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W ith the objective of giving a proper “interpretation” of a Supreme Court ruling, the Centre on Monday introduced a Bill in the Lok Sabha that seeks to define certain role and powers of the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi. Union Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy introduced the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2021. According to proposed amendments, Section 21 of the Act — dealing with restric- tions on laws passed by leg- islative Assembly with respect to certain matters — is sought to be revised to clarify that the expression “Government” referred to in any law to be made by the Legislative Assembly shall mean the “Lieutenant Governor”. A sub-section shall be inserted to this effect in Section 21. In section 24 of the princi- pal Act — which requires a Bill passed by the Delhi Legislative Assembly to be presented to the L-G who may assent, withhold or reserve it for consideration of the President — an addi- tional clause will be inserted to cover any of the matters that fall outside the purview of the powers conferred on the Legislative Assembly. In Section 33 of the prin- cipal Act, in sub-section (1) after the words “conduct of its business”, the words “which shall not be inconsistent with the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in House of People” shall be inserted. Also, in the proviso, for the words “Provided that”, the fol- lowing shall be substituted, “Provided that the Legislative Assembly shall not make any rule to enable itself or its Committees to consider the matters of day-to-day admin- istration of the Capital or con- duct enquiries in relation to the administrative decisions, and any of the rule made in con- travention of this proviso, before the commencement of the Government of NCT of Delhi (Amendment) Act, 2021, shall be void”. “The section 44 of the act deals with conduct of business and there is no structural mechanism provided in the act for effective time bound imple- mentation of said section. Further, there is no clarity as to what proposal or matters are required to be submitted to the LG before issuing order there- on,” it said. In section 44 of the prin- cipal Act dealing with powers to makes rules for conduct of business, in sub-section (2) — which states that as otherwise provided in this Act, all exec- utive action of the Lieutenant Governor whether taken on the advice of his Ministers or oth- erwise shall be expressed to be taken in the name of the Lieutenant Governor — the fol- lowing proviso shall be insert- ed, namely “Provided that before taking any executive action in pursuance of the decision of the Council of Ministers or a Minister, to exercise powers of Government, State Government, Appropriate Government, Lieutenant Governor, Administrator or Chief Commissioner, as the case may be, under any law in force in the Capital, the opin- ion of Lieutenant Governor in term of proviso to clause (4) of article 239AA of the Constitution shall be obtained on all such matters as may be specified, by a general or spe- cial order, by Lieutenant Governor”. According to the state- ment of objects and reasons of the bill, the original bill was enacted to supplement the pro- visions of the Constitution relating to the legislative assembly and a Council of Ministers for Delhi and for matters connected therewith. It said that to give effect to the interpretation made by the Supreme Court which had ruled that the city government need not obtain the Lieutenant Governor’s “concurrence” of every issue of day-to-day gov- ernance, the bill has been brought. The Government said it wanted to clarify the expression “Government”, which in the context of legislations to be passed by the Delhi Assembly, shall mean the LG of Delhi, consistent with the status of Delhi as a Union Territory to address the ambiguities in the interpretation of the legislative provisions. It further seeks to ensure that the LG is necessarily grant- ed an opportunity to exercise the power entrusted to him under proviso to clause (4) of article 239AA of the Constitution, in select catego- ry of cases and also to make rules in matters which inci- dentally encroach upon matters falling outside the preview of the Assembly. “The said bill will pro- mote harmonious relations between the legislature and the executive, and further define the responsibilities of the elected government and the LG, in line with the constitu- tional scheme of governance of National Capital Territory of Delhi, as interpreted by the Supreme Court,” the statement of objects said. A Delhi court on Monday awarded death sentence to Ariz Khan, convicted for the murder of Delhi Police Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma and other offences in connection with the 2008 Batla House encounter. Additional Sessions Judge Sandeep Yadav said Ariz be hanged by neck till death. Inspector Sharma of the police’s Special Cell was killed during the Batla House encounter between the police and terrorists in Jamia Nagar in South Delhi following serial bomb blasts in the national Capital in which 39 people died and 159 were injured. The court also imposed a total fine of 11 lakh on Ariz in the case. It said 10 lakh should be immediately released to the family of Sharma. “I feel the fine of 10 lakh is insufficient. Hence, I am referring the matter to Delhi Legal Services Authority for award of additional compen- sation,” the judge further said. Additional Public Prosecutor AT Ansari, appear- ing for the police, sought death penalty for Ariz, allegedly asso- ciated with the terror outfit Indian Mujahideen, saying it was not just any killing but a murder of a law enforcement officer who was a defender of justice. Ansari said the case attracts exemplary punishment, which is capital punishment. He further said a police officer was killed while dis- charging his public duty. “Ariz along with others was carrying deadly weapons which clearly suggests that they were ready to kill anybody in any eventuality. They were the first to start fire without any provocation,” the public pros- ecutor said. R egistering an upward trend in Covid-19 cases for the fifth day in a row, India record- ed 26,291 new infections on Monday in the last 24 hours, its highest single-day spike in 85 days, taking the total tally to 1,13,85,339. Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan blamed the rise in cases to peo- ple’s disregard for social dis- tancing and other guidelines. Vardhan also said that Covid-19 cases are on the rise in a few States only. “Around 85% of cases are in five to six States. The main reason behind the increase in cases is people not taking Covid appropriate behaviour,” the Minister said. Five States — Maharashtra, which alone accounts for more than 58 per cent of the total active cases in the country, Punjab, Karnataka, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu — continue to report a surge in Covid-19 cases, accounting for 78.41 per cent of the new infections, the Union Health Ministry said in a statement here. The death toll due to the disease increased to 1,58,725 with 118 more fatalities being recorded in a day, the Ministry added. The total active caseload has gone up to 2,19,262 which is 1.93 per cent of the total infections in the country, while the recovery rate has dropped to 96.68 per cent, the data said. P rime electoral issues tend- ed to give way to the ankle politics as rival Trinamool Congress and the BJP contin- ued to cross swords on the plas- tered heel of Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Mamata on Monday start- ed the second leg of her elec- tion campaign in wheelchair even as Home Minister Amit Shah tore apart her “conspira- cy” theory saying only God knows what happened to her at Nandigram in the evening of March 10 when she hurt her leg during election campaign. “I was fortunate to survive on March 10 … otherwise people (read BJP) had thought that they would be able to keep me indoors with a broken leg,” Mamata told a rally at Balrampur in Bankura district circuitously rebuilding the “conspiracy” theory that she alleged after hurting her ankle during a campaign at Nadigram last week — but curiously skipped its mention in her subsequent bites. “I have plaster in my leg. I have pain all over my body and I cannot walk... They thought that I will remain indoors after this… But then I thought that the pain of the people is greater than my pain and so I am here,” she said. W ith Indian and Chinese troops still in a stand-off mode at some friction points at the Line of Actual Control, the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) worked overtime despite inclement weather to open the strategically impor- tant road linking Lahaul in Himachal Pradesh to Ladakh ahead of schedule. The road will ensure steady logistical support to the troops. The BRO team braved dif- ficult terrain, avalanches, sub- zero temperatures, lack of oxy- gen and shelter to open the crucial pass Baralachala. The BRO on Monday praised the team for the “sheer grit and dogged determination” it showed in the line of duty without concern for personal safety. T he traffic movement on the carriageway of Delhi- Meerut Expressway leading to Ghaziabad from Delhi, which was closed since January 26, was reopened for commuters on Monday, police said. “The carriageway going towards Ghaziabad from Delhi has been opened in due con- sultation with police officials,” a senior official said. The side of the road from Ghaziabad towards Delhi, how- ever, remains closed, they said. The stretch has been closed when violence broke out in during a tractor rally. The car- riageway was briefly opened on March 2. The Tikri and the Singhu borders continue to be closed due to farmers’ agitation. D elhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday accused the BJP of seeking to drastically curtail the powers of his elected Government through a new Bill in the Lok Sabha. He also said the Bill is “con- trary to Constitution Bench judgment”. In a tweet, the AAP nation- al convener said he strongly condemns “BJP’s unconstitu- tional and anti-democracy” move. “After being rejected by ppl of Delhi (8 seats in Assembly, 0 in MCD bypolls), the BJP seeks to drastically cur- tail powers of elected Government through a Bill in LS today. Bill is contrary to Constitution Bench judgement. We strongly condemn BJP’s unconstitutional n anti-democ- racy move,” Kejriwal tweeted. “The Bill says- 1. For Delhi, “Govt” will mean LG Then what will elected govt do? … 2. All files will go to LG This is against 4.7.18 Constitution Bench judgment which said that files will not be sent to LG, elected govt will take all deci- sions and send copy of decision to LG,” he said in another tweet. Later addressing a press conference, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said, “It is a very dangerous amend- ment democratically and con- stitutionally. It will render the elections and elected govern- ment in Delhi meaningless.” Kolkata: A complaint regard- ing suppression of facts lodged by BJP’s Nandigram candidate Suvendu Adhikari against Mamata Banerjee is threaten- ing to boomerang on him. Adhikari had lodged a com- plaint with the EC saying Mamata had suppressed facts — while filing her nomination — that she had six cases pend- ing against her name. T he disciplinary committee of MPCC here on Monday expelled senior party leader and AICC member Manak Agrawal for six years over his remarks on party leadership after Hindu Mahasabha leader was recently extended party membership. Agrawal, an old time loy- alist of Rajya Sabha MP Digvijay Singh, defied the action saying that the State unit can not expel an AICC mem- ber. As several leaders had opposed the inclusion of Babulal Chaurasiya into the party, Agrawal had openly slammed his own party. He had asked the MPCC chief Kamal Nath to clarify whether he was with the ideology of Nathuram Godse or that of Mahatma Gandhi. Agrawal had taken on Nath on other instances as well. When Congress ex-presi- dent Rahul Gandhi had slammed Nath’s ‘item’ remark on then minister Imarti Devi, Agrawal had advised Nath to immediately apologise to the woman politician. Agrawal after being expelled refused to accept the decision on technical grounds and claimed he was very much in the Congress party. Claiming that disciplinary committee did not speak to him and also the AICC did not act against him, Agrawal said that party state unit has no right to expel him as he was a member of AICC. He also said Kamal Nath was conniving against him. Continued on Page 3 RNI Regn. No. MPENG/2004/13703, Regd. No. L-2/BPLON/41/2006-2008
12

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Page 1: 5V]YZ 8`ge ^VR_d µ=8¶ dRjd 3Z]] - Daily Pioneer

����� ���������

With the objective of givinga proper “interpretation”

of a Supreme Court ruling, theCentre on Monday introduceda Bill in the Lok Sabha thatseeks to define certain role andpowers of the LieutenantGovernor of Delhi. UnionMinister of State for Home GKishan Reddy introduced theGovernment of NationalCapital Territory of Delhi(Amendment) Bill, 2021.

According to proposedamendments, Section 21 ofthe Act — dealing with restric-tions on laws passed by leg-islative Assembly with respectto certain matters — is soughtto be revised to clarify that theexpression “Government”referred to in any law to bemade by the LegislativeAssembly shall mean the“Lieutenant Governor”.

A sub-section shall beinserted to this effect in Section21. In section 24 of the princi-pal Act — which requires a Billpassed by the Delhi LegislativeAssembly to be presented to theL-G who may assent, withholdor reserve it for considerationof the President — an addi-tional clause will be inserted tocover any of the matters thatfall outside the purview of thepowers conferred on theLegislative Assembly.

In Section 33 of the prin-cipal Act, in sub-section (1)after the words “conduct of its

business”, the words “whichshall not be inconsistent withthe Rules of Procedure andConduct of Business in Houseof People” shall be inserted.

Also, in the proviso, for thewords “Provided that”, the fol-lowing shall be substituted,“Provided that the LegislativeAssembly shall not make anyrule to enable itself or itsCommittees to consider thematters of day-to-day admin-istration of the Capital or con-duct enquiries in relation to theadministrative decisions, andany of the rule made in con-travention of this proviso,before the commencement ofthe Government of NCT ofDelhi (Amendment) Act, 2021,shall be void”.

“The section 44 of the actdeals with conduct of businessand there is no structural

mechanism provided in the actfor effective time bound imple-mentation of said section.Further, there is no clarity as towhat proposal or matters arerequired to be submitted to theLG before issuing order there-on,” it said.

In section 44 of the prin-cipal Act dealing with powersto makes rules for conduct ofbusiness, in sub-section (2) —which states that as otherwiseprovided in this Act, all exec-utive action of the LieutenantGovernor whether taken on theadvice of his Ministers or oth-erwise shall be expressed to betaken in the name of theLieutenant Governor — the fol-lowing proviso shall be insert-ed, namely “Provided thatbefore taking any executiveaction in pursuance of thedecision of the Council of

Ministers or a Minister, toexercise powers ofGovernment, StateGovernment, AppropriateGovernment, LieutenantGovernor, Administrator orChief Commissioner, as thecase may be, under any law inforce in the Capital, the opin-ion of Lieutenant Governor interm of proviso to clause (4) ofarticle 239AA of theConstitution shall be obtainedon all such matters as may bespecified, by a general or spe-cial order, by LieutenantGovernor”.

According to the state-ment of objects and reasons ofthe bill, the original bill wasenacted to supplement the pro-visions of the Constitutionrelating to the legislativeassembly and a Council ofMinisters for Delhi and formatters connected therewith.

It said that to give effect tothe interpretation made by theSupreme Court which hadruled that the city governmentneed not obtain the LieutenantGovernor’s “concurrence” ofevery issue of day-to-day gov-ernance, the bill has beenbrought.

The Government said itwanted to clarify the expression“Government”, which in thecontext of legislations to bepassed by the Delhi Assembly,shall mean the LG of Delhi,consistent with the status ofDelhi as a Union Territory toaddress the ambiguities in the

interpretation of the legislativeprovisions.

It further seeks to ensurethat the LG is necessarily grant-ed an opportunity to exercisethe power entrusted to himunder proviso to clause (4) ofarticle 239AA of theConstitution, in select catego-ry of cases and also to makerules in matters which inci-dentally encroach upon mattersfalling outside the preview of

the Assembly.“The said bill will pro-

mote harmonious relationsbetween the legislature andthe executive, and furtherdefine the responsibilities of theelected government and theLG, in line with the constitu-tional scheme of governance ofNational Capital Territory ofDelhi, as interpreted by theSupreme Court,” the statementof objects said.

�������������������

ADelhi court on Mondayawarded death sentence to

Ariz Khan, convicted for themurder of Delhi PoliceInspector Mohan ChandSharma and other offences inconnection with the 2008 BatlaHouse encounter.

Additional Sessions JudgeSandeep Yadav said Ariz behanged by neck till death.

Inspector Sharma of thepolice’s Special Cell was killedduring the Batla Houseencounter between the policeand terrorists in Jamia Nagar inSouth Delhi following serialbomb blasts in the nationalCapital in which 39 people diedand 159 were injured.

The court also imposed atotal fine of �11 lakh on Arizin the case. It said �10 lakhshould be immediately releasedto the family of Sharma.

“I feel the fine of �10 lakhis insufficient. Hence, I amreferring the matter to DelhiLegal Services Authority foraward of additional compen-sation,” the judge further said.

Additional PublicProsecutor AT Ansari, appear-ing for the police, sought deathpenalty for Ariz, allegedly asso-ciated with the terror outfitIndian Mujahideen, saying it

was not just any killing but amurder of a law enforcementofficer who was a defender ofjustice.

Ansari said the case attractsexemplary punishment, whichis capital punishment.

He further said a policeofficer was killed while dis-charging his public duty.

“Ariz along with otherswas carrying deadly weaponswhich clearly suggests thatthey were ready to kill anybodyin any eventuality. They werethe first to start fire without anyprovocation,” the public pros-ecutor said.

����� ��������

Registering an upward trendin Covid-19 cases for the

fifth day in a row, India record-ed 26,291 new infections onMonday in the last 24 hours, itshighest single-day spike in 85days, taking the total tally to1,13,85,339. Union HealthMinister Dr Harsh Vardhanblamed the rise in cases to peo-ple’s disregard for social dis-tancing and other guidelines.

Vardhan also said thatCovid-19 cases are on the risein a few States only. “Around85% of cases are in five to sixStates. The main reason behindthe increase in cases is peoplenot taking Covid appropriatebehaviour,” the Minister said.

Five States — Maharashtra,which alone accounts for morethan 58 per cent of the total

active cases in the country,Punjab, Karnataka, Gujarat andTamil Nadu — continue toreport a surge in Covid-19cases, accounting for 78.41 percent of the new infections, theUnion Health Ministry said ina statement here.

The death toll due to thedisease increased to 1,58,725with 118 more fatalities beingrecorded in a day, the Ministryadded. The total active caseloadhas gone up to 2,19,262 whichis 1.93 per cent of the totalinfections in the country, whilethe recovery rate has droppedto 96.68 per cent, the data said.

��� ���� ��������� �

Prime electoral issues tend-ed to give way to the ankle

politics as rival TrinamoolCongress and the BJP contin-ued to cross swords on the plas-tered heel of Bengal ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee.

Mamata on Monday start-ed the second leg of her elec-tion campaign in wheelchaireven as Home Minister AmitShah tore apart her “conspira-cy” theory saying only Godknows what happened to her atNandigram in the evening ofMarch 10 when she hurt her legduring election campaign.

“I was fortunate to surviveon March 10 … otherwisepeople (read BJP) had thoughtthat they would be able to keepme indoors with a broken leg,”Mamata told a rally atBalrampur in Bankura districtcircuitously rebuilding the“conspiracy” theory that shealleged after hurting her ankleduring a campaign atNadigram last week — but

curiously skipped its mentionin her subsequent bites.

“I have plaster in my leg. Ihave pain all over my body andI cannot walk... They thoughtthat I will remain indoors afterthis… But then I thought thatthe pain of the people is greaterthan my pain and so I am here,”she said.

�������������

With Indian and Chinesetroops still in a stand-off

mode at some friction points atthe Line of Actual Control, theBorder Roads Organisation(BRO) worked overtimedespite inclement weather toopen the strategically impor-tant road linking Lahaul inHimachal Pradesh to Ladakhahead of schedule. The roadwill ensure steady logisticalsupport to the troops.

The BRO team braved dif-ficult terrain, avalanches, sub-zero temperatures, lack of oxy-gen and shelter to open thecrucial pass Baralachala.

The BRO on Mondaypraised the team for the “sheergrit and dogged determination”it showed in the line of dutywithout concern for personalsafety.

����������� ��������

The traffic movement onthe carriageway of Delhi-

Meerut Expressway leading toGhaziabad from Delhi, whichwas closed since January 26,was reopened for commuterson Monday, police said.

“The carriageway goingtowards Ghaziabad from Delhihas been opened in due con-sultation with police officials,”a senior official said.

The side of the road fromGhaziabad towards Delhi, how-ever, remains closed, they said.

The stretch has been closedwhen violence broke out induring a tractor rally. The car-riageway was briefly opened onMarch 2. The Tikri and theSinghu borders continue to beclosed due to farmers’ agitation.

����������� ���������������������������������������

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Delhi Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal on Monday

accused the BJP of seeking todrastically curtail the powers ofhis elected Governmentthrough a new Bill in the LokSabha.

He also said the Bill is “con-trary to Constitution Benchjudgment”.

In a tweet, the AAP nation-al convener said he stronglycondemns “BJP’s unconstitu-tional and anti-democracy”move. “After being rejected byppl of Delhi (8 seats inAssembly, 0 in MCD bypolls),the BJP seeks to drastically cur-tail powers of electedGovernment through a Bill inLS today. Bill is contrary to

Constitution Bench judgement.We strongly condemn BJP’sunconstitutional n anti-democ-racy move,” Kejriwal tweeted.

“The Bill says- 1. For Delhi,“Govt” will mean LG Thenwhat will elected govt do? … 2.All files will go to LG This isagainst 4.7.18 ConstitutionBench judgment which saidthat files will not be sent to LG,elected govt will take all deci-sions and send copy of decisionto LG,” he said in anothertweet.

Later addressing a pressconference, Deputy ChiefMinister Manish Sisodia said,“It is a very dangerous amend-ment democratically and con-stitutionally. It will render theelections and elected govern-ment in Delhi meaningless.”

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Kolkata: A complaint regard-ing suppression of facts lodgedby BJP’s Nandigram candidateSuvendu Adhikari againstMamata Banerjee is threaten-ing to boomerang on him. Adhikari had lodged a com-plaint with the EC sayingMamata had suppressed facts— while filing her nomination— that she had six cases pend-ing against her name.

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The disciplinary committee ofMPCC here on Monday

expelled senior party leader andAICC member Manak Agrawalfor six years over his remarks onparty leadership after HinduMahasabha leader was recentlyextended party membership.

Agrawal, an old time loy-alist of Rajya Sabha MPDigvijay Singh, defied theaction saying that the State unitcan not expel an AICC mem-ber.

As several leaders hadopposed the inclusion ofBabulal Chaurasiya into theparty, Agrawal had openlyslammed his own party. He hadasked the MPCC chief KamalNath to clarify whether he waswith the ideology of Nathuram

Godse or that of MahatmaGandhi. Agrawal had taken onNath on other instances as well.

When Congress ex-presi-dent Rahul Gandhi hadslammed Nath’s ‘item’ remark onthen minister Imarti Devi,Agrawal had advised Nath toimmediately apologise to thewoman politician. Agrawal afterbeing expelled refused to acceptthe decision on technicalgrounds and claimed he was verymuch in the Congress party.

Claiming that disciplinarycommittee did not speak tohim and also the AICC did notact against him, Agrawal saidthat party state unit has noright to expel him as he was amember of AICC. He also saidKamal Nath was connivingagainst him.

Continued on Page 3

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Under the latest and popu-lar online series of Indira

Gandhi Rashtriya ManavSangrahalaya entitled ‘Exhibitof the Week’ the Pyali, a mea-suring pot collected from 1996.The Tribes of Bastar commu-nity of Bastar, Chhattisgarh. It’sMeasurement Height-13 cm.,Dia of the base- 13.5 cm. dis-played in the audience as Thethird Exhibit of the month ofMarch, 2021 through officialwebsite, Facebook, Instagramand twitter page of the IGRMS.

In this regard PraveenKumar Mishra, Director,IGRMS said that Indira GandhiRashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya

(National Museum ofMankind), Initially this serieswill focus on the masterpiecesfrom its collection which areconsidered as unique for theircontribution to the culturalhistory of a particular ethnicgroup or area. Pyali is a mea-suring pot used by the folk andtribal communities of

Chhattisgarh. It is a brass pot having a flat

base, cylindrical body tappersto form quite a narrow openmouth. The outer body is dec-orated with horizontal bandsand zigzag designs. A ring isattached at the middle portionof the body.

Measuring pots were usedto exchange the grain productsagainst rice, oil, salt and otheressential commodities. Suchmeasuring pots are now beingreplaced by the measuringscales.

Making of Pyali involveslost wax technique of hollowcasting. In Chhattisgarh suchmetal casting is done by theGhadwa community.

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Susmita Gupta launched herdebut novel titled 'To love that

knows no bounds'. The story isaround a strong feeling forsomeone you truly love thatseems to have no boundaries.The story revolves around thelives of the protagonist Karanand Shilpa. The protagonistsShilpa and karan are dramati-cally different from each other.Shilpa is an epitome of beautywith brains.

Besides being beautiful, sheis trustworthy, empathetic,strong, and a kindhearted estab-lished lady whereas Karan is anaffluent handsome eligible bach-elor and a smart businessman.

They are different andunique in themselves. But one

question definitely arises:whether destiny will unite thesedifferent couples? This is an epictale of love and friendshipaccompanied with rumour andjealousy.

The author shares her jour-ney in crux, "My journey as anauthor has been marvelous,though sporadically due to timecrunch I fail to give 100% inwriting but yes I would definitelytake a moment to thank my

readers without whom SusmitaGupta would never have beenAuthor Susmita Gupta. I feelglad to express that post therelease of my first book last yearin August 2020 I have connect-ed with thousands of youngminds from all around the globeand it is the best experience everwhen you get to express yourthoughts."

Susmita, being an inspira-tion to many upcoming writers,is all set to release her next novelin early June 2021 based on life,which is more inspirational thanever. Her recently releasedromantic fiction short story'Was it Love or Lust?' onAmazon Kindle was the fastestselling amongst the short storiescollection in the category of con-temporary fiction.

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Soybean, with 40 percenthigh quality protein,

Omega-3 & Omega-6 enrichedoil, Iron, Calcium and otherbeneficial nutrition factors pro-vides several health benefits.That's why it is referred asGolden bean and the soy-based food products asFunctional foods. However,the utilization of soybean forsoy-food derivatives in India isvery low.

Among the several rea-sons lack of awareness andavailability of soy-based prod-ucts are prime one. Indorebased ICAR-Indian Institute ofSoybean Research, an institu-tion popular for the research &development, standardizationand popularization of package

of practices among differentstakeholders has establishedAgri-Business IncubationCentre (ABCI) in alignmentwith the scheme AtmanirbharBharat Abhiyan launched bythe honourable Prime Ministerto give stimulus to the skillingecosystem of the nation whichwill be inaugurated on Tuesday.

The prime aim of ABIC isto nurture and strengthen start-ups business ecosystem in theagriculture and allied sectorswhich include Promotion ofProcessing Technologies ofManufacturing and Marketingof Soy-based Processed Food,Biofertilizer production, andQuality Seed Production ofSoybean etc.

In order to promote, men-tor and incubate the start ups,a Sensitization Workshop on

Research-Entrepreneurs/Start-ups-Industry Interface isplanned during March 16 and17, 2021 along with the launch-ing of Agribusiness IncubationCentre of ICAR-IISR on March16, 2021 at 10 am on virtualmode using zoom app.

About 150 participantsincluding budding entrepre-neurs, technical experts fromvarious agricultural researchinstitutes involved in develop-ment and promotion of pro-duction, protection and pro-cessing technologies on soy-bean would be attending thisworkshop.

The workshop will provideplatform to get guidance fromtop ranked scientific guild fromIndian Council of AgriculturalResearch, New Delhi viz.Deputy Director General (CropScience) Dr. T R Sharma,

Assistant Director General(Oilseeds and Pulses) Dr.Sanjeev Gupta, AssistantDirector General (Seeds),Sudha Mysore, CEO,Agrinnovate India, ICAR NewDelhi and eminent experts likeDayakar Rao, Pr. Scientist &CEO, Nutrihub TBISC, ICAR-Nationla Academy ofAgricultural ResearchManagement, Hyderabad etc.

Nita khandekar, said fromDirectors desk that the ICAR-IISR is primarily focussing onthe development and promo-tion of entrepreneurship andstart-up programmes.

It is especially designedbased on years of experimen-tation and R&D work carriedout by the group of scientists ofICAR-Indian Institute ofSoybean Research.

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Athief, a judge and a murdermystery! Shankar Shesh’s

play ‘Aadhi Raat Ke Baad’ is acollage of reality and choices tomake between to be or not-to-be.The play marked the con-clusion of a three day theatrefestival here on Monday. Theplay was staged at Gandhi

Bhavan to mark the closure ofTheatre Festival organised byRang Darshan Theatre Troupe,Bhopal.

Shankar Shesh is consid-ered as another classic play-wright of the country. His playAadhi Raat Ke Baad is a capti-vating play where a professionalthief attempts a theft at thehouse of a judge and solves amurder mystery of a journalistas he is the eye witness to it.

The play was directed byAruna Suman and was per-formed by the artists of RangDarshan Theatre Troupe.

The play begins with athief entering into a housewhich turned out to be a judge’shouse. The thief is on the run,as a rich builder whom hewants to expose is after his life.

Fearing for his life, thethief takes shelter in the houseof a judge and wants the judgeto hand him over to the police,as he would feel safer in aprison than he does when he isfree.

What a consequence that alaw breaker and law makerremain engaged in marathondialogue about every issue onthe earth, including the effortsto corrupt judiciary. Duringtheir discussion, the thief nar-rates the murder of a journal-ist and discloses that it was nota road accident, but the mur-der.

The play was well present-ed and the audience also lovedthe play. Shankar Shesh’s won-derful writing style made thedialogues stronger and beauti-ful. Besides, the clarity in artists’performances made the playwatching worthwhile.

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Renowned artist of the citySajid Premi is felicitated

with "Excellence Award" byinternational organization TheAmerican University for GlobalPeaceInternational organiza-tion.

Sajid Premi is a poet,writer, painter, event organiz-er Sajid Premi with the"Excellence Award" for his con-tribution to art and literature,painting and poetry. It is a mat-ter of pride of Bhopal andMadhya Pradesh that for thefirst time this important honorhas been given to the painter ofMadhya Pradesh, poet SajidPremi.

Ambassador of India

Madhukrishna (Founder andChairman), Tahira Ehsaan con-ferred Sajid Premi with thisaward. Govind Goyal,Ambassador Tahera Ahsan,Rambabu Sharma were thechief guests at the event.

The event was organizedby the Khushboo Educationaland Cultural Society Bhopal atthe Polytechnic Auditorium,Bhopal. Bittu Sharma,Anuradha Singh, JayashreeSwangini, BharathiVishwanathan, SushmaSharma, Rakshana ShamimZahid were present in the pro-gram and Bhopal's art lovers,poets, litterateurs, music loverswere present in large numbers.

The Academy of UniversalGlobal Peace, is a registered

institution of many countriesincluding India, America,United Kingdom. The founderand chairperson of this inter-national organization is MadhuKrishna".

This institution is viewedwith great respect in the inter-national community as it per-forms its service without anydiscrimination among everycommunity.

In every country, where theinstitution is the ambassador ofthis institution, it also works tohelp the people of that countryby giving donations whenneeded. They have ambas-sadors in more than 77 coun-tries of the world and programsare organized by this institutionthere.

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A30-year old listed goonwith Khajuri Sadak police

station committed suicide byhanging with the ceiling at hishouse at Bairagarh Kalan underKhajuri Sadak police stationarea on Sunday.

According to the police,Ganesh Maali was found hang-ing at his house and was takento hospital where he wasdeclared dead. Police said thatthe deceased was booked forover one dozen cases likeassault, extortion and othercases.

The family members werenot aware of the reason behindthe death. The reason behindthe death would be investigat-ed in the further investigationas police suspect that the deathwas suspicious.

After the preliminaryinvestigation the body was sentfor the post mortem. The policehave registered a case undersection 174 of the CrPC andhave started further investiga-tion.

Meanwhile a 50-year-oldman died who sustainedinjuries in a road accident onMarch 8; Arera Hills policehave started investigation.

Police said that the injuredwas taken to a hospital wherehe was died during treatmenton Sunday. Police said that theman met the accident while hewas at Thandi Sadak.

The deceased was identi-fied as Khurchun Jaiswal whowas returning in the eveningwhen he met accident andrushed to hospital.

After the preliminaryinvestigation, the body wassent for the post mortem. Thepolice have registered a caseunder section 304 A of the IPCand started further investiga-tion.

Police were informed andon the receipt of the informa-tion police team rushed to thespot and started investiga-tion.The multiple injuries andsevere injury in the headproved fatal for the deceasedsaid police.

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Farmers Welfare andAgriculture Development

Minister Kamal Patel has saidthat his government is deter-mined to double the income offarmers. There will be no dis-crimination or discriminationof any kind in benefiting thefarmers. The government haslaunched the Mukhya MantriCrop Procurement Scheme tobenefit the farmers.

He was replying to the dis-cussion of Budget in the StateAssembly on Monday. Later,the State Assembly of Mondayhas passed a total budget ofover Rs 15000 crore for the wel-fare of farmers and agricultur-al development in the agricul-

tural budget. He further said that more

and more farmers should bebenefited from the insurancescheme, for this, the portal wasopened at a central level andthe farmers were insured.

Patel informed the Housethat an amount of Rs 8,891crore has been transferred to

the account of 43 lakh farmers.For the first time in the

state's agriculture budget forthe year 2021-22, the ChiefMinister Farmer CropAcquisition Assistance Schemewas launched to provide a rea-sonable price for the crops ofthe farmers. A provision of Rs2000 crores has been made for

this scheme.The government has

resumed the scheme of pro-viding crop loans to farmersthrough cooperative banks atzero percent interest rate. Hesaid that this year, productionof about 80 lakh metric tons isestimated to be about 55 lakhmetric tons of gram, 5 lakhmetric tons of lentils and 1.5lakh metric tons of mustard.

Agriculture Minister Patelinformed that work is beingdone by the government to cre-ate a new Chief Minister CropInsurance Scheme to benefitevery farmer of the state fromcrop insurance scheme. Withthis, the benefit of crop insur-ance will be ensured to all thefarmers of the state.

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Indore police carried out alarge-scale searching opera-

tion at the hideouts of kanjargang in search of the accusedinvolved in theft, dacoity, bikelifting and chain snatching inIndore district.

More than 60 policemensearched the hide outs of kan-jar gang at Dhani Ghati andChidawad area of Dewas dis-trict. ASP Jayveer SinghBhadouria told that gettingthe footage from the differentCCTV cameras of the bikelifters a escape route of thethieves was chalked out whichindicated their movementtowards Dewas district.

After this the special teamof Indore police raided at theKanjar criminal’s hideout inDewas district. On the instruc-tion of Khajrana CSP AnilSingh Rathore T I VijaynagarTahajib Kaaji, T I TukoganjKamlesh Sharma, T I BangangaRajendra soni and two specialT I with police force carried outthe searching operation at thehideouts of Kanjar criminals.

In the September 2020Dewas police arrested a inter-state Kanjar gang of Tonkkhurdarea and recovered electronicsand mobile worth rs 15 crore.

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Cyber crime branch andSukhisewania police jointly

have busted a four membergang involved in duping victimsin the name of lucky draw andrecovered Four mobile phones,01 ATM card, 01 micro ATMmachine and 01 thumb impres-sion machine used in the casehave been seized from theaccused from thier possession onSunday.

The victims were trappedusing in the name of lucky drawby telecom operator Airtel andwould collect money from vic-

tims to facilitate deposit of luckydraw money in their accounts.

After the victim would agreeit was asked to pay amount in thename of processing, service taxand income tax. The victim wasasked to transfer money in fakebank account which was latertransferred to bank account andfinally it was withdrawn usingATM card.

The victim Parvez Khanwas duped of Rs 380000 as luckydraw was of Rs 3.9 lakh. Basedon complaint case was registeredagainst Vikas Sharma whooffered to provide lucky drawmoney.The police registered a

case under section 420 of the IPCand tracked the accused bansedon the bank account and mobilenumbers used to contact the vic-tim.

The nabbed accused wereidentified as VinodAhirwar,Ankit Ahirwar, ArvindPrajapati, Raghavendra Yadav.

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Madhya Pradesh StateMartial Arts Judo

Academy's players gave won-drous performance atChhatrapati Sahuji MaharajVishwa Vidyalaya, Kanpur.

Day-boarding playerMuskan Sondhiya won gold,

Deepak Mishra won silver andboarding player Amisha Kalewon bronze in ChhatrapatiSahuji Maharaj VishwaVidyalaya, Kanpur played onMarch 12 and 13. All threeplayers have been selected forIndia Camp (National TrainingCamp).

Muskan Sondhiya hasqualified for the WorldUniversity Games to be held inChina in August 2021.

It is noteworthy that in thetwo-day selection trial, the top8 medalists of Junior / SeniorNational, All India University,Khelo India and School

National from the years 2017 to2021 were invited.

Judo players MuskanSondhiya and Deepak Mishraalong with VishwamitraAwardee judo instructorKamala Rawat. On reaching thecity stadium, Director Sportsand Youth Welfare Pawan Jainmet the players.

Director of Sports Jainreceived the necessary infor-mation related to the perfor-mance of the players in theWorld University Selection Trialand encouraged the players towork hard to improve their tal-ent performance and wish them

all the best.Meanwhile, a three-day state

level authorized Mallakhambcompetition-2121 is being orga-nized at the city stadium. 207boys and 159 girl players from21 districts of the state are par-ticipating in the competition.

Director Sports and YouthWelfare Pawan Jain informedthat state-level mallakhambcompetition is being organizedfrom March 16 to 18, 2021 inthe martial arts hall located atTT Nagar Stadium.

In this competition, boysand girls players from 21 dis-tricts, 44 departmental coach-

es and 15 technical judges areparticipating. All the necessaryarrangements have been madefor the orderly running of thecompetition, ensuring that thestate government complies withthe guidelines issued in con-nection with Covid-19.

Three players in the boys'section of the competition andone event in the girls' class willshowcase their talent. Talentperformances will be held inthe pole class in the boys sec-tion, rope mallakhamb andhegging mallakhamb and inthe girls section in rope mal-lakhamb event.

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Chief Minister Shivraj SinghChouhan has said that

every single grain of wheat offarmers will be purchased. Allarrangements for wheat pro-curement have been ensured inadvance in all the districts. Toensure that farmers do notface any problem, extensivearrangements will be madeand all necessary facilities willbe made available at the pro-curement centres.

Timely harvest of farmers

crops and payment after pro-curement should be ensured.Chief Minister Chouhan saidthat for me, every farmer isimportant. No payments offarmers should be stopped.Arrangements should also bemade for immediate trans-portation of the procured crop.

Chouhan informed thatall arrangements for procure-ment of wheat on supportprice are being made on pri-ority basis in the state. InIndore and Ujjain divisions,wheat procurement work willbe started from March 22 andfrom April 1 in the remainingdivisions. He informed thatfarmers have been registeredfor wheat procurement. Thedate of registration has beenextended twice so that nofarmer is deprived of registra-

tion.Chouhan informed that

during the Corona period lastyear, the number of procure-ment centers was increasedfor the convenience of farmers.This time, arrangement of pro-curement has been made at4763 centers. Suitable arrange-ments are also being made forthe farmers at all procurementcenters. Chouhan has appealedto the farmers that they canbring their wheat to the pro-curement centers without anyhesitation.

The government will buyevery single grain of wheatfrom all farmers. This time theprocurement price is estimat-ed at 125 lakh metric tonnes ofwheat. So far, 24.58 lakh farm-ers have registered for wheatprocurement. This time the

support price of wheat will beRs. 1975 per quintal. Last yearit was Rs 1925 per quintal.

Chouhan informed thatthe procurement of gram, lentiland mustard will be startedfrom March 22, which will lasttill May 15. This time the workof procurement will be done byMarkfed. The Chief Ministersaid that the support price ofgram is Rs. 5100, support priceof mustard is Rs. 4650 and thesupport price of lentils is Rs5100 per quintal. Procurementof 14 lakh 51 thousand tons ofgram, one lakh 37 thousandtons of lentils and 3 lakh 90thousand tons of mustard isestimated.

Chouhan has given strictinstructions to officials that nofarmer should be deprived ofselling his produce and all

farmers should get timely pay-ment for their produce. Non-payment to the farmer comesunder the category of crime.Property of those found guiltywill be attached and they willbe sent to jail. Chief MinisterShri Chouhan said that coop-eratives whose credibility isdoubtful should not be giventhe task of procurement thistime.

Chouhan said that like lastyear, procurement work will begiven tp self-help groups andagricultural producer groupsthihs time also. Last year, 9 lakh78 thousand 526 quintal wheatwas procured by self-helpgroups and agricultural pro-ducer groups at 39 procure-ment centers, which was 3percent of the total production.

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The tale of valour of firstwoman who picked up

sword against British Rule 'RaniVelu Nachiyyar' was performedat Shaheed Bhawan onMonday. The play was per-formed under VeerangnaTheatre Festival.

The play was directed byVibha Shrivastava.

Rani Velu Nachiyar was aqueen of Sivaganga estate inSouth India. She is regarded asthe first queen who foughtagainst the British colonialpower in India. Born as princessof Ramanathapuram she tooktraining in handling differentweapons, in martial arts, horseriding and archery, and was alsoproficient in languages likeEnglish, French and Urdu.

She was married to King ofS i v a g a n g a i ,MuthuvaduganathaperiyaUdaiyathevar. After the Britishsoldiers and son of Nawab ofArcot conquered Sivagangaand killed her husband, she fledwith her daughter and lived at

Virupachi under the protectionof Palayakaarar KopaalaNaayakkar, build her army andjoined hands with GopalaNayaker and Sultan Hyder Alito wage war against the Britishand regained her kingdom.

She is also credited as the firstperson to apply human bomb.

The play was wonderfullyperformed. The backgroundscore and dialogue delivery bythe artists left the audiencemesmerised.

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From Page 1Senior leaders like Arun

Yadav, Minakshi Natrajan andsenior MLA Lakshman Singhtoo had slammed the move toinclude Hindu Mahasabhaleader in the party.

Nath had maintained astoic silence on the issue buthad spoken during the MPRising Summit in Bhopal. “Ifsomeone wants to amend themistake, whets wrong in it. Hehad been a Congressman forover three decades,” Nath hadsaid on Babulal Chaurasiyawho had left Congress to joinHindu Mahasabha during lastcivic polls and won as a cor-porator.

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A56-year-old woman died while her mother-in-law escapedwith injuries after her brother-in-law attacked them with

sharp edged weapon at Atal Nehru Nagar Bhanpur under CholaMandir police station area on Monday.

The area was filled was horror after two women were bru-tally attacked by a 38-year-old killer Imran alias Tillu and killermanaged to escape the spot.

ASP Zone 4 Dinesh Kaushal said that the killer is criminalminded and psycho and had been arrested for attempt to mur-der in the past. On Monday the accused came and had heatedexchange with mother and sister-in-law and attacked them withbat and later attacked with sharp edged weapon, which provedfatal for his sister-in-law Razia Bi who died when she was takento hospital while mother escaped but still her condition is crit-ical. The deceased sustained multiple injuries in her head whilemother of the accused also sustained injuries in her head andneck.

The accused was serving jail on the charges of attempt tomurder case and during Corona pandemic he was granted bailto contain spread of Corona virus among jail inmates, he added.

Body was sent for the post mortem after the preliminaryinvestigation.

The police have registered a case under section 302 of theIPC and started further investigation.

Accused, went absconding and is still at large. Police haveintensified search for the accused.

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The Delhi Bharatiya JanataParty (BJP) has alleged that

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAand chief spokesperson SaurabhBhardwaj has encroached upona piece of land at a Chirag Delhivillage where a 150-year-old treeonce stood and used to be aplatform for staging of Ramleelaand meeting point of villageelders. Bhardwaj is illegally con-structing party office there andalso hurting the religious senti-ments of Hindus.

The party general secretaryDinesh Partap Singh and DelhiBJP Spokesperson HarishKhurana said this is in gross vio-lation of the Delhi High Courtorders which had ordered allconstruction to be stopped therebut Saurabh Bhardwaj and localAAP councillor Pooja Jakharhave teamed up and got theoffice construction workresumed.

“BJP is with people of thelocality in this matter and willdo whatever is possible to helpthem. The State Media Co-

Head Harihar Raghuvanshi waspresent alongside them,” hesaid.

The two leaders said thispiece of land is dear to the localvillagers whose religious senti-ments are attached with this treewhich is being cut to make wayfor the office. It is because of thisvery reason the villagers areforced to approach the courtagain to restrain the AAP lead-ers from going ahead with theconstruction activity.

Singh and Khurana said awall has been erected all aroundthis piece of land. In fact, thetwo leaders asked when Kejriwalwill continue to play with reli-gious feelings of the Hindus.

They said if the need be, theBJP which has always stood byDelhiites, will stand by villagershere and will oppose this workof illegal construction and play-ing with religious sentiments ofthe Hindus tooth and nail.

They said it shows thatthere is a vast differencebetween what the ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwal whocalls himself son of the soil, says

and does. In fact, on one handthe Kejriwal government doesnot get tired of repeatedly say-ing they are for making Delhigreen and on the other, his ownparty MLA and councillor areindulging in cutting of trees thusdestroying the green lungs of thecapital.

“While charging AAP withillegally occupying land in thecapital, said it is not somethingnew for AAP. In fact, they hadtried this earlier as well but onOctober 23, 2020 the court hadordered stopping of illegal con-struction here as also its demo-lition. But the local councillorand MLA conspired to do this,”Khurana said.

“At least eight AAP MLAshave their offices in the premis-es of Delhi Jal Board which isillegal.

He asked the Kejriwal gov-ernment under which law per-mission was given to theseMLAs for their offices in theboard premises. It seems occu-pying land forcibly has becomea daily routine of the AAPMLAs, he said.

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The Haryana Assembly onMonday passed a resolution

condemning any attempt toboycott political leaders, a movewhich follows protests againstthe ruling BJP-JJP coalitionleaders in several villages overthe Centre’s farm laws.

The Congress staged a walk-out from the House after ChiefMinister Manohar Lal Khattarmoved the resolution.

The resolution stated, "If anyorganisation or section of soci-

ety talks about boycotting lead-ers of any political party, thisHouse proposes to condemnit.”The resolution did not referto any political party or farmers.

It was passed by a voice voteafter the Congress walkout withLeader of Opposition BhupinderSingh Hooda saying there wasno need to bring it as main-taining law and order is the gov-ernment’s responsibility.

The resolution was moveddays after a no-confidencemotion brought by the Congresswas defeated in the state

Assembly with five of sevenIndependent MLAs and oneHaryana Lokhit Party legislatorvoting against it. Khattar alsoaccused the Congress of insti-gating farmers and supportingthose boycotting BJP-JJP leaders.“You are murderers of democ-racy, we will not allow this,"saidKhattar pointing to CongressMLAs.

Hooda denied the chargeand said, "On the floor of theHouse, on behalf of my party, Iwant to say that no Congressmember is instigating them.

We are only supporting theirdemands."

As the resolution was beingtaken up, Speaker Gian ChandGupta asked senior CongressMLA R S Kadian not to inter-rupt frequently. "I request withfolded hands that you shouldmaintain the decorum of theHouse. Such behaviour in theHouse is not acceptable," he said.

Before the resolution wasmoved by Khattar, BJP’s Ambalalegislator Aseem Goel referred toa protest outside his residencerecently and alleged that among

the protesters were office-bear-ers of the Congress.

SIX NEW GOVT NURSINGCOLLEGES TO BE OPENED

Haryana Health MinisterAnil Vij said that six new gov-ernment nursing colleges will beopened by the StateGovernment during the presenttenure. Responding to a questionduring the Haryana VidhanSabha session, Vij said that dur-ing the first term of the StateGovernment, six GovernmentNursing Colleges had been

opened. The Health Ministersaid that as compared to the firstterm of the State Government in2014, MBBS seats have morethan doubled to 1685 and BDSseats have been increased to 850seats while MDS seats to 258.Similarly, there are now 610 seatsof BMS, 50 seats ofHomeopathic, 1850 seats ofBSC Nursing, and 1620 seats ofMPHW. Apart from these, seatsin other courses including MScNursing have been increased aswell.

2923 ILLEGAL COLONIESDETECTED, 1146 FIRs INSIX YEARS

A total of 2923 illegalcolonies were detected over thelast six years, statistics tabled inHaryana Assembly on Mondayshowed. Rohtak MLA BharatBhushan Batra asked the ChiefMinister Manohar Lal Khattarabout the number of coloniesdetected in the State over theyears. The Chief Minister toldthe House in the Statement that2337 illegal colonies were detect-ed during 2014-2019 while 586

between January and December2020.

Demolition drive was con-ducted and as many as 1436colonies were removed while5401.7 acres of land recoveredbetween 2014 and 2019. 557colonies were demolished while2392.4 acres of land were recov-ered between January andDecember 2020. Data furtherrevealed that as many as 905FIRs were registered againstoffenders between 2014 and2019 while 241 between Januaryand December 2020.

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Delhi Health MinisterSatyendar Jain said the pos-

itivity rate in the national Capitalwas 0.6 per cent which was thelowest compared to States likeMaharashtra, Gujarat, Keralaand Punjab.

The Government reinforcedthat everyone including thosewho have taken the vaccineshot should continue to wear amask and follow proper socialdistancing. Ahead of the Holi fes-tival, he appealed to the Delhiites,to celebrate a dry Holi with prop-er precautions.

About the anticipated watershortage due to cleanliness workof the Munak Canal, he said thatif the Punjab Government

decides to halt the supply, therewill be a 25 per cent shortage inthe availability of drinking waterin Delhi. While deliberationswere being conducted by theDelhi Government team, in casethere is a shortage, it’ll be equalfor the entire capital.

Delhi Health Minister saidthere were 407 positive cases inDelhi on Sunday. “The positiv-ity rate was at 0.6 per cent. Therewas a time when the positivityrate in Delhi had crossed 15 percent but according to WHO

guidelines, the positivity rateshould be less than five per centand Delhi is continuously seeingless than three per cent for thepast few months,” he said.

Comparing the data of theDelhi with that of the otherStates, he said that Maharashtrasaw 16,620 cases on Sundaywith a positivity rate of 16.46 percent while Kerala saw 1792 casesand the positivity rate was 3.54per cent Punjab had 1492 casesand the positivity rate was 4.81.Gujarat recorded 810 cases andthe positivity rate was 1.78 percent. When compared, Gujarathas three times the positivity rateof Delhi, Punjab has six times,Kerala has seven times andMaharashtra has 30 times thepositivity rate.

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The Delhi Police has arrested seven women forallegedly running a fake placement agency and

duping hundreds of people across the country onthe pretext of providing them lucrative jobs inreputed airline companies.

The accused have been identified as Sushmita(26), Chhaya (21), Akansha Sharma (21), Pooja(21), Roshni (24), Rekha (23) and Jyoti (29). Thepolice have recovered six phones, fake appoint-ment letters of airlines and data of victims fromthe accused.According to Urvija Goel, the DeputyCommissioner of Police (DCP), West district,police team raided a building in west Delhi’sRamesh Nagar on Saturday where the agency wasbeing run through a call centre.

The accused duped job seekers across Indiain the name of providing them lucrative jobs atairports and reputed government and private air-line companies.

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Delhi recorded 407 new Covid-19 cases on Sunday, crossing the400-mark for the fourth consecutive day, while the positivity

rate stood at 0.60 per cent, according to data shared by the healthdepartment.

The death toll climbed to 10,941 with two more fatalities, asper the latest bulletin issued by the Delhi Health Department. Thecity had recorded 419 fresh Covid-19 cases on Saturday, while 431cases were recorded on Friday, the highest single-day spike in overtwo months. The count on Thursday was 409.

Delhi had registered 370 new cases on Wednesday and 320 onTuesday. The city had reported three Covid-19 deaths onWednesday and four on Tuesday. A total of 585 cases were report-ed on January 1 and 424 on January 3. The daily count had droppedto 306 on January 11 and risen again to 386 on January 12, accord-ing to official figures.

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A22-year-old woman wasallegedly lured and raped in

Manesar by an accused on thepretext of getting her a job.

The medical examination ofthe woman has confirmed rape,the police said on Monday. Theaccused is still on the run.

The woman is a native ofChamoli district in Uttrakhandand was currently residing inAliyar village in Gurugram.

In her complaint, she toldthe police that around 4-5 daysago she came in contact with the

accused Amit Kaushik of Delhithrough Facebook messenger.

“During the chat, theaccused told the victim he wasa resident of Delhi but used tocommute to and fromGurugram. So he promised hera job at a reputed company inManesar,” she told the police.

“On Sunday, Amit calledme and told me he had arrangeda ‘good job’ for me. He asked meto reach in Manesar immedi-ately.“Trusting Amit, I went toManesar there he took me to ahotel in Manesar and offeredsome soft drinks laced with

sedatives after consuming thislost my senses and he rapedme,” the victim told the police.

“After the offence, he threat-ened me with dire consequencesif I narrated the incident to any-one. Later I had filed a com-plaint at Manesar women policestation,” the woman added.

An FIR has been lodgedagainst the accused under sec-tions 376 (rape), 506 (criminalintimidation and other rele-vant section of the Indian PenalCode (IPC) and a hunt is on tonab the accused,” Assistant Sub-Inspector Pinki Devi said.

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The NIA along with localpolice units on Monday

conducted simultaneoussearches at 11 locations includ-ing eight in Kerala spread overdistricts of Kannur,Mallapuram, Kollam andKasargod, two locations inBengaluru and one location inDelhi in connection with acase pertaining to terroristactivities of a group led by oneMohammed Ameen of Keralawho along with two of hisassociates were arrested pre-liminary questioning.

“The NIA also arrested three

accused persons MohammadAmeen alias Abu Yahaya,Mushab Anuvar and Dr RaheesRashid after preliminary exam-ination. Mohammad Ameenwas leading the module and theother two arrested accused werehis close associates,” the NIA saidin a statement.

This group has been run-ning various ISIS propagandachannels on different socialmedia platforms such asTelegram, Hoop and Instagramfor propagating the violentJihadi ideology of ISIS and rad-icalizing and recruiting newmembers to this ISIS module,the NIA said.

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The CBI on Monday ques-tioned relatives of

Trinamool Congress MPAbhishek Banerjee in connec-tion with its ongoing probe intothe multi-crore coal pilferagescam.

The agency had on Fridayissued a notice to AnkushArora, husband of MenakaGambhir who is the sister-in-law of Banerjee, for question-ing in the illegal coal miningcase. The agency had alsoasked Gambhir's father-in-lawPawan Arora to join the inves-tigation.

"Both have appeared beforethe anti-corruption branch(ACB) of CBI at the agency’sNizam Palace office inKolkata," source in the agencysaid.

Earlier, a CBI team had onFebruary 23 visited the resi-dence of Banerjee and exam-ined his wife Rujira in con-nection with the case. Theagency also examined Rujira'ssister on the previous day inthis case.

Abhishek is West BengalChief Minister MamataBanerjee's nephew.

When Gambhir was inter-rogated by the CBI, she hadtold the sleuths that her hus-band and father-in-law were inthe know of some bank trans-actions. She claimed that shewas not aware of anything, thesources said.

Searches were also con-ducted at the residences andoffices of people who are "con-sidered close to Anup Majhialias Lala" -- the prime accusedin the coal scam.

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With a rising consumerbase, e-commerce firms

have drawn maximum com-plaints on Governmenthelplines. As per data, on anaverage 70,000 complaints areregistered at NationalConsumer Helpline everymonth. Out of this e-Commerce Sector relatedgrievance comprise of 22 per-cent of total grievances.Besides, 172 Notices have beenissued by Central ConsumerProtection Authority sinceOctober 2020 for misleadingadvertisement and unfair tradepractice and Violation ofDeclarations under PackagedCommodity Rules includingcountry of origin.

According to theDepartment of ConsumerAffairs, between April 2020 andFebruary 2021, 188262 docketsregistered against E-Commercecompanies. Between April 2017and March 2018, the number ofdockets registered was 78089which rose to 154122 in 2019-2020.

Other Sectors which havesignificant number of griev-ances are Banking (8.6%) andtelecom (7.7%) of total griev-ances. The number of conver-gence companies on the NCHPlatform has increased from403 in 2017-18 to 647 and with98.5% of grievance redressalduring April – December 2020.

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The Centre on Monday saidit is trying to "consult and

convince" the JharkhandGovernment about benefits ofcommercial coal mining poli-cy which is designed to boostdomestic production andreduce imports. Union CoalMinister Pralhad Joshi duringthe Question Hour in the RajyaSabha said that it is a "big sin"that India despite having thelargest coal reserves is depen-dent on import of thermalcoal used in power generation.

The dependence onimports was due to restrictionon allocation of coal blocks,which has been eased out afterdeep consultation with thestate governments, he said.After consultations with states,the central government hasbrought a commercial coalmining policy under whichcoal blocks are opened to pri-vate investors through auctionfor commercial purpose, headded.

"We have consulted thestate governments. Even wehave consulted the Jharkhand

government. Initially, theyappreciated it and later theyhave opposed it. But we are inregular consultation with thestate government," Joshi said inthe Upper House.

The central government istrying to "consult and con-vince" the Jharkhand govern-ment because ultimately thepolicy is in the interest of thestate as the revenue earned goesto the state, not to the centre,he said.

"We are trying to convincethem. I hope they will be con-vinced. Already auction is

done, since cooperation of thestate is needed, we are in reg-ular touch with the state gov-ernment," he added. The min-ister was responding to a queryby BJP leader from JharkhandSameer Oroan that if any hur-dle has been faced in importsdue to opposition to the gov-ernment policy by Jharkhand.

Replying to another ques-tion asked by BJD leader AmarPatnaik on non-operation ofcoal blocks that were alreadyauctioned, the minister saidsome of the mines have notstarted the production.

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Given the sustained drive toachieve self-reliance and

indigenization in weapon man-ufacturing, India’s imports inthe last nine to ten years havedropped by more than 33 percent. In the process, Russia, themain supplier of arms to India,suffered. And so did the USwhich had emerged as a bigsupplier of arms to India in thelast one decade.

Noting these points in itsreport on Monday, the reput-ed international organizationStockholm International PeaceResearch Institute (SIPRI) alsosaid the decline took placedue to an attempt by to reduceits dependence on Russianarms and complex procure-ment processes.

Its arms imports reducedby 33 % between 2011-15 and2016-20, the report said. Atpresent, more than 70 per centof inventory in the Indianarmed forces is of erstwhileUSSR and Russian origin. For

its part, the US in the last onedecade has supplied arms andammunition worth over 15billion dollars.

Attributing this reductionin imports to an attempt toreduce its dependence onRussian arms and complexprocurement processes, theSIPRI report said, “Russia wasthe most affected supplier,although India’s imports of USarms also fell by 46%.” India isplanning large-scale armsimports in the coming yearsfrom several suppliers, it added.

Arms exports by Russia,which accounted for 20% of allexports of major arms in2016–20, dropped by 22%, thereport said. “The bulk --around 90% -- of this decreasewas attributable to a 53% fall in

its arms exports to India,”SIPRI said.

It also said exports byChina, the world’s fifth largestarms exporter in 2016-20, fell7.8% between 2011-15 and2016-20. However, the UnitedStates, the world’s largest armsexporter, saw its exports rise. Itsglobal share of exports went upfrom 32% to 37% between2011-15 and 2016-20.

Over the years, India hastaken several steps to reducedependence on imported mil-itary hardware. The defenceindustry was thrown open tothe private sector in a big waywith special focus on giving animpetus to MSMEs.

Last year, the governmentbanned the import of morethan 100 items in a determinedattempt to goad the armedforces to procure such systemsfrom the local industry. Moreitems are likely to be added tothe list in the coming days.

Also, the budget for nextfiscal has set aside more thanRs 71,000 crores, 63 percent of

the capital budget of defence,for purchasing weapons sys-tems from the Indian industry.The government spent nearlyRs 50,000 crore, 58% of thecapital budget, on indigenousequipment procurement.

In a one of the big ticketupcoming purchases, the IAFwill buy 83 Tejas light combataircraft(LCA)worth over Rs48,000 crores from the aero-space company HindustanAeronautics Limited(HAL).

The Army will also buyupgraded 118 Arjun main bat-tle tanks(MBT) worth over Rs9,000 crores from the tank man-ufacturing unit in Avadi,Chennai. Prime MinisterNarendra Modi last monthhanded over to the Army theindigenously designed and man-ufactured Arjun Main BattleTank(MBT) MK-1A in Chennai.

Presiding over the cere-mony, Modi said the tank rep-resented the united Indianspirit as the weapon systemmanufactured in the south willguard the frontiers in the north.

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Taking note of an incident ofalleged racism in Britain

against an Indian, theGovernment on Monday saidit will take up the issue with theUK when required and assert-ed it will never turn our eyesaway from racism wherever itis”.

Giving this assurance in theRajya Sabha, External AffairsMinister S Jaishankar describedIndia as the land of MahatmaGandhi and said, “It can neverturn its eyes away fromracism..particularly so, when itis in a country where we havesuch a large diaspora,"

This reiteration came whenBJP MP Ashwini Vaishnavdrew the attention of the houseto the incident of racism andcyber bullying that forced theIndian-origin Rashmi Samantto resign as president of theOxford University StudentsUnion. The minister said NewDelhi has strong ties with theUK and will take up such mat-ters with “great candour” whenrequired.

Samant, the first Indianwoman to be elected as presi-dent of the Oxford UniversityStudents Union, was forced toresign within five days of herappointment over several of hersocial media posts that werelabelled anti-Semitic and racist.

Vaishnav said she was cyberbullied and her parent's Hindureligious beliefs were publiclyattacked by a faculty member.

"As a friend of the UK, wealso have concerns about itsreputational impact.We willmonitor these developmentsvery, very closely. We will raiseit when required and we willalways champion the fightagainst racism and other formsof intolerance," Jaishankarstressed.

Raising the issue through azero hour mention, Vaishnavsaid there appears to a contin-uation of attitudes and preju-dices from the colonial era inthe United Kingdom. Samant,a bright student from Udupi,Karnataka, overcame all chal-lenges to become the firstIndian women president ofthe union, he said.

But "what was the treat-ment meted out to her?" heasked. "Shouldn't this diversi-ty been celebrated?" Instead ofthat, she was cyber bullied tothe point that she had to resign.Even the Hindu religious belief

of her parents was publiclyattacked by a faculty member,which went unpunished. If thishappens at an institute likeOxford what is the messagethat goes out to the world," hesaid.

While she did issue a pub-lic apology for 'unintentional-ly' hurting anyone's emotions,Samant believes she was unfair-ly targeted as a 'consciousattempt'.

Vaishnav also referred toPrince Harry's wife MeghanMarkle's accusations of racismby UK royals. "A behaviour ofa society is actually a reflectionof its beliefs and value system.If such practices of racial dis-crimination are followed atthe highest level in societywhat would be the following atthe lower levels," he asked.

Stating that the twoinstances were not isolated, hesaid the treatment of migrantsand their segregation in the UKon a racial basis is very wellknown all over the world.

Quoting a recent reportwhich said the death rateamong people of Asian originbecause of COVID-19 is high-er than the death rate in othercommunities in the UK, theMP said "Doesn't it raise amajor question about equi-table access to health andindeed the entire basic humanrights issue?"

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The Congress on Mondayattacked the Government

over reports that it plans to sellits residual stake in the alreadyprivatised Delhi, Mumbai,Bengaluru and Hyderabad air-ports, alleging that such pri-vatisation hurts the public andbenefits only a handful ofcronies.

Former Congress chiefRahul Gandhi questioned theCentre’s plans to sell the stakesof the Delhi, Mumbai,Bengaluru and Hyderabad air-ports. "Does not know how tobuild, knows only how to sell.India Against Privatisationwhich hurts the public andbenefits only a handful ofcronies," Rahul tweeted

The attacks comes follow-ing reports about ambitious Rs2.5 lakh crore asset monetisa-tion pipeline identified to raiseadditional resources from theDelhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru andHyderabad airports.

In a statement, Congresschief spokesman RandeepSingh Surjewala said the gov-ernment is running away fromits responsibility of ensuringbetter governance in public

sector units including thebanks by recklessly selling thesepublic sector establishments.

The party recalled as tohow this government forcedONGC to acquire HPCL, amove with no benefits for theoil explorer. But in the bar-gain, ONGC‘s cash reserveswere eroded by 91% andtoday the company is forcedto spend less than half of whatit did on oil exploration in2014, consequently domesticoil production has dippedunder the Modi regime. Thegovernment needs to get outof the mindset of running a‘Hum do Humare Do’ gov-ernment and instead focus onthe welfare of every Indian -including the poor and mar-ginalized, the statement read.

The Congress also attackedthe government on the two-daybank strike. “We stand in sol-idarity with 10 lakh bank offi-cials and staff participating inthe strike against reckless pri-vatisation of public sectorbanks. The strike called by theUnited Forum of Bank Unionis against the ill placed priori-ties of the Modi government.

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Reacting to the verdict andconviction in the Batla

House encounter, theInformation and BroadcastingMinister Prakash Javadekaron Monday attacked theOpposition leaders saying"Delhi court's verdict on BatlaHouse Encounter today thor-oughly exposes the "terroristsympathisers" and doubters lobby in the country."

Javadekar said Congresspresident Sonia Gandhi, BengalCM Mamata Banerjee andDelhi CM Arvind Kejriwalshould apologise to the nation

for raising questions on theintegrity of our police forces.

He said all terrorist sym-pathisers have been thorough-ly exposed by the verdict

Union Minister GirirajSingh also hailed the verdict. Ina tweet, he reacted to the verdict saying "Jai Ho".

Batla House is a locality inDelhi’s Jamia Nagar, where anencounter between the Delhipolice and alleged terroriststook place on September 19,2008. The terrorists were sus-pected to be the members ofterror outf it , IndianMujahideen.

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Vice President M VenkaiahNaidu on Monday empha-

sized that India believes inpromoting multilateralism anddemocratization of interna-tional governance architecture.

In his interaction with thePresident of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU),Duarte Pacheco, the VicePresident reiterated India’scommitment to democracyand an inclusive developmentparadigm. This was also reflect-ed in the supply of COVID-19vaccines to several countriesaround the world.

Naidu said that India also

provided COVID-19 relatedmedical supplies to more than154 countries and Indian RapidResponse Teams were deployedin many countries to assist inpandemic response.

Pointing out that India hasbeen pro-actively associatedwith the IPU since 1949, Naiduwanted IPU to focus on issueswhich enrich democratic gov-ernance. It should avoidbecoming a forum for bilater-al issues.

Secretary-General, RajyaSabha, Desh Deepak Verma,Secretary to the Vice President,Dr. I.V. Subba Rao, and seniorofficials were present duringthe interaction.

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Prominent Congress leadersin Kerala accuse the BJP of

attempting to make them crossover to the Hindutwa partywith offers of crores of rupees.“I was offered crores of rupeesto ditch my party and defect tothe BJP but I rejected the offeroutrightly,” said M A Wahid, asenior Congress leader in theState.

Despite his rejection of theoffer, the BJP leaders told himthat they would wait till hechanges his mind.Saratchanadra Prasad, anotherCongress leader too accusethe BJP of trying to make himmove over to the Hindu party.

Meanwhile, discontent-ment is brewing up in KeralaBJP over the highhandedbehaviour of V Muraleedharan,union minister of state for for-eign affairs and K Surendran,state party chief for dumpinglong serving cadres of the partywhile allocating tickets. Till

Saturday, there was a feelingamong political commentatorsthat the BJP may win four tofive seats but developments inthe last 24 hours have damp-ened the spirit of senior partyleaders.

“We may win two or threeseats but that will not make anyimpact in Kerala politics,” asenior party leader told ThePioneer. KummanamRajasekharan, formerGovernor of Mozoram who isthe BJP candidate at Nemomassembly constituency said thathe was in the dark about partyleaders approaching Wahid orPrasad with offers of crores ofrupees.

The fight between SobhaSurendran, former vice-presi-dent of the Kerala BJP and thepresent State leadership con-tinued unabated as she wasdenied a ticket. But what upsetthe party cadre in the State wasdenial of ticket to R Balasankar,former chief editor of TheOrganiser and author of many

books. He had begun his cam-paign at Chengannur con-stituency, his home town, withthe blessings of the party'snational leadership. “Butinstead of Balashankar, it is apolitical greenhorn who hasbeen fielded fromChengannur,” said Sreela Pillai,political commentator.

Adding to the woes of theparty, Manikuttan, whose namewas announced by Arun Singh,national general secretary asthe candidate forMananthawadi constituencycried off within hours tellingthat his name was announcedwithout his consent. Theeuphoria associated with ESreedharan, the Metroman andDr Jacob Thomas, the formerDGP, joining the party hasbecome a thing of the past, saidcommentators.

Roy Mathew, veteran scribeand analyst, said that the pre-sent leadership in Kerala isincapable of making the partytake roots in the State. “They

don’t want the BJP to grow inKerala because they knowthey would be nowhere if a newgeneration emerges as leaders.The talks between Church andBJP leaders are all bunkum. Wein the community do not go bywhat the bishops or cardinalsask as to do while castingvotes,” said Mathew.

The Congress is yet torecover from the shock of thevisuals featuring MahilaCongress leader LathikaSubash tonsuring her head inprotest against denial of a tick-et to her. Subash resigned fromthe coveted post of AICCmembership despite requestsfrom senior leaders like A KAntony and Oommen Chandi.

Seasoned leaders likeChandi and K Sudhakaranmay intervene and save theCongress from further embar-rassment. But the BJP does nothave trouble shooters in theirranks which could spell doomfor the party, said Mathew.

Aligarh: Now fraud on onlineinsurance installment platformis also going on. The Kwarsipolice arrested a gang fromNoida with the help of a cybercell. The gang leader succeededin escaping. But four gang mem-bers were caught. This gang hasso far transferred several croresof rupees to a Bangalore account.The police is now engaged in anattempt to arrest the kingpin.The four arrested members havebeen sent to jail.

According to SP CityKuldeep Singh Gunawat, a res-ident of Kishan Pur had filed acase of cheating last year at kwar-si police station, stating that hesearched online platform todeposit insurance premiums.

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Lali Vincent , senior Congressleader in Kerala has lam-

basted Latika Subhash who onSunday tonsured her hair inprotest against denial of anassembly seat to her by theparty leadership.

“What Latika Subash hasdone is against all ethics asso-ciated with a political party. Shehas been honoured with manyState and national level posi-tions by the party in the past.She was twice elected to districtpanchayath councils, madechief of Janasree mission andmade president of district pan-chayath president. Subash, herhusband too was appointed asdistrict panchayath memberand was fielded as a candidatefrom Vypeen assembly con-stituency in the 2016 assemblyelection,” said Vincent.

She said there were nocouple like Lathika and Subashwho have made it big with thelabel of Indian National

Congress. “Tonsuring the hairover denial of ticket in theassembly election is her per-sonal issue. This is not the wayto protest against party deci-sions,” said Lali Vincent, whotoo was expecting a ticket tocontest the 2021 assembly elec-tion.

Vincent said she too waspart of the group politics in theCongress. “But we have drawna line beyond which we will nottake out party issues,” she said.

P Rajan, veteran scribe,commentator and himself aCongress leader belonging tothe old school, said there wasnothing abnormal in the behav-iour of Subash. “This is part ofthe Congress culture in Kerala.We have seen much worse inci-dents in the name of groupfightings. But this will notaffect the chances of the partyin the coming election. Thepolling is on April 6 andchances are that the Congresswould recover and retrieve thelost space,” he said.

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The Rajasthan BJP onMonday launched a sharp

attack on the Ashok GehlotGovernment after it “accepted”phone tapping during the polit-ical crisis of July last year.

The BJP accused ChiefMinister Ashok Gehlot of“crossing all limits and bypass-ing laws” just to “save hischair”.

In August, the “rebellious”Sachin Pilot camp accusedGehlot of tapping the phones ofsome MLAs who were stayingat a resort in Jaisalmer. Gehlothad than claimed at the timethat it was “not the way” of hisgovernment to tap the phonesof Ministers and MLAs.

Eight months after leakedphone conversations between aUnion minister and Congressleaders in Rajasthan triggereda political crisis in the state,Gehlot`s government recentlyconfirmed that phones wereindeed “intercepted”.

The confirmation wasreportedly posted on the web-site of the Rajasthan Assemblyin reply to a question askedduring the House session ofAugust 2020. BJP MLA (whowas health minister in theBJP's Vasuandhara Raje gov-ernment) Kalicharan Saraf inhis question asked: “Is it truethat phone tapping cases weredone in the last days? If yes,under which law and on whoseorders? Place details on thetable of the House.”

In the reply, furnished aftera delay of many months, thegovernment reportedly said:“In the interest of public safe-ty or public order, and to pre-vent the occurrence of a crimewhich might risk public safetyor public order, telephones areintercepted after an approval bya competent officer under theprovisions of section 5(2) ofThe Indian Telegraph Act,1885, and section 419 (A) ofThe Indian Telegraph(Amendment) Rules, 2007, as

well as section 69 of theInformation Technology Act,2000.”

“Telephone interceptionhas been done by the RajasthanPolice under the above provi-sion only after obtaining per-mission from the competentofficer. As per the provisiondescribed in Rule 419(A) andSection 69 of the InformationTechnology Act 2000, theapproval of the competentauthority is granted,” it said.

State BJP president SatishPoonia attacked Gehlot andaccused him of conspiringagainst the people of his ownparty. “Those who wear thefalse mask of Gandhism andcry for democracy @ashokgehlot51 Ji crossed alllimits for the sake of saving thechair; They conspired againstthe people of their own party,but even tapped the telephoneof the leaders of the oppositionparty in an unethical manner;indulged in spying,” he said inhis tweet.

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Moradabad (Uttar Pardesh): A minor girlattempted to end her life by suicide after beingsexually assaulted by her brother-in-law.

The girl's family managed to rescue heron time and she has been admitted to the dis-trict hospital where her condition is stable.

In their complaint to the police, the girl'sfamily said that their daughter was living ather sister's place. She had been called thereto help after her sister gave birth to a babythree months ago.

During her stay there, her husbandallegedly forced himself on the girl and raped her. On March 8, the girl narrated herordeal to the family.

An FIR has been registered against theaccused at the Chaljet police station.

The victim's mother told the police on

Sunday, “My daughter had called up to saythat she does not want to stay there. Once shecame back, she remained very quiet. Whenwe repeatedly asked her what was troublingher, she narrated her ordeal. She then triedto end her life, but was saved in time whena family member raised an alarm.”

Chajlet Station House Officer (SHO)Sunil Kumar said, “The girl was rescued bythe family and taken to hospital where shewas provided medical aid. Her condition isnow stable.”

An FIR has been registered against the25-year-old accused under section 376 (pun-ishment for rape) of IPC and relevant sectionsof the POCSO Act, the SHO said, adding thatfurther investigations in the case are under-way. The accused is yet to be arrested. IANS

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Lucknow: Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president Mayawati hasannounced that her party will contest the 2022 Assembly elec-tions alone and will not enter into an alliance with any party.

Addressing a press conference here on Monday, Mayawatisaid that her party would also contest the Panchayat electionson its own.

Mayawati mounted a scathing attack on the BJP governmentsat the Centre and state and said that the BSP was supporting farm-ers' agitation and the Centre should repeal the farm laws.

She alleged that the law and order situation in Uttar Pradeshwas poor and people were being victimised on caste grounds.

Paying glowing tributes to her mentor, late Kanshi Ram, onhis birth anniversary, the BSP president said that it was only byfollowing his ideology that a change could be brought in the weak-er sections.

She said that late Kanshi Ram had inspired her to continueto struggle against oppression of the poor. IANS

Firozabad (Uttar Pradesh): The sta-tion house in-charge (SHO) of theNaseerpur police station here,Pravendra Yadav, has been sent to linesafter his video in which he is seen cel-ebrating the birthday of a SamajwadiParty worker at the police station wentviral on social media.

The Samajwadi Party workerwhose birthday was celebrated at thepolice station on Saturday, has beenidentified as Mohit Yadav, a residentof the Tatapura village.

The video of the birthday cele-bration was uploaded on social mediaby a friend of Mohit Yadav. The videoshows the inspector cutting the cakeand feeding it to Mohit Yadav wentviral on social media on Saturday butwas later deleted.

Mohit was also seen sharing thecake with other policemen.

Following primary investigation,Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP)Firozabad removed the station in-charge Pravendra Yadav from theNasserpur police station and attachedhim to police lines.

SSP Firozabad Ajay Kumar said,“Taking cognizance of the viral video,inspector Pravendra Yadav has beenremoved from the Naseerpur policestation. The act of the police officer inuniform was found unethical in pri-mary investigation. He has been askedto submit a written clarification. Thematter will be investigated in detail.Further action will be taken on thebasis of the inquiry report.” IANS

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Patna: Five persons of a fami-ly, including four minors, werecharred to death in a massiveblaze that broke out in Bihar'sKishanganj district earlyMonday leaving at least onemore critically injured.

The fire broke out in Salamcolony under Kishanganj policestation at around 2.30 a.m.

The deceased were identi-fied as Noor Alam and his fourchildren aged between of 4 and12.

Shahnawaz Akhtar Niyazi,the SDO of the area said thatthe reason for the fire was yetto be ascertained. “We areinvestigating the matter to findout possible reasons. Short cir-cuits could be one,” Niyazisaid.

“As per eyewitness account,the intensity of the fire was assuch that it engulfed the houseof Noor Alam within minutes.The fire was so intense, it alsodamaged four adjoining hous-es. The residents of other fourhouses were evacuated,” Niyaziadded. IANS

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In the ongoing operation inthe South Kashmir district of

Shopian, Jaish-e-Mohammaddreaded commander SajjadAfghani was gunned down bythe joint team of security forceson Monday. So far two terror-ists including LeT cadreJahangir Ahmad Wani havebeen eliminated while fresh fir-ing resumed late Mondayevening after the security forcesestablished contact with thethird terrorist at the encountersite.

Till the time of filing thereport intermittent firing wasgoing on in the area.

At least three houses alsocaught fire on Sunday duringthe heavy exchange of firing.Some of the local residents alsotried to assemble near thescene of action to disrupt theoperations but were dispersedby the paramilitary forces afterthey resorted to heavy stonepelting in the area.

Meanwhile, Inspector

General of Police ,Kanshmirrange Vijay Kumar Mondaycongratulated Shopian police &security forces for eliminatingJeM commander SajjadAfghani in a Shopianencounter.

He along withGoC VictorForce conducted aerial moni-toring of the operation and lawand order situations at theencounter site.

Sajad Afghani along withhis associates was trapped bysecurity forces in Rawalporavillage of Shopian district onSaturday.To avoid any collateraldamage the security forceswaited patiently while main-taining a tight cordon in thearea.

Afghani, resident ofRawalpora area of Shopian,remained active since 2018and was chiefly responsiblefor recruiting local youth in theterrorist ranks.

According to a policespokesman, “Several terrorcrime cases were registeredagainst him and was wanted by

law for his complicity in severalterror crime cases includingCase FIR No. 304/2018 PSShopian pertaining to terroris-ing the people so as to keepthem away from Panchayatpolls including blazing aPanchayat Ghar at Kanji-ullar.Case FIR No. 307/2018 PSShopian pertaining to barginginto the houses of police per-sonnel, abducting and killing ofSgCt Nisar Ahmad, Foll.Firdous Ahmad and SPOKulwant Singh.

Case FIR No. 343/2018 PSShopian regarding attack on34RR camp at Matribugh. Case

FIR No. 362/2018 PS Shopianregarding abduction and killingof civilian Suhail AhmadGanai. Case FIR No. 35/2019PS Shopian regarding killing ofSPO Khusboo Jan and CaseFIR No. 45/2019 PS Shopianregarding abduction and killingof civilian Tanveer AhmadDar”.

As per police records,another terrorist JahangirAhmad Wani was active since01/09/2020 and was involved inseveral terror crime casesincluding attacks on securityforces and civilian atrocities.

Arms & ammunitionincluding USA made M4Carbine rifle and other incrim-inating materials were recov-ered from the site of encounterso far.

On the other hand,Director General of Police,Dilbag Singh accompanied byIGP Kashmir Vijay Kumar vis-ited Anantnag where hechaired a security review meet-ing with Police, Army & CRPFofficers.

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Pratapgarh (Uttar Pradesh):Four persons, including awoman, have died after con-suming spurious liquor inPratapgarh district.

Four police personnel,including the Nawabganj policestation in-charge, have beensuspended following the inci-dent in the ManoharpurRampur Dabi village inSangramgarh police circle.

According to policereports, the four persons hadpurchased liquor from oneBabulal Patel on Saturday andconsumed it.

Prayagraj InspectorGeneral Kavindra Pratap Singh

said, “The four persons wereadmitted to the Sangramgarhcommunity health centre astheir condition started deteri-orating. All four died onSunday night during treat-ment.”

The deceased have beenidentified as Sunita Saroj, 55,her husband Jawaharlal Saroj,56, Vijay Kumar, 35 and RamPrasad,40.

Their bodies have beensent for post mortem, the offi-cer said.

The wife of Babulal Pateland his brother have beendetained for questioning, thepolice said. IANS

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New Delhi: The Supreme Court onMonday sought response from the Centreon a plea by the Indian MedicalAssociation (IMA) against a CentralCouncil of Indian Medicine (CCIM)order authorising post-graduate practi-tioners in specified streams of Ayurvedabe trained to perform surgical proce-dures.

A bench comprising Chief Justice SA Bobde and Justices A S Bopanna andV Ramasubramanian issued notices tothe Ministry of Ayush, CCIM andNational Medical Commission whileseeking their replies on the petition.

IMA has moved the top court seek-ing to set aside or quash the amendmentto regulations to the PostgraduateAyurveda Surgery by CCIM and declarethat the council does not have the pow-

ers to include modern medicine in syl-labus.

The notification by the CCIM listed39 general surgery procedures andaround 19 procedures involving the eye,ear, nose and throat by amending theIndian Medicine Central Council (PostGraduate Ayurveda Education)Regulations, 2016.

According to the November 20,2020 gazette notification the procedureslisted include removal of metallic andnon-metallic foreign bodies from non-vital organs, excision of simple cyst orbenign tumours of non-vital organs,amputation of gangrene, traumaticwound management, foreign bodyremoval from stomach, squint surgery,cataract surgery and functional endo-scopic sinus surgery. PTI

New Delhi: The Narcotics ControlBureau (NCB) has moved the SupremeCourt challenging the Bombay HighCourt order granting bail to actressRhea Chakraborty, arrested overdrugs-related charges in actor SushantSingh Rajput's death case.

A bench of Chief Justice Bobdeand Justices AS Bopanna and VRamasubramanian will hear the pleaon March 18.

On October 7, last year theBombay High Court had granted bailto the actress and directed her todeposit a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh.

It had however rejected the bailplea her brother Showik Chakraborty,who is also an accused in the case, and

an alleged drug peddler Abdel BasitParihar.

Rhea, her brother and the otheraccused were arrested in Septemberlast year by the NCB in connectionwith its probe into the drugs anglerelated to the case of Rajput's death.

While granting bail to RheaChakraborty and two others, the highcourt had directed them to deposittheir passports with the NCB and notto leave the country without permis-sion of the special NDPS court.

It had asked Rhea to deposit apersonal bond of Rs 1 lakh anddirected her to visit the NCB office at11 am on the first day of every monthfor next six months.

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The ruling NationalistCongress Party (NCP) on

Monday scotched the intensespeculation that it had askedMaharashtra Home MinisterAmit Deshmukh to put in hispapers over the allegations of“inept” handling of the explosiveladen SUV recovery incidentand subsequent murder, sayingthat that Deshmukh was per-forming well and the questionof his resignation did not arise.Talking to media persons here,Maharashtra NCP presidentJayant Patil said: “AnilDeshmukh is performing wellas the State Home Minister. Thequestion of his resignation doesnot arise. Hence there is no needfor speculation over his resig-nation”.

Patil made the statementsoon after NCP chief SharadPawar held an hour-long meet-ing with chief minister UddhavThackeray apparently over thesituation arising out of therecovery of explosive-ladenSUV near industrialist MukeshAmbani’s residence on February25 and the events like the mur-der of businessman MansukhHiren and the arrest ofMumbai’s crime branch officerSachin Vaze.

After his meeting withUddhav, Pawar headed straightto the YB Chavan in southMumbai where he was sched-

uled to have a meeting seniorparty leaders and review theperformance of some of theparty ministers in the ShivSena-led MVA government inthe starte.

However, Patil – who waspresent at the meeting –said thatno discussion took place oneither the resignation ofDeshmukh or the reshuffle inthe State Cabinet took place atthe meeting.

Reiterating the party’s standon police officer Vaze’s arrest,Deshmukh said: “Two separateinvestigations are going on inconnection with the recoveryof explosive-laden SUV nearindustrialist Mukesh Ambani’sresidence on February 25 andsubsequent murder of Hiren.While the NIA is investigatingthe car recovery case, the ATSis looking into the subsequentmurder of the businessman.All the three constituents in theruling MVA – Shiv Sena, NCPand Congress – are on thesame page. There is no truth inthe allegation that the ShivSena is trying to protect the cul-prits behind the twin incidents.Whoever found guilty will bepunished sternly”.

Alluding to the claim thatformer chief minister and leaderof the opposition DevendraFadnavis possessed an incrim-inating CD purportedly carry-ing the telephonic conversationsbetween Vaze and late Hiren.

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Two days after his arrest forhis alleged link with the

recovery of an explosive-ladenSUV near Industrialist MukeshAmbani and subsequent murderof businessman ManshukhHiren, the MaharashtraGovernment on Monday sus-pended Mumbai’s AssistantPolice Inspector and encounter-specialist Sachin Vaze from hisservice.

Confirming Vaze’s suspen-sion, Mumbai PoliceSpokesperson DCP S Chaitanyasaid: “API Sachin Vaze has beenplaced under suspension, by anorder of Addl CP SpecialBranch.” Monday’s was the sec-ond occasion when Vaze’s wassuspended from the service bythe Maharashtra government.

It may be recalled that onMarch 3 2004, Vaze was sus-pended along with 14 otherpolicemen for the alleged cus-todial death of Khwaja Yunus, asuspect in the December 2,2002 Ghatkopar bomb blastcase. Vaze subsequently resignedfrom the police on November 302007 after requests for his rein-statement were rejected by theMaharashtra government.

The Maharashtra govern-ment revoked Vaze’s suspensionand reinstated in service in Junelast year, after the outbreak ofCovid-19 when there was short-age of police personnel.

Vaze’s latest suspension hascome two days after he wasarrested by the NIA for hisalleged link with the recovery ofan explosive-laden SUV nearIndustrialist Mukesh Ambaniand subsequent murder of busi-nessman Hiren.

Currently in the NIA’s cus-tody, Hiren is being investigat-

ed for his role in the planting of20 gelatin sticks in a “stolen”Scorpio car, which was recov-ered by the Mumbai police nearIndustrialist Mukesh Ambani’sskyscraper mansion “Antilia”on Carmichael Road in southMumbai on February 25.

Vaze has been bookedunder sections 120 (B) (crimi-nal conspiracy) 286 (negligentconduct with respect to explo-sive substance), 465 (forgery)473 (making or possessingcounterfeit seal) and 506 -2(criminal intimidation) of theIndian Penal Code (IPC) and 4(a)(b)(i) of the ExplosiveSubstances Act, 1908. Vaze is thefirst accused to have been arrest-ed by the NIA which registeredan FIR in the explosive-ladenSUV recovery case on March 8.

This is for the first time thatVaze, who has gunned down 63underworld gangsters duringhis three-decade-long contro-versial career, has come underscanner. This time around, theinvestigators are looking into therecovery of gelatine sticks’ ladenSUV and the mysterious deathof businessman of ManshukhHiren, whose body was recov-ered from the Reti Bunder creekarea at Mumbra-Kalwa onMarch 5.

While the NIA is investi-gating the case involving therecovery of explosive-ladenScorpio car, Maharashtra’s Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) is look-ing into the murder of Hiren.

The ruling Shiv Sena andState Home Minister AmitDeshmukh have come undersevere flak for reinstating Vazeinto service on June 6, 2020 –after the outbreak of Covid-19pandemic and lockdown duringwhich there was shortage ofpolice staff.

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Amaravati: The number ofactive Covid-19 cases con-tinued to rise in AndhraPradesh, reaching 1,443 onMonday.

The state logged 147 newCovid-19 cases on Monday,pushing the state's tally toover 8.92 lakh, even as 103persons recovered from thedisease in the past 24 hours,taking the total number ofrecoveries in the state pastthe 8.83 lakh-mark.

Chittoor district report-ed the highest number ofcases at 35, followed by East

Godavari (31), Guntur (21),Srikakulam (10), Anantapur,Kadapa, Krishna and Nellore(9 each), Visakhapatnam (7),Kurnool (4) and Prakasam,Vizianagaram and WestGodavari (1 each).

Chittoor district hasbeen logging the highestnumber of cases for the pastseveral days.

East Godavari's tally has

crossed 1.24 lakh, the high-est among all Andhra dis-tricts, while the state's posi-tivity rate fell to 6.13 per cent,which is still higher than thenational average of 5.01 percent.

Meanwhile, one moreperson succumbed to thevirus in the past 24 hours,raising the Covid death tollto 7,185. With 22,604 moretests, the total number oftests conducted in AndhraPradesh crossed the 1.45crore-mark on Monday. IANS

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through productivity-linkedschemes as they have done forbatteries, as also spur con-sumer demand throughaccess to cheaper finance.

India’s weightage is todayseven per cent of the world’sGDP, based on purchasingpower parity. As we begin theroad to recovery and target toreflate to healthy pre-crisisgrowth averages of six-eightper cent, increased econom-ic activity will mean highermobility levels and highermanufacturing intensity,therefore, higher emissions.

Even though India main-tains that we are on target toachieve the goal of producing450 gigawatts of renewableenergy by 2030, we require$600 billion of funding toleapfrog to that goal. Apartfrom multilateral funding formega renewable projects andfor FDI for electric vehicles,there is need for easier financ-ing through developmentfinance institutions for longgestation projects. While theGovernment supports newerfinancial instruments likegreen bonds to raise capital atcompetitive rates to financeclimate-friendly projects,public sector banks need toextend lower interest rates tocompanies at the forefront ofsustainable ESG investing.

So, what kind of financial

allocations and prospects arewe looking at?

Being the most populouscountry with a high-livingdensity, being a large manufac-turing hub and having a largeconsuming population, ouraverage carbon footprint isestimated at 0.19 tonne percapita among the poor, and1.32 tonne among the rich. Asthe target is to cut emissionintensity of the GDP by 33-35per cent by 2030, this in itselfholds great business potential.

Second, there is heightenedawareness by corporates toprovision for ESG investing intotheir business planning. So,with 24 of the largest conglom-erates in India (that contributeto emitting 530 million tonnesof CO2 annually) having signeda declaration on climate change,this is an important beginning,as the private sector plays a vitalrole in bringing technical exper-tise and enhanced spending onresearch and development.

According to the WorldEconomic Forum estimates, a“nature-positive economy”could globally deliver $10 tril-lion of annual business andcreate 395 million jobs by2030. It is projected that forevery $1 spent to advance theglobal energy transition, itoffers returns of around $3-8as renewable and clean ener-gy infrastructure construction

generates twice as many jobsper $1 million spent as com-pared to fossil fuel projects.

The vast potential for thetransition to green technologyis embedded in Budget 2021itself, as also the 15th FinanceCommission report pushingfor priority outlays with �7 lakhcrore allocated for urbanisationover the next five years; �5 lakhcrore allocated for water, san-itation and waste manage-ment; �15,000 crore for cleanair; and �2.87 lakh crore for theJal Jeevan Mission.

With the Governmenthaving set an aspirational tar-get of becoming a $10 trillioneconomy by 2030, much ofIndia’s growth will unfold inthe next decade. This makesintegrating the principles ofgreen recovery a win-winbusiness proposition that canaddress the concerns of jobs,growth and sustainability.This is an opportunity thatmust be tapped into by forg-ing stronger public-privatepartnerships with the Centreand State Governments, asalso by accessing global exper-tise for technology inputs ifwe are to make the green tran-sition in conformity with theParis Agreement.

(The writer is an author,columnist and Chairperson,NCFIL, at NITI Aayog. Theviews expressed are personal).

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At the Quad summitlast week, as also at thelast G20 summit,Prime Minister

Narendra Modi reiterated India’scommitment to combat climatechange, as we move towards thetarget of “net-zero emissions by2050”. This calls for far-sightedpolicy initiatives and a collabo-rative response with multilater-al institutions to achieve a tran-sition to clean energy.

The sunrise sectors thatemerged as post-pandemicgrowth catalysts have been health-care, ed-tech, digitisation, fin-techand e-commerce. While there isa greater urgency to transition tosmart infrastructure and greentechnologies, this space is yet tosee traction, as renewable energy,electric vehicles (EVs), sustainableinfrastructure, smart urbanisationand smart ruralisation, water har-vesting, recycling of post-usagewastage and so on, are still innascent stages of adoption by cor-porates and consumers.

Currently, there is a resis-tance to invest in the vast arrayof utilities and products thatcome under the sustainabilitysector, like solar and wind ener-gy, or EVs, as most products haveshorter technology life cycles.Also, these products need aproven track record of usage andneed to achieve economies ofscale to lower costs before con-sumers actually buy into them.

Just to illustrate this point,electric mobility is a sunrise sec-tor in the sustainability field, withthe potential to create 15 millionjobs globally. Considering thatIndia has high dependency on oilimports and rising levels of pol-lution remain a challenge,autonomous vehicles and EVs area solution to both the problems.Yet, EVs account for less than oneper cent of the total vehicles soldin India. Similarly, though solarpower prices have declined glob-ally and India produces thecheapest solar power as projectcosts have declined, the transitionto solar energy is just two per centof the global energy generated.

To accelerate the transitiontowards deep-decarbonisationand facilitate adoption, theGovernment needs to furtherincentivise the supply side

SOUNDBITE���������������� ������� �����Sir — This refers to the editorial ‘Docilethreat’ (March 15). The first summitmeeting of the Quad countries — India,Japan, the US and Australia — is a leaptowards realising a free and open Indo-Pacific. The Trump dispensation, in deal-ing with an aggressive China, went by itsgut instincts and lacked a larger strategicvision. While it largely sought to push theQuad in a military direction, US PresidentJoe Biden is seeking to expand its scopeand adopt a holistic approach to push backan aggressive Beijing. This is smart strat-egy as military coordination without aneconomic and technological anchor isinsufficient to meet the challenges posedby China.

The emphasis is on resilient supplychains, emerging and critical technologies,maritime security and climate change.Hence, the idea is to insulate other coun-tries from becoming dependent onBeijing’s economic and technologicalpatronage. This will offer members mar-ket access and technology transfers as analternative to Chinese products.

India should fully capitalise on thesecoalitions to obtain cutting-edge technol-ogy, boost domestic research and devel-opment and kickstart its own industrialreforms. Also, India is on the right trackin seeking to firewall critical sectors fromChinese equipment and cyber attacks —such as the recent intrusions into India’spower infrastructure. With telecom form-ing the backbone of a digital economy, thissector must be protected from Chineseintrusions. We must be ready to meet allthe challenges posed by our northernneighbour.

N Sadhasiva Reddy | Bengaluru

��������������������������������Sir — It is not the Government or theFinance Minister who suffers from abank strike. Common people are the vic-tims and poor, uneducated people in vil-lages who have no access to e-banking areat the receiving end of it. The debit cardtransaction has a limit and in case more

money is required to be withdrawn ortransferred, those who are without inter-net banking account are left in the lurch.

Bank employees and unions don’t givea second thought before taking a breakfrom work in the name of strike. Bankemployees should go to strike only on pub-lic holidays and on weekends. Further, theyshould voluntarily give up their salaries forthe number of days they are on strike andask the Government to donate it to thepoor.

Further, banks should not be privatisedbut salary should be given in accordancewith the work done by an employee andthe system of fixed salary should be doneaway with. In the tussle between theGovernment and bank employees, cus-tomers should not be made to suffer.

N Nagarajan| Secunderabad

��� ������������� ���������Sir —Elections in India, whether it is pan-

chayat or parliamentary polls, have under-gone many changes. Money plays a vitalrole in elections these days. Our leadersindulge in large-scale corruption and dowhatever they can to lure voters. The cul-ture of sops and freebies has become com-mon. Voters also don’t hesitate in takingfavours.

The criminalisation of politics is alsoa big problem amd many notorious crim-inals have entered politics and also wonelections. People often vote for such anti-social elements out of fear or intimidation.

We must keep in mind that our voteis the deciding factor and we must exer-cise our franchise judiciously. Remember,it is these politicians who make laws inParliament and State Assemblies.

Sravana Ramachandran | Chennai

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Faced with skyrocketing prices of petrol anddiesel, (with petrol crossing the �100-markin Sri Ganganagar), Prime Minister

Narendra Modi has blamed the erstwhile UPAregime for not doing enough to increase domes-tic production, thus making India vulnerable torising international prices, while Minister forPetroleum and Natural Gas DharmendraPradhan has urged oil exporting countries toexercise restraint while fixing the price ofcrude. However, their arguments don’t enthuse.

With the pricing of oil products being linkedto international prices (even domestic refiner-ies are paid for their supplies on this basis), evenif the share of indigenous production were toincrease from the current 15 per cent to, say, 50per cent, Indian consumers would still be pay-ing what they pay today.

Even if the extant system of “linkage withinternational price” were to be abandoned andoil companies allowed to price products basedon market forces, then also, considering thatdomestic supply is far short of demand, it isunlikely that they would charge any less. Asregards Pradhan’s point, exporters don’t pay heedto what leaders of importing countries say whilefixing the price. They go fundamentally by theglobal demand-supply balance and don’t evenlook at their cost of production. When, the bal-ance is tight, they increase the price. Forinstance, in 2008, when the demand zoomed(courtesy, pump-priming by developed countriesin the wake of the Lehman financial crisis besidesmajor booster doses from China and India),crude price touched a record high of $150 perbarrel. In 2014, under similar circumstances, ittouched $117 per barrel.

At another extreme, in 1997 when there wasmassive destruction of demand (due to the Asianfinancial crisis), the price plummeted to $10 perbarrel. In recent times, due to excess supplybuilding all through 2015, it reached $26 per bar-rel in January, 2016. In April 2020, the priceplunged to another low of $20 per barrel, cour-tesy the Coronavirus-induced disaster and theresultant demand annihilation. The price hassince been rising in sync with revival of demandand is currently hovering around $70 per bar-rel. From these trends, it is clear that theexporters won’t reduce the price merely becausewe want them to. The only way India can getsome leeway is by taking measures whichimpact the demand-supply dynamics.

We need to intensify our efforts on multi-ple fronts. These include among others increas-ing the percentage of ethanol in fuel mix; reduc-ing consumption of diesel by farmers acceler-ating the pace of solar-based power supply forrunning pumps; electrification of railways (it hasplans to power trains with electricity drawn fromsolar plants to be set up along the tracks); pur-suit of conservation efforts across all sectors likeindustries, services, infrastructure and makingthe policy and regulatory environment conducivefor increasing domestic production of crude andgas.

However, it would be naïve to expect theabove measures to deliver results immediately.It can happen only in the medium to long-termand therein also the scope for substantial relief

to consumers is limited. The realculprit is the disproportionatelyhigh component of taxes. To get asense, let us look at some numbers.

The pump price is the sumtotal of the ex-refinery price (ERP),freight charges, dealer commissionand taxes. The ERP in turn islinked to the import parity price(IMPP) and export parity price(EPP) of respective fuels in theratio of 80:20. In Delhi, the priceof �89.29 per litre (as on February16, 2021) includes ERP plus freight�32.1; central excise duty (CED)�32.9; dealer commission �3.68;Value Added Tax (VAT) �20.61.

With the tax component alonebeing �53.51 per litre, even if theERP goes down to �22 per litre —the level that existed in June 2020when international crude price was$40 per barrel (given the pasttrend, this level won’t sustainbeyond a few months) as againstthe current $70 per barrel — theprice at the pump would still be ahigh of �79.29 per litre.

With respect to taxes, even asthe Centre and State Governmentsblame each other, the fact remainsthat both are equally responsible.Let us look at the precise bifurca-tion. Out of the CED i.e. about �33per litre collected by the Centre,�18 per litre comes from the Roadand Infrastructure Cess (RaIC)which is entirely retained by it. Ofthe balance �15 per litre, it retains59 per cent or �9 per litre (aftergiving 41 per cent to States underthe 15th Finance Commission’s

devolution formula). On a netbasis, thus, the Centre gets �27 perlitre while almost an equivalentamount �26.6 per litre goes to theState.

Finance Minister (FM),Nirmala Sitharaman has opinedthat bringing petrol and diesel —besides crude, natural gas andAviation Turbine Fuel — under theGoods and Services Tax (GST) canhelp in reducing the tax burden.But it is easier said than done. TheConstitutional Amendment Act onGST provided for inclusion ofthese products but the purpose wasdefeated by branding them as“zero-rated” — a glamorousnomenclature for continuing themunder the pre-GST regime.

This was prompted by thefear of revenue loss. But the GSTCompensation Act, 2017 — alongwith an amendment to this Act togarner resources by levying cess ongoods falling in the highest 28 percent slab to fund compensation tothe States for the loss of revenue —was meant precisely to address thisconcern. Yet, the decision to keepthese products outside GST in thefirst place defies logic.

Replying to a question on a TVchannel on July 1, 2017, the thenFM and chairman, GST Council,Arun Jaitley had said that he was“personally not in favour of exclud-ing” the aforementioned prod-ucts. Yet, the Central Governmentand States decided to excludethem and the position continues todate.

Following a spike in oil prices,both the Centre and States feel thatnow is the time to bring themunder GST. They don’t realisewhat they are up to. Even if theCouncil decides to put them in thehighest tax slab (by any stretch ofimagination, oil and gas productscan’t be termed as demerit or singoods; so placing them in 18 percent/12 per cent slab would bemore realistic), the tax rate onpetrol will be 28 per cent (or evenless at 18 per cent/12 per cent ifthey are put in any of these slabs).Against this, the current tax rate isa whopping 167 per cent(53.51/32.1x100)!

At present, the Centre collectsover 20 per cent of its indirect taxrevenue (ITR) from CED on petroland diesel. States, too, get about 20per cent of their ITR from VATand other taxes on these fuels. Puttogether, their collection comesclose to �4,50,000 crore annually.In this backdrop, they will shud-der at the very thought of reduc-ing tax to a mere1/6th/1/9th/1/14th of what theyare collecting today.

The message is loud and clear.For lowering the burden of fueltaxes, the Centre and States needto put their heads to see how taxrevenue from other sources can beboosted (there is huge untappedpotential, including taxes evaded).If they don’t do that, there is noescape for consumers from havingto pay high fuel prices perennial-ly.

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Delhi Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal hasannounced that some

Government schools will be dis-affiliated from the Central Boardof Secondary Education (CBSE)and affiliated to the new DelhiBoard of School Education(DBSE) in the 2021-2022 acad-emic year. While presentingDelhi’s annual budget for 2020,Deputy Chief Minister ManishSisodia had announced that theGovernment was setting aside�62 crore to set up a separateState Board of Education.Currently, there are over 1,000schools run by the DelhiGovernment which are all affil-iated to the CBSE.

What is the rationale orwhat benefits will accrue by set-ting up a DBSE and by disaffil-iating schools from the CBSE,is a speculative question shroud-ed in mystery as no rationale hasbeen given for the move. TheDelhi Board of Higher

Secondary Education was set upby a resolution on November26, 1942, and dissolved witheffect from July 1, 1962, whenschools were affiliated to theCBSE, reads a notification of theDelhi Administration datedJune 30, 1962. The CBSE, set upalmost a century ago in 1929,has grown into a prestigious,autonomous Board of educationin India for public and privateschools, including for manyIndian schools across the world.From 309 schools in 1962,today the CBSE has 25,185schools including 228 institu-tions in 25 foreign countriesaffiliated to it. All these schoolsfollow the National Council ofEducational Research andTraining (NCERT) curriculum.

The British set up the firstschool Board in 1921. TheSadler Commission’s report of1917-19 led to the formation ofvarious Boards of secondaryeducation in India. The Uttar

Pradesh Board of High Schooland Intermediate Educationwas the first such Board with avast jurisdiction. In 1929, theGovernment of India set up ajoint Board namely, the Boardof High School andIntermediate Education,Rajputana. This includedAjmer-Merwara, Central Indiaand Gwalior. Later it was con-fined to Ajmer, Bhopal andVindhya Pradesh. In 1952, itbecame the CBSE. It was a boldand futuristic experimenttowards inter-State integrationand cooperation in the sphereof secondary education.

Besides facilitating rapidgrowth and expansion, theCBSE did a commendable jobin improving the standard ofsecondary education in theinstitutions recognised by itthrough transformative initia-tives and periodic inspections.All Sainik Schools, KendriyaVidyalayas (KVs), all Jawahar

Navodaya Vidyalayas (JNVs),Eklavya Model ResidentialSchools, most private schoolsand those approved by theCentre are affiliated to theCBSE. There are 1,245 KVs —including one each atKathmandu, Tehran andMoscow, 647 JNVs, 3,011Government Schools, 20,265private schools, and 14 CentralTibetan Schools affiliated tothe Indian Board. Such is itscredibility and internationalrepute, the Board has schoolsaffiliated to it in Africa, the Gulf,

Nepal, Bangladesh, Japan,Singapore and Malaysia. Overthe years, responding to theneeds and aspirations of the stu-dents, the CBSE has taken stepsto transform the educationecosystem, especially in peda-gogy, the examination processand assessment of papers.

The CBSE grants affiliation,following a transparent andrigorous procedure, to theschools under two broad cate-gories —regular (Government)and general (independent).Schools seeking affiliation mustfulfil essential requirements andprocure from the StateEducation Departmentsmandatory certificates, that is‘No Objection Certificate’,‘Recognition Certificate’ andland area documents as perextant rules and provisions ofthe Right to Education Act,2009 (RTE Act). The CBSEstrictly monitors the obser-vance of affiliation granting

conditions by the schools. Incase a school is found violatingthe provisions of the affiliationby-laws or examination by-laws, or does not abide by itsdirections, the CBSE imposespenalties, including withdraw-al of affiliation. All schoolsfunded by the Centre andmajority of the schools affiliat-ed to the CBSE are private.Delhi, Sikkim, ArunachalPradesh, Chandigarh andAndaman and Nicobar Islandsdo not have their own sec-ondary school Board as they areaffiliated to CBSE. Over theyears, there has been spectacu-lar growth in the number ofCBSE-affiliated schools andstudents studying in them.During the period 2011-2019,the number of candidatesappearing for the Board exam-ination from these schoolsincreased from 18,32,364 to31,14,832, registering anincrease of almost 70 per cent.

This is so because the Boardstrives to achieve academicexcellence by conceptualisingpolicies and operational plan-ning to ensure balanced acad-emic and physical activities inthe affiliated schools. It followsthe scheme of studies, curricu-lum, academic guidelines andcapacity-building programmesas per the objectives set by theNational Curricular Frameworkand in consonance with thepolicies approved and the lawsenacted by Parliament.

Before the setting up of theNational Testing Agency, theCBSE was also entrusted withthe task of holding NEET examsand continues to conduct suc-cessfully many other tests. Thedecision of the DelhiGovernment remains shroudedin mystery. Given the multiplebenefits of an internationally-reputed Board like the CBSE,disaffiliation and creation of anew Board is hard to justify.

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Myanmar’s ruling junta hasdeclared martial law in six

townships in the country’slargest city, as security forceskilled dozens of protesters overthe weekend in an increasinglylethal crackdown on resistanceto last month’s military coup.

State broadcaster MRTVsaid Monday that the Yangontownships of North Dagon,South Dagon, Dagon Seikkanand North Okkalapa have beenput under martial law. An ini-tial announcement was madelate Sunday saying two othertownships — Hlaing Thar Yarand neighbouring Shwepyitha— were being placed undermartial law.

At least 38 people werekilled Sunday and dozens wereinjured in one of the deadliestdays of the crackdown on anti-coup protesters, according tothe Assistance Association for

Political Prisoners, or AAPP, anindependent group trackingthe toll of the violence. Severalestimates from other sourcesgave higher figures.

Complicating efforts toorganise new protests as well asmedia coverage of the crisis,mobile internet service hasbeen cut, though access is still

available through fixed broad-band connections.

Mobile data service hasbeen used to stream live videocoverage of protests, often

showing security forces attack-ing demonstrators. It had beenturned off only from 1 am to 9am for several weeks, with noofficial explanation.

The blockage of internetservice forced postponement ofa court hearing in the capital,Natpyitaw, for Myanmar’sdetained leader, Aung San SuuKyi, who was supposed to takepart via a video conference, saidher lawyer Khin Maung Zaw.

Suu Kyi and President WinMyint were detained during theFebruary 1 military takeover,and have been charged withseveral criminal offences thattheir supporters believe arepolitically motivated to keepthem locked up.

Since the takeover sixweeks ago, Myanmar has beenunder a nationwide state ofemergency, with its civilianleaders ousted and detained,and military leaders in chargeof all Government.

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Attacks on Chinese-run fac-tories in Myanmar’s biggest

city drew demands on Mondayfrom Beijing for protection fortheir property and employees,while many in Myanmarexpressed outrage over China’sapparent lack of concern for

those killed in protests againstlast month’s military coup.

A Chinese ForeignMinistry spokesperson saidthe Chinese Embassy had con-tacted authorities in Myanmarand urged that police bedeployed to protect theChinese companies and per-sonnel.

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Acourt in Myanmar haspostponed deposed leader

Aung San Suu Kyi’s virtualhearing because of internetissues, a lawyer said, as securi-ty forces again opened fire onprotesters rallying against the military’s February1 coup.

The court’s decision onMonday to adjourn Aung SanSuu Kyi’s hearing comes amida mobile internet shutdown inthe country, a day after securi-ty forces killed at least 44 peo-ple in the deadliest crackdownon anti-coup protests yet.

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Chief of Nepal’s CPN-MaoistCentre (MC) Pushpa

Kamal Dahal “Prachanda” hasproposed to drop “MaoistCentre” from the party’s nameto make it acceptable for com-munist forces in the country,who do not like Maoism, tojoin it, according to a mediareport on Monday.

CPN-MC member ShivKumar Mandal said that formerprime minister Prachanda wasalways in favour of unity amongall communist forces of thecountry and suggested that ifdropping “Maoist Centre” fromthe party’s name could helpunite these forces, then theparty should be ready for that,The Himalayan Times reported.

The proposal to changethe name of the party came asCPN-MC faces the heat to

bolster the party after theSupreme Court recently nulli-fied its merger with CPN-UML led by Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, it said.

This has created a situationwhere Prime Minister Oli sud-denly sees his positionstrengthened in the party, as hehas a clear majority in theCentral Committee andParliamentary Party.

Other prominent leaders ofthe CPN-UML’s Nepal faction- Madhav Kumar Nepal andJhalanath Khanal, who hadjoined hands with Prachandain seeking Oli’s resignation asPrime Minister- find them-selves in disadvantageous posi-tion, the report said.

The CPN (UML) and CPN(MC) merged in May 2018 toform a unified NepalCommunist Party followingthe victory of their alliance in

the 2017 general elections.The ruling NCP split over

Oli’s move to dissolve the 275-member House ofRepresentatives in December.In a landmark ruling, the apexcourt last month reinstatedthe lower house of Parliament.

Nepal’s ElectionCommission on Tuesday askedthe CPN (UML) and the CPN(MC) to come up with a newname and election symbol of theparty if they decide to merge theirparties again after the SupremeCourt quashed the 2018 unifi-cation of the two parties.

However, the political tus-sle between the two partiesintensified after Prachanda onSunday for the second timeasked its ministers in PrimeMinister Oli’s government toresign en masse for breachingparty discipline, amid theirreluctance to quit the Cabinet.

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The European Union said onMonday it is starting legal

action against the UnitedKingdom, arguing it does notrespect the conditions of theBrexit withdrawal agreementand is violating internationallaw.

The 27-nation EU isobjecting to Britain unilateral-ly extending a grace periodbeyond April 1 that applies totrade on the island of Ireland,where the EU and the UnitedKingdom share a land borderand where a special trade sys-tem was set up as part of theBrexit divorce deal.

It marks yet another wors-ening of relations between thetwo sides since a divorce tran-

sition period ended on January1. Disputes have ranged fromfights over vaccines, to the fulldiplomatic recognition of theEU in Britain and now againthe terms of the divorce agree-ment.

Britain announced lastweek that it is delaying theimposition of checks on somegoods from the EU to givebusinesses more time to pre-pare for new post-Brexit rules.

On March 3, the UK decid-ed to unilaterally extend agrace period until October onchecks for goods movingbetween Britain and NorthernIreland, a key part of the dealmeant to avoid a hard borderon the island of Ireland whenthe post-Brexit transition peri-od ended on December 31.

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China on Monday criticisedthe Quad, saying no “small

cliques” should be formed, asit accused some countries oftrying to “sow discord” amongregional nations by “hyping”the ‘China threat’ and asserted that they will not suc-ceed.

Quad countries involvingthe US, India, Australia andJapan held their first virtualsummit on Friday duringwhich President Joe Biden toldleaders of the coalition that a“free and open” Indo-Pacific isessential to their countries andvowed that his country wascommitted to working with itspartners and allies in the regionto achieve stability.

Prime Minister NarendraModi attended the virtual sum-mit alongside Australian PrimeMinister Scott Morrison andJapanese Prime MinisterYoshihide Suga.

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Shared concerns aboutChina’s growing influence in

the Indo-Pacific region willtake center stage whenPresident Joe Biden’s defencechief and secretary of statevisit Japan for their first in-per-son talks with their Japanesecounterparts.

Defence Secretary LloydAustin and Secretary of StateAntony Blinken arrived inTokyo on Monday for meetingsmeant to reaffirm America’scommitment to the region andto the two nations’ alliance fol-lowing former PresidentDonald Trump’s more con-frontational approach.

The two secretaries willhold so-called “two plus two”diplomatic and security talkson Tuesday with their Japanesecounterparts, Foreign MinisterToshimitsu Motegi and Defense Minister NobuoKishi.

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Arms imports to the MiddleEast rose by a quarter in

the decade to 2020 even thougharms sales globally remainedstable over the same period, aSwedish watchdog said onMonday.

The StockholmInternational Peace ResearchInstitute, or SIPRI, said theMiddle East figures were drivenchiefly by the world’s largestarms importer, Saudi Arabia,which increased its purchasesby 61%. Egypt’s imports rose136% and Qatar’s 361%.

SIPRI said the interna-tional sale of major arms stayedat the same level during theperiod from 2011-2020.

Rome: The Vatican decreedMonday that the Catholic Churchwon’t bless same-sex unions sinceGod “cannot bless sin”,

The Vatican’s orthodoxyoffice, the Congregation for theDoctrine of the Faith, issued aformal response Monday to aquestion about whetherCatholic clergy have theauthority to bless gay unions.The answer, contained in atwo-page explanation pub-lished in seven languages andapproved by Pope Francis, was“negative”.

The note distinguishedbetween the church’s welcom-ing and blessing of gay people,which it upheld, but not theirunions. AP

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Beijing on Monday wasenveloped in yellow dust as

the most powerful sandstormin a decade swept through thecapital and most parts ofnorthern China, leading to thecancellation of several flightsdue to poor visibility.

Citizens of Beijing woke upto a bleak yellow sky, with vis-ibility reduced to less than a fewhundred metres. The concen-tration of hazardous airborneparticles of PM10 in mostareas exceeded 2,000 micro-grams per cubic meter, theNational Meteorological Center(NMC), which issued a yellowalert, said.

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Page 9: 5V]YZ 8`ge ^VR_d µ=8¶ dRjd 3Z]] - Daily Pioneer

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Growing for the third con-secutive month, the coun-

try’s exports rose marginally by0.67 per cent year-on-year toUSD 27.93 billion in Februaryeven as trade deficit widened toUSD 12.62 billion, according toofficial data released onMonday.

Imports rose by 6.96 percent to USD 40.54 billion in themonth, the data showed. Thetrade deficit in February 2020was at USD 10.16 billion.

Exports during April-February 2020-21 period con-tracted by 12.23 per cent toUSD 256.18 billion comparedto USD 291.87 billion in theyear-ago period. Importsdipped 23.11 per cent to USD340.8 billion in April-February.

In February, oil importsdeclined by 16.63 per cent toUSD 8.99 billion while duringApril-February the shipmentswere down by 40.18 per cent toUSD 72.08 billion.

Mumbai:The domestic airportsector is expected to incur a netloss of �5,400 crore, and cashloss of �3,500 crore in FY21,impacted by a 66 per centyear-on-year slip in passengertraffic amid Covid-19 inducedtravel restrictions, ratingagency Icra said in a note onMonday.

It also said that given thesignificant delays in tarifforders in the past, timely tar-iff orders of regulator AirportsEconomic RegulatoryAuthority, which adequatelycompensates for the ongoingCapex and revenue loss due toCOVID remains critical fromthe credit perspective.

According to the agency,domestic passenger traffic maydrop by 61 per cent, while theinternational passenger trafficwill nose dive by 85 per cent in2020-21.The industry, howev-er, could see its profitabilityimproving to Rs 190 crorebacked by an expected massive130 per cent year-on-yearrecovery in traffic in the nextfiscal, the note stated.

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The wholesale price-basedinflation rose for the sec-

ond consecutive month to a 27-month high of 4.17 per cent inFebruary, as food, fuel andpower prices spiked.

The WPI inflation was2.03 per cent in January and2.26 per cent in February lastyear.

After witnessing monthsof softening of prices, the foodarticles in February saw 1.36per cent inflation. In January itwas (-) 2.80 per cent.

In vegetables the rate ofprice rise was (-) 2.90 per centin February, against (-) 20.82per cent in the precedingmonth.

Inflation in pulses was10.25 per cent in February,while in fruits it was 9.48 per

cent.Inflation in the fuel and

power basket was 0.58 percent in February, against (-)4.78 per cent in January on ris-ing prices of petrol and diesel.

Petroleum product priceshave reached historic highs asinternational crude prices have surged in recent monthsand due to high indirect taxesboth at the centre and statelevel.

ICRA Ltd PrincipalEconomist Aditi Nayar said thedoubling in the WPI inflationin February reflects the rise incommodity prices brought onby the global risk-on sentiment,hardening of crude oil and fuelprices, as well as a fading of thefavourable base effect for fooditems.

Core inflation was at 5.5per cent in February.

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States may face a GST com-pensation shortfall of �3

lakh crore in the next financialyear, a situation that will forcethem to borrow more from themarkets, says a report.

The states may face ashortfall of �2.7-3 lakh crore asGoods and Services Tax (GST)compensation from the Centrenext fiscal. Out of that amount,the shortfall from cess collec-tions will be at �1.6-2 lakhcrore, according to an Icrareport released on Monday.

In FY21, the States werefacing a shortfall of �1.1 lakhcrore in GST compensationfrom the Centre but over 90 percent of that amount has beencleared now.

According to the ratingagency, the shortfall will forcestates to borrow at least �2.2lakh crore more from the mar-ket, which means that they willhave to utilise as much as 90per cent of their enhancedborrowing limits in FY22.

“Based on the Centre’sGDP estimate for FY22, weproject the enhanced bor-rowing of 1 per cent of GrossState Domestic Product(GSDP) or �2.2 lakh crore bythe states as we estimate ashortfall in GST compensa-tion from the Centre to thetune �1.6-2 lakh crore, takingthe overall GST compensationshortfall to �2.7-3 lakh crorein FY22,” Jayanta Roy, grouphead of corporate sector rat-ing at Icra, said.

The 15th FinanceCommission has recommend-ed that the normal limit for netborrowings of states be fixed at4 per cent of GSDP in FY22,higher than the base borrowinglimit of 3 per cent.

The commission has alsorecommended an additionalborrowing of 0.5 per cent forthe states during FY22-25, ifthey completed some condi-tions linked to power sectorreforms.

The Centre has estimatedthe maximum power sector-related additional borrowingsat �1.1 lakh crore in FY22. Thisalong with any carried-for-ward borrowing of FY21,which we estimate at another�1.1 lakh crore, will provideconsiderable space to the states

to spend more on capitalexpenditure in FY22, he said.

The agency has estimatedthe states’ projected revenues at�8.7 lakh crore next fiscal,which is 14 per cent higherthan �7.7 lakh crore in FY21.

The numbers are based onan estimate by the agency forall the 31 states and the UnionTerritories on a base case sce-nario of 23 per cent growth inGST collection by the states,which is in line with theCentral estimate as well.

Based on this, the agencyexpects the SGST collections byall the 31 states and UTs at Rs5.7 lakh crore in FY22. The gapbetween the estimated pro-jected revenue and SGST col-lections is pegged at Rs 3 lakhcrore.

So far, the Centre has notproposed a mechanism to fundthe possible shortfall in GSTcompensation to the states.

Based on the StateDevelopment Loans issuancetill March 9 and borrowingsnotified/ indicated for theremaining three weeks, theagency expects the net issuanceof SDLs in FY21 at Rs 6.7 lakhcrore or 71 per cent of theiraggregate net borrowing limitof Rs 9.5 lakh crore for this fis-cal.

This means the states canborrow an additional Rs 2.8lakh crore during the reminderof the outgoing fiscal but itseems that some state maychoose to carry forward a por-tion of the unutilised borrow-ings to FY22.

Life Insurance Corporationof India has introduced

LIC’s Bachat Plus a Non-Linked, Participating,Individual, Savings Plan whichoffers combination of protec-tion and savings. This planprovides financial support forthe family of the deceased pol-icyholder any time beforematurity and lump sumamount at the time of maturi-ty for the surviving policy-holders. Proposer can chooseto pay the premium either asLumpsum (Single Premium) orfor a Limited period of 5 years.

It can be purchased Offlinethrough agent /other interme-diaries as well as Online direct-ly through website www.licin-dia.in.

An option to choose SumAssured on Death is providedunder this plan as per the twooptions available under each ofSingle Premium and LimitedPremium payment.

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Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman on Monday

introduced a Bill in RajyaSabha that seeks to amend theInsurance Act to pave the wayfor 74% FDI in the sector. TheUnion Cabinet on Wednesdayhad given its nod for amend-ments in the InsuranceAmendment Bill 2021. FinanceMinister Sitharaman intro-duced the Bill for amendmentsin the Insurance Act, 1938.

Currently, the permissibleFDI limit in the life and gener-al insurance stands at 49% withownership and managementcontrol with Indian. Sitharamanpresenting the Union Budgetfor 2021-22 had said, “I proposeto amend the Insurance Act,1938 to increase the permissi-ble FDI limit from 49% to 74%in insurance companies andallow foreign ownership andcontrol with safeguards.”

New Delhi:Union Minister ofInformation and BroadcastingShri Prakash Javadekar todayinaugurated a photo-exhibi-tion at National Media Centerin New Delhi. The exhibition,set up by Bureau of Outreach&Communication is part of amassive awareness campaignby Ministry of I&B to celebrateAzadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav.

Addressing media on theoccasion the Minister said thiswas an important moment for

the country to reflect on howfar we have come since inde-pendence as well as envisionwhat we want to achieve in nexttwenty five years.

This is the core belief thatinforms these exhibitions. TheMinister added that freedomfor the country came at a greatcost, and this exhibition seeksto narrate the story behindthose sacrifices. Shri Javadekarcongratulated BOC for settingup the exhibitions.

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The Finance Ministry onMonday said it has

released the full �1.10 lakhcrore estimated GST com-pensation shortfall to thestates with the release of finalweekly installment of Rs4,104 crore.

With the release of the20th installment, 100 percent of the total estimatedGST compensation shortfall

of �1.10 lakh crore for theyear 2020-21 has now beenreleased to the states andUTs with LegislativeAssembly. Out of this, anamount of Rs 1,01,329 crorehas been released to the statesand an amount of Rs 8,879crore has been released to thethree UTs with LegislativeAssembly, the ministry said ina statement.

The Government of Indiahad set up a special borrow-

ing window in October lastyear to meet the estimatedshortfall of Rs 1.10 lakh

crore in revenue arisingon account of implementa-tion of GST.

The borrowings are beingdone through this window bythe central government onbehalf of the states and UTs.Starting from October 23,2020, the borrowings werecompleted in 20 weeklyinstallments.

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As our nation prepares forCOVID-19 vaccines, we

know that issues of equitabledistribution and access for all— particularly for the at-riskpopulation — are critical indetermining the pace and suc-cess of the nation’s recovery.Allocation, distribution, accessand utilisation of the COVID-19 vaccine will likely be thegreatest public health effort ofour generation.

And while this effort willpresent significant challenges,it also brings a new opportuni-ty to expand the strength ofexisting immunisation infra-structure in India. This hasbecome more important nowthan ever before.

Setting aside the currentpandemic, vaccine confidenceand hesitancy issues remain achallenge across all sectors ofthe healthcare system. Despitethe well-known benefits ofimmunisations, more than 1.5

million people worldwide diefrom vaccine-preventable dis-eases each year.

Adult coverage lags behindcurrent Healthy People targetsfor most commonly recom-mended vaccines: influenza,pneumococcal, tetanus, hepati-tis B, herpes zoster, and HPV.The World HealthOrganisation (WHO) hasdeclared vaccines to be one ofthe most important publichealth interventions of thetwentieth century.

Because vaccines have beenso successful at controllingdiseases like smallpox andpolio, we often take our rela-tively epidemic-free world forgranted. But less than a lifetimeago, these diseases and otherswere still real threats to health.Despite vaccines’ successes,many people do not know howvaccines work, or that they arenot just important for children,but adults too.

Aren’t vaccines for chil-dren?

Vaccines are for everyone,not just children. In fact, thereare some vaccines that arespecifically recommended foradults.

These adult vaccines pro-tect against diseases that aremore common in adults thanchildren. Some vaccines protectagainst diseases that can bemore serious when contractedby adults. Other adult vac-cines may actually be boostersof vaccines that you received asa child. Boosters refresh theimmune system’s memory ofhow to make the tools to fighta pathogen, so that it can con-tinue to provide protectionagainst the disease.

Getting vaccinated reducesyour risk of getting diseases likeshingles, measles, whoopingcough, or influenza. Even if avaccine is not 100% effective atprotecting you from contracting

the disease, it is likely to lessenthe severity of the symptomsassociated with the disease.

Reasons to get vaccinated:� Vaccine-preventable dis-

eases have not gone away.� Vaccines will help keep you

healthy.� Vaccines are as important to

your overall health as dietand exercise.

� Vaccination can mean thedifference between life anddeath.

� Vaccines are safe.� Vaccines won’t give you the

disease they are designed toprevent.

� Young and healthy peoplecan get very sick, too.

� Vaccine-preventable dis-eases are expensive to treat.

� When you get sick, yourfamily is at risk, too.

� Your family and coworkersneed you.

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�������1�Rich in fiber andMCTs, coconuts may offer anumber of benefits, includingimproved heart health,weight loss and digestion.Fresh coconuts can beeither young or mature.Young coconuts eitherhave a green shell or awhite husk. Youngcoconuts are the mosthealth enhancing of thetwo.

The water in the youngcoconut is one of the highestsources of electrolytes.Electrolytes are responsible forkeeping the body properlyhydrated so the muscles andnerves can function appropri-ately. Therefore, it is morebeneficial to drink the waterfrom a young coconut after anintense workout rather than the

commercial sports drinks.Coconuts are highly nutri-

tious and packed with essentialvitamins and minerals. Thecoconut milk is also good forhealth.

Coconuts also contain alipid called lauric acid, andmany researchers believe thatlauric acid can support theimmune system.

Achalasia is a disease wherethe function of the esoph-agus stops working over-time. It is thought to be

neural degeneration of the selectivenerve fibers in the body of theesophagus and the valve at the topof the stomach. It is a rare diseasewith an estimated prevalence of10.82 and incidence of 0.3–1.63 per100,000 adults per year.

In this disease esophagus mus-cles do not squeeze and the sphinc-ter muscle does not open, so foodcannot pass through valve top onstomach. Patients begin to experi-ence trouble swallowing. They can-not swallow regular food; theyhave trouble swallowing liquidsand they get a sensation that stuffjust sits in their esophagus. Somemay need to drink a lot of fluids toget food into the stomach and oth-ers may feel pain and/or discomfortafter eating. Some patients suffer-ing from achalasia may have undi-gested food come up after eating orwhen lying down.

Symptoms of achalasia mayinclude:� Regurgitation of food� Chest pain or pain felt in the

back, neck, and arms.� Difficulty swallowing liquids

and solids.� Heartburn� Unintentional weight loss� Cough

How it can be diagnosed:Esophageal manometry:

During esophageal manometry, athin, flexible tube (catheter) thatcontains pressure sensors is passedthrough nose, down into esophagus

and then into stomach. Esophagealmanometry provides informationabout the movement of foodthrough the esophagus into thestomach. The test measures theforce and coordination ofesophageal muscles as they propelfood into stomach. This test alsodiagnoses other swallowing disor-ders and classify Achalasia to cus-tomise treatment accordingly.

Upper Endoscopy: In this testflexible tube equipped with a lightand camera inserted into food pipethrough throat to examine theinside of food pipe and stomach.Endoscopy can be normal or mayshow retained saliva, undigestedfood, or liquid in the food pipe awithout any blockage of theesophagus by tumour and narrow-ing with subjective evidence ofresistant at valve at top of stomachwhile negotiating tube.

X-Ray of upper digestiveSystem: X-rays are taken after thepatient swallows chalky liquid thatcoats and fills the inside lining of thefood pipe and visualisation of adilated proximal food pipe with anarrowed junction just above thestomach giving the characteristic“bird beak” appearance is highlysuggestive of achalasia.

Both Endoscopy and bariumesophagram are only complemen-tary to esophageal manometry andlack sensitivity for accurately diag-nosing achalasia.

TREATMENT:�Pneumatic dilation: A bal-

loon is inserted by endoscopy intothe centre of the esophageal sphinc-

ter and inflated to enlarge theopening. This outpatient proceduremay need to be repeated if theesophageal sphincter does not stayopen. Nearly one-third of peopletreated with balloon dilation needrepeat treatment within five years.It is uncontrolled and forceful dila-tion sometimes can result intooesophageal perforation althoughresponse is good among early orevolving Achalasia.

�Botox: Botox is generally rec-ommended only for people who arenot good candidates for Balloondilation, endoscopic and laparo-scopic myotomy because of age oroverall health and presence of sig-nificant comorbidities. Botox injec-tions typically do not last more thansix months.

�Surgery (Heller Myotomy): During this procedure, five or

six small incisions are made in theabdominal wall and laparoscopicinstruments are inserted. Thenmuscle cut along the esophagus,starting above the lower esophagealsphincter and extending down ontothe stomach a little way

Per Oral EndoscopicMyotomy (POEM): This new lessinvasive and effective procedureeliminates the need for abdominalincisions. It is a major advance intreatment of achalasia and is lessinvasive and less traumatic to thebody.

How is the POEM proceduredone?

�A flexible tube called anendoscope is passed through themouth into oesophagus and make

a small cut in the inner most layerof the esophagus and then reachbetween the layers of the esophagusto selective cut that stiff muscle andthen close the hole in the esopha-gus with clips. This whole proce-dure is being done with an endo-scope without having any inci-sions on your abdomen. Carbondioxide gas ( Co2) is used for insuf-flation during this proceduresbecause Co2 absorbed very rapid-ly hence air insufflation relatedcomplications can be a avoided inthis procedure .

�It can be done in advancecases of Achalasia like sigmoidOesophagus and in presence ofdiverticula. POEM usually notrequire an additional anti refluxprocedure.

�POEM is also effective forother swallowing disorders likediffuse oesophageal spasm , inef-fective oesophageal motility andJackhammer Oesophagus.

�Procedure time is usually onehours and some time can be pro-longed due to difficult procedure inview of long standing disease , hugedilation and unexpected bleederduring myotomy.

�However, POEM is not with-out risks. As with other operations,there are risks of bleeding and rarelyleak which may resulting in chestinfection. It has been shown toincrease the risk of long-termreflux, although rarely troublesomeand most of times controlled withanti acid tablets.

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Now that the season is changing, there is a steady rise in num-ber of patients coming with allergic symptoms. Allergies are

common when the temperature starts increasing. Your immunesystem overreacts to an outdoor allergen, such as pollen. An aller-gen is something that triggers an allergic response. The real cul-prits of summertime seasonal allergies are grasses, such as rye-grass and timothy grass, as well as certain weeds. Grasses are themost common trigger for people with hay fever.

The most common allergens are pollens from wind-pollenat-ed plants, such as trees, grasses, and weeds. The pollens frominsect-pollinated plants are too heavy to remain airborne for long,and they’re less likely to trigger an allergic reaction.Many peo-ple with hay fever also have asthma. If you have both hay feverand asthma, your seasonal allergens may trigger an asthma attack.

Allergies in children are caused by a complicated interplayof genetic and environmental factors. Children are more likelyto develop allergies if one or both parents have allergies. It is not

a static disease and as the childmatures the pattern of the dis-ease changes.

The dry, itchy throat canlast for weeks to months at atime and varies in intensityfrom one day to the next,depending on the level of expo-sure to the pollutant. Othersigns of seasonal allergies arerunny nose, sudden bouts ofsneezing, and watery and itchyeyes. Some may also developdark circles under the eyesknown as allergic shiners.These dark circles are caused bythe pooling of blood under theeyes because of swollen tissuein the nasal cavities.

Viral infections can beaccompanied with headache, body ache, fever and tiredness. Thecough sometimes can be mucous-filled as the infection progress-es. Most of these infections are self-limiting and the symptomsimprove on their own after peaking for two to three days.Infections, both viral and bacterial, can lead to complications inpeople with other health conditions such as lung or kidney dis-ease, heart failure, chronic obstructive lung disease or asthma,making their visit to a doctor a must if high fever lasts for morethan two days. Cough with phlegm or pus accompanied withhigh fever, chills and difficulty breathing can also be a sign ofpneumonia, which must be ruled out.

Three of the most common allergens — house dust mites,animal dander and cockroach droppings — are worse when thereis less ventilation. Choosing a wrong skincare product, forget-ting to drink enough water, indulging in spicy and fried foods,frequent use of peel-off masks and forgetting to apply sunscreendaily adds to all these. Exposure to pollution leads to early age-ing of skin, pigmentation, skin irritation and other skin relatedproblems.

Precautions:�Wear a good quality mask.�Visit a doctor if your fever is 103 degrees F or more and

lasts for more than two to three days, or you develop troublebreathing.

�Drink a lot of water.�Wear loose cotton clothes.�Keep the humidity level inside the house below 50% and

regularly clean the air conditioners and carpets.

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With the weatherdepartment pre-dicting an increase

in temperature over thenext few days, there arechances that you mightfeel dehydrated.

Here are afew homeremedies thatcan help.

S t a r twith sippings m a l lamount ofwater. Thiswill help yourbody to getrehydrated.

Drink elec-trolyte containingdrinks. This is compari-tively a faster and easier wayof getting hydrated. Youcan choose coconut water asit is rich in sodium andpotassium. Drink it four-

five times a day.Saltwater is the easiest

way to cure dehydrationand consuming three litresof saltwater daily will yield

better results. Onemust add sugar

and salt to aglass of water

and drink it.Suck on

p op s i c l e smade fromjuices. Thiswill helpbring down

your bodytemperature

and cool youdown.And last, but not

the least yoghurt. Yoghurt isone of the best home reme-dies for dehydration andconsuming it once a day canprove to be beneficial for thebody.

With temperature settlingabove normal, there are high

chances that one might get dehydrated.

ROSHANI DEVI shares easyhome remedies that can

help treat it

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Ever wondered how maintaining anoptimum weight can solve many ofour health problems? Weight balance

and a healthy digestive system are the twomajor aspects of our good health. A healthylifestyle includes good food, nutrition andadequate physical activity. in recent times,a lot of importance have been given in goingback to the traditional way of living formaintaining optimum health. Our ances-tors not only followed a healthy diet, but alsobelieved in good physical activity for bal-ancing weight. Several factors contribute toone's weight. Thus, choosing what is rightfor you personally is what we need to focuson.

As we know, maintaining good andhealthy lifestyle is essential for overallweight, which will help in preventingmany health complications that may arisefrom obesity. Just like overweight, beingunderweight also can be harmful especial-ly when you are starving from the key nutri-ents that are essential to your day to day life.Hence, it is important to focus on keepingthe weight in balance that helps to lower therisk of various metabolic issues and makeus feel good inside out.

How weight balance affects digestion:Since majority of us work from home,

our lifestyle has changed totally with morestress; binge eating, unhealthy diet and asedentary lifestyle, which has lead to a wholelot of digestive distress and cause constipa-tion, bloating and other problems relatedto our digestive tract and such poor diges-tion can also lead to unnecessary weightgain. Thus, balancing our weight anddoing moderate exercise every day can stim-ulate our intestinal activities and can pre-vent us from facing digestive problems ata later period.

Three effective ways to balance yourweight:

Yoga: Yoga is one of the most trustedand effective forms of exercise, yoga notonly helps in improving your digestive sys-tem but will also help improve your men-tal wellbeing.

Food and nutrition: Having a balancedand nutrient-rich diet is important formaintaining optimum weight. It is neces-sary to look into what we eat every day.Improper diet is one of the major reasonswhy we face digestive problems and weightgain. A well-balanced diet is the need of thehour especially during the seasonal changes.During summer, with the rising tempera-ture and humidity outside, we may face dif-ficulty in digesting the foods that we usu-ally consume. Adding more fibre rich foodsto our diet will help us in improving ourdigestive tract and eventually lead to weightbalance.

Get moving: The best way to do thisis by including your favourite activities inyour daily routine. Try to move around tomake the most of it. Try to include activi-ties like dance, walking, spinning in yourdaily routine, which gives you a lot of move-ment and will always increase the scope ofyour fitness in various ways and it helps topromote the healthy functioning of yourdigestive system.

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Doja Cat went for neonfeathers and a moto-inspired look zipped

all the way down and CynthiaErivo stunned in a sparklingsilver gown with gold accentsby Louis Vuitton at theGrammys as music’s big nightoffered a luxe fashion momentfor the stars.

Dressed in Roberto Cavalli,Doja’s revealing look includedcat-claw zips on each arm and afeathered skirt. “I want to be thecat lady, so let me be that,” shesaid.

Erivo’s gown included alow cutout at the front with agold bib effect at the top and a

gold belt, while DaBaby bright-ened up a drastically pared-downred carpet in a bright mustard andgreen floral suit from Dolce &Gabbana. Erivo didn’t hit the car-pet, but she made a statement nev-ertheless. Her gown was adornedwith more than 60,000 glassbeads, crystals and sequins. Shetopped off the look with jewelsfrom Tiffany & Co.

Dua Lipa also sparkled in apink sequin Versace gown witha butterfly motif. The body-skimming gown includedcutouts at the hips and a sexyhigh slit. “It was really cool tocollaborate,” she said of thelook.

Billie Eilish matched herlong nails to a loose pink andblack trouser look by Gucci,

her hat and face mask also a match.DaBaby, his mom, Linda, by his

side in red, topped off his suit with awide-brim green hat with red under-neath. He was on hand in person butearlier created an Instagram red car-pet moment with his daughter sinceno kids were allowed at the LosAngeles show.

Joanie Leeds, winner of the bestchildren’s music album, did some-thing similar at a distance fromhome in New York.

“I actually created a step andrepeat and a red carpet,” she toldreporters during a virtual news con-ference before the show. “We allwalked the red carpet and we had aphotographer here and took some

really good pictures.”Leeds wore a multicolour

sequined gown by Nicole Miller, andshe slid off her silver heels to show oncamera. “Just because we’re virtualthis year, I wasn’t going to wear myhoodie sweatshirt,” said Leeds, afirst-time Grammy winner.

Due to pandemic precautions, the“red carpet” was not the usual massof cameras and TV crews. A selectfew outlets were permitted on site toconduct live interviews — a safe dis-tance apart.

The night’s host, Trevor Noah,showed up for the pared-down car-pet in a classic black tuxedo byGucci, while nominee Debi Novawent big — and pink — in a mini

dress that had a huge train and trop-ical details by Georges Chakra.Phoebe Bridgers wore a black gownadorned with a beaded human skele-ton from Thom Browne, and MeganThee Stallion wore a strapless brightorange princess look with a high sideslit and a huge back bow and train byDolce & Gabbana. Her Chopardchoker finished off the look.

“I wanted to pop. I wanted to looklike a Grammy,” Megan said.

Nandi Howard, associate fashioneditor at Essence, lauded the stylemoments provided by Megan andDaBaby.

“I’m eager to see D&G work morewith hip-hop artists. Megan looked soregal in her orange gown, and tonight

she wore her outfit effortlessly. I hopeto see her in couture more often. Shewears it very well,” she said.

Howard also offered kudos toLizzo, who shimmered in a pink mer-maid look to present an award andearlier wore a short ruched sea foamstrapless dress by Balmain. Shedripped in Bulgari jewels.

“We normally see avant-gardegowns at the Grammys, but leave itup to Lizzo to switch it up in the bestway,” Howard said.

Jacob Collier said he went forcomfort in a floral Stella McCartneyturtleneck and red suit.

“I’ve never been asked aboutclothes before,” he said. “I feel like arock star.”

In Dundas, H.E.R. rocked a bur-gundy, mid-calf robe with matchingwide-leg trousers.

Jonathan Evans, style director forEsquire, saw a healthy dose of 1970sflare running through menswear, inno small part to Gucci. Bruno Marsand Anderson .Paak slid into leisuresuits for Silk Sonic’s debut.

“Big lapels and flared trousersmight, I’ll admit, sound a little intim-idating, or like a return to the bad olddays, but when you see the way guyslike Anderson .Paak, Finneas andHarry Styles are wearing it, it feelsfresh,” he said.

All three wore Gucci. Evans saidof Styles’ look: “A jacket with a pat-tern that looks like it could be one ofyour grandmother’s favourite teacozies is one thing, but a croppedjacket with a gigantic lapel that chan-nels Nana? That’s the kind of thingthat Styles seems to make wearable.”

Styles later performed in a blackleather suit — who needs a shirt —with a green boa around his neck. Hewore a purple boa with his croppedjacket.

Noah Cyrus spoke to reporters ina cream gown with a huge cape-likeeffect that encircled her face. It wasa Schiaparelli, a somber Cyrus andfirst-time Grammy nominee said. Shesaid she was honored to be the firstto wear it. Cyrus is mourning therecent death of her grandmother.

“I just wish my grandma couldhave seen this,” she said of her nom-ination.

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Just a few days before galleristand art curator Ashna Singh

could announce the opening ofher new gallery in March lastyear, the entire country wentinto lockdown.

Singh, also a musician witha spiritual bent of mind, usedthis opportunity to turn hergaze inwards and curate a showthat reflects the sense of qui-etude and self-examinationthat all of us have experiencedin some measure over the lastyear. Dealing with mixed emo-tions of isolation and introspec-tion during this time, artistshave used various mediums toexpress themselves. Featuringnew works by Baiju Parthan,Khalil Chishtee, Megha Joshi,Pooja Iranna, Ranbir Kaleka,Remen Chopra W. Van DerVaart, Shivani Aggarwal,Sharmi Chowdhury, TVSantosh and Veer Munshi, thegroup show titled This & Thatincludes paintings, videos,sculptures and photographs.

Says Singh, Director, StudioArt, “The pre-COVID worldwas of immense exposure andcollaboration, yet the empha-sis on success, competitionand the desire to be visible mayhave depleted the self emotion-ally. This was ‘That’ time. Thenthere was social media that per-colated lives and didn’t make iteasier. One was visible but notpresent in the moment.Constant comparisons andpossibly an assessment of one’sworth in the eyes of the worldmay have impacted inner peaceand personal spaces. This was‘That’ time. Last year forcedcorrections upon the world,compelling many to face theirinadequacies. This time was allfactual where peace was beingrestored, not through com-promises, adjustments or fillingvoids but by simplifying theunnecessary and understand-ing the essentials. This timebrought about strength, a senseof freedom and a reintroduc-tion to oneself. That is ‘This’time. Our inaugural show This& That is an amalgamation ofchoices that humanity has beengifted with. A choice to choosehow to proceed forward. Achoice to repeal what doesn’tserve a purpose anymore.”

Aptly then, Megha Joshi’s

ink and watercolour titledWavering Faith is about theneed to prioritise our choices.The mental act of making achoice to believe and to convertthose into action has neverbeen more important. In afractured society, where one’sbelief (in socio-religious andeco-political terms) is shat-tered daily and seldomrestored, believing in anythingfirmly becomes even more dif-ficult. “I have explored this con-cept through the abstractedmetaphor of the rudrakshabead. The bead is the dividedself, oscillating, rotating, tryingto find order in chaos... in aperpetual motion of findingand losing faith.”

Veer Munshi’s How GreenIs My Valley is a grid of 14 pho-tographs and a video that cap-tures moments from one lock-down (post the scrapping ofArticle 370) to another (post-COVID). It is Munshi’s expe-rience of being in Kashmir onAugust 5, 2019, when Article370 was scrapped and the com-munication blockade wasimposed. “This led to massmigration to other states andreminded me of my youthwhen I had left the valley threedecades ago,” says Munshi.

Pooja Iranna’s installationin staple pins titled TheMeltdown represents man-made structures, but there is atwist to all the tales she express-es. Everything is not to be seen

at the surface level. The not sostraight partitions and the vis-ible curvatures all denote a con-cealed part of life. This could bebeautiful for some or evencomplex for others but all thesestructures are about conflictingemotions and stories. “Duringthe lockdown, I saw the citiesbecome like ghost towns, lead-ing me to the question — is allthe construction in the name ofdevelopment really necessary?”

Ranbir Kaleka’s videoinstallation with digital collageon canvas titled Turbulence,Veiled, Un-veiled is about therelentless cycle of losing andreclaiming calm in our com-plex lives.

Khalil Chishtee uses trashbags in sculptural works titledUnbearable Lightness of Being &Bedtime Ritual to speak aboutthe transience of life. “Oursmartphones are so efficientthat information is just a clickaway. And yet most of thetruths are hidden. For instance,we failed to see obvious signsof an impending pandemic. Welive in the age of plastic andtrash bags are the lowest formof it. My trash bags have theability to hold the content of mywork with so much love andcare that it bends themselvesfor me like clay or any othertraditional modelling material.My work is an attempt to con-nect two worlds together; theworld of reality and fiction, theworld that we live in and the

world that lives within our-selves.”

TV Santhosh’s sculpturein bronze is titled ObsoleteObjects. Society is undergoingan enormous structural changeforced by technologicaladvancement and even thoughit has made hardships of man-ual jobs much easier to execute,on the flip side it has made peo-ple more and more dependenton it. Industrialisation andurbanisation have brought in asense of alienation, makingsociety more fragmented.Technology is fast progressingin a way, upgrading the exist-ing systems, and in some caseseven replacing the old onewith a completely new system.In the process, the world isbecoming more and more likea wasteland of obsolete elec-tronic items.

Says Santosh, “Today, welive in a world of use and throwculture. My generation haslived through a period of tran-sition, from the era of theradio to the iPod, revolution-ising our approach to listeningto music. These two sculpturesare a kind of re-imagined doc-umentation of obsolete objectsthat have become part of nos-talgia today.”

Shivani Aggarwal sculptur-al work titled Hangers is anextension of the series of dys-functional objects she has beencreating for a long now. Thework questions how our state

of being is compromised by sit-uations and circumstances. Asimple wooden hanger ispushed beyond its limits so thatit changes its shape and pur-pose to become dysfunctional.The fragility of the object fur-ther adds to its loss of purpose.These hangers echo the ethosof the times we are living inwhere anything and every-thing loses its defined purpose

due to situational interven-tion, whether economic orecological or man-made.

Sharmi Choudhury’ssculptural work titled InnerConversation (Korean Hanjipaper & painted wood) is amanifestation of intimate dia-logue and confrontation withthe self. A self, which is anassemblage of numerous iden-tities and complex, interlinked

personal histories. “Materialalways gives me support tobuild the images. My work is ametaphor for our life experi-ences.”

The painting (acrylic oncanvas) titled Logos & Mythos(Soul’s Sacrifice) by BaijuParthan depicts a collisionbetween two mutually exclusiveworld views presented as pat-terns that overlap each other.

Using Charles Darwin andAlan Turing as the main pro-tagonists, the work is a com-ment about the old and thenew, about the world of poiesisand mythos versus the worldthat is arranged and perceivedthrough reasoning and logic.

(The show is on till May 15from 11 am to 7 pm at StudioArt, W-16, Okhla Phase 2, NewDelhi.)

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Darren Bravo hit 102 whileShai Hope and skipper

Kieron Pollard made half cen-turies as West Indies defeatedSri Lanka by five wickets in thethird and final One-DayInternational on Sunday.

West Indies chased downtheir target of 275 with nineballs to spare, swept the series3-0 to follow their 2-1 win inthe T20 matches.

Evin Lewis was the firstman out, bowled for 13 bySuranga Lakmal (2/56) in thefifth over. The early wobblecontinued as JasonMohammed was bowled for 8by Wanindu Hasaranga (1/49).

Unfortunately for the SriLankans, a 109-run standbetween Shai Hope and DarrenBravo put the hosts back oncourse from there.

At 148/2 the WestIndies were cruising butthe fall of Hope for 64 toPerera opened the door forSri Lanka.

Nicholas Pooranblasted a quickfire15 off 8, includ-ing two sixes,before perish-ing toGunathilaka inthe 35th.

With theWest Indies need-ing 106 runs offthe final 15 overs,the match was inthe balance.

Pollard (53*) and Bravotook it away from Sri Lankafrom there. Pollard helpedhimself to three consecutivefours off Lakmal in the 37thover to relieve the scoreboardpressure and Bravo started toup his run-rate.

He slammed LakshanSandakan over long-off for sixin the 38th before ticklingHasaranga down the legside forfour in the 43rd to move intothe 90s. In the 45th he raisedhis fourth ODI century withanother clip past fine leg. Heperished in the 47th over toLakmal, caught brilliantly by aleaping Karunaratne at extracover for 102.

An unbeaten 53 fromPollard in the company ofJason Holder (14*) saw theWest Indies home from there.

Earlier, asked to batfirst, Sri Lanka posted atotal of 274/6 thankslargely to half-centuries

from AshenBandara (55*)and Hasaranga(80*).

Both sideswill now playtwo Tests,starting nextSunday.

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India have exposed England’s“weakness” in handling slow

conditions but competing herewill only prepare them well for theT20 World Cup, feels skipper EoinMorgan.

Morgan admitted they strug-gled to get used to the slow surfaceused for the second match onSunday which India won by sevenwickets.

“I suppose the difference wasin the wicket we played and howwe adapted. It was different wick-et from the one we batted in thefirst game. The pitch was slow andlow and one thing that does isexpose our weakness on thesesurfaces a little bit,” said Morgan.

“We don’t play a lot on slow,low wickets and the more that wecan do that, the better. You onlybecome better in these conditionsby playing in them and makingmistakes.”

The English skipper, however,said playing in such tough condi-

tions ahead of the ICC World T20later this year in India, will onlyhelp them.

“I thought the other night (1stT20), the pitch really suited usbecause it had more pace in it —similar to a wicket at home.

“But this (2nd T20 wicket)took us out of our comfort zoneand really was a typical Indianwicket that we would play on in anIPL game. Again, your accuracyhas to be on,” Morgan said.

“You tend to learn quicker ifyou’re winning and confident andeverything goes reasonablysmoothly — you can integrate thelearning quite quickly — but equal-ly, if we have to learn the hard way,we’re still going through thatprocess of trying to learn game-on-game so when it comes to theWorld Cup in seven months’ time,we can be as best prepared.”

KISHAN HELPED KOHLIFormer England captain

Michael Atherton says debutantIshan Kishan’s aggressive batting at

the top helped ‘under-pressure’Virat Kohli settle down and playhis natural game in the secondT20I.

Atherton said Kishan’s fluentbatting (32-ball 56) helped in tak-ing some pressure off Kohli, whohad registered three ducks in hisprevious five innings.

“I think Virat felt under a lit-tle bit of pressure in that first gamebecause of what he’d said in thepress conference about India play-ing a slightly more aggressivegame,” the former England skippertold Sky Sports.

“The problem in that firstgame, with the line-up that Indiahad was that they had quite a lotof similar players in the top-orderand I think Kohli felt pressured.

“He’s (Kohli) an elite playerand scores very quickly but not likea (Rishabh) Pant or, indeed, anIshan Kishan. So when that youngman came in and played the waythat he did, I think that justallowed Kohli to come in and playhis natural game,” he observed.

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Cristiano Ronaldo hit back athis critics with a quick-fire

hat-trick as Juventus brushedaside Cagliari 3-1 on Sunday, fivedays after their ChampionsLeague elimination.

Portuguese star Ronaldobore the brunt of the criticism

for Juve’s latest European flopafter failing to score in either legof the last-16 defeat by Porto,while also being partly at faultfor what proved to be the goalwhich knockedthem out.

But the36-year-old scored

a header in the 10thminute at the Sardegna Arena,added a second from the penal-ty spot 15 minutes later, andcompleted a ‘perfect’ treble on 31minutes with a fine left-footedstrike.

Defending championsJuventus are 10 points behindleaders Inter Milan, who beatTorino 2-1 earlier Sunday, butwith a game in hand.

Andrea Pirlo’s side pulledjust one point behind second-placed AC Milan, whose titlehopes took a big hit following a1-0 home defeat to Napoli.

“Our approach was spot onand it was important to get offon the right foot after beingknocked out the other night,”said Pirlo.

“Ronaldo was angry like therest of the team. He reacted likea true champion.”

He could also have been

sent off after a quarter of anhour, receiving only a yellowcard for dangerous play as his

boot struck Cagliari goal-keeper Alessio Cragno inthe face while attempting to

meet a Federico Chiesa cross.Ronaldo is the leading

scorer in Serie A with 23 goalsthis season, ahead of Inter’sRomelu Lukaku, who has 19.

His career tally is now 770goals, overtaking Brazil legendPele’s 767 scored in officialmatches which he matched ear-lier this month.

Later at San Siro, AC Milan’s

hopes of a first title since 2011diminished as they failed to winfor their third consecutive gameat home, days before they hostManchester United in their last16 Europa League decider.

Matteo Politano scored theonly goal just after the breakwith Milan finishing the gamea man down after Ante Rebicwas sent off in injury time forarguing with officials.

Napoli’s Champions Leaguehopes have been revived as theymove above Roma into fifthbefore the two sides play nextweekend.

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Zinedine Zidane admittedReal Madrid are struggling

to explain Eden Hazard’s fitnessproblems after the club con-firmed the Belgian is injuredagain ahead of Tuesday’sChampions League gameagainst Atalanta.

Hazard came off the benchagainst Elche in La Liga onSaturday to make his firstappearance since January butZidane said in a press con-ference on Monday theBelgian is out again, withwhat the club confirmedwas a “muscle injury inthe right pelvis”.

Zidane said there are“things I cannot explain”regarding Hazard’s fitnessissues and when askedabout the club’s long list ofinjuries, he pointed to var-ious factors including“things up here in the head,which influences a lot”.

Hazard has playedonly 14 times this sea-son for Real Madrid,continuing a night-mare period forthe 30-year-oldforward, who

joined from Chelsea for 100million euros in the summer of2019.

“He is not going to be fit,”said Zidane. “There are thingsI cannot explain. Like always Itry to stay positive and hope itwill be a little thing. Somethingis happening. He is a playerwho was never injured in hiscareer. We want to help him.”

Real Madrid beat Atalanta1-0 in the first leg in Italy lastmonth as they bid to becomethe first Spanish team to reach

the Champions League quar-ter-finals.

Barcelona and Sevillawere both knocked out last

week while AtleticoMadrid face Chelsea

on Wednesday, hop-ing to overturn a 1-0 defeat from thefirst leg at home.

“I have nodoubt Atalanta aregoing to come hereto win,” saidZidane. “We aregoing to have toplay very well.The first legmeans noth-ing, we have to

start from zero.”

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Having seen Ishan Kishan’s exploits in the IPL,England opener Jason Roy was not sur-

prised at all when he saw the young left-handertaking the game away from his team in the sec-ond T20I.

“He’s obviously a star player, he’s done thatfor Mumbai Indians, numerous amounts of timeso I wasn’t surprised when I saw him kind of tee-ing off a bit because everyone knows he’s a starplayer so good on him,” Roy said in a virtualmedia interaction with the UK media.

“A couple of times he might have got a lit-tle bit wrong with the ball but he capitalised byhitting it for six. It’s just a case of just makingsure you kind of execute your skills extremelywell.”

India have come into the series with theintention of playing more fearless cricket, whichwas on display in the second T20. England, onthe other hand, are already used to that brandof cricket.

“It has worked for us in 50 overs cricket, itworked for us in kind of 10 to 20 games we’veplayed. Our policy is to play aggressive cricket,but the problem is, when you’re playing on pitch-es like this you have to be a little bit more cal-culated. You have to assess it a bit quicker,” saidRoy.

“If you’re wanting to play that way, you gotto accept that some days it’s not going to go thatway. You are going to be three-four down in apowerplay. But with the depth of our batting line-up, that’s the opportunity it gives to the top orderbatsmen,” Roy said.

Roy has been consistent with scores of 49and 46 but has not converted into a big knockand that is something he wants to do in theremaining games.

He termed India a class team but said theyare confident to bounce back on Tuesday.

“The boys have bounced back, we’re a fastlearning side. I don’t think there’s been a hugeamount of wind out of our sails to be honest,”he concluded.

<������������������Manchester: ManchesterUnited tightened their grip ona return to the ChampionsLeague next season as CraigDawson’s own goal earned OleGunnar Solskjaer’s men a 1-0win over West Ham on Sunday.

Victory moved United backabove Leicester into second inthe Premier League and closedthe gap to runaway leadersManchester City to 14 points.

Despite also having a gamein hand on their local rivals, theRed Devils are unlikely to haulin Pep Guardiola’s men but donow enjoy a nine-point cushion

over the fifth-placed Hammersin the battle for ChampionsLeague places.

Former United boss DavidMoyes has failed to win in 15attempts as the visiting manag-er at Old Trafford and the Scotwas left to rue an overly cau-tious approach before fallingbehind early in the secondhalf.

Whille the hosts held outfor a fourth consecutivePremier League clean sheet toclose in on the much-neededresources of Champions Leaguefootball next season. AFP

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Their confidence soaringhigh after a resoundingseries-levelling win, India

would look to build on their newapproach of batting freely andfearlessly when they take onEngland in the third T20, here onTuesday.

The Men in Blue were off toa horrible start in the T20 series,suffering a eight-wicket loss inthe opening match but turned thetables on England with a seven-wicket win in the second game.

In stark contrast from thefirst match, Virat Kohli and hismen excelled in all departments.

The inclusion of IshanKishan, who made a sparklingdebut with a 32-ball 56, allowedIndia to go ahead with their newapproach that encourages bats-men to express themselves.

Despite losing KL Rahul infirst over with no runs on theboard, the 22-year attacked fromthe word go, smashing JofraArcher for a boundary in the veryfirst ball he faced.

The hosts will also gain con-fidence from Kohli unbeateninnings in the second game as hetook the side past the finish line,breaking a sequence of lowscores.

The skipper did not have thebest of times in the precedingTest series and also got outcheaply in the first T20. BothKohli and Shreyas Iyer will tar-get big scores.

The bowling department,which didn’t have runs to defendin the opener, did a fabulous jobto restrict England to 164. Thebiggest positive would be HardikPandya bowling four overs whichallowed the hosts to go with an

extra batsman.The bowlers will look to

replicate their good show fromthe last match where they foundtheir rhythm.

What India would aspire is abetter effort from Rishabh Pant,who has been promoted to num-ber four ahead of Iyer. The big-hitting wicketkeeper has lookedlethal in both outings but failedto capitalise on his starts.

India are unlikely to tinkerwith the winning combinationsave the return of star white-ballopener Rohit Sharma who isexpected to be back in the sideafter being rested for a couple ofgames.

With Kishan faring well, KLRahul, who looked out of sorts inboth the outings, is expected tomake way for Rohit.

The primary objective forIndia remains the same — to get

an idea of the core group of play-ers going into the ICC T20 WorldCup in October.

England attack looked lessthreatening in the absence ofMark Wood, who missed the sec-ond T20 due to a bruised heel.However, skipper Eoin Morganconfirmed that the pacer willreturn in the next game.

Opener Jason Roy has lookedin good nick but missed out onhalf-centuries in both games,He will be eager to go the dis-tance come Tuesday.

With the series locked at 1-1, the third T20 promises to bea cracker of a contest with bothteams be vying for the braggingrights at the the Narendra Modistadium.

With the game set to unfoldon a surface that red soil beneath,the spinners are expected to testthe batsmen.