RNI NO.: DELENG/2005/15351REGD. NO.: DL(S)-01/3420/2018-20

VOL.16, ISSUE 185 | Monday, 5 July, 2021 | New Delhi | Pages 12 | Rs 3.00PUBLISHED FROM DELHI | KOLKATA

MILLENNIUMPOST.IN

No Half Truths

‘SG’s explanation came after meet with Adhikari revealed’

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Ahead of the meeting between President Ram Nath Kovind and Trinamool MPs in New Delhi on Monday, Trinamool Congress (TMC) Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’ Brien alleged on social media that Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had come up with a ‘post-facto explanation’ only after the inci-dent of the law officer’s alleged meeting with tainted BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari came to the light.

Reacting to the alleged meeting, O’ Brien tweeted: “Mr Solicitor General, 1. You gave a post-facto explanation after story broke 2. Conflict of Interest 3. Even a Public Prosecu-

tor (leave alone high office of SG!) cannot represent or advise the accused 4. Impropri-ety. Act in a fair manner. Not as a BJP lackey.”

The TMC MP claimed that the statement of the Solicitor General that he did not meet Adhikari who came to his office waited for some time and then left, was made only after Trinamool Congress raised the issue.

“The meeting amounts to violation of Rule 8(1) (b) of the Law Officers ( Condi-tion of Service) Rules, 1987 which prohibits a law officer from advising any party against the Government of India or a Public Sector Undertaking, or in cases in which he likely to be called upon to advice, or appear,” O’ Brien stated, Continued on P4

City: Pg 3CM Kejriwal writes to PM Modi, seeks Bharat Ratna for Indian doctors

Film: Pg 12‘I was lost in the misogynistic hell of Hollywood’

Sports complexes in Delhi to reopen without spectators

MPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI: Heatwaves have claimed more than 17,000 lives in 50 years in India, according to a paper recently published by the country’s top meteorologists.

The paper said there were 706 heatwave incidents in the coun-try from 1971-2019.

The research paper was authored by M Rajeevan, Sec-retary of Ministry of Earth Sci-ence, along with scientists Kamaljit Ray, S S Ray, R K Giri and A P Dimri, earlier this year. Kamaljit Ray is the lead author of the paper.

Heatwave is one of the extreme weather events (EWE). In 50 years (1971-2019) EWE

killed 1,41,308 people. Of this, 17,362 people were killed due to heatwave — a little over 12 per cent of the total deaths recorded,

the study said.The maximum heatwave

deaths were in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Odisha, it added.

Core Heatwave Zone (CHZ) is the most prone area for heat-wave (HW) and severe heat-wave (SHW) with the highest frequency of occurrence during the month of May.

The CHZ covers states of Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Utta-rakhand, Delhi, Haryana, Raj-asthan, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

The study assumes signifi-cance in the backdrop of recent heat waves in different parts of northern hemisphere. Earlier this week, an intense heatwave swept through parts of Canada and the US in north America claiming

lives of scores of people. Van-couver recorded a record-break-ing temperature of more than 49 degrees Celsius.

In India, the north Indian plains and the hills also experi-enced heatwave. In the plains, temperatures rose above 40 degrees Celsius in many parts earlier this week.

The paper also noted that there is an increase in mortal-ity due to heatwaves, an extreme weather event, and lightning for vulnerable states.

Heatwave over a station is declared only when the actual temperature of the station is 40 degrees Celsius for the plains and 30 degrees Celsius for hilly regions. Continued on P4

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Delhi gov-ernment has given permission to the city's stadiums and sports complexes to reopen from Mon-day but without spectators, according to an order issued by the DDMA.

There will be strict adher-ence to standard operating pro-cedure and other guidelines of the government, and com-pliance of Covid-appropriate behaviour while opening the stadia and sports complexes, the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) said in its order on Sunday.

Cinema halls, multiplexes, theatres, swimming pools, spas, schools and colleges will, how-ever, remain shut, and all kinds of gatherings, social, political, cultural, religious and other-wise, prohibited, it stated.

Delhi Metro trains and pub-lic transport buses will con-tinue to operate with 50 per cent of their seating capacity, the DDMA said.

The order stated that the sta-tus of COVID-19 in Delhi was reviewed, and it was observed that the number of coronavi-rus patients and the positivity rate have declined consider-ably, and the overall situation has improved.

But due caution and care have to be taken for consolidat-ing the whole process of Covid management, it said.

As per the Delhi govern-ment's health bulletin issued on Saturday, a total 86 COVID-19 new cases and five deaths were reported in the city and the pos-itivity rate stood at 0.11 per cent.

Last week, the DDMA had allowed gyms and yoga insti-tutes to open with half their capacity, while capping the number of guests for weddings at banquets, marriage halls and hotels at 50. Other prohibited and restricted activities will con-tinue to be so till 5 am on July 12, the order said.

With a surge in COVID 19 cases during the second wave of the pandemic, a lockdown was imposed in Delhi on April 19.

The government started a phased unlock process allow-ing construction and manu-facturing activities from May 31 with improvement in the Covid situation.

The Delhi Police commis-sioner, principal secretary (revenue) and district magis-trates and their counterpart DCPs have been directed by the DDMA to ensure compli-ance of all Covid-related extant orders of the government and strict implementation of mea-sures such as use of face masks and social distancing.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: A group of around 200 farmers will protest against the Cen-tre’s three farm laws outside Parliament every day during the Monsoon Session, the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) announced on Sunday.

The umbrella body of over 40 farmer unions said at a press conference that two days before the session begins, a “cheta-vani patra (warning letter)” will be given to all opposition MPs to protest the laws inside the House.

“We will also ask the opposition MPs on July 17 to raise the issue every day inside the House while we will sit outside

in protest. We will tell them not to benefit the Centre by walking out of a session. Don’t let the session run till the govern-ment addresses the issue,” farmer leader Balbir Singh Rajewal said. Parliament’s Monsoon Session is set to begin on July 19. “We will be protesting outside Par-liament continuously till they hear our demands,” Rajewal said.

He added that five people from each farmer union would be taken to join the protest. The SKM also called for a nation-wide protest on July 8 against rising prices of petrol, diesel and LPG cylinders. It asked people to come out and park their vehicles along state and national highways from 10 am till 12 pm. Continued on P4

Will protest outside Parl every day during Monsoon Session: SKM

OUR CORRESPONDENT

DEHRADUN: Pushkar Singh Dhami was sworn in as the 11th chief minister of Uttarakhand, along with an 11-member cabi-net, here on Sunday.

The oath of office was admin-istered on Dhami and his min-isters by Governor Baby Rani Maurya at a simple function held on the lawns of the Raj Bhawan in the presence of a host of MPs and MLAs of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and senior gov-ernment officials.

No new face has been inducted into Dhami's cabinet, which remains as it was under his pre-decessor Tirath Singh Rawat. The only difference is that this time, all the ministers are of cabinet rank.

The ministers sworn in on Sun-day are Satpal Maharaj, Harak Singh Rawat, Bansidhar Bhagat,

Yashpal Arya, Bishan Singh Chu-fal, Subodh Uniyal, Arvind Pandey, Ganesh Joshi, Dhan Singh Rawat, Rekha Arya and Yatishwaranand.

Rekha Arya, Dhan Singh Rawat and Yatishwaranand, who were ministers of state in Tirath Rawat's cabinet, have been elevated to cabinet rank.

Earlier in the day, Dhami met Satpal Maharaj at his residence with a bouquet of flowers amid reports that the senior leader and a few other MLAs of the saffron party were sulking since Satur-day as they were not happy with his election as the new leader of the BJP legislature party in

Uttarakhand.Dhami later said there was no

resentment anywhere. All those said to have been unhappy with the party high-command over its choice of new chief minister were present at the swearing-in ceremony and were sworn in as ministers.

Hours before taking oath, Dhamin waded into controversy because of a map of India he tweeted in 2015. The map, pur-portedly showing "Akhand Bharat (undivided India)" at some point in history, had missed out key parts of present-day India. Twitter users lost no time in digging out the post, pointing out that the Indian map, demarcated by a white line on the red "Akhand Bharat" back-ground, left out parts of Ladakh and the areas currently occupied by Pakistan.

WITH AGENCY INPUTS

Dhami sworn in as new Uttarakhand CM

A man takes a bath beside railway tracks on a hot summer day, at Amritsar Railway Station, Thursday PTI

City94 CASES & 7 DEATHS 3NationNADDA TO VISIT ROHTANG TUNNEL 5edit U’KHAND CM TAKES OATH 7internationalOXYGEN SHORTAGES HIT B’DESH 8

businessM&AS SOAR 44% 10sportARGENTINA BEAT ECUADOR AT COPA 11

In today’s paper

...

Hunger is still there, adding new

dimensions to my batting ahead of WC

Mithali Raj

11 OTHERS ADMINISTERED OATH AS CABINET MINISTERS

THERE WERE 706 HEATWAVE INCIDENTS IN THE COUNTRY FROM 1971-2019

Heatwaves have claimed more than 17,000 lives in 50 years in India, says study

Nation : Pg 6‘Monsoon show signs of heavy rain; likely to revive from July 8’

DEATH TOLL CLIMBS TO 4,02,005 WHILE CASE FATALITY RATE RISES TO 1.32%

Takeaways » Cinema halls, multiplexes, theatres, swimming pools, spas, schools and colleges will, however, remain shut, and all kinds of gatherings, social, political, cultural, religious and otherwise, prohibited » Delhi Metro trains and public transport buses will continue to operate with 50 per cent of their seating capacity

Health workers attend COVID-19 patients at a Covid care centre at CWG village near Akshardham in New Delhi, on Sunday PTI

India reports 43,071 new Covid cases, 955 fatalities in 24 hours

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: India saw a single-day rise of 43,071 COVID-19 infec-tions, which took the tally of cases to 3,05,45,433, while active cases have declined to 4,85,350, according to Union health ministry data updated on Sunday.

The death toll has climbed to 4,02,005 with 955 more fatalities, while the case fatality rate has risen to 1.32 per cent from 1.31 per cent, the data updated at 8 am showed.

The active cases have further declined to 4,85,350 and comprise 1.59 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recov-ery rate has improved to 97.09 per cent, the ministry said.

It said active cases have declined by 10,183 in a span of 24 hours.

The data stated that 18,38,490 tests were conducted on Saturday, taking the total cumulative tests conducted so far for detection of COVID-19 in the country to 41,82,54,953.

The daily positivity rate was

recorded at 2.34 per cent. It has been less than five per cent for 27 consec-utive days, the ministry said, add-ing that the weekly positivity rate has declined to 2.44 per cent.

Recoveries continue to outnum-ber daily new cases for 52 consecutive

days, and the number of people who have recuperated from the disease has increased to 2,96,58,078, it said.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Nar-endra Modi would be sharing his thoughts at the CoWIN Global Con-clave to be held on Monday as India

will offer the CoWIN platform as a digital public good to other countries to run their own COVID-19 inocula-tion drives.

About 50 countries, including Canada, Mexico, Nigeria, Panama and Uganda, have shown interest in

adopting CoWIN, a digital platform, to run their vaccination drives, Dr R S Sharma, the CEO of the National Health Authority (NHA), had said recently, adding that India is ready to share the open-source software for free. The prime minister has directed officials to create an open-source ver-sion of the platform and give it to any country that wants it for free, Sharma had said.

“We are elated to announce that Hon’ble PM @narendramodi would be sharing his thoughts on #CoW-INGlobalConclave as India offers #CoWIN as a digital public good to the world to combat #COVID19,” the NHA said in a tweet.

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan will inaugurate the virtual conclave. Others expected to speak at the event include Foreign Secretary H V Shringla, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan and Sharma.

The virtual meet will see partici-pation from health and technology experts representing countries from across the globe. Continued on P4

A health worker administers a dose of Covid-19 vaccine to a beneficiary as others wait in a queue, at a vaccination camp in Gurugram, Sunday PTI

Highlights: » Active cases have further declined to 4,85,350

» PM to address CoWin Global Conclave today

» About 50 countries, including Canada, Mexico, Nigeria, Panama and Uganda, have shown interest in adopting CoWIN

» Gauhati HC said that restriction on unvaccinated people from leaving their houses, debarring them from earning livelihood in violation of Article 14, 19 and 21

SRINAGAR: A week after a drone attack at an Air Force base in Jammu, authorities in Srinagar on Sunday banned the sale, possession and use of such unmanned aerial vehicles in the city. Earlier, authorities in border districts of Rajouri and Kathua in the Jammu region had put curbs on the use of drones and other UAVs in the wake of the terror attack last Sunday. Two explosives-laden drones had crashed into the Indian Air Force station at Jammu airport and there were other suspicious sightings of UAVs, triggering a security alert. In an order, deputy com-missioner of Srinagar Moham-mad Aijaz directed those having drone cameras or other similar kinds of unmanned aerial vehicles to deposit them in local police stations.

The order, however, exempted government depart-ments using drones for map-ping, surveys and surveillance in agricultural, environmen-tal conservation and disaster mitigation sectors but directed them to inform the local police station before using them.

The administration cau-tioned that any violation of the guidelines will attract punitive action, and directed police to implement the restric-tions in letter and spirit. Per-sons already having the drone cameras/ similar kind of unmanned aerial vehicles in their possession shall ground the same in the local police sta-tions under proper receipt, the order said. MPOST

Drones banned in Srinagar

MANILA: A Philippine air force C-130 aircraft carrying combat troops assigned to fight Muslim militants crashed and exploded while landing in the south on Sunday, killing at least 42 army sol-diers on board and three civilians on the ground in one of worst disasters in the air force's history.

At least 49 other soldiers were rescued with injuries and survived the fiery noontime crash into a coconut grove outside the Jolo airport in Sulu province, including some who managed to jump off the aircraft before it exploded and was gutted by fire, military officials said. Three of seven villagers who were hit on the ground died.

The aircraft had 96 people on board, includ-ing three pilots and five crew while the rest were army personnel, the military said, adding only five soldiers remained unaccounted for late Sunday. The pilots survived but were seriously injured, officials said.

The Lockheed C-130 Hercules was one of two ex-US Air Force aircraft handed over to the Philippines as part of military assistance this year.

Officials said the injured personnel were brought to a hospital in Sulu or flown to nearby Zamboanga city and troops were continuing to search for the missing. A number of soldiers were seen jumping out of the aircraft before it hit the ground, sparing them from the explosion caused by the crash, a military statement said, citing witnesses. Continued on P4

45 dead in Philippine military plane

crash, 49 rescued

Remains of a Philippine military C-130 plane crashed in Patikul town, in southern Philippines on Sunday PTI

Pushkar Singh Dhami sworn in as the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, administered by Governor Baby Rani Maurya in Dehradun on Sunday PTI

Director-General (Prisons) Sandeep

Goel confirmed that the authorities have received a letter

regarding the issue, which has been

placed before them on behalf of Sushil

by his lawyers

TAKING CHARGE

Newly-appointed Commissioner of Police, Delhi, Balaji Srivastava inspects night-time security arrangements at Red Fort, Ghazipur border

Need TV in jail to keep up with wrestling world: Sushil Kumar

‘Hounded’ for wanting to convert, woman seeks protection from HC

ARNABJIT SUR

NEW DELHI: In response to a plea filed before it by a Hindu woman who was alleg-edly harassed by her own fam-ily members and subsequently media channels who reportedly “hounded” her in their broad-casts for wanting to convert her religion to Islam, the Delhi High Court has directed adequate police protection to a 26-year-old woman who had left her Bhajanpura house fearing con-sequences for her move.

A single-judge bench of Jus-tice Subramonium Prasad in an order passed on Friday had directed the woman to approach the SHO of Jamia Nagar Police Station, who will ensure adequate police protection is given to her till the next date of hearing which has been fixed for July 27.

In her plea, the woman has claimed that she was in search of a social organisation which could provide her legal assistance to change her religion to Islam. Following this, she found one

organisation which went by the name of Islam Dawah Centre, situated in Delhi’s Jamia Nagar.

After she explored the site, she was asked to fill an appli-cation form following which she filled the same but could not proceed because the charges were too high. How-ever, suddenly certain media houses started harassing her by airing certain programmes against her and her family too started threatening her with dire consequences, the plea stated.

Significantly, Islam Dawah Centre has been in the centre of a storm for allegedly being involved in a religion conver-sion racket with its Chairman, one Mohd Umar Gautam, being arrested by the UP police for forcibly converting several such woman. The UP anti-terrorism squad had also arrested Mufti Qazi Jahangir Alam Qasmi, along with Gautam, for alleg-edly carrying out several such conversions.

The woman’s lawyer, Advo-

cate Mobin Akhtar, told Millen-nium Post that his client has been following the Islam religion for several years and has been fol-lowing its teachings and hence wanted to finally convert into the religion on her own free will. “When she stumbled upon the centre’s site, she filled up the form but could not proceed since its fee was too high for her,” Akhtar said.

Following this, when a raid was carried out by UP ATS at the centre’s office and Gautam was held, the record of the woman registering her details were seized by them and somehow also got leaked to various media channels like Zee News who played it on air, the lawyer further claimed.

The lawyer said as a result his client was harassed, adding that the plea has also sought an investigation as to how did her record get leaked to the press. Earlier this week, another woman, one Ayesha Alvi, who converted to Islam on her own free will was also provided police protection by the HC.

3 HELD FOR POSING AS MCD OFFICIALS TO EXTORT MONEY FROM SHOPKEEPERS NEW DELHI: Three men were arrested for allegedly posing as MCD officers and extorting money from shopkeepers in east Delhi’s Mansarovar Park area, police said on Sunday. The accused have been identi-fied as Omparkash (55), a resident of Seelampur, Vikas Panchal, a resident of Ram Nagar Extension, Mandoli Road, and Sandeep Garg, a resident of Shahdara, they said. The three had previously worked in MCD and BSES on a contract basis, police said.

2 HELD FOR ROBBING ARMY JAWAN NEW DELHI: Two men have been arrested for alleg-edly robbing an Army jawan in southeast Delhi’s New Friends Colony area, police said on Sunday. Both the accused — Rajiv Kumar (28) and Umesh (22) — are residents of Uttar Pradesh, they said. The police re-ceived information on April 13 about the robbery.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Seventy-two e-waste collection centres in the capital have been found violating E-waste Management Rules and the Central Pollu-tion Control Board (CPCB) has been requested to take action against them, the Delhi Pol-lution Control Committee (DPCC) said on Sunday.

The degree of non-compli-

ance is “very high” looking at the findings of the inspections, the DPCC noted.

The apex pollution con-trol body has also been asked to cancel Extended Producer’s Responsibility (EPR) authori-zation granted to the producers attached with these non-com-pliant collection centres.

EPR is one of the main fea-tures of E-waste Management Rules under which brand own-

ers and importers are responsi-ble for recovering the material placed in the market for safe disposal at their cost.

These collection centres are required to comply with the CPCB guidelines regard-ing minimum area required for specified e-waste quantity, pol-lution control measures to be taken etc.

The DPCC, being the state pollution control authority

in Delhi, is required to carry out periodical inspections to ensure compliance of the terms and conditions laid down by the CPCB.

Last week, the DPCC con-ducted inspections of the CPCB-authorised collection centres under EPR. Of the 83 collection centres inspected, 72 were found not complying with the rules, an official said.

“The CPCB is the compe-

tent authority to take action against such non-compliant collection centres. We have issued letters requesting it to cancel EPR authorization of the producers attached with these non-compliant collection cen-tres,” the official said.

Besides, 185 illegal e-waste handlers operat-ing in residential areas have been closed down in over two years.

ARNABJIT SUR

NEW DELHI: Murder accused and two-time Olympic gold medallist Sushil Kumar has now moved an application before the Tihar jail authori-ties seeking to make available a television inside jail so that he can keep himself updated on the current happenings and all that is going on in wrestling space.

Director-General (Prisons) Sandeep Goel confirmed that the authorities have received a letter regarding the issue of TV on Friday, which has been placed before them on behalf of Sushil by his lawyers.

As per jail authori-ties, Kumar has in his letter expressed his desire to have a TV set inside the jail so that he

can keep himself updated on the wrestling world and watch different matches and also to keep himself abreast with hap-penings outside the jail.

Earlier, Sushil had moved a local court seeking a special

high nutrient supplementary diet as part of his daily meals inside his cell.

The court had, however, turned down his request, stat-ing that all his basic needs were being fulfilled as per the

Delhi Prisons Rule, 2018 and that the food requirements were only his wishes and not necessities.

Sushil was on June 25 moved from Mandoli to Tihar prison and has been staying in

a separate cell under high secu-rity with heavy security deploy-ment around it.

Sushil was remanded to judicial custody after police had carried out necessary investiga-tion during the 10-day police custody since he was arrested for allegedly being involved in the murder of fellow wrestler, 23-year-old Sagar Dhankar, who was purportedly beaten to death by Sushil along with the group of his co-accused at Delhi’s Chhatrasal Stadium on the intervening night of May 4 and 5.

A video had also gone viral allegedly showing Sushil hold-ing a stick in his hand and brutally beating a person, pur-portedly Dhankar, who was lying on the ground, at the sta-dium’s parking lot.

MOVES AN APPLICATION BEFORE TIHAR JAIL AUTHORITIES

‘72 collection centres found violating e-waste rules’

City Briefs

2 millenniumpostCitympMONDAY, 5 JULY, 2021 | NEW DELHI

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Max temp settles at 39.8 deg COUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The national capital on Sunday recorded a maximum temperature of 39.8 degrees Celsius, three notches above normal, the India Meteo-rological Department said here.

The minimum tempera-ture in the city settled at 26.2 degrees Celsius, and the rela-tive humidity was recorded at 68 per cent, it said.

The weather office said the city was likely to see partly cloudy skies with the possibil-ity of thunder and lightning on Monday. The minimum and the maximum temperatures will be settling around 27 and 40 degrees Celsius respectively, it added.

An AQI between zero and 50 is considered good, 51 and 100 satisfactory, 101 and 200 moderate, 201 and 300 poor, 301 and 400 very poor, and 401 and 500 severe.

In the meantime, mon-soon is expected to keep Delhi waiting for at least another five days, officials at the India Mete-orological Department (IMD) said. However, no heat wave has been forecast for the city over the next week.

Monsoon typically hits Delhi on June 27. While it was earlier forecast that monsoon rains could reach Delhi ahead of schedule, the wind system weakened.

According to IMD officials, the monsoon is on its way to

being delayed the longest since 2006, when it came on

July 9. A delay beyond July 9 is also not ruled out, officials said.

Five killed, one injured in four separate road

accidents in Noida, GzbRAHUL SINGH

NOIDA/GHAZIABAD/GREATER NOIDA: Five, including a traffic cop, were killed while one other man is battling for life in hospital in four separate road accidents reported across Gautam Buddh Nagar and Ghaziabad districts on Sunday.

At NH-9 in Ghaziabad, two youths travelling on a motorcy-cle were hit by a speeding truck in Dasna area. According to police, the deceased has been identified as Rajkumar (16) and his neighbour Lalit Gupta (24).

As per victim’s family mem-bers, on Saturday morning, Lalit and Rajkumar left for Morad-abad where they had to attend a marriage function. They were supposed to come by evening for Rajkumar’s birthday celebration on Sunday.

Police said that both were travelling to their home in Bhan-gel area of Noida via NH-9 when a truck hit the bike from behind and crushed them. “The incident took place around 12:30 pm and a passerby conveyed information to police. A police team reached the spot and took both victims to a nearby private hospital where doctors declared them dead on arrival,” said Shailendra Singh, SHO of Masuri police station.

The officer further said that the truck was coming at a high speed and the impact of collision was such that the helmet worn

by Lalit was crushed into pieces. “We have seized the truck but the driver has fled from the spot. We are trying to trace him while a police complaint is awaited,” added Singh.

In two separate road acci-dents reported from Greater Noida, a 30-year-old traffic con-stable died after his speeding car hit a stationary truck on the Eastern Peripheral Expressway in Badalpur area on Sunday afternoon.

As per police, the victim has been identified as Gaurav Singh, a native of Mathura and pres-ently working with Ghaziabad traffic police department. At the time of incident, Gaurav was alone in his car when he failed to notice a stationary truck and rammed his car from behind.

In another accident, a 55-year-old man, identified as Rakesh Mishra, died while his son Atul Mishra (30) was injured when their car hit a divider and overturned on the Yamuna Expressway in Dankaur area. Cops said that the vic-tims belonged to Gorakhpur and were travelling to Noida in their car.

In Noida, an employee of CMS company in phase-II area was crushed to death by a fire brigade. The deceased has been identified as Manoj Vish-wakarma. Police has registered an FIR and arrested the accused fire brigade driver in connection with the incident.

Cop helps distraught labourer get bag of cash back from stn

NEW DELHI: A Delhi Police constable came as a saviour for a 53-year-old labourer who had forgotten a bag containing Rs 1 lakh cash at the platform on Shiv-aji Bridge railway station here and left on a train for home in UP.

Vijay Kumar, who lives in Shakur Basti in northwest Delhi, is the only bread winner of his family. On June 30, he had with-drawn Rs 1 lakh from his bank account in the national capital and bought 55 kg of ration items to head back to his hometown in Uttar Pradesh’s Khurja, where he wanted to build a house for his children.

But unfortunately, he loaded the two bags of ration in the Bareilly-New Delhi intercity express and left his cash bag behind on a bench at the platform.

Meanwhile, Constable Nar-ender Kumar posted with the New Delhi Railway police sta-tion was on duty at Shivaji Bridge station and taking rounds at the platform after the intercity express train had left the station.

While on duty, Narender found the carry bag on the bench and enquired with a few passen-gers if it belonged to anyone.

“I decided to keep the unclaimed bag with me. On checking it, I found two cash bundles amounting to Rs 1 lakh with some rotis packed in a foil paper, water bottle,

cheque book, bank passbook along with an Aadhaar and ration card.

“I immediately informed my seniors about it and tried to get in touch with Vijay Kumar but when I was unable to get through to him, I decided to wait till someone comes to enquire about it,” he said.

Hours later, around 6.30 pm, Vijay returned to Shiv-aji Bridge station in search of the money and was safely handed over the carry bag and Rs 1 lakh by the constable after due formalities.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Railways) Harendra Kumar Singh said, “Vijay Kumar left his carry bag at the station. Our constable Narender found the bag unclaimed and returned the belongings to Kumar along with his cash of Rs 1 lakh.”

Recalling the day, Vijay said it was very hot and he was sit-ting on a bench at the platform

waiting for the train to arrive. As the train arrived, he loaded the ration items and boarded the train in a hurry leaving behind his “thaila” (carry bag) on the bench.

“When I got off at Anand Vihar station, I felt thirsty and that is when I realised that I had misplaced my thaila. I panicked and was in tears because I had Rs 1 lakh cash in it. This money was very important for me. I had been saving it to build a small house for my children,” he said.

“I am a poor man. For a labourer like me, Rs 1 lakh is a huge amount. No one helped me when I requested a few of them at Anand Vihar station to keep my ration for a few hours until I return so that I could go find my money. I had lost all hopes but Narender babu was a saviour. He handed over my belongings and also got me boarded in the next train safely,” a relieved Vijay said. PTI

NEW DELHI: A 67-year-old woman was dragged on the road by a robber who alleg-edly snatched her bag but when she resisted, he pulled the same with intense force which led to the woman falling on the ground and sustaining injuries, here in south-east Delhi’s CR Park. Police has arrested three persons, Karan (19), Surjeet (19), and Shuaib (18), in con-nection with the incident.

In a video of the incident that went viral, the accused can be seen approaching the woman as she walks towards her home. After he grabs hold of her bag, the woman resists the snatching attempt but the accused remains persistent and finally snatches the bag. However, the force used by the accused leads to the woman falling flat on her face first and dragging for a few sec-onds before the accused finally escapes the spot with her bag.

“On Saturday at around 9:45 pm, as she reached the front of her house and opened her bag to get keys, one person came and forcefully snatched her bag...she tried to save her bag but failed and fell down,” DCP (South) Atul Kumar Thakur said. Police officials said that a case under IPC sec-tion 392 has been lodged in the CR Park police station. MPOST

Old woman dragged

on road by snatchers

HE’D LEFT IT ON A PLATFORM BENCHCustom-made software monitors Ph-IV progress

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation has imple-mented a custom-made project monitoring software for moni-toring the progress of work on its Ph-IV corridors and the Patna Metro, officials said on Sunday.

IPMS (Integrated Project Monitoring Software) will moni-tor the progress of work of all disciplines civil, electrical and mechanical, and signalling and telecommunication contract, package-wise at the chief project manager and project manager levels and corridor-wise at the directors and managing director

levels, the DMRC said.“In a major initiative towards

digitalising its functioning, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has implemented a cus-tom-made project monitoring software known as the (IPMS) for monitoring the progress of its Phase 4 corridors and the Patna Metro,” it said in a statement.

Redeveloped Chandni Chowk waterloggedOUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: After a brief spell of rain on Saturday, a portion of the revamped stretch of the now pedestrianised Chandni Chowk area was waterlogged, triggering concerns about the newly-built area’s drainage sys-tems with officials of the Public Works Department saying that the brief waterlogging was due to garbage blocking the lids of the drain.

While the Capital received just around 13 mm rainfall in that 24 hour period, the water from the stretch of Chandni Chowk had drained out in a matter of 10-15 minutes.

Officials of the PwD have said that there are many food stall vendors that are lined up along the stretch. As a result of this, the visitors who stop to eat there often throw litter that had blocked the drain lids.

They had added that the water had drained on its own and that they are cleaning the area to ensure nothing blocks the drains.

The concerned stretch of Chandni Chowk has two storm-water drains and is connected to DJB’s sewer lines.

Waterlogging was earlier a bigger problem for traders in the area than it is now after the redevelopment work.

REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE/PTI

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NEW HORIZONS

Dr Madhumita Balaji, wife of Delhi Police Commissioner Balaji Shrivastava, on Saturday took charge as president, Police Families Welfare Society (PFWS) in New Delhi

3millenniumpost

FOR A BETTER TOMORROW

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Sunday inaugurated the Aam Aadmi Mohalla Clinic in Vinod Nagar ward of Patparganj constituency. Encouraging people to avail Mohalla Clinics, Jain said such a facility set up at a posh colony in Delhi has been receiving 120 patients every day, most of whom are owners of nearby bungalows

City mpNEW DELHI | MONDAY, 5 JULY, 2021

OVER 1L SAPLINGS PLANTED IN 2ND PHASE OF NDMC’S MASS TREE PLANTATION DRIVE NEW DELHI: The New Delhi Municipal Council planted 519 trees, 65,710 shrubs and 58,500 green cover saplings on Sunday in the second phase of its ongoing mass tree plantation drive under the Van Mahotsav. In the second phase of plantation drive, hundreds of members of more than 50 RWAs had planted saplings in their housing/residential colonies and adjoining areas like parks, gardens, alongside roads and lanes. Van Mahotsav plantation drive was carried out in various locations of NDMC area with the active participation of residents, children’s, walkers at vari-ous colonies — Lodi Colony, Bharti Nagar, Laxmibai Nagar, Sanjay Jheel, Shantipath - Chanakyapuri, South Avenue and LBZ area.

FIRST-TIME MLA CHADHA COMPLETES ONE YEAR IN OFFICE, RELEASES REPORT CARDNEW DELHI: On completion of his one year as an MLA, AAP Rajinder Nagar MLA Raghav Chadha released his #PehlaSaalBemisal report. He presented the people with the work undertaken by him in a year for his con-stituency on various fronts such as Covid relief, water, roads, wifi, employment opportunities and street lights. The MLA worked on Covid relief welfare measures such as the 24x7 MLA helpline, distribution of ration packets and free meals and the sanitization of his constituency. The proactive approach by the MLA also resolved the decade old water problems in his area.

DELHI RECORDS 94 NEW COVID-19 CASES & 7 MORE DEATHS

City Briefs

Active cases drop below 1K for 1st time since pandemic began

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: For the first time since the pandemic broke out in the Capital and took hold, the city’s active Covid-19 cases have come down to below 1,000 as the Delhi government on Sunday evening reported that the city now had 992 active infections.

The official health bulle-tin of the Delhi government on Sunday reported 94 new infections in the last 24 hours, that came out of 75,133 tests — leading to a daily positivity rate of around 0.13 per cent. The positivity rate in the city has been consistently hovering around 0.1 per cent for the last few weeks.

This comes weeks after the city waned off a brutal wave of infections that peaked in April and May, which ended up tak-

ing the Capital’s healthcare to the brink of collapse. In the middle of the brutal wave —

Delhi’s fourth and the coun-try’s second, the Capital was faced with an acute shortage

of medical oxygen along with medicines and other medical essentials.

And as a result of this short-age, scores of hospitals sent out SOS messages for oxygen, and several also reported losing patients to this shortage.

The national Capital has recorded 14,34,554 COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began last year. So far, over 14.08 lakh patients have recovered, the bulletin said.

The death toll stands at 24,995, it said.

On Saturday, Delhi had recorded 86 cases with a posi-tivity rate of 0.11 per cent and five deaths. On Friday, the city saw 93 cases with a positivity rate of 0.13 per cent and two deaths. The city had reported 59 COVID-19 cases, the lowest so far this year, and two deaths on Monday.

According to covid19In-dia.org, Delhi had recorded 17 cases on April 15 last year.

The bulletin said 75,133 tests, including 52,856 RT-PCR tests, were conducted the pre-vious day.

Delhi faced a brutal sec-ond wave of the pandemic that claimed a large number of lives daily. The rapid rise in the number of cases led to a short-age of medical oxygen at vari-ous city hospitals.

On April 20, the city had reported a record 28,395 cases. On April 22, the case positivity rate was 36.2 per cent, the high-est so far. At 448, the highest number of deaths was reported on May 3.

There are 300 people under home isolation in Delhi while the number of containment zones stands at 701, the bul-letin said.

CM Kejriwal seeks Bharat Ratna for ‘the Indian doc’; ‘change rules if required’

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Chief Minis-ter Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday wrote a letter to Prime Minis-ter Narendra Modi, seeking the country’s highest civilian award Bharat Ratna be given this year to all doctors, nurses and para-medics who served the people amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

It will be a true homage to doctors who lost their lives, he said.

In the letter to the prime minister, Kejriwal said this year’s Bharat Ratna should be con-ferred upon doctors, nurses and paramedical staff.

Many doctors and nurses sacrificed their lives fighting Corona. If we honour them with Bharat Ratna, then it will be a true tribute to them. Lakhs of doctors and nurses served peo-ple selflessly without worrying about their lives and families. There can be no other better way (than honouring them with Bharat Ratna) to thank and hon-our them, he wrote in the letter in Hindi. He also stressed that, if needed, necessary changes should be made in rules so that the medical community can be awarded the highest civil-ian award.

If rules do not permit to con-fer Bharat Ratna on a group, then I request you to change rules. The entire country is grateful towards our doctors. Every citizen of the country will be happy if they (doctors) are honoured with Bharat Ratna,” Kejriwal appealed to the PM in the letter. Earlier in the day, the chief minister also tweeted on the same matter.

“The ‘Indian Doctor’ should receive Bharat Ratna this year.

‘Indian Doctor’ means all doc-tors, nurses and paramedics. It will be a true homage to all martyred doctors. It will be an honour of those who have been serving without caring for their lives and families. The whole country will be glad with this,” Kejriwal said in a tweet in Hindi.

As many as 730 doctors have succumbed to coronavi-rus infection during the second wave, according to data avail-able with the Indian Medical Association (IMA) in mid-June.

Bihar saw the maximum number of 115 deaths, followed by Delhi at 109, Uttar Pradesh 79, West Bengal 62, Rajasthan 43, Jharkhand 39, and Andhra Pradesh 38, the data showed.

According to the IMA, 748 doctors died in the first wave of the pandemic.

The chief minister also participated in a programme through video conferencing where he reiterated his request to honour the Indian medical fraternity with Bharat Ratna to commemorate their hard work and service during the pandemic.

Giving Bharat Ratna to

doctors and paramedics as a community will recognise the sacrifice of all the doctors and paramedic staff who had lost their lives on duty, along with paying homage to the departed souls, he said. The CM also highlighted the Delhi govern-ment’s efforts to honour doctors and medical fraternity.

He said the Delhi govern-ment tried its best to fix the sys-tem as much as possible in their capacity pointing out that it gave Rs 1 crore as ‘Samman Rashi’ to the families of those doctors and frontline workers whose lives were lost in the pandemic.

“This is not a compensa-tion but a way of thanking their service, and reinforcing that we care for them, the country stands with them, and the soci-ety stands with them, Kejri-wal said.

A lot of doctors could not go to their homes after serv-ing in COVID wards in order to protect their families from getting infected. To deal with this, we arranged for the best possible accommodations for them where they could stay while they were attending to COVID patients, the CM added.

I received an interesting message once. It read that all temples are shut during COVID because God is serving at hos-pitals wearing a white coat. It signifies the amount of love and respect doctors command.

“They (doctors) were not getting any special benefits, extra payments or promotions, they weren’t getting anything in exchange. Yet, they all did their best because of their love for humanity. We salute all these brave doctors, nurses and para-medics”, Kejriwal added.

N-E reports least no. of inoculationOUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: While the Cen-tre’s revised Covid vaccination policy has regularised the sup-ply to an extent that daily vac-cinations in the Capital now hover above 1.5 lakh doses, the number of vaccine doses being administered in the city varies from district to district.

According to data as of Sun-day, as updated on the Centre’s CoWIN portal, in Delhi, North-West and South districts have administered the most num-ber of vaccines and Shahdara and North-East districts have administered the least number

of doses.According to the data, the

total number of doses admin-istered were as follows: North-West district at 9,54,285; South Delhi at 9,49,499; West Delhi at 8,89,679; South-West Delhi at 8,84,384; Central Delhi at 8,80,154; South-East Delhi at 8,05,856; New Delhi at 7,07,826; North Delhi at 6,44,559; East Delhi at 5,90,148; Shahdara at 5,46,350; North-East Delhi at

5,30,065.Delhi vaccinated 1.61 lakh

people against Coronavirus on July 3, of which around 40,000 beneficiaries received the sec-ond dose, according to the data provided by the city government on Sunday.

The city has provided 83.73 lakh vaccine jabs since the inoc-ulation exercise started on Janu-ary 16. Over 19 lakh people have received both the doses.

On Saturday, 1,61,901 peo-ple were vaccinated in the capi-tal. Of this, 1,21,203 got the first dose of the vaccine, according to the latest vaccination bulletin.

The city had 3.43 lakh vac-

cine doses left till Sunday morn-ing, which are likely to last just one day.

According to Delhi govern-ment estimates, 2.26 lakh peo-ple can be vaccinated in a day at 1,374 vaccination centres in the city.

According to the data on the CoWIN portal, the major-ity of those who have received either dose of the vaccine are in the age group of 18-44 at over 39.43 lakh. Around 27 lakh peo-ple in the age group of 45-60 have been vaccinated and about 17.26 lakh people above the age of 60 have received either of the doses.

BJP leaders ‘correct’

ads for vax credit

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Several local Bharatiya Janata Party lead-ers have now started to deface advertisements put up by the Delhi government exhorting residents to get vaccinated against Covid — apparently “correcting” it by adding that the vaccine was provided to the Capital for free by Prime Min-ister Narendra Modi.

On Sunday, a video of for-mer North Delhi Mayor Ravin-der Gupta was made public, where he can be seen writing over one of the advertisements. The advertisement originally asks, “Have you got the vac-cine?”. The BJP leader said he had added with a marker that the vaccines were provided by PM Modi.

Similarly, several mock-up posters of the Delhi govern-ment’s advertisement were also spotted. One such was prepared by BJP leader Rajiv Babbar. In these posters, the original line is presented but under it is written in Hindi, “The vaccines PM Modi is giving to Delhi for free — Corrected by Rajiv Babbar.”

Significantly, Gupta in the video went on to appeal to everyone that they deface advertisements put up by the Delhi government and write on it that the vaccines are being provided by the PM.

This comes amid a constant campaign from the local unit of the BJP to ensure that resi-dents are made aware that the vaccines are being made avail-able by its party’s government at the Centre.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Sunday afternoon presented data from the Unified District Information System for Edu-cation (UDISE) Plus 2019-20 report, which showed that of all the government schools in the Capital that have a shortage of teachers, 97.28 per cent are run by the municipal corpora-tions of Delhi.

Taking up this data, Siso-dia, who is also Delhi educa-tion minister, flayed the BJP-run MCD administrations, say-ing, “The Modi’s government’s report on the status of school education confirms that the BJP-ruled MCDs have made a mess of the schools under them in the last 20 years.”

According to the data pre-sented by Sisodia, which showed the schools’ compliance with RTE-mandated Pupil-Teacher Ratio (PTR), out of a total of

2,663 government-run schools in the city, 774 do not comply with the minimum require-ment of teachers for their stu-dent population.

Significantly, of these 774 schools, 753 are run by Delhi’s three municipal corporations. The rest 21 are run by the Delhi government’s Department of Education.

The data showed that the East MCD had the most per-centage of schools that did not meet the minimum requirement for teachers at 57.7 per cent. followed by the North MCD at 45.86 per cent and lastly the South MCD at 38.9 per cent. Out of all 1,638 schools run by the three MCDs, over 45 per cent were found to be non-com-pliant with the RTE-mandated PTR.

As for the 1,025 schools in the city run by the Department of Education, 1,004 or nearly 98 per cent were found to be com-pliant with the RTE-mandated

PTR, as per the report.Presenting the data, Sisodia

said, “BJP government at Centre has corroborated that BJP-ruled MCDs have made a mess of the MCD schools in Delhi. The mismanagement is so stark that MCD schools are considered the worst in the country. This is tarnishing the image of Delhi. BJP with its poor governance and incompetence in MCDs has put the future of lakhs of children at risk.”

Referring to the report, Del-hi’s education minister said, “This establishes the fact that

BJP-ruled MCDs are so incom-petent that, they haven’t been able to provide teachers to their students.”

The senior AAP leader said that while the Arvind Kejri-wal-led Delhi government had poured in resources to build infrastructure, recruit teachers and send them to foreign coun-tries for training, and launch new-age curriculum; the BJP hadn’t been able to provide teachers and basic facilities in the MCD schools.

Sisodia said, “BJP lead-ers need to look beyond the ‘WhatsApp University’ and feel ashamed of the deteriorating conditions of MCD schools due to 20 years of their mismanage-ment. Delhi government has left no stones unturned in improv-ing the conditions of its schools which is also reflected in the UDISE report. But BJP leaders keep falsely accusing Arvind Kejriwal rather than focusing on improving the MCD schools.”

Student-Teacher Ratio: 97% non-compliant govt schools are run by MCDs, says Sisodia

Covid-19: Patient with severe complications recovers after 50 days

NEW DELHI: A 38-year-old patient, who had developed severe complications due to Covid, recovered after 50 days and was discharged from a pri-vate hospital here, authorities said on Sunday. The patient, an executive in a multi-national company was diabetic, and had been admitted to the Mool-chand Hospital on May 7, when the city was battling a fierce sec-ond wave of Covid.

He had severe bilateral pneumonia and had also devel-oped Acute Respiratory Dis-tress Syndrome (ARDS), said Dr Surabhi Awasthi, Director of Critical Care at the hospital.

According to hospital authorities, the patient’s rela-tives had considered airlifting him for extracorporeal mem-brane oxygenation and lung transplant but were somehow convinced to continue the treat-ment at the facility. “He was in the ICU for 50 days and on ven-

tilator support for nearly 35-40 days. After we could cure his lungs, he developed quadripa-resis and could not move any limbs.“We treated that condi-tion with the help of a neurolo-gist. Then the patient developed pneumothorax in which air gets filled inside the lungs but he managed to overcome every-thing,” Awasthi said. Every three to four days, his kids would send him drawings to cheer him up, the doctor said.

“He has a two-year-old son and another five-six year-old kid. They were waiting for him to come back home. The patient held his moral fort really well. Around him, people were dying and there was a lot of gloom around him but he is a fighter,” said the doctor. Currently, the patient has regained move-ment in his upper limbs but his lower limbs are still weak, the doctor said, adding he can stand on his feet for a few seconds.PTI

‘It will be a true homage to doctors who lost their lives’

A worker collects wires from dismantled beds of a Covid care centre at CWG village near Akshardham, on Sunday. Many Covid care centres in the capital city are winding up following decrease in case PTI

PIYUSH OHRIE

GURUGRAM: As authorities in Faridabad prepare to demol-ish the Khori village there in the interest of protecting the Araval-lis from illegal encroachments, several activists and civil society members have questioned the continued existence of several farmhouses built illegally on parts of the protected land.

While in the most recent action against farmhouses, authorities had razed nine farm-houses being developed in the Gairatpur Aravallis, officials in Sohna had issued notices to as many as 45 farmhouses built illegally. It remains unclear as to how many of these farmhouses have been demolished.

It is important to note that the National Green Tribunal (NGT) had taken strict cogni-zance of massive encroachments that had occurred in these for-ests. Last year complying with the NGT orders, the Sohna Police had conducted demoli-tions of 17 farmhouses that had been built illegally on Sohna Aravallis.

Citing examples of Khori, several green activists have criti-cised the government that the

influential and rich land mafia that construct farmhouses are not being punished and the poor in Khori are not being spared by the authorities. Not only farm-houses but over the years there have also been several illegal colonies that have been set up in the city.

Officials have gone ahead and demolished some of these colonies even at a time when cases of COVID-19 were at their peak.

“We have taken a strict stance on people who are destroying the green belt of Aravallis. We have conducted certain demolitions and we will continue to carry out these activities in coming months as well,” said a senior official from DTCP.

The process of developing farmhouses in forest areas of Aravallis has been an ongoing process since 1992. Areas in Gurugram where over the years there has been rampant con-struction of farmhouses and illegal structures include Rai-sina, Gairatpur, Mangar and Bandhwari.

It is estimated that from 1990 till date there have been more than 1,500 farmhouses that have come up in Aravallis of Gurugram. In August last year, a petition was filed at the Supreme Court in which exploi-tation of Aravallis in Bandh-wari was highlighted. Having already played a proactive role in the past towards preservation of the Aravallis the Supreme Court took note of this issue and immediately directed the Haryana Government to pres-ent a report to it on the exploi-tation of Aravallis.

Subsequently, the DTCP and Municipal Corporation of Gurugram were forced to act. The Gurugram public agencies complying with the orders of the Supreme Court demolished 19 farmhouses that had come up illegally in Band-hwari forests.

N-W & S dists have administered the

most no. of vaccines

Khori village stares at demolition, activists ask what of farmhouses

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Senior Aam Aadmi Party leader Durgesh Pathak on Sunday said that the BJP ruled MCD has exploited the traders by increasing the taxes during the Corona period.

Against this ill-treatment, the Aam Aadmi Party is run-ning a signature campaign in all the major markets of Delhi from July 1.

In this campaign, the AAP government has received support from the traders’ community.

The Aam Aadmi Party has asked the Delhi BJP to with-draw such increased taxes. If such a demand is not met, the fight will be fought from the street to the Parliament.

Pathak further said that all the three MCDs in Delhi are bringing new schemes to harass the trading community.

Aam Aadmi Party has started a signature campaign from July 1 against the atroci-ties being perpetrated on the traders by Delhi BJP.

This signature campaign was started in all the three Municipal Corporations of the Capital.

MCD exploited traders: Pathak

He was on ventilator support for nearly 35-40 days: Doctor

Maharashtra sees 9,336 new COVID-19 cases, 123 deaths

New cases in K’taka touch nadir in 3 1/2 months

THE STATE IS LEFT WITH 1,23,225 ACTIVE CASES

4 millenniumpostNationmpMONDAY, 5 JULY, 2021 | NEW DELHI

NEW DELHI: Former Maha-rashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh on Sunday moved the Supreme Court seeking protection from any coercive action in a money laundering case.

The Enforcement Direc-torate had, on Saturday, issued fresh summons to the 71-year-old NCP leader seeking his appearance on July 5 in the case.

The ED has, so far, issued three notices to Deshmukh, who has been asked to record his statement at the central

agency's office in south Mum-bai on Monday.

Deshmukh has moved the top court seeking protec-tion from any coercive action, Mumbai-based advocate Inder-pal B Singh said in a video mes-sage released for the media.

The former minister had skipped the two earlier sum-mons citing his "vulnerability" to COVID-19 as the reason for non-compliance in his last communication to the agency.

He instead offered the ED to record his statement through video conferencing.

The fresh summons by ED was issued in connection with the criminal case registered under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) related to an alleged Rs 100 crore bribery-cum-extortion racket that led to Deshmukh's resignation in April this year.

The first summons fol-lowed raids conducted by the ED at his premises in Mumbai and Nagpur apart from that of his aides and some others last month.

The agency subsequently arrested two of his aides in this

case, personal secretary San-jeev Palande (51) and personal assistant Kundan Shinde (45).

They are in ED custody till July 6.

The agency, sources said, apart from the present case wants to question Deshmukh about his and his family mem-bers' alleged links with cer-tain shell companies that were being used to launder funds much before the present allega-tions of bribery in the Mumbai Police setup came to light.

The ED case against Deshmukh and others was

made out after the CBI booked him in a corruption case related to allegations of at least Rs 100 crore bribery made by former Mumbai Police commissioner Param Bir Singh.

In his letter to Chief Minis-ter Uddhav Thackeray after he was removed from the police commissioner's post, Singh had alleged that Deshmukh had asked suspended Mumbai Police assistant police inspec-tor (API) Sachin Waze to extort over Rs 100 crore a month from bars and restaurants in Mumbai.

AIZAWL: African Swine Fever (ASF) continues to wreak havoc in the livestock sector in Mizoram affecting as many as 10 out of the total 11 dis-tricts and killing more than 9,000 pigs in a little over three months, according to states animal husbandry and veteri-nary science department.

According to data released by the department on Sunday, at least 152 villages or local areas in 10 districts are cur-rently affected by the ASF out-break causing a loss of over Rs. 36.68 crore.

"Unusual death" of 699 pigs has been reported from even outside ASF-infected areas, it said.

The data also said that 1,078 pigs have been culled so far to prevent the disease from spreading further.

The first pig death due to ASF was reported on March 21 at Lungsen village in south Mizorams Lunglei district bor-dering Bangladesh.

Though the spread of ASF in Lunglei district has now

become "less severe", it began to ravage Aizawl district, which has borne the brunt of the dis-ease with 3,454 pig deaths so far, according to the depart-ment joint director (livestock health) Dr. Lalhmingthanga.

So far, the ASF has killed 3,092 pigs in Lunglei dis-trict, 684 in Mamit district, 939 in Serchhip district, 320 in Lawngtlai district, 334 in Khawzawl district, 83 in Hnah-thial district, 257 in Champhai district, 8 in Saitual district, and 1 in Siaha district, he said.

Only Kolasib district, which borders Assam, is ASF- free at present, he said.

Lalhmingthanga said that a special diseases investigation team, which visited Lungsen village during April 5-8 found that pigs are illegally imported from Bangladesh through vil-lages like Tipperaghat and Khojoysury located near the Bangladesh border. Illegal pig traders use Lungsen village for keeping the animals there before moving them to Lunglei market, he said. AGENCIES

SRINAGAR: A meeting of the People's Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) was held here on Sunday, the first such meet after Prime Minister Nar-endra Modi's all-party meeting on Jammu and Kashmir in New Delhi on June 24.

The meeting of the leaders of the alliance, which seeks the restoration of the special status of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir that was revoked by the Centre in August 2019, also came ahead of the visit of the members of the Delimita-tion Commission to the Union Territory.

A PAGD leader said the

meeting was held at the resi-dence of alliance chairperson and National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah at the Gupkar locality of the city here.

All the leaders of the alli-ance, including People's Dem-ocratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti, and its chief spokesperson M Y Tarigami, were present at the meeting, he said, adding that NC vice-president Omar Abdullah was also present.

The leader said it was the first meeting of the alliance after the prime minister's all-party meeting with the leaders

of the mainstream political par-ties of Jammu and Kashmir in

New Delhi on June 24."The meeting was actually

scheduled on June 29, but was postponed because of some personal commitments of alli-ance vice chairperson Meh-booba Mufti. So it was held on Sunday," he said.

He said the leaders dis-cussed Modi's all-party meet-ing and the current situation in Jammu and Kashmir.

"The alliance is committed to its core agenda -- for which it was formed -- and we reiterated what we stand for and what we seek," the leader said.

He, however, refused to share further details, saying the alliance's chief spokesper-son will brief the media about

the meeting.When contacted, CPI(M)

leader Tarigami said the details of the meeting will be shared on Monday.

Another PAGD leader and NC's Member of Parliament Hasnain Masoodi said the meeting dispelled the rumours of some differences within the alliance.

"I can only share that the meeting took place and every member attended it. This should dispel the rumours that were going on. There are no dif-ferences within the alliance and everyone is on the same page," he said. AGENCIES

BENGALURU: New COVID-19 cases in Karnataka have fallen to its lowest levels in three-and-a-half months.

The State on Sunday reported 1,564 fresh cases and 59 deaths, taking the total num-ber of infections to 28,53,643 and toll of fatalities to 35,367, the Health Department said.

"New cases in Karnataka fall to the lowest levels in three-and-a-half months," Health Minister K Sudhakar tweeted while sharing details of the day's COVID bulletin.

The State that witnessed the beginning of the second wave of COVID during the sec-ond half of March had peaked in early May with daily cases going above 50,000.

Today, 4,775 people got dis-charged thereby continuing to outnumber the fresh cases. The total number of recoveries so far is 27,73,407.

Out of the 1,564 new cases reported today, 352 were from Bengaluru Urban, as the city saw 1,742 getting discharged and only three deaths.

The total number of active cases in the State is 44,846.

While the positivity rate for the day stood at 1.02 per cent, the case fatality rate (CFR)

was at 3.77 per cent. Out of 59 deaths reported during the day, nine were from Mysuru (8), Ballari (7), Dharwad (5) and Davangere (4) followed by oth-ers. Among the districts where the new cases were reported, Bengaluru Urban accounted for 352, Mysuru 162, Dakshina Kannada 154 and Kodagu 150 followed by the rest.

With Karnataka govern-ment further relaxing the exist-ing COVID-19 restrictions under “Unlock 3.0” effective from June 5, the Bengaluru Commissioner of Police Kamal Pant on Sunday said 54 special teams of marshals and police personnel would be deployed

across the city to keep vigil on violation of norms and take action. In a series of tweets, he urged people to strictly follow COVID-19 appropriate behav-ior as the virus is still around.

“The new guidelines will come into effect from 6 AM on July 5 and be in force up to 6 AM on July 19,” Pant said.

He said a total of 54 spe-cial teams comprising Bru-hat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) marshals and city police personnel would be deployed to impose fines and register cases on individu-als and commercial establish-ments that violate COVID-19 norms. MPOST

OUR CORRESPONDENT

MUMBAI: Maharashtra on Sunday reported 9,336 fresh coronavirus positive cases and 123 fatalities, taking the tally of infections to 60,98,177 and the toll to 1,23,030, the state health department said.

A total of 3,378 patients were discharged during the day, raising the count of recoveries in Maharashtra to 58,48,693 so far, leaving the state with 1,23,225 active cases, the department said in a release.

The case recovery rate in Maharashtra now stands at 95.91 per cent and the fatality rate is 2.01 per cent.

Mumbai reported 553 cases during the day and 24 deaths, taking the caseload to 7,24 675 and the count of fatalities to 15,544, the department said.

Mumbai division reported 1,775 cases and 27 deaths, rais-ing the tally to 16,02,903 and toll to 32,293.

Nashik division reported 669 new cases while Pune divi-

sion added 2,380 infections including 764 in Satara district.

Kolhapur division reported 389 cases, Kolhapur district 1,461 and the Sangli district 1,073, as per the department.

Aurangabad division reported 194 fresh cases, Latur division 242, Akola division 97, and Nagpur division 82.

With 2,22,063 new tests, the

total number of samples tested so far in Maharashtra went up to 4,25,42,943, the department said.

Maharashtra's COVID-19 tally is as follows: Posi-tive cases 60,98,177, deaths 1,23,030, recoveries 58,48,693, active cases 1,23,225, total tests 4,25,42,943, tests today 2,22,063.

A health worker administers a dose of Covid-19 vaccine to a beneficiary at a vaccination centre in Mumbai, on Sunday

BHUBANESWAR: Odisha on Sunday reported 2,870 fresh COVID-19 cases, rais-ing the tally to 9,21,896, while the death toll climbed to 4,196 with 42 more fatalities, a health department official said.

The state now has 30,227 active cases and 8,87,420 peo-ple have recovered from the disease so far, including 3,158 since Saturday, he said.

Only three districts logged active cases above 2,500 and have been categorized as 'Red Zone' - Khurda (5,144), Cut-tack (4,387) and Balasore (3,000). Deogarh in the western part registered the lowest at 41.

Of the fresh infections detected in all the 30 districts, 1,652 are from quarantine centres and the remaining are local-contact cases, he said.

Cuttack district reported the highest of 440 new cases, followed by Khurda (384), Bal-asore (240), Jajpur (191), May-urbhanj (164), Kendrapara (157), Bhadrak (128), Jagats-inghpur (112) and Nayagarh (105).

Districts registering cases above 100 are in the coastal region, while the pandemic situation has improved in the western and southern parts of Odisha, the official said.

Taking to Twitter, the Health and Family Welfare Department said: "Regret to inform the demise of forty-two Covid positive patients while under treatment in hospital."

The single-day deaths include eight from Khurda dis-trict, five in Bargarh and four in Sundargarh.

Odisha reports 2,870 cases, 42 fatalities

Workers clean the swimming pool after authorities allowed them to reopen for competitive training purposes in Bengaluru, on Sunday

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Polit Bureau of the Commu-nist Party of India (Marxist) expressed its deep shock and grief at the sudden death of a member of its Central Com-mittee and veteran leader of the party in Maharashtra, Mahendra Singh. He died on Sunday morning owing to a heart attack. He had recovered from Covid a few months back. Mahendra Singh was 77 years old.

Trained as an engineer,

while working, he began a union of workers in his own factory and left his job. He joined the CPI(M) in 1971 and plunged into trade union work under the then newly formed CITU. In 1985, he survived a murderous attack on him by goons hired by the manage-ment of the Aristocrat com-pany, where the CITU-affiliated union was leading a struggle.

He was elected to the CPI(M) Maharashtra State Committee in 1987, to the State Secretariat in 1991, and to the Central Committee in 2015.

He remained in these positions till his death. He was Secretary of the CPI(M) Mumbai Dis-trict Committee from 1994 to 2015 and played a major role in sustaining and developing the Party in Mumbai. He was also the founder State General Sec-retary of the DYFI from 1986 to 1989.

He led a very simple life and was a comrade of the high-est integrity and loyalty to the Party.

The Polit Bureau conveys its heartfelt condolences to his wife Savitri.

CPI(M) mourns sudden death of party leader Mahendra Singh Deshmukh moves Supreme Court for protection

MONEY LAUNDERING CASE

African Swine Fever continues to wreak havoc in Mizoram

LUCKNOW: Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh was admitted to the intensive care unit of the Sanjay Gandhi Post Grad-uate Institute of Medical Sciences here on Sunday eve-ning, according to an official statement.

The statement from the institute said that a panel of experts, from the nephrology, cardiology, neurology, endo-crinology and neuro-otology departments, has been formed to attend to Singh.

The former Rajasthan governor was admitted to the intensive care unit of Critical Care Medicine of the Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Insti-tute of Medical Sciences on Sunday around 5.30 pm. He was feeling unwell for the past

two weeks, it said."On his arrival here, his

blood pressure and heartbeats were found normal, but the level of consciousness was a bit low. Keeping in mind his earlier ailments, he has been admitted to the ICU of the CCM," the statement said.

Prior to this, the 89-year-old veteran leader of the BJP was admitted to the Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Institute of Medical Sciences.

Earlier in the day, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, his deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya and UP BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh vis-ited Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Institute of Medical Sciences and enquired about the well being of Kalyan Singh. MPOST

Kalyan Singh admitted to ICU of SGPGI in Lucknow

‘SG’s explanation came after meet...

adding “if a Public Prosecutor has the duty to be impartial, certainly the same level of ethics shall apply to a Solicitor General.”

Meanwhile, the Trinamool MPs will meet the President to demand removal of the law officer. Earlier, TMC MPs— Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, Derek O’ Brien and Mohua Moi-tra—had written a letter to the Prime Min-ister demanding Mehta’s removal for his alleged meeting with Adhikari. They alleged that the meeting ‘reeks of impropriety’ as Adhikari was involved in both Narada and Saradha cases.

Mehta has appeared for the CBI in both the cases in Calcutta High Court. The MPs alleged that as Adhikari was involved in both the cases, Mehta’s meeting with him was in direct conflict of interest with the statutory duties of the Solicitor General.

Trinamool all India general secretary, Abhishek Banerjee, had demanded that the CCTV footage should be disclosed to remove doubts from the minds of the people over the meeting.

TMC MP, Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, had questioned how Adhikari could go to the house of the Solicitor General without any appointment.

India reports...The conclave aims to share India’s experi-

ence with regards to universal vaccination to

fight COVID-19 through Co-WIN, the NHA said in a statement posted on its website.

India developed Co-WIN as the cen-tral information technology (IT) system for strategising, implementing, monitoring and evaluating Covid vaccination. Recently, many countries have shown interest in using the platform, the NHA said.

Earlier on Friday, the Gauhati High Court held that the SOP issued by the Mizoram stating that the restriction placed on the unvaccinated persons debarring them from earning their livelihood, leaving thereby their houses to obtain essential items is arbi-trary and illegal to Article 14 and 21.

According to a report published by LiveLaw, a division bench comprising of Jus-tice Michael Zothankhum and Justice Nelson Sailo observed, “There can be any number of reasons for a person to leave their house, for example, it could be for the purpose of procuring essential supplies, like foodstuff, medicines, attending to their near and dear/sick ones etc. However, the said clause has virtually put them under house arrest in vio-lation of Article 21 of the Constitution of India, while persons who have been given the first dose of vaccine are allowed to leave their houses/compounds. Thus, on the ground of discrimination alone, Clause 5(2) is arbitrary. When the SOP requires all persons to cover their faces and to adhere to covid protocols as mentioned in the above SOP, there should not be any discrimination against un-vacci-nated persons, as the Covid protocols are also applicable to un-vaccinated persons.”

WITH AGENCY INPUTS

Will protest outside Parl every day...

“Whatever vehicle you have, tractor, trol-ley, car, scooter, just bring it to the nearest

state or national highway and park it there. But don’t create a traffic jam,” Rajewal said.

The farmer leader also appealed to peo-ple to “blow the horn of their vehicles” for eight minutes at 12 pm.

He also asked for LPG cylinders to be brought to the protest.

“I ask all the women to bring out their gas cylinders to the roads and be a part of the protest,” Rajewal said.

Responding to a question regard-ing Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar’s recent statement that the govern-ment was ready to hold talks with the farm-ers, Rajewal said they “will not talk with conditions”.

“The leaders want to talk about farm laws with conditions, we are ready to talk with them but only if they agree to repeal the laws,” Rajewal said.

Heatwave claimed over 17,000 lives

However, when the maximum tempera-ture is 40 degree Celsius for coastal stations and 45 degrees Celsius for other stations, conditions are declared as heatwave.

A heatwave is declared when the actual maximum temperature is greater than the normal maximum temperature which is greater than 40 degrees Celsius.

In a written response to a question on heatwaves in Lok Sabha in January 2020, Earth Sciences minister Harsh Vardhan had said the latest studies show an increase in temperatures as well as the occurrence of heatwaves in many parts of the country dur-ing the recent years.

One of the reasons for the increase in heat waves is global warming associated with the increase in greenhouse gasses like carbon dioxide, methane etc in the atmosphere, he

had said.In 2017, there were 30 instances of heat-

wave in the country—Andhra Pradesh (1), Jharkhand (2), Maharashtra (6), Odisha (8), Telangana (12), West Bengal (1).

The year 2018 recorded 12 instances of heatwave — Uttar Pradesh (2), Maharash-tra (5), Jharkhand (1), Kerala (3), Chattisgarh (1). In 2019, there were 26 incidents of heat-wave in Maharashtra (15), Kerala (6), Bihar (4), Rajasthan (1).

Heatwave is also associated with health risks. Four common health impacts resulting from excessive exposure to heatwaves include dehydration, cramps, exhaustion and heat-stroke. It is also learnt that there is a sharp rise in the number of cases of acute gastroen-teritis and food poisoning due to spoilage of food and reduction of its shelf life owing to high temperatures.

There is also a rise in the number of cases of anxiety, palpitations, nervousness and behavioural change linked to extreme tem-perature rise, Vardhan had said.

45 dead... Initial pictures released by the military

showed the tail section of the cargo plane relatively intact. The other parts of the plane were burned or scattered in pieces in a clear-ing surrounded by coconut trees. Soldiers and other rescuers with stretchers were seen dashing to and from the smoke-shrouded crash site, where a dark gray smoke billowed shortly after impact.

It was not immediately clear what caused the crash. Regional military commander Lt Gen Corleto Vinluan said it was unlikely that the aircraft took hostile fire, and cited witnesses as saying that it appeared to have overshot the runway then crashed on the periphery of the airport.

AGENCIES

From Page 1

PAGD leaders meet, first time after PM's all-party meeting on J&K

5millenniumpost Nation mpNEW DELHI | MONDAY, 5 JULY, 2021

Why Modi govt not ready for JPC probe, questions Rahul

Tikait: Centre should not put conditions to resume talks

RAM VAN GAMAN PATH: RS 1 CR FOR FEASIBILITY REPORT, DPR Bhopal, Jul 4 (PTI) A sum of Rs 1 crore has been ear-marked for the preparation of feasibility and detailed project reports of the Ram Van Gaman Path project, which seeks to retrace the route taken by Lord Ram on his way to exile, state Culture, Tourism and Spirituality Minister Usha Thakur said on Sunday. She had chaired a meeting on the project, which is to be built in three phases, in Chitrakoot on Saturday.

ARMY CHIEF GEN MM NARAVANE LEAVES FOR VISIT TO UK AND ITALY NEW DELHI: Army Chief Gen MM Naravane on Sunday left on a four-day visit to the UK and Italy with an aim to enhance India’s bilateral ties with the two countries. The Army said Gen Naravane will be meeting his counterparts and senior military leaders of the two countries to explore ways to boost military cooperation. In the first leg of the visit, the Chief of Army Staff will hold talks with the UK’s Secretary of State for Defence, Chief of Defence Staff, Chief of General Staff and other dignitaries, the Army said.

UP GOVT PLANTS 25 CRORE SAPLINGS LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh set a new record by plant-ing 25 crore saplings in a single day on Sunday, it said in a statement. As part of the state government’s ‘Van Mahotsav’ programme, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath took part in a plantation drive in Sultanpur along the Purvanchal Expressway, the statement said. Over one billion saplings have been planted in the state since Adityanath became chief minister, it added. Participat-ing in one such programme, Governor Anandiben Patel established a ‘Smiriti Vatika’ in Jhansi under which she planted saplings that are rich in nutrients and medici-nal properties.

RAFALE DEAL

Nation Briefs

NEW DELHI: The NHRC on Sunday issued a notice to the Maharashtra government in the wake of a complaint alleg-ing serious health condition of imprisoned 84-year-old Father Stan Swamy. In the notice sent through the state’s chief secre-tary, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has called

upon him to ensure that every possible efforts are made in pro-viding Swamy proper medical care and treatment as part of life-saving measure and protec-tion of his basic human rights.

The commission has also called for a report in the light of the allegations made in the complaint, and the treatment

record of Swamy, who is very old and lodged in Taloja Jail, Navi Mumbai.

“The NHRC, looking into the complaint, alleging seri-ous health condition of impris-oned Fr. Stan Swamy (84 years), has today issued a notice to the chief secretary, government of Maharashtra, calling upon him

to ensure that every possible efforts are made in providing him proper medical care and treatment as part of life saving measure and protection of his basic human rights,” the NHRC said in a statement.

The Jesuit priest and tribal rights activist has been arrested in the Elgaar Parishad case.

This direction has come in continuation with the ear-lier order of the commission, wherein it had advised the state government to provide adequate medical care and treatment to Swamy, who is admitted at Holy Family Hospi-tal, and submit a report within four weeks, it said. MPOST

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: In reaction to the news article –“Data shows more votes polled in certain booths than actual no. of vot-ers” – published in Millennium Post on July 2, the Election Commission of India (ECI) claimed that it was factually not correct and no complaint of extra votes polled as com-pared to the number of electors in the electoral roll of any poll-ing station (in Nandigram) was received either after polling or during the counting on May 2.

The ECI has stated that as per ECI SOPs followed for counting procedures, polling agents of each candidate are present at each polling station with a copy of the electoral roll

for that polling station. They witness the entire polling pro-cess (including overseeing the identity verification of voters and obtaining voters’ signa-tures in Register 17A) and are provided with the copy of Form 17C which has the account of votes polled. Similarly, on the counting day counting agents of each candidate are appointed for each counting table and wit-ness the accuracy of vote count as per Form 17C. Candidates’ agents also verify the accu-racy of round wise tabulation of result.

It is pertinent to note that no complaint of extra votes polled as compared to the number of electors in the elec-toral roll of any polling station was received either after poll-

ing or during the counting on 2nd May 2021, the ECI further stated.

It may also be noted that the details of electors (who are enrolled in the electoral roll) and votes polled (electors who voted) in Assembly Constitu-encies are available in Form 20 (available in public domain at ceowestbengal.nic.in).

As per records in Form 20

and Electoral Roll of 210-Nan-digram AC of West Bengal, the details of electors and Votes Polled (for Assembly General Election 2021) of the polling stations under reference are as follows: As many as 503 votes were polled out of 572 total voters at Kandapasra Atyaik Primary School room num-ber 2, which is polling station number 49 (A). At Nandi-gram B MT Siksha Niketan Room Number 2 (polling sta-tion number 75), 735 out of total 886 votes were polled. 676 out of 799 votes were polled at Reapara Sri Sri Siddhanath Pri-mary School (polling station number 110) while 721 out of 793 votes were polled at polling station number 118 at Bheturia Purba Primary School. Again,

515 votes out of total 586 were polled at Daudpur Board Pry School Room No 3 polling station number 182) and 599 votes were polled out of total 704 votes at NakchiracharJiban Krishna Pry School Room No 1 (polling station number 219), the ECI has stated.

It is also pertinent to men-tion that an Election Petition has been filed before the High Court at Calcutta, in respect of the Assembly General Elec-tion 2021 from 210 Nandigram AC and the said documents (Form 17C and Register 17A) are thus under sealed in strong room and currently cannot be accessed.

The said documents can only be accessed with the directions of the High Court.

No complaint of extra votes polled as compared to number of electors in Nandigram: ECI

OUR CORRESPONDENT

SHIMLA: BJP national presi-dent J P Nadda, who arrived at Bilaspur –his home town on a three-day visit to the state, spent the day primarily with his family, especially father Dr N L Nadda, who turned 98-year, on Sunday.

But a huge crowd of BJP workers, leaders and locals emerged at his village to meet Nadda and spend time with him.

Earlier on his arrival in the morning, BJP president was accorded a rousing welcome by Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, state BJP president Suresh Kashyap, cabinet min-isters and MLAs.

With focus of the BJP on three upcoming byelections in the state for Mandi Lok Sabha seat and two Assembly con-stituencies, there was a queue of ticket aspirants showing-up at Nadda’s arrival as he is expected to discuss the prob-able names with Chief Minis-ter and senior party leaders at Kullu on Monday.

Nadda will fly to Kullu on Monday for his scheduled visit to Atal Rohtang Tunnel.

The tunnel was inau-gurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year on October 3. Union defence min-ister Rajnath Singh and MoS (Finance) Anurag Thakur were

present at the function, Nadda could not make it to the Tunnel due to Covid 19 restrictions.

Chief Minister held a brief discussion with Nadda on his arrival. Both drove to the local circuit house where Nadda also met party leaders and ministers.

Chief Minister said, “Nadda ji had expressed desire to visit the Tunnel,” which is world’s longest tunnel at a height of 10,000 feet, and has opened the doors for the faster develop-ment of Lahaul-Spiti, an area which used to remain cut off for six months due to heavy snowfall at Rohtang Pass.

The Tunnel has also pro-vided an all-weather connec-tivity to Leh, thus it has become the country's most strategic infrastructure project.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: A day after the Congress demanded a JPC probe into the Rafale deal, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday put out an online survey asking why the Modi government was not ready for it.

Among the choices given by Gandhi to the question were guilt conscience, saving friends, JPC does not want a Rajya Sabha seat and all the above.

“Why is the Modi gov-ernment not ready for a JPC probe? –guilt conscience, sav-ing the friends, JPC does not want a Rajya Sabha seat and all of these are right,” he said in Hindi on Twitter, while putting out the survey.

Gandhi has been alleg-ing corruption in the Rafale fighter jet deal for long now and had made this as a major poll plank in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, which the Congress lost badly.

A French judge has been appointed to lead a “highly sensitive” judicial probe into suspected “corruption” and

“favouritism” in the Rs 59,000 crore Rafale fighter jet deal with India, French investiga-tive website Mediapart has reported.

The Congress has demanded a Joint Parliamen-tary Committee(JPC) probe into the Rafale deal, alleging corruption in the purchase of the fighter jets, and said such an investigation is the only way forward to find the truth.

The main opposition party had further said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should order the investigation and come clean on the deal.

The Congress on Sun-day questioned the silence of the government after French authorities ordered a probe into “corruption and favouritism” in the Rafale deal.

Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera sought to know that in an inter-governmental defence deal, where there can-not be any middlemen or cor-ruption, when the beneficiary of any “corruption” has ordered a probe, why has a country, which has lost public money, not ordered one?

He alleged that the gov-ernment led by Prime Minis-ter Narendra Modi makes a lot of noise about national secu-rity, but undermines the coun-try’s security interests when it comes to helping its crony capi-talist friends.

“After more than 24 hours of the decision by France to investigate corruption, influ-ence peddling, money laun-dering, favouritism, there is one question every responsible Indian, every concerned citizen asks. Why is the Government of India still silent?” Khera

asked at a press conference.He said the Rafale fighter

jets deal was an inter-govern-ment deal between India and France, which means that the governments of the two coun-tries were on either side.

Khera sought to know that now that the French Public Prosecution Services (PNF) has initiated a probe into the cor-ruption allegations against the previous president of France, who was one of the parties to the deal, why is no enquiry being ordered on the role of the key functionaries of the Indian

government?“It is downright insulting

to the people of India that this government and its ministers have stayed tight-lipped about this entire scandal. Why is the Minister of Defence silent on accountability and scrutiny?” he asked.

“The Indian National Con-gress demands that a fair Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) be constituted immedi-ately and every aspect of the Rafale deal probed by it. The people of India deserve to know the truth,” Khera said.

He said every government has always prioritised and taken pride in the country’s national security policy.

Although the Modi govern-ment makes “loud song and dance” about national security, “it does everything under the sun to undermine India’s secu-rity interests when it comes to filling the coffers of its cor-porate friends”, the Congress leader alleged.

He asked why the per-son who caused a loss to the Indian exchequer is not being investigated.

CHANDIGARH: Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait on Sunday said the Cen-tre should not put conditions if it wants to resume talks with the protesting farmers.

His remarks come after Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar asserted that the three new central agri-culture laws would bring revo-lutionary changes in the lives of farmers, and made it clear that the government was ready to hold talks with the protestors, except on the demand of the repeal of these laws.

We have said earlier as well that we are ready for talks whenever the government is ready. But why are they mak-ing it conditional by saying that they will not take back the farm laws? Tikait told reporters in Rohtak.

He alleged that the cen-tral dispensation was working under pressure of the corpo-rates. .. they (Centre) would have talked (to farmers), but they are being run by the cor-porates, he alleged.

The farmer leader earlier addressed a Pink dharna' by women activists in Rohtak in support of the farmers' stir against the farm laws.

In nearby Uchana in Jind district, a mahapanchayat of farmers was also held wherein

nine resolutions were passed.Jind BKU leader Azad

Palwa told reporters that the mahapanchayat resolved to boycott BJP-JJP supported candidates in the forthcoming panchayat polls in Haryana.

He said if the government does not repeal the farm laws, the candidates of BJP and JJP will face boycott in the assem-bly and parliamentary polls as well.

Addressing the Pink-Mah-ila Kisan Dharna', Tikait said, Such a dharna by women activ-ists is possible in Haryana, where women too have been at the forefront of this (farm-ers) agitation .

He said the ongoing stir has now become a revolution of ideas .

He added that although the farmers have been protesting against the black farm laws for

months now, it has not moved the government.

There is an undeclared emergency in the country and the people of this country should rise.. he said.

Tikait alleged that if the farm laws are implemented, the farmers will ultimately be forced to do petty jobs as their land will be snatched by the big corporates.

Meanwhile, Palwa said dur-ing the mahapanchayat, that it opposed the Haryana Recovery of Damages to Property During Disturbance to Public Order Bill, 2021.

The Bill passed by the state assembly in March allows authorities to recover compen-sation from violent protesters damaging properties.

The Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader claimed the Bill was aimed to be used by the government against the farm-ers agitation.

The mahapanchayat demanded that the black farm laws be rolled back, a law to guarantee crop MSP be framed by the government, government job and Rs 50 lakh compensation be given to next of kin of those farmers who died during the ongoing agitation, all kinds of loans of farmers and farm labourers be waived. AGENCIES

SATYAPRAKASH SHARMA

BHOPAL: In a bid to empower women and help them to be self-reliant, the Madhya Pradesh Transport Department will provide free professional driving training to 300 females from July 15 at the headquar-ters of 11 regional transport offices (RTO) in the state.

Transport Commissioner (TC) Mukesh Jain said that the department had formulated a plan to equip women with driv-ing skills as professional driv-ers, it would not only a step to empower women but also pro-vide employment as per their qualification to become self-sufficient, the scheme will also be an important step to make Madhya Pradesh self-reliant.

"After getting a huge suc-cess of the pilot project, we have decided to carry forward the scheme in the other districts. A total of 300 women will be trained in association with the Polytechnic Colleges and ITIs (Industrial Training Institutes) and the department will also help them to get employment," Transport Commissioner Jain told Millennium Post.

The transport department had launched this scheme in the Indore RTO office in Jan-

uary this year as a pilot proj-ect. Two hundred women had been trained as profes-sional drivers for light motor vehicles in ITI Indore. After completing the training pro-gramme, all women drivers have got employment in cam-pus placement.

State's minister for Trans-port, Govind Rajput had given instructions to implement this scheme in the other part of the state during a review meet-ing with transport officials in March month.

Apart from Indore, the RTO offices Bhopal, Gwalior, Jabalpur, Ujjain, Rewa, Sagar, Khandwa, Dhar, Jhabua and Umaria would be covered under the first phase of the

scheme, the TC added.Jain informed that he

instructed the transport offi-cers that the benefits of this scheme should reach needy women and preferred to sched-uled castes and tribes catego-ries and Covid-19 affected applicants.

The training programme will be of about 200 hours in which both practicals and the-ory will be in the syllabus.

The TC further added that after getting the training, no formality would be required to get a driving license. The initiative would not only give an opportunity to women to become self-reliant but also get security to women passengers in public transport.

MP : 300 women to get free professional driving training

Nadda in HP, to visit Rohtang Tunnel today

BJP president J P Nadda being welcomed by party workers on his arrival in Bilaspur, on Sunday

It may be noted that the details of electors and votes polled in Assembly Constituencies are available in Form 20

SHIMLA: Tourists have been thronging Himachal Pradesh as the heatwave has hit the plains and the second wave of COVID-19 seeing a significant decline in the country.

People from the plains are visiting tourist hotspots like Shimla, Kufri, Narkanda, Dal-housie, Manali, Lahaul and other places in the hill state in large numbers to get rid of the scorching heat.

The occupancy in the hotels has increased in the past few days but it has yet to reach its peak, said Mohinder Seth, president of Tourism Industry Stakeholder Association.

The occupancy in the hotels remains between 60 and 90 per-cent during weekends, while on other days it remains around 40-45 percent, Seth told PTI.

Shimla Hotel and Restau-rant Association president San-jay Sood said the withdrawal of the condition of negative RTPCR report and e-Covid pass to enter Himachal Pradesh recently has given a boost to the tourism industry of the state.

However, the increase in the number of tourists has posed a challenge to the state government to ensure adhering of Covid protocol by the visi-tors amid fears of an impend-ing third wave of coronavirus infections.

Asserting that the hoteliers have been following Covid

protocol in their premises for over a year, Sood hoped that the number of tourists would further increase in the com-ing days.

A tourist, Nikita Kukreja, said the majority of the visitors were seen following Covid pro-tocol. She along with her fam-ily members has come from Gurgaon to visit various tourist places in and around Shimla.

Police personnel are also seen at various places on Mall road. As and when they see any tourist not wearing a mask, they warn that tourist to prop-erly follow Covid protocol, she said.

Another tourist from Delhi Sanjana said the oppressive heatwave in the national capi-tal forced her to visit the state.

Mohinder Seth said the state government has not pro-vided any relief in the shape of

financial aid or waiver of taxes to the tourism industry hit hard by the COVID-10 pandemic.

While the Gujarat govern-ment has provided a hundred percent relief to hoteliers by waiving of property tax and garbage collection fees, Maha-rashtra and Odisha govern-ments have given fifty percent relief, he claimed seeking relief on the same pattern in Him-achal Pradesh.

In Kullu district, Atal Tun-nel Rohtang (ATR) has become a major attraction for visitors.

A record number of 6,400 vehicles had crossed the tun-nel last Sunday.

This was the highest sin-gle-day and highest till date arrivals, said Manav Verma, Superintendent of Police Lahaul-Spiti, adding 2,001 vehicles crossed the tunnel on Friday. AGENCIES

Tourists throng Himachal Heatwave hits plains, Covid wave slows down

NHRC notice to Maha over health condition of Stan Swamy

CHANDIGARH: The Hary-ana government on Sun-day extended the lockdown clamped in the state to curb the spread of the coronavirus by another week till July 12, while allowing some examina-tions to be held.

According to the order issued by Chief Secretary Vijai Vardhan in exercise of pow-ers under the provisions of the Disaster Management Act, 2005, the Mahamari Alert-Surakshit Haryana is extended for another week, that is from July 5 (5 am onwards) to July 12 (till 5 am) in the state of Hary-ana. The state government has termed the covid-induced lockdown as “Mahamari Alert-Surakshit Haryana (Epidemic Alert-Safe Haryana)”. The Insti-tute of Chartered Accountants is allowed to hold Chartered Accountant Examinations from July 5-20, the order said.

While conducting the exams, guidelines for exam-ination centres, examination functionaries and candidates for July 2021 CA examination in wake of the ongoing Covid pandemic, released by the Insti-tute of Chartered Accountants of India along with SOPs issued by the Centre from time to time regarding preventive measures to be followed to contain Covid will have to be followed strictly, according to the orders. AGENCIES

Hry extends lockdown till

July 12

Rafale fighter jet

Rakesh Tikait

Tourists during a water sport in Beas river in Manali, on Sunday

TRIBUTE

A huge crowd gathers to pay tribute to soldier Pappuram Samota during his funeral at Trilokpura village in Sikar, Sunday, July 4 PIC/PTI

WOMAN RAPED AND ROBBED BY ACQUAINTANCE IN RAJASTHAN KOTA (RAJASTHAN): A 32-year-old woman was al-legedly raped by an acquaintance who also thrashed her and robbed her of Rs 20,000, police said on Sun-day. The victim went to Itawa police station with her husband on Saturday night and a case was lodged under Sections 376 (rape), 379 (theft) and 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) of the Indian Penal Code regarding the incident that took place on Friday, they said. The accused, Guddu, who hails from Sheopur in Madhya Pradesh, has absconded and efforts are on to nab him, DSP and CO Vijay Shankar Sharma said. According to the complaint, the woman returned from Kota, where her husband works, and was received by Guddu at Itawa’s bus stand, the DSP said.

30 PEOPLE LOSE VISION IN ONE EYE DUE TO BLACK FUNGUS COIMBATORE: Of the 264 patients with mucormy-cosis, also known as black fungus, in the government hospital here, 30 have lost the vision in one eye, a top official of the hospital said on Sunday. All those admitted had undergone endoscopy with 110 under-going visualisation surgery, the hospital Dean Dr N Nirmala said in a release. But 30 patients with severe infection had lost their sight in one eye, she said add-ing that those who had come at an early stage were totally cured of the disease. The Health Department has created awareness to not neglect any problem in the nostrils or phlegm with blood or swelling in the eyes and face, red eyes and also tooth ache.

EVICTION OF PARTY LEADERS FROM GOVT QUARTERS

Nation Briefs

6 millenniumpostNationmpMONDAY, 5 JULY, 2021 | NEW DELHI

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: After a break, the Southwest Monsoon is again set to enter an active phase, M Rajeevan, Secretary of Ministry of Earth Sciences said on Sunday, noting that forecast models show signs of increas-ing rain activity from July 8.

He said that models indi-cate the formation of a weather system in the Bay of Bengal.

"Monsoon Update: @moesgoi models show signs of revival- increasing rains in South, west coast & East Cen-tral India from 8 Jul.

"Models also make an early indication of formation of a weather system over BoB by12th & subsequent active monsoon phase," Rajeevan, who has been researching the Southwest Monsoon for more than three decades, tweeted.

After a good spell of rains in the first two and half weeks of June, the Southwest Monsoon has not advanced further since

June 19.Delhi, Haryana, parts of

west Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, west Rajasthan are yet to see the arrival of the monsoon.

In its forecast for the July, India Meteorological Depart-ment said the country as a whole will witness good rain-fall this month.

However, parts of north India, some parts of south pen-insula, central, east and north-east India could witness rainfall in the category of normal to

below normal.It added that the conditions

are not favourable for the mon-soon's progress till July 7 due to the lack of a weather system.

The northern limit of southwest monsoon (NLM) is currently passing through Aligarh, Meerut, Ambala and Amritsar, the IMD said.

"Prevailing meteorolog-ical conditions, large scale atmospheric features and the forecast wind pattern by dynamical models suggest that no favourable conditions are likely to develop for fur-ther advance of southwest monsoon into remaining parts of Rajasthan, west Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Chan-digarh and Delhi and Punjab during next 4-5 days," the IMD said.

Hence, subdued rainfall activity is very likely to con-tinue to prevail over the north-west, central and western parts of peninsular India during the next 4-5 days, it added.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

PUNE: Depressed over the delay in conducting the final MPSC interview due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a 24-year-old Maharashtra gov-ernment job aspirant allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself at his house in Pune's Hadapsar area, police said on Sunday.

Swapnil Lonkar, a civil engineering diploma holder, had cleared the 2019 Maha-rashtra Public Service Com-mission (MPSC) preliminary and main exams and was wait-

ing for the final interview to take place. He had also cleared the 2020 preliminary exam as well, an officer from Hadapsar police station said.

Police said Lonkar hanged himself on June 30 in his home and left behind a suicide note in which he termed the MPSC exams as a "mayajaal" and appealed not to get into it.

"He stated that a sense of negativity was creeping in as the interview was not being held and he was in danger of missing the age cut. He also stated that the loan was taken in the hope that he would crack

the exam. He added he was depressed and that his fam-ily had a lot of expectations from him," senior inspector Balkrishna Kadam said quot-ing the suicide note.

Meanwhile, Lonkar's father said "apathy" by the state gov-ernment was responsible for his son's death.

"My son was hopeful that he would get an appointment soon as he had cracked prelim and main exams. He wanted to help me by reducing the bur-den of the loan but now he has left us, leaving us devastated. I lost my son due to the govern-

ment's overall apathy," he told reporters.

Lonkar's mother said her son had a dream to save 100 lives by donating platelets and had donated 28 times.

Rohit Pawar, NCP MLA from Karjat Jamkhed said that the depression is creeping into the young generation as MPSC exams and results are suspended due to COVID-19.

"I request the state gov-ernment to conduct the exam immediately by taking all the precautions and allot all the pending appointments," he tweeted.

SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kash-mir Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti on Sunday sought the intervention of Lieutenant Gov-ernor Manoj Sinha against the alleged forcible eviction of her party leaders, including former legislators, from their govern-ment quarters.

Mehbooba alleged that the administration is selec-tively targeting PDP leaders and made them vacate their official residences in Srinagar without providing any alternate accommodation.

The former chief minister warned that she would hold the Lt Governor administration responsible if anything untow-ard happens with them.

I am deeply concerned by the manner in which the admin-istration is selectively targeting PDP leaders and ex-MLAs. At a time when militancy is on the rise yet again, they have been made to vacate their official residences in Srinagar without providing any alternate accom-modation, Mehbooba said in a letter addressed to Sinha.

She said what makes mat-ters worse is that even after the

repeated requests of the party leaders to grant them security in villages where they originally reside, these requests have been declined .

The state administration has cited the presence of militants for their refusal to provide secu-rity. But the same administra-tion has no qualms in evicting them from secure government accommodations in Srinagar and deliberately putting them in harm's way, the PDP chief said in her communication.

In an apparent reference to the killing of newly elected pan-chayati and urban local bodies representatives in the Valley, Mehbooa said it is no secret that in recent times we have witnessed how elected repre-

sentatives have been targeted and even killed since they are soft targets especially when they are not provided with adequate security .

Let me also bring to your notice that the former MLA from PDP Zahoor Mir has been a victim of militancy himself. His father (former MLA Abdul Aziz Mir) was shot dead by mili-tants (December 2002), the PDP leader said.

She said, In such circum-stances I find it surprising and extremely distressing that while on one hand there is a section of new politicians who are given all kinds of facilities including security to facilitate their move-ment throughout J-K.

But on the other hand, mem-bers of PDP are treated with utter disdain and contempt. It is almost as if the administra-tion is intentionally putting their lives at risk.

Seeking the intervention of the Governor to take corrective steps immediately , Mehbooba said she would like to place it on record that if anything untow-ard happens to any of my party men, I would hold this admin-istration responsible. AGENCIES

OUR CORRESPONDENT

RAMESWARAM (TN): Sri Lankan Naval personnel dam-aged about 30 fishing nets, each costing about one lakh rupees and chased them away at gun-point while they were fishing in Palk Strait, fishermen alleged here on Sunday.

When fishermen, who had set out for fishing in as many as 597 boats, Lankan navy per-sonnel chased them away at gunpoint on Saturday night and "cut the nets up each cost-ing about one lakh rupees," fishermen association chief Sesu Raja said here.

Attacks on Indian fisher-men by Lankan Naval person-nel have been on the rise and they were facing severe hard-ship, he said.

"Even if we try to sell the boats so that we could quit this profession and venture into some other business, there are no takers for the boats."

The Central and state gov-ernments should guarantee the safety and security of fisher-men, their boats, nets and gear, he said.

THIRUVANANTHA-PURAM: A prank among relatives went horribly wrong leading to the loss of three lives, one of them a newborn baby, Kerala police's probe into the abandoning of the infant has revealed.

In January this year, a new-born baby boy -- just a few hours old -- was found in a heap of dry leaves in Kollam district of Kerala and the infant later died in hospital.

Police investigation revealed that one Reshma, res-ident of Kalluvathukkal village in Kollam, was the mother of the infant and she was arrested in June.

During interrogation, Reshma said she had left her newborn to die in order to elope with a man -- Anandu -- whom she had befriended on Facebook but never met in person, police said.

According to police, she had not disclosed that she was pregnant to her husband, Vishnu, nor to anyone else in her family.

During their investigation to find out the woman's Face-book friend, police called two of her relatives -- Arya, her sis-ter-in-law and Greeshma, her niece -- for questioning.

Police had summoned them as a mobile sim card in Arya's name was being used by Reshma to operate one of her multiple Facebook accounts.

However, in a strange twist of events, both women alleg-

edly committed suicide by jumping into a river.

Thereafter, police ques-tioned a male friend of Greeshma who revealed that she had told him that she and Arya created the Facebook account of Anandu to play a prank on Reshma, a senior police officer said.

Police also found that Arya had told her mother-in-law about the prank before she allegedly committed suicide.

Arya's husband later told the media that he was thank-ful to the police for finding out why his wife had taken that extreme step.

He said he had no idea about the prank.

Reshma's husband, who was abroad and came back after hearing of her arrest, told the media that had anyone told him what was going on, he could have put a stop to it.

Presently, Reshma is in judicial custody in a quaran-tine centre as she tested posi-tive for COVID-19, police said and added that it has moved an application for her custody and the same is yet to come up for hearing. MPOST

DHAR: Two tribal sisters here in Madhya Pradesh were assaulted with sticks by their relatives for allegedly chatting with their uncle's sons over phone, police said on Sunday.

Seven people were arrested in connection with the inci-dent, which took place last month, after a video of it went viral on social media platforms, they said.

In the video, several people, including a woman, were pur-portedly seen hitting the vic-tims with sticks and dragging them by their hair.

The victims, aged 19 and 20, were beaten up by their kin on June 22 in Pipalva village, located around 70 km from Dhar district headquarters, Tanda police station in-charge Vijay Vaskale said.

On June 25, we came across a video in which two women were seen being beaten up. While verifying the clip, we came to know that their fam-ily members were involved in this," he said.

The police found that their family members were angry over the women talking on phone to the sons of their maternal uncle, the official said.

The two women were later brought to the Tanda police sta-tion and a case was registered based on their complaint, he said, adding that seven peo-ple were arrested in connection with the incident.

According to the official, the women told the police that their paternal cousins and other family members stopped them near a school in the village.

They allegedly objected to the women talking to their cousins over phone and sub-sequently assaulted them with sticks, the official added.

A few days back, a 20-year-old tribal woman was tied to a tree and assaulted with sticks by her kin in MP's Alirajpur district for leaving her hus-band's home and staying with her uncle. AGENCIES

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: After months of being cooped up inside as Covid raged outside, well-heeled Indians have decided that home is not where the heart is and are hitting the road and the skies to break the monotony of their indoor existence.

There is even a term for it revenge travel'. So when states started opening up after a ferocious second Covid wave, people headed out in droves to beachside hotels, hill home-stays or even just a resort close by. Anywhere but home and maybe not quite what the doc-tor ordered

Taking revenge as it were for the months of anxiety, of working from home, doing or conducting classes online and unable to meet even close relatives, they masked up, got their jabs and wasted no time in heading outdoors.

"Advance bookings as mea-

sured by the share of bookings with travel dates more than four weeks away are over 10 per cent this year compared to around 5 per cent last year, Rajiv Subramanian, vice pres-ident at global online travel company Cleartrip, told the news agency.

We expect the increased momentum of the vaccination drive and reduced caseloads to catalyse domestic travel recov-ery in the next two quarters," he added.

On the ground, images of

people thronging destinations like Manali and serpentine queues of cars waiting to get into popular hill towns such as Shimla give the picture.

Be it a workcation, stay-cation or drivecation, people are clearly eager to travel and splurge as India's Covid cases dipped, determined to make up fo.r lost leisure days due to frequent shutdowns, signalling the return of normalcy for the corona-hit travel and hospital-ity sector.

Noida-based IT profes-

sional Avinash Giri chose the quiet town of Naggar in Him-achal Pradesh's Kullu district for his workcation.

"This is the first time that we have travelled since the onset of the pandemic. Things were pathetic in the past two months. We were cooped inside our homes, not going out even to the balcony. My wife and children wanted to be out and I decided to pick this secluded Naggar district," he said.

"The view, the weather, everything is amazing here. The property I am staying at is new and economical -- food and other chores are well taken care of by the host. I will stay at least for a month at different places in Himachal Pradesh, and our next possible destina-tion is Manali," the 37-year-old added.

Both Giri and his wife are partially vaccinated. His 'revenge' is sweet news for the bleeding hospitality industry.

Budget-friendly hostel chain goSTOPS, multi-hospi-tality chain OYO and Airbnb, the online marketplace for arranging or offering lodgings, are among the companies that witnessed a major spike in the number of enquiries and book-ings made in June.

While goSTOPS, according to its founder and CEO Pallavi Agarwal, has recorded a "1,000 per cent" spike in its daily reser-vations; Airbnb India has also observed a "strong pent-up demand" for destinations that are a drive away from metro cities.

"With different states start-ing the unlock procedure and beginning to ease Covid restrictions, we have seen a sig-nificant surge in enquiry and booking from both metros and mini metro cities.

What has also fuelled the sentiment of travellers is the vaccination rate going up and infection rate taking a nose-dive," said Agarwal.

MUMBAI: The DRI has seized around 300 kg of heroin worth Rs 879 crore allegedly smug-gled from Afghanistan and arrested one person in this connection at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) in neighbouring Raigad district, officials said on Sunday.

The contraband, seized on Thursday, is one of the major narcotic seizures in the recent times, they said.

The consignment, allegedly smuggled from Afghanistan via Iran, was declared as gypsum stone and talcum powder, an official from the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) said.

The import export code was in the name of Prabhjot Singh and the consignment was sup-posed to be sent to Punjab, he said.

Singh was arrested after the seizure of the contra-band, the official said, add-ing that the accused was importing gypsum stone and talcum powder via the JNPT for the last one year.

In August last year, the Mumbai Customs and DRI seized 191 kg of heroin worth around Rs 1,000 crore, declared as an ayurvedic medicine' and also believed to have originated from Afghanistan, from a cargo container at the JNPT, officials earlier said. AGENCIES

‘Monsoon show signs of heavy rain; likely to revive from July 8’ Mehbooba Mufti seeks L-G

Manoj Sinha’s intervention

As wait for final interview gets longer due to pandemic, MPSC aspirant kills self in Pune

DRI seizes heroin worth

`879 cr at JNPT; 1 held

Prank on FB goes wrong as 3 lives lost

SL Navy personnel chase away

TN fishermen

SL Naval personnels damaged 30 fishing nets worth `1L each

2 tribal women thrashed for chatting with

male cousins in MP; 7 arrested

According to police, she had not disclosed that she was pregnant to her husband, Vishnu, nor to anyone else in her family

‘Revenge travel’: Because home is not where the heart is after months of lockdown

On the ground, images of people thronging destinations like Manali and serpentine queues of cars waiting to get into popular hill towns such as Shimla give the picture

After a good spell of rains in the first two and half weeks of June, the Southwest Monsoon has not advanced further since June 19

PDP president Mehbooba Mufti

Dark clouds hover in the sky during the monsoon season in Guwahati on Saturday PIC/PTI

7millenniumpost Editorial mpNEW DELHI | MONDAY, 5 JULY, 2021

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

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

DearEditorThe NIA special court’s latest order clearing Akhil Gogoi, the anti-CAA crusader and currently MLA from Sibsagar constituency, of sedition and other charges is a damning indictment of the country’s premier investigation agency. Mr Gogoi and others were arrested at the peak of the anti-CAA protests in Assam in December 2019. He was accused of several charges including UAPA, association with Maoist groups, terrorism and so on. Mr Gogoi was held in prison for 19 months and contested the Assam assembly elections from jail. The court said that there was no “prima facie materials to frame charges against the accused persons” and found the “conduct and approach of the investigating authority/ prosecution, in this case, to be discouraging, to say the least”. Unfortunately, in India Mr Gogoi’s case is not exceptional but points to a pattern where anti-terror and sedition laws are abused by state agencies to crack down on legitimate forms of dissent and protests by civil society groups and non-mainstream political activists. Since UAPA has stringent bail conditions, the accused, in most cases, end up spending a long time in prison awaiting trial. It is welcome that courts across the country are now raising the bar on sedition and UAPA and have asked state agencies to be sensitive to the letter and spirit of the law as well as the rights of citizens. In this context, the NIA court’s observation that “if the criminal justice system, for some reason, is unable to give bail to an accused, his trial should preferably be completed within a year, so that his constitutional and human rights of presumption of innocence and speedy trial is not violated” calls for serious deliberation.

— KHOKAN DAS, KOLKATA via email

EDITORIALThe ‘real’ relief

Petrol and diesel prices have touched the century mark in nearly half of the Indian states and it is stinging the middle classes the most. Sikkim and Madhya Pradesh are the new entrants to the list of

states where petrol and diesel prices have gone higher than Rs 100. Certainly, it is not just about these petroleum prod-ucts — the ripple has had a fluctuating influence on the prices of all the daily utility material. The increased trans-portation cost on account of the fuel price hike is deeply costing the pockets of people. At a time when the entire nation — with an overwhelming number of middle and low-income groups — is struggling to come out of the rav-ages of the pandemic, the obvious course of measure that was expected was financial support to the millions. The fail-ure of both the Centre and state governments to address, or even acknowledge, the shortcoming on the policy front stands contrary to the need of the hour. As the pockets of common masses are burdened on a daily basis, no scale of other monetary support could ease their pain; it will nul-lify any government effort to aid its distressed citizens. The resolving of the issue must be seen in the light of urgency as the rising numbers are badly hitting people on a daily basis. The Finance Minister has almost expressed the gov-ernment’s helplessness in the matter as she clarified that the price hikes are mainly on account of rising international oil prices that have touched around USD 75 per barrel. She cleared the Centre’s involvement by saying that the vary-ing prices in the states are a result of the Value Added Tax imposed by the states. The rise of fuel prices can roughly be related to certain factors including — the rise of inter-national oil prices, VAT imposed by the states, excise duty imposed by the Centre and the value of rupee against the dollar. While the international prices and the value of rupee remain beyond the control of the governments, the other two factors can be considered given the extraordinary situ-ation we are in. The excise duty for petrol stands today at Rs 32.98 per litre and that for diesel is Rs 31.8 per litre. These numbers have come a long way since 2014 when the excise duty on petrol was 9.48 per litre and that on die-sel was Rs 3.56 per litre. Between the years 2014 and 2016, excise duty was raised to take advantage of the plummet-ing international oil prices — this effectively means at that time the consumers were not getting affected adversely as the prices were low and the government was making good money at that time. But, as the prices rose again, deduc-tion in excise duty didn’t come in. This means that the Cen-tral Government is still mopping up the same revenue it used to do when the international oil prices were low, but the effect of increased prices is being mostly braced by the people. In 2019-20, the revenue mopped by the government from taxes on petrol and diesel was around Rs 2,13,000 and which reached close to Rs three lakhs in the next fiscal. The revenue figures are about 4-5 times of what used to be before the increase in excise duty before 2014. It has been observed in the past few years that the revenues from petrol and diesel have risen despite the reduced sale of the fuels. While the increase in revenue is a good and important thing as more money in governments’ coffers could mean more support for citizens, but that support will make little sense if they are forced into distress from the other side. It is time when Central and state governments must forgo their revenues and consider subsidising the fuels. This would mean some real, direct and meaningful relief for the dis-tressed millions. It will also help the governments perform their responsibility of tackling the pandemic in a smoother way. For the time being, the government may consider rais-ing revenues from corporate taxes and other alternatives. The Central government must take on board all the state governments and come out with a comprehensive solution. This issue should not be left to linger for long.

Tweet of the day

ARVIND KEJRIWAL@ArvindKejriwal

This year “Indian doctor” should get Bharat Ratna. “Indian Doctor” means all doctors, nurses and paramedics. This will be a true tribute to the martyred doctors. This will be an honour to those who serve without worrying about their life and family. The whole country will be happy with this

millenniumpost.in

USE OR ABUSE?

Boost to economy?

Flattering tone

Various relief measures announced by the government are expected to support the pandemic-hit stressed sectors

The flourishing Sino-Pak relations call for a cautious approach on part of India

Finance Minister Nir-mala Sitharaman announced a slew of relief measures for

pandemic-hit businesses and the public on June 28. Apart from expanding some old schemes, newer ones have also been added. The relief package amounts to Rs 6,28,993 crore.

The government has announced a guarantee cover of Rs 50,000 crore out of Rs 1.1 lakh crore to strengthen the health infrastructure, and a provision of Rs 60,000 crore has been made for other pan-demic-affected areas. A maxi-mum loan of Rs 100 crore is permissible under the scheme. Interest will be charged at the rate of 7.95 per cent on loans related to the health sector, and 8.25 per cent for other sectors. The government will spend Rs 23,220 crore on health services related to children by March 31, 2022. The availability of oxygen cylinders at the dis-trict and sub-district level and facilities like testing capacity and teleconsultation will also be amplified.

The Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) — launched in May last year — has met 90 per cent of its target of providing a loan of Rs three lakh crore to MSMEs, cover-ing 1.1 crore units. As there are about 6.3 crore MSME units across the country, many units were left out. Therefore, an additional loan of Rs 1.5 lakh crore under ECLGS has been announced further.

Small business, non-banking financial companies (NBFC) and Micro Finance Institutions (MFI) will be given an assistance of up to Rs 1.25 lakh crore in the form of loan, on which interest will be charged by adding a maximum of two per cent on the Bank’s Marginal Cost of Funds-Based Lending Rates (MCLR). The tenure of such a loan will be

three years and the govern-ment will give a guarantee of 75 per cent on it. Borrowers, who have not paid their loan instalment and interest for 89 days, will also be eligible to take advantage of this scheme. Twenty-five lakh people are expected to benefit from this scheme. The government has made a provision of Rs 75,00 crore for this scheme, the ben-efit of which can be availed till March 31, 2022.

According to the data of World Travel and Tourism, the contribution of travel and tourism to GDP was 6.9 per cent in 2019, which decreased to 4.7 per cent in 2020. Employment in this sec-tor has come down from 4.01 crore to 3.18 crore. Identifying the need to provide immediate relief to strengthen this sector, the government announced to provide a 100 per cent guaran-tee on loans up to Rs 10 lakh which will be given to 904 registered tourist guides and travel tourism stakeholders

affected by the pandemic. 100 per cent guarantee will also be given on loans up to Rs one lakh to 10,700 licensed tourist guides. In order to boost for-eign tourism, one-time visas will be issued free of cost to the first five lakh foreign tour-ists till March 31, 2022.

The validity of the Self-reli-ant India Employment Scheme — launched last year — has been extended till March 31, 2022. Under this scheme, the government pays the provi-dent fund of employees and companies earning less than Rs 15,000 salary. The govern-ment has set a target of spend-ing Rs 22,810 crore on this scheme to benefit about 58.5 lakh people.

The government has given an additional subsidy of Rs 14,775 crore to farmers, out of which a subsidy of Rs 9,125 crore has been given on DAP fertilizers, while a subsidy of Rs 5,650 crore has been given on NPK fertilizers.

To help the poor, the gov-

ernment had announced the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna scheme on 26 March 2020 last year and its benefit was given to the poor for the first time from April to June 2020. Later the duration of this scheme was extended till November 2020. In the financial year 2020-21, Rs.1,33,972 crore was spent on this scheme. The scheme was restarted in May 2021. Under this scheme, about 80 crore people will be given 5 kg foodgrains free of cost till November 2021, which will cost around Rs.93,869 crore this year. About Rs 2,27,841 crore will be spent on this scheme together last year and this year.

Exports have also been negatively affected due to the pandemic, registering a decline of 7.3 per cent during FY 2020-21, amounting to a loss of USD 290.6 billion. Therefore, the government will aid Rs 33,000 crore to exporters through National Export Insurance

Account (NEIA) and will also provide export insurance cover of Rs 88,000 crore to accelerate exports. About 30 per cent of the country will benefit from this provision.

Under the Bharatnet Broadband Scheme, Rs 19,041 crore will be spent to provide internet to every village. The objective of this scheme is to provide the facility of broad-band connectivity to all the vil-lages of the country. It is worth noting that till May 31, 2021, out of 2.50 lakh gram panchay-ats, the facility of broadband connectivity has been pro-vided to 1,56,223 villages.

Rs 3.03 lakh crore will be given for reforms in the power sector to strengthen power dis-tribution-related infrastruc-ture. Under this scheme, 25 crore smart meters, 10 thou-sand feeders and LT over-head lines will be installed for smooth transmission of elec-tricity to up to four lakh km. The government will come out with a new policy for Pub-lic-Private Partnership (PPP) projects and asset monetiza-tion, which will expedite the implementation of PPP proj-ects. The current process is very lengthy and requires mul-tiple levels of approvals. Asset monetization policy will help to sell off various properties which are kept idle for a long time.

The second wave of the pan-demic hit even before the full recovery from the first wave, affecting the ongoing correc-tive measures in the econ-omy and bringing economic activities to a standstill. Also, many employment opportu-nities were reduced. Health, tourism, MSMEs, farmers etc. were most affected by the sec-ond wave. The announced relief package is expected to improve the economic condi-tion of affected sectors.

Views expressed are personal

SATISH SINGH

SHANTANU MUKHARJI

Pakistan’s Prime Min-ister Imran Khan (PMIK) has unabash-edly admitted to have

concurred in letter and in spirit with China’s stand on the treatment of Uighurs — the Chinese Muslims living in the western Chinese province of Xinjiang. Speaking to Chi-nese journalists on the occa-sion of centenary celebrations of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), he even went on to say that the Chinese ver-sion of alleged mistreatment of Uighurs was strikingly differ-ent from other Muslims settled across the world. In a blistering attack, he charged the western media for being grossly erro-neous in reporting the excesses against the Uighur minority.

In a glaring display of flattery towards China — exceeding all diplomatic norms — Imran Khan said: “because of our extreme prox-imity and relationship with China, we accept the Chinese version”. Without losing the slightest opportunity of crit-icising Kashmir, he alleged that it was hypocritical that while the Uighur situation and Hong Kong were being highlighted, attention was not being accorded to the alleged human rights violations in Kashmir. Such an irresponsi-ble and irrelevant statement is unbecoming of the stature of a Head of Government. The detractors of Imran, accused him for shedding crocodile tears as he lamented that west-ern media was conspicuously silent on the “high handedness in Kashmir”.

In the meantime, keep-ing Pakistan’s all-weather ally China in good humour, osten-sibly at Beijing’s prompting, PMIK averred that CCP has achieved much better results without even a democracy. Most laughably, he stressed that the Chinese system for sifting through talents and bringing those up was better than in any democratic system.

He further proceeded to praise the “flexibility” of the Chinese system, arguing that in Paki-stani society and in western democracies, it is difficult to bring changes due to bindings of rules and regulations. In an apparent move to please the Chinese President Xi Jinping, Imran underlined that one can only become a leader after going through a long struggle; his comment was noteworthy as he said that the US Presi-dents did not go through this rigorous process at all.

It is pertinent to point out here that such an uncharitable remark on the election process of the US President is unlikely to augur well with the US Pres-idency and its ilk. This apart, Imran Khan’s overwhelming praise for China in describing its polity as unique and cred-iting the Chinese President for getting rid of the malaise of corruption and eradica-tion of poverty is not palat-able by the China watchers. On the other hand, Imran has deliberately chosen to main-tain silence over the continued oppression of the dissenters

in China. Besides the inflated praise for China, Imran Khan stated that India was supposed to act as a counter-balance to China but that could be det-rimental. Such unwarranted comments show that Imran was in a mode to articulate his pro-China views. Further, he emphasised that China was too strong and India needed to engage with it in activities of trade rather than militar-ily. He opined, rather uncon-vincingly, that if anyone was going to lose out, it could only be India.

PMIK claimed that Sino-Pak relations were very strong and they had nothing to do with India. Coming in fierce defence of China, he described the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project as very exciting and disclosed Pakistani plans for attracting Chinese investment for spe-cial economic zones in Paki-stan as the labour was much cheaper there.

PMIK’s forthright and carte blanche support to the Chi-nese president on the issues of bilateral ties, the CPEC, and

the Chinese system of gover-nance is interpreted by experts as flattery. The sources feel that PMIK’s pro-China statements were possibly based on a script written in Beijing and deliv-ered to Imran Khan for par-roting. For whatever he said on July 1, it is difficult to con-ceive that he would escape the criticism of the US and other Western countries for his anti-West rhetoric to mollycoddle China. As PMIK chose to name India while raising the Kashmir issue to the Chinese media persons and justified Chinese aggressive persecu-tion of the Uighurs, he bla-tantly stood exposed amongst the Muslims. This act of indif-ference towards a section of Muslims exposes Imran’s dubi-ous role. On the one hand, he is critical of the Israeli excesses against the Palestinians but, on the other, he is openly sup-portive of the Chinese govern-ment in its crackdown on the Uighurs. Muslims, the world over, are unlikely to spare Imran for this diabolical step. It is also assessed that radical Islamic groups within Paki-

stan will come down heavily on PMIK for such statements and apathy shown towards the Chinese Muslims.

Meanwhile, President Xi Jinping shot out a seri-ous warning to all the foreign forces that China would not allow itself to be bullied and protect its territorial integ-rity and sovereignty. Address-ing thousands of people at the centurion event of the CCP, Xi hailed China’s much-hyped “national rejuvenation” theme. At the celebrations, there was also a massive show of mili-tary strength when military helicopters presented a fly-past followed by 15 J-20 stealth Air Force fighters. Utilising this opportunity to reach out to the Chinese masses, Xi praised the CCP’s concept of socialism and pointed towards the charac-teristics that are expected to transform the country from a highly centralised planned economy to a socialist market economy.

Chinese President’s warn-ing shots apart from its flex-ing of muscles to demonstrate its military, political and social power cautioned the world powers not to underestimate the resolve, the will, and the ability of the Chinese peo-ple to defend their unity and sovereignty. In light of these developments, China’s self-confidence and self-perceived impression of military superi-ority calls for a close watch on its emerging bonhomie with Pakistan. It is imperative there-fore to exercise more caution on the deepening of Sino-Pak relations. India’s military pre-paredness and timely intel-ligence assessment need to be the top priority to thwart threats emanating from the Sino-Pak military axis amid a self-created euphoria.

The writer is a retired IPS officer, a security analyst and a former

National Security Advisor to the PM of Mauritius. Views

expressed are personal

A large part of the total MSME units across the country was left out of ECLGS

At the centurion event of the CCP, Xi hailed China’s much-hyped “national rejuvenation” theme

The government will aid Rs 33,000 crore to exporters through NEIA and will also provide export insurance cover of Rs 88,000 crore to accelerate exports

On the one hand, Imran Khan is critical of the Israeli excesses against the Palestinians but, on the other, he is openly supportive of the Chinese government in its crackdown on the Uighurs

8 millenniumpostWorldmpMONDAY, 5 JULY, 2021 | NEW DELHI

Face masks to become personal choice as UK lifts lockdown

LONDON: The use of face masks as protection against Coronavirus will become a mat-ter of "personal choice" as the UK lifts legal lockdown mea-sures in place later this month, a Cabinet minister said on Sunday.

Housing Secretary Rob-ert Jenrick said there will be a move towards greater personal responsibility as the UK pre-pares to end lockdown restric-tions from July 19.

His comments came as several UK media reports on Sunday indicated that Prime Minister Boris Johnson is pre-paring to declare an end to com-pulsory face masks and other measures during the course of the next week.

"It does look as if thanks to the success of the vaccine pro-gramme that we now have the scope to roll back those restric-tions and return to a normality as far as possible," Jenrick told the BBC.

We now have to move into a different period where we learn to live with the virus, we take precautions and we as individ-uals take personal responsibil-ity," he said.

When asked if the require-ment to wear face masks in cer-tain settings will definitely go, he

added: "I can't make that com-mitment this morning because the Prime Minister will make an announcement in the com-ing days it does look if the data is in the right place."

In an interview with Sky News', the Cabinet minister said that like many people, he wants to get away from the restrictions as quickly as possible.

He said: We don't want them to stay in place for a day longer than is necessary. We are going to now move into a period where there won't be

legal restrictions the state won't be telling you what to do but you will want to exercise a degree of personal responsibility and judgement.

"So different people will come to different conclusions on things like masks, for example."

The comment come a day after the British Medical Asso-ciation (BMA) had called on the government to keep in place some lockdown mea-sures, such as the compulsory use of face masks in enclosed spaces, in place beyond the July

19 timeline.As case numbers continue

to rise at an alarming rate due to the rapid transmission of the Delta variant and an increase in people mixing with one another, it makes no sense to remove restrictions in their entirety in just over two weeks' time, warned Dr Chaand Nagpaul, BMA Council Chair.

However, the indications are that the British Prime Minister is keen to move on towards the so-called Freedom Day with an end of several restrictive mea-

sures, including the requirement to scan a QR code when enter-ing a bar, restaurant, hairdresser, gym, museum or other venues.

According to The Sunday Times', in a press conference next week, Boris Johnson is expected to announce plans to drop social distancing rules and to reject proposals for a domes-tic COVID-19 passport.

"We believe it is now time for the public to start learning to live with COVID, it quoted a Downing Street source as say-ing. All the data and scientific modelling suggests that the lift-ing of restrictions will lead to a rise in cases but with the con-tinued success of the vaccine rollout and the break in the link between hospitalisations and deaths we are confident there will be no risk of it putting sig-nificant additional pressure on the NHS, the source said.

A further 24,885 cases of Coronavirus and 18 COVID-19 deaths were recorded in the UK on Saturday.

According to the National Health Service (NHS) data, more than 33 million people in Britain have now had their second dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and over 85 per cent of adults have been vaccinated with a first dose. AGENCIES

Housing Secretary says there will be a move towards greater personal responsibility as UK prepares to end lockdown restrictions from July 19

Oxygen shortages hit B’deshHOSPITALS UNABLE TO

COPE WITH COVID SURGE

DHAKA: Empty oxygen cylin-ders are piling up almost as fast as bodies in the city of Khulna, which has become Bangladesh's Coronavirus hotspot in a dire new surge.

The government has ordered a strict week-long nationwide lockdown in a bid to halt the spread of COVID-19, but Khul-na’s hospitals cannot cope, AFP reported.

Neither can relatives of the dead. Mohammad Siddik leaned against empty cylinders under a hospital emergency porch, tear-fully telling relatives in phone calls that his 50-year-old brother had died.

The 42-year-old business-man brought his brother to hospital as his condition dete-riorated. But there was no bed and no oxygen, he told AFP.

“He passed away gasping for air in the hospital corridor,” said Siddik.

“They didn’t give him any oxygen until the end.”

The southwestern district bordering India’s West Bengal state has seen a sharp rise in Coronavirus infections blamed on the more contagious Delta variant, which was first detected in India.

On Thursday, Khulna city recorded 46 virus deaths, according to an official count, while in earlier waves the daily death toll never went into dou-ble figures.

Most people in the city of 680,000 people say the real toll is much higher and, according to reports, graveyards cannot

cope with the number of dead in nearby cities such as Satkhira.

The main state-run Khulna general hospital is one of four in the city treating Coronavi-rus patients and has 400 beds but demand far outstrips supply.

“We have been dealing with enormous admission pressure in hospitals,” said Niaz Muham-mad, chief government doctor for the Khulna region.

He denied there was an oxy-gen shortage.

‘The situation is dire’But another grieving relative

also told how her brother had died without oxygen.

Afroza, who gave only one name, shed tears in a hospi-tal ward.

“If only they could have given a little oxygen to my brother, he would still be alive,” she said.

Police and troops have patrolled the streets across Bangladesh, home to 168 mil-

lion people, since Thursday to enforce the lockdown. Hun-dreds of people have been arrested each day for leaving their homes.

In Khulna, restrictions on movement have been in place since last month, as the infec-tion rate has soared.

But the city’s factories are still open and many people say they are forced to go out to work.

Student Rafikul Islam said he walked seven kilometres (four miles) to his part-time factory job as there were no buses.

“Most shops and transport are shut down. But given Khul-na’s serious situation, we must maintain this. There is no other way. The situation is dire,” he said. Officially, Bangladesh has recorded just over 935,000 cases and 14,900 deaths in the past 15 months, but most people say the figures are drastically under-reported. AGENCIES

China's astronauts carry out 2nd spacewalk in its history

BEIJING: Chinese astronauts on Sunday successfully carried out the second spacewalk in the country's history as two of the three astronauts stepped out of the orbiting space station core module for seven hours and completed the designated tasks, China's space agency said.

China's first space walk was conducted during the Shen-zhou 7 manned mission in 2008, state-run CGTN-TV reported.

Sunday's mission was also China's first spacewalk outside the space station.

China launched three male astronauts -- Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming, and Tang Hongbo -- into space in June. Boming and

Hongbo, stationed in the space station core module Tianhe, ventured outside to conduct the first extravehicular activ-ities (EVAs) of their current mission with the support of a robotic arm, while Nie stayed in the cabin to command and assist them to conduct the tasks.

Liu and Tang spent nearly seven hours outside the sta-tion, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said.

The space station is expected to be ready by next year. The three astronauts boarded the core module on June 17. The Chinese space station was expected to be a competitor to the aging Inter-

national Space Station (ISS), which is a modular space sta-

tion in low Earth orbit.The ISS is a multinational

collaborative project involving five participating space agen-cies -- NASA (US), Roscomos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe) and CSA (Canada).

China's Tiangong is expected to be the sole space station once ISS retires. The station has a robotic arm over which the US has raised con-cerns for its possible mili-tary applications as it can be stretched to 15 metres long.

China in the past has launched several scavenger sat-ellites fitted with robotic arms to gather and steer space debris so it burns up in the Earth's atmosphere. The scheduled tasks of the EVAs, including equipment installation and

panoramic camera lifting, were accomplished with close coor-dination between space and the ground, as well as between the astronauts inside and outside of the spacecraft.

The EVAs tested the per-formance and function of the new-generation home-made extravehicular mobil-ity units and the coordination between the astronauts and the mechanical arm, as well as the reliability and safety of related EVA supporting equip-ment, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. This has laid an important foundation for subsequent EVAs for the space station construction, the CMSA said. AGENCIES

Sunday's mission was also China's first spacewalk outside the new space station

2 dead, 20 missing as mudslide rips through Japan town

TOKYO: A gush of mud that swept away homes and cars in a resort town southwest of Tokyo left at least two people dead and about 20 missing, officials said Sunday.

Ten people were rescued and as many as 80 homes buried in Atami, where hundreds of fire-fighters, military troops and three coast guard ships worked from daybreak Saturday to try to reach those believed to be trapped or carried away by the mudslide.

The deluge crashed down a mountainside into rows of houses following heavy rains that began several days ago. Bystanders, their gasps of hor-ror audible, caught the scene on cell phone video. Witnesses said they heard a giant roar and then watched helplessly as homes got gobbled up by the muddy waves.

The two people confirmed

dead, both women, had been swept to the sea and were found by the coast guard, said Tatsu-shi Ueda, a Shizuoka prefecture official in charge of disaster pre-vention. Of the 10 who were rescued, one suffered minor injuries. In Atami, 121 people had been evacuated, said Ueda.

Prime Minister Yoshihide

Suga has set up a task force for the rescue effort. Atami is a quaint seaside resort area in Shizuoka prefecture, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) south-west of Tokyo. The area that was hit by the mudslide, Izu-san, includes hot springs, resi-dential areas, shopping streets and a famous shrine. AGENCIES

Three dead as Elsa speeds through Caribbean

PORT-AU-PRINCE(Haiti): Tropical Storm Elsa battered the southern coasts of Haiti and the Dominican Republic on Satur-day, downing trees and blow-ing off roofs as it sped through the Caribbean, killing at least three people.

The storm was centered about 175 miles (280 kilome-ters) east-southeast of Montego Bay, Jamaica, and was swirling west-northwest at 17 mph (28 kph). It had maximum sustained winds of 65 mph (100 kph) as the tropical storm, which had been a Category 1 hurricane earlier on Saturday, weakened in

its approach to Hispaniola and Cuba, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

The storm was forecast to hit Cuba next on a path that would take it to Florida, with some models showing it would spin into the Gulf or up the Atlantic Coast. A tropical storm watch was in effect for the Florida Keys from Craig Key westward to Dry Tortugas. Elsa prompted Gov. Ron DeSantis to declare a state of emergency in 15 Florida counties, including in Miami-Dade County where the high-rise condominium building collapsed last week. AGENCIES

Cyprus: 4 found dead in 'most destructive' forest blaze

NICOSIA (Cyprus): Cyprus search crews discovered the bodies of four people outside a fire-swept mountain vil-lage on Sunday in what the a government minister called the most destructive blaze in the east Mediterranean island nation's history. Interior Minis-ter Nicos Nouris said that Civil Defense volunteers discovered the remains just outside the vil-lage of Odou on the southern edge of the Troodos mountain range. We are experiencing the most destructive fire since the

founding of the Cyprus repub-lic in both material damage, but also unfortunately in terms of human lives," Nouris said.

Authorities believe the bod-ies belong to four Egyptian laborers who had gone miss-ing Saturday evening. Nouris said he has informed the Egyp-tian ambassador to Cyprus and that arrangements will be made to repatriate the remains.

President Nicos Anastasia-des called the fire an unprece-dented tragedy" except for the destruction wreaked by a 1974

war that split the island along ethnic lines after Turkey invaded in response to a coup aimed at union with Greece. Nouris said Greek and Israeli aircraft will join 11 other planes and helicop-ters in firefighting efforts later Sunday. The blaze, which began on Saturday afternoon outside the village of Arakapas, forced the evacuation of at least eight mountain villages, destroyed several homes, and has so far scorched 55 square kilometers (21 square miles) of pine forest and orchards. AGENCIES

This photo released by Xinhua News Agency shows a screen at Beijing Aerospace Control Center showing an astronaut stepping out of core module of the China's new space station in space on Sunday PTI

Rescuers conduct a search operation at the site of a mudslide at Izusan in Atami, Shizuoka prefecture, southwest of Tokyo, Sunday PTI

Taliban take districts in northern Afghanistan

from fleeing troopsKABUL: The Taliban's march through northern Afghani-stan gained momentum over-night with the capture of several districts from fleeing Afghan forces, several hundred of whom fled across the border into Tajik-istan, officials said Sunday.

More than 300 Afghan mili-tary personnel crossed from Afghanistan's Badakhshan province as Taliban fighters advanced toward the border, Tajikistan's State Committee for National Security said in a statement. The Afghan troops crossed over at about 6:30 pm local time Saturday

Guided by the principles of humanism and good neigh-borliness, the Tajik authorities allowed the retreating Afghan National Defense and Security Forces to cross into Tajikistan, said the statement.

Since mid-April, when US President Joe Biden announced the end to Afghanistan's for-ever war, the Taliban have made strides throughout the country.

But their most significant gains have been in the northern half of the country, a traditional stronghold of the US-allied war-lords who helped defeat them in 2001.

The Taliban now control roughly a third of all 421 dis-tricts and district centers in Afghanistan.

The gains in northeastern Badakhshan province in recent days have mostly come to the insurgent movement without a

fight, said Mohib-ul Rahman, a provincial council member. He blamed Taliban successes on the poor morale of troops who are mostly outnumbered and with-out resupplies.

Unfortunately, the major-ity of the districts were left to Taliban without any fight, said Rahman. In the last three days, 10 districts fell to Taliban, eight without a fight, he said.

Hundreds of Afghan army, police and intelligence troops surrendered their military outposts and fled to the Bada-khshan provincial capital of Faizabad, said Rahman.

Even as a security meeting was being held early Sunday to plot the strengthening of the perimeter around the capital, some senior provincial officials were leaving Faizabad for the capital Kabul, he said.

In late June the Afghan gov-ernment resurrected militias with a reputation of brutal vio-lence to support the beleaguered Afghan forces but Rahman said many of the militias in the Bada-khshan districts put up only a half-hearted fight. AGENCIES

A man assists a patient facing difficulties in breathing at the Medical College Hospital in Rajshahi, 254 kilometers (158 miles) north of the capital, Dhaka, Bangladesh PTI

The Taliban now control roughly a third of all 421 districts and district centers in Afghanistan

Court OKs probe of

Brazil Prez Bolsonaro

RIO DE JANEIRO: Protests against President Jair Bolsonaro spread across Brazil on Saturday, a day after a Supreme Court justice authorised a criminal investigation into his response to allegations of potential cor-ruption involving a vaccine deal.

Demonstrators gathered by the hundreds or thousands in more than 40 cities to demand Bolsonaro's impeachment or greater access to vaccines against COVID-19.

"If we have a minute of silence for each COVID death, we would be quiet until June 2022," read a poster held aloft by a man in Belem, the capital of Para state. More than half a million Brazilians have died, by official count. In Friday's deci-sion, Supreme Court Justice Rosa Weber said the investiga-tion is supported by recent tes-timony in a Senate committee investigating the government's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prosecutors will investigate whether Bolsonaro commit-ted the crime of "prevarica-tion," which entails delaying or refraining from action required as part of a public official's duty for reasons of personal interest. Weber didn't rule out the possi-bility other potential wrongdo-ing could be investigated.

The inquiry comes after Luis Ricardo Miranda, the chief of the Health Ministry's import division, said he faced undue pressure to sign off on the import of 20 million vaccines from Indian pharmaceutical Bharat Biotech. AGENCIES

Nearly 15 mn Americans have missed their second COVID-19 vaccine dose: Report

WASHINGTON DC: Nearly 15 million people in the US have missed their second dose of the Coronavirus vaccine, handing an intriguing problem to the authorities amid vary-ing immunisation timelines and the spread of the highly transmissible delta variant, according to media reports on Sunday.

As of June 16, nearly 11 per cent of vaccine recipients in the US have not taken their sec-ond dose, The Washington Post reported quoting data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The second dose is consid-ered 'missed', if 42 days have elapsed since the first shot, the newspaper reported.

Ideally, the second jab is advised three weeks after the first Pfizer-BioNTech shot or four weeks after the first Mod-

erna shot.The health department is

considering a booster shot on top of the two m-RNA jabs, however authorities admit the case could get complicated for the ones who have missed their second doses.

Health officials are further concerned as the delta vari-

ant -- first identified in India -- continues to spread.

Last week, the World Health Organization cautioned that the Delta variant is continuing to evolve and mutate placing the world in a very "dangerous period" of the pandemic.

Compounded by more transmissible variants, like

Delta, which is quickly becom-ing the dominant strain in many countries, we are in a very dangerous period of this pandemic, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press briefing.

In a report, CNN said the vaccines are far more effective against the Delta variant but for that both jabs need to be administered.

The Delta variant has so far been detected in at least 95 countries, though the number is believed to higher as some countries may not have the sequencing capacity to iden-tify the strain.

Disease expert Kristen Marks told the Washington Post that if more people con-tinue to skip the second dose the rate of new infections will increase. AGENCIES

9millenniumpost Business mpNEW DELHI | MONDAY, 5 JULY, 2021

NEW DELHI: Sebi has imposed penalties totalling more than Rs 32 crore on IL&FS Securities Services Ltd (ISSL), Allied Financial Services Pvt Ltd (AFSPL) and three individuals for lapses in connection with alleged fraudulent transfer of mutual fund units of three companies.

Besides, the watchdog has passed various directions against them.

The regulator has passed two separate orders, dated July 2, against ISSL, and AFSPL and its three directors after it carried out a detailed investigation into the matter for the period from February 20, 2017 till February 8, 2019.

ISSL is a clearing member while AFSPL is a depository participant.

While imposing a fine of Rs 26 crore on ISSL, a clearing member, and also passing certain directions, Sebi noted that its order would be subject to any order passed by the Supreme Court.

Also, enforcement of the

liability and the order would be subject to the orders of the National Company Law Tribunal and the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT).

These directions come against the backdrop of the entire IL&FS Group, including ISSL, undergoing a resolution process. In January 2021, Sebi held that it has the jurisdiction to determine the monetary and non-monetary liabilities of ISSL in case there are violations and the order was also upheld by the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) while ISSL's appeal is pending before the Supreme Court.

In the 68-page order, Sebi noted that ISSL being a clearing member has admitted to committing serious lapses in risk management by submitting that it followed a practice under which collateral can be returned to all its empanelled trading members, upon receipt of a request from the client. AGENCIES

NEW DELHI: Vodafone Idea can raise funds through equity sale or promoters can infuse capital which can be used for clearing dues, non-profit entity Telecom Watchdog said in a let-ter to telecom minister while demanding rejection of the debt-ridden company's request seeking more time to pay dues of Rs 8,292 crore. Vodafone Idea (Vi) has approached the govern-ment to seek one-year morato-rium on payment of spectrum instalment of over Rs 8,200 crore, due in April 2022.

Vi, in a letter to the telecom secretary on June 25, 2021, said it would be unable to pay the instalment of Rs 8,292 crore due on April 9, 2022 due to cash being used for payment of AGR (Adjusted Gross Revenue) dues and the inability of the opera-tions to generate the required cash in a predatory pricing sit-uation .

Vi has also said that while it is working on raising new funding for the past six months, investors are not willing to invest in the company because they believe that unless there is a significant improvement in consumer tariffs, the health of the industry will not recover and they will incur a loss on their investment .

Telecom Watchdog in a let-ter alleged that there is no basis in Vi representation that invest-ment is not coming to India due to lower tariffs and these "false claims by VIL are made with an ulterior motive to avoid pay-ment of the next instalment of government dues." AGENCIES

DUBAI: The United Arab Emirates on Sunday pushed back against a plan by the OPEC oil cartel and allied pro-ducing countries to extend the global pact to cut oil produc-tion beyond April 2022, a rare statement revealing the coun-try's frustration with the group.

The Emirati Ministry of Energy called the proposal to extend the agreement for the entirety of 2022 without rais-ing its production quota unfair to the UAE, according to state-run WAM news agency.

One of the group's larg-est oil producers, the UAE is seeking to increase its output setting up a contest with ally and OPEC heavyweight Saudi Arabia, which has led a push to keep a tight lid on production.

The combined OPEC Plus grouping of members led by Saudi Arabia and non-mem-bers, chief among them Russia, failed to reach an agreement Friday on oil output. Negotia-tions over the dispute are set to resume Monday.

The UAE said it supported plans for output increases over

the summer, believing the market to be in dire need of higher production. The coun-try suggested deferring the whole discussion of the agree-ment's extension to a later meeting and appealed for an updated production quota that reflects our current production capacity.

OPEC faces conflict-ing pressures after last year's plunge in oil prices as the pan-demic wiped out travel and energy use. The oil producers' sharp output cuts kept prices from collapsing even more than they did.

Raising production now, as vaccination campaigns stoke hopes of economic recov-ery, would increase revenues for producing countries that have seen their budgets hard hit by lower prices. But pump-ing too much too soon could undermine the rebound in energy prices. In an interview with CNBC on Sunday, Emi-rati Energy Minister Suhail al-Mazrouei voiced concerns over the Saudi-led production restraints. AGENCIES

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: State-owned ONGC on Sunday said it will procure equipment and services worth over Rs 30,000 crore to support its oil and gas exploration and production operations, which will provide local entities business and support 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat' initiative.

"Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) is going all out in its efforts to realise the dream of Aatmanirbhar Bharat. At the heart of its endeavours are enhanced transparency and streamlined contracting practices, which will enable the promotion of a business friendly environment for ONGC's business partners," the company said in a statement.

To promote its renewed push to ease contracted business practices, ONGC organised a special online

business partners' meet, titled 'Building Bridges in ONGC's Supply Chain: Aatmanirbhar Bharat: Prosperous India'.

ONGC chairman and managing director Subhash Kumar, along with company directors, interacted with the equipment and service providers and took their suggestions in order to further improve and simplify procedures.

"ONGC estimates to spend Rs 15,500 crore on major LSTK

(lump sum turnkey) projects, Rs 13,600 crore on major services, and Rs 2,250 crore on major material procurement in FY 2021-22 (April 2021 to March 2022)," the statement said.

At the meet, ONGC shared details on various initiatives such as the introduction of a new development order policy, introduction of online vendor invoice management system, encouragement towards startups, as well as promoting its efforts to encourage indigenous business partners.

Kumar said ONGC is adopting technology-enabled processes that can improve transparency, and minimise human intervention.

O P Singh, Director (Technology & Field Services) and Director In-charge of Materials Management, spoke on promoting localisation initiatives under the 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat'.

"The move for promoting local ventures is a key driver in this reform exercise by ONGC, whose average annual purchases are in excess of Rs 30,000 crore," he said.

In a free-wheeling interactive session following presentations, ONGC business partners pitched their suggestions for relaxing certain bid evaluation criteria, such as the financial criteria of contracted partners, experience of group companies to be considered for qualification, certification criteria of vessels, realistic completion schedules for turnkey projects, and more.

ONGC management addressed specific queries raised and also assured them that issues raised will be subsequently looked into in order to increase competitive efficiency while prioritising safety, quality and timely completions, the statement added.

NEW DELHI: State-owned GAIL India Ltd is eyeing expansion in petrochemicals, specialty chemicals and renew-ables as it pivots a new strategy to expand the business beyond natural gas, its chairman Manoj Jain said.

The nation's largest gas marketer and shipper has adopted a revised future blue-print, called 'Strategy 2030' to define its journey through the next decade. "This strate-gic plan will help us to address our challenges in changing industry scenarios and provide new areas for growth with geo-graphic expansion," he told the news agency in an interview.

GAIL transports over 70 per cent of all gas shipped in the country through its net-work of 13,340-km network of natural gas trunk pipelines. It sells 55 per cent of all natu-ral gas in the country and has petrochemical plants at Pata in Uttar Pradesh and Lepatkata in Assam that gives it a 17.5 per cent market share.

The firm will convert an existing LPG Plant at Usar in Raigad district of Maharash-tra into 500,000 tonnes per annum polypropylene com-

plex with an estimated invest-ment of Rs 8,800 crore by 2023-24, he said adding the company will explore oppor-tunities in the petrochemicals segment to meet high future demand of polyethylene and polypropylene.

"We are also assessing opportunities for certain spe-cialty chemicals in India," he said.

GAIL has a small portfo-lio of 120 MW of wind and solar power generation capac-ity which it plans to scale up to 1 GW at an investment of Rs 4,000 crore in next 3-4 years.

"While gas will remain our core segment, we will look for

growth in other areas such as petrochemicals, specialty chemicals, renewables, water, etc to reach new heights in coming years," he said. "This with a view to build a strong business portfolio and organ-isation structure which is not only robust enough to respond to the fast-changing business scenario but also unlocks growth opportunities for the long-term growth of the company."

GAIL is investing Rs 32,000 crore in laying important sec-tions of National Gas Grid -- about 7,500-km of lines, mostly to the eastern part of the country.

The company is talking to city gas licence holders to set up liquefied natural gas (LNG) dispensing stations on National Highways to supply fuel to long-haul trucks and buses.

It is also setting up com-pressed biogas plants to con-vert municipal waste into gas that can be used as fuel (CNG) in automobiles and in house-holds for cooking purposes.

Besides, it plans to set up ethanol units that can convert agriculture waste or sugarcane into less polluting fuel that can be doped in petrol, helping cut India's import dependence, he said.

While the renewable energy push would cost Rs 4,000 crore, setting up at least two com-pressed biogas plants and an ethanol factory would entail an investment of about Rs 800-1,000 crore, he said.

India, which imports 85 per cent of its crude oil needs, is stepping up efforts to explore new forms of energy to clean up the skies and reduce depen-dence on imported fuels.

Jain said GAIL is setting up its first compressed biogas (CBG) plant in Ranchi at a cost of Rs 200-300 crore.

The facility will produce five tonnes of CBG per day and approximately 25 tonnes of bio-manure using municipal waste.

"The gas produced will be fed into the city gas network supplying CNG to automobiles and piped natural gas to house-holds. This will help reduce pollution," he said.

GAIL has floated an expres-sion of interest (EoI) seeking partners for the setting up of CBG plants.

It also plans to set up an ethanol manufacturing unit, he said.

The move by GAIL, which commands a 75 per cent mar-ket share in gas transmission and more than 50 per cent share in gas trading in India, is seen as part of the govern-ment's vision to prepare for the energy transition process, under which the share of gas in the energy mix is sought to be raised to 15 per cent by 2030, from the current 6.2 per cent.

GAIL recently signed an agreement with Carbon Clean Solutions Ltd. Under this, CCSL will initially build four CBG plants using its own funding, technology, and expertise. AGENCIES

NEW DELHI: State-run power giant NTPC Ltd has invited Expression of Interest (EOI) for sale of fly ash from the desig-nated ports of the Middle East and other regions in its endeav-our towards 100 per cent utili-sation of fly ash.

The tender application for the EOI for sale of fly ash from the designated ports of the Middle East and other regions commenced on July 1, 2021, and will conclude on July 25, 2021, an NTPC statement said.

Sustainable ash utilisation is one of the key concern areas at NTPC and the company is ensuring sustainable solutions for complete utilisation for it. Fly ash is a by-product of power generation with coal.

The fly ash generated at NTPC stations is ideal for use in the manufacture of cement,

concrete, concrete products, cellular concrete products and for bricks/blocks and tiles.

NTPC has collaborated with cement manufacturers around the country to supply fly ash. The power producer is leveraging Indian Railways' sprawling network to transport fly ash in an economical and environment-friendly manner, it stated.

To promote the use of fly ash bricks in building construc-tion, NTPC has set up fly ash brick manufacturing plants at its coal-based thermal power plants. These bricks are being utilised in plants as well as township construction activi-ties exclusively.

On average, 60 million fly ash bricks are being manufac-tured annually by NTPC's own fly ash brick plants.

As per the MoEF&CC (Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change) directives, NTPC stations are keeping at least 20 per cent of total fly ash produced in reserve for the issue to fly ash brick/blocks/tiles manufactur-ers and issuing fly ash free of cost to them.

About 9 per cent of the total fly ash produced in NTPCs sta-tions, is being utilised by fly ash bricks/blocks and tiles man-ufacturing units annually, it added.

Further, during the year 2020-21, almost 15 NTPC sta-tions supplied fly ash to various road projects and ash utilisa-tion crossed by nearly 20 mil-lion tonnes. Over the last five years the fly ash utilisation has grown up by 80 per cent in the country, it added. AGENCIES

NEW DELHI: State-run power giant NTPC and upstream oil firm ONGC have planned to boost the development of off-shore wind energy in India, which is blessed with a coast-line of about 7,600 km sur-rounded by water on three sides and has good prospects of har-nessing this clean source. Ear-lier in May last year, NTPC and ONGC had signed a memoran-dum of understanding (MoU) to accelerate their footprint in the renewable energy space.

As per the MoU, NTPC and ONGC will explore the setting up of offshore wind and other renewable energy projects in India and overseas. The pact also provided that they shall also explore opportunities in the fields of sustainability, storage, E-mobility and ESG (Environ-mental, Social and Governance) compliant projects.

Now, the MoU assumes significance in view of, almost doubling the target of renew-able energy capacity addition to 60GW by 2032 by NTPC

last month.Moreover, NTPC has also

shown its intention to bring an initial public offer of its arm NTPC Renewable Energy Ltd to raise funds for achieving 60 GW clean energy capacity by 2032 which requires about Rs 2.5 lakh crore investment.

A senior official said that NTPC as well as ONGC want to boost the offshore wind energy capacity in the country which is more efficient than the onshore wind turbines. The official fur-ther said that the onshore wind turbine efficiency is up to 25 per cent while offshore windmills can be 50 to 60 per cent effi-cient and this is relevant in view of limited land resources in the country and also safety aspects.

Keeping in view the 7,600 km long coastline and the expertise of ONGC in handling offshore operations, this asso-ciation can bring a sea change in this segment of clean energy, the official added.

According to the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy

(MNRE) portal, offshore wind turbines are much larger in size (in range of 5 to 10 MW per tur-bine) as against 2-3 MW of an onshore wind turbine.

While the cost per MW for offshore turbines is higher because of stronger structures and foundations needed in marine environments, the desir-able tariffs can be achieved on account of higher efficiencies of these turbines after the develop-ment of the ecosystem, it says.

The MNRE has set a tar-get of 5 GW of offshore wind installations by 2022 and 30 GW by 2030. The wind resources assessment carried out by the National Institute of Wind Energy (NIWE) gives total wind energy potential at 302 GW at 100-meter hub height.

Out of the total estimated potential more than 95 per cent of commercially exploit-able wind resources are concen-trated in seven states (Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and TN). AGENCIES

NEW DELHI: Diesel price on Sunday crossed Rs 100 a litre mark in some places in Madhya Pradesh, while Sikkim became the latest state to see Rs 100 per litre petrol price after yet another hike in fuel rates.

Petrol price was increased by 35 paise per litre and die-sel by 18 paise a litre, accord-ing to a price notification from state-owned fuel retailers. The increase - 34th in petrol and 33rd in diesel in two months - pushed rates across the country to fresh highs. In Delhi, petrol

now comes for Rs 99.51 a litre and diesel is priced at Rs 89.36 per litre. Fuel prices differ from state to state depending on the incidence of local taxes such as value-added tax (VAT) and freight charges. And for this rea-son, petrol has crossed the Rs 100-a-litre mark in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra,

Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Jammu and Kash-mir, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Ker-ala, Bihar, Punjab and Ladakh.

Sikkim joined that list on Sunday. Petrol in state capital Gangtok is now priced at Rs 100.15 a litre and diesel comes for Rs 91.55. Petrol has crossed Rs 100 a litre mark in metro cit-ies of Mumbai, Chennai, Benga-luru, Hyderabad and Pune and it is over Rs 99 in other two cit-ies of Delhi and Kolkata.

Rates of diesel, the most used fuel in the country, have

crossed the Rs 100-a-litre mark in Sri Ganganagar and Hanu-mangarh in Rajasthan as well in some places in Odisha. And on Sunday, Rewa, Shahdol and Balaghat in Madhya Pradesh saw those levels.

The hike on Sunday is the 34th increase in price of petrol and 33rd in case of diesel since May 4, when state-owned oil firms ended an 18-day hiatus in rate revision they observed during assembly elections in states like West Bengal.

In 34 hikes, the price of pet-

rol has risen by Rs 9.11 per litre. Diesel rates have soared by Rs 8.63 a litre in 33 instances of price increase. Oil companies revise rates of petrol and diesel daily based on the average price of benchmark fuel in the inter-national market in the preceding 15 days, and foreign exchange rates. International oil prices have climbed in recent weeks on optimism of a quick recov-ery in fuel demand. Brent crude touched the USD 75 per barrel mark, the first time since April 2019. AGENCIES

NEW DELHI: India's total coal production registered a marginal decline of 2.02 per cent to 716.084 million tonnes during the last fiscal year.

The country had produced 730.874 million tonnes (MT) of coal in FY'20, according provisional statistics of 2020-21 of the coal ministry.

Of the total production of 716.084 MT, 671.297 MT was non-coking coal and the remaining 44.787 MT was coking coal, it said.

Of the total output of the nation, a chunk of 685.951 MT was produced by the public sector, and the remaining production of 30.133 MT was from the private sector.

In FY 2020-21, Chhattisgarh registered highest coal production of 158.409 MT, followed by Odisha 154.150 MT, Madhya Pradesh 132.531 MT, and Jharkhand 119.296 MT.

Like previous years, in

FY'21, Jharkhand was the top producer of coking coal with an output of 44.387 MT, which was 99.11 per cent of total coking coal production of 44.787 MT.

Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi said even though the effect of the pandemic has been everywhere, coal sector has shown its resilience reflecting the criticality of its contribution to the steady development of India's economy.

Coal secretary Anil Kumar Jain said that coal forms the backbone of India's energy system as it contributes to nearly 58 per cent of the country's commercial primary energy supply and coal-based power forms more than 70 per cent of power generated in the country.

Coal India Ltd alone accounts for 83.26 per cent of coal production in the country. AGENCIES

UAE rebuffs plan by OPEC to extend production pact

UAE says it supported plans for output increases over the summer, believing the market to be in dire need of higher production

ONGC to procure equipment, services worth over ̀ 30,000 crore

Diesel crosses `100 in Madhya PradeshSikkim latest state to see Rs 100 a litre petrol

NTPC floats tender for sale of fly ash at desired ports of Middle East

India's coal production drops marginally by 2% to 716 mn tonnes in FY21

NTPC, ONGC to boost growth of offshore wind energy

Telecom Watchdog

against Vi plea for deferring

payments

Sebi slaps over `32 cr penalties on IISL, AFSL,

three individuals

GAIL looks at petrochemicals, renewables for growth‘This strategic plan will help us to address our challenges in changing industry

scenarios and provide new areas for growth with geographic expansion’

GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGALNotice Inviting Tender (NIT)

Memo No- SSKM /MSVP/ 768 Dated-25.06.2021The MSVP, IPGMER-SSKM Hospital, Kolkata-700020 having its office at 244, A.J.C Bose Road, Kolkata700020 is inviting tender for some Drugs and equipments of Linen Store of IPGMER-SSKM Hospital, from the bonafide bidder. For details log on to www.wbhealth.gov.in or www.ipgmer.gov.in.Technical & Financial Bid submission closing date- 16.07.2021 at 2pm

ICA- T7780(3)/2021ICA- T7774(3)/2021

ICA- T7778(4)/2021ICA- T7782(2)/2021

JK CEMENT EXPECTS 10% REVENUE GROWTH THIS FISCALNEW DELHI: JK Cement Ltd, part of J.K. Organisation, targets up to 10 per cent growth in its revenue this fiscal, helped by the government's push for infrastruc-ture, a good monsoon and pent-up demand for the sector, said a top company official. Despite a blip in sales in the April-June 2021 quarter on account of pandemic-led disruptions, JK Cement is "optimistic" and expects its growth momentum to continue in 2021-22 also, recovering quickly in the rest of nine months led by a "good growth", JK Cement Chief Operating Officer (Grey Cement Business) Rajnish Kapur said.

HONDA PLANS TO HIKE VEHICLE PRICES FROM AUGUST AS INPUT COSTS GO UPNEW DELHI: Japanese automaker Honda plans to increase prices of its entire model range in India from the next month as it looks to offset the impact of a sharp increase in the procurement cost of various essential commodities like steel and precious metals, according to a senior company official. The company, which sells various models, including City and Amaze, is currently working on the quantum of the increase it would pass on to customers. "The prices for raw materials like steel, aluminium and precious metals have increased sharply and many of them are at an all-time high, impacting our input costs significantly," Honda Cars India Senior VP and Director (Marketing and Sales) Rajesh Goel said.

LIC IPO

Business Briefs

10 millenniumpostBusinessmpMONDAY, 5 JULY, 2021 | NEW DELHI

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: To reduce land desertification and pro-vide livelihood, Khadi and Vil-lage Industries Commission (KVIC) initiated a project on Sunday by planting 5,000 sap-lings of special bamboo species in Rajasthan.

The KVIC in a statement said the project named 'Bam-boo Oasis on Lands in Drought' (BOLD) was launched on Sun-day from the tribal village Nichla Mandwa in Udaipur, Rajasthan, by KVIC Chairman Vinai Kumar Saxena in presence of local MP Arjun Lal Meena and over 2000 local villagers.

The KVIC said that Project BOLD, which seeks to create bamboo-based green patches in arid and semi-arid land zones, is aligned with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call for reduc-ing land degradation and pre-venting desertification in the country.

Under the project, 5,000 saplings of special bamboo spe-cies Bambusa Tulda and Bam-busa Polymorpha brought from Assam have been planted over 25 bigha (16 acres) of vacant arid Gram Panchayat land.

"KVIC has thus created a world record of planting the highest number of bamboo sap-lings on a single day at one loca-tion," it said.

The initiative has been launched as part of KVIC's 'Khadi Bamboo Festival' to cel-ebrate 75 years of independence Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav .

It said that KVIC is set to replicate the project at Dholera village in Ahmedabad district in Gujarat and Leh-Ladakh region by August this year.

"Total 15,000 bamboo sap-lings will be planted before August 21, the authority said.

India is a signatory to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).

In his keynote address at

the UN High-Level Dialogue on Desertification, Land Deg-radation and Drought on June 14, Prime Minister Modi gave a clarion call of restoring 26 mil-lion hectares of degraded land by 2030. This assumes great sig-nificance as nearly 30 percent of land in India is undergoing desertification at a rapid pace.

KVIC Chairman Vinai Kumar Saxena said the green patches of bamboo on these three places- Udaipur, Ahmed-abad and Ladakh- will help in reducing the land degradation percentage of the country, while on the other hand, they will be havens of sustainable develop-ment and food security.

Bamboo plantation drive on such a large scale will create additional income for the local tribal population while it will also support the local bamboo-based industries and thus boost the rural economy.

"In three years, these bam-boo patches will be able to meet the bamboo requirement of Agarbatti manufacturers in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. This way, the bamboo patches will fulfil the larger UN sustainable development goals (SDGs)," Saxena said.

Bamboo species Bambusa Tulda and Bambusa Plymorpha brought from Assam are used for making Agarbatti sticks and making furniture/ handicraft items, respectively.

The KVIC said that to develop the plantation site into a hub of beekeeping activities, it has planted 100 trees each of papaya, pomegranate and Moringa.

"KVIC has judiciously cho-

sen bamboo for developing green patches. Bamboos grow very fast and in about three years' time, they could be har-vested, and income recorded.

"In these three years, the 5,000 bamboo plants will pro-duce at least 20,000 bamboo logs weighing about 500 MT of bamboo. At the current mar-ket rate of Rs 5,000 per ton, this bamboo produce will generate an income of nearly Rs 25 lakh after three years and later on every year, thus supporting the local economy.

"Bamboo can be used for making agarbatti sticks, furni-ture, handicraft, musical instru-ments and paper pulp while the bamboo waste is widely used in making charcoal and fuel bri-quette, it said.

Bamboos are also known for conserving water and reducing evaporation of water from the land surface, which is an impor-tant feature in arid and drought-prone regions, it said.

MUMBAI: Despite the second wave of Covid-19 scuppering normal life, the deal street was busy in the first half of 2021, closing 44 per cent more deals worth $49.34 billion than in the same period in 2020 that was also ravaged by the first wave of the killer viral infections, shows an industry report.

Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) were worth $34.3 bil-lion in the same period in 2020.

Deal volume grew 5 per cent to 730 from 693 a year ago, according to the latest data from Refinitiv, the LSE Group arm that is into financial mar-kets data.

Of the total, cross-border M&As amounted to $21.73 bil-lion across 210 deals, up from $16.02 billion across 195 deals in the same period in 2020.

Globally, quarterly M&As surpassed $1 trillion for fourth consecutive quarter, making it the strongest year-on-year per-centage growth on record.

Worldwide M&As totalled $2.8 trillion during the first half, up a record 132 per cent compared to the same period last year. This is the strongest opening for deal making since records began in 1980. Of this deals bigger than $10 billion have increased 94 per cent, while deals of $1-5 billion have registered triple-digit percent-age gains.

US deals jumped to an all-time high of $1.4 trillion, up 264 per cent compared to last year, European deals rose 33 per cent to $556 billion and

deals across Asia-Pacific rose 83 per cent to $551.6 billion to an all-time high.

Technology, industrials, financials, energy & power led the deal street so far this year.

While technology sector deals accounted for a record 24 per cent of the total at $664.2 billion, up 363 per cent over last year, the industrials sector accounted for 11 per cent at USD306 billion, up 60 per cent. Financials accounted for 11 per cent at USD295 billion, more than double of the last year.

PEs-backed buyouts double to highest on record at $512.7 billion, a 152% increase over

last year. Private equity backed buyouts account for 18 per cent. By the number of deals, global PE-backed M&As rose 74 per cent, the highest since 1980.

From a dealmakers angel, Goldman Sachs maintained the top position for world-wide M&As boosted by the top ranking in the US, Europe and Japan, while Morgan Stanley took the top spot in Asia-Pacific. Led by Evercore Partners and Lazard, 10 inde-pendent advisory firms were placed among the top 25 global financial advisors during the year. PTI

NEW DELHI: Sales volume of real-time power market (RTM), which allows con-sumers to buy power just one hour before delivery, jumped over three-fold to 1,726 mil-lion units in June compared to the year-ago month at Indian Energy Exchange (IEX).

The RTM was launched last year on June 1, and had witnessed sales of 515 MU in the first month of operation at IEX, according to the data available on the exchange.

Total RTM sale volume from June 2020 to June 2021 was recorded at 14,104 mil-lion units while it was 60,384 million units for Day Ahead Market (DAM).

According to the IEX data, the average monthly price of the RTM remained lower than that of the day ahead market (DAM) or at same level (of DAM) during the period from June 2020 to June 2021 except in December 2020. PTI

NEW DELHI: In reversal of a two-month selling trend, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) in June turned out to be net buyers by investing a net Rs 13,269 crore in Indian markets.

This could be attributed to improvement in investor sentiments on the back of consistently falling coronavi-rus cases in the country and hopes of an early opening of the economy, said Morning-star India Associate Director (Manager Research) Himan-shu Srivastava.

This, coupled with good quarterly results and a posi-tive earnings growth outlook over the long term, refuelled FPI interest in Indian equi-ties, he added.

According to depositories data, FPIs invested Rs 17,215 crore in equities between June 1 and June 30. As regards the debt segment, FPIs on the contrary withdrew Rs 3,946 crore. Net investment dur-ing the period under review stood at Rs 13,269 crore. Prior to this, overseas investors had pulled out Rs 2,666 crore in May and Rs 9,435 crore in April. PTI

NEW DELHI: The total turn-over of GCMMF, which mar-kets dairy products under Amul brand, grew 2 per cent to Rs 39,200 crore despite the COVID-19 pandemic, its Man-aging Director R S Sodhi said on Sunday.

Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd (GCMMF) had posted a 17 per cent jump in revenue dur-

ing the financial year 2019-20 to Rs 38,550 crore.

In an interview with PTI, Sodhi said the growth slowed down during the last fiscal but he expects sales to bounce back in the current financial year 2021-22.

"We achieved two per cent growth in turnover during the last fiscal year to Rs 39,200 crore," Sodhi said.

However, he highlighted that the turnover of its branded consumer products like fresh milk, cheese, curd, butter milk and paneer increased 8.5-9 per cent.

Sodhi said sales of ice cream were down 35 per cent last fiscal mainly because of the nation-wide lockdown during summer.

He added that the commod-ity business of products like

skimmed milk powder (SMP) was also impacted.

The household consumption of milk and other dairy prod-ucts remained strong but the demand from hotels, restau-rants and cafeterias (HoReCA segment) was severly affected, he said.

"We expect to return to higher double-digit growth dur-ing the current financial year,"

Sodhi said.The cooperative sells 150

lakh litres of milk per day; of which, Gujarat contributes around 60 lakh litres, Delhi-NCR 35 lakh litres and Maha-rashtra 20 lakh litres, he added.

It also sells milk in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Kolkata.

GCMMF has an installed processing capacity of 360 lakh litre per day. PTI

NEW DELHI: To facilitate privatisation of a public sector general insurance firm, the gov-ernment is working on amend-ments to the General Insurance Business (Nationalisation) Act (GIBNA), and a Bill for that is likely to come up in the upcom-ing monsoon session.

The monsoon session is expected to begin from July 19.

The Act, which came into force in 1972, provided for the acquisition and transfer of shares of Indian insurance companies and undertakings of other existing insurers in order to serve better the needs of the economy by securing the devel-opment of general insurance business.

The amendments to the GIBNA are being worked out and may be tabled in the upcoming session to help pri-vatisation of a general insur-ance company announced in the Budget this year, sources said.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget 2021-22 had announced a big-ticket privatisation agenda, includ-ing privatisation of two public sector banks and one general insurance company. As part of the divestment strategy for the financial sector, the government has decided to go for a mega ini-tial public offering (IPO) of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and residual stake sale in IDBI Bank during the financial year beginning April.

The government has bud-geted Rs 1.75 lakh crore from stake sale in public sector com-panies and financial institutions

during 2021-22.The NITI Aayog was

entrusted with the task of rec-ommending a suitable candidate for privatisation of two public sector banks and one general insurance company. The gov-ernment think-tank is believed to have suggested the name of United India Insurance to the Core Group of Secretaries on Disinvestment headed by the Cabinet Secretary. Aside from this, the government is gearing itself to table amendments in the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, to enable privatisation of two public sector banks.

Amendments would be required in the Banking Com-panies (Acquisition and Trans-fer of Undertakings) Act, 1970, and the Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) Act, 1980, for privatisation, the sources said.

These Acts led to nationali-sation of banks in two phases, and provisions of these laws have to be changed for privati-sation of banks, they said.

Last year, the Union Cabi-net, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, cleared a pro-posal to provide capital support to National Insurance, Orien-tal Insurance and United India Insurance. The Cabinet had also decided to increase the autho-rised share capital of National Insurance Company Ltd (NICL) to Rs 7,500 crore and that of United India Insurance Co Ltd (UIICL) and Oriental Insurance Co Ltd (OICL) to Rs 5,000 crore each to give effect to the capital infusion decision. PTI

NEW DELHI: Two companies Clean Science and Technology and GR Infraprojects are headed to the market with their initial share-sale offers next week to raise a little over Rs 2,500 crore cumulatively.

The companies are expect-ing to benefit from an equity market, which is swarmed with liquidity and a sharp increase in the number of new retail investors.

This comes after five compa-nies Shyam Metalics and Energy, Sona BLW Precision Forg-

ings (Sona Comstar), Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences, Dodla Dairy and Indian Pes-ticides launched their initial public offers (IPOs) last month. These firms collectively raised Rs 9,923 crore through pub-lic issues.

The three-day IPOs of Clean Science and Technology and GR Infraprojects will open for public subscription on July 7 and conclude on July 9. The bidding for anchor investors will open on July 6, data with exchanges showed.

The two firms will together garner a total of Rs 2,510 crore through IPOs. Shares of the companies will be listed on the BSE and the NSE. Clean Science and Technology's Rs 1,546.62-crore IPO is entirely an offer for sale (OFS) by existing promoters and other shareholders.

Those offering shares in the OFS include Anantroop Finan-cial Advisory Services, Ashok Ramnarayan Boob; Krishna-kumar Ramnarayan Boob; Sid-dhartha Ashok Sikchi; and Parth Ashok Maheshwari. AGENCIES

NEW DELHI: Businesses buying shares or commodities traded through recognised stock or commodity exchanges for any value even above Rs 50 lakh will not be required to deduct TDS on the transaction, the income tax department has said.

With effect from July 1, 2021, the income tax depart-ment has introduced a provi-sion relating to Tax Deducted at Source (TDS)which would be applicable to businesses with turnover of over Rs 10 crore.

Such businesses while mak-ing any payments for purchase of goods exceeding Rs 50 lakh in a financial year to a resident would be required to deduct a 0.1 per cent TDS.

However, this provision would not be applicable on share or commodity trans-actions done through stock exchanges, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has said.

The tax department said it had received representations saying that there are practical difficulties in implementing the provisions of Tax Deduction at Source (TDS) contained in Section 194Q of the I-T Act in case of transaction via certain exchanges and clearing corpo-rations as sometime in these transactions there is no one to one contract between the buy-ers and the sellers.

"In order to remove such difficulties, it is provided that the provisions of section 194Q of the Act shall not be applica-ble in relation to transactions in securities and commodi-ties which are traded through recognised stock exchanges or cleared and settled by the rec-ognised clearing corporation ," the CBDT said in its guidelines dated June 30.

Section 194Q relating to TDS deduction by businesses was introduced in the 2021-22 Budget and has come into effect beginning July 1, 2021.

The CBDT has also clarified that only those entities having turnover from the business of more than Rs 10 crores in the preceding financial year would be required to deduct TDS at the time of purchase of goods over Rs 50 lakh.

Buyer is defined to be per-son whose total sales or gross receipts or turnover from the business carried on by him exceed Rs 10 crore during the financial year immediately

preceding the financial year in which the purchase of good is carried out, it said.

AMRG & Associates Senior Partner Rajat Mohan said trans-actions in goods were captured only in GSTN systems, as I-T laws never captured the transac-tional data related to purchase/ sale of goods. Now with these new TDS provisions, Income Tax systems will capture trans-actional sales of goods data also on a monthly basis.

New income tax portal will use this information for big data analytics, and jurisdictional tax officers can also use these num-bers during the assessment pro-ceedings, Mohan said.

"This new change will tighten the grip on manufac-turing and trading communi-ties, mandating them to indicate correct numbers in tax filings, leading to a surge in tax collec-tions in the long run, Mohan added.

He said that the CBDT has clarified that these TDS provi-sions do not apply to a buyer who does not have a business activity, irrespective of the turn-over or receipts from non-busi-ness activity.

Thereby households, regard-less of the non-business finan-cial transactions value, are not liable to deduct any TDS under these provisions, Mohan added.

Commenting on the guide-lines, Nangia Andersen LLP said CBDT has clarified that since the provisions mandate the buyer to deduct tax on earlier of 'credit' or 'payment', if either of the two events happen before July 1, 2021, the transaction would not be subject to TDS.

It has also been explained that the threshold of Rs 50 lakh for triggering TDS shall be com-puted from April 1, 2021. PTI

NEW DELHI: The government is likely to invite bids from mer-chant bankers this month for managing LIC disinvestment as it moves ahead with plans to launch the IPO by January, an official said.

The Department of Invest-ment and Public Asset Manage-ment (DIPAM) had in January appointed actuarial firm Mil-liman Advisors LLP India to assess the embedded value of LIC ahead of the IPO, which is touted to be the biggest pub-lic issue in Indian corporate history.

The official further said the Budget amendments to the LIC Act have been notified and the actuarial firm would work out the embedded value of the life insurer in the next couple of weeks.

Under the embedded value method, insurance companies' present value of future profit is

also included in its present net asset value (NAV).

"We will invite bids for appointment of merchant bank-ers in the next couple of weeks, the official said, adding discus-sions are going on with institu-tional investors.

"We are hoping to get regu-latory approvals by November-end," the official said.

Up to 10 per cent of the LIC IPO issue size would be reserved for policyholders.

The LIC Amendment Act has been made part of the Finance Act, thereby bringing the required legislative amend-ment for launching IPO of the country's largest life insurer.

Deloitte and SBI Caps have been appointed as pre-IPO transaction advisors. The gov-ernment aims to mop up Rs 1.75 lakh crore in the current fiscal from minority stake sale and privatisation. PTI

2021: M&As soar 44% to $49.34 billion in first halfM&As were worth $34.3 billion in same period in 2020

FPIs invest `13,269 cr in

markets

Centre to amend GIBNA for insurance

PSU privatisationMay table Bill in Monsoon Session

Biz need not deduct TDS on commodity or

share purchases via exchanges: CBDT

Rajasthan: KVIC plants 5,000 ‘special bamboo saplings’ to boost tribals’ income

NEW DELHI: Eight of the 10 most valued firms wit-nessed a combined erosion of Rs 65,176.78 crore in the mar-ket valuation last week, mainly dragged down by Tata Consul-tancy Services and HDFC Bank.

Only Reliance Industries Limited and Hindustan Unile-ver Limited emerged as gain-ers from the top-10 list. The market valuation of Tata Con-sultancy Services dropped by Rs 20,400.27 crore to Rs 12,30,138.03 crore. HDFC Bank's valuation tumbled Rs 18,113.03 crore to reach Rs 8,18,313.66 crore. The valu-ation of HDFC dipped Rs 5,837.3 crore to Rs 4,46,941.10 crore and that of ICICI Bank declined by Rs 5,762.02 crore to Rs 4,43,404.75 crore. The market capitalisation of Bajaj Finance Limited fell by Rs 4,614.48 crore to Rs 3,62,047.96 crore and that of SBI by Rs 3,748.34 crore to Rs 3,78,894.38 crore. PTI

Mcap of 8 most valued firms falls by Rs 65,176 cr

Govt likely to invite bids from merchant bankers this month

Amul turnover rises 2% to `39,200 cr in FY21

Two IPOs to hit market next week; to raise over `2,500 cr cumulatively

Sales volume in IEX real-time power market up

3-fold in Jun The initiative has been launched as part of KVIC's 'Khadi Bamboo Festival' to celebrate 75 years of independence Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav

Worldwide M&As totalled $2.8 trillion during the first half, up a record 132 per cent compared to the same period last year. This is the strongest opening for deal making since records began in 1980

With effect from July 1, 2021, the income tax department has introduced a provision relating to TDSwhich would be applicable to businesses with turnover of over Rs 10 crore

11millenniumpost Sport mpNEW DELHI | MONDAY, 5 JULY, 2021

Harry Kane carries England past Ukraine 4-0, into Euro 2020 semi-finals

ROME: England is going back home with something to play for.

Harry Kane scored twice and England overwhelmed Ukraine 4-0 to reach the Euro-pean Championship semifinals.

It was the only match of Euro 2020 that England had to play away from Wembley Stadium and it was the team's most dominant performance of the tournament.

"I've said it all along it's all about peaking for the right time," Kane said.

"We are on the right track."Harry Maguire and Jordan

Henderson also scored on Sat-urday as England kept a clean sheet for the fifth straight match of the competition.

It marked the first time that England scored four goals in the knockout stage of a major tournament since beating West Germany 4-2 in the 1966 World Cup final.

England now goes back to London to face Denmark on Wednesday. The Danes beat the Czech Republic 2-1 in Baku.

"We havent' done nothing yet," Kane said.

"We've got a semifinal at

Wembley. ... What a moment for us as a team, as a nation. It's there for us, it's an opportunity for us. We have to grab it with both hands."

Italy will face Spain in the other semifinal match on Tues-day, with the final next weekend also to be played at Wembley.

The last time England made it to the last four of the Euro-pean Championship was in 1996. But the bigger goal at this point is to duplicate the success of the 1966 England team that won the World Cup

on home soil.Kane scored on England's

first opportunity in the fourth minute, using one touch to redirect a through ball from Raheem Sterling for his second goal in as many matches. The ball went in off the shoulder of goalkeeper Georgiy Bushchan inside the near post.

England also scored early in the second half after Kane was fouled about 10 seconds. A free kick from Luke Shaw set up a header from Maguire. Four minutes later, Kane got his

second by heading in another cross from Shaw on a play that included a backheel pass from Sterling as England dazzled.

After failing to score in the group stage, Kane now has three goals in two matches after also scoring in the 2-0 win over Ger-many in the last 16.

"Sometimes as a striker it falls your way, sometimes it doesn't," Kane said.

"That's just part and parcel of being a striker."

Kane won the Golden Boot with six goals the 2018 World Cup, when England also reached the semifinals. He exited to a standing ovation at the Stadio Olimpico when he came off midway through the second half.

Ukraine coach Andriy Shevchenko, a former stand-out forward, appreciated how Kane took advantage of all of his opportunities.

"That's all a striker has to do," Shevchenko said.

Henderson's goal his first for England after a decade with the national team also came with a header as Ukraine's defenders had no answers to England's aerial prowess. AGENCIES

England's Harry Kane celebrates after scoring his side's third goal during the Euro 2020 soccer championship quarterfinal match between Ukraine and England at the Olympic stadium in Rome PTI

Verstappen wins Austrian Grand Prix, extends overall lead

SPIELBERG (Austria): For-mula One championship leader Max Verstappen won the Aus-trian Grand Prix from pole posi-tion on Sunday, clinching a third straight victory and extending his lead over title rival Lewis Hamilton to 32 points after nine races.

It was Verstappen's fifth win of the season compared to three for Hamilton, who dropped down from second place to fourth late on after going too wide on a turn and rolling over a kerb, damaging one of his tires.

His Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas finished second ahead of McLaren's Lando Nor-ris, who clinched the fourth

podium of his career on the same track where he secured his first last year.

The 2020 top-three finish made him the youngest British driver on a podium and third-youngest overall behind Lance

Stroll and Verstappen. The ultra-consistent Norris is the only driver to have scored points in every race this season.

Hamilton has not won since the Spanish GP two months ago, a dismal streak of five races for the defending champion seek-ing a record eighth F1 title. All of those have gone to Red Bull, with Sergio Perez taking the other.

This was another crushing success for Verstappen on at the Red Bull ring, his team's home track and with thousands of his orange-shirted fans cheering on his 15th career win.

He also won here last week-end at the Styrian GP. AGENCIES

It was Verstappen's fifth win of the season

Batting has to be up if we are aiming at WC: PowarWORCESTER: Indian wom-en's team head coach Ramesh Powar is impressed with its fielding and bowling but says the side will have to sort out its batting woes if it is to win next year's ODI World Cup in New Zealand.

Skipper Mithali Raj was the lone bright spot in a lack-lustre batting performance by the Indian women's team as they lost the three-match ODI series against hosts Eng-land 1-2.

"I think bowlers brought us back into the game. We have to learn lot many things from this series. I think fielding improved immensely, bowling has improved immensely, bat-ting has to be up if we are aim-ing at the World cup," Powar said in a video posted by the

BCCI on its twitter handle.Mithali smashed three

half-centuries in the three ODIs and became the highest run-getter in women's cricket across formats while guiding India to a consolation four-wicket win over England in the third and final ODI here on Saturday.

"I think she deserves every praising word out there," Powar said of the India skip-per, who made an unbeaten 75 off 86 balls in a successful chase of 220.

"She has been a fantastic servant of the game. 22 years of cricket and I think she is a role model for a lot of our girls. She has single-handedly won us the game. Chasing 220 on a low bounce track, she took us over the line." AGENCIES

IOC allows teams to have

alternate players

NEW DELHI: Owing to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, participating countries will be allowed to have 'stand-by' or 'alter-nate' players as part of cer-tain team squads during the upcoming Tokyo Games, the International Olympic Com-mittee has said.

In Olympics, team sports comprise of fewer players than what is available for other international events but IOC after discussions with the International Fed-erations (IFs) has decided "to provide flexibility for team selections in several sports." AGENCIES

Argentina beat Ecuador at Copa, to play Colombia in semi-final

RIO DE JANEIRO: Lionel Messi scored his 76th interna-tional goal and is now only one shy of Pele for the South Amer-ican record as Argentina beat Ecuador 3-0 to progress to the semifinals of the Copa America.

Messi scored from a late freekick on Saturday and earlier laid on two assists as Argentina eventually subdued Ecuador and kept the superstar's dream of winning his first major inter-national title alive.

Argentina's rival at the Man Garrincha Stadium on Tuesday will be Colombia, which earlier overcame Uruguay on penalties. The other semifinal will feature defending champions Brazil and Peru. Rodrigo de Paul opened the scoring at the Olimpico Sta-dium in Goiania in the 39th minute, tapping into an empty goal before Lautaro Martinez added the second in the 84th with a blast from close range. Messi, in his first match since his contract with Barcelona expired, assisted both of them.

In the dying moments of the

match Messi scored Argentina's third from a free kick from the edge of the box. It was his fourth goal in the tournament.

Heavily favoured Argentina

wasted several opportunities at 1-0 to cruise to a comfortable victory. Ecuador then hit the post in the second half before Martinez doubled Argentina's

lead. But Messi became more influential after 71 minutes when ngel di Maria stepped in replacing Giovani lo Celso.

Ecuador also lost defender

Piero Hincapi to a red card near the end of the match after a foul on Di Maria that gave Argentina the free kick scored by Messi.

It was his 76th goal in his 149th match for Argentina, one short of Pel 's record as top goal scorer of a South American national team. It was also his 58th career goal on a free kick for club and country, moving one ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo.

Messi said being in the semi-finals was one of Argentina's objectives for the tournament.

"Now we have to rest and think of Colombia. They defend well, they have quick counters," the striker said. Asked about his performance, he was brief: "Individual awards are second-ary." Martinez seems to have understood the message.

"We all follow Messi's leader-ship. Today we saw once again how he sets the difference, we are all following him," he said.

"We saw an Argentina as a protagonist. Today we made the difference. It was a demanding match." AGENCIES

The other semi-final will feature defending champions Brazil and Peru

Hunger is still there, adding new dimensions to my batting: MithaliWORCESTER: India skipper Mithali Raj's hunger for runs remains the same as it was 22 years ago and she is trying to add "new dimensions" to her batting for a one last hurrah at next year's ODI World Cup in New Zealand.

Mithali on Saturday became the highest run-getter in wom-en's cricket across all formats while guiding India to a con-solation four-wicket win over England in the third and final ODI here. She made unbeaten 75 off 86 balls to take the visi-tors home.

"The way things have gone it wasn't an easy journey. It had its trials and challenges. I always believed that trials have a purpose," she said about her journey that started in Milton Keynes against Ireland in June 26, 1999.

"There were times when I wanted to give up for various reasons but something kept me going and here I am 22 years of international cricket but the hunger for runs have never sort of dried up.

"I am still very passionate to go out there, be there in the middle and win games for India. I know there is still room for improvements in terms of my batting and that is something I am working on... There are cer-tain dimensions I would like to add to my batting..." she said at the virtual post-match press conference. Mitahli, who has retired from T20 cricket in 2019, has already hinted that the 2022 Women's ODI World Cup, to be held in New Zealand from March 4 to April 3, will be her swansong.

With vast experience on her back, the 38-year-old right-hander said she is currently enjoying the role of a mentor while fulfilling her responsi-bility in the team's batting unit.

"Batting has always been a role play for me in the team, the sort of role that's assigned to me over the years -- taking the responsibility of the batting unit and play throughout.

"...chasing gives me a better

picture of building an innings along with other batters in the middle. I am able to control the game. That really worked for me and also having some young girls in the team, it helps to guide them when you are in the middle...

"...trying to help them also to understand the situation and how to play in these conditions. The entire batting unit revolves around me, that's the job that is given to me by the coach and team management."

Raj heaped praise on all-rounder Sneh Rana, with whom she shared a valuable 50-run stand for the seventh wicket on Saturday, and said she has a

bright future."Need to give crdeit to Sneh

Rana because that partnership was very crucial. Definitely, at that slot we have always looked for somebody who have the shots to clear the field, strong shots all around and it helps to have a player who can also bowl.

"So its good to have her in the side and she is definitely showed that she has the char-acter to become a good player. In modern cricket, all-rounders play a very important role in composition of the team."

Raj expects her deputy and T20 skipper Harmanpreet Kaur to hit form soon.

"It does happen with any player," Mithali said of Kaur's lean patch."Sometimes you're just not in form. But as a team and as a unit we back players who have been match-winners. We also know that single-hand-edly she has won games for us with her innings. This time around she needs the support of the team to back her."

She also backed young Jem-mimah Rodrigues to get back to form. "A young player - obvi-ously, she (Rodrigues) will take some time. It's just matter of experience and exposure for players like her.” AGENCIES

Full Wimbledon crowds allowed from quarter-finals to finals

WIMBLEDON: Crowds at Wimbledon's Centre Court and No. 1 Court can increase to 100% capacity for the sin-gles quarterfinals through the end of the tournament. The All England Club said Sunday that will mark the first full outdoor stadiums at a sporting event in Britain since the start of the Coronavirus pandemic last year.

Wimbledon was canceled in 2020 because of the COVID-19 outbreak, the first time in 75 years that the oldest Grand Slam tennis tournament was not held.

The club said the rise from what has been limited to 50% full crowds at the two main are-nas comes after the successful staging of the first week of The Championships and with gov-ernment approval.

After Monday's fourth-round matches, the quarterfinals are scheduled to begin Tuesday for the women, Wednesday for the men. The semifinals follow, with the women's final next Sat-urday and the men's on July 11.

Before the tournament began, the club had said it would

be able to allow full crowds only for the two singles finals.

Centre Court can hold 14,979 people, and No. 1 Court's capacity is 12,345. The num-ber of fans allowed around the rest of the site will be reduced according to the number of courts in play, the club said. Spectators still need to show proof of their COVID-19 status when they arrive at the tourna-ment each day either that they have passed a test within the preceding 48 hours or are fully vaccinated. AGENCIES

South Africa beat West Indies by 25 runs in 5th

Twenty20, take series 3-2ST GEORE'S (Grenada): Aiden Markram and Quinton de Kock shared a 127-run sec-ond-wicket partnership which set up South Africa for a 25-run win over the West Indies in the fifth Twenty20 and a 3-2 win in the series.

Markram made a career-best 70, beating his previous best of 63, and de Kock kept up an outstanding run of form with 60 from 42 balls as South Africa reached 168-4 after win-ning the toss on Saturday.

Wrist spinner Tabraiz Shamsi took 1-11 from his four overs and Kagiso Rabada dismissed Dwayne Bravo and Nicholas Pooran with consec-utive balls in the 19th over as the Proteas restricted the West Indies to 143-9 to claim their first T20 series win in two years. It was also the first T20 series win for captain Temba Bavuma and coach Mark Boucher.

Shamsi showed why he is the world's top-ranked Twenty20 bowler, taking seven wickets in the series at an aver-age of 11.4. South Africa came into the series ranked sixth in the world in T20s, taking on the defending world champion at home. The series win gives them confidence for the T20 World Cup this year. The Pro-teas previously swept the two-test series between the teams.

"Firstly, we're going to take confidence from winning both series," said senior fast bowler Kagiso Rabada who took 2-24 on Saturday.

"It was amazing winning the test series, our first test series win outside of home for about four years.

"And then coming in against the defending world champions this West Indies team is an extremely talented and extremely strong T20 side and experienced as well. We've learned a lot, especially in this

format. We've learned a lot playing against them."

The match followed the pattern of others in the series when the team batting first set a total just short of 170. In the first match, South Africa made 160-6, in the second 166-7, in the third 167-8 and in the fourth the West Indies made 167-6. The total proved defen-sible in all but the first match which the West Indies won by eight wickets.

South Africa should prob-ably have scored more in all five matches, having been set up by its top order. But its finishing in the last five overs has been poor. That was the case again on Saturday after it reached 128-1 in the 15th over but man-aged to add only 40 runs.

De Kock has been its anchor throughout the series with scores of 37, 26, 72, 60 and 60 255 runs at an average of 51. The Proteas have favored a side light on batting allround-ers and that has been a factor in its inability to fully capitalize on good starts.

Its bowlers have performed well throughout the series, led by Shamsi. The fast bowler Lungi Ngidi took 3-32 on Sat-urday and young medium pacer Wiaan Mulder, playing his first match of the series and only the second of his career, took 2-31 including the wick-ets of Kieron Pollard (13) and Andre Russell with consecutive balls in the 15th over. AGENCIES

Argentina's Lautaro Martinez controls the ball during a Copa America quarterfinal soccer match against Ecuador at the Olimpico stadium in Goiania, Brazil PTI

Mithali Raj

Mithali on Saturday became the highest run-getter in women's cricket across all formats while guiding India to a consolation four-wicket win over England in the third and final ODI here

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: A 17 year old girl from Kolkata, Arushi Pant, was honoured with ‘The Diana Award’ for being “a true leader”. Pant went above and beyond to work in rural parts of Bengal ensuring education, protection and healthy living of children.

‘The Diana Award’ is given in the memory of Diana, Prin-cess of Wales, by a charity of the same name. It is upported by both her sons The Duke of Cambridge and The Duke of Sussex.

Arushi, winner of the 2021 award, has set up an organ-isation that is ‘for the chil-dren and by the children’. It is called “Children’s Armour”. Arushi, who at the age of 10 years worked with Associa-tion for Social Health and Advancement (ASHA) on a child protection project in the

rural parts of the state, leads a team of 50 children who visit schools in several districts. Besides educating children about self defense, plays and musical evenings and other activities are also conducted by the team to bring a positive change in the children’s lives.

Arushi also developed tools to create awareness about chil-dren’s safety in the communi-ties. ‘Children’s Armour’ was born from Arushi’s experi-ence to sensitise the commu-nity. Apart from conducting field visits, Arushi - a student at Pathways World School Ara-valli – plays a crucial role in holding fundraisers to serve the society during any distressed situation. She had raised Rs 1.40 lakh during the first wave of COVID and donated it to the Chief Minister’s relief fund. Along with other organisa-tions, she had played a crucial

role in rais-ing cash

and essential goods worth Rs 7 lakh by holding cultural pro-grammes on online platforms to support the victims of super-cyclone Amphan.

Names of ‘The Diana Award’ recipients are put for-ward by adults who know such youngsters. Through a rigorous nomination process,

these nominators thereafter demonstrate the nominee’s impact in five key areas - Vision, Social Impact, Inspir-ing Others, Youth Leadership, and Service Journey. Nomi-nations are judged using the Criteria Guide and Scoring Guide which has been created to measure quality of youth social action.

“We congratulate all our new ‘Diana Award’ recipients from the UK and all over the globe who are change-makers for their generation. We know by receiving this honour they will inspire more young people to get involved in their com-munities and begin their own journey as active citizens. For over twenty years ‘The Diana Award’ has valued and invested in young people encouraging them to continue to make posi-tive change in their communi-ties and lives of others,” said Tessy Ojo, CEO of ‘The Diana Award’.

AAMIR AND KIRAN ON THEIR RELATIONSHIP AFTER DIVORCE

12 millenniumpostLeisure

Entertainmentmp

MONDAY, 5 JULY, 2021 | NEW DELHI

OUR CORRESPONDENT

Ever since ‘SonyLIV’ and ‘Maddock Outsider’ launched the fascinating

teaser of their highly-antici-pated web show ‘Chutzpah’, it has created a sense of intrigue and excitement among the audience.

Living up to the title, the trailer of the new-age web show, which was launched on July 4, showcases the relevance of the Internet and social media in everyone’s life.

Featuring Gen-X popular actors Varun Sharma, Manjot Singh, Gautam Mehra, Tanya Maniktala, Elnaaz Norouzi, Kshitij Chauhan and others, ‘Chutzpah’ gives a sneak peek into the digital transformation of human identity in today’s era. In short, it is like a slice of cake layered with five dif-ferently flavoured stories tied together with the fine cream

called ‘the Internet’.Speaking about the show,

Varun Sharma shared, “The world of Internet and social media has become an integral part of life to the extent that people even switch person-alities to seek validation. I’m excited to make my OTT debut with a fantastic entertainer like ‘Chutzpah’.”

“It is an interesting and thoroughly entertaining story revolving around five individ-uals who are connected by one story through the medium of the Internet. I am certain that it will take us back to some of the

chutzpah moments of our lives. I had a whale of a time reunit-ing with my ‘Fukrey’ gang and we are ready to create the same madness all over again,” added Manjot Singh, Varun’s co-star.

An out-and-out entertainer, ‘Chutzpah’ will premiere on ‘SonyLIV’ from July 23. Pro-duced by Dinesh Vijan, Amit Babbar and Mrighdeep Singh Lamba have written the show around the weird and wild uni-verse of the web. The show is created by Mrighdeep Singh Lamba and directed by Simar-preet Singh.

LOS ANGELES: Streaming platform ‘Disney Plus’ and ‘Lucasfilm’ recently shared the first look at its new anime anthology series ‘Star Wars: Visions’, which is set to pre-miere on the service on Sep-tember 22.

The digital platform also announced the seven Japanese anime studios that are behind the nine short films in the series – ‘Kamikaze Douga’, ‘Geno Studio’ (Twin Engine), ‘Stu-dio Colorido’ (Twin Engine), ‘Trigger’, ‘Kinema Citrus’, ‘Sci-ence Saru’ and ‘Production IG’.

According to ‘Variety’, each anime studio will use their sig-nature animation and story-telling styles to deliver their visions of the George Lucas’ ‘Star Wars’ universe.

“From the beginning, sto-

ries told in the ‘Star Wars’ gal-axy have counted Japanese mythology along with the films of Akira Kurosawa as their many influences. These new visions will further explore that cultural heritage through the unique animation style and

perspective of each anime stu-dio,” ‘Disney Plus’ stated in a press release.

Jacqui Lopez, James Waugh and Josh Rimes of ‘Lucasfilm’ are executive producing the show along with Qubic Pic-tures’ Justin Leach. PTI

After announcing the news of their divorce on July 3, Bol-lywood star Aamir Khan and

Kiran Rao came together for a video message for their fans. The former couple held hands and assured every-one that they are still a part of the same family.

In a video shared online by a paparazzo account, both could be seen sitting next to each other, as Aamir addressed their fans.

“You all must be saddened and shocked by the news. We just want to tell you that we are very happy and we are a part of one family,” he said.

He added, “Our relationship has changed. But we are still with each other, so please do not think otherwise.”

The ‘Dhoom 3’ star also said that

he and Kiran consider their non-profit organisation, ‘Paani Founda-tion’, to be their baby.

“ ‘Paani Foundation’ is like our son as Azad is for us. We will always be family. Please pray for our hap-piness. This is all we wanted to say,” he shared.

Through a joint statement issued on July 3, Aamir and Kiran had announced the end of their 15-year marriage and their decision to co-par-ent their son, Azad Rao Khan.

“In these 15 beautiful years together, we have shared a lifetime of experiences, joy and laughter and our relationship has only grown in trust, respect and love. Now we would like to begin a new chapter in our lives - no longer as husband and wife, but as co-parents and family for each other,” they had said. AGENCIES

Hollywood actor Megan Fox recently talked about why she has never been a part of

comedy films in her career. Speak-ing to ‘The Washington Post’, the ‘Jennifer’s Body’ star explained how she is known for a lot of seductive roles but not so much for comedy.

“I think there has been a perva-sive perception of me as a shallow succubus, if that makes any sense, for at least the first decade of my career,” said the 35-year-old.

Fox added, “But that notion has started to change more

recently as people revisited my interviews, listened to me speak and started to see me differently.”

“I was so lost and try-ing to understand how am

I supposed to feel value or find purpose in this horren-

dous, patriarchal and misog-ynistic hell that was Hollywood at the time. Because I had already been speaking out against it and everyone, including other women, received me in a negative way for doing it,” the actor shared.

Megan further revealed that she has passed over for many of the

comedy roles she would love to play.“I was never really established

as having been talented,” she stated.But there was one role that might

have changed people’s minds - Rea-gan on ‘New Girl’.

“People were surprised that I was funny at all. More than being overlooked for my ability to handle comedy sometimes, I have always been surprised by how easy it was for people to overlook that I’m rela-tively intelligent” she asked in the end. AGENCIES

‘This memorable journey changed many lives’

SMRITI IRANI ON 21 YEARS OF ‘KYUNKI SAAS BHI KABHI BAHU THI’

MUMBAI: Celebrating 21 years of her iconic TV show ‘Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi’, Union Min-ister and former actor Smriti Irani said the long-running series was a life-changing experience not only for the audience but also the people who worked on it.

Produced by Shobha Kapoor and Ekta Kapoor-led ‘Balaji Telefilms’, the soap opera premiered on July 3, 2000, and ran for eight years, clocking more than 1,800 episodes.

Irani became a household name with

her character of Tulsi Virani, an ideal daugh-ter-in-law, who goes through a series of ups and downs while protecting her family.

‘Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi’ was a turning point for the politician, who had fea-

tured in music videos and two TV shows before bagging the land-mark series.

The 45-year-old Union Minis-ter took to her ‘Instagram’ handle

recently and posted a video montage of the show to mark the occasion.

“We had made a promise ‘Phir milenge’, a promise we could not keep. 21 years ago began a journey that changed many lives. It brought joy to some, annoyed a few but impacted all those who saw it and who worked for

it. Thank you for the memo-ries!” she wrote.

The ‘Star Plus’ show saw three-time leaps

before going off-air in November 2008.

‘Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu

Thi’ became a prime-time success as it capti-

vated the audience with its melodramatic storytell-

ing, inspirational family val-ues and characters.

Ekta Kapoor also took to ‘Insta-gram’ and reposted a fan video and wrote, “Many moons ago, this day changed my life! Thank you ‘Star Plus’, Sameer, Smriti Irani, Raju bhai, Vipul bhai and everyone associated.”

Several of the show’s cast mem-bers, including Mouni Roy, Hiten Tejwani and Anita Hassanandani also commented on Irani’s post. PTI

Irani became a household name with her character of Tulsi Virani

The ‘Star Plus’ show saw three-

time leaps before going off-air in

November 2008

‘I was never

really established as having been

talented’

Amit Babbar and Mrighdeep Singh Lamba have written the show around the weird and wild universe of the web. The show is directed by Simarpreet Singh

Web series ‘Chtuzpa’ to release on July 23

The trailer of the new-age web show showcases the rel-evance of the Internet and social media in everyone’s life

‘We are still part of the same family’

Fox talks about how she is known for seductive roles but not for comedy

‘I was lost in the misogynistic hell

of Hollywood’

17-year old Arushi Pant honoured with the prestigious Diana Award

‘Star Wars: Vision’ to premiere on ‘Disney Plus’