RNI NO.: WBENG/2015/65962

VOL. 7, ISSUE 307 | Saturday, 13 November 2021 | Kolkata | Pages 12 | Rs 3.00PUBLISHED FROM DELHI | KOLKATA

MILLENNIUMPOST.IN

MPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI: Threatened with contempt action against the Indian Army and its Chief Manoj Mukund Naravane by the Supreme Court over non-compliance of its ear-lier orders, the defence force agreed on Friday to grant Per-

manent Commission (PC) to all of its eligible women officers.

We are holding Army guilty of contempt of court. We are putting you on guard. Since you have not complied with our orders you will have to face the consequences. The Army may be supreme in its

own authority but this Consti-tution court is also supreme in its own jurisdiction, the Apex court said.

The Army had initially said that out of the 36 Women Short Service Commission Officers (WSSCO) in the force, who have filed the con-tempt petition, it has granted

PC to 22 officers while 14 were not considered fit including three on medical ground.

After the top court’s warn-ing, the Army informed a bench of Justices D Y Chand-rachud and A S Bopanna that it will grant PC to all the eli-gible women officers.

Continued on P4

After SC warns of contempt, Army agrees to grant Permanent Commission to women officers

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Fri-day granted time till November 15 to the Uttar Pradesh government for appris-ing its stand on the suggestion that a for-mer judge of a different high court should monitor the state SIT probe on day-to-day basis in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence in which eight people including four farmers were killed on October 3.

Would your Lordships give me time till Monday? I have almost got it done. We are working something out, senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for the UP gov-ernment, told the bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana.

List on Monday, said the bench which, also comprised justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli, acceding to the request.

The apex court, on November 8, had expressed dissatisfaction over the probe and suggested that to infuse “indepen-dence, impartiality and fairness in the ongoing investigation, a former judge of a different high court should monitor it on day-to-day basis.

The bench had also said that it has no confidence and does not want the one-member judicial commission appointed by the state to continue probe into the case.

Retired Allahabad High Court judge Justice Pradeep Kumar Srivastava was named by the state government to enquire into the eruption of violence on Tikonia-Banbirpur road in Lakhimpur Kheri dis-trict. The state government was asked to inform about its stand on the suggestion of monitoring of probe by a former judge of a different high court.

SC grants UP govt time till Nov 15 to know its stand

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Three persons were killed and 15 others injured, five of them seri-ously, following a collision between a bus and a truck carrying vegetables on the Digha-Nandakumar Road (116 B National Highway) on Friday early morning.

The injured persons have been admitted to Tamluk district hos-pital. The police have started an investigation.

The cops said the Khejuri-Howrah-bound bus in a bid to overtake a sta-tionary long chassis truck lost control and hit the lorry, carrying vegetables, coming from the opposite direction. After hitting the lorry, the bus hit three other vehicles.

On getting the information, the police went to the accident site at Narghat under Chandipur police sta-

tion. The injured were rushed to the local hospital from where eight were shifted to the Tamluk district hospi-tal where three persons, including the driver of the bus, died soon after admission. The condition of five per-sons is stated to be critical.

The police said preliminary inves-tigation had revealed that the driver of the ill-fated bus must have become unconscious after hitting the lorry and continued to hit three more vehicles till it stopped. The front portion of the bus has been badly damaged.

The driver of the long chassis vehi-cle could not be spotted. The driver had wrongly parked the vehicle at the site. The driver of the bus could not gauge the speed of the vegetable-laden lorry coming from the opposite direction and hit it head-on. Local people helped the police to take out the injured per-sons and rush them to the hospital.

3 killed, 5 seriously injured after bus-truck collision

ACCIDENT ON 116B NH

MPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI: Former chairman of the Cen-tral Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) PC Mody took over as the secretary-gen-eral of the Rajya Sabha on Friday, replacing P P K Ramacharyulu, who was appointed to the post less than three months ago. Mody was appointed as the secretary-general by Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu earlier in the day. “Chairman Rajya Sabha has been pleased to appoint Shri Pramod Chandra Mody, IRS (Retd) and former Chair-man, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), as Secretary-General Rajya Sabha, in the rank and status of Cabinet Secretary,” an official commu-nication issued by the Rajya Sabha Secretariat said. Mody’s appointment is on a contractual basis with effect from the forenoon of Novem-ber 12, 2021 till August 10, 2022 or until further orders, the order said. Continued on P4

Ex-CBDT chairman PC Mody new

secy-general of RS

PC Mody

NEW DELHI: Amid speculation over Cabinet reshuffle and political appoint-ments in Rajasthan, former Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot met Con-gress chief Sonia Gandhi here on Fri-day and expressed confidence that a decision on it will be taken “very soon” keeping in mind factors such as credibility, performance, regional balance and caste combination. His nearly hour-long meeting came a day after Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot met Gandhi here and the two leaders are learnt to have discussed the political situation as well as the impending Cabinet reshuffle in the state.

Speaking with reporters after meet-ing Gandhi at her 10 Janpath residence, Pilot said, “Whatever the Congress party wants me to do, I am more than happy to do. Continued on P4

Cabinet reshuffle in Raj: Pilot says

decision ‘very soon’

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: The longest par-tial lunar eclipse in 580 years will occur on November 19 and will be visible in North America, South America, Eastern Asia, Australia and the Pacific Region.

“Sky lovers and enthusiasts in India will miss this spec-tacular celestial view since, for most of the country, the Partial Lunar Eclipse will end before the moon rises at their geographical location. Only a small part in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam will experience the last fleeting moments of the eclipse just

after the moonrise on Novem-ber 19, very close to the east-ern horizon,” Dr Debiprosad Duari, director, Research and Academic, MP Birla Planetar-ium, Kolkata said.

According to Dr Duari, about half of India will have to be satisfied with only the last part of the Penumbral eclipse, which is not as spectacular and dramatic as the partial

eclipse and sometimes goes unnoticed. At Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, parts of the Eastern seaboard and a few other places, only the end part of the Penumbral eclipse can be witnessed since these places will experience moon-rise only after the partial eclipse has ended.

The partial eclipse will start at around 12:48 hrs. IST (7:18 GMT) and will end at 16:17 IST (10:47 GMT). The dura-tion of the eclipse will be for 3 hours 28 minutes and 24 sec-onds, making it the longest eclipse of the 21st century and the longest in almost the last 600 years. Continued on P4

Longest partial lunar eclipse in 580 yrs to occur on November 19

A lunar eclipse is observed during dawn FILE PHOTO

The partial eclipse will start at around 12:48 hrs. IST (7:18 GMT) and will end at 16:17 IST (10:47 GMT)

LAKHIMPUR: EX-JUDGE OF OTHER HC FOR MONITORING PROBE

City: Pg 3Mamata to inaugurate Kol Book Fair in Jan ’22

Nation: Pg 5Hinduism & Hindutva are ‘different things’: Rahul amid Khurshid row

Film: Pg 12Jennifer and Nicole humanised me: Adele

No Half Truths

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Nearly 80 per cent of India’s eligible adult population has been administered the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine while 38 per cent has been fully vacci-nated, the Union Health Min-istry said on Friday.

The cumulative COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country crossed 111 crore on Friday. Over 52 lakh vaccine doses were adminis-tered on Friday till 7 pm. The tally is expected to increase with the compilation of the final reports for the day by late in the night, it said.

During an interactive webinar on the ongoing ‘Har Ghar Dastak’ campaign, Addi-tional Secretary in the Union Health Ministry Manohar Agnani said that under the campaign, by November 30, the government wants the first dose coverage of COVID-19 vaccination in the country to reach at least 90 per cent.

LUCKNOW: Two cases of Zika virus have been reported in the state capital, a senior government official said here on Friday. Luc-know is the third district in the state to report the virus after Kanpur and Kannauj. With this, the total number of Zika virus cases in the state has gone up to 111 of which 108 have been reported from Kanpur and one from Kan-nauj, the official said. As many as 17 patients in Kan-pur have recovered. The patients in Lucknow — a 30-year-old man residing in Hussainganj area and a 24-year-old woman from

Krishnanagar area on Kan-pur Road — have been iso-lated and are stable. Their samples were taken for tests under random sampling.

Continued on P4

7 integrated check posts at int’l borders to be set up in Bengal

Border security-related tasks to be carried out at such facilitiesOUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Giving ‘utmost priority’ to border security, a major decision to set up seven Integrated Check-Posts (ICPs) in Bengal has been taken at the high-level meet-ing between Union Home Sec-retary Ajay Bhalla and the top brass of the Bengal adminis-tration on Friday.

Besides ensuring better border security, setting up of the ICPs will boost trade and commerce with the neighbour-ing countries like Nepal, Bhu-tan and Bangladesh.

Chief Secretary HK Dwivedi, Home Secretary BP Gopalika, Director Gen-eral of Police Manoj Malaviya and Secretary of the Land and Land Reforms department Smaraki Mahapatra attended the meeting on behalf of the state government at New

Town’s Hidco Bhavan.The ICPs will be set up to

carry out all border security-related tasks starting from immigration to custom proce-dures under one umbrella. The ICP for the Indo-Nepal border will be set up at Panitanki in Darjeeling while another for the Indo-Bhutan border will be set up at Jaigaon in Alipurduar.

The remaining five are for

the Indo-Bangladesh border. The same will come up at Chan-grabandha in Cooch Behar, Phulbari in Jalpaiguri, Hili in South Dinajpur, Mahadipur in Malda and Gojadanga in North 24-Parganas.

The land-related issues for the ICPs at Hili and Chan-grabandha have already been settled. As a result, the Union Home Secretary has pitched for

initiation of the work to con-struct the ICPs in these two places at the earliest. The ICPs at Hili and Changrabandha will come up on plots measuring 75 acres and 90 acres respectively.

In case of the remaining five ICPs, officers from the land port authorities will be conducting surveys and subsequently the land — where the same will be developed — will be identified.

Bengal being the gateway of the North East, setting up of the ICPs will ensure better trade and commerce with the neighbouring countries and it will help in the development of the economy in the region.

The issues of setting up bor-der outposts and fencing along the porous border have also come up in the meeting.

Continued on P4

Highlights » The ICP for the Indo-Nepal border will be set up at Panitanki in Darjeeling while another for the Indo-Bhutan border will be set up at Jaigaon in Alipurduar » The remaining five are for the Indo-Bangladesh border. The same will come up at Changrabandha in Cooch Behar, Phulbari in Jalpaiguri, Hili in South Dinajpur, Mahadipur in Malda and Gojadanga in North 24-Parganas » Bengal being the gateway of the North East, setting up of the ICPs will ensure better trade and commerce with the neighbouring coun-tries and it will help in the development of the economy in the region

Nearly 80% of eligible population given first dose of Covid vaccineActive COVID-19 cases in country lowest in 267 days

Zika cases reported in Lucknow

A health worker collects blood sample for Zika virus test, in Lucknow, on Friday PTI

“Also maximum of the people who are overdue for their second dose should also take the second dose by then,” Agnani said. The government recently launched the month-

long ‘Har Ghar Dastak’ cam-paign for house-to-house COVID-19 vaccination of those who are yet to take a dose and those whose second dose is overdue. Continued on P4

DOUSING FLAMES

Firefighters busy extinguishing the flames at a slum in Topsia. No casualties have been reported so far PIC/MPOST

Daily case load in Kolkata and North-24 Pgns dips in past 24 hrs

More than 8.37 cr doses cumulatively administered

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: At a time when the state government is busy with the last minute arrangements to ensure smooth reopening of the schools from November 16, transportation of students by pool cars has become a major issue as most of the vehicles has been grounded since the lockdown.

The schools have remained closed since March 24, 2020. As per the order of Kalyanmoy Ganguly, president, West Ben-gal Board of Secondary Edu-cation the students of classes IX and XI will have to turn up at 9.30am and the schools will commence at 10am and continue till 3.30pm. The stu-dents of classes X and XII will have to turn up at 10.30am and classes will be held from 11 am to 4.30pm.

Sudip Dutta, secretary of Pool Car Owners’ Wel-fare Association said major-ity of the vehicles which were used to ferry students had

been grounded or being used for other purposes. There are around 3000 to 3500 pool cars in Kolkata, South and North 24-Parganas and Howrah.

Dutta said the timings of the schools are such that it would be difficult to run the pool cars.

“The students studying in classes IX and XI and X and XII, who avail the same pool cars, will have to come to school early and wait for an hour for those studying in higher classes. Now, as the school authorities will not

allow the students to go inside the school before the stipulated hour, they cannot wait in the car as police will not allow the vehicles to be parked outside the schools in view of the pan-demic,” he explained.

The parents are following the wait and watch principle. The state Education minister Bratya Basu had said on Thurs-day that the state government would not pressurise the par-ents to send their students to schools. The schools would be reopened with strict obser-vance of the Covid protocols.

Schools reopening: Students to face pool car hurdle

Most vehicles have been grounded since lockdown

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Bengal on Fri-day administered 4,99,832 doses across the state taking the total doses applied so far to 8,37,71,564.

On Thursday the state had administered around 3 lakh doses and around 5 lakh doses on last Wednesday.

On Tuesday state had administered around 7 lakh doses while on Monday, around 10 lakh doses were administered.

Around 5.95 crore first doses were administered while around 2.38 crore peo-ple received both the doses so far till Thursday.

State Health department has set a target of conducting double doses on maximum number of people within this year. The department has asked all the district health officials to speed up the vaccination drive.

Officials have been asked to give priority in the rural areas where vaccination rate has been lower compared to urban areas.The Health depart-

ment has been allotting over 75 percent of doses of vaccine to the rural areas to make up for the low rate of vaccination in rural parts.

Around 2,490 Common vaccination centres (CVCs) were functional in the state as on Thursday and cumulative AEFI cases so far in the state stands at 5,344 till Thursday.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Ensuring better passenger services, the South Eastern Railway has decided to increase the number of sub-urban train services from mid of November.

In the first phase, ser-vices of 48 suburban locals were resumed with effect from October 31, 2021 and subsequently by Novem-ber 8, services of about 104 suburban local trains were restored.

“We have planned to increase the local train services from 104 to 146 by Novem-ber 15, 2021. Out of these, 72 suburban trains will run in up direction and 74 trains will run in down direction,” said an official of South Eastern Railway.

Meanwhile, Eastern Rail-way’s Sealdah Division has decided to run passenger spe-cial trains between Sealdah and Lalgola with effect from

November 16, 2021.03189 Sealdah – Lalgola

Fast Passenger Special will leave Sealdah at 16:40 hrs daily to reach Lalgola at 21:55 hrs on the same day. 03184 Lalgola – Sealdah Passenger Special will leave Lalgola at 07:15 hrs daily to reach Sealdah at 12:45 hrs on the same day.

To resist the wastage of water from overflowing when the tank of Coaching Depot is filled, Eastern Railway’s Malda Division has commissioned innovative Over Flow Control System.

DRI SEIZES SMUGGLED GOLD WORTH MORE THAN RS 1 CRORE IN SILIGURI

KOLKATA: Based on a tip off Directorate of Revenue Intel-ligence sleuths on Thursday night arrested one Sekh Saiful Rahaman (33 years) of Mosh Noul, Shyampur, Howrah and recovered 13 pieces of gold biscuits weighing 2158.00g valued at Rs. 1,08,01,006 along with two cell phones. He was arrested from the NJP

railway station from Guwahati-Howrah Special Train. Later he confessed that the gold had been smuggled from Myanmar through the Indo-Myanmar border in Manipur. He had bought the gold from Guwahati, As-sam and was taking it to Kolkata where he intended to sell the smuggled gold biscuits.

LEOPARD CARCASS RECOVEREDKOLKATA: Local residents of Muni Tea Estate near Bagdogra spotted a carcass on the Asian Highway 2 in the early hours of Friday. Closer inspection revealed that it was the carcass of a leopard. The Forest department was called in. They collected the carcass and sent it to Bengal Safari for post mortem. Forest personnel claim that prima facie it could have been run over by a speeding vehicle while trying to cross the highway.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Kolkata Munici-pal Corporation (KMC) will come up with another drainage pumping station at Nawab Ali Park with the aim to make Kid-derpore and its adjoining areas completely free from water log-ging. The announcement was made by Firhad Hakim, Chair-man Board of Administrators, KMC while inaugurating the Kabitirtha drainage pumping station in Kidderpore area on Friday.

“This pumping station will prevent water logging at ward 76 and a part of ward 77 and will ease the pressure on the existing Mominpore pump-ing station. The third drain-age pumping station which will come up at Nawab Ali Park will rapidly drain out water from ward 77 and 78 and these pumping stations will eradi-cate waterlogging woes in Kid-

derpore area,” Hakim said..Kidderpore has been one

of the major low lying areas in the city and every rainy season the local residents complain of inundation. Karl Marx Sarani, Dent Mission Row, Gopal Doc-tor Lane, Ramanath Pal Lane, Sudhir Bose Road, Ekbalopore Lane are some of the promi-nent low lying areas that will benefit from the project that has entailed an investment of

Rs 43 crore. The pumping sta-tion will drain out accumulated water into Tolly Nullah.

The KMC has also taken up desilting of the age old brick sewerage to mitigate water log-ging in Babubazar and Bhu-kailash Road area.

Hakim said the KMC would also unveil the drain-age pumping station at Alipore Bodyguard Lines in February- March next year.

City to get another pumping station at Nawab Ali Park: Hakim

SER to increase local train services by Nov 15

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: The number of infections in Kolkata in a sin-gle-day has gone down to 233 on Friday from 236 on Thurs-day and 227 on Wednesday. Bengal on Friday registered 860 fresh Covid cases across the state while the number remained at 854 on Thursday and 853 on Wednesday.

North 24-Parganas has also seen a drop in daily case load on Friday. Around 148 cases were found in the district on Friday while 159 cases were recorded on Thursday in North 24-Parganas.

A total 3,25,104 infected cases have so far been found in Kolkata so far out of which around 3,17,762 people were already discharged from the hospitals. North 24-Parganas has so far seen a total 3,30,950 infected cases till date out of

which 3,24,689 patients have been released. South 24-Par-ganas has seen 76 new cases on Friday, Hooghly 72, Howrah 51, Darjeeling 44, Nadia 34.

Active Covid cases in the state have also gone up to 8,000 on Friday from what stood at 7,973 on Thursday.

As many as 819 Covid recovered patients have been

released from different hospi-tals in the past 24 hours. The Covid recovery rate stood at 98.30 percent.

Single-day fatality has also gone up to 14 on Friday while on Thursday it stood at 13. As many as 19,294 people have so far died of Covid in the state. The total number of infected people in the state so far has

reached 16,02,446. Out of this, around 15,75,152 people have so far recovered and released from the hospitals. The per-centage of occupancy of Covid beds in the State remained at 2.90 on Friday with the positiv-ity rate standing at 2.09 percent.

Bengal has so far carried out 1,96,54,322 Covid sam-ple tests out of which around 41,113 tests were done on Fri-day. Kolkata has seen 4 deaths on Friday while North 24-par-

ganas has seen 5, South 24-Par-ganas 1, East Burdwan 2, Nadia 1 and Darjeeling 1.

State has so far given tele-medicine consultations to 9,55,230 people so far out of which 1,260 were given con-sultation in the past 24 hours.

Around 295 people have been given tele-psychologi-cal counselling in the past 24 hours taking the total number of counselling to 4,52,795 till Friday.

RECOVERY RATE STANDS AT 98.30%

News at a Glance

2 millenniumpostCitympSATURDAY, 13 NOVEMBER, 2021 | KOLKATA

Although every possible care and caution has been taken to avoid errors or omissions, this publication is being sold on the condition and understanding that information given in this publication is merely for reference and must not be taken as having authority of or binding in any way on the writers, editors, publishers, and printers and sellers who do not owe any responsibility for any damage or loss to any person, a purchaser of this publication or not for the result of any action taken on the basis of this work. All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of competent court and forums in Delhi/New Delhi only.

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Covid-19 Stats » Number of deaths in past 24 hours 14 » Total death toll so far 19,294 » Tested COVID positive in the past 24 hours 860 » Total COVID positive cases so far 16,02,446 » Total patients recovered from COVID so far 15,75,152 » Discharged from hospitals in a day 819 » Total sample tested so far 1,96,54,322

Dengue infections on the rise at various places in North 24-PgnsOUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Dengue cases are on the rise in various places of North 24-Parganas, including Bidhannagar, Baranagar, South Dum Dum and Barasat.

More than 160 people have been infected with dengue in Bidhannagar Municipal Cor-poration areas in the past one-and-a-half month.

This had prompted the civic authorities to hold an emer-gency meeting on Friday.

The representatives from all 41 wards were present in the meeting. Bidhannagar had seen 25 dengue cases between January and September.

The number has gone up manifold in the past one and a half month. All the representa-tives from various wards have been directed to strengthen surveillance against dengue in various pockets.

They have also been urged

to conduct dengue tests on a random basis in the affected pockets where there has been a surge in the past few days.

Dengue cases are on the rise in 8 wards under Baranagar municipality, which include ward numbers 1,3,4,15,17,18,19 and 25. During November last year, around 33 dengue cases were reported but this year the number has gone up to 78. The civic authorities have been con-

ducting anti-dengue drive in the affected areas.

Dengue infected cases remained at 31 last week in South Dum Dum but the num-ber has now gone up to 56.

South Dum Dum munici-pal authorities conducted an emergency meeting on Thurs-day discussing how the anti-dengue campaign can be carried out in a more effective manner.

All the civic bodies are also conducting a survey within the 50 metre radius from the house where a dengue case is reported.

State Health department has already asked various civic bodies to rigorously conduct a dengue drive in those pockets where dengue cases are being reported and also maintain coordination with the medi-cal colleges so that the infected patients can be admitted if the situation demands so.

40 hurt in attack by jackals: MLA at AssemblyOUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Trinamool Congress (TMC) MLA from Harishchandrapur in Malda informed Speaker Biman Banerjee at the state Assembly on Friday that a pack of jack-als has allegedly attacked and injured some 40 odd villagers at Hardamnagar village.

The injured villagers were admitted at Harishchandrapur Rural Hospital for vaccination

and treatment and later some of them were shifted to Chanchal Super Speciality Hospital.

“I brought the matter before the knowledge of the honourable Speaker so that he can draw the attention of the state Forest minister. I request the minister to take measures for proper treatment of the injured persons and if possi-ble provide some sort of finan-cial assistance to the families of the injured villagers,” Tajmul

Hossain, MLA Harischandra-pur said.

State Forest minister Jyo-tipriya Mallick said the attack on the villagers were triggered by Golden Jackals whose num-bers are not too many in the state.

“There is a population of around 300 such jackals, out of which around 80 live in Jagan-nathpur forest in Harishchan-drapur. They had come to the village a few days back to feed

on some carcass of chicken that had died and were dumped by the villagers. Some of the vil-lagers had chased them away and then suddenly the attack was reported on Thursday. The vaccination of the injured vil-lagers has already been done by the district administration,” Mallick said.

He added that killing of Golden Jackals attracts seri-ous punishment considering its lesser population.

Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay to be honoured as poet

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: The state Agricul-ture minister Sobhandeb Chat-topadhyay will be felicitated as a poet in the presence of littera-teur from Bangladesh at Bangla Academy on Wednesday. Poets from Bangladesh including Suman Rahaman, Bidhanendu Purakayastha and Sofiar Raha-man would be present in the

felicitation programme. The state Urban Develop-

ment and Municipal Affairs minister Chandrima Bhattacha-rya and MLA from Rashbehari Debasish Kumar would also be present in the programme.

Agriculture minister Sob-handeb Chattopadhyay said: “It always feels good when ini-tiative is taken to acknowledge one’s effort.”

Woman found hanging at her house in TollygungeOUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: A woman was found hanging at her house at Tollygunge.

The deceased, Puja Chanda (20), was found hanging from the ceiling fan with the help of a gamcha (towel). The inci-dent took place at 7.50 pm on Wednesday.

The incident triggered ten-sion among the local residents. Local residents found that vic-tim hanging from the ceiling fan.

They informed the mat-

ter to the local police station. Puja was rushed to SSKM hos-pital where she was declared brought dead.

Police have recovered a sui-cide note on the left palm of the deceased mentioning that her mother-in-law is responsible for her death.

Later, father of the deceased Kartick Dolui, registered a police complaint against the husband and mother-in-law of Puja. Police have sent the body for the postmortem examina-tion. They are waiting for the post mortem report.

More than 160 people have been infected with dengue in Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation areas in the past one-and-a-half month

Man dead in explosion at

Budge Budge

Firhad Hakim at the inaguration of Kabitirtha pumping station in the city on Friday PIC/MPOST

Eastern Railway’s Sealdah Division has decided to run passenger special trains between Sealdah and Lalgola

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: A 40-year-old man was killed in an explosion in a tiled-roof house at Budge Budge in South 24-Parganas on Friday afternoon.

Police are yet to ascertain the exact reason behind the explosion.

A team of forensic experts will visit the spot on Saturday.

Preliminary investigation revealed that the explosion took place inside a house that was situated in a corner of a playground in the Byanjonbe-ria area.

People came to know from the local people that the victim Golam Mehbub used to remain seated outside the house most of the time.

He was present at the spot when the explosion took place. He received severe burn inju-ries on his body.

He was declared brought dead when taken to hospital.

The police have initiated a probe to ascertain the exact reason behind the explosion. The probe is underway.

Representative Image

Representative Image

Around 5.95 crore first doses were administered while around 2.38 crore people received both the doses so far till Thursday

Representative Image

3millenniumpost City mpKOLKATA | SATURDAY, 13 NOVEMBER, 2021

Key Points » Only those possessing double vaccination certificates and wearing masks covering their noses will be allowed to enter the venue » The birth centenary of ‘Bang-abandhu’ Sheikh Mujibur Rah-man and the golden jubilee of Bangladesh Independence will be celebrated at the book fair this year » “We are planning to introduce free e-passes. People can also virtually take part by clicking on a designated link”

KOLKATA: Trinamool Con-gress is likely to project women and young workers as candi-dates in the forthcoming civic elections in Kolkata and How-rah. The election will be held on December 19.

The list of candidates for both the civic bodies is expected to be announced next week. Final selection of the candidates is on. It was learnt from reliable sources that more thrust was being given on selecting women and young candidates. It was learnt that all the existing council-ors — now ward coordina-tors — would not get tickets. Nominations would be made strictly on performance basis, sources added. The idle ward coordinators would be dropped and replaced with new faces, sources claimed.

The election in KMC was supposed to be held in 2020 but had to be postponed due to the Covid situation. Elections will be held in 144 wards in Kolkata and 50 wards in Howrah. Trin-amool Congress has won in all 11 Assembly seats in Kolkata, including Kolkata Port, Bal-lygunge, Rashbehari, Bhow-anipore, Chowringhee, Entally, Manicktala, Beliaghata, Shyam-pukur, Kashipur-Belgachia and Jorasanko. The organisation of Trinamool Congress has been strengthened in Kolkata.

The party had won the civic elections in Kolkata in 2000 under the mayorship of Sub-rata Mukherjee. Subsequently, TMC had won the civic poll in 2010 and 2015 and Sovan Chat-terjee and later Firhad Hakim became the Mayor. In the pres-ent board, Atin Ghosh, mem-ber board of administrators, is the senior-most member. He became a councilor in 1985 when the Member, Mayor-in-Council system was first intro-duced following the Calcutta Municipal Corporation Act (1980). MPOST

KOLKATA: The resolution to sepa-rate Bally Municipality from How-rah Municipal Corporation (HMC) has been passed in the state Assem-bly on Friday.

It was in 2015 when Bally Munic-ipality was amalgamated with the HMC, taking the total number of wards under the corporation to 66.

Again, the municipality has been separated as the state government aims to ensure better civic amenities for the residents of the area. HMC was set up in 1862. Later in the year 1883, Bally Municipality was carved out of the corporation as a separate urban local body comprising areas of Liluah, Belur and Bally under its jurisdiction. At present, around 11.81 square km area comes under the jurisdiction of Bally Municipality with a population of 2.93 lakh (as per the 2011 census).

State Urban Development and Municipal Affairs minister Chan-drima Bhattacharya said at the Assem-bly that the decision to separate Bally Municipality from HMC was taken by the Cabinet in January only. People’s views was considered after issuing a notification in this regard in Febru-

ary. “The move will ensure better civic amenities at the micro level,” she said.

MLA from Bally Assembly Con-stituency Dr Rana Chatterjee said: “It would immensely benefit the people of the area as they do not have to travel a long distance for adminis-trative works related to civic ameni-ties. When the prices of petrol and diesel were skyrocketing, people had to pay an additional cost to reach the headquarters of the HMC by chang-ing two buses from Bally. Moreover, Bally Municipality has an added sig-nificance as Belur Math is situated in the area under its jurisdiction.”

The distance from Bally to HMC headquarters near Howrah Maidan is nearly 8 km while the existing admin-istrative building from where Bally Municipality used to function ear-lier, is situated on GT Road and it takes only a few minutes for people to reach. An amendment would be brought in the House on Tuesday for the HMC Act as the total number of wards would come down to 50 from 66. With Bally Municipality getting separated, the HMC would retain its actual 50 wards. MPOST

AMITAVA BANERJEE

DARJEELING: With Chief Min-ister Mamata Banerjee declaring that elections to the Gorkha-land Territorial Administration (GTA) will be held after the pub-lication of revised electoral rolls, Hill political outfits have started preparations.

As a run-up to the elections, the Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatant-rik Morcha (BGPM) on Friday announced the formation of an election coordination committee. “We have constituted a 17 mem-ber election coordination com-mittee led by Trilok Chand Roka as the Chief Election Coordina-tor,” stated Durga Kharel, spokes-person addressing media persons in Darjeeling.

“This committee will decide the issues on which elections will be fought by us,” added Anit

Thapa, the president. “The system that is in place (GTA) has to run and for that, we have to take part in electoral politics,” stated Thapa. While elections are on, the pro-cess to chalk out the permanent political solution (PPS) will be on.

“The Chief Minister had asked us to form a committee with members of other political out-fits and decide on the PPS. We will

not make any announcement uni-laterally. We will hold discussions with the cross-section of society and decide on suitable options. The Chief Minister has given us a major advantage in allowing us to decide. The BJP-led Union gov-ernment, on the other hand, has not asked its allies on their choice of PPS,” added Amar Lama, gen-eral secretary.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Three persons, including two suspected Ban-gladeshi cattle smugglers, were killed in firing by the Border Security Force (BSF) in Cooch Behar district near the Indo-Bangla border on early Friday morning. Though the local authorities claimed that three bodies have been recovered from the site at Sitai, a BSF statement stated that the bod-ies of two unknown miscreants were recovered from the spot.

According to police sources, the suspected cattle smugglers clashed with BSF at Satbhandari village in Sitai around 2 am. “We have found three bodies and as per pre-liminary investigation, all of them died in the course of the same incident,” a senior dis-trict police officer said adding that one of the deceased was an Indian national.

The body of the Indian national, identified as Prakash Barman (35) of Cooch Behar, was found at village West Chamt (Indian side of the border).

Trinamool Congress’ Din-hata MLA Udayan Guha lambasted the BSF over the incident. “BSF has been unleashing atrocities in the border areas for a long time. They continue to torture peo-ple who stay in these areas. The BSF cannot kill anyone under any circumstance. It is the duty of the Centre to control the BSF, otherwise, terrible things will happen at any time post such incidents.” Guha accused

the BSF officials of helping cat-tle smugglers.

State Parliamentary Affairs minister Partha Chatterjee said that the state government will table a resolution in the Legisla-tive Assembly on Tuesday over revoking the expansion of the BSF jurisdiction from 15 km to 50 km inside the international border by the Home ministry.

TMC Lok Sabha MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay said they will be vocal in demand of revok-ing the border expansion when the Parliament session begins.

According to the BSF, at 2:30 am, miscreants from the Bangladesh side ventured into the Indian territory and tried to smuggle cattle by establishing improvised bamboo cantilevers at two places. Though the troop warned them to go back, they did not obey. “BSF troops uti-lised non-lethal ammunition to deter the miscreants, but they attacked the BSF troop with iron dah and sticks causing injuries,” read a BSF statement.

“Sensing a threat to their lives, the BSF troop fired in the air towards the suspected smugglers. “Later on during search, dead bodies of two unknown miscreants were found between the border fence and international bound-ary. One BSF person also got injured during the incident,” read the BSF statement.

Incidentally, the develop-ment happened when Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla was in Kolkata and held a meet-ing with the Bengal Chief Sec-retary, Home Secretary, DGP and other senior state officials.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: The West Bengal Joint Entrance Examination will be held on April 23, 2022. The dates for the examination that is the gate-way for admission to Engineering/Architec-ture/Pharmacy Degree Courses in universities/colleges in Bengal was notified through the website of West Bengal Joint Entrance Examinations Board — that conducts the examination.

The state Joint Entrance examination was held on July 17 this year and 92695 stu-dents had registered. Among them, 65170 appeared, which is 71 percent of those who had registered. About 77 percent of them were from Bengal while 23 percent from other states. As many as 34440 students from insti-tutes affiliated to the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education, 19338 from CBSE, 840 from ICSE and 10552 from other Boards appeared in the state JEE.

Initially, it was decided that the examina-tion will be held on July 11 but it was pushed back by six days.

Assembly passes resolution to separate Bally Municipality from HMC

Hill political parties begin to gear up for upcoming GTA election

TMC likely to pitch women & young nominees

for KMC & Howrah civic polls

3, including two B’deshi cattle smugglers, killed

in BSF firing

State allots Rs 10 crore to strengthen critical care infrastructure in govt hosps

WBJEE to be held on April 23, 2022

As a run-up to the elections, the Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha (BGPM) announced the

formation of an election coordination committee

Mamata to inaugurate Kol Book Fair in Jan ’22

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is all set to inaugurate the International Kolkata Book Fair in Jan-uary next year.

“Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has given her consent to inaugurate the 45th International Kolkata Book Fair on January 31, 2022. The book fair will be held at Central Park Mela Ground in Salt Lake and will continue till Feb-ruary 13, 2022,” said Tridib Chatterjee, president of Publishers and Book Sell-ers Guild (PBSG).

He reiterated that the Focal Theme Country of the 45th International Kol-kata Book Fair 2022 will be Bangladesh. The event will celebrate the birth cente-nary of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the Golden Jubilee year of Independence of Bangladesh.

The 125th birth anniversary of Net-aji Subhash Chandra Bose, birth cente-nary of legendary film maestro Satyajit Ray and the 75th year of Indian Inde-pendence will also be celebrated in the

International Kolkata Book Fair 2022. The added attraction will be the 8th Kolkata Literature Festival that will be held during the book fair.

The International complex will have usual participants from abroad and publishers from different states of India. Intending publishers, book sell-ers and editors of Little Magazines may submit their applications for participa-tion at the Guild House within Novem-ber 30, 2021.

“We have some special plans to maintain appropriate health protec-tion and Covid protocols to organ-ise the book fair in this new-normal situation. Visitors having double vaccination and masks will be allowed to enter the book fair premises,” said Sudhanshu Dey, general secretary of PBSG.

He reiterated that stalls will be set up as far as possible. For book lovers from abroad who may not be able to visit the book fair physically, virtual telecast on social media will be done so that they can experience the ambi-

ence of the mega fair. “We are planning to introduce free

e-passes. People can also virtually take part in the book fair by clicking on a designated link,” Chatterjee added.

“We also plan to invite Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for the inauguration but we are not sure whether she would be able to spare time for it,” Chatterjee said.

Tributes will also be paid to actor Soumitra Chatterjee, poet Sankha Ghosh, director Buddhadeb Dasgupta, writer Buddhadeb Guha, politician Subrata Mukherjee and other promi-nent personalities who have died in the last two years.

“We will soon divulge all modali-ties and how we plan to go ahead with the measures,” Dey said to questions on how physical distancing and scru-tiny for double vaccination certificates of lakhs of visitors will be ensured in a full-proof manner.

He said the itinerary of the literary festival will be declared later.

The West Bengal government had earlier this week announced that the 2021 and 2022 editions of the book fair will be held in a combined man-ner from January 31, 2022.

Only fully vaccinated bibliophiles can visit Book Fair: Organisers

FAIR WILL CONTINUE TILL FEBRUARY 13, 2022

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: The Bengal government has allotted a fund of around Rs 10 crore for procuring various equipment for critical care units in government hospitals. The step has been taken to further boost up critical care infra-structure to combat the situation in case there is a third wave of Covid.

An order was recently issued by the Health department in this regard. A series of equipment will be procured which include Bubble CPAP, BiPAP, Humidifier etc. Steps have also been taken to augment adult CCU beds, PICU beds at Covid wards of govern-ment hospitals. In its bid to fight the possible third wave, the state Health department has also instructed around 79 government hospitals across Ben-gal to set up ‘hybrid CCU’ specially designed critical care units.

The state Health department has already adopted three-layered mech-anisms under which all the medical college hospitals and various teaching institutions have been asked to ensure

quality control initiatives so that the infection can be checked. There must be an infection control team in each medical college and hospital. The pri-mary objective of this would be to keep various wards free from infec-tions, especially the labour rooms. It is apprehended that women and infants may be more vulnerable to the Covid third wave.

In another initiative, all the dis-trict health officials have already been instructed to arrange adequate infra-

structure for children in the district and sub-divisional hospitals. More than 2,348 critical care beds have been put in place to combat unforeseen situ-ation. As many as 1550 CCU beds, 528 PICU beds and 270 NICU beds have been augmented. A total of 2,476 SNCU beds would be made functional in the state. Infrastructure augmenta-tion works have also been initiated.

Many medical colleges in the city have also increased paediatric beds. SSKM has arranged 129 paediatric beds, 84 SNCU beds, 16 NICU and 16 PICU beds.

Calcutta Medical College and Hos-pital, on the other hand, increased 120 paediatric beds, 110 SNCU, 22 NICU and 25 PICU beds.

NRS Medical College has received 120 paediatric beds, 69 SNCU, 10 NICU and 12 PICU whereas Dr BC Roy PGIPS has managed to have 250 paediatric beds, 154 SNCU, 20 NICU and 24 PICU beds. RG Kar Medical College has received a total of 120 pae-diatric beds, 80 SNCU beds, 25 NICU and 12 PICU beds.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Experts in the real estate and construction indus-try on Friday stated that property prices in the city would go up by at least 10 per cent due to the sudden increase in prices of raw materials.

“Lockdown, migration of labourers, increased prices of fuel and shortage of skilled and unskilled labour have had an adverse impact on the real estate sector and the prices of the new properties are likely to be increased by Rs 350 to 400/sq ft,” Sushil Mohta, president, CREDAI, West Bengal said.

According to Nandu Belani, president, CREDAI, Bengal, it is imperative that something needs to be done to balance the rise in the cost of major construction materi-als and labour cost. “In the current situation, real estate developers will only get some breathing space if we increase project prices by 5 to 10 per cent,” he added.

The construction cost has gone up by 12 per cent in the past one year and the labour cost has

increased by about 20 per cent. Further, fuel prices have also gone up. It had a considerable impact on the real estate industry. The cost of cement per bag varied from Rs 265 in January, 2020 to Rs 250 in Octo-ber 2020 to Rs 300 in March 2021 to Rs 270 in October 2021. Price of steel per kg increased from Rs 45 in January, 2020 to Rs 62 per kg in October, 2021. Price of diesel per litre increased from Rs 68 to Rs 92 per litre.

“We see an approximate 10 per cent increase in project costs over the next 6-12 months for both fresh

launches and unsold inventory. Home buying is a sensitive decision for families and individuals and it is our responsibility to inform our buyers about the reasons for an imminent price hike we foresee,” Sidharth Pansari, senior member, CREDAI, West Bengal, said.

Mohta has urged the Central government to bring back the input tax credit to help the indus-try grow. Real estate sector is not only a major contributor to the national GDP but also an impor-tant employment provider in the country.

‘Property prices to increase by 10% in city’

Rise in cost of raw materials, lack of labourers and increasing fuel prices exerting pressure on industry

Tridib Chatterjee along with Sudhanshu Dey during the announcement of the commencement of the 45th International Book Fair, at Kolkata Press Club, on Friday MPOST

The state Joint Entrance

examination was held on July 17 this

year and 92695 students had

registered

KOLKATA: State Transport minister Firhad Hakim on Friday threatened to cancel licence of app-cab drivers if found harassing women passengers.

“If any FIR is registered in connec-tion with misbehaving with passengers then their (app-cab drivers’) licence will be cancelled,” said Hakim, while brief-ing reporters.

His statement comes in response to a question on what steps the state Transport department is mulling to take following growing number of cases of app-cab drivers misbehaving with female passengers or other women on the road.

On Thursday, an app-cab driver was arrested on charges of misbehaving with a female journalist of a private Bengali television channel.

At about 8:15 pm, an altercation took place between a female scooty rider (the reporter of private Bengali television channel) and the driver of an app-cab after he tried to overtake the scooty in a dangerous manner on James Long Sarani. The driver reportedly misbe-haved with the said female scooty rider and manhandled her male friend, who was sitting as pillion. MPOST

‘Licence of app-cab drivers will be cancelled

if found misbehaving with women passengers’

REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE

BEFORE THE MEGA MATCH

Horse-mounted policemen walk past the Eden Gardens ahead of India vs New Zealand T20 series, in Kolkata, on Friday. The stadium will host the third match of the series on November 21 PIC/PTI

‘The system that is in place — GTA — has to run and for that, we have to take part in electoral politics,’ stated Thapa. While elections are on, the process to chalk out the PPS will be onAnit Thapa

REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE

ALL SMILES

Students take photographs in the field of sunflowers during the ‘Krishi Mela 2021’ at the University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS) campus in Bengaluru, on Friday PTI

CHHATTISGARH PADDY PROCUREMENT

4 millenniumpostNationmpSATURDAY, 13 NOVEMBER, 2021 | KOLKATA

‘Resolve dispute over non-inclusion of pvt docs under COVID insurance’

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Friday asked the Cen-tre to sort out the dispute over non-inclusion of doctors and health workers who have lost their lives battling COVID-19 in private clinics, dispensaries and non-recognised hospi-tals in the Centre’s insurance scheme promising Rs 50 lakh to their families.

A bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and A S Bopanna said, You must sort it out. You sit with insurance companies because a monetary component is also involved and the concerned officials in the health department find a solution. The ultimate objec-tive of Centre’s policy is welfare of people and it should not be selective.”

The bench told Solicitor

General Tushar Mehta that it is an issue which concerns many health workers and should be dealt with expeditiously.

Earlier it was a woman, whose spouse, a doctor, had died due to COVID...while he was treating patients at his clinic. Later several (organ-isations) of health care work-ers have come before the court with their pleas against the exclusion. You must look into it. We will hear this matter after three weeks , the bench said.

Mehta assured the bench he will look into the matter and try to sort it out.

On October 19, the top court had issued notice to the Centre on the plea and had asked it to explain why there was exclusion of private health care workers who have battled the pandemic.

It had said that prima facie the objective of the scheme is to provide social security to health professionals in view of the risk faced by them while

battling COVID in public and private institutions.

It had said that the issue is of considerable importance and dealt with the social security of health professionals who have rendered their services during the pandemic.

The top court had asked the Solicitor General to assist the court in the matter.

One Pradeep Arora and others have moved the top court against the March 9 order of the Bombay High Court which had held that the private hospital staffers were not enti-tled of the benefits under the insurance scheme unless their services were requisitioned by the state or central government.

A plea was filed in the high court by one Kiran Bhas-kar Surgade, who had lost her husband to COVID-19, a doc-tor who used to run his private

clinic in Thane, Maharashtra, last year.

The insurance company had rejected her claim under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package (PMGKP) insurance policy on the ground that her husband’s clinic was not recog-nised as a COVID-19 hospital.

The PMGKP was announced in March last year, and its coverage has been extended since then. It was launched to provide a safety net to the health workers to ensure that in case of any adversity due to COVID-19, their families are taken care of.

An insurance cover of Rs 50 lakhs is provided to the health care workers under the PMKGP scheme which has become a safety net to the dependents of the COVID war-riors who lost their lives to the infection.

The bench told Solicitor General Tushar Mehta that it is an issue which concerns many health workers and should be dealt with expeditiously

KOCHI: Kerala registered 6,674 new positive cases and 59 COVID-19-related deaths on Friday taking the total affected in the state to 50,48,756 and the toll to 35,511. State health department has tested 65,147 samples in the last 24 hours and there are 46 wards across 39 local self government bodies with a weekly infection popu-lation ratio above 10 per cent.

Among the districts, Ernakulam reported 1,088 cases, the highest in the state followed by Thiruvanantha-puram with 967 cases and Thrissur 727.

“Currently, there are 68,805 active COVID-19 cases in the state out of which only 6.7 per

cent are admitted to hospitals,” the health department said in a release.

Out of those who were found infected on Friday, 11 reached the state from outside while 6,209 contracted the dis-ease through their contacts. The sources of infection of 424 are yet to be traced. Thirty health workers are also among the infected.

Meanwhile, 7,022 people recuperated from the disease on Friday taking the total cured in the state to 49,43,813.

There are 2,18,871 people under observation out of which 5,578 are in isolation wards of various hospitals across the state.

Kerala reports 6,674 new cases

MUMBAI: Maharashtra reported 925 new coronavirus cases and 41 fatalities on Fri-day, taking the tally of infec-tions to 66,22,345 and the death toll to 1,40,576, the state health department said.

On Thursday, the state had recorded 997 COVID-19 cases and 28 deaths.

A total of 945 patients were discharged in the last 24 hours, which raised the number of recoveries in Maharashtra to 64,65,893, leaving the state with 12,290 active cases, the depart-ment said.

Maharashtra’s COVID-19 recovery rate now stands at 97.64 per cent, while the case fatality rate is 2.12 per cent, it said, adding that with 1,16,799 samples being examined, the number of tests conducted in the state went up to 6,37,47,431.

On Friday, 12 districts and nine civic bodies in the state did not report any new COVID-19 case. AGENCIES

Maha logs 925 new cases and

41 deaths

A beneficiary receives a dose of COVID-19 vaccine

SRINAGAR: Three militants, including a ‘fidayeen’ (suicide bomber), were killed in two separate encounters in Jammu and Kashmir, police said on Fri-day, taking the number of ultras killed so far this year to 133.

A ‘Mujahideen Gazwatul Hind’ militant who was assigned to carry out a ‘fidayeen’ (sui-cide) attack in Srinagar was killed, while a Hizbul Mujahi-deen (HM) district commander was among the two ultras slain in an encounter in Kulgam, the police said. As many as 133 mili-tants, including several top com-manders, have been killed this year so far, they said.

The ‘fidayeen’ militant was a relative of one of the accused in the February 2019 Pulwama suicide attack in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed, police said. A police spokesman said acting on a specific input about a possible terrorist attack and the movement of terrorists in the Bemina area of Srinagar, a checkpoint was established on Thursday to thwart such evil designs.

In the meantime, terrorists

attacked a checkpoint estab-lished near Bund Bemina which was retaliated leading to an encounter, he said, adding fur-ther reinforcement was rushed to the spot.

In the ensuing gunfight, one terrorist of proscribed terror outfit Mujahideen Gazwatul Hind was killed and his body was retrieved from the site of the encounter, the spokesman said.

He identified the slain ultra as Amir Riyaz, a resident of Khrew Pampore and a rela-tive of one of the accused in the February 2019 suicide attack in Pulwama’s Lethpora in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed.

The preliminary investiga-tion indicated that he (Riyaz) was assigned to carry out sim-ilar kind of fidayeen attack. Digital evidences recovered from his mobile show that he was prepared by terror outfit for fidayeen attack, the spokesman said. In another overnight encounter in Kul-gam district of south Kashmir, two militants, including a dis-trict commander of the HM outfit, were killed. AGENCIES

Suicide bomber among 3 militants killed in two encounters in Kashmir

OUR CORRESPONDENT

RAIPUR: Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on Friday ordered collectors and superintendents of police of all districts to check illegal trans-portation of paddy from neigh-boring states, officials said.

The state government plans to buy around 105 lakh metric tonnes (MT) of paddy from farmers on minimum support price in the ongoing Kharif crop season, with the procure-ment drive scheduled to start through 2,311 cooperative

society centres from Decem-ber 1, they said.

“Taking serious note of complaints of illegal transpor-tation of paddy from adjoining

states ahead of the procurement drive, the CM told officials to ensure strict vigil to stop such activities and take strict action against those involved in it,” a public relations department official said.

Farmers in Chhattisgarh get better returns for paddy as compared to the neighbouring states, as they get MSP as well as input subsidy under Rajiv Gandhi Kisan Nyay Yojana, leading to annual complaints of illegal transportation of paddy from bordering states, he informed.

Stop illegal transportation from other states, CM tells officials

Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel

Habibganj Railway station may be renamed as Rani KamlapatiOUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The revamped Habibganj Railway station in Bhopal is likely to be renamed as Rani Kamalapati station. The Madhya Pradesh government has sent a proposal in this regard to the Centre. There has been a demand to change the name of Habibganj railway station of Bhopal for a long time.

The revamped Habibganj railway station, which will be inaugurated by Prime Minis-ter Narendra Modi on Novem-ber 15, will feature glimpses of Madhya Pradesh’s tourism and culture at its main entry, wait-ing rooms, VIP lounge and air concourse.

Glimpses of world heritage sites such as Sanchi Stup, Bho-jpur Temples, Bhim Baithika,

Birla Mandir, Tawa Dam, Tribal Museum among others, will be displayed in the main areas

of the Habibganj railway sta-tion, said Shivshekar Shukla, the state’s principal secretary tour-ism, culture and public relations.

Some of these arrangements will be done before the prime minister’s visit, but later they will be set up in such a man-ner that people alighting at the station come to know about the rich heritage and culture of the state, especially places of

religious, historical and archae-ological importance, a senior official said.

A souvenir shop will be set up in the coming days and tribal art paintings will also be displayed.

A tourist information lounge will be set up and a large LED screen will be put up on the first-floor waiting hall to pro-vide information about tour-

ism and culture of the state, the official said.

Literature related to tour-ism and culture, coffee-table books, brochures and leaflets will also be made available to people alighting at Habibganj station, he said. The tourism and culture department will play a major role in the beautification of the station, the official added. WITH INPUTS FROM PTI

7 integrated checkStress has been given on the completion of the administra-

tive works and payment-related issues between the BSF and Central Public Works Department with concerned district authorities for land to set up infrastructure for border security. The approval has been given already to complete the fencing along the 182 out of the remaining 289 km stretch along the international border. Directions have been given to complete the procedure to settle the land-related issue for the same at the earliest, sources said.

Nearly 80% of“Going by India’s current vaccination pace we can claim

with confidence that the world’s largest adult vaccination pro-gramme is well on track since its launch on January 16.

“To date, nearly 80 per cent of the eligible population in India has been vaccinated against COVID-19 with the first dose, while 38 per cent has been fully vaccinated,” he stated.

In several states, 100 per cent of the adult population has received the first dose of the vaccine. He expressed confidence that with India’s current vaccine delivery capacity, the entire adult population will soon be covered.

The Union Health Ministry has also written to several states and union territories asking them to prioritise admin-istering the second dose to beneficiaries who have not got themselves jabbed even after the expiry of the prescribed interval between the two doses, official sources said.

Meanwhile, India logged 12,516 new Coronavirus infec-tions, taking the country’s total tally of COVID-19 cases to 3,44,14,186, out of which 3,38,14,080 people have recuperated, while the active cases declined to 1,37,416, the lowest in 267 days, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Friday. The death toll climbed to 4,62,690 with 501 fresh fatal-ities, including 419 from Kerala, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.34 per cent, according to the data updated at 8 am. Of the 419 deaths in Kerala, 47 were reported in the last few days and 372 were designated as Covid deaths after receiving appeals based on the new guidelines of the Centre and Supreme Court directions, a Kerala government release said on Thursday. Kerala has been reassessing the covid deaths toll from around two weeks.

The daily rise in new coronavirus infections has been below 20,000 for 35 straight days and less than 50,000 daily new cases have been reported for 138 consecutive days now.

The active cases comprise 0.40 per cent of the total infec-tions, the lowest since March 2020, while the national

COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.26 per cent, the highest since March 2020, the ministry said.

A decrease of 1,140 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 1.07 per cent. It has been less than two per cent for last 39 days. The weekly positivity rate was also recorded at 1.10 per cent. It has been below two per cent for the last 49 days, according to the min-istry. According to an interim analysis of its phase-3 trial pub-lished in The Lancet on Friday, two doses of Covaxin offer 77.8 per cent protection against symptomatic disease and present no serious safety concerns.

Covaxin, an inactivated whole virus vaccine developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech, recently received emer-gency use approval from the World Health Organization (WHO) for people aged 18 and above.

The phase-3 trial findings indicate that Covaxin induces a robust antibody response with no severe vaccine-related adverse events or deaths reported among the trial participants, the authors of the study said. The majority of the adverse events, including headache, fatigue, fever, and pain at the injection site, were mild and occurred within seven days of vaccination, they explained. The vaccine is administered in a two-dose regimen, 28 days apart, and can be stored and trans-ported between 2-8 degrees Celsius. The trial took place from November 16 to May 17 this year, with participants aged 18 and older randomly assigned to receive two doses of the vac-cine or a placebo.

Zika cases reportedThe samples of their close contacts have been taken and

fogging and anti-larva spray is being done in the vicinity of their homes, he said.

Additional Chief Secretary, Medical Health, Amit Mohan Prasad had instructed the officials concerned to take all mea-sures to check spread of the disease.

During his visit to Kanpur on Wednesday, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanth held discussions with the district and health authorities and reviewed the efforts to deal with the Zika virus in the district. MPOST

After SC warnsThe bench asked Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain

and senior advocate R Balasubramanian, appearing for the Army, whether the 11 officers who were left out (except for three on medical ground) had met the 60 percent marks crite-ria and whether they have disciplinary and vigilance clearance or not as per the courts criteria laid on March 25, this year.

Jain said the 11 officers have got over 60 percent marks

and they had all the disciplinary and vigilance clearances but they had adverse remarks and their statutory and non-statu-tory complaints are pending.

If they have met all the criteria set out in our judgement, then why have you not granted them the PC? We have said in our earlier orders that out of 72 WSSCO officers, who have approached the court or not, shall be granted the PC subject to the meeting of the criteria, the bench said.

The bench then started dictating the order but was inter-rupted by Jain that they have just received instruction that the Army is willing to grant the PC to 11 officers who are before the court.

The counsels for army officers who have been denied the PC objected to the statement and said that even those officers who have not filed the contempt petition against the Army and Naravane should be considered.

Jain said that these are contempt petitions and only such officers will be considered who are before the court.

Senior advocate Huzefa Ahmadi, appearing for some offi-cers, said that it is humiliation of the Army officers whose achievements have been lauded by the top court in its ver-dict and the Army’s taking a technical ground to deny the PC does not suit it. Jain urged the bench that since he and Bala-subramanian need to seek instruction from the concerned authorities, the court may give them some time till 2 PM and till then it should not dictate the order. The bench agreed to the request and allowed Jain and Balasubramanian to seek instructions. In the post-lunch session Jain said that they have got instructions that Army is willing to grant the permanent commission to all the WSSCOs irrespective of the fact that they are before the court or not but meeting the criteria set out by the court in its March 25 order.

Jain said, Army authorities think that this matter be put at rest today itself and they do not want any more litigation in this regard. The bench asked the Army to issue orders for grant of Permanent Commission to 11 officers who are before the court within 10 days and those who are not before the court within three weeks.

Ex-CBDTHis appointment comes ahead of the Winter Session of

Parliament, which is expected to commence from November 29. In another notification, the Rajya Sabha Secretariat said Ramacharyulu has been relieved of his charge from the fore-noon of November 12.

He now been appointed as an advisor in the Rajya Sabha Secretariat, sources said.

Ramacharyulu was appointed as the secretary-general of the Rajya Sabha on September 1. No reason has been given for his replacement, the sources said. Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh took a swipe at the government over the development on Twitter, saying, “Not surprised at all Dr. P.P.K. Ramacharyulu is a thorough professional, non-par-

tisan and perfectly qualified for the post — three deadly sins in the Modi regime.”

Cabinet reshuffle in RajIn the last 20 years, whatever job has been assigned, I have

done it diligently and now also whatever the party decides, what role I should have...I am happy to do it.”

“Extensive discussions took place about Rajasthan, about the government, party organisation, and I put forward my points about the political situation in the state. I am happy that the Congress president is constantly taking interest in Rajasthan and is taking feedback about the work of the gov-ernment and on the organisation,” Pilot said.

He said the committee that Sonia Gandhi had formed to look into the issues raised by him about a year ago has also competed its work, and general secretary organisation K C Venugopal along with AICC general secretary in-charge Ajay Maken have been submitting reports from time to time.

“The party high command is also talking about taking action on the points we had put forward last year and I think very soon decisions will be taken on it,” he said.

Pilot for long has been demanding that Cabinet expansion should happen and appointments to boards and corporations in the state be made soon. He has been asserting that Con-gress workers and leaders working closely with him for the party should be given their dues. MPOST

Longest partial lunarThe Penumbral eclipse preceding and succeeding the

umbral partial eclipse will begin around 11:32 IST (6:02 GMT) and end at 17:33 IST (12:03 GMT). At the maximum partial eclipse, around 14:34 hours (9:04 GMT) 97 per cent of the Moon will be covered by the Earth’s shadow and the Moon may appear to be blood red in colour.

“From India, just after moonrise, the ending of the partial phase of the eclipse will be visible for a very short span of time from extreme north-eastern parts of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam,” according to Press Information Bureau (PIB) release.

The next lunar eclipse will be a total eclipse on May 16, 2022, but it will not be visible from India. India will experi-ence a lunar eclipse, a full one, only on November 8, 2022.

A partial lunar eclipse occurs when the moon moves through the outer part of the earth’s shadow, blocking a part of the sunlight from reaching the moon and causing it to appear larger than normal.

The last time such a lengthy partial eclipse occurred was on February 18, 1440, and the next time a similar lengthy par-tial eclipse will occur on February 8, 2669.

From Page 1

5millenniumpost Nation mpKOLKATA | SATURDAY, 13 NOVEMBER, 2021

CHANDIGARH LAUNCHES 2ND FMD VACCINATION DRIVE FOR LIVESTOCKCHANDIGARH: The 2nd Round of Foot and Mouth Dis-ease Vaccination campaign has been launched under National Animal Disease Control Program (NADCP) by the Department of Animal Husbandry & Fisheries in U.T. Chandigarh at village Sarangpur, Chandigarh today under the guidance of Dr. Vijay Namdeorao Zade , Secretary Animal Husbandry. The effort is in the direction of contributing towards doubling farmer’s income. The NADCP is the Central Govt. Scheme for eradication of Foot and Mouth Disease and Brucellosis in livestock. The prevalence of these animal diseases is a serious concern to the growth of livestock farm-ers. While launching the Foot and Mouth Vaccination Campaign, Manish Kumar Lohan, Director Animal Husbandry said that the overall aim of this program is to control Foot and Mouth Disease by 2025 with sched-uled vaccinations and its eventual eradication by 2030. This will increase domestic production and ultimately in increased exports of milk and livestock products. This disease is amongst the most serious diseases of animals in terms of economic impact and is globally recognised as priority disease for control and eradication.

UP: WOMAN STRANGLES HER 2 CHILDREN AFTER QUARREL WITH HUSBANDBAREILLY (UP): A woman strangled her two children following a quarrel with her husband at Matkapur vil-lage in the Bhuta area here, police said on Friday. The bodies have been sent for a post-mortem examination and the woman has been arrested, police said. Super-intendent of Police (Rural) Rajkumar Agarwal said Jay-anti got so angry after a fight with her husband Bantu, who also beat her up on Thursday night. She strangled her two children, son Balakrishna (2) and six-month-old daughter Komal.

‘6-YEAR-OLD GIRL RAPED BY RELATIVE’BUDAUN (UP): A six-year-old girl was allegedly raped by her relative in a village under Ujhani police station area of the district here, police said on Friday. The accused has been arrested, police said.The victim was playing outside her house on Thursday evening when the accused, aged 22, took her away to a nearby forest and allegedly raped her, police said.

Nation Briefs

Congress has ‘pathological hatred’ for Hinduism: BJPOUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The BJP claimed on Friday that the Congress leadership nurses “pathologi-cal hatred” for Hinduism as it hit out at Rahul Gandhi for his criticism of Hindutva, saying it is at his behest that Congress leaders like Salman Khurshid, Shashi Tharoor and P Chidam-baram have allegedly targeted the religion.

BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra attacked Gandhi after the Congress leader sought to draw a distinction between Hindu-ism and Hindutva, a term widely used by the RSS, and alleged that the RSS-BJP ideol-ogy was about spreading hate.

Patra alleged that Gandhi has a history of making criti-cal comments about Hinduism and its culture.

It is in the character of the Congress and the Gandhi fam-ily to attack Hinduism at every opportunity, he said.

Citing terms like Hindu Pakistan, Hindu Taliban and saffron terror used by Congress leaders Tharoor and Chidam-baram, he said they make these remarks at Gandhi’s behest. He

also referred to Digvijay Singh and Mani Shankar Aiyar in this context.

“What they say is not a coincidence but an experi-ment. And the headmaster of this experimental lab is Rahul Gandhi.... There is a pathologi-cal hatred for Hinduism among Congress leaders, and they get traction for this from the Gan-dhi family,” he alleged.

Patra also referred to a comment of Rahul Gandhi, which had found a mention in the WikiLeaks in 2010, that Hindu extremist groups could pose a bigger danger to India than Islamic terror organisa-tion and some other remarks to attack him.

Gandhi had linked atroci-ties against women to Indian culture, he claimed.

The BJP’s attack on Gan-dhi came a day after the ruling party had slammed the oppo-sition party over its leader Salman Khurshid compar-ing Hindutva with the jihadist Islam of terrorist groups such as ISIS and Boko Haram in his latest book.

It is clear that Khurshid has also endorsed what Rahul Gan-dhi has been saying, Patra said. People of India will never for-give the Congress, he said.

Patra said seeking apology from him would be irrelevant.

The Congress leader, he alleged, has violated constitu-tional tenets with his remarks that spread “hate” in society.

The Congress, he said, had also tried to delay the court hearing in the Ram temple case and had, when in power, ques-tioned the existence of Lord Ram. To a question about the Congress drawing a distinction between Hinduism and Hindu-tva, Patra shot back, “Can they talk on similar lines about other religions? Of course not. They cannot talk of similar issues in any other religion. The ques-tion is why do they talk ill of Hinduism all the time.”

CM Khattar tells Shrine board to work for developing Adi Badri as tourist destination

MPOST BUREAU

CHANDIGARH: Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Friday asked the Shrine Board to work inclu-sively to develop the Adi Badri religious place as a tourist des-tination. Besides this, a per-manent bus service should be started from Jagadhri to Adi Badri.

The Chief Minister said this while presiding over the meeting of Shri Kapal Mochan, Shri Badri Narayan, Shri Man-tra Devi and Shri Kedarnath Shrine Board here Friday.

He said that special arrange-ments should be made for pro-viding facilities for the devotees visiting the Kapal Mochan Mela to be held from Novem-ber 15 to 19. About 8 lakh dev-otees from Punjab, Haryana and Himachal are expected to participate in this Mela.

The Chief Minister informed that on Kartik Purn-ima falling on November 18 -19, the number of devotees is

expected to be high hence spe-cial arrangements should be made for the devotees.

Meanwhile, the devo-tees have to do a manda-tory registration on district administration’s portal www.Yamunanagar.nic.in to attend the fair. This link should be widely publicized so that more and more devotees can partic-ipate in the fair, directed the Chief Minister.

In the meeting, the Chief Minister was apprised that a control room has been set up in the fair and health check-up counters would also be set up in the fair premises for the convenience of the devotees in view of COVID-19 Pandemic. Apart from this, two mobile

units will be present in the fair premises for health checkups and ensure administration of vaccination of devotees. If any devotee is found to be COVID-19 positive, then a 100-bed containment center has been set up for them.

The Chief Minister was fur-ther apprised that masks and sanitizers will be arranged at the fair. In view of security, 50 CCTV cameras have been installed along with making 19 check posts. 12 parking arrangements have also been made for the devotees.

The Chief Minister said that arrangements for swings would be made in the fair and Bhajan Sandhya would be organized every evening. The Chief Min-

ister directed the Mela Admin-istrator to organize patriotic programmes in the fair as part of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav. Sagas of sacrifice should also be narrated, especially by the Dhadi Jatha. Besides this, the exhibition will also be orga-nized by all the departments.

Khattar said that accord-ing to the faith of the devotees, all religious places includ-ing Kapal Mochan Sarovar, Suryakund, Adi Badri, Man-tra Devi, and Shri Kedarnath should be developed by consti-tuting an executive committee. All roads to these places should be made along with improve-ment of Kapal Mochan road from Bilaspur, dividers should also be made, he added.

PM Modi likely to attend Janjatiya Gaurav Divas in Bhopal on Nov 15SATYAPRAKASH SHARMA

BHOPAL: Prime Minister Nar-endra Modi is likely to attend a Janjatiya Gaurav Divas(JGD), celebrating first-ever by the BJP-led Madhya Pradesh gov-ernment to mark the birth anni-versary of the tribal leader Birsa Munda on November 15 in Bho-pal. It is considered that hold-ing the mega tribal convention is to be a game plan of the saf-fron party to woo the schedule tribes (STs) who play a decisive role in the Assembly elections.

During the visit, PM is also expected to dedicate the newly developed world-class Habib-ganj railway station to the pub-lic. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has been keeping an eye on the preparations to make historic the JGD and the PM’s visit. Chouhan on Monday held a meeting with his cabinet col-leagues to review the arrange-ments for warm welcoming of PM Modi and the convention. He assigned the significant responsibilities of preparations to the ministers. Chouhan also

directed officials to highlight the culture, tradition and life values of tribals during the JGD.

BJP is riding high after snatching the Schedule Tribe reserved, Jobat Assembly seat a stronghold of Congress in the recently concluded by-polls.. After breaking into the Nimar region, which has the highest 18 reserved seats for STs, BJP has started preparations to make a strategy to enter into the tribal populated seats. Celebrating the JGD is considered a part of this strategy to woo tribal voters in upcoming state Assembly polls in 2023 and Lok Sabha elections in 2024. A total of 47 Assem-bly seats in the 230-membered state’s Assembly are reserved for the tribal community. MP has the highest number of trib-als in the country at about 21.5 per cent of the state’s popula-tion according to the 2011 cen-sus. In 2018, Congress won 31 seats and came to power while BJP secured 16 seats only. BJP registered a thumping victory in the 2013 Assembly elections and got 31 Adiwasi seats.

“A total of 82 reserved Assembly seats hold key to securing power in the state. BJP has now started to focus on the reserved community”, said Vinod Sharma, a senior journalist, and political analyst.

The tribal seats are con-sidered to play a decisive role for both parties to come to the power in the state.

“The BJP always takes care of tribes and pays respect to them. Observing the birth anniversary of tribal leader Birsa Ji as the JGD is the respect to the Adiwa-sis and the honor of their contri-bution to the freedom struggle”, MP Minister for Finance, Jag-dish Devda told Millennium Post. “Our party is based on an organization and the cad-res. It prepares for the elections 365 days so it has become the biggest party in the world”, the senior minister said. The party in charge in the state, P Murlid-har Rao on Monday said that his party was concentrating on Schedule Cast and ST people and also said Brahmin and Bani-yas were in his pocket.

Punjab: AAP announces

first list of 10 candidates

CHANDIGARH: The Aam Aadmi Party on Friday announced its first list of 10 candidates for next year’s Punjab Assembly polls, giving tickets to its sitting MLAs from their pres-ent constituencies. Senior party leader Harpal Singh Cheema, who is the Leader of Opposi-tion in the Punjab Assembly, has been given ticket from Dirba while Aman Arora will be con-testing from Sunam, according to the list shared by the party on its Twitter handle. Saravjit Kaur Manuke, who is the deputy leader of opposition, will contest from Jagraon while from Tal-wandi Sabo, Baljinder Kaur will fight the polls. Jai Kishan Rori has been given ticket from Gar-shankar, Manjit Bilaspur from Nihal Singh Wala, Kultar Singh Sandhwan from Kotkapura, Budhram from Budhlada, Gur-meet Singh Meet Hayer from Barnala and Kulwant Pandori from Mehal Kalan. MPOST

Sambit Patra

‘GOVT DOES NOT HAVE STRATEGY ON CHINA’

Hinduism & Hindutva are ‘different things’: Rahul amid Khurshid row

OUR CORRESPONDENT

WARDHA/NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday maintained that Hin-duism and Hindutva are “differ-ent things” and slammed the ideology of the BJP-RSS alleg-ing it has spread hatred in India.

Observing that his party’s ideology is alive and vibrant and is like a “beautiful jewel” with an unending power inside it, but it has been overshadowed by the BJP, Gandhi also said in today’s India, ideological fight has become very important.

Is Hinduism about beating a Sikh, or a Muslim. Hindutva, of course, is. In which book is it written? I have not seen it. I have read the Upanishads. I have not read it, Gandhi said, as he sought to draw a distinc-tion between Hinduism and Hindutva, a term widely used by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh(RSS).

“What is the difference between Hinduism as we know

it and Hindutva. Are they the same thing. Can they be the same thing. If they are the same thing, why don’t they have the same name. Why do they have a different name. Why do you use the word Hinduism, why not just use Hindutva if they are the same thing.They are obviously different things”.

The remarks by Gandhi that escalated the political heat between the BJP and the Congress ahead of the assem-bly polls in five states includ-ing Uttar Pradesh came a day after senior Congress leader

Salman Khurshid sparked a row by comparing a “robust ver-sion” of Hindutva to the jihadist Islam of terror groups such as the ISIS and Boko Haram. Khur-shid, who stood by his remarks made in his new book on Ayod-hya verdict, had come under attack on Thursday from the BJP as well as his party colleague Ghulam Nabi Azad.

Gandhi said that if crystal-lized, the Congress ideology will envelope that of the BJP-RSS, and emphasised on strength-ening his party’s ideas within the organisation and spread-ing them across the country. Gandhi was addressing online a four-day ‘AICC orientation pro-gramme’ organised at Sevagram Ashram in Wardha in Maha-rashtra. Congress representa-tives from across the states are participating in the event.

Rahul Gandhi alleged that the country’s national security is “unpardonably compromised” as the government does not have a strategy on China.

FB used by BJP as weapon to spread hate: Congress

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Alleging that Facebook was being used as a weapon by the BJP to spread hate and fake news in the country, the Congress on Fri-day demanded a JPC probe on the issue and laws be enacted to restrict Facebook and WhatsApp.

While writing a let-ter to Mark Zuckerberg, the principal Opposition party has also alleged that India’s democracy is being manipu-lated by an American technol-ogy company and demanded that it hold an independent inquiry into the issue.

While addressing a Press conference, Congress lead-ers Rohan Gupta and Praveen Chakravarty said that in the

last two years, an abundance of evidence had been released that point to the negligence by the company in controlling hate speech.

In his letter to Zuckerberg, Gupta, who heads the social media department of Congress, said, “I strongly urge you to con-duct an internal inquiry into the functioning of Facebook India and release the findings to the public. It is your responsibility as the head of this organisation to hold those responsible for betraying our people account-able for their actions.”

“Facebook has become a weapon of the BJP in spread-ing hatred in the country...There is an attempt to attack the unity of our country and everyone has to understand this and fight it together,” he told reporters.

Rahul Gandhi

‘7 COACHES OF BENGALURU-BOUND TRAIN DERAIL IN TN, NO CASUALTY REPORTED’ BENGALURU/DHARMAPURI: Seven coaches of a Bengaluru-bound train derailed near Dharmapuri in Tamil Nadu on Friday after boulders fell on it but all the 2,000-odd passengers were safe and nobody was injured in the incident, the Southern Railway said here. The Kannur-Bengaluru Express had left from the former, in Kerala, at 6.05 PM on Thursday. “On date (Nov 12), at about 3:50 AM, due to sudden falling of boulders on the running train, coaches of Train No 07390 Kannur-Bengaluru Express derailed between Toppuru - Sivadi of (Bengaluru Salem Section), Bengaluru Division,” an official release here said. “All 2,348 Passengers on board are safe. No casualty/injury reported,” it added.

COUNTRY’S FIRST MEMORIAL FOR CO-VID-19 VICTIMS INSTALLED IN T’GANA HYDERABAD: A memorial for COVID-19 victims, described as the first such tribute in the country to those who succumbed to the infectious disease, was inaugurated at a village in Telangana. The memorial was installed at Rajannapet village in Rajanna-Sircilla district on Thursday by Project Madad, a voluntary group of Indian and Indian diaspora doctors and professionals. The memorial is dedicated to all the countrymen who lost their lives due to COVID-19 in 2020-2021. Project Madad believes that “India can-not afford to forget” the near and dear ones lost in this crisis nor let down the caution against COVID-19, the group said in a statement on Friday.

WRESTLER, BROTHER SHOT DEAD IN SONEPAT

UP ASSEMBLY POLLSPLAINT FILED, EFFIGIES BURNT

AMID PANDEMIC Nation Briefs

6 millenniumpostNationmpSATURDAY, 13 NOVEMBER, 2021 | KOLKATA

OUR CORRESPONDENT

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin who vis-ited the rain-battered districts of Chengalpattu and Kanchee-puram on Friday sprang a sur-prise by briefly stopping to sip tea and interact with the public. Also, he interacted with sanitary workers involved in clearing the silt in the inundated areas.

Like Chennai, both the neighbouring districts were battered by the rains which inundated several areas. The administration launched prompt measures to evacu-ate the affected people to relief camps and in bailing out water from the marooned areas. The

CM who distributed relief to the rain displaced families, had launched a special medi-cal camp here today for treating the people during the Northeast Monsoon.

While in Chengalpattu dis-

trict, the Chief Minister stopped at a tea shop in Keezhakottai-yur and interacted with the public. As he was sipping tea, few youngsters including those working at the tea shop, approached him for a selfie

which he obliged with a smile on his visage. Rural industries minister T M Anbarasan, Srip-erumbadur MP T R Baalu, dis-trict collector A R Rahul Nath were present on the occasion.

At Mambakkam in the dis-trict, Stalin gave away relief to the people and housing pattas to Irula families. Later, the Chief Minister interacted with the sanitary workers in Tambaram.

The CM has been inspecting several areas affected by heavy rains since the last few days. Apart from inspecting the flood mitigation work at Mudichur, Stalin reviewed the dredging work at Narayanapuram lake and the zero point and regula-tor of the Adyar River.

EAM meets US Congress delegation

Deshmukh’s custody

extended till November 15

HM Amit Shah reaches Varanasi to attend meet

‘India makes progress in child vax against diarrhoea, pneumonia’

2 UP police officials

suspended after Delhi HC wrath

Sabarimala temple all set

for annual pilgrimage

OUR CORRESPONDENT

SHIMLA: In a rare ges-ture, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur tracked rough pedes-trian path,almost one and half hour, to reach ancient village Malana---also known as world’s oldest democracy, to meet fam-ilies affected by a devastating fire, and also gave them relief to rebuild their houses before they get cut off by the snowfall, and winters.

The fire had rendered almost 36 families fully and par-tially shelter less on October 28.

The CM announced Rs 1.50 lakh each to 36 affected families under Mukhya Mantri Awas Yojna and handed over sanc-tion letters in this regard to the families. He also announced another Rs 40,000 grant each to the affected families under MNREGA.

The families will be paid by the state government under MNREGA for the work they render in construction of their

houses. Thakur also announced Rs 25,000 each to the families whose houses were completely gutted in this fire incident and Rs 10,000 each from his discre-tionary fund to those families whose houses were partially gutted.

Accompanied by education minister Govind Thakur,who is also MLA from Manali ,former MP Maheshwar Singh ,Banjar MLA Surender Shourie, DC Ashutosh Garg and SP Gurdev

Sharma, Chief Minister went around the village where the fire had reduced the houses to ashes and interacted with the affected persons.

Chief Minister was reminded that a similar fire had destroyed the village in 2008 and this was second time they have seen such a horri-fying experience, apart from complete loss they have suf-fered. Most families being poor and living on meagre agricul-

ture incomes have no means to build houses.

The Chief Minister praised the villagers for preserving their culture and traditions but exhorted them to send their children, especially the girls to the schools. Thus he announced plans to upgrade the local high school to a higher secondary level. He also announced the opening of the Health Sub Cen-tre at Malana.

He said that irrigation facili-ties would also be made avail-able in Jari village under JICA and tapped water would be provided under the Jal Jeevan Mission.

The Chief Minister sanc-tioned Rs 1 crore for con-struction of alternative road to Malana and directed the PWD authorities to complete the road work within six months to facil-itate the people of the area.

“This will not only give a boost to tourism development in the area but also ensure development of the village,” he said.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Special Cell of Delhi Police arrested two per-sons — a coach and his asso-ciate from Dwarka here, after two days of a 20-year-old trainee wrestler Nisha Dahiya and her 18-year-old brother Suraj were shot dead at a wres-tling academy in Sonepat of Haryana.

The investing team of the city police arrested them from outside Dwarka Sector 14 metro station on Friday morning.

Meanwhile, police officials informed that the Sonepat

police have been informed of the arrests and they have been asked to take the accused into their custody. Cops identified the arrestees as Nisha's trainer Pawan Brak and his associate, 23-year-old Sachin Dahiya. Dahiya has a criminal back-ground and two arms act cases were earlier registered against him in Haryana, special cell offi-cials informed. A reward of Rs 1 lakh was already announced for information leading to the arrest in Haryana.

While speaking to Millen-nium Post, the deceased wres-tler's father Dayanand Dahiya, an inspector in the CRPF

posted in Kashmir said, "I was not aware of the entire matter. I got to know recently that the coach (Pawan) had been ask-ing for money several times in the name of diet, training or sometimes selection. My daugh-ter had asked several times for Rs. 50,000/-, Rs. 30,000/- and recently Rs. 1 lakh to procure him. Recently, she complained to her mother about molesting her by Pawan. But she did not share with me."

The father of the murder victims said the girl had con-fided in her mother three days ago that her coach, Pawan, was harassing her.

NEW DELHI: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday met a delegation of US Con-gress and exchanged views on the developments in Afghani-stan as well as the situation in the Indo-Pacific.

The delegation, led by Sen-ator John Cornyn, is on a visit to India.

“Pleased to meet US Con-gress Delegation led by Sen @JohnCornyn today in New Delhi. A productive exchange of views on bilateral coop-eration and regional issues, including Indo-Pacific and Afghanistan,” Jaishankar tweeted.

India has been worried about the possible implica-tions of the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan for regional security and the issue is learnt to have figured in the deliberations.

The visit by the American delegation came over a month

after US deputy secretary of state Wendy Sherman held extensive talks with her Indian interlocutors in Delhi over the Afghan crisis.

During her visit, Sherman had said that India’s security concerns will be the “first and foremost” and in the “front and centre” for the US following the developments in Afghanistan.

India and the US have been in regular dialogue and consul-tations on the issues relating to Afghanistan.

The two sides have also been expanding cooperation in the Indo-Pacific in the back-drop of growing Chinese mus-cle-flexing in the region. MPOST

OUR CORRESPONDENT

MUZAFFARNAGAR (UP): Two Uttar Pradesh Police offi-cials have been suspended after the Delhi High Court pulled up the neighbouring state’s police department for illegally arrest-ing a Delhi-based man and his son. The second son of the Delhi-based man had eloped with a 21-year-old woman from Shamli in Uttar Pradesh and married her against the wishes of her family.

Station House Officer (SHO) of Shamli Kotwali Pan-kaj Tyagi and the investigation officer of the case SH Sharma have been suspended and an inquiry has been initiated into the illegal arrests, Shamli Superintendent of Police (SP) Sukirti Madhav Mishra said on Friday.

The Delhi-based man’s son and the woman from Shamli got married a few months ago.

The father of the woman alleged on September 8 that she was abducted by the two Delhi-based men and got a police complaint lodged against them. Subsequently, the Uttar Pradesh Police arrested the father-son duo from Delhi.

The couple filed a writ petition under section 164 (recording of statement of the accused or witness or the aggrieved before the magis-trate) of the Code of Crimi-nal Procedure (CrPC) in the Delhi High Court, stating that they had attained the legal age for marriage and had married each other of their own will. The man also alleged that his father and brother were ille-gally arrested.

Taking cognisance of the petition, the Delhi High Court pulled up the Uttar Pradesh police on October 28 for the arrests and said such illegal acts were not permissible and will not be tolerated in the national capital.

Coach, his associate held in Delhi

HP CM visits ancient Malana village

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The National Commission for Minorities has taken suo motu cognizance of the death of a man in police custody in Uttar Pradesh's Kasganj district and sought a report within 15 days from the Director General of Police and the Chief Secretary on the action taken. The Commission has also taken suo motu cogni-zance of the reported attack on a mosque, houses and shops of minority community members in Tripura and sought a report on it from the chief secretary of the state.

NCM chief Iqbal Singh Lalpura shared with reporters at a press interaction here the action taken by the Commis-sion over the two incidents.

In the custodial death case, Lalpura said the NCM has writ-ten to the DGP and the chief secretary of UP and sought a report on the action taken.

The man called for ques-tioning at Kasganj police sta-tion in a kidnapping case died in custody on Tuesday, with his family members alleging

that he was killed by police personnel.

However, the police claimed that Altaf, 22, had strangulated himself using a string from his jacket hood in the washroom of the police lock-up. Five police-men have been suspended for negligence following the inci-dent. The NCM has also take cognizance of a media report regarding attacks on a mosque, houses and shops of members of the minority community in Tripura.

The letter sent on Novem-ber 8 has sought details of the incident, the action taken and how many have been arrested or booked in connection with the incident by Novem-ber 14 from the Tripura chief secretary.

NCM seeks report from UP Chief Secy, DGP on

custodial death in Kasganj

Family members of custodial death victim in UP’s Kasganj reject police theory of suicide

NEW DELHI: India made significant progress in 2020 in ensuring children receive immunisation that provide protection against diarrhoea and pneumonia despite chal-lenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new report from the Interna-tional Vaccine Access Center (IVAC) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

According to the report released on the occasion of World Pneumonia Day on Friday, India’s coverage of pneumococcal conjugate vac-cine, which protects against the main cause of pneumo-nia, increased by six percent-age points -- 15 per cent PCV coverage in 2019 expanded to 21 per cent in 2020.

In October 2021, a nation-wide expansion of pneumococ-cal conjugate vaccine (PCV) under the Universal Immunisa-tion Programme was launched, making it available for the first time for universal use across India.

India currently has the highest global burden of pneu-

monia and diarrhoea deaths among children under five, and accounts for an estimated 2,33,240 such deaths annu-ally, the equivalent of 640 chil-dren per day, according to the report. India’s coverage of rotavirus vaccine, which pro-tects against a leading cause of deadly diarrhoea in chil-dren worldwide, increased by 29 percentage points -- 53 per cent rotavirus coverage in 2019 expanded to 82 per cent in 2020 -- according to the report.

In 2019, India completed the 100-days agenda -- an unprecedented national scale-up of rotavirus vaccine that will help protect 26 million chil-dren born each year against life-threatening cases of diar-

rhoea -- the report stated.The annual Pneumonia and

Diarrhoea Progress Report monitors trends in fighting childhood pneumonia and diarrhoea -- which collectively kill more children worldwide than any other infectious dis-ease -- in the countries with the highest absolute number of deaths.

Of the 15 focus countries included in the report, India is one of just six countries that exceeded targets for exclu-sive breastfeeding (58 per cent exclusive breastfeeding rate).

Exclusive breastfeeding protects young children by making them healthier and less vulnerable to pneumonia and diarrhoea. AGENCIES

PATHANAMTHITTA (KER): Doors of the Sabari-mala Lord Ayyappa shrine will be opened next week for the two-month long annual pil-grimage season during which 30,000 devotees per day will be allowed to have darshan through a virtual queue system, officials said here on Friday.

The pilgrimage will com-mence on November 16. The sanctum sanctorum of the tem-ple will be opened at 5 PM on November 15 in the presence of chief priest (Tantri) Kandararu Mahesh Mohanararu by out-going priest V K Jayaraj Potti.

Appointment ceremony of the newly selected priests (mel-santis) of Lord Ayyappa and Malikappuram temples in the hills will be held later in the evening.

The pilgrimage will be held strictly adhering to COVID-19 protocol with authorities insisting that two doses covid vaccination cer-tificate or RT-PCR negative certificate taken within 72 hours is mandatory for visit-ing the hill shrine. AGENCIES

TN CM Stalin inspects rain-battered areas

MUMBAI: A special court here on Friday extended the Enforcement Directorate cus-tody of former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh till November 15 in an alleged money laundering case.

Opposing the ED’s demand of extension of custody, Deshmukh’s lawyer questioned why it had not yet arrested dis-missed police officer Sachin Waze who is also an accused in the case, and why IPS offi-cer Param Bir Singh was never summoned for probe. The ED had arrested the NCP leader on November 1 under the Preven-tion of Money Laundering Act. A holiday court on November 6 had sent Deshmukh (71) in judicial custody after rejecting the ED’s plea seeking an exten-sion of remand.

A day later, the Bombay High Court set aside the order and sent Deshmukh in ED cus-tody till November 12. On Fri-day, he was produced before special PMLA court judge H S Sathbhai, who extended the custody till November 15.

Special public prosecutor Shriram Shirsat told the court that Deshmukh was “evasive and giving vague answers”, so further custody was needed.

Sachin Waze had played a key role in collecting bribes from bar owners in Mumbai at Deshmukh’s behest, and the ED was in the process of seek-ing permission from the con-cerned court to record Waze’s statement in this case, the pros-ecutor said. Further custody of Deshmukh was needed to con-front him with new evidence which may emerge from Waze’s statement, the ED said. AGENCIES

OUR CORRESPONDENT

VARANASI (UP): Union Home Minister and former BJP president Amit Shah reached here on Friday and chaired a crucial party meeting to decide on the poll strategy ahead of the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections. Shah reached Prime Minister Narendra Modi's par-liamentary constituency Vara-nasi on a two-day visit to a warm welcome with thousands of hoardings greeting him.

On his arrival, Shah was received by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Union Minister and BJP's UP affairs in-charge Dhar-mendra Pradhan, Deputy CM Dinesh Sharma and party state president Swatantra Dev Singh. Before chairing the meeting, Shah reached Lanka Crossing and garlanded the statue of Pan-dit Madan Mohan Malviya and later reached Hastkala Sankul (trade facilitation centre for

handicrafts to participate in the meeting. The party func-tionaries who attended the cru-cial meet included in-charges of all 403 assembly constituencies of the states besides the district and regional level leaders.

It is Shah's second visit to the state within a fortnight. Earlier

on Oct 29, he had launched a BJP membership drive in the state capital and made it clear that Adityanath would be the party's chief ministerial face in the elections. Thousands of hoardings have been put in Varanasi for welcoming the party leader, who had in past held responsibility of party's UP affiars in-charge in 2014. Earlier in the day, about 50 Congress workers, protesting against the alleged misuse of government buildings for party (BJP) events, were detained by police.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Varuna Zone) Prabal Pratap Singh said about 50 Congress workers have been detained over the apprehension that they may disturb the peace. Former Congress MLA Ajay Rai alleged the government build-ings of the country and the state are constantly being misused by the Bharatiya Janata Party for their party events.

Both discuss developments in Afghanistan, Indo-Pacific

Union Home Minister Amit Shah after paying tribute to the statue of Madan Mohan Malviya on his death anniversary, at Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi on Friday PIC/PTI

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI/ MUMBAI: The firestorm that Kangana Ranaut kicked with her comment that the Independence India won in 1947 was "bheek" intensified on Friday with leaders from BJP and other parties demanding action against the actor even as a complaint was filed against her while some people took to the streets to burn her effigies.

There were also demands that the Padma Shri awarded to her should be taken back.

Ranaut, who is often in headlines for her combative statements on issues politi-cal or otherwise, kicked off a row on Thursday by declaring that India attained "real free-dom" in 2014, when the Nar-endra Modi-led government came to power, and describing the country's Independence in

1947 as "bheek", or alms.The actor made the contro-

versial statement just a day after being awarded the Padma Shri.

In Jodhpur, the Mahila Congress lodged a police com-plaint against Ranaut.

Jodhpur Mahila Congress Committee president Manisha Panwar in the complaint said Ranaut insulted freedom fight-

ers and people of the country through her statement, which falls under the "category of sedition".

Police said the complaint has been taken up for inquiry.

Delhi BJP leader Praveen Shankar Kapoor was among those who slammed the actor, saying that Ranaut's remarks are an "insult to the sacrifice of freedom fighters".

"Being the son of a free-dom fighter and coming from a family of freedom fighters, I find Kangana Ranaut's remarks that India's freedom was alms (bheekh) as the biggest mis-use of freedom and an insult to the sacrifice made by freedom fighters. I wish the judicial sys-tem of India takes cognizance," Kapoor said in a tweet in Hindi on Thursday.

He, however, told PTI on Friday that he tweeted on the

issue in his personal capacity.Maharashtra BJP chief

Chandrakant Patil said the actor's negative remarks on India's fight for independence were wrong.

"Kangana Ranaut's com-ment on the country's fight for Independence is completely wrong. Nobody has a right to pass a negative remark on the freedom movement," Patil told reporters, though he added he did not know the "emotions" that made the actor utter such a statement.

"After Narendra Modi became prime minister in 2014, the common man is having an experience of true freedom. Now, there is no one left in the country who cannot have two meals a day. The Union govern-ment is distributing 35 kg food grains to the poor at Rs 105," he claimed.

Demand for action against Kangana’s remarks intensifies

Kangana Ranaut

I watched ‘Squid Game’ as soon as it was released on Netflix. Call it my innate sense of forebod-

ing but I knew I had to watch this one even before the rave reviews trickled in. Whether it was ‘Hunger Games’, ‘3%’ or South Korean sensation, ‘Squid Game’, the allure of dys-topian themes is too strong to pass. Koreans are master sto-rytellers, a known fact among cinema aficionados much before Bong Joon-ho’s ‘Para-site’ stormed the Oscars. So yes, I was an ardent admirer of the television series before it became fashionable to dress up as the scary doll or the fuchsia pink outfitted guards for Hal-loween or razz the attendants at COP26. Afterall, what’s not to like about the show? Drama, thrill, gore — and beneath it all, a refreshing, hard-hitting perspective on human nature, reaction to crisis, and perfor-mance under pressure. ‘Squid Game’ broke all records, most importantly, the language barrier one, to become worth about USD 900 million with 111 million fans and counting. But I argue here that a compel-ling watch is not the only rea-son for the show’s blockbuster success making it Netflix’s most popular offering till date.

Through some brief snip-pets, ‘Squid Game’ highlights the problem of household debt in South Korea. Behind the veneer of prosperity, the common South Korean is

buried under loans. House-hold debt in Korea has steadily risen in the last few years, and is currently equivalent to more than 100 per cent of the coun-try’s gross domestic product (GDP). Rooms in real life are tiny, suffocating, and cramped,

much like what the show high-lights. A widening income gap, joblessness, and unaffordable real estate afflict many in the country. As in the show, most people are heavily indebted; their desperation compelling them to participate in inhu-

man games of life and death. In reality, the economic hard-ship has increased the suicide rate in South Korea. At 24.6 suicides per 1,00,000 people, reports suggest that the coun-try has the highest suicide rate in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

While Korea grapples with its own problems, the massive popularity of the show proves that it has struck a chord glob-ally, and why not? Coming 1.5 years after the onslaught of Covid-19 that has left scores of people poorer leads me to deduce that the show’s wide acceptance projects a joint reality as we end 2021 on a sober note. Even as thousands lost their lives to the virus, the rest of us live to tell the tale and fight Covid-19’s newer strains. But boy, are we lucky to be alive! But this gratitude doesn’t cover the economic upheaval that most in the world have experienced, and the numbers are there to see. The Institute of International Finance (IIF) says that global debt rose to a new record high of almost USD 300 trillion by the end of September. This debt includes government, corporate, bank, and household debt. India’s public debt as a percentage of GDP was 82.57 per cent. As per the IIF, household debt in the March quarter upped from 35 per cent last year to 39 per cent. News reports state that government debt increased

from 72.2 per cent to 84.2 per cent.

The debt-to-GDP ratio has been steadily increas-ing around the world due to the pandemic. The months of gloom and doom hit hard, and while the world is gradu-ally emerging from economic slumber armed with vaccines, complete economic revival, that will fix the damage caused by the initial 1.5 years, will take a while. And obviously, peo-ple around the world are suf-fering the brunt of economic difficulties. In fact, restart-ing of the economic cycle hasn’t necessarily meant good news for all as the accumu-lated debts of 2020 weigh heavy. Household debt sharply rose by USD 1.5 trillion to USD 55 trillion around the world in the first six months of 2021. IIF also noted that one-third of the 61 surveyed nations witnessed this rise in household debts in the first half of 2021.

So of course, ‘Squid Game’ is a captivating watch with dex-terous direction, cinematog-raphy, and acting. But the way the show has touched lives this year, is personal. The pain, the desperation, the tears — I’m sure there are many across the world that identified with the utter hopelessness. Art reflects life, and in this case, comes quite close.

The writer is an author and media entrepreneur.

Views expressed are personal

Economist and political scientist Samir Amin, in his fantastic work, ‘Delinking’, predicted

increasing localisation of nat-ural resources amid growing non-correlation between global capital and the state. Grant of mining rights to the world’s second largest coal block with 2.1 billion tonne-capacity in Bengal’s Deocha-Pachami-Harisingha-Dewanganj area of Birbhum District indeed marks such a delinking from global industry of extraction, and builds up a local autarky for land, labour and other resources. Furthermore, it provides an opportunity for degrowth that combines local recycling of resources into var-ious sectors of the economy, impacting better income distri-bution and enhancing purchas-ing power. Mamata’s immediate objective of providing fair com-pensation to those who would lose agricultural land, and by giving jobs to the land donors in the police department of the state, are spectacular, to say the least.

The larger economic script embedded in her pronounce-ments is the state’s fast growth in per capita GDP despite the lockdown, and the state stand-ing at sixth place in all-India ranking in terms of real GDP in 2021. Given such a fast-grow-ing economy, the factor market would get a boost with new coal blocks, while the product mar-ket would reap benefits from such a factor market advan-tage. Transaction costs for energy-dependent industries and labour-intensive agrarian sectors would also come down with availability of coal, as the extra income multiplier effect generated by it would add to the faster growth of employ-ment, income and net state domestic product.

What remains politically very germane is Mamata’s pro-nouncement that land acquisi-tion shall follow the principles laid down in Right to Fair Compensation and Trans-parency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettle-ment Act, 2013. This gives Didi a political upper hand over the brutal history of erstwhile Left Front that indulged into reck-less violence in Nandigram and Singur. Her announcement of a 10,000-crore package for com-pensation empowers the poor and the landless in the area of

south-western Birbhum coal belt, where the new block has been found. What is politically significant is her foresight of winning over the electoral masses as well as ensuring a greater complementarity between agriculture and indus-try through mining.

She needs land to acquire, but ways and means to be adopted has to be lawful, moral and politically cor-rect, given that her movement against forcible land acquisi-tion in Singur and Nandigram brought her back to power con-secutively for the third time, a record of sorts that her rivals cannot probably fend off. Her pledge to not use force, and to follow the principles of fair compensation arises not only from her political ascendency from Singur and Nandigram, but also from her practical suc-cess in employment genera-tion and in maintaining a stable quality of life for rural, semiur-ban and urban poor in Bengal. Apart from this aspect of social engineering, Mamata’s drive for protection of people from eviction from the so-called eminent domain is another big achievement that strength-ens her almost religiously sac-rosanct ‘Maa-Mati-Manush’ commitments. Her politically committed objective of giv-ing money to the poor, as per Nobel Laureate Abhijit Baner-jee’s suggestions, reflects a new dimension in her pledge not to repeat Nandigram in Ben-gal. This is how she pushes back the memory of repeated

state-sponsored violence on poor people during 34 years of the Left era and exposes Cen-tre’s strong-arm policy of land acquisition for infrastructure projects.

As Samir Amin showed how the state, as a forebearer of capital, increasingly gets divested from medium-term interests of social classes in the process of developing periph-eries — which exactly happens when land is forcibly acquired and people are displaced for big-ticket projects. Neoliberal rules further facilitate taking over of natural resources with-out paying any compensation. Mamata’s economic policy is an alternative to such para-doxical operations of neolib-eral strategies of governance and it charts out what theo-rists have termed as ‘alterna-tive development’. The outgoing Finance Minister Amit Mitra ensured a proper balancing of the factor side of the economy by prioritising support towards land and labour connected to both primary and tertiary sec-tors, while the secondary sec-tor provided the much-needed revenue. This unconventional and creative style of running the economy without much support from financial insti-tutions and Central Govern-ment, remains an example of ‘atmanirbhar Bengal’ that goes a long way in building trust in capabilities of labour classes of Bengal. Indeed, Mamata and Mitra are able to remove the age-old Left dogma of organis-ing labour unions against fac-

tory owners by turning labour into a rooted and organised source in the primary prod-uct market. Agri-based and forest-based industries of Bengal thereby did not have to depend on off-time labour from the farm sector; it is rather the case that the industrial and semi-industrial labour force of Bengal found a complementary job space within the agriculture sector. Though there are strains in agriculture due to rising cost of inputs and presence of middlemen, yet Bengal is one successful example of a com-mitted agrarian labour force with access to health, education and political representation.

A big political message arises from this thrust on labour and self-sufficiency achieved in agrarian sectors of Bengal. The politically disem-powered agrarian labourers of the Left era find themselves not only supported by Mamata’s rural thrust, but also get an ade-quate representation of their economic interests in local self-governing panchayats. This further creates a bottom-up resistance to unplanned diver-sification of rural workforce into industrial and service sec-tors and enables a young gen-eration to look for urban jobs. Indeed, a self-employed, edu-cated gen X from rural house-holds, pushed back the Left discourse of class assertion in favour of enlightened indi-vidualistic careers by young men and women — liberat-ing them from both monop-oly of urban economy as well

as from strangleholds of Pan-chayat gentry. This ‘silent revo-lution’ over the last 15 years is what brought Mamata back in power in 2021.

Another big political sym-bolism of mutuality and rec-iprocity arises from rural Bengal. Opposed to stateless-ness and targeting of a section of people as ‘illegals’ — as may be the case in Assam — Ben-gal could embrace displaced victims of violence from Ban-gladesh within the rural econ-omy. Though rural Bengal on the Indian side does not have much pull factor, as labour force is nearly exhausted, leav-ing no place for others, yet inclusion and accommodation of migrants of both Hindu and Muslim community in the rural economy is naturalised and not trivialised in the name of ‘ille-gals’. For example, bidi industry in Murshidabad, or quarrying in Birbhum, and many such primary sector initiatives can accommodate late migrants in Bengal’s growing economy. This was not the case during the Left era, as the Left could not accommodate labour force in agro-based industries the way it has happened since 2011 with the rise of Didi in power. This entire process of rejuvena-tion of rural Bengal and urban product markets helps dissolve political barriers of Hindus and Muslims that the rest of India suffers from. Probably, it is here what Mamata does today will inevitably be replicated in the whole of India.

Views expressed are personal

7millenniumpost EditorialKOLKATA | SATURDAY, 13 NOVEMBER, 2021

PRASENJIT BISWAS

SHUTAPA PAUL

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

DearEditor

It’s distressing that for about a week, Delhi’s Yamuna River has been shrouded by a sheet of pollutants that could be mistaken for snow from a distance. For the past three days, social media has been flooded with visuals of devotees taking a dip in the river enveloped by the toxic foam. The white sheet is nothing but a sign of a polluted river. According to the experts, release of untreated or poorly treated effluent could lead to frothing. The foam has been visible for more than a decade. But, by all accounts, it has been covering a greater expanse of the river in the past five years. Delhi authority has blamed UP’s Irrigation Department, responsible for maintaining the Okhla Barrage, for the pollution. The Delhi government maintains that the frothing is only downstream of this point. It has accused sugar and paper mills in places like Meerut and Shamli of releasing untreated wastewater into the Hindon Canal at the Yamuna Barrage. The Haryana government has also been criticised for squeezing the river’s flow to the capital. It’s apparent that like for most pollution-related woes of the capital, cleaning up the Yamuna requires cooperation between the Delhi government and its counterparts in the neighbouring states. According to an NGT committee report of 2018, the 22 km stretch of the Yamuna from Badarpur to Okhla accounts for 75 per cent of the river’s pollution. The committee warned that if minimum flows are not maintained at this point, it would be impossible to rejuvenate the river. It’s time that states which share the river’s basin revisit this report, and institutionalise mechanisms of cooperation.

Mamata Banerjee’s moral and political correctness in dealing with labourers and the poor has brought her back to power

— KHOKAN DAS, JKOLKATA via email

‘Squid Game’ highlights the problem of household debt in South Korea

EDITORIALGame-changing policies?

The Union Government on Friday launched two schemes related to the Reserve Bank of India — the RBI Retail Direct Scheme and the Reserve Bank Integrated Ombudsman Scheme. Flagged

as ‘major structural reforms’, these initiatives are aimed at incentivizing investment in government securities and simplifying the grievance redressal mechanism for the general public respectively. The government has tagged the two schemes as ‘customer-centric’ which may not be completely wrong. Coming first to the RBI Retail Direct Scheme, it allows for “small investors in the country to have a safe medium of investment in government secu-rities”. RBI governor Shaktikanta Das has highlighted the potential role of the scheme in ‘deepening the finan-cial inclusion’ within the country. The plan has fructified months after the RBI director raised a proposal in Febru-ary this year to allow direct retail participation in govern-ment securities (GILTs or G-Secs). G-Secs are basically a form of borrowing for the government. In case of fiscal deficit within the economy, the government borrows from several quarters to finance the deficit. Until now, only aggregators such as banks, mutual funds, large financial institutions etc., were allowed to hold these bonds. The newly announced schemes will extend it to retail custom-ers as well. Apart from providing the intended benefit to the customers, the new scheme will help the government to sail through one of the toughest times as the nation recovers from the ravages of the pandemic. Boosting retail participation in government securities is something that the government has been eying for long. Even in the past, there have been several attempts — including non-com-petitive bidding in primary auctions, permitting stock exchanges to route primary purchases and allowing a spe-cific retail segment in the secondary market — were tried by the government. There could be no doubt that invest-ing in government securities is considered a safe option. But is safety the only parameter an investor looks for while investing? Certainly not. Most of the time the prospects of higher returns attract the investors. Opening up the secu-rities market for customers by the government is a signifi-cant initiative — both for the government and the public — but that is far from enough. The real issue at hand for the government will be to make these investment options more lucrative, which may be a time-taking exercise, but there hardly is any alternative to that. Apart from the low prospects of benefit, there is a list of involved risks — even for aggregate bondholders — often flagged by market experts. As these government securities are guaranteed by the Reserve Bank of India, the chances of default are abysmally low. But default is not the only risk faced by the investors. Market and liquidity risks form a major chunk of the problem. Parallel to the RBI Retail Direct Scheme, the government should also have come out with a poten-tial risk management plan to consolidate the confidence of retail investors. The second scheme — Reserve Bank Inte-grated Ombudsman Scheme — is indeed a major trans-formative change that could empower the customers in a significant manner. Based on the principle of ‘One Nation-One Ombudsman’, the scheme basically integrates the three existing systems of public grievance redressal in the sector — Banking Ombudsman Scheme (BOS), 1995, the Ombudsman Scheme for Non-Banking Financial Compa-nies (OS-NBFC), 2018 and the Ombudsman Scheme for Digital Transactions (OSDT), 2019 — into a single lot. The role of an ombudsman is to ensure accountability of public institutions before the public. This role becomes extremely critical when it comes to something as important as the finance sector. Nothing could be more heartening than to see an emboldened public with a greater degree of control over the institutions that are meant to serve them. Such changes are due across all departments and sectors. Tech-nological advancements have a great potential to simplify the operational mechanisms of various institutions. The institutions must leverage these technologies to evolve themselves with changing times and remain meaningful. For the Reserve Bank Integrated Ombudsman Scheme, it can be hoped that the government, through an effec-tive implementation plan, succeeds in its aim of ensuring a single-point of reference for the customers to file their complaints, submit documents, track the status of their complaints and provide feedback. At the same time, a lot more is required to be done to make RBI Retail Direct Scheme a success.

Mamata’s unconventional and creative style of running the economy without much support from financial institutions and the Central Government, remains an example of ‘atmanirbhar Bengal’

While Korea grapples with its own problems, the massive popularity of the show proves that it has struck a chord globally

millenniumpost.in

TAKE PROPER STEPS

A new rise on the blockMamata Banerjee stands tall to exemplify a governance style — focused on land

and labour — that marks a radical shift from the Left era

‘Squid game’ people play‘Squid Game’ strikes a chord with people across the world as global debt hits

record highs in the pandemic years

8 millenniumpostWorldmpSATURDAY, 13 NOVEMBER, 2021 | KOLKATA

Flight ban imposed as pressure builds on Belarus over migrants

WARSAW: Turkey on Fri-day barred people from sev-eral Middle Eastern countries from flying to Belarus, as pres-sure mounts on Minsk to end a migrant crisis on its border with EU member Poland.

The Turkish Civil Aviation Authority said citizens of Iraq, Syria and Yemen would not be allowed on flights from Turkey to Belarus because of "the prob-lem of illegal border crossings between the European Union and Belarus".

It said citizens of these countries would be prevented from buying tickets or board-ing flights to Belarus until fur-ther notice.

Belarusian state airline Bela-via said it was complying with the order.

It was the first move to start preventing migrants from enter-ing Belarus, which is being accused of bringing them into the country to send over the border into Poland in revenge for Western sanctions.

Hundreds of migrants, mainly Kurds, have been stuck for days on the Belarusian-Polish border in near-freez-ing temperatures, with aid groups warning of a looming humanitarian catastrophe, AFP reported.

Poland is refusing to allow the migrants to cross, has declared a state of emergency

in the area and has deployed thousands of troops along the border.

Amid reports this week of more flights from Turkey and the Middle East carry-ing migrants to Minsk, West-ern countries are demanding Belarusian strongman Alexan-der Lukashenko and his main ally Russia take steps to end the crisis.

After an emergency meeting at the UN Security Council on Thursday, the US and European delegations condemned "the orchestrated instrumentalisa-tion of human beings whose

lives and well-being have been put in danger for political pur-poses by Belarus".

They accused Minsk of try-ing to destabilise EU countries to divert attention "from its own increasing human rights viola-tions". Minsk and Moscow have accused EU countries of failing to live up to international stan-dards by blocking the migrants, who they say are seeking shelter after Western military "adven-tures" in the Middle East.

Russia has rejected claims it is involved and President Vladimir Putin told Europe on Thursday that it should "restore

contacts" with Minsk if it wants to resolve the crisis.

The EU is instead consider-ing new sanctions on Lukash-enko, who is already isolated and under sanctions for a severe crackdown on opponents after a disputed presidential election last year.

The Belarusian leader, who has ruled his ex-Soviet country for nearly 30 years, remained defiant, warning on Thursday that any new sanctions would be met with a response.

He suggested Minsk could cut off the transit of Russian natural gas through Belarus to

Europe, which relies on Russia for a third of its gas supplies.

The Kremlin dismissed the threat on Friday, saying Lukash-enko did not coordinate his statement with Moscow.

"The reliability of Russia as a supplier under current and future contracts is beyond ques-tion," Kremlin spokesman Dmi-try Peskov told reporters.

Poland has deployed 15,000 troops along the border, put up a fence topped with barbed wire and approved construc-tion of a wall on the frontier with Belarus. Migrants have been trying to cross the border for months but the crisis came to a head when hundreds made a concerted effort on Monday and were pushed back by Pol-ish border guards.

They set up a camp on the border where some 2,000 people are sheltering in tents and burn-ing wood from local forests to keep warm, blocked by Polish guards behind razor-wire.

At least 10 migrants have died on the border in recent months, seven of them on the Polish side, according to Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza.

Aid teams from the United Nations and Red Cross visited the camp on Thursday and delivered basic supplies, but they warned that the migrants are in no condition to stay in the area for long. AGENCIES

It said citizens of Iraq, Syria and Yemen would be prevented from buying tickets or boarding flights to Belarus until further notice

CPC defends President Xi Jinping’s ‘core’ leader status

ATTACKS US & WESTERN DEMOCRACIES

BEIJING: China's Commu-nist Party on Friday stoutly defended President Xi Jinping's core leader status that enables him to tighten grip on power, saying under him the ruling party will have an "anchor" and the nation a "backbone", even as it asserted that democracy was not an "exclusive patent" of the US and the West.

The Plenary meeting of the Communist Party of China, (CPC) which wrapped up its four-day meet on Thursday, adopted a landmark resolution to cement Xi's "core" status in the country's political history and cleared the decks for him to extend his rule for a record third term next year and per-haps beyond.

The resolution - the only third of its kind in the par-ty's 100-year history after one issued under party founder Mao Zedong and his successor Deng Xiaoping - was reviewed and adopted at the sixth plenary session of the 19th CPC Central Committee attended by over 400 senior party officials.

Defending party's decision to enhance Xi's status as core leader, Jian Jinquan, Director of policy research of the CPC, told a press conference here that for a party with 95 million members and the country with 1.4 billion people, it will be unimaginable had there not been a core of the party .

It will result in a lack of cohe-sion and nothing can be accom-plished, Jian said, a day after the Plenum.

Only when there is the core

of the party central commit-tee, the whole party will have strength, he said.

Xi as the core of the party, leader of the people and com-mander of the army is well deserved. This represents the prevailing aspiration of the peo-ple. His core leadership is call of the times, the choice of his-tory and aspiration of the peo-ple. In his leadership, the party will have an anchor, the nation a backbone, Jian said.

The core status empowers Xi, 68, who will be completing his second five-year tenure next year, to continue for a third term and perhaps for life, unlike his predecessors.

Jian while eulogising Xi's leadership sought to project the CPC as democratic party, refuting criticism of its auto-cratic functioning.

He specially attacked US

President Joe Biden's plan to hold a summit of democra-cies next month as Washing-ton seeks to rally countries with democratic systems.

Recently, the US has put together the so-called summit for democracies to revitalise the western democracy. To convene such a summit against the back-drop of loads of problems for the western democracies is such an irony. The intention is nothing but bashing other countries and dividing the world, which can-not be achieved, he said.

In an apparent attempt to project democratic credentials of the CPC, in a rare move Xi voted at a polling station here to elect deputies to a local peo-ple's congress on November 5.

Democracy is not an exclu-sive patent of western countries and even less defined or dictated by western countries. AGENCIES

Biden administration settles for automatic job authorisation for spouses of H-1B visa holdersWASHINGTON DC: In yet another immigration-friendly move that would benefit thou-sands of Indian-American women, the Biden adminis-tration has agreed to provide automatic work authorisation permits to the spouses of H-1B visa holders, most of whom are Indian IT professionals.

An H-4 visa is issued by the US Citizenship and Immigra-tion Services (USCIS) to imme-diate family members (spouse and children under 21 years of

age) of the H-1B visa holders. The visa is normally issued to those who have already started the process of seeking employ-

ment-based lawful permanent resident status in the US.

The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in specialty occupa-tions that require theoretical or technical expertise. The tech-nology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.

A settlement was reached by the Department of Home-land Security in a class-action

lawsuit, which was filed by the American Immigration Law-yers Association (AILA) on behalf of immigrant spouses this summer.

"This (H-4 visa holders) is a group that always met the regu-latory test for automatic exten-sion of EADs (employment authorisation documents), but the agency previously prohib-ited them from that benefit and forced them to wait for reau-thorisation," Jon Wasden from AILA said. AGENCIES

UK, EU meet as gloom growsLONDON: Top UK and Euro-pean Union officials are meet-ing Friday to try to resolve their intractable Northern Ireland trade spat, with alarm growing in Europe that Britain plans to suspend parts of the legally binding divorce agree-ment between the two sides.

That would trigger EU retaliation and could spi-ral into a trade war between the 27-nation bloc and its increasingly estranged former member.

The two sides' top Brexit officials David Frost for Brit-ain and Maros Sefcovic for

the EU are meeting in Lon-don after four weeks of nego-tiations failed to bridge gaps over Northern Ireland trade.

The U.K. has threatened to trigger an emergency break clause in the deal that lets either side suspend the agree-ment in extreme circum-stances. That would bring legal action from the EU, and potentially damaging eco-nomic sanctions.

Frost warned Wednesday that the emergency clause, Article 16, will be our only option if there is no break-through in the talks.

There is more to do and I will certainly not give up on this process unless and until it is abundantly clear that nothing more can be done, he told members of Parliament's upper chamber, the House of Lords. We are certainly not there yet. Northern Ireland is part of the U.K. and shares a border with EU member Ire-land. Under the Brexit deal, it remains inside the EU's tariff-free single market for goods, to ensure there is an open bor-der on the island of Ireland a key pillar of Northern Ireland's peace process. AGENCIES

26 people killed due to extreme weather conditions in Sri LankaCOLOMBO: At least 26 people have been killed and over 230,000 others affected in recent days due to extreme weather conditions in Sri Lanka, authorities said on Friday.

The months of October and November are usually the northeastern monsoon season in Sri Lanka. However, higher than usual rainfalls have been reported in most parts of the

country this year.So far 26 people have

died and over 230,000 others affected due to the continuous rains. At least six people were struck by lightning, the Disas-ter Management Centre said.

According to the Centre, with rains slowing and flood waters receding, the affected areas are slowly returning to normal.

The reservoir sluice gates

that had been opened are being gradually shut again.

However, the weather bureau said rains will occur in several provinces in the island nations.

The weather bureau said a low pressure area in the south-east Bay of Bengal that was indirectly responsible for the heavy rainfalls in the coun-try is now moving towards southern India. AGENCIES

Assange given permission to marry partner

in prisonLONDON: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been granted permission to marry his partner, Stella Moris, in prison, British authorities say.

Assange has been held in London's high-security Bel-marsh Prison since 2019 as he fights a US attempt to extra-dite him on espionage charges.

The couple began their relationship during Assange's seven years living in the Ecua-dorian Embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden on unrelated sex offenses alle-gations. Assange and Moris, a South Africa-born lawyer, have two young sons: Gabriel, 4, and Max, 2.

I am relieved that rea-son prevailed, and I hope there will be no further inter-ference with our marriage, Moris said. AGENCIES

At least three killed in Afghan

mosque blastJALALABAD (Afghanistan): At least three people were killed and 15 wounded Friday by a blast at a mosque in Afghani-stan's restive Nangarhar prov-ince, a hotbed of Islamic State activity, officials said.

The blast -- for which no group has yet claimed respon-sibility -- underscores one of the many challenges facing the new Taliban regime in Afghani-stan, with the UN warning the country is also on the brink of the world's worst humanitar-ian crisis.

It happened during Friday prayers in Spin Ghar district of the eastern province, near the border with Pakistan.

"I can confirm a blast dur-ing Friday prayers inside a mosque in Spin Ghar district. There are casualties and fatali-ties," a Taliban official told AFP.

Walli Mohammed, a local elder and activist, told AFP a bomb appeared to have been hidden in a loudspeaker near the imam's rostrum.

When the speaker was switched on to sound the azaan -- the call to begin the prayer ritual -- the device detonated, he said.

"So far three killed, 15 wounded," a doctor at the local hospital told AFP.

Islamic State-Khorasan, the local branch of the jihadist group, first emerged in Nangar-har and was formally recog-nised by the group's central leadership in 2015. The group had a relatively small but potent presence in Afghanistan, and was responsible for some of the deadliest attacks in the country of recent years, mas-sacring civilians at mosques, shrines, public squares and even hospitals. AGENCIES

Members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of CPC Central Committee, from left Han Zheng, Wang Huning, Li Zhanshu, Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, Wang Yang and Zhao Leji raise their hands to lead the voting during the sixth plenary session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in Beijing PTI

Joe Biden PTI

Migrants from the Middle East and elsewhere gather at the Belarus-Poland border near Grodno, Belarus PTI

OVER POST-BREXIT TRADE FEUD

NIeT-31 & 32/ 21-22 Dated 12.11.2021

e-Tenders are invited by the Executive Engineer on behalf of West Bengal Agro Industries Corpn. Ltd, 23B, Netaji Subhas Road, 3rd Floor , Kolkata-700001 from bonafide and resourceful Agencies for completion of civil works for Dakshin Dinajpur and Howrah District. Tender document may be downloaded from http://wbtenders.gov.in. Bid submission start date 13.11.2021 after 9.00 AM. Bid submission end date 26.11.2021 before 6.00 PM as per respective NIeT. Date: 12.11.2021 sd/-Executive Engineer

9millenniumpost Business mpKOLKATA | SATURDAY, 13 NOVEMBER, 2021

MUMBAI: In a significant move, the Reserve Bank on Fri-day tightened the norms for recognition of dud assets and directed lenders not to stan-dardise an NPA account after getting only interest payment as well as to mandatorily men-tion the due dates along with details of interest and princi-pal amounts.

The monetary authority has from time to time been issuing new/revised norms on dud asset classification as system-wide NPAs began to balloon.

Issuing some clarifications to all the extant provisions and including the ones issued on October 1, 2021, on the pru-dential norms on income rec-ognition, asset classification and provisioning pertaining to advances (IRACP), the RBI asked banks not to upgrade an NPA account after getting only

interest dues paid.It has been observed that

some lending institutions upgrade accounts classified as NPAs to standard accounts on payment of only interest overdue, partial overdue, etc. To avoid any ambiguity in this regard, it is clarified that loan accounts classified as NPAs may be upgraded as a standard account only if the entire arrears of interest and principal are paid by the borrower, the apex bank said in the revised notification this evening.

Lenders have also been asked to specifically mention in the loan agreements the exact due date of a loan and the breakup of the principal and interest, among others, instead of giving a description of the due dates, which leaves scope for interpretation.

Henceforth, all lenders have

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Retail inflation after remaining on downtrend for four months moved a tad up in October to 4.48 per cent due to an uptick in food prices and higher cost of motor fuel.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) based inflation was 4.35 per cent in September and 7.61 per cent in October 2020.

The annual inflation had declined to 6.26 per cent in June from 6.3 per cent in May. Later it further eased to 5.59 per cent in July, 5.3 per cent in August and 4.35 per cent in September.

According to the data by the National Statistical Office (NSO), ‘oils and fats’ prices zoomed 33.5 per cent while inflation in the fuel and light category rose to 13.63 per cent in October 2021.

Inflation in food basket was 0.85 per cent in October, marginally up from 0.67 per cent in September. Fruit prices increased by 4.92 per cent while vegetables prices dropped by 19.43 per cent and that of eggs declined by 1.38 per cent.

Ratings firm ICRA said the uptick in the CPI inflation in October 2021 relative to the previous month, while mild, was pretty broad-based.

Hardening in inflation for clothing and footwear, and mis-cellaneous items suggest that reviving demand is nudging producers in some sectors to pass through the input price pressures, resulting in a pickup in the core inflation to 5.8 per cent in that month, it said.

Aditi Nayar, Chief Econo-

mist, ICRA said, “The MPC is likely to change the monetary policy stance to neutral only after there is additional evi-dence that the domestic demand revival has become durable, which is likely in the February 2022 review. We expect this to be accompanied by a 15 bps hike in the reverse repo rate by the RBI.”

Despite base effect, still-high fuel costs, input cost pressures and seasonal turn in some food prices in coming months could even see inflation rising towards 6.2 per cent plus later in the fis-cal year, Madhavi Arora, Lead Economist, Emkay Global Financial Services said.

Vegetable prices warrant monitoring given the increase in real-time data this month too. While the direct impact of the fuel price cut will be visible from November, its indirect impact in the context of pressure on producer margins, services

inflation and the trajectory of oil and other commodity prices will also be important, Sreejith Bala-subramanian, Economist Fund Management, IDFC AMC said.

The government has man-dated the Reserve Bank to main-tain retail inflation at 4 per cent with a margin of 2 per cent on the either side.

The next monetary pol-icy of the Reserve Bank is due next month. The Reserve Bank, which mainly factors in CPI-based inflation while arriving at its bi-monthly monetary policy, has been tasked by the govern-ment to keep it at 4 per cent, with a tolerance band of 2 per cent on either side.

The RBI has projected the CPI inflation at 5.3 per cent for 2021-22: 5.1 per cent in second quarter, 4.5 per cent in third; 5.8 per cent in last quarter of the fis-cal, with risks broadly balanced.

The retail inflation during April-June period of 2022-23 is

projected at 5.2 per cent.Meanwhile, Industrial pro-

duction growth slips to 3.1 per cent in September, mainly due to the waning low base effect while mining and manufac-turing sectors performed well.

The manufacturing sector, which constitutes 77.63 per cent of the Index of Industrial Pro-duction (IIP), grew 2.7 per cent in September, according to the data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) on Friday.

The mining sector output rose 8.6 per cent in Septem-ber, while power generation increased 0.9 per cent.

In September 2021, the IIP stood at 127.9 points compared to 124.1 points in the same month last year. The index stood at 122.9 points in September 2019, as per the NSO data.

Thus, the data showed wan-ing of the low base effect. The IIP growth witnessed double-digit growth from May onwards this year, mainly due to the lower base effect. The data showed that industrial production recovered in September 2020 and sur-passed the pre-pandemic level of September 2019. The IIP had grown by one per cent in Sep-tember 2020.

Industrial production plunged 18.7 per cent in March last year following the COVID outbreak and remained in the negative zone till August 2020.

With the resumption of eco-nomic activities, factory output rose 1 per cent in September 2020 and grew 4.5 per cent in October. In November 2020, the factory output fell 1.6 per

cent and then entered the posi-tive territory with a 2.2 per cent growth in December 2020.

The IIP had recorded a con-traction of 0.6 per cent and 3.2 per cent in January and Febru-ary this year, respectively. In March, it grew 24.2 per cent.

For April, the NSO held back the release of complete IIP data.

In May 2021, the IIP rose 27.6 per cent, and in June, it grew 13.8 per cent.

The factory output grew 11.5 per cent in July and 12 per cent in August this year.

The second wave of the pan-demic started in the middle of April this year, and many states imposed restrictions to curb the spread of coronavirus infections.

“The growth rates over the corresponding period of the previous year are to be inter-preted considering the unusual circumstances on account of COVID-19 pandemic since March 2020,” the NSO said in the statement.

The government had imposed a nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of coro-navirus infections on March 25, 2020.

The manufacturing sector had recorded a growth of 0.4 per cent in September 2020. The mining sector output grew 1.4 per cent in the same month.

The electricity generation had grown by 4.9 per cent in September 2020.

The output of capital goods, which is a barometer of invest-ment, grew 1.3 per cent in Sep-tember 2021. It had witnessed a contraction of 1.2 per cent in the year-ago period.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Under pressure from passengers over hike in fares, the Railways on Friday issued an order to discontinue the ‘special’ tag for mail and express trains and revert to pre-pandemic ticket prices with immediate effect.

Since the coronavirus-trig-gered lockdown was eased, the Railways has been running only special trains. It started with long-distance trains and now, even short-distance pas-senger services are being run as special trains with “slightly higher fares” to “discourage people from avoidable travels”.

In a letter to zonal railways on Friday, the Railway Board said trains will now be operated with their regular numbers and fares will revert to normal pre-Covid-19 prices.

Ticket prices of special trains and holiday special trains are marginally higher.

“In view of the COVID-19 pandemic, all regular mail/express trains were being oper-ated as MSPC (mail/express special) and HSP (holiday spe-cial). It has now been decided that the MSPC and HSP train services, included in the Work-

ing Time Table, 2021, shall be operated with regular numbers and with fares as applicable for the concerned classes of travel and type of train, as per the extant guidelines.

“This issues with the con-currence of Passenger Mar-keting Directorate of Railway Board,” the order dated November 12 said.

The order, however, did not specify when the zonal railways are required to revert to their pre-Covid regular services.

“The zonal railways have been instructed. While the order is with immediate effect, the process will take a day or two,” a senior official said.

“With this more than 1,700 trains will be restored in the next few days. The first digit will now not be zero as was in the case of special trains,” another official said.

The order also did not men-tion if the concessions which were discontinued in the spe-cial trains will be reinstated.

With the operation of spe-cial trains and no concessions, the Railways’ revenue too has seen a substantial growth. The transporter registered an increase of 113 per cent in earnings from the passenger segment during the second quarter of 2021-2022 as com-pared to the first.

Retail inflation up 4.48% in OctIndustrial production growth slips to 3.1% in September, mainly due to waning low base effect while mining & manufacturing performed well

Railway Board issues order to drop ‘special train’ tag

The order also mentioned reverting to pre-Covid pandemic ticket prices with immediate effect

Retail Inflation

(Base: 2012=100)

Based on Consumer Price Index%

KBK graphicsInfoSource: Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation

*Provisional2020 2021

NovOct Dec May JulJan Feb Mar Apr Jun Aug

4.48

4.0

6

7.6

1

6.9

3

4.5

9

4.3

5

6.3

0

6.2

6

5.5

9

5.3

0

4.2

35.5

2

5.0

3

Sep Oct*

NEW DELHI: State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Cor-poration (ONGC) on Fri-day reported the highest ever quarterly net profit by any Indian firm of over Rs 18,347 crore as it made a one-time tax gain on opting for a lower rate regime.

Net profit in July-Septem-ber period at Rs 18,347.73 crore is compared with Rs 2,757.77 crore net profit in the same period a year back, according to the company’s filing to the stock exchanges.

The profit in the quarter is compared with Rs 11,246.44 crore net profit ONGC had earned in full 2020-21 fiscal year (April 2020 to March 2021).

This is the highest ever quarterly net profit by any company in the country.

Prior to this, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) held the distinction of posting the highest ever quarterly profit

when it reported a net earning of Rs 14,512.81 crore in Janu-ary-March 2013.

IOC’s net profit in the fourth quarter of 2012-13 fiscal was abnormally high because of receipt of fuel subsidy for the full year in one quarter. Its annual profit that fiscal was Rs 5,005.17 crore as it had posted losses in the previous quarter on failing to get fuel subsidy support.

ONGC, in the first half (April-September) of the cur-rent fiscal earned Rs 22,682.48 crore net profit as against Rs 3,254.35 crore a year back.

The profit in the second quarter (July-September) was

aided by higher oil prices and the one-time tax gain of Rs 8,541 crore.

ONGC said the company has an option to pay corpo-rate income tax at the rate of 22 per cent plus applicable sur-charge and cess (lower rate) as against the earlier rate of 30 per cent plus applicable sur-charge and cess, subject to cer-tain conditions.

“Considering all the pro-visions under said section 115BAA of the Income Tax Act, 1961, during the quarter the company has decided to avail the option of lower rate with effect from the financial year 2020-21. MPOST

ONGC reports highest ever Q2 net by any corporate at `18,347 cr

NEW DELHI: Passenger vehi-cle wholesales in India declined by 27 per cent year-on year in October with semiconductor shortage hitting production of automobile manufacturers, auto industry body Society of Indian Automobile Manufac-turers (SIAM) said on Friday.

Passenger vehicle sales last month stood at 2,26,353 units, as compared to 3,10,694 units in the year-ago period.

As per the latest data by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, two-wheeler dispatches to dealers also wit-nessed a 25 per cent decline at 15,41,621 units, compared to 20,53,814 units in October 2020.

Motorcycle dispatches were also down 26 per cent last month to 10,17,874 units, as against 13,82,749 unit in the year-ago period. Scooter sales fell 21 per cent to 4,67,161 units, from 5,90,507 units in the year-ago month, SIAM said.

Vehicle sales across passen-ger vehicles, three-wheelers, two-wheelers and quadricycles categories last month, declined by 25 per cent to 17,99,750 units, from 23,91,192 units in Octo-ber 2020.

“Manufacturers were banking on the festive sea-son to recover from the severe drop in sales they have faced in the early part of the financial year 2021-22. However, shortage of semi-conductors and steep hike in raw material cost have been a major spoilsport for the indus-try,” SIAM Director General Rajesh Menon said. PTI

Semiconductor deficit hits PV production,

Oct wholesales fall 27%Passenger vehicle sales in October

stood at 2,26,353 units, as compared to 3,10,694 units in year-ago period

to clearly mention the exact due dates for repayment, frequency of repayment, break up between the principal and interest, exam-ples of SMA/NPA classification dates etc, it said.

All these should be clearly specified in the loan agree-ment and the borrower shall be apprised of the same at the time of loan sanction and also at the time of subsequent changes if any, and till full repayment of the loan is done, the RBI said, adding this will be applicable immediately for new loans or before December 31, 2021, and for the existing loan as and when changes occur. PTI

‘Don’t standardise bad loans on just getting interest Payment’

University of Delhi Corrigendum

Advt. No. Estab.IV/291/2021 Dated: 01.11.2021

Online applications were invited in the prescribed Application Form from eligible candidates for appointment to the post of Assistant Professor, in the Academic Pay Level 10 of 7th Central Pay Commission Pay Matrix, in various Departments of the University. The University updated the eligibility and shortlisting criteria in this respect. The last date for receipt of applications will be two weeks from the date of publication of the advertisement in the Employment News. For details, please visit the University website www.du.ac.in and click “Jobs and Opportunities” under the Head “Work with DU”. Any addendum/corrigendum shall be posted only on the University website. Sd/-davp 21231/11/0005/2122 Registrar

ICA- T14021(3)/2021

ICA- T14031(3)/2021 ICA- T14023(3)/2021

ICA- T14026(3)/2021

ICA- T14064(4)/2021

ICA- 1705 (2)/2021

ICA- T14043(3)/2021

ICA- T14056(3)/2021 ICA- T14061(2)/2021ICA- T14068(4)/2021

ICA- T14070(3)/2021

GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGAL

For details, please visit https://eauction.gov.in or www.wbhidcoltd.com Contact no:2324-6032/6031/2287/6037/6038

GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGAL

For details, please visit https://eauction.gov.in or www.wbhidcoltd.com Contact no:2324-6032/6031/2287/6037/6038

GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGAL

For details, please visit https://eauction.gov.in or www.wbhidcoltd.com Contact no:2324-6032/6031/2287/6037/6038

GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGAL TENDER NOTICE

NITe No. :- 08/ 2021-22, Date :-12.11.2021

E-Tender for 05 (five) nos. of schemes is hereby invited by the undersigned from the eligible contractors. Tender Documents download, Bid submission and other details will be available at http://www.wbtenders.gov.in portal from 12.11.2021 , 06.00 pm.

Block Dev Officer Puncha Development Block

Memo No 1595/ICA/PURU Dt 12/11/2021

GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGAL TENDER NOTICE

NITe No. :- 07/ 2021-22/PB, Date :-12.11.2021

Sealed Tender(for three nos, schemes) in printed Tender Form of Puncha Development Block is hereby invited by the undersigned from the bonafide contractors having credential of similar type of work of at least Panchayat Samity / Block level or any Govt. Department of work value not less than 40% of Tender Cost in a single tender work. For details infbrmation contact at The office or the undersigned.

Block Dev Officer Puncha Development Block

Memo No 1594/ICA/PURU Dt 12/11/2021

ICA- T14077(3)/2021

GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGAL

GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGAL

Tender Notice of I & CA Deptt

Memo No. of NIT 081-ICA(KIFF) dt 12/ 11/ 2021 and Tender ID 2021_ ICAD_350488_1. e-Tenders is hereby invited from intending bidders for the event of 27th Kolkata International Film Festival. Bid submission closing date:29/11/2021 at 1:30 pm. Other details may be available from the website: https://wbtenders.gov.in. The event will be organized after evaluation of pandemic situation of Covid. Sd/- Director, 27th KIFF, Information & Cultural Affairs Deptt., Govt. of West Bengal

4 (W) X 5.81 (H) CM

RBI RETAIL DIRECT SCHEME

10 millenniumpostBusinessmpSATURDAY, 13 NOVEMBER, 2021 | KOLKATA

CORPORATE KALEIDOSCOPE

State-owned power giant NTPC on Friday inked an initial pact with Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) to collaborate in the field of renewable energy. The MoU was signed in the presence of Gurdeep Singh, CMD-NTPC; Shrikant Madhav Vaidya, Chairman, Indian Oil and other officials of the companies. Through this MoU, the strengths of both the organizations can be leveraged to achieve the aim of the country to meet its net-zero commitments, Gurdeep Singh, CMD-NTPC said’. MPOST

MUMBAI: Stock market benchmarks Sensex and Nifty rallied to a two-week high on Friday on heavy buying in index majors Infosys, HDFC Bank and Reliance Industries after three days of losses and a positive trend in global markets.

The 30-share BSE Sensex spurted by 767 points or 1.28 per cent to close at 60,686.69 points with 25 of its stocks end-ing with gains.

The broader Nifty of the National Stock Exchange jumped by 229.15 points or 1.28 per cent to settle at 18,102.75, the highest closing level since October 27.

Gains in IT, realty and energy stocks helped indices break three-day losing run.

Tech Mahindra was the top

gainer in the Sensex pack, rising around 4 per cent, followed by HDFC, Infosys, Bajaj Finserv,

Asian Paints and Bajaj Finance.On the other hand,

Bajaj Auto, Tata Steel and

Axis Bank were among the laggards.

All sectoral indices ended with gains. BSE teck, IT, tele-com, realty, power rose up to 2.03 per cent.

Broader midcap and small-cap indices rose up to 0.57 per cent.

During the week, Sensex surged 619.07 points or 1.03 per cent, while Nifty advanced 185.95 points or 1.03 per cent.

The rupee strengthened by 7 paise to close at 74.45 against the US dollar on Fri-day, as a firm trend in domes-tic equities boosted investor sentiments.

Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude rose 1.07 per cent to $81.98 per barrel. PTI

NEW DELHI: Mental health-care has been long neglected, especially in tier two and tier three cities. There is lim-ited awareness about mental health and next to no treatment options due to which people are silently suffering. A spotlight fell on rising mental health issues, especially depression and anx-iety, during Covid times. To alleviate this situation, Minu Budhia, is returning to her roots to launch CARING MINDS in her hometown on 13 Novem-ber, 2021. A welcome addition to the community, this cen-tre will be located at the RC Agarwal Multi Speciality Hos-pital (Makum Road, Tinsukia 786146).To break the stigmas

and stereotypes surrounding mental health, as a precursor,

they are offering One-on-One Complimentary Counselling

Sessions for one and all on 13 Nov (9:30 am – 1 pm) for which 30 people have already registered. Similar Complimen-tary Counselling Session was on the 12 November where 25 people came spontaneously to avail this facility, available first time. This reinforces the need for counselling everywhere. Call 7099006661 to book a session for yourself or your loved ones.

The founder-director of Caring Minds, Minu Budhia, dons many hats - Psychothera-pist, Entrepreneur, Columnist, TEDx speaker, Special Mom - but her journey has not been an easy one.

She said, “From a small-town girl in Tinsukia, Assam

who wanted to be a doctor, to where I am today - my life has been a rollercoaster journey. I am lucky that like many chal-lenges, I have received many blessings too. I have a warm, encouraging husband, Sanjay, who is my pillar of strength and the wind beneath my wings. And I have two loving daugh-ters. Preeyam, my elder one, a bright young woman handling the family business, is my friend and my weakness Prachi, my younger darling, is my strength and my inspiration. A special needs child with ADHD, Low IQ, and Bipolar Disorder - she is the WHY behind my social ini-tiatives, all of which are a tribute to my journey with her.” MPOST

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Individuals can now directly purchase treasury bills, dated securities, sover-eign gold bonds (SGB) and state development loans (SDLs) from primary as well as secondary markets, thanks to the RBI Retail Direct Scheme launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday.

As per the scheme, retail investors (individuals) will have the facility to open an online Retail Direct Gilt Account (RDG Account) with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). These accounts can be linked to their savings bank accounts.

The RDG Accounts of indi-viduals can be used to participate in the issuance of government securities and secondary market operations through the screen-based NDS-OM.

NDS-OM, a screen-based electronic anonymous order matching system for second-ary market trading in govern-ment securities owned by RBI, is currently open only to institu-tions like banks, primary deal-ers, insurance companies and mutual funds. Earlier in the day, the RBI Retail Direct Scheme was launched in virtual mode by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“A significant milestone in the development of the govern-ment securities (G-sec) market,

the Reserve Bank of India-Retail Direct (RBI-RD) Scheme will bring G-secs within easy reach of the common man by sim-plifying the process of invest-ment,” the central bank said in a statement. Retail direct inves-tors will have an online facility to gift government securities to other retail direct investors.

Payments for transactions can be done conveniently using saving bank account through internet-banking or unified pay-ments interface (UPI). Investors can obtain help and other sup-port facilities on the portal itself and also through a toll-free tele-phone number 1800-267-7955 (10 am to 7 pm) and email.

Investor services include provisions for transaction and balance statements, nomination facility, pledge or lien of securi-ties and gift transactions.

“No fees will be charged for facilities provided under the scheme,” the RBI said, and added the scheme aims to pro-vide a safe, simple, direct and secured platform to investors.

Retail investors can register under the scheme and maintain a RDG account, if they have sav-ings bank account maintained in India; PAN; any officially valid document for KYC purpose; valid email ID; and registered mobile number.

Securities purchased will be credited to the RDG Account on the day of settlement.

Moreover, The Integrated Ombudsman Scheme, 2021, will provide cost-free redress of customer complaints involving deficiency in services rendered by entities regulated by the RBI, if not resolved to the satisfaction of the customers within 30 days

by banks, NBFCs, and payment system operators. The Reserve Bank - Integrated Ombudsman Scheme, 2021 was launched on Friday in virtual mode by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Scheme integrates the existing three Ombudsman schemes of RBI — the Bank-ing Ombudsman Scheme, 2006; the Ombudsman Scheme for Non-Banking Financial Compa-nies, 2018; and the Ombudsman Scheme for Digital Transac-tions, 2019.

In addition to integrating the three existing schemes, it also includes non-scheduled primary cooperative banks with a deposit size of Rs 50 crore and above. A centralised receipt and processing centre has been set up at RBI, Chandigarh for receipt and initial processing of physical and email complaints in any language.

The Scheme adopts ‘One Nation One Ombudsman’ approach by making the RBI Ombudsman mechanism juris-diction neutral, the RBI said in a statement. “The Scheme, framed by the RBI...will provide cost-free redress of customer com-plaints involving deficiency in services rendered by entities regulated by RBI, if not resolved to the satisfaction of the cus-tomers or not replied within a period of 30 days by the regu-lated entity,” it said.

A complaint could be filed electronic or physical mode as well as online through portal designed for the purpose.

The integration will help customers as they now do not need to identify under which scheme to file complaint. It has also done away with the jurisdic-tion of each ombudsman office.

“The Scheme defines ‘defi-ciency in service’ as the ground for filing a complaint, with a specified list of exclusions. Therefore, the complaints would no longer be rejected simply on account of ‘not cov-ered under the grounds listed in the scheme’,” the RBI said.

The responsibility of rep-resenting the regulated entity and furnishing information in respect of complaints filed by customers would be that of the Principal Nodal Officer in the rank of a General Man-ager in a Public Sector Bank or equivalent.

Another key feature of the scheme is that the regulated entity will not have the right to appeal in cases where an Award is issued by the ombuds-man against it for not furnish-ing satisfactory and timely information/documents.

As per the scheme docu-ment, the RBI may appoint one or more of its officers as Ombudsman and Deputy Ombudsman.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will on Monday meet chief min-isters and state finance min-isters to discuss measures to attract private investments to help boost the economy.

Finance Secretary T V Som-anathan said the meeting comes in the backdrop of strong eco-nomic recovery post the two Covid waves, and the central government has made a big push in Capex.

The focus of this interac-tion will be on state-level issues, opportunities and challenges, which will enable us to go to a higher trajectory of investment and growth, he said.

“There is capital expendi-ture from the government side, and there is a positive sentiment from the private sector side, though perhaps not fully trans-lated into actual investment in big scale. (However,) capital market activity indicates that a lot of investment is probably on the cards.

“This positive sentiment is something that the Government believe should be capitalised on in order to take India forward to a higher, sustainable growth trajectory. It’s an opportunity, an opportunity that we should not let go,” Somanathan said.

The secretary was briefing reporters on the virtual meeting of Sitharaman with state chief ministers and finance ministers on November 15.

He said the global geopoliti-cal developments give India a certain advantage position, and therefore India is becoming, in relative terms, a more attractive destination for investment, both domestic and foreign.

“So, in order to take India to

higher growth, there are actions to be taken by the private sector, and there are policy actions to be taken by the Government. Some of the actions lie with the Cen-tral government and the central government has been making efforts to do what is needed. But, several of the things which are needed to push India to a sus-tainable higher growth path lies with states,” he said.

The purpose is to use this present juncture not only to drive growth through central policies but also take states along, he said, adding that the focus of the meeting would be the economic impulses of the states and not on states’ revenues.

Economic Affairs Secretary Ajay Seth said the discussion during the meeting will revolve around state-level issues, like

land, water, electricity avail-ability and how policies can be eased for attracting investments.

In a statement, the finance ministry said growth had slowed down in the COVID-19 pan-demic. However, after the first quarter of the current fiscal, the economy has picked up again, with green shoots of recovery clearly visible. Indian economy contracted 7.3 per cent in the last financial year after a 4 per cent growth in 2019-20.

In the April-June quarter of the current fiscal, the economy grew 20.1 per cent. Several eco-nomic indicators are now at pre-pandemic levels. Projections of the IMF and World Bank peg India’s GDP growth to about 9.5 per cent and 8.3 per cent, respectively, as one of the fast-est-growing economies.

“While the investor senti-ment is good, there is a need to capitalise on the momen-tum already created. The first four months of FY 2021-22 have already witnessed inflows of $64 billion Foreign Direct Invest-ment (FDI),” the statement said.

The interaction will attempt to create a policy discourse and a facilitative environment for inward investment-led growth.

“This will be enabled by a pro-active approach to invest-ment promotion, efficien-cies brought about by Ease of Doing Business reforms, and an emphasis on accelerating approvals and clearances up to Urban Local Bodies (ULB) lev-els,” it added.

Through the interaction, the states would share their ideas and vision for enhancing the investment climate, leading to a broad consensus regarding the trajectory to be undertaken for India to become the fastest-growing economy.

Individuals can now directly buy T-bills, G-Secs from mktThe Integrated Ombudsman Scheme, 2021, will provide cost-free redress of customer complaints, says the Reserve Bank of India

Sitharaman to meet CMs, state Fin Mins on Monday

Finance Min Nirmala Sitharaman

Finance Secretary T V Somanathan said the meeting comes in backdrop of strong economic recovery post two Covid waves, and the Centre has made a big push in capital expenditure

Markets soar to new highs on heavy buyingRupee strengthened by 7 paise to close at 74.45 against US dollar

NEW DELHI: Seven states have achieved capital expenditure target for the September quar-ter and received approval for Rs 16,691 crore of additional bor-rowing, Finance Ministry said on Friday.

The states — Chhattis-garh, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Punjab, Rajasthan and Telangana — have achieved the target set by the Ministry of Finance for the capital expen-diture up to the second quarter of 2021-22, an official statement said. As an incentive, these states have been granted permission by the Department of Expen-diture to borrow an additional

amount of Rs.16,691 crore.The additional open market

borrowing permission issued is equivalent to 0.5 per cent of Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP). Additional financial resources thus made available will help the states in pushing their capital expenditure further, the statement added.

Capital expenditure has a high multiplier effect, enhances the future productive capacity of the economy, and results in a higher rate of economic growth.

Accordingly, out of the net borrowing ceiling (NBC) of 4 per cent of GSDP for the states for 2021-22, borrowings up to

0.50 per cent of GSDP were ear-marked for incremental capital expenditure to be incurred by the states during 2021-22.

The target for incremental capital expenditure for each state to qualify for this incre-mental borrowing was fixed by the Department of Expenditure.

To become eligible for incre-mental borrowing, states were required to achieve at least 15 per cent of the target set for 2021-22 by the end of June quar-ter of 2021-22, 45 per cent by the end of September quarter, 70 per cent by the end of Decem-ber quarter and 100 per cent by March 31, 2022. PTI

7 states meet Q2 Capex target; get nod for `16,691 cr add’l borrowing

NEW DELHI: Indian economy is back in action and it is clear from several indicators such as rising exports and increas-ing foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows into the country, Commerce and Industry Minis-ter Piyush Goyal said on Friday.

He said that merchandise exports during April-October this fiscal stood at $232 bil-lion and total FDI during the first four months of this fiscal rose by 62 per cent. There was growth in employment over the same month last year, and manufacturing PMI rose to 55.9 in October while services PMI reached a decade high of 58.4 in the month, Goyal said.

“India is back in action and the decade is shaping up to be a growth decade, with our exports surging and FDI in-flows and investments following a high growth trajectory,” he said at a virtual conference.

He said that global senti-ments are changing from ‘Why India’ to ‘Why not India’ to now Make in India for the world’ and serve the world from India. Ensuring transparent, trustwor-thy and resilient supply chains is at the core of trade revival and India has emerged as a source of resilience and a trusted part-ner during Covid, he said. PTI

Indian economy back

in action: Piyush Goyal

Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal

MUMBAI: India’s forex reserves decreased by $1.145 billion to $640.874 billion for the week ended on November 5 on a fall in currency and gold assets, the Reserve Bank said on Friday.

The overall reserves had increased by $1.919 billion to $642.019 billion for the previ-ous reporting week. Foreign currency assets, a major part of the overall reserves, decreased by $881 million to $577.581 billion for the reporting week, the RBI said in the weekly data.

Expressed in dollar terms, the foreign currency assets include the effect of apprecia-tion or depreciation of non-US units like the euro, pound and yen held in the foreign exchange reserves.

Value of the gold reserves decreased by $234 million to $38.778 billion in the reporting week, the data showed.

The special drawing rights (SDRs) with the Interna-tional Monetary Fund (IMF) decreased by $17 million to $19.287 billion.

The country’s reserve posi-tion with the IMF decreased by $14 million to $5.228 billion in the reporting week, the data showed. PTI

Forex reserves fall $1.14 billion to $640.8 billion

Caring Minds to launch its center in Tinsukia today

Oil Min seeks PM’s nod for 3-member SCSC

Additional open market borrowing permission issued is equivalent to 0.5% of Gross State Domestic Product

NEW DELHI: State-owned telecom firm MTNL on Friday reported widening of consoli-dated loss to Rs 654.56 crore in the September quarter, mainly due to decline in revenue from operations and increase in finance cost.

The company had posted a loss of Rs 582.25 crore in the year-ago period.

The revenue from opera-tions fell about 7 per cent to Rs 425.04 crore in the second quarter of the current fiscal from Rs 458.28 crore in the same period a year ago.

In the latest September quarter, MTNL’s finance cost

increased to Rs 533.01 crore from Rs 509.8 crore in the year-ago period.

The company’s revenue from basic landline and other wireline services dropped to Rs 250.77 crore in the quarter under review from Rs 297.26 crore in the same period a year ago.

MTNL incurred a loss of Rs 18.64 crore in the wireline services business even after excluding interest income, finance cost and tax.

Revenue from the cellular business increased 22 per cent on a year-on-year basis to Rs 55.3 crore. PTI

MTNL loss widens to `654.56 crore in Sept qtr

Minu Budhia is the Founder-Director of Caring Minds

AMITAV RANJAN

NEW DELHI: The Petroleum Ministry has sought Prime Min-ister’s approval to form a three-member ‘Search-cum-Selection Committee’ (SCSC) headed by PESB chairperson to shortlist the chairman-cum-managing director of Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC).

In line with government guidelines of 12 February 2015, the ministry has included Petroleum Secretary as a panel member with former Indian Oil Chairman B Ashok filling the second member slot as an ‘outside expert of eminence’.

The opening steps come more than five months after

the government head-hunter Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) rejected all nine applicants interviewed for the post of ONGC CMD and passed the onus on a ‘Search Com-mittee’ to be constituted in the PESB.

While rejecting the short-listed candidates on June 4, PESB said a Search Commit-tee was required for selecting the CMD “keeping in view the strategic importance and vision for the company and its future”.

India’s biggest oil and gas producer is being run by an ad hoc chief since last April after Shashi Shanker superannu-ated on March 31. Senior-most Director (Finance) Subhash

Kumar has been officiating as CMD with temporary three-month appointments. He retires on December 31 this year.

The Ministry’s letter to Department of Personnel & Training seeks approval of the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet for the SCSC as well as “to consider Central Govern-ment Officers including those of the Armed Forces of the Union and also the All India Services on immediate absorp-tion basis”.

The Prime Minister is the sole deciding member in the ACC which has the Home Minister as the second member since 18 June 2014 notification wherein “Approval

of the Home Minister will be obtained ex post facto in the ACC”.

The February 2015 guide-lines allow an SCSC chaired by PESB Chairman with not more than five members includ-ing the Chairman and the administrative secretary and at least one ‘outside expert of eminence’.

It says the SCSC pro-posal must be initiated by the administrative ministry and approved by the Cabinet Sec-retary. The SCSC will furnish only one name to the minis-try with PESB chairman keep-ing a reserve name in a sealed envelope in his/her personal custody.

11millenniumpost Sport mpKOLKATA | SATURDAY, 13 NOVEMBER, 2021

Rahane to lead India in 1st Test; all-format stars rested

NEW DELHI: Vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane will lead India in the first Test against New Zealand before regular skip-per Virat Kohli returns for the second match even as some all-format bigwigs got complete rest from the assignment in line with the BCCI's workload management of players.

Newly appointed T20 captain and regular opener Rohit Sharma, wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant, and pacers Jas-prit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami have all been rested from the two matches in Kan-pur (November 25 to 29), and Mumbai (December 3 to 7).

"Virat Kohli will join the squad for the second Test and will lead the team," BCCI secretary Jay Shah said in a statement.

Middle-order batter Shreyas Iyer made a comeback in the Test squad along with off-spinner Jayant Yadav. The Test series will be preceded by a three-match T20 series begin-ning November 17 in Jaipur. Kohli will not be a part of the T20 series after opting to take a break.

One of the notable absen-tees from the Test side was Hanuma Vihari, who has been dropped from the 16-member squad (will be 17 in next Test).

Vihari, it is learnt, is being added to the India A squad for the tour of South Africa where he will get three matches to stake a claim in the main squad which will start its series in the last week of December.

"We are sending Vihari to South Africa for the A series and his performance in the

three 'A Test' matches will be monitored," a senior BCCI functionary confirmed the development to PTI.

According to sources close to the selection committee, Vihari's current form, and not past record, has been taken into account while selecting the Test squad.

Vihari, in his last six first-class innings for county team Warwickshire, produced scores of 32, 52, 8, 0, 24, and 43 not out. In the recent Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, his output across four innings read 26, 7, 57 and 4.

It is understood that Vihari's defensive game is pretty similar to that of both stand-in vice-captain Cheteshwar Pujara and Rahane, who are going to bat at No.3 and 4 respectively.

The reason behind includ-ing a more flamboyant Iyer is that against the second new

ball, he can play a counter-attacking knock.

Ditto for someone like Mayank Agarwal, in case he is not used in his familiar open-ing position and dropped down the order.

Interestingly, all the three openers in the squad -- KL Rahul, Agarwal and Shubman Gill -- at some point in their careers, have batted in middle-order in Tests as well as first-class matches.

There is a possibility that Agarwal and not Iyer will play in that middle-order slot.

Veteran Wriddhiman Saha, the oldest Indian Test player in this current set-up at 37, will get another crack at the tradi-tional format during the two matches at Green Park and Wankhede.

Veteran spinners Ravi-chandran Ashwin and Ravin-dra Jadeja are the first choice

tweakers with Axar Patel, who had a great series against Eng-land at home, also in with a chance.

Jayant, an off-spinner and stable middle-order batter, is also back in the series having done reasonably well in the 2016-17 series at home against England. He is the back-up for Ashwin.

The pace attack will be led by Ishant Sharma with Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Siraj being the other options.

Prasidh Krishna is the fourth pacer in the squad and wicket-keeper KS Bharath has een rewarded for being in the fringe with a call-up in the Test squad.

India's Test squad: Ajinkya Rahane (Captain), KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara (vice-captain), Shub-man Gill, Shreyas Iyer, Wrid-dhiman Saha (wicket-keeper), KS Bharat (wicket-keeper), Ravindra Jadeja, R. Ash-win, Axar Patel, Jayant Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna. AGENCIES

VIHARI DROPPED AS SHREYAS BACK IN TEST SQUAD

‘Virat Kohli will join the squad for the second Test and will lead the team,’ BCCI secretary Jay Shah said in a statement

India vs Australia to open women's cricket competition

2022 COMMONWEALTH GAMES

BIRMINGHAM: India will face Australia in the opening match when women's cricket makes its debut at the 2022 Com-monwealth Games on July 29 while the final will be played on August 7, the event organisers announced on Friday.

Women's cricket is making its debut at the Commonwealth Games with the T20 format. The last time cricket was played in the multi-sporting showpiece was in the 1998 edition in Kuala Lumpur.

"The women's cricket T20 competition will be held at the Edgbaston Stadium from the 29 July, with the bronze and gold medal matches taking place on 7 August," said the ECB in a statement.

The first match on the sched-ule will see Australia take on India in the early session on July 29 followed by Pakistan playing Barbados, who were recently confirmed as the team from the West Indies that will take part in the competition.

Other highlights on the schedule include India against Pakistan on July 31. Australia

will also take on Pakistan on August 3. Hosts England will be in action for the first time on July 30, when they will take on the winner of a qualifying tournament which is due to take place at the start of 2022.

They will then play South Africa in the early session on August 2, followed by a third match against New Zealand in the evening session on August 4.

Seven out of eight qualifiers for the T20 competition were announced back in April with the final team set to be final-ised at the end of January 2022.

ICC Acting Chief Executive Geoff Allardice said: "We have seen tremendous growth of the women's game over the past few years and the Common-wealth Games will undoubtedly

be another major moment on that journey.

"Today's announcement of the match schedule gives fans lots to look forward to, not least with the opening game between ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2020 finalists Australia and India and we know that Edg-baston will provide a great stage for the competition."

The schedule for netball was also announced on Friday.

The announcement of the match schedules for the two team sports comes just a few weeks before tickets for Bir-mingham 2022 are expected to go on general sale. Matt Kidson, Director of Sport for Birming-ham 2022, said: "Not surpris-ingly we have already sold thousands of tickets for both the netball and cricket T20 sessions through our ticket ballots...

"...but we know that some fans have been waiting to find out the details of the match schedules before choos-ing which sessions they want to attend, so we're expecting these sports to sell quickly, when ticket sales go live." AGENCIES

Women's cricket is making its debut at the Commonwealth Games with the T20 format

Indian women's

cricket team to tour NZ

WELLINGTON: The Indian women's cricket team will play five ODIs and one T20 Inter-national in New Zealand next year as part of its preparations for the World Cup scheduled to be held there.

The six-match series will begin with the lone T20 on February 9 and end on Febru-ary 24. The World Cup is to be held in March-April after being postponed for a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The White Ferns will put the finishing touches on their preparations for the upcom-ing World Cup, to be hosted in New Zealand for the first time in 22 years, when they play India in a six-match series compris-ing a T20, and five ODIs," New Zealand Cricket announced on Friday. India's last international outing was a tour of Australia in Spetmber-October this year and it also included a pink-ball Test.

"The India series is a crucial part of the White Ferns' World Cup preparations," NZC chief executive David White said in a statement. AGENCIES

Brazil beat Colombia 1-0 to qualify for Qatar World CupSAO PAULO: Brazil is celebrat-ing as the first South American team to qualify for the World Cup in Qatar — with several matches in hand and more than a year before the tournament begins.

Neymar set up Lucas Paquetá in the 72nd minute to give Brazil a 1-0 win against Colombia in Sao Paulo. Thurs-day’s victory was the Seleção’s 11th in 12 matches of qualifi-ers, putting it 18 points ahead of Chile and Colombia, fourth and fifth places with 16 points.

Chile and Colombia can add only 15 points from its five remaining games. The top four teams in South America earn direct entry to the World Cup.

Celebrations at the NeoQui-mica Arena were discreet on the pitch after a hard-fought match with little inspiration from both sides. But they gained traction in the Brazil dressing room as players waved a Qatari flag and chanted, with FIFA and South American soccer body CON-MEBOL joining to congratulate the first team from the region to secure its place in next year’s World Cup.

Host Qatar, Germany and Denmark had already done that.

“This is the result of great work we started way back,” Paquetá said after the match in Sao Paulo which provided few opportunities for both teams.

“I cried of happiness (after scoring) because of this moment

I am living at the national team and at my club Lyon. This came

from a lot of joy, joy for this work well done,” Paquetá added.

His goal came after Mar-quinhos found Neymar in the middle of the Colombia defense.

Neymar quickly passed to Paquetá, who beat goal-keeper David Ospina with a low crossed shot that ended in the right corner of the Colom-bian goal. Ospina’s touch was not enough to stop the ball from going in. It was one of the few opportunities created by Brazil during the match.

Brazil will miss midfielder Casemiro in Tuesday’s match at Argentina due to a yellow card. Fabinho is his likely replacement.

Asked about the team’s future now that the spot in Qatar is sealed, Brazil coach Tite said he will seek “solidity, creativity, goals and victories” until the World Cup begins.

“That is excellency. That is what moves us. We need to get as close to that as we can,” Tite said in a press conference. “We will celebrate a little tomorrow to mark this moment.”

Brazil sealed its qualifica-tion by giving Tite his 50th win along with 12 draws and five defeats. Tite took over Brazil in the middle of qualifying for the World Cup in Russia in 2018. His team was knocked out by Belgium 2-1 in the quarterfinals in Russia. AGENCIES

Neymar set up Lucas Paquetá in the 72nd minute to give Brazil a 1-0 win against Colombia in Sao Paulo

Paul holds off Murray to reach semi-finalsSTOCKHOLM OPEN

STOCKHOLM: Tommy Paul held off Andy Murray's come-back attempt to beat the former No. 1 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 and reach the semifinals at the Stockholm Open.

Paul jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the first set but strug-gled with his first serve in the second, allowing the two-time Wimbledon champion back in the match. But Murray double-faulted to hand Paul a 4-3 lead in the deciding set, missing out on a chance to reach his first semifinal since the European Open in October 2019, before undergoing hip surgery.

He is a legend," Paul said of Murray. I played some of my best tennis today and I even looked over at my coach mid-

match and thought it was fun to battle him today.

Paul will face fellow Ameri-can Frances Tiafoe, who became

the first player to reach the semis by rallying to beat Dan Evans 1-6, 6-1, 6-1. That earned the eighth-seeded American a place in the semifinals for the second time in three weeks, having got to the final at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna where he lost to Alexander Zverev.

Earlier, Felix Auger-Alias-sime reached his fifth semifi-nal of the season with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Botic de Zandschulp.

The second-seeded Canadi-an's serve was the bedrock of his victory, with Auger-Aliassime hitting 11 aces and winning 27 of 33 first-service points. AGENCIES

T20 WC finalists Aus, NZ to continue rivalry with short T20I series in March 2022

MELBOURNE: T20 World Cup finalists Australia and New Zealand will continue their Trans-Tasman rivalry in the shortest format when they clash against each other again for a three-match series begin-ning on March 17 in Wellington.

Australia are expected to be without Test players like David Warner, Steve Smith, Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc, who will be mid-way through a three-match Test series in Pakistan.

Cricket Australia chief Nick Hockley said the tour was important to support New Zealand Cricket in the wake of losses caused by COVID-19 pandemic.

"New Zealand's home sum-

mer schedule has been heav-ily impacted by the pandemic, and we are pleased to be able to support our closest neighbour with this T20I tour," Hockley

said in a statement, according to cricket.com.au.

"As well as supporting New Zealand Cricket to host a full summer of international cricket,

it will also be a great opportunity for our men's T20 team to ramp up their preparations ahead of our home T20 World Cup in October and November next year." Earlier this week, Aus-tralia confirmed a three-format tour of Pakistan for March and April, the first in 24 years.

The other two T20I matches of the New Zealand tour will be played on March 18 (Welling-ton) and March 20 (Napier).

NZC chief executive David White said: "The impact of Covid-19 has meant a num-ber of changes to our sched-ule - and we want to place on record our thanks to Cricket Australia for agreeing to send a team across the Tasman at such short notice. AGENCIES

Hamilton sees steep challenge against Verstappen in BrazilSAO PAULO: Lewis Hamilton is running out of time in his quest to win a fifth straight For-mula One title, and the Brazil-ian Grand Prix offers the British driver little hope of catching leader Max Verstappen.

The seven-time champion from Mercedes trails his Red Bull rival by 19 points heading into Sunday's race, the fourth-to-last event of the season.

I would imagine it's as steep as it can be, Hamilton said Thursday about the challenge of catching the Dutchman at Interlagos.

Verstappen won in Brazil two years ago, while last year's race was canceled because of the Coronavirus pandemic. The Dutchman also won last weekend in Mexico and Red Bull is only one point behind

Mercedes in the constructors' championship.

Their pace was phenomenal in the last race. They have had a strong car all year. They have had the strongest car actually, you can tell, Hamilton said.

Last time here (in Brazil) they were incredibly strong. We are anticipating again that they will be very hard to beat this weekend.

The traditionally unpre-dictable weather at the Sao Paulo track could have an effect on the race, though local weather forecasts say the rain is not expected to last into the weekend. Both Hamilton and Verstappen are good in wet conditions, but results can be unpredictable.

Hamilton also said he has had difficulties with his car

because of recent changes.This year we have had our

wings clipped. It has definitely been harder from an opera-tional sense to maximize the car, Hamilton said.

We will just try to focus on getting the car in the right win-dow, and that is not easy. It is not an easy car to set up.

It is really difficult to explain and to go into in terms

of details, but it is just harder to optimize. The Brazilian GP will be the third event this season with a qualifying sprint race on Saturday. Friday's training session will have the traditional qualifying format to set posi-tions for the sprint race, which will determine Sunday's grid.

The two previous sprint races were held in Silverstone and Monza. AGENCIES

Shastri: Kohli might give up captaincy in other

formats to focus on battingNEW DELHI: Former India head coach Ravi Shastri says Virat Kohli might give up cap-taincy in other formats after doing so in the T20 version to deal with the intense pressure associated with the job, espe-cially in COVID times.

Shastri's tenure with the Indian team ended with an early exit from T20 World Cup.

Kohli, who has taken rest for the T20 series and one Test against New Zealand to recover bubble fatigue in COVID times, has relinquished captaincy in the shortest format after the showpiece event.

Speaking to India Today, Shastri was asked about Kohli giving up captaincy in other formats to manage his work-load better. "In red ball cricket, India have been number one for the last five years under his cap-taincy. Unless, he wants to give it up or he is mentally fatigued where he says he wants to focus on my batting which can hap-pen in the near future.

"It wont happen immedi-ately but it can happen. The same might happen with white ball cricket, he might say he had enough and he focuses on Test captaincy. It is his mind and body that will make that deci-

sion. He won't be the first."A lot of successful players

have given up captaincy to focus on their batting for their side."

Shastri said Kohli remains the fittest cricketer in the team by far. "He is hungry for sure, fitter than anybody in the team. No doubt about that. When you are physically that fit, your lon-gevity only increases. On the captaincy part of it, it will be his decision but I see if anything he might say no to white ball cricket but red ball, he should carry on because he has been the best ambassador for the test cricket. That will make him carry on," said Shastri.

Shastri also foresees many players in the team, including Kohli taking long breaks to recover from bubble fatigue. AGENCIES

Archery to have full 10 events at next Asian GamesDHAKA: For the first time, the archery competition at the next year's Asian Games will have a full fledged 10 events, the World governing body (WA) announced here on Friday.

The Jakarta-Palembang 2018 Asiad had added the mixed disciplines but removed the two individual events in the compound section.

"But this time there would be a full slate of 10 competi-tions including the compound men's and women's individual section," a World Archery offi-cial said.

With India boasting a strong compound team, the development would uplift the spirit of Indian archers.

In 2018, India had returned with only two silver medals --

both in compound sections (men's and women's teams).

The 2022 Asian Games is slated in Hangzhou in China from September 10-25. The World Archery Asia Congress also re-elected Chung Euisun as its president.

Meanwhile, Archery Asso-ciation of India secretary gen-eral Pramod Chandurkar was elected as an executive mem-ber of the WAA at its Congress here.

Chandurkar said they're aiming to bring the next edi-tion of the Asian Archery Championships to India.

"We will push for the 2022 Asian Championships. Our focus would be to improve the sport at grassroots level in India," Chandurkar said. AGENCIES

Brazil's Neymar, center, Colombia's Jefferson Lerma, left, and Colombia's Davinson Sanchez battle for the ball during a qualifying soccer match for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 at Neo Quimica Arena stadium in Sao Paulo, Brazil PTI

Rohit Sharma, wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant, and pacers Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami have all been rested from the two matches in Kanpur and Mumbai

Ajinkya Rahane

Australia's Matthew Wade plays a shot PTI

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SATURDAY, 13 NOVEMBER, 2021 | KOLKATA

Adele is one of the world’s most famous people, yet even megastars take their

children to school and make friends with other mums in the area. The ‘Easy on Me’ singer said in a new ‘Rolling Stone’ article that she and ex-husband Simon Konecki, who lives across the street from her in Beverly Hills, ‘do school drop-off ’ with their son Angelo, 9 and she has made some local girl mates’ peo-ple may recognise: Nicole Richie, mother of two and mom-to-be Jen-nifer Lawrence.

However, making famous pals, according to Adele, 33, had a sig-nificant influence on her.

“They humanised me because I had avoided talking to anyone that was ever famous in any capacity, because I was like, ‘Well, I’m not famous’. I’m very British like that,” she said as per ‘Rolling Stone’.

She added, “We never spoke about work, which was amazing, because most of the time when I catch

up with someone, they want to know all about my work and I’m like, ‘I do not want to talk

about that. Can we talk about some-thing else? I’m knackered’.”

After meeting at the 2013 Oscars, Adele and Lawrence have been seen at a few similar events throughout the years.

Interestingly, as per ‘E! News’, Adele seems to have a celeb-rity entourage that includes Drew Barrymore. In October, the day-time presenter said on her talk programme that their common friend and Richie’s sister-in-law Cameron Diaz surprised her by inviting Adele to dinner at Barry-more’s home.

“She called me one night and she is like, ‘Okay, so I will be over there in like thirty minutes for din-ner. Can I bring someone?’” Barry-more recalled.

She added, “I was like, ‘Yeah of course’. I was like, ‘Well, who?’ and she was like, ‘Adele’.” AGENCIES

After months of teasing, Tay-lor Swift finally dropped the ‘Red (Taylor’s Version)’ album

which is her second re-recorded album after ‘Fearless’. Fans had been waiting for the ‘Red’ album to release soon, given that it consists of epic gems, including the 10-minute track ‘All Too Well’. Swift thanked her fans for ‘emboldening’ her to revisit her work.

Taylor took to ‘Instagram’ to share a post addressed to her fans as she spoke about the work she put in to re-work and present the ‘Red’ album again.

Thanking fans for being her strength through this journey, Swift wrote, “Just a friendly reminder that I would never have thought it was possi-ble to go back and remake my previous work, uncovering lost art and forgot-ten gems along the way, if you had not emboldened me. ‘Red’ is about to be mine again, but it has always been ours. Tonight, we begin again. ‘Red’ (my version) is out now.”

‘Red (Taylor’s Version)’ consists of some big surprises including songs that the singer collaborated for with

artists such as Phoebe Bridgers, Ed Sheeran and Chris Stapleton. The 31-year-old singer is also set to release her self-directed short film for her 10-minute song ‘All Too Well’, which will be released on ‘YouTube’. The short film stars Sadie Sink and Dylan O’Brien.

Touted to be one of Swift’s biggest albums, ‘Red (Taylor’s Version)’ con-sists of all 30 tracks that were meant to be on the 2012 version of her album. Nine songs on the re-recorded album are from the ‘Vault’. AGENCIES

Taylor releases re-recorded

‘Red’ albumThe album consists of epic gems, including the track ‘All Too Well’

Disney+ Hotstar recently released the teaser of the ‘International Emmy’ nominated ‘Aarya 2’

Adele opens up on her friendship with neigh-bours Jennifer Lawrence and Nicole Richie

Drushyam 2, Aarya 2 promise a spine-

chilling watch

Jennifer and Nicole humanised me: Adele

‘They humanised me because I had avoided talking to anyone that was ever famous in any capacity,’ she said

Paris Hilton and Carter Reum are officially married. The hotel

heiress tied the knot with her partner of two years in a star-studded ceremony in Bel-Air on November 11. The ceremony was held at Hilton’s late grandfather Barron’s estate in Bel-Air, California with several big names from Hollywood who are close to Paris in attendance.

Paris Hilton had received a romantic pro-posal from Carter in Febru-ary as the couple vacationed in Paris ahead of Valentine’s Day. The venture capital-ist got down on one knee to propose to Hilton most romantically. As for her wedding ceremony with Carter, fans will be able to stream her entire wed-ding journey in ‘Paris in

Love’ that will premiere on ‘Peacock’.

The guest list for Paris’ lavish wedding included Paris’ aunt Kyle Richards and her husband Mauri-cio Umansky, Emma Rob-erts, Bebe Rexha and Paula Abdul. Also seen in atten-dance were Rachel Zoe and her husband Rod-ger Berman.

A week ahead of her wedding with Reum, Paris had taken to ‘Twitter’ to share a sweet tribute for her to-be husband as she wrote, “No matter the sea-son - winter in the snow or summer on the lake – you have become my home away from home. Home is not a place. It is a person. Now and forever, I’m so happy we get to build our home together.” AGENCIES

OUR CORRESPONDENT

Venkatesh Daggubati-starrer Telugu thriller ‘Drushyam 2’ is set to release on November 25,

2021, on ‘Amazon Prime Video’. Directed by Jeethu Joseph, the film is a sequel to the much-loved Telugu superhit ‘Drush-yam’. Alongside Venkatesh, the film fea-tures an ensemble cast of talented actors such as Meena, Kruthika, Esther Anil along Sampath Raj and Poorna.

Set six years since the events of ‘Drushyam’, the film delves deep into the life of Rambabu, a changed man now. However, a criminal investigation ensues threatening the wellbeing of his family. As tables turn, it is upon Rambabu to give it his all and protect his close ones yet again in this gripping tale of deceit, lies and mystery. The riveting crime drama is all set to keep viewers on the edge of their seats with every twist that is going to come on their way.

On the other hand, ‘Disney+ Hotstar’ released the teaser of the ‘International Emmy’ nominated ‘Hotstar Specials’,

‘Aarya 2’.Helmed by the award-winning and

immensely talented Ram Madhvani, the second season’s teaser promises a thrill-ing and spine-chilling watch as Aarya Sareen manoeuvres a grittier, darker journey.

“The love and appreciation we got post the release of the first season were heartwarming and it made us want to create the second season with more love and labour. The show’s nomination in the ‘Best Drama’ category at the ‘Interna-tional Emmy Awards’ reaffirms our faith in the story we set out to tell,” he said.

‘Drushyam’ delves deep into the life of Rambabu, a changed man now. However, a criminal investigation ensues threatening the well-being of his family

Aditya Chopra has reportedly set his eyes on the

digital space as the film-maker plans to invest a whopping Rs 500 crores for the OTT venture of his banner ‘Yash Raj Films’.

Chopra, the direc-tor of hits like ‘Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge’ and ‘Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi’, aims to reshape the digital content mar-ket with YRF’s OTT ven-ture, which will be called ‘YRF Entertainment’.

“Aditya Chopra wants to contribute towards raising the bar of digital content production in India. He wants to match global standards of vision and storytelling with stories that are rooted in India. These scripts are being homegrown in ‘YRF’ as we speak. This could be the moment that reshapes the OTT space forever. ‘YRF’ has huge plans and they will roll out their strategy soon,” revealed an indus-try source.

The 50-year-old filmmaker and his

studio have been work-ing on floating the OTT venture for the past two years and they have already lined up several new projects, the insider said.

“When ‘YRF’ decides to start some-thing new, it does so at an unmatched scale. He has earmarked 500 crores to start his new venture. Aditya Cho-pra’s plans are in fruition now and this is probably the most exciting thing that has happened in the

Indian OTT space,” shared the insider.The insider added, “ ‘YRF’ has always

backed raw, new talent and original and exciting scripts. A massive studio like this looking to nurture the OTT landscape in India is a true milestone moment.”

Chopra believes that as the true-blue Indian studio, ‘YRF’ is best poised to tell the best stories to global audiences in the visu-ally grand way pos- si-ble, the source said. PTI

Aditya Chopra to float YRF’s OTT venture

Filmmaker Ram Madh-vani said that the super success of his Emmy-

nominated show ‘Aarya’ has motivated the team to make the second season.

The Sushmita Sen-star-rer series has bagged nom-inations for India as part of the 2021 ‘International Emmy Awards’.

The makers unveiled the teaser on November 12, which shows Sen’s Aarya Sareen as she finds herself on a grittier and darker journey.

Created by Madhvani and Sandeep Modi, ‘Aarya’ is an official remake of the pop-ular Dutch crime-drama Penoza.

The Indian adapta-tion revolved around Aarya Sareen, played by Sen, a hap-pily married woman whose world turns upside down when her husband, pharma baron Tej Sareen (Chandra-chur Singh) is shot.

The first season, which debuted on ‘Disney+ Hot-star’ in June 2020, garnered acclaim for its taut narrative and performances.

Talking about the show’s return, Madhvani said the love and appreciation the team received post the release of the first season was heart-warming and motivated them to come up with the next

chapter.The show’s nomination

in the ‘Best Drama’ category at the ‘International Emmy Awards’ reaffirms our faith in the story we set out to tell. I am thrilled to take fans of the show on the next step of Aarya’s journey. She faces challenges every step of the way as she is forced to walk

a fine line between keeping her family alive and seeking revenge, the director said in a statement.

Penned by Sandeep Shriv-astava and Anu Singh Choud-hary, the first season of ‘Aarya’ also featured Sikander Kher, Ankur Bhatia, Namit Das, Vikas Kumar, Sugandha Garg along with many others. PTI

RAM MADHVANI ON ‘AARYA’ S2

‘Emmy nomination reaffirms our faith in the story’

The makers unveiled the teaser on November 12, which shows Sen as Aarya Sareen as she finds herself on a grittier and darker journey

Paris Hilton gets hitched to fiancé Carter Reum