India captures critical heights near Pangong Lake

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AHMEDABAD l THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2020 l Pages 12 l 3.00 RNI NO. GUJENG/2019/16208 l Vol 1 l Issue No. 278

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COVID-19 UPDATE

GUJARAT3,048

DEATHS99,050

CONFIRMED CASES

RAJASTHAN 1,081 DEATHS 84,674 CASES

DELHI 4,481 DEATHS 1,79,569 CASES

WORLD8,63,661

DEATHS2,60,47,634

CONFIRMED CASES

INDIA38,30,103CONFIRMED CASES

67,184DEATHS

MAHARASHTRA24,903 DEATHS 8,08,306 CASES

TAMIL NADU7,516 DEATHS 4,39,959 CASES

KARNATAKA5,950 DEATHS 3,61,341 CASES

Rupani govt will conclude crop damage survey in 15 days

First India Bureau

Gandhinagar: The state government has ordered a survey of the crop damage sus-tained due to heavy rainfall in the state. The survey is to be conducted within a period of 15 days by the state agriculture

and revenue depart-ments. Based on the reports filed, farmers will be extended com-pensation as per State Disaster Relief Fund (SDRF) criteria.

Announcing the state government’s move, state Agriculture Minis-ter RC Faldu told the media, “This monsoon

season the state has re-ceived 126% rainfall so far. And because of ex-cessive showers, farm-ers will now be able to cultivate crops even dur-ing the summer season next year. Due to heavy

rainfall, almost all the water reservoirs are full and can meet irrigation water requirements for the next two years.”

“But relentless rainfall, specifically in the last two weeks

of August, has dam-aged crops on a large scale. In some areas, standing crops have been submerged in floodwaters and in a few other places, fun-gi have killed crops.

Farmers have suf-fered losses which will be compensated for by the state gov-ernment as per SDRF norms,” he added.

According to SDRF guidelines, crop dam-age should be a mini-mum of 33% for farm-ers to be entitled to com-pensation.

Earlier, Ahmedabad District Development Officer (DDO) Arun Mahesh Babu had is-sued a statement that a survey was being conducted in three ta-lukas Turn to P6Chief Minister Vijay Rupani

Agriculture minister RC Faldu said that farmers will be compensated for damages as per SDRF norms

CHUDASAMA REFUSES ADMISSION DATE EXTENSIONThe state Education Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama has refused to extend the time limit to fi le applications for admission under the Right to Education Act. The state had received 2,04,420 applications for admission of school students, of which, 1,19,697 applications were approved. Over 24,045 students have been rejected and 18,890 applications are currently being scrutinized. Around 41,788 applications have been withdrawn by parents. Talking about his stance on the extension, Chudasama said, “In the interest of students and their education, we will not be extending the time limit for admissions.”

New Delhi: The Indian Army has further bol-stered its presence in at least three strategic heights in the southern bank of Pangong lake in eastern Ladakh, days after foiling China’s “provocative” actions to change the status quo in the area, government sources said on Wednes-day. Some “readjust-ments” in deployment of troops were also car-ried out on the north-ern bank of the Pan-gong lake on the Indian side of the Line of Con-trol (LAC) as part of precautionary meas-ures, they said. The sit-uation in the area was said to be sensitive.

The sources also said another round of mili-tary talks between the two sides on Wednesday to defuse tensions in the area remained incon-clusive. The talks lasted

nearly seven hours.The talks at the Bri-

gade Commander-level on Monday and Tues-day also did not yield any tangible outcome, the sources said.

Sources said India has achieved tactical gains in eastern Ladakh

in the last few days by occupying a number of strategically important hill tops and locations.

The enhanced de-ployment came in the wake of unsuccessful attempts by China to change the status quo in the region.

The two sides were earlier engaged in a confrontation on the northern bank of Pan-gong lake but it flared up for the first time on its southern bank, sources said.

At the military talks, the Chinese side con-

veyed its objection to India occupying certain strategic heights in the region, sources said.

But, the Indian dele-gation maintained that the heights are on the Indian side of the LAC, the sources added.

Turn to P6

India captures critical heights near Pangong Lake No Indian soldier killed in recent clash, says ChinaBeijing: No Indian troops were killed in the recent incursion attempt by Chinese soldiers near the southern bank of Pangong Tso, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said. She claimed that India “violated” consensus on the western section of the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

Mission Karmayogi! Modi’sway to reform bureaucracyAditi Nagar

New Delhi: The Cabi-net has approved Mis-sion Karmayogi, a Na-tional Programme for Civil Services Capacity Building so that civil servants remain en-trenched in Indian cul-ture while they learn from the best practices across the world, said the government of In-dia on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Nar-endra Modi on Wednes-day said that National Programme for Civil Services Capacity Building “Mission Kar-mayogi” will radically improve human re-source management practices in the govern-ment and it aims to pre-pare civil servants for the future by making them more creative and constructive.

“This is the biggest human resource devel-opment programme in the government,” Infor-mation and Broadcast-ing Minister Prakash Javadekar said during a press briefing after the cabinet meeting.

“Mission Karmayogi -

National Program for Civil Services Capacity Building will radically improve the Human Re-source management practices in the Govern-ment. It will use scale and state of the art infra-structure to augment the capacity of civil serv-

ants,” the PM said in a tweet. “iGOT platform will enable the transition to a role-based HR man-agement and continuous learning. Mission Kar-mayogi aims to prepare civil servants for the fu-ture by making them more creative, Turn to P6

Cabinet gives nod to this unique skill building programme for the civil servants, which govt says will help them in the future

PUBG, 117 other Chinese apps lose digital war with India!

New Delhi: Nearly two months after it banned 59 China-linked apps, the government on Wednesday decided to block 118 mobile apps including PUBG MO-BILE Nordic Map: Li-vik, WeChat Work and WeChat in view of in-formation available that they are engaged in activities which are prejudicial to sover-eignty and integrity, defence and security of India and public order.

The decision came amid border tensions with China in eastern Ladakh. The Ministry of Electronics and In-formation Technology (MeitY) said in a re-

lease that the decision “is a targeted move” to ensure safety, security and sovereignty of In-dian cyberspace.

The ministry said it has received many complaints from vari-

ous sources including several reports about the misuse of some mobile apps available on Android and iOS platforms for stealing and surreptitiously transmitting Turn to P6

AMIT SHAH@AMITSHAH

To bring a transformational

change in civil services, cabinet today approved #MissionKarmayogi. I

thank PM @NarendraModi ji for this visionary

reform. This holistic & comprehensive scheme will focus on individual aswell as institutional

capacity building. #CivilService4NewIndiaUnion Minister Prakash Javadekar greets during a press conference

after a cabinet meeting on Wednesday. —PHOTO BY ANI

Army convoy moves on Srinagar Ladakh highway on Wednesday. —PHOTO BY ANI

No question hour in monsoon session of Parliament

New Delhi: There will be no question hour and private members’ busi-ness in both Houses of Parliament in the mon-soon session amid coro-navirus pandemic, ac-cording to official bul-letins by Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha.

The monsoon session of Parliament is sched-uled to begin from Sep-tember 14 and is slated to conclude on October 1, without any day off. Both the houses of Par-liament will sit for four hours daily adhering to coronavirus precau-

tionary measures. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Bir-la and Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu have already held a meeting with of-ficials and gave instruc-tions in the presence of the Health Ministry of-ficials regarding how COVID-19 guidelines should be followed in the session.

On the first day of the Session on September 14, the Lower House will meet from 9 AM to 1 PM and sitting in the Upper House will begin 3 PM to 7 PM. Turn to P6

Country’s first SVEEP regional hub to be set up in Jaipur: Arora

Dr Rituraj Sharma

Jaipur: Election Com-mission of India has cho-sen Jaipur to set up the country’s first regional voters’ awareness cen-tre.

The regional SVEEP (Systematic Voters’ Edu-cation and Electoral Par-ticipation programme) Centre will conduct vot-ers’ awareness activities and programmes for the states of Rajasthan, Har-yana, Punjab and Mad-hya Pradesh.

“Jaipur is set to be dis-tinguished as being the first SVEEP Regional

Centre of the ECI in the country. As a stepping stone in this direction, a 3,385 square metre piece of land for construction of the SVEEP Regional Centre, has been allotted by the state government in Indira Gandhi Nagar, Jagatpura,” Chief Elec-tion Commissioner Sunil Arora said.

Arora, who was in the city to conduct a review meeting with the offi-cials of the Election De-partment, informed that entire cost of construc-tion of the Centre will be borne by the ECI.

Turn to P6

CEC Sunil Arora during the review meeting of Election Department in Jaipur on Wednesday.

NEWSAHMEDABAD | THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2020

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First India Bureau

Gandhinagar: The state cabinet on Wednesday passed the Gujarat Goonda and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act ordinance. But, if legal experts have ex-pressed apprehension over delay in justice the passing of this ordi-nance will cause for the system.

This is because the ma-jority of the proposed Act has been borrowed from existing laws. The ques-tion that has arisen is that if the government was of the view that existing laws needed to be strength-ened, it could have amend-ed them, instead of intro-ducing a new one.

The new law will help bring to justice persons involved in illegal trade of alcohol, gambling, sale of drugs, kidnap-ping, transport and sale

of illegal weapons, among other offences. The only aspect of the new Act that presents a redeeming quality is that witnesses of crimes being tried under the Act will be provided government protection and discretion will be maintained.

The Gujarat Goonda and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act has adopted aspects of several other existing laws in-cluding Prevention of Anti-Social Activities Act, 1985 (PASA), the Bombay Prohibition (Gujarat Amendment) Act, 1963 and the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956. The new Act has included illegal alcohol trade of-fences which could have been amended under Bombay Prohibition Act. Similarly, the clause for arrest of persons involved in immoral traffic, which

has been brought under the Goonda Act, could have been added to the ex-isting Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956.

Talking about the Goonda Act, a criminal lawyer practicing in lower courts and the high court since the past two decades, on

condition of anonymity said, “The Goonda Act is just like PASA, a pre-ventive measure. Its process is similar to PASA that involves ei-ther a district magis-trate or police commis-sioner’s approval for invoking the Act against a habitual offender. The

only difference between PASA and the Goonda Act is that, to file a First Information Report (FIR) under any clause of the latter, the police need permission of ei-ther the police commis-sioner or the Inspector General.”

“The new law is over-lapping several existing laws and this can create more confusion for the po-lice while filing charges. And that will delay the process of justice,” opined Arjun Modhwadia, senior Congress leader.

Echoing a similar sen-timent, advocate Asim Pandya, former presi-dent of the Gujarat High Court Advocates’ Association said, “The new Act has come up with more stringent punishment but it is not preventive detention law. It is an additional law that deals with ha-

bitual offenders. Wheth-er such a law will help reduce the crime rate or not is a big question.”

“It (The Act) just an eye-wash,” said state high court advocate Hriday Buch. “There are laws such as the Narcotic Drug and Psychotropic Sub-stances Act, 1985, Gujarat Prevention of Gambling Act, 1887, and the offences covered by them both are now also covered under the new Goonda Act. The new Act may empower the police, but will the purpose of justice be served? That remains to be seen. Justice is de-pendent on the use and implementation of the law and that is where we lag behind,” he added.

Advocate Buch also expressed apprehension over addition of more laws and special courts, which he felt would de-lay justice.

LEGAL EXPERTS HAVE EXPRESSED CONCERN OVER THE PRACTICALITIES OF THE NEW LAW

IS THE GUJARAT GOONDA ACT ORDINANCE NEEDED?

Cong state president Chavda initiates crop damage survey

First India Bureau

Ahmedabad: As heavy rainfall continues to lash the state, crops sown by farmers have taken a serious hit with several areas re-porting crop damage and failure. In order to review the situa-tion, Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) president Amit Chavda com-menced a survey on Wednesday. Chavda visited the villages of Bavla and Dholka in Ahmedabad district.

“We are in the field trying to determine the extent of the damage. The surveys generally conducted with the help of drones by the gov-ernment are not exactly accurate. The Congress party wishes to ensure that the farmers must receive compensation for their losses from the government immedi-ately,” said Chavda.

The GPCC presi-

dent also said that other members of the party will also visit and conduct surveys at different places across the state. “I was in Gundi village the other day where I waded through knee-deep water in the fields. There was a field there which had a cotton crop that had completely failed. The excess rainfall has done a lot of damage which has resulted in losses for farmers,” asserted Chavda.

The Bhal region, which was also visited

by Chavda, has the kind of soil where crops do not need much rain. “The wheat of the Bhal region is famous. It only needs a little amount of water. But due to heavy rainfall and inflow of water from the upper stream area the exist-ing crop has been dam-aged and sowing the rabi crop will also be difficult now,” lamented a local farmer. Accord-ing to locals, around 15,000 hectare of farm-land has submerged in water, affecting farm-ers of over 22 villages in the Bhal region.

STATE GOVT SWINGS INTO ACTION TO SPEED UP RECRUITMENT PROCESSES

First India Bureau

Gandhinagar: The state government has swung into action to ensure that the Guja-rat Public Service Commission (GPSC) and Gujarat Subordi-nate Service Selection Board (GSSSB) will swiftly complete its re-cruitment process and also release its new calendar. The develop-ment comes two days after the High Court of Gujarat on Monday scrapped the General Resolution of August 01, 2018, and issued clear guidelines on how to implement res-ervation horizontally.

Sources say that Chief Minister Vijay Rupani has asked Chief Principal Secretary K Kailashnathan to study the High Court direc-tive and work out a

strategy to speed up the pending recruitments.

To that end, K Kailashnathan and Additional Chief Sec-retary (GAD) Kamal Dayani, Gujarat Pub-lic Service Commis-sion (GPSC) Chair-man Dinesh Dasa had an informal discus-sion on the issue on Wednesday. As part of these discussions, they took stock of how many competi-tive exams had results pending and where, as well as looked into how to fill the vacant posts--including how many competitive ex-ams can be held in the current times. They also discussed wheth-er to prepare a new calendar for GPSC ex-ams or to reschedule the old calendar and start announcing exam dates.

It is to be noted that controversy surround-ing the state’s 2018 res-olution and the ensu-ing legal battle had held up competitive exams results.

The resolution in question had read: “Clause 12 of the GR dated 01.08.2018, any

female candidate be-longing to any re-served category, if selected on her own merit, would be treat-ed as a general cate-gory candidate. How-ever, such a female candidate would be treated as a female representative of the

reserved category, for the purpose of Hori-zontal Reservation.”

Now that the High Court has scrapped the controversial resolu-tion and has given a de-tailed guideline on how to recruit by abiding the reservation policy, the state government’s will be easier.

According to the High Court’s guide-lines, the first step in preparing the selec-tion list would be to shortlist 100 meritori-ous candidates. Then, the second step will involve choosing the top 51, based on the merit list in all catego-ries. The top 51 will include at least 12 women candidates to ensure that the 33% women’s reservation criterion is respected. In the next step, the state will prepare a list of 12 SC candidates, of which at least five must be women. The state must follow the same guidelines while preparing its list of ST candidates and SEBC candidates, as well.

The development comes days after HC issued detailed guidelines on how to imple-ment reservation horizontally

Amit Chavda —FILE PHOTO

GSSSB candidates from across the state had protested against irregularities in the entrance exam late last year. —FILE PHOTO

The Goonda Act will help bring to justice persons involved in illegal trade of alcohol, gambling, sale of drugs, kidnapping, transport and sale of illegal weapons, among other offences.

He visited the villages of Bavla and Dholka on the first day; wants to ensure farmers receive compensation

HIGH COURT’S GUIDE TO RECRUITMENT

DOES THE GUJARAT GOONDA ACT OVERLAP WITH EXISTING LAWS?The Gujarat Prevention of Anti-Social Activities Act, 1985

(1) A “dangerous person” means a person, who either by himself or as a member or leader of a gang, habitu-ally commits, or attempts to commit or abets the commis-sion of any of the offences punishable under Chapter XVI or Chapter XVII of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) or any of the offences punish-able under Chapter V of the Arms Act, 1959;

(2) An “immoral traffi c of-fender” means a person who habitually commits or abets the commission of any of-fence under the Suppression of Immoral Traffi c in Women and Girls Act, 1956;

Immoral Traffi c (Prevention) Act, 1956

Bombay Prohibition (Gujarat amendment) Act, 1963

Uttar Pradesh Control of Goondas Act, 1970

A ‘goonda’ means a person who

(i) Either by himself or as a member or leader of a gang, habitually commits or at-tempts to commit, or abets the commission of an offence punishable under Section 153 or Section 153-B or Section 294 of the Indian Penal Code or Chapter XV, Chapter XVI, Chapter XVII or Chapter XXII of the said Code;

(ii) Has been convicted for an offence punishable under the Suppression of Immoral Traffi c in Women and Girls Act, 1956;

(iii) Has been convicted not less than thrice for an offence punishable under the UP Excise Act, 1910 or the Public Gambling Act, 1867 or Section 25, Section 27 or Section 29 of the Arms Act, 1959;

(iv) Is generally reputed to be a person who is desperate and dangerous to the community;

(v) Has been habitually passing indecent remarks or teasing women or girls;

Guards outside the Sabarmati Jail in Ahmedabad. —FILE PHOTO

GUJARATAHMEDABAD | THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2020


The court intervened in the matter after hearing a petition challenging the polls at the dairyFirst India Bureau

Ahmedabad: The state high court on Wednesday stayed the impending results of the chairman and vice-chairman of the Surat District Coop-erative Milk Produc-ers’ Union Ltd, popu-larly known as SUMUL Dairy. The court has scheduled a hearing on the matter for September 21.

Two elected directors namely Bharat Patel from Nizar and Sunil Gamit from Jamki in Tapi district, have chal-lenged the state govern-ment’s decision to ap-point two government nominees on the board before the elections, through a civil petition. Their submission was that as soon as the re-sults of the manage-ment committee were out, the state had issued a notice to appoint two nominees on the board on August 21.

After hearing the pri-

mary submission of the petitioners, the court stayed the election re-sults of chairman and vice-chairman. The elections that were scheduled for Septem-ber 04, will take place, but the results will not be declared. The votes of 16 directors and two government-appointed nominees will be sub-mitted to the high court

in a sealed envelope.The petitioners’ advo-

cate Archit Jani sub-mitted that the state’s action to appoint nomi-nees on the board is with malafide intention to tip the scales in its favour in the fiercely contested elections. Jani added that the pro-ceedings initiated by the state government were illegal, arbitrary

and malafide since the two nominees were only put on the board for the purpose of creating two additional votes for the chairman and vice-chairman elections.

In their other submis-sion, the petitioners re-jected the state’s nomi-nation of two members on the board since, “it is neither a shareholder nor the guarantor and in

the absence of the same, no nomination could be made by it”. Their prayer to the court is to quash the government’s notice. The court may take up the subject of the state putting two nominees on SUMUL’s board after the first meeting of the elected management committee elects its chairman and vice-chairman.

SUMUL may conduct election, but can’t declare results: HC

The 68th general body meeting of SUMUL Dairy. —FILE PHOTO

BJP CONNECTION

With a month to go, state has seen 21.5% excess rain

First India Bureau

Gandhinagar: With another month or so left to go until the end of the monsoon season, Gujarat has already received 121.5% of its annual average rainfall of 831mm, as calculat-ed based on the past 30 years.

The Kutch region has received the most rainfall this year with 1,055mm, far exceed-ing its annual average of 412mm.

On Tuesday, Relief Commissioner Har-shad Patel had an-

nounced that the mon-soon was likely to re-duce in intensity, and that there would be less rain across the state due to an absence of any active weather systems. Yet, as many as 16 talukas received rain on Wednesday. Sa-gnara of Narmada dis-trict recorded the high-est rainfall from 6 am to 6 pm, with 56mm.

With Madhya Pradesh still receiving heavy rains, the level of the Narmada river will likely continue to rise due to inflow from the upper stream. The Sardar Sarovar Dam

on the Narmada re-ceived another 3.5 lakh cusecs of water, while 1.10 lakh cusecs were released from the dam.

The authorities have said there will be no more flood-like situ-ations due to the Nar-mada. The water re-leased from the dam over the past week had left villages and towns in Bharuch, Vadodara, and Narmada districts inundated.

Meanwhile, 241 roads across the state—including a na-tional highway and 37 state highways—re-main non-operational.

COMMUNITY WAITS 3 YEARS FOR ELECTRICITYFirst India Bureau

Ahmedabad: More than 120 families of the Vatva Railways Side Awas Yojna have spent more than three years without electric-ity. They have submit-ted another applica-tion to the municipal commissioner asking that they be given elec-tricity connections.

The community, a de-notified tribe, was allo-cated the housing unit by the Ahmedabad Mu-

nicipal Corporation back in December 2016. They have been waiting for electricity connec-tions since then. The AMC has not done any sanitation work in the

area either, residents say. “We were given these

houses based on a Su-preme Court order. We have given many written applications to the south zone office, but to no

avail. There is a biased behaviour by officers to us because we belong to the DNT community,” asserted Rajesh Rajbhoi, one of the residents. Rajbhoi added that the civic body has not been cleaning the area, result-ing in clogged and over-flowing drains. “The is-sue has not been ad-dressed despite several reminders,” he said.

South zone deputy officer Parag Shah could not be contacted for comment.

With 125 new cases, Jamnagar city sees highest single-day jump First India Bureau

Gandhinagar: Jam-nagar city on Wednes-day reported its high-est single-day jump in the number of COV-ID-19 cases, with 125. With another 25 cases emerging in rural ar-eas, the district has now witnessed 2,940 cases of Sars-CoV-2 infection since March, making it the sixth worst affected in the state. The lat-est numbers push Jamnagar ahead of Vadodara and Rajkot city in terms of the number of cases.

In the past 24 hours, the state conducted 74,523 cases. There are now 15,948 active cases in Gujarat , with 94 pa-tients on ventilator sup-port. Of the 12 overnight deaths, six occurred in Surat, three in Ahmedabad, two in Gan-dhinagar and one in Va-dodara.

The state health bul-letin showed zero deaths from Rajkot, but local

dailies have reported 15 deaths from Rajkot and two more from districts. Rajkot Mayor Beenaben Acharya has tested posi-tive for the novel corona-virus, a day after her husband tested positive on Tuesday. She had par-ticipated in all events held during BJP state unit president CR Patil’s

visit to the city. Vadodara tested 2,391

samples, of which 123 came back positive in the city limit area; another 36 cases were reported in rural areas, bringing the total to 159 in a day. There are 1,611 active cases there, with 55 on BiPAP machines and ventila-tors. Vaghodia MLA

Madhu Srivastav has tested positive, and a for-mer sarpanch of Undra village died due to COV-ID-19.

Surat city saw 176 fresh cases, while rural areas reported 89. Ten of the 199 patients being treated for COVID-19 at New Civil Hospital and SMIMER Hospital are on ventilator support; 95 are on oxygen support.

The Ahmedabad Mu-nicipal Corporation has identified 25 new micro-containment zones—in-cluding one with 280 per-sons on Ambli-Bopal Road—thus bringing the total up to 396 zones. There are three other sites such sites with more than 200 persons under isolation. Ahmedabad AMTC chairman Atul Bhavsar too has tested positive.

QUICK OVERVIEW

AMC has not being carrying out sanitation work either, residents say.

Gargi Raval

Ahmedabad: Mauri-tius might be a long way off from Gujarat, but oil spilling off the coast of the East Afri-can nation has echoes off the coast of south-ern Gujarat. Local fisherfolk say the is-sue has been increas-ing in intensity, ad-versely affecting ma-rine life in the Ara-bian Sea and beyond.And they lay the blame squarely with oil companies who

drill offshore.“Oil companies never

bother to curb the re-lease of these coastal pol-lutants. We have been witnessing a loss of fish and lobsters. Plus, the pollution is killing off other marine life as well,” said Jitendra Tan-del, Chairman of Um-agar Fishermen Sarvo-daya Sahkari Society.

He said that tarballs have been accumulat-ing along the Nargol Beach, just 10km out-side Valsad.

“Nargol village was

once a tourist destina-tion but, for the last few years, tourists are not coming because of the oil. The beaches look like garbage. However, fishermen remain the worst hit,” he said.

He added that he has written to the concerned authorities but no one has done anything about the situation.

“These oil spills and tarballs are at their worst during the mon-soon. They wash up on the shore and leave the place smelling like pet-

rol and diesel,” he told First India.

Since tarballs are blobs of petroleum which have been weath-ered after floating in the ocean, they tend to melt a bit under the heat of the sun.

“They melt and the petroleum percolates into the sand. This en-sures that, over the years, our beaches and coastal areas get progressively more polluted, since no has ever got rid of them,” he said.

Oil, tarballs affecting marine life off Gujarat coast, say fishermenECOLOGICAL DISASTER

Trails of tar and oil that have washed up on Nargol beach in South Gujarat, as seen on Wednesday.

Once a popular tourist destina-

tion, Nargol Beach is now

a stinking stretch of pol-

luted shore and locals say oil

companies are to blame for

the mess

1.10 lakh cusecs of water was released from the Narmada dam on Wednesday.

LORD OF THE DANCE

This peacock put on a show to express his evident pleasure with the ongoing rainy weather at the ATIRA campus in Ahmedabad on Wednesday. He wasn’t even bothered by a lack of peahens in the vicinity.

—PHOTO BY HANIF SINDHI

1,305 fresh cases, 12 fatalities take Guj tally

to 99,041 cases and death toll to 3,048

� Vol 1 � Issue No. 278 � RNI NO. GUJENG/2019/16208. Printed and published by Anita Hada Sangwan on behalf of First Express Publishers. Printed at Bhaskar Printing Planet Survey No.148P, Changodar-Bavla Highway, Tal. Sanand, Dist. Ahmedabad. Published at D/302 3rd Floor Plot No. 35 Titanium Square, Scheme No. 2, Thaltej Taluka, Ghatlodiya, Ahmedabad. Editor: Jagdeesh Chandra, responsible for selection of news under the PRB Act

PERSPECTIVEAHMEDABAD | THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2020

04www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia

s the United States enters the home stretch of the 2020 presiden-

tial election campaign, and with neither party’s nominating convention featuring much discus-sion of foreign policy, the contest between President Donald Trump and Joe Biden apparently will be waged mainly on the bat-tleground of domestic is-sues. In the long run, how-ever, historians will ask whether Trump’s presi-dency was a major turn-ing point in America’s role in the world, or just a minor historical accident.

At this stage, the answer is unknowable, because we do not know if Trump will be re-elected. My book Do Mor-als Matter? rates the 14 pres-idents since 1945 and gives Trump a formal grade of

“incomplete,” but for now he ranks in the bottom quartile.

Top-quartile presidents like Franklin D. Roosevelt saw the mistakes of Amer-ica’s isolationism in the 1930s and created a liber-al international order af-ter 1945. A turning point was Harry S. Truman’s post-war decisions that led to permanent allianc-es that have lasted to this day. The US invested heav-ily in the Marshall Plan in 1948, created NATO in 1949, and led a United Na-tions coalition that fought in Korea in 1950. In 1960, during the administration of Dwight D. Eisenhower, the US signed a new secu-rity treaty with Japan.

Over the years, Ameri-cans have had bitter divi-sions – among themselves and with other countries – over military intervention in developing countries like

Vietnam and Iraq. But the liberal institutional order continued to enjoy broad support until the 2016 elec-tion, when Trump became the first nominee of a ma-jor party to attack it. Trump was also a skeptic about foreign intervention, and while he has increased the defense budget, he has used force relatively sparingly.

Trump’s anti-interven-tionism is relatively pop-ular, but his narrow, transactional definition

of US interests, and his skepticism about allianc-es and multilateral insti-tutions, is not reflective of majority opinion. Since 1974, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs has asked the public whether America should take an active part or stay out of world affairs. Roughly a third of the American public has been consistently isolationist, reaching a high point of 41% in 2014. Contrary to

conventional wisdom, however, 64% favored ac-tive involvement by the time of the 2016 election, and that number rose to a high of 70% by 2018.

Trump’s election and his populist appeal rested on the economic dislocations that were accentuated by the 2008 Great Recession, but even more on polariz-ing cultural changes relat-ed to race, the role of wom-en, and gender identity. While he didn’t win the popular vote in 2016, Trump successfully linked white resentment over the in-creasing visibility and in-fluence of racial and ethnic minorities to foreign policy by blaming economic inse-curity and wage stagnation on bad trade deals and im-migration. As president, however, according to for-mer national security ad-viser John Bolton, Trump

had little strategy, and his foreign policy was driven primarily by domestic poli-tics and personal interests.

The current debate over Trump revives a longstanding question: Are major historical out-comes the product of po-litical leaders’ choices, or are they largely the result of social and eco-nomic forces beyond any-one’s control? Some-times, history seems like a rushing river whose course is shaped by pre-cipitation and topogra-phy, and leaders are sim-ply ants clinging to a log in the current. In my view, they are more like white-water rafters try-ing to steer and fend off rocks, occasionally over-turning and sometimes succeeding in steering to a desired destination.

SOURCE: PROJECT SYNDICATE

Is Trump a turning point in world politics?A

Change is the law of the universe. You can be a millionaire, or a pauper in an instant. —Bhagavad Gita

SpiritualSPEAK

TopTWEET

Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank @DrRPNishankTo help #JEE & #NEET candidates with transport amid #COVID-19, IIT students & alumni have launched a portal, http://eduride.in, to connect needy candidates with Samaritans who may want to help them commute, especially from remote locations and poorly connected areas.

Mallikarjun Kharge @khargeIf this is true, it is not just a violation of a member’s right,but it also means that Govt is uncomfortable answering questions on their Governance. Govt is answerable to people & any move to cancel Question Hour reflects the autocratic mindset of Govt.

eing a successful corporate trainer and a veteran, my first reckoning of the multi-dimensional facets of Team Dynamics are linked to the very nascent years of my life in the Defense Forces. At a young age of 18 years, I was in the Indian Military Acad-emy. As a teenager, I experi-enced a unique phenomenon of belongingness as a sports-man in my college and school was absent in my memory. Being in that at-mosphere, I loved the tangi-ble sense of camaraderie that existed amongst all ca-dets of my Company. Our barracks were vibrant with banter and laughter and a great deal of pride in the company itself. This wasn’t just the regalia and badges that adorned our uniform, it was always evident while taking on other companies in competitive situations like sport, joint exercises or, even just in the completion of our daily work.

On completion of my train-ing I was posted to a unit. It was here that my superiors taught me the art of developing “Es-prit de Corps”. In terms of definition, esprit de corps is ‘a spirit of solidarity, a sense of pride, and honor among the members of a group.’

This is not a modern con-cept, both the Romans and Greeks had leaders who un-derstood that by creating an organizational structure that allows for smaller groups to develop a sense of team spir-it within a larger force, one can turn huge numbers of people into an agile, dynamic and unstoppable team.

However, after my retire-ment when I joined hands in training the corporate world on topics that are close to my heart, I realized that a lot needs to be achieved on team dynam-ics. Trust, a crucial to team management was on a low ebb.

Transparency, Conflict Resolu-tion and Change Management needed much to do within Cor-porate Team ethos. The collec-tive skills and actions that were commonly seen in uniform for quickly and more efficiently accomplishing missions were loosely ended concepts here. But yet, the combination or in-clusivity of unique perspec-tives and backgrounds of team members were found to be no different both in the Military and the Business world. Maybe the time has arrived wherein the corporate world, leaders need greater attention to hone pervasive impact on how the Military organizes, trains, and assesses team performance for optimum utilization of mini-mal resources.

The concept of team build-ing is not new to Indian cor-porates. Business houses in the ‘50s & ‘60s had their own answers to this problem. They probably thought that facilities and incentives alone would deliver and therefore, built huge town-ships to achieve the desired results. The turn of the new decade had the priorities shifted and the new tech-niques were not introduced to meet the challenges. Un-fortunately, Motivation, Ca-maraderie and Esprit de corps are considered to be

out of syllabus for manage-ment graduates in Indian institutions and the seniors in the industry are few and far apart to train youngsters in mastering these skills.

As a corporate trainer for over a decade, I noticed this ma-jor flaw in most organizations and I would always give them an example of sports. When a week team wins a champion-ship, the players and coaches often cite playing together as a cohesive team as the key to

their win. In 1983, under Kapil Dev India, was a week team yet it lifted the cricket world cup. The same is true in the busi-ness world. Businesses with high-performing teams are more successful and see a big boost in their bottom line.

In my opinion, in today’s context, the wisest invest-ment by a corporate is to build the team in a rightful manner. It not only builds trust, mitigates conflict, en-courages communication, and increases collaboration, but means more engaged em-ployees, which is good for company culture and the eco-system. The profits would roll in year after year if the team does not have to work under pressure of being fired if targets are not met. The large expenses of work hours on training will be saved if wastage rates and attrition are minimal and that can happen only if the organiza-tions give a sense of safety, pride, and belongingness to the employees. To conclude in my deliberations, a lot needs to be learned from the forces where the motivation-al level is kept so high, that people are willing for ulti-mate sacrifice just on one call of their leader.

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY

THE AUTHOR ARE PERSONAL

TEAM DYNAMICSDEFENCE vs CORPORATEIf you want to walk fast, walk alone. But if you want to walk far, walk together: Ratan

B

The concept of team building is not new to Indian corporates. Business houses in the ‘50s & ‘60s had their own answers to this problem. They probably thought that facilities and incentives alone would deliver and therefore, built huge townships to achieve the desired results

THE WISEST INVESTMENT BY A

CORPORATE IS TO BUILD THE TEAM IN A

RIGHTFUL MANNER. IT NOT ONLY BUILDS TRUST, MITIGATES

CONFLICT, ENCOURAGES COMMUNICATION, AND

INCREASES COLLABORATION, BUT

MEANS MORE ENGAGED EMPLOYEES, WHICH IS

GOOD FOR COMPANY CULTURE AND THE

ECOSYSTEM

RETD. COL ANUPAM JAITLY

Defence expert, Motivational speaker & Corporate Trainer

ANOTHER DIGITAL STRIKE TO HURT BEIJING

ndia continues to hit China where it hurts the most. Given the communist country’s intransigence on settling the border dispute and using subterfuge to exercise dominance, yet another digital

strike by New Delhi on Wednesday is fair play in the modern warfare strategy. In its latest strike, which came a day after China’s power play in eastern Ladakh, the Union Ministry of Electronics and In-formation Technology blocked 118 Chinese applica-tions, including the popular gaming app PUBG (Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds). Other apps to be blocked included FaceU, WeChat, LudoWorld, Ludo Superstar, Alipay, AlipayHK, both of which are on-line payment apps from Chinese business tycoon Alibaba’s ecosystem. PUBG had been running into controversies and was first banned in Rajkot for cre-ating a negative impact on the minds of players. The game was also criticized for causing violence.

Blocking of PUBG alone would cause the Chi-nese company a huge revenue loss of $28 million as it accounts for all game downloads. After the earlier ban on 59 Chinese apps in June, China’s state-run The Global Times reported that technol-ogy company ByteDance could face a revenue loss of US$ 6 billion (Rs 45,000 crore). ByteDance is the parent company of TikTok, Helo, and some other apps. Put together, the financial blow to China’s tech companies would run into billions of dollars as India has been a huge market for China’s apps.

The blocking of 224 apps by India is also a huge setback to China’s global ambitions. The latest move shows that we are capable of beating Beijing at its own game, the Chinese checkers.

I

IN-DEPTH

INDIA CHANGES ITS TACK IN LADAKH

ver since the standoff began in Ladakh, China has shown no sign of retreating from the territory it has occupied. Several rounds of talks have been held at all levels of the military and between diplomats but

China has been unrelenting. Instead of resolving the issue, it is trying to further complicate it by turning Pangong Tso South Bank and Requin La into new flashpoints. A recent effort of the People’s Liberation Army to climb Pangong Heights was thwarted by the Indian troops who are now heightened alert and have apparently been told to be proactive.

The message from Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat was categorical. On August 24 he said, “India’s defence forces are prepared to look at any op-tion if the extensive talks to restore status quo ante along the Line of Actual Control do not yield any positive result.” Immediately after this, the Indian army occupied three hilltops on the south bank of Pangong Tso Lake thwarting PLA’s attempt to occupy the territory and gained a minor advantage over the Chinese. The Chinese hadn’t expected this response from the Indians as they went in for land grab when the brigade commanders of the two sides were holding a flag meeting at the Chushul Moldo meeting point. Given its scheming ways, the situation in eastern Ladakh will remain unpredictable. China’s foreign minister Wang Yi said that in as many words in Paris.

Such a treacherous neighbour’s aggression must be met with aggression. In a welcome change, India’s new strategy towards China in Ladakh seems to underline this approach.

E

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INDIAAHMEDABAD | THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2020


TEEN, SEXUALLY HARASSED, DIES BY SUICIDE AFTER CLIP GOES VIRALBulandshahr: A 14-year-old girl in Bulandhshahr district died by suicide on Monday evening after she was allegedly sexually harassed by three men. The girl’s family says three men from her vil-lage sexually harassed her and made videos of the incident. The video was shared on social media leading to her death, the

teenager’s family said. The Bulandshahr police say they have registered a FIR based on a complaint by girl’s family and that they are going to arrest the three accused soon. The police also claim the family had cremated the body on Monday itself and that cops visited her home after being in-formed by locals.

` 4.47 CR SEIZED FROM REAL ESTATE FIRM IN HYDERABADHyderabad: The ACB of Telangana said it has seized Rs 4.47 crore of unaccounted money al-legedly belonging to the former Director of Insur-ance Medical Services (IMS) and another offi cial. An ACB release said “Rs 3.75 crore unaccounted money of former IMS Director Devika Rani and � 72 lakh of ESI Pharmacist Naga Lakshmi, which was invested with a real estate company in Cyberabad area in Hyderabad for purchase of commercial and residential space, was seized from the real estate fi rm.”

SHARES OF ADANI GREEN JUMP 9 PC AT RS 541.90Mumbai: Shares of Adani Green Energy spurted by more than 9 per cent at noon on Tuesday, a day after Mercom Capital ranked its parent group as the number one global solar power generation asset owner in terms of operating, under-construction and awarded solar proj-ects. Adani said its renewable energy portfolio exceeded total capacity installed by the entire United States solar industry in 2019 and will displace over 1.4 billion tonnes of carbon diox-ide over the life of its assets.

UP GOVT CAN FRAME ME IN ANOTHER CASE: KAFEEL KHANNew Delhi: Released late on Tuesday evening after spending seven months in jail, Dr Kafeel Khan claimed the Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government was indulging in ‘Baal Hatth‘ (childlike-stubbornness) instead of observing ‘Raj Dharma’. He also said that the state could frame him in another case now

that he is out of jail. “In Ramayana, Maharshi Valmiki had said that the Raja (king) should act for ‘Raj Dharma’. In UP the ‘Raja’ is not doing ‘Raj Dharma’ but is doing ‘Baal Hatth’ (being stub-born like a child),” PTI quoted Khan as saying.The Allahabad HC set aside the detention of Dr Kafeel Khan under NSA.

INDIA REELING UNDER MODI-MADE DISASTERS: RAGAIn a tweet, the Congress MP listed six issues the country is facing New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday slammed Prime Minister Naren-dra Modi and listed is-sues such as GDP reduc-tion, job losses, highest daily COVID-19 cases and external aggression at the border as “Modi-made disasters”.

In a tweet, the Con-gress MP listed six is-sues the country is fac-ing and termed them as “Modi-made disasters”. “India is reeling under Modi-made disasters: Historic GDP reduction -23.9%, Highest Unem-ployment in 45 years, 12 Crores job loss, Centre not paying States their GST dues, Globally highest COVID-19 daily cases and deaths and External aggression at our borders,” Rahul Gandhi tweeted.

The Congress leader has been repeatedly criticising the Central

government over the past few weeks on vari-ous issues including its handling of the econo-my, COVID-19 situation and tension at India-China border.

On August 31, Rahul Gandhi had alleged that the NDA government has been attacking the informal sector over the

past 6 years and assert-ed that the aim of de-monetisation, “wrong” Goods and Services Tax (GST) and lockdown is to destroy this sector.

His remark came in the first video of his new series on “how the Modi government has de-stroyed Indian economy” released on Monday. —ANI

PC SHARES PM’S 2013 TWEETNew Delhi: Chidambaram, who was Finance Minister in Congress-led UPA government, pulled out a 2013 tweet by PM Modi, when he was the CM of Gujarat. The 2013 tweet, which targeted PC, read: “Economy is in trouble, youth want jobs. Devote more time to econom-ics not petty politics. Chidam-baram ji, please focus on the job at hand!” Sharing a screenshot of the tweet, Chidu wrote, “I have to say the same thing to the Honourable Prime Minister!

OPPN CRITICISES ‘NO QUESTION HOUR’ MOVE FOR PARL SESSIONNew Delhi: Opposition parties on Wednesday questioned and criticised the decision of doing away with the question hour in the forthcoming monsoon session of Parliament in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. Congress leader Shashi Tharoor sought justifi cation of no question hour in the monsoon session. “I said four months ago that strongmen leaders would use the excuse of the pandemic to stifl e democracy and dissent. The notifi cation for the delayed Parliament session blandly announces there will be no Question Hour. How can this be justifi ed in the name of keeping us safe?” he asked on Twitter.

IN THE COURTYARD

New Delhi: The S C asked Netflix to ap-proach the Patna HC to challenge the interim stay on its web series--Bad Boy Billionaires--as ordered by a local court in Bihar.

Scheduled to be aired from today, the series now faces a hur-dle after Sahara’s Sub-rata Roy went to court, alleging that the series maligns his reputa-tion. A bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde said, “This is not the proper forum. You should not have

come here.”“It is not the proce-

dure to challenge lower court order directly in the apex court. The documentary is to be telecast today and low-er court had passed re-strain order on a plea of Sahara group,” the

bench observed.Netflix declined to

comment on the devel-opment.This investiga-tive documentary se-ries explores the greed, fraud and corruption that built up - and ulti-mately brought down - India’s most infamous tycoons,” as per infor-mation on the Netflix platform about Bad Boy Billionaires.

Meanwhile, the trail-er of Bad Boy Billion-aires has been removed from both the platform as well as its YouTube account. —Agencies

STAY ON BAD BOY BILLIONAIRES

SC ASKS NETFLIX TO APPROACH PATNA HC

HC REFUSES TO STAY STREAMING OF NETFLIX MOVIE ‘GUNJAN SAXENA’New Delhi: The Del-hi HC refused to stay at this stage stream-ing of Netflix movie Gunjan Saxena - The Kargil Girl, on Cen-tre’s plea that it de-picts the IAF in bad light. Justice Rajiv Shakdher asked the Centre as to why it did not approach court before release of the movie on OTT platform, and said an injunction cannot be granted now as the film is already streaming.

ASG Sanjay Jain, representing the Cen-tre, said the movie

has dented the image of the IAF as it showed that the force is gender biased, which is not correct.

The HC sought re-sponse of Dharma Productions Private Limited, which pro-duced the film, and Netflix on Centre’s plea to stop stream-ing of the movie.—ANI

Amid tiff with China, Rajnath heads to Russia for SCO meet

New Delhi: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday, left for Russia on a three-day visit to attend a crucial meeting of the Shang-hai Cooperation Organi-sation (SCO) and hold talks with his Russian counterpart Sergey Shoigu on further boost-ing bilateral defence co-operation.

The Defence Minis-ters of all eight SCO member nations are ex-pected to deliberate on regional security chal-lenges like terrorism and extremism and ways to deal with them “col-lectively” in Moscow on Friday, officials said.

The meeting is taking place under the shadow of a fierce standoff be-tween India and China, both members of the influential bloc.

Chinese Defence

Minister Gen Wei Feng-he and Pakistan’s Per-vez Khattak are expect-ed to attend the SCO meeting.

Asked about the pos-sibility of a bilateral meeting between Ra-jnath Singh and Gen Wei on the sidelines of the SCO event, officials said there is no such plan.

“Heading to Moscow. During this visit, I shall be attending the com-bined meeting of De-fence Ministers of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), Collective Security Trea-ty Organisation (CSTO) & CIS members in com-memoration of the 75th Anniversary of victory in the World War II,” Mr Singh tweeted.

He said issues of mu-tual interest will figure in his talks with Mr Shoigu. —PTI

New Delhi: Former CM Jitan Ram Manjhi joined the BJP-led Na-tional Democratic Alli-ance (NDA) in Bihar, months before elec-tions. His former rival Nitish Kumar report-edly played a key role in bringing him back to his side. Manjhi’s Hin-dustani Awam Morcha (Secular) was a key ally of Lalu Yadav and had contested the 2019 na-

tional election as part of the opposition alli-ance.

His electoral perfor-mance has been poor; his party could win only one seat in the 2015 assembly polls as a BJP ally and drew a blank in the 2019 elections as an RJD-Congress ally.

“We have forged an alliance with the Janata Dal (United) and have become a part of the

NDA. There has been no discussion about seat-sharing in the Bihar as-sembly election,” Jitan Ram Manjhi told re-porters. Manjhi ended his two-year partner-ship with Lalu Yadav and the Congress last month.

Over the past few weeks, he had been meeting Nitish Kumar, his one-time bete noire and his reason for quit-

ting the JDU. He walked out in 2015 after being forced to quit as Chief Minister to make way for Nitish Kumar, who had installed him in the first place.Reports sug-gest Manjhi wants his party to contest around 15 to 20 of Bihar’s 243 seas, mostly in the Magadh region, his home turf. Nitish Ku-mar is reportedly ready to give it around nine.

Bihar:Ex- CM Manjhi returns to NDA ahead of polls

Manjhi ended his alliance with Lalu Yadav & Congress last month.

Defence Ministers of 8 SCO member nations will attend the meet.

Rahul Gandhi has been criticising Centre on various issues.

ADA approves layout of Ram temple

Delhi L-G’s nod to resume Metro services

Ayodhya: The Ayodhya Development Authority (ADA) on Wednesday approved the layout of the grand Ram Temple after holding a meeting with officials here in Uttar Pradesh.

Ayodhya Commis-sioner MP Agrawal said the area of the lay-out is 2.74 lakh square metres and the temple covers 12,879 square metre area. “No objec-tion certificates were taken from all depart-ments concerned. The area of the layout is 2.74 lakh square meter and the temple covers 12,879 square metre area. The trust will decide when they will start the exca-vation for the construc-tion. Ayodhya is on the path of development,” Agarwal said.

Shri Ram Janmb-hoomi Teerth Kshetra had on August 29 sub-mitted the layout of Ram temple in Ayod-hya, and other docu-ments to ADA for ap-proval.—ANI

New Delhi: Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal gave his nod to CM Arvind Ke-jriwal-led govern-ment’s suggestion to resume the metro ser-vices in the national capital, according to the sources.Baijal’s approval came during a meeting of the District Disaster Management Authori-ty (DDMA). Besides Baijal, Kejriwal, Depu-ty CM Manish Sisodia, Health Minister Saty-endar Jain, Transport Minister Kailash Gahl-ot and other officials were present in the meeting. Delhi Metro operations are shut since March 22. —ANI

PM Modi to address Leadership summit of USISPF September 3New Delhi: Prime Min-ister Narendra Modi will deliver the special keynote address at the US-India Strategic Part-nership Forum (USISPF) third Annual Leadership Summit at 9 PM IST on September 3, 2020, through video con-ferencing.

The US-India Strate-gic Partnership Forum is a non-profit organisa-tion that works for the partnership between India and the US. The theme of the five-day summit that began on August 31 is “US-India

Navigating New Chal-lenges”.

The theme covers var-ious subjects such as In-dia’s potential in becom-ing a Global Manufac-turing Hub, Opportuni-ties in India’s Gas Mar-ket, Ease of Doing Busi-ness to attract FDI in India, Common Oppor-tunities and Challenges in Tech Space, Indo-Pa-cific Economic issues, Innovation in Public Health and others.

Union Ministers and senior officials are also participating in this virtual summit. —ANI

PM Narendra Modi will deliver keynote address via VC.

INDIAAHMEDABAD | THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2020

06www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia

WILL MODY MOVE TO CIC?Latest buzz is that PC Mody, Chairman, CBDT after six months extension, would move to the Central Information Commission .

RAJIV KUMAR TAKES OVER AS NEW ELECTION COMMISSIONER Rajiv Kumar, Chairman PESB, has assumed charge as the new EC of India. He is a 1984 batch retired IAS officer of Jharkhand cadre.

J SIVASUBRAMANIAN QUITS INDIA REVENUE SERVICE J Sivasubramanian, DCIT, Alappuzha (Kerala), has resigned from the Indian Revenue Service of Income Tax.

12 DCS ARE BEST DEPUTY COMMISSIONERS ! The names of 12 DCs from 11 states are believed to have been included in the final list of the best Deputy Commissioners in the country. Among them are all the Commissioners from Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry and Kerala states.

ARVIND DEEP IS NOW ADG (NORTH) CISFAfter joining CISF, Arvind Deep has been posted as Additional DG ,North. He is an IPS officer of 1988 batch from UT cadre.

MANOJ KUMAR LAL PROMOTED TO DGP GRADE IN AGMUT Cadre Manoj Kumar Lal has been promoted to the Director General of Police (DGP) grade in AGMUT cadre. He is a 1988 batch IPS officer.

SANDEEP GOEL PROMOTED TO DGP GRADE IN AGMUT CADRE Sandeep Goel has been promoted to the DGP in AGMUT cadre. He is a 1989 batch IPS officer.

SANJAY BAINIWAL PROMOTED TO DGP GRADE IN AGMUT CADRE Sanjay Bainiwal has been promoted to the DGP-grade in AGMUT cadre. He is a 1989 batch IPS officer.

RAVINDRA SINGH YADAV PROMOTED TO ADG GRADE IN AGMUT CADRE Ravindra Singh Yadav has been promoted to the grade of Additional Director General of Police in AGMUT cadre. Yadav is a 1995 batch IPS officer.

WORKS DISTRIBUTION IN CENTRAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION Vijayendra Bidari has been assigned an additional charge of HoB/DIG, CBI, ACB, Chandigarh while Abhishek Shandilya was given additional charge of ACB, Dhanbad and Akhilesh Kumar Chaurasia is posted as SP (Pers), CBI, HO, New Delhi. Besides, Nagendra Prasad will hold substantive charge of HoB/SP, CBI, SCB Patna.

ALOK RANJAN APPOINTED AS JOINT CGA IN CGA OFFICE Alok Ranjan has been appointed as Joint Control-ler General of Accounts in the office of Controller General of Accounts, New Delhi. He is a 1993 batch ICAS officer.

JITENDRA KUMAR JOSHI RETURNS TO PARENT CADRE Jitendra Kumar Joshi, Director Cabinet Secretar-iat, has been given premature repatriation to his parent cadre. He is a 1999 batch ITS officer.

MADHUP KUMAR TIWARI PROMOTED TO ADG GRADEMadhup Kumar Tiwari promoted to ADG grade in AGMUT cadre Madhup Kumar Tiwari has been promoted to the grade of Additional Director Gen-eral of Police in AGMUT cadre. He is a 1995 batch IPS officer.

POWERGallery

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Rupani govt...to study the impact of rainfall until August 30. But now, as per the in-structions of the state government, the cut-off date for the survey will be revisited. Babu also said that farmers can file online as well as of-fline forms for compen-sation with the village panchayat.

On hearing about the state’s decision to extend compensation as per SDRF norms, Leader of Opposition Paresh Dha-nani has demanded 100% compensation for the farmers. He also asserted that farmers should re-ceive the benefits of the

crop insurance scheme.

India captures...They said India wants to resolve the border row through talks, but at the same time it will effec-tively deal with any “mis-adventure” by China along the LAC.

In the wake of the Chi-nese attempts, the Indian Army has alerted all its frontline bases along the 3,400 km-long LAC to re-main vigilant round the clock.

India had rushed in additional troops and weaponry to all sensitive border areas including in Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim sectors after

the Galwan Valley clash-es which significantly escalated the tensions.

PUBG, 117...users’ data in an unau-thorised manner to serv-ers which have locations outside India.

The compilation of these data, its mining and profiling by ele-ments hostile to nation-al security and defence of India, which ulti-mately impinges upon the sovereignty and in-tegrity of India, is a matter of very deep and immediate concern which requires emer-gency measures, the MeitY added.

Country’s first...The CEC drew attention towards the implementa-tion of detailed guide-lines issued by the com-mission for smooth con-duct of polls in context of the COVID-19 pan-demic.

The CEC re-empha-sised upon the need to ensure the maximum utilisation of digital me-dia platforms for organ-ising various meetings, webinars, video confer-ences and training.

He said that Pre-Revi-sion activities as well as the Special Summary Revision of Electoral Rolls- 2021 should be car-ried out by undertaking

a pragmatic approach in light of the present COV-ID-19 Pandemic.

Arora asked the offi-cials to encourage voters for online registration and the department should also adopt the on-line procedures to fit in with the changing times, in order to ensure work as well as also ensure survival in the context of COVID-19.

The CEC apprised the participants about the Commission’s endeav-our to ensure ‘Ease of Voting’ for geriatrics and senior citizens.

“The latest provision in this regard is the in-troduction of the facility

of postal ballot, so that their physical presence at the Polling Station will not be warranted,” he said. He also directed to expand the SVEEP out-reach, and make it more penetrative.

The review meeting was attended by Chief Electoral Officer, Ra-jasthan Praveen Gupta, Deputy CEC Ashish Kundra, Additional CEO Krishna Kunal and other senior officials of the de-partment.

Mission Karmayogi!...constructive and inno-vative through trans-parency and technolo-

gy,” he added. PM also attached a few slides with his tweets that ex-plain key features of the scheme.

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the launch of a National Programme for Civil Services Capacity Building (NPCSCB) with an institutional framework that in-cludes Prime Minister’s Public Human Resourc-es (HR) Council, Capac-ity Building Commis-sion, Special Purpose Vehicle for owning and operating the digital as-sets and technological platform for online training and Coordina-

tion Unit headed by the Cabinet Secretary. —ANI

No question...On subsequent days, proceedings in Rajya Sabha will be held from 9 AM till 1 PM while the time for Lok Sabha sit-tings has been fixed from 3 PM to 7 PM. Ac-cording to the Lok Sab-ha bulletin, in view of the request of the gov-ernment owing to the prevailing extraordi-nary situation due to COVID-19, the Speaker has directed that no day be fixed for transaction of Private Members’ Businesses during the session. —ANI

FROM PG 1

New Delhi: The Union Health Ministry said on Wednesday that 54 per cent of the COVID-19 cases reported in India are in the age group of 18-44 years, while 51 per cent deaths are among people aged 60 and above.

Presenting an analy-sis of COVID-19 cases and mortality on the basis of age, it also said that 36 per cent of the fatalities reported are in the age group of 45-60 years, 11 per cent in the age group of 26-44 years and 1 per cent each among people aged 18-25 years and those be-low 17 years.

The same figures were shared by Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan during a press briefing on Au-gust 25. He had also said that 69 per cent of COVID-19 deaths have been reported among males and 31 per cent among females.

The health ministry stressed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comor-bidities. As far as cases of coronavirus infection are concerned, 54 per cent are in the age group 18-44 years, 26 per cent among those aged 45 to 60 years, eight per cent among those below 17

years and 12 per cent among those 60 years and above, it stated.

India's COVID-19 tally of cases galloped past 37 lakh on Wednesday with 78,357 new instances of the disease reported in a day, the Union health ministry data showed. The death toll climbed to 66,333 with 1,045 more fatalities reported in 24 hours. India has so far reported 37,69,523 cases of the viral disease, ac-cording to the data up-dated at 8 am.

54 pc cases in age group 18-44 yrsThe health ministry stressed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities

New Delhi: Ramlila committees have begun preparations for the 10-day celebrations ahead of the Dussehra festival in October, but are un-sure whether the gov-ernment will allow the performances, which draw a large crowd, amid the pandemic. Ramlila committees feel that even if at a small scale, they should be allowed to organise

the performances this year taking into consid-eration the beginning of the construction of a Ram temple in Ayod-hya, where many be-lieve Lord Ram was born.

However, he said they are awaiting permission from the city govern-ment and the protocols that it will be put in place if the Ramlila per-formances are allowed.

Delhi Ramlila committees begin preparations

Goa CM Sawant tests coronavirus positive, in home isolationPanaji: Goa CM Pramod Sawant on We d n e s -day said he has tested pos-itive for coronavi-rus. Mean-while, the CMO in a release said, “In the wake of the fact that CM has been detect-ed COVID-19 positive, all officials of the Chief Ministers Office who had come in close con-tact with the CM have opted for home isolation and work from home.”

Mumbai: Two men were arrested after the NCB conducted a raid in Mumbai and also seized bud (curated marijuana) was from their possession.

The NCB launched an investigation after it received official communication from ED, in which there were various chats re-lated to drug consump-tion, procurement, us-age and transporta-tion in connection with the Sushant Sin-gh Rajput case. Taking cognizance of the mat-ter, NCB conducted a preliminary inquiry

and launched an in-vestigation in this matter.

“In a separate inci-dent, on the interven-ing night August 27-28, based on specific in-put, a raid was con-ducted at Mumbai and two persons namely Abbas Lakhani and Karn Arora were ar-rested and seizure of bud was affected from their possession. The detailed network anal-ysis and in follow up investigation, uncov-ered the linkages of Abbas Lakhani with one Zaid Vilatra,” read a release by the NCB.

Sushant case: NCB arrests 2 men, seizes ‘curated marijuana’

New Delhi: Amid a po-litical slugfest over the Facebook issue, the company’s India head Ajit Mohan on Wednes-day appeared before a parliamentary panel, which is discussing al-leged misuse of social media platforms.

The Parliamentary

Standing Committee on Information Technolo-gy, headed by senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, had called rep-resentatives of Face-book to hear their views “on the subject of safe-guarding citizens’ rights and prevention of misuse of social/on-

line news media plat-forms including special emphasis on women security in the digital space,” according to agenda of the meeting.

Mohan, Managing Director of Facebook India, appeared before the panel this after-noon, officials said.

FB chief Ajit Mohan appears before panel

New Delhi: Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) President Du-shyant Dave on Wednesday wrote to CJI Sharad Arvind Bobde expressing his disappointment for not being invited to speak at the farewell of Justice Arun Ku-mar Mishra.

“As President of the Supreme Court Bar As-sociation, I wish to place on record my strong disappointment and condemnation at

what happened earlier today in the Supreme Court of India during the farewell to Justice Arun Mishra,” Dave

said in the letter. “We are the real strength of this great Institution because we are permanent. I must say, I am personally deeply saddened by this events and will never again participate in any function being or-ganised by the Supreme Court till my term is over in December,” Dave said pointing out that he was expecting to be invited to speak on the farewell event but wasn’t. —ANI

‘Wasn’t allowed to speak at Justice Arun Mishra’s farewell’

New Delhi: Union Cabinet has approved the J&K Official Lan-guages Bill 2020 in which five languages Urdu, Kashmiri, Dogri, Hindi and English will be official languages. “Inclusion of Dogri, Hindi and Kashmiri as official languages in J&K is not only a fulfill-ment of a long-pending public demand but also in keeping with the spirit of equality,” said Union Minister Dr Ji-tendra Singh. —ANI

Cabinet approves J-K Official Languages Bill

Health workers in PPE kit playing with a child at the Commonwealth Games (CWG) Village sports complex, temporarily converted into a COVID care center, in New Delhi on Wednesday. —PHOTO BY ANI

Image for representational purpose only.

NCB arrested drug peddlers Zaid Vilatra (R) and Abdul Basit.Dushyant Dave

Pramod Sawant

Ajit Mohan

NEWSAHMEDABAD | THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2020


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CAUSED CHAOS FORCAUSED CHAOS FORHOW COVID

CRICKET

Disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed financial and governance tensions and mistrust involving its players’ and state associations

The disruption caused by the

COVID-19 pandemic has exposed fi nan-cial and governance tensions and mistrust involving its players’ and state associa-tions. However, those issues are a distant second to the cur-rent dissatisfaction

and distrust that one of the sport’s broad-casting partners has with the quality and scheduling of the upcoming domestic playing season.

Channel Seven’s A$450 million concern with the restricted number of Australian international cricketers

who might appear in this year’s BBL tourna-ment now threatens to destabilise the sport’s principal source of revenue – the com-bined Foxtel and Seven six-year broadcasting deal signed in 2018 and worth A$1.18 billion over its six-year term.

In March, it had all looked so different.

On International Wom-en’s Day 2020, the MCG hosted the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Final. Played in front of 86,000 people, Australia’s victory over India was a suitable end to a highly suc-cessful tournament. Within a week sport in Melbourne – includ-ing the fi rst Formula 1 race of the year – and indeed globally had to shut down due to the pandemic.

Of all the major sports in Australia, cricket seemed the best equipped to survive the coronavi-rus lockdown. By then, 90% of the season had been completed. The men’s T20 World Cup tournament, to be hosted by Australia,

was not scheduled until October, a month that marked the second anniversary of the appointment of the then CEO of Cricket Australia (CA), Kevin Roberts.

And yet the follow-ing month 80% of staff at Cricket Australia were stood down. The CEO was indicating that by August cricket would, to the amaze-ment of many within the sport, have severe cashfl ow problems.

By June it was clear the men’s T20 World Cup would have to be postponed and Roberts was gone. He was replaced on an interim basis by Nick Hockley, then the CEO of the T20 World Cup local organising committee who had overseen the successful women’s

T20 World Cup earlier in the year.

The previous Cricket Australia CEO, James Sutherland, had been in the job for 17 years. In contrast, 2020 was a precarious year to be a CEO in Australian sport – the CEOs of both Rugby Australia (RA) and the National Rugby League (NRL) also departed their jobs in April.

Refl ecting on the year’s instability, Sutherland commented empathetically that when you’re a sports administrator, you can deal with anything but uncertainty.

And for all Austral-ian sports, 2020 has brought nothing but uncertainty to their fi nances, competition scheduling and admin-istration.

However, one point that has been constant

in the operation of elite professional sport in Australia and elsewhere is how dependent their rev-enues are on TV broad-casting deals. The AFL’s revenue in 2019 was just shy of A$800 million, half of which related to broadcasting and media. Broadcasting accounted for 61% of the NRL’s total revenue last year.

The lengths to which the AFL and the NRL have gone to ensure their seasons go ahead – from biosecurity hubs and lobbying state and federal governments for border exemptions, to pay cuts for players and staff – must be seen in the context of their depend-ency on TV money.

In April, the equation for the AFL and NRL, as it was for Rugby Australia and the Football Fed-eration of Australia (FFA) whose schedules were also affected, was simple: in the absence of games,

there would be no obliga-tion on broadcasters to honour their TV rights deals. This meant up to two-thirds of the sport’s revenue would disappear overnight.

In terms of contract law, broadcasters hinted at provisions in the agree-ments with sports such as force majeure clauses (unforeseeable circum-

stances), acts of God and other principles of contract law, such as the doctrine of frustration.

Broadcasters argued these would allow them to walk away from existing deals given that, for rea-sons outside both parties’ control, the playing sea-son could not go ahead as scheduled, if at all.

Even as sports bodies

desperately gave them as-surances a season would go ahead, broadcasters remained adamant that the product they had originally paid for was now of such a different variety that the original broadcasting deal would have to be stood down and terms and conditions renegotiated.

Clearly, it was in the in-

terest of the above sports bodies to enter into such negotiations. They did so with alacrity and some success. It must also be noted that an absence of live TV would likely have had an impact on what has fast become the second-most-important source of review for Aus-tralian sport – gambling.

For the broadcasters, as the playing seasons in the AFL, NRL and other codes were about to begin, they were acutely aware that without sport a signifi cant advertising hole would be left in their schedules for the next six months. Moreover, given the pandemic had halted production of other advertising-rich programs such as reality TV, and the postponement of key international events such as the Olympics would exacerbate the scarcity of live sport on the sched-ules, it was also in the interest of broadcasters not to walk away from such deals.

The lessons from all of this are that, despite

its protestations, it seems inevitable Cricket Aus-tralia will also have to renegotiate its broadcast-ing deal with Seven. The reality for modern sports organisations is that, while they rightly lament the absence of spectators, a dearth of subscribers does much greater com-mercial damage.

Cricket Australia faces a slightly trickier situation than the AFL, NRL and others faced earlier in the year. A key concern for the domestic broadcast-ers is that CA has been frustratingly slow in confi rming its summer schedule.

Moreover, in renego-tiating with other sports, there was never an issue that the best players avail-able domestically in those sports would not play. Given the international demands and scheduling

in cricket – notably Test matches against India and Afghanistan – it seems CA cannot guarantee the availability of the quality of player in competitions such as the BBL that the broadcasters feel their money deserves.

While matters now seem tense between CA and its broadcast-

ing partners, the current standoff is probably all just part of the preening process. Already, CA has responded by indicating it will be more aggres-sive in its recruitment of marquee international players for the BBL. It has also raised the salary cap for those on BBL rosters. A “relaunched” BBL in its

tenth year and over the summer holiday period would be an attractive proposition.

As the interim chief of CA, who is in an unenviable position, contemplates the inevi-table phone call with the broadcaster, it might be advisable for him fi rst to call the CEOs of the

other sports organisation that have been recently through this process. The sport’s former, long-time boss Sutherland, recently installed as the CEO of Golf Australia, would also be worth talking to. Their experi-ence could be invaluable for cricket in the weeks ahead.

Finally, an interesting subtext to all of this is the emerging view that sports rights are overvalued and the future of such deals lies elsewhere in stream-ing services and on other digital, even in-house platforms.

But that is a matter for the future. For now, crick-et powerbrokers should heed the advice of one of sport’s most colourful dealmakers, the boxing promoter Don King, who once said that, in sports contracts, you never get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate.

CRICKET AUSTRALIA FACES A SUMMER OF DISCONTENT

COVID CAUSES CHAOS

TOO MUCH RIDING ON BROADCAST DEALS

LESSONS FROM A DIFFICULT YEAR

Be good, it is commendable, but do combine it with doing good. Only then the circle of life will be complete.

—Jagdeesh Chandra, CEO & Editor, First India

AHMEDABAD | THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2020www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia082NDFRONT

The National Green Tribunal has again tightened its screws on the Gujarat pollution control authoritiesShishir Awasthi

Ahmedabad: The no-toriously polluted Kharicut canal be-tween Ahmedabad’s two chemical indus-trial estates of Naro-da and Vatva is once again in the news. And, yet again, for all the wrong rea-sons.

In a strong order, the National Green Tribu-nal on Wednesday di-rected the joint com-mittee of the Central and the Gujarat Pollu-tion Control Boards to initiate action against errant officers respon-sible for pollution in the canal that goes up to the neighbouring Kheda district.

“The municipal commissioner (of Ahmedabad) must initiate action against the officers and take immediate further remedial

measures by prepar-ing a time-bound plan that has to be furnished to the GPCB within one month, “ the NGT or-dered.

The Tribunal has di-rected the Secretary, Urban Development, Gujarat, to oversee this and ensure that a com-

pliance report is fur-nished within 2 months by the GPCB and the Secretary.

The issue for con-sideration before the NGT was the steps to be taken to control the discharge of un-treated industrial ef-fluents in the Khari-cut Canal, which is a

tributary of the Kha-ri river.

According to the ap-plicants, the said river is the source of irriga-tion and drinking of water by animals. Ille-gal borewells were said to have been dug with-out permission of the GPCB, affecting the water level. Also, sew-

age from sewage treat-ment plants (STP) set up by the Amdavad Municipal Corporation (AMC) was flowing into the river.

What is shocking, the GPCB in its Au-gust 13 report to the Tribunal stated that when the monitoring of the Kharicut Ca-

nal stretch from GIDC Naroda to GIDC Vatva was car-ried out on February 18, it was observed that untreated do-mestic wastewater was being discharged in it.

Not only this, the Board found that many outlets had been creat-ed by the AMC for dis-charge of untreated domestic wastewater and storm water dis-charge. Alarmed by this, the NGT observed that this was “serious violation of the Water (Prevention and Con-trol of Pollution) Act, 1974.”

“Action initiated by the State PCB so far is highly inade-quate. Neither com-pensation for the damage to the envi-ronment has been as-sessed and recovered nor prosecution ini-tiated,” the NGT said.

KHARICUT POLLUTION: NGT orders action against errant officials

File pic of Kharicut Canal in Ahmedabad.

SECOND CASE

Before PUBg ban, teen killed himself as dad scolded him First India Bureau

Anand: Just about 36 hours before In-dia banned PUBg and 115 Chinese ap-plications, a teen-ager in a village in Anand district com-mitted suicide on Monday evening af-ter his father scold-ed him for being glued to the addic-tive game.

Soon after Moham-mad Ismail Pathan, 16, of Surali village was brought to the Sanjivani Hospital in Umreth town, the au-thorities referred him to a private hospital in Anand since his con-dition was critical.

The Umreth Police Station Officer told First India that the doctors at the Anand hospital declared him dead on arrival. Ac-cording to the doc-tor’s primary state-ment, the boy had

consumed poison. Umreth PSO said since the boy was un-conscious, they could not record his dying declaration.

Mohammad’s fa-ther Kadimkhan Pa-than, who is a teach-er in village, told the Umreth police on Tuesday that he had scolded his son on Monday evening as he was continuously playing PUBg game on his mobile phone. After which he had consumed a pesticide kept at home for the paddy crop.

ACTIVISTS FISH OUT 4,000 GANESH IDOLS FROM CREEKS Quake of 4.1 intensity hits Kutch districtFirst India Bureau

Surat: Defying the State Government’s direc-tives, many people in Surat immersed thou-sands of Lord Ganesh idols in rivers, creeks and canals.

But the activists of the Cultural Protection Committee dived into

dirty creeks and water canals at Parvat Patiya, Kharvasa and Dindoli to fish out more than 4,000 idols made from plaster of Paris and synthetic chemicals. They im-mersed these later in the Arabian Sea near Hazi-ra. The committee’s president, Ashish Suryavanshi, said, “For

the last 4 years, our vol-unteers have been doing this re-immersing activ-ity of semi-dissolved statues after.” “This year idol immersion was prohibited, but peo-ple set afloat thousands of PoP statues. There should be strict enforce-ment of ban on use of PoP idols,” he said.

First India Bureau

Ahmedabad: An earthquake measuring 4.1 on the Richter scale was recorded in Kutch district on Wednesday afternoon, an official said.

The quake was re-corded at 2.09 pm with its epicentre 7

km North-North East from Dudhai, an of-ficial of the Gandhi-nagar-based Institute of Seismological Re-search (ISR) said.

The depth of the light-intensity quake was 30.5 km, he added.

No casualties or damage to the property were reported due to

the tremors, the dis-trict administration said.

Earlier, a mild quake of 2.3 magni-tude was recorded with its epicentre 19 km East-North East from Lalpur in Jam-nagar district of Sau-rashtra region, the ISR official said.

ALARM BELL: AMC says 40% cured Covid patients can be re-infectedFirst India Bureau

Ahmedabad: Days after reports of at least two cases of cured Covid-19 patients being re-infect-ed in the city and Telan-gana, a latest survey by Amdavad Municipal Corporation (AMC) has found that there is a possibility of this in as many as 40% of the pa-tients.

The AMC’s second se-ropositivity survey of 10,000 cases between Au-gust 15 and August 29 found that antibodies in as many as 40% of cured

patients had disap-peared. “This means theoretically they are susceptible to new infec-tions. However, this re-quires detailed scientific

studies,” Dr Bhavin Solanki, Medical Officer of Health, AMC, dis-closed on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the first seropositivity survey in

the second half of June that covered 30,000 sam-ples found the rate of infections to be 17.61%, while the latest one shows positivity at 23.24%, reporting a 5.6% increase. Solanki claims this is “very less”, given that this study was conducted after more than one and a half months of the previous one and “that too in the unlock period.” The AMC, however, advises pre-caution since the sur-vey rules out herd im-munity so far.

RAIN DAMAGE

A decades-old-building collapsed in the Upli Sheri locality in Ahmedabad’s old city area of Dhal ni Pol on Wednesday. Fortunately, no injuries were reported. —PHOTO BY HANIF SINDHI

Volunteers bring out half-immersed Ganesh idols from a creek in Surat.

First India Bureau

Rajkot: There are some natural corona warriors, who don’t wait for calamity to strike. They just reach out to those in need, without being asked.

Father Vinod Kann-att, a Catholic priest of Rajkot’s Junagadh Par-ish in Gujarat, is among them. He cycles to the

homes of his flock amid the Covid-19 pandemic to care for the sick and elderly.

“If I lock myself in my room fearing the virus, my ordination as a missionary priest is useless. Now is the time I need to be with my people,” Father Kannatt, popularly known as the cycling priest, says.

“We are alive now

because of the care and support of Father Kannatt,” said John D’Souza, the father of two mentally disabled daughters aged 29 and 31.

One of them has been bedridden from birth and the other cannot stand and walk properly. D’Souza, a 58-year-old former State Gov-ernment employee, ran the family with help of his wife, Espirancia, 55, until three years ago. But

now, she too is bedrid-den as she suffered a spinal injury follow-ing a fall.

Some neighbours and others in the parish offered food to them and other support fol-lowing the initiative of Father Kannatt. But, with the Covid-19 out-break, the support stopped, leaving D’Souza distraught with just Rs 2,500 monthly pension to manage his family.

“The money my husband gets is not

enough for my medi-cine alone,” said Espirancia. This is when the priest found additional resources to help them. “Our only outside contact after the pandemic outbreak is Father Kannatt,” she said.

He arranges money for medicine, food and other require-ments and takes her to the hospital when-ever required since her husband cannot leave their daughters alone.

Corona or not, Rajkot’s cycling priest tends to those in needGOD’S MESSENGER

Rajkot’s cycling priest Vinod Kannatt is always on the move to help people.

Father Kannatt cycles his way to those who are in crisis amid the pandemic

Mohammad Khan

—FILE PHOTO

AHMEDABAD, THURSDAYSEPTEMBER 3, 2020

www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia 09

hoosing what to write for Throwback Thurs-day this week, I see-sawed between three movies- Ganga Jamna, Madhumati and Naya Daur- all starring my

favourite duo of Dilip sahib and the doe-eyed Vijyanthi-mala. I finally opted for Ganga Jamna because it has my all-time favourite break-up song- “do hanson ka joda bichhad gayo re…”.

Somehow, the movie re-minded me of the stories by Munshi Premchand, the true to life scenes of rural India, the feudal exploitation of the poor, the finely drawn charac-ters, the role of fate and jus-tice, the fine difference be-tween literacy and education and the wise illiterate, all spinning in the wheel of un-relenting time which spares no one!

Ganga Jamna holds a special place in our hearts for many rea-sons. The amazing script of two brothers- one a circumstantial da-coit with a golden heart and the oth-er a police offic-er, repeated in so many mov-ies later, is still a major plus as are the pow-erful dialogues in Awadhi script written by Wajahat Mirza. I loved the words and the ease with which they rolled off es-

pecially in the banter between Ganga and his lady-love Dhan-no. Frankly, the name Dhanno was a bit of a shock as I had thought that she would be Jamna and I h a d

already seen Sholay, but Nasir Khan, Dilip’s reel and real brother was the perfect foil to Ganga as Jamna.

The sober Dilip sahib wooed each one of us as he frolicked full of vibrant energy to ‘nain lad jaehin” and the amazing kabaddi match, the emotional high strung performance was a treat. Vijyantimala as a

woman in love, running to-wards her Ganga when he

fires even as all the vil-lagers run away from

him; running away when he strikes her in pain as she re-moves a bullet; go-

ing to him at midnight ask-

ing him to elope, gave one of her finest per-formances as Dhanno.

Kanhaiyalal, as the munim

was so stereotypi-cal and also in his own way quite be-lievable. I quite

liked the mongrel and their love-hate relationship! The movie wrings us emotionally, there is no let-up at all, though the songs and dances are works of art!

The scene where Jamna tells Ganga that she is pregnant and his oath to leave the life of dacoity; underneath a dark sky the heartfelt prayer of Jamna to a silent God and the light signaling hope is one of my favourites, till date.

DO HANSON KA JODA

poor, the finely drawn charac-ters, the role of fate and jus-tice, the fine difference be-tween literacy and education and the wise illiterate, all spinning in the wheel of un-relenting time which spares

Ganga Jamna holds a special place in our hearts for many rea-sons. The amazing script of two brothers- one a circumstantial da-coit with a golden heart and the oth-er a police offic-er, repeated in so many mov-ies later, is still a major plus as are the pow-erful dialogues in Awadhi script written by Wajahat Mirza. I loved the words and the ease with which they rolled off es-

was a bit of a shock as I had thought that she would be Jamna and I h a d

Ganga as Jamna.The sober Dilip sahib

wooed each one of us as he frolicked full of vibrant energy to ‘nain lad jaehin” and the amazing kabaddi match, the emotional high strung performance was a treat. Vijyantimala as a

woman in love, running to-wards her Ganga when he

fires even as all the vil-lagers run away from

him; running away when he strikes her in pain as she re-moves a bullet; go-

ing to him at midnight ask-

ing him to

Kanhaiyalal, as the munim

was so stereotypi-cal and also in his own way quite be-lievable. I quite

Ganga Jamna, 1961 is our choice for Throwback Thursday, a trendsetter that mesmerizes audiences even today and can

teach a lesson or two in acting skills to this generation of actors!

ANITA [email protected]

C

ohn Abraham is one of the Bol-lywood actors who have made it on their own in the industry with their sheer hard work and performance. He is the su-perstar, producer, and entre-preneur. The actor, who appar-

ently struggled to prove his mettle as a performer when he transitioned from modeling to acting, has become a name to reckon with as a producer and as an actor. Every action hero has a different positioning and he revels in the raw and real. People like to see him as this larger than life guy who bangs heads against the wall, lifts and smashes bikes and cars, and takes down a lot of people at one time.

John made his film debut with Jism (2003), which earned him the Filmfare Best Debut Award nomi-nation. This was followed by his first commercial success, Dhoom (2004). He

received two Filmfare Award nominations, for his negative roles in Dhoom, and in Zinda (2006). He later appeared in the major criti-cal success Water (2005). He was nominated for a Film-fare Award for Best Support-ing Actor for the film Baabul (2006). Since then, Abraham has starred in many critically and com-mercially successful films including Garam Masa-la (2005), Taxi No. 9211 (2006), Dostana (2008), New York (2009), Housefull 2 (2012), Race 2 (2013), Shootout at Wadala (2013), Ma-dras Cafe (2013), Welcome Back (2015), Dishoom (2016), Par-manu (2018), Satyameva Jayate (2018) and Batla House (2019), thus establish-ing himself as a commercially success-ful actor of Hindi cinema.

In 2012, Abraham produced his first film Vicky Donor, which was a critical and commercial success, and earned him a National Film Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome

Entertainment. He then estab-lished his own production house, John Abraham Enter-tainment. His second film as a producer was Madras Cafe, which garnered critical acclaim. Beyond his acting career, he is the owner of the Indian Super League football team NorthEast United FC. He has of-ten performed many dangerous stunts in his films. He is also a vegetarian and is a strong advocate for animal rights.

10BOLLYWOOD

AHMEDABAD | THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2020www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia

FACE

OF TH

E DAY

PRACHI DADHICH, Model

YOUR DAYHoroscope by

Saurabbh Sachdeva

LEOJULY 24 - AUGUST 23

A one call from your kid is all it takes for you to be there for them. You will connect with someone on

phone with whom you had no terms for a long time. A new romance will keep you all excited. Thorough care may be needed by your elderlies therefore don’t miss out on them.

LIBRA SEPT 24 - OCTOBER 22

You are the master of your own will. You will involved in doing your household chores today. You must

confront your love to the one you secretly love. Do whatever it takes to get the results you desire on academic front. Concealing about an issue from your elders is no solution.

ARIESMAR 21 - APR 20

There is no success without a deep desire to achieve it. Your spouse will shower all the world’s love

on you but you may still not realise therefore keep your heart and mind open. You have a very cooperative family. Reputed position is a blessing, don’t forget the value of it.

SAGITTARIUS NOV 23 - DEC 22

You take rules seriously and at current times specially. You will be active whole day long but may feel a bit tired

in the evening. You will face a tough competition on academic front. Attracting personality, great conversation skills you are a rich package of talents.

GEMINIMAY 21 - JUNE 21

Don’t ruin relationship with someone if they haven’t done anything wrong with you personally, always

remember insecure people often talk wrong about the ones they are insecure from so don’t rely on them. Opposing response for work should not make you feel scared.

AQUARIUSJAN 21 - FEB 19

On academic front, you can expect to get a good results and also you can expect to get rewarded for it from

your elders. Inexperienced youngsters must be well taken care of and must be given proper guidance. You will have hectic day inspite of the fact that you may be working from home.

TAURUSAPR 21 - MAY 20

You magnetic persona makes people fall for you easily. You are a passionate lover and your partner or

your wife are always satisfi ed with you. You are at times get very impulsive and that should be always minded. You are courageous, brave, promising, never defeated.

CAPRICORNDEC 23 - JAN 20

Avoid offending someone unintentionally. Talking to someone will take all your worries away. You will have

some fun time with your lover and it may get diffi cult to resist meeting him/her. Ruling nature at home can be tolerate at home but not in the matters of work.

VIRGOAUG 24 - SEP 23

Don’t be over involved in someone else’s affair. You victory in a competitive exams will open the gates

to the path which leads to your goal, just have a little patience. Talking quickly in front of your lover won’t be appreciated therefore be clear in your conversation.

CANCERJUNE 22 - JULY 23

You are always involved in donating activities and you keep earning blessing. On academic front, a teacher

will change your life and will shape you up. Silly mistakes of young ones sometimes give you the reason to burst into laughter. You are a brave person who is not scared of anyone.

PISCESFEB20 - MARCH 20

You have unwavering faith in your potential and you will surely achieve what you want. You can make

profi t from a business deal today. As per your cards, you will get positive results from any effort made today in any direction. You have different ways to reach the same destination.

SCORPIOOCT 23 - NOVEMBER 22

Seeing your family happy gives you lots of happiness such is your heart. You want to deeply get into the

spiritual world but somehow you are also confused about it. Great opportunities are on their way. Your lover may get extremely demanding today.

The Raw and Real ACTION HERO

GURMAN [email protected]

J

IN SUPPORT OF RHEA

A RAY OF HOPEA

ctor Sonu Sood, who has been a champion for the underprivileged, in these Corona times, has once again responded to a distress call made for boatmen in Varanasi, who are finding it

difficult to make their ends meet due to the pan-demic and swelling of River Ganga. The cry for help was made by an NGO, who tweeted, tagging

the Dabangg actor, asking help for nearly 350 boat-men and their families who are facing a financial

crisis because of the outbreak of Covid-19 and the recent floods. “Within no time the actor responded

to our tweet giving assurance that the no boatmen will go hungry. We were also contacted by the team

of Sonu sir, who arranged for ration kits through a vendor. By afternoon we had received 100 ration kits,”

says Divyanshu Upadhyaya, secretary of the NGO. —Agency

Hours after Telugu actor Lak-shmi Manchu and Vidya Bal-an came out in support of Rhea Chakraborty, her close

friend Shibani Dandekar also penned a strong note in support of the actress who is at the centre of Sushant Singh Rajput’s case. Taking to Instagram,

Shibani shared the note which read, “I’ve known Rhea Chakraborty

since she was 16 years old! Vi-brant, strong, vivacious..such a bright spark.. so full of life! I’ve witnessed such a stark contrast

to this side of her personality over the last few months as her and her family...(some of the kindest warmest best people you will ever meet) have experienced the most unimaginable trauma!”

She further added, “We have watched the media behave like

complete vultures on a witch-hunt vilifying and torturing an innocent family to breaking

point! Her basic human rights taken away as

the media play judge jury

and exe-

cutioner! We have seen the death of journalism and frightening side of humanity! What was her crime? She loved a boy, looked after him through his darkest days, put her life on hold to be there for him and when he...took his own life she was crucified. What have we become?” —Agency

ETCAHMEDABAD | THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2020

11

angana Ranaut has not stopped voicing her opinions after the Sushant Singh Rajput case. After speaking about nepotism for months in relation to Sushant Singh Rajput’s death case, the actress has late-ly claimed that 99% of Bollywood consumes drugs like water.

This statement has yet again created a de-bate on social media and several netizens have

started talking about and asking some of our celebrities to either denied this statement or agreed to it. Senior lawyer Mahesh Jethmalani even took to Twitter to ask the celebrities why there is deafening silence on these claims made by Kangana. Raveena Tandon decided to quote his tweet and speak the truth which surely makes sense. The actress tweeted say-ing, "Globally,99 % of judges,politicians,babus,officials,cops are corrupt.This statement cannot be a generic description for all.People are intelligent.They can differentiate be-tween good/ bad.Few bad apples cannot spoil a basket.Likewise our industry also has the good and the bad."

Later, Kangana put across a statement on Twitter and said, "I request Ranveer Sin-

gh, Ranbir Kapoor, Ayan Mukerji, Vicky Kaushik to give their

blood samples for drug test, there are rumours that they are cocaine

addicts." She further noted, " I want them to bust these rumours, these young men can in-

spire millions if they present clean samples @

PMOIndia." —Agency

K

Kangana v/s Raveena SUSHANT SINGH SAGA

The late Dhun-diraj Govind Phalke, popu-larly known as

Dadasaheb Phalke, not only made India’s first full-length fea-ture film but paved a path of dreams and aspiration for genera-tions to follow. To pay their respects to him, students and faculty Whistling Woods In-ternational (WWI) created a short, in-sightful video on him. It also was a nod to his legacy on his 150th birth anniversary. Da-dasaheb Phalke has directed and produced the nation’s first full-length feature film, 'Raja Harishchandra' in 1913 and he was known as the Father of Indian Cinema.

Appreciating the tribute, Chandrashek-

har Pusalkar, mater-nal grandson of Dada-saheb Phalke said, “In 1927, during an inter-view, my grandfather, Dada, had expressed a wish that there should be an institute, which imparts education and training in cinema. Today, this institution is fulfilling his dream by training thousands of students in the field of film and creative arts. It feels great and I’m immensely happy.” —Agency

A TRIBUTE TO DADASAHEB

PHALKE

Dangal actress Fatima Sana Shaikh has mul-tiple projects in

the pipeline where the actress will be seen play-ing very different roles.

The lockdown caused by the pandemic brought everything to a stand still and shooting of films had seen a mo-mentary stop.

Fatima has been spending her lockdown working on her skills, doing online read-ings and a source close to the ac-tress recently shared how the actress has been spending her time at home.

The source who is a friend of the actress and lives in her vi-cinity shares, “Fatima has been trying to make sure to fol-low a routine all this while that we all have been home. It’s so lovely to see her spend this quality time taking care of her pets in the society and usually, even when she’s in the middle of narrations so her striking the balance is commendable.”

The source further adds, “Even if one day, she’s sick, she makes sure to go out to feed the stray pups at a particular time. It’s monsoon time in Mumbai and we all often forget about the strays ani-mals so it’s very important for them to be fed, which Fatima looks after. It’s her way of do-ing her bit to-wards the so-ciety and these tots who are left out there.” —Agency

Working on her skills

Getting back to work amid the new normal, ac-tor Sonali Ben-

dre Behl on Wednesday shared a glimpse of her shooting day

with her fans. “Back to work #ShootDay,” wrote the ‘Hum Saath - Saath Hain’ star as she posted on Instagram a video that showcased her journey from home to the shooting set and how the necessary precautions are be-

ing taken care of. As the clip

starts, the ‘ D u p l i -

cate’

actor is seen sporting a face mask as she travels to the shooting location and when she reaches the entrance of the set, the actor is seen get-ting herself sanitised. The actor then goes on to her body tem-perature checked, post which she

gets her makeup done by pro-fessionals dressed in PPE

kits. The short clip then captures random glimps-es of the set as the actor proceeds shooting. It concluded with a self-ie of Bendre with her

teammates sporting face masks.

—ANI

BACK TO WORK

Kangana Ranaut Raveena Tandon

Sonali BendreSonu Sood

Fatima Sana Shaikh

Shibani Dandekar

Govind Phalke

www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia

CITY FIRST

Interior designer Gauri Khan and home decor ha-ven Hermosa Design Stu-dio are ushering a new

chapter in the realm of luxu-ry interiors with a collabora-tion unlike any other. The design maven will now be bringing her unparalleled sense of style to Hermosa by designing an exquisite furni-ture line for the brand. An exciting sneak peek of what’s to come can be found in the premium coasters released on the eve of the brand’s sec-ond anniversary - the fusion of the dual logos on the coast-ers serves as a fitting meta-phor for the coming together

of the two distinct design ide-ologies.

Pranjal Agarwal, CEO of Hermosa De-sign Studio, said, “It has been an honour to merge our distinct de-sign ideologies for this exclu-sive collaboration. As an inte-rior designer par excellence, Gauri Khan needs no intro-duction.”

Speaking about her col-laboration with the brand,

Gauri Khan said, “I’m excited to work closely with the finest minds at Hermosa Design Stu-

dio and create a line in-corporating our unique de-sign philosophies which complement each other in the best way possible.”

[email protected]

12CITY BUZZ

AHMEDABAD | THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2020www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia

CITY FIRST

he leading Digital Magazine of the Pink City- ‘Jaipur Beat’ announced its first-ever Vir-tual Awards- So-cial Symphony

Awards, the unique initia-tive to recognize and hon-our the exceptional brands and individuals of Jaipur, who were dynamic, crea-tive and have adopted digi-talization, in the harsh times of economic break-down due to Corona Virus Pandemic.

Launched on 8 August, Social Symphony Awards recognized the brands and individuals who were not shaken by the crises and made a remarkable come-back. Jaipur. A total num-ber of 82 profiles under 12 different categories were nominated after scrutiny which was based on likes, regularity, creativity, con-tent, reach, presentation and engagement.

A high-ranking jury of 35 experts from different back-grounds was invited to select the most out-standing Social Media per-formers from different cat-egories viz food, fashion,

restaurants, cafes, person-al care, education, her-

itage, jewellery, and news feed. The high-lights from the judg-

ing process include a virtual jury meet on a

video conferencing plat-form where a panel of three jury members dis-

cussed each category on various parameters and rated the nominated brands and businesses on a scale of 1 -10. Although the jury process was time-con-suming but it also ensured that the decisions were kept transparent and fair.

“We are so excited to rec-

ognize the stellar group of Social Media Heroes who went above and beyond to ensure the best on their so-cial Media during the pan-demic every day,” said Gaurav Hajela, Co-Found-er, Jaipur Beat. “Not only we are amazed at the unwa-vering spirit and creativity

these nominees have main-tained during the pandem-ic, but we are also in awe of the NGOs, businesses, brands and some individu-als who are contributing greatly to society. We have a special category Awards for them. As I believe, it would be unfair to ac-

knowledge their contribu-tions” said Anisha Hajela, Co-Founder, Jaipur Beat.

The winners of the So-cial Symphony Awards will be announced during

the unprecedented virtual ceremony to be held live on Jaipur Beat’s Facebook and YouTube, on 4 Septem-ber, Friday.

[email protected]

First Virtual Awards CEREMONY

T

WHAT’S HAPPENING!

RAJASTHAN: Digvijay Singh has been appointed as the Yuva Sena State Chief and Rahul Khurana as Shiv Sena Lt. Chief of Youth Services, Rajasthan.

RAJASTHAN: An online Induction Program was organised for the newly admitted batch of 2020 at Jaipur National University on Monday. The students were welcomed by the Hon’ble Chancellor. During the occasion, new students were welcomed by Chancellor, Dr Sandeep Bakshi with the welcome address note.

RAJASTHAN: The poster of Hindi Feature Film ‘Tilak of Hindustan’ based on the Rajasthani background and the caste-based gangster war, was launched on Tuesday in Jaipur. The poster was launched by the film crew in front of intellectuals of the city and the media.

GUJARAT:As ‘Unlock 4’ was implemented in Ahmedabad, children were seen playing freely in the old city on Wednesday.

—PHOTO BY HANIF

SINDHI

The great merger

HAPPY B’DAY!

IAS Dr Bhanwar Lal (from top), IPS Ajay Singh and IPS Manish Agarwal celebrated their birthdays on 2 September, Wednesday. We wish them all the best!

CITY FIRST

In Geetanjali Medi-cal College and Hos-pital, Udaipur, com-plex operations and

treatments are being done continuously by following all the neces-

sary COVID-19 guide-lines. Heart Disease De-partment awarded A 74-year-old patient with state-of-the-art IVL (Intravas-cular lithotripsy) by establishing stents without open-

heart surgery, set a re-cord in the medical field

of southern Ra-jasthan. In this

successful treat-ment, the team of Interventional

Cardiologist Dr Danny Mangalani, Dr

Kapil Bhargava, Dr Ramesh Patel, Dr Shal-abh Agarwal, and Neu-ro Vesicular Interven-tional Radiologist Dr Sitaram Barath contrib-uted very well to give life to the patient again.

[email protected]

SUCCESSFUL TREATMENT

Team of Doctors at GMCH

Gauri Khan

Hermosa Studio, Jaipur

India captures critical heights near Pangong Lake

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