.

“CARO 2020 would neces-sitate enhanced due diligenceand disclosures on the part ofauditors of eligible compa-nies, and has been designed tobring in greater transparencyin the financial state of affairsof such companies,” the min-istry had said in February thisyear.

Under this stricter frame-work, auditors are required toprovide detailed disclosuresabout loan defaults, amount ofcash losses and immovableproperties as well as otheraspects about companies intheir annual reports.

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Business of small andmedium enterprises sell-

ing products on Amazon.inwitnessed growth amid thepandemic and around 4,152Indian sellers surpassed salesworth Rs 1 crore in 2020 onAmazon.in, said a report bythe e-commerce major.

The report noted thatthe number of ‘crorepati’ sell-ers on the platform grew 29per cent on a year-on-yearbasis.

It said that emergingbrands on AmazonLaunchpad saw their businessgrow by 135 per cent YoY.Further, the number ofwomen entrepreneurs under‘Saheli’ programme saw theirbusiness grow nearly ‘15x’,and weavers and artisans partof ‘Karigar’ program saw their

business grow by 2.8 times.Amazon.in on Sunday

published the 2020 Small andMedium Business (SMB)Impact Report. The reportmarks some of the achieve-ments made by the SMBsworking with Amazon andhighlights the impact of digi-tisation on entrepreneurs andbusinesses across sectors.

Amit Agarwal, Senior VPand Country Head forAmazon India, said: “It’shumbling to see over 10 lakhsmall businesses associatedwith Amazon in India. Thisyear has been unprecedentedand has impacted the way wework and live.””Yet, weremain inspired by the undy-ing entrepreneurial spirit,creativity, resolve and trust inus of businesses, creators,authors, etc. to overcomechallenges and grow,” he said.

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��������Shonda Rhimes is finally coming to Netflix. The

showrunner’s first release is an adaptation of JuliaQuinn’s romance novel series about the wealthy,English Bridgerton family and their affairs. JulieAndrews is among the stars. It releases onDecember 25.

������ ��������������Do you just nuke your leftovers in the microwave, or

otherwise let them go to waste? Then you could learn athing or two from the cooks on this competition serieswho are masters in leftover cooking and take onchallenges that give new life to old meals. It releases onDecember 30 on Netflix.

�����������������George Clooney is getting in the director’s chair to adapt

Lily Brooks-Dalton’s novel Good Morning, Midnight. He alsostars in the film, playing a (heavily bearded) scientist, iso-lated in the Arctic in a post-apocalyptic world, who sets outto stop a space crew led by Felicity Jones from returningto a catastrophic Earth. It releases on December 23 onNetflix.

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Standing only a few hundred yardssouth of the mausoleum of emper-or Humayun is the monumental

tomb built by Abdur Rahim Khan-I-Khanan for his wife — Mah Banu. Builtin 1598 AD, this would be the first mon-umental tomb built for a lady in Mughaltimes and, on his death, Rahim was alsoburied in the mausoleum. Son of BairamKhan-I-Khanan, a close associate ofEmperor Humayun and the regent ofthe young Akbar, Rahim was also thegreatest of Akbar’s nobles; a statesman,courtier, linguist, humanitarian, patronand above all, poet.

Despite the historical, architectur-al and archaeological significance of thestructure, by the 21st century, Rahim’sTomb was in a ruinous condition witha risk of complete collapse. Though anestimated six million people drive pastthe mausoleum annually, very few areaware that the ruin is the tomb of thelegendary Rahim. The marble andsandstone cladding on the dome, facade,flooring of the terrace and the tomb, theparapets, lattice screens have largelybeen stripped of the building over theyears including significant loss of fab-ric in the 20th century.

In-line with the vision of revivingheritage monuments in the country,InterGlobe Foundation and Aga KhanTrust for Culture (AKTC) announcedthe completion of restoration work onRahim’s tomb in the Nizamuddin area.The foundation supported the projectbeing executed by AKTC for the phys-ical restoration of the Rahim’s tomb andcultural revival of Rahim and his poet-ry. Archaeological Survey of India, thecustodian of the monument was a key

supporter and partner in the project,which started in 2014.

The physical revival includedrepairs to the major damaged structureson the interior and exterior of the mau-soleum dalans, canopies (chattris),dome, façade and landscape, alongwith the wall and ceiling surfaces. Thelandscape around Rahim’s tomb hasbeen restored to original slopes andheight. The conservation of the domehas been completed with a symbolicaddition of marble cladding.

Commenting on the project com-pletion, Rohini Bhatia, chairperson,InterGlobe Foundation, said, “India isknown for its cultural heritage, hence,the preservation of our art and cultureis essential for our identity. We arepleased to be a part of restoration ofRahim’s mausoleum. In addition tophysical restoration, we are also estab-lishing the relevance of sites and creat-ing awareness among communitiestowards the need for preservation of cul-ture and heritage. We strive to conservethe cultural heritage of our nation.”

Rahim ornamented his wife’s mau-soleum with diverse motifs — in plas-ter and stone. As with his poetry, thesepatterns include both geometric and flo-ral patterns commonly seen in mau-soleums but also patterns seen in Hindubuildings — Swastika and Peacockamong these. Each of the arches of theground level arcade boast of medallionsof varying designs in the spandrels ofthe arches. Where these was evidenceof original design, the medallions wererestored, carefully matching the quali-ty of the 16th century craftsmen.

On cleaning layers of soot and20th century paint layers, the principaltomb chamber and five arched bays oneach façade of the ground level arcadewere found to be ornamented withbreath-taking incised plaster patterns.Careful cleaning, using soft brushes,revealed that much of the ornamenta-tion of the principal tomb chamber hadsurvived; its revelation led Prof EbbaKoch to comment, “… the cleaning ofthe amazing decoration of the inner hall.We can now see again and marvel aboutthe wonderful patterns which decoratethe walls and the dome. Your workchanges our perception of Mughalmonuments.”

The tomb is crowned with a doubledome, where the outer dome wouldhave originally been clad with marbleserving as a protective layer for theunderlying masonry. Though severalpeer reviews suggested completing themarble cladding on the dome, on theadvice of the Archaeological Survey ofIndia, restoration of marble claddingwas limited to the base. This served thedual purpose of strengthening the baseas well as to indicate to visitors the orig-inal finish of the dome. In view of theseveral opinions expressed on this mat-ter, it is possible that sometime in thefuture opinion will veer towards com-pleting the marble cladding on thegrand dome of Rahim’s mausoleum. Onthe roof, anastylosis of four canopieswas possible with stone elements foundat site.

All conservation works utilise ‘avail-able traditional craftsmanship in thecountry and the use of traditionalbuilding materials and skills as an inte-gral part of the conservation process. Allrepairs have focussed on imparting sta-bility and to prevent loss of originalmaterial. The conservation effort haveprimarily aimed to ‘prolong the life’ ofthe mausoleum while preventing anyfurther damage and deterioration byminimising the impact of externalagents of decay (natural and humaninduced) on its setting, structure andmaterial.

Ratish Nanda, CEO of Aga KhanTrust for Culture said, “Conservation atRahim’s tomb has been possible with apublic-private partnership. Not only hasa significant monument been con-served for posterity but dignity has beenrestored to the resting place of the cul-tural icon, Rahim. Conservation in theIndian context can benefit from thou-sands of years of building craft tradi-tions and recourse to an inter-discipli-nary scientific approach. Around1,75,000 craft days of work has helpedrestore this grandeur.”

Designers Shantanu and Nikhil Mehrafeel the post-COVID era will be all

about being disruptive and fearless. “I feelthat this pandemic has definitely taught usa lot and I think all the young buddingdesigners, artists from whatever walks oflives, they should feel a lot more fearless. Noone is going to judge you for what you areor how you plan to pursue your career as abrand,” Shantanu said.

“Just be a little disruptive, even if youfeel you can’t make it on your own, have theguts and the courage to go seek a job becausetoday everybody is looking for some talent.So if you have it in you or even if you feelthat you do not have the talent or courageto start your own business, brand or entre-preneurship journey because the pandem-ic has given you that suffering or pain points,don’t hesitate in going back to the drawingboard and say okay I think I’m going to workfor a bit. Just give it a try,” he shared.

“Give some value to the person who isemploying you and at the same time getsome value that yes, you can again restartand reshape my journey. I think it’s goingto be about that disrupting self,” he added.

Nikhil said, “This is a great moment inour lives when for the first time when youtalk about true democracy, it’s happeningacross the world to every human being.”

He continued, “It’s a time that will giveus a chance to understand why we are here.A lot of times we spend a lifetime trying tofigure that out or we can never do that andwe pass away but this gives us an opportu-nity to really dig deep inside and understandwhy we are here.”

“I find this year or this moment to bea blessing so that it can help us to under-stand we are humans, we have emotions andit’s not just the greed that we need to go afterbut really ourselves. I hope this gives us allan opportunity to be humans again,” sharedthe designer in an episode of LakshmiManchu’s show Coming Back To Life WithLakshmi Manchu, which is available onSouthBay channel.

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Since ages, philosophers across the worldhave argued that the concept of happiness

can be defined or analysed simply in termsof ‘individual contentment’ or by being sat-isfied with one’s life. So in simple words, onecan say that in order to be happy, one needsto be content. But is it really possible in today’stime and age? Well, in the present world, onewould hardly find a man who is not discon-tented. There may be many reasons behindthat, of which one of the major ones is hisfinancial challenges. Other than this, it maybe related to the personal, social, economic,political and moral issues. As a result of this,man is weighed down with despair, indiffer-ence, tension, animosity, even fury and men-tal agony. Hence, his plans and acts gowrong and this leads to fights. Some peoplealso have a habit of building castles in the air.As a result, they fail to understand that it isonly by hard work that a man can make bothends meet. Hence, we should remember thatjust like foodsustains thebody, in thesame wayyour mindfind suste-nance in hap-piness. So, thesaying goes:there is nofood as goodas happiness.And, to behappy, youhave to becontented. AsAlfred Nobelhas r ightlysaid that‘Contentment is the only real wealth,’ weshould therefore not run after securinganother kind of wealth to lose the wealth ofcontentment.

Contentment is as good as a means ofhappiness as wealth is considered to be. Is itproper, therefore, to lose the wealth of con-tentment in order to secure another kind ofwealth? The right course of conduct is thatman should be calm in the present crisis andat the same time, find a systematic methodof mending or ending it. Considering the pre-sent to be the consequence of our own actions,we should thus be careful about the future. Wemust remember that the world is subject tochange and every human being reaps as hesows. Hence, man should play his part and dogood deeds so that he doesn’t faces any unde-sirable situations later in life.

Contentment, purity and peace are thetrios which make one’s life worth living. Theyappear on in life after one has been pursuingspiritual studies and practising meditation.Without Yoga, one cannot attain and sustaininner peace and tranquility. However, peoplegenerally think that spiritual studies areuninteresting, boring, tedious and are main-ly based on faith, accompanied by rituals andrepetition of mantras. But this is not the truth.Spiritual studies are as interesting as any othersubject and meditation is neither a ritual nordoes it involve the repetition of a sacredSanskrit formula. It is as simple as reflecting,remembering and feeling, with a bit of guid-ance in the beginning. Meditating should beconsidered as an investment for gaininghigh dividends in the form of contentmentand peace, which are the most valuableprizes that life offers. Today, if we look around,how many people would we find who arespending their time, money and energy forpeace and harmony in society? Unfortunatelythere aren’t many. It is high time we make aresolve to put our time, money and energy forpeace and harmony because if we wish to havea peaceful and harmonious world around us,then it should begin with each one of us.

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According to reports published indifferent national newspapers,Finance Minister Nirmala

Sitharaman is likely to announce a threetrillion electricity distribution reformprogramme in the Union budget. As perthe report, the objective is to helpreduce losses and improve the efficien-cy of power distribution utilities. Thereliability and quality of power supplywill also be improved as part of thereform. This step certainly brings hopefor the people residing in rural andremote areas of the country awaiting toreceive power supply for decades now.

“We have just one question —when will the power crisis end in theDhara Panchayat? When will the gridwires come down from the trees? Since1950, we have seen control shifting fromone government to another, but theconcerns of people like us who areresiding in rural and remote areas gounheard,” shared Abdul Hafeez, a 39-year-old resident of Dhara Panchayatlocated in Mandi tehsil in Poonch dis-trict in the recently announced UnionTerritory of Jammu and Kashmir.

Poonch is often in news for the inci-dences of ceasefire violations that tran-spire at the Line of Control. The regionis recognised as a conflict zone whosetough geography and extreme weatherconditions make life of its inhabitantseven tougher. Of many developmentissues, the area suffers extreme powercrisis. Here, the demand for power ismet with erratic supply and frequentpower cuts.

For many years, the residents ofThapla Mohalla of Dhara Panchayathave been worried about the inconsis-tent power supply. With few exceptions,many households get electricity eitherthrough single, crate or other inappro-priate wires which are unsafe and havefull potential of causing electric fireaccidents. In past, Mandi tehsil has suf-fered accidents due to power outage, butno concrete steps have been taken bythe concerned department till date.

In 2018, under Deen DayalUpadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana whichaims at providing continuous powersupply to rural India, the power depart-ment had surveyed the mohalla. As apart of this scheme, a new power linewas to be installed along with a trans-former in this village. Till date, howev-er, the work of installing the wires andthe poles lies incomplete.

When people in other parts of thecountry enjoy benefits of power supply,people here are still living in the darkage. As sun sets, the life here comes toa full stop. Students cannot read or writehere. “I am almost 85. Before indepen-dence, we would bring water from dis-tant places. Today, our younger gener-ations are doing the same. Similar is thecase of power supply. Earlier, we usedhandmade lamps at night. The onlychange I see today is that now we usebattery operated torch light. I have been

hearing since 1965 that our region willget the power supply, but we are stillfighting for poles, wires and transform-ers to reach our village,” shared AfsanaRashid (name changed), an elderlywoman from the mohalla.

In Morban, the situation is a littlebetter as a transformer and poles havebeen installed here under the DinDayal Yojana. However, the village is yetto be blessed with power supply. As perthe Junior Assistant working at thepower department, lockdown due to theongoing pandemic had interrupted theinstallation work. “Now, we are waitingfor the harvesting season. As soon as thecrops are harvested and the land isvacant, we will install the power lines,”he shared.

The contract for the work under the

said scheme has been given to a thirdparty who shared that at present, workis divided into four phases. “Of fourphases, Hari Badha and Morban areabout to be completed. As soon as weinstall 39 power poles in Morban and 29in Thapla Mohalla, the work will be com-pleted in these two areas. Work inFatehpur region has not started yet butwe are working on the action plan,” heinformed.

In the past few years, the govern-ment has taken several concrete stepstowards ensuring electrification ofremotest of villages. This new electric-ity distribution reform programme willnot only trim electricity losses but withimproved reliability and efficiency, it mayfinally bring light to these distant villages.

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The COVID-19 pandemic haseffectively rendered most

forms of education obsolete. Ithas brought a relatively newform of education — online.The common forms of partingthis education, Zoom andGoogle classrooms arechampioning the battlefields,but it has been a harrowing timefor many students and teachersto adapt to the new system,especially with the suddennessof cut-offs. Over 1.2 billionstudents in over 180 countriesare now out of school and areaffected by the school closures.All schoolgoers are turning towhat was once just another toolin a vast repertoire but nowturns up as the only toolavailable; the online education.As per the latest UNICEFreport, one in three childrenworldwide do not have access tothe internet, summing up to agrand total of over two billionchildren without the means toaccess their education.

However, despite thesedepressing statistics, thepandemic has had some positiveimpact as well. EdTech seems tobe rising steadily, and theindustry is gearing up to hit 350billion USD worth in the nextfive years. With Open SourceEducation like Khan Academyand YouTube, millions of lives

are transforming for free.During the pandemic, we arefinding ourself with more time

on our hands, and variouspeople are turning to courses onsites like EdX, Udemy and

Coursera to earn certifications. The practise of reading

frequently has increased, under

the fiercely watchful eyes of at-home parents and buffeted bythe fact that many children arecut off from most activities, likeextended television sprees, orany outdoor activity. It hasproven a solace and manybecame accidental readers.From Mahatma Gandhi toNelson Mandela, Obama toNehru, Bill Gates to Elon Musk,Anne Frank to Greta Thunberg,there is one thing they have allin common: reading. Gates hasreported devoting much of hisday to reading, even opening asection in his websiteGatesNotes, devoted entirely tohis musings on books. Schoolchildren could start withstorybooks before they get intofurther reading. Through thiscolumn, I intend to introduce abook every fortnight for kids toencourage them to read. Thisweek, I would recommend abook I had read and reviewedrecently — Unfair by RasilAhuja. Set in the swelteringsuburbs of Delhi, the bookexplores discrimination in ourschooling system. It is a perfectpick for beginners.

Issues such as safety, highfees and peer pressure havemade the educated parents optfor more reliable homeschooling. From one million intwo decades to the two million

children currently registered inthe NIOS evidence it. Theavailability of informationonline and technology make thisform of education a betteroption. The government shouldformulate new educationpolicies, to evolve itself, todevelop and integrate ed-techand life-skills into itscurriculum. Ranjitsingh Disalerecently won the million-dollarGlobal Teacher’s Prize. ThisMaharashtrian teacher learnedKannada and converted theschool textbooks into a moredigestible structure for hisstudents. Utilising QR codes,interactive, lively teaching, andtechnology like tablets, mobilephones and computers, he hastransformed the lives of hisstudents. If an individualteacher can embrace such noveleducation methods, why can’tthe governments do the same?Well, secure internet access anddevices to empower the childrenin remote and rural areas wouldbe a good start, but only a start.As Queen Rania of Jordan says,“In education, technology canbe a life-changer, a game-changer, for kids who are bothin school and out of school.”(The writer is founder of Voice ofKids and Gold medal winner atthe International EnglishOlympiad.)

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Page 12: press conference along with€¦ · press conference along withdoubt that “everything that Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday said there has been progress in talks with farmers

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Veteran wicketkeeper-bats-man Wriddhiman Sahaand young opener Prithvi

Shaw are unlikely to be pickedfor the remaining Tests inAustralia as India look to ring inwholesale changes after the bat-ting debacle in Adelaide.

It is understood that youngShubman Gill, after a couple ofimpressive knocks in the warm-up games, is seen as a replace-ment of Shaw as senior star RohitSharma will not be available untilthe third Test match in Sydney.

With Saha’s batting not giv-ing any confidence to the dress-ing room, the team managementwill certainly look at Pant, whohad scored a hundred DownUnder during his previous tour,as keeping might not be a factoron pitches with firm and evenbounce.

KL Rahul and MohammedSiraj are the two others in fray toenter the playing XI and thosewould be forced changes due tothe absence of skipper ViratKohli and senior pacer,Mohammed Shami, who is outwith a fractured wrist.

The 36-year-old Saha couldwell be running the last lap of hisinternational career as youngand feisty Pant is set to be pre-ferred by the team managementover the next three Test match-es and if he does well, againstEngland, too.

As far as Saha is concerned,his inept batting in SENA coun-tries hasn’t gone unnoticed (hedoesn’t have a half-centurythere), but former chairman ofselectors MSK Prasad said thatduring his regime, certain planswere chalked out on the Saha-Pant conundrum.

“Look, our committee wasclear that Rishabh Pant will beour first choice keeper in placeslike England and Australia. Onlywhen we are looking at match-es in India where you don't needbatting after number six mosttimes, you can have a specialistkeeper,” Prasad told PTI onSunday.

“I believe Rishabh has

worked on his fitness issuesduring the past month andlooked in good touch during thepink ball practice game. So Iwould agree with the team man-agement if they give Rishabh ago for the next three Tests,”Prasad said.

As far as Shaw is concerned,everything that can go wrong hasgone for the 21-year-oldMumbaikar, whose technique,temperament and overall atti-tude towards the game has raisedsome serious question marks inthe corridors of Indian cricket.

If sources in the know ofthings are to be believed, despitehis slump in form, Shaw was pre-ferred over an in-form Gillbecause he had played in the lastseries in New Zealand and need-ed to be given at least one moregame.

Since he has wasted his

chances, it's time for him to coolhis heels before going back to thedrawing board.

Not only has teams sortedhis faulty technique, his field-ing has been below par from thetime of IPL as he has eitherbeen slow on the outfield ormissed sitters like the oneoffered by MarnusLabuschagne, which cost histeam 30 extra runs.

The Indian team manage-ment could mull bringingHanuma Vihari up the order inthe absence of Virat Kohli andPrasad, who has seen Viharifrom close quarters, feels itwon't be a bad idea to play himat No. 5.

“Vihari has a very soundtechnique and temperamentand he can serve this Test teamfor a long time. In absence ofVirat, it would be a great oppor-

tunity for him and KL (Rahul)to stand up and be counted,”Prasad said.

“I would prefer Vihari bat-ting at No. 4 or 5 in the next fewTests and face the challenge. Heis a gutsy boy and I have con-fidence that he will do well ifgiven the challenge. KL can bea good No. 6 in this series,” theformer chairman of selectorssaid.

He has endured a tragedyduring the ongoing tour, havinglost his father but youngMohammed Siraj's six five-wicket hauls for India is finallygoing to be rewarded as he getsready to make his Test debut atMCG in place of Shami.

The choice was betweenhim and Navdeep Saini, butSiraj's better show during thetwo practice games has tilted thescales in his favour.

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One of the architects of India’s humiliating loss in thepink-ball series opener, Australian pacer Pat

Cummins acknowledged the help offered by the livelytrack here and wants a similar “sporting” pitch for theBoxing Day Test in Melbourne.

Cummins (4/21) and Josh Hazlewood (5/8) pro-duced a sensational performance as India collapsed totheir lowest-ever Test score of 36, paving the way foran eight-wicket win and a 1-0 lead in the series for thehome team.

“I thought the Ashes Test (2017-18) and the IndianTest at the MCG a couple of years ago were pretty flatwickets,” Cummins was quoted as saying by‘cricket.Com.Au’.

“As a bowler, last year against New Zealand, it wasa really good wicket, a bit of sideways movement anda bit of pace and bounce, so, hopefully, much the same(this year).

“Not only as a player but as a fan, they are the bestwickets - when it is good battle between bat and ball.You feel like if you do your skill well, you can have abig impact on the game.”

Cummins had taken the prized scalp of Virat Kohliand Chetestwar Pujara, who will be expected to take alot of responsibility in the remainder of the series as theIndia skipper returns home for the birth of his child.

Talking about Pujara’s wicket, Cummins said:“One of the biggest helpers was the wicket, it felt likethere was a bit of sideways movement.

“We could just challenge his defence over and overagain and having a bit of bounce in the wicket certain-ly helped,” Cummins said.

The Australia vice-captain also praised off-spinnerNathan Lyon for bowling well to Pujara in the firstinnings.

“I thought Lyno (Nathan Lyon) bowled beautiful-ly to him in the first innings. But, for sure, we are real-ly clear what we want to do to him. We saw we proba-bly brought an extra man to the leg side as well to tryand really attack his stumps,” he said.

“I thought he batted really well in the first innings.We bowled well enough for the scoreboard to not goanywhere. If he hasn’t gone on to that big score, you areright in the game.”

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The humiliation inAdelaide has opened up“serious wounds” forIndia and Australia nowhave a “good chance” ofinflicting on the visitorsa whitewash in the four-Test series, reckons for-mer captain RickyPonting.

India were bundled

out for their lowest-everTest score of 36 in theirsecond innings asAustralia claimed aneight-wicket win in thepink-ball Test to take a1-0 lead in the Border-Gavaskar trophy.

“Now there’s someserious wounds openedup. There could be agood chance (of asweep),” Ponting told

cricket.Com.Au.“Let’s hope we do

get a result inMelbourne and if wedo, I think India’s goingto find it really hard tobounce back and win agame.”

India will miss skip-per Virat Kohli in theremaining three Testsas he returns home forthe birth of his child and

Ponting said it will be areal test for the visitorsas they look to pick upthe pieces under thecaptaincy of AjinkyaRahane.

“We’ll learn a lotabout them, won't we?With Kohli not beingthere as well there’salmost no one to pickthem back up after a losslike that,” Ponting said.

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Cricket Australia on Sunday said the SCGremains its preferred venue for the

third Test against India after reports emergedthat the governing body is contemplatingswapping the last two games of the four-Testseries due to growing COVID-19 cases inSydney.

Australian cricket officials were put onhigh alert last week after an outbreak of thevirus in the northern beaches in Sydney,which will host the third Test from January7.

There were reports that the CA wasmulling options and “swapping the third andfourth Tests between Sydney and Brisbanewas the top alternative”.

However, CA's interim chief executiveofficer Nick Hockley said he is hopeful ofstaging the third Test between Australia andIndia at the SCG.

“We have made no changes to our sched-ule and our preference remains to play thematch at the Sydney Cricket Ground,"Hockley was quoted as saying by ‘SydneyMorning Herald’ in a statement.

“Cricket Australia has developed a solidtrack record of delivery throughout this mostchallenging of summers and will continueto make appropriate and proportionatedecisions in consultation with our biosecu-rity team, governments, state and territoryassociations, the Australian Cricketers’Association, our partners and venues.”

With cases growing, star Australiaopener David Warner and pacer SeanAbbott — both recovering from injuries -- were on Saturday flown from Sydney toMelbourne, which will host the Boxing dayTest from December 26.

The governing body's coronavirus work-ing group was also due to meet on Sundayto take stock of the impact of Sydney’snorthern beaches virus cluster on the thirdTest.

With the number of cases shooting to71, Victoria and South Australia havealready announced tighter border con-trols, while the New South Wales state gov-ernment have also imposed fresh restric-tions.

Under the current circumstances, thereare concerns that Queensland state mayclose its border with New South Wales,which will mean players and broadcastingcrews will not be able to travel from Sydneyto Brisbane between the third and fourthTests.

Hockley said the governing body is pre-pared for such contingencies.

“CA has prepared for the possibility ofCOVID-19 hotspots and state border closuresover the course of the summer and the pro-tocols that we have put in place have been effec-tive in ensuring the safety and success of themen’s and women's domestic and internation-al programs to date,” he said.

According to the report, “Hosting the nexttwo Tests in Melbourne, where the series willresume on Boxing Day after Australia took a1-0 lead in Adelaide, is another option...”

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Opener Tim Seifert carried hisbat for 84 in an unbroken

129-run partnership with KaneWilliamson to steer New Zealandto a nine-wicket win over Pakistanin the second Twenty20 interna-tional Sunday and an unassailable2-0 lead in the three-match series.

Williamson finished 57 notout in his return to the short for-mat as New Zealand overtookPakistan’s total of 163-6 with fourballs to spare.

Seifert took his runs fromonly 63 balls with eight fours andthree sixes, unleashing a wide vari-ety of shots on a flat wicketagainst a Pakistan attack thatstruggled to find consistentlychallenging lengths.

Williamson was scratchy atfirst, then became unstoppable,reaching his 12th T20 internation-

al half century from 37 balls on thesame ground where he scored atest-best 251 in his last innings.

“It was a good surface, goodfor the bowlers but obviously ifyou could build partnerships youcould get there,” Williamson said.

Hafeez came to the last over82 not out, hit three singles, a sixand a four and was 93 not out withonly one ball left in the innings.He did the best he could, hittingthe final delivery for six to finishjust short of a maiden century.

Tim Southee, Trent Boult andKyle Jamieson also returned, giv-ing New Zealand an all-new paceattack. Southee made his presencefelt, taking 4-21 from his fourovers to weaken the Pakistaninnings.

Boult took 0-33 and Jamieson0-43 but New Zealand generallybowled well after losing the toss.

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Pacer Mohammad Amir hasheld the Pakistan team man-

agement responsible for his deci-sion to quit international cricket at28 and slammed coach Misbah-ul-Haq and bowling coach WaqarYounis for “spoiling” his image.

Speaking on his officialYoutube channel, left-arm pacerAmir made it clear that his prob-lem was with Misbah and Younis.

“These people have been try-ing to slowly poison people’s mindsby saying that I didn’t want to playTest cricket and only wanted toplay in T20 leagues to earn money.They built a narrative that I had letdown the team despite all theinvestment in me,” Amir said.

“They have tried to spoil myimage and it takes a lot of hardwork to build your image.”

“It was a very hard decision forme but I think the time has come

when one shouldn’t keep quiet. Itook this decision to raise this issueand let people know what is hap-pening.”

“Obviously I was very hurtwhen they didn't select me even in35 players for New Zealand. If Ionly cared about playing in leaguesthen I would not feel bad at beingdropped for the New Zealandtour nor would I have reacted,” hestated.

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India may have suffered anembarrassing defeat in the

series-opener against Australiabut its skipper Virat Kohli frac-tionally closed the gap withtop-ranked Test batsman SteveSmith, following his 74-runknock in the first innings inAdelaide.

Kohli gained two pointsfor his half-century to get to888 while Smith (911) lost 10points in the table after scor-ing 1 and 1 in his two innings.

Marnus Labuschagne'sinnings of 47 and 6 in the low-scoring match pushed him toa career-best 839 points in thelatest ICC rankings for Testbatsmen.

Australia skipper TimPaine's player-of-the-matchinnings of 73 not out has lift-ed him to a career-best 33rdwith 592 points.

His previous best was 45thin December of 2018. Further

down, Joe Burns' unbeaten 51saw him move into 48th place,the first time he has been inthe top 50 since 2016.

Spinner R Ashwin hasnow become India's top-ranked bowler after takingfour wickets in Australia's firstinnings. Ashwin, now rankedninth, overtook pacer pacerJasprit Bumrah.

Ravindra Jadeja, who didnot play the Adelaide Test, wasunchanged at number three inthe all-rounders' list.

Australian fast bowler PatCummins gained six points forhis seven-wicket haul as hemoved from 904 to 910 for acomfortable lead over StuartBroad in second place.

Cummins' pace colleague,Josh Hazelwood's figures of5/8 in India's second inningshelped him gain four spots andmove back into the top fivewith 805 points, the first timesince March 2018.

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Hit on the elbow during the pink-ball seriesopener, Australia's Joe Burns was on Sunday

cleared to play the second Test against India, butyoung Will Pucovski was ruled out as he contin-ues to recover from concussion.

Burns suffered a nasty blow on his elbow offa Jasprit Bumrah delivery during the first Test atAdelaide which Australia won by eight wickets totake a 1-0 lead in the four-match series.

“Joe Burns has been cleared of serious dam-age to his arm, while concussed young gun WillPucovski has been ruled out of a Boxing Day Testdebut,” a report in ‘The West Australian’ said.

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Recovering from a thumbinjury, Pakistan captain

Babar Azam could miss theopening Test against NewZealand at Mount Maunganuibeginning December 26.

Babar, who has beenPakistan's top run-scorer acrossall three formats since last year,suffered a fracture in his thumbduring a throw-down session inQueenstown on December 12which ruled him out of the

three-match T20 series.“Babar is under rehab and

has done some light training butwhether he will be 100 percentmatch fit in time for the first testis a long shot,” a source aware ofthe developments in NewZealand said.

Babar has also been given a12-day rehab and rest period tobe fit again but the source saidthe Pakistan captain’s injurywas taking time to heal and hewas still unable to hold a batproperly.

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Jamie Vardy’s penalty andToby Alderweireld’s own-

goal propelled Leicester to a 2-0 victory over Tottenham andup to second in the PremierLeague, moving ahead of thenorth London club on Sunday.

Tottenham’s once-blos-soming title challenge has fal-tered over the last eight days,with only one point collectedby Jose Mourinho’s side fromthree games.

But Leicester, the surprise2016 title winner, is now onlyfour points behind currentdefending champion Liverpoolafter 14 games.

A first half lacking clear-cut chances ended with Vardyputting Leicester ahead withthe final kick from the penal-ty spot in stoppage time afterTottenham defender SergeAurier barged Wesley Fofanaover.

Tottenham had an escapeearly in the second half whenJames Justin’s long ball over thetop was artfully brought downby James Maddison beforenetting - only for VAR to spota tight offside.

But Leicester was gifted asecond on the hour whenVardy's header across goal wasdeflected into his own net byAlderweireld, who was underno pressure.

It enabled Leicester man-ager Brendan Rodgers -

appointed academy coach atChelsea in 2004 whenMourinho was first-team man-ager - to claim a first victoryover his mentor in their eighthencounter.

Two weeks afterTottenham beat Arsenal infront of 2,000 fans, the northLondon stadium’s stands wereclosed again - after only beingopen for two games - due totighter coronavirus restric-tions being re-imposed in thecapital.

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Indian women boxers Simranjeet Kaur(60kg) and Manish (57kg) notched up

Gold medals with contrasting final wins inthe Cologne World Cup in Germany.

Manish defeated compatriot Saskhi 3-2, while Simranjeet got the better of GermanMaya Klienhans 4-1 to finish on top in theirrespective categories.

India finished the competition at the sec-ond spot overall after claiming three gold,two silver and four Bronze medals.

On Saturday, Asian Games championAmit Panghal (52kg) had claimed the soleGold among men. He got a walkover in thefinals.

Veteran Satish Kumar (+91kg) had tosettle for a silver after an injury forced himto withdraw from the finals.

Sonia Lather (57kg), Pooja Rani (75kg)Gaurav Solanki (57kg) and MohamedHussamudin (57kg) had claimed the bronzemedal in their respective categories.

The event featured boxers from the hostcountry, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, France,Moldova, Netherlands, Poland and Ukraine.

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Spurs suffer second successive defeat