˘ˇˆ ˙ ’’’ () · 2020. 9. 6. · drug dealer, rhea writes: “in case we speak about hard...

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After her father IndrajitChakraborty claimed that

his family had been “effective-ly demolished” and lawyerSatish Maneshinde said thathis client was being subjected to“witch-hunt” and she was“ready” for arrest, the NarcoticsControl Bureau (NCB) onSunday grilled actress RheaChakraborty for six hours inconnection with a drug case reg-istered in connection with actorSushant Singh Rajput’s death.

A day after it told the citycourt that it would have to con-front Showik Chakraborty withher elder sister (Rhea) and thelate actor’s domestic helpDipesh Sawant — who is innow in the agency’s custody, theNCB began to look into the“specific roles/ingredients ofconspiracy theory, abetmentsand various attempts to commitoffences” by questioning Rheafor six hours. She has beencalled by the NCB for ques-tioning once again on Monday.

At Monday’s questioning,Rhea is likely to be confrontedwith her younger brotherShowik, the late actor’s house manager SamuelMiranda and Sawant.

Showik, Samuel andSawant, who was arrested onSaturday night, have beenbooked under 20 (b) and othersections of the Narcotics Drugs

and Psychotropic Substances(NPDS) Act.

Rhea — whose brotherShowik was arrested along withlate actor’s house managerSamuel Miranda by the NCBon Friday night — reportedlyadmitted that she was procur-ing drugs for Sushant throughher arrested brother (Showik).She is understood to haveacknowledged that she knew about Samuel purchasingdrugs for the actor from drugpeddler Zaid.

Informed agency sourcessaid that the investigators ques-tioned her about the WhatsAppexchanges between Rhea andothers that the EnforcementDirectorate (ED) had sharedwith the CBI and NCB alleging“procuring and usage” of drugs.It was on the basis of thisWhatsApp message trail thatthe ED had joined the investi-gations on August 26 into theallegations that Sushant’s girl-friend Rhea Chakraborty usedto procure banned drugs ille-

gally from dealers and admin-ister them to the late actor.

It may be recalled that themessages accessed by a few tele-vision channels on August 25-26, Rhea talks about drugs andin a chat between her andGaurav Arya who is allegedly adrug dealer, Rhea writes: “Incase we speak about hard drugs,I haven’t been doing too much.Tried MDMA once”. In anoth-er message sent to GauravArya, she asks: “You have MD?”.

In the first chat message,

Miranda writes to Rhea “HiRhea, the stuff is almost over”.In the next message, Jaya Sahatells Rhea: ‘Use 4 drops in tea,let him sip it … Give it 30-40mins to kick in’. Then, thereemerges a message in a chatbetween Rhea & Jaya Saha: “Ihave asked him to coordinatewith Shruti (Modi) & reach itup”. In yet another message,Rhea writes to Jaya Saha “Thankyou so much” Reply from Jaya:“No problem bro, hope it helps”.

In the seventh and lastaccessed chat message,Miranda writes to Rhea:‘Should we take it fromShowik’s friend? But he has justhash & bud’.

The WA chat messageshint at the fact that Rhea wasallegedly procuring drugs foruse by the actor.

On her part, Rhea hadearlier denied consuming drugsand said that she was preparedfor a drug test anytime. She,however, admitted that Sushantused to take marijuana anddespite her efforts, she couldnot control him.

Rhea, who was mentallyprepared for her possible arrestby the NCB, walked into theNCB’s Zonal Office on the thirdfloor of the Exchange Buildingat Ballard Estate in southMumbai, around 12 noon. Theactress was at the investigatingagency’s office till 6 pm.

Continued on Page 4

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The CRPF has issued adetailed set of guidelines

with do’s and don’ts to its per-sonnel to avoid being targetedon social media platforms bycounterintelligence operationsor cyber attackers from hostileforeign Governments or radi-cal outfits inimical to India.

Apart from other things,the personnel have been askednot to post Governmentemblems, weapons or back-

ground photographs of opera-tional locations on social mediaplatforms.

The Paramilitary personnelhave been asked not to sharepersonal information that scamartists or identity thieves coulduse and manipulate. The per-sonnel are not supposed to usephotographs with identity cardsor clothing accessories thatcan reveal information aboutthe organisation.

The personnel have alsobeen advised against sharingclassified informationobtained throughofficial channels orotherwise onsuch socialmedia tools.

“Do not use

ethnic slurs, personal insults,obscenity, or engage in anyconduct that would not beacceptable as a Governmentservant, including gossipsabout work and colleagues,”says the guidelines issued bythe Central Reserve PoliceForce (CRPF) along with a sep-arate set on guidelines on useof smartphones in theParamilitary offices across thecountry.

The personnel have beenbarred from sharing on

social mediaapplicationseven unclas-

s i f i e dre p or t sespecially

a b o u t

manpower issues, promotions,local orders and the like as thesame can give an opportunityto the adversaries in gatheringintelligence.

The men and officials havefurther been cautioned againstuploading photos in uniform orprofile picture onWhatsApp/Facebook and anyother social sites. They arealso not supposed to uploadpictures with weapons on suchsites even in civil dress.

The paramilitary personnelhave also been advised againstaccepting friend requests fromunknown or use official details and official emailaddresses for opening accountson social media.

Continued on Page 4

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The International Societyfor Krishna Consciousness

(ISKCON) has decided not toprocure four marble statues ofhorses from Chinese firm forits under construction templein Kurukshetra in view of anti-China sentiments. The man-agement is negotiating withIndonesia for the same.

The negotiation with aChinese company was almostdone before the ISKCONdecided to shelve the plan.The ISKCON is the first reli-gious organisation which can-cels its order in view of the

Chinese attempt to change thestatus of the LAC.

According to Gobind GopalDas, who is looking after theconstruction of Kurukshetra’sISKCON temple, the quality ofIndonesian marble is better.“The decision was taken not toimport marble horses fromChinese firms keeping in viewof the ongoing anti-China sen-timents in the country,” he said.

The statute of each horseswill be 34 feet tall and 41metres long and it will cost �1crore each. The ISKCON,which is constructing a massiveKrishna temple in Kurukshetraat a cost of �100 crore, has not

completed nearly 60-65 percent of the project.

The construction of thetemple complex began in 2018and it will be completed in2022. It is being built on sixacres and the temple itself willbe spread over 23,000 squarefeet with three storeys andheight of 165 feet. It will havethe world’s biggest BhagawadGita, a multimedia centre inwhich the Mahabharata will beplayed for devotees, a librarywhich will have all scriptures,Govinda’s restaurant (a chain ofISKCON), 75-room guesthouse, art gallery, spiritual giftshop, supermarket and cafe.

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Swami KesavanandaBharati, pontiff of

the Edneer Mutt inKasaragod district ofKerala, breathed hislast in the wee hours of Sunday.He was 79. The cremation washeld on the Mutt premises onthe banks of River MadhuVahini in Kasaragod.

The Swami’s name becamesynonymous with theConstitution of India as he hadwaged one of the longest legalwars against the Centre in

1971 when he washardly 21.

The SupremeCourt ruled on April24, 1973 that the “basicstructure” of theConstitution is invio-

lable, and cannot be amendedby Parliament.

He questioned theConstitutionality of certainamendments brought in bythe Government of Keralaunder the Land Reforms Actwhich robbed the Mutt of largetracts of land.

Continued on Page 4

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A75-year-old former MLAdied here on Sunday after

he fell on the groundduring an altercation witha group of people over aland dispute, police said,even as the victim’s sonalleged that he was beat-en to death.

According to police,Nirvendra Mishra, who was alegislator thrice, had a disputewith Radheyshyam Gupta andSameer Gupta over a peice ofland under the

Sampoornanagar police sta-tion area.

Radheyshyam Guptaalongwith his aides had gone to

dig the land, and assoon as Mishra came toknow about it, he hur-ried to the spot with hissupporters and analtercation ensued, a

police official said. “During the altercation,

Mishra fell on the ground. Hewas first rushed to the Paliahealth centre and then to a clin-ic, where he was declared

Continued on Page 4

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The COVID-19 tally crossedthe 32,000-mark in the

state capital on Sunday as 999more people tested positive,taking the number of con-firmed cases to 32,499.

A senior official at theCMO office said that 58 peo-ple tested positive in GomtiNagar, 53 in Indiranagar, 42each in Talkatora and Aliganj,39 each in Alambagh and RaeBareli road, 38 in Madiaon, 37in Ashiyana, 36 in Jankipuram,35 in Thakurganj, 32 inCantonment, 31 in Chowk, 29each in Mahanagar, GomtiNagar Extension and VikasNagar, 27 each in Hasanganj,Hazratganj and Saadatganj, 25in Naka, 24 in Krishnanagarand 15 in Hasanganj

With 17 more people suc-cumbing to COVID-19, thedeath toll in the city reached

437 on Sunday evening.The health teams collected

15,360 samples in the districtunder contact surveillance.

On Sunday, 6,777 morepeople tested positive across thestate, taking the count of con-firmed cases to 2,66,283.LAUDED: Many states andUnion territories have designedinnovative measures to fightthe COVID-19 pandemic, withthe Uttar Pradesh governmentsetting up integrated COVIDcontrol and command centresin every district as well as thestate headquarters with repre-sentation of all relevant depart-ments to address the risingnumber of positive cases, theUnion health ministry said onSunday.

These integrated COVIDcontrol and command centreswere set up on July 18.

These centres are primar-ily for ensuring an effective

coordination among the rele-vant departments for non-pharmaceutical interventions(NPIs), the ministry said in astatement.

They also facilitate aprompt referral of COVID-19patients to the appropriate levelof dedicated COVID facilities,it added.

The centres coordinatewith the zonal units to ensurea prompt testing of the symp-tomatic patients and contacts,intimation of the laboratorystatus, facilitation of transportand facility allocation in case ofadmission, besides a regularfollow-up of the cases in homeisolation. Uttar Pradesh hasalso developed a Unified StateCOVID Portal:upcovid19tracks.in. It capturesall information related to sur-veillance, testing and treat-ment of COVID patients, theministry said.

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Lucknow (PNS): Suspecting a 32-year-old alcoholic to be a thief, the local res-idents lynched him in Bareilly. Theinsensitivity of the public also acme tothe fore as instead of rescuing the vic-tim, the villagers joined the attackers andfor sheer fun, they kept recording theinhuman act on their mobile camerasand some of them were seen taking aselfie with the victim.

Reports said that 32-year-old, Basid

Khan, a resident of Aonla in Bareilly, wastied to a tree and allegedly lynched by amob on suspicion of being a thief.According to the reports, some of theattackers joined the crowd for the sheer‘fun’ of it and posed for selfie on theirmobile cameras while the victim, BasidKhan, was being thrashed in the back-

ground on Friday afternoon. Basid, itlater turned out, was an alcoholic but nota thief. Basid was handed over to policeand the cops set him free as no one cameforward to file a complaint against him.His family, on seeing his condition, tookhim to hospital where he died of inter-nal bleeding the next day. A heavy police

force was deployed in the area.Senior Superintendent of Police

Shailesh Pandey told reporters, “I havereceived a video in which Basid is seentied to a tree and locals are thrashinghim. We are trying to identify theaccused using the videos of the incident.There were no visible injuries on thebody. The post-mortem will be conduct-ed by a panel of doctors to ascertain thecause of death.”

Lucknow (PNS): Chief Minister YogiAdityanath said that construction of an interna-tional airport at Kushinagar would speed uptourism in this region which in turn would usherin development in the eastern Uttar Pradesh.

The chief minister along with UnionAviation Minister Hardeep Singh Purireviewed the ongoing construction of theinternational airport in Kushinagar. This willbe the fourth international airport in UttarPradesh. Lucknow and Varanasi already haveinternational airports while work is in progressat Jewar.

“Kushinagar is the gateway of Buddhist cir-cuit and we can expect tourists from far-flungareas like Sri Lanka, Thailand, Myanmar andCambodia to come and visit the places ofBuddhism like Sarnath, Shravasti, Lumbini,

Gaya and Kushinagar. This will give an impetusto tourism,” Yogi said and added that the state gov-ernment was committed to extending all help tothe companies.

The airport was given a status of internation-al airport last month and subsequently directiveswere issued to speed up the construction. The offi-cers were asked to complete the construction bySeptember 30.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi is striving toimprove air connectivity in the country and weare thankful to the Union government for givinginternational status to the airport in Kushinagar,”the chief minister said.

Yogi also held a meeting with the local admin-istration. UP’s Civil Aviation Minister Nand GopalGupta ‘Nandi’ was also present during theinspection.

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Chief Minister YogiAdityanath said that the

cleanliness drive launched byPrime Minister Narendra Modihad transformed the lives ineastern Uttar Pradesh wherechildren used to die ofencephalitis but now the deathrate had come down by almost99 per cent.

“In the past, the Basti divi-sion was rattled by encephalitis.In the last 40 years, between 500and 600 children used to dieevery year because of this dread-ed disease. But the cleanlinessdrive has put a brake on this.This year, only six deaths havebeen reported. One can say thedecline in mortality is by almost99 per cent,” Yogi Adityanathsaid while addressing a gather-ing in Gorakhpur on Sunday.

He said after the BharatiyaJanata Party came to power, adecisive battle was launchedagainst encephalitis and withbetter coordination among var-ious departments, coupled witha cleanliness drive, the govern-ment was able to bring down themortality rate.

After Yogi became the chiefminister of UP, he took up thecudgel to eradicate encephalitisfrom the region. When he wasMP from Gorakhpur, he hadraised the issue of encephalitisand its menace in that region inthe Lok Sabha 18 times in theHouse during his tenure as MP.

“When I became the chiefminister, the first meeting Itook was with the health officialson encephalitis. Experts fromacross the country were asked tochip in with their suggestion.The National Institute ofVirology at Pune was contactedand was asked to set up its satel-lite centre in Gorakhpur,” Yogisaid. “I have seen small childrendie or some of them who sur-vived become mentally retard-ed after the Japanese encephali-tis attack. My personal experi-

ence was that we can prevent thedisease or ensure quick treat-ment if changes are made in thebasic structure. We did that. Westrengthened PHCs (primaryhealth centres) in the ruralareas and imparted special train-ing to doctors and paramedicson treating encephalitis patients.Sanitation drives were carriedout across the villages and thishas shown results,” Yogi said.

Talking about the role ofGoraksh Peeth in Gorakhpur,Yogi said that Mahant DigvijayNath and Mahant Avaidyanathhad sacrificed their lives for thebetterment of society. “Theydreamt about construction ofRam temple in Ayodhya andtheir dreams are coming trueafter 492 years,” he said.

“Goraksh Peeth is a religiouspeeth but it is not only limitedto rituals. The peeth connectspeople with service of mankindand guides the followers to dotheir duties with devotion anddedication,” he said.

The function was attendedby Mahant of Digambar AkharaMahant Suresh Das, local law-makers Ravi Kishan, KamleshPaswan, Shiv Pratap Shukla,Sheetal Pandey, Vipin Singh,Rakesh Singh Baghel, MayorSitaram Jaiswal and others.

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The health care in UttarPradesh will get a boost withaddition of 620 Covid beds intwo newly constructed hospitalbuildings in Lucknow andGorakhpur on Monday.

Chief minister YogiAdityanath will inaugurate boththe hospital buildings onMonday to add the facilities forthe COVID-19 patients.

Additional Chief Secretary(Home) Awanish Awasthi saidhere on Sunday that on Mondaymorning, the chief ministerwould inaugurate a 300-bednew hospital complex at theBRD Medical College inGorakhpur.

He said in the evening, thechief minister would inauguratethe 320-bed ultra modern hos-pital building of the KingGeorge’s Medical University(KGMU) in Lucknow.

Both these hospitals willhave the latest medical facilitiesfor the COVID-19 patients. Inthe new KGMU hospital,there will be 100 exclusive ICUbeds.

State Medical EducationMinister Suresh Kumar Khannawill be present during both theinaugurations.

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While releasing an e-book of Bharatiya Janata Party,Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that the service

millions of party cadre rendered to the people during lock-down was unparalleled in the political history of the coun-try.

The e-book, titled ‘Sewa hi sangathan’, narrates the helpthat the BJP workers extended to the people when lock-down was imposed across the state to contain the spreadof coronavirus infection. It was released by at a functionheld at BJP state headquarters here on Sunday.

The digital book has clippings of newspapers andpictures of party workers extending help to the poor,the migrant workers and the youth by distributingfood grains, clothes, footwear and cooked food among theneedy.

“When people were fleeing because of the pandemic,the BJP workers, without fearing for their lives, cameout on the streets to help the poor and the needy.When people were marching towards their homes, theparty workers were distributing food among them. This wasthe example of Nar Sewa, Narain Sewa,” Yogi Adityanathsaid.

He said when history would be written about thispandemic, the contribution of BJP workers would beremembered. He said the e-book would give inspiration tothe people about the work being done by the party work-ers.

BJP state president Swatantra Dev Singh said thatlockdown was an unprecedented time. He said whenleaders of opposition parties were playing politics onsocial media, the BJP workers were extending help to theneedy.

“To ensure that no one slept without meal, the partydistributed 4.32 crore food packets, 40.54 lakh ration kitsand 90.40 lakh face masks among the people. Besides, theparty distributed footwear to 47,000 people and openedrelief centres at 185 places,” the BJP state chief said, addingthat this was the magnitude of the relief work extended bythe party workers to the masses.

Senior BJP leaders, including Sunil Bansal, alsoaddressed the people.

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The Gautampalli police onSunday arrested a youth who

was accused of raping a woman andher daughter. The woman had ear-lier accused former Cabinet minis-ter Gayatri Prajapati of rape. Theaccused, identified as Ram SinghRajput of Hamirpur, was arrestedfrom Bandariya Bagh crossing onSunday.

According to an official com-muniqué, Ram Singh Rajput wasarrested by a team led by CrimeBranch inspector Ajeet Pratap Singh.In the FIR lodged on July 15 lastyear, the victim had named RamSingh Rajput, Ashu Gaud andDinesh Chand Tripathi. Twounidentified persons were alsoaccused in the case. She had allegedthat Ram Singh had spiked her tea

and then raped her at a flat in H-3block on Park Road. He also tookher obscene pictures to blackmailher. Ram Singh allegedly raped heron a number of occasions at differ-ent hotels in Lucknow and NewDelhi.

He allegedly raped her 14-year-old daughter who was accompany-ing her. The victim had alleged thatDinesh Tripathi was present in theroom when Ram Singh raped herdaughter and Dinesh touching herdaughter indecently. As per herclaim, her daughter can identify theunknown miscreants present in theflat at the time of the incident. AshuGaud was also involved in thecrime. She alleged that Ram Singhcooked up a story later Ashu Gaudsent a letter to the DGP in which hementioned the name of one AshishShukla. Later, Ashu Gaud and Ram

Singh took me to the DGP office toget my case registered and made meand my daughter stand outside theoffice and give a fake complaint.They later held us hostage andmade us sign some papers, contentof which was in English language,”she had alleged.

Meanwhile, Gosainganj policeon Sunday arrested a bootleggerwho was wanted in a case of liquorsmuggling. The accused was iden-tified as Shailendra Kumar Jaiswalaka Bikku of Rae Bareli. His namehad surfaced in the crime onSeptember 24 last year after thepolice had recovered a huge quan-tity of liquor bottles smuggled fromPunjab, laden in a container.Inspector, Gosainganj, DPKushwaha said the team recovereda country-made pistol from thepossession of the accused.

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The Health department will bestrengthening the monitoring

of people coming into Lucknowfrom other parts of the state andcountry for containing the spreadof virus. CMO incharge MKSingh said the testing teams wereat bus & railway stations and air-port, the places which witness theinflux of a large number of peo-ple. This system will be furtherstrengthened. He said the teamswere checking people arriving atLucknow through thermal scan-ners and Ivermectin tablets werealso being given to them. TheCMO said the teams were calledfever help desk teams.

The official further said thatthe infection was spreading in thedistrict, primarily because ofpeople coming from outside.“People from all 74 districts of thestate come for treatment and givetheir address as that of Lucknow,and hence we have asked the hos-pitals to test them after takingtheir Aadhaar cards so that a dif-ferentiation could be made as tohow many of them are from out-

side the district,” he said.He said they were in high

alert mode and each and everyCovid patient was being takencare of. Singh said that thedoorstep screening was on andrapid response teams, besidesconducting door-to-door sur-veillance, were also busy contact-tracing, testing and distributingmedicines. About rural nigranisamitis, he said they were look-ing after rural areas allotted tothem and those included ANMsand ASHA workers appointedper thousand houses, whichmeans a population of 2,000.“They are also on high alertmode,” he added.

Meanwhile, BalrampurHospital felicitated its Covidwarriors, including microbiolo-gist Tehseen, staff nurse Gita, DrVishnu and lab technician Suneeland BL Gupta among others.Director Dr Rajeev Lochan saidthey were given certificates andthe programme was organised toboost their morale and they werefelicitated by DG, Medical andHealth Services, DS Negi.

“They have worked very hard

in their areas of duty whichmany are afraid of. Their contri-bution cannot also be cate-gorised under gender basis and isindividual-based,” he said. Headded that they had only felici-tated a few, looking into Covid-19 conditions and that everyoneon Covid duty would be felicitated.

Meanwhile, Vice-Chancellor

of Atal Bihari Medical UniversityAK Singh said that a task forcewould be formed. It will includeSGPGI director and vice-chan-cellors of KGMU and Atal BihariMedical University. The taskforce will be formed for coordi-nation of the policies of state gov-ernment,” he added. About theCovid-related works which hehas already accomplished, he

said they had trained 50,000NCC cadets online. He said theyhad also imparted advance train-ing to veterinary doctors. Thetraining was imparted because incase there is a situation when onefalls short of doctors, these vet-erinary doctors can be inducted.He said he had also trained high-er secondary and secondary edu-cation teachers so that if gov-ernment takes over any hostel forisolating people, these teachersshould have basic knowledge.

Meanwhile, head of theDietetics department at RamManohar Lohia Hospital ,Poonam Tewari said they werescientifically designing the dietand menu of the patients at theCovid hospital.

“We have different sets of dietplans to cater to the dietaryneeds of various types of patients.We have formulated menus keep-ing in mind their extra require-ments along with Covid condi-tion. Apart from this, critically illCovid patients in ICU are alsogiven formula feeds so as tomeet their nutritional needs,”she said.

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Lucknow (PNS): A 27-year-old labour-er died after he fell off the fourth floorof an apartment under Sushant Golf Citypolice station area on Sunday morning.Police said they sent the body forautopsy and investigation was underway.The labourer, Birju Paswan (27) ofSamastipur in Bihar, was engaged in con-struction work at the apartment. TheSHO said Birju fell down while work-ing on the fourth floor around 10:30 amand was rushed to Ram Manohar LohiaHospital where he was declared broughtdead. Fellow labourers blamed it on thelack of safety measures.

� ��A teacher was duped of Rs 56,000 in

Aliganj police station area. RachnaSrivastava of Triveni Nagar, who is ateacher at a primary school, got a callfrom some unidentified miscreant whointroduced himself as Zahir Ansari. Hetold Rachna that he was sending a par-cel to her and Rachna said she neverplaced any order. Zahir asked Rachna tosend him details of her account detailsso that he could cancel the order. Rachnagave her details to the caller and after awhile, she got a message regarding with-drawal of cash from her bank account.

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Aprivate company employ-ee was found hanging at

his house in Thakurganj onSunday. As per reports, theman, identified as Tabrez Khanaka Ravi (29) of Newazganj,was found hanging from theceiling with a dupatta tiedaround his neck. He was spot-ted hanging first by his wife,Shaima Khan of Laulai villagein Chinhat.

Shaima told the police thatTabrez had gone to drop hermother-in-law to Ghatampur(Kanpur) on Saturday andreturned to his house inThakurganj the same night. Shesaid she had a talk with Tabrezover the phone. “He was undermental duress. On Sunday, he

did not attend calls and itmade me apprehensive,” shetold the police. She said shereached the house and foundTabrez hanging. The policesent the body for autopsy start-ed further investigation. He wasa private company employeeand is survived by wife and son.

Meanwhile, an18-year-oldboy drowned while his fellowswere rescued when they weretaking a dip in the Gomti riverin Thakurganj police stationarea on Sunday afternoon.

As per reports, six youths,identified as Dilsher (19),Mohammed Faizan (19),Mohammed Niaz (16),Mohammed Dilshad (17),Mohammed Furqan (16) andNizamuddin (18) — all ofKakori — had gone to take a

dip in the river nearThakurganj pumping station.

The group moved to themiddle and Nizamuddin start-ed to drown. His friends triedto save him unsuccessfully andlater called his family. On beinginformed, a police teamreached the scene.

Sub-inspector AwanishSingh said the drivers pulledout Nizamuddin from the riverand he was taken to KGMUTrauma Centre where he wasdeclared brought dead.

Deceased’s family told thepolice that Nizamuddin did notknow how to swim. They sus-pected that Nizamuddin waslured into taking a dip in theriver. The police said they con-ducting a probe into the alle-gations.

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Lucknow Metro is all set toresume operations from

Monday after lockdown. OnSunday, UPMRC managingdirector Kumar Keshav show-cased to mediapersons thefacilities which they have cre-ated for safe travel amidst thecoronavirus pandemic.

“Lucknow Metro is city’spride and provides the best pas-senger service. It is the mostsecure form of urban transportsystem which not only savestime but is also cost-effective.While people have to incurhuge costs for maintainingtheir personal vehicles, metrojourney nullifies the possibili-ties of bearing any maintenancecosts and promises positiveand peaceful travel experience.It decreases carbon foot printsin the environment andimproves air quality,” Keshavsaid.

UPMRC officials saidLucknow Metro is the safest,most comfortable, affordable,hygienic and reliable mode ofMass Rapid Transit System(MRTS), as compared to othermeans of public transport sys-tem. With the ‘Adopt Metro foryour convenience and safety’mantra, Lucknow Metro isrestarting its train operationsfor people of Lucknow, theysaid. A senior official said spe-cial emphasis was being laid onon contactless travel, sanitisa-

tion, social distancing, hygieneand cleanliness.

“Various rigorous stepshave been undertaken toensure a smooth, safe, secureand convenient commutingexperience to the passengers.Total contactless travel with aGoSmart card will be ensured.A GoSmart user enjoys a totalcontactless travel right fromentering stations and boardingtrain to exiting the premises.The automatic sensor of AFCgates detects the card from adistance without tapping it. AGoSmart card user comes incontact only with train seats.We are using UV technology

for token sanitisation ensuringfull passenger safety and cash-less facility of multiple tokensand tickets with GoSmartcards,” the official said.

“Markings for social dis-tancing have been done onalternate seats to maintain suf-ficient gap between passengersinside train. Frequentlytouched areas inside trains willbe sanitised regularly. All com-mon contact points will also besanitised regularly,” he said.

“UPMRC has developed adetailed business continuityplan encompassing all the safe-ty measures, instructions andregulations for passenger com-

fort and safety. It can be easilyaccessed online by commuters,”he added.

According to the guidelinesof Union Ministry of Housingand Urban Affairs, UP Metrohas prepared SOPs for trainoperations highlighting variousimportant aspects related tocommuter safety and security.

“Metro will operate as ear-lier from September 7(Monday), from 6 am to 10 pm.Sixteen trains will run at aninterval of 5 minutes 30 sec-onds. The trains will stop atevery station and mask ismandatory which will be pro-vided in case any passenger for-gets to bring it. Arogya Setu isrecommended and not manda-tory for commuters to regularlycheck and update status. In caseany person doesn’t carry smart-phone, their names and num-bers will be noted down.Temperature of every com-muter will be recorded at theentry point. Commuters areadvised to avoid carryingmetal items in trains to facil-itate contactless frisking. Twogates will be functional nor-mally at every metro stationwith no separate gates forentry and exit. It’s mandatoryto sanitise hands and sanitis-er will be available at everygate. Metro trains and stationpremises will be sanitised atregular intervals to ensuremaximum safety of passen-gers,” he added.

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Lakhimpur Kheri was rockedby yet another mysterious

death of a 14-year-old girl.Her body was found hangingfrom the thatched roof of ahouse on Sunday morning.This is the fourth such incidentreported over four weeks in thedistrict.

Lakhimpur Kheri SPSatendra Kumar Singh, ASPArun Kumar Singh and MitauliCO Shitanshu Kumar rushed tothe spot after receiving infor-mation about the incident andcarried out preliminary inves-tigations. The officials alsotalked to the parents and otherfamily members of the girl, thepolice said. The cause of thegirl’s death is yet to be ascer-tained. Police said the body hadbeen sent for autopsy andappropriate action would betaken after the report came.

This is the second death ofa girl in Neemgaon police sta-tion limits since August 25.

Lakhimpur Kheri districtwas in the news recently whena 17-year-old Dalit girl wasfound dead outside her village.She was allegedly raped andmurdered after she left home tofill a scholarship application.Her mutilated body was foundnear a dry pond, around 200metres away from her village inNeemgaon police limits.

In another incident report-ed from Saharanpur, a 17-year-old girl who was alleged-ly raped by two persons lastweek allegedly committed sui-cide at her residence.

According to the police, thetwo accused had filmed the actand had been threatening thevictim that they would uploadthe video on social media if shetold anyone about the incident.

The two accused have beenarrested, police disclosed.

After she consumed somepoisonous substance, the girlwas taken to a community

health centre on Friday after-noon from where she wasreferred to the district hospitalwhere she died.

The family then submitteda complaint that she had beenraped by the two accused. Avideo of the alleged crime hadalso been made and it wasallegedly uploaded on socialmedia. This led the minor totake the extreme step, saidAshok Kumar Meena, SP(Rural) at Saharanpur.

As per the complaint, theminor had been allegedly rapedunder a criminal conspiracy bythe accused, identified only asNauman and Rehbar.

“They made a video of thecrime. They told her that if shetold anyone about the incident,they would upload the video onsocial media. When she refusedthe advances of the accusedlater, they leaked the video.Fearing humiliation, she con-sumed poison,” the complaintfiled by the family said.

The victim did not tell thefamily about the incident fear-ing backlash, her relatives said.“Minutes before her death, Irequested the police to recordher statement since I wanted torecord the names of those whodid this to her,” said a relative.

Meanwhile in Mainpuri, aminor girl was gang-raped atgunpoint. Reports said that a15-year-old girl was foundlying in an unconscious state inthe bushes on Saturday after-noon. The cops of Kurawalipolice station shifted her tohospital where she told themthat on Friday evening, she lefther home to give cloth forstitching at a tailor’s shop whenfour miscreants forcibly tookher to a secluded place andgang-raped her at gunpoint.She said that later she faintedand only regained her con-sciousness in the hospital. Acase has been registered andefforts are on to nab the culprits.

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Under the government’spolicy of zero tolerance

towards corruption, DeputyChief Minister Keshav PrasadMaurya on Sunday suspend-ed four officials of UttarPradesh Rajkiya NirmanNigam (UPRNN) after findinglarge-scale irregularities inthe construction of a medicalcollege in Bahraich having abudget of Rs 200 crore.Maurya also ordered a probeagainst one of the retiredaccountants.

Sources said the state gov-ernment had acquired agri-cultural land in Bahraich toconstruct a medical collegethere to strengthen healthcare facilities in the area sothat the local people were notforced to come to Lucknow

for treatment. The govern-ment had also sanctioned abudget of Rs 200 crore for themedical college. During con-struction of the medical col-lege building, there were sev-eral reports of use of sub-stan-dard material as well as cor-ruption. After reports of swin-dling of Rs 14 crore by someofficials came to the knowl-edge of Maurya, he suspend-ed four UPRNN officials andordered a probe against aretired accountant. TheUPRNN is the official agencyconstructing the SwashasiRajkiya Medical College inBahraich.

It had come to the knowl-edge of the deputy chief engi-neer that engineers and con-tractors engaged in the workhad joined hands to siphon offthe government fund by using

sub-standard material. On areport submitted by UPRNNFinance Advisor BK Prabhakar,a probe was ordered underAdditional Project ManagerManinder Srivastava. AfterSrivastava submitted his find-ings, the same were forwardedto Maurya, who holds thePWD portfolio. The govern-ment also got the matterprobed by a special audit teamof the Finance Department.

Sources said that on thebasis of the joint report,Maurya ordered suspensionof Project Manager GirishChandra Chaturvedi, juniorengineer RS Yadav, and twoother senior officers, HP Bhattand VK Singh.

Accountant PradeepAgarwal was also found guiltybut as he has already retired, aprobe has bee ordered against

him to initiate legal proceed-ings. Sources said that theNoida-based company,Universal Construction, gotthe contract for constructingthe medical college inBahraich. The companyappointed Lalit Pundeer asthe project manager and hewas looking after purchase ofmaterials and arrangement ofmanpower.

Project Manager GirishChandra Chaturvedi claimedthat he had earlier noticed thatthe Universal Company wasusing substandard materialand was involved in corruptionand had sent a report is thisregard to the government. Hesaid a probe was also con-ducted on his complaint butstill action was being takenagainst him along with otherofficers.

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The Uttar Pradesh govern-ment is mulling a propos-

al to merge all the districtcooperative banks (DCBs) withthe apex cooperative bankingbody the ‘UP CooperativeBank’.

The proposed ‘UPCooperative Bank’, created afterthe merger, will comprise morethan 1,000 branches with a bal-ance sheet of nearly Rs 35,000crore, which could even growto more than Rs 50,000 crore inthe next five years with a mod-erate growth rate of 8 per cent.

The Yogi Adityanath gov-ernment, soon after coming topower in March 2017, hadtaken up the task of revival ofthe DCBs and had set up anexpert committee to suggest themeasures. Several states likeKerala, Andhra Pradesh andTelangana have already merged

the DCBs with the apex coop-erative bank in their respectivestates.

Most of the DCBs arestruggling for survival due topoor credit recovery. Amidthe ongoing process of consol-idation in the public sectorbanks by the Centre, the expertpanel has suggested creation ofa single state controlled lenderin the cooperative sector in thestate by merging all the DCBswith the UPCB.

“Our report has been sub-mitted to the state govern-ment for taking the final call onthe proposed merger,” a mem-ber of the panel said and added,“The COVID-19 lockdownhad delayed the whole process,”

There is proposal to mergeUP Cooperative Bank (UPCB),UP Sahkari Gram Vikas Bank(UPSGVB) and 50 district co-operative banks (DCBs).

He noted there was an

urgent need to merge these co-operative banks for sustain-ability, since they had alreadybeen running in huge losses,while the lockdown had led toa further deterioration of theirfinancial condition.

The panel’s report has rec-ommended a composite actionplan for the post-merger capi-tal requirements of the co-operative banks, deposit mobil-isation, staff restructuring etc.

Over the past decades, thedistrict co-operative banks(DCBs) with the attached state-wide network of primary agri-culture cooperative societies(PACS) have been the cheapestvehicle for the disbursementand recovery of agriculturalcredit. The DCBs with the net-work of PACS in each district,once provided efficient servicein the rural hinterland by pro-viding timely short-terms croploans to the farmers apart from

offering deposit facilities. TheDCBs, which get the refinancefrom the National AgricultureBank for Rural Development(NABARD) gradually failed tomatch up to modern banking.

Meanwhile, the process torecapitalise and modernisethese co-operative banks hadbeen underway already, withthe state earlier announcing toinfuse fresh capital into 16 ail-ing DCBs operating inFaizabad, Shravasti, Allahabad,Sitapur, Hardoi, Azamgarh,Fatehpur, Gorakhpur, Basti,Ballia, Siddharthnagar, Deoria,Sultanpur, Jaunpur, Ghazipurand Bahraich districts.

In the past, these 16 DCBshad been served notices by theReserve Bank of India (RBI) forfailing to adhere to the finan-cial and licensing norms.However, the licences weregiven to them later.

The NABARD had sus-

pended the refinance facility toseveral DCBs following theirfailure to meet the credit recov-ery targets. Several DCBs wererestrained by the NABARDfrom conducting the normalbanking operations like dis-bursing credit and acceptingdeposits under BankingRegulations Act, 1949.

In 2019, the UP govern-ment had raised concerns overthe rising non-performingassets (NPAs) and poor loanrecovery of the DCBs and haddirected the Registrar ofCooperative Societies toanalyse the reason for the bur-geoning NPAs and take imme-diate measures, while fixing theaccountability. At the end ofSeptember 2018, the coopera-tive banks in UP had a branchnetwork of 1,589 with depositsand advances of Rs 16,750crore and Rs 13,513 crore,respectively.

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Lucknow (PNS): A monthafter an Instagram chat group‘Bois Locker Room’ came tolight, now a Biology WhatsAppgroup for class 10th students ofa private school in Baghpat hasbeen found filled with porno-graphic material.

The police said that theperson who created the chatgroup used an internationalnumber to evade detection.

“But it appears to be thework of some insider as he had

the photograph of the school’sbiology teacher, which he usedin the group’s DP, as well as allthe phone numbers,” a policeofficer said. The probe hasbeen handed over to UPPolice’s cyber cell, he said.

Circle Officer of Badautarea, Alok Singh, said, “Somevulgar pictures and videos wereposted on the WhatsApp groupnamed ‘Biology group Class 10’.The group had the display pic-ture of the biology teacher, who

did not know about it. A probehas been ordered and it isbeing handled by the cybercrime team.” The principal ofthe school said, “We hadreceived a complaint. TheWhatsApp account was fakeand was created with a foreignnumber. We have informedthe police.”

The chat screenshotsshared by a few parents pur-portedly showed that the per-son using the number even

asked for some pictures fromthe children. However, it wasnot clear what kind of pictureshe was asking for. This comesa month after an Instagramchat group ‘Bois Locker Room’came to light, wherein rapeswere glorified and photos ofunderage girls shared and theywere objectified. The incidenthad hit the headlines after a girlfrom South Delhi shared ascreenshot of the group chat onsocial media.

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“We have recorded Rhea Chakraborty’sstatement. But, because of her late arrivaltoday, the investigation could not be complet-ed. So, she has been summoned tomorrow aswell,” NCB’s Zonal Director, Sameer Wankhedesaid.

Earlier in the morning, an NCB team - com-prising among others Wankhede and a lady offi-cial had gone to fetch Rhea from her home atPrimRose Apartments at Juhu-Santacruz.However the actress opted to go in her own caralong with a Mumbai Police escort.

That Rhea’s family was reconciled to the pos-sibility of the actress being arrested during thecourse of her questioning could be evidencedfrom the statements made by her father IndrajitChakraborty and lawyer Satish Maneshindeahead of her joining the investigations at theNCB. Accusing the investigating agencies of“effectively demolishing” his family (“a middle-class family”), Lt Col (retd) Indrajit said:“Congratulations India, you have arrested myson, I’m sure next on the line is my daughter andI don’t know who is next thereafter. You haveeffectively demolished a middle-class family. Butof course, for the sake of justice, everything isjustified. Jai Hind.”

Simultaneously, Maneshinde caused a flut-ter in the media by saying that his client Rhea“is ready for arrest as this is a witch hunt and ifloving someone is a crime, she will face the con-sequences of her love.”

“Being innocent, she has not approached anycourt for anticipatory bail in all the cases foist-ed by Bihar Police now with CBI, ED and NCB,”Maneshinde said.

The statements by Rhea’s father Indrajit andlawyer Maneshinde appeared like an effort ontheir party to mount pressure on the NCB to goslow on the arrest of the actress.

In an application filed before a city court onSaturday seeking the remand of Showik andSamuel, the NCB had said, “He (Showik) has tobe confronted with Dipesh Sawant and Rhea

Chakrborty also, as there are specific roles/ingre-dients of conspiracy theory, abetments and var-ious attempts to commit offences”.

The remand application had also given indi-cations about the NCB’s line of investigations,when the agency stated that “the financial trailof all their previous transactions of drug pur-chase has to be verified.... Further some char-acters are to be verified, who as per CDR analy-sis, WhatsApp chat and preliminary interroga-tion are deeply entrenched in the drug traf-ficking, which is a serious threat to public safe-ty and public health”.

While seeking the custody of Showik andSamuel, the NCB had also made a startling claimin its remand application filed before a metro-politan court here on Saturday that the “drugangle” in the Sushant death case “is highly sub-stantive” and “needs to be investigated thor-oughly so as to uproot the drug citadel inMumbai especially in Bollywood”.

Showik’s involvement emerged after theNCB Mumbai and New Delhi teams on August28 arrested Abbas R Lakhani and Karn V Arorafrom old Kurla and Chandivali, Powai, each withpossession of 46 gms of marijuana/ganja and 13gms, respectively.

The two alleged drug peddlers disclosed theinvolvement of Zaid Vilatra whose home wasraided to unearth Rs 9.50 lakh, USD-2,081, 180British Pounds and UAE 15 Dirhams which theyconfessed were the proceeds of sale of drugs likemarijuana/ganja/bud to many people in the city.

Vilatra was arrested on September 2 andremanded to custody for 7 days by the samecourt, and during interrogation, he revealed thenames of a buyer Abdel Basit Parihar, who wasarrested on September 3.

The role of Rhea’s brother ShowikChakraborty and his purported links withpeople nabbed by NCB are under the scannerof the NCB.

Rhea, her parents Indrajit and SandhyaChakraborty, her brother Showik, Sushaant’s ex-manager Shruti Manager Shruti Modi and oth-ers have been named in an FIR lodged by theactor’s father KK Singh with Rajiv Nagar policestation in Patna. It was on the basis of this FIR

that the Supreme Court ordered the transfer ofthe Sushant Singh Rajput death case to the CBIon August 19. Rhea, her parents, her brother andothers have been booked as part of this FIRunder sections 341 (wrongful restraint) 342(wrongful confinement, 380 (theft), 406 (breachof trust),420 (cheating), 306 (abetting suicide)and 120-B (conspiracy) of the Indian PenalCode. The CBI, ED and NCB are investigatingthe case from different angles.

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Official logos of the department are not sup-posed to be posted on social media as they arelegally protected and should not appear on forcepersonnel’s posts or social media sites.

Specific travel plans or geo-tagged photos,videos or any other content should not be post-ed anywhere on the Internet. They are not evensupposed to access social media sites from theofficial computers/Internet/WiFi.

In addition, the personnel have been advisedagainst bringing their smart phones or tabletcomputers (tabs) to critical areas of the officecomplexes like conference/meeting rooms oroperations rooms as per the guidelines issuedrecently on usage of smartphones by the para-military personnel while on duty.

“Do not write anything out of anger, spiteor under the influence of alcohol. Do not be abully or discriminate against anyone online. Donot comment on controversial, sensitive or polit-ical matters,” added the advisory.

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brought dead. No apparent injury wasdetected,” Superintendent of Police (SP) SatendraKumar Singh said.

However, the former MLA’s son Sanjivalleged that dozens of people had beaten up hisfather with sticks which led to his death.

Sanjiv also alleged that he too was injured

in the attack. Later, Additional SP Arun Kumar Singh said,

“On a complaint of Nirvendra Kumar Mishra’sson, an FIR is being registered against theaccused.” The body has been sent for post-mortem to ascertain the cause of death andefforts are being made to nab the perpetrators,he said. ADG (Lucknow Zone) SN Sabat latertold reporters that two persons have beendetained by police for questioning, and inves-tigation is going on. Mishra had represented theNighasan assembly constituency, before delim-itation, twice as an Independent in 1989 and1991, and on a Samajwadi Party ticket in 1993.

He is survived by his son and three daugh-ters. The death of the former Uttar Pradesh MLAled to opposition parties asking the BJP gov-ernment in the state to act tough on the mat-ter.

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The family-run mutt belongs to the lineageof Sri Thotakacharya, one of the first four dis-ciples of Adi Shankaracharya.

Nani Palkhivala, the legal wizard, wrote in1976: “It was held in Kesavananda Bharati’s case(1973) that while Parliament has the powerunder Art 368 to amend any part of theConstitution (including the chapter on funda-mental rights) the power cannot be so exercisedas to alter or destroy the basic structure or frame-work of the Constitution; and this ratio was reaf-firmed and applied in Indira Gandhi’s case(1975) in which a Constitutional amendment tomake the Prime Minister’s election to Parliamentunassailable in a court of law was declared void”.

Kesavananda Baharati made the apex courtdeclare that Parliament was only a creature ofthe Constitution. If Parliament had the powerto destroy the basic structure of the Constitution,it would cease to be a creature of the Constitutionand become its master, remarked Palkhivalawhile explaining the judgement by the 13judge bench which heard the case and pro-nounced a 7-6 verdict.

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With 87 fresh Covid-19 cases inthe past 24 hours, the total num-

ber has now gone up to 3,291 in theTaj city. While 2,584 have recoveredand there have been 109 deaths so far.

The number of active cases in the dis-trict is 598.

District Magistrate P.N. Singhsaid the total number of samples col-lected for testing is now 1,30,530. Therecovery rate is 78.52 per cent, whilethe sample positivity rate is 2.52 per

cent.Health department officials said

320 samples from 10 spots were col-lected on Saturday as part of thethree-day Sero-survey in the dis-trict.

Meanwhile, there are no plans to

reopen schools and the historicalmonuments immediately.

Only the Taj Mahal and theAgra Fort are presently closed.

The DRM office has indicatedthat scores of trains would resumeoperations from September 12, par-

ticularly south-bound.Health activists in the city, how-

ever, expressed concern over theincreasing complacency displayedby the locals who have been flock-ing the markets without masks andviolating social distancing norms.

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After posing threat of flood,the river Ganga has start-

ed receding and during the last24 hours, its water level has fall-en fast as by Sunday morning,it came down to 68.07 metres.During the last one day, its levelwas declined by 56 centimetres,indicating that the falling was2.33 cms per hour as it wasrecorded at 68.63 metres a dayago. However, despite thedowntrend, in Ballia the riveris still flowing above the redmark and it is expected that byMonday afternoon, it will comedown below the danger levelthere.

According to the report ofthe local office of CentralWater Commission (CWC),both the rivers Ganga and

Yamuna have started decliningprior to their confluence atSangam (Prayagraj) atPhaphamau and Allahabad

respectively and the same trendwas seen at all the places tilldownstream Ballia includingMirzapur, Varanasi and

Ghazipur. In Ballia, it wasrecorded at 58.06 metresagainst a red mark of 57.61metres and it is expected thatby Monday morning, the samewill come down to 57.65metres.

In this part of Purvanchal(eastern UP), generally flood isseen during late rainy seasonwhen huge water comes fromChambal and other riversthrough Yamuna. Though thepossibilities of flood have yetnot ruled out completely, see-ing the weather conditions insome northern parts of thecountry, the continuation ofdeclining trend would give a lotof relief to the farmers, who arelargely depending on theirpaddy crops this season due tolosing of their part-time non-agriculture jobs due toCOVID-19 pandemic.

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Joint Secretary, UnionMinistry of Health and

Family Welfare, Vikas Sheel vis-ited Sevapuri developmentblock selected by NITI Aayogfor a special drive to see theprogress of NationalTuberculosis EradicationProgramme (NTEP) there onSaturday. After the visit, hereviewed the progress made inNTEP at a meeting attended byDistrict Magistrate (DM)Kaushal Raj Sharma, ChiefMedical Officer (CMO) DrVB Singh, officers of ChildDevelopment and Nutritiondepartment and representa-tives of various organisationsincluding Micro Save, TataTrust, UNICEF and WHO.

Vikas Sheel instructed theofficers that special attentionshould be paid to identify thetuberculosis (TB) patientsunder NTEP timely duringthe proposed 10-day campaignto be launched in Sevapuriblock from Monday(September 7 to 17). ‘Regulartreatment of the patients shouldbe ensured by the doctors andparamedical staff and theirdata should also be uploadedon the concerned portal of theHealth department,’ he said,directing the officers to carryout health and nutrition relat-ed activities in the block in abetter way.

Besides, he also asked theofficers that during treatment,the prescribed amount of � 500every month should be trans-

ferred to the bank account ofevery TB patient under theNutrition Scheme. He alsodirected the officers to make allhealth and wellness centres ofSevapuri fully functional andprovide training to the commu-nity health officers (CHOs)posted at the centres forimproving the quality ofhuman resources and behav-iour change in the communi-ty.

At the meeting, the DMinstructed that all the CHOsshould upload the daily reportson the portal in time and all theschemes and activities of theHealth department relating tomalnutrition, adolescent girlsand sanitation, should beworked in quality. ‘For this,

proper training should beimparted to ASHA andAnganwadi workers,’ he added.

CMO informed that a totalof 106 teams have been consti-tuted for searching for activeTB patients in Sevapuri blockduring the forthcoming cam-paign and in this direction, fiveofficers have been deployed atdistrict level apart from 21supervisors. ‘These teams willvisit the village to find TBpatients and further screeningof TB will be done if initialsymptoms are found duringcontact with the households.On confirmation of TB disease,the patient will be ensuredfree treatment for a prescribedperiod,’ he added.

District Tuberculosis

Officer Dr Rakesh KumarSingh informed that 16 TBunits, 83 microscopy centres(all community, primary,selected additional primaryhealth centers and urban pri-mary health centres) and 685DOTS centres are working tomake the district TB-free by2025. Besides, there are twonodal DRTB centres including14-bed at Sir Sunderlal Hospital(SSH) at Banaras HinduUniversity (BHU) and 20-bedat Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital,Ramnagar. For quick identifi-cation of MDR patients, threeCB-NAT machines have beeninstalled in the district at IMSBHU, SSPG Divisional Hospitaland Pandit DeendayalUpadhyaya State Hospital.

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During the last 24 hours, 356new patients of Covid were

detected in the Prayagraj dis-trict here on Saturday. Withthis, the number of activepatients has increased to 2,894in the district. So far, 11,452infected patients have beenidentified for the deadly virus.

The increasing scope ofcorona testing in the district isincreasing the number ofinfected patients. Accordingto CMO Dr GS Bajpai, the per-centage of those who beat thecorona has also increasedamong the increasing numberof infected. According to DrBajpai, 66 patients were dis-charged on Saturday from var-ious Covid hospitals and Covidcare centres. At the same time,home isolation of 187 infectedis completed. In this way, 253patients have beaten the coro-na in one day.

There were a total of 2,404infected patients in the homeisolation on Saturday. A total of421 Covid infected patientsare admitted in various hospi-tals. According to NodalOfficer Dr Rishi Sahai, themaximum 130 Covid infectedpatients are admitted to SRNHospital at L3 level. 88 infect-

ed patients are being treated atCovid Care CentreKalindipuram, 47 in RailwayHospital, 26 in Unani MedicalCollege, 42 in United Medicity,58 in Beli Hospital, Sri SainathVatsalya AMA Hospital.

Four people, including twowomen, died of a Covid infec-tion on Saturday. Three patientsadmitted to Swaroop RaniNehru Hospital had other seri-ous illnesses with Covid infec-tion. A patient succumbed atBeli Hospital. According toSRN Hospital Nodal Officer forCorona Dr Sujit Verma, a 65-year-old woman who wasreferred from a private hospi-tal was admitted on September3. He had intestinal diseasewith a Covid infection. Hedied during treatment ataround 6 in the morning dueto a ruptured bowel.

The 55-year-old woman, aresident of Mauaima, wasadmitted to the SRN Hospitalfor treatment of Covid infec-tion on August 31. He hadsevere intestinal disease withhigh blood pressure. He diedon Saturday afternoon due toinfection rising during treat-ment.

In the same context, a 58-year-old man, resident ofKydganj, was admitted in crit-ical condition at around 7.30

pm on Friday evening. He hadpneumonia with a Covid infec-tion. He also had difficulty inbreathing. He died duringtreatment at around 6.30 am.

The death of three peopleinfected with Covid was con-firmed by Nodal Officer DrRishi Sahai. According to BeliSuperintendent Dr SushmaSrivastava, a 45-year-old manof Hanumanganj was broughtto the hospital in critical con-dition at around 3.15 pm onSaturday. He had a Covid testdone at KP College. When thereport came positive, he wasadvised to be admitted here inSRN Hospital. He died short-ly after reaching the hospital.

A 51-year-old man infect-ed with corona had arrivedhere from Kaushambi and diedon Saturday afternoon at SRNHospital. On the complaint ofdifficulty in breathing, thehousemates came to admithim. During treatment ataround 1 o’clock in the after-noon Covid infected breathedhis last.

The number of paramed-ical staff along with doctors,health workers is increasingevery day due to Covid infec-tion. These health workers,who are the forefront, are most-ly vulnerable to the deadlyvirus.. Along with the common

people, railway officers, guardsand cashiers of the Axis BankCivil Lines branch have alsotested Covid positive. NodalOfficer for Corona Dr RishiSahai gave this information.

He said that an auditor ofthe AG office was also includ-ed in the list of corona infect-ed on Saturday. This includesa doctor from MDI Hospital,Superintendent of CHCSoraon, an intern of SRN, asenior doctor, a junior doctor.The Chief Pharmacist of ColvinHospital and an MBBS studentof Medical College have alsobeen infected, he added.

According to Nodal OfficerDr Sahai, a staff nurse of BeliHospital along with a HighCourt employee has beenfound to be Covid positive.Branch Manager of UnionBank, a constable posted atKoraon police station, comput-er operator of MLN Hospital,superintendent of Sewait rail-way station, chief commercialofficer of railway, steno of COCivil Lines, a clerk of labourcommissioner office, a consta-ble posted at Phulpur policestation besides more than threehundred people have been con-firmed with Covid infectionincluding HDO Forestry,Daraganj’s ANM and ADEERailway.

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The Madras Hotel near theHigh Court owned by

Atique Ahmed’s brother-in-law Imran was demolished onSaturday evening. PDA officialsduring investigations hadfound that the hotel was builtillegally on Nazul’s land. So itwas decided that the hotelwould be demolished.

In the presence of a heavypolice force, the teams ofPrayagraj DevelopmentAuthority (PDA), MunicipalCorporation and RevenueDepartment carried out thedemolition action. It tookalmost a full day to demolishthe firmly built Madras Hotel.After the attachment of morethan a dozen properties ofAtique, the demolition actionhas stirred the gang.

Teams of the RevenueDepartment, PDA andMunicipal Corporation wereformed along with the police tolocate the famous ‘benamiproperties’ of the AtiqueAhmed gang. After the PDAteam investigated the MadrasHotel, it was ascertained thatAtique’s brother-in-law Imran,a resident of Chakia, hadmanipulated the documentsand built the hotel on Najul’sland.

When the report was sub-mitted to the DistrictMagistrate, orders were givento dismantle it then and there.Police and PDA teams reachedon the spot on Saturdayevening. In a short time, alongwith four JCBs, force of sever-

al police stations and PAC, theZonal Officer of PDA and COCivil Lines Ajit Singh reachedthe spot and after the arrival ofACM Prem Chandra, demoli-tion operations started.

The two-storey buildingof the Madras Hotel, the newlybuilt office and the shop nextto it, were demolished by bar-ricading on both sides near theHigh Court. The action contin-ued till the night. The MadrasHotel was divided into twoparts. One building was threestoreys and one was twostoreys. Both buildings weredemolished. Zonal Officer SatShukla said that the actionstarted from 4 pm and lasted

till 8.30 in the evening.Significantly, the police

have launched an action planfor tightening the assets ofAtique and his gang some timeago. Before this, propertiesworth crores have beenattached in Dhumanganj,Khuldabad and Civil lines. TheDM has ordered attachment ofsix more properties of Atique.Soon they will also be attached.

No one was aware of thepolice, administration andPDA’s action till morning. Assoon as the Madras Hotel wasdemolished in the evening,this thing spread like wildfirein the city. Among the mem-bers of the gang whose assets

are identified were paniced asto whether their propertywould be demolished. Thegang members were takinginformation from their sourcesin the police administration.

To recall, Atique’s brother-in-law Imran also lives inChakia in his neighborhood.He was booked for kidnappingZaid and taking him to Deoriajail. Apart from this, there aremany cases against Imran.Imran has been abscondingsince the start of action on theAtique gang. The police havedeclared a reward of Rs 25,000on his head. A few days ago ahistory sheet of his brother wasalso opened.

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Afresh proposal has beensent to the state govern-

ment to start work on themost ambitious Inner RingRoad project of Sangam city inthe corona era. The new initia-tive has started in this directionafter the meeting of DeputyChief Minister Keshav PrasadMaurya with Union Road andTransport Minister NitinGadkari.

According to the new pro-posal, it has been asked to startconstruction on this project ina phased manner, so that noproblem could crop up over thelack of budget. Four days agoin Delhi, Deputy CM KeshavPrasad Maurya had discussedwith Union Road Transportand Highways Minister NitinGadkari to start importantprojects for the Inner RingRoad project and Six lanebridge construction.Subsequently, NHAI hasstepped up the initiative to takethis project forward. Now aproposal has been sent to com-plete the inner road project ina phased manner. Under thenew proposal, in the first phase,the Inner Ring Road has beenplanned to merge from RewaRoad to Naini, Arail, Jhunsiand Andawa in Sahaso bypass.In this new proposal, it is saidto start construction of a 27 km

inner ring road in the firstphase. The aim of the officersbehind this is to not let thework of the inner ring road beaffected due to lack of budgetin the corona era.

NHAI officials said thatthis will also start work on theInner Ring Road and the gov-ernment will not have to bearany additional burden.According to officials, boththe Inner Ring Road and SixLane Bridge projects are bigbudget. It is estimated to costover � 5000 crore on the innerring road and more than � 2000crore in the construction of thesix lane bridge. Along with thedevelopment of green belts onboth sides of the inner ringroad, new townships will alsobe settled.

NCR STAFF WORKINGTIRELESSLY : Railway menand women of North CentralRailway are working tirelesslyto ensure uninterrupted trans-port of goods and passengersacross the length and breadthof the country. Besides main-taining essential transport ser-vices, NCR has also takenseries of steps for augmentingmedical infrastructure andresources to fight COVID-19pandemic in an effective man-ner. Moving ahead from facecover and sanitiser produc-tion, NCR has already preparedapproximately 12000 coveralls

through inhouse efforts. As on5.09.20 total 600 formal andinformal training programmeson sanitisation and informa-tion, education and communi-cation (IEC) have been organ-ised on NCR to equip our med-ical professionals and otherfront-line staff with requisiteknowledge on novel disease.Screening of Railway employ-ees, their family members andother beneficiaries of Railwaymedical services have beenintensified; and as on 5.09.20more than 12800 persons havebeen examined in 5 separateclinics being run to examinepersons with fever and symp-toms like COVID-19.

Augmenting COVID-19treatment facilities bothRailway COVID-19 hospitalsi.e. Divisional Railway HospitalJhansi and Central HospitalPrayagraj have been upgradedto Level-2 COVID-19 carefacility with requisite augmen-tation of infrastructure, doctorsand other paramedical staffthus adding total 200 beds oflevel-2 treatment facility. InAugust-20, total 187 patientsrequiring attention in level-2hospital i.e. 148 in Centralhospital Prayagraj and 39 inRailway hospital Jhansi havebeen admitted. Improving facil-ities in COVID-19 care ward ofJhansi divisional hospital; 20ICU Fowler beds, 6 Static

Ventilators, exclusive x raymachine, 20 water dispensers &1 new water cooler have beenprovided. Besides augmentingresources in COVID-19 ward,7 ICU beds and 5 beds in triageward have been provided innon Covid portion of CentralHospital Prayagraj to ensureunhindered medical attentionto non covid patients. Besidesstandard arrangements likescreening, sanitisation, socialdistancing etc. at all work-places to contain COVID-19spread; Standby control roomparallel to main control roomhas been established in the allthree divisions i.e. Prayagraj,Jhansi and Agra to ensureuninterrupted train operationsin event of suspension of maincontrol for sanitisation etc.due to COVID-19. These con-trol rooms have been equippedwith all communication andcontrol equipment to handletrain operation activities.Providing additional safeguardto passengers against this pan-demic; COVID-19 safety kitsales point at Prayagraj Jn.andKanpur Central stations, kioskfor mask, sanitiser etc. at Jhansiand Gwalior stations and lug-gage sanitisation and wrap-ping facility at Agra andMathura stations have beenprovided under new innova-tion non fare revenue ideascheme (NINFRIS).

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The district has crossed 9K-mark as 141 new Covid-19

cases have been detected onSunday. With this, the totalnumber of cases has reached9,063. Besides, the district alsosaw four more deaths, increas-ing the toll to 158. During theday, the follow-up negativereports included 290 patients.Out of them, 268 patientsrecovered from home isolationand the total number ofpatients cured at home hasincreased to 4,803 while 22recovered from the hospitals.With this, the total number ofpatients who have been dis-charged from the hospitals hasreached 2,372, while the totalnumber of cured patients is7,175, leaving 1,730 activepatients. With this, the recov-ery rate has improved to 79.16per cent, while mortality rate to1.70 per cent.

Chief Medical Officer(CMO) Dr VB Singh hasinformed that by the first of theday at 11 am, 95 positivepatients were detected out of1,284 reports received. Tillthen, the total test reports

received were 1,24,909 and theresults of 4,844 are awaited. Outof these 1,15,892 were negative,while 9,017 positive. The totalnumber of samples collectedwas 1,39,773. Earlier, four per-sons succumbed to COVID-19including three at SSH BHU.They were males aged 53, 52and 65 from Phulwariya,Ramnagar and Assi respec-tively and one male aged 94from Lahartara died at MedwinHospital.

Besides, with the additionof 21 new red zones, the totalnumber of hotspots hasincreased to 1,625 including359 red zones. Three green

zones have been convertedinto red zones again. There are1,266 green zones including 25new ones.

In this belt of Purvanchalcomprising 10 districts of threedivisions, 576 were found onSaturday, increasing the totalnumber to 32,336 with themaximum number of 187 caseswas found in Varanasi, followedby 75 in Sonbhadra, 55 inMau, 54 in Jaunpur, 51 inGhazipur, 48 in Azamgarh, 42in Ballia, 35 in Chandauli, 17in Mirzapur and 12 in Bhadohi.Jaunpur has become the thirddistrict with 4K-plus cases afterVaranasi and Ballia.

Earlier, CMO informedthat under the mass testingcampaign, 2,397 were testedthrough antigen kits at differ-ent primary and communityhealth centres (PHCs/ CHCs)and urban primary health cen-tres (UPHCs) in the district aday ago. In the urban areas,such testing was conducted atChowk, Luxa andDashaswamedh police stations,Hanuman Phatak police out-post, Thatheri, Panchkoshi,Bansfatak, Godowlia,Durgakund, Chetganj andother markets apart from someshopping complexes.

Besides, he said that 13,176ivermectin tablets were distrib-uted by the Health depart-ment to 1,647 people. So far,about 7.41 lakh ivermectintablets have been distributed to92,721 persons in the districtand out of them, 5.58 lakh iver-mectin tablets have been dis-tributed by the Health depart-ment only to 69,825 persons.

On the second day, under'sero survey', a total of 351 sam-ples were collected from 11locations while 294 were takenon the first day. During the firsttwo days, 645 samples were col-lected from 22 places.

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Under the Fit IndiaMovement, the Lucknow

Division of Northern Railway(NR) on Sunday organised FitIndia Freedom Run at VaranasiCantt Railway Station here. Itmay be said here, the Fit IndiaMovement is a nationwide ini-tiative of the Ministry of YouthAffairs to encourage people toremain healthy and fit byincluding physical activities

and sports in their daily lives.The Prime Minister NarendraModi had launched the move-ment on the National SportsDay on August 29, 2019.

The Fit India FreedomRun was organised at above-mentioned railway station withan aim to make the railwayemployees and their familymembers healthy and fitthrough physical activities suchas run and physical exercises sothat they could ensure their

proper role in the overall devel-opment of the country.

Apart from the railwayofficers and employees, theinternational and national levelplayers who had representedIndia in various games includ-ing hockey, cricket, basketballand volleyball in past and arepresently working in this divi-sion of railway as employeesalso participated in the fivekilometre long run.

The Run began from the

circulating area of the railwaystation and culminated at sta-tion premises through MallGodown and GT Road. Theparticipating railway employeeswere advised to adopt physicalactivities and exercises in theirdaily life to remain healthy andfit. The Run was organised fol-lowing the guidelines ofCOVID-19. AdditionalDivisional Rail Manager ofVaranasi Ravi PrakashChaturvedi led the Run .

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As per the instructions issued by the RailwayBoard, the movement of 13 pairs of special

trains will be started from/via North EasternRailway (NER) from September 12. Coaches willbe attached in them like regular trains. All coach-es in these trains will be of reserved category,CPRO PK Singh said. The special trains origi-nating from NER and their frequency are as fol-lows:- 05004 Gorakhpur - Kanpur AnwarganjSpecial Train - daily special train, 05003 KanpurAnwarganj - Gorakhpur Special Train - daily spe-cial train, 02571 Gorakhpur-Delhi HumsafarSpecial Train - Four days a week (Wednesday,Friday, Saturday and Sunday), 02572 Delhi-Gorakhpur Humsafar Special Train- Four daysa week (Monday, Thursday, Saturday andSunday), 02591 Gorakhpur-Yeshwantpur SpecialTrain- bi-weekly (Saturday, Monday), 02592 -Yesvantpur- Gorakhpur Special Train- bi-week-ly (Monday, Thursday), 05007 Varanasi City-Lucknow Jn. Krishak Special Train - daily spe-cial train, 05008 Lucknow Jn- Varanasi CityKrishak Special Train - daily special train, 02003Lucknow Jn.- New Delhi Shatabdi Special Train- Daily Special Train, 02004 New Delhi-Lucknow

Jn. Shatabdi Special Train - Daily Special Train,01108 Manduadih - Gwalior Bundelkhand SpecialTrain - daily special train, 01107 Gwalior-Manduwadih Bundelkhand Special Train- dailyspecial train, 02670 Chhapra-Chennai Special Train- bi-weekly (Monday, Wednesday), 02669 Chennai- Chhapra Special Train - bi-weekly (Monday,Saturday). The special trains passing through NERand their frequency:- 05909 Dibrugarh - LalgarhSpecial Train - daily special train, 05910 Lalgarh- Dibrugarh Special Train - daily special train,05933 Dibrugarh-Amritsar Special Train- Weekly(Tuesday), 05934 Amritsar-Dibrugarh SpecialTrain- Weekly (Friday), 09051 Balsad-Muzaffarpur Shramik Special Train- Weekly(Saturday), 09052 Muzaffarpur-Valsad ShramikSpecial Train - Weekly (Monday), 04723 Kanpur-Bhiwani Special Train- daily special train, 04724Bhiwani-Kanpur Special Train- daily special train,02435 Varanasi - New Delhi Vande BharatSpecial train five days a week - (Tuesday,Wednesday, Friday, Saturday Sunday), 02436 NewDelhi-Varanasi Vande Bharat Special train fivedays a week- (Tuesday, Wednesday,Friday, Saturdayand Sunday), 02561 Jaynagar-New Delhi SpecialTrain- Daily Special Train and 02562 New Delhi-Jaynagar Special Train- daily special train.

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Safety is paramount on theIndian Railways. Keeping it

in mind on North EasternRailway (NER) on mannedlevel crossings road over bridges(ROBs) and limited height sub-ways (LHS) besides foot overbridges (FOBs) at stations arebeing constructed at a rapidpace, said CPRO Pankaj KumarSingh. During the past one yearin Allahabad construction of oneroad overbridge has been com-pleted. Similarly, the constructionof a total of 48 limited heightsubways (LHS) was complet-ed, including on Kauwabagh

railway crossing one, onManduwadih-Hardattpur sec-tion three, in Izzatnagar two, onPilibhit-Shahjahanpur section32 , in Brahmavart one, onChhapra-Aunrihar section one,Chhapra-Manjhi section two,on Moradabad-Ramnagar sec-tion one, on Burhwal-Sitapursection two, on Mau-Shahhganjsection one and on KanpurAnwarganj-Kasganj-Mathura sec-tion two. On 13 NER stations i.e.Peppeganj, Nautanwa, LucknowCity, Varanasi City, Suremanpur,Taraon, Saidpur, Bisalpur, Pilibhit,Hathras City, Lakhimpur, Mailaniand Gola Gokarannath the con-struction of FOBs was done in the

last one year. At present on NERthe construction work of 51 ROBsand 531 LHS and at various sta-tions of 86 FOBs is in progress andafter their completion safety willbe strengthened and people willget facilities. Under the safetywork on the NER last year thework of strengthening of twomajor bridges on Gorakhpur-Kusumhi section, on four onPilibhit-Shahjahanpur section,on one on Mandhana-Brahmavart section, on one onAunrihar-Ghazipur section andon one on Ballia-Sagarpali sectionand other bridges was com-pleted which ensured theirsafety.

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The Jamalpur police onSaturday worked out the

blind murder case which wascommitted on August 20. SPAK Singh that the case was com-plicated due to lack of clear motivefor the murder and the investiga-tion was being reviewed daily.The SP patted the back ofpolice team for working out thecase and announced a cashreward of �10,000 for it. As perthe police theory, the deceased

was unmarried and was livingalone in his field. He had illic-it relationship wotj a womanwho used to come to collectfodder for her cattle. Her hus-band saw her in an objection-able condition with thedeceased, Munnilal, and hedecided to teach him a lesson.On the exact clue a suspect wasnabbed by the police fromDaitraveerbaba temple locatedin Bindupurva village whohelped in solving the case.The accused confessed that he

went to the house of Munnilalin the evening, behaved amica-bly, smoked with him, after aminor scuffle made him uncon-scious and and then slit histhroat with a spade. The policerecovered the spade along withthe blood-stained clothes ofthe deceased. The accused wasidentified as Bihari Yadav, a res-ident of Shivnathpur villageunder Baburi police station inChandauli. After completingthe legal formalities the policesent the accused to jail.

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ASainik Sammelan alongwith crime control meeting

was held at Police Lines onSaturday in the joint presenceof DM and the SP. DM SK Pateldirected the cops to ensure theenforcement of Covid-19 pro-tocol in view of unlock guide-lines. He made it clear thatthough several restrictions oflockdown had been relaxedbut the risk of Corona had notreduced. He said that precau-tions should be taken. Heappealed to cops to take pre-cautions themselves first then

expect from the commonmanto do so. He was of the viewthat the safety measures were

equally important during dutyalong with it carrying it outhonestly. Giving tips to controlcrime SP Ajay Kumar Singhdirected the cops that apartfrom active criminals theyshould keep an eye over on thosecriminals who were involved in

crimes earlier. Emphasisingon patrolling, informer system,vigil over history-sheeters, beatsystem, action against out-laws, precautionary measuresetc the SP said told the SOs tomake them a part of their rou-tine working in order to con-trol crime. He said that theretired cops and ex-servicemenshould be keep in close touchwith the police stations so thatthey could help the police.The meeting was attended by allASPs, COs, SOs, all heads ofpolice branch, SeniorProsecution Officer and theDGC, Criminal and civil.

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Kalpi SDM Jayendra kumar inspected Food and CivilSupplies department, Kalpi branch, on Saturday,

checked the quality wheat and rice and instructed themarketing inspector to ensure cleanliness outside thegodown for grains. He instructed the officials there to send

a proposal to the higherauthorities regarding themaking of a boundary walloutside the godown. SDMalso inspected the KadauraCHC thereafter two clinicsand found proper social dis-tancing among people, avail-

ability of sanitisers besides thermal screening. He alsoinstructed all private hospitals to send patients who had symp-toms of cold/fever to the nearby CHC for free of cost Covid-19 test and treat them after getting their negative report.

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The Sadar Kotwali police raided Indira Manoranjanforest, nabbed three accused and recovered a pistol,

eight cartridges etc from the spot recently. Police regis-tered a case against Raju Rajwada alias Iqbal, a residentof Sankata Devi Mohalla, Suhel alias Shibu of Hathipurand Rajendra of Sujanpur village under DhaurahraKotwali and sent them to jail. CO City said that 15 seriouscriminal cases have been registered against Raju Rajwada.

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UP Minister of State forEnergy Rama Shankar

Singh Patel that for the better-ment of nation spirit of dedi-cation in people was a good indi-cation. Addressing a brief func-tion organised by Lions Club atLions School on Saturday, theminister stressed on usingmoney in the interest of societyinstead of accumulating it for thecoming generation. He praised

the spirit of Lions Club underwhich it was observingTeachers’ Day by extending ahelping hand to the society inview of prevailing Corona cri-sis. The Lions Club handed over

100 PPE kits to the minister fordonating it to the administra-tion to combat against the pan-demic. The club membersassured the minister to providefive oxygen cylinders too on therequirement of the adminis-tration. The minister wasaccorded warm welcome by theclub members and was pre-sented a shawl. Among thosepresent were SL Agarwal,Vishwanath Agrawal, Dr NKPandey and Suryabali Singh.

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Ateenager drowned in Kalkalia riverunder Adalhaat police station here.

As per the reports, Molu Biyar, a resi-dent of Kolna village, drowned whilefishing in Kalklia river. On gettinginformation, the area police reached thespot, recovered the body and sent it forcompleting the legal formalities.

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Mystery shrouds the deathof a youth who was being

secretly cremated by the fam-ily members in Rasoolabadpolice station area of KanpurDehat on Saturday night.

However, the police cameto know about the suspiciousdeath of the 30-year-old youth,Anil Kumar, and took the bodyinto custody from the burningpyre and sent it for autopsy.

The police also took thefather of the deceased youthinto custody for interrogation.

According to reports, AnilKumar of Dabhari village inRasoolabad (Kanpur Dehat)was a truck driver and hadreturned home after lockdownwas imposed across the coun-try. Due to his addiction toliquor, he often quarrelled withthe family members. OnSaturday night, Anil died undermysterious circumstances. Hisfather Bhoop Narain and otherfamily members took the bodyfor performing the last riteswithout informing anyoneabout the death. However,security guard Lalji informedthe police about the mysteriousdeath and beat incharge SanjivKumar along with a forcereached the cremation groundand took the partly burnt bodyinto custody and sent it forautopsy. The villagers suspectthat Anil was killed in a scuf-fle with his brothers followingheated argument over hisaddiction to liquor and there-fore the family members werequietly cremating him.

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Four immovable propertiesof Jai Bajpai, a close aide of

slain gangster Vikas Dubey,were seized by the districtadministration on Sundayafternoon.

Bajpai’s wife Shweta andmother Prasoon alleged thatthe action was in violation ofthe laws of the land.

It may be recalled that thepolice had arrested Jai Bajpaiand sent him to jail on chargesof managing the accounts ofVikas Dubey and extendingfinancial assistance to the gang-ster from time to time.Thereafter, the police had start-ed collecting details of JaiBajpai’s properties and seizingthem.

On the basis of policereport and orders of the districtmagistrate, an administrativeteam led by the Sadar tehsildarreached Brahma Nagar around11:30 am on Sunday and sealedHouse No.111/481 of Jai Bajpai.All the three tenants living inthe house had removed theirhousehold articles late Saturdaynight itself.

Thereafter, the team sealed18 square yard portion of

House No.107/300 which waspurchased by Jai Bajpai aboutseven years ago.

The team also sealedHouse No.107/298 occupied byJai Bajpai’s mother Prasoonand the family of his brother,Abhay.

Prior to putting a seal, the

team had removed all residentsfrom the premises. Then, aftertaking Shweta, her daughterKuhu and son Kanha out ofHouse No.111/478, the teamsealed it.

Sadar Tehsildar AtulKumar said four properties ofJai Bajpai were sealed on

Sunday. He said on the direc-tives of higher district admin-istration officials, further actionwould be initiated in the mat-ter.

During the drive, policeforce from Armapore,Nazirabad, Colonelganj andFazalganj police stations waspresent.

Shweta said the districtadministration did not ask herfor any proof about the prop-erties. She said that along withJai Bajpai, she had also been fil-ing income-tax return for thepast 10 years. She alleged thatthe properties were beingsealed at the behest of a locallawyer. Shweta said her hus-band was innocent and just asthe said lawyer was his neigh-bour in Brahma Nagar, VikasDubey was their neighbour inBikru (Chaubepur).

She said Jai Bajpai had notproperties in Dubai, Thailandand other countries and allallegations in this regard werebaseless. She added that theloan taken for one of the hous-es that were sealed was yet tobe cleared and the entire fam-ily had come on street due tosudden action of the districtadministration.

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District Magistrate AlokTiwari on Sunday set up a

three-member committee toprobe into the deaths of fiveCOVID-19 patients in quicksuccession in KanshiramHospital and warned the hos-pital management of sternaction if any violation of Covidprotocol or irregularity wasdetected.

He directed the committeeto submit its report within 12hours.

The three-member com-mittee comprises Chief MedicalOfficer Dr Anil Mishra, ADM(Civil Supplies) Basant Agarwaland a doctor from GSVMMedical College recommend-ed by its Principal Prof RBKamal.

It may be mentioned thatfive COVID-19 deaths on thesame day in the same hospitalwithin short gaps led to panicin the hospital. Following thesedeaths, the kin of severalCOVID-19 patients admittedin the hospital created a ruckus,demanding that their patientsbe shifted to private hospitals.

With so many relatives ofpatients raising a voice ofprotest, the district adminis-tration swung into action assenior officials of the stateadministration are regularlyvisiting the city and carryingout surprise raids in an attemptto contain the COVID-19deaths and the spread of coro-navirus in the city.

The district magistrate vis-ited the Kanshiram Hospitaland carried out investigation.He also interacted with thepatients admitted in the ICUthrough video chat. Heenquired about the doctors’presence in the hospital andwhether they were takingrounds of wards.

The district magistrate alsogrilled all the medical and

paramedical staff and scannedthe duty records and the tim-ings of doctors visiting thepatients. He sounded a word ofcaution, saying that five deathsin the same hospital on thesame day was certainly a causeof worry and action would betaken if anything was foundamiss. Tiwari said the UP gov-

ernment was providing ade-quate funds for increasinginfrastructure and thus theCOVID-19 deaths had to bechecked.

Meanwhile, the districtmagistrate on Sunday carriedout a surprise checking ofpatients in home isolation inareas like Shivkatra, Jagaipurwa

and surrounding areas andcross-checked the visit of theRRT (rapid response team)and took feedback from the kinof the COVID-19 patients.

He also enquired aboutthe Covid protocol and verifiedif the house possessed homeisolation kits comprising pulseoximeter, digital thermometer,separate toilet and enquiredfrom he kin if they were regu-larly giving the oxygen level,pulse rate and temperaturereadings to the RRT every dayor not. He said these readingshad to be checked at least twoor three times a day and if thecondition of the home isolationpatient deteriorated, the controlroom had to be informedimmediately so that the patientcould be shifted to hospital.

The district magistrate alsovisited several other sur-rounding areas to take feed-back.

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The District Legal ServicesAuthority, Kanpur Nagar,

launched a virtual awarenesscamp for women fromBhitargaon.

In the camp, held underDLSA Secretary AishwaryaPratap Singh, the womenwere virtually made aware oftheir r ights under theDomestic Violence Act,2005, especially issues likeprotection order, maintenanceand also the entitlement tofree legal aid under LegalServices Authorities Act,1987.

Singh said the biggest hur-dle in the empowerment ofwomen was ignorance andlack of awareness and thus theobjective of this campwas to empower women bymaking them aware of theirrights.

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Kanpur Nagar reported 432 fresh cases of coronavirus infec-tion till Sunday evening.Chief Medical Officer Dr AK Mishra said 432 more peo-

ple had tested positive for coronavirus infection betweenSaturday evening and Sunday evening, taking the count of con-firmed cases to 17292. He said 5004 COVID-19 patients hadbeen cured in the city so far, and at present 3,997 active coron-avirus cases were undergoing treatment.

The CMO said 7 COVID-19 deaths were reported in the citytill Sunday evening taking the death toll to 485. He said a totalof 3811 samples were sent for testing sin the district.

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Ayouth was brutally beatenup and injured with the

sword by some local goonswhen the latter teased his sis-ter in Nankari locality, underthe Kalyanpur police stationon Saturday morning.

Police have launched raidsto nab the assailants. Profuselybleeding youth said whenNaresh Singh of NankariBagia, Kalyanpur, along withsister was going to a medicalstore on scooty, Deepak Matiwith accomplices interceptedthem. They began to tease hissister and misbehaving withher. On protest, Deepak andhis accomplices beat up him.

Thereafter, they repeat-edly attacked at him with thesword and caused seriousinjury.

Hearing screams, whenlocal residents rushed to thespot, assailants disappeared.Police got the injured admit-ted to UHM Hospital.

SHO Kalyanpur Ajay Sethsaid raids were on to nab theassailants. He said stern penalaction would be initiatedagainst them.

Younger brother of theinjured youth said about yearago, Deepak had teased hissister and on protest, hadattacked on them withaccomplices. Then, police hadtaken action against both theparties under the sections ofdisturbing law and order sit-uation.

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Over a dozen schools havebeen identified for their

failure to take online classes.The teams found that at someplaces the online classes couldnot be conducted on account ofweak internet signal.

The warned some schoolsto improve their connectivityand ensure that the quality ofonline teaching was improved.

This was stated by DistrictInspector of Schools SatishTiwari, while informing mediapersons about the result of thecrackdown on governmentschools to find out if the onlineclasses were being taken or not.

He said several teams com-prising 66 officials were con-ducting enquiries after the sur-prise raids. He said the teamshad been given the target tovisit 690 schools and submitweekly reports of schools andalso monitor the standard of

online teaching imparted bythe teachers. It may be men-tioned here that hundreds ofparents of government sec-ondary school students hadcomplained about the casualattitude of the teachers in con-ducting regular online classesin sharp contrast to what wasbeing done in private ISC andCBSE schools. The parentshad accused the teachers of justsending loads of homework inthe form of snapshopts, thuswashing their hands of theirresponsibilities. Meanwhile, theUP Madhyamik ShikshakSangh alleged that the DIOShad ordered an inquiry intoirregularities by principals whohad been suspended, whichwas wrong.

FOUNDATION DAYIIPR: On the occasion ofFoundation Day of the IndianInstitute of Pulse Reasearchheld an international webinarwhere it focused on new poli-

cy on pulses and to how towork out better future strategyfor pulse production in India.The Director of IIPR, Dr NPSingh, addressing the sessionsaid the pulse production inIndia had remained static forthe past four years engenderingthe need to find out reasonsand what efforts need to bemade for increase in pulseproduction.

He said pulse was a crop ofmarginal areas, and research onpulses too was treated as if itwas a marginal area of research.He said there had been nomajor breakthrough in pulsesproduction for the simple rea-son that pulses research wasalways never accorded impor-tance equal to wheat and rice.He said the Director General ofICAR, Dr TrilochanMahapatra, Deputy DG Dr PLSharma, and other top officialswill be participating in thewebinar.He said in India, puls-

es cultivation faced severalchallenges, including farmingon marginal lands, dependenceon monsoon, lack of irrigation,low input usage and, impor-tantly, no breakthrough in seedtechnology. He said rice-wheat-rice cycle needed to be brokenfor the ecological disaster it hadbrought about — deteriorationin soil health and an alarmingfall in the water table. He saidsystematic crop rotation bycultivating pulses will delivermultiple benefits, includingimprovement in soil healththrough nitrogen fixing. Hesaid in addition to this it wasnecessary to ensure ready mar-ketability of the pulse cropthrough assured procurementmechanism.

Dr Singh said protein defi-ciency in India was pervasive,inflicting enormous hiddencost on the country. He saidpulses were the most affordablevegetable protein.

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Researchers at the IndianInstitute of Technology

(IIT), Guwahati have devel-oped methods to detect andprevent the novel coronavirususing bio-interface interac-tions between the virus and thesurface spike protein.

According to the team ofresearchers, the novel coron-avirus (SARS CoV-2) is com-posed of inner nucleic acidwhich is covered with surfacespike glycoprotein and theengineered surfaces can bepotentially applied for thedetection as well as preventionof COVID-19 — the diseasecaused by the virus.

“So far we are using anti-body-based assays and RT-PCR based methods for testingduring pandemic. However,longer assay time, cost, com-plex procedures and false pos-itive or negative results are afew bottlenecks of these meth-ods,” Lalit M Pandey, associateprofessor, Department ofBiosciences and

Bioengineering, told PTI.“The bio-interface inter-

actions between virus surfacespike protein and the surfacecan be explored for the rapiddetection of coronavirus,” hesaid.

“The interaction betweenthe spike protein and contact-ing surfaces constitutes thekey step of transmission ofcoronavirus. Thus, surfaceengineering, on one hand, shallfacilitate a quick detectionmethod and on the other hand,it would be a very securemethod of protection

against the virus, for exam-ple when applied on PPEs,” headded.

The team’s research onsurface modifications andanalysis of the bio-interfacial(protein-surface) interactionshave been published in reput-ed journals like MaterialsScience and Engineering C,Applied Surface Science,Langmuir, J. Phys. Chem. Cand ACS Biomaterials Scienceand Engineering.

“We have developed an

interesting method of surfacemodifications by forming var-ious self-assembled monolay-ers (SAMs) on different sur-faces, which result in a widerange of surface hydrophobic-ity depending on the terminalfunctional groups with nano-scale smooth surfaces. Theformation of SAMs involves afast attachment followed by aslow reorientation step,”Pandey said.

“Mixed SAMs have beenprepared to design the surfacewith intermediate wettability.The thumb rule of increase inthe adsorbed amount of pro-tein with an increase in surfacehydrophobicity does not holdtrue for all systems. This isbecause protein adsorption isa complex process and dependson the hydrophobicity of bothsurfaces and proteins,” he said.

Hydrophobicity is the

physical property of a moleculethat is seemingly repelled froma mass of water.

The research has revealedthat a protein adapts to differ-ent conformations dependingon surface properties.”Thus,the characteristics of proteincan be tuned by engineeredsurfaces for various applica-tions including biosensors,implants, and drug delivery. Arecent special report suggest-

ed that the engineered sensorsurface can be applied inQuartz Crystal Microbalance-based techniques, which areknown for label-free, rapidand real-time detection withsensitivity,” Pandey said.

“The surfaces based strate-gies not only offer an advan-tage of rapid virus detectionfrom swab samples but alsoallow the reuse of the samesurface over multiple cycles(samples),” he said.

“The role of newly devel-oped engineered surfaces is,however, to destabilise theviral envelope protein throughsurface-protein interactions,disintegrate, and finally, inac-tivate the viruses,” Pandeysaid.

“Thus, the surface treat-ments of personal protectiveequipment (PPE), which pos-sess antiviral properties andprevent the contagious infec-tions of coronavirus. The sur-faces of PPEs can be engi-neered to achieve strong sur-face-protein interactions,” hesaid.

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Around 60 per cent ofrespondents favoured

availing ‘Digital Health ID’ tobe created under the Centre’sNational Digital HealthMission, but do not want toshare sensitive personal databeyond health and medicalrecords, a recent survey said.

The survey was conductedby LocalCircles, a communitysocial media platform.

According to the survey, 59per cent of respondents saidthey want to avail’Digital

Health ID’ under the DigitalHealth Mission programme,but do not want to share sen-sitive personal data beyondhealth and medical records.

It said 23 per cent respon-dents supported creating thehealth ID, saying it could helpin faster access to healthcare.While 18 per cent said it shouldnot be created as it could leadto personal sensitive data get-ting compromised.

Around 9,000 peopleresponded to the question onwhether Digital Health IDshould be created under theNational Digital HealthMission (NDHM), it said.

The social media platformreceived around 34,000responses on four questionsrelated to the draft National

Health Data ManagementPolicy, which proposes to cre-ate Digital Health IDs for allIndians.

“Around 8,600 responseswere received on a question onhow and where their digitalhealth ID data should be storedto which 57 per cent said thedata storage should only bedone for health informationand the same be done at cen-tral level. They also said thatauthorisation should berequired for its use by anyhealth facility,” the survey said.

When asked about makingaggregate or anonymised dataof people available for the pur-pose of research or promotionof diagnostic solutions, toexternal agencies, 48 per centrespondents said they do not

approve of it, while 45 per centsaid they were ‘okay’ with itand 6 per cent were unsure.

Akshay Gupta, GeneralManager, LocalCircles said thesurvey results will be submit-ted to key stakeholders asso-ciated with the Digital HealthID initiative, so that citizeninputs can be kept at the fore-front as the government laysout the blueprint of the initia-tive.

To safeguard confidentialhealth data collected frompeople under NDHM, theGovernment has proposed aframework and a set of mini-mum standards for data pri-vacy protection to be followedacross the board in compliancewith applicable laws and reg-ulations.

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Two persons were arrestedhere in Gujarat after

mephedrone, a banned drug,worth �5lakh was seized fromthem, a police official said onSunday.

Acting on a tip-off, policecaught the two persons, iden-tified as Imtiaz Malek andMustafa Vana, near Sardarmarket in Surat’s Puna locality on Saturday and recov-ered 100 gm of the drug fromthem, he said.

A two-wheeler and threemobile phones were alsoseized from their possession.

Searchwas on forfour morepersons inthis con-nection, hesaid.

Mephedrone, also knownas ‘meow meow’ or MD, is asynthetic stimulant.

The two accused werebooked under provisions ofthe Narcotic Drugs andPsychotropic Substances(NDPS) Act, the official said,adding that Malek was arrested last year also forpossession of the same drug.

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Even as the controversyaround the letter to

Congress president SoniaGandhi is yet to die down,another dispatch from formerpartymen, hailing from UttarPradesh, has come to shake thegrand old organisation. In fact,the ex-Congressmen haveminced no words in urgingSonia to “rise above family pol-itics” and making a veiledattack on Priyanka GandhiVadra, who is the party gener-al secretary in charge of UP.

Stating that the Congress ispassing through its ‘worst ever’phase in Uttar Pradesh, the-four-page letter, signed byexpelled party leaders fromthe State, calls upon Sonia torise above family (parivaar kemoh se upar uthe) and restorethe democratic traditions of theparty.

The letter, signed by formerMP Santosh Singh, formerminister Satyadev Tripathi, for-

mer MLAs Vinod Chaudhary,Bhoodar Narain Mishra,Nekchand Pandey, SwayamPrakash Goswami and SanjeevSingh,

“There is an apprehensionthat you are not being apprisedof the prevailing situation bythose in charge of state affairs.We have been seeking anappointment with you foralmost a year but have beendenied the same. We hadappealed against our expulsionwhich was illegal but even thecentral disciplinary committeehas not found time to consid-er our appeal,” the letter says.

The signatories to the let-ter have alleged that there is atotal lack of communicationbetween the leaders and theparty cadres. They furtherpointed out that frontal organ-isations like NSUI and YouthCongress have become defunctin UP.

The former party membersfurther claimed that the partyposts are being occupied bythose who are working on asalary basis and are not evenprimary members of the party.

“These ‘leaders’ are notfamiliar with the party’s ideol-ogy but are tasked to givedirection to the party in UP,”the letter states.

“These people are the onewho are assessing the perfor-mances of those leaders whostood like a rock in theCongress during the 1977-80crisis. Democratic norms arebeing thrown to the windsand senior leaders are beingtargeted, insulted and expelled.In fact, we were informed of

our expulsion from the mediawhich speaks of the new workculture in the state unit,” saidthe letter.

The leaders urged theCongress high command toopen channels of communica-tion with senior leaders. Theyhave warned that if it contin-ues to turn a blind eye to theprevailing state of affairs, theCongress would hit rock bot-tom in UP which was once theparty’s stronghold.

The letter comes at a timewhen the party is already fac-ing its worst factional divide inUttar Pradesh. While the seniorleaders have withdrawn fromparty activities, the youngerleaders have accused the UPCCleadership of promoting casteinterests.

The leaders also accusedPriyanka of believing all that is“fed to her” by the state lead-ership and that she does notbother to meet leaders outsideher coterie.

Last month, Sonia hadconvened a Congress WorkingCommittee meeting after 23senior leaders of the partyincluding Ghulam Nabi Azad,Kapil Sibal including five for-mer Chief Ministers, CWCmembers, sitting MPs, andseveral former Union Ministershad written to Sonia Gandhicalling for sweeping changes,from top to bottom.

Sonia had offered to quit aschief of the party and after theresolution that a new chiefwill be elected at an AICC ses-sion at earliest she decided tocontinue as interim chief of thegrand old party.

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The Centre has half-a-dozenStates and UTs reporting

high Covid-19 caseload andfatality rate to strengthen con-tainment measures and scaleup testing to bring down pos-itivity rate below five per cent.This even as it has dispatchedtwo-member special teams toPunjab and Chandigarh toprovide extended guidance inmanaging the Covid-19 pan-demic.

As many as 35 districts infive states and one UT report-ing high Covid-19 caseloadand fatality rate. The list com-prises all 11 districts in Delhi,Kolkata, Howrah, North 24Parganas and 24 SouthParganas in West Bengal; Pune,Nagpur, Thane, Mumbai,Mumbai Suburban, Kolhapur,Sangli, Nashik, Ahmednagar,Raigad, Jalgaon, Solapur,Satara, Palghar, Aurangabad,Dhule and Nanded inMaharashtra; Surat in Gujarat;Pondicherry in Puducherryand East Singhbhum inJharkhand.

In a review meeting heldon Saturday, they were asked toensure strict perimeter control,strengthen the active casesearch focusing on comorbidsand elderly population, earlyidentification by ramping uptesting and optional utilizationof RT-PCR testing capacity tobreak the chain of transmissionof the disease, the Health min-istry said on Sunday.

Union Health SecretaryRajesh Bhushan held thereview meeting through videoconference with health secre-taries of five States and one UTon the containment and man-agement of Covid-19 in 35 dis-tricts under their jurisdiction.

The district collectors andother functionaries wereadvised to prepare and update

district specific plans to con-tinue their efforts to managethe pandemic.

The States were alsoadvised to effectively monitorhome isolation cases and earlyhospitalisation in case of dis-

ease progression, seamless hos-pitalisation and early admis-sion for patients requiringmedical support, especially incases of comorbid and elderlypopulation, besides followingeffective infection control mea-

sures in hospitals to safeguardhealthcare workers from con-tracting the infection.

In Punjab andChandigarh, the two-memberteams which will comprise acommunity medicine expertfrom PGIMER, Chandigarhand an epidemiologist fromNCDC will be stationed for tendays to provide extended guid-ance in managing Covid.

In Punjab, as on Saturday,out of the total of 61,527Covid-19 cases, 15,870 areactive cases. 1808 deaths havebeen registered. Chandigarh

has reported 2140 active cases,whereas its cumulative casesstand at 5502.

Testing per million andcumulative positivity stands at38054 and 11.99 per cent,respectively.

India’s Covid-19 tally ofcases mounted to 41,13,811with a record 90,632 peoplebeing infected in a day, whilethe death toll climbed to 70,626with the novel coronavirusvirus claiming 1,065 lives in aspan of 24 hours in the coun-try, as per the Governmentdata.

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Amid job losses and salarycuts due to the coron-

avirus pandemic and nation-wide lockdown, there is a sharpspike in commonly consumedvegetables across India. Theretail prices of vegetables haverisen sharply across the coun-try, with major wholesale mar-kets running low on suppliesdue to disruptions caused byheavy rains and short supply ofsome items.

From potato and tomato tobrinjal, bitter gourd and cab-bage, all vegetables have seenwholesale prices go up by 40percent to 90 percent comparedwith the last month.

Vegetable sellers say onionprices are likely to be increasedin the retail market in thecoming days as prices havestarted increasing in the whole-sale market of Maharashtra.Potato, for instance, is sellingfor Rs 15 to Rs 25-30 per kg inwholesale markets in northand central India. In WestBengal, the state governmentwarned of action if retailtraders are found selling thetuber above �27 a kg.

Potato traders in WestBengal have blamed the recentamendment to the EssentialCommodities Act by theCentre for a rise in prices of thetuber in retail markets as itallows barrier-free trade of theagricultural product.

Potato prices in WestBengal are currently rulinghigh at �32-33 a kg as 15-20percent of daily supply of thecommodity is being exportedto neighbouring states.

Traders at Mandis attrib-uted to disruption in supplychain due to heavy rainfalland damage of horticulturecrops due to floods in sever-al states during monsoon forincreasing vegetable prices.The retail prices are expected

to remain high till Septemberend or first week of October,depending on the arrival ofnew crops.

Some wholesale traderssaid that the farmers in manystates dumped perishablesduring the lockdown, unableto find buyers. So, tomatoesare in short supply. Besides,transportation costs have risen5-10% because of fuel pricehikes by the governmentwhich led to sharp increase inthe retail prices.

The retail prices of toma-to ranged from �60-80 per kgin most parts of the countrywhile most of green vegetableswere sold at �50-70 per kgdepending on the quality andlocations at various markets.According to traders, toma-toes were sold at �30-40 perkg last month.

The retail prices of pota-to ranged from �30-40 per kgwhile the same was sold at �20a kg till last month. Onion isbeing sold at Rs 25-30 a kg buttraders warned that pricesare expected to increase in thecoming days as wholesaleprices are increasing inMaharashtra’s wholesale onionmarkets.

The retail prices of brin-jal, sponge gourd (nenua) andbottle gourd (lauki) rangedfrom �40 to 60 per kg whilethe same vegetables werebeing sold at �20-30 per kg tillthe third week of August.

Cucumber’s retail price isat � 40 a kg. Lady finger’s retailprice ranged from �40 to 60 akg. The retail prices ofCauliflower (Gobi) and point-ed gourd (parwal) rangedfrom �90 to �100 a kg.Coriander’s retail price hastouched �250 a kg.

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The Centre has asked allStates and Union

Territories to ensure necessaryfollow up of its updated advi-sory on Covid-19 testing strat-egy, allowing ‘testing on-demand’, to achieve a highernumber of examinations withgreater flexibility and sim-plicity.

The revised advisory liststhe scope for testing in con-tainment zones, non-contain-ment areas, in hospitals, andalso for the first time providesfor testing on-demand withsimplified modalities to bedecided by the States andUnion Territories.

It also indicates the choiceof testing in order of priorityfor each of the settings.

A letter jointly written byUnion Health Secretary RajeshBhushan and ICMR DirectorGeneral Dr Balram Bhargavato chief secretaries and admin-istrators highlighted that hav-ing adequate testing capacitiesand simplified testing protocolare important components inthe management of Covid-19pandemic in the country.

The country has so farconducted more than 4.66crore tests in more than 1,600laboratories in the country,they said in the letter, addingthere has been tremendousprogress in upscaling testinginfrastructure both in terms ofthe number of laboratoriesand daily testing capacity.

“It is a matter of great pridethat for the last two days(Wednesday and Thursday),the country has been testing inexcess of 11.5 lakh samplesevery day which is the highest

daily testing average anywherein the world,” the letter stated.

With this significantincrease in the testing facilitiesand infrastructure, the need forfurther refinement in the exist-ing Covid-19 testing strategy tomake it more comprehensivehas been felt.

After due deliberations bynational experts, the NationalTask Force on Covid-19 hasformulated a reviewed andsimplified advisory ‘Strategyfor Covid-19 testing in India’.

“We are sure that with theincreased levels of testing andenhanced testing infrastruc-ture, this advisory would fur-ther encourage the states tohave even higher levels of test-ing, covering a wide range ofpersons with greater flexibili-ty and simplification.

“It is requested that thisadvisory may kindly be dis-seminated to all concernedfor necessary follow up at theearliest,” the letter stated.

The updated advisory onCovid-19 testing strategy hasalso allowed testing on demandfor “all individuals undertakingtravel to countries or Indianstates mandating a negativeCovid-19 test at the point ofentry”.

It also suggested that all thepeople living in containmentzones should be tested by rapidantigen tests, particularly incities where there has been awidespread transmission ofthe infection.

The ICMR also stressedthat no emergency procedure(including deliveries) should bedelayed for lack of tests, andpregnant women should not bereferred to another hospital forlack of testing facility.

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Hyderabad-based BharatBiotech has received the

top drug regulator’s clearanceto move its vaccine candidateagainst Covid-19, Covaxin, tothe second phase of humantesting. The trials for theindigenous vaccine are expect-ed to begin from Monday, fol-lowing ethics committeeapprovals, said sources in theDrug Controller General ofIndia (DCGI)

A subject expert commit-tee (SEC) studying its requestto begin the phase II trial rec-ommended that the trial beconducted on 380 participants,stated Joint Drugs ControllerDr S Eswara Reddy in a letterto the Hyderabad-based firmdated September 3. All partic-ipants will now have to bescreened for four days afterthey are administered the vac-cine shots.

The letter further men-tions that the Central DrugsStandard ControlOrganisation (CDSCO) underthe Directorate General ofHealth Services, Union HealthMinistry, “has no objection forconducting the trial titled ‘Anadaptive, seamless Phase I,followed by Phase II random-ized, double-blind, multicen-ter study to evaluate the safe-

ty, reactogenicity, tolerabilityand immunogenicity of thewhole-virion inactivatedSARS-CoV-2 vaccine(BBV152) in healthy volun-teers’.”

The Directorate General ofHealth Service said in a state-ment: “This is to inform youthat the subject proposal wasexamined in consultation withSEC (COVID-19) experts heldthrough virtual meeting onSeptember 3, wherein thecommittee recommended forthe conduct of Phase II part ofclinical trials with 380 partic-ipants subject to the conditionthat time for screening the par-ticipants should be revised in4 days.”

Each stage of a vaccine’sclinical trial tests its safety andability to develop an effectiveimmune response. While thefirst phase focuses on safety inhealthy participants, the sec-ond phase looks at the effec-tiveness. The third phase looksinto these aspects in a muchlarger population that wouldrepresent a wider demo-graphic, said a senior officialfrom the DCGI.

In the first phase of theCovaxin trial, around 375 par-ticipants were studied across12 sites. Covaxin is one of thefrontrunners in the race for aCovid-19 vaccine in India.

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Karnataka Labour MinisterA Shivaram Hebbar on

Sunday said he and his wifehave tested positive for thecoronavirus and would beunder treatment in their homeitself being asymptomatic.

Chief Minister B SYediyurappa wished the 63-year old leader a speedy recov-ery and prayed that he contin-ued with his good works.

"Me and my wife under-went COVID-19 test and havebeen found positive for thevirus. Since there are no symp-

toms of coronavirus, we decid-ed to remain in home quaran-tine on doctors' advice and aregetting treatment at home,"Hebbar tweeted.

He expressed confidencethat he and his wife would soonrecover.

Prior to him, Yediyurappa,forest minister Anand Singh,Tourism Minister C T Ravi,Health Minister Sriramulu,Leader of Opposition and for-mer Chief MinisterSiddaramaiah and Congressstate chief D K Shivakumar hadtested positive for COVID-19and completely recovered.

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Tamil Nadu has encouragingand inspiring reports from

the Covid -19 front on Sundayas the State is getting ready toUnlock 4 on Monday. The Statediagnosed 5,783 new patientswhile 88 persons succumbed tothe pandemic on Sunday.

While Chennai accountedfor 955 new patients, its neigh-bouring districts of Chengalpet(361), Kancheepuram (196) andThiruvallur (246) showed areduction in the number ofdaily cases.

The districts of Coimbatore(538) and Cuddalore (388)remained problematic.

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By denying the payment ofGST compensation to Statesand instead asking them toborrow, the Centre may

have been legally correct but it mustnot be forgotten that the States hadmade a huge sacrifice in surrender-ing their taxing powers while agree-ing to implement the GST regime.They had bought into the idea of aunified market based on what waspromised to be a “Good and SimpleTax.” That promise remains to be ful-filled yet. Multiple rates, technicalglitches in the GSTN and difficul-ties faced by the taxpayers in gettingtimely refunds, that have bedevilledit since launch, still remain unad-dressed. The latest decision of theGST Council may have driven awedge between the Centre and theStates, which have so far wonderful-ly cooperated in the panel that has,barring a single occasion, votedunanimously on all contentiousissues.

This is not to undermine thepositive benefits the GST has alreadybrought. It was supposed to be atransformational tax, and in manyways it has been so. It not only elim-inated multiplicity of taxes andcesses but also brought down therate of effective tax and its incidenceon most items. The ominousInspector Raj and long queues oftrucks at the state entry barriers arethings of the past. Even in a coun-try with a highly fractious politicalculture, the GST Council has set ashining example of cooperative fed-eralism. However, the future maynot be as smooth.

Even before the pandemic hadstruck, GST revenues were falling.Now the pandemic has wroughthavoc and collections are nowherenear last year’s levels. As per the GSTCompensation Act, the Centre issupposed to compensate the Statesat bimonthly intervals for five yearstill FY-22, in case the revenue loss-es of the States exceeded 14 per centgrowth calculated on the base-year2015-16 collections. It was supposedto draw from the GSTCompensation Fund financed by theCompensation Cess levied on lux-ury and sin goods like cars, tobac-co products and soft drinks. GSTpayments to States for the currentfiscal have been pending since April2020. For 2019-20, the total com-pensation paid was �1.65 lakh croreagainst the compensation fund col-lections of just �95,444 crore, and theCentre had to tap the balance of cessfrom the previous years as well as

�33,412 crore from theConsolidated Fund of India onaccount of IGST to meet theStates’ dues. Thus the inability topay States’ GST dues was not justdue to the economic morass trig-gered by the pandemic. Theactual collections under the fundnow cover only half the month-ly requirement of �14,000 crore.

The reduction in GST ratesfor many items had resulted in aninverted duty structure where theduty on the final product was lessthan the duty on the inputs,requiring higher refunds. Theoptions before the GST Councilwere either to (1) rework the slabsor increase rates to correct theinverted duty structure; (2)increase the rates of compensa-tion cess and expand the itembase, or (3) allow the States toborrow more and repay the bor-rowing using future collections,that is, by extending the compen-sation cess beyond 2021-22.Given the mayhem caused by thepandemic and the severe contrac-tion of the GDP driving the econ-omy into a comatose state, theCentre was rightly wary of rais-ing or expanding the scope of thecess that might cause further joblosses. The Centre thus had onlytwo options: either allow theStates to borrow or meet theshortfall from its own resources,which must come from its ownborrowings, with correspondingfiscal and monetary implica-tions. Yields of government secu-rities (G-Secs) will harden,putting pressure on interest ratesacross the economy; credit ratingagencies also may view this neg-atively. Besides, with the fiscaldeficit already having exceededthe full year target of �7.96 lakhcrore, it was really a Hobson’s

choice for the Centre.The Act does not deal with

this unprecedented shortfall ofcompensation cess, the reason forwhich is partly the inefficiency ofthe GSTN to fix the technicalglitches, especially its inability tomatch the buyers’ and suppliers’invoices. The Centre had earlierapproached the Solicitor-General,who argued that it was not legal-ly obliged to pay full compensa-tion to the States. Armed withthis, in the GST Council meetingof August 27, the Centre offeredthe States two options, the logicof which is questionable. It hascited the unprecedented eco-nomic contraction and conse-quent revenue shortfall due to thepandemic as an “Act of God”,which is not covered by the GSTstatute that has no force majeureclause, to renege on its promise topay the States compensation outof its own funds. There is also nodenying that the Chinese actionon the LAC has necessitatedhigher security expenditure.

The estimated compensa-tion shortfall of �2.35 lakh crorein the current fiscal was dividedinto two segments though someaccounting jugglery: �97,000crore on account of GST imple-mentation and the rest due to rev-enue loss attributable to COVID-19. Accordingly, the Centreoffered two options to the states:Option-I for additional borrow-ing of �97,000 crore under a spe-cial borrowing window of the RBIat G-Sec-linked interest rates, tobe repaid in full, including inter-est from the compensation cessfund, without being counted asStates’ debt. The rest �1.38 lakhcrore will be reckoned as States’debt. Option-II was allowingthem to borrow the entire

amount of �2.35 lakh crore fromthe market, of which only theprincipal will be paid from thecompensation cess while theinterest burden will lie on theStates’ shoulders. However, itappears that the Centre mightallow the interest also to be paidfrom the cess without creating anyburden on the exchequer. Thecompensation cess will continueto be levied beyond FY22 till theStates’ debts get liquidated.

Earlier, under the Centre’sstimulus package, States weregiven additional borrowing spaceby raising their borrowing lim-its from 3 to 5 per cent of GSDP,but save 0.5 per cent, the rest wasavailable only on their implemen-tation of various reform mea-sures, like the One Nation, OneRation Card, Ease of DoingBusiness, power distribution andaugmentation of municipalityrevenues. Even the 0.5 per centwas conditional upon achieve-ment of the milestones pre-scribed in respect of the reforms.Now Option-I allowed the Statesto carry forward any unutilisedborrowing space up to 1 per centof GSDP unconditionally to thenext fiscal. The Centre wouldcoordinate the borrowing andalso bear the extra interest costabove the G-Sec yield through asubsidy. However, no such extraborrowing space would be avail-able for Option-II; the entire bor-rowing exceeding ��97,000 crorewill count as the States’ liability.The interest would be decided bythe market and not linked to G-Sec yields.

States are understandablyfurious at what they see as“betrayal” of the Centre, espe-cially the non-BJP ruled oneslike Punjab, Delhi, Puducherry,

Kerala, Madhya Pradesh,Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.They feel the distinction in theshortfall on account of GSTimplementation and the pan-demic is “unconstitutional.” Inany case, they want the entireborrowing to be accommodat-ed by increasing the borrowinglimit. They are apprehensivethat the borrowing would trans-late into “mortgaging of thefuture.” States have a legitimategrouse not only because thedelay in compensation pay-ment has pushed their alreadyprecarious finances to the brink,but also because they get noshare from the various cessesand surcharges levied by theCentre on items like petrol,diesel, education, health orsocial welfare.

Understandably it was notan easy decision for the Centre,and it militates against the spir-it of cooperative federalism sofar demonstrated convincinglyby the GST Council. As regardsborrowing by the States, theremay not be much difficulty. Themarket is awash with liquiditywith little demand for credit asevidenced by the FCI being ableto raise loans of �75,000 croreat only 4.6 percent. Banks areflush with funds from the stim-ulus package, which are beingparked at the RBI at the reverserepo rate. But the Centre stillcan regain the States’ trust byincreasing their borrowing lim-its further to accommodate theentire �2.35 lakh crore. In fed-eral relations, trust is as impor-tant as legality.

(The author is a formerDirector General, Office of theComptroller & Auditor Generalof India and an academic.)

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Sir — The collapse of the GrossDomestic Product (GDP) tominus 23.9 per cent has pushedthe country’s growth behind by50 years. Now, in order toachieve the goal of a $5 trillioneconomy and nine per centGDP growth, it will take aminimum of 10 to 12 years,which in the current situationlooks impossible. With nomoney or purchasing poweramong the people due to theCoronavirus-induced lock-down, closure of industries andjoblessness, there will be chaosin the days to come. There willbe bankruptcy, price rise andpoor performance in every sec-tor as far as production is con-cerned. We are looking atstagflation.

The whole country is suf-fering due to the economicinefficiency and incompetenceof the present regime whichwants to blame the pandemicfor its missteps. Does theGovernment want us to forgetthat the economy was in ashambles even before the out-break of the Coronavirus?

While its votaries have beenfocussing on mandir-masjid

politics and people have beenlynched by cow vigilantes, theeconomy of the nation hasdipped to a level never seenbefore. Yet, the BJP continues to

blame the Congress for all itswoes. At least it didn’t drive usdown to this extent.

Bhagwan ThadaniMumbai

�� Sir — Bollywood actor KanganaRanaut’s controversial tweet, inwhich she compared Mumbai toPakistan-occupied Kashmir,

should not be tolerated byMumbaikars. It is good that theleaders of the ruling alliance inMaharashtra lashed out at her forinsulting the people of the State.Maharashtra Home Minister AnilDeshmukh made a statementthat “those who feel unsafe in thecity have no right to live here.”

Why should anyone insult aState that has welcomed peoplefrom all over the country withopen arms? Other people, whohave made Mumbai their home,don’t agree with Ranaut’s state-ment and she should not givelessons to Mumbaikars on how tobehave as she herself is very abu-sive and offensive.

She, too, is playing by thesame book that she accuses hercontemporaries of. She is going toany length for publicity and hastaken a Right-wing political posi-tion to be heard, knowing full wellthat she will find support onlineand on news media. Ranaut ishand in glove with some power -hungry politicians to malign theSena-NCP-Congress Governmentand the Mumbai Police. Shameon her!

Ashmit AaronNoida

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With the dragon becoming increasinglyaggressive and the two-front threat becom-ing a certainty, India needs to shed its his-

toric “continentalist” mindset and transform froma military force to a military power. In order to dothat, India, apart from strengthening its maritimepower, has also to develop non-kinetic warfare capa-bilities in the space, cyber and electronic warfare(EW) domains. India has the technology but is keenon using it for civilian rather than military purpos-es. A minor policy change will enable us to devel-op systems purely for military use. There is an urgentneed to develop threat-specific responses to wardoff any danger to our national security from belliger-ent China and Pakistan.

Our strategy so far relies on the offensive capa-bilities of the Indian Air Force (IAF) to counter themenace posed by our adversaries. But China hasdeployed an array of Surface to Air Missiles(SAMs) in both Xinjiang and Tibet regions and isalso providing military assistance, including prolif-eration of banned technology to Pakistan, toupgrade its Integrated Air Defence System (IADS).At the same time China and Pakistan have collud-ed to ensure that we remain fixated towards our landborders and have to spend so heavily to keep themsecure that the much-wanted expansion of the IndianNavy gets scuttled.

This will be a big drawback in our attempts toward off any maritime threat and counter China’sgrowing interest in the Indian Ocean. The two-frontintimidation is certainly a measure taken by theChinese to keep India focussed to the threat fromits land borders and remain distracted from its mar-itime ambitions, which were exhibited in therecently-enhanced budget of the Navy and itsimpressive acquisition list, including aircraft carri-ers, destroyers, frigates, amphibious transport ships,submarines and surveillance aircraft.

China is very sensitive to the vulnerabilities ofits Sea Lanes of Communications (SLOCs) whichcater to 80 per cent of its trade and movement ofoil and goods from the Middle East to the Chineseports. To keep the Chinese supply chain going, safeSLOCs are critical. Nevertheless, it is taking stepsto mitigate its “Malacca dilemma” by building upits surface naval forces and undersea fleet, financ-ing deep-water commercial ports in littoral andisland nations and making diplomatic inroads withkey actors across the Indian Ocean basin.

As part of its string of pearls policy to encircleIndia, it is negotiating with our neighbours, name-ly Bangladesh, Myanmar and Sri Lanka. In the future,these efforts could give China the ability to sustainforward-deployed forces in greater numbers andmight tilt in its favour the maritime military balancein the region. The development of Gwadar port, theKarakoram highway and the use of Iranian portsafter signing the strategic treaty with Iran will, to agreat extent, mitigate Chinese problems at sea. Yet,in the quest for becoming a global power, the People’sLiberation Army Navy (PLAN) will still continueto struggle for dominance of the Indian Ocean andpose a threat to India’s claim of the most powerfulresident power in the region.

While Russia pioneered the Anti-Access AreaDenial (A2/AD) capability to check the NorthAtlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) forces and pri-marily the US during the Cold War, China in themodern days has made considerable progress inmastering the technology and development of sys-tems to keep the US Navy away from the SouthChina Sea (SCS) and the disputed maritime claimsof the nine-dash line. It did not hesitate to fire itsdeadly hypersonic “Fleet Killer” missile in the dis-puted Spratly Islands when the US was busy con-ducting the ten-nation RIMPAC naval exercise offthe Hawaiian Coast in the Pacific Ocean. Incidentally,

an Indian naval ship was also deployed inthe SCS at that time. The DF 21 KillerMissile has the capability of destroying amoving carrier at sea. With this China dis-played its A2/AD capabilities and sent astern warning to both the US and India.

India, too, needs to develop A2/ADcapabilities to prevent any future build-upof Chinese forces in the Tibet region andneutralise any threat from Islamabad bygrounding the Pakistan Air Force beforeit becomes airborne as far as our land fron-tiers are concerned. Along the maritimeborders, the A2/AD capability will enableus to prevent access to the PLAN andrestrict the freedom of movement of thePakistan Navy. Inherent in it would be thedevelopment of countermeasures neededto ensure freedom of movement and oper-ation of our air and naval forces across theland and maritime frontiers.

To develop the A2/AD capability, itis necessary to understand its philosophy.Action intended to slow deployment offriendly forces into a theatre or cause suchforces to operate from distances fartherfrom the locus of conflict than they wouldotherwise prefer is called as Anti-Access(A2). It affects the movement of adversaryforces into a theatre. Action intended toimpede friendly operations within areaswhere it is difficult to prevent access ofinimical forces is termed Area Denial(AD). AD affects manoeuvre within a the-atre. The two are not mutually exclusive.A2/AD capabilities are overlapping andspread across multi-domains to includeboth kinetic and non-kinetic systems withthe sole purpose of degrading the adver-saries’ war-fighting capabilities at land, sea,air, cyber, space and EW. Emerging tech-nologies representing military revolutionin Artificial Intelligence (AI), QuantumTechnology, Swarm Technology andhypersonic weapons form the backboneof these capabilities.

A potent A2/AD capability will posea serious threat to the ability of both ouradversaries to deploy and employ forcesacross our land and maritime boundaries.India needs to develop A2/AD capabili-ties not only as countermeasures to the

combined threat posed by both China andPakistan but also to pose a similar threatto them, both at land and sea.

A2/AD capabilities have to be an inte-gration of terrestrial, air and space-basedsensors which can defeat stealth technol-ogy, an array of long range deep penetrat-ing cruise, surface-to-air and air-to-sur-face missiles, space weapons, satellites,hypersonic weapons and aerial platforms,both manned and unmanned. India hasan arsenal of formidable missile systemsand aerial platforms; it has invested in theRussian S-400 Air Defence System,Phalcon AWACS, armed drones andother air defence systems.

But it still needs more to develop a for-midable A2/AD capability, particularly todominate the Indian Ocean and keepPLAN at bay. For the purposes of com-mand and control, the existing StrategicForces Command (SFC) should be nom-inated. India needs to invest more inboosting aerospace capabilities and cyberwarfare capabilities. The need for an aero-space and a cyber command has becomemore pressing now.

As countermeasures to the adver-saries’ A2/AD capability in Tibet regionand against our western neighbour, weneed to invest heavily in the developmentof stealth, stand-off precision strike,Manned Unmanned Teaming (MUT),Swarming technologies and developmentof a robust Command, Control,Communications, Computers,Intelligence, Surveillance andReconnaissance (C4ISR ) and EW poten-tial. Meanwhile, the IAF will have to beboosted with the next-generation stand-off strike capability in the form of missilesand unmanned platforms.

As far as the Indian Ocean is con-cerned, India will always be constrainedby resources to invest heavily in powerprojection naval platforms. Due to thenature of the threat to India’s security, theIndian Army and the IAF will remain themain focus centres as far as defence expen-diture is concerned. But at the same timein order to score over China, India willneed to cash upon the Chinese “Malacca

dilemma.” The best option for India insuch an eventuality is to spend on A2/ADcapability rather than investing in mar-itime power-projecting forces with moreconcentration on anti-access capabilitiesbecause India enjoys the advantage ofhome turf viz a viz PLAN.

For this, India’s island territories,namely the Lakshadweep Islands and theAndaman and Nicobar Islands, will playa crucial role. These territories, whichoverlook critical Indian Ocean lanes,give India a toehold in the Arabian Sea andthe Bay of Bengal. India has already takensteps to bolster its military presence onthese strategically-positioned islands dur-ing the ongoing stand-off with China.These could be developed as epicentres ofour A2/AD capabilities to guard our mar-itime frontiers.

India’s joint warfare doctrine will needto focus on countering the adversaries’A2/AD capabilities to ensure operationalfreedom of friendly forces with minimumdowngradation of our fighting capabilityand also to include the potential of ourA2/AD capabilities to cause maximumattrition to the adversaries’ war fightingpotential and their exploitation.

With the Himalayan defences becom-ing impregnable, only a foolhardy enemywill attempt a major/decisive battle there.While mind games and provocations willcontinue along the LAC, a decisive blow to the Chinese can only be deliveredat sea.

In order to counter China’s growingexpansionism and belligerence, Indiashould seriously explore the option of con-verting the QUAD from a mere securitydialogue to a security alliance followed byQUAD +. The combined GDP of QUADis double that of China thus neutralisingthe growing economic muscle of the drag-on. The move will benefit India as far asthe Aatmanirbhar Bharat Mission is con-cerned. The availability of high-end tech-nology will become easier, giving a boostto domestic production and also ensuresafety of supply chain lines.

(The author is a veteran political com-mentator, security and strategic analyst)

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The combined vote share of reli-gio-political parties in the 2018elections in Pakistan was 9.58

per cent, slightly lower than what it wasin the 2013 polls and much lower thanthe 11 per cent they bagged in 2002.The 2002 tally was the highest theIslamist parties have ever received inpolls. In 2018, the performance of reli-gio-political parties was weak becausethere were a lot more Islamist partiescompeting. Apart from the establishedones, two new religio-political outfitsemerged: The Milli Muslim League

(MML) and Tehreek-i-LabbaikPakistan (TLP). Their entry into elec-toral politics was encouraged by theestablishment to usurp the “religiousvote” of the Centre-Right PML-N sothat Imran Khan’s Centre-Right PTIcould benefit. None of the new religio-political parties could win many seats,but that was never the “plan.”

Whereas the MML could notperform in the manner in whichsome expected it to, the radical BarelviTLP not only succeeded in usurpingPML-N’s Barelvi vote, but also gobbledup the secular MQM’s lower-middle-class Barelvi votes in Karachi. This cer-tainly aided PTI in challenging thePML-N in Punjab and the MQM inKarachi. Historically, Islamist outfits inSouth Asia are not built as electoralparties. They emerge as evangelicalgroups or residues of movements. Andeven when they do convert into elec-toral outfits, they struggle to do well

in polls because the non-religion-basedmainstream parties pragmatically co-opt their causes and rhetoric.

Plus, the religio-political partiesare closely associated with one Islamicsect/sub-sect or the other. This limitstheir appeal to voters from otherdenominations. Some are even under-stood to have developed a sect of theirown, as the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) wasonce accused of doing. Islamist groupsin South Asia developing politicalinterests is a 20th century phenome-non rooted in the Khilafat Movementof 1919-1924. When the European the-ory of the State began to attractCentrist and Leftist groups in SouthAsia in the early 20th century, Islamistgroups, too, began to be attracted byit and started to theorise the possibil-ity of creating an “Islamic state.” Butmost of them could not find the meansor the need to devise any electoral toolsto achieve such a State. They often saw

electoral politics as contrary to theirIslamist dispositions. That’s why thedemand for a Muslim-majority StatePakistan arose from a Centrist andquasi-secular All India Muslim League(AIML). What’s more, almost allmajor Islamist parties opposed thisdemand on one pretext or the other.But they could not neutralise AIML’splans because, by the 1940s, it had notonly become an experienced electoralentity, but it was able to juxtapose its“modernist” Muslim nationalism withrhetoric from their Islamist opponents.These opponents had no plan to stallthe League through electoral means.

The Islamist parties remained inan electoral limbo during the first 20years of Pakistan but they did retaintheir evangelical and agitational dispo-sition, in an attempt to influence theideological character of the new coun-try. But even during the years of indi-rect elections (1957-58) and hybrid

democracy (1962-69), they could notdevise any effective electoral tools andsend members to the first two con-stituent Assemblies, and the twoAssemblies that came into being dur-ing the Ayub Khan dictatorship.

Yet, just before the country’s firstdirect elections in 1970, parties suchas JI were claiming that they wouldsweep the polls. But the opposite hap-pened. From 1947 till 1972, Islamistparties operated from outside theAssemblies and had no significantinfluence on policymaking, otherthan through the threat of agitations.Though 18 members from three reli-gio-political parties managed to enterthe 1972 Parliament, they were nomatch for the mainstream electoralparties. That’s why, in 1974 and thenagain in 1977, Islamist parties onceagain banked on their penchant foragitational politics to undermine aregime. With the sidelining of some

major parties during 1977, the religio-political parties were given space todevelop their electoral skills andexpand constituencies. Separate elec-torates were introduced to favourthem. But the idea, on the part of themilitary regime, was to manoeuvrethem in a manner that would help theZia dictatorship ward off challengesposed by the Opposition parties.

Most of them became tools of theestablishment, without whose backingthey believed they could not becomeeffective electoral entities. In the1990s, the PML-N continued to co-optreligious rhetoric of the Islamist par-ties. However, the self-proclaimed“enlightened moderate” Musharrafdecided to aggressively sideline thePML-N and the PPP during the 2002polls, by creating the conditionsrequired for the religio-political par-ties to win in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.This was when these parties bagged 11

per cent of the vote but this could nothalt the return of the PPP and thePML-N after the 2008 elections.

In the eyes of the establishment,the mutable utility of the old religio-political parties has been exhausted.With growing mistrust between thePML-N/PPP and the establishment,the latter “allowed” the growth of newreligion-based groups like the TLP andthe MML. In an environment wherethe State was at war with religious mil-itancy and with the sword of theFinancial Action Task Force (FATF)still hanging over the country’s head,the idea was to quietly nurture newreligious groups, not to help them win,but to aid the pro-establishment PTIby way of scattering PML-N’s religiousvotebank. The fate of the religio-political parties in politics is thus like-ly to continue being dependent ontheir utility to the establishment.

(Courtesy: Dawn)

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New Delhi: The Bureau OfPharma PSUs Of India report-ed a 94.21 per cent increase inits sales turnover at �146.59crore for the quarter endedJune 30, 2020, the Ministry ofChemicals and Fertilisers saidon Sunday. It had posted a salesturnover of �75.48 crore in thecorresponding first quarter ofprevious fiscal year, a statementby the Ministry said. BPPI isthe implementing agency forPradhan Mantri BhartiyaJanaushadhi Pariyojana. TheJanaushadhi Kendras remainedfunctional during the lockdownas part of their commitment toensure uninterrupted availabil-ity of essential medicines to thepeople, the statement said.“Present basket of medicinessold by these Kendras consistsof 1,250 medicines and 204 sur-gical instruments. The target isset to enhance it to up to 2,000medicines and 300 surgicalproducts by the end of March31, 2024...,” it added. PTI

�� )*+��*,-'

Banks may restructure loansof more than �10 lakh crore

largely attributed to 5-6 criticalsectors, including aviation,commercial real estate andhospitality, that have beenseverely hit by the Covid-19outbreak, according to bankers.

Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman last week askedbanks and NBFCs to roll outone-time loan restructuringscheme for Covid-19 relatedstress by September 15.

According to a top officialof a public sector bank, it iswin-win for both lenders andborrowers.

Explaining the rationale,the banker said, corporates

will try to save their businessfrom turning non-performingasset (NPA) and buy crucialtime for getting cash flow backfor servicing the debt.

Secondly, banks have tomake only 10 per cent provi-sion against restructuredaccount as compared to 15 percent if the same account turnsinto NPA, the official said,adding that the lure of 5 percent conservation of capital willalso push banks for recast.

Given the benefit, theofficial said, it is estimatedthat 12-15 per cent of total loanbook would avail one-timerestructuring.

Micro, small and mediumenterprises (MSMEs) arealready covered under the

ongoing restructuring schemewhich was tweaked recently tocover those impacted byCOVID-19 crisis.

It is to be noted that a totalRs 100 lakh crore worth of loanis outstanding in the bankingsystem.

Another banking officialsaid that nearly half of the 30per cent of the total loan bookwhich sought moratorium, thatended on August 31, may availrestructuring.

Companies in about half-a-dozen vulnerable sectors --hospitality, aviation, entertain-ment, commercial real estateand travel & tourism -- whosebusinesses have been impact-ed severely due to the COVID-19 crisis will make a beeline for

the scheme.KV Kamath committee

report is expected to givefinancial parameters like haircut, debt service coverageratio, debt-equity ratio post-resolution and interest cover-age ratio for recasting corpo-rate loans for over half a dozenvulnerable sectors, the officialadded.

Last month, PunjabNational Bank managing direc-tor S S Mallikarjuna Rao saidabout 5-6 per cent of loan bookwould go for restructuring asper RBI-approved guidelines.

“This 5-6 per cent comesto about � 40,000 crore. Majorcomposition of this, of about 50per cent, would be corporatebooks,” he had said.

Mumbai: The much-awaitedfestive season is unlikely tobring any cheers to the travelindustry, including the airlinesector, as less than 20 per centof people polled plan to travelduring October-Novemberamid the pandemic, a surveysaid. The festive season inIndia falls between Octoberand November every year dur-ing which festivals such asDussehra, Durga Puja andDiwali are celebrated.Moreover, the majority of thosehaving travel plans said thatthey do not want to maketheir booking till they get clos-er to their travel date, accord-ing to the survey conducted byonline platform LocalCircles.

The survey was conduct-ed to get citizen pulse on howpeople in India are planning totravel in the upcoming festiveseason, given the current situ-ation with Covid-19. The sur-vey received over 25,000responses from people locatedin 239 districts of India, accord-ing to the online platform.According to the HealthMinistry data, the total coro-navirus cases mounted to41,13,811, while the death tollclimbed to 70,626. PTI

�� )*+��*,-'

In a bid to optimise its costs,the State Bank of India (SBI)

has planned a voluntary retire-ment scheme (VRS) underwhich about 30,190 employeesare eligible. The total employ-ee strength of country’s largestlender stood at 2.49 lakh at theend of March 2020 as com-pared to 2.57 lakh a year ago.

According to sources, adraft scheme for VRS has beenprepared and board approval isawaited.The proposed scheme-’Second Innings Tap VRS-2020’ - is aimed at optimisinghuman resources and costs ofthe bank.

Besides, the draft scheme,seen by PTI, said it will providean option and a respectable exitroute to employees who havereached a level of saturation intheir career, may not be at thepeak of their performance,have some personal issue orwant to pursue their profes-sional or personal life outsidethe bank. The scheme will beopened to all permanent offi-cers and staff who have put in25 years of service or complet-ed 55 years of age on the cut-off date.

The scheme will open onDecember 1 and will remainopen till the end of February,it said, adding that applicationsfor VRS will be accepted dur-ing this period only.

As per the proposed eligi-bility criteria, a total of 11,565officers and 18,625 staff mem-bers will be eligible for thescheme. The total net savingsfor the bank would be�1,662.86 crore if 30 per centof eligible employees opt forretirement under the scheme,as per estimates based on July2020 salary, it said.

“The staff member whoserequest for retirement underVRS is accepted will be paid anex-gratia amounting 50 percent of salary for the residualperiod of service (up to the dateof superannuation), subject toa maximum of 18 months’ lastdrawn salary,” it said.

Other benefits like gratu-ity, pension, provident andmedical benefits will be givento employees seeking VRS.

A staff member retiredunder the scheme will be eligi-ble for engagement or re-employment in the bank after acooling-off period of two yearsfrom the date of retirement.

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The Government will pro-vide guidance on employ-

ee protection, asset strippingand business continuity inBharat Petroleum Corp Ltd(BPCL) to potential acquirersof the company only at a laterstage of bidding, according toprivatisation rules issued by thedisinvestment department.

The Government is sellingits entire 52.98 per cent stakein India’s second-largest fuelretailer and third-biggest oilrefiner.

Preliminary expressions ofinterest or EoIs are due onSeptember 30, which will befollowed by qualified biddersbeing asked to submit financialor price bids.

The Department ofInvestment and Public AssetManagement (DIPAM), erst-while known as Department ofDisinvestment, has issued clar-ifications on queries raised bypotential bidders for the gov-ernment stake in BPCL.

On a query on restrictions

relating to employee protection,asset stripping, business conti-nuity and lock-in of shares,DIPAM said, “This informa-tion shall be provided to theQualified Interested Parties(QIPs) in the RFP/ SPA(Request for Proposal/ SharePurchase Agreement).”Rules pertaining to labour lawsare said to be one of the manyconsiderations that will guidebids, particularly those fromforeign firms. A potentialacquirer of BPCL may want toshed excess workforce, which isa typical legacy issue with allpublic sector units, as well asstrip some of the non-essentialassets such as land and build-ings.

BPCL will give the acquir-er ready access to 15.33 per centof India’s oil refining limit and22 per cent market share of theworld’s fastest-growing fuelmarket.

While the acquirer of gov-ernment stake will have tomake the mandatory openoffer to buy 26 per cent stakefrom minority shareholders of

BPCL on the same terms, thegovernment advised the bid-ders to consult their legal coun-sels on the issue of such offersbecoming mandatory for list-ed entities where BPCL mayhold a stake.

The department clarifiedthis in response to the questionthat “whether a mandatorytender offer will be triggered bythe transaction in relation toIndraprastha Gas Ltd andPetronet LNG Ltd”.

BPCL is a promoter ofIndia’s largest gas import,Petronet with a 12.5 per centstake. It is also co-founder and

promoter of IGL, which retailsCNG the national capitalregion. BPCL holds 22.5 percent stake in IGL.

The government stakesale in BPCL would happenafter the company’sNumaligarh refinery in Assamis hived off from the companyand sold to a public sector unit.

“The divestment of BPCL’sinterest in NumaligarhRefineries Ltd (NRL) shall becompleted before the closing ofthe BPCL disinvestmentprocess,” DIPAM said.

“The decision with regardto the utilization of proceeds

from the NRL sale shall becommunicated to QIPs prior tosubmission of financial bid.”

It also asked the bidders toseek the opinion of legal coun-sel’s on application of anti-monooly regulations.

“The successfulbidder may need to file with theCompetition Commission ofIndia (CCI) for its approval tothe acquisition,” it said. Also,bondholders/ lenders consent,if required, will be taken at anappropriate stage, it said.It was asked if holds of USD1.65 billion bonds cannot blockor pre-empt the sale of gov-ernment stake. The govern-ment ruled out changing therequirement of bidder or theconsortium of bidder togetherhaving a net wrth of USD 10billion.

“Request for reduction ofnet worth criteria cannot beaccepted,” it said. It also did notaccept a proposal of shifting thevenue of the arbitration, arisingin case of dispute in the pri-vatisation process, to a neutralforum such as Singapore.

New Delhi: GCMMF, whichmarkets dairy products underthe Amul brand, will investaround � 1,000 crore over thenext two years to set up milkprocessing plants, and anoth-er �500 crore on facilities fornew products like edible oil, itsMD R S Sodhi said. In an inter-view with PTI, Sodhi said theGujarat Cooperative MilkMarketing Federation Ltd(GCMMF) expects 12-15 percent growth in revenue in cur-rent fiscal year from �38,550crore during the last fiscal yeardespite COVID-19 pandemic,as demand for branded foodproducts has increased.

“We will invest around�1,000 crore in the next twoyears on setting up dairy plantsacross various states,” Sodhitold PTI.He said the processingcapacity would increase to 420lakh litres per day from the cur-rent 380 lakh litres per day.

On new businesses, Sodhisaid the cooperative has start-ed manufacturing sweets as

well as bakery items usingdairy fats.

Besides, he said, GCMMFhas forayed into edible oil andpotato processing segments aspart of its objective to boostincome of farmers fromGujarat and other states.

The edible oils will be mar-keted under the new brand‘Janmay’. It will producegroundnut oil, cottonseed oil,sunflower oil, mustard oil andsoybean oil.”We already havefew plants for edible oil, bakeryand potato processing. We willinvest �400-500 crore on set-ting up more plants in thesenew business areas over thenext two years,” Sodhi said.

Asked about sales duringthe pandemic, he said sales ofits dairy products like milk,butter milk, paneer and gheewere 15 per cent higher duringApril-August as compared withthe year-ago period, driven byrising household consumptionof branded food products.

PTI

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The Government has comeout with a comprehensive

set of draft guidelines on adver-tising under which ‘disclaimers’that are not easily noticeable byor legible or easily under-standable to an ordinary con-sumer will be treated as mis-leading advertisements underthe Consumer Protection Act.

The violation of theseguidelines would face action bythe recently established CentralConsumer Protection Authority.

The draft guidelines, onwhich the Consumer AffairsMinistry has sought publiccomments by September 18, areapplicable to companies whoseproducts or services are adver-tised as well as to advertisementagencies and endorsers.According to the draft guide-lines, a disclaimer should beclear, prominent enough andlegible.

“It should be clearly visi-ble to a normally-sighted per-son reading the marketingcommunication once, from areasonable distance and at areasonable speed.”

The disclaimers used inadvertisements should be in“same language” as the claim ofthe advertisement, the fontshould be in the “same font” asthe claim and place disclaimerson packaging in a “prominentand visible space”.

If the claim is presented asvoice over (VO), then the dis-claimer should be displayed insync with the VO, it said.That apart, a disclaimer shouldnot attempt to hide materialinformation with respect tothe claim, the omission/absence of which is likely tomake the advertisementdeceptive or conceal its com-mercial intent.

A disclaimer should notattempt to correct a misleadingclaim made in an advertise-ment, it added.

The draft guidelines alsospecify that an advertisementshould not describe a productor service as “free”, “withoutcharge” or other similar terms,

if the consumer has to pay any-thing other than the cost whilepurchasing a product or servicefor delivery of the same.

On those who endorseadvertisements, the guidelinespropose that they should takedue care to ensure that alldescriptions, claims and com-parisons that they endorse orthat are made in advertise-ments they appear in are capa-ble of being objectively ascer-tained and are capable of sub-stantiation.Endorsers should also take duecare to ensure that an advert“does not convey ... Express orimplied representations thatwould be false, misleading ordeceptive if made by the trad-er or manufacturer or adver-tiser of the relevant product orservice.”

If an endorsement of aproduct or service is madethrough a testimonial, theguidelines propose that suchendorsement should reflect thegenuine, reasonably currentopinion of the endorser, andshould be based on either ade-quate information about orexperience with the product orservice being endorsed.

�� )*+��*,-'

As the coronavirus pan-demic and the eventual

lockdowns have brought themultiplex industry to a grind-ing halt, PVR has deferred asignificant portion of its capi-tal expenditure (capex) plansand it will reassess them oncethe shutdown is over and itsoperations resume.

Nitin Sood, Chief FinancialOfficer (CFO) of PVR has saidthat owing to the company’scost control measures, its fixedcosts for the future will belower than it had before. Evenafter reopening, the companydoes not expect these to returnto their previous levels soon.

His message to the share-holders in PVR’s AnnualReport said that the companyis already in discussions with itsdevelopers for renegotiatingthe rental arrangements. Soodadded that PVR’s other coststoo will undergo reductionsuntil some normalcy isrestored.

“We have also temporarilydeferred a substantial portionof our planned capital expen-ditures that we were under-taking, prior to the shutdown.All major capital expenditures

will now be re-assessed oncethe shutdown is over,” the CFOsaid.

Throughout this crisis,according to him, the compa-ny has focused on businesscontinuity and has undertakenmeasures to mitigate the risk.

“Our strategy has been twopronged. First, we have broughtdown our fixed costs drasticallyduring this period of lock-down, and second, we haveraised debt to preserve liquid-ity on the balance sheet,” hesaid.

Among the fixed costs,PVR has invoked the forcemajeure clause for rental pay-ment and Common AreaMaintenance (CAM) charges,

under its contractual arrange-ments and has suspendedrental payments, while it con-tinues to be in discussionswith mall developers.

“In order to manage ourliquidity during the period thecinemas are shut, the manage-ment has voluntarily taken acut of 50 per cent in their com-pensation, while the rest of ouremployees have forsaken 20-50per cent of their salaries. Owingto these actions, we have beensuccessful in bringing a signif-icant reduction in our month-ly fixed costs,” Sood said.

He was of the view in thepost-covid era but the compa-ny will be in a stronger posi-tion.

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Bengaluru Metro rail hasmade it compulsory for

passengers to use theirrecharged smart cards loadedwith money at least one in theinitial seven days or the amountwill relapse, an official said onSunday.

“At least once it has to beused in seven days, otherwisethe money will lapse. That isbecause of the technicalrequirement,” a BangaloreMetro Rail CorporationLimited (BMRCL) official toldIANS.However, after meetingthe requirement of using atleast once in the first sevendays, the recharged money willbe saved for a period of 10 yearsto be used anytime.”We arecoming with a new mobileapp and this is the technicalrule which has come out. Afterusing, you can leave the moneyin the card and it stays there for10 years,” he said.

In the old system, passen-gers were allowed to use theirsmart cards within a span of 60days after topping it up online.

“Consequent to introduc-tion of mobile app, this is nowrevised to seven days,” he saidin the standard operating pro-cedures on restarting themetro.Bengaluru Metro isgeared up to resume its servicein phases from Monday underthe new guidelines to containthe pandemic.

New Delhi:With digital trans-formation gaining momentumacross industries, HCLTechnologies’ CEO CVijayakumar has said that thecompany is well positioned tocapture the upcoming oppor-tunities.

In his message to theshareholders in the company’sAnnual Report, he said thatfuture prospects for thebroad-based technology com-panies like HCL are stable andbright.

Noting that a number ofopportunities are playing out inthe market, Vijayakumar saidthat digital transformation isbeing significantly acceleratedacross industries and digital

programmes planned for com-pletion in two to three years arenow expected to close in a mat-ter of months.

“While momentum sec-tors such as Life Sciences andHealthcare, Online GroceryDistribution, Telecom and Techcontinue to create strongdemand, we are also seeingimpacted sectors like Retail,Auto, Travel, Hospitality etcstarting work on redefiningcustomer engagement to ‘zero-touch’ interactions by leverag-ing conversational AI, analyt-ics, and digital innovations. Webelieve we are well-positionedto capture these opportunities,”Vijayakumar said.

IANS

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New Delhi (PTI): : IT serviceswill remain a significant part ofthe job environment in India asthe demand for talent and ser-vices continues to grow in thecountry, according to TataConsultancy Services CEO andMD Rajesh Gopinathan.

He also emphasised on theneed for experienced IT pro-fessionals to embrace automa-tion and other new technolo-gies to remain competitiveeven as youngsters, who couldbe native to these new tools,enter the workforce.

“...in absolute terms, IndianIT's employment potential willcontinue to be quite strong andwill relatively keep growing inpace with where we see theopportunity. The relative ratioof IT to other industries is a fac-tor of what happens in the larg-er economic scenario...in theforeseeable future, IT serviceswill remain very attractive anda significant part of the jobenvironment in India,’Gopinathan said in a recentwebinar on LinkedIn.

He added that this is onaccount of the demand for tal-ent and services, which is "onlygoing to explode given therole that technology is playingtoday and in future".

There have been concernsof layoffs in the IT sector -which hires thousands of grad-uates every year - as automa-tion increases. With COVID-19 pandemic impacting busi-nesses globally, there were con-cerns about hiring and jobopportunities in the sector ascompanies froze and even laidoff employees.

Gopinathan, who headsthe USD 22-billion firm, wasrecently named as a LinkedInInfluencer, joining the list ofeminent personalities like Satya

Nadella, Vani Kola, PunitRenjen and Kiran MazumdarShaw. Tata ConsultancyServices is the country's largestIT services firm and employsover 4.4 lakh people.

Gopinathan said theyoungsters coming into work-force are native to many of thetechnologies that are leadingthe disruption and learn aboutthe tools “by default” becausethat is the environment they arecoming into.

“My bigger message is tothe ones who have got moreexperience, the ones with 10-15 years’ experience. They alsoneed to embrace it rather thanbeing worried about it. Andthey need to invest in theirknowledge, in their contextu-al knowledge and upgrade theirskills in terms of the toolusage,” he said.

He added that while thetools used today will be differ-ent from 15 years ago, but thecontext that the people havebuilt up and the knowledge

they have amassed is “invalu-able”, which positions the indi-vidual in a very unique positioncompared to any new personentering the workforce.

“If you want to think abouta 30-40 year career, you need tobe constantly ready to learn,” hesaid.

Gopinathan said theCOVID-19 pandemic hasallowed people to use tech-nologies that already existedmore effectively by reducingthe threshold of acceptability.

“So video conferencingdid not get invented sixmonths back. But our accept-ability of leveraging it and theopenness with which we areleveraging it has significantlygone up 10-folds, 50-folds...alot of the work content couldbe done through remote col-laboration like we are cur-rently doing and the accept-ability of that increasing --both inside enterprises andbetween enterprises -- will bea huge booster,” he added.

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Police arrested dozens of peo-ple and used tear gas against

hundreds of demonstrators inPortland late Saturday as thewestern US city marked 100days since Black Lives Matterprotests erupted against racismand police brutality.

Police quickly declared therally a “riot” after protestershurled Molotov cocktails atthem, and they responded witha barrage of tear gas to dispersethe crowd. At least one personwas injured by the fire bombs,police said.

Officers arrested dozensof protesters in an ensuinggame of cat-and-mousethrough a residential district ofeast Portland.

“It was Day 100 for BlackLives Matter protests inPortland since George Floyd’smurder and they wanted toprevent us from marching,”said 20-year-old protestor Jay,her eyes red from the tear gas.

“It’s our constitutional rightto be here and to express our-selves.” Police said people were“engaging in tumultuous andviolent conduct thereby inten-tionally or recklessly

creating a grave risk of causingpublic alarm.”

“This is a riot. Police aregiving announcements to dis-perse. People are throwingMolotov cocktails,” PortlandPolice said on Twitter.

The nightly protests weresparked by the death of GeorgeFloyd while in police custodyin Minneapolis in May.

Floyd’s death triggeredsimilar protests nationwide,but it is in Portland — a city of6,50,000 that is more than 70percent white — that activistshave remained on the streetspractically every night,demanding racial justice andpolice accountability.

President Donald Trumphas cast the city as being undersiege by “thugs” engaged in“domestic terrorism,” thoughthe demonstrations have beenpeaceful for the most part.

Tensions escalated againlast weekend after a man iden-tified as a supporter of a right-wing group was shot and killed.

Earlier on Saturday, hun-dreds of people gathered in apark near Portland in a memo-rial for Aaron “Jay” Danielson,a supporter of the far-rightgroup Patriot Prayer.

The 39-year-old was fatal-ly shot after he joined pro-Trump supporters whodescended on Portland, spark-ing confrontations with BlackLives Matter counter-protesters.

The suspect in the shoot-ing, Michael Reinoehl, 48, waskilled in neighboringWashington state as policetried to arrest him.

The circumstances ofDanielson’s death are still underinvestigation but Reinoehlappeared to acknowledgeshooting him in an interview

with Vice News.“We are in the midst of a

civil war between good andevil, the good, the good is allthe folks you see here,” saidDann, 50, who knew Danielsonthrough Patriot Prayer, point-ing to the families lined up nearan imposing barbecue amongcamping chairs and numerousAmerican flags displayed forthe occasion.

“The evil is the liberals whoare letting these cities bedestroyed by Antifa, BLM,whoever you want to call

them,” he said.Apart from the homage to

the victim and the groups ofmen with assault rifles or pistols,the atmosphere at the park inVancouver, just north ofPortland, was almost partylike.

But Dann was gloomyabout the run-up to the presi-dential election.

“The next two months aregoing to be terrible. There’sgoing to be more violence.There’s going to be more atroc-ities. There’s going to be morename calling,” he predicted.

Tehran: Iranian PresidentHassan Rouhani castigatedIran’s friends on Saturday for notstanding up to the United Statesand ignoring US sanctions dur-ing the coronavirus pandemic.Iran with over 3,80,000 regis-tered Covid cases is one of thecountries worst hit by the pan-demic in the Middle East.

“Over the past months sincethe coronavirus arrived in ourcountry... no one came to ourhelp,” President Rouhani said inremarks broadcast live on statetelevision. If the US “had a bitof humanity and brain”, he said,it would have offered to “lift thesanctions for a year because ofthe coronavirus”.

But the US “is far moreheartless and evil than thosethings,” he added. Instead, it“imposed new sanctions andpressures on us over these past7 months of coronavirus”. At thesame time, “Not a single friend-ly country told us that in thistime of coronavirus and hardshipand for the sake of humanity ‘wewill stand up to America’” and dobusiness with Iran despite threatsof US retaliation, PresidentRouhani said. Agencies

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Three migrants strandedaboard a tanker for over a

month awaiting a port to dis-embark jumped into theMediterranean Sea on Sundayin a sign of increasing despairon deck, the ship reported.

Maersk Tankers A/S saidthe captain and crew of itschemical tanker Etienne quick-ly rescued the three migrantsand brought them back aboard.But the company repeated itsdemand for a port and urgenthumanitarian assistance toensure that the passengers “areimmediately given the attentionand care that they need.”

The Etienne rescued agroup of 27 would-be refugeeson Aug. 4 at the request ofMaltese authorities as themigrants’ fishing boat sank.Malta, however, has refused tolet the migrants disembarkand the Etienne has been stuckin international waters 17 milesoff the small European Unionisland nation as food and water

supplies are running low.The Maersk has reported

that tensions aboard the shipwere growing, culminating inSunday’s desperate jumps.

Malta, like Italy, often balksat taking in rescued migrants,insisting that other EU nationsshould share the burden of car-ing for people rescued in thecentral Mediterranean. Whilesuch standoffs have becomeincreasingly common, theEtienne’s plight is the longest inrecent times and suggests thatother mercantile ships might beless willing to respond to distresscalls from migrants in the future.

Not helping those in needon the sea, however, goes againstmaritime standards, placing shipcaptains in an untenable posi-tion. On Saturday, the GNVRhapsody ferry moored offLampedusa to take migrants offthe small Italian island. Italianofficials have been hastily char-tering ferries and putting othermeasures into place to fightsevere overcrowding at migrantcenters on Lampedusa.

Washington: Democratic vicepresidential nominee KamalaHarris said in commentsreleased Saturday that if a coro-navirus vaccine is availablebefore November’s election,she would not take PresidentDonald Trump’s word on itssafety and efficacy.

Trump faces intense pres-sure to curb the contagionthat has clouded his re-electionprospects, sparking worries hisadministration could rush vac-cine research to fit a politicaltimetable.

“I would not trust DonaldTrump and it would have to bea credible source of informa-tion that talks about the effi-cacy and the reliability of (avaccine),” Harris told CNN. “Iwill not take his word for it.”

A shot against the virusthat has killed over 188,000 inthe US and hobbled the world’slargest economy has becomeanother flashpoint ahead of theNovember 3 vote.

This week news broke thatthe US Centers for DiseaseControl and Prevention askedstates to sweep away red tapethat could prevent a network ofvaccine distribution centersbeing “fully operational byNovember 1, 2020.”

Agencies

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Iran has broadcast the tele-vised confession of a wrestler

facing the death penalty after atweet from President DonaldTrump criticising the case, asegment that resembled hun-dreds of other suspectedcoerced confessions aired over the last decade in theIslamic Republic.

The case of 27-year-oldNavid Afkari has drawn theattention of a social mediacampaign that portrays himand his brothers as victims tar-geted over participating inprotests against Iran’s Shiitetheocracy in 2018.

The television segment andauthorities accuse Afkari of stabbing a water sup-ply company employee in thesouthern city of Shiraz amidthe unrest.

Afkari’s case has drawninternational attention andrevived a demand inside thecountry that Iran, one of theworld’s top executioners, stopcarrying out the death penal-ty. Even imprisoned Iranianhuman rights lawyer NasrinSotoudeh, herself nearly amonth into a hunger strike overconditions at Tehran’s Evinprison amid the coronaviruspandemic, has passed wordthat she supports Afkari.

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WikiLeaks founder JulianAssange is set to fight for

his freedom in a British courtafter a decade of legal drama,as he challenges Americanauthorities’ attempt to extraditehim on spying charges over thesite’s publication of secret USmilitary documents.

Lawyers for Assange andthe US Government are sched-uled to face off in LondonMonday at an extradition hear-ing that was delayed by thecoronavirus pandemic.

American prosecutors haveindicted the 49-year-oldAustralian on 18 espionageand computer misuse chargesadding up to a maximum sen-tence of 175 years.

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Awoman journalist andsocial worker has been

shot dead allegedly by her hus-band in Pakistan’s restiveBalochistan province, a mediareport said on Sunday.

The incident took place inTurbat, the headquarters ofKech district, on Saturday.

According to a police state-ment, husband Mehrab Gichkitook Shaheena ShaheenBaloch’s body to a hospital ina car, but fled soon afterwards.By that time, the woman haddied from bullet wounds.

Police visited a house in thePTCL Colony, Turbat, wherethe shooting allegedly tookplace. Police found blood, anempty bullet shell and a bulletat the scene, the Dawn news-paper reported.

Police quoted some sourcesas saying that Baloch was thewife of Gichki.

However, a relative of thedeceased disputed this.

A case has been registeredand investigation is underway,a senior police official said,adding that Gichki is stillabsconding.

He said the incidentseemed to be a case of domes-tic violence.

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About 290 people were arrest-ed Sunday at protests

against the government’s deci-sion to postpone elections forHong Kong’s legislature, policesaid. The elections were to havetaken place Sunday but ChiefExecutive Carrie Lam on July 31postponed them for one year.Lam blamed an upsurge incoronavirus cases, but critics saidher government worried theopposition would gain seats ifvoting went ahead on schedule.

Police said that 289 peoplehad been arrested, mostly forunlawful assembly. Onewoman was arrested in theKowloon district of Yau Ma Teion charges of assault andspreading pro-independenceslogans, the police department

said on its Facebook page. Itsaid such slogans are illegalunder a newly enacted nation-al security law.

Anti-government protestserupted last year over a pro-posed extradition law andspread to include demands forgreater democracy and criti-cism of Beijing’s efforts totighten control over the formerBritish colony. The coronavirusand the tough new security lawhave diminished the demon-strations this year, but smallergroups still take to the streetsfrom time to time.

The ruling CommunistParty’s decision to impose thelaw in May prompted com-plaints it was violating theautonomy promised to the ter-ritory when it was returned toChina in 1997.

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Jacob Blake has spoken pub-licly for the first time since a

Kenosha, Wisconsin, policeofficer shot him seven times inthe back, saying he’s in constantpain from the shooting, whichdoctors fear will leave himparalyzed from the waist down.

In a video posted Saturdaynight on Twitter by his family’slawyer, Ben Crump, Blake saidfrom his hospital bed that,“Twenty-four hours, every 24hours it’s pain, nothing butpain. It hurts to breathe, it hurtsto sleep, it hurts to move fromside-to-side, it hurts to eat.”

Blake, a 29-year-old fatherof six, also said he has staplesin his back and stomach.

“Your life, and not only justyour life, your legs, somethingyou need to move around andforward in life, can be takenfrom you like this,” Blake said,snapping his fingers.

He added: “Stick together,make some money, makeeverything easier for our peo-ple out there, man, becausethere’s so much time that’sbeen wasted.”

Blake, who is Black, wasshot in the back by a whitepolice officer on Aug. 23 afterwalking away from the officerand two others who were try-ing to arrest him. The officer,Rusten Sheskey, opened fire

after Blake opened his ownSUV’s driver-side door andleaned into the vehicle. Theshooting was captured onvideo and posted online,sparking several nights ofprotests and unrest inKenosha, a city of about1,00,000 between Milwaukeeand Chicago.

Sheskey and the otherofficers who were at the scenewere placed on administrativeleave pending the outcome ofan investigation by theWisconsin Department ofJustice. None of them havebeen charged.

Blake, who had an out-standing arrest warrant whenhe was shot, pleaded not guiltyFriday to charges accusinghim of sexually assaulting a

woman in May and waived hisright to a preliminary hearing.Blake appeared remotely viavideo conference from hisMilwaukee hospital bed, wear-ing a dress shirt and tie. Hespoke only to respond to thejudge’s questions.

The state JusticeDepartment has said a knife wasrecovered from Blake’s vehicle,but it has not said whether hewas holding it when officers triedto arrest him. The man whomade the widely seen cell-phone video of the shooting,22-year-old Raysean White,said he saw Blake scuffling withthree officers and heard themyell, “Drop the knife! Drop theknife!” before gunfire erupted.He said he didn’t see a knife inBlake’s hands.

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!��"��%� �� KYIV (AP): Tens of thousandsof demonstrators marchedSunday to the outskirts of thepresidential residence in thecapital of Belarus, calling forthe country's authoritarianleader to resign as protestsagainst President AlexanderLukashenko entered their fifthweek.

Protests also took place inmajor cities throughoutBelarus, said Interior Ministryspokeswoman OlgaChemodanova. Crowd sizesfor those protests were notimmediately reported, but AlesBialiatski, head of the Viasnahuman rights organization,said the demonstration inMinsk attracted more than100,000 people.

The protests, unprece-dented in Belarus for theirsize and duration, began afterthe Aug. 9 presidential vote thatelection officials said gaveLukashenko a sixth term inoffice with 80% support.Protesters say the results wererigged, and some haveexplained to Associated Pressjournalists exactly how thefraud took place in their dis-tricts.

Lukashenko has ruled thecountry with an iron fist since1994, regularly repressing dis-sent and press freedom.

Police violently crackeddown on demonstrators in thefirst days of the protests, arrest-ing some 7,000 people andbeating hundreds. Althoughthey have scaled back, deten-tions continue; Viasna report-ed scores of people were arrest-ed in Minsk and in the city ofGrodno on Sunday.

Police and army troopsblocked off the center of Minskon Sunday, but demonstratorsmarched to the outskirts of thePalace of Independence, thepresident's working residence 3kilometers (2 miles) outside thecity center. The palace groundswere blocked off by phalanxesof shield-bearing riot policeand water cannon.

“This sea of people cannotbe stopped by military equip-ment, water cannons, propa-ganda and arrests. MostBelarusians want a peacefulchange of power and we willnot get tired of demandingthis,"said Maria Kolesnikova, aleader of the CoordinationCouncil set up by the opposi-tion to try to arrange a dialoguewith the 66-year-oldLukashenko about a transi-tion of power.

She spoke with TheAssociated Press by telephone.

Lukashenko has rejectedany discussion with the coun-

cil and some of its top membershave been jailed. One of them,Olga Kovalova, was expelledfrom the country over theweekend, driven to Poland bypolice.

Despite the stalematebetween Lukashenko and theopposition, protesters say theyare determined not to tire.Some of the placards they car-ried Sunday showed a livelysense of humor.

“Lukashenka, start buildinga house near Yanukovych,”read one, referring to formerUkrainian President ViktorYanukovych who fled to Russiain 2014 after months of anti-government protests.

“The collective farm wentbankrupt,”said another, evokingLukashenko's former positionas a collective farm director andhis retention of largely state-controlled Soviet-style econo-my for Belarus, an EasternEuropean nation of 9.5 million.

Authorities also haverevoked the accreditation ofmany Belarusian journalistsand deported some foreignjournalists, including twoMoscow-based AssociatedPress journalists.

AP’s Belarusian journal-ists were among those toldtheir press credentials hadbeen revoked.

3��*��N�� Bruges (AP): Bruges mayorDirk De fauw first realisedsomething was desperatelywrong with European tourismwhen on a brisk March morn-ing he crossed the Burg squarein front of the Gothic city halland there was nothing butsilence.

There are always people.Always," De fauw said. Thatmorning? Nothing. Nobody ison that large square" at theheart of one of Europe's mostpicturesque cities, he said.

Six months later, asEurope's meanest tourist sum-mer season in history is start-ing to draw to a close, COVID-19 is yet to loosen its suffocat-ing grip on the continent.

If anything the pandemicmight tighten it over the com-ing months, with losses pilingup in the tens of billions ofeuros across the 27-nationEuropean Union, and the con-tinent's vaunted governmentsupport and social securitysystem under increasing strainto prop up the sector.

The upheaval so far, thebloc's executive EuropeanCommission said, shows thatrevenue losses during the firsthalf of 2020 for hotels, restau-rants, tour operators, long dis-tance train operators and air-lines were roughly 85-90 percent."

No country has been

exempt in an area spanningfrom Greece's beaches to thetrattorias in Rome and themuseums of Paris.

And even now, theEuropean Commission toldThe Associated Press, bookingsfor September and Octoberremain abnormally low," asdire as 10% of capacity inBruges.

It dents hopes that a briefuptick in business in July wouldbe a harbinger of somethingmore permanent.

Over the summer, though,came fresh spikes in COVID-19 contamination, new restric-tive measures and regionalcolor codes that spelled disas-ter for local tourism whenthey turn red.

It left the Europeantourism industry relying onhope more than anything else.

It was all evident on a latesummer's day in Bruges, whenusually throngs of Americanand Asian tourists should havebeen mixing with Europeansalong the cobblestone streetsbelow gabled houses to helpboost the annual visit numbersto over 8 million in the city of110,000.

The swans have it all tothemselves," muttered MichielMichielsens as he slowed hisboat behind a bank of swanswho gracefully obstructed aquick passage on the canals.

;��&��(��;��Belgrade (AP): A social mediapost by the Russian foreignministry spokeswoman appar-ently ridiculing Serbia's presi-dent after he signed a US-spon-sored agreement betweenSerbia and Kosovo has trig-gered a rare spat between tra-ditional allies Moscow andBelgrade.

Maria Zakharova posted aphoto showing Vucic sitting

across US President DonaldTrump at his Oval Officetable.

She posted that along withanother photo, the iconic scenefrom thriller Basic Instinctshowing Sharon Stone beingquestioned by police as she sitscross-legged in a chair.

Zakkharova mocked Vucicin a comment on the Facebookpost, saying that he was invit-

ed to the White House to beinterrogated.

Serbian PresidentAleksandar Vucic and otherSerbian officials reacted furi-ously.

The primitivism and vul-garity she showed speaks aboutherself, but also about thosewho have given her the job,Vucic told the pro-governmentPink TV.

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!�� (��4� Your skinny best friend seems to eat

twice as much as you. But you’restil l overweight. Why? For

decades, experts thought they had theanswer — too many calories and notenough exercise. But the latest scientif-ic research is turning those assumptionsdown. Differences in our individual biol-ogy — our genetics, hormones or psy-chology — all play a crucial role.

The show Why Do I Put on Weightfollows five volunteers who go on dietstailored to their bodies and brains.They’re just like us, normal people whoexperience weight gains and losses.Combining science with engaging per-sonal stories, this experiment mightchange the way you think about diet. Ifyou thought long term weight loss wasimpossible, you need to rethink.

�Given the current situation, peopleare dealing with a lot of physical andmental health challenges. The showWhy Do I Put on Weight talks about thedifferent factors behind weight gain.What’s your take on that?

We always think weight gain is afood related problem but in realitythere are various other factors that playa role in fat gain and loss process, suchas genetics, biology, stress, psychologyand more. And given the situation, thehealth challenges have increased becausethe gyms were shut, there weren’t anyproper places to exercise, no proper rou-tine and no sleep schedule. So, these aresome of the reasons behind our weightgain.

�As a nutritionist, what one advicewould you give to someone who is ontheir weight loss journey?

My first advice would be to alwayskeep a check on the stress levels as it’svery important to be stress free. Even inthis show we have discussed factors thataffect your health. Your attitude, emo-tions, mental state, psychological well-being, everything matters in the weightloss journey. It is also important to havea proper routine and stop binge eating.During the lockdown most of us had alot of time in our hands, so we consumeda lot of junk food in free time, whichaffects your health. So it is very impor-tant to have a mindful approach towardsthe diet. In turn, we should add more offruits, raw veggies, salads, and nuts inour diet.

�It is believed that in the process ofweight loss, 30 per cent depends onexercise and the rest 70 per cent is diet.Is this a myth or a reality?

It is a reality; the fact is that activi-ty and some kind of exercise is veryimportant. But nowadays people havemade exercising a mere trend. And nowwe all have a sedentary lifestyle, most-ly working on gadgets. Hence there isless of body movement. Such a lifestyledemands frequent movement and reg-ular exercises. There are different kindsof exercises one can opt for — Yoga,pilates, HIIT, cardio and others.

�What is your take on packaged andprocessed food available in the marketthat claims to be heathy?

With the advent of advertising andmarketing, the food industry always triesto manipulate and tempt people to trytheir products which are claimed to behealthy by them. However, I thinkhomemade and natural foods are moresustainable, affordable and nourishingcomparatively. All these processed foodswith preservatives sold in the name ofhealth are the reasons why we gain morefat in our body. Hence, homemadefood is the best choice.

�How important is exercise for yourbody?

Our generation is not very active asour ancestors were. Earlier we didn’thave house helps, or lifts in building,people used to walk long distances, that’sthe reason our ancestors lived a veryactive life. However, our lifestyle iscompletely different, we get everythingat the tap of a button. This results in lessmovement which means higher need toexercise. If we don’t exercise, our mus-cles loosen up resulting in further com-plications. As we sit in one position, ourback and abdomen muscles tend toweaken. I personally believe in yoga, itsvery strengthening. But one can also tryvariation of workouts between cardio,HIIT and yoga as workout in any formis important.

�What are the five most importantthings one can keep in mind for ahealthy lifestyle?

The utmost important thing is toconsume right food and healthy drinks.Another important thing is get propersleep as it determines your attitude,mood and mental health. Next is tomaintain your stress levels and be awareof it. Lastly, its self-love. Don’t compareyourself, your lifestyle with others andnever give out negative statements foryour body. Your body is your house andpower store.

(Watch the show on September 7 at8 pm on Sony BBC Earth.)

Asparkling silver lining of theglobal Coronavirus pandem-

ic has been a significant improve-ment in air quality across multi-ple countries. However, that does-n’t present a long term solution tothe ‘Airpocalypse’ India is on theverge of, according to experts. Asthe country resumes economicactivity slowly but steadily in the

aftermath of COVID-19, the pos-sible overshooting of greenhousegas and emissions are a very realthreat.

UNEP GoodwillAmbassador and UN SDG advo-cate actor Dia Mirza sites thesevery pertinent concerns as sheengages in a clean air campaignfor India, furthering the globaldialogue of bluer skies and ahealthier environment at home.“We need to make every effort tobuild back sustainably becauseclean air is the right to life,” saidthe actor who has certainlybecome a climate changemakerand other causes related to theenvironment.

“The global lockdown haslead to cleaner air than we havehad in over a decade. Some of themost polluted cities in India haveexperienced AQI levels below 50through the lockdown. Naturecan and will recover leading tobetter health for all people. Butthe lockdown is not the solution.

We need to engage in fruitfulpartnerships and implementstrategies and policies for theglobal goal of clean air,” Diaadded.

The actor-producer is cur-rently working with the UnitedNations EnvironmentProgramme in their efforts todeclare September 7 as theInternational Day of Clean Air forBlue Skies in order to find sustain-able solutions to the air pollutionon our planet. Dia, who hasstressed the importance of learn-ing from the experience of thepandemic and building back bet-ter, will engage in conversationwith prominent ‘Clean AirChampions’ who are singularchange-makers championing acleaner earth. She feels thatobserving #WorldCleanAirDaywill bring much-needed aware-ness to people and policymakersalike, fueling a change in humanlifestyles to ensure a balancebetween man and nature.

�� In 1947, Mildred Ratched begins working as a nurse at a leading

psychiatric hospital. But beneath her stylish exterior lurks a growingdarkness. Starring Sarah Paulson, Finn Wittrock and Judy Davis,season 1 releases on September 18 on Netflix.

��Two years after Cole survived a satanic blood cult,

he’s living another nightmare: high school. And thedemons from his past? Still making his life hell. StarringJudah Lewis, Jenna Ortega and Emily Alyn Lind, the filmreleases on September 10 on Netflix.

�� A disillusioned Delhi wife and her new-in-town cousin nav-

igate damning secrets, dreams and their thorny dynamic on theirrespective roads to freedom. Starring Bhumi Pednekar, KonkonaSen Sharma and Vikrant Massey, the film releases on September18 on Netflix.

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You just have to be better each day,” remem-ber when they told you that? It’s one of the

reasons why we see competition in all walks oflife. In most cases, the competition may not alsobe what is called a cut-throat or a tough one butit may be what is known as a healthy competi-tion. Nevertheless, one thing common to all ofthem — the underlying desire or motive to winor to defeat others.

From a psychological point of view, in a com-petitive situation, a person brings into play hisskill, ability and talent to show that he is supe-rior, stronger, better, more powerful, more skil-ful, more learned or “competent” than the oth-ers. They want to hear words of praise aboutthemselves. Or maybe get a medallion, a citation,an epithet or a high position. Amid this, one doesnot mind if, ontheir way tofinding success,someone elsefeels disappoint-ed, depressed,defeated or evenhumiliated. In asports match,too, we see howeven if the com-petitors shakehands at the endof the game orlater, hang outtogether, thedeep feeling ofhaving lost orhaving won isalways there, however minimal it may be.However, this feeling of victory or defeat is pro-portionately less if the contest is just a friendlygame or it’s a performance for fun and enjoymentand without any expectation of receiving anymedia attention. At that time, the players repre-sent no one but themselves as members of inter-changeable friendly groups and the whole thingis just for the sake of self-development or any-thing but a competition.

As a society, we need to understand that thecore objective behind competition is not just towin for the self or the team, but it is intertwinedwith the motive of laying the softer and noblersentiments of co-operation, kindness and gentle-ness. It is a distortion of intention or malignan-cy in the desire that may, sooner or later, add aniota of selfishness in behaviour and reduce thelevel of love, kindness, generosity and gentlenessand may put a limit on one’s spirit of giving, help-ing, co-operation and sacrificing. For anythingthat is small and insignificant in the beginninghas the potential of growing and becoming big.We must not forget that even a spark is enoughto burn down a huge apartment to ashes and growinto a massive fire. We should be careful and vig-ilant because selfishness is contagious and thishabit of rivalry can spoil the charm of life andthe atmosphere around us.

Some people link competition to motivationof performing better but they fail to understandthat this evil trait to defeat others, which may lookharmless initially, may eventually develop feel-ings of revenge, enmity, jealousy, hostility or anugly attitude.

The seed of evil, as it grows, takes the formof a huge tree with many branches of selfishnessand feelings of downgrading others to gain ascen-dancy for the self. It’s time that one must try tocurtail selfishness and, in this effort, give up theambition of winning by vengeance for theapplause and praise for the self. Remember, theonly competition that should matter for us is theone that takes place within our self. Hence, it isbetter to defeat one’s inner demons first andbecome victorious from within to be an exam-ple for others to follow.

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Rampuriya, a small hamlet inRajasthan’s southern hilly districtPratapgarh, has been able to

largely escape the Coronavirusonslaught. Till last month, there werearound 182 reported cases, out ofwhich 160 had recovered while threelives were lost. Had there been cases likethe rest of the country, the total lack ofbasic health care services in this remoteregion would have made it challengingfor the administration to control the sit-uation.

The Primary Health Centre (PHC),which is supposed to be the basic func-tional unit of government-fundedhealthcare, is practically a misnomerhere, more so after the PHC startedbeing operated on Public-PartnerPartnership (PPP) mode from 2017,allege villagers. In 2015, the RajasthanGovernment decided to hand over 213of the total 2,088 PHCs to private agen-cies to run on PPP mode under the ‘Runa PHC’ scheme that aimed at improv-ing the services and develop the defunctand poorly functioning PHCs.

The ‘Run a PHC’ scheme agreementstated that the state government wouldprovide the private agency �22 to �35lakh depending on the bids received fora five-year period. The private partner,on its part, is expected to employ at least11 members in staff, including doctor,pharmacist, laboratory technicians andcleaners and an experienced AuxiliaryNurse Midwife (ANM). Apart from themoney, the government kept theresponsibility of infrastructure, build-ing, medicines, surgical supplies andlaboratory reagents in its own hands.

This PPP model, however, hasfaced criticism from health activists ofthe State who argue that by doing so, thegovernment side-stepped from its pri-mary duty of providing quality health-care to its citizens. Handing over thesePHCs to private agencies, they believe,has not been a good move as the healthfacilities have deteriorated rather thanimproving, with no accountability fixedon either of the partners.

The arguments put forth by healthactivists are confirmed by the villagers.“The PHC in our region caters to theneed of a population of about 10,000people covering 22 villages. Ever sincethe government started running thisPHC on PPP mode, we began facingproblems. The PHC was handed overto Chitransh Education Welfare Societyof Jaipur. There was no doctor. Only amale nurse and an ANM (AuxiliaryNurse Midwife) were running the cen-tre. In absence of a separate room, ante-natal check-ups and minor pregnancy-related problems could not be handled.We had to take the patients about 25 kmaway to Pratapgarh city or toPeepalkhunt — the block level town toavail decent health services,” sharedMotilal Meena, sarpanch of RampuriyaPanchayat.

According to him, the servicesprior to the partnership were not excel-lent but the doctor would visit the PHC

then. Earlier, there was power-backup,deliveries took place, toilets were not asdirty, and there was water available. Butafter the PHC was taken over, the ser-vices deteriorated, staff seemeduntrained, the bedsheets were dirty andunhygienic. The centre had a single-phase electricity connection, whichdid not support the inverter in case ofemergency operation. Most of the time,there was no power. One bed in themale ward was always occupied by theambulance drivers. There was no mon-itoring of the PHC by the governmentstaff even after several complaints.

Rampuriya is inhabited by a hugeper cent of tribal population with lowsocio-economic status. Due to lapse inservices at the PHC, they were forcedto opt for treatment in city that left themin debt. “Going to a government hos-pital or healthcare centre would cost usaround �6,000 to �7,000 but at a privatefacility, the expenses were no less than�25,000, leaving villagers in debts,” saidMotilal.

Disappointed with the PHCs and

their abysmal services and on getting noresponse after making representationsto the Department of Health andFamily Welfare, the members ofRampuriya Panchayat decided to file

Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in theRajasthan High Court in 2018. Thepetition requested for implementationof better healthcare services, appoint-ment of a medical officer, sufficient staff

and proper medical facilities at theRampuriya PHC as per the IndianPublic Health Standards. They putforth request for better monitoring,quality assurance and an audit by a thirdparty to ensure that the transformationis long-term. It also mentioned with-drawal of this particular PHC from thePPP mode as it was unable to deliverbetter services as promised.

In August 2019, the Jodhpur benchof Rajasthan High Court in a joint hear-ing on a number of PILs filed on ‘glar-ing inadequacies’ in PHCs operationalon PPP mode, had passed an extensiveorder asking the State Government tocarry out assessments of the PHCsaround necessary parameters for theirfunctioning.

In compliance of the order, the statecarried out assessments of 75 ruralPHCs and 37 urban PHCs functioningon PPP mode across the State in 2019and submitted its report to the court.The report revealed that out of the totalPHCs assessed, services of at least 30operating in the rural areas and five inurban areas were found to be unsatis-factory, including the Rampuriya PHC.The State Government had assured thecourt that these PHCs shall be discon-tinued with immediate effect.

The Rajasthan High Courtacknowledged the State Government’sassurance in its final judgement givenon January 10, 2020. The court alsodirected the state to continue monitor-ing the performances of the remainingPHCs every three months through themonitoring teams formed in compli-ance of the August 2019 order.

However, a reality check by aJaipur-based NGO Jan SwasthyaAbhiyan (JSA) found that the StateGovernment has still not compliedwith the High Court’s order and all thePHCs, found “unsatisfactory” in theassessment by the government monitor-ing team, continue to run on PPP mode.

Motilal, however, confirmed thatfollowing the initial court order andsurvey by the government monitoringteam, a doctor now visits theRampuriya PHC. As rest of thearrangement remains same, patientshave to travel to towns and cities forbetter health services or any delivery.

“This is not just a violation of theHigh Court’s order but dereliction ofits primary duty of providing basichealthcare services, especially in thetribal areas of the state. By not comply-ing with the court’s order, the govern-ment has left people’s health on themercy of the private bodies, who havenot been able to provide efficienthealthcare services. The pandemiccannot be an excuse as primary health-care assumes more significance insuch unprecedented times,” saysChayya Pachauli of JSA.

Principal health secretary, AkhilArora said, “A number of guidelineshave been issued after the High Courtorder, which would be enforced soon.”

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Neither evening stocks norjasmine tobacco are particu-

larly worthy plants by day. But asdarkness falls, the petals of eachof these flowers unfurl to releasea delicious, heavy scent. Jasminetobacco’s petals unfold colourfulor pure white trumpets, the lat-ter of which especially glow in themoonlight. The small white petalsof evening stocks shine like little,bright stars. These two unrelatedplants make congenial compan-ions for you and each other onsummer nights.

TWO PLANTS FOR NIGHT-TIME FRAGRANCE

Jasmine tobacco is one of afew species of nicotiana (pro-nounced nee-KO-shee-ay-na),botanically Nicotiana alata. (Yes,the word “nicotiana” does looklike “nicotine,” and smokingtobacco is another nicotianaspecies.)

All species of nicotiana are in

the nightshade family and, liketheir relatives, tomatoes, egg-plants and peppers, they demanda rich, warm soil in the sun. Forearliest flowers, sow the seedsindoors a few weeks before thelast spring frost.

Jasmine tobacco is an annu-al, each plant forming a rosette ofleaves at ground level and a flow-ering spike a couple of feet highor more. New varieties have beenbred which are more compact andwhich bloom in daylight, hope-fully with no loss of scent.

Stocks represent two species,one grown mostly for its showyflowers and the other for its noc-turnal aroma. The scented stock,known as evening or night-scent-ed stock, is botanically Matthiolabicornis.

Evening stock is an annualthat blooms from July throughSeptember. In contrast to jasminetobacco, evening stock is a low-growing, straggly plant, a ball of

wiry stems with small leaves andflowers. The wilted remains of theprevious night’s flowers and theunopened buds of flowers fornights to follow are not much tolook at by day.

Another plant called “stock”but more commonly called hoary

stock or ten weeks stock is, botan-ically, Matthiola incana. This oneyields colourful, showy spikes ofblossoms, also with fragrance.

AT THEIR BEST AT NIGHTBecause jasmine tobacco and

evening stock are not at their best

by day, consider hiding theseCinderellas among showier flow-ers. A nice companion for stocksis gazania, which provides justenough contrast to complementeach plant. Like stock, gazania islow-growing with thin petals, butits flowers are large, solitary,

sunny-yellow daisies. Keep gaza-nia and stocks near the front ofa sunny bed, where they will notbe shaded or hidden by tallerplants.

Tall, spiky jasmine tobacconeeds to be placed near the backof a bed for visual balance. Fill thespaces jasmine tobacco will leavebare by day by combining it withother tall flowers such as largedelphiniums or large zinnias andasters. In the evening, white jas-mine tobacco flowers will comeinto view as the day-bloomersrecede into the darkness.

Plant jasmine tobacco andevening stock where they can beenjoyed on summer nights.Outside my back door, I once hada small, semicircular flower bedthat was home to both thesenight-scented plants. Whenatmospheric conditions wereright, the fragrance could makeyou delirious. I am not surewhat exactly those optimalatmospheric conditions were,but the typical calm summernight seemed to fill the bill. Onsuch nights, the heavy aromawould gather beneath the win-dow just above the flower bed,waiting to be wafted indoors bythe slightest breeze.

That flower bed is gone, buta new one will be home to theseplants next year, with delirioussummer nights to follow. B.�

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In danger of her earliest exit at the U.S. Opensince her debut 22 years ago, Serena Williamsturned things around and took over against

Sloane Stephens.Williams emerged from the third-round

matchup between two Americanswho are past champions at

Flushing Meadows - she’s wonsix of her 23 Grand Slam sin-

gles titles at the place -with a 2-6, 6-2, 6-2 victo-ry over 2017 titlistStephens on Saturday.

Afterward, Williams’3-year-old daughter,Olympia, wore a mask andwaved at Mom while sit-ting on her father's lap ina front-row seat. On herway to the locker room,Williams waved back.

“I hope,” Williamssaid, “that she saw hermama fighting.”Williams did it, as sheso often does, with herb e s t - i n - t h e - g a m eserve, hitting 12 aces atup to 122 mph as it gotreally dialed in mid-way through the sec-ond set, and an abili-ty to re-calibrate hergroundstrokes that

were so awry early and sosuperb down the stretch.

“She served a lot better,”said Stephens, now 1-6against Williams, althoughthey hadn't played eachother since 2015.

“Obviously she hasone of the greatestserves in the game.It’s really difficult to

read.”Williams collected 10 of the

last 12 games by lifting her level,to be sure. But it helped that

Stephens went from playing nearlyperfectly to missing more and more.

Following mistakes, Stephens

would look over at hercoach, Kamau Murray, orsmack her right thigh withher palm so loudly that itechoed through a nearlyempty Arthur Ashe Stadium.

“In that first set, I don’t think shemade any errors, honestly. She wasplaying so clean. I said, ‘I don’t wantto lose in straight sets,” saidWilliams, whose only career U.S.Open loss before the fourth roundcame in the third against IrinaSpirlea in 1998 at age 16.

Williams, who turns 39 in threeweeks, said she told herself Saturday:“OK, Serena, just get a game. Get agame.” There were, of course, nofans - banned because of the coro-navirus pandemic - and so thewhole thing was flush with the feelof a practice session, rather than ahigh-stakes contest on a GrandSlam stage.

There were some other playerson hand to watch, including 15th-

seeded Maria Sakkari, whosipped orange juice and atelunch while on her playersuite's balcony. Sakkari hada vested interest: She faces

Williams for a berth in the quarter-finals. Other women into the fourthround: No. 16 Elise Mertens, No. 20Karolina Muchova and TsvetanaPironkova, who defeated No. 18Donna Vekic 6-4, 6-1.

In men’s action, 2019 runner-upDaniil Medvedev and another semi-finalist from a year ago, No. 6Matteo Berrettini moved on, as didNo. 10 Andrey Rublev, No. 15 FelixAuger-Aliassime, No. 21 Alex deMinaur and Vasek Pospisil, who'sbeen in the news lately because heteamed up with Novak Djokovic toset up a new association to representplayers.

Pospisil eliminated No. 8Roberto Bautista Agut 7-5, 2-6, 4-6,6-3, 6-2, and next faced another five-set winner, de Minaur, who defeat-

ed No. 11 Karen Khachanov 6-4, 0-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-1. Williams vs. Sakkariis a rematch of their meeting wonlast month by Sakkari at the Western & Southern Open, a hard-court tournament played at the U.S.Open site instead of its usual homein Ohio because of the pandemic.

"You know, Serena is Serena,"Sakkari said after advancing earlierSaturday by beating 19-year-oldAmerican Amanda Anisimova 6-3,6-1. "You have to come up with somegreat tennis. Otherwise there is nochance against her." Stephens didthat very thing in the early stagesSaturday.

She was playing patient, wait-for-the-right-moment tennis, creat-ing lengthy, complicated points thatmore often than not ended withWilliams blinking first.

The end of the first set was metby total silence - not even the awk-ward, manufactured soundtrackpiped in during other matches tosimulate ambient noise.

From 2-all in the second,Williams finally made inroads. Shesaved a break point, then broke forthe first time when Stephens misseda forehand, part of a stretch in whichWilliams grabbed 12 of 15 points.

She was on her way. And nowshe is four wins from adding to herGrand Slam trophy count, which hasbeen at 23 since she won the 2017Australian Open while pregnant.

Asked Saturday what the posi-tives are about still being active ontour as a parent, Williams said: “Oneday, your daughter can say she wasthere. Whether she remembers ornot, we can always have pictures. Butother than that, it’s just (a) minus,like: I'm not with her, I’m notaround her. It's hard.” Williams hasreached the finals at four of the pastseven major tournaments, losingeach time.

“We all hope she gets to it,”Stephens said. “If she is feeling pres-sure, I hope she releases it and getsto 24.”

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Basu Shanker, the manresponsible for the fitness

transformation of the nation-al team, feels India and RCBskipper Virat Kohli hasreturned from the long breakan even fitter athlete afterworking on “specific physicalpointers” that needed atten-tion.

Kohli was stuck inMumbai for five months dueto the coronavirus-enforcedlockdown and had his firstproper hit in the nets onlyafter his arrival in the UAEfor the Indian PremierLeague, beginning

September 19.However, he ensured

during the break that hissupreme fitness level wasnot impacted and, in fact, ithelped him skill-wise on hisreturn to action even thoughhe was “scared" to hit thenets.

“He (Kohli) has comeback in much bettershape. He is at his best

weight at the moment and hismovement patterns are pret-ty much in sync with his bestself in the past,” former Indiatrainer Basu, who is now thestrength and conditioningcoach of Royal ChallengersBangalore, told PTI fromDubai.

“He has taken this breakas an opportunity to work onall the pointers which need-ed attention from a physicalpoint. I guess his motto to lifeis ‘Bear the cross and wearthe crown’,” said the man whoworked with the Indian team

between 2015 to 2019.He has worked exten-

sively with Kohli, both atRCB and during his timewith the Indian team.

Basu said Kohli was ableto work on things which aninternational cricketer findsit difficult to do in a packedcalendar.

“He had the time to bevery specific with his mealplans and running intervalsat home. He did not havemuch of a choice during thelockdown and he invested ona treadmill and worked onhis endurance which is oth-erwise not possible during apacked calendar.

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En g l a n d ’ sb o w l e r s

showed disciplineand skill to restrictAustralia to 157/7in 20 overs in thesecond T20I hereon Sunday.

P a c e m a nChris Jordan wasthe pick of thebowlers for thehosts, returningfigures of 2/40 butit was a team effortreally as JofraArcher (1/31) andMark Wood(1/25) bowledsuperbly to neverlet the Aussies getthe better of them.

For the visitors, skipper Aaron Finch top-scored with a 33-ball 40, with his inningslaced with four fours and two sixes.

Marcus Stoinis also looked good for his35 and Glenn Maxwell made 25 but all threebatsmen were removed just when theylooked to get going.

David Warner was the first to go as he wascaught behind by Jos Buttler off Archer.

Alex Cary, promoted up the order, wasout in similar fashion to Wood as Steve Smithalso failed with the bat, managing just 10 ashe was run out by England captain EoinMorgan.

The Aussies were 89/5 at one stagebefore the likes of Stoinis, Maxwell andAshton Agar (23) steadied the ship with PatCummins (13 not out) also chipping in.

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Out of reckoning for Test cricket for thepast two years, opening batsman Shikhar

Dhawan on Sunday said he has not given upon making a comeback to the Indian teamand is looking at the upcoming opportuni-ties to plot his return.

The 34-year-old Dhawan last played aTest against England at The Oval inSeptember 2018.

“I am not a part of the Testteam but that does not mean Ihave given up all hopes of acomeback,” Dhawan told TVchannels during an inter-action.

“Whenever I gotan opportunity...Like in the RanjiTrophy last year Iscored a century, then I made acomeback into the one-day team,if I get an opportunity then whynot, of course.”

Dhawan stroked his way tothe fastest Test century by adebutant, against Australiain 2013, but has often strug-gled for consistency in thefive-day game.

In Rohit Sharma, KLRahul, Mayank Agarwal andPrithvi Shaw, the Test team hasa number of options at its dis-posal for opener's role, makingDhawan's case even more difficult.

The left-handed batsman,though, remains optimistic.

“I will keep trying mybest. The T20 World Cup isthere next year, so I need tokeep performing, keep myselffit, make runs consistently.

“If I keep doing these, other

things will automatically fall into place.”Dhawan has so far played 34 Tests and

scored 2,315 runs with seven centuriesunder his belt at an average of 40.61.

He remains in the scheme of things inODIs and T20Is and is gearing up for IPL

2020, to be held in UAEfrom September 19.

The experiencedDhawan will turn out for

Delhi Capitals and spokeabout the challenges beingfaced by the players whilestaying in a bio-bubbleamid the COVID-19 pan-demic.

"There are challengesof being in the bubble, you

do not meet new people,can't go to restaurants, wecan only go to the designat-

ed areas.“But our franchise has

looked after us, we are living likea family, it depends on the person

how he sees the situation,” Dhawansaid in a press conference.

When asked about Delhi Capitals’chances this IPL, Dhawan soundedoptimistic.

“It’s important we bond togetherand create that energy. We have a verybalanced side and confident we willtake the cup.”

He said Shreyas Iyer has beenleading the team very well. He also said

the inclusion of experienced India play-ers Ajinkya Rahane and R Ashwin will

strengthen the outfit.“Shreyas led the team pretty well last

year, this time Ajinkya has come in,Ashwin has come in, they are quite expe-

rienced players and I am sure they aregoing to share their insights.”

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AlphaTauri driver Pierre Gaslyclaimed an unlikely victory at the

Italian Grand Prix after a thrilling racewhich saw world champion LewisHamilton given a 10-second penaltyand both Ferraris fail to finish at theirhome circuit on Sunday.

It was Gasly's first-ever win inFormula One. The 24-year-oldFrenchman finished 0.415 secondsahead of McLaren driver Carlos Sainzand 3.358 ahead of Racing Point's LanceStroll on a surreal-looking podium. Allthree drivers had never won a race andeach had only one top-three finish totheir name.

Hamilton appeared on course for

a comfortable victory from pole posi-tion but he was given the stop-go penal-ty for entering the pit lane whenclosed.

The Mercedes driver finished sev-enth, 17.245 behind Gasly.

Ferrari's abysmal weekend contin-ued as Sebastian Vettel had a brake fail-ure on Lap 7 and he limped into the pitswith his right-rear brake disc in flames.It was the four-time champion's firstDNF at Monza in his 14th start.

His teammate Charles Leclerc hadmade it into fourth but lost the rear ofthe car under acceleration throughParabolica on Lap 25 and crashed intothe barriers, causing the race to be redflagged.

By that time Hamilton’s penalty hadbeen announced. Hamilton had pittedimmediately after the safety car hadbeen deployed after Kevin Magnussenbroke down but was unaware the pitlane was closed as the marshals recov-ered Magnussen’s Haas.

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Kylian Mbappé scored the winning goal as Franceearned a scrappy 1-0 win at Sweden in the Nations

League on Saturday.The Paris Saint-Germain striker’s 14th internation-

al goal came in the 41st minute but it could have beenmore comfortable for France, only for AntoineGriezmann to fluff a penalty right at the end. It wasGriezmann’s third straight penalty miss for France.

Mbappé cut in from the left and, after initially beingtackled, he got the ball back off Kristoffer Olsson, feint-ed, and then curled the ball inside the post.

“It was a tough match and we fought hard. It was-n’t easy ... it could be better in the future,” Mbappé said.“The most important thing is the result.”

It was an accomplished finish from Mbappé, follow-ing his glaring missed chance in the 1-0 defeat to BayernMunich in the Champions League final on Aug. 23.

France coach Didier Deschamps handed a debut to21-year-old Leipzig center half Dayot Upamecano andrecalled Adrien Rabiot to midfield, after a long spell outof the side following his refusal to be on the reserve listfor the 2018 World Cup.

Chances were scarce in the first half but veteranSweden striker Marcus Berg almost broke through lateon, only for France goalkeeper Hugo Lloris to deny himby rushing off his line. Moments later, Sweden 'keep-er Robin Olsen was picking the ball out of the net.

“It was difficult for us, but for them as well,”Deschamps said. “We could have done a bit better goingforward.”

Still, France was in control of the second half, withMbappé and Barcelona’s Griezmann wasting goodchances before Lloris punched away a late effort fromthe lively Emil Forsberg.

Griezmann then blazed a poor penalty over the barafter substitute Anthony Martial was fouled.

France hosts Croatia at Stade de France onTuesday in a repeat of the World Cup final two yearsago, which France won 4-2 with Mbappé among thescorers.

In the group’s other game, Croatia lost 4-1 at defend-ing Nations League champion Portugal.

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Kolkata Knight Riders,who have a new think

tank in place headed bycoach Brendon McCullum,are exploring the options ofpromoting their explosiveall-rounder Andre Russell atnumber three, team mentor

David Hussey said onSunday.

The star Jamaican, whowas adjudged the MostValuable Player last season,had blamed some “bad deci-sions” for the two-time for-

mer champions missing outon the playoffs.

Hussey said they arethinking of different combi-nations this season, whichincludes promoting Russellat three.

“If it benefits the teamand helps us win games ofcricket, why not? If thatmeans Andre Russell comesin at three and bats 60 balls,he might actually make adouble hundred. Anything

can happen with Dre Russ,”Hussey said in a news con-ference here.

Russell scored 510 runsfrom 13 innings, averaging56.66 and also picked up 11wickets.

Terming Russell as theheartbeat of the team, theformer Australia cricketer

said: “A fantastic player, heis probably almost theheartbeat of the team aswell.

“We’ve actually got real-ly a well-balanced team...Anyone can bat in any dif-ferent position. But if itbenefits the team, why not,why can’t he bat up the list.”

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Ending days of anxious wait, theBCCI on Sunday released the

schedule for the upcoming IPL, andin keeping with tradition, defend-ing champions Mumbai Indianswill take on runners-up ChennaiSuper Kings in the opener in AbuDhabi on September 19.

Moved out of India due to asurge in COVID-19 cases, theupcoming edition of the world’sbiggest T20 league will be held inthe three venues of Dubai, AbuDhabi and Sharjah in the UAE.

After the tournament-openerin the capital city, Dubai will hostits first game the next day whenDelhi Capitals take on Kings XIPunjab followed by the third match

on Monday between SunrisersHyderabad and Royal ChallengersBangalore.

The action will then shift toSharjah on September 22 whenRajasthan Royals will host ChennaiSuper Kings.

There will be 10 double head-ers, with the first match starting at3:30pm IST and the second7:30pm, according to a BCCIrelease.

In all, 24 matches will be heldin Dubai, 20 in Abu Dhabi and 12in Sharjah.

Venues for the playoffs and the

IPL 2020 final will be announcedlater. The final is slated forNovember 10.

The upcoming 53-day editionis by far the longest in the historyof the league.

The schedule was expected tobe out in the last week of Augustbut the announcement was delayedafter 13 personnel of the ChennaiSuper Kings (CSK) camp testedpositive for the dreaded virus.

Also, due to different quaran-tine rules in Dubai and Abu Dhabi,IPL’s operations team took time tofinalise the schedule.

As per IPL rules, the defendingchampions and the last year’s run-ner-up face off in the tournamentopener. The same is going to hap-pen this year after concerns overChennai Super Kings’ readinesswere erased with their first practicesession in Dubai on Friday.

CSK were the last franchise tohit the nets after clearing finalrounds of COVID-19 testing.

Captain Mahendra SinghDhoni and all other CSK players,except for the COVID-19 afflictedduo of Deepak Chahar and RuturajGaikwad, started training onFriday.

With Deepak and Ruturaj test-ing positive last week along with 11members of the CSK contingent,the team was forced to delay its

training plan after completing thesix-day quarantine, including threetests, upon arrival on August 21.

The virus free players had toundergo three additional testsbefore beginning their training onFriday. The infected players are in14-day quarantine.

This year’s IPL was originallyscheduled to be held from March29 to May 24 but was postponedbarely two weeks before the start ofthe tournament due to the coron-avirus outbreak.

Then, as the number of casesincreased, the league was indefi-nitely postponed but the post-ponement of the T20 World Cupcleared the decks for the league totake place in the September-November window.

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India veteran Rohan Bopannaand his Canadian partner

Denis Shapovalov stunned sixthseeds Kevin Krawietz andAndreas Mies in a hard-foughtthree-setter to advance to thequarterfinals of the US Openmen’s doubles event here.

The unseeded Indo-Canadian pair on Saturday over-came a set deficit to beat theGerman duo 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 in asecond round encounter thatlasted one hour and 47 minutes.

Bopanna and Shapovalov willtake on Dutch-Romanian combi-nation of Jeal-Julien Rojer andHoria Tecau in the quarterfinals.

Bopanna is the lone surviv-ing Indian in the tournamentafter the exit of Sumit Nagal and

Divij Sharan.While Sumit Nagal bowed

out in the second round after los-ing in straight sets to world no. 3and second seed Dominic Thiemof Austria, Sharan and his Serbianpartner Nikola Cacic wereknocked out in the openinground of the men’s doubles eventby eighth seeds Nikola Mekticand Wesley Koolhof.

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