RNI NO.: WBENG/2015/65962

VOL. 7, ISSUE 92 | Monday, 5 April 2021 | Kolkata | Pages 12 | Rs 3.00PUBLISHED FROM DELHI | KOLKATA

MILLENNIUMPOST.IN

BJP will not get even 50 seats, many will lose their election deposit, predicts Mamata

‘Modi will not be invited to our govt’s oath-taking ceremony as he reminds of bloodshed’ PRITESH BASU

AMTA: Confident of her par-ty’s victory in the ongoing polls, Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee — taking a swipe at Prime Minister Nar-endra Modi — stating that “BJP will not get even 50 seats” won-dered whether Modi is “god or a superhuman” to make claims of BJP’s triumph and said that he would not even be invited in the oath-taking ceremony of her government for third consecutive term as his pres-ence brings back nightmare of bloodshed due to riots.

“Everyone knows who will throw whom out (in this elec-tion). Knowing well that BJP has lost the match, he (Modi) is now trying to distract peo-ple claiming of attending their oath-taking ceremony here. I would like to say that we will not invite you the Prime Min-ister as your hands are tainted with blood and your pres-ence brings back memories of bloodshed as results of riots,”

Banerjee said taking a cue from Modi’s statement in Saturday’s public meeting at Tarakeswar in Hooghly.

She maintained: “Only two phases of elections have taken place and they are claiming of winning the election. Is he a god that he (Modi) knows the poll results? Let them first secure 50 seats only then they will think of 294 and not a single Mi Jafar (defectors) will win. If I have Bengal’s blood in my body, I will never let the state turn into a riot-torn Gujarat.”

“Hands of these leaders are stained with blood as they have killed people in Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi. They have turned 14 lakh Bengalis home-less in Assam in the name of NRC and CAA,” she said.

She also stated that many of the BJP’s candidates will lose their election deposit this time.

In the same breath she criti-cised Modi, being the Prime Minister, for giving directions to state’s officers “showing a

backseat to the Constitution” as she is entitled to give them necessary directions to the officers being the state’s sit-ting Chief Minister. “He was giving directions to state’s offi-cers. Again, he is sometimes dressing like Rabindranath Tagore and sometimes like Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. Is it not an act of an insane per-son? Because of an Opposition party like Congress, he had got the space to become the Prime Minister. He had killed his own jawans at Pulwama just to get political mileage (ahead of the last Lok Sabha polls),” she said.

Banerjee also took a jibe at the Election Commission (EC), Central Force and sec-tion of police officers, while addressing five back-to-back rallies, saying that there are some officers who are not per-forming their duty impartially considering it will fetch them good posting and promotion. “But they have mistaken. All these are just for a month. Some may wish to get post-ing in Home Ministry consid-ering the state government to be poor. But one with ears and eyes open can easily under-stand the outcome of the elec-

tion and the huge gathering in our meetings is a hint. Again, they must not forget how they (BJP-led Centre) had thrown out 125 IPS and IAS officers,” she remarked.

Making a sensational alle-gation, Banerjee said that she was told by a presiding officer of a booth at Sunderbans that some Central Force person-nel had urged to give them a written order of firing. “Just think of their audacity. Law and order is a state subject. It is not under Modi and Shah,” she said.

Reacting to the role of the EC, Banerjee said: “I have never seen such an election. This is election or BJP’s selec-tion. I am a senior politician in the country. I would urge people to welcome them (Cen-tral force) as our guest. But we would lodge FIRs if there is any excess. We have lodged 63 complaints in connection with Nandigram (with the EC). I know we will not get justice. But I am sure of getting justice

from the people of the state. At the same time, we would also move the court in this regard.”

With the campaign for the third phase of the poll ending on Sunday, she said: “I would like to alert people saying that 48 hours before the day of election is very crucial as BJP’s goons from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in uniform of police would raid your house to terro-rise voters. Our youths should not confront them. They should inform our mothers and sisters who will this time give a befitting reply to “out-sider gang” of Modi and Shah.”

Expressing her grief in the recent attack on soldiers in Chhattisgarh, Mamata Baner-jee said: “Deeply grieved at the dastardly attack on our soldiers in Chhattisgarh. My heartfelt condolences to the families of those martyred in the line of duty. I salute the supreme sacrifice made for the nation by these brave-hearts. Prayers for the speedy recov-ery of those injured.”

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In today’s paper

...

Mamata Banerjee at the rally in Sonarpur on Sunday PIC/MPOST

MPOST BUREAU

DEHRADUN: Forest fires in Uttarakhand flared up over the past day prompting the Centre to rush two helicopters to the state on Sunday to bring the situation under control.

There are 40 active fire spots in the forests of Garhwal and Kumaon regions with Nainital, Almora, Tehri and Pauri districts being the worst-hit, forest offi-cials said.

Since January this year, there have been 983 incidents of forest fire in the state affecting 1,292 hectares of land, they said.

Chief Minister Tirath Singh Rawat informed Union Home Minister Amit Shah about the current forest fire situation in the state following which two heli-copters were rushed in to pro-vide help.

“I have spoken to Uttara-khand Chief Minister Tirath Singh Rawat to get an update on forest fires in the state. Instruc-tions have been issued to send helicopters and National Disas-ter Response Force teams to the state to minimise loss of lives and property due to the wildfires,” Shah said in a tweet.

Rawat called an emergency

meeting of senior officials of the forest and disaster management departments and all district magistrates to assess the situa-tion and discuss ways to effec-tively control it.

He said 12,000 forest depart-ment personnel have been deployed and 1,300 fire stations have also been set up to stop for-est fires.

The two helicopters have already arrived in the state and expressed hope that they will help in controlling the situation, the chief minister said.

One helicopter will be sta-tioned in Gauchar which will

collect water from Shrinagar and the other will be stationed in Haldwani which will collect water from the Bhimtal lake to extinguish the forest fires.

Forest department officials have been asked not to take any leave and keep a close watch on the situation, the chief minister said, adding bushes around resi-dential areas are being cleared so that the forest fires do not spread there.

A major reason for rising for-est fire incidents in the state is the paucity of rain during win-ter. Rainfall during winter was less than normal this year, he said.

U’khand: Centre sends 2 helicopters to control forest firesThere are 40 active fire spots in the forests of Garhwal and Kumaon regions

Forest workers engaged in extinguishing the fire in the forests of Tehri district, on Sunday PTI

Highlights » BJP will not get more than 50 seats » Trinamool Congress will only form government for third consecutive term » Prime Minister Narendra Modi would not be invited in oath-taking ceremony as he will come along with memo-

ries of bloodshed in riots

» Police should perform their duty impartially

» Trinamool Congress would move to court, later, in connection with all the cases (lodged with the EC)

» Mamata expressed grief over the recent Naxal attack on soldiers in Chhattisgarh

Covid: India records this year’s biggest single-day jump in cases

Weekend lockdown in Maha, strict restrictions from Monday

EC turns down BPF plea to postpone poll in Tamulpur

EC’s reply to Mamata’s letter on Nandigram poll biased: TMC

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The “alarming” surge in Coronavirus cases in India remained unabated as 93,249 new infections were recorded on Sunday, the highest single-day rise since September 19, with the Centre attributing it to a severe decline in the com-pliance of COVID-appropriate behaviour, pandemic fatigue and lack of effective implementation of containment measures.

Maharashtra, which is the worst affected, announced a weekend lockdown in the state from 8 PM on Friday and a shut down of private offices, except in the banking and insurance sec-tors, from Monday night with

employees allowed to work from home, besides other restrictions.

At a review meeting with senior officials, Prime Minis-ter Narendra Modi directed that central teams consisting of public health specialists be sent to Maha-rashtra, Punjab and Chhattisgarh, where the situation was of serious

concern. They are among 10 high burden states and UTs are con-tributing 91.4 per cent of the total cases and 90.9 per cent of the total deaths in the country.

The Centre said that a special campaign for COVID-appro-priate behaviour with empha-sis on 100 per cent mask usage, personal hygiene and sanitation at public places, workplaces and health facilities will be organised between April 6-14. Modi said the five-fold strategy of testing, trac-ing, treatment, COVID-appro-priate behaviour and vaccination if implemented with utmost seri-ousness and commitment would be effective in curbing the pan-demic’s spread, according to an official statement. Continued on P6

MPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI: The Election Commission on Sunday turned down a plea of the Bodoland People’s Front(BPF) to postpone polls in the Tamulpur constituency in Assam as its can-didate has joined the BJP under inducement, and said under law adjourning election at this stage is allowed only if a candidate of a recog-nised party dies.

However, the party has also moved the Supreme Court seeking postponement of poll-ing in Tamulpur.

The Bodo Peoples Front (BPF) had moved the poll panel alleging that its candidate from Tamulpur, Rangja Khungur Basumatary, joined the BJP on April 1 under inducement. The Con-gress has also joined the BPF in calling for poll-ing to be suspended.

State chief Ripun Bora also called for action against BJP leader and minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, for having met Basumatary before he switched over.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Reacting to the Election Commission’s reply to Trinamool Congress (TMC) Chairperson Mamata Baner-jee’s complaint against alleged ‘booth capturing’ and entry of ‘outsiders’ at a polling station at Boyal in Nandigram during the second phase of polls, par-ty’s spokesperson Kunal Ghosh on Sunday said the poll pan-el’s response is biased. Ghosh claimed that EC’s reply reflected that it was acting in a partisan manner.

The EC rejected the allega-tions raised by TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee as being “fac-

tually incorrect.” In her hand-written complaint, Banerjee had alleged that no genuine vot-ers were allowed to enter the booth at Boyal Maktab Primary School in the presence of the Central Forces.

“How can the Commis-sion deny that though section 144 was imposed BJP support-ers had assembled close to the polling booth at Boyal in Nan-digram and shouted slogans in support of their candidate (Suvendu Adhikari)? People of Bengal had witnessed what happened on that particular day. Mamata Banerjee will win by a huge margin from Nandi-gram but that does not mean

that BJP can do anything tak-ing advantage of the biased approach of the Commission,” said Ghosh.

Stating that the allegations made by Banerjee were genuine, he maintained that the top brass of the party would communi-cate their standpoint about such a reply from the Commis-sion in due course of time. The Commission called Banerjee’s handwritten complaint “factu-ally incorrect” and “devoid of substance”.

The poll panel said it was contemplating action under the relevant sections of the Model Code of Conduct and the Rep-resentation of the People Act.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

RAIPUR: Police recovered bullet-riddled bodies of 20 jawans in the jungles of Chattisgarh Sunday, raising to 22 the number of security personnel killed in a fierce gunbattle with Naxals the previous day — the biggest massacre in more than a year that also left 31 injured.

Police had on Saturday said five security personnel were killed in the encounter and 18 were missing. Two of the five bodies were recov-ered on Saturday itself, they had said.

The remaining three bod-ies and also the bodies of 17 of the 18 missing jawans were recovered on Sunday, police said, adding a search opera-tion is underway to trace the missing jawan.

The dead include eight from the District Reserve Guard (DRG), seven from the CRPF’s Commando Bat-talion for Resolute Action (CoBRA), six from the Spe-cial Task Force and one from the ‘Bastariya’ battalion of the CRPF,” Inspector General of Police (Bastar range) Sundar-raj P said. The missing jawan belongs to the CoBRA unit, he said.

He said the anti-Naxal operation was launched based on the intelligence inputs about the presence of Maoists of PLGA (Peoples’ Liberation Guerilla Army) Battalion No. 1 led by Hidma,

a Naxal commander involved in many deadly attacks on security forces.

He rubbished reports of “a meticulously planned Naxal ambush”, adding, “Security forces fought bravely and inflicted a heavy blow to the ultras during the face-off”.

Another senior police official said the Naxals, around 400 in number, were strategically positioned on a hillock in front of Tekalguda village and around it.

The security personnel came under heavy fire fol-lowing which a few moved to the deserted village to take defensive positions where the Naxals lay in wait, the official said. Visuals from the spot showed bodies of the slain jawans lying in the field and on the village streets.

An eyewitness said the bodies of the security person-nel had bullet wounds and also had wounds inflicted by sharp weapons.

In a major joint offensive, separate joint teams of secu-rity forces, comprising over 2,000 personnel, launched an anti-Naxal operation from Bijapur and Sukma districts in the South Bastar for-ests, considered as a Maoist stronghold, on Friday night.

The operation was launched from five places - Tarrem, Usoor and Pamed (in Bijapur), and Minpa and Narsapuram (in Sukma), the official said. Continued on P6

CHHATTISGARH NAXAL ENCOUNTER

Bodies of 20 jawans recovered;

toll rises to 22

ASSAM

A police constable brings women for COVID-19 test in Jammu, on Sunday PTI

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel visits a CRPF jawan injured in Bijapur Naxal attack, at a hospital in Raipur, on Sunday PTI

City: Pg 2About 1,957 fresh cases reported in the past 24 hrs

Nation: Pg 5Rahul Gandhi in Kerala seeks to woo voters with NYAY

Film: Pg 12Shraddha to play double role in ‘Chaalbaaz In London’

No Half Truths

‘EC ACTING IN A PARTISAN MANNER’

IN PROTEST

Members of Federation of Cine Technicians and Workers of Eastern India stage protest against BJP candidates Babul Supriyo and Rudranil Ghosh in Kolkata, on Sunday PIC/MPOST

Even after 2 yrs of operations, AIIMS Kalyani infra inadequate

At least 1,957 fresh cases reported in the past 24 hrs

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: A thundershower accompanied by lightning hit various South Bengal districts and some parts of the city on Sunday evening saving resi-dents from the hot and humid condition.

Nor’wester that hit the city and several districts caused rains in some parts.

Trees fell in various dis-tricts. It hit several areas of Birbhum and Burdwan in the afternoon.

The gusty wind was accom-panied by rain. People in the city and also from North 24-Parganas, South 24-Par-ganas and other districts wit-nessed the thundershower in the evening.

Traffic movement was dis-rupted in several stretches of Birbhum, North 24-parga-nas and others due to felling of trees.

The Regional Meteoro-

logical department in Kolkata had earlier predicted rainfall and gusty wind on Sunday. Some places of East Burdwan

received hailstorm as well. Rain has brought down the

temperature by a few notches. Districts like North

24-Parganas, South 24-Parga-nas, Nadia and Murshidabad received moderate to heavy rainfall coupled with lightning

from Sunday afternoon.The rain lasted for nearly

an hour and the city remained cloudy partially.

As the day progressed, the city dwellers witnessed light to moderate rainfall.

A strong wind was blowing at 40-60 km/hour in some parts of South Bengal on Sunday.

Meanwhile, MeT office predicated a possibility of thunderstorm in some South Bengal districts as strong mois-ture-laden southwesterly wind would blow in the area, creat-ing a favourable environment for a storm. The city may also receive scattered rainfall in the next 24 hours as predicted by the weather office. It may be mentioned that vehicular movement on various stretches of the city remained slow fol-lowing the rain.

According to Alipore MeT office, there may be some more rainfall in some South Bengal districts in the next 24 hours.

Season’s first: Nor’wester hits city, hour-long showers bring down temp

The city may also receive scattered rainfall in the next 24 hrs, says MeT

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Daily Covid infec-tion in the State jumped up to 1,957 on Sunday from what remained at 1,736 on Satur-day. This is the highest infec-tion ever since the Covid curve flattened.

The total tally of infected patients so far in Bengal has gone up to 5,93,615 till Sunday. Around 5,73,118 patients have already been released from the hospitals. As many as 644 patients have been discharged in the past 24 hours.

The Covid recovery rate stood at 96.55 percent on Sun-day. The percentage of positive cases out of the sample tested stood at 6.40. The percentage of occupancy of Covid beds in the State remained at 15.19 on Sunday. The state has so far car-ried out 92,78,233 Covid sam-ple tests out of which 26,768 were performed in the past 24 hours.

Four died in the state in the past 24 hours. The total death toll in the state has reached 10,344. Kolkata has registered two deaths while North 24-Par-ganas and West Burdwan each have seen one death. The total

death toll in Kolkata has so far reached 3,130. North 24-Parga-nas has lost 2,537 people so far. Around 634 fresh cases were reported in Kolkata in the past 24 hours while North 24-Par-ganas has registered 462 fresh cases.

The total tally of infected patients in Kolkata has gone up to 1,35,637 while North 24-Parganas has so far seen a total 1,27,553. South 24-Par-ganas has registered 120 new Covid cases in the past 24 hours.

The total number of Covid infected patients in South 24-parganas has gone up 38,311. Hooghly has witnessed 103 Covid cases in the past 24 hours while the total tally

from the district reached 30,447. Howrah has so far reg-istered a total 37,381 Covid cases so far out of which 174 have been affected in the past 24 hours.

There are around 1,357 ICU/HDU beds functional in Covid hospitals. Around 525 ventilators are still function-ing in Covid hospitals. The total number of earmarked Covid beds stood at 5,604 on Sunday. The Health depart-ment has so far addressed 15,93,852 general queries till date out of which around 930 queries were addressed in the last 24 hours. Around 5,88,550 people have received telemed-icine consultations in the state till April 3.

ED didn’t attach my

assets, says Kunal

PRADIP CHATTERJEE

KOLKATA: Though the BJP pledged three new AIIMS— in North Bengal, the Sunder-bans and Jungle Mahal—in its poll manifesto for the ensu-ing Assembly polls, the lack of basic infrastructure at All India Institute of Medical Sci-ences (AIIMS) Kalyani, even two years after it started oper-ation, is compelling patients to return untreated from the pre-mier medical institute.

AIIMS, Kalyani was approved under the Prad-han Mantri Swasthya Surak-sha Yojana (PMSSY) by Union Cabinet on October 7 in 2015 amid much fanfare but the Centre failed to provide ade-quate infrastructure to the institution.

The announcement of 3 new AIIMS in the election manifesto of the BJP has raised many eyebrows in Trinamool Congress, which had called it a ‘complete gimmick’ to gain votes.

Experts pointed out as to why the BJP has promised

similar institutions when the Centre-owned AIIMS at Kaly-ani runs short of adequate infrastructure.

According to sources, there had been instances when peo-ple from different parts of Nadia and other adjoining dis-tricts had to return untreated from the premier institution as it failed to cater to their needs. Due to lack of infrastructure, the institution has not been able to start Indoor patient departments (IPDs).

When asked why the IPDs

hadn’t started yet, the Execu-tive Director of AIIMS, Kaly-ani, Dr Ramji Singh said: “We cannot start IPDs as we don’t have enough manpower. We need more faculties. We do not have sanctioned posts for senior residents. We have urged the Ministry to sanction the posts immediately.”

Sources said eight Outpa-tient departments (OPDs) are currently functioning in AIIMS which includes Medicine, Sur-gery, Gynecology and Obstet-rics, ENT, Eye, Pediatrics,

Psychiatry and Dermatology. Even all the eight OPDs can-not perform to its full capacity as in six out of eight disciplines, there is one faculty. As a result at most 100-150 patients can be treated in the OPDs on each day.

“It would take some more time to open other OPDs as we don’t have other faculties. In case of eight OPDs, we have been able to select the facul-ties. For the rest, candidates were selected but they did not join. There are some rulings

of the Supreme Court regard-ing reservation roster as well. Hence, we have stopped the interviews. We will take opin-ion from the Centre or other-wise we have to go for fresh advertisements,” said Execu-tive Director Dr Singh.

He said once the institute gets the permission to hold interviews, the recruitment process will be started. There is no possibility of recruiting more faculties before Septem-ber-October this year, Dr Singh further pointed out.

MANY PATIENTS FORCED TO RETURN UNTREATED

File photo of AIIMS Kalyani

Highlights » The construction of the hospital started in 2016 on a 179.82 acre of land at Basantapur mouza of Kalyani subdivision in Nadia. » State government had provided land in the strategic location which is around 1 km from the NH34. » AIIMS Kalyani was approved in 2015; construction started in 2016 and the institute started operation in 2019. » No IPD facilities available. » 8 OPDs functioning but they lack adequate faculties. » Patients’ intake is low due to lack of adequate infrastructure.

2 millenniumpostCitympMONDAY, 5 APRIL, 2021 | KOLKATA

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COVID positivity rate stands at 6.40%

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: The State Health department on Sunday con-ducted 675 sessions and around 32,048 people were vaccinated across the state. Bengal has so far carried out 56.65 lakh vacci-nation marks till Sunday.

According to the Health

department’s figure, around 29,981 people took the first dose on Sunday while 2,067 took the second dose. A total 30,627 senior citizens were vaccinated.

Among the total 56.65 lakh people vaccinated so far, there were health workers, front line workers and elderly citizens.

No adverse events following immunization (AEFI) were reported on Sunday. On Sat-urday, around 2,37,286 peo-ple received vaccination across the State.

State government had laid great stress on daily vaccina-tion to check the spread of Covid infection. The Health department touched 3 lakh daily figures of vaccination on a number of occasions since the inoculation drive began.

From April 1, vaccination has been started for all the peo-ple above the age of 45. Earlier, people between 45 and 59 with comorbidities were entitled to receive the jab.

About 32,048 people took the vaccine shot in a day

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Trinamool Con-gress spokesperson Kunal Ghosh claimed that none of his properties were attached by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) after the central agency stated that they had attached his properties along with MP Shatabdi Roy and Director of Saradha, Debjani Mukherjee worth Rs 3 crore.

On Saturday, the cen-tral agency tweeted: “ED has attached properties worth Rs. 3Cr pertaining to Kunal Ghosh Ex-Rajya Sabha MP from TMC (CEO Media Group Saradha), Satabdi Roy Lok Sabha MP from TMC (Brand Ambassa-dor Saradha) and also of Deb-jani Mukhejree who is director Saradha Group of companies in Saradha Chit Fund case.”

Later, Ghosh claimed in reality he had returned the money to the central agency. He also claimed that though he appealed before the ED offi-cials to return the money in 2017, Ghosh faced tremen-dous difficulties to arrange money as a huge amount of money was spent for his legal battle and his mother’s illness. He also claimed that Roy also returned money which she earned from Saradha. Ghosh raised questions as to why Mithun Chakraborty’s name was not on the list. I have returned the money which I had earned from Saradha and had paid income tax. Mit-hun Chakraborty returned the money later which he had taken without completing his work. Why his name is not mentioned?” asked Ghosh.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested the Inspector-in- Charge (IC) of Bankura police station for his alleged involvement with the coal smuggling racket.

The IC, Ashok Mishra, was summoned by the ED at its headquarters in Delhi where he was arrested after interrogation.

It has been alleged that Ashok being a relative of Binay Mishra, another accused in the coal smuggling case, knows those who used to receive money coming from the ille-gal business.

Ashok was earlier interro-gated by the ED officers mul-tiple times in connection with the case.

He was again summoned in Delhi for interrogation on Saturday.

During interrogation

Ashok reportedly failed to sat-isfy the investigating officers with his answers. Thus, he was later arrested.

Meanwhile, the prime accused of the coal smuggling case, Anup Majhi alias Lala has been again summoned by the Central Bureau of Investiga-tion (CBI) . The central agency instructed him to appear before the investigating officials on Monday. Bikash Mishra, brother of Binay was arrested by the ED last month.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: A clash broke out between BJP and Trinamool Congress (TMC)workers on Saturday night at Kankur-gachhi area reportedly over domination of a local club.

According to sources, an alterca-tion broke out between two groups of people at Natunpally over collection of water from the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) tap. When TMC candidate in Maniktala, Sadhan Pan-dey’s daughter Shreya Pandey went to

the spot, a group of people reportedly started shouting at her. Later, BJP can-didate Kalyan Choubey also reached the spot. The situation took a political turn.

In the evening, TMC and BJP work-ers got involved in an altercation over domination of the club. A clash broke out and they started pelting stones at each other. When police personnel from Maniktala police station went to the spot, the violent mob vandalised some police cars as well. Police had to resort to lathi charge to control the mob. Dep-uty Commissioner of Eastern Suburban Division, Ajay Prasad led the police team and controlled the situation. Two policemen suffered injuries while cops nabbed nine accused.

In a separate incident at Kulpi in South 24-Parganas, a clash broke out between Indian Secular Front (ISF) and TMC workers on Sunday. As many as 17 persons suffered injuries. It has been alleged that during a rally of ISF, some of their workers abused TMC workers and a few women. When TMC men pro-tested, they assaulted the former. A large contingent of police force along with the Central Forces rushed to the spot and brought the situation under con-trol. Several people were picked up by the cops who were involved in the clash.

BJP & TMC workers clash; nine in cop net

Coal smuggling case: Bankura IC arrested

BALURGHAT: Tension prevailed here after a BJP leader shouted the provocative ‘Goli Maro” (shoot them) slogan, targeting media persons from a party rally before district administrative building on Saturday afternoon while filing nomination papers for four of the party candidates. The media persons protested the incident before the party’s Bal-urghat MP Sukanta Majumder. Following the protest, Majumdar apologised for the incident.

The identity of the accused BJP leader was yet to be ascer-tained, said Majumdar. According to him, the leader perhaps didn’t mean to shoot the journalists with a gun.

On Saturday afternoon, BJP’s Balurghat candidate Ashok Lahiri, Gangarampur candidate Satyendranath Roy, Kumarganj candidate Manas Sarkar and Tapan candidate Budhrai Tudu had filed their nomination papers.

Meanwhile, Trinamool Congress’ Rajya Sabha MP Arpita Ghosh also criticised the incident and said the BJP leaders do not respect the media. MPOST

BJP man’s ‘Goli Maro’ slogan triggers stir

In a separate incident at Kulpi, ISF workers abused TMC men and a few women. The ISF workers also allegedly assaulted TMC workers

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Deepa Chatterjee, the wife of late Bengali legend-ary actor Soumitra Chatterjee, passed away at a city hospital on Sunday early morning.

She was 83. She died around 2.55 am, due to kidney failure. She was admitted to a hospital at Beliaghata as her health con-dition had deteriorated.

On November 15 last year, Soumitra Chatterjee had passed away. They got married in 1960. According to their daughter Paulami Bose, Deepa Chatterjee had lost the will to live after Soumitra’s death.

They were married for 60 years and are survived by their daughter Paulomi Bose and son

Sougata Chatterjee.Deepa Chatterjee was a

badminton champion and an actor. She also became champion in a mixed double tournament.

It was in 1970 when Deepa Chatterjee, as an actor, had worked with Uttam Kumar and Supriya Choudhury in "Bilombita Lay". She is also well known for her movie "Durga".

It may be recalled that Sou-mitra Chatterjee's funeral was held with gun salute. TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee had taken part in a procession from Rabindra Sadan to crema-torium as a mark of respect to the actor. Thousands of people from all walks of life had also taken part in the rally.

Soumitra Chatterjee’s wife Deepa no more

The IC, Ashok Mishra, was summoned by the ED at its headquarters in Delhi where he was arrested after interrogation

Covid-19 Stats » Number of deaths in past 24 hours 4 » Total death toll so far 10,344 » Tested COVID positive in the past 24 hours 1,957 » Total COVID positive cases so far 5,93,615 » Total patients recovered from COVID so far 5,73,118 » Discharged from hospitals in a day 644 » Total sample tested so far 92,78,233

REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE

Gusty wind was accompanied by rain that brought relief to the denizens FILE PHOTO

3City mp

‘BJP using Central agencies to bag political mileage, terrorise Oppn’

‘Modi, Shah not bothered about Maoist attack in Chhattisgarh’

KOLKATA: TMC leader Subrata Mukherjee raised questions over the authenticity of the audio clip that was circulated by the BJP alleging TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee’s involvement in the coal scam.

“It is not clear who is speaking in the audio tape. The subject of the con-versation is incoherent too. No one has examined the tape and has told anything about what it is all about. The media channels that are airing such clips have also claimed that they have not verified its authenticity. So, we cannot respond to the same,” said Mukherjee. He, however, reiterated that BJP has already known that they have been defeated convincingly in

the first two phases of polls that have already been held in Bengal. “Our senior leader Yashwant Sinha Ji has already received information that the top BJP leaders like Modi Ji (Naren-dra Modi), Shah Ji (Amit Shah) and Nadda Ji (JP Nadda) have held an internal meeting regarding the poor

performance of the party in the first two phases and are looking at ways for amendment. So, we feel it is an attempt to spread canards against the TMC,” TMC’s Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’ Brien said.

O’ Brien also criticised Amit Shah’s announcement of creation of Naray-ani Battalion. “An RTI has exposed his jumla (falsehood). Mamata Banerjee had announced formation of Naray-ani Battalion on November 11 last year and work for its creation has already started at Mekhliganj in North Bengal. It is an attempt to hoodwink the Rajbanshi community and people of Bengal for vote bank politics,” he added. MPOST

Trinamool questions credibility of leaked tape of coal scam

‘Subject of conversation in the tape is incoherent...’

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Trinamool Youth Congress president and party MP Abhishek Banerjee on Sun-day lashed out at Prime Minis-ter Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah for their alleged indifference to the recent Maoist attack in Chhattisgarh.

“The Maoist attack in Chhattisgarh, which led to the death of at least 22 CRPF jawans and injured 32, is one of the major terror strikes in the country after the Pulwama incident. But, those (indirect reference to Modi and Shah) who claim themselves to be patriots have turned daily passengers for campaigning in Bengal and conspiring to oust Mamata Banerjee from power. However, they are not concerned about Chhattis-garh. The Home Minister has not been able to visit Chhattis-garh even once,” Banerjee said, while addressing a mammoth rally at Joynagar in South 24-Parganas.

Banerjee highlighted how Maoist insurgencies were rampant during the Left Front regime in the state’s ‘Junglema-hal.’ Sunday was the last date of campaigning for the 16 Assembly seats in the dis-trict that would go to polls on Tuesday.

Banerjee also hit out at PM Modi for maintaining dou-

ble standards, referring to his recent visit to Bangladesh. “When you visit Bengal, you are reluctant to utter Joy Bangla slogan but in Bangladesh you chant the same slogan flanked by Bangladesh Prime Minister and Home Minister by your side. The people of Bengal will never approve of such double standards by a Prime Minister,” Banerjee asserted.

He challenged the Prime Minister to contest the elec-tions in Bengal on develop-ment parameters. “Come with a report card of what develop-ment you have done for the people of Joynagar or the whole of South 24-Parganas and I will turn up with the report card of what the Mamata Banerjee government has done. I will win confidently by scoring 10-0,” he said.

He slammed the BJP for barely keeping any of its prom-ises that it had made when it

came to power in 2014. “Their promises are like a broken audio cassette that can only be heard and not seen while ours is a high quality DVD that you can see as well as lis-ten to. Mamata Banerjee had fulfilled all the promises she had made while she was elected and you should be assured that she would also keep the prom-ises that had been made in the manifesto of TMC,” he added.

South 24-Parganas hap-pens to be the strong base of the TMC as the party had won all the four seats in the district during the Lok Sabha elections 2019 and had secured a lead in all the 31 Assembly segments in the district. Banerjee is also an elected MP from Diamond Harbour seat in the district.

After Joynagar, Banerjee addressed a public meeting at Satgachia and also organised a roadshow at Bishnupur Assem-bly constituency.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

AMTA: Trinamool Congress chairperson Mamata Baner-jee accused BJP of terrorising leaders of Opposition political parties across the country using Central agencies to bag politi-cal benefit in the run up to the Assembly polls.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi only tell lies and Union Home Minister Amit Shah only spreads canards. The duo runs a syndicate and terrorises leaders of Opposition politi-cal parties by sending Central agencies at their residences. Sometime they send their agency at Abhishek’s house, sometime at houses of Kunal and Sudip Banerjee. They even did not spare DMK chief MK Stalin’s daughter,” Baner-jee said, adding that all such attempts would finally turn fruitless as it cannot silence her from raising her voice against BJP-led Centre’s anti-people policies.

She further said: “They do all these to bag political benefit at the time of elections.”

Raising allegation of “a deep-rooted nexus between BJP and Election Commis-sion (EC), Banerjee also took

a swipe saying: “Why are they changing all the officers if they are so confident of their win. They are changing offi-cers and bringing in their own people. Keep in mind they have looted votes in Assam using police from outside. I would urge the people not to let the same take place here

in Bengal.”Banerjee on Sunday held

five back to back rallies at Hooghly’s Khanakul and Purshura, Howrah’s Amta and South 24-Parganas Sonarpur and Baruipur.

She urged people to cast votes to ensure win of candi-dates of her party, Banerjee

had recollected the incident at Amta in which arms of 14 peo-ple were chopped off. “I had the stood beside the people with the megre earning out of the royalty of a book I had written then,” she said.

She has also informed peo-ple about the steps that her gov-ernment has taken to check

flood like situation in some parts of rural Howrah.

She further stated about the lakhs of job opportunities that was created with jori and gar-ments hub set up by her gov-ernment in Howrah.

Banerjee mocked the BJP saying that all their minsiters are sitting in Bengal leaving all work in Delhi. “I am also Royal Bengal Tiger. Let them do whatever they like. I will safeguard the people from all atrocities,” she said.

WHY ARE THEY CHANGING OFFICERS IF THEY ARE CONFIDENT OF A WIN: MAMATA

Mamata Banerjee addresses a rally in Sonarpur on Sunday PIC/MPOST

Highlights » ‘I am fighting like a Royal Bengal Tiger to protect the rights of the people of Bengal’ » ‘They are changing all officers (to help BJP)’ » Banerjee mocked the BJP saying that all their minsit-ers are sitting in Bengal leaving all work in Delhi » ‘Keep in mind they have looted votes in Assam using police from outside. I would urge the people not to let the same take place here in Bengal’

Abhishek Banerjee at a rally in Joynagor on Sunday PIC/MPOST

The Narrative » Banerjee challenged the Prime Minister to contest the elec-tions in Bengal on development parameters » He maintained that Mamata Banerjee had kept all her promises » Banerjee highlighted how Maoist insurgencies were ram-pant during the Left Front regime in the state’s ‘Junglema-hal’ » Sunday was the last date of campaigning for the 16 Assembly seats in the district that would go to polls on Tuesday

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has decided to deploy 618 com-panies of Central forces in the third phase of Bengal Assembly elections scheduled on April 6, in which 31 Assembly con-stituencies in three districts – South 24-Parganas, Hooghly and Howrah—will go to polls.

South 24-Parganas divided into three police districts including Baruipur, Diamond Harbour and Sunderbans—will witness the highest deployment with 396 companies of Central paramilitary forces for its 5,544 booths with a concentration of approximately 5.1 personnel per booth.

According to sources in the Commission, out of the 396 companies 151 companies will be deployed in Baruipur PD, 113 companies in Dia-mond Harbour and another 132 companies have been com-missioned for Sunderbans PD. 89 companies of Central forces have already been stationed in South 24-Parganas, which pushes up the number of forces to 707 companies, the highest deployment in this election so far. Four Assembly constituen-cies in the district already wit-nessed polls on April 1 during the second phase.

“The state police will be used mainly to manage the outer ring of the premises and

maintain the law and order of the area. The 100-metre secu-rity ring in and around the booths will be managed by the Central forces,” a senior Elec-tion Commission official said.

There will be 88 companies for 8 Assembly constituencies in Hooghly and 133 for 7 con-stituencies in Howrah with a concentration of 4.1 personnel per booth in 5,120 booths in these two districts. Addition-ally, another 11 companies of Central forces have been sanc-tioned for the Howrah Police Commissionerate area and 4 companies for Kolkata to main-tain law-and-order situation. These two areas will have polls in the later phases.

According to sources in the Commission, presently there are 800 companies of Central forces in the state and another 200 companies will come to the state after April 8, taking the total count to 1000 com-panies before the 4th phase, in which 44 Assembly constituen-cies will have polls on April 10.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress (TMC) hit back at Prime Min-ister for his ‘Didi’ (sister) jibe at different rallies in the state and accused him of insulting Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and general women through his way of addressing her.

“Didi – Kaha Hai Didi/ Didi —Sun Rahi Hai Didi (Where are you Sister/Can you hear sis-ter)—This is the way the Prime Minister is addressing the elected Chief Minister of the state. Is this expected from the Prime Min-ister of the country? So many Prime Ministers have come to the state but none spoke in such an insulting tone. It is a glaring instance about how our CM is being harassed and heckled by the BJP,” Shashi Panja Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Women and Child Development and Social Welfare said address-ing a press meet on Sunday.

June Malia, the party can-didate from Midnapore seat reiterated that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who is an elected people’s representative for the seventh time doesn’t deserve this kind of an insult. “The chair of the Prime Minis-ter is very important and he has the responsibility to maintain the

dignity of the chair,” she added.Noted social worker and film-

maker Ananya Chakraborty said that the PM’s patriarchial mind-set has come to the forefront with such sarcastic remarks. “The Prime Minister has no respect for the women which is reflected in his personal life also. He doesn’t even acknowl-edge his marriage in the election affidavit. The women of the state will surely give a befitting reply in the elections for the way he has been insulting women at large,” she added.

Senior TMC leader Subrata Mukherjee said that the party’s women cell is examining the pro-visions of law that was amended after the Nirbhaya gangrape case to assess whether section 354 (A) can be slapped against the PM for such intimidations through gestures.

SOUMITRA NANDI

KOLKATA: The third phase elections in 31 Assembly constituencies in Bengal on Tuesday will witness a rare pre-cedence with all the three Dis-trict Election Officers (DEOs) being women.

The three districts– parts of South 24-Parganas, How-rah and Hooghly— that are going to elections on Tues-day have a total of 78,52,425 electorates and 10,871 polling stations.

Antara Acharya is the DEO of South 24-Parganas, while Mukta Arya is of Howrah. Deepap Priya P is in-charge of Hooghly district. Acharya, who happens to be the senior among the three, cleared the UPSC civil service exam in 2006 and was first posted as the Sub-Divisional Officer in Serampore.

Following this, she served as Additional District Mag-istrate (ADM) of Durga-pur, ADM Asansol and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Asansol – Durgapur Development Authority.

Then, she became the Dis-

trict Magistrate of East Mid-napore and later the DM of North 24-Parganas.

Acharya was appointed as the CEO of Kolkata Metro-politan Development Author-ity. She was posted as the DM of South 24-Parganas in Feb-ruary, a few days before the announcement of election dates.

Arya, who hails from Andhra Pradesh, had joined the administrative service in 2008.

She was appointed the DM of Bankura district just before the Lok Sabha elections in Ben-gal. She was appointed the DM of Howrah in November last year.

Deepap Priya P—the junior among the three— is an IAS of 2011 batch. She was given the charge of Additional DM of North 24-Parganas during the 2016 Assembly elections.

She had served as the DM of South Dinajpur and Darjeel-ing before being assigned the charge of DM Hooghly in Feb-ruary this year.

Among the 31 ACs, 16 ACs—including Basanti (SC), Kultali (SC), Kulpi, Raidighi, Mandirbazar (SC), Jaynagar (SC), Baruipur Purba (SC), Canning Paschim (SC), Can-ning Purba, Baruipur Pas-chim, Magrahat Purba (SC), Magrahat Paschim, Diamond Harbour, Falta, Satgachia and Bishnupur (SC)—are in South 24-Parganas, 7 ACs com-prising Uluberia Uttar (SC), Uluberia Dakshin, Shyam-pur, Bagnan, Amta, Udayna-rayanpur and Jagatballavpur are in Howrah and 8 ACs of Jangipara, Haripal, Dhanekh-ali (SC), Tarakeshwar, Pur-surah, Arambag (SC), Goghat (SC) and Khanakul are in Hooghly.

EC to deploy 618 units of Central forces

‘Modi insulting women of state by mockingly addressing Mamata’

Rare precedence: Three women DEOs set to supervise elections in third phase

South 24-Parganas will witness the highest deployment with 396 companies of Central paramilitary forces for 5,544 booths

File photo of Central forces conducting route march

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Actor Jaya Bachchan is going to campaign for Trinamool Con-gress (TMC) candidates at different parts of Bengal.

The Rajya Sabha MP of Samajwadi Party will be campaigning for the rul-ling party in the state for four days from Monday. She had already landed at Kolkata Airport on Sunday evening. She was received by TMC Rajya Sabha MP Derek O'Brien and president of the party's women wing Chandrima Bhattacharya at the airport. TMC chief Mamata Banerjee shares a good relation with the Bachchan family. Amitabh Bachchan along with Jaya Bachchan had inaugurated the Kolkata Interna-tional Film Festival several times after Banerjee became the Chief Minister.

According to political analysts, the move comes crucial when actor Mithun Chakraborty is campaigning for BJP

in the state. Jaya Bachchan campaign-ing for TMC also comes significant in terms of national politics as Sama-jwadi Party's chief Akhilesh Yadav has already extended support to TMC in this election.

If everything remains unchanged, Jaya Bachchan would be holding four mega roadshows in the state. She would also be attending a roadshow at Tolly-gunge where Aroop Biswas is contest-ing in the ticket of TMC.

Jaya Bachchan to campaign for Trinamool across state

FILE PHOTO

The three districts– parts of South 24-Parganas, Howrah and Hooghly— that are going to elections on Tuesday have a total of 78,52,425 electorates and 10,871 polling stations

(From extreme left) June Malia, Shashi Panja and Ananya Chakraborty during the prees meet, in Kolkata, on Sunday PIC/MPOST

‘Examining the provisions of law... to assess whether section 354 (A) can be slapped against the PM for such intimidations through gestures’

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Trinamool Con-gress (TMC) sought imme-diate intervention of the Election Commission (EC) in connection with the shock-ing video showing BJP candi-date from Ranaghat Dakshin and his associates distribut-ing cash during door to door campaign.

Uploading a video, Tri-namool Congress (TMC) MP from Krishnanagar Mahua Moitra tweeted: "If true, shocking video of @BJP candidate for AC 90 Ranaghat Dakshin — Mukutmani

Adhikary and team dis-tributing money door to door."

Further stating that it is "Ghar Ghar Modi’s true mean-ing!", she further stated in her tweet that "@ECISVEEP, @CEOWestBengal please inves-tigate and take immediate action."

The purported video that was questioned and was uploaded in the tweet, shows that an associate of the can-didate is distributing money to a woman and also gives further assurances in the presence of the candidate itself.

Take action: TMC to EC over video of BJP leader distributing cash

File photo of Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra

SUBRATA MUKHERJEE AT A PRESS MEET

millenniumpostKOLKATA | MONDAY, 5 APRIL, 2021

millenniumpost

Maha sees 57,074 new Covid cases, highest in day; 222 die

Gujarat: Record 2,875-case single day spike; 14 deaths

ILLEGAL LIQUOR MANUFACTURING UNIT BUSTED IN UP’S PRATAPGARH DISTRICTPRATAPGARH (UP): An illegal liquor manufacturing unit, operating from a cowshed in the Hathigava area of the district, was busted in a raid by police and excise department personnel, officials said on Sunday Seven persons have been arrested, they said. Bottles of liquor hidden in haystacks and equipment were seized during the raid on Friday, Additional Director General of Police, Allahabad Zone, Prem Prakash, said. “The seized liquor is worth crores,” he said. “The factory, which was operating from a cowshed, belongs to Guddu Singh, and efforts are on to nab him. A num-ber of people have been detained,” Prakash said.

HARYANA GOVT’S NEW GUIDELINES LIMIT NUMBER OF PEOPLE AT FUNCTIONS CHANDIGARH: The Haryana government on Sunday issued fresh guidelines putting a ceiling on the num-ber of people permitted to attend functions in open spaces and indoors, and at funerals in the wake of a surge in coronavirus cases in the state. While at most 200 people would be allowed at events indoor, the crowd capacity outdoors has been put at 500. At funerals, a maximum of 50 people would be allowed to attend, the new guidelines stated. Earlier, the limit on gatherings was implemented in Gurgaon and Faridabad.

MAHA: CASE AGAINST 1,011 PEOPLE OVER RELIGIOUS GATHERING BULDHANA: Police have registered a case against 1,011 people for allegedly violating COVID-19 prevention rules by attending a religious gathering in Maharashtra’s Buldhana district, an official said on Sunday. The incident took place on Friday when the people took out the annual ‘Sandal yatra’ to the shrine of Sailani Baba here, despite such gatherings not being allowed due to a rise in COVID-19 cases, Sub-Divisional Officer of Police Ramesh Barkate said. The Maharashtra government recently prohibited religious, social and political gatherings in the state.

MUMBAI ALSO REGISTERED RECORD SINGLE-DAY RISE OF 11,206 CASES

Nation Briefs

4 millenniumpostNationmpMONDAY, 5 APRIL, 2021 | KOLKATA

BHOPAL: The Madhya Pradesh government will restrict the movement of peo-ple from neighbouring Chhat-tisgarh to curb the spread of COVID-19 and a lockdown will be enforced in isolated areas whenever needed, MP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said on Sunday.

Talking to reporters here,

Chouhan said they have already sealed Madhya Pradesh's areas bordering Maharashtra.

"There will now be restric-tions on movement from Chhattisgarh. Those who need to come for necessary and unavoidable work will be allowed on humanitarian grounds and transportation of goods will continue," he said,

citing the spread of COVID-19 in the neighbouring states.

Chouhan said patience is needed to control the pandemic.

"I will go out with a loud-speaker on my vehicle at 6 pm on Monday and appeal to peo-ple to maintain physical dis-tance and wear masks," the chief minister said. AGENCIES

OUR CORRESPONDENT

MUMBAI: Maharashtra on Sunday reported the highest single-day rise of 57,074 Coro-navirus positive cases while 222 patients succumbed to the infection, the state health department said.

Notably, Maharashtra had recorded its highest rise in the number of cases in a day after September 17, 2020, when it had added 24,619 infections, only the day earlier on April 3 with the addition of 49,447 cases.

The overall tally of cases in Maharashtra now stands at 30,10,597 while the death toll is 55,878, it said.

Mumbai city also registered the record single-day rise of 11,206 cases on Sunday.

Of the 222 deaths in Maha-rashtra, 123 fatalities had occurred in the last 48 hours, the health department said in a statement.

Alarmed by the huge rise in cases over the last few days, the state government on Sunday announced a weekend lock-down and night curfew during the weekdays from Monday to April 30, in addition to a slew of other restrictions like the

closure of private offices, the-atres and salons.

The weekend lockdown will start from 8 pm on Fridays and last till 7 am on Mondays. Besides, prohibitory orders will be in force during the day-time on weekdays, the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) said in a statement.

Maharashtra is now left

with 4,30,503 active cases whereas the count of recover-ies rose to 25,22,823 on Sunday with 27,508 patients getting discharged, the department said.

With 1,96,988 new tests, the total number of samples tested for coronavirus so far in Maharashtra has gone up to 2,05,40,111, the department

said.Out of the total number of

people tested so far, 14.66 per cent have tested positive for coronavirus, it said.

Maharashtra’s case recov-ery rate is 83.8 per cent and the fatality rate is 1.86 per cent, as per the health department of the state.

Mumbai division com-

prising Mumbai city and sat-ellite towns saw 19,942 fresh cases and 45 deaths, taking the tally to 9,55,313 and the toll to 20,623.

Pune division reported 13,977 new infections, includ-ing 6,321 cases in Pune city and 3,307 cases in the twin city of Pimpri Chinchwad, the department said.

Nashik division added 7,666 cases in the day, includ-ing 2,150 cases in Nashik city, followed by 6,304 cases in Nag-pur division (with 3,111 new cases in Nagpur city).

Kolhapur division added 924 fresh cases, Aurangabad division 3,403, including 1,256 in Aurangabad city.

Latur division reported 2,883 infections during the day, followed by 1,975 detections in Akola division.

Currently,22,05,899 peo-ple are in the home quaran-tine and 19,711 others are in the institutional quarantine in Maharashtra.

Coronavirus figures in Maharashtra are as follows: Positive cases 30,10,597, deaths 55,878, recoveries 25,22,823, active cases 4,30,503, total tests 2,05,40,111, tests today 1,96,988.

AHMEDABAD: Refuting claims that farmers have left protest sites along the Delhi border, Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait on Sun-day said they had gone to the fields to work and would return when the Central government was "free from West Bengal elections".

Farmers, mainly from Punjab, Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh and Rajast-han, have been protesting at the Delhi border for over 4 months now against the Cen-tre's three agri marketing laws, and have demanded its repeal along with a legal guarantee on the minimum support price mechanism.

Tikait, who reached Gujarat to drum up support for the stir, began his two-day visit by pray-ing at the Ambaji Temple in Banaskantha district and then addressing groups in Ambaji and Palanpur. He told a gath-ering that the three laws were enacted to help businessmen and not farmers, and the lat-ter had decided to not move from the protest sites till vic-tory, that is acceptance of all their demands, was achieved.

"All reports that farmers have left the agitation sites are wrong. Farmers come and go. At present, they have gone to work in their fields. We have told them to come back once the government is free from (West) Bengal elections. The entire government is camp-ing in Bengal. Once the gov-ernment returns, we will start negotiations with it," Tikait

claimed.He said farmers from Guja-

rat must also join the protest in large numbers so that the coun-try feels confident that cultiva-tors from the state from where some of the big leaders hail, a possible reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, are also against the new laws.

Exhorting farmers from Gujarat to use tractors to pro-test, Tikait said these vehicles are the "tanks of farmers" and were put to good use in Delhi to remove police barricades.

While former Gujarat chief minister Shankarsinh Vaghela accompanied Tikait in his rally from Ambaji to Palanpur, Con-gress MLA Geniben Thakor welcomed the BKU leader when he entered the state ear-lier in the day.

Incidentally, Tikait had taken a swipe at the BJP gov-ernment in Gujarat earlier in the day by showing his passport to reporters while entering the state after alighting from a train in Abu Road in neighbouring Rajasthan.

Asked about whether he was carrying a COVID-19 negative certificate, which is mandatory while travelling to Gujarat, Tikait showed his passport and said, "I have all the documents with me. This is my passport if it is required to enter Gujarat".

Tikait will visit Sabarmati Ashram on Monday and go to Bardoli on the second day of his Gujarat visit. AGENCIES

OUR CORRESPONDENT

CHANDIGARH: Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu on Sunday attacked Union Food Minister Piyush Goyal over his letter regarding the issue of direct payment to farmers and alleged that the central government wanted to destroy and disrupt the state's tried and tested mandi system.

Goyal had written a letter to the Punjab government asking it to implement a system for direct payment to farmers for crop procurement.

The state government was also asked to integrate land records available with the rev-enue department with the pro-curement portal.

Addressing the media in Patiala, the cricketer-turned-politician alleged that the motive of the letter was to

disrupt the age-old, tried and tested, and successful mandi system that allows for the implementation of minimum support price (MSP) in the state. It also intended to cre-ate a division between arhti-yas (commission agents) and farmers in the state, he claimed.

This letter is part of a larger conspiracy to stall the procure-ment of wheat crops in Punjab and destroy the state's agricul-tural economy, he alleged.

Sidhu said according to Goyal, the revenue department of the state government had all the information about the land

records of the state's farmers.But according to the data

collected by the National Sam-ple Survey for year 2012-13, it shows that more than 24 per cent of the land under cultiva-tion in Punjab is under tenancy, he added.

These tenancy contracts are oral or unwritten in nature, he said, adding that the land under tenancy might have increased and not decreased over the years. If the sale of wheat crop is allowed with ownership rights, then about 25 to 30 per cent farmers will not receive payment for sale of their crops, he claimed.

The former Punjab minister accused the Centre of planning to destroy the state's success-ful Agriculture Produce Mar-keting Committee model and also questioned the timing of the letter.

Direct payment to farmers: Sidhu claims Centre wants to destroy mandi system

Farmers not leaving protest sites near

Delhi: Rakesh Tikait

OUR CORRESPONDENT

SHIMLA: As the campaign in four key towns –Solan, Dharamshala, Palampur and Mandi, slated to go to the poll on April 7 for local Municipal Corporations, the Covid spread has sent a worst shock wave.

The state witnessed an all-time high fatality and even unusually high number of posi-tive cases in the past 24 hours.

With 406 fresh cases and 10 deaths, Himachal Pradesh is once again a hotspot of the Coronavirus –a position which the state had witnessed in October –November 2020.

Eight people had died on Saturday. The total death toll in the state has risen to 1057, which is an addition of more than 60 deaths in the past 34 days.

But, the state government has ruled out imposition of any lockdown simply because of the fact that the BJP, currently in power, will earn the annoy-ance of the voters –the business

community and hoteliers in the Municipal polls.

The educational institu-tions including schools, col-leges and universities have been closed till April 15 fearing a fur-ther spike in the cases.All reli-gious and social gatherings are banned but the BJP‘s star campaigners including Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur and cabinet ministers are on cam-paign trail in Mandi, Solan and Palampur –all three new cor-porations formed in October 2020.

“Chief Minister himself

has violated the Covid norms.He has misused the helicop-ters and deputed his ministers and MLAs use all tricks to pres-surise the voters. The citizens are subjected to restrictions and also being fined for Rs 2000 for not wearing masks. There is no rule for Chief Minister,” said PCC president Kuldeep Rathore at Mandi on Saturday.

But the state government says holding elections to the Municipal Corporation is a constitutional requirement thus cant be stopped. There are chances of fresh curbs after

April 7 in the state.Among those who died in

the past 24 hours include four from Una –a district bordering Punjab; two each in Shimla and Mandi. A 99-year old male died at Mandi while another 91-year old male lost to the Covid in Una.

Biggest surge of cases has been reported from Kangra district with 712 active cases followed by Solan having 658 active cases.

The weekend has seen a highest influx of the tourists to Shimla creating fresh fears about the infection spread.The police had a tough time to enforce the mask restrictions as many tourists walked free without masks.

Last week, Rohtang Tunnel broke a record of 6000 vehicles crossing the Tunnel to Lahaul Spiti hinting at increased tour-ists footfall in the state.

Thirteen students from Del-hi's St Stephen's who returned from Himachal Pradesh were tested positive.

10 deaths in 24-hour in HimachalREMEMBERING AMBEDKAR

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal lighting the traditional lamp and paying tributes to the Architect of the Constitution of India Dr B R Ambedkar during ‘Safai Mitra Utthan Sammelan’ at Karnal on Sunday MPOST

OUR CORRESPONDENT

AHMEDABAD: Gujarat on Sunday reported 2,875 COVID-19 cases, the state's highest single-day addition, taking its tally to 3,18,438, the new mark coming a day after a 2815-case spike record was set on Saturday, an official said.

The day also saw 14 deaths, taking the toll to 4,566, and the recovery count touched 2,98,737, or 93.81 per cent of the caseload, after 2,024 peo-ple were discharged, he added.

The number of active cases in the state stands at 15,135, including 163 critical ones, the official informed.

"Of the 14 deaths, eight were reported in Surat, four in Ahmedabad and one each in Amreli and Vadodara. Surat led with 724 new cases, followed

by 676 in Ahmedabad, 367 in Vadodara and 276 in Rajkot," he said.

In a release issued during the day, the state government

said 2,28,674 people were given the first dose of vaccine against COVID-19 and 17,362 people above the age of 45 were given the second dose on Saturday.

AIZAWL: More than 80 pigs died in south Mizoram's Lunglei district over the last two weeks, triggering panic in the area that is near the Bangladesh border, an official said on Sunday. The 87 deaths, which happened in the Lungsen village, have caused losses to the tune of Rs 40 lakh, he said. "Though the cause of the deaths is yet to be ascertained, it is suspected that the animals died due to African Swine Fever (ASF)," said Lalhmingthanga, the Joint Director of the Ani-mal Husbandry and Veterinary Department.

The first death was reported on March 21, following which veterinary officers were sent to the village to ascertain the cause, he said. As per the enzyme-

linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests on tissue samples and serum samples, the dead pigs were confirmed free of Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS) and Classical Swine Flu (CSF), he said.

The confirmatory test for ASF is yet to be done at the National Institute of High Secu-rity Animal Diseases (NIHSAD) in Madhya Pradesh, Lalh-mingthanga said.

The preliminary test will be done at the College of Veteri-nary Science and Animal Hus-bandry on Monday to ascertain whether the dead pigs are sus-pected to be infected with AFS, he said. AGENCIES

People queue up as they wait for their turn to undergo a mandatory COVID-19 test before entering the Getaway of India, in Mumbai, on Sunday PTI

Christians visit a church on Easter, amidst spread of COVID-19 diseases, in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, on Sunday PTI

MP to restrict movement of people from Chhattisgarh: Chouhan

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW TEHRI: A youth died from a bullet injury while three others committed suicide while on a hunting expedition at a forest near Kundi village in Uttarakhand's Tehri district, an official said on Sunday.

While one of them died due to accidental fire from a gun, the three other committed sui-cide, apparently due to a sense of guilt over the incident, SDM PR Chauhan said.

Their three friends, who had gone to the forest along with them, informed villagers about it, he said. Chauhan said seven friends had left for hunt-ing on Saturday night from a village in Bhilangana block.

Rajiv (22) with a loaded gun

was leading the group when he slipped and fell. As he fell, the trigger of the gun on his shoul-der went off with a bullet hit-ting Santosh.

As Santosh bled to death, their friends got scared.

While Rajiv fled with the gun, three others--Soban, Pan-kaj and Arjun--consumed pes-ticide, saying they were very ashamed of the incident.

Rahul and Sumit returned to the village to inform resi-dents about the incident.

Villagers took the three friends to the Beleshwar Community Health Centre where Pankaj and Arjun were declared dead while Soban died during treatment.

All victims were aged 18 to 22.

87 pigs die in Mizoram village

Panic over ASF suspicion

U'khand: Youth dies from bullet injury

Three others commit suicide

Former cricketer and Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu addressing a press conference, at his residence in Patiala, on Sunday PTI

5millenniumpost Nation mpKOLKATA | MONDAY, 5 APRIL, 2021

Rahul Gandhi in Kerala seeks to woo voters with NYAY

‘NDA’s double-engine to ensure Assam’s growth’

AHEAD OF PANCHAYAT POLLS, 44 CARTONS OF ILLEGAL LIQUOR SEIZED IN UP MUZAFFARNAGAR: Forty-four cartons of illegal liquor allegedly meant to be distributed ahead of the Uttar Pradesh panchayat polls were seized from a vehicle in Shamli district and one person arrested, police said on Sunday. The liquor was being brought from Haryana in the vehicle that was intercepted in Jhinjhana police station area of the district on Satur-day evening, they said. Three people were travelling in the vehicle. While one was arrested, the other two managed to escape, Superintendent of Police Sukriti Madhav Mishra said. UP gram panchayat elections will be held in four phases from April 15 to April 29.

J&K LG VISITS HOSPITAL TO ENQUIRE ABOUT FAROOQ ABDULLAH’S HEALTH SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Gov-ernor Manoj Sinha visited the SKIMS hospital here on Sunday to enquire about the health of National Conference (NC) president and MP Farooq Abdul-lah, who is undergoing treatment for COVID-19. Sinha, who met Abdullah’s son and NC vice president Omar Abdullah at the hospital, instructed the doctors at the SKIMS to provide best treatment to the MP from Srinagar. “In Srinagar, I met Omar Abdullah at SKIMS Hospital, Soura. Enquired about Farooq Sahab’s health and instructed the doctors to provide best treatment. I pray for his long and healthy life,” the LG’s office tweeted. The LG also offered to shift the senior Abdullah to another facility or hospital for better monitoring and care.

PANDHARPUR BYPOLL TO BE HELD AS PER SCHEDULE: MAHA DY CM PUNE: Even as the Maharashtra governmenton Sunday announced a weekend lockdown and other restrictions to curb the surge in COVID-19 cases, the by-election to Pandharpur-Mangalvedha Assembly constituency will be held as per its schedule later this month, state Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar said.The bypoll, necessitated by NCP MLA Bharat Bhalke’s death last year, is scheduled to be held on April 17, which is a Saturday. On Sunday evening, the state government said that lockdown will come into effect from 8 pm on Friday to 7 am on Monday. Apart from that, strict restrictions will be in place from Monday 8 pm onwards.

PROMISES RS 6K EVERY MONTH TO THE POOR

Nation Briefs

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court is scheduled to decide on Monday the name of the judi-cial officer who would replace special judge Bharat Parashar to conduct trials in the sensa-tional coal scam cases pending since 2014.

The apex court recently took note of a letter from the Delhi High Court's Registrar General that permission be granted to nominate or post another suitable presiding judi-cial officer as special judge in place of Parashar who since 2014 has been conducting tri-als in coal scam cases.

A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde on March 15 had requested the Chief Justice

of the Delhi High Court to pro-vide names of five trial court judges of "high caliber and absolute integrity" for appoint-ing one of them as the special judge to replace Parashar.

The bench, also compris-ing justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian, on Mon-day will take up the issue.

It had on March 15 said, "We find that Bharat Para-shar who has acted as a Special Judge (PC Act), (CBI)-07, Pati-ala House Court, New Delhi, needs to be replaced, as he has now completed more than 6 years in the same post after having been posted as Special Judge in the above mentioned court since 19.08.2014." AGENCIES

OUR CORRESPONDENT

GUWAHATI/SUALKUCHI/SORBHOG: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday said a befitting response will be given to those responsible for the Naxal attack in Chhatisgarh at an appropriate time.

He also said search opera-tions are continuing in Chhat-tisgarh following the encounter.

Bodies of 17 of the 18 jawans missing after the encounter were recovered on Sunday, taking the death toll to 22, police said separately.

Though Shah arrived at Sualkuchi, in Jalkubari constit-uency after addressing his first rally of the day, to campaign for NEDA convenor Himanta Biswa Sarma, he left without making any speech on learn-ing of the Naxal attack. He took a helicopter to Guwahati en-route to Delhi to take stock of the situation.

Before leaving, the home minister told reporters he was appealing to people to vote for Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to ensure Sarma's victory by a huge margin. He added that the vote would strengthen the hands of Prime Minister Nar-endra Modi in his work in

Assam and the North East.Shah said that both Chief

Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and Sarma are working to develop the state and ''we want this to continue''.

Congress had earlier charged that there was discord between the chief minister and a key minister without naming them. ''This is a golden oppor-tunity for the people to give BJP and our team another five years so that we can ensure a flood-free, developed Assam'', he said.

The Union Minister said that Sarma's contribution in this development process is immense and as the conve-

nor of North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA), he ''is also needed for the development of the entire North East''.

He accused the Congress of beginning the election cam-paign in the state on the prom-ise of protecting its identity and pride but ending up "by stating that AIUDF Chief Badruddin Ajmal is Assam's identity''.

''I just want to ask that when Vaishnav saints Srimanta San-kardeva, Madhavdeva, brave Ahom general Lachit Barphu-kan and Bharat Ratnas Gopi-nath Bordoloi and Bhupen Hazarika are linked to Assam's pride and identity, can Ajmal represent or occupy the same space, he asked rhetorically.

Earlier addressing an elec-tion rally in Sorbhog in Bar-peta district, Shah accused the Congress of having no discern-ible agenda for Assam's devel-opment, and asserted NDA's 'double-engine' government will continue to ensure the state's growth.

Shah claimed the Congress was "dividing people" in order to rule over them, while the BJP follows the mantra of 'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas and Sabka Vishwas' (with all, development for all and belief in all).

NEW DELHI: The Election Commission on Sunday turned down a plea of the BPF to post-pone polls in the Tamulpur constituency in Assam as its candidate has joined the BJP under inducement, and said under law adjourning election at this stage is allowed only if a candidate of a recognised party dies.

The Bodo Peoples Front (BPF) had moved the poll panel alleging that its candidate from Tamulpur, Rangja Khungur Basumatary, joined the BJP on

April 1 under inducement.The election in Tamul-

pur will be held on April 6 in the third and last phase of the Assam assembly polls.

The Election Commis-sion (EC) said it was not pro-vided with any documentary evidence to suggest that Basu-matary joined the BJP or that he was removed from the BPF, when it heard the matter.

The list of contesting can-didates has already been final-ised by the returning officer, according to the EC's reply

to the party. At this stage, an election can be adjourned or a recognised political party is allowed to change its candidate only in event of death of a can-didate of that recognised politi-cal party, it said citing Section 52 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.

The candidate submitted before the commission that he has neither received any mem-bership letter from the BJP nor given any letter of dismissal or suspension of membership by the BPF. AGENCIES

OUR CORRESPONDENT

WAYANAD (KER): As the campaign for the April 6 Assembly polls draws to a close, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday gave a fur-ther push to his 'Nyuntam Aay Yojana' (NYAY) to reach out to the voters, promising that every poor person in the State will get Rs 6,000 every month "with-out fail", if the UDF is voted to power.

"The UDF is propos-ing something revolution-ary.Something that has never been tried in any Indian state before," Gandhi told a UDF meeting organised at Vella-munda in Mananthavady.

Gandhi, who reached the venue after offering prayers at the ancient Lord Mahavishnu Temple in Thirunelli, said the idea of NYAY was very simple.

"The idea is that we are going to put money directly into the hands of the poorest people in Kerala. And not a small amount of money. Every

poor person in Kerala is going to get Rs 6,000 a month–Rs 72,000 a year–without fail every month into his bank account," the Congress leader, who rep-resents Wayanad constituency in the Lok Sabha, said.

Gandhi has given an increased focus on the NYAY scheme in his poll meetings, apparently in a bid to counter the ruling Left which is relying heavily on the welfare schemes implemented by it in the last five years to win votes in the crucial polls.

In the last five years, the Pinarayi Vijayan-led LDF government has substantially increased the welfare pension for the elderly.

The welfare pension was Rs 600 when the UDF rule came to an end in 2016. It is now Rs 1,600 per month, with the left government increasing the amount in multiple phases.

The government has also ensured that the pension amount reaches the beneficia-ries every month without fail.

Bringing up the NYAY idea during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Gandhi had described it as ground-breaking, which would mark the beginning of the final assault on poverty.

Last week, the former Con-gress president had said he wanted to "test" the scheme in Kerala because if it works here, he wanted to replicate it in all Congress-ruled states in the

country. Earlier in the morn-ing, Gandhi visited Thirunelli temple in Wayanad with which he has an emotional link.

An urn containing the ashes of his father and former prime minister Rajiv Gan-dhi was immersed in Papa-nasini, a stream connected to a famous temple dedicated to Lord Mahavishnu in the pic-turesque village, in 1991.

"Visited Thirunelli Temple, Wayanad early morning today. The calming atmosphere of this place resonates within for a long time," Gandhi wrote on his Facebook page after visiting the temple with AICC general secretary K C Venugopal.

He had also offered prayers at the temple last year and dur-ing his Lok Sabha election cam-paign in 2019.

NEW DELHI: A city court has directed the Delhi police to probe afresh a 2011 case related to an audio CD allegedly con-taining a telephone conversa-tion of former law minister Shanti Bhushan, Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav and the then SP leader Amar Singh.

The court passed the direc-tion on January 28, while dis-missing a police plea to close the case, registered on April 15, 2011 following a com-plaint by Bhushan that the CD appeared to have been fabri-cated to malign me and that its contents were defamatory .

IO (Investigating Officer) is directed to investigate the contents of the CD in question and file a report, Chief Metro-politan Magistrate Dr Pankaj

Sharma said, while directing the IO to file the report by March 25.

However, the IO failed to file the report, and the court, on March 25, said, Let the IO be summoned for filing the report in terms of previous order for July 15, 2021.

The news regarding the CD was reported in media earlier that month.

In the purported phone con-versation involving Bhushan, Yadav and Singh, who passed away last year, Bhushan alleg-edly referred to his lawyer-son Prashant Bhushan who can manage very well and to a then Supreme Court judge.

The police had in April 2014 filed an untrace report .

It said Shanti Bhushan sus-pected that 'Amar Singh could

be behind the fabrication and circulation of the audio CD to malign his reputation" and that its circulation among the media "was intended as an attempt to force him to leave the joint drafting committee for the Jan Lokpal Bill, since Kapil Sibal and P Chidam-baram, then Union Ministers, were against his participation as co-chairman of the drafting

committee".However, he "could not put

forward any worthwhile evi-dence in support of his allega-tions against Chidambaram, Sibal and Singh except oral allegations.

The police report added that it is not correct to pro-ceed against anyone only on the basis of presumptions and without any substantial

and corroborative evidence. Hence this case is being filed as untraced for want of any suf-ficient evidence.

In its report, the police also rejected a claim made by Prashant Bhushan, citing a Central Forensic Science Lab-oratory-Delhi report that that the contents of the CD had not been copied from the Amar Singh tapes that did the rounds following alleged tapping of his phone in 2005-06.

Bhushans, who were at that time non-government repre-sentatives in a panel constituted to draft the Lokpal Bill follow-ing a fast by social activist Anna Hazare, denied that the phone conversation ever took place and called it a conspir-acy to weaken Anna Hazare's movement. MPOST

OUR CORRESPONDENT

GUWAHATI: Coming down heavily on Election Commis-sion's relaxation on campaign ban of BJP minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury on Sunday said there is a "big ques-tion" on the neutrality of the poll panel and it should clear the air on the issue.

Addressing a press confer-ence here, the veteran com-munist leader claimed the Congress-led Grand Alliance, of which CPI (M) is a con-stituent, is coming to power in Assam with huge majority and a common minimum pro-gramme will be finalised after the formation of the govern-ment. "There is a big question on Election Commission of India's neutrality. We want the ECI to remove this question. It is not only the poll panel's duty, but a responsibility to the Con-stitution of India," Yechury told reporters.

He asserted that Sarma should have been disqualified for making the threatening statements against Bodoland People's Front chief Hagrama Mohilary, but instead 48-hour ban on him from campaign-ing was reduced to 24 hours

on Saturday.The ECI reduced the ban

duration of Sarma after he ten-dered an "unconditional apol-ogy" and assured the poll panel that he would abide by the pro-visions of the model code.

The Congress had approached the ECI demand-ing action against Sarma for his remark that Mohilary would be sent to jail through cen-tral probe agency NIA if he indulges in "extremism" with rebel leader M Batha.

Yechury also slammed another BJP minister Pijush Hazarika, who allegedly threat-ened two journalists of dire consequences on the day of the second phase of polling on

April 1 for reporting contro-versial campaign speech of his wife, and wondered why the ECI is not taking any action.

"There was a decision dur-ing all party meeting with the ECI that media should not be under pressure. During course of election, media must be protected from undue pres-sure and it should be allowed to work naturally," he added.

Like Model Code of Coduct, which is not a law but an understanding between the parties and ECI, this agreement of safety of media should also be strictly enforced, he said.

Hazarika is contesting from Jagiroad constituency. In an audio clip telecast by Assa-mese news channel Pratidin Time, he was heard talking to the channel's journalist Naz-rul Islam and threatened him and another scribe Tulsi Manta of dragging them out of their homes, break their legs and make them "vanish".

Police registered two FIRs filed by the two concerned journalists and merged them into one. The BJP minister has been issued a notice to appear before police and his call recordings have been sent to forensic lab after seizing his mobile phone.

Softening of Sarma’s punishment: Question raised on EC’s neutrality

EC turns down plea to postpone polls

SC to decide name of judge to conduct trials

COAL SCAM CASES

Court directs police to re-investigate caseMatter relates to phone conversation of Bhushan, Mulayam, Amar

GUWAHATI: Campaigning for the third and last phase of the Assam assembly elections ended on Sunday.

The fate of 337 candidates, including NEDA convenor and state minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, will be sealed in EVMs in 40 constituencies on April 6.

An array of national lead-ers including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress's Rahul Gandhi campaigned for their respective alliance candi-dates. The seats, spread across 12 districts including three in the Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR), witnessed last- minute canvassing by candi-dates, including 25 women, before the end of campaigning.

Modi, who had campaigned in all three phases, addressed two rallies at Kokrajhar and Tamulpur, both in BTR, and highlighted the signing of the Bodo Accord and development

initiatives of the BJP.Union Home Minister

Amit Shah, another star cam-paigner for the BJP, addressed a series of election rallies in Lower Assam constituencies.

He was scheduled to address three rallies on the last day of campaigning but had to cut short his visit to Assam and returned to New Delhi follow-ing the Maoist attack in Chhat-tisgarh. BJP chief J P Nadda, Union ministers Nitin Gad-kari, Narendra Tomar, Jitendra Singh, Smriti Irani, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Anurag Thakur, and Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan also campaigned for the party.

Rahul Gandhi visited the Kamkhaya Temple and addressed rallies at Chaygaon and Barkhetri seats, while his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was also scheduled to cam-paign in three constituencies in

Lower Assam but had to cancel the plan after coming in con-tact with a COVID-19 infected person. Rajya Sabha MPs Mal-likarjun Kharge, Dr Nasir Hus-sain and Dr Akhilesh Prasad Singh, Rajasthan Chief Min-ister Ashok Gehlot, his Chhat-tisgarh counterpart Bhupesh Baghel, former chief ministers of Madhya Pradesh and Maha-rashtra, Kamal Nath and Ashok Chavan respectively, and AICC leader Randeep Singh Surjew-ala campaigned for the 'Grand Alliance' candidates.

'Mahajoth' or 'Grand Alli-ance' comprises Congress, AIUDF, Bodoland Peoples' Front (BPF), CPI(M), CPI, CPI(ML) Liberation, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Anchalik Gana Morcha (AGM).

AIUDF chief Badruddin Ajmal, the BJP's prime target in this election, carried out hec-tic campaigning for his party

candidates along with those of his alliance partners.

The Assam BJP's campaign trail was led by Chief Minis-ter Sarbananda Sonowal, state unit chief Ranjeet Kumar Dass, NEDA convenor Himanta Biswa Sarma, who has so far addressed the highest number of election rallies, and other ministers of the outgoing assembly. Sarma was barred by the Election Commis-sion from campaigning for 48 hours from April 2 for allegedly making threatening remarks against BPF chief Hagrama Mohilary but he appealed for a review and subsequently, it was reduced to 24 hours.

State Congress unit chief Ripun Bora, Lok Sabha MPs Pradyut Bordoloi, Gaurav Gogoi and Abdul Khaleque led the party's campaign along with AICC Assam in-charge Jitendra Singh. MPOST

Assam: Campaigning for third and last phase of Assembly election ends

CHENNAI: The high octane campaign for the April 6 Tamil Nadu Assembly elec-tions ended on Sunday at 7 pm, with the stage now set for the polling on April 6 which will decide whether it will a hat-trick of terms for the AIADMK or the return of DMK after a decade in opposition.

As many as 3,998 candi-dates, including Chief Min-ister K Palaniswami, his deputy O Panneerselvam, DMK President MK Stalin, AMMK founder TTV Dhina-karan, actor and Makkal Nee-dhi Maiam founder Kamal Haasan, Naam Tamizhar Kat-chi leader Seeman and BJP state unit chief L Murugan are in the fray.

Leaders, including Palaniswami and Stalin hit the campaign trail on the last day, even as they have been criss-crossing the state for hectic electioneering, the former in a bid to ensure a record third term, while the latter is keen to upset his rival's chances.

National leaders–Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Congress president Rahul Gandhi were among those who campaigned for the respective ruling and opposi-tion alliances.

The Election Commis-sion has made it clear that no campaign activity shall be held from now on, including in social media and through other forms of electronic com-munication that includes SMS.

Over 6.28 crore eligible voters will choose 234 mem-bers of the 3,998 contesting the elections.

In their "final appeal" to voters, Palaniswami and Pan-neerselvam sought votes to ensure "Amma rule" contin-ued in the state, referring to the party-led government. AGENCIES

April 6 polls: Campaign ends in TN

CPI (M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury during a Press conference regarding ongoing Assam Assembly elections, in Guwahati, on Sunday

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during the corner meeting, at Vellamunda in Mananthavady, Kerala, on Sunday PTI

Union Home Minister Amit Shah addresses media representatives, at Sualkuchi in Kamrup, Assam

Highlights » Gandhi, who reached the venue after offering prayers at the ancient Lord Mahavishnu Temple in Thirunelli, said the idea of NYAY was very simple » Gandhi has given an increased focus on the NYAY scheme in his poll meetings » Last week, the former Congress president had said he wanted to ‘test’ the scheme in Kerala

SRINAGAR: The Jammu and Kashmir administration on Sunday announced that all schools for students up to Class 9 will remain closed for two weeks from April 5 to 18 in view of the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the union territory.

Physical classes for students from classes 10 to 12 will also be suspended for a week, Lieu-tenant Governor Manoj Sinha’s office said in a tweet on Sunday.

This comes days after the Jammu and Kashmir admin-istration asked all district magistrates to take a call on the continuation of physical classes in schools amid a spike in COVID-19 cases in the union territory. AGENCIES

J&K schools for students up to Class 9

shut till Apr 18

MAN HELD WITH BROWN SUGAR DIES IN CUSTODY, 5 MP COPS SUSPENDED MANDSAUR (MP): A 21-year-old man arrested al-legedly with brown sugar died in the custody of Mad-hya Pradesh police in Mandsaur, prompting the force’s top brass to suspend five personnel, an official said on Sunday. Sohail Khan, a resident of Pratapgarh in Ra-jasthan, was held on Friday night here with 90 grams of brown sugar, and was found dead in the custody of the narcotics wing on Saturday morning, Mandsaur Narcotics SP Sunil Tiwari said. Additional Director General of Police SW Naqvi placed sub inspector Rajmahal, head constable Pirulal Soni and constables Prashant, Dinesh and Kamal under suspension, and a judicial probe has also been ordered. the SP said.

BODY OF MISSING BOY FOUND BULANDSHAHR (UP): The body of a three-year-old boy was found in a canal here on Sunday, days after he went missing from outside his home in neighbouring Gautam Buddh Nagar district, police said. The boy’s family had reported him missing on March 31, they said. On Sunday, information was received about the body of a child lying in Walipura canal under Kotwali Nagar police station area here, the police said. A police team reached the spot and took custody of the body. It was found that the child’s family in Gautam-Buddh Nagar’s Dadri had reported him missing, they said. Inspector, Kotwali Nagar, Akhilesh said the boy was eating ice cream outside his house in DadriKot-wali area of GautamBuddh Nagar on March 31 and later went missing.

WAZE CASE

Nation Briefs

6 millenniumpostNationmpMONDAY, 5 APRIL, 2021 | KOLKATA

Bodies of 20 jawans recovered...

When the patrolling team dispatched from Tarrem was advancing through the forest near Jonaguda, around 500 km from the state capital Raipur, it was ambushed by cadres of PLGA battalion of Maoists and a gun battle ensued, he said.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday spoke to Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and took stock of the situation following the incident, officials said.

Shah also directed CRPF’s Director General Kuldiep Singh to visit Chhattisgarh to assess the situation.

Shah held a high-level meeting to review the security situation in Chhattisgarh.

Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla, Intelligence Bureau Director Arvind Kumar and senior officials of the home ministry and the Central Reserve Police Force

(CRPF) attended the meeting.The Union home minister

condoled the death of the security personnel in the encounter and said their valour will never be forgotten.

The government will continue its fight against the enemies of peace and progress, he added.

Covid: India records this year’s biggest single-day...

He called for avoiding mortality under all circumstances by ramping up healthcare infrastructure and other measures and exhorted that all states need to take required stringent measures with comprehensive restrictions in places witnessing high surge to curb the spread.

The reasons for the sharp rise in cases could be mainly attributed to the severe decline in compliance of COVID-appropriate behaviour, especially in the use of masks and social distancing, pandemic fatigue and lack of effective implementation of containment measures at the field level, said the statement released after the prime

minister’s review meeting with senior officials.

It was noted in the meeting that the exact contribution of mutant strains to the escalation of cases in some states remains speculative and the measures to control the pandemic remain the same, and hence the implementation of various protocols for COVID-19 management is all the more critical in those areas.

Sunday saw the biggest daily rise in cases since September 19, when 93,337 fresh infections were recorded.

The death toll climbed to 1,64,623 on Sunday with 513 new fatalities, the health ministry data updated at 8 AM showed.

Registering a steady increase for the 25th straight day, the number of active cases surged to 6,91,597, accounting for 5.54 per cent of the total infections.

The recovery rate further dropped to 93.14 per cent, the data stated.

The active caseload was at its lowest at 1,35,926 on February 12, comprising 1.25 per cent of the total infections.

“A detailed presentation was made which highlighted that there is an alarming rate of growth of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the country with 10 states contributing to more than 91 percent of cases and deaths due to COVID,” the statement on the review meeting

said.The presentation highlighted

that Maharashtra has contributed 57 percent of the total cases and 47 per cent of deaths in the country in the last 14 days.

The meeting was also informed that vaccine manufacturers are ramping up their production capacity and are also in discussion with other domestic and offshore companies to augment the same.

As India races to contain the fresh wave of COVID-19, five states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and West Bengal have carried out over 43 per cent of the total vaccinations in the country, according to the Health Ministry data.

Of the total 7,59,79,651 vaccinations carried out till now, 3,33,10,437 were carried out in these five states.

While 2,91,54,577 were first doses and 41,55,860 were second doses in these five states, according to the data till 7 am on Sunday.

Many states have tightened or reintroduced restrictions after the fresh surge in cases.

Private offices, except in the banking and insurance sectors, will remain shut in Maharashtra from Monday night, state Health Minister Rajesh Tope said.

The state government also announced a weekend lockdown in the state from 8 pm on Friday to 7 am on Monday to curb the huge

surge in COVID-19 cases.Strict restrictions will come

into force from Monday 8 pm onwards under which shopping malls, bars, restaurants, small shops will be open only for take-aways and parcels.

The Haryana government issued fresh guidelines putting a ceiling on the number of people permitted to attend functions in open spaces and indoors, and at funerals.

Under the new standard operating procedure (SOPs), organisers of social, academic, sports, entertainment, cultural, religious and political gatherings must take permission from district magistrates, the state government stated.

Delhi recorded 4,033 COVID-19 cases on Sunday, highest in four months.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said his government will restrict the movement of people from neighbouring Chhattisgarh to curb the spread of COVID-19 and a lockdown will be enforced in isolated areas whenever needed. He said they have already sealed Madhya Pradesh’s areas bordering Maharashtra.

Assam issued fresh notifications for mandatory testing of air and train passengers coming to the state from Mumbai and Bengaluru to check the spread of virus.

From Page 1

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI/ RAIPUR: A group of an estimated 400 Maoists, armed with LMGs, had ambushed security forces deployed for a special oper-ation, killing at least 22 per-sonnel and injuring 30 others, besides decamping with over a dozen sophisticated arms, offi-cials said on Sunday.

The contingent of about 1,500 troops was drawn from CRPF’S specialised jungle war-fare unit CoBRA, its regular battalions, a unit of its Bas-tariya battalion, the Chhattis-garh Police affiliated District Reserve Guard (DRG) and others. They had launched a search and destroy operation along the border of Bijapur-Sukma district after they got inputs of Maoists presence in the area.

A siege was laid at the crack of the dawn on Saturday fol-lowing intelligence inputs that Naxals were undertaking their Tactical Counter Offensive Campaign (TCOC) campaign in the Jagargunda-Jongaguda-Tarrem axis, the officials said,

adding the total strength of security personnel for the oper-ation was 790 and the rest were taken as auxiliary and support elements for the long-haul operation. At least 400 Naxals suspected to be led by the most wanted Maoist commander and leader of the so-called ‘People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) battalion no 1-- Hidma-- and his associate Sujatha ambushed the forces in an area that is a strong-hold of the Maoists due to the diffi-cult terrain, large tracts of for-

ests and a smaller number of security forces camps, an offi-cer said.

Out of the total 22 fatali-ties, the CRPF has lost eight men including seven CoBRA commandos while one jawan is from the Bastariya battalion and the rest are from DRG and Special Task Force. A CRPF Inspector is still missing, they said. “The Maoists drew the forces into an ambush with heavy gunfire and encircled the security personnel from three sides. A heavy gun-battle

ensued in the jungles which are devoid of any foliage at pres-ent,” a senior official told the news agency.

Bullets rained from light machine guns (LMGs) and the Naxals also used low-intensity improvised explosive devices (IEDs) to mount the attack that continued for several hours.

Helicopters, which were

requisitioned to evacuate the injured personnel, could make the first landing only after 5 PM after the gunfire had ended.

The security personnel took guard against large trees and kept firing till they ran out of ammunition, he added.

At one location, he added, seven bodies of the troops were recovered and the tree trunks

bore bullet shots, indicating that a fierce gun battle took place in the area.

About two dozen sophis-ticated assault weapons of the slain personnel are also stated to have been looted by the Nax-als even as security officials said the search of the area is still on and details are being collected from the ground.

NEW DELHI: Congress pres-ident Sonia Gandhi on Sun-day said all are united in the resolve to combat naxalism and her party's government in Chhattisgarh will continue to provide all assistance to the paramilitary forces in fighting the menace with full rigour.

In a statement, she said the entire country bows before the martyrdom of 22 jawans in a gruesome Naxal attack in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur.

"I pay homage to these

jawans who have given their lives, and heartfelt con-dolences to their families. The nation owes an enor-mous debt of gratitude to them.

"I fervently hope for the return of our missing sol-diers, and look forward to the complete recovery of those injured," Gandhi said.

"We are united in our resolve to combat naxalism. The Chhattisgarh Congress government shall continue to

provide all assistance to our central paramilitary forces in fighting naxalism with full rigour," she added.

A group of around 400 Maoists, armed with light machine-guns (LMGs), ambushed security forces deployed on a special opera-tion, killing at least 22 per-sonnel and injuring 30 others, besides decamping with over a dozen sophis-ticated arms, officials said on Sunday. AGENCIES

‘Setting up security camps in remote areas

to be speeded up’OUR CORRESPONDENT

RAIPUR: Maoists are "frus-trated" because security camps have been set up in remote areas of Chhattisgarh and this process will be speeded up now to launch more seri-ous operations against them, CRPF Director General Kuld-iep Singh said here on Sun-day after at least 22 security personnel were killed in fresh bloodletting.

The Central Reserve Police Force chief, who arrived in the state capital in the wake of the ambush by Naxals in Bijapur on Saturday that also left more than 30 personnel injured, said that "lessons are learnt" from every incident and they will see and analyse "what changes have been brought by the Naxals" to effectively counter them.

Singh said the Maoists are frustrated and troubled because of the induction of five new battalions in the Bastar region of the state recently and the creation of new bases in remote areas like Basaguda, Sil-ger, Jagargunda and Minpa.

"They (Naxals) think that if they mount heavy casualties on us they can deter us and we may not establish new camps.

"But this does not happen...there have been many casu-alties in the past too... and as per government policy the force keeps moving forward," he said.

The DG asserted that the new camps "will be established and now this process will be made fast so that we can launch more serious operations against the Naxals."

"We keep changing our strategy and it is an evolving process," he said. A contingent of 1,500 personnel drawn from six security camps launched the cordon and search opera-tion against Naxals along Bija-pur-Sukma border around the crack of dawn on Saturday. The ambush took place around noon that day.

"The Maoists fired from some country-made under-barrel grenade launchers (UBGLs) at a party that was returning from Jogagundam after an operation."

Take custody of Ansari by April 8: Punjab to UP govt

OUR CORRESPONDENT

CHANDIGARH/ BARA-BANKI/ BALLIA: Punjab’s home department has asked the Uttar Pradesh government to take custody of gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari from the Rupnagar jail on April 8, with BSP MP Afzal Ansari on Sunday saying that his brother’s “safety” is now the responsibility of the judi-ciary and the Yogi Adityanath dispensation.

Mukhtar Ansari, who is wanted in various cases in Uttar Pradesh, has been lodged in the Rupnagar district jail in Punjab since January 2019 in connection with an alleged extortion case.

In a letter to the Uttar Pradesh Additional Chief Secretary (Home), the home department of Punjab asked for suitable arrangements to be made for the transfer of under-trial prisoner Mukhtar Ansari. “The said handover is to be made at district jail Rup-nagar on/before April 8,” the letter stated.

It also said that Mukhtar Ansari suffers from certain medical conditions and the same may be kept in mind while making arrangements for his transport from Rup-nagar jail to Banda jail in Uttar Pradesh.

Afzal Ansari, who is the MP from Ghazipur, told PTI: “The safety of Mukhtar after he comes to the Uttar Pradesh

jail is that of the judiciary and of the Yogi Adityanath gov-ernment. The court should monitor the safety and medi-cal facilities given to Mukhtar.”

He also said that the safety of life of any citizen is the responsibility of the government.

“This duty increases by twice when the prisoner is in judicial custody and by four times, when the state govern-ment files a petition in the Supreme Court saying that the hearing of the case is getting affected,” the MP said.

In its letter, the Punjab home department referred to the March 26 Supreme Court order that had directed the state government to trans-fer the BSP’s MLA from Mau, Mukhtar Ansari, to Uttar Pradesh’s Banda jail in two weeks.

Delivering the order, the apex court had also noted that Mukhtar Ansari was alleg-edly involved in various cases of attempt to murder, mur-der, cheating and conspiracy apart from offences under the Gangsters Act, lodged in Uttar Pradesh and 10 of these cases are at different stages of trial.

The Uttar Pradesh Police, officials said on Sunday, has set up a special investigation team (SIT) to further probe into the issue of fake documents of the ambulance which was used to ferry Mukhtar Ansari from the Rupnagar jail to a Mohali court recently.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

MUMBAI: The ongoing probe into the security scare outside industrialist Mukesh Ambani's house and the alleged murder of businessman Mansukh Hiran has led the NIA to documents that show some payments, suspected to be bribe money, being made to officials in the Mumbai Police and the administration, officials said here.

They said the National Investigation Agency (NIA) is scrutinising the documents unearthed during a raid Thursday on a club at Girgaum in South Mumbai to probe further the role

of now-suspended police officer Sachin Waze, who is in the custody of the National Investigation Agency till April 7.

One of the documents shows the name of the office as well as officers by designation and there was an amount mentioned against their names, and the same had been tabulated month-wise, the officials said.

The officials suspect that the amounts mentioned against office and officers could be the bribe money paid every month.

Before sharing further details, the NIA is likely to seek an explanation from the

club-owner and others about the documents.

The officials said that if needed the documents would be shared with Income Tax or CBI authorities for further probe as the NIA is mandated to probe anti-terror cases only.

They said the club was frequented by Waze who had even got NareshGor and co-accused VinayakShinde employed there. Both of them are in the NIA custody at present.

The NIA had Thursday also recovered documents pertaining to SIM cards procured through Gor for his personal use. Gor is alleged to have procured the SIM cards

from Ahmedabad in Gujarat and these were handed over to Waze through Shinde, the officials said.

One of these SIM cards was used by Waze to give a call to Hiran, which turned out to be the last call before the businessman was killed.

The body of Hiran, who was in possession of the SUV used in the security scare incident, was found in a creek in the Mumbra town of the neighbouring Thane district on March 5.

Hiran was allegedly killed by Waze after reports started surfacing that the case may be handed over to the central agency for probe. Initial

investigations suggested that Hiran was called to a place where he was made unconscious with the help of some drugs before being smothered to death.

His vehicle was found outside Ambani's house in Mumbai on February 25 with gelatin sticks and a threat note.

The NIA has said in the court that Waze had taken the car from Hiran before allegedly planting the explosives and parking it outside Ambani's house on February 25.

Waze was arrested on March 15 by the NIA and is at present in the custody of the agency till April 7.

LUCKNOW: Thirteen labour-ers were injured after a scaf-folding collapsed while they were working at a power plant in Uttar Pradesh's Sonbhadra district in the early hours of Sunday, the company which had employed them said.

In a letter addressed to the district magistrate and the superintendent of police, fac-tory manager of LancoAnpara Power Ltd S K Dwivedi said the iron structure fell around 2.45 am during maintenance work. AGENCIES

OUR CORRESPONDENT

SRINAGAR/ NEW DELHI: Former chief minister Meh-booba Mufti Sunday dismissed speculations that the PAGD, an alliance of six mainstream par-ties, was headed for a break-up, stressing there is no alterna-tive to staying together as the Centre's "onslaught" against the people of Jammu and Kashmir has to be taken "head on collec-tively". "A coalition of this kind will take time to settle down," the People's Democratic Party (PDP) chief told news agency, terming the recent rumblings in the alliance expected "teeth-ing troubles".

Her comments come in the backdrop of the exit of one of the PAGD constituents, the Peoples Conference, and suggestions by

some of her party men that she should also reconsider the PDP's relations with the National Con-ference and whether staying in PAGD remains pertinent.

The People's Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), a grouping of the National Conference, the PDP, the Peo-ple's Conference, the CPI-M, the CPI, the Awami National Conference and the JKPM, was formed last October ahead of the District Development Coun-cil elections.

"...teething problems were expected as far as the PAGD is concerned. We have been tra-ditional rivals.”

“A coalition of this kind will take time to settle down. But seeing the Central government's onslaught against the people of Jammu and Kashmir, there is

no other alternative but to take them head on collectively as a unit," she said.

Talking about some PDP leaders quitting the party in recent times including its founder member Muzzafar Hus-

sain Baigh, the 61-year-old PDP chief said it was a "loss".

"But then these are chal-lenging times for all of Jammu and Kashmir and the PDP is no different. But I am sure we will rise above these challenges

and emerge stronger. Inshallah (God willing)."

The PDP leader also spoke about the deterioration of her relations with the BJP, with which her party had an alliance from 2015-2018 in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. "It is not about my relations with them. Anyone who raises his or her voice against their punitive actions is labelled anti-national," she said.

Pointing out the ongoing farmers' agitation and arrests of some students, activists, jour-nalists, politicians and others, she said, "Everyone has to pay a price for being vocal against their (the BJP's) anti-people decisions. This country is no more run in accordance with the constitution of India, but on their (Centre's) whims and

fancies."They are using their brute

majority to bulldoze both the Constitution and Parliament with anti-people laws. So, my being vocal on the unconstitu-tional scrapping of Jammu and Kashmir's special status, which was again granted to us under this very Constitution, has made me anti-national and thus threat to the security of India," she said.

Mehbooba, who was detained in August 2019 hours before the operative provisions of Article 370 were scrapped and J&K was divided into two union territories, spoke about her recent questioning by the Enforcement Director-ate and reports about alleged misuse of the Chief Minister's discretionary funds during her tenure.

‘400 Maoists were armed with LMG’‘Naxals ambushed security personnel with heavy gunfire, looted weapons of security personnel’

Sonia condoles death of jawans, says country united to combat naxalism

13 labourers injured as scaffolding collapses

Docs suggesting ‘bribes’ paid to ‘govt officials’ seized

‘Centre's onslaught has to be taken head on collectively’

Hospital staff taking a Jawan for treatment after the Maoists attack that has killed 22 personnel PIC/PTI

Former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti

7millenniumpost Editorial mpKOLKATA | MONDAY, 5 APRIL, 2021

Proven competence

Hurdles in peace

Successful implementation of programmes like SBM and RSBY shows that civil servants have the potential to ensure good governance

The emerging thaw with India has mellowed down the Pakistani approach including that of top leadership, but a faction continues to have a sceptical eye

I just finished reading an outstanding book “Method in Madness — Insider-Outsider” written

by Parmeshwaran Aiyyar who was Secretary, Government of India, in the Department of Drinking Water and Sanita-tion. He was also the architect behind the immensely success-ful implementation of Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan which cul-minated in the declaration of India as open defecation free (ODF) on October 2, 2019. It is indeed a remarkable read about a result-oriented civil servant who has had an uncon-ventional career moving from IAS to the World Bank, and then back again as a lateral entrant into the Government as Secretary. He writes that one fine morning sitting in Hanoi (Vietnam) as a drinking water and sanitation specialist for the World Bank, he was astounded to hear the August 15 speech of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014 in which the PM, while outlining his agenda for the development of the coun-try, spoke about sanitation as a national priority and also declared that he intended to make India ODF by October 2, 2019. Parmeshwaran was amazed because he felt that rarely does a topic like sani-tation get a mention in the speech of the Prime Minister of a country and he was excited by the vision painted by the PM. A desire to be associated with the project was born in his heart at that very moment which fructified two years later with his appointment as Secre-tary. It is indeed a remarkable story of grit, determination, leadership and passion that made the seemingly impos-sible goal a reality.

Toilets were being con-structed in the villages and cit-ies for the past several years but it was definitely a low priority programme with insufficient available funds. The quality of construction used to be poor and it was more of an engi-neering exercise without any effort to change the mindset of the people. The result was a total failure to curb open def-

ecation and check the use of these toilets as cattle sheds or storerooms by the people. India is a country having a popula-tion of over 130 billion pro-viding sanitary facilities to which and making it use the toilet was a herculean task. My experience of 38 years as an IAS officer shows that no proj-ect or initiative succeeds with-out strong political will and backing. Fortunately, for this programme, the political will emanated right from the Prime Ministerial level and percolated to the Chief Ministers. Par-meshwaran provided the next required condition — strong and passionate administrative leadership. He writes that he soon realised that in India it is the PM, CM and DM (Dis-trict Magistrate) model which works. He personally made presentations to the CMs to align them with the vision of the PM and toured extensively to meet the DMs to ignite their zeal for the implementation of the programme at the ground level. Despite sufficient avail-ability of funds, the huge tar-get of construction of toilets required close coordination, regular review and monitor-ing. The important thing, however, is not merely the con-struction of toilets but to bring about a change in the attitude

and behaviour of people. The majority of the Indian popula-tion live in rural areas and were accustomed to open defecation for generations. Parmeshwaran and his team appointed ‘Swat-cha Grahis’ (Volunteers) who worked as social influencers in each village and commu-nicated, along with the DM and his team, regularly and intensely with the villagers about the ill-effects of open defecation. Mothers had to be convinced that infant mortality is closely linked to this practice as also are several diseases. The name and shame method was used along with a presentation of a realistic picture of the kind of filth people were living in and its impact on their lives. DMs were assisted by young interns, and communication through films and media was used extensively. The Akshay Kumar starrer “Toilet Ek Prem Katha” is an example of case. Parmeshwaran is very clear in his book that this was more a programme of behavioural change rather than merely the construction of toilets.

I recall being associated with this project as chief sec-retary, UP. Initially, I believed in the CELTS model which was advocated by many experts and was used in countries like Ban-gladesh to eliminate open def-

ecation. I also strongly believe that instead of taking the entire state of UP which comprised of 75 districts I should focus on the 10 districts where the DMs had drive and energy and had already done the groundwork for the implementation of this scheme. Parmeshwaran and his team, however, thought other-wise. They wanted the entire state to be taken up at one go. I was sceptical initially but later events have proved me wrong as not only in UP but the entire country made this goal a reality.

While talking of good gov-ernance, we often lament the Indian system and its civil ser-vices. The making of India ODF is a shining example of the working of the Indian admin-istrative system and the civil service. It proves that given the right kind of leadership and working environment the civil service is in a position to deliver good governance to the citi-zens. We see it happening reg-ularly at the time of elections when the District Magistrate and his team are free from any kind of political interference and fully empowered to con-duct free and fair elections and they succeed in doing so. In a similar vein, I can talk of the success of the Rashtra Swasthya Beema Yojna (RSBY) which was conceptualised and imple-

mented by my colleague Anil Swarup. It was also a stupen-dous success and has become the precursor to the intensely aspirational and ambitious scheme of Ayushman Bharat.

Good governance is required to deliver quality public service to the people of this country and the SBM or RSBY only go to show that there is nothing rotten in the system. The same system and the same set of civil servants can deliver outstanding results, provided, they get political support, strong leadership, unambiguous goals and the right kind of motivation. It is leadership that is important as it helps in building teams, shar-ing goals, being transparent and accountable and working with total objectivity. Civil ser-vants have to be transformed from being wedded to pro-cess, procedures and regula-tions to those having a passion for delivering results and out-comes. The performance eval-uation of civil servants should also be done on the basis of indicators they are supposed to fulfil within a time frame. Of course, this would require allowing a civil servant to stay at a post for a minimum period of 2 to 3 years. It is also impor-tant for the political executive to realise that policymaking is their role and they should do so with the advice of the civil servants, but policy implemen-tation should be left entirely to the civil service without any direct interference or through the obnoxious weapon of transfer. I read many articles of intellectuals who desire reform of the civil services and the administration. The fulfil-ment of the above-mentioned conditions could lead to civil servants delivering extraordi-nary results. It all appears so simple and yet does not hap-pen because of certain vested interests. Governance is linked to providing a better quality of life to the ordinary citizen and systems have to be built which will make this possible.

The writer is an ex-Chief Sec-retary, Govt of Uttar Pradesh. Views expressed are personal

ALOK RANJAN

SHANTANU MUKHARJI

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

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

DearEditor

Let the middle class and elderly be spared from rate cuts on small savings schemes which are a lifeline for them. They bank on the interest rates accrued over years to meet their financial needs. Though the interest rates are quite low, the much-harried common man feels reassured that he has something to fall back on. Moreover, the new rate on PPF was reported to be the lowest since 1974. The government has retracted promptly but still, it owes an explanation as to why it took such a mindless and unpopular decision in the first place. It is a matter of common sense that the interest rates should have been left unchanged when the country is still in the throes of the second wave of the pandemic, and the least that the government can do is to pay attention to this section of society which is contributing significantly to the economic recovery. The announcement of a sharp cut in interest rates came as a cruel April Fool joke for small savers and senior citizens. Within 12 hours, the fear of electoral backlash prompted the retraction of orders. The faux pas on the government’s part exposes a flawed approach to policymaking. After all, the lower interest rates didn’t result from some overnight decision; they have been part of a well-thought-out and sustained plan to reduce the overall rates of interest across all types of instruments. The biggest beneficiary of such lower interest would have been the Government itself. The vast majority of people prefer such savings options because of the perceived safety, and nearly 85 per cent of domestic financial savings are in bank’s fixed deposits and small savings schemes. Since many of the small savings schemes are designed for specific social targets. The impact of lower interest rates on such schemes translates into a direct impact on the vulnerable sections of the population. Rather than looking at it from an accounting perspective, the Government should view small savings schemes through a social lens.

A flurry of activities is noticed in Paki-stan in the wake of the emerging thaw

with India emanating from the backchannel diplomacy initi-ated by the concerned author-ities on both sides. They have raised hopes of peace, albeit just for the immediate future. The tone and tenor of the Pak-istani establishment, of late, has been less aggressive, con-ciliatory and non-confronta-tionist. This looks heartening. The latest of such mellowed syntax was spotted on March 30 when the Pakistani For-eign Minister, who had oth-erwise been very belligerent, Shah Mahmood Qureshi dis-closed that India and Pakistan, both nuclear powers, cannot afford to engage in any war-like situation. He also said that in the recent past, there have been several significant developments that are positive and productive. He touched upon the 2013 Heart of Asia conference where India and Pakistan never criticised each other. Similarly, at the most recent Dushanbe meet, Paki-stan Foreign Minister and his Indian counterpart, S Jaishan-kar refrained from any blame game. This too was heartening.

More importantly, Pak-istan Prime Minister Imran Khan has responded to Indian PM’s greetings conveyed on Pakistan National Day on March 23. This seems a wel-come move as read from the contents of the former’s let-ter. Imran Khan has called for resolving all the outstanding

problems including Kashmir as contained in his March 29 letter. Meanwhile, as part of more Confidence Building Measures (CBMs), Pakistan has lifted restrictions on the import of cotton and sugar from India. This is yet another positive sign of coming out of a frozen time as there has been no trade between India and Pakistan since August 2019. Resumption of trade ties is perhaps the first baby step to move further towards firming up a thawing relationship.

However, hawks watching Pakistan, including Ambassa-dor Abdul Basit who was also in India with his country’s High Commissioner, have not been very charitable over the backchannel efforts attempting to usher in peace. Another for-mer ambassador of Pakistan,

Zamir Akram has joined the sceptics criticising the peace moves. In an opinion piece in a prominent daily, Zamir Akram has come down heav-ily on the Pakistan government for being a party to the recent process of reconciliation and rapprochement. Question-ing the political wisdom of his country, Akram feels that India has buckled under pres-sure from the new US admin-istration under President Joe Biden to repair ties with Paki-stan in an apparent bid to dis-tance it from China so that the US, as part of the Quad strat-egy, can address the Chinese threat in a more focused man-ner. Akram also opines that by engaging India in talks, Kash-miris will stand demoralised and their cause impaired. For the Indo-Pak talks, Akram

reckons that China and Pak-istani people should be taken on board by the Pakistan gov-ernment for transparency. He quite bluntly feels pessimis-tic over the developments and rules out any future of the pro-posed talks or the warming up. Similar articulations are seen in the print media and TV debates as well. Still, there are security and political analysts like Talat Masood who have reacted in an objective and balanced manner. So we see that some see no future in the emerging thaw and they don’t even want to give the ongo-ing positive developments any chance. Such elements may or may not have the backing of the armed forces or the ISI but they continue to air their ire. Such voices can be coun-tered by pacifists through dia-logues or media offensives or ignored as long as Prime Min-ister Imran Khan and Army Chief Gen Qamar Bajwa’s rhet-oric are devoid of acrimony. Fortunately, they are conspic-uously quiet in any acerbic criticism of India except that on the issue of Kashmir, they are maintaining a cautious approach perhaps for domes-tic consumption. This apart, their stance and that of For-eign Minister SM Qureshi are worth taking note of.

This development notwith-standing, the Pakistani Prime Minister has drawn consider-able flak from his opponents and news commentators for having axed Finance Min-ister Hafeez Sheikh uncere-moniously. This has largely

augured in bad taste. The speculation that Sheikh was fired for non-performance or having lost the Senate elec-tion to PPP strongman, Yusuf Raza Gilani is also far from convincing. It is a strange coincidence that Sheikh’s pre-decessor Asad Umar too was removed unceremoniously amidst his negotiations with the IMF. No explanation can satisfy people’s inquisitiveness on Hafeez Sheikh’s exit. Sheikh is a former World Bank hand and Imran Khan is sadly mis-taken that Sheikh was not in tune with Imran’s economic policies aimed at alleviation of poverty. Well-known jour-nalist Zahid Hussain, in his recent commentary in the ‘Dawn’, has questioned Imran Khan’s wisdom in getting rid of Asad Umar even when he was only into the eighth month of his office. Above all, he was inducted to fix the economic ills.

Other than political experts, many others in Pak-istan are also blaming Imran Khan for entrusting sweeping powers in the State Bank and as there is a complete absence of focus in undertaking eco-nomic reforms. However, the new Finance Minister Ham-mad Azhar has to double up his efforts to bring back the impaired Pak economy on the rails.

The writer is a retired IPS officer, a security ana-lyst and a former National

Security Advisor to the Prime Minister of Mauritius. Views

expressed are personal

ODF campaign had to address both infrastructural needs and behavioural inertia on part of people PHOTO: UNICEF

— YASH PAL RALHAN, JALANDAR via email

Shah Mahmood Qureshi has emphasised that India and Pakistan cannot be in a war-like situation

EDITORIALMatter of integrity

The Senate Bill 202 or the US state of Georgia’s new voting bill has set off a major political quake through the nation. As may be remembered, Georgia was a particularly contentious battle-

ground state during the 2020 US elections which ended with a recount and Republicans losing three crucial elec-tions in one go. Now, this was understandably a hard loss for Republicans and Trump as Georgia had reliably been a conservative state for two decades. Biden winning the state and both its Senate seats was enough to convince the Geor-gia GOP majority that there was a need to act. Pushing through this partisan bill with the strength of their majority, the new voting bill was made into law. The Republicans say that the new laws will help restore the integrity of the US electoral process at a time when the recent elections appar-ently called them into doubt. The Democrats assert the voting laws are among the most restrictive in America and seriously limit voting access, particularly to minorities. In terms of publicity for this ‘historic’ bill, the Georgia Repub-licans have gotten off to a rough start. Georgia Governor Brian Kemp signed the bill into law under a painting of a plantation, a long reviled symbol of American slavery. Then some provisions in the bill admittedly looked worse than they actually are. Consider the much-publicised part of the bill which makes it a felony for anyone to offer “money or gifts” including “food and drink” to voters standing in line at a polling booth. Biden and the Democrats have attacked this part of the bill as senseless and cruel as it denies people from being given food and water as they stand in long lines. This sounds bad, as does any law that restricts someone from giving anyone else water. But it should be noted in a sense of fairness that the bill actually allows for poll officers to make available “self-service water” at these booths for those waiting in line. This makes the whole part of the law more arbitrary than it is actually cruel. It also draws atten-tion from the actually concerning part of the new laws such as legislation that will allow the state legislator to have the power to remove county voting officials if a majority of a new dedicated board decides that these officials have done a ‘poor’ job. This is important to note because the state legislature in Georgia has been under Republican con-trol since 2005. As many news organisations and observers have noted, this is a significant problem for the handful of Democratic counties in Georgia like Fulton County which has been a long time target of Georgia Republicans. There is much more but the bill is a bit too massive for detailed investigation here. The interesting bit that we will focus on however is how traditionally non-political actors are behav-ing in response to the new voting laws. Many significant American companies such as Coco-Cola and Microsoft have issued statements condemning the new voting laws in no uncertain terms. Major League Baseball, one of Ameri-ca’s biggest sporting bodies went several steps further. MLB recently announced that it would pull its planned 2021 All-Star Game and Draft out of Georgia in protests of these new laws. To say this is large is a bit of an understatement. MLB events like these are big-ticket events that bring both jobs and money to the city and state that host them. Com-ing at a delicate time in the American economic revival, it is understandable to see why some even on the Democratic side see this as a step too far. They argue that such a move is unlikely to pressure State Republicans but is certain to hurt everyday Georgians. Coming after the Democrats man-aged a narrow victory in the state in 2021, this may not be the best message to send considering Joe Biden did more or less ‘advise’ or ‘support’ MLB to pull-out on television. But what is worth noting is that there is now an increased need amongst many voters, especially young ones, for com-panies to now start getting political. Since you no longer buy a product but a brand, it has become important for this brand to somehow fall in sync with your belief, including political belief. This was demonstrated last year at the BLM protests as well and is likely a growing pattern. Republicans across the nations are looking to push similar bills into law. Texas is already set to be the next stage in this long-run-ning battle. How much further will corporate America go in their attempt to take a stand? Of course, some question whether they should even be taking a stand. Recent polls have shown that an increased number of Republican vot-ers are more tired now of having sports and politics mix than they were five years ago. But those were different, less divided times. Can anyone afford to fence sit in modern America now?

The making of India ODF proves that given the right kind of leadership and working environment the civil services are in a position to deliver good governance to the citizens

Imran Khan has called for resolving all the outstanding problems including Kashmir as contained in his March 29 letter

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Declaration about criminal cases(As per the judgment dated 25th September, 2018, of Hon’ble Supreme Court in WP (Civil) No. 536 of 2011 (Public Interest Foundation & Ors. Vs. Union of India & Anr.)Name and address of candidate: ABDUL KHALEQUE MOLLA, T-325/1 PANCHPARA RD, KOL-700018 Name of political party: ALL INDIA TRINAMOOL CONGRESS(Independent candidates should write “Independent” here)Name of Election: GENERAL ELECTION TO THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF WEST BENGAL, 2021*Name of Constituency: 157 METIABRUZ I ABDUL KHALEQUE MOLLA, a candidate for the abovementioned election, declare for public information the following details about my criminal antecedents:(A) Pending criminal casesSl. No. Name of Court Case No. and

dated Status of case(s)

Section(s) of Acts concerned and brief description of offence(s)

1) LD. 7TH COURT J U D I C I A L MAGISTRATE AT ALIPORE

MET. P.S- CASE NO-32(4) 2005 BGR NO- 1502/05

PENDING U/s-148, 149, 435, 506, 380 IPC, 1860 alleged offences of rioting armed with deadly weapon, unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object, mischief of fire or explosive substance with intent to cause damage to amount of one hundred or (in case of agricultural produce) ten rupees, criminal intimidation, theft in dwelling house

2) LD. 15TH COURTOF AD J AT ALIPORE

M E T . P . S CASE NO- 34(4) 2005 BGR NO – 1502/05 S E S S I O N CASE NO-72(11) 2009

PENDING SEC- 147, 148, 149, 323, 427, 333, 307, IPC, 1860 alleged offences of rioting, rioting arned with dedly weapon , unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object, voluntarily causing hurt, mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupee, voluntarily causing grievous hurt to deter public servant from his duty, attempt to murder.

(B) Details about cases of conviction for criminal offencesSl. No. Name of Court &

date(s) or order(s)Description of offence(s) & punishment imposed

M a x i m u m Punishment Imposed

(Sl No. 1 to 2) NA (Sl No. 1 to 2) NA (Sl No. 1 to 2) NA*In the case of election to Council of States or election to Legislative Council by MLAs, mention the election concerned in place of name of constituency.

8 millenniumpostWorldmpMONDAY, 5 APRIL, 2021 | KOLKATA

Facebook data on over 500 mn accounts found online

NEW YORK: Details from more than 500 million Face-book users have been found available on a website for hackers.

The information appears to be several years old, but it is another example of the vast amount of information col-lected by Facebook and other social media sites, and the lim-its to how secure that infor-

mation is.The availability of the data

set was first reported by Busi-ness Insider. According to that publication, it has infor-mation from 106 countries including phone numbers, Facebook IDs, full names, locations, birthdates, and email addresses.

Facebook has been grap-pling with data security issues

for years. In 2018, the social media

giant disabled a feature that allowed users to search for one another via phone number following revela-tions that the political firm Cambridge Analytica had accessed information on up to 87 million Facebook users without their knowledge or consent. AGENCIES

12 killed, 4 missing after ship sinks in

ChinaBEIJING: Twelve people were killed and four remain missing after a fishing boat sank in east China's Zhejiang Province on Sunday morning, the provin-cial maritime search and res-cue centre has said.

The centre said it received a report that a boat registered in neighbouring Jiangsu Province with 20 crew members aboard had capsized about 100 nauti-cal miles east of Zhujiajian, the Port of Ningbo Zhoushan in Zhejiang.

The 12 victims were among the 16 people that had been recovered, state run Xinhua news agency reported.

Rescue vessels and air-craft from maritime search teams and nearby fishing boats have joined the rescue operation.

Search work is still under-way, it said. AGENCIES

Myanmar anti-coup protesters launch 'Easter egg strike'

YANGON: Anti-coup demon-strators in Myanmar, adept at finding themes to tie together protests nationwide, took to the streets on Sunday holding painted eggs in a nod to Easter.

In the biggest city of Yan-gon, one group marched through the Insein district chanting and singing protest

songs and cradling eggs bearing the slogan Spring Revolution.

Many of the eggs also bore a drawing of the three-fingered salute, a symbol of resistance to the Feb. 1 coup. In Manda-lay, the country's second larg-est city, protesters gathered at dawn on motorbikes to shout their defiance of the power grab

that overthrew the democrati-cally elected government.

Myanmar's military has violently cracked down on protesters and others in oppo-sition, with the latest civilian death toll since the coup at 557, according to the indepen-dent Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. AGENCIES

Nepali Congress decides to form govt under its leadershipKATHMANDU: Nepal's main opposition party Nepali Congress has initiated moves to topple Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli and form an alter-native government under its leadership with the support of the CPN-Maoist Centre and other parties.

The Central Working Committee of the Nepali Congress (NC) on Saturday decided to take initiative to form a new government under its leadership, according to party's senior leader Prakash Man Singh.

The NC will ask Prime Minister Oli to step down and allow formation of a new gov-ernment, said Singh.

If he does not resign, the NC will move a no-trust motion against him in the House of Representatives and take initiative to form a new government under its leader-ship to save the democratic achievements of the past, he added.

There is very much possi-bility of regression threatening the democratic republic sys-tem hard earned by the people through various movements, as Prime Minister Oli's uncon-stitutional move has posed a threat to democracy, he added.

Being the main opposition and also a key partner of fram-ing the Constitution of Nepal in 2015 it is our responsibility to protect democracy, he said.

Prime Minister Oli's dis-solution of the House of Rep-resentatives in December

triggered a political crisis in Nepal. However, in a land-mark ruling, the apex court in February reinstated the lower house of Parliament.

The political scenario in the country worsened after the Supreme Court last month nullified CPN-MC's merger with CPN-UML. The two par-ties had merged in May 2018 to form a unified Nepal Com-munist Party following the victory of their alliance in the 2017 general elections.

"We will hold talks with all pro-democracy parties before forming a new government," Singh said.

Informed sources said that a faction of the ruling CPN-UML, Janata Samajwadi Party and CPN-Maoist Centre will also join the move if Nepali Congress takes initiatives to form a new government under its leadership.

Prime Minster Oli led gov-ernment will lose majority in

the lower house if CPN-Maoist Centre led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda' withdraws its support, according to party sources.

On Saturday, Prachanda said that the country's politics had taken a new turn after the NC decided to seek PM Oli's resignation and take initiative to form the next government under its leadership.

"I am going to intensify talks with political parties and am hopeful that a new govern-ment will be formed and there will be a new course of events," he said at a programme in Kaplivastu.

Addressing the partic-ipants of the program, Pra-chanda said a new government will soon be formed and a new political atmosphere will be created.

A senior leader of CPN-Maoist Centre has said that the Maoist party will withdraw its support to the Oli govern-ment that would pave way for forming an alternative govern-ment under the leadership of the Nepali Congress.

Meanwhile, the Standing Committee meeting of the Maoist party which was sched-uled to take place on Sunday has been postponed as most of its members are outside Kathmandu.

During the next Stand-ing Committee meeting of the party a decision is likely to be taken to with-draw support from the Oli government. AGENCIES

Europe ramps up

vaccinationsPARIS: The main stadium in the French city of Lyon opened as a mass vaccination center during Easter weekend, and thousands of people spent the holiday lining up for injections elsewhere in France as the gov-ernment tried to speed up shots amid a new rush of Coronavi-rus cases.

But as Europe faced its sec-ond Easter in a row under the cloud of the pandemic, some French cities pushed back against President Emmanuel Macron's insistence that there are no weekends or days off during vaccination.

Authorities in Strasbourg, on the German border shut down their vaccination facili-ties from Good Friday through Easter Monday a public holi-day in France to allow workers a little rest at last, according to a city official.

To ensure that residents still had access to potentially life-saving vaccines, the city expanded vaccination hours and administered all of its its weekly supply of doses between Monday and Thursday.

The city of Sarcelles north of Paris was among those where officials kept vaccine sites open Sunday amid mushrooming infections and demand.

The surrounding Val d'Oise region now has the highest Coronavirus infection rate in France, and the situation in Sarcelles symbolises how the pandemic has worsened exist-ing inequality. AGENCIES

Nepal PM K P Sharma Oli

Indonesia landslides and floods kill at least 41 peopleJAKARTA: Landslides and flash floods from torrential rains in eastern Indonesia killed at least 41 people and displaced thou-sands, the country’s disaster relief agency said Sunday. More than two dozen others were still missing.

Mud tumbled down from surrounding hills onto doz-ens of homes in Lamenele vil-lage shortly after midnight on Adonara island in East Nusa Tenggara province. Rescuers recovered 35 bodies and at least five injured, said Lenny Ola, who heads the local disaster agency.

Flash flooding killed at least six people elsewhere, according to the National Disaster Miti-gation Agency. Relief efforts were hampered by power cuts, blocked roads covered in thick mud and debris as well as the remoteness of the area sur-rounded by choppy seas and high waves, said the agency’s spokesperson, Raditya Jati.

Seasonal downpours cause frequent landslides and floods, killing dozens each year in Indo-nesia, a chain of 17,000 islands where millions of people live in mountainous areas or near fertile flood plains.

Indonesia’s disaster agency lowered the death toll late Sun-day to 41 down from 44 after search and rescue team reveri-fied victims’ data. At least 27 people were still missing.

The bodies of three people were recovered after being swept away by floods in Oyang Bayang village, where 40 houses were also destroyed, Ola said. Hun-dreds of people fled submerged homes, some of which were car-ried off by the floodwaters.

In another village, Waiburak, three people were killed and seven remained missing when overnight rains caused rivers

to burst their banks, sending muddy water into large areas of East Flores district, Ola said. Four injured people were being treated at a local health clinic.

Hundreds of people were still involved in the rescue efforts as of late Sunday, Jati told a press conference. At least six villages have been affected by flash floods and a landslide that cut five bridges on the island, he said.

Photos released by the agency showed rescuers and police and military per-sonnel taking residents to shelters. AGENCIES

Several other people are still missing Indonesia boat

collision kills 2 fishermen,

15 missingJAKARTA: A collision between a cargo ship and a fishing boat killed at least two fishermen and left 15 missing off Indone-sia’s main island of Java, officials said Sunday. The fishing boat capsized late Saturday with 32 aboard after hitting the Indo-nesian bulk carrier MV Habco Pioneer off Indramayu district, said Deden Ridwansyah, the head of the search and rescue agency. He said rescuers recov-ered two bodies on Sunday one trapped in a fishing net about a meter (yard) beneath the sur-face, and another from inside the sunken vessel at 11 meters (36 feet) underwater.

The remaining 15 crew were rescued, and local fishermen and the navy were searching for the missing, said Wisnu Wardana, a spokesperson for the sea transportation directorate general. AGENCIES

People inspect damaged buildings at a village hit by flash flood in East Flores, Indonesia, Sunday PTI

9millenniumpost Business mpKOLKATA | MONDAY, 5 APRIL, 2021

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Total dues owed by electricity distribution com-panies to power producers rose nearly 17 per cent to Rs 1,02,684 crore in February this year, reflecting persistent stress in the sector.

Distribution companies (discoms) owed a total of Rs 87,888 crore to power genera-tion firms in February 2020, according to portal PRAAPTI (Payment Ratification And Analysis in Power procurement for bringing Transparency in Invoicing of generators).

However, total outstand-ing dues of discoms towards power generation firms in Feb-ruary slightly dipped from Rs 1,03,116 crore in January this year and Rs 1,02,676 crore in December 2020.

The PRAAPTI portal was launched in May 2018 to bring in transparency in power pur-chase transactions between generators and discoms.

In February 2021, the total overdue amount, which was not cleared even after 45 days of grace period offered by genera-tors, stood at Rs 91,549 crore as

against Rs 73,867 crore in same month a year ago.

The overdue amount stood at Rs 92,120 crore in January 2021 and Rs 93,599 crore in December 2020.

Power producers give 45 days to discoms to pay bills for electricity supply. After that, outstanding dues become overdue and generators charge penal interest on that in most cases.

To give relief to power gen-eration companies (gencos), the Centre enforced a pay-ment security mechanism from

August 1, 2019.Under this mechanism, dis-

coms are required to open let-ters of credit for getting power supply.

The Central government had also given some breathers to discoms for paying dues to power generating companies in view of the COVID-19-in-duced lockdown.

The government had also waived penal charges for late payment of dues in the directive.

In May, the government announced Rs 90,000 crore

liquidity infusion for discoms under which these utilities would get loans at economical rates from Power Finance Cor-poration (PFC) and REC Ltd. This was a government initia-tive to help gencos to remain afloat. Later, the liquidity infu-sion package was increased to Rs 1.2 lakh crore and further to Rs 1.35 lakh crore.

Last month, Power Minister R K Singh had said in a writ-ten reply to the Rajya Sabha that “so far, loans of Rs 1,35,497 crore have been sanctioned (under the liquidity infusion scheme and Rs 46,321 crore have been released to states/DISCOMs by REC and PFC (Power Finance Corporation)”.

The minister had also explained to the House that due to the consequent nation-wide lockdown, the revenues of the power distribution compa-nies (DISCOMs) nosedived, as people were unable to pay for electricity consumed.

Discoms in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maha-rashtra, Jharkhand, Haryana and Tamil Nadu account for the

major portion of dues to power gencos, the data showed.

Overdue of independent power producers amount to 46.31 per cent of the total over-due of Rs 91,549 crore of dis-coms in February.

The proportion of central PSU gencos in the overdue was 40.21 per cent. Among the cen-tral public sector power gen-erators, NTPC alone has an overdue amount of Rs 14,110.26 crore on discoms, followed by Damodar Valley Corporation at Rs 6,200.08 crore, NLC India at Rs 6,047.48 crore, NHPC at Rs 2,538.10 crore and THDC India at Rs 2,004.66 crore in February 2021.

Among private generators, discoms owe the highest over-due of Rs 17,178.62 crore to Adani Power followed by Bajaj Group-owned Lalitpur Power Generation Company Ltd at Rs 4,817.12 crore, SEMB (Semb-corp) at Rs 3,178.40 crore and GMR at Rs 2,195.12 crore in February 2021.

The overdue of non-con-ventional energy producers like solar and wind stood at Rs 12,346.04 crore in Febru-ary 2021.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: India’s crude steel output fell by 1 per cent to 19.1 million tonnes (MT) during the first two months of 2021, according to worldsteel.

The country had produced 18.9 MT crude steel during the same period last year.

The production for the 64 countries reporting to the worldsteel was 313.1 MT in Jan-uary-February 2021, registering a 5 per cent increase compared to 297.7 MT in the year ago period, the global industry body data showed.

China remained the global leader in production of steel,

registering 8.86 per cent year-on-year growth in output at 173.2 MT during the said period.

According to the World Steel Association (worldsteel) data, China had produced 159.1 MT steel in the same period last year.

During January-February 2021, Japan’s output slipped 6 per cent to 15 MT year-on-year from 16.1 MT. The US produced 13.2 MT steel in the period under review. Its output was at 14.9 MT in 2020.

Russia’s output was at 12.4 MT compared to 11.61 MT in 2020. South Korea’s steel pro-duction was at 11.5 MT, as com-pared to 11.2 MT in the year-ago

period.Turkey produced 6.4 MT

of crude steel in period under review. It had produced 5.9 MT in same period in 2020.

While Germany produced 6.4 MT steel in January-Feb-ruary 2021, Brazil and Iran produced 5.8 MT and 5.3 MT, respectively.

With members in every major steel-producing country, Brussels-based worldsteel rep-resents steel producers, national and regional steel industry asso-ciations, and steel research institutes.

Its members represent around 85 per cent of the global steel production.

NEW DELHI: The Finance Ministry on Sunday said banks have sanctioned Rs 25,586 crore to about 1,14,322 beneficiaries under the Stand Up India Scheme in the last five years for promoting entre-preneurship among women and SC & STs.

The objective of Stand-Up India is to promote entrepre-neurship amongst women, Scheduled Castes (SC) & Scheduled Tribes (ST) cate-gories, to help them in start-ing a greenfield enterprise in trading, manufacturing and services sector, by both ready and trainee borrowers, the Finance Ministry said in a statement.

Under the scheme, bank loans between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 1 crore are provided to at least one Scheduled Caste/ Scheduled Tribe borrower and at least one woman borrower per bank branch of Scheduled Commercial Banks.

Started in April 5, 2016, the scheme has benefited

93,094 women entrepreneurs with outstanding loan of Rs 21,200 crore as of March 23.

This scheme, which has been extended up to 2025, covers SC/ST and/or women entrepreneurs, above 18 years of age, it said.

In case of non-individual enterprises, 51 per cent of the shareholding and controlling stake should be held by either SC/ST and/or Women Entre-preneur and borrowers should not be in default to any bank/financial institution, it said. PTI

Discoms’ total dues to gencos rise 17% to `1.02 lakh cr in Feb

Discoms owed a total of Rs 87,888 cr to power gencos in February 2020

India’s steel output falls by 1% to 19.1 MT in Jan-Feb

NEW DELHI: Eight of the top-10 most valued companies together added Rs 1,28,503.47 crore in market valuation last week, with IT majors Tata Con-sultancy Services and Infosys leading from the front.

The valuation of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) jumped Rs 36,158.22 crore to reach Rs 11,71,082.67 crore, becoming the biggest gainer

among the top-10 most val-ued companies.

Infosys added Rs 20,877.24 crore to take its market cap-italisation (m-cap) to Rs 5,90,229.35 crore and Hindu-stan Unilever saw its valuation rise by Rs 19,842.83 crore to Rs 5,63,767.05 crore.

Reliance Industries gained Rs 17,401.77 crore to Rs 12,81,644.97 crore and

State Bank of India added Rs 12,003.6 crore to Rs 3,30,701.48 crore.

ICICI Bank’s valuation ral-lied Rs 10,681.76 crore to Rs 4,10,775.37 crore and Kotak Mahindra Bank’s m-cap rose by Rs 6,301.56 crore to reach Rs 3,57,573.74 crore. Bajaj Finance added Rs 5,236.49 crore to take its valuation to Rs 3,17,563.53 crore. PTI

Eight of top-10 most valued cos add over `1.2 lakh cr in m-cap

GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGALPUBLIC NOTICE IN CONNECTION WITH THE GENERAL ELECTIONS TO THE

WEST BENGAL LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 2021

Sd/-District Magistrate & District Election Officer

Uttar Dinajpur

Banks sanction `25,586 cr to 1.14L Stand-Up India accounts in 5 yrs

Started in April 5, 2016, the scheme has benefited 93,094 women entrepreneurs with outstanding loan of Rs 21,200 crore as of March 23

KOLKATA: To improve its bot-tomline, Damodar Valley Cor-poration (DVC) is focusing on cost and operational efficiency, a company official said.

Debt management and cost optimisation remain in focus for the multipurpose utility jointly owned by the governments of West Bengal, Jharkhand and the Centre, he said.

The loan burden of the com-pany has been reduced by Rs 3,252 crore in FY21 to around Rs 20,300 crore, the official said.

Additionally, it refinanced its debt which was Rs 23,600 crore in April 2020 that lowered its interest outgo by Rs 76.83 crore during the fiscal, officials said.

“We retired Rs 1,900 crore short-term and Rs 1,352 crore long term debts,” the official said.

During the year, the dues from the Jharkhand state gov-ernment had been reduced by 34 per cent to some Rs 6,000 crore.

“This recovery was not part of the Centre’s discom loan package. If the state government avails the loan, we expect to reduce our dues significantly in the current fiscal,” officials said.

These measures will have a direct bearing on the bottom-line of the power generator, they said.

The corporation is yet to announce its financial results for fiscal 2020-21. PTI

DVC focusing on cost &

operational efficiency

NEW DELHI: The oil ministry will seeks tens of millions of dol-lars from Vedanta’s Cairn Oil & Gas after the Delhi High Court held that the firm was liable to pay higher profit share to the government in lieu of its Raj-asthan oil and gas block license being extended beyond initial term, a top official said.

In the interim, the firm’s Barmer basin block licence, whose initial 25-year term ended on May 15, 2020, has been given an eighth interim extension, the official, who wished not to be identified, said.

“Now that the Delhi High Court has upheld the govern-ment policy, we will issue recov-ery notices seeking higher profit petroleum since May 15, 2020,” he said.

“The exact amount is being calculated but it will be in tens of millions of dollars.”

When contacted, a com-pany spokesperson said, “We

are in the process of reviewing the court’s order, will assess any next course of action” after that.

The Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Naren-drea Modi had in March 2017 approved a policy for extension of production sharing contracts (PSCs) for oil and gas blocks beyond their initial term. This policy provided that the govern-ment’s share of profit petroleum (earning from sale of oil and gas after deducting all expenses) would be 10 per cent more dur-ing the extended period.

Vedanta’s Cairn sought a 10-year extension of Rajasthan PSC, which the government approved. But the firm chal-lenged in Delhi High Court the condition for additional profit petroleum. A single judge bench of the Delhi High Court in May 2018 upheld the company posi-tion that the extension has to be on same terms and conditions as the original licence.

The government challenged

the order before a division bench, which on March 26 this year ruled that “there cannot be extension of the Production Sharing Contract uncondition-ally, on the same terms and con-ditions which were prevailing 25 years ago i.e. on 15th May, 1995, the effective date.”

It set aside the May 2018 single judge order.

“In effect what the Delhi High Court has said is that the company has to pay higher profit share after May 15, 2020. So the company is now liable to pay higher profit petroleum for the period they operate the block post May 15, 2020,” the official said.

Vedanta, he said, has the option to not agree to the gov-ernment condition and relin-quish the block.

“Even in that case, the com-pany is liable to pay additional profit petroleum for the period they operate the block post May 15, 2020,” he said. PTI

Govt to slap recovery notice on Vedanta’s Cairn after Delhi High Court judgment

NEW DELHI: Diversified natural resources firm Vedanta Resources has said it contrib-uted $4.66 billion (Rs 34,018 crore) to the public exchequer in India during the 2019-20 fiscal.Its overall contributions to public exchequers of vari-ous countries stood at $4.7 billion (Rs 34,310 crore) dur-ing the fiscal year, Vedanta Resources said.

“Consistent with our com-mitment to building on trans-parency, we present our fifth tax transparency report. Dur-ing FY2019-20, our contribu-tion to exchequer was $4.7 billion, which accounts for 40 per cent of our consolidated turnover,” Vedanta Resources

Chairman Anil Agarwal said.Most of this amount goes

to the Indian exchequer as majority of the groups busi-ness operations are located in India.

The company paid $1,398 million (Rs 10,205 crore) towards royalties to the state governments of Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Goa and Karnataka based on extraction of bauxite, lead-zinc, iron ore, crude oil and natural gas. In the last seven years, Vedanta has contrib-uted $46.4 billion (Rs 3,38,720 crore) to the exchequer which constitutes to around 39 per cent of the company’s consoli-dated turnover PTI

‘Contributed `34K cr to Indian exchequer’

NEW DELHI: Reliance Indus-tries Ltd and its partner BP Plc of UK have sought bids for sale of 5.5 million standard cubic meters per day of additional natural gas that will be avail-able for sale from their eastern offshore KG-D6 block.

The e-auction is slated for April 23 and the gas supply will start from late April or early May, according to the tender document.

Bidders will have to quote a price linked to Platts JKM (Japan Korea marker), the liq-uefied natural gas (LNG) bench-mark price assessment for spot physical cargoes.

The lowest bid that can be placed is JKM minus $0.3 per million British thermal unit. The highest acceptable bid would be JKM plus $2.01 per mmBtu.

This is the same benchmark the RIL-BP had used in Febru-

ary to sell out 7.5 mmscmd of gas from the block.

At current price, the lowest price for the 5.5 mmscmd of gas that RIL-BP are auctioning comes to near $6.5 per mmBtu. But they will be entitled to a maximum of $3.62 per mmBtu ceiling fixed by the government for a six-month period to Sep-tember 30. The consortium of RIL and BP Exploration (Alpha) Limited (a unit of BP Plc) “is

developing deepwater gas fields viz. the R Cluster (D34), MJ (D55) and Satellites & Other Satellites (D2, D22, D29 and D30) in the KG D6 block,” the tender document said.

The gas to be produced from the fields has been granted mar-keting and pricing freedom but this is subject to a ceiling price that the government fixes every six month. The ceiling price for April 1 to September 30, 2021

is $3.62 per mmBtu.Bidders can seek a supply

tenure of 3 to 5 years. The min-imum volume one could ask for is 0.01 mmscmd and the maximum could be the full vol-ume on offer. “A Bidder shall be required to quote the variable denoted as ‘V’ in $per mmBtu terms pursuant to the Gas Price formula specified below: Gas Price (in US$/MMBtu (GCV)) shall be = JKM + V,” it said.

In the February auction, RIL picked up two-thirds of the 7.5 mmscmd gas sold. Reliance O2C, an affiliate of RIL, picked up 4.8 mmscmd of gas while state gas utility GAIL (India) Ltd won 0.85 mmscmd of sup-plies and Shell 0.7 mmscmd.

Adani Total Gas got 0.1 mmscmd, Hindustan Petro-leum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) 0.2 mmscmd and Torrest Gas 0.02 mmscmd.

Other buyers include IRM Energy (0.1 mmscmd), PIL (0.35 mmscmd) and IGS (0.35 mmscmd).

Sources said the gas was bought at a price of $0.18 per mmBtu discount to JKM i.e. price of JKM (minus) $0.18 with tenures ranging from 3 to 5 years.

Reliance O2C is the new unit that holds the firm’s refinery and petrochemical assets. PTI

Reliance-BP seek buyers for 5.5 mmscmd gas from KG-D6

MUMBAI: China’s ByteDance has told an Indian court that a government freeze on its bank accounts in a probe of possible tax evasion amounts to harass-ment and was done illegally, according to a filing seen by Reuters.

ByteDance in January reduced its Indian workforce after New Delhi maintained a ban on its popular video app TikTok, imposed last year after a border clash between India and China. Beijing has repeatedly criticised India over that ban and those of other Chinese apps.

An Indian tax intelligence unit in mid-March ordered HSBC and Citibank in Mumbai to freeze bank accounts of Byte-Dance India as it probed some of the unit’s financial dealings. ByteDance has challenged the freeze on the four accounts in a Mumbai court. None of Byte-

Dance India’s employees have been paid their March salaries due to the account freeze, said two people familiar with the matter. The company told the court it has a workforce of 1,335, including outsourced personnel.

In the 209-page court filing lodged on March 25, ByteDance told the High Court in Mum-bai the authorities acted against the company without any mate-rial evidence and gave no prior notice, as required by Indian law, before such “drastic action”.

Blocking accounts “during the process of investigation amounts (to) applying undue coercion,” ByteDance argued. It is “intended, improperly, to harass the petitioner.”

India’s Directorate General of Goods & Services Tax Intel-ligence (DGGI) told ByteDance last year it had reasons to believe the company suppressed certain

transactions and claimed exces-sive tax credits, the filing shows.

ByteDance declined to com-ment on its court filing but told Reuters on Tuesday it disagrees with the decision of the tax authority. HSBC declined to comment, while Citibank did not respond. The court declined to grant ByteDance immedi-ate relief in a brief hearing on Wednesday. The next hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.

The investigation centres on potential evasion of taxes related to online advertising and other financial dealings between Byte-Dance India and its parent entity in Singapore, TikTok Pte Ltd. TikTok did not respond to an email seeking comment.

The company has “robust business plans in India and is not contemplating winding up,” it said, urging the court to lift the freeze on the accounts. AGENCIES

ByteDance says India’s freeze on bank accounts is harassment

DGGI told ByteDance it has reasons to believe firm sup-pressed transactions and claimed excessive tax credits

SBI CARD SEES OVER 50% TRANSAC-TION FROM ONLINE PAYMENTS: CEO NEW DELHI: SBI Cards and Payment Services (SBI Card) has been seeing over 50 per cent of its trans-actions via online payments such as on groceries, util-ity bills, insurance premium, and hopes the trend to go up further as point of sale purchases are yet to pick up, top company executive said. Keeping a watch on the recent coronavirus resurgence in the country across some key locations, SBI Card MD and CEO Rama Mohan Rao Amara said it would be too early to say whether it will have any bearing on people’s purchas-ing behaviour. However, online payments is a trend which is going to go up further, he added.

GOVT PLANS TO CONSTRUCT RAM VAN GAMAN MARG IN UP: ROAD MINISTRYNEW DELHI: The government has plans to construct 210 km Ram Van Gaman Marg in Uttar Pradesh, ac-cording to the Ministry of Road Transport and High-ways. Ram Van Gaman Path is a project that seeks to retrace the route believed to have been taken by Lord Ram on his way to exile with Sita and Lakshman. “The proposed 210 km long Ram Van Gaman Marg connects Ayodhya to Chitrakoot via Faizabad, Sultan-pur, Pratapgarh, Jethwara, Shringverpur, Manjhanpur and Rajapur in Uttar Pradesh,” as per a Ministry of Road Transport and Highways document.

MONETARY POLICY REVIEW OF KEY RATES

INTEREST WAIVER ON LOANS

Business Briefs

10 millenniumpostBusinessmp MONDAY, 5 APRIL, 2021 | KOLKATA

OUR CORRESPONDENT

MUMBAI: A sudden surge in COVID-19 cases and the gov-ernment’s recent mandate ask-ing the central bank to keep retail inflation around 4 per cent are likely to prompt the Reserve Bank to maintain sta-tus quo on policy rates at its first bi-monthly monetary pol-icy review for the current fiscal, according to experts.

The Monetary Policy Com-mittee (MPC), RBI’s rate-set-ting panel, is also likely to maintain the policy stance accommodative at the next policy review to be unveiled on April 7, say experts.

RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das headed six-member MPC is scheduled to meet from April 5 to 7. The policy meet outcome will be announced on April 7.

The RBI, experts feel, will wait for an opportune time to announce monetary action with a view to ensure the best possible outcome in terms of pushing growth without sac-rificing the main objective of containing retail inflation at 4 per cent with a margin of 2 per cent on either side.

The policy repo rate or the short-term lending rate is cur-

rently at 4 per cent, and the reverse repo rate is 3.35 per cent.

On the forthcoming mone-tary policy, Edelweiss Research said economic recovery is still uneven and the pace of improvement has slowed of late after sharp rebound from lows. Further, the recent rebound in Covid cases poses a fresh challenge.

It said the growth and infla-tion dynamic warrants contin-ued policy support, especially with rising covid cases domes-tically. “In all, we expect Mint Street to leave rates unchanged and maintain an accommo-dative stance. The key moni-torable will be any guidance on open market purchases

(OMOs) or on long-term rates more generally,” it said.

Dhruv Agarwala, Group CEO, Housing.com, Makaan.com and Proptiger.com said the RBI is walking a tight rope between COVID-19 cases once again rising across the coun-try, which could potentially put brakes on the recovering econ-omy, and the inflation rate that is trending upwards.

“The apex bank is likely to keep the repo rate unchanged in the upcoming bi-monthly review of key rates,” he said.

He said home loan rates are at historic lows with recent cuts by a number of commer-cial banks and a further cut in rates will help the industry and the overall economy.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Clearing the air over taxability of gift cards or vouchers, the Tamil Nadu bench of the AAAR has ruled that GST would be levied on the underly-ing goods/ services at the time of redemption such pre-paid instruments.

Kalyan Jewellers India Ltd has approached the Appellate Authority for Advance Ruling (AAAR) against the ruling by the Tamil Nadu state Author-ity for Advance Ruling (AAR), which had said that GST at 12 per cent or 18 per cent would be levied depending on whether on such pre-paid instruments was paper based or magnetic strip based respectively.

Modifying the AAR ver-dict, the AAAR has clarified that GST will be levied not on the supply of vouchers but on the underlying supply of goods/ services at the time of redemp-tion and the time for payment

of GST will be dependent on the provisions detailed in the GST law.

In its order, the AAAR said that vouchers are neither goods nor services and the GST law recognises it as an instrument of consideration (non-monetary form) for future supply.

“... since voucher is only an instrument of consideration and not goods or services, the same is not classifiable separately but only the supply associated with the voucher is classifiable

according to the nature of the goods or services supplied in exchange of the voucher ear-lier issued to the customer,” the AAAR said.

EY Tax Partner Abhishek Jain said the taxability of vouch-ers has always been a grey area, both under the pre- GST and post GST regime.

“This AAAR ruling is wel-come and has provided appro-priate clarity to the industry on the taxability of vouchers,” Jain added.

NEW DELHI: The commerce ministry has made import registration compulsory for 46 copper and 43 aluminium items under non-ferrous metal import monitoring system, a move which could discourage inbound shipments of such goods and promote their local manufacturing.

According to a notification of the department of commerce, under the import monitoring system importers would have to submit advance information in an online system for inbound shipments of these products and obtain an automatic registration number by paying specified fee.

The importer can apply for registration not earlier than 60th day and not later than 5th day before the expected date of arrival of import consignment.

“Import of specific items...are subject to compulsory reg-

istration under non-ferrous metal import monitoring sys-tem,” according to the noti-fication. The system will be effective from April 12 this year and the facility of online regis-tration will be available with effect from April 5. The cop-per items include blister copper, refined copper, copper bars, cer-tain copper rod, copper alloys and sanitary ware.

Similarly, the aluminium products include ingots, wire rods, aluminium scrap, alumin-ium powder for thermite pro-cess, certain aluminium tubes and pipes. The ministry had earlier made similar process for imports of several iron and steel goods and coal. The move is part of an exercise to reduce import of unnecessary goods and boost domestic manufacturing. PTI

NEW DELHI: Mutual funds invested Rs 2,476 crore in equi-ties in March, making it the first such infusion in 10 months, as consolidation in the market pro-vided investment opportunities to fund managers.

Kaushlendra Singh Sengar, founder and CEO at INVEST19, said mutual funds (MFs) inflow in equities will be stagnant in near future.

Prior to the inflows, mutual funds (MFs) had been with-drawing money from equi-ties since June 2020, data available with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) showed. “The markets were a bit volatile in March and at one point of time it was around minus 4 per cent to 5 per

cent from the beginning of the month. If we see last few quar-ters, the market continued to surge and many investors were opting to book profits,” Har-shad Chetanwala, co-founder of Mywealthgrowth said.

He, further, said some signs of consolidation in the market do give opportunities to fund

managers to invest in good ideas if they find them attractive.

“While we will have to wait for industry body Amfi’s data on subscription and redemp-tion, volatility in markets would have also paused the redemp-tion till certain extent and hence the fresh flows also would have found its way in the market as

well,” he added.Harsh Jain, co-founder and

COO of Groww believes that the redemption pressure on mutual funds is reducing as the mar-kets have remained consistent and there have been no major declines in the market despite the second wave. That might be helping with the investor’s sentiments.

In addition to that, many new opportunities are emerg-ing in the stock markets as eco-nomic recovery of India takes shape and investors become more comfortable with the idea of investing in riskier assets like equities as opposed to tradi-tional assets like FD, gold, he added. “In the recent weeks, with the rising cases in India,

the markets have seen some minor correction from which there have been quick recover-ies also. Before that, the markets had been rising sharply over a few months. Mutual funds used these dips to buy new stocks and add to existing ones also,” Jain noted.

According to Sebi data, MFs put in a net amount of Rs 2,476.5 crore in equities in March.

Before that, MFs withdrew Rs 16,306 crore from equities in February, Rs 13,032 crore in January, Rs 26,428 crore in December, Rs 30,760 crore in November, Rs 14,492 crore in October, Rs 4,134 crore in September, Rs 9,213 crore in August, Rs 9,195 crore in July and Rs 612 crore in June. PTI

NEW DELHI: Pakistan can get Indian sugar cheaper and faster if the sugar-deficit neigh-bouring country resumes trade with India and contain its ris-ing retail prices of the sweet-ener out there during Ramadan that will commence soon, sugar industry bodies said on Sunday.

Sugar prices in the retail markets of Pakistan have spi-ralled sharply up to PKR 100 per kg due to production short-ages and the country is mulling over imports.

The Pakistan Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) has recommended the government to allow import of

5,00,000 tonnes of white sugar to boost domestic availability.

Last week, there were sud-den hopes of trade reopening between the two nations.

However, Pakistan’s cabi-net back tracked on the Pak-istan ECC decision to allow import of sugar and cotton from India.

Pakistan, which is expect-ing sugar production of 5.6 million tonnes in the ongo-ing 2020-21 marketing year (October-September), is facing a shortage of 5,00,000 tonne, according to Pakistani traders.

Stating that India can meet Pakistan’s entire sugar shortage

easily, All India Sugar Trade Association (AISTA) Chair-man Praful Vithalani said, “It would be a win-win situa-tion for both the countries if trade resumes. I want to say that essential commodities required for human consump-tion should be kept away from politics.”

The neighbouring country, where crushing operations are underway, needs white sugar of medium size grain consumed widely out there and which is adequately available in India, the world’s second largest sugar producing nation after Brazil. Whereas Brazil has S-grade

white sugar, that is, fine sugar and not much preferred in Pak-istan, he said.

“Through land route via Punjab, white sugar would cost about $398 tonne (which includes freight charges and delivery at godown). This rate is cheaper by at least $25/tonne compared to other nations via sea route,” he said, and added imports via sea route would get expensive for Pakistan after adding port clearance and port-to-godown costs.

Not only logistics cost, Vithalani said Pakistan can get Indian sugar much faster, within four days compared to

45-60 days from Brazil.Further, AISTA Vice-

Chairman Rahil Shaikh said India is the nearest country for Pakistan to import white sugar. The other nearby coun-tries are Algeria and the UAE. Importing from Brazil is not viable both in terms of cost and distance.

He also said Pakistan has not imported any sugar so far in the ongoing marketing year. State-own Trading Corpora-tion of Pakistan (TCP) had floated two tenders for import of 50,000 tonne each.

However, it had to scrap the tenders mainly due to

high quotes. The lowest bid it received was $540 and $544 per tonne by Al Khaleez, Dubai.

Last year, Pakistan had con-tracted about 1,25,000 tonnes of sugar in the price range of $425-455 per tonne, Shaikh said adding that imports from India will be cheaper than this.

“If Pakistan contracts sugar from Brazil right now, it would take minimum 45 days to get the shipment. In fact, it might take more days as Brazil ports at present are busy and vessels are not moving fast,” said one of the sugar mills owner from Uttar Pradesh. PTI

NEW DELHI: Public sector banks may have to bear a bur-den of Rs 1,800-2,000 crore arising due to a recent Supreme Court judgement on the waiver of compound interest on all loan accounts which opted for moratorium during March-August 2020, sources said.

The judgement covers loans above Rs 2 crore as loans below this got blanket interest on interest waiver in November last year. Compound interest support scheme for loan mora-torium cost the government Rs 5,500 crore during 2020-21 and the scheme covered all borrow-ers including the prompt one who did not avail moratorium.

According to banking sources, initially 60 per cent of borrowers availed morato-rium and gradually the per-centage came down to 40 per cent and even less as collection improved with ease in lock-down. In case of corporate, this was as low as 25 per cent as far as public sector banks were concerned.

They further said, banks would provide compound

interest waiver for the period a borrower had availed mora-torium. For example, if a bor-rower availed moratorium of three months, the waiver would be for that period.

The RBI on March 27 last year announced a loan mora-torium on payment of instal-ments of term loans falling due between March 1 and May 31, 2020, due to the pandemic, later the same was extended to August 31.

The apex court order this time is only limited to those who availed moratorium so the liability of the public sec-tor bank should be less than Rs 2,000 crore as per rough calcu-lations, sources added.

Besides, they said, the order does not specify a timeframe for the settlement of com-pound interest unlike last time so banks can devise a mecha-nism of adjusting or settling it in staggered manner.

Meanwhile, Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) has writ-ten to the government to com-pensate lenders for interest on interest waiver. PTI

‘Surge in Covid may prompt RBI to maintain status quo’The policy repo rate or the short-term lending rate is currently

at 4 per cent, and the reverse repo rate is 3.35 per cent

NEW DELHI: RBI inter-est rate decision, macroeco-nomic data, Coronavirus trends and global cues would drive equity markets this week, analysts said.

They also said that the markets may see some con-solidation ahead of the earn-ings season which would start from mid-April.

“Going ahead, Indian markets are likely to track global cues after the recent announcement of invest-ment plan by the US Pres-ident. Further, investors would now focus on upcom-ing quarterly results which would kick start from mid-April,” Siddhartha Khemka, Head - Retail Research, Moti-lal Oswal Financial Services Ltd said.

“Domestically, concerns over the fast spreading sec-

ond wave of COVID-19 in India continues to remain and the fear of possible lockdowns prevail. Over-all markets are likely to remain in consolidation mode for some time await-ing for fresh positive triggers,” Khemka said.

Nirali Shah, Head - Equity Research, Samco Securities said that a noteworthy event to look forward to this week would be the central bank’s MPC meet.

The Monetary Policy Committee headed by the RBI Governor is sched-uled to meet from April 5-7.

The PMI data for manu-facturing and services sec-tors are also scheduled to be announced this week, which would also influence trading sentiments. MPOST

‘RBI policy, Covid trends to drive

markets this week’

‘GST to be levied on goods, services in gift vouchers’

NEW DELHI: Continuing the buying spree for the third consecutive month, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have invested Rs 17,304 crore in Indian markets so far in March.

According to depositories data, FPIs invested Rs 10,482 crore into equities and Rs 6,822 crore in the debt seg-ment during March 1-31.

The total net investment stood at Rs 17,304 crore dur-

ing the period under review.Previously, overseas inves-

tors had invested Rs 23,663 crore in Indian markets in February and Rs 14,649 crore in January, on a net basis.

The rising cases of COVID-19 infections are affecting investments in the Indian markets, Groww co-founder and COO Harsh Jain noted.

Yet, the markets have been relatively much more

stable during second wave due to the vaccination drive and economy looking up, he added.

Morningstar India Asso-ciate Director (Manager Research) Himanshu Srivas-tava said there was a gush of liquidity in the global finan-cial markets after the US announced a pandemic relief package of $1.9 trillion which flowed into emerging markets like India. PTI

FPIs invest `17,304 cr in March

PSU Banks may have to take `2,000 cr hit after SC order

MUMBAI: IL&FS Transpor-tation Networks Ltd (ITNL), a subsidiary of IL&FS, on Sun-day said it has received a set-tlement amount of Rs 673 crore for Kiratpur Ner Chowk Expressway (KNCEL) and Rs 20 crore towards claims for Chenani Nashri Tunnelway (CNTL), from the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).

The amount was received on March 31, Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS) said in a statement.

The KNCEL project was foreclosed under the Ministry of Road Transport and High-ways (MoRTH) guidelines of March 2019 for incomplete or stalled projects.

CNTL is a completed proj-ect, earning annuities, and the Rs 19.6 crore is the claim amount towards change of scope, the statement said.

It said Fagne Songadh Expressway Ltd (FSEL), a 100 per cent subsidiary of ITNL, had earlier completed its set-tlement with NHAI under the new MoRTH policy on stuck-up projects receiving an amount of Rs 707 crore.

Other IL&FS projects set-tled under claims and compen-sation by NHAI till date include Jorabat Shillong Expressway (JSEL) Rs 252 crore; Balesh-war Kharagpur Expressway (BKEL) (Rs 8 crore); and ITNL Road Infrastructure Develop-ment Company (IRIDCL) (Rs 144 crore) that was settled by MoRTH. PTI

ITNL receives `693 cr

settlement from NHAI

‘Import registration compulsory for aluminium, copper products’

NEW DELHI: Telecom regu-lator TRAI is planning to con-duct a consumer-facing survey to assess if tariff plans offered by operators are meeting actual requirements of varied catego-ries of users, a top official said.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) may rope in an agency to conduct the survey for it. The survey is expected to start soon, said a TRAI official privy to the devel-opment. While telecom tariffs are under forbearance, the sec-tor regulator will assess if plans currently being offered in the market are consumer-oriented, the official said.

The tariffs plans need to cater to actual needs of con-sumers, those looking for voice as well as those who have data requirements. The idea is to ensure that consumers are not

being nudged towards a partic-ular type of tariff plan.

The concern is whether cer-tain packs in market tend to be similar, despite requirements being very different, for differ-ent categories of users, includ-ing feature phone users.

TRAI may rope in an agency to conduct the sur-vey, which is expected to ini-tially focus on consumers in small pockets. The modalities, including medium of conduct-ing the survey, will be worked out in coming days.

Asked about the trigger for the survey and if TRAI had noted any ambiguities, the offi-cial said overall the role of the regulator is to keep a watch on the market to ensure that the sector is functioning smoothly, and consumer interests are being addressed. PTI

TRAI plans survey to asses tariff plans

Pak can get sugar cheaper & faster if trade resumesSugar prices in retail markets of Pakistan have spiralled sharply up to PKR 100 per kg due to production shortages

Mutual Funds invest `2,476 crore in March

Importer can apply for registration not earlier than 60th day and not later than 5th day before the expected date of arrival of import consignment

11millenniumpost Sport mpKOLKATA | MONDAY, 5 APRIL, 2021

RIKAKO IKEE QUALIFIES FOR TOKYO OLYMPIC AFTER LEUKEMIA

Japanese swimmer Rikako Ikee celebrates after winning the women’s 100-meter butterfly at the Japan‚Äôs national championships at Tokyo Aquatics Centre in Tokyo, Sunday. Ikee on Sunday qualified for the Tokyo Olympics just two years after the was diagnosed with leukemia PTI

No. 1 Barty repeats as Miami champ when Andreescu retires

MIAMI: Ash Barty pushed a forehand winner into the open court as her opponent, Bianca Andreescu, laid on her back in the far corner, injured yet again.

With that, the Miami Open final was decided.

Andreescu limped through 11 more points before she retired, crying, shaking her head and trailing 6-3, 4-0.

The No. 1-ranked Barty won her second successive Miami title Saturday, and the Austra-lian was already in control of the match when Andreescu turned her right foot while hitting a forehand and sprawled to the hard court. Barty hit one more shot to win the point, and play continued.

But during the ensuing changeover, a trainer taped Andreescu's foot, and after another game the injury-plagued Canadian reluctantly called it quits.

"I really do feel for Bianca," Barty said. "She has had such a rough trot with injuries in the past."

Andreescu was again tear-ful at the start of her post-match news conference, when she explained that her trainer convinced her to retire rather than risk further injury.

"I didn't want to stop," she said. "I trusted him, and I knew it was the best decision."

The tournament was the first in the United States for the 20-year-old Andreescu since she won the 2019 U.S. Open. She sat out 2020 because of inju-ries and the Coronavirus pan-demic and now faces another possible layoff.

"I'm going to see what's up with my foot, and start visu-alizing the healing process if it's something bad," Andreescu said.

On Sunday, 19-year-old Italian Jannik Sinner will try to become the youngest men's

champion in tournament history when he plays No. 26-seeded Hubert Hurkacz of Poland. Each is seeking the big-gest title of his career.

Barty made her own break-through by winning the 2019 Miami championship. The tour-nament was canceled last year at the start of the Coronavirus pandemic.

Five other women have earned consecutive Miami titles: Stefanie Graf, Monica Seles, Arantxa S nchez-Vicario, Venus Williams and Serena Williams.

"I shouldn't belong with that group," Barty said with a smile.

"I haven't earned the right to be on a list with those champi-ons. They're genuine champi-ons and legends, and I feel very privileged to be mentioned in that sentence."

The match between Barty and Andreescu was their first, and a potential friendly rivalry looms. Barty dominated from the start of the final with her strong serve and all-court game.

"She doesn't play like a lot of the players on tour," Andreescu

said."She likes to mix it up,

like me. That's not fun to play against. I guess I'm getting a taste of my own medicine."

Barty was playing outside of Australia for the first time since February 2020, and she arrived in Miami after a trip that took 45 hours because of two can-celed flights.

"I said to my coach when we got here, it can only get better from here," she said.

It did. Barty was one point from defeat in her opening match against Kristina Kucova, but she gained momentum from there and will keep her No. 1 ranking next week.

With the pandemic lim-iting travel, the 2019 French Open champion heads into the clay court season expecting to remain away from home for months.

"It's a great start for us," Barty said.

"I'm looking forward to what will hopefully be a big season for us, and hopefully we can play some really good tennis."

Because the pandemic reduced tournament revenue and severely limited attendance, the champion received 300,110, compared with the 1.35 mil-lion Barty won in 2019. Only 750 fans were allowed on the grounds per session. AGENCIES

Bianca Andreescu limped through 11 more points before she retired, crying, shaking her head and trailing 6-3, 4-0 during Miami Open final

Liverpool outclass Arsenal in 3-0 win, revive top 4 hopes

LONDON: Liverpool out-classed Arsenal from start to finish in a 3-0 win in the Pre-mier League with a brace for substitute Diogo Jota and a nut-meg from Mohamed Salah to revive the team's hopes for a top four spot.

Jota broke the deadlock in the 64th minute after meeting a trademark cross from right back Trent Alexander-Arnold to head past Arsenal goalkeeper Bernd Leno. Four minutes later, Salah cleverly played the ball through Leno's legs as he squatted down to try to block the shot.

Jota got his second and the team's third in the 82nd with a fine close-range finish. The Por-tuguese was only on the field for three minutes before scor-ing his first.

"It doesn't matter if you start or come off the bench. You need to be ready to make an impact," Jota said.

It was a morale-boosting win for Liverpool and a third suc-cessive clean sheet in all com-petitions, lifting last season's champion up to fifth place with 49 points.

That's just two points behind Chelsea, which is letting its grip on fourth place slip after the London team lost 5-2 to West Bromwich Albion in the early kickoff.

Jota said Liverpool is aiming to win its remaining matches to achieve a place in the Champi-ons League.

"I think if we do our job I think we have our chances to be there, he said. "Today we did our job."

Liverpool manager Jurgen

Klopp stressed it's not entirely in his players' hands, saying other teams currently in the top four also need to drop points.

"We have to win our games," Klopp said.

"But other teams need to lose. We have to fight and we will fight."

Arsenal seems destined for midtable mediocrity as the team remained in ninth place with 42 points.

Liverpool was unlucky to go into halftime with the score still at 0-0 after the visitors produced an attacking spectacle that left Arsenal struggling and chasing the game.

"We didn't use our chances in the first half," Klopp said before praising his team for a stellar performance includ-ing defending throughout the match. "For us, it was a very important statement. If we defend like this, we are diffi-cult to break down."

The Reds came forward in waves as Arsenal sat back, with Liverpool frequently creating clear-cut chances.

The biggest opportunity

came deep in the first half. A cross from Alexander-Arnold found stand-in captain James Milner completely unmarked just inside the area. But Milner's shot flashed just wide of the post in the 35th minute.

Roberto Firmino also struck two long-range shots in the first half that went very close.

Arsenal left back Kieran Tierney came off just before halftime with what appeared to be a knee problem after a chal-lenge with Milner. The Scot was able to walk off unaided.

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta yelled out in Spanish "paciencia, paciencia," mean-ing "patience, patience," early on in the second half. But there really wasn't any chance for his players to show composure or remain calm as the Gunners were pinned back by a press-ing Liverpool side.

Arteta said he was shocked by his team's performance, say-ing it was unacceptable.

"Liverpool completely deserved to win the game, probably by a bigger margin," Arteta said. AGENCIES

Sociedad win 2020 Copa del Rey; 2021 final in 2 weeksSEVILLE: After being forced by the pandemic to wait a year to play its most highly antici-pated match in a generation, Real Sociedad can now celebrate being Copa del Rey champions.

Even if the next final is in only two weeks’ time.

Sociedad ended a three-decade title drought on Satur-day when it beat fierce Basque rival Athletic Bilbao 1-0 in the delayed 2020 cup final held in Seville. Bilbao will have another shot in just two weeks when it plays Barcelona in the 2021 edi-tion of the Copa del Rey final.

Mikel Oyarzabal scored the only goal of an intense, scrappy contest dominated by defense. The Spain striker drilled his penalty kick into the right cor-ner in the 63rd minute after Iñigo Martínez fouled Portu Portugués in the box following a precise pass by Mikel Merino.

The match had been post-

poned since the end of last season in the hope that the Coronavirus pandemic would improve enough to allow fans to attend the highly anticipated clash between the two regional rivals.

But with Coronavirus still forcing strict limits on social gatherings in Spain, officials said it was impossible for spectators to be allowed in at Seville’s La Cartuja Stadium.

The impact of the virus, which has claimed more than 75,000 lives in Spain, was evi-dent even in the celebrations.

“There are many people who we would have liked to share this with, family and friends who have left us in the worst way possible,” Oyarzabal said with tears in his eyes.

Sociedad, which is based in San Sebastián, had only won the Copa del Rey twice previously in its history, in 1909 and in 1987,

its last major trophy.Sociedad coach Imanol

Alguacil dedicated his biggest night to those fighting the pan-demic. “Thanks to the health workers, to those who are saving

lives,” Alguacil said. “I thought of them after our win. I dedicate this cup to them.”

Bilbao, whose 23 cup titles are second to Barcelona’s record of 30, has now lost the cup final

four times since it last won the competition in 1984.

“This is a tough blow,” Bilbao defender Óscar de Marcos said. “It’s true we have another final in 15 days, but losing a final always hurts. We missed our fans, who are with us through the good times and the bad.”

Before the match, a few thousand Bilbao fans violated public health restrictions in place for the Coronavirus when they rallied in rowdy, tightly packed groups in Bilbao city center. At least one trash con-tainer was in flames near a crowd of mostly young peo-ple, many wearing Bilbao’s red-and-white shirts.

Bilbao’s police made pleas on social media for the crowds to go home. The city’s mayor also criticized the gatherings.

“Some lunatics are provok-ing incidents before the final. And what about the families

that are suffering from COVID and cannot enjoy this historic day? You do not represent the values of Athletic or our city,” mayor Juan Mari Aburto wrote on Twitter.

Except for the move that led to Oyarzabal’s goal, it was a match that was dictated by the two defenses. Sociedad center-back Robin Le Normand shut down Bilbao’s striker Iñaki Wil-liams, while Bilbao’s Martínez had Bilbao’s best scoring chance when his long strike forced goal-keeper Alejandro Remiro to palm the ball over the bar just past the half-hour mark.

Merino helped tilt the match in Sociedad’s favor with a per-fectly weighted pass.

Merino’s long ball to meet Portu’s run into the area left Martínez with the choice of either letting the forward free to size up goalkeeper Unai Simón, or bring him down. AGENCIES

Sociedad ended a three-decade title drought on Saturday when it beat fierce Basque rival Athletic Bilbao 1-0

‘French Open

could be postponed’

PARIS: The French Open could be postponed as a result of the surge in new Corona-virus cases, according to the country's sports minister.

"We are in discussion with (the French Tennis Federation) to see if we should change the date to coincide with a possible resumption of all sports and major events," minister Roxana Maracineanu said on France Info radio station.

France begun a third nationwide lockdown on Satur-day which president Emman-uel Macron said he expected to end in mid-May - with Roland Garros set to start on the 23rd May till the 6th June. The tour-nament was postponed by four months in 2020 as a result of the pandemic. AGENCIES

Bhaker to represent India in 3 events in Olympics

ELAVENIL INCLUDED AS CHINKI MISSES OUT

NEW DELHI: World number one Elavenil Valarivan was on Sunday included in a 15-mem-ber Indian shooting contingent for the Tokyo Olympics where the highly accomplished Manu Bhaker will represent the coun-try in three events.

However, Olympic quota winner Chinki Yadav could not make the main team despite winning a gold medal in the Delhi World Cup last month.

It was decided by the national selection committee that the quota won by Chinki in the women's 25m pistol would be swapped in favour of Anjum Moudgil, to enable her to com-pete in the women's 50m rifle 3 positions event as India's second entry alongside former world champion Tejaswini Sawant.

Reigning world number

one in women's 10m air rifle, Elavenil, is the only member in the Olympic team to have not secured a quota for herself but performed consistently in the Olympic qualifying cycle, forc-ing the National Rifle Associa-tion of India (NRAI) to include her in the women's 10m air rifle team in place of Moudgil.

To deal with the uncer-tainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the NRAI named

two reserves in each discipline where its shooters have won quota places.

In the individual events, Bhaker will be fielded in both the women's 25m pistol along-side the experienced Rahi Sar-nobat and in her pet 10m air pistol event with Yashaswini Singh Deswal.

Besides, the 19-year-old Bhaker will partner with Sau-rabh Chaudhary in the 10m air pistol mixed event. The shooters were selected based on their per-formance in the NRAI's Olym-pic qualifying cycle, starting with the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games which was followed by World Championship (both in 2018), all four World Cups and Asian Championships in 2019 and selection trials stage 1 and 2 earlier this year. AGENCIES

Real Madrid beat Eibar 2-0 before

Liverpool CL clashBARCELONA: Marco Asen-sio and Karim Benzema scored in a 2-0 win over Eibar as Real Madrid tightened the Spanish league title race before its meet-ing with Liverpool in the Cham-pions League.

Asensio had already hit the woodwork before he opened the scoring in the 41st minute. Benzema added a second goal with a header in the 73rd.

Madrid moved to within three points of leader Atl tico Madrid, which faces a tough test at fourth-place Sevilla on Sunday. Barcelona is four points back before it plays Valladolid on Monday.

Madrid hosts Liverpool on Tuesday in the first leg of the quarterfinals of the Champions League. Four days later it will play Barcelona in a key match in the Spanish league, followed by its second leg at Liverpool on April 14.

"We are facing an important week, and the first important thing was to win today," said Asensio, after scoring a third goal in as many games.

"Now we have the first leg against Liverpool and then Barcelona. They will be very demanding matches and we have to be up to the challenge."

With Sergio Ramos out with a left-leg injury, Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane rested his other first-choice centerback, Raphael Varane, for the matches ahead.

Backups Nacho Fern ndez and der Milit o started in a three-man backline along with Ferland Mendy. Toni Kroos was also rested, giving Isco Alarc n a spot in the starting 11.

Madrid dominated the game throughout. Eibar needed goal-keeper Marko Dmitrovic to save a one-on-one chance for Ben-zema three minutes into the match after defender Alejan-dro Pozo made a horrible pass that was poached by the Madrid striker in the box.

Asensio bent a free kick off the crossbar before he took the opener. Casemiro intercepted a pass and immediately sent the ball forward for Asensio, who used superb control to go past defender Anaitz Arbilla before curling a shot over Dmitrovic.

Eibar had been limited to two long-range efforts from midfielder Pape Diop in the first half.

Its attack was further dimin-ished when forward Bryan Gil, who debuted for Spain last week, had to be substituted at halftime for an apparent leg injury.

But the visitors were almost gifted an equalizer with half an hour to play after heavy rain and strong winds. A tame-looking pass from Lucas Vazquez back to Thibaut Courtois slipped past him and the Madrid goal-keeper had to slide to kick the ball clear before it crossed his goal-line. AGENCIES

Australian women’s cricket team break ODI record for consecutive winsMOUNT MAUNGANUI: The Australian women's cricket team won its 22nd consecu-tive match and surpassed Ricky Ponting's 2003 side to set a new one-day international record in a six-wicket vic-tory against New Zealand on Sunday.

The tourists were rarely

troubled at Mount Maunganui with player of the match Megan Schutt taking 4 wick-ets to restrict New Zealand to 212 all out after Australia cap-tain Meg Lanning won the toss and elected to bowl first in the opening game of a three-match series.

Alyssa Healy (65), Ellyse

Perry (56 not out) and Ashleigh Gardner (53 not out) then struck impressive half centu-ries to make easy work of the chase with 69 balls to spare and lift the current world champi-ons past Ponting's star-studded 2003 team with a 22nd straight victory.

"It's a great achievement

from this group over a long period of time," Lanning said after the match.

"Those wins have come over three years, which I think just shows how consistent we've been at this format."

The Southern Stars have not lost an ODI since October 2017. AGENCIES

Ashleigh Barty, of Australia waves during the Miami Open tennis tournament, in Miami Gardens, Florida PTI

Real Sociedad's Mikel Oyarzabal, who scored the only goal, holds the cup as he celebrates with teammates after winning the final of the 2020 Copa del Rey, or King's Cup, soccer match between Athletic Bilbao and Real Sociedad at Estadio de La Cartuja in Sevilla, Spain PTI

35 rowers, including Olympics hopefuls, get 2nd dose of Covid vax

NEW DELHI: As many as 35 Indian rowers, including those preparing for Tokyo Olympics qualification, have been given their second dose of COVID-19 vaccine, making them the first sports group in the country to get fully vaccinated.

Apart from the 35 rowers, some coaches and other sup-port staff have also been given their second dose of COVID-19 vaccine on Saturday at the Army Sports Institute in Pune.

"A total of 35 rowers and some coaches and support staff at ASI Pune received their sec-ond dose on Saturday," Rowing Federation of India President Rajlaxmi Singh Deo told PTI on Sunday.

The 35 include those who have been selected to com-pete in the World Rowing Asia Oceania Continental Qualifica-

tion Regatta event to be held in Tokyo from May 5-7.

Deo said she was hopeful that Indian rowers will make the cut for the Tokyo Olympics to be held from July 23 to August 8.

"We are hoping for two boats to qualify for the Olympics, we are hoping to get the qualifica-tions from this Tokyo event," she added.

In the 2016 Rio Olympics, only Dattu Baban Bhokanal, who won gold in the 2018 Asian Games, qualified in men's sin-gle sculls and he finished 13th.

Olympic-bound Indian archers, who are based at the ASI Pune, have also got their first dose of COVID-19 vac-cine and will get their second jab next week before leaving for the upcoming World Cup Stage I in Guatemala City, start-ing April 19. AGENCIES

‘BLACK WIDOW’ TRAILER

12 millenniumpostEntertainmentmpMONDAY, 5 APRIL, 2021 | KOLKATA

Bollywood actor Hrithik Roshan has been facing the

camera for 21 years now. However, the ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’ star recently shared a confession that he had difficulties laughing onscreen.

The actor took to his ‘Ins-tagram’ handle and shared a

picture laughing for the camera while sharing

his thoughts in the

caption.In the picture, Hrithik

was seen wearing a crisp blue suit paired with a white

T-shirt. He shared the picture and wrote, “It used to be so difficult for me to laugh on screen. I was so tensed up all the time. But learning to let go has been one of the joys of my life.”

Hrithik’s ‘Super 30’ co-star Mrunal Thakur took to the comments section and dropped an angelic-looking emoji while celebrity hair-stylist Aalim Khan dropped a heart and fire emoji. AGENCIES

The host of the singing reality show Indian Idol 12, Aditya Narayan and

his wife Shweta Agarwal, have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, The Covid cases in Mumbai are increasing rap-idly and the newlywed duo is the latest victim. Taking to his Instagram, Aditya shared a pic-ture with his wife and informed his fans that he has tested posi-tive. He asked his fans to stay safe and follow the safety pre-cautions. Shweta also reposted the message on her Instagram.

Aditya Narayan wrote, “Hello all! Unfortunately, my wife @shwetaagarwaljha & I have tested positive for Covid-19 & are in quarantine. Please stay safe, continue to follow protocol & do keep us in your prayers. This too shall pass.” Indian Idol 12 judge Neha Kak-kar took to comments to wish them a speedy recovery. She wrote, “Get well soon!!”

Many new cases are com-ing up from the TV indus-try lately. On Friday, actresses Rupali Ganguli and Kanchi Singh also informed that they are Covid positive.

Bandish Bandits actor Rit-wik Bhowmik was next in the

line to share the news ofhim testing positive on Sunday morning. The actor took to his Instagram account to

announce that he has isolated himself. “I have tested Covid positive this morning. I have isolated myself. And am under home quarantine. Hoping to be up and about soon,” the actor wrote. AGENCIES

NEW YORK: DMX’s longtime New York-based lawyer, Murray Rich-man, shared the news that the rapper was on life support since the eve-ning of April 3 at the ‘White Plains Hospital’.

“He had a heart attack. He is quite ill,” Richman said.

Richman added that he could not confirm reports that DMX, 50, over-dosed on drugs and was not sure what caused the heart attack.

“I’m very sad about it, extremely sad. He is like my son. He is just a tre-

mendous person, tremendous enter-tainer and tremendous human being. He has so much to offer and so much to say. Not the run-of-the-mill rap-per, he is a person of great depth,” the lawyer shared.

DMX, whose real name is Earl Simmons, made a splash in rap music in 1998 with his first studio album ‘It is Dark and Hell is Hot’, which

debuted number one on the ‘Billboard 200’ chart. The multiplatinum-selling album was anchored by several hits including ‘Ruff Ryders’ Anthem’, ‘Get at Me Dog’ and ‘Stop Being Greedy’.

The rapper had four other chart-topping albums including ‘...And Then There Was X’, ‘Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood’, ‘The Great Depression’ and ‘Grand Champ’. He also released seven albums and earned three Grammy nominations.

Along with his music career, DMX paved his way as an actor. He starred in the 1998 film ‘Belly’ and appeared in ‘Romeo Must Die’ a couple of years later with Jet Li and the late singer Aaliyah. DMX and Aaliyah teamed up for the film’s soundtrack song ‘Come Back in One Piece’.

Over the years, DMX has battled with sub-stance abuse. The rapper canceled a series of shows to check him-self into a rehabili-tation facility in 2019. PTI

‘Marvel Studios’ dropped another trailer of its upcoming much-awaited

film ‘Black Widow’. The new trailer takes the viewers deeper into the life and journey of Natasha Romanoff before she became an ‘Avenger’. The superhero film has Scarlett Johansson reprising the fan favourite charac-ter. It is headed to theatres this com-ing July.

In the trailer, fans can see Natasha aka Black Widow giving a glimpse

into her struggle to face her past and deal with some unfinished business. So far, the audience gets to know Natasha will be reuniting with her former family, including Yelena Belova, Melina Vostokoff and Alexei Shostakov/The Red Guardian in the movie. The new trailer further builds upon their mission to take down the ‘Red Room’, where she got the train-ing to become an assassin and the

place that has haunted her for a long time.

‘Black Widow’ is set between the

events of ‘Captain America: Civil War’ and ‘Avengers: Infinity War’, the time when Natasha was on the run. In the midst, fans will see her returning to her Russian roots.

According to the film’s official synopsis, “Pursued by a force that will stop at nothing to bring her down, Natasha must deal with her history as a spy and the broken relationships left in her wake long before she became an ‘Avenger’.”

‘Black Widow’ is the first film in ‘Phase Four’ of the ‘Marvel Cine-matic Universe’ (MCU). Directed by Cate Shortland and produced by Kevin Feige, it also stars Florence Pugh, David Harbour and Rachel Weisz. AGENCIES

MUMBAI: Actor Shraddha Kapoor has come on board to star in the upcoming roman-tic-comedy ‘Chaalbaaz In Lon-don’, to be directed by Pankaj Parashar, who helmed the 1989 Sridevi classic ‘Chaalbaaz’.

The film is a joint produc-tion between Bhushan Kumar, Krishan Kumar’s T- Series and director Ahmed Khan and Shaira Khan’s Paper Doll Entertainment.

Kapoor said she is thrilled to take on the challenge of essaying a double role-- her career first.

“Although there’s a huge responsibility on me, I’m happy

that Bhushan sir and Ahmed sir feel that I will be able to pull it off.

“Also, it’s a great opportu-nity and a learning experience for me to work with Pan-kaj sir who has entertained

us for so many years. Look-ing forward to this journey,” the 34-year-old actor said in a statement.

Parashar, who also helmed the popular 1985 TV series ‘Karamchand’, said he is confi-

dent that Kapoor will be able

to do a great job with double role in the comedy.

“For me, there is nobody better than her for a film like ‘Chaalbaaz In London’. I also want to thank Mr Bhushan Kumar and Mr Ahmed Khan for trusting in my vision and idea. I can’t wait to begin work on this project,” he added.

It is unclear if ‘Chaalbaaz In London’ is a remake of the 1989 movie that featured Sridevi in a double role.

Bhushan Kumar said he was willing to make the film since he heard its quirky storyline for the first time.

The producer called ‘Chaal-baaz In London’ a commercial and modern story catering to the pan-India audience.

“We are happy to have Shraddha again on board. She has been a thorough profes-sional - very dedicated and easy to work with and hence was always our first choice. Also, Shraddha fits the part really well. It will be interesting to see two different Shraddhas in one film,” he said.

Ahmed Khan, who last worked with Kapoor in the 2020 action movie ‘Baaghi 3’, called ‘Chaalbaaz In London’ his dream project. PTI

Shraddha to play double role in ‘Chaalbaaz In London’It is unclear if the film is a remake of the 1989 hit that featured Sridevi

Kapoor said she is thrilled to take on the challenge of essaying a double role - her career’s first. The film is a joint production between Bhushan Kumar, Krishan Kumar’s T- Series and director Ahmed Khan and Shaira Khan’s Paper Doll Entertainment

‘It used to be so difficult for me to laugh on screen’

He shared a picture laughing for the camera while sharing his thoughts in the caption

Aditya Narayan, wife Shweta test positive for COVID-19

Actor Ritwik Bhowmik also shared the news of testing positive for coronavirus

Taking to his Instagram, singer & host Aditya shared a picture with his wife and informed his fans that he has tested positive. He asked everyone to stay safe and follow the safety precautions

His lawyer revealed that he could not confirm reports that DMX, 50, overdosed on drugs and was not sure what caused the heart attack

‘Black Widow’ is set between the events of ‘Captain America: Civil War’ and ‘Avengers: Infinity War’, the time when Natasha was on the run

Veteran Bollywood actor Sha-shikala breathed her last on April 4 at the age of 88. An offi-

cial statement from her family is still awaited.

Shashikala has featured in over 100 films while essaying several pivotal parts. She earned a lot of accolades for her performance of a negative role in ‘Aarti’ (1962), co-starring Meena Kumari, Ashok Kumar and Pradeep Kumar. She is also remembered for her performance in hits like ‘Khubsoorat’, ‘Anupama’ and ‘Ayi Milan Ke Bela’ to name a few.

Shashikala had worked with Shah Rukh Khan also in a few films. She played the role of his mother in ‘Bad-shah’, while she was also seen in a spe-cial appearance in ‘Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham...!’.

The veteran actor had also essayed the role of Salman Khan’s grand-mother in ‘Mujhse Shaadi Karogi’, which also featured Akshay Kumar and Priyanka Chopra in pivotal roles.

Remembering the veteran actor, ‘Hostage’ star Ronit Roy shared on his

‘Twitter’ handle, “Shashikala ji... RIP!”In 2007, Shashikala was honoured

with the prestigious Padma Shri award for her contribution to cinema. She was a disciple of Mother Teresa and led an elusive life.

The funeral of the ace Bollywood actor will be held in a church in Colaba. AGENCIES

Veteran actor Shashikala breathes her last at 88

Scarlett deals with unfinished business from her past

Natasha will be seen reuniting with her familyHe was on life support since April 3 at the ‘White Plains Hospital’

Rapper DMX suffers heart attack